Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 152: Temporarily Confidential

In an instant, those karmic red threads devoured Zhuang Guiqu’s own.

Good. The attack had arrived, just as he had expected.

Zhuang Guiqu curled his lips into a smile. The surging red threads first blocked the sealing chains, creating a sturdy safe zone around Fang Xiu. As those karmic chains crashed into the red threads, it was like ice striking fire—they burned away in an instant. Then the red threads coiled around Zhuang Guiqu’s limbs like venomous snakes, bringing with them waves of corruption.

At the same time, Fang Xiu pointed with the hand wearing the ring, and A’Shou disappeared once more into concealment. A ten-meter radius was sealed off by karmic chains and glowing light, and the world turned eerily pale and deathly silent.

The trembling of Xushan and the immortals’ attacks were sealed outside. In these few seconds, it was as if only the two of them remained in this entire space.

Come now, attack me, take control of me. Struggling madly, Zhuang Guiqu raised his head with difficulty and locked eyes with Fang Xiu.

This is your best chance. Are you not going to strike?

Fang Xiu’s mismatched eyes stared calmly at him. His smile grew more pleasant.

“Thank you, Bai Shuangying,” he said. “This makes things much easier.”

He pressed his index and middle fingers together and shoved hard against Zhuang Guiqu’s shoulder, then stepped back two paces. Before Zhuang Guiqu could react, Fang Xiu raised his hand and made a knocking gesture in front of him.

Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock.

[Zhuang Guiqu felt as if the knocking was shaking his brain, his organs, and every bit of flesh and blood inside his body.]

[He felt like an egg being violently shaken. Something within him trembled to the brink of collapse. Even with the power borrowed from the Corner of Heaven’s Will, he still couldn’t figure out what that sound truly was.]

[He only felt a deep sense of dread.]

“In your era, you probably didn’t understand how bats hunt.” Fang Xiu moved his fingers gently. “But if the principle is the same, then even metaphysics can do ‘echo location’.”

Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock.

This is bad. I underestimated this human.

Fang Xiu never cared about winning or losing in the script. He deliberately forced me to detach from Bai Shuangying and possess Zhuang Guiqu just to make me use my full power, to force me to use the Immortal Encounter E.

He had known from the start that I could conceal the true form of the Immortal Encounter E.

I must change the plan.

Zhuang Guiqu touched his chest. His organs were beating harder than ever. A chill slid down his spine. He moved his legs, instinctively trying to retreat.

But it was too late.

The sealing chains were all intercepted by Bai Shuangying, and A’Shou’s blood shields pressed against Zhuang Guiqu’s back. The knocking sound pounded in his head like thunder. He was shocked to find that his body flickered between solidity and illusion, trembling constantly.

Fang Xiu leaned forward and thrust a hand directly into his chest.

Rip.

The sound of flipping pages echoed as the surrounding environment shook more violently. The chains in the sky flickered in and out of existence.

Rip. Rip.

Something was being ripped open. Xushan trembled as if the world itself had turned upside down.

Across from Fang Xiu, Zhuang Guiqu’s features shifted wildly—one moment a child’s face, the next a gentle and handsome youth, then a wise and dignified old man. At one point, his face was nothing but ink-drawn words for “eye”, “nose”, “mouth”.

Rip. Rip. Rip.

The earthquake in Xushan stopped abruptly. The silence that followed was so absolute, it felt like hearing had been lost.

The vivid scene before them seemed to turn into a picture in a book, with the texture of fragile paper. The entire world was compressing itself around Fang Xiu, trying to force him into ink.

In the darkness, that white eye stared unblinking at Fang Xiu’s movements.

On Fang Xiu’s body, Bai Shuangying’s karmic red threads wrapped around his red robe like a strange set of armor, rendering the paper world helpless.

Perhaps several centuries passed. Perhaps it was only a few seconds.

Fang Xiu abruptly withdrew his hand. Clutched in his palm was an ancient, weathered book.

“Thank you for giving this to me.”

He grinned at Zhuang Guiqu, smiling radiantly. “I really hate playing by other people’s rules. Remember that in your next life.”

Zhuang Guiqu clutched his chest.

[He suddenly realized he was unable—]

[Unable to th—]

[ink.]

What should I do? What should I do?

How do I get it back? What should I do?

Why could he find the Immortal Encounter E? What is that knocking sound?

I cannot understand. I cannot understand. I cannot understand.

I cannot understand.

The cold wind cut sharply. Xushan remained, but the world now felt hollow. Something unseen had come to a sudden halt, leaving only emptiness behind.

Its lifeline had been seized. The false god no longer had time to run the story and was likely now desperately trying to find a solution. Fang Xiu had no intention of letting it sit and figure things out.

In the darkness, a ghost flame ignited on Fang Xiu’s fingertip.

The spark licked the corner of the ancient book. Red light illuminated the curve of his lips.

But in the next moment, countless red threads crawled up his wrist. They wrapped the book tightly and yanked it back into his body in a flash, faster than a cat catching a bird.

Fang Xiu: “???”

He instinctively reached for the book again, only to grab at empty air.

In the face of Fang Xiu’s interference, Bai Shuangying remained unmoved. He quickly curled around himself, wrapping the Immortal Encounter E into the center of his body. The red threads merged with the pages like nerves. Countless stories flooded into Bai Shuangying’s mind.

Just as expected.

This wretched book recorded all the “legends” from the moment Xushan appeared—myths, history, every detail. Zhuang Guiqu was portrayed as the God of Xushan incarnate, while he became some vague and ominous “Great God of Calamity”.

With the support of Bai Shuangying’s own karmic corruption, the narrative that “Zhuang Guiqu = God of Xushan” was terrifyingly convincing.

…This was a nightmare.

Bai Shuangying had no proper facial features at the moment, but his entire body visibly scrunched in disgust.

Fortunately, the Immortal Encounter E was karmically linked to him.

The next second, Bai Shuangying unceremoniously manipulated the karmic threads and began rewriting the ink. He rewrote every interaction with humanity, starting from the appearance of Xushan… Leading all the way to…

To the moment he fell in love with Fang Xiu.

The Immortal Encounter E was rewritten at lightning speed. The figure of Zhuang Guiqu across from Fang Xiu became increasingly unstable. His eyes turned blank, his body shriveled and warped, and his black robes quickly disintegrated.

Within just a few seconds, he had reverted to the form of the original child. Not a single karmic thread remained on him. The powerful sealing spells around him also crumbled, revealing the confused immortals behind.

They seemed unable to see Fang Xiu or Bai Shuangying before them, wearing expressions of complete bewilderment.

The childlike Zhuang Guiqu wiped his face, ignored Fang Xiu, and walked toward the distant Zhuang Feng.

“Did you write everything down?”

“Good. The descent of the immortals is no small matter.”

With that, he smiled and clasped his hands in a polite gesture toward the gods.

The immortals, too, emerged from their momentary stupor and began chatting and laughing as if nothing had happened. Even though their artifacts still hovered in the sky, even though Fang Xiu, dressed in red, still stood before them.

Fang Xiu’s group had seemingly been erased from the story entirely.

Fang Xiu stood quietly in place, watching Zhuang Guiqu’s retreating back.

From Bai Shuangying seizing the book to reality being rewritten, it had taken less than thirty seconds. He needed a full five seconds just to process what had happened.

The false god was gone.

He was still sitting at the game board, but the seat across from him was now empty. Bai Shuangying had likely overwritten the Immortal Encounter E’s karmic narrative. No one remained to continue the tale of “Sealing the Great God of Calamity”.

The immortals and Zhuang Guiqu before them were no longer puppets controlled by the Immortal Encounter E. They were simply… relics of the past.

In the end, the story returned to being a story, slumbering within its lines.

Facing this complete reversal, A’Shou emerged from hiding, equally baffled.

She adjusted her tattered wedding gown, not with pain on her face, but with an expression full of unanswered questions.

“Bai Shuangying?” Fang Xiu gently rubbed his skin and decided to toss one of those questions over.

As the true God of Xushan, Bai Shuangying having influence over the Immortal Encounter E was understandable.

Destroying the Immortal Encounter E would end everything. Bai Shuangying was the Corner of Heaven’s Will. There was no reason to covet such a nasty thing.

Instead, Bai Shuangying had withdrawn into Fang Xiu’s abdomen, clutching the Immortal Encounter E tightly, even healing Fang Xiu’s wounds again, looking for all the world like he was preparing to settle in permanently.

“A thousand years ago, they successfully sealed the God of Xushan. There was never an encounter with a ‘man in red’. I merely recorded the true history.”

Bai Shuangying’s voice echoed in Fang Xiu’s mind again. “The story can end now.”

His ghost’s tone was rather pleased, even laced with a hint of mysterious wisdom.

Fang Xiu: “…That’s not what I was asking.”

Bai Shuangying fell silent for a moment, then muttered in his mind, “Keeping it serves a purpose.”

“But this thing is still a hazard. I must seal it inside myself and keep watch. I will not have time to leave for now.”

So in short, Bai Shuangying had merely eliminated the still-developing false god. The Immortal Encounter E remained the Immortal Encounter E. The taboos were still in effect.

Fang Xiu didn’t mind his ghost lounging inside him. What bothered him more was that, for the first time, he couldn’t read Bai Shuangying’s thoughts.

“What purpose does it serve?” he asked curiously.

“Temporarily confidential,” Bai Shuangying replied solemnly.

…Well, fine, Fang Xiu thought. If his ghost insisted, it wouldn’t hurt anything.

In the end, the Immortal Encounter E was meant to belong to Bai Shuangying anyway.

Not far off, A’Shou sat down with a thud and sighed in defeat.

“What are you two up to now?”

Just seeing the look on Fang Xiu’s face, she knew trouble was brewing again.

“In short, the Immortal Encounter E doesn’t have a mind of its own and the core is in our hands.”

Fang Xiu ignored the idle chatter of Zhuang Guiqu and the gods in the background and smiled brightly. “It’s nothing serious. Bai Shuangying just wants to hold onto it for a while.”

“Hold onto it for a while?” A’Shou choked.

Is that a toy that can just be played with?

If not for the fact that he was the Corner of Heaven’s Will… No, if not for the fact she was exhausted that she wanted to live, she would have really liked to yell at Bai Shuangying.

“In your words, Bai Shuangying is at least part of the Heaven’s Will. He’s not some brat.”

Fang Xiu adjusted his clothes. His long robe reverted to the familiar red t-shirt, though his heterochromatic eyes remained.

“Come on. Let’s go back to Weishan Village.”

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The author has something to say:

Guess what Xiao Bai wants to do (?

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