Chapter 79
Chapter 79
“Who was that man just now?” Lin Xiaoyu asked, tilting her head.
“My Third Uncle… He summons anomalies… There are venomous snakes inside him!”
Ji Tian’s face turned pale. He had never expected to encounter someone from the Ji family here, and the sight instantly stirred up countless painful memories.
“Venomous snakes…”
Lin Xiaoyu suddenly remembered something and looked at Bai Lu.
“Big Sister Bai Lu, are those the venomous snakes you were talking about?”
Bai Lu had said before that Li Que might take Lin Xiaoyu somewhere in the future to catch venomous snakes-lots and lots of venomous snakes.
Could that place be the Divine Gate?
Were the things inside Ji Fengming, and the enormous blood-red snakes within the Divine Gate, the very snakes Bai Lu had mentioned?
Even Meng Mo looked curious. He had once dreamed that he became a butterfly and flew to a certain place, but he had not dared enter, because it was filled with venomous snakes.
“They are snakes, but they aren’t venomous enough,” Bai Lu said without looking up from her mirror.
“But they have seen Ji Tian now. The truly venomous snakes should appear soon.”
Ji Tian froze. “Why?”
“Because you ate the candy,” Bai Lu said evenly. “So they want to eat you.”
Ji Tian went rigid. Once again, he remembered the three colossal blood-red snakes inside the Divine Gate, their heads covered in tumors of human flesh as they greedily fought to devour him.
All because of the… candy he had eaten?
Just what was that piece of White Rabbit milk candy? How could it possess such power that even the divine snakes already occupied by anomalies coveted it?
“So Sir deliberately let those snakes see Ji Tian?”
Meng Mo’s eyes suddenly darted as realization seemed to strike. He instantly grew excited.
“He wants to lure those snakes out?”
Even Lin Xiaoyu and Nian Youyu looked surprised.
That was right. Li Que had given Ji Tian a piece of candy, and then Ji Tian invited a god again, causing those things to see him.
Sir must have planned all of it!
“Is Sir finally going to make a move?” Lin Xiaoyu asked, her large eyes blinking with anticipation.
Nian Youyu was even more dazed. Some thought seemed to occur to him, and worry and uncertainty flickered in his eyes.
Just then, the class bell rang.
Li Que entered with his lesson plans in his arms. He composed himself and put everything that had happened in the conference room out of his mind.
“How are you doing, Ji Tian? Are you settling in?”
Ji Tian had regained his lucidity, but as he looked at Li Que, he found himself inexplicably unable to speak. He simply stared, countless emotions surging in his eyes all at once.
Excitement, hurt, joy, sorrow… and a kind of bewilderment.
“Sir, Ji Tian said the man who came to school was his Third Uncle. He hurt Ji Tian before, and Ji Tian is scared of him,” Lin Xiaoyu quietly explained from beside him.
The emotions Li Que had only just suppressed stirred once more.
His brow furrowed.
Ji Tian and Ji Fengming were actually relatives?
Ji Fengming looked so dignified and respectable, every inch a successful businessman. Yet he not only neglected his own nephew, he had even abused him?
There truly was a reason behind Ji Tian’s mental condition. Born into such an unhappy family, he might have died from despair long ago if Shen Yuan had not cared for and protected him.
And a sanctimonious beast like Ji Fengming dared lecture others about education.
“That is… too much,” Li Que said coldly.
In the back row, Bai Lu gently lowered her mirror and looked at him.
Li Que… rarely became angry.
“But no one will ever hurt you again,” Li Que continued.
After a moment’s thought, he took out a small white jade pendant and handed it to Ji Tian.
“Your name is Ji Tian, and this pendant happens to bear the character Tian. How about I give it to you?”
It was a sword-shaped jade pendant strung on a red cord, with the seal-script character Tian carved into its surface. It was another of the curious objects the system had rewarded Li Que. According to the system’s description, the jade could nurture the heart.
Li Que did not believe any of that. He simply sympathized with Ji Tian and wanted to give him a small present.
It was just like when he had first arrived at the school and given a piece of White Rabbit milk candy to the frail, withdrawn Lin Xiaoyu.
Ji Tian accepted the pendant, and tears suddenly spilled from his eyes. He pressed his lips tightly together and tried to hold them back, but he could not. Clutching the pendant in his fist, he began to cry.
“Don’t cry. You can tell Sir if anything is wrong!” Lin Xiaoyu comforted him.
But Li Que stopped her.
“Let him cry it out.”
Sometimes crying was good for the heart. Once certain things came out with the tears, they became easier to bear.
Li Que abandoned the lesson.
“Use this period for self-study.”
He sighed softly, then turned and left.
Bai Lu watched his departing back, her thoughts unreadable. In her mirror, however, blood suddenly seemed to well up.
…
Outside the school.
“Is this place important?”
Inside a moving car, a black figure slowly emerged from Ji Fengming’s shadow. It stood and looked at him, asking the question in puzzlement.
“Very important,” Ji Fengming said gravely.
“This place’s yin configuration is even stronger than we expected.”
“If my guess is correct, it should be able to withstand a Grand Sacrifice!”
The black figure was startled.
Grounds devoted to a worshipped deity were divided into three grades: Lesser Sacrifice, Grand Sacrifice, and Sixfold Sacrifice.
A Lesser Sacrifice offered a sheep and a pig. A Grand Sacrifice required all three sacrificial animals-a pig, an ox, and a sheep. The Sixfold Sacrifice stood at the highest level, requiring three birds and three beasts.
Each grade of sacrifice came with its own status and taboos. A single mistake in any step could bring disaster and ill fortune.
Even the Divine Gate of old had only been capable of bearing a Sixfold Sacrifice.
If this school could withstand a Grand Sacrifice, it meant the place was already very close to the Old Divine Gate.
“Who exactly is this Li Que?” the shadow asked with a frown. “Could he be from another ancestral hearth?”
“Impossible,” Ji Fengming replied with certainty.
“When the divine snakes manifested, anyone from another ancestral hearth would have been unable to conceal their hearthfire… Yet there was none.”
Understanding dawned on the shadow.
“So you invited a god not only to suppress the Yin family and win the others over, but also to test Li Que’s background.”
Ji Fengming nodded.
“What do we do now?” the shadow asked. “Li Que can turn this place into a Grand Sacrifice site. We cannot underestimate him.”
“And without the worship of the Yin family’s lineage, something will still be missing…”
“Since the man surnamed Li refuses to appreciate my kindness, he must die,” Ji Fengming said coldly.
“We didn’t know his depths before, which made him difficult to handle. But now that he has taken Ji Tian in… everything becomes simple.”
A cold smile crept across his lips.
Just then, the driver’s phone rang.
“Family Head, it’s a call from the Xu family,” the driver reported.
Ji Fengming raised an eyebrow. “The Xu family?”
The Ji and Xu families had never had much contact. Why would they call him now?
He took the phone.
A long while later, he hung up with a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“What did they say?” the shadow asked.
“Xu Jianye wants the Water God’s Authority, but he ran into trouble here. Now he wants to cooperate with me.”
Ji Fengming smiled.
“All the better. With the Xu family as our knife, we can dispose of the man surnamed Li with ease!”
The shadow hesitated.
“The Xu family’s ancestral tomb is connected to an ancestral hearth. Cooperating with them may draw out the other ancestral hearths. You must be careful.”
“After all, if the things inside the Divine Gate truly return to the world, the other ancestral hearths will never be able to resist interfering.”
Ji Fengming sounded impatient. “I understand that.”
“Rest assured. As long as you help the Ji family successfully welcome a god, you will receive every last thing you were promised.”
The shadow nodded.
…
That night, in the boys’ dormitory, Room 203.
Meng Mo and Nian Youyu brought Ji Tian to complete the move-in formalities.
Li Que wanted Ji Tian to integrate into school life as quickly as possible, so naturally he arranged for the boy to live with his classmates.
“How can it be you?!”
The moment dorm supervisor Meng Yan saw Ji Tian, he recoiled as though he had seen a ghost.
Meng Mo stared at him in surprise. “Old fart, you know Ji Tian?”
Meng Yan studied Ji Tian in disbelief, then hurriedly shook his head.
“No. My eyes were playing tricks on me!”
He lowered his head, quickly finished the paperwork, and said, “Ji Tian, was it? You can move in now.”
Ji Tian noticed nothing unusual. Meng Mo kept staring at Meng Yan and wanted to press him, but Nian Youyu urged them on from beside him.
“Come on. Let’s head back to the room first. I’m hungry.”
Meng Mo had no choice but to return to the dormitory with them. He helped Ji Tian make his bed and finish settling in, which took quite some effort.
“Senior Brother Meng, Senior Brother Nian, thank you!” Ji Tian said, deeply moved.
“No need for that. Just call us by our names. We’re all about the same age,” Nian Youyu said with a dismissive wave as he ate potato chips.
“No. You entered Master’s tutelage before me, so I should call you my senior brothers!” Ji Tian insisted.
He came from an ancient clan like the Ji family and placed great importance on certain old customs.
Meng Mo asked, “Ji Tian, why did you cry so hard when you met Master today?”
His face was full of curiosity.
Bai Lu’s attitude toward Ji Tian was clearly unusual.
The fact that Sir had given Ji Tian a gift the moment they met was not exactly normal either.
Combined with the way Meng Yan had acted during registration, Meng Mo was certain that Ji Tian was hiding a secret.
“I don’t know,” Ji Tian said with a shake of his head. “I just… felt like crying.”
He looked a little embarrassed.
“Senior Brother Meng, Senior Brother Nian, was I… too pathetic? Too weak?”
Nian Youyu continued eating his potato chips, but his voice suddenly became very serious.
“No… You were brave.”
“You were the bravest of all.”
Ji Tian stared at him in confusion.
Meng Mo glanced at Nian Youyu and suddenly wondered whether this fatty was hiding something from him too.
But Nian Youyu seemed to know what Meng Mo wanted to ask.
“I don’t know anything.”
He lowered his head and kept eating.
Meng Mo nearly exploded with frustration.
He climbed into bed, but tossed and turned. The more he thought about it, the more suspicious everything seemed. At midnight, he transformed into a pool of shadow and drifted away.
At that moment, inside the dorm supervisor’s room.
“Absurd. This is absolutely absurd…”
Meng Yan lay huddled beneath his blanket, actually trembling a little.
“Being a dorm supervisor isn’t easy. This place keeps getting stranger by the day.”
Just then, a pool of shadow appeared on the ceiling and stared down at him.
Meng Yan froze, then instantly became furious.
“You little brat! You dragged me into a dream again?!”
“Old fart, tell me. Have you met Ji Tian before? Who is he?” Meng Mo demanded through clenched teeth. “If you don’t tell me… I’ll throw you into a cesspit!”
Meng Yan immediately roared, “I’m your father-”
Before he could finish, however, he felt something engulfing him, accompanied by an overwhelming stench.
“You little bastard… Fine, fine! I’ll tell you, all right?”
Meng Yan was genuinely afraid now. Gritting his teeth, he said, “I have seen that classmate of yours, Ji Tian.”
“But it was in a dream.”
“He was clearly eaten alive by countless snakes. He stood alone in their path, like a gate. The snakes around him chewed his soul to pieces, his blood burned until nothing remained, and there were even more terrifying things beyond them…”
Meng Mo froze.
“That was the dream you had back then?!”
Years ago, Meng Yan had dreamed a dream, and Meng Mo had been born as a result. Yet Meng Mo had never known what his father had actually seen in that dream.
Only today did Meng Yan finally reveal that the dream had been connected to Ji Tian.
The thought of Ji Tian made Meng Yan shudder.
“Forget it. Stop asking. Even your father still gets scared remembering that scene!”
He was a mighty SS-class anomaly, yet now he was actually afraid of a dream.
Meng Mo stared blankly.
…
Elsewhere, in the girls’ dormitory.
“Big Sister Bai Lu, what were you trying to find today?” Lin Xiaoyu asked curiously.
Bai Lu had behaved very strangely.
She was normally aloof and cared only about the person she saw in her mirror. Yet today, for the first time, she had lowered the mirror and spoken to Ji Tian, who had only just joined the class.
Her questions had been strange too. Had Ji Tian met Sir before? Had Sir told him anything?
She had clearly asked Ji Tian to invite a god because she wanted to use him to investigate something inside the Divine Gate.
“I was looking for Ji Tian,” Bai Lu said evenly.
Lin Xiaoyu froze. Bai Lu had asked Ji Tian to look for Ji Tian?
“But… you didn’t find him?” she asked.
“He must have died too completely. That’s why there was nothing left to find.”
In the darkness, Bai Lu’s eyes were reflected in her mirror. A trace of disappointment seemed to pass through them, along with the faintest hint of regret.
“How did he die?” Lin Xiaoyu asked in confusion.
“He stood alone in their way. He couldn’t retreat. He bled dry, and then he died.”
Bai Lu’s voice was perfectly calm.
Lin Xiaoyu thought silently for a long time.
“He was so pitiful before, and his life is still so painful now. So many anomalies possessed him, but no one helped him. Only one old anomaly protected him… No wonder he cried when he saw Sir.”
Blood-red irritation seemed to flash through Bai Lu’s mirror.
“That’s why Sir is angry.”
“Xiaoyu, in a few days… I’ll take you to catch venomous snakes.”
“We’ll catch them and beat them to death!”
Lin Xiaoyu looked toward Bai Lu. For the first time, she heard something in Bai Lu’s voice that sounded like anger.
“Okay!” Lin Xiaoyu declared firmly. “When the time comes… we’ll beat those venomous snakes to death!”
…