Afterlife Department

Chapter 400 - Released

Fughlia High School, one hour before.

The Portkin family's bodyguard snorted as he threw the student's corpse beside the pool.

"Be careful, will you?" the quack old man snapped at him. "We need to drain him of his blood and let it spill on this swimming pool to increase the misfortune of Iris Hudgeson!" he told the bodyguard before he started his ceremony.

The bodyguard snorted, not believing a word of this quack old man said. But, because the Portkin family already instructed him to follow this quack old man's words, he moved the student's body near the pool and had his blood flow towards it. After he finished tonight's task, he will escape. The Portkin family has already fallen yesterday after Iris Hudgeson and Luris Gregor attacked them.

But, ever since Yule Portkin's death, most of the Portkin family who have already known of the plan to attack Iris Hudgeson and take back the assets of Lin Ze's mother has already fled. So, Iris and Luris only caught the minor family members of the Portkins, which made their anger increased, so they mobilizes all of their forces to hunt the Portkin family.

Everyone who are an ally, and also wanted to curry favor with Iris and Luris, helped the two so the business circle had shunned the Portkin family and will report them as soon as they see them to increase Iris' and Luris' favorability value of them.

How can the Portkin family just take this? So, they sent two people to sneak in the Hudgeson main villa as well as Fughlia High. One is to kill one of Iris' children while the other one would help the 'expert' to curse Iris' misfortune. They can mobilize only two people to not make their actions known.

But, what they didn't expect is for Iris to have Yi Bing and Huo Ling, these 'outsiders'. Yi Bing has been asked by Iris to protect Rhyan, who he used as a bait. Yi Bing agreed, and euphemistically told Iris that Rhyan will definitely be safe. Since Quinn's ghost has actually been by Rhyan's side, but just weak so it was difficult to notice him.

The Portkins' hideout was then taken out of the killer's trembling lips because of the pain in his spine as Yi Bing was still stepping on it.

"Huh?" the quack old man muttered when he noticed something. "Why is there no blood?" he asked as he sniffed in the air. He didn't smell the fishy smell of blood. He can't see it in the water since the surroundings are dark, as well as the water. So, he can only use his nose to smell it.

Before the guard could say his displeasure, a third voice spoke. "Because corpses don't bleed." It said.

The bodyguard and the quack old man sharply turned and were horrified to see the corpse came to 'life'!

"You – ack!" the bodyguard cried and died after Huo Ling grabbed his neck and broke it.

Thud. The bodyguard's body fell on the ground, dead.

"You… you… how can you be alive?!" the quack old man asked as he retreated.

"You don't need to concern yourself with me. You should worry about yourself more." Huo Ling yawned.

"What… aaaaah!" the quack old man screamed when he didn't feel the ground beneath his feet.

SPLASH! The quack old man fell on the pool.

"Help! Help! Save me!" the quack old man screamed.

Huo Ling squatted beside the swimming pool and watched the quack old man flailed on the water. A bored expression on his face. "Are you just going to watch?" he asked.

"Of course not." Renton answered and grinned.

The quack old man saw Renton's ghost appeared beside Huo Ling and his face paled. "YOU - !" he choked.

"So, you can still remember me." Renton spoke. "I hope you can also remember my grudges!" he said and dived on the water.

Suddenly, the ground in the pool area shook!

"An earthquake?!" the students in their dormitory were roused awake.

Luren, Eavon, Moon and Cody were also awakened.

"… this…" Luren muttered and immediately wore his slippers. He didn't bother wearing his jacket and he ran towards the pool area, ignoring the shaking of the land.

Meanwhile, a crack appeared beneath the swimming pool, becoming larger and larger. Then, a shining object appeared as it floated in the surface, looking very conspicuous.

"That's - !" the quack old man holding on to the edge of the swimming pool exclaimed.

Huo Ling rolled his eyes at him and threw a fireball at him, searing his hands.

"AAAAAH!!!" the quack old man screamed and his hands slipped from the edge of the pool, making him submerged in the water again.

Huo Ling looked at the shining object and saw it was flying towards him, like it has a subconscious mind. "Oh? You're conscientious." He smiled as he held it.

The shiny object is a small white crystal like a snowflake, but more brittle. He feared that he would break it with a pinch, but unexpectedly, it didn't break. It even shook between his fingers like it was dancing.

"So, it's yours." Renton spoke as he floated on the water.

"No." Huo Ling spoke. "It's everybody's." he said and broke the crystal using his fire.

The crystal struggled, but Huo Ling's fire is stronger than it so it cracked, then finally broke into pieces. Huo Ling and Renton watched as billions of lights appeared around them, then suddenly rose in the air and exploded.

"Wow…" Huo Ling muttered under his breath as he and Renton watched the lights slowly fell on the Fughlia High like snow. He and Renton were emerged from watching the lights so none of them noticed a wisp of condensed air slipped inside Huo Ling's communicator.

"… Renton." Luren spoke as he stood near them while catching his breath.

Huo Ling and Renton turned, but Luren's gaze is only on Renton. Then, in a blink, Luren jumped towards Renton. But, since Renton is just a ghost, Luren's body passed through him and fell on the water with a loud splash.

Huo Ling was about to mutter an 'epic fail' when he saw Renton's figure disappeared above the water. The next second and he saw something in the water was shining, until the light covered the whole swimming pool.

A smile formed on Huo Ling's lips and he sent a message to Yi Bing along with a picture of two figures underwater.

0000: mission accomplished. <photo>

The picture is Luren hugging a white, shining figure of a man. The former shadow-black figure has turned to a pure soul. It is Renton's soul that was finally released.

Wednesday, Decathlon first day.

Because Luren has caught a fever, the speech for the student representative has fallen to one of the special classes' senior student. Fortunately, all the competing events were held on the second day and the first day is for entertainment events.

Since Iris was perfectly fine, he took back Fughlia Decathlon organizing project from Harris' hands, much to Harris' relief. Since it is a happy event, Iris, Lin Ze, Luris, and Iris' children were present. Yes – Quinn's ghost was included. Luris was disappointed that Luren has a fever, but he felt more worried so he sent Luren to the hospital.

Whether it was because of the doctors' top medical skills or another reason, Luren was brimming with energy the next day and, unsurprisingly, won the swimming contest in the morning and won the academic decathlon in the afternoon, adding more to his achievements.

Huo Ling and Yi Bing watched from the rooftop of the lecture building.

"Iris' people are really efficient to fix the swimming pool in the middle of the night and it became perfectly fine the morning after." Huo Ling clicked his tongue. Whether it is admiration or sarcasm, only he knows.

The pieces of Renton's corpses were dug up and surprisingly didn't rot. Then, Iris called a priest in the wee hours of the morning to bless the pool area, and pray for Renton's soul, before they left to the workers the fixing of the swimming pool to go to a church to conduct a funeral for Renton before they had a coroner fix Renton's corpse. Then, they buried it for Renton to rest in peace.

As for the quack old man, he died of a heart attack. His corpse, together with the bodyguard's corpse, were placed in the morgue and had the police deal with it. Meanwhile, the Portkins were finally all caught. They were publicly condemned and all their assets were seized by the public government to donate to charitable organizations. As for the orphanages the Portkins were funding, Iris and Luris took over them.

This is one of Lin Ze's promises to Prille – for Prille's orphanage to never be hungry and never be cold, and to be happy. Prille will be charged with a lighter crime and will be transferred to another school after he has paid for his crimes. Mandy never went to see Prille as he was scolded by his father, like Hierre. Hierre never played around again.

"This world's energy…" Huo Ling muttered.

"Because Quinn's and Renton's ghosts, although freed of their grievances, but they still have attachments. They will never leave, then this world will become an Abnormal World and not Special World." Yi Bing said.

"Why?" Huo Ling asked.

"The only supernatural here are Quinn's and Renton's ghosts. The world's energy, although turned stable again, but was still affected by Quinn's and Renton's presences." Yi Bing said. "We just can't force them to reincarnate, right?" he asked Huo Ling.

Huo Ling's eyes widened. "Don't!" he said. He felt his heart aching for Luren and Renton, and the Hudgeson family. He can't bear to separate them.

Yi Bing smiled and patted Huo Ling's head. "Then, this will be an Abnormal Supernatural World." He said.

"Mn." Huo Ling nodded.

"Let's go?" Yi Bing asked.

Huo Ling didn't immediately answer. He looked back and watched the fun events in the open to public gymnasium of Fughlia High. They can't remember 'Teacher Evan' and 'Student Howee', aside from Iris. Everyone's meeting with them is just a mere passing and is fated to forget. This is how it is to be a grim reaper.

"Let's go home."