My Girlfriend is the Nether King

The night grew darker.

At nine in the evening, Xie Xiaoluan returned home. As soon as he entered the front door, he limped hurriedly toward his room without greeting Xie Xiaofeng, who was sitting in the living room watching television at the time.

Seeing his younger brother in such a fluster, and seemingly with an injured foot, Xie Xiaofeng found it odd and stood up to walk toward Xie Xiaoluan's room. Entering Xie Xiaoluan's room, he saw Xie Xiaoluan busily packing his luggage and asked in surprise, "Xie Xiaoluan, are you planning to go on a long trip?"

"Brother!" Xie Xiaoluan looked up, his face extremely grim, with a look of wanting to cry but unable to shed tears. After a moment's pause, he continued, "I... I accidentally killed Chen Hao!"

"What!" Xie Xiaoluan was shocked, and a buzzing roar went off in his head.

"Brother!" At this point Xie Xiaoluan could no longer hold back his tears, they gushed out like a torrential downpour, revealing the youthful naivety he had long tried to hide, looking like a child who had done wrong and was full of fear and regret. "From now on, you'll have to look after Mom, Dad, and Grandpa. I have to run away now, probably never to return in this lifetime!"

Xie Xiaofeng's face showed a grave expression, he took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. After a pause, he reached forward and grabbed Xie Xiaoluan's arm, speaking solemnly, "Xie Xiaoluan, the net of heaven is extensive, you won't be able to hide for long. Listen to your brother, you're still underage, turning yourself in could reduce your sentence, as long as you behave well in prison in the future..."

"Brother!" Xie Xiaoluan cried out loud, "I don't want to go to jail, I'd ruin my entire life if I did!"

Xie Xiaofeng sighed deeply, filled with sorrow! Being the older brother, he was still in school, while his younger brother Xie Xiaoluan had already been working for nearly two years, so naturally Xie Xiaoluan rarely listened to his brother. After contemplating for a long time, he asked, "First, tell me how you killed Chen Hao?"

Xie Xiaoluan looked at Xie Xiaofeng and, after hesitating for a long while, told him about how he had accidentally broken Chen Hao's body in two using a straw doll.

Upon hearing this, Xie Xiaofeng's face showed a look of shock and he repeatedly exclaimed, "Impossible, impossible!"

"What's impossible? Brother! I saw with my own eyes Chen Hao being broken in half, and there was blood everywhere, and his... his guts!" Recalling the bloody scene, Xie Xiaoluan felt nauseous and dared not continue.

Xie Xiaofeng's eyes widened, he stepped up to Xie Xiaoluan and said with certainty, "You don't understand the art of controlling souls with a straw doll! The straw doll only controls a person's Yin Soul, and only a dead body would be broken if cursed by the straw doll. Living people have a Yang Spirit in their flesh and cannot possibly be broken!"

"Brother, you're not lying to me?" Xie Xiaoluan's eyes widened, only half believing, but in his fearful eyes there was also a glimmer of hope; he hoped what Xie Xiaofeng said was true.

Xie Xiaofeng furrowed his brows and sighed heavily. If everything was as Xie Xiaoluan had said, then Xie Xiaoluan certainly had not killed Chen Hao. As for why Xie Xiaoluan said he saw Chen Hao's body breaking, there were only two possibilities: either Xie Xiaoluan was tricked by an illusion or he was so tense that he had hallucinated; the other possibility was that Chen Hao was a dead body.

Clearly, Xie Xiaofeng dismissed the second possibility as very absurd in his eyes.

"Take me to the scene right now!"

"Okay!"

Ten minutes later, Xie Xiaoluan led Xie Xiaofeng to the front of No. 71 Renmin Road; the floor was as clean as a whistle, without a trace of blood or anything unusual, and there was no lingering smell of blood around.

Xie Xiaoluan looked stunned and asked Xie Xiaofeng with a dazed gaze, "Brother, could it be that the police have already taken Chen Hao away?"

"Didn't you say there was a lot of blood on the ground? Where are the bloodstains? And it's been roughly an hour since you ran away; if it was really as you said, a serious murder like this, the police would have cordoned off the area, not cleaned up the bloodstains so quickly! Also, smell carefully with your nose, there's no scent of blood at all!" Xie Xiaofeng countered.

"So you're saying, I just imagined it all back there?" Xie Xiaoluan's tone carried a slight luck of having dodged a bullet.

"Where's Ren Deshan? Didn't you say he gave you the straw doll? Where is he now?"

"Right!" At that moment, Xie Xiaofeng immediately took out his phone. Afraid someone might come looking for him, he had turned off his phone as soon as he fled from the place. When his phone turned on again, he saw there were five missed calls—all from his grandfather, Xie Da.

After discussing with Xie Xiaofeng, Xie Xiaoluan called Xie Da and told him about what happened.

After hearing about it, Xie Da first lamented, then told Xie Xiaoluan that he currently couldn't contact Ren Deshan. He instructed Xie Xiaoluan and Xie Xiaofeng to wait for him in front of No. 71, and forbade them from disturbing the Zeng family at No. 71 any further.

It wasn't long before Xie Da drove to the spot, and then he took them both to Chen Hao's house.

Just at that moment, Chen Hao and Ye Yu had just returned to Ye Yuqiao's house. As soon as they saw the two, Ren Deshan's Yin Soul loudly shouted at them, "Let me go at once!"

Chen Hao pretended not to see Ren Deshan's lying body on the ground and his Yin Soul nailed to the wall; instead, he hugged Ye Yuqiao and they clapped hands.

Ren Deshan, frantic and furious, kept screaming and shouting.

Ye Yuqiao gently pushed Chen Hao away and looked at him asking, "What are you planning to do with this guy? You can't keep treating him like air forever, can you?"

"Is there anything that can disperse his Yin Soul into nothingness?"

"You...," Ye Yuqiao's face darkened, and she asked in a low voice, frowning, "You're not thinking of killing him, are you?"

Chen Hao raised his eyebrow and whispered, "Of course not! I just want to scare him a bit, and by the way, force him to confess why he invited those malicious ghosts disguised as deities into ordinary people's homes."

Ye Yuqiao nodded slightly. Then, she took out three copper nails from a wooden box and handed them to Chen Hao, explaining, "These three are Soul Dispersion Nails. If all three nails are driven into the same Yin Soul, that soul will be scattered to the winds."

Chen Hao, holding the Soul Dispersion Nails, walked up to Ren Deshan's Yin Soul. With a fierce smile, he said, "Team leader, didn't expect retribution to come this quickly, did you? Think carefully, how did you torture me just now?"

"Chen Hao, you, a young Onmyoji who has just joined the Association, dare to defy your superiors. Do you no longer wish to stay in the Association?"

Chen Hao snorted coldly and drove a Soul Dispersion Nail into the center of Ren Deshan's Yin Soul's forehead, then asked coldly, "Tell me, why did you invite those fake deities, who are actually malicious ghosts, into ordinary people's homes?"

"What malicious ghosts? They are all real deities!" Ren Deshan said righteously.

"Ptui!" Chen Hao couldn't help but spit out a word, and he spat at Ren Deshan's Yin Soul. However, the saliva couldn't reach the Yin Soul and went straight to the wall. "Just now, that Bi Luo Fairy was beaten back into her true form by me, and you're still being stubborn! Are you going to talk or not?"

After speaking, Chen Hao drove the second Soul Dispersion Nail into the chest of Ren Deshan's Yin Soul. Ren Deshan let out a painful scream immediately, his face dreadfully contorted.

"Is it because you receive certain benefits after inviting those fake deities into ordinary people's homes?"

Ren Deshan's teeth were chattering with a grinding noise, and he hissed, "Chen Hao, if you dare, drive the third nail, and finish me off!"

Chen Hao's eyes flashed fiercely, and after a snort, he drove the third nail straight into Ren Deshan's Yin Soul's thigh.

Ren Deshan's face turned pale with horror, and he shivered and twisted his face, saying, "Chen Hao, you really drove it in! Ah!"

In the living room, Ren Deshan's deafening screams immediately erupted. Only Chen Hao, Ye Yuqiao, or a Yin Soul could hear these cries; the living couldn't hear them.

However, after Ren Deshan's throat screamed until no sound could come out, he discovered that his Yin Soul was still intact, nailed to the wall. He lowered his head and carefully inspected his Yin Soul, then asked in confusion, "What's happening here?"

"Haha!" Chen Hao laughed out loud. In fact, right after Chen Hao had said he wanted to frighten Ren Deshan, Ye Yuqiao had a stroke of inspiration and gave Chen Hao an ordinary copper nail. This nail looked similar to a Soul Dispersion Nail, but it was a bit thinner than the usual Soul Dispersion Nails. In fact, the first Soul Dispersion Nail Chen Hao had driven in was a fake.

After laughing, Chen Hao took out a real Soul Dispersion Nail and showed it in front of Ren Deshan, his face dark with a cold tone, "This one is real. If you keep being obstinate, I truly won't hold back!"

Ren Deshan gasped urgently, and just as he was about to speak, the door to Ye Yuqiao's house was suddenly kicked open. Xie Da, Xie Xiaofeng, and Xie Xiaoluan appeared at the door.

"Haozi, don't be too hard on him. Grandfather Xie will explain to you what's going on," Xie Da said expressionlessly.

Chen Hao turned around, his brows tightly knit!

After taking a seat, Xie Da told Chen Hao that these fake deities who were malicious ghosts were sent by the Nether King and the Eight Great Clans of the Netherworld to manage the mortal world's silver soul realm. Therefore, the Yin Yang Master Association also acknowledged their status. Since it was convincing to act as deities, these malicious ghosts took on shapes of various deities according to different local legends and myths.

As for why the Onmyoji persuaded ordinary families to invite these deities into their homes, on the one hand, these malicious ghosts indeed could drive away other small ghosts that harass them; on the other hand, it had to do with the composition of the members of the Yin Yang Master Association.

Members within the Yin Yang Master Association mainly fell into three groups: the Heaven Group, the Spell Group, and the Spirit Group. Members of the Heaven Group were descendants of Onmyoji families, these individuals naturally possessed inherited potential and focused on practicing Yin Yang mana, each family having various ancestral practices and spells;

Members of the Spell Group mainly engaged in learning and developing all kinds of spells without practicing Yin Yang mana. Most of these people needed extraordinary talent;

Members of the Spirit Group didn't need to practice mana or spells; they only needed to invite the deities they worshipped to possess them. The vast majority of the Association's members were from the Spirit Group. They needed to promote their worshipped deities to every household so that both parties could benefit.

After hearing Xie Da's explanation, Chen Hao laughed scornfully and asked, "So you're saying you know those families are actually harboring ghosts, but you turn a blind eye for the sake of collective interest?"

"Chen Hao!" Ren Deshan, with his Yin Soul returned to his body, bellowed at Chen Hao. "The vice president has explained it so clearly to you; how can you still not understand?"

"I understand, I just can't accept it!" Chen Hao retorted. He found it hard to accept this reality; on one hand, the so-called Yin Yang Master Association didn't catch ghosts but colluded with them for financial gain, which chilled his heart; on the other hand, to exchange his grandfather's Yin Soul from Niu Tou and Ma Mian, he had to get rid of these so-called fake deities within half a year.

Hearing Chen Hao say this, Xie Da sighed helplessly.

"Whether you accept it or not, you have to accept it!" Ren Deshan said.

At that moment, Chen Hao lifted his eyes to look at Xie Da and said with a scornful smile, "In that case, I will leave the Yin Yang Master Association!"