Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 98: Your Idea

Officer Xiao Zhou sat upright in his office when the entire building suddenly began to tremble. The walls shook like rubber, plaster crumbling and falling in sheets. He stood up in a daze, suddenly remembering there were still people in the reception room.

No, he had to evacuate the civilians.

He stumbled down the shaking floor toward the reception room, his steps lurching like a drunk.

The lights went out. The sky darkened at an unnatural speed. The dim corridor was deserted, and at the reception room doorway stood a goth-dressed woman in an eerie posture.

Her face was caked with heavy makeup. Her back was hunched at an impossibly grotesque angle, shaking her head vigorously at him.

At the same time, the reception room door swung wide open. From the warped doorway spilled countless strands of blood-red hair. That hairy mass kept twitching, producing strange purring noises.

Inside the room, a girl sobbed and a woman screamed, both voices soaked in despair.

Officer Xiao Zhou slowed to a stop. Is this… a dream?

No. No way this is real, right?

In a haze, he shook his head violently. The corridor beneath him cracked with a loud crash. His footing gave way completely, and it felt like he was plunging into a cliffside void.

A second later, his legs kicked against the bedsheet, and he snapped awake, drenched in cold sweat.

The familiar ceiling of his bedroom loomed dimly in the pre-dawn dark. It wasn’t even 5 a.m. yet.

…Just a nightmare. It’s completely chaotic.

…And now, all he could remember were a few fragmented, bizarre images. Within half a minute, even those fragments faded away. All that lingered was the impression that the nightmare had lasted a very long time.

He exhaled and suddenly realized his head felt like it was being twisted. His nerves were taut as if he’d stayed up for several nights straight. Groaning, he slipped out of bed, popped an ibuprofen, and changed the sweat-soaked sheets.

He might be coming down with something. Sighing, he drank some hot water and crawled back under the covers.

…But Meng Xiaomeng had no such luxury of going back to sleep.

As the dream ended, Fang Xiu found himself in a hotel room.

It was a single-occupancy room, cramped and cheaply decorated. Survivors were piled across the carpet in crooked, contorted positions from the dream, especially Yan Yan, who lay flat on the floor in his original form, resembling a serial killer’s custom-made scalp rug. Cheng Songyun and Guan He had nearly fully transformed into human cocoons, silently curled in the corners.

Meng Xiaomeng lay unconscious in the center of the single bed. Her body was emaciated with nothing but skin and bones, clearly severely drained.

The little black dog bounced onto the bed, sniffing around Meng Xiaomeng’s face. Its nose pushed aside her grass-like hair, revealing a sliver of a porcelain pillow beneath.

The pillow was crafted to resemble a child, its head half-exposed from the long hair and fixed in a grin so bright it was unsettling. Though inanimate, it radiated a pressure that was hard to describe.

Before the others could react, Fang Xiu, who already knew the “Immortal E’s” true form, strode forward and seized the porcelain pillow.

It had been warmed by the girl’s body, and in his hands, it felt almost alive. He could nearly sense the power pulsing within.

It all happened within seconds.

Zhuang Pengdao stood up fluidly and reached toward Fang Xiu, magic charging in his palm.

Mei Lan, standing close by, twisted her body and slammed into Zhuang Pengdao’s arm. The spell veered wildly. Taking advantage of the moment, she ripped off her scarf and looped it around his neck.

Before Jiao Jiao could even get to her feet, she smashed a bottle of magic potion on the spot, concealing herself and Yan Yan in smoke. Fang Xiu, meanwhile, gripped the porcelain pillow tightly and smashed it against the corner of the table.

Zhuang Pengdao ignored the scarf tightening on his neck and struggled to shout, “Sto—”

Crash.

The porcelain child’s head cracked open. Shards clattered to the ground.

That was an Immortal E, a god-tier artifact!

As Disaster Resolvers for the Underworld, their primary mission was to recover it, not destroy it. Even if it wasn’t returned, selling it on the black market could easily fetch an eight- or nine-digit sum.

Zhuang Pengdao had assumed Fang Xiu shared his goal of obtaining the artifact and had even prepared to negotiate. Who would’ve thought the man would do something so reckless, sabotaging everyone’s interests?

Furious, Zhuang Pengdao couldn’t even swear. Mei Lan’s scarf was wound so tightly he couldn’t spare a hand.

His two disciples staggered up and charged Mei Lan. Her body ignited in flames, yet she seemed immune to the pain. She simply sneered and doused the fire with her personal canteen of spiritual dew.

The disciples quickly changed tactics, switching to punches and kicks.

Mei Lan’s body was charred and blackened. Her eyes were bloodshot, yet her gaze stayed fixed on Zhuang Pengdao, who was still wrestling with the scarf choking him. His flushed face proved that scarf was no ordinary fabric.

What a mess, Bai Shuangying thought with waning interest.

By now, he understood Fang Xiu’s strategy.

Fang Xiu knew Zhuang Pengdao intended to trap Hu Die. So he lured Hu Die to the police station, seizing the initiative from Zhuang Pengdao.

Then he summoned Meng Xiaomeng to the station as well, disrupting Hu Die’s performance and drawing in the still-rational Jiao Jiao and Yan Yan as muscle. The mutated Cheng Songyun and Guan He were far from the chaos and completely safe.

At last, his human self deliberately stalled with idle talk and subtly provoked Zhuang Pengdao.

Zhuang Pengdao saw that Fang Xiu, a “normal human”, had withstood the loop-induced mutation. Uncertain of Fang Xiu’s strength, he made the logical choice and hurriedly re-cast his Heaven-Breaking spell nearby to sabotage Fang Xiu’s unknown plan.

In the end, Zhuang Pengdao and the Jiao-Yan duo had all been used as tools by Fang Xiu to drive Hu Die—no, Meng Xiaomeng—into a corner. And the entire time, Fang Xiu had never explained any of his “plan” to anyone. He just smiled and fed them a few lies.

Compared to his human, the people now grappling on the floor were utterly uninteresting. He disliked this kind of ending. What he wanted was…

Suddenly, Fang Xiu grabbed his hand. His palm was even warmer than before. Bloodshot eyes stared at him, their light flickering like a candle in a storm.

Fang Xiu mouthed something to Bai Shuangying, then collapsed into his arms like a sandcastle caving in.

He was asleep.

Bai Shuangying: “???”

Well, timing-wise, it made sense. Fang Xiu’s brain had been working non-stop. Any more and his body might have just dropped dead.

Bai Shuangying dragged him into hiding and casually picked him up.

Fang Xiu’s head pressed firmly against his chest, his sleep deeper than death. Just like that, he had left behind a chaotic conclusion, like an unfinished story.

When the paper figure arrived, Meng Xiaomeng would lose her mind. Zhuang Pengdao and Mei Lan’s fates would be left to fate. Jiao Jiao, Yan Yan, Cheng Songyun, and Guan He would probably be fine… Wait.

When Fang Xiu smashed the Immortal E, Bai Shuangying had felt the pulse of a strange spell. And Fang Xiu had an odd aura about him. Something didn’t add up.

Bai Shuangying jostled the human in his arms. Fang Xiu’s arm slipped from his belly, revealing an unusual bulge around the waist. Bai Shuangying slipped a hand under his shirt and felt the warm porcelain of the artifact.

Bai Shuangying: “…”

Even before fainting, this guy still managed to pull a fast one on everyone.

A Disaster Resolver could contact the paper men at will. But since everyone thought Fang Xiu had “destroyed” the artifact, they assumed the paper figures would come on their own. No one had called them directly.

Which meant, ultimately, the ending to this mess was now in his hands, right?

Bai Shuangying tucked the porcelain pillow back into Fang Xiu’s curled-up belly and carefully covered it with the red T-shirt. Fang Xiu made a soft “mm” and burrowed deeper into Bai Shuangying’s chest.

“You really passed out or are you manipulating me too?”

Bai Shuangying lowered his gaze. “Leaving the ending to me… Aren’t you afraid I’ll just walk away, or start slaughtering indiscriminately?”

Fang Xiu didn’t answer. He was completely out, his long, steady breaths brushing against Bai Shuangying’s chest like a tickle.

Bai Shuangying had nothing more to say.

Sure, he could just walk away. But… well, Cheng Songyun and Guan He were still useful to Fang Xiu, so they were worth saving.

Yan Yan and Jiao Jiao had proven effective muscle. Fang Xiu might need them again, so they were worth saving.

Mei Lan might be a defector from the Guishan Sect. Bai Shuangying didn’t care about her backstory, but her survival would benefit Fang Xiu, so she was worth saving.

…Wait. Why was he always thinking in terms of his human? That was a bad habit.

Better to look at it this way: Fang Xiu’s survival benefitted him. And Zhuang Pengdao had dared cast the Heaven-Breaking Technique in front of him. That was unforgivable.

Bai Shuangying tapped his fingers one by one as if he was counting vegetables and not tallying lives. But as he reached the end, he realized he’d missed someone.

Meng Xiaomeng.

A foolish young human who, in a moment of impulse, had created a huge mess. Now still unconscious, her mind would unravel the moment it began working again. The contradictions in her memory would drive her mad.

And whether she lived or died had nothing to do with Fang Xiu—no, with either of them.

Should he help? Or not?

Bai Shuangying strained to think. In the past, he’d have let her be. But now, he suspected Fang Xiu had chosen to knock her out instead of killing her for a reason.

He thought for a few seconds, holding the sleeping Fang Xiu aloft, and watched the chaos below. After a moment, a faint smile touched his lips.

Fang Xiu had manipulated everyone’s hearts beautifully, escaped danger, and then handed the ending off to him. If he wrapped up this story clumsily, wouldn’t that be embarrassing?

Just a few minutes—let him have a bit of fun.

Bai Shuangying’s hair lifted slightly. His unblinking eyes scanned the crowd. Invisible strands of karma floated from everyone, their shadows flickering in his blank pupils.

Those threads shifted like drifting water plants, sometimes sharp, sometimes blurry. The world slowed to a crawl. Everything seemed frozen, except the little black dog, still hopping at Bai Shuangying’s feet, trying to paw at his toes.

His gaze moved, settling on the most tangled, chaotic cluster of karma. Meng Xiaomeng was unconscious on the bed, utterly unaware of the disaster looming over her.

“…Let’s start with you.”

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