Seated beside Xiao Heshang, Sun Fatty took the opportunity to bring over a plate of fruit and pastries, sidling up to me as he said, "Lazi, what's the story with that blind guy and the one dressed all in black?" I popped a grape into my mouth, glanced at the two men sitting not far away, and replied, "I've come across the name 'Blind Jin' quite often in the archives. His real name is Jin Beihai. He wasn't born blind—he lost his sight as retribution for revealing too many heavenly secrets. But in Hong Kong's metaphysical circles, he's considered one of the top figures. I heard that every year on the first day of the lunar calendar, the top tycoons in Hong Kong line up for Jin Beihai to forecast their fortune for the year. Besides the wealthy, a lot of high-ranking figures in the circle also come to him for divination. As for Ma Xiaolin, that small-time mogul? Who knows what backdoor route he used to get Jin Beihai to set up a wealth-attracting array for him. Our own Director Gao and the Religious Affairs Commission have both tried to recruit him, but Blind Jin never budged—he just guards that little patch of land in Hong Kong, keeping to himself and playing the part of Master Jin."
After listening, Sun Fatty stuck his tongue out in Jin Beihai's direction and said, "Heh, can't judge a book by its cover. Not gonna lie, Lazi, back when I was a kid, a few street fortune tellers told me I had the fate of the Lone Star of Calamity—doomed to lose my father and be abandoned by my mother. I've always wanted a real expert to read my fortune, see if there's a way out. Once we wrap this matter up, I have to get this blind guy to cast a divination for me no matter what." As soon as he finished, Huang Ran, half-dead and slumped nearby, suddenly let out an inappropriate laugh. His chuckle instantly drew everyone's attention in the room. Realizing he'd overstepped, Huang Ran waved his hand and said, "It's nothing… just remembered a joke."
Once the others looked away, Sun Fatty gave Huang Ran a sideways look, grinning without mirth. "Old Huang, not to be harsh, but you sure have a laid-back attitude. You're practically half in the grave and still laughing at my expense. If I were you, I'd be praying real hard just to make it back to your Religious Affairs Commission alive." As he spoke, Huang Ran was panting heavily. It took him a while to catch his breath before he finally said, "Fatty, you think just anyone can get Blind Jin to cast a divination? Let me tell you his going rate—he only does two readings a month, on the 1st and 15th of the lunar calendar. Each one costs… one million. And the appointment queue? Already booked solid for the next thirty years. And he only honors appointment tokens, not the person—there's been a black market for his divination tokens for over two decades. The 'one million' price is just the base. On the black market, an appointment within the year? Easily ten times that—if you can even find one…"
By the end of his explanation, Huang Ran was gasping so hard he could barely string words together. I handed him a cup of tea, which he drank slowly until he calmed down. Meanwhile, Sun Fatty sat there with his mouth wide open, shooting glances toward Jin Beihai as he asked me, "Lazi, is Old Huang for real? People actually speculate on divination appointments like stocks?" I scratched my head and replied, "Dasheng, this is the first I'm hearing of it too. If you want to know if it's true, we'll ask OuCrowng Pianzuo when we get back. That guy knows everything."
Sun Fatty still looked skeptical, but soon his interest shifted. "So what about that guy in all black? What's his deal?" I hadn't seen a single mention of this man named Crow in OuCrowng Pianzuo's archive, so I turned to glance at Huang Ran. He met my gaze, exhausted but alert. After a moment's hesitation, I said, "Old Huang, why don't you tell it? You were doing a pretty good job just now—might as well finish."
Huang Ran gave a bitter laugh. "Now you're treating me like one of your own, huh?" Sun Fatty grinned and said, "He's not one of your Religious Commission people anyway. And once we get back to the Bureau, we'll find out about him sooner or later. Just treat it as doing us a favor. Like they say—leave a thread for future meetings. If you ever end up in our hands again, maybe we'll put in a good word for you." Huang Ran looked at Sun Fatty, half annoyed and half amused. After a deep breath, he said with a wry smile, "Fine, let's call it a favor then. Crow is a Chinese-Thai born in Thailand…"
The first half of Crow's life was nothing short of legendary. He was a fourth-generation Chinese overseas, born in Thailand during the Hour of the Rooster. His birth name was Liu You, while "Crow" was a nickname given to him after a major transformation. As a child, Liu You was frail and constantly ill. Following local tradition, his family symbolically adopted him to the immortal Lü Dongbin of the Pure Crowng sect, naming him a godson. Strangely enough, after he made obeisance before Lü Dongbin's portrait, Liu You's health began to improve by the day. While he wasn't completely free of illness, the change was nothing short of miraculous—he was no longer the sickly boy he used to be.
Crow (birth name: Liu You) was born into one of the most prominent Chinese merchant families in Thailand. The Liu family's business empire spanned finance, agriculture, retail, and construction. Although Liu You was not the eldest grandson of the main branch, his legitimate bloodline allowed him to live in a world far beyond the reach of ordinary people. But all of that came crashing down after his thirteenth birthday.
On the night of Liu You's thirteenth birthday, his grandfather—the patriarch of the Liu clan—and his eldest uncle both died suddenly under mysterious circumstances. Given the grandfather's age and the eldest son's chronic illness, no one thought much of it at the time. The Liu clan's descendants from across Thailand rushed home for the funeral. As one of the wealthiest families in the region, the Liu family held the funeral according to Chinese tradition with exceptional grandeur. Even provincial government officials paid their respects in shifts.
According to ancestral custom, on the night before the burial, only Liu clan members were allowed to keep vigil. All non-Liu personnel, including housekeepers and servants, were asked to leave the family mansion at nightfall. Since Liu You had already been ritually adopted by Lü Dongbin, he was no longer considered a blood member of the Liu clan under tradition. As such, that night he stayed in a hotel with the servants.
Early the next morning, the butler brought Liu You and the servants back to the mansion. He knocked on the door for a long time, but no one answered. Together with Liu You, they tried calling his parents and other relatives inside. They could hear the phones ringing from outside the door, but no one came to open it. Realizing something was wrong—especially as more people had begun to arrive for the funeral—they had no choice but to call the police.
When the police arrived and forced the doors open, everyone present was stunned by the scene inside. Some women fainted on the spot from sheer terror. Seven or eight Liu clan members lay dead just inside the front entrance, having been deceased for hours. All of them had bluish complexions, were bleeding from all seven orifices, and stared blankly with wide-open eyes. Yet their pupils were missing—only waxy white eyeballs remained. Aside from these features, there were no external wounds.
The bodies by the door were just the beginning. The deeper they went into the house, the more corpses they found—every one of them a member of the Liu clan. The butler was already in shock, but Liu You, at just thirteen years old, reacted first. Ignoring the police, he rushed to his parents' bedroom. But there was no miracle. His parents had died the same way: lying on the bed, bleeding from the orifices, their eyes void of pupils. Liu You fainted on the spot at the sight.
In total, sixty-six people died in the Liu family massacre. Even more bizarre, the grandfather and his eldest son—whose corpses had already been laid out in the mourning hall—were found to have bled from their orifices again, their faces bluish as though they had died a second time. Even more baffling was the time of death. Forensic experts concluded all the victims died between 10:00 p.m. and midnight. However, at 2:00 a.m., neighbors reportedly saw some of these people standing on the lawn outside the mourning hall, laughing and chatting as if nothing had happened. Even worse, they were drinking in clear violation of mourning customs—each holding a glass, some with whiskey, most with red wine.
The neighboring family, also ethnic Chinese, had been indignant about such disrespectful behavior but were too afraid of the Liu family's influence to intervene. They chose to ignore it. But when they learned the next day about the deaths, the neighbor who had witnessed the scene was so frightened that he urinated in his pants.
The Liu family massacre shocked all of Thailand. The Thai government mobilized nearly half of its police force. After months of intensive investigation, and ruling out supernatural causes such as black magic, they finally announced a conclusion: the Liu clan had succumbed to a highly lethal, unknown contagious disease. This illness, they claimed, could kill within hours of infection. Fortunately, the virus could not survive long outside the human body, and once the Liu family died, the virus rapidly disappeared.
Everyone knew this was nonsense, but with no better explanation, the public gradually accepted it. It seemed the incident was over—but no one anticipated that its final chapter would unfold through Liu You.
As the sole survivor and heir of his entire family, thirteen-year-old Liu You instantly became the inheritor of a fortune worth billions. Were it not for his age, the police might have treated him as a suspect who stood to benefit. Since Liu You was underage, the Thai government and local banks formed a transitional financial trust to manage the family's estate. Each month, he received a generous living stipend from the bank.
Overnight, having lost all his loved ones, Liu You's personality changed drastically. Traumatized by the tragedy, he developed sudden-onset mutism and required daily psychotherapy. But after several sessions, there was no improvement.
On the thirtieth day after the incident, while en route to see his psychiatrist, Liu You suddenly felt dizzy. Moments later, the driver slumped onto the steering wheel as though drunk. Liu You fainted, but just before losing consciousness, he caught a glimpse of a woman in red standing next to him. The car lost control and flipped. Fortunately, bystanders acted quickly and rushed him to the hospital.
As fate would have it, just after Liu You was admitted, the family butler arrived with a mysterious young Chinese man. The stranger barged into the emergency room, seized Liu You—who was about to receive defibrillation—and poured an unknown liquid down his throat, covering his mouth to prevent him from spitting it out. The butler, though he had brought the man, was alarmed and tried to intervene, but the stranger's grip was like iron—he couldn't pry his hands apart.
Before the doctors and nurses could react, the stranger acted again. Liu You's face turned a deep purple-black, and his body began to convulse violently. Judging the time was right, the man let go. Instantly, a stream of pus and blood spewed from Liu You's throat, spraying a nearby doctor head to toe.
To everyone's horror, the vomit was full of black hair—hair that writhed as though alive. Some clumped together, others were still hanging from Liu You's mouth. The stranger calmly reached in and pulled them out by hand. No one—neither medical staff nor the butler—dared stop him anymore.
Once Liu You had expelled most of the filth, the man poured a second dose of the unknown liquid into his mouth. This time, he didn't hold his mouth shut, but the liquid was not expelled. Seconds later, Liu You opened his eyes.
Seeing that Liu You was safe, the stranger poured the remaining liquid in a circle around the pool of vomit. The strands of hair, which had been wriggling less, suddenly went berserk as if sensing danger—but none dared to cross the circle. The man then bit his tongue, swallowed the final few drops of the potion, and sprayed a mouthful of blood over the vomit.
As soon as the blood landed, the mass of hair fell silent, collapsed, and disintegrated like overcooked noodles.
Liu You had regained full consciousness. The butler, now realizing what had happened, expressed heartfelt gratitude on Liu You's behalf. Since the hospital was not a safe place to talk, he brought the stranger back home and treated him as an honored guest.
The man introduced himself politely. His surname was Hao, and as a child, he too had been ritually adopted by Lü Dongbin. However, as an adult, his profession made it inappropriate to remain a divine foster son. Severing the adoptive bond with a True Immortal required a complex ritual, including the presence of one hundred "foster siblings" as witnesses.
At the time, China was in political turmoil. In that era of eradicating all so-called "monsters and demons," it was impossible to gather even ten, let alone one hundred, ritual witnesses. So Hao had traveled to Southeast Asia in search of a solution. His first stop was Thailand, where he learned about Liu You from temple priests devoted to Lü Dongbin. Coincidentally, he encountered the panicked butler heading to the hospital and was brought along in the chaos.
Hao, possessing arcane knowledge, sensed something was wrong even before entering the emergency room. He rushed in and saved Liu You's life. According to Hao, had he been a minute later, not even a Celestial Immortal could have helped.
Then, Hao suddenly changed the subject and asked the butler whether Liu You had offended anyone lately. The question made the butler's heart race. He recounted the recent tragedy of the Liu family's annihilation.
After hearing the full story, Hao appeared deeply interested and requested to visit the old mansion where the incident occurred. Although the butler was still terrified of the place, he reluctantly agreed to accompany Hao there the following noon.