Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Blind in one eye. A full sleeve tattoo. One-eyed. Tang Tian…

“Tang Tian? Tang Tian!” Yu Wei’s body went rigid. He spun around and rushed back into the house, hauling Crazy Wang’s corpse off the floor. For the first time, his habitually impassive, mild face twisted with furious desperation.

“Tell me where he is! Where is Tang Tian?”

“Get up! Get up!”

But Crazy Wang’s life had already burned away. No matter how Yu Wei shouted, nothing could bring him back. It was all futile.

His face was still frozen in the frenzied grin he had worn before death, a sight both eerie and desolate.

Yu Wei’s expression looked scarcely better than Crazy Wang’s.

The room echoed with his cries, filled with boundless rage, grief, and helplessness.

“Tang Tian…” Xie Qingling repeated the name. It meant nothing to her.

But judging by Yu Wei’s reaction, this Tang Tian seemed to have a deep history with the Department.

Xie Qingling raised her head and looked at Ling Fang, a question in her eyes.

Ling Fang’s expression was equally grim.

He offered only a brief explanation. “Tang Tian was once a member of Future City’s Special Incident Response Department. An intern.”

Xie Qingling opened her mouth, but no words came out.

An intern.

Ling Fang hesitated, and though he ultimately did not finish what he had been about to say, she knew what the unspoken words were.

He never became a permanent member.

Like her, Tang Tian’s first identity after stepping into this world had been that of an intern with Future City’s Special Incident Response Department.

The difference was that she had passed her assessment, while Tang Tian had eventually become the Department’s enemy.

Tang Tian was a traitor.

Ling Fang continued, “I hadn’t arrived in Future City yet. Old Yu told me what happened.”

“Tang Tian was recruited into the Department as an Awakened and taken on as an intern.”

“The former Director was still alive then. He oversaw Tang Tian’s assessment and had to decide whether to tell him how to pray to a deity for a blessing, as well as whether Tang Tian qualified to receive an offering for that prayer.”

“After spending some time with him, the former Director felt something was wrong with Tang Tian’s temperament. He extended the three-month assessment period so he could continue observing him.”

“In the end, the former Director concluded that Tang Tian was unsuited to this work. He intended to have Ye Anran erase Tang Tian’s memories, then send him back to the ordinary world to live as an ordinary person.”

“But that door is easy enough to leave closed. Once opened, it isn’t so easy to shut again. After tasting the power to become so much stronger, he could no longer bear an ordinary life.”

“When Tang Tian learned he had failed the assessment, he began to resent the former Director.”

Yu Wei emerged from the house, his face unusually vicious and dark. Picking up where Ling Fang had left off, he said, “During one Department mission, Tang Tian deliberately sent out false intelligence. The others couldn’t arrive in time to provide support, leaving the former Director to fight alone.”

“The former Director died in that operation.”

Hatred filled Yu Wei’s voice. “Tang Tian disappeared after that. I swore I would kill that piece of filth with my own hands and avenge the former Director!”

“I never expected our next encounter to happen here.”

“He must have become a true Spirit Wielder by now.” Yu Wei lowered his eyes, his expression inscrutable.

An ordinary person could never have killed Crazy Wang and taken the Back-Rider Ghost from under the noses of all six of them.

To do it so silently and retreat unscathed could mean only that the other party possessed some kind of divine ability.

Tang Tian had obtained a deity’s blessing and stepped deeper into that world.

Xie Qingling lowered her head and remained silent.

According to her deductions, Tang Tian had used ghosts and monsters to kill the Director out of spite, then left the Department and wandered off to parts unknown.

Though “wandered” was probably not quite right. He must have gone through something and successfully joined another organization.

This so-called organization also knew how to pray to deities and receive their blessings, allowing Tang Tian to advance from an Awakened to a Spirit Wielder.

They lurked in the shadows, capable of plotting to nurture an evil god. Their plan had spanned decades, passing in orderly succession from the person who initiated it to those who carried it on.

That meant the organization had existed for a very long time, with a highly developed structure and clearly defined functions. It must also have had a complete set of operational principles. Its members handed missions off to one another and took over each other’s work, proving that they knew what they were doing and how to do it.

They were madmen. Scum who did whatever they pleased.

More frightening still, they were neither isolated individuals nor a disorganized rabble.

They were an organization.

What a… terrifying enemy.

Gods and ghosts possessed frightening power, but their schemes tended to be far less intricate. Terrifying though their power might be, they were not invincible.

But an organization composed of humans, using the power of ghosts and monsters to sow chaos… The consequences were almost unimaginable.

Xie Qingling’s hands tightened around the arms of her chair. Sunlight bathed her whole body, yet a chill still swept through her from head to toe.

Shen Huaizhou, standing in a tree, saw the three of them and jumped down. He walked over and asked, “Director, what happened?”

His voice arrived before he came into view.

Ling Fang could not see Shen Huaizhou, but he had grown used to him being like this and spoke to him as though addressing the empty air.

“Tang Tian appeared,” Ling Fang said. “He has become a Spirit Wielder. He killed Crazy Wang and took the Back-Rider Ghost. Now he’s escaped, and we have no idea where he went.”

“Tang Tian is the mastermind?” Shen Huaizhou froze for a moment.

He had joined the Department before Xie Qingling and knew more about its past, so naturally he recognized Tang Tian’s name.

“No. Something much larger is behind this.” Ling Fang lowered his eyes, his thoughts impossible to read. He seemed to be thinking, yet also seemed to be staring vacantly into space. “This isn’t the place to talk. We’ll discuss it once we’re back.”
Shen Huaizhou nodded, his expression grave.

He glanced at Xie Qingling in her chair, then picked her up along with the chair and raced back to Ma Qiaoqiao’s house.

The incident had reached its conclusion.

But the cleanup was far from over.

The two patients who had yet to recover fully were told to remain in the house.

Shen Huaizhou was also responsible for guarding Xie Qingling, while she could do nothing but continue playing the invalid.

The two of them sat inside and stared at each other. Ling Fang and the others, meanwhile, dealt with the turmoil in the village while contacting the Logistics Department and Chen Yinghui’s people, arranging for them to bring personnel in and clean up the aftermath.

Xie Qingling asked the empty air, “Shen Huaizhou, are you still there?”

“I’m here.”

“Did you ever meet the former Director?”

“I’ve seen his memorial portrait.”

“Oh. What kind of person do you think he was?”

“Like Old Yu, he was an older man. I heard they left the military together and later became Acquired Spirits.”

“So they were comrades-in-arms. No wonder Brother Yu was so upset.”

Xie Qingling asked another question. “Do you think we’ll die someday too?”

“For now, just keep living with your life on the line.”

“I wonder what’ll happen after I die.”

“Department members get free burial plots, and they’ll bury you somewhere with good feng shui.”

“Really? That’s a pretty nice benefit.”

“Maybe our graves can be next to each other when the time comes.”

“Neighbors after death? That doesn’t sound bad. You’d probably still look good as a ghost, right?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never died.”

“When will the Director and the others be back?”

“Soon, probably.”

Shen Huaizhou sat motionless on the threshold, his legs drawn up.

Xie Qingling knew he was there, yet kept forgetting his presence. It was only when the sun tilted west and neared the horizon, casting his long shadow across the ground before the threshold, that she could finally be sure where he was.

The two waited in silence.

Ling Fang and the others did not return until the light had dimmed and the rolling blue-green mountains had taken on a trace of black.

Only Ling Fang and Dai Xingyu came back.

“We have to go,” Ling Fang said. “I’ve already called in the Logistics Department and Chen Yinghui’s people.”

“Until they arrive, Ye Anran and Yu Wei will stay behind to guard the village.”

“The Groom has already swept the entire village. There are no more ghosts or monsters here, no Spirit Wielders, and no deities.”

“Our mission is over. Chen Yinghui and his people will handle the rest.”

“Pack up. We’re heading back.”

Dai Xingyu and Ling Fang gathered their belongings, picked up their equipment, and strapped everything into place.

Shen Huaizhou hoisted Xie Qingling onto his back along with her chair, then followed Ling Fang as the team left the village.

The village lay far from Future City, nestled in an isolated mountain hollow. The mountain paths were steep and exceedingly difficult to traverse.

With Xie Qingling almost entirely unable to move, the journey back to the city would have been even more arduous.

Ling Fang chose not to take the mountain trail. Instead, he led them to the riverbank.

The River God was gone from the river. Clear ripples rolled across the surface beneath the pouring afterglow, scattering flecks of light that danced on the water. The scene looked tranquil and gentle.

“We’ll return by water.” Ling Fang crouched and set a folded white paper boat on the river.

The white boat was only the size of a palm, but once it touched the water, it began to swell as though someone were blowing air into it.

At last, it became a small skiff, rocking on the river as though melding with the waves.

The four boarded. Without oars, the boat began moving upstream on its own, cutting a trail of white foam through the water.

Xie Qingling froze, then muttered, “Oh no. The Director is going to be paralyzed too…”

“I won’t,” Ling Fang said, glancing at her. “This boat’s curse isn’t as strong as the Wooden Hawk’s. At worst, I’ll lose the ability to move for a while. It won’t leave me paralyzed.”

“I see.”

Dai Xingyu was exhausted after patrolling the entire village.

He lay flat on his back in the boat, panting like an overworked dog. Between breaths, he said, “I’m dead tired. Finally, I can get some rest.”

Shen Huaizhou sat at the bow and made himself one with the air.

As the only normal human present who could still move freely, he willingly assumed responsibility for keeping watch and remained on alert – even though the River God was gone from the river.

Once Dai Xingyu had caught his breath, he turned to look at the immobile Xie Qingling and burst out laughing, every note full of merciless mockery. Just as her face was about to darken and she was preparing to hold it against him, he abruptly changed the subject. “By the way, I found a suicide note while I was patrolling.”

“A suicide note?”

“Yeah. It belonged to a hiker, but I have no idea who. There’s no date on it, and it looks like it was written a long, long time ago. I thought it was beautifully written, and it suits people like us pretty well.”

“Read it to us,” Xie Qingling said.

Dai Xingyu unfolded the note, written in elegant handwriting, and began reciting it with great feeling.

“I may die today, or I may die tomorrow.”

“I may die along the road, or I may die at its end.”

“Who among us does not spend a lifetime walking toward hell, merely passing through the mortal world along the way?”

“I have crossed lofty mountains. I have gazed upon the sun. Dew has soaked my body, and fierce winds have dried it again. I have no regrets in this life.”

“When maggots fill my eye sockets, when my decaying body becomes a bed for fungi – stranger, if you find my unburied bones beside the road, do not grieve for me.”

“I take heaven and earth as my shroud and wrap myself within them.”

“Hahahahaha.”

Mountains faded into the distance and waterways stretched far away. The little boat rode the rushing waves and vanished along the river.