Note: Ajussi (Korean pronunciation) means middle-aged man, but in an affectionate way.大叔（/dàshū/）is also the same.
"It's Xiao Tao here. Remember me?"
Old Zhang scrutinized Tao Bai once more, then shook his head gently.
"Not quite."
"Ha, I remember this is your favorite Hard Zhonghua."
"Oh! That rings a bell!"
Old Zhang slapped his forehead, his voice suddenly brimming with excitement.
"You're that Xiao Tao who used to come by once a month!"
Taking a fresh pack of Hard Zhonghua from Tao Bai's hand, Old Zhang murmured,
"You always buy me such expensive cigarettes.
Red Double Happiness or Red Plum would be fine—
No need to waste money..."
As he opened the pack, Old Zhang asked, "Xiao Tao, still up this late? Want to come in for a bit? It's freezing out here."
He took a drag, feeling his body warm up a little.
"No thanks. Does Xiao Bing still live here?"
"Xiao Bing..."
Old Zhang held the cigarette, lost in thought.
"Haven't seen her in ages, just like you."
"What do you mean, like me?"
"Well... It's been just as long since I've seen you come here. That long..."
"Then do you know where they went?"
Tao Bai's voice trembled with emotion.
"Hmph~ No clue."
Old Zhang rubbed his nose and scratched his head.
"Old Zhang, grab some paper and a pen."
Tao Bai scribbled a phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to Old Zhang.
"If you get any useful info, text this number. If the tip's legit, I'll pay you back a hundredfold. One wrong lead, and the reward gets halved."
Before leaving, Tao Bai pulled out two thousand yuan wrapped in a black plastic bag and handed it to Old Zhang.
Old Zhang tried to refuse, but eventually accepted it.
After Tao Bai left, Old Zhang closed the glass window, then quietly opened a corner of the bag. He couldn't help but gasp.
Two thousand yuan—
Equivalent to two months' wages!
His heartbeat quickened.
He carefully folded the paper note several times and tucked it into the small pocket of his trousers, afraid of losing it.
A hundredfold?
That would be 200,000 yuan!
Even working for twenty years as a security guard, I couldn't save that much!
Besides, this old body of mine couldn't last that long...
Tomorrow, I'll have to find out more...
The moon shone brightly amidst sparse stars.
Tao Bai sat leisurely on a tree branch, leaning lightly against the straight trunk.
He took a gourd from his storage pouch, gave it a shake, and opened the lid.
A single liang of blood-thick Malevolence-Dissolving Wine slid down his throat under the cool moonlight.
An unprecedented loneliness surged over him once more, gnawing at his heart.
The autumn wind caressed his face, yet it did nothing to ease the pain within.
The days of laughter with his family were gone forever—
Even a final farewell had become an impossible dream...
At this thought, he leaned his head heavily against the tree trunk.
Two streams of clear tears spilled uncontrollably from his eyes.
Moments later, he wiped away the tears, sat upright on a branch, and began to meditate, regulating his breath.
The lingering potency of the Malevolence-Dissolving Wine surged straight to the crown of his head.
With a flick of his mind, he adjusted the position of the grinding handle.
The moment it latched onto the blood wheel, the millstone began to turn.
Within the mill, forty-five soul bodies endured the agony of flesh and bone being ground to dust over and over.
Black-red blood of resentment seeped through the teeth of the mill, mingled with piercing screams, pooling in the grooves before dripping slowly, blending with the blood flowing through his entire body.
Tao Bai channeled the power of the Xuan Ice to counteract the intense heat within him.
The pale yellow bone marrow gradually deepened in hue, turning a rich duck egg yellow by the time the sun rose over the mountain peaks.
Observing his hands, now as smooth as copper skin, he noticed his pores closing and opening effortlessly.
Tao Bai opened his pores, withdrew his spiritual energy, and felt the cold, damp air of a late autumn morning in Liucheng.
He shivered, then promptly closed his pores again, his body automatically sealing itself against the cold air's intrusion.
Thus, he could withstand the cold without expending spiritual energy...
The bronze-colored skin persisted for half an hour before gradually fading, returning to ordinary flesh.
After observing the transformation, Tao Bai resumed meditation atop the tree branch.
He remained there until nine o'clock that evening, when he leapt down from the branch three stories high.
Without any spiritual energy shielding him, he felt only a slight numbness in his legs.
The Malevolence-Dissolving Wine required more malevolent energy...
Resentment Blood was also valuable.
The more soul fragments present, the more Resentment Blood could be produced, accelerating the body-tempering process...
But the Blood Grinder imposed numerous restrictions on the soul fragments it could absorb...
Animal souls were unacceptable;
Souls at Foundation Establishment stage or higher were unacceptable;
Souls that had never committed crimes were unacceptable;
Souls that harbored no hostility toward the host were also unacceptable...
Sipping his wine, he walked toward the city.
Passing through a bamboo grove, the gourd in his hand suddenly began to tremble on its own, generating an invisible force that seemed to struggle to break free from Tao Bai's grasp and fly forward.
Tao Bai focused his gaze and saw several mounds of earth a hundred meters ahead, shrouded in patches of malevolent energy.
This energy manifested as formless masses of leaden or charcoal-gray gas, visible only to those who had opened their celestial eyes through special means.
It indiscriminately attacked ordinary people who strayed into its vicinity.
If it entered a person's body, it could cause severe illness or even death.
Taoist priests employed various methods to deal with malevolent energy, but the most common was to disperse it, allowing it to dissipate into the heavens and earth.
To Tao Bai, however, such an act was nothing short of squandering a precious resource!
Tao Bai flew forward, slapping his gourd: "Qiankun Gourd, go!"
The gourd shot forward, sucking the shadowy energies into its depths.
A spirit hiding behind a grave mound glimpsed this, its trembling form hastily lowering its spiritual power in an effort to become invisible.
"Blood-Link Mill, go!"
Tao Bai hurled a grinding-shaped artifact directly at the grave mound.
The Blood-Link Mill whirled and expanded in concentric circles.
An invisible force emanating from its grinding eyes bound the soul hiding within the mound.
No matter how it struggled, it could not break free.
"Who are you? Why haven't you reported to the Underworld?"
After hearing its account, Tao Bai understood the events and performed a ritual to guide its spirit to the Underworld.
It turned out the soul had been a senior executive at a foreign trade company.
In his forties, he was famously eligible—handsome, wealthy, and unattached.
This made him quite popular with women, but it was also his undoing.
One day at the gym, he encountered a girl seeking his help.
She claimed it was her first time working out there and asked him to assist her with squats.
She was beautiful, tall, and had a charming smile.
After their workout, she offered to buy him a drink as a thank-you.
He readily agreed, and they went to a bar where they had a few drinks.
The girl admitted she was a bit tipsy, sweetly calling him "Ajussi" and asking him to take her back to her nearby hotel room.
He escorted her to the hotel, laid her on the bed, and, seeing her drowsy state, tugged at his tie, trying to calm himself.
Just as he took a deep breath to leave, that sweet voice reached his ears again.
"Ajussi, I'm so cold. Could you cover me with a blanket?"