Becoming an Evil God and Stealing His Wife - Chapter 12

Li Jiu instantly recalled the hushed conversation between the two Quality Inspection Department operatives the previous evening.

Logically speaking, the Quality Inspection Department was an official state apparatus specifically designed to neutralize supernatural anomalies. Would its elite field agents truly be reckless enough to let an ordinary civilian overhear their tactical discussions?

Li Jiu paused his stride, scanning his surroundings. The few pedestrians on the street were at a significant distance from him.

He focused his attention entirely on his sense of hearing, focusing his mind on the ambient noise.

Like tuning into a broad frequency, a chaotic layer of distinct human voices suddenly flooded his mind:

“It’s freezing… I desperately need to buy some thicker clothes.”

“Work… work… I absolutely despise going to work!”

“Honey, time to get up. Oh… giggle… stop it, stop messing around, ah…” A soft, heavy sigh drifted over.

Li Jiu instinctively tracked the source of the intimate sigh toward a brick apartment building to his right. His gaze locked perfectly onto a specific third-story window. Through the glass, he could see the blurred, shifting silhouettes of a couple.

The curtains hadn’t even been drawn closed.

He quickly snapped his gaze back down to the pavement, muttering under his breath, My senses seem to have become significantly more acute out of nowhere… But let’s focus on finishing this run first.

“Ahhh!!!”

A piercing, blood-curdling shriek shattered the morning air, echoing from the exact building he had been looking at.

It was the very same woman’s voice! Li Jiu snapped his head up instantly.

He wasn’t the only one; the terrifying scream caused multiple pedestrians on the block to freeze in their tracks.

“What was that?”

“Where did that come from?”

People halted, staring up at the residential block with expressions of sheer bewilderment and mounting dread.

Li Jiu, however, had already focused his eyes on that third-story window the exact millisecond the shriek began. He was just in time to witness a massive, viscous spray of dark crimson blood explode violently against the transparent glass panes, running down the surface in thick, heavy streaks.

And standing directly behind that blood-streaked glass was a pale, horrific human face. Sensing Li Jiu’s intense gaze, the head tilted slightly, locking its eyes directly onto him through the crimson veil—and curled its lips into a mocking, malicious smile.

A violent wave of cold sweat broke across Li Jiu’s scalp. He felt a chilling, unmistakable sensation of being marked.

The pale face vanished behind the blood-splattered glass like a fleeting phantom.

By then, the crowd below had finally spotted the crimson streaks on the glass, and absolute panic erupted.

“Blood! Look at all that blood! Someone’s been slaughtered! Call the authorities, quickly!”

The response was incredibly swift. A squad of uniform officers arrived within minutes, immediately cordoning off the perimeter and rushing up the stairwell. A few officers remained on the pavement, questioning the gathering crowd of onlookers to compile an immediate incident report.

Li Jiu chose to remain on the scene, intentionally staying within the crowd until the officers approached his sector.

The questioning soon reached him. A young officer wielding a notepad stepped forward, his expression weary. “Did you witness any specific details regarding the incident?”

The officer wasn’t holding his breath; he had already interrogated a dozen bystanders, and every single one claimed the event unfolded too rapidly to see anything beyond the blood on the glass. He fully expected another dead end.

“Yes,” Li Jiu replied calmly.

The officer froze, his head snapping up as his demeanor instantly sharpened. “What did you see?”

“The exact moment the woman’s shriek echoed, I happened to be looking directly at that residential tier,” Li Jiu whispered, stepping slightly closer to the officer so his voice wouldn’t carry to the crowd. “I witnessed the blood splatter against the glass and I saw a man’s face watching from behind it.”

The young officer had initially tensed up at Li Jiu’s sudden proximity, his hand instinctively dropping toward the service weapon secured to his back hip. But upon hearing the testimony, his eyes widened in sheer shock. A visual ID on a face?

He immediately ushered Li Jiu past the barricade line into a secluded, quiet corner of the courtyard to dig deeper. “Can you recall the specific features of that face?”

Li Jiu nodded, his voice completely level. “Yes. Extremely clearly.”

Though his pulse had spiked wildly during that initial eye contact with the killer, he had completely mastered his panic. He had chosen to stay behind for the express purpose of providing this critical leverage to the state.

The victim was almost certainly the woman he had heard earlier, and the man behind the glass was undeniably the perpetrator caught in the act. Most importantly, that parting smile had been a declaration of absolute malice.

Li Jiu wanted the authorities to neutralize this threat immediately before the killer could track him down.

The officer furiously scribbled the details into his notepad before asking for identification: “State your full name, residential address, and your purpose for being in this sector at this hour.”

“My name is Li Jiu. I reside at No. 23 Guangming Alley, South District 3. I am currently utilizing this thoroughfare for my morning running routine.”

The young officer’s eyes filled with immediate skepticism. South District 3? That sector was widely recognized as a desperate, crime-ridden slum. Why would a resident of a destitute slum possess the luxury of time and physical energy to engage in recreational calisthenics? That was a lifestyle reserved exclusively for the wealthy elite who didn’t have to fight for daily survival.

Right then, a group of senior officials exited the main stairwell of the apartment complex.

Li Jiu instantly recognized the individual leading the unit it was the commanding officer who had coordinated the intervention at Auntie Hu’s noodle house the previous evening.

The commander spotted Li Jiu as well, halting his stride and turning to the young officer to assess the status. “What do we have here?”

“Team Leader Chen,” the young officer reported, quickly offering a formal salute. “This civilian was positioned directly beneath the tier at the exact moment of the assault. He secured a direct visual on the suspect’s face.”

Chen Cheng’s eyes narrowed into a razor-sharp glare, his gaze scanning Li Jiu like a hunting hawk. “We meet again. State your name for the record.”

“Good morning, Team Leader Chen. My name is Li Jiu.”

Chen Cheng cast a cold eye over the civilian crowd lingering beyond the barricades; their faces were a chaotic mess of panic and hysteria. Returning his gaze to Li Jiu’s perfectly composed features, he noted, “You appear exceptionally grounded despite witnessing a brutal homicide. Are you not experiencing fear?”

Li Jiu let out a hollow, bitter laugh. “How could I not be terrified, Team Leader Chen? But remaining paralyzed by fear has never yielded a single practical benefit in my experience.”

When he had first awakened in this world, he had nearly succumbed to absolute terror. While the nature of that existential dread differed slightly from a street homicide, Li Jiu viewed them through the same pragmatic lens: in both instances, letting fear dictate his actions would result in his death.

Fear was a useful biological alarm, but allowing it to compromise one’s cognitive faculties was a fatal mistake. He chose to suppress the panic. Providing the police with an immediate lead was the fastest way to eliminate a lethal variable from his board.

A flash of genuine appreciation flickered in Chen Cheng’s severe eyes. “Fabulous. You will need to accompany us back to the district headquarters to assist in a formal composite sketch. Do you have any objections?”

Li Jiu was about to agree when the image of Li Mengmeng waiting at home flashed through his mind. A formal police interrogation at headquarters would likely consume several hours, and if he vanished without a word, the little girl would be gripped by panic.

Chen Cheng tracked the sudden hesitation on his face. “Is there a logistical conflict? An employment shift? If it’s regarding your duties at the noodle house, I can dispatch an officer to notify the proprietor immediately.”

Li Jiu shook his head. “No, sir. The noodle house is closed today, so my schedule is entirely free. I am fully prepared to cooperate.”

Chen Cheng offered a small smile, the severe lines of his weathered face softening slightly. “Then what is causing the hesitation? Speak freely; we are not mechanical tyrants.”

“My younger sister is currently home alone awaiting my return,” Li Jiu explained. “If my absence extends into the afternoon without notice, she will assume the worst.”

The young officer had already briefed Chen Cheng on Li Jiu’s background and running routine. The commander nodded understandingly. “A minor hurdle.”

“The administrative processing at headquarters will indeed take a significant chunk of your day. Ding Yu, accompany this young man back to his residence so he can notify his family, then escort him directly to the district bureau.”

The young officer beside Li Jiu snapped a crisp salute. “Understood, Team Leader!”

Li Jiu bowed slightly. “Thank you for your understanding, Team Leader Chen. I will ensure we do not delay.”

Li Jiu hurried back toward the outskirts of the city, his pace urgent.

As they reached the rusted front gate of his property, Li Jiu turned to the young officer. “Officer Ding, would it be convenient for you to remain outside the perimeter for a brief moment? I will notify my sister and emerge immediately.”

Ding Yu shook his head firmly. “Protocol dictates that I must maintain line-of-sight and accompany you inside the domicile.”

Chen Cheng had detached him to shadow Li Jiu for two distinct reasons: first, to ensure the sole eyewitness didn’t break custody, and second, to perform a visual sweep of the residence for any suspicious anomalies. Li Jiu’s attempt to keep him outside only caused the young officer’s tactical alarms to flare.

Li Jiu let out a soft sigh. “My sister suffers from an exceptionally advanced stage of Black Mist Disease. If you must cross the threshold, I simply ask that you maintain your composure and refrain from showing a reaction that might break her heart.”

Ding Yu paused, the realization hitting him as he recalled the grotesque physical mutations associated with terminal cases. He nodded solemnly. “You have my word. I will maintain absolute professionalism.”

“Thank you.”

Li Jiu pushed open the creaking wooden gate, leading the way into the small courtyard with Ding Yu following closely behind.

“Mengmeng, I’m home! I brought a guest—”

Before he could finish the sentence, the front door burst open and Li Mengmeng came sprinting out into the yard, her face lit with pure joy.

“Brother! You’re finally back—”

The exact second her eyes drifted past Li Jiu’s shoulder and locked onto the unfamiliar man clad in official state uniform, her entire demeanor shifted violently.

Simultaneously, Officer Ding Yu’s face went completely bloodless.

Without uttering a single syllable, Li Mengmeng dropped her head, spun around on her heel, and bolted back into the shadows of the house.

Li Jiu’s brow furrowed, a flash of intense displeasure coloring his voice as he turned to look at the rigid officer. “Officer Ding, I believe we explicitly agreed that a reaction like that was entirely inappropriate. She is only eleven years old.”

Ding Yu stood completely frozen, an agonizing sweat breaking across his brow. “I… I am deeply sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

The words caught in his throat, entirely unable to articulate the terrifying reality of what had just occurred.

How could he possibly explain to the girl’s brother that he hadn’t been repulsed by her physical scars? It would be a humiliating admission of weakness, and given the girl’s tragic medical condition, voicing it would be incredibly disrespectful.

But the absolute truth was that his reaction had nothing to do with her physical appearance.

At least, he didn’t think it did.

All he knew was that the exact millisecond his eyes made contact with Li Mengmeng, his brain went completely blank, hit by a wave of primal, suffocating pressure. The moment her expression soured, an invisible, crushing weight had locked his joints, leaving him paralyzed and unable to move a single muscle.

A terrifying instinct in the deep recesses of his mind screamed that if he made a single sudden movement, the consequences would be catastrophic.

Only after the little girl vanished into the house and Li Jiu spoke did the suffocating aura dissolve, allowing him to breathe again.

If it wasn’t a reaction to her physical illness… what on earth did I just experience? Ding Yu’s mind spun in absolute confusion, his hand subtly raising to wipe a thick bead of cold sweat from his forehead.

Meanwhile, Li Jiu hurried into the living room, intent on comforting his sister.

He immediately spotted Li Mengmeng hiding behind the kitchen door frame. “Mengmeng, please don’t let it hurt your feelings. He didn’t mean to react that way.”

Li Mengmeng blinked, momentarily confused. In reality, she didn’t care about the officer’s reaction; she was simply incredibly angry that a strange agent of the state had invaded their sanctuary and was tracking her brother. She had only retreated inside because she feared her volatile emotional response would manifest an physical anomaly that Li Jiu might notice.

But since her brother assumed her feelings were crushed, she decided to play along with the narrative.

She lowered her head, letting her voice drop into a small, fragile whine. “Brother…”

Looking at Li Jiu standing right in front of her, she couldn’t resist stepping forward, wrapping her thin, frail arms tightly around his waist.

It was an effortless embrace; even though she was small, her slender arms easily encircled him, and the proximity brought her an immense sense of security. She contentedly pressed her face against his chest.

Wow… he’s incredibly cold, she thought.

Li Jiu stiffened slightly, entirely unaccustomed to such raw physical affection. However, he quickly relaxed his frame, gently resting his hand against her dark hair.

“I’m right here,” he murmured, before noting a distinct sensation. “Why is your skin so freezing cold, Mengmeng? Are you feeling chilled?”