New Times, New Hell

Chapter 69 - Death Interrogation

After the youth – Fan Li- successfully returned to life, the fake Fan Li who had found a death replacement died of a sudden heart attack too. Additionally, his spirit was arrested by Luofeng’s employees and brought to Luofeng’s headquarters for interrogation.

The fake Fan Li was a middle-aged man with a cold, creepy gaze. Upon being brought to Luofeng, he was both panicked and reluctant to admit defeat. When he saw Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que appear together, his expression became shocked. “It’s you guys!!”

Yu Zhengdu calmly nodded. “It’s us.”

Originally, the interrogation of serious offenders was the responsibility of specialized employees. But, because the situation with the fake Fan Li was unique, Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que personally came to do the interrogation.

This Fan Li belatedly realized why he had gotten exposed. However, it was already too late to be regretful.

Yu Zhengdu didn’t want to bother with wasting time on this type of ghost either. He got straight to the point and said, “We’ve looked into your circumstances. You don’t actually have any cultivation, so how come you were able to perform the spell for death replacement?”

Fan Li stuck his neck out and said, “I’ve already died. I simply refuse to tell you. What can you do about that?”

“Does that mean you’re unwilling to cooperate?” Yu Zhengdu crossed both arms in front of his chest. “Your previous actions have severely broken the order of reincarnation between the mortal realm and Underworld. You’ve committed a crime unforgivable by the Heavens. Do you know what consequences you’ll receive?”

That person remained in the same position. He looked like he no longer cared about anything. “At worst, I’d have to become a beast. Either way, I was going to be a beast anyways. Being a pig, dog, chicken, or duck is all about the same.”

Upon hearing this, Yu Zhengdu came to a realization. He finally understood why this person was so bold as to switch fates with someone. It seemed that he already had an understanding of the six paths of reincarnation, and had already calculated his own results. To him, there wasn’t going to be a worse consequence. Why not take a chance? This was the supposed ‘barefooted individuals aren’t afraid of those wearing shoes’.

Off to the side, Shang Que was impatient listening to their conversation. He clenched his fist. “So much useless talk. Just beat him up.”

“Wait a moment. We’re a socialist company, so must depend on reasoning with people,” Yu Zhengdu stopped Shang Que.

Shang Que glanced at him, then silently put his fist away. “Okay. You reason with him first.”

Upon seeing this, the fake Fan Li scoffed. “Not bad. Hell is so with the times these days. You’ve started being more humane. Alright, so reason with me. See if I’ll listen or not.”

Yu Zhengdu looked at him. “You just said that there isn’t that big of a difference between being a chicken and being a pig, right?”

Fan Li simply leaned back; he seemed completely unafraid. “Either way, they’ll both get eaten by humans. How big could the difference be?”

Yu Zhengdu smiled faintly, then turned on his computer and pulled up a powerpoint document. He linked this to the overhead projector, saying, “Well there’s definitely still a difference.”

“Our company is in possession of a complete reincarnation after-service system. It can track the activity of every spirit after they’ve reincarnated. In other words, regardless of if you’re a pig, dog, chicken, or duck, we’ll still be able to find you and chase you down.” Yu Zhengdu switched to the next slide on his powerpoint. There were a few pictures on this slide.

Fan Li looked over. The pictures were all of foods using pork as the main ingredient: braised pork, hot pot, roast suckling pig, etc.

Yu Zhengdu: “If you’re willing to cooperate with us, we can provide a more dignified and straightforward way of death for you. For example, being made into roast pig, sweet and sour pork, barbecue pork, etc. However, if you refuse to cooperate……”

He switched to another slide. This time, there were a few censored images.

Yu Zhengdu maintained an elegant smile. “My apologies. Due to the fact that the images may be a bit gory, I was afraid they might cause you to feel unwell, so have censored them. Either way, if you don’t cooperate, after you reincarnate, we’ll make sure that you won’t be able to live or die……”

Fan Li: “……”

Fan Li: !!!!

He had originally thought that at worst, he would be reincarnated into a beast, then killed and eaten by humans. He had never expected that the current Hell could have such power and still be in control of his life after reincarnation.

He had truly miscalculated!

Yu Zhengdu stared at him. “……By then, you’ll only be a beast. No matter what we do, it won’t be illegal. Besides, after you die again, you’ll fall into our hands once more.”

Fan Li: !!!!

Fuck, when he had committed crimes as a human, the worst that would happen was dying. He had thought that everything would end with death. But after death, this torture could actually be continuous. And, exactly as the other said, if he reincarnated into the beast path, there wouldn’t be any human laws to protect him. As long as they wanted to, it was entirely possible for them to torture him over and over, endlessly.

Fan Li suddenly shivered.

Yu Zhengdu saw fear appearing in Fan Li’s eyes and slowly switched to the next slide. “Next, I will introduce you to the fifty different ways to cook chicken. Currently, the most popular and common method is this——fried chicken. To make delicious fried chicken, there is a very strict recipe to be followed. For example, the temperature of the oil……”

Before waiting for him to finish, Fan Li weakly raised a hand. “I’ll confess. I’ll confess to everything.”

Yu Zhengdu stopped his slide-switching. Slightly disappointed, he said, “So soon? Don’t you want to see how to make rose oil braised chicken and poached chicken?”

Fan Li seemed to have already predicted his own future. He vehemently protested, “……No.”

Off to the side, Shang Que suddenly raised his hand. “I do.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……I’ll send the powerpoint to you after the interrogation.”

This fake Fan Li’s original name was Dong Tie. According to his testimony, in the past few years, he had done quite a few bad deeds. Many times, he had almost gotten caught. Eventually, when he was searching online for ways to avoid arrest by law enforcement, he accidentally stumbled across a post by someone whose ID was “Jiang”. This person claimed that they could help all fugitives avoid capture.

In the beginning, Dong Tie had messaged “Jiang” a few times just to try. Unexpectedly, after Jiang sent him a few things, those police officers who had originally been hot on his trail no longer tried to chase him down.

With these things as talismans, Dong Tie became even bolder. He started committing more and more evil deeds, becoming more and more out of control. And, curiously, no matter what he did, the police seemed unable to link these crimes to him. In fact, several times, the detectives had even already followed the clues to his rental apartment, but had simply not been able to find him.

However, just as Dong Tie started getting cocky because of this, he slowly realized that his health was rapidly deteriorating. Serious illnesses continuously struck him.

Only now did “Jiang” tell him the truth. It turned out that the talismans Jiang had sent him weren’t from the mortal realm; these things could help him cover up the aura of a living person, making it impossible for mortal police officers to discover his whereabouts. But, these dangerous objects from the Underworld were constantly in his presence, so were also constantly encroaching on his energy, making his body weak.

More importantly, with the aid of these objects, Dong Tie’s evil desires had grown infinitely. Even if he hadn’t been tainted by the Underworld objects, the Heavens wouldn’t be able to accept him anymore either. Jiang had even introduced him to what punishments he would receive after death because of everything he had done in life.

At this time, Dong Tie finally learned that Jiang hadn’t had good intentions from the start. However, he didn’t have any other options. He could only continue to ask Jiang for help.

Jiang had been the one who had brought up the methodology for finding a death replacement, and had also provided him with what was needed: a guiding talisman, aperture-closing needle, and the related spells.

The things Jiang had given him were all incredibly potent. Everything was also smoothly following Jiang’s plan. Who would’ve thought that they would fail on the verge of success because they had coincidentally done all this during the Life Management app’s internal testing. Dong Tie’s death replacement plan had consequently been exposed.

Here, Dong Tie lamented greatly, “When I was still alive, I was most afraid of the police force’s real name registration checks. I hadn’t expected that in Hell, I would get caught because of the same real name registration check……”

“Otherwise, why would people say ‘justice will always be served’?” Yu Zhengdu was still angry from the crimes he had just heard Dong Tie confess to. His tone was ice cold. “If you hadn’t done those bad things, why would you be scared of real name registration checks?”

At this time, Shang Que slowly asked, “So who is this ‘Jiang’ person?”

The Heavens and earth had collapsed. The spiritual energy of the mortal realm had dissipated. Even cultivators with spiritual roots would experience great difficulty reaching the level where they would be able to find a death replacement. But according to Dong Tie’s testimony, the “Jiang” online could easily help others find death replacements. He had also almost succeeded in doing this without alerting Hell. Such a cultivation level was definitely beyond what a normal person could accomplish.

But Dong Tie was very bewildered. “I don’t know either. We only communicate online. I’ve never seen him in person.”

Yu Zhengdu pushed the laptop in front of him. “Contact him now.”

On the computer screen, the recipes for rose oil braised chicken and poached chicken were still clearly displayed. Dong Tie instinctively trembled. He didn’t dare to say anything else, only hurriedly grabbing the mouse and familiarly entering a website address into the address bar. After logging in, he selected a contact with a completely black profile picture.

Dong Tie:【Jiang, are you there?】

The person with the ID “Jiang” was either coincidentally online or had been waiting all this time. He replied very quickly.

Jiang:【Have you succeeded?】

Dong Tie looked at Yu Zhengdu. Yu Zhengdu took the computer from him and simply started conversing with Jiang while using Dong Tie’s account.

Dong Tie:【Yes】

Jiang:【Very good.】

Jiang:【Now it’s your turn】

Yu Zhengdu slightly furrowed his brows.

Dong Tie:【What does that mean?】

But Jiang didn’t respond again.

Yu Zhengdu glanced at Dong Tie, only to see a bewildered expression on the other’s face. It was obvious that he didn’t understand what Jiang meant either. Yu Zhengdu could only turn to look at Shang Que. “Boss, do you know what he means?”

Shang Que only furrowed his eyebrows. For a moment, he didn’t respond.

At this time, Dong Tie suddenly said, “Someone is calling me. I hear it. Someone’s shouting my name.”

Shang Que expressionlessly stated, “Ghost calling a spirit.”

Yu Zhengdu instantly thought of how Shang Que had called the fake Fan Li’s name at the hospital and came to an immediate realization. With one eyebrow cocked, he asked, “He’s already dead. Will calling his spirit still do anything?”

Shang Que shook his head, “No.”

As expected, a few minutes later, Jiang’s messages appeared on the computer again. He seemed a little agitated.

Jiang:【You lied to me!】

Jiang:【You’re already dead!】

Yu Zhengdu was extremely calm.

Dong Tie:【Yes】

Dong Tie:【Didn’t you lie to me too?】

Dong Tie:【You taught me how to find a death replacement, but actually tried to call my spirit. What is your ultimate goal?】

Jiang:【You even know what “ghost calling a spirit” is? You’re not Dong Tie? Who are you?】

Dong Tie:【You tell me first. Who are you?】

But the other’s cautiousness level had surpassed Yu Zhengdu and them’s predictions. After discovering that Dong Tie had already died and that the account wasn’t being used by the actual Dong Tie, the other only asked three questions. When none of these questions got answered, he immediately disappeared.

Yu Zhengdu continued sending messages, extremely unwilling to accept this result.

Dong Tie:【Hey hey hey, are you still there?】

Dong Tie:【If you’re capable enough to call my spirit, you should be capable enough to answer me】

The real Dong Tie: “……”

Yu Zhengdu sent a bunch of messages, all to no avail. When he refreshed the page again, he discovered that Jiang had directly deactivated his account.

Yu Zhengdu turned to Shang Que. “Boss, what should we do?”

Shang Que paused temporarily. “This Jiang has probably been planning to take Dong Tie’s life since the very beginning.”

Upon hearing this, Dong Tie became perplexed. “What does that mean?”

“I understand.” Yu Zhengdu pondered for a bit. He said, “In the beginning, Jiang pretended to send stuff to Dong Tie to help him avoid police arrest. Actually, though, he was slowly backing him into a corner so that he would have no other option but to accept finding a death replacement?”

Shang Que nodded. “Dong Tie falsely used Fan Li’s name. If he had successfully caused the real Fan Li to replace his death, his name would be able to escape reincarnation, avoiding the control of the Heavens and Hell. At this time, if someone took his life, that would truly be done without the gods or ghosts knowing.”

Yu Zhengdu was confused. “But why would he need to go through so much effort to take Dong Tie’s life?”

Shang Que scoffed. “To avoid the gods and ghosts means that even the Heavens and Hell have no clue about it. Who knows what he was planning on doing?”

Yu Zhengdu looked at Dong Tie meaningfully. “Then my guess is, the result would probably be something even worse than the beast path.”

Upon hearing this, Dong Tie couldn’t stop shaking. “Is- is that so?”

Yu Zhengdu appeared slightly amused. “If that’s the case, then it’d prove the saying ‘wicked people have other wicked people who will torture them’ to be true. If we had known this earlier, we wouldn’t have arrested you.”

Dong Tie: “……”

Dong Tie was so scared he started begging for mercy, “I’m willing to be a beast, I’m willing to be a beast.”

An employee came and took Dong Tie away. Yu Zhengdu finally looked at Shang Que with worry. “Boss, who is the person named ‘Jiang’? What does he want to do?”

“Not a person. Only a ghost can use ‘ghost calling a spirit’.” Shang Que’s expression was very serious as well. “But I’m unable to detect his presence.”

Yu Zhengdu was silent for a moment. Then, he said, “Seems like this situation may be a lot more complex and troublesome than we initially anticipated.”

Shang Que looked up at him.

Yu Zhengdu analyzed, “According to what Dong Tie has told us, he found Jiang after seeing Jiang’s post on the dark web. This means that since the beginning, Jiang has been expanding his net. Dong Tie is only one of the people who have been caught in his trap……”

Shang Que realized this too. “Dong Tie might not be the only one who’s looked for a death replacement. We need to increase inspection amounts.”

It was rare for him to be so committed. Death replacement was both an incredibly deceptive and dangerous spell. In the past, when Hell had been full of workers, inspecting for large amounts of death replacements had also been an extremely tasking job.

Yu Zhengdu nodded and made the ok gesture with his hand. “No worries. I’ve already added a program that’ll recognize death replacements in the backend system of the Life and Death Accounts. In addition to the mobile app server’s multi-factor authentication, I trust that it’ll be impossible for a death replacement phenomena to take form.”

Shang Que was quiet for a moment. “……Un.”

He had almost forgotten. It had been a long time since the era where they needed human power to perform inspections. He could only say, technology changes society.

A pause later, Shang Que finally said, “With you in charge of the system, I can rest at ease. Now, let’s place our emphasis on investigating the identity of this Jiang person.”

His tone was a bit serious. “It might take a lot of time and effort……”

“Don’t worry,” Yu Zhengdu waved his hands. He scooted over and whispered, “When I was chatting with him just now, I offhandedly created a tracking program. As long as he makes any move in the future, I’ll be able to track him down!”

Shang Que: “……”

Today is another day that technology has defeated spellcasting.