I hoped that Xiao Quan was just competing with Ye Weiguo. Unfortunately, things didn’t seem that way. After I had closed my eyes for a few minutes, Xiao Quan started to call me softly. Of course, I didn’t answer him. Then, he told Ye Weiguo that he needed to use the bathroom and left the car.

After he left, my eyes shot open.

Ye Weiguo was startled. “I thought you were sleeping.”

No matter what, he was an outstanding soldier. He soon recognized that I was cautious against Xiao Quan.

Ye Weiguo cleared his throat. “Mr. Zhang, this habit of yours isn’t good. Our comrade Xiao Quan is focusing on solving these murder cases. How could he be involved?”

I had forgotten that they were high-ranking soldiers, not some thugs on the streets. Ye Weiguo needed but a glance to know my thoughts. Anyway, he still seemed oblivious to the fact that Xiao Quan wanted to take his life.

While I was thinking about how to reveal this to him, Xiao Quan returned. He smiled at me when he got into the car. “Oh, you woke up.”

Other people would think that he had just given me a normal greeting. However, it was more than that!

He wasn’t sure if I knew about his plan, so he had deliberately left the car at a critical moment. In hindsight, if he wasn’t suspecting me, why would he be stupid enough to leave the car in such a dangerous moment and venue?

I was blinded by a quick success, and now, I didn’t know how to deal with the current situation.

Suddenly, Ye Weiguo said, “I thought that you had run away, so I woke Mr. Zhang up to talk with me.”

I hadn’t expected Ye Weiguo to have a mind-reading ability. He’d helped me out of an awkward situation. Xiao Quan was bewildered. He looked at me with skeptical eyes. It seemed he hadn’t confirmed his assumption yet.

I exhaled and pretended that nothing had happened. I lit up a cigarette and turned to look at Ye Weiguo.

“I feel quite sleepy. I’m going to smoke, too.” Ye Weiguo was also a smoker. He reached for a cigarette pack in his pocket.

“There’s no need to dig. Here, take mine.” Xiao Quan smiled and offered Ye Weiguo a cigarette. We didn’t talk as wisps of smoke started to twirl around the car.

Because of the smoke, I couldn’t see Xiao Quan’s face. Still, I subconsciously felt that something was wrong with him. After smoking, I wanted to leave the car for some fresh air. But at this moment, Ye Weiguo vomited blood.

“What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly as I helped to support him.

Xiao Quan wore a puzzled face. He told me to take care of Ye Weiguo while he tried to call the doctor.

“I feel like my body is being hacked into two pieces!” That was all Ye Weiguo could tell me before he fainted.

I was baffled. When I pulled myself together, I checked his pockets. The Yang Concealing Talisman I had given him was nowhere to be found!

Still, he had never left the car! Soon, I got it. Xiao Quan had left the car and returned shortly after. He had stolen the Yang Concealing Talisman and gone out to destroy it.

My speed and reflexes were especially good; not many people could perform stealthy tricks under my eyes. However, Xiao Quan had stolen the Yang Concealing Talisman and nobody had found out. He was fierce!

The emergency team arrived fast, but Xiao Quan was nowhere to be seen. I felt a little relieved. I knew he was waiting for the news. If Ye Weiguo died, he would regain the right to speak.

If Ye Weiguo didn’t die, Xiao Quan would be in trouble. He had stolen the talisman, which exposed his evil deed.

I was worried that Xiao Quan would go to the hospital to finish off Ye Weiguo. Fortunately, the ambulance came with Ye Weiguo’s close comrades. I thought that nothing dangerous would happen to him.

As the others left, I grabbed the Sirius Whip and crazily dashed upstairs. Judging from Ye Weiguo’s strong reaction, his soul was undoubtedly hit hard.

The birth date had a connection with the soul. I believed the spirit was upstairs and had attacked the paper stand-in!

When I went upstairs, I switched on the light. At first glance, I found that the realistic paper stand-in was now separated into halves. Although I had a strange feeling that something else was wrong, I couldn’t point out what it was.

As soon as I was about to leave, a cold wind came from above. I wielded the Sirius Whip instinctively. At the same time, I leaned and rolled forward. When I got up, I saw a shadow standing at my previous spot.

That shadow was a cyan color and had a long beard. He was holding a giant cold weapon. It seemed this cyan shadow had killed those victims. But since the spirit was placing his hands behind his back, I couldn’t see what kind of weapon he was holding.

While I was looking at him, he was eyeing me. However, his eyes seemed sharp enough to be able to drill through my soul. He was the one that stood in front of my room’s peephole yesterday.

I didn’t know much about this opponent, so I didn’t dare to attack first. Unexpectedly, the shadow had a skeptical gleam on his face after studying me for a while. In the next second, he flashed and disappeared.

“What kind of trick is this?” I was confused. After I was sure that the spirit had left, I went to check the stand-in doll. Indeed, there was a problem! This paper stand-in had Ye Weiguo’s birthday on it, but it wasn’t the one I had bought!

I clearly remembered that to persuade the spirit, I had intentionally given the craftsman Ye Weiguo’s portrait. Even Ye Weiguo agreed that it looked like him. However, this broken paper doll had a face similar to Xiao Quan!

Only the three of us knew about this paper stand-in plan! Xiao Quan couldn’t have replaced the doll with a doll that had his face! The person who had done that was Ye Weiguo!

But why did he do that...?

After considering Ye Weiguo’s personality, I suddenly thought of a possibility. Ye Weiguo wasn’t attacked by the spirit. He had fabricated the story about being the spirit’s target!

And, his soldier, who appeared to be murdered instead of him, was the one the spirit wanted to kill! I had this thought because the spirit had come to me even before Ye Weiguo’s incident, and it had left me two words.

At that time, I didn’t know how the word ‘Death’ and the word ‘Loyalty,’ which was crossed, were related to each other. Tonight, after knowing the secret between Ye Weiguo and Xiao Quan, my thoughts were clear.

The spirit wanted to tell me that those who were disloyal should die! In other words, he had warned me to not stand in his way of killing those disloyal people. If so, those who were murdered were from the same side as Xiao Quan.

It also meant that Ye Weiguo had known everything, and he tried to find the opportunity to take advantage of the spirit to deal with Xiao Quan and his team. The man had just pretended to be dumb.

As the spirit had killed only bad guys, Ye Weiguo wasn’t likely a bad guy. Instinctively, I thought he was a good man.

I had good eyes when it came to assessing people. Ye Weiguo had given me the impression of an honest and righteous person. He had become heartless for the sake of his country, but I thought it was acceptable. I even got a clue of who the spirit could be.

A person that always talked about loyalty and wore cyan clothes with a red face and had a long beard… There was only one historical character that fitted these features. It was Guan Yu!

Guan Yu was a legendary figure during the Three Kingdoms period. In the peach garden, he had become sworn brother with Liu Bei and Zhang Fei. Holding the fifty kilograms Green Dragon Crescent Blade and riding the Red Hare steed, he had beheaded Yan Liang and killed Wen Chou. He was matchless in the world.

Even though Cao Cao had rewarded him with a generous amount of wealth, countless beauties, and threw parties for him every three days and big banquets every five days, Guan Yu didn’t yield to him.

Eventually, in the name of loyalty, Guan Yu traveled thousands of miles alone on his steed to leave Cao Cao’s side. He returned to Liu Bei, his sworn brother.

Afterward, Guan Yu became the leader of the Five Tiger Generals of Shuhan. Unfortunately, he died in the battle of Jingzhou. His loyalty was praised by the later generations. In recognition of Guan Yu’s loyal and righteous spirit, the emperor of the next generation granted him the posthumous title as the Saint of War, or Guan Di (Emperor Guan). All the Guan Di temples in the Mainland were built to commemorate him.

If that spirit wasn’t wielding the Green Dragon Crescent Blade, I don’t think he would have been able to cut people in half that easily. When he showed up, he looked casual, which prevented me from recognizing his identity. Unfortunately, his features were too obvious. It wasn’t difficult to see who he was!

As Guan Yu was confused about me, I guessed he didn’t know which side I was on. However, I was invited by Xiao Quan. That was why he was hostile toward me.

Today, I met Ye Weiguo and became his friend. Plus, I was holding the Sirius Whip – the symbol of righteousness – in my hand. It was understandable that Guan Yu wasn’t clear about my motive.

At the same time, if Xiao Quan was on the spirit’s blacklist and he had survived until now, I guessed he would have a guardian or was a colleague of mine. He was just pretending to be a nice piggy that wanted to eat a tiger when he got the right chance!

Anyway, Ye Weiguo’s move had caused losses to both sides. Not only did Xiao Quan get hurt, but he also hurt himself.

The moment Ye Weiguo got hurt, I caught a glimpse of pain on Xiao Quan’s face. At that time, I thought he flinched because he was worried about his friend. I hadn’t thought it was because his soul was hurt.

I felt happy with these findings. But soon, I pulled myself together and started to feel anxious. I was able to figure out that Ye Weiguo had replaced the paper stand-in. This meant that Xiao Quan would also reach the same conclusion!

At this moment, the two sides had already turned their backs to each other. They wouldn’t stop until one of them died.

One more piece of evidence was that, when Ye Weiguo got hurt, his people came with the medical team. It was easy to tell that he had planned things well beforehand.

It was clear now. Once Ye Weiguo was discharged from the hospital, he would use all of his power to finish Xiao Quan. Under such circumstances, Xiao Quan’s only way of protecting himself was to make sure that Ye Weiguo would never wake up again.

Ye Weiguo would be in grave danger, and his people were just ordinary soldiers. If Xiao Quan had an expert like me on his side, the situation would become very tough to deal with.

What I was worried about the most was that I was now forced to stand on the same side as Ye Weiguo. I couldn’t retreat. As long as Ye Weiguo died, the right to speak would belong to Xiao Quan. At that time, even if Xiao Quan didn’t know my secrets, I would fail to explain my relation to Ye Weiguo’s death. Before Ye Weiguo was taken to the ambulance, I was dumb enough to check his pockets and leave my fingerprints behind…

With this thought, I rushed out of the house and headed to the hospital. When I got there, I saw a hoard of policemen and soldiers surrounding the hospital from a distance. It seemed they were guarding the entire hospital.