Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 165: A Strange Person

Zhong Chengshuo sat in the middle of a group of evil creatures, looking like a big red date surrounded by steamed cakes.

He sat lightly, not wanting to put too much weight on the shell of Yin Ren. Countless evil creatures ran around him, occasionally carrying small things that he didn’t know what they were but they would certainly cause bleeding.

Not far away, Yellow Millet’s version of Huang Jin was lying on the ground like a sack of potatoes, too lazy to move. Ge Tingting found a shady spot under a tree and took a nap in the cool mountain breeze.

Waiting in place was indeed the most basic response. But something about it didn’t feel right to Zhong Chengshuo.

Although investigating the data of the Evil Spirit from a thousand years ago was important, the ultimate goal of this trip was to figure out what Yin Ren was. Their center of observation was bound to be Yin Ren, the “Great Celestial Master”.

But now the protagonist, the Great Celestial Master, was sitting still, not doing what he was supposed to do, and the memory environment was inevitably going to deviate. A small deviation was still manageable, but if there was a big mistake, who knew what would happen?

After all, the original plan was for Yin Ren to personally guide them and for everyone to peacefully observe together.

After a moment of contemplation, Zhong Chengshuo’s eyes scanned the evil creatures, picking out the types that roughly spoke human language. Seeing the Great Celestial Master consciously approach, a hairless, monkey-like evil rubbed affectionately on his calf.

“I have a headache and can’t remember things,” Zhong Chengshuo said, turning his head like he was trying to remember. “How far away are we from that place?”

“Just down the mountain, sir.” The evil creature bent over, and it responded in a hoarse and unpleasant voice. “But it’s only the seventh today, sir, and your village needs to prepare. We’ll have to wait two more days. If you’re hungry, we can go into the mountains and get some wild fruits—they’re sweet in the autumn and very filling.”

After speaking, the evil creature looked at Zhong Chengshuo with puppy-dog eyes, like the expression of a child begging for candy.

It was probably asking for a reward.

Unfortunately, though Science Post Zhong Chengshuo had the intention, he lacked the ability. He forced himself to nod calmly and walked towards the mountain as if nothing had happened. The bald, monkey-like evil didn’t get what it wanted and let out a whimper in its throat.

There were no trees to block the view at the edge of the cliff, and in the rolling mountain mist, Zhong Chengshuo could vaguely see a small village.

Behind the red veil, Zhong Chengshuo’s pupils shrank.

He recognized the layout of the buildings; he had seen this village just a few months ago in Yin Ren’s memory in the Archive. Both the dirt road outside the village and the sparse houses at the village entrance were identical to what Yin Ren remembered.

It was definitely the same village.

On September 9^th, the Great Celestial Master Zhong Yi would return to that village. According to what the evil creature said, today was September 7^th…

September 7^th.

Zhong Chengshuo closed his eyes. Countless records about Divine Descent and Evil Spirit flashed through his mind, finally settling on a short record.

In the last year of the Gong Dynasty, on the 9^th day of the 9^th month, an Evil Spirit was born in Yin Village—the birthplace of the Great Celestial Master Zhong Yi in legends. Fortunately, Zhong Yi returned home at that time and sealed the Evil Spirit directly in the village, making it a sealing operation with the fewest casualties in human history.

However, legends often didn’t mention that Yin Village had already been massacred by the Guluo Army before Zhong Yi faced the Evil Spirit.

All the dust, death, and evil were buried deep in history in just a few short lines.

Under layers of red cloth, Zhong Chengshuo opened his eyes.

He caught a strand of long black hair. Despite the erosion and pain from the Evil Force on Yin Ren’s body, no wing cluster had grown. Yet, Zhong Chengshuo still subconsciously grasped it as if his lover were still by his side.

This was a logical destination.

Lu Xiaohe and Fu Xingchuan were both clever people who knew about these metaphysical secrets and would come sooner or later. Yin Ren… He probably knew the importance of this place too. If he wanted to meet with Zhong Chengshuo, he would also choose this place.

Even if it was likely the worst memory for Yin Ren at this time.

…However, to face the Evil Spirit… Zhong Chengshuo felt apologetic as he searched Yin Ren’s body.

He pulled out a short knife that was very similar in shape to the “Evil Fruit”, but the blade was plain iron-gray. Judging by the usage marks on the metal, this was probably Yin Ren’s knife that he used to eat meat with.

At present, he had no weapons or equipment and didn’t know magic. The pain also restricted his body movements, making it difficult to move.

Zhong Chengshuo took a deep breath and still headed in the direction where Unit 9 was.

“I found a village,” he reported truthfully without saying more.

If this were in the past, he would definitely not take such risks. But now…

For some reason, Zhong Chengshuo felt an unscientific confidence. He knew Yin Ren must also be looking for him, so there would be a way to handle the situation.

At least there was still Fu Xingchuan. Even if nothing else, he had a lead this time!

……

“Dogs barking? Our dog hasn’t barked. Speaking of which, my second aunt lost her big yellow dog. Have you seen it?”

Fu Tianyi used an illusion spell to disguise himself as a Taoist boy and went out to ask the villagers. Fu Xingchuan was transformed into white using magic, giving him a faint, immortal-like aura.

“Haven’t seen it,” Fu Tianyi said nervously, glancing at Fu Xingchuan. “Auntie, think again. My master has heard that sometimes Yin Village will have a hundred dogs barking at once, which made him curious.”

“Are you kidding me? I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if you want to talk about the king of dogs, there’s one in our village.”

The auntie immediately stopped beating her clothes when she had some gossip to share.

“See that ancestral hall? There’s a divine dog inside. It was brought by the guardian of our village a hundred years ago, and it was just a puppy then! It has guarded our ancestral hall for a hundred years and has saved many drowning children. If someone’s family is lost in the mountains, they will also ask it to find them, and it always does!”

Fu Tianyi: “It truly is a divine dog.”

To be precise, it was probably an evil cub that the Great Celestial Master caught somewhere and, seeing that it was docile, gave it to the village.

“That’s right. The last time we had torrential rain, there was a mudslide, but luckily it barked in advance and warned us. Otherwise, the family at the east end of the village would have been buried in the mud… Oh, you’re not talking about this. When it barks, all the dogs really bark along.”

The aunt suddenly came back to her senses.

The white dog stepped on Fu Tianyi’s shoe, and his expression twisted. “Thank you, Auntie. I will go find my master for instructions.”

After contacting Lu Xiaohe, the three of them rushed to the ancestral hall.

When it was in its Evil Spirit state, its mind was like a pile of loose sand, and Shian could only extract an environment that was relatively comfortable for it. Now, with Yin Ren’s memory as a “solid framework”, the memory of the Evil Spirit itself was like a grapevine, winding and filling in the gaps.

At first, Shian could only determine that the prototype of the Evil Spirit was a “dog.” Now, it seemed that the underground Evil Spirit was most likely the evil dog that the villagers had worshiped for hundreds of years.

Although Lu Xiaohe was wearing old-fashioned shoes and socks, she still walked as fast as she could and didn’t forget to take out a charcoal pen and paper from her pocket.

Fu Xingchuan ran the fastest. He quickly became familiar with the use of his four legs and ran like an arrow, leaving the bow. No matter what situation the so-called divine dog was in, the earlier they controlled it, the more advantageous it would be for them.

However, when they arrived at the temple, they only found a broken piece of silk and a bowl of untouched pig’s head meat.

The divine dog was gone.

The ancestral hall itself was very simple, with local specialties from the mountain village on the altar plus a few bowls of rough, cold food. The setting sun went down, and the red light passed over the low wall as if everything had been sent into a furnace.

“Damn it.” Fu Tianyi gritted his teeth. “Someone beat us to it… I’ll go ask around!”

As soon as he stepped out of the temple, he saw men carrying farm tools back to their homes, and the quicker ones were already using bark to seal their windows.

The women carried buckets of water and carefully poured them into the water tank in their homes. The elderly hung red and green paper lanterns from poles on their doors. The children looked like they were preparing for New Year’s Day, playing and laughing in the yard with snot dragging behind them.

“When the red light is on and the green light is burning, every household closes their door. At midnight, when the fruit ripens, be careful what you say with your back to the door.”

They sang out of tune, grinning with their mouths open.

“Pray for tranquility, wish for good fortune, and shut your eyes so you can’t see. The rooster crows, with footsteps far away, that comes back next year to report the peace.”

The originally quiet village became lively with people coming and going, their faces filled with smiles.

“What are you doing, folks?” Fu Tianyi’s heart was burning with fire, but he could only force a relaxed smile as he stared with the shell of “Fu Shangliu” of Huajisi.

“We’re preparing sacrifices to welcome god.”

The man closest to them offered two wild rabbits and eagerly responded.

“Our village’s guardian comes to help every year. The god is good at everything but can’t be looked at directly with your eyes. This isn’t just to prevent the elderly and children from wandering around. We seal our homes and prepare offerings a day in advance, which is also a holiday.”

At this point, the man’s expression became serious.

“Even if you are immortals, don’t stay here and look around. Our god is very powerful. If you look around casually, you might get hurt… Alright, I’m going back!”

Watching the man’s figure disappear into the distance, Fu Tianyi felt like a lead weight had been added to his stomach.

No wonder the entire Yin Village was thoroughly massacred in the past.

The villagers all waited happily indoors, anticipating the arrival of their guardian god. But what awaited them wasn’t their god, but only the iron hooves of invaders.

Unfortunately, the tragedy was imminent, and they couldn’t even shout out to warn these people.

This was an irreversible past, and interfering would only make things worse. These villagers who hummed songs, nailed doors and windows, and prepared offerings, and these children who ran around laughing and playing, were already long dead skeletons buried in the smoke of war a thousand years ago.

The lively scene in front of him suddenly changed its tone, the originally bright red turning blood red in an instant.

It wasn’t until a secret tug on his pants leg that Fu Tianyi snapped back to reality.

Fu Xingchuan raised his head and shook it slowly.

Fu Tianyi looked at Lu Xiaohe, who also had a bitter expression on her face, and took a deep breath. Finding that divine dog as soon as possible was what they needed to do now.

And this search took several hours.

The sun set, and the starry sky lit up. Each house was sealed tightly, and the small mountain village became even quieter. The three of them searched the village in circles, with Fu Tianyi using all the exploration methods at his disposal, but still to no avail.

It was at that moment that they returned to the ancestral hall again…

At the edge of the village, the warm candlelight in the windows turned into flames that engulfed the sky, and the gentle voices turned into continuous screams. The sound of hooves mixed with shouts, bringing chaos and blood all the way to the center of the village.

Amidst the black smoke and wailing, the doors of the houses were kicked open, and the offerings in front of them were trampled on. Half of the red and green lights rolled to the ground and were trampled into dirty, mud-covered scraps of paper.

Lu Xiaohe couldn’t bear to look any longer. She retreated further into the ancestral hall, looked up, and saw their target for this trip—

That big black dog floated with hidden charms all over its body. In the midst of the chaos, it crouched on top of the shrine, its black and mysterious eyes reflecting the light of the flames.

There was a strange mockery in its expression.

And not far away, the desperate villagers had nowhere to escape. People carried their injured relatives and instinctively ran towards the ancestral hall.

“Great Master, help us!”

The villagers’ bloody footprints stained the stone steps of the temple, and their desperate cries pierced through the night.

“Great Master, please save us—”

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The author has something to say:

Yin Ren’s past, loading (?

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Kinky Thoughts:

Oh, no wonder why this was Yin Ren’s worst memory…

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 164: Enemy Attack

Without eyes, without limbs, without senses. The things of the outside world to him were just one ripple after another, big and small.

Yin Ren had experienced this state before.

When he fought with the sniper—no, perhaps he should call him “Mr. Qiu”—and turned into pure essence, his perception of the outside world was the same as it was now. It was more accurate to say that his current perception was even purer.

Like a lifeless sea.

The outside world was like a drizzle, stirring up one ripple after another. Besides that, everything in the world was nothingness. There was no color, temperature, weight, and Yin Ren couldn’t even feel his “own” body.

In the vast solitude, his thoughts were like sugar cubes thrown into water, gradually dissolving and becoming loose and blurry. Even when he was asleep under a seal, Yin Ren had never felt such a terrifying emptiness.

Like a never-ending free fall.

Did Shian’s memory spell fail?

No, that’s not it.

That memory spell had been confirmed by Li Nian and Fu Xingchuan. There were no problems with either the design of the spell or the underground Evil Spirit used as an auxiliary. Even if there were major issues, it shouldn’t have caused such a fierce Evil Spirit like himself to enter an unknown environment.

He must have obtained some kind of “role identity” from this era.

But now, Yin Ren couldn’t even guess what kind of creature he had become in this state.

Yin Ren tried his best to stay conscious and attempted to move. But with no sensory perception, he didn’t know how to exert force, nor did he know where to exert it. After flailing for several hours, Lord Ghost King collapsed mentally and began to despair.

What kind of role was this? Was he turned into moss in some cave?

Despite his despondence, Yin Ren set himself a countdown timer. After five minutes of listlessness, he regained his composure and continued to struggle and explore.

Zhong Chengshuo was still technically a “flesh puppet”. Even if the man could adapt to his situation, there were still very few things he could do.

He had to get back to the team as soon as possible.

While he was thinking of a plan, a particularly tumultuous ripple caught Yin Ren’s attention. That ripple was different from the others, and it was very close to him.

[I really want to go home…]

An external thought surged into Yin Ren’s mind.

This feeling was very strange. That train of thought didn’t contain any language, but he could understand it. What the other party conveyed was the most basic and simplest “idea”.

[I really want to go home…]

That unknown thought ruminated pitifully.

[Who are you?] Yin Ren repeated this question in his mind, trying to direct it towards the direction of the transmitted thought. To be honest, he didn’t know if this method would work.

[…] The thought of that thing was blank for a few seconds.

[Siren.] It responded.

It was Dog Thing.

Yin Ren was taken aback. He did put his phone under his pillow, but his intention was to keep Dog Thing with him, to avoid any unnecessary complications. He never thought that this insignificant little thing could be affected by the spell.

[Who are you? Where is this place, and what are you doing here?] Without any language barriers, Dog Thing’s thoughts were clear and easy to understand.

It was a strange feeling, as if it had become a part of him.

[I am Yin Ren. There was a small problem with the spell, and we are trapped in a memory illusion.] Suddenly, having someone to talk to in this emptiness lifted Yin Ren’s spirits.

He roughly explained his guesses about the magic to Dog Thing. As he had anticipated, he didn’t need to organize them into words. Dog Thing smoothly understood his thoughts.

[You are too powerful. I might have been judged as a part of you.] Dog Thing tried hard to think. [Just like when copying a phone app and it contains junk data.]

[I see. That’s good. At least it won’t be too boring…]

Halfway through his thought, Yin Ren suddenly realized something.

[Let me see your memories!] He launched a barrage of thoughts at Dog Thing.

The biggest obstacle to their communication was the inability to express thoughts. Now that he was unlucky enough… No, that he finally had the opportunity to directly experience “thoughts”, he couldn’t let this go.

[No!] Dog Thing was resolute. [If you do that, you won’t need me anymore. You will eat me!]

Strangely, during their exchange, the outline of a vague image gradually emerged in Yin Ren’s mind—

It was a small, black, four-legged, cylindrical creature. Its appearance was blurry, as if behind frosted glass. In the blurry image, the thing was skinny and looked like a bat’s shriveled corpse. It curled up and trembled all over.

[You don’t look tasty, so I won’t eat you,] Yin Ren said sincerely. [Besides, this is not my body, and I have no way to find a mouth to eat you. When we leave here, you will definitely return to the phone, and I won’t eat such things.]

[Really?]

[I can also thank you by giving you some Evil Force. If you’re still not at ease, I can let you see my thoughts.]

[…] Dog Thing weighed for a long time. [Okay.]

[But I want a promise. You have to promise to send me home.] It finally said.

[No. I don’t even know where your home is.]

[You will go back.] The thin figure was very determined in its thoughts. [Strong people always go back.]

Upon further reflection, Yin Ren realized that his pursuit hadn’t changed much. After he solved the mystery of the Primordial Elementals and the mysteries around the Evil Force, he would immediately seek a special job position from Shian—after all, his identity had already been exposed, so he might as well earn some more money.

Since Zhong Chengshuo wasn’t human, they would have more time to study the truth, stroll along the road, and share the same snacks. Whether their future lives were smooth or rough, they were all the joys and sorrows of the human world.

Yin Ren had little interest in the so-called path of the strong.

But it was still doable to just send Dog Thing back home. After pondering for a moment, Yin Ren packaged his thought process and threw it to Dog Thing as a show of sincerity.

And Dog Thing delivered on its promise—

The heavy memories instantly engulfed Yin Ren.

……

The moment he touched those memories, Yin Ren understood the difficulty of communicating with Dog Thing.

The sensation it had when it was still at “home” was really difficult to describe in words.

Suppose humans didn’t have eyes, then the noun for colors wouldn’t exist. Dog Thing was like a person who only had hearing in their life, trying to communicate with someone who only had sight. The meaning of language and the definition of nouns were all mismatched, and even the most basic conversation became incredibly difficult.

It seemed that it wasn’t that this thing’s brain wasn’t functioning properly; in their previous conversation, it should have tried its best.

Yin Ren “saw” another world.

If it had to be described in human terms, countless vibrations and fluctuations swept in. He clearly didn’t see any colors, but he could feel the world’s vibrancy. The external information was like the thought exchange just now, delivering the most essential meaning into his body.

Countless information rushed in, and Yin Ren’s thoughts were in chaos, almost shutting down.

But in this pure ocean of information, Yin Ren swam freely from Dog Thing’s perspective.

Until a certain day twenty-eight years ago.

The information in the ocean suddenly turned violent, and the vibrations and fluctuations almost crushed Dog Thing’s body. Dog Thing quickly followed the rest of its kind in a mass escape, and several clusters of information were thrown back and forth in its group.

They said that the “Disgust” was moving.

Just as it received this information, a corresponding memory quickly grew in Dog Thing’s mind—”Disgust” was a predator that had only grown up in the past one or two thousand years and was the least worried about food supply in this area.

It was a massive creature covered in information, with human hands on its surface.

In Dog Thing’s memory, perhaps it had been daydreaming for too long, so its escape speed was a bit slow. Soon, the creature moved in front of it—

That thing stuck out a human-sized hand from its surface and frantically pounded in a certain direction. At the same time, there was a vague tearing sound coming from far away.

Yin Ren concentrated his mind, intending to carefully savor this memory. Who would have thought that this “inside-out” event would take twenty-two years to play out? Dog Thing didn’t dare to move. It stayed motionless at close range, not moving for twenty years.

Yin Ren had nothing to say.

Fortunately, this was a memory, and he only needed to receive everything in an instant.

Six years ago, with external cooperation, “Disgust” finally tore open a gap that didn’t belong to this world. It first stuck out an “arm”, but its body was still left in the ocean of information.

It was just Dog Thing had worked so hard to avoid it.

As space tore apart, external information poured in, mixed with a very tempting fluctuation, like a self-service buffet for a starving ghost.

Dog Thing was already weakened from hiding for more than 20 years and now completely lost its sanity. It didn’t care where the crack led, and it rushed straight towards it.

As a former Great Celestial Master, Yin Ren could recognize that crack, which was known in the human world as a “gap”.

As a former human, he could also taste the information represented by that fluctuation—it was an emotion called “anxiety”, and it was unusually intense.

The weakened Dog Thing rushed towards the source of that emotion, completely unaware that it had passed through the crack and arrived in another world.

Dog Thing collided with a flying bird first. Unfortunately, that bird seemed unable to bear such a strange “creature”. The bird fell from the sky, its dying eyes glimpsing for a moment, and the next second, its small head exploded, and its body scattered into several pieces of flesh.

The glance from the bird possessed by Dog Thing almost made Yin Ren’s thoughts stop.

At that moment, within the still-existing gap, a huge “human hand” emerged. Snow-white bone structure, black-gray metal, all kinds of wriggling texts filling the seams, and an overall dark, dead flesh-like hue.

He had fought against it before.

It was the sniper, or rather, a part of Mr. Qiu’s body.

The outline of the giant hand dissipated in the air, pointing directly towards the direction of the city with dense buildings—the direction of the Haigu Municipal Hospital. Dog Thing realized it was in trouble and wanted to turn back home, but the crack had already closed, leaving it with nowhere to go.

It struggled desperately along with the bird’s corpse, like a dehydrated fish. However, Dog Thing didn’t find another suitable “carrier” and fell to the ground with the bird’s corpse.

Yin Ren could clearly sense that Dog Thing was dissipating along with the bird. The bird’s cells were dying, and its whole nervous system was stopping. Dog Thing was struggling to hold on.

Until someone walked by.

The young man was holding a brand-new phone, humming a song while playing games. He didn’t even glance at the bird’s corpse next to him, but something “saw” it.

Dog Thing struggled and pounced towards that person.

In its view, the person’s brain emitted a deadly seductive force. At that moment, its thoughts were completely blank. This behavior wasn’t the result of thinking, but more like the most basic response under survival instinct.

Unfortunately, Dog Thing, which was already on the brink of death, missed its target.

From the perspective of the memory, the person suddenly paused. Dog Thing pounced too quickly and hit the screen of the brightly lit phone.

In the next moment, it seemed to be able to breathe again, but it was quite difficult. If Dog Thing was compared to a fish, “the other side” was like nutrient-rich, pristine seawater. Once it entered the phone, it was like being thrown into a distillation tank, which wasn’t even the size of a palm.

It could barely survive, but it was very uncomfortable.

Frail connection, weak fluctuations, and extremely low-density information. Other than the environmental pattern being somewhat similar, everything else was completely different.

Dog Thing didn’t dare move around anymore. The explosion of the bird caused psychological trauma. It didn’t know if it could attack other living beings and make it back safely. After all, it wasn’t clear how it managed to survive entering the phone.

Maintaining this state, it gradually learned those unfamiliar information bit by bit. Dog Thing still remembered the tempting power that day. If it could eat and drink enough there and become stronger, it could definitely go back home!

At the very least, if it could find other beings like itself and consume them, it could ease its situation.

Unfortunately, it tried to head in the wrong direction, acted recklessly in front of humans, and was sent to the Shian storage warehouse as a “spirit weapon”.

It was close to its target prey, the “Evil Spirit”, but it was still out of reach.

Roughly speaking, this was just the story of a silly little animal’s suffering. If this were earlier, then surely, Yin Ren would have hummed a tune of <The Little Mouse Climbing Up the Lamp Post>* for it.

*Chinese nursery rhyme and children’s song. It tells the story of a little mouse that climbs up to the top of a lighthouse to see the world. The song is often used to teach young children about the importance of being curious and exploring the world around them.

However, Yin Ren didn’t have the leisure to do so now.

In a flash, the past fragmented clues were like pearls that connected into a string—

[They can affect people’s emotions, causing them to shout and laugh…]

These things seemed to be particularly sensitive to emotions. On the other side of the rift, they didn’t refer to the sniper as “Mr. Qiu” or anything like that. They called him “Disgust”.

[An old man said before that if you go to an inexistent place, you will see them. If you dream too deeply, you will see them.]

They lived on the “Other Side” beyond the gap. Does the interstitial space in the gap count as an inexistent place? And does the “Archive” environment, which is used on the brains of the insane as its stage, count as a “deep dream”?

[Carelessly contacting them will destroy one’s soul… The elders in our region call them the ‘Primordial Elementals’.]

If their previous speculations were correct, then “Divine Descent” was the scattering of the flesh of a large-scale Primordial Elemental in the mortal world…

The Evil Force, which was converted from the “flesh”, could provide people with the ability to interfere with the Other Side, such as “Charon”, and the power to control emotions, such as “Resonance”. Then it wouldn’t be strange if these Primordial Elementals themselves had stronger abilities.

Yin Ren savored Dog Thing’s memory and poked at the small, cowering shadow with his mind.

If he had a mouth, Yin Ren would wryly smile.

So it seemed that humans weren’t directly on the menu of these beings. Then why did these Primordial Elementals, who lived on the distant Other Side and fed on emotions, set their sights on the mortal world?

In order to squeeze an arm through, Mr. Qiu dug for twenty-two years, which shows that the other side wasn’t a sieve. How did the bloody “Divine Descent” come about? And how were the Evil Spirits and other evil creatures produced?

Yin Ren attempted to ask about the distinction between “strong” and “weak” and the hierarchy of the “food chain” on the Other Side. But once it involves judgments that were close to instinct, Dog Thing couldn’t transmit clear thoughts.

It seemed that the intelligence of Dog Thing had reached its limit.

Yin Ren still didn’t understand the essence of the Other Side and Primordial Elementals. He realized that such deep research should be left to his innocent accomplice to explore.

Yin Ren decisively stopped thinking.

If he gave these pieces of intelligence to Zhong Chengshuo, that guy would be quite happy. He could already imagine how the expression of “surprise” would appear on his serious face, and Yin Ren was looking forward to it.

He rolled up his sleeves in his mind and gave Dog Thing a light kick.

Dog Thing: [?]

[Let’s find a way out together,] Yin Ren said. [I’m different from you. I’m not just ‘wanting to go home’. I ‘will definitely go home’.]

……

Fu Xingchuan sat on a wooden chair, watching Lu Xiaohe

 and Fu Tianyi.

This time he wasn’t just putting on airs and sitting back to relax. It was really because the things that a dog’s paw could do were quite limited. He couldn’t interfere with the two younger ones, who were busy. Fu Xingchuan used his paw to play with the dry tobacco on the table and occasionally took a bite.

Following the excellent tradition of Shian, the two of them quickly transformed this room into a temporary base.

After everything was done, Fu Tianyi sat on a stool with a gloomy expression. “How wretched. I finally became the boss of Huajisi, but I can’t even direct a subordinate.”

In order to maintain the “logical coherence” of the memory environment, Fu Tianyi told Huajisi that he was conducting dangerous research with the scholar Li Heyan and didn’t let anyone follow.

This directly resulted in their only available forces being one man, one woman, and a dog.

“Pack up and ask the villagers for some information this afternoon. It’s best to leave before nightfall. It’s the end of the Gong Dynasty now—it’s troublesome to encounter bandits and wild beasts at night, even if we don’t run into any evil creatures.”

Lu Xiaohe had already prepared paper, pen, and charcoal and was working hard to wrap the charcoal into a usable makeshift pen.

“If necessary, we can call some people to help. Just don’t cause any trouble—this village’s environment is so vivid that it’s definitely not a memory of Yin Ren’s. The Evil Spirit that remembers this place so clearly is probably nearby. The sooner we leave, the safer we’ll be.”

They came to investigate the chaos; not to swim naked in the center of it.

During the end of the Gong Dynasty, war and monsters were rampant. Historians could study human wars, but as a biologist, Lu Xiaohe didn’t want to become a witness. Moreover, the current highest fighting force was a dog, and she didn’t want to experience the close-range feeling of an Evil Spirit strolling around.

“It’s been okay for the past two days.” Fu Tianyi tried to avoid eye contact with the dog. “I just saw someone outside making things like fresh fruit and sugar melons, saying that they were going to worship on September 9^th, so they had to prepare a few days in advance—there’s so much leeway, so the war is probably still far away from here.”

Fu Xingchuan suddenly jumped off the chair and shouted twice.

The dog suddenly bit off half of the dry tobacco stick and held it in its mouth. It used a spell to light the tobacco, and smoke quickly circled around its mouth as it asked a question.

[What day of the lunar calendar is it today?]

“Uh…the seventh. Why do you ask?” Fu Tianyi stared at the smoking dog, a bit tongue-tied.

[What’s the name of this village?]

“Yin Village.”

Upon saying this, Fu Tianyi realized something, and his complexion suddenly turned pale.

“It should be a coincidence. In the late Gong Dynasty, Yin was a common surname…”

[Do you believe your own bullshit? This is the memory of an Evil Spirit!] Fu Xingchuan wished he could spit out the cigarette and bite a mouthful of Fu Tianyi’s calf.

Lu Xiaohe stopped making her homemade pen, and her face gradually turned ugly.

Fu Tianyi became as white as a snowman. “In the evening of September 7^th, the Goulou Army raided the heartland of the Gong Dynasty. They first occupied the mountainous areas that were easy to defend and difficult to attack, hoping to establish a large camp… Yin Village, Hezhuang, and Chenjiakou were the first to be massacred.”

“At dawn on the eighth day, an Evil Spirit was born. No one on the scene, whether it was the Gouluo Army or the local residents, survived.”

[On the ninth day, the Great Celestial Master Zhong Yi returned to his hometown and sealed the Evil Spirit in his homeland.] Fu Xingchuan helped him complete the ending of the story.

“No, that’s not right,” Lu Xiaohe said.

She put on a serious face that belonged to Li Heyan, and a layer of sweat appeared on her forehead.

“I looked at the data before I came here. Many villagers went into the mountains before the army attacked. According to their account, all kinds of dogs in Yin Village started barking frantically early in the morning on September 7^th. These people felt uneasy and decided to leave.”

“But we’ve been here for so long and we haven’t heard a single bark,” Lu Xiaohe added with a dry voice.

Everyone fell silent.

Lu Xiaohe and Fu Tianyi had been acting discreetly, trying not to affect the ability to maintain the established memories. Besides, they didn’t arrive in the village until later in the day. Fu Xingchuan had also turned into a normal, common dog without the ability to manipulate the larger environment.

[If the time and place are correct, then it must be the ‘people’ who are wrong.]

The dog spoke up and blew a line of smoke rings.

[Let’s not leave yet. We’ll stay here.]

“Why? Wouldn’t it be more dangerous to stay here?” Fu Tianyi exclaimed.

But Lu Xiahe remained silent, rubbing her chin and furrowing her brows.

[First of all, the disrupted memory is that of the Evil Spirit. In its memory, the Great Celestial Master will still come on September 9^th. This Great Celestial Master is our primary observation target, and Yin Ren himself must remember this. We happen to meet here.]

[Second, the spell I designed won’t have this kind of loophole. The character confusion already has me stumped. Now, I can be certain…]

Fu Xingchuan drooped his tail and puffed more rapidly.

[This is an enemy attack.]

At the same time, inside the ancestral hall of the Yin Village.

A slender black dog stood up and sniffled. Its neck was tied with a finely embroidered silk ribbon, and its fur and paws were clean, indicating it was well taken care of.

It looked disdainfully at the pig’s head in the bowl, and a hint of human resentment flashed in its eyes.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 163: SOS

Time reversed a little.

When Zhong Chengshuo woke up, his whole body was in pain.

It was a very intense and piercing pain. It wasn’t like the pain he felt when he was running in the underground corpse vault—despite being damaged countless times, at that time Zhong Chengshuo was like a corpse. All his senses were numb from the coldness of his body, and in the end, everything felt a bit itchy.

But this pain was different. It was persistent, as if his whole body was suffering from a toothache. Zhong Chengshuo lay flat on the grass, longing for a modern painkiller to magically appear.

He wasn’t sure what kind of shell he would be stuffed into.

He had previously discussed with Yin Ren and had come up with a plan to conceal his identity—the first rule being that no matter what kind of identity Zhong Chengshuo turned into, he must take off his communication earphones as soon as possible and disguise himself as an ordinary character.

This way, he could act together with Yin Ren without having to constantly conceal his identity. After all, Shian would only know that a flesh puppet had been brought in but had no idea where it went. Yin Ren could come up with a random excuse to get past it.

But now, Zhong Chengshuo’s palms were in so much pain that he couldn’t even lift them up.

It was too strange.

Was he stuffed into the body of someone who was crushed by a giant creature?

Zhong Chengshuo opened his eyes with difficulty and saw red all around him. Long black hair hung behind his head, and a beautiful, pale hand was open in front of his eyes. Zhong Chengshuo recognized that hand. He had kissed it intimately when he was practicing pure theoretical mating skills. He remembered every detail of it.

It was Yin Ren’s hand.

Zhong Chengshuo sniffed suspiciously and smelled Yin Ren’s unique scent.

He immediately forgot about the pain and carefully observed the body under the red cloth. The palm, arm, body shape… He had seen every detail before, and they were familiar yet unfamiliar.

Finally, Zhong Chengshuo looked at the pair of feet covered in grass and dust, which he assumed were his “own.” He could roughly figure out the situation, but he didn’t know why he was controlling this body.

This was Yin Ren…Zhong Yi’s body from a thousand years ago.

Did the former Yin Ren live in such pain? And where did the real Yin Ren go if he was in Zhong Yi’s shell?

Zhong Chengshuo endured the pain and looked outside through the red cloth. He saw a group of evil creatures resting in the forest, as well as several human children running around and playing.

But still no Yin Ren.

Their second plan was that after Yin Ren regained consciousness, he would immediately send out a visible magical signal into the sky. The requirements for that spell were extremely low—as long as Yin Ren wasn’t turned into a plant, he could definitely send the signal out.

In this way, Zhong Chengshuo could find Yin Ren as soon as possible and carry out his plan to pretend to be dead.

But now things were complicated.

If Zhong Chengshuo had become another character, he could have acted alone and looked for Yin Ren. Unfortunately, he was stuffed into the authentic “main character” body, and every move he made would be watched by everyone.

Zhong Chengshuo could see that Yellow Millet was communicating with a little girl not far away, and both of them had obvious communication devices on them.

After thinking quietly for a moment, Zhong Chengshuo walked towards the two of them.

……

“…I’m Zhong Chengshuo,” Zhong Chengshuo said confusedly.

As expected, the little girl’s movements suddenly stiffened, and Yellow Millet also trembled and shivered for a while.

The reaction was too awkward, not like Fu Xingchuan or Fu Tianyi.

If it were Lu Xiaohe, her reaction would be more curious. These two people could only be Ge Tingting and Huang Jin—the little girl adapted well to her “role” and her performance was still natural. So, the person in Yellow Millet’s shell was probably Huang Jin.

Zhong Chengshuo quickly judged the identities of the two.

“Yin Ren… You are Yin Ren, right?” The little girl stood on tiptoe, and a worried expression gradually appeared on her face.

Ge Tingting’s thinking was actually very direct—

Yin Ren was the Great Celestial Master Zhong Yi, the hero who sealed the Six Evil Spirits, and was also an evil that Shian couldn’t contend with. Because of Zhong Chengshuo’s death, Yin Ren was so sad that he made a flesh puppet of him in order to numb the pain. Shian would certainly be willing to cooperate in preparing a bed for the flesh puppet to create the illusion that Zhong Chengshuo was still there.

The cost was low, and it made the Great Celestia Master happy, so why not? In her opinion, this trick was similar to a waiter at Haidilao* putting a doll in front of a single customer.

*Hot Pot restaurant chain.

Zhong Chengshuo died—killed in front of everyone. As a science post, he wouldn’t return as a ghost.

The person opposite could only be Yin Ren.

Perhaps Yin Ren was just temporarily impacted, and his head wasn’t very clear. Ge Tingting gathered the courage to throw off her headgear and stagger forward. “Yin Ren, wake up! We are in an array right now!”

Zhong Chengshuo introduced himself sincerely, “I am Zhong Chengshuo.”

Ge Tingting turned to Yellow Millet. “You—can you think of a way too?”

Huang Jin in Yellow Millet’s shell: “…Puff.”

Ge Tingting stomped her foot anxiously.

Huang Jin lay despondently for a while, then tried to suck up a clean patch of ground with his round body and began to scratch on the dirt.

Soon, a row of words that were worse than dog scratches appeared on the ground: [I am Huang Jin.]

Ge Tingting: “…Pfft.”

It was clear that she was trying hard to hold back her laughter, forgetting about being anxious for a moment.

Huang Jin ignored her and became more and more dispirited in his scratching: [What’s your last memory, Yin Ren?]

Here it comes.

Zhong Chengshuo breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. He was waiting for this question.

“I remember that Yin Ren set up a spell for me and even gave me some of his flesh and blood,” Zhong Chengshuo answered smoothly. “He said he didn’t want to be separated from me just because of this mission. He also said that my name is Zhong Chengshuo, and he told me to remember that.”

Huang Jin made a couple of sounds and wrinkled his skin: [You can’t bring in spirit weapons, and without a master, a flesh puppet has no ability to speak autonomously.]

Zhong Chengshuo summoned the universal answer. “I don’t know.”

[Do you remember anything else?]

“Just this.”

[Do you know who we are?]

“You’re Huang Jin. You wrote it just now.”

Huang Jin became still, holding the branch in his mouth, lost in thought.

“That’s the Great Celestial Master Zhong Yi.” Ge Tingting pondered for a moment, clapping her dirty hands together. “He created many techniques, and he may have made improvements to the flesh puppet. Ordinary spirit weapons cannot enter, but evil things can!”

Yellow Millet: [I don’t get it.]

Could it be that he was able to see the thoughts of the “flesh puppet” before because Yin Ren created a special evil… In this age where AI could answer phone calls, perhaps the Great Celestial Master gained new inspiration.

The “Zhong Chengshuo Evil AI” and “Zhong Chengshuo Resurrection” were both so unbelievable that he couldn’t distinguish which was more absurd.

Oh well, things were what they were, so why worry about it? The young spirit smith quickly let go.

Huang Jin: [Forget it] He didn’t even want to write out the word “forget*”.

*Clarity: Instead of writing [suan le] (算了) Huang Jin wrote (suan了) in his response.

Ge Tingting quickly fell into a daze. “Then what do we do?”

Huang Jin’s body swayed. [Wait here for the others.]

This hurdle was finally passed. Zhong Chengshuo stood up and walked towards the group of evil things not far away. As expected, the two newcomers from Unit 9 didn’t intend to stay with the “flesh puppet” all the time.

He had to find out the current situation as quickly as possible.

And then find Yin Ren.

……

Fu Xingchuan lowered his head. His wet nose sniffed above the soil, making a rustling sound.

How many chances did a person have to experience life from a dog’s perspective? Fu Xingchuan became calmer as he ran. The sturdy yellow dog hugged the wall and wandered around the house, even avoiding several villagers who clearly had bad intentions—he didn’t know if being made into a dog meat hot pot in this world would have any effect on his true body.

Of course, as an experienced ace cultivator, Fu Xingchuan wouldn’t just sit and wait for death. He moved even faster as a dog than as a human.

After running in a big circle, Fu Xingchuan found that his judgment was correct. This was an extremely isolated small mountain village surrounded by mountains on all sides, and the villagers relied on self-sufficiency for their daily lives.

Being closed off for so long, the villagers were mostly related by blood or marriage. They had built an ancestral hall in the village. The village wasn’t very big, and the ancestral hall was next to ordinary houses. And he was just a stray dog from one of the nearby houses.

Fu Xingchuan circled around the ancestral hall several times, but the door was tightly closed, and the surrounding walls were very high. It was difficult to sneak in broad daylight.

After confirming that there was no entrance nearby, the great former minister dug at the wall like a pro. After cleaning up the ground, he awkwardly huddled up in the weeds.

The yellow-green grass just covered the dog’s body and provided the perfect camouflage.

The spot that Fu Xingchuan chose was very close to the open space where the villagers smoked and chatted.

“Did you guys see the two immortals who fell in the east of the village just now?”

“What immortals? What immortals?”

“The immortals who flew down from the sky—a man and a woman—both dressed very nicely. They are staying here for now and said they came to pick those who are enlightened.”

“Is there such a good thing?”

“Of course…”

In the grass, the soft ears of the yellow dog moved. Fu Xingchuan quickly stood up, turned his head, and ran in the direction with the strongest human scent.

The location of the immortals was at the village entrance. The two “immortals” came in a hurry, and all the villagers ran to see the excitement. Men, women, old and young, were all crowded together, and of course they didn’t pay attention to a runaway dog.

Fu Xingchuan squeezed through the legs of the people with difficulty and made his way to the front line.

As he had expected. The two “immortals” who were surrounded by the villagers were dressed in the special clothing of Huajisi and had communication earphones hanging from their ears.

Very good. Fu Xingchuan was greatly relieved. The situation hadn’t completely deteriorated yet, and it wasn’t the worst-case scenario.

He took a breath and barked nine times at the two people.

Three short, three long, three short.

Receiving the “SOS” signal, the gazes of the two immortals immediately turned towards him.

Immediately, the male immortal stumbled in place, almost falling on his butt ungracefully.

Realizing that the stray dog was frantically barking Morse code, Fu Tianyi’s heart sank. He confirmed it again tremblingly, and behind the dog’s bouncing ears, there really was a communication device.

And the bloodline divination result coldly told him that a Fu family member was within five steps of them.

It seemed that this mistake was far more than just the separation of personnel!

Fu Tianyi awkwardly smoothed his beard and tried to show his majestic appearance as much as possible. “That dog is quite attune. If you give it to me, I can give you a family protection charm in return.”

Beside him, Lu Xiaohe looked at the dog, then at Fu Tianyi. When she looked at the dog again, her facial expression twisted a little.

Half an hour later, Fu Tianyi moved into the most spacious residence in the village with the big yellow dog. Sitting across the wooden table, the yellow dog solemnly stared at him for a while, then rested its chin on the table.

“If you’re Second Uncle… bark once. If you’re not, bark twice.”

The yellow dog glanced at him indifferently and plunged its paw into Fu Tianyi’s teacup, leaving a trail of watermarks on the table.

Fu Xingchuan: [You dare treat me like a real dog?]

Fu Tianyi quickly shrank his neck.

Watching the yellow dog move its paw on the table, Lu Xiaohe tried to avoid looking. “We’ve lost contact with the outside world, see…”

[Take the initiative, find Yin Ren, and remember this place.]

The yellow dog quickly moved its paw.

[I wouldn’t have been thrown here for no reason. The scenery here is clearly significant, and it must be a key memory point. But the top priority is still to find reliable combat power.]

The yellow dog’s talent was limited, and even if it was controlled by the #1 Ghost General, it could only use the most basic magic at best, making self-defense difficult. Although Fu Tianyi was talented, he was still a rookie, while Ge Tingting and Huang Jin were too far away.

Fu Xingchuan and the Great Celestial Master—of the top two powerhouses of Shian, one had now been abolished.

Fu Xingchuan sighed quietly, looking at his black nose.

Whatever happened, hopefully Yin Ren was still fine.

……

In the deepest depths of the dark abyss.

Yin Ren regained consciousness and tried to open his eyes with an indescribable feeling of wonder.

Then he noticed that he seemed to have no eyes.

---

Kinky Thoughts:

I recently had Haidilao and have to say it is quite good… although it’s pretty expensive.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 162: Accident

At the underground observation window where Shian’s Evil Spirit was located, a huge elevator was hovering.

It was composed of several small elevators temporarily combined, and seven beds were arranged in the center. All emergency equipment and spirit weapons were in place, and the underground researchers were on standby beside them. Except for emergency signals and research data, these researchers couldn’t communicate with the underground, so there was no possibility of leakage.

The five members of the Shian Unit 9 Special Investigation Team, plus the two successors of the Fu family, Fu Tianyi and Fu Xingchuan, were already lying flat on the beds.

In order to prevent them from moving and looking around, their eyes were covered with black cloth, and they were tied with straps embroidered with spells. Countless wires drilled out of the gaps in their clothes, and the end patches constantly transmitted physiological data.

In addition, the bottom and bed of each person were carved with black and red runes, and under the illumination, they seemed to be flowing. Although they had been specially treated, there was still a faint Evil Force leaking out.

For the purpose of stabilizing their emotions, each person held the most important thing to themselves.

Zhong Chengshuo tightly held the hamster pendant, while Yin Ren put Zhong Chengshuo’s nightcap on his head and stuffed Dog Thing under the pillow.

Lu Xiaohe pressed her family photo in her palm, while Ge Tingting held the headphones that were given to her by Unit 9 in both hands. As for Huang Jin—Comrade Xiao Huang held a tranquility talisman with both hands, which was heartbreaking to see. One of the staff couldn’t help but ask if Mr. Huang needed some blood pressure medication.

The two experienced members of the Fu family each held a heart-protecting spirit weapon specially used by the Fu family.

On the other side of the thick glass, a huge Evil Spirit floated like a dark cloud. In the replica of the ancient scenery, the salivation rain never stopped. On one side of the barrier was the eerie and dark ancient environment, and on the other side was the cold equipment that flickered with countless lights. The scene was like a nightmare.

“Are the communication devices all ready?” Li Nian confirmed personally.

“No problem,” Yin Ren said.

“Very well, the ‘Temporary Archive’ spell is also ready. When the spell starts, you will be transported back to the memories of a thousand years ago and transformed into an image similar to your own situation.”

“This technique is more powerful than the ‘Archive’ spell. You will not only change your clothes like in the Archive, but you will transform your entire person into a real ‘character’ from a thousand years ago and observe the whole process.”

Professor Li explained patiently.

“You need to quickly find your scattered companions and gather together to collect various details in the memories. This spell is being used for the first time, so don’t take it lightly. First, when you first enter, your ‘character’ will stay together, so don’t run around; second, after you get your ‘character’, don’t do too many things that are inconsistent with your identity, so as not to disturb the memory environment.”

“If you encounter difficulties, communicate anytime through the communication device. The communication device will remain the same, and you can use it to identify your companions.”

If possible, Li Nian hoped that more professional people would go to explore.

Unfortunately, doing so would alert the internal spy of Shian. As a last resort, there were too many secrets involved in the matter of Yin Ren, and Unit 9 could only be considered as his confidants, so he had to make do with them.

“Everything’s okay? Then three, two, one…”

At the same time, at the same depth, the surviving Sunken Society stronghold.

In the thick darkness, Shen Mo stood barefoot in front of the brain door, naked.

“It’s just teasing a mad dog.” He waved to the silent members of Sunken Society behind him. “I’ll be back soon.”

Behind him, the cultivators of Sunken Society were sweating profusely, quickly performing their spells.

The leader of the cultivators shouted in a hoarse voice, “The door is about to open! Please prepare yourself, three, two, one…”

“The spell is activated!”

“The spell is activated!”

The same sentence echoed in both underground strongholds.

The seven figures on the beds disappeared instantly, leaving only a thin layer of clothing. Their most precious possessions remained in place, indicating the identity of the bed’s owner.

The brain door of Sunken Society slowly opened, and Shen Mo shrugged his shoulders and stepped into the darkness behind the door without hesitation.

……

Fu Tianyi felt dizzy and nauseous. When he regained consciousness, he found himself lying in a large, ancient-style room.

Strange. The reaction of this spell was so severe, so why didn’t Li Nian warn him in advance? Fu Tianyi retched a few times and struggled to get up, almost tripping over his robe.

He took a few minutes to recover before he had the strength to survey the surrounding environment.

The architecture was undoubtedly from the later period of the Gong Dynasty. The people around him were rushing back and forth, dressed uniformly, with either information or spirit weapons in their arms. The air was filled with the scent of ink and herbs, and various ancient spiritual tools, such as talismans, tortoise shells, and compasses, floated near the ceiling.

He had seen similar ancient paintings—this was the interior scene of Huajisi.

But unlike the ancient paintings, the most prominent position in the room was occupied by an exceptionally tall, blood-red statue.

That statue was different from all the statues he had seen before. It was sitting sideways with a relaxed and casual posture and could even be called “indecent”.

The statue itself had its face covered in a dark red fabric, and only a vague humanoid shape could be seen. Countless black jade and yellow talismans hung from the bone chains on the dark red fabric. They emitted strong waves of evil qi, showing that they used high-quality materials and the talismans were genuine.

In front of the statue, there were fruits, candies, cooked meat, and cheese. The thick incense burned slowly, with the smoke rising straight up, filling the air with a fragrance that left white ash in the incense burner.

The statue was exquisitely crafted, and through the swaying red cloth and the wafting incense, no matter where he was, Fu Tianyi could feel the statue’s “gaze”.

As he looked on in astonishment, he reached out and leaned against the wall, but the touch was icy cold and sent shivers down his spine.

Corpses.

Next to Fu Tianyi, hanging in neat rows along the wall were numerous corpses, each dressed in the same clothes, with their eyes tightly closed and hanging from hooks on the wall. Their hair and eyebrows were neatly trimmed, and their foreheads were carefully inscribed with numbers using cinnabar. The entire wall was covered with them.

…These were the corpses used by Huajisi’s specialized “corpse servants”. Fu Tianyi had read about them in the Fu family’s records.

As expected of Shian. Had they all been dumped into Huajisi?

Fu Tianyi breathed a sigh of relief and looked around happily, trying to find the communication devices in the ears of the other people. He quickly found his target—a middle-aged woman with simple clothes and a serious face, sitting at a table reading a letter with a communication device in her ear.

Fu Tianyi happily walked towards the woman, pointing to the communication earpiece in his own ear.

The woman gave him a worried glance.

“I’m Lu Xiaohe,” she said. “Looking at these letters, my name here seems to be ‘Li Heyan’.”

Fu Tianyi was overjoyed. “Li Heyan is the number one scholar of Huajisi. It’ll be so much easier to move around with you!”

Li Heyan and Fu Shangliu were the last two leaders of Huajisi in the Gong Dynasty and were equivalent in status to the current Ministers of the Emergency Management Department.

With Li Heyan’s status, she could go wherever she pleased.

“Aren’t you the same?” For some reason, Lu Xiaohe’s mood wasn’t high. “From your clothes, you are the current leader of the Huajisi, Fu Liu’s sixth grandson, ‘Fu Shangliu’. According to seniority, you are the ancestor of your family grandparents.”

Fu Tianyi’s expression froze.

To be honest, Fu Tianyi didn’t immediately confirm his identity. After being hit by reality, he subconsciously saw himself as a pawn—after all, in terms of strength and experience, the one who best fit that identity would be Fu Xingchuan.

Fu Tianyi looked at Lu Xiaohe, who had been in a low mood for a while, then slowly turned his head, trying to find other companions around him. Unfortunately, the two of them were still frozen in place after ten minutes, and no third person had appeared.

“Something’s not right.” Fu Tianyi swallowed hard, with cold sweat on his forehead.

“Yes,” Lu Xiaohe sighed. “I just tried to contact everyone, and besides you, everyone else is out of range—they’re too far away from us in this world.”

“How could this be…” Li Nian clearly instructed that everyone would be sent to the same place.

Lu Xiaohe sighed heavily. “I don’t know what’s going on either. I also tried to send a message to the outside world, but the communication was interfered with, and the request for help wasn’t sent out.”

Fu Tianyi: “……”

Fu Tianyi: “Is it just the same as last time and this time, or has it always been like this?”

Lu Xiaohe threw him a tired look.

“Anyway, we have to find the others first.” She painfully adjusted the hairpin on her head.

Fu Tianyi took a deep breath. “I can use the Fu family’s magic to divine Second Uncle’s location. Let’s meet up with him first.”

No matter what, with Fu Xingchuan there, things would turn around.

……

Fu Xingchuan stared deeply at his own paw.

Yes, paw.

It was a dusty, sturdy yellow dog’s paw.

Having lived for so long and experienced countless ups and downs, this was the first time Fu Xingchuan had attempted to stand on all fours. His viewpoint was a bit low, his vision was dim and blurry, and only his sense of smell and hearing were so sensitive that it was almost unbearable.

The smell of mud and chicken manure rushed into his nose, and a conversation with a heavy dialect floated into his ears; the unfamiliar sensory information causing him a headache.

Fu Xingchuan shook his head vigorously.

He was standing in the courtyard of a low-rise rural house. There were a few skinny chickens running around him, and he could see the vague mountain shadows through the decaying walls.

Something’s wrong.

Fu Xingchuan cleared his throat cautiously, trying to make a sound—

“Woof!” His voice was loud and clear.

Sure enough, something had gone wrong with the spell! Fu Xingchuan was so angry that he stamped his paws. This kind of deviation from Shian’s precise calculations could only be the result of exceptionally powerful interference during casting.

Fu Xingchuan nervously scanned the surroundings, making sure the chickens didn’t have any communication devices on their heads, before he breathed a sigh of relief.

If he was the only one who was unlucky, it was okay. As long as Fu Tianyi was still in human form, he could locate him through the Fu family’s magic.

Before that… Before that, since he had this “convenient” form, investigation wasn’t impossible.

Fu Xingchuan thought for a moment, then turned his head and began to gnaw at the hemp rope that was tying him up.

‘Hopefully, I’m the only unlucky one,’ Fu Xingchuan thought sadly.

As the hemp rope snapped, a large black dog in the temple next door twitched its ears.

……

In the dense forest, Huang Jin was silently contemplating life.

There must have been some mistake in his life. Perhaps he had done too much wrong in his previous life, destroying one or two countries, which was why he had to encounter this hellish job in this life.

Normally, humans need feet to walk.

Huang Jin, as a human, had no idea how to move without feet.

Just how big of a problem did the Shian leadership have with him that they felt this thing was similar to his “situation”?

How wonderful Ge Tingting was currently. At the moment, she was trying to adapt to her new body—this magic was indeed stronger than the Archive; not only giving Ge Tingting a suitable role but also temporarily restoring her language ability.

“I am, ahem, ahem, Ge Ting…Ting.”

The little girl was dressed plainly but cleanly, with the words “Lu Tinghe” embroidered crookedly on her chest. She tied her messy braids and held a big doll head in her arms with a young face covered in sweat.

Her black communication earpiece was particularly conspicuous.

“Who are you?”

Ge Tingting tried to adapt to her smaller body, reaching out and pulling the communication device stuck to Huang Jin’s body.

Huang Jin: “……”

Huang Jin: “Puff—!”

He cursed in pain.

Ge Tingting gasped and stood on tiptoe, looking around. Before she could find her companions, a red figure approached them and stopped beside them.

Ge Tingting immediately stood in front of the Huang Jin version of Yellow Millet.

The uninvited guest was about three meters tall, with pale feet planted on the grass. Its body was wrapped in blood-red bandages, and the yellow talisman was splattered with old bloodstains. The bone chains soaked in blood and oil tightly entangled it, shaped like a cocoon.

In the midst of the heavy seals, a similarly pale hand stretched out with the communication device in its palm.

It’s a companion!

Ge Tingting, who was just over one meter tall, breathed a sigh of relief and moved away.

Huang Jin struggled to lift his eyes—now he only had one eye on his entire body, and his movement had never been so awkward—but unfortunately, he only saw a simple image.

Just like how Ge Tingting lost her ability to “hear ravings”, his “mind reading” was also blocked by magic.

But judging from the appearance, Huang Jin could probably guess who it was. Dressed in red clothes, treading on Yellow Millet—there was only one person who deserved such a record.

That was the Great Celestial Master Zhong Yi, or rather, Yin Ren himself.

‘Well, at least they have a big tree to shade them,’ Huang Jin thought cheerfully. If it was Yin Ren, he could at least understand Yellow Millet’s language.

Ge Tingting apparently came to the same conclusion after doing her homework. The little girl wiped the sweat off her face and smiled. “Yin Ren!”

“Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff!”

[I am Huang Jin. Help me!] Huang Jin also desperately sought help.

But the person just stood still, motionless, as quiet as an inanimate object.

“Yin Ren…?” Ge Tingting’s smile froze on her face, and she walked back to Huang Jin calmly. The little girl clenched the headset tightly with both hands, as if she was ready to throw it out at any moment.

The tall red cocoon remained silent for a long time before finally speaking.

“I…”

Behind the thick fabric, Yin Ren’s familiar voice could be heard.

“I can’t find Yin Ren.”

The voice was mixed with depression and confusion.

“…I am Zhong Chengshuo.”

---

The author has something to say:

The flags for Yin Ren have been fulfilled at superluminal speed!

Low-risk copy, high-risk identity ←

It’s hard to say who is more miserable in the end…

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Kinky Thoughts:

Just a note: The [Huang] (黄) in [Huang Jin] (黄今) means yellow which is the same [huang] as Yellow Millet [Huang Liang] (黄粱). This might be why Huang Jin became Yellow Millet in the Archive.

Also, I should have noted this earlier, but Yellow Millet (黄粱) is a Chinese mythological plant known as the “Dreaming Immortal Herb”. According to myth, consuming the yellow millet grown from the plant would induce dreams of a perfect world and immortality, so it’s also used metaphorically to refer to a situation of state of mind that is like a dream, illusory, or unreal… Which is very fitting of Yellow Millet’s ability (can cause cognitive confusion—the things it did in the Gengsheng Town arc).

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Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 161: The Secret Plan

In the early hours of the morning, Li Nian was still awake.

He wasn’t in his office anymore, as there was still Xiang Jiang there, and it wouldn’t be easy to carry out his plan. After pretending to leave work, Li Nian headed straight for Jiao Lian’s room.

He provided Minister Jiao Lian with a mobile phone with power, which allowed her to speak up at any time. Li Nian politely sat in the far corner, tapping away on his computer.

In the dimly lit bedroom, numerous computer screens on Jiao Lian’s body emitted a dim light, and countless indescribable images slowly flashed on them. Li Nian sat in the guest corner of the suite, his face pale under the cold light.

Half of his screen displayed numerous case files, while the other half showed his WeChat conversation with Fu Xingchuan.

Fu Xingchuan had just sent over a steaming hot picture of grilled meat covered in garlic butter, with the caption: [This may be the brain state of Unit 9 after Yin Ren told them.]

Li Nian couldn’t be bothered to respond to him and continued to look at the case files.

These were the investigation materials on the “enemies” that Fu Xingchuan had dug up with some guidance from Yin Ren. Along with it were facial feature analysis and preliminary investigation results on “Qi Xin” in Gengsheng Town. Fu Xingchuan’s investigation was done without the knowledge of the authorities in Shian. Though he may have lost his post, he was still as sharp as ever, as the information he gathered was quite detailed.

Most of the enemies’ families lived very ordinary lives in Haigu. At most, they would burn incense and look at Feng Shui. Only two people were suspicious—

The first was Qiu Fang, the “Young Mr. Qiu” of the Qiu family who was a brainless playboy that only knew how to drink and go clubbing all night long. He recently suffered a heart attack a while ago and had kept a low profile after being discharged.

He had been so low-key that even surveillance records were hard to come by.

Interestingly, his movements during the time of the attack on the Fu family estate and the night of the incident at the Municipal Hospital were peculiar—he deliberately went to the old alleys with sparse surveillance and didn’t even have a companion by his side.

After the small-scale Divine Descent, he disappeared altogether.

Of course, this evidence wasn’t enough to prove that “Qiu Fang” was the perpetrator, but strange things did happen around him—with the son missing, not only did his parents not report to the police, but they didn’t even call to check up on him, so it was hard to say if they even knew their son was missing. And when his other drinking buddies were asked about him, their initial reactions were all confusion, as if they were being asked about a kindergarten playmate they had long forgotten.

It reminded Li Nian of the “Mayor” in Gengsheng Town.

Fortunately, “Qiu Fang” hadn’t disappeared completely, and Li Nian could still understand his information. It just added some reading obstacles for Professor Li and required a lot of effort to understand.

The second suspicious person was Qiu Fang’s grandfather, “Elder Qiu”.

Six years ago, Elder Qiu woke up from a vegetative state and had been hospitalized ever since. During this time, all his physiological indicators were still normal. However, he hardly communicated with his family and rarely talked to other people in the hospital—before becoming a vegetable, Elder Qiu was quite humorous and talkative, but after waking up, he became low-key as if he were a completely different person.

It wasn’t easy for a vegetative person to wake up, and brain damage could have various unknown consequences. The old man had no spouse, and no one cared about his personality issues.

The old man’s hospital room had an excellent view and could see most of Haigu, including the abandoned building.

The period when Elder Qiu suffered from heart failure coincided with the hospitalization of his grandson, who had a heart attack. The old man’s heart failure was suspiciously timed. He had just passed away, and his grandson, who was “half-brain dead,” woke up.

It was hard to say if these were coincidences.

Li Nian stared at the text on the screen and slowly rotated his insulated cup to pour himself a cup of strong tea.

According to the hospital’s imaging records, only one woman in her forties came to visit him. The woman wasn’t related to or friends with the family, and she wore a bright and cheap T-shirt, and the bouquet was also the cheapest style. When thrown into a crowd, such a person couldn’t be found.

After finishing his tea, Li Nian dragged the report box to reveal an image—

When the woman left the old man’s room, there was a moment of distortion in the corner of the surveillance video. Li Nian handed that “malfunctioning screen” to Jiao Lian for analysis, and now he was facing the analysis results.

The screen showed two people melded together. Half of it was the forty-year-old woman leaving, and the other half was wearing black clothes, not clearly visible.

It was like cutting two people into extremely fine mosaics and splicing them together. It looks like a freak that an ignorant child built with Lego blocks. Li Nian spent a lot of effort to separate the black-clothed figure and complete it with AI.

That “melded” black-clothed woman was precisely the missing “Qi Xin”.

Qi Xin visited Mr. Qiu.

Attacks that were beyond Sunken Society’s abilities, the large number of corruption sources possessed by Sunken Society in recent years, Zhong Chengshuo’s corpse appearing in the underground corpse vault of Sunken Society—these weird puzzles all now had an explanation.

Qiu Fang and Qi Xin. They were unknown forces with great mysteries.

It was already a hassle to deal with Sunken Society, but now there was another enemy lurking in the dark along with the ticking time bomb that was Xiang Jiang. Li Nian couldn’t help but sigh. Even the newly added intelligence about the Divine Descent couldn’t make him happy.

As if having telepathic abilities, a few more messages popped up in the WeChat chat box on the left.

[Seek Blessings For Yourself*: Don’t think too much about things that will or won’t happen. With the Great Celestia Master here, even if the sky falls, there’s someone tall to hold it up.]

*(自求多符) Phrase referring to one should work hard and strive for success and happiness on their own, rather than relying on luck or the help of others.

[Seek Blessings For Yourself: You finished reading Yin Ren’s proposal, right?]

Of course he finished reading it, but the problem was that Li Nian didn’t quite agree with the proposal.

[Li Nian: I’ll think about it again.]

[Li Nian: It’s fine if you don’t go.]

[Seek Blessings For Yourself: I have to look after the younger generation. Don’t worry.]

He looked up towards the bedroom. Jiao Lian, who had already lost her human form, was leaning against the bed, and her “blood vessels” extended to the surrounding walls, slowly pulsing. The blinking of the screens all over her body was like breathing.

They had worked together for many years, but he was starting to forget what Jiao Lian looked like.

At this point, the last thing Shian needed was another “accident”. Fu Xingchuan had mentioned something about lifespan, but for now, Jiao Lian, who was still alive, could be considered an exception.

……

Late at night, Ping’an Manor.

Zhong Chengshuo opened the fridge, running his fingertips over the bright red apple. He looked at the fresh fruit in the dish and the dwindling supply of apples in the fridge and ultimately decided to restock before changing it out.

The chill from the fridge wafted over as Zhong Chengshuo poured himself a glass of cold milk. He had just turned his head when he saw Yin Ren standing behind him.

Zhong Chengshuo instinctively adjusted his nightcap. “?”

“I rarely see you unable to sleep.” Yin Ren stared at Zhong Chengshuo’s neck. “Are you not feeling well?”

“I’m just a little afraid.”

Zhong Chengshuo readily admitted, pouring another glass of milk and handing it to Yin Ren.

Since the Divine Descent incident, Zhong Chengshuo had become obsessed with the word “fear”. He was like a child who had just received a new game, eager to explore all the mission scenarios.

Yin Ren held the cup to his lips. “Worried about tomorrow?”

“Yes,” Zhong Chengshuo replied after finishing his drink. “Although there are no problems with the plan, but…”

But he found that he couldn’t accept an ending like “death” or “separation”, and various anxious thoughts would always arise. These negative speculations made his stomach sour.

The principle behind the Divine Descent, whether they or Shian, could deduce it to some extent.

It was like a “whale fall*” caused by a biological organism like the sniper.

*Occurs when the carcass of a whale has fallen onto the ocean floor. On the seafloor, its carcass creates a complex localized ecosystem that supplies sustenance to deep-sea organisms for decades. You can watch a little about it here.

When the sniper died, its body was scattered. The “large pieces” that had not yet decomposed became a source of Evil Force, and the Evil Force further “rotted”, becoming the present-day evil qi that pervaded the human world.

In other words, whether it was a thousand years ago or twenty-eight years ago, there were such organisms—the “Primordial Elementals”, that fell from the Other Side to this side. They caused great impacts on the human world and scattered invisible flesh and blood.

The Divine Descent from twenty-eight years ago was thoroughly investigated by Shian. The large-scale Divine Descent that caused the “Prosperity of Evil” a thousand years ago was very tempting to Shian. If Yin Ren’s plan were to be proposed, Shian would almost certainly not refuse.

Tomorrow, he would need to announce the mission to the members of Unit 9, which Zhong Chengshuo was already familiar with…

[I was once interested in the Other Side for personal reasons. Yin Ren integrated some of my research materials and gave them to Shian. Combined with the information collected from the recent small-scale Divine Descent, we have a preliminary plan…]

At the same time, Li Nian was scrolling with his mouse…

[…Currently, Shian can extract the most ‘stable’ memories from the consciousness of the Evil Spirit to appease it. Yin Ren wants to apply the same extraction technique to himself and search for clues about the Divine Descent a thousand years ago in his deep memories.]

[The principle of this technique comes from the Archive, which essentially creates a memory world.]

[However, the ‘capacity’ of the Archive is limited and can only explore the human brain, which cannot be used for Yin Ren. We can use the underground Evil Spirit as an energy source to create a larger ‘temporary Archive’.]

[Shian’s Evil Spirit and the Great Celestial Master Zhong Yi were once in the same era. With this technique, its memories will resonate with Zhong Yi’s memories and have a complementary effect on that era.]

[Thus, we can conduct a secret investigation into the situation a thousand years ago. With Yin Ren and Fu Xingchuan present, nothing will go wrong.]

Li Nian sneered at the words “nothing will go wrong”, but if it was just exploring pure memories…

This time, the memory owner was Yin Ren, who wasn’t a lunatic like Guo Laifu, and was indeed less dangerous.

Professor Li’s gaze shifted to the “clues about the Divine Descent a thousand years ago”.

He opened his thermos again and poured himself a cup of tea.

……

The next day, the office of Special Investigation Team Unit 9.

“…In summary, we plan to take everyone into Yin Ren’s memories and dig up those details that Yin Ren cannot remember. As the Great Celestial Master who sealed the Six Evil Spirits, every evil and ghost that Yin Ren has encountered has extremely important reference value for our research.”

“As the saying goes, know yourself and know your enemy, and you’ll never be defeated in a hundred battles*.” Yin Ren smiled and continued, “If we can thoroughly study the power of the evils, let alone Divine Descents, we might even touch upon that mysterious Other Side.”

*Quote from “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu which refers to understanding both oneself and the enemy to succeed in any battle or competition.

“And this memory is mine. You all can just tour it when you enter.”

Ge Tingting raised her hand. “Since it’s your memory, can’t you just recall it yourself?”

“If you live too long, you will forget many details.” Yin Ren smiled.

Lu Xiaohe was obviously excited. She pinched Ge Tingting’s shoulder and said, “Just think of it as a large-scale hypnosis, making people carefully recall the details of the incident.”

Ge Tingting nodded absentmindedly.

Huang Jin looked at Zhong Chengshuo with a serious face, then at Yin Ren, and couldn’t help feeling a bit emotional. “I don’t have a problem helping to look at the memories. But having one person, um, play two roles is really not necessary…”

It was quite creepy, actually.

“It’s because when people get older, they like to deceive themselves,” Yin Ren answered in a low voice as he put his hand naturally on Zhong Chengshuo’s waist. “Xiao Huang, any objections?”

“…No.”

Zhong Chengshuo turned his head and looked at Yin Ren, who leaned in close and spoke in an almost inaudible voice.

“After this investigation, I’ll probably be able to see how I was born as a ‘child’. When the time comes, I’ll find an excuse to send everyone out first, and then use a spell to see your memories from 28 years ago. We’ll stay underground the whole time, so there definitely won’t be any accidents this time.”

Zhong Chengshuo’s black eyes looked at Yin Ren for a long time without responding.

“Perhaps.”

He didn’t give a definite answer.

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