Chapter 50

Chapter 50

The boy had been an orphan in life. His name was Zhong Lin.

His parents had died when he was young, and the grandfather he depended on passed away when he was thirteen. Later, he contracted a terrible illness and died at the age of fourteen.

Perhaps his resentment toward the world had run too deep. Even after death, he wandered among the living, never making it to the Underworld to wait for reincarnation.

But he was terribly weak. Even a single ray of sunlight could scatter his soul.

One day, after he had curled up as a tiny wisp of black mist in some dark corner for the umpteenth time, Granny Chang held a black umbrella over him.

Granny Chang sighed. “I shouldn’t meddle in the affairs of a little ghost like you. It’ll cost me karmic merit.”

But she was too softhearted. In the end, she took the little ghost home with her.

From then on, Zhong Lin hid inside Granny Chang’s black umbrella. She often burned offerings for him so that even as a ghost, he could live in some comfort.

As time passed, he couldn’t help thinking how wonderful it would have been if he had been Granny Chang’s grandson while he was alive.

Still, this wasn’t so bad. He might be dead, but at least someone loved him.

In the third year Zhong Lin spent with Granny Chang, Yu Lu’s father came to see her one afternoon.

Granny Chang sternly warned him that his family was fated to have no wealth. They had to keep the windfall from the demolition compensation hidden for three years, or misfortune would plague the entire family. They might even all meet unnatural deaths.

Yu Lu’s father refused to believe such superstitious nonsense and stormed off. As he left, he cursed Granny Chang, accusing her of harboring ill intentions and placing a curse on his family.

The next day, a “person” wearing a conical hat and wrapped from head to toe appeared outside Granny Chang’s home.

It was impossible to tell whether the “person” was male or female. Whenever they spoke, their voice sounded as though it came through a pane of glass, muffled, hoarse, and grating.

As a little ghost, Zhong Lin could sense that the “person” seemed human, yet somehow wasn’t.

They radiated a dark and powerful aura, a force that struck terror into the very depths of a ghost’s soul.

Granny Chang also realized that her visitor meant trouble. Yet the “person” did not harm her. They merely gave her a long, searching look before leaving.

Zhong Lin thought that would be the end of it.

But a month ago, the “person” appeared again.

It was late at night. They materialized without warning inside Granny Chang’s home and handed her a long strand of black hair.

The hair radiated the dense aura of the Evil God. Though it was only a single strand, its pressure made Zhong Lin’s soul tremble. A ghost’s instincts drove him to prostrate himself before it in worship. He did not dare take another close look.

“One day, you will have need of it,” they said.

Granny Chang naturally recognized it as an object belonging to the Evil God. Her face turned ashen as she refused. “I don’t need it.”

The “person” chuckled softly. “You have already planted the cause. One day, you will reap its fruit with your own hands. You have lived a kind and virtuous life. Consider this my way of helping you.”

With that, the “person” vanished into the night, leaving the Hair of the Evil God behind.

Granny Chang did not dare dispose of an object of the Evil God carelessly. She placed the hair inside a wooden box engraved with runes.

A few days ago, Yu Lu came to Granny Chang in tears and begged her to save her mother.

Just as she had all those years ago, Granny Chang relented. In the end, she agreed to Yu Lu’s request and told her to return the next day.

That night, Granny Chang stared at the wooden box for a long time. Then she took it from the cabinet and placed it on the altar.

A gilded statue of the Bodhisattva stood on the altar beside the wooden box.

With a conflicted expression, Granny Chang lit a stick of incense and placed it in the burner.

“Granny, don’t do it.”

Zhong Lin tried to dissuade her. He rarely spoke to Granny Chang and always kept his distance, afraid that the yin energy clinging to him might harm her.

But that night, he sensed what she intended to do and couldn’t stop himself from approaching her.

“If I can help, then I should,” Granny Chang said with a sigh, gazing at Zhong Lin with affection. “Even if that girl isn’t sacrificed, she doesn’t have much longer to live.”

Zhong Lin could see it too. Yu Lu was shrouded in the aura of death. Within three months at most, she would meet a violent end.

Granny Chang was softhearted. Since the girl was doomed anyway and was so desperate to protect her mother, Granny Chang thought it better to sacrifice Yu Lu in exchange for the safety of her entire family.

The next day, Yu Lu arrived with Wu Sulian.

Granny Chang sealed the doors and windows, then began the ritual under dim lighting.

Using the Hair of the Evil God as a medium, she sacrificed one of Yu Lu’s souls and one of her spirits. If the Evil God came to claim them that night, the Yu Family’s troubles would be resolved.

The ritual proceeded smoothly until something went wrong at the very end.

Fortunately, Granny Chang was highly experienced and managed to complete the ritual without disaster.

On the night after the ritual, a weasel slipped into Granny Chang’s home. It possessed considerable cultivation and could assume human form. Clearly, it was a spirit that had successfully completed Seeking Human Recognition and attained immortality.
The weasel transformed into a beautiful young woman and bared her teeth at Granny Chang in a grin. “You really are quite capable. You actually managed to complete the sacrifice using that person’s severed hair.”

With that, she dissolved into a sinister gust of wind and swept Granny Chang away.

Perhaps the black umbrella offered some form of protection, because the weasel never noticed Zhong Lin hiding inside it.

Zhong Lin followed the weasel from a considerable distance and watched as she carried Granny Chang deep into the mountains.

At the foot of the mountain, he found Granny Chang’s dentures.

Sometime later, Chen You and the others from the Paranormal Bureau came looking for Granny Chang. When they failed to find anything unusual, Yun Jianyue and Si Wuming arrived from the municipal bureau.
“That’s everything.” After finishing his story, Zhong Lin dropped to his knees and repeatedly kowtowed to Yun Jianyue. “Please, miss, save Granny! She’s truly a good person!”

Yun Jianyue reached out to help him up, only to hear Mo Chen’s calm, indifferent voice.

“She’s just an ordinary old woman who picked up a few tricks, yet she actually fancies herself some kind of savior. She spends all day helping one person after another, and now she’s squandered the tiny bit of merit she managed to accumulate.”

Zhong Lin was so anxious he wanted to cry, but ghosts had no tears. All he could shed was blood.

He wanted to argue with Mo Chen, but he was too afraid. In the end, he could only mutter to himself, “That’s not true. Granny is a good person…”

“She can’t bear to watch others suffer, so she throws herself into every mess she sees. That doesn’t make her a good person. It makes her an idiot,” Mo Chen said.

Yun Jianyue felt like she had just been caught in the crossfire. She looked up at Mo Chen and found him staring right back at her.

“I was talking about how you kept helping Zhou Benxin,” Mo Chen said, making no attempt to hide his malice. He was even secretly delighted to have finally scored a point against her.

This woman was always walking all over him. At last, he had managed to upset her for once.

Yet Yun Jianyue wasn’t nearly as angry as Mo Chen had expected. Instead, she looked at him with pity.

“Of course an evil entity like you wouldn’t understand human emotions. This world is full of the ‘smart people’ you speak of. They’re accustomed to standing on the sidelines and keeping themselves out of trouble, using rationality as an excuse for their indifference.”

“But there will always be people in this world who aren’t driven by personal gain.”

Yun Jianyue continued, “It’s true that good people aren’t always rewarded. But all Granny Chang wanted was to be at peace with her own conscience. She never expected a reward in the first place. You don’t even have a heart. You don’t have flesh or blood, either. What gives you the right to pass judgment on the greatness of humanity?”

Mo Chen’s expression instantly darkened.

It wasn’t because Yun Jianyue had refuted him. It was because, at that moment, he saw divinity in her.

True divinity.

Something a fallen god like him could never possess.

After finishing, Yun Jianyue let out a long sigh. “Damn, I can’t believe I just said something so profound. Graduation is basically in the bag now, isn’t it? Anyone can tell I’ve had a higher education!”

A vein throbbed at Mo Chen’s temple.

He must have been hallucinating just now.

How could this woman possibly possess divinity?

Even if he still had some divinity left in him, there was no way she did!

“If you don’t mind, you can rest inside my jade pendant with my friend for now,” Yun Jianyue told Zhong Lin. “Once we find Granny Chang, you can leave with her.”

Zhong Lin obediently entered the jade pendant.

The next moment, he and Lu Changxue stared at each other.

Zhong Lin began trembling all over. He covered his head and obediently squatted down, whimpering, “Please don’t eat me, mighty ghost. I’m barely enough to get stuck between your teeth.”

The mighty ghost, Lu Changxue, gave him a sinister grin and pounced with her hands curled like claws. Grabbing Zhong Lin’s cheeks, she stretched them back and forth. “Hehe, a shota! A little shota!”

Mo Chen glanced sideways at the jade pendant. “Those who stay near ink are stained black. Birds of a feather, the pair of them.”

Those two women were equally depraved!

Of everyone present, only the hapless Chen You had no idea what was going on. He hesitantly asked, “Are we going to look for Granny Chang now? Weren’t we supposed to save Yu Lu?”

Yun Jianyue pointed at Mo Chen. “Granny Chang sacrificed Yu Lu’s soul to him, but he never received it. That means we have to find Granny Chang before we have any chance of learning where the remnants of Yu Lu’s soul went.”

Chen You nodded in realization. A second later, he nearly jumped three feet into the air and shrieked, “She sacrificed it to him?!”

“Lao Chen, the Evil God loves eating jumpy Daoist priests like you. He can swallow one whole with every bite.” Chen You’s shriek made Yun Jianyue’s eardrums ache, so she vindictively frightened him in return.

The moment he heard that, Lao Chen clapped both hands over his mouth.

From this moment onward, he was mute! No one could make him speak!

With Zhong Lin giving them directions, the group drove until the road ended, then continued on foot. After two hours of travel, they finally reached the foot of the mountain Zhong Lin had described.

The mountain stood on the border between Luci County and the neighboring county. Due to its high elevation and treacherous terrain, it was completely uninhabited.
Decades ago, people still came up here to hunt. But ever since the government introduced restrictions, fewer and fewer hunters had ventured into the mountains. Nowadays, aside from the forest rangers, hardly anyone ever came up here.

“Is Granny Chang somewhere in these mountains?” Yun Jianyue asked Mo Chen.

Mo Chen clenched his back teeth. “Are you treating me like free labor?”

Yun Jianyue nodded.

She would be an idiot not to make use of an Evil God when she had one at her disposal.

“I can sense a person in the mountains, but their presence is very faint.”

In the end, Mo Chen still used his spiritual sense to scan the mountain. He could detect a human presence, but he couldn’t tell whether it belonged to Granny Chang.

“Can you lock onto that presence and teleport straight there? And take us with you?” Yun Jianyue asked.

According to Zhong Lin, that yellow weasel had cultivated considerable power. If their group trekked into the mountains on foot, there was a good chance it would detect them.

“I can only take you,” Mo Chen said.

His spatial abilities normally worked only on himself. However, Yun Jianyue shared a life link with him and was also his bride, so she could travel through space with him.

As for Si Wuming and that human, it was completely out of the question.

Si Wuming said, “Once you get there, I can lock onto her location and teleport over.”

Chen You looked utterly lost. “What about me?”

“You can come with me,” Si Wuming replied.

With the plan settled, they put it into action.

Mo Chen wrapped one arm around Yun Jianyue’s slender waist. Without so much as a warning, he activated his spatial technique.

The world spun violently, and Yun Jianyue’s vision went black.

Before she could even process what was happening, Mo Chen shoved her away in disgust.

Yun Jianyue hit the ground with a thud. Fortunately, she caught herself in time, or her beautiful face would have gotten up close and personal with Mother Earth.

“You fucking…” Yun Jianyue cursed as she looked up, only for the rest of the words to die in her throat. “Granny Chang?”

A dozen or so meters away, a gaunt, hunched old woman lay curled up on the ground. Her graying hair was disheveled and covered her face.

Yun Jianyue scrambled to her feet and realized they were inside a cave.

Unable to confirm the woman’s identity, Yun Jianyue turned to her walking cheat code, Mo Chen. “Is that a human or a yellow weasel?”

“Human.” Mo Chen looked thoroughly exasperated, but he answered honestly.

Once her identity was confirmed, Yun Jianyue hurried over and helped Granny Chang off the ground.

The unconscious Granny Chang slowly came to. When she saw Yun Jianyue’s face, she asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m with the Paranormal Bureau. You can call me Xiao Yun.” Yun Jianyue checked Granny Chang’s condition.

Aside from being weak from lack of food, she was fine. She wasn’t injured.

The moment she heard that Yun Jianyue was from the Paranormal Bureau, Granny Chang seized her forearm. “What happened to that girl Yu Lu? Is she dead or alive?”

Just as Granny Chang asked the question, Si Wuming teleported in, hauling along a violently vomiting Chen You.

Even as Chen You retched uncontrollably, he still managed to explain, “That teleportation array made me so dizzy. Ugh… Don’t mind me. Keep going. Ugh…”

Completely unfazed, Si Wuming walked over to Yun Jianyue. He didn’t say a word, but Granny Chang’s expression changed the instant she saw him.

“W-Who are you?”

Si Wuming lowered his eyes to look at Granny Chang without answering. He seemed to have seen this woman somewhere before.

Granny Chang murmured, “The resemblance is uncanny. How can two people look so alike? How old are you? Are you a descendant of Mr. Si?”

“He’ll be twenty-four soon. His surname is Si, the same Si as in the word for compass,” Yun Jianyue answered for him.

“Twenty-four… Judging by the dates, are you Mr. Si’s grandson?” Granny Chang’s eyes shone with excitement. She had completely forgotten about Yu Lu.

Si Wuming’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. He neither confirmed nor denied it.

Yet his very reaction only made Granny Chang even more certain of her guess.

Tears of joy streamed down Granny Chang’s weathered face. “I never imagined I would live to see one of Mr. Si’s descendants. I can die without regrets now. I truly never expected Mr. Si to have a lover, much less a child.”

Mo Chen stood far away from the others. When he heard Granny Chang’s words, a sudden laugh escaped him.

Everyone turned to look at him suspiciously, but Mo Chen swiftly wiped the smile from his face.

The moment Granny Chang saw Mo Chen, her entire body jolted. She pointed at him with a trembling hand and cried, “The Evil God! He’s the Evil God I sacrificed Yu Lu to!”

Yun Jianyue frowned slightly. Judging by Granny Chang’s reaction, did she have no idea that something else had intercepted the fragment of Yu Lu’s soul?