Chapter 205
Chapter 205
Two hours later, everyone received notice that the ceremony had been moved forward.
“Master, holding the grave-relocation ceremony early will cause a disaster!” Yijie said anxiously.
“Amitabha. Yijie, say nothing and ask nothing. Remember only this: stay close beside your master.”
With no other choice, Yijie bowed to the old monk, then sat beside him and recited sutras with him.
Elsewhere, John sat in his room holding a cup of coffee. Five or six empty sugar packets lay on the table beside him. He thought over everything that had happened during the day, especially Liu Ye’s words.
“They looked alike, except the other one was younger than your Third Uncle.”
John took a small sip of coffee. Recalling the information uncovered by the Fiend Investigation Bureau, he had formed a suspicion. If it was true, then everything about his family would make sense.
“What do you plan to do?”
Xiaoshuai sprawled inelegantly on the sofa, tossing an apple up and down in one hand. He had clearly reached a similar conclusion.
“I’ll do whatever Brother Liu does.”
John drained the coffee. Xiaoshuai burst out laughing.
“That’s remarkably heartless. Fine. I suppose it won’t matter if I go a little too far during the mission?”
“Don’t do anything unnecessary. I can handle this myself. I don’t need your intervention,” John said, looking at him.
“Heh, I can’t help that. I’ll do anything to survive. This mission is so dangerous. If I accidentally kill a few people while trying to stay alive, that’s understandable, isn’t it?”
“Xu Fei! I said-”
Before John could finish, Miss Zhang, who resided within him, suddenly shouted, “A Fiend is coming! Yuelang, it’s coming for you!”
The moment she spoke, John smashed the window and Xiaoshuai leaped outside.
In a situation like this, Xiaoshuai wasn’t going to say he would stay and face it together with John. The creature was targeting John. If they both remained, they would both die.
The best solution was for John to delay the enemy while Xiaoshuai fetched Liu Ye as reinforcement.
The instant they finished acting, the room’s door suddenly opened, and the shattered window restored itself to its original condition.
John looked over but saw no one. A charred handprint had appeared on the door.
Rows of equally charred footprints extended into the room from outside, heading straight toward John.
John stared ahead without expression, then said calmly, “Do you really think this is a good idea? If you touch me, that person will not let you go.”
The advancing footprints stopped abruptly.
Just as expected, John thought.
Even in this situation, he had not abandoned his attempt to probe the enemy. Its reaction confirmed his suspicion again. His family truly was planning that.
That actually made the situation easier to resolve.
John suddenly drew a dagger and placed it against his own throat.
“What you want should be a living version of me. If I die, you not only fail to obtain what you want, but that person will punish you. You should know that there are other Fiends inside me. I may not be able to escape, but killing myself would be easy. Would you like to test me?”
The black footprints advanced no farther. John’s expression remained unchanged as he continued.
“It seems I guessed correctly. This move of yours was clearly a poor one. Your best targets right now should be your own two sons. If you focus on me, whether you succeed or fail, the outcome will be bad for you. How can you be sure that person hasn’t anticipated a situation like this?”
The black footprints remained motionless.
“So you agree with me, my dear Third Uncle…”
John’s expression turned icy.
“Now… get out. Immediately!”
John pressed the dagger slightly harder, drawing a line of blood across his neck. Liu Ye’s voice sounded outside at that exact moment. The black footprints immediately faded, then vanished.
“It’s gone!”
Miss Zhang withdrew her warning.
John collapsed to the floor. His back was drenched with sweat.
He wasn’t without emotion. He felt fear too. There had been a strong chance that his threat would drive Third Uncle away, but if Third Uncle had attacked regardless, John would have had no choice but to drag them both into death.
“John!”
Xiaoshuai pushed open the door. When he saw John sitting unharmed on the floor, he let out a breath of relief.
Liu Ye entered behind him and immediately realized something was wrong when he saw John’s pale face.
“What happened?”
“Nothing. My blood sugar was a little low.”
Liu Ye looked at the ashtray overflowing with empty sugar packets and fell silent.
If you have low blood sugar, then I’m the richest man in the world!
Liu Ye took out gauze and bandaged John’s neck, then returned to his room. He had run over before even finishing brushing his teeth.
Once Liu Ye was gone, Xiaoshuai immediately asked what had happened. John gave him a brief account. Xiaoshuai’s expression shifted uncertainly.
“If you can’t bring yourself to do it, I can handle it for you. A soul-swapping ritual cannot be simple. If I kill them all, we won’t need to worry about them targeting you.”
“It isn’t that simple.”
John leaned against the wall with his eyes closed.
“My grandfather has yet to appear.”
Another question also troubled him. He had deliberately tested Third Uncle and the others and found that, apart from himself, Xiaoshuai, and Brother Liu, none of them possessed the System.
By all logic, Third Uncle and the others should have been players. Why did they lack a System?
Unless…
A possibility suddenly occurred to John.
…
At midnight, everyone in the Zhao ancestral residence had fallen asleep. Liu Ye had gone to bed especially early.
The Zhao family’s mattress was so comfortable that he slept soundly.
At that moment, a charred figure appeared outside Liu Ye’s door.
The figure reeked of burned flesh, and a large section of his skull was caved in.
His eyes glowed red as he glared into the room.
It was all that brat’s fault. If not for him, Third Uncle would never have ended up in such a passive position.
With that thought, he entered the room.
The moment he stepped inside, a person appeared before him.
“Well, hello.”
The Driver greeted the dark figure.
“Entering a young man’s room in the middle of the night instead of sleeping is hardly proper behavior for a school principal, Mr. Zhao Jianghe.”
Third Uncle stared darkly at the man before him-or rather, the Fiend.
He had never imagined a Fiend could enter the Zhao estate without anyone noticing.
But after carefully sensing the Driver’s yin energy, he realized the intruder was only an insignificant creature of extremely low rank.
“Get out of my way!”