Chapter 73
Chapter 73
“What… What kind of anomaly are you?”
Xun Silu stared incredulously at the cleaning woman, unable to keep the tremor from his voice.
That was Old-Tomb Joss Paper, an object capable of suppressing SSS-class anomalies. Carrying it should have made every anomaly in the world retreat before him.
So why did one monster after another keep appearing in this tiny school?
What kind of school was this? It was clearly a concentration camp for monstrous anomalies!
Xun Fayin hurriedly offered an explanation, his expression grave.
“May I ask who you are, Senior? We are members of the Xun family from the capital. We scattered the joss paper only to probe the terrain. We meant no offense!”
The cleaning woman’s expression was vacant and wooden.
“I… clean.”
“No… littering!”
She seemed unaccustomed to speech. After stiffly forcing out those two sentences, she turned and left without giving Xun Fayin or the others any chance to ask further questions.
Xun Fayin stood there in a daze.
She was a cleaner?
That was absurd. A security guard and a cleaner could both treat Old-Tomb Joss Paper as though it were nothing?
“This place is cursed… It’s completely cursed!” Xun Silu exclaimed.
He glared at Shi Xuan. “What the hell is going on, Shi Xuan? Did you bring us here to get us killed?”
He was close to breaking down.
He had assumed that as a direct descendant of the Xun family carrying Old-Tomb Joss Paper, he could force Abyss to lower his head. Yet before they had even met their intended target, every sheet had been collected like garbage.
Shi Xuan was clearly hiding something from them!
Shi Xuan’s expression was equally complicated. He shook his head.
“Young Master Xun, I truly don’t know why this happened.”
He and Xu Changjiang genuinely had no idea what had changed at the school in a single day. Somehow, even the Wraith-Mother had become this formidable.
Xun Silu was about to erupt again, but Xun Fayin stopped him.
“We’ll continue looking around first.”
He turned to Shi Xuan. “Director Shi, please lead the way. We would like to see more of the school.”
The group continued onward.
Before long, they entered the teaching building.
Xun Fayin carefully observed every classroom they passed.
When they walked by Li Que’s classroom, he could not help taking a second look, surprise flashing through his eyes.
Li Que was wholly absorbed in teaching and paid no attention to the people outside. Xun Fayin asked no questions.
“Director Xun, Vice Principal Leng and Dean Qin are waiting for us in the conference room. Please follow me,” Shi Xuan said calmly.
Soon, they entered the school’s conference room.
Leng Qingyan and Qin Shiyu were already waiting inside.
“These are Vice Principal Leng Qingyan and Dean Qin Shiyu,” Shi Xuan introduced. “They currently coordinate and manage the school. They are also… the people in charge here.”
“You have traveled a long way, and we apologize for not welcoming you sooner. Please, sit,” Leng Qingyan said.
Xun Fayin and Xun Silu took their seats.
Qin Shiyu came straight to the point.
“May I ask what brings you here?”
Shi Xuan, Leng Qingyan, and the others had planned today’s encounter in advance.
Mingjiang No. 7 Special School had become a focal point that would attract attention from every side. Under these circumstances, it was difficult to distinguish friend from foe.
They first had to determine the Xun family’s intentions and avoid a dangerous misjudgment.
Xun Fayin considered his answer briefly.
“I came because of the Divine Gate from back then.”
The Divine Gate!
Shi Xuan’s and Qin Shiyu’s expressions shifted.
Both held high positions within the Hall of Anomalies and the government, so they knew certain secrets.
Xun Fayin continued, “As everyone knows, the anomalies that infest the world today all originated from the Black Mist Calamity years ago.”
“After the calamity descended, the world fell into chaos and the people suffered. The Xun family and several other clans formed the Anomaly Wielders’ Alliance and temporarily stabilized the situation.”
“But the black mist has not come close to its true eruption. Once the calamity descends in full, neither the Anomaly Wielders’ Alliance nor the Old-Grave Clans will be able to do much. Most of the people in this world will die.”
“According to our deductions, only what once existed beyond the Divine Gate can truly resist the calamity and bring the black mist to an end.”
He had revealed a secret known to only a tiny handful of people.
Remembrance flickered through Qin Shiyu’s beautiful eyes.
“They say countless gods existed beyond the Divine Gate. The power of those gods could nearly reshape heaven and earth…”
The nostalgia quickly faded, leaving only cold realism.
“But that place has already collapsed. It no longer exists, does it?”
She looked at Xun Fayin.
Even Shi Xuan sighed softly.
He had read certain top-secret files as well.
When the Black Mist Calamity descended, heavenly light had erupted from the earth at one location in Jiangdong Province and formed the Divine Gate. Many immensely powerful gods were said to exist beyond it.
Then, for some unknown reason, the Divine Gate collapsed. Black blood flowed from that place before it vanished completely.
When Shi Xuan first read those records, he had assumed they were nonsense.
Now it seemed they had all been true.
“Correct. The Divine Gate was indeed destroyed,” Xun Fayin said. “However, according to our research, that catastrophe came precisely because the existences inside had discovered a way to deal with the calamity.”
“Therefore, if we wish to oppose the black mist, we must enter the Divine Gate and discover exactly what those beings found.”
Xun Fayin paused.
“But that place has already been destroyed, so there is only one way to enter.”
“We must cultivate gods who have received divine investiture. When the Divine Gate still stood, it would open whenever such an existence appeared in the world and draw that god inside. No one else could even approach it.”
Qin Shiyu nodded. The Hall of Anomalies had always wanted to cultivate Rain into the new Water God for precisely this reason.
“So you want to cooperate with us and have the Water God and Dream God open that place?” she asked.
“That was our original intention. If some power remains there, a god who has received divine investiture should be able to enter,” Xun Fayin said slowly. “But now there appears to be a more direct method.”
“We can build a New Divine Gate in reality and use it to summon the surviving gods of the Old Divine Gate into this world.”
“That would also allow us to uncover everything within the Old Divine Gate. The method for defeating the Black Mist Calamity may even lie in the hands of those old gods clinging to life!”
Everyone in the room stiffened. Xun Silu was especially shocked.
The proposal was earthshaking. Not even the Old-Grave Clans had ever dared imagine such a thing!
“The Divine Gate was no ordinary place. How could rebuilding it possibly be so easy? Don’t you think this is rather fanciful, Director Xun?” Qin Shiyu asked coolly.
This time, Xun Fayin smiled.
“Fanciful?”
“The ancient SSS-class wild deity Abyss serves as your security guard. An anomaly that became a god studies here as a student. Even an A-class Wraith-Mother can suppress the Xun family’s Old-Tomb Joss Paper.”
“Dean Qin, Director Shi, this place has already formed an occult configuration. In a few years, it may become a sacred ground flourishing with worship. And you still call the idea fanciful?”
“I may not possess the grand vision of this place’s master, but I have at least enough discernment to recognize it!”
His words tore away the veil and exposed the answer behind every mystery.
The conference room fell deathly silent. One could have heard a pin drop.
…
At the same time, numerous cars arrived before an isolated villa in Mingjiang City.
After stepping out, the occupants first produced specially made incense sticks and candles. They lit them around the villa and muttered prayers to unknown beings.
Yin Rumei emerged from the villa and smiled.
“There’s no need for all this ceremony. How many years has it been since the old gods last revealed a miracle? Must you still cling to the rule of burning incense and candles everywhere you go?”
An old woman carrying a bamboo basket and leaning on a cane replied, “You may dare say that, Miss Yin, but we dare not grow careless. How could we descendants forget what our ancestors believed for generations? Rules are rules. The offerings of incense must continue.”
Hearing herself called “Miss Yin” left Yin Rumei momentarily dazed.
The Yin family had once been one of the central families in this circle. Unfortunately, every other member had died when the Divine Gate collapsed. She was the sole surviving heir.
A butcher with a cleaver tucked into his belt spoke next.
“Miss Yin, is what you said true? Does someone really intend to imitate the Old Divine Gate, build a new one, and welcome back the old gods who still survive?”
Every gaze converged upon Yin Rumei.
She did not answer. Instead, she looked toward a black sedan behind the others. Its passenger had yet to emerge.
“Who has come from the Ji family? Xiaoyu, go invite them over.”
She waved a hand. A maid behind her started toward the car, but before she reached it, the door opened and a middle-aged man in a traditional Tang-style jacket stepped out, rolling a string of beads through one hand.
He laughed loudly.
“There’s no need for Mrs. Wang to send someone to invite me. I, Ji Fengming, am hardly important enough for such an honor!”
His voice boomed. After leaving the car, he walked straight over without burning any incense or candles.
“Miss Yin, the Ji family has become extremely powerful in recent years,” the basket-carrying old woman whispered. “I heard that not long ago, one of their spirit mediums successfully achieved divine possession by inviting a god from the Divine Gate into his body again.”
Yin Rumei raised a delicate eyebrow.
Every family in their circle possessed its own methods. The Ji family belonged to a lineage of spirit mediums who invited gods to possess their bodies.
They could still summon a god from within the Old Divine Gate?
Did old gods truly remain alive inside it? Had they already reestablished contact with the outside world?
Ji Fengming approached with a faint smile.
“Mrs. Wang, I heard someone intends to rebuild the New Divine Gate. Where is this person?”
“What, you didn’t bring him here? He wants to build a New Divine Gate without first paying his respects to old hands like us? Rather discourteous, isn’t he?”
Yin Rumei’s expression immediately darkened.
…