Chapter 3: It Has Begun, Part 1—Trouble Arises—translated by lucathia (proofread by Arcedemius, Taffygirl13, & Trespasserby)
At first, Liu Yishi hadn’t noticed that his son had gone missing. Both father and son were capable of solo operations. Dividing up the work was much more efficient.
Lu Yang had many resources in Taiwan. He was responsible for connecting them with support for their online operations, while Liu Yishi was responsible for going over what they knew with Hu Lican.
Liu Yishi had Hu Lican focus on the society. That society was extremely suspicious; looking into them was definitely the first priority of the investigation.
Their suspicions had proven correct. Club president Xu Xikai was a transfer student who had only just transferred over during the previous school year. He and Jian Zhi were classmates in the same department. When Xu Xikai first started the society, Jian Zhi was the first member.
Xu Xikai must have approached Jian Zhi because of his guardian spirit, the angel. Liu Yishi did not believe that Xu Xikai could be without any guilt. He had started the society and had personally directed the night venture—he is definitely involved!
But is he the mastermind? Liu Yishi frowned. He had not met Xu Xikai before, but Lu Yang had mentioned that Xu Xikai looked around his age. Even if he was not actually a university student, he definitely could not be over thirty. This was even a conservative guess. In fact, Lu Yang did not feel that Xu Xikai could be a single day over twenty-five.
Could such a youth possibly be the one responsible for this incident?
“We can’t apprehend him.” Hu Lican honestly divulged over the phone, “Even though we know what’s up, he hasn’t done anything on the surface. Even if he was the one who killed Li Yao, we don’t have any evidence at all. We can’t apprehend him based on that.”
Liu Yishi understood it well. If this were overseas, he at least had some connections he could use, even if it were in the name of “cooperating with the investigation” to have the suspect taken to a black room first. Yet, he did not have such means in Taiwan. More accurately, he was not acquainted with anyone who had such means.
On top of that, he highly doubted that they could still find “Xu Xikai.”
“Help me investigate Xu Xikai’s background more, such as who he was in contact with. I believe that he might not be the mastermind. It would not have been easy to carry out what was done. I don’t believe this was a crime he could have committed by himself.”
Hu Lican answered with a “roger” and hung up.
Liu Yishi placed Jian Zhi’s information aside and flipped through the next set of information. The first page showed Lin Zhixiang’s student photograph.
He gave a low hum as he pondered if it was a coincidence that this female student, who possessed the power of curses, had joined the society, or if this was another calculated event.
But this female student also knew Li Yao. Liu Yishi did not believe that there could be so many coincidences in this world. Lin Zhixiang must be involved with everything.
At this time, his father-in-law rushed inside, scaring Liu Yishi so much that he immediately stood up and properly greeted him.
However, Master Ah Lu said, “Ah Shi, go find Xiao Yang.”
“Xiao Yang is with Jiang Ziya.”
Even though he had been neck-deep in research, Liu Yishi could recall that Lu Yang had run over agitatedly not long ago to tell him that Jiang Ziya wasn’t picking up his phone, and that he was going to head over to take a look.
Liu Yishi had thought that it was very possible that Jiang Ziya was either dead to the world from exhaustion due to their late night, or it could be that he had forgotten to charge his phone before sleeping. However, when Liu Yishi considered that Jiang Ziya had the truth-seeing eye, he could not be certain either, so he had not stopped his son from heading over.
“Just now, when I passed by Laojun, the large stick of incense sudden’y broke! Xiao Yang was the one who placed the incense this mornin’.” Master Ah Lu frowned and said, “I sense somethin’ big. Go find him.”
Liu Yishi also grew nervous. Even though there was only one Lord, he could not deny that he had indeed directly and indirectly felt Laojun’s existence several times, and Laojun even deeply adored his son!
When he was young, Lu Yang had wanted to remain in Taiwan, and one of the reasons was because he wanted to stay by Laojun’s side.
Besides his parents-in-law, he also had to fight over his son with Taishang Laojun. Liu Yishi felt that being a father was truly difficult.
Liu Yishi quickly picked up his phone and dialed Lu Yang’s number. No one picked up still, but he wasn’t too nervous yet. He could be riding his motorcycle. After he called two more times without receiving a call back, then he truly got nervous!
Lu Yang had always paid close attention to his phone, practically to the point that he would never miss the ringing of his phone no matter when or where. After all, with their profession, it could be a matter of life and death. One or two calls could be explained away as his being unable to pick up the call on his motorcycle. But with the third call, even if Lu Yang was currently on his motorcycle, he would stop to look at his phone.
Liu Yishi decisively began to call Jiang Ziya’s phone but couldn’t reach him either. He was really nervous now. He stood up, about to go searching.
However, Master Ah Lu instead pushed him down on his shoulder, and it was with quite some strength. Then, the phone rang. Liu Yishi looked down to see that it was Jiang Ziya returning his call. He quickly picked up and asked if Lu Yang was with him.
“Lu Yang isn’t with me. I saw his text saying that he was going to come find me, but he still hasn’t gotten here!”
Liu Yishi’s heart fell, and he said, “Don’t worry, and don’t leave. Stay at home. Wait for an update from me. I don’t want you to go missing, too. Then, I really wouldn’t know where to start searching.”
A helpless and frustrated response sounded over the phone.
“Yuèfù, could you help search for Xiao Yang?”
Master Ah Lu put his fingers together and said, “It ain’t that nothin’s wrong, but I reckon it ain’t life threatenin’ either. It will be fine. You should look for him on your own.”
Liu Yishi wanted to cry but had no tears. He knew that Master Ah Lu actually cared a lot about Xiao Yang, his only grandchild, but he was just too lax with him, as evident in how Lu Yang had become an assistant when he was only in middle school. In the end, he was only an assistant for half a year before Master Ah Lu kicked his assistant out and had him work full time. Just from that, this grandfather was really too easygoing!
There are too many cases to finish. I’ll make sure to pick easy ones for Xiao Yang. Those were Master Ah Lu’s exact words.
However, hearing that Lu Yang’s life wasn’t in danger, Liu Yishi still felt a bit of relief. Master Ah Lu did not impart wisdom often. Whatever he did say was trustworthy.
As if proving his words true, Liu Yishi’s phone rang, and the display indicated it was from Lu Yang.
Liu Yishi quickly picked up. “Sweetheart, where are you? Why didn’t you answer earlier?”
“…” The other end stayed silent for a while before asking, “Is this Lu Yang’s family? This is the hospital.”
Liu Yishi jolted but did not waste any time. He immediately replied, “Yes, I am his father.”
“Your son was in a car accident. He is currently in the hospital.”
Although his hand shook, Liu Yishi still calmly asked, “Is his life in danger?”
“His exact condition is unclear for now. Please hurry and come to the hospital.”
Liu Yishi replied with, “I’m on my way,” and hung up right after. He lifted his head to see Master Ah Lu knowingly say, “Somethin’ happened after all?”
“A car accident.” Liu Yishi was now extremely thankful that his father-in-law had already told him it wasn’t “life threatening.” Otherwise, he would have been scared out of his wits by this news.
Hearing that it was a car accident, Master Ah Lu frowned and said, “Xiao Yang is very vigilant and skilled. He rides his motorcycle properly. He shouldn’t have been caught in an accident. You should look into how this happened.”
Liu Yishi nodded. Even though he knew Lu Yang’s life wasn’t in danger, he was still worried as his father. He indicated that he was going to head over to the hospital right away.
“I’ll take you there.”
Master Ah Lu looked at this fo’igna son-in-law and knew that he was only putting on a brave front. If he were to drive himself, he might get careless and get injured even more than Lu Yang. Master Ah Lu’s son-in-law wasn’t as nimble as his grandson.
When they arrived at the hospital, Lu Yang was still in the operating room. His frantic father and calm grandfather waited outside. In order to divert his attention to stop himself from panicking, Liu Yishi made several calls in succession to get things in order.
“Call that child over.”
Liu Yishi stilled before he understood that the child Master Ah Lu meant should be Jiang Ziya. He quickly called Jiang Ziya and told him that Lu Yang had gotten into a car accident, scaring him so much that he said he would come over right away.
Liu Yishi immediately understood why Master Ah Lu had wanted to drive him over. Can Jiang Ziya drive when his voice sounds so frantic? He could only warn him again: drive slowly, don’t worry, Ah Yang is okay, he’s still in the operating room, so even if you get here, you can’t see him.
After consoling him for a good long while, only then was he reassured enough to let Jiang Ziya come over.
Ending the call, Liu Yishi asked in confusion, “Yuèfù, why do you suddenly want to see Jiang Ziya?”
“To see if there is any change in whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing that he and Lu Yang are friends.”
That worried and relieved Liu Yishi at once. It was a good thing that Master Ah Lu was willing to take a look. No matter if it turned out to be good or bad, at least they would know. What worried him was that if Master Ah Lu was willing to take a look, then that meant it had to be something huge…
While feeling conflicted, Liu Yishi did not have to wait long for Jiang Ziya to arrive. He was out of breath. It was easy to tell how frantic he was.
When Jiang Ziya saw Liu Yishi, he immediately asked, “How is Lu Yang?”
“He is fine. The nurse said the injuries were mostly on his limbs. His life is not in danger.”
Jiang Ziya breathed a huge sigh of relief. Only then did he notice the old guy next to Liu Yishi. His eyes widened, and he immediately greeted, “Grandpa, hello!”
Master Ah Lu merely looked Jiang Ziya up and down in observation. Finally, his gaze honed in on Jiang Ziya’s left eye. Master Ah Lu’s forehead, which was perpetually wrinkled, furrowed even more deeply.
“How strange.”
Jiang Ziya froze. He did not know how to react to those two words and could only look toward Liu Yishi.
Liu Yishi indicated for him not to worry and to stand there patiently to allow Master Ah Lu a look. Countless people wish he would take a look at them!
Jiang Ziya could only stand there patiently to be scrutinized. He occasionally glanced in the direction of the operating room, only not as frantically as earlier. Lu Yang’s father and grandpa were both calmly observing him, so Lu Yang shouldn’t be in grave danger.
The awkwardness of standing there to be observed didn’t persist for long. The light of the operating room dimmed, and a handful of medical staff soon walked out. Liu Yishi immediately stood up and walked up to the doctor.
“Don’t worry.” The doctor smiled. “His upper left arm is not fractured too badly. The patient is very healthy and also youthful. Although he lost some blood, he will be fine after taking some supplements.”
Liu Yishi and Jiang Ziya relaxed and quickly thanked the doctor. Soon, they saw Lu Yang being wheeled out. Perhaps it was because he had been wearing a helmet that his face didn’t have any injuries. His condition did not seem all that bad. He practically looked like he was just sleeping.
“Ziya, keep Lu Yang company.” Liu Yishi glanced at his phone. “I’m going to investigate what happened. Xiao Yang rides his motorcycle very properly, and he has fast reflexes. He shouldn’t get involved in an accident for no reason.”
Jiang Ziya listened and blurted, “You think someone purposely hit him?”
“I just feel that something is wrong.” Liu Yishi clasped Jiang Ziya on the shoulder. “Don’t think too much about it. Just help me look after Xiao Yang.”
After that, he looked at Master Ah Lu. Before he could ask, the latter said, “I’ll take you.”
Liu Yishi immediately knew that his father-in-law wanted to tell him something. His father-in-law taking him to the hospital to see Lu Yang was already uncharacteristic of him. Now, he even wanted to drive him to his investigation? I can barely imagine it!
Jiang Ziya blankly watched Liu Yishi and Master Ah Lu leave with quickened steps. He felt that something was off, but then he figured that watching over Lu Yang was more important. He bowed his head and followed the hospital bed.
The nurse pushing the bed asked curiously, “Are you his brother? You don’t look alike.”
Jiang Ziya quickly clarified, “I’m just a friend.”
“Oh, then where is his family?”
“…They just left.”
Jiang Ziya suddenly realized what was off. Hey, I’m not a relative! Is it right to throw Lu Yang at me for me to look after?
The father and the grandfather, aren’t the two of you way too lax?
“Yuèfù…”
Liu Yishi was a bit uneasy.
His father-in-law’s “how strange” from earlier had scared him. Seeing that his son’s condition was fine—with a complexion that was even healthier than Jiang Ziya’s—he wanted an excuse to leave and ask Master Ah Lu just what was strange. He just hoped it wasn’t something that could not be divulged again.
In the end, Master Ah Lu said he would drive him, and he clearly wanted to tell Liu Yishi something without any prompting—this was even scarier!
Liu Yishi was inwardly shaking. He stutteringly asked, “Y-you once said that Xiao Yang and Jiang Ziya’s closeness, with their rare abilities, could result in great fortune or great misfortune. Could it be that…”
He did not dare to give voice to it. The spoken word at times could be a power in and of itself. It could be that only a slight push was needed for the direction to veer toward good or bad with no end in sight. That’s why I can’t say something negative!
“This has nothin’ to do with it!” Master Ah Lu denied in a single breath.
Liu Yishi felt his face redden, but the person before him was his father-in-law. He could not blow his top at him, not even at death’s door, so he forcefully held in his frustration.
Master Ah Lu glanced at his son-in-law and seemed to feel that his own behavior was unreasonable. He clarified what he meant with an explanation.
“Good or bad is yet to be decided. There are many changin’ factors. It is still too unpredictable even now.”
Liu Yishi did not feel comforted.
“That child’s power has just improved too quickly. It ain’t right. It normally shouldn’t improve at this speed. You should be wary.”
Liu Yishi asked doubtfully, “Maybe it’s because he has stepped foot into the innerworld and has seen too much lately?”
Master Ah Lu just shook his head. This made Liu Yishi begin to contemplate if this had anything to do with his own son. After all, the person Jiang Ziya interacted with the most was Lu Yang.
“Where to?”
“Huh?” Liu Yishi was not able to react right away.
Master Ah Lu clobbered his son-in-law on the back of his head. “Where are you headin’? I said I’ll take you, so I’m takin’ you. Do you take me for a liar?”
Liu Yishi quickly said, “No! To the police station.”
“Let’s go!”
Liu Yishi could only obediently get in his father-in-law’s… sports car, a bright red model.
Then, he drove it extremely slowly, not at all like a sports car. According to Xiao Chun-sǎo, when Master Ah Lu was young, he was the sort who floored the gas pedal and whatever the top speed was, was the speed he went at. But once they had their daughter, he no longer dared to do so. He was deathly afraid that his daughter would emulate him. If that happened, Xiao Chun-sǎo would have her husband’s hide, no condiments needed.
Once his daughter had been taken overseas by his son-in-law, Master Ah Lu had returned to his bad habits, the speedometer going haywire, earning him tickets and nagging from Xiao Chun-sǎo all the time.
Then, Xiao Lu Yang had returned to the country to live with his gramps and grandma. Master Ah Lu’s driving speed had once again dropped and stayed like that the entire time. Even though Lu Yang had already grown up and would not emulate him, he and Xiao Chun-sǎo were in cahoots. They warned Master Ah Lu that however fast Gramps dared to drive, his grandson would drive even faster!
A despondent grandpa used a sluggishly slow driving speed to take revenge on his grandson, but who knew that the grandson would not feel the need to rebel at all? However slow Gramps drove, he would drive just as slowly. He did not have a single word of complaint.
Once they reached the police station and Liu Yishi got out, he did not even have time to turn his head to say anything before the sports car drove off.
There was nothing Liu Yishi could do about his father-in-law, who had such a unique character.
He turned around and entered the police station. Hu Lican was already waiting for him.
“I’ve already gotten a hold of the security footage you wanted.” Hu Lican asked in concern, “Is Lu Yang okay?”
Liu Yishi nodded and said, “He fractured his left arm. The other injuries are all minor.”
Hearing that Lu Yang’s injuries were minor, Hu Lican breathed a sigh of relief. He had already watched the security footage. Coming out of that with only minor injuries was lucky of him—no, he should say, it was amazing of him!
“Come watch over here.” Hu Lican waved Liu Yishi over.
The computer screen showed the footage of the accident. The angle was great. The entire accident was clearly shown.
Liu Yishi’s face darkened at what he saw in the security footage. Lu Yang was driving his motorcycle properly through a green light when a car hurtled through a red light and rammed into him, sending him flying. Then, the car sped away without any intention of remaining.
The video ended in mere seconds, but Hu Lican tinkered with it and the scene replayed. This time, the playback was in slow motion, only for them to see that not only had the car not braked before impact, it had even sped up.
Fortunately, the moment before collision, Lu Yang seemed to have noticed the car, and with a twist of his motorcycle, he avoided a frontal collision but was unable to avoid being clipped. Then, he flew out.
It was also fortunate that Lu Yang was wearing a professional grade helmet. When he flew out, he immediately hugged his knees with his arms, and he landed in a roll that lessened the impact. Otherwise, the impact would have killed him or left him half dead. That was why Hu Lican had said that Lu Yang was amazing.
“It was done on purpose?” Liu Yishi quietly asked.
Hu Lican nodded and said, “It should be. The license plate was also modified. The license plate number doesn’t match the car.”
Liu Yishi said in consideration, “Lu Yang hasn’t taken all that many cases related to practitioners. Even if any bad blood has resulted, it shouldn’t come to the point of someone driving a car into him.”
“As I thought, it has to do with this case, right?!”
Hu Lican was not surprised. When he got the text from Liu Yishi saying that Lu Yang was in an accident, he reflexively felt that this had to be related to the case. Otherwise, the timing would be way too coincidental. That was why he had even left the scene of the crime and hurried directly to the location of the car accident to search for the security footage nearby.
“How about I assign a police officer to protect Lu Yang?”
Liu Yishi frowned. At first, he wanted to say there was no need, but then he considered how ridiculous this practitioner was. They might even dare to shoot someone dead.
“Send over that officer who was always the first to react on scene.”
“You mean Fang Da? No problem.”
Hu Lican turned his head and called Fang Da to have him head over to the hospital right away. Then, he held up a paper bag and took out a bunch of photographs to scatter over the table.
“These are photographs of the homicide locations at the university. There were a bunch of random sigils at the scenes again. Don’t tell me that these are actually magic circles used overseas to curse people?”
Liu Yishi scrutinized the “magic circles used to curse people,” a deep frown on his face. These illustrations weren’t without a source. The sigils were clearly based on the seven deadly sins. However, they had little to do with curses. On top of that, the homicides themselves had little to do with the seven deadly sins. With an angel involved, as well as school wonders, it was practically a huge mishmash of legends.
Seeing Liu Yishi deep in thought, Hu Lican did not dare to interrupt him. He waited patiently, but a phone call made his face lose all color.
Liu Yishi knew something must be wrong.
After hanging up, Hu Lican bitterly laughed. “The photos from the homicide scenes have been leaked. They’ve hit the news along with the seven school wonders.”
Liu Yishi paled. “Why didn’t you contact the media first?”
Hu Lican rubbed his face and said, “We did. But it’s everywhere on the net. With photos of the homicide scenes included, it’s a sensational story. Some small news channels have already been airing the story and causing an uproar. There’s no way that the big news channels wouldn’t follow suit.”
Liu Yishi frowned. He recalled Yu Shu’s guess, that the culprit wanted the Seven Wonders to come true.
It seems that it is no longer a guess.
Chapter 3: It Has Begun, Part 2—Club President—translated by lucathia (proofread by Trespasserby & Taffygirl13)
“Lad, be more careful. Look closely.”
Hearing a familiar voice warn him, Lu Yang immediately opened his eyes. He didn’t even have any confusion from just waking up. Two fingers on his right hand closed together as he planned to summon Slay.
Jiang Ziya originally had his head lowered as he peeled an apple. When he noticed the movement, he lifted his head to look at Lu Yang. He asked in confusion, “Why is your right hand raised?”
Lu Yang frowned. There was absolutely no sign of Slay appearing.
“Where is my Slay?”
Jiang Ziya was completely confused as he asked, “What Slay? Did you get a concussion? The doctor clearly said you only injured your hand.”
Lu Yang jolted and growled, “Stop fooling around. Do you think I’d get trapped by a mere barrier dimension? You actually believe that a hallucination can prevent me from summoning Slay? The bond between me and Slay can’t be stopped by any barrier!”
Lu Yang proceeded to chant, “Natural order of Heavens and Earth, disperse the foulness from the air, mighty gods of the eight cardinals, cut down demons and bind evil. Let the evil impurities dissolve away, let Taoism last for all eternity, let this imperial decree of Taishang Laojun be heard. Obey—”
This time, there was movement. The airflow whirled above. The range of the whirlwind grew larger and larger, almost as if the entire hospital room was about to get engulfed. The distorted room became rather eerie and dark.
A light suddenly flashed in the center of the vortex. An ancient sword appeared out of thin air.
Lu Yang sternly warned, “You dare impersonate someone close to me? Slay, cut him down.”
Jiang Ziya shouted in disbelief, “Lu Yang, you’re actually going to kill me?!”
Lu Yang coldly said, “The kind of thing you are has never been alive in the first place. What right do you have to die?”
Slay shot out, piercing directly through “Jiang Ziya’s” chest and out through his back. Jiang Ziya shattered into a bunch of pieces that scattered across the floor. The entire room began to twist and distort further. Lu Yang called Slay back to his side for protection. No spirit could get past Slay!
When he opened his eyes again, Lu Yang saw at a glance that there was actually another Jiang Ziya peeling an apple by his bedside. Lu Yang’s expression immediately changed. Am I still in the barrier dimension?
This Jiang Ziya slowly lifted his head… and froze. He helplessly said, “You’re up already? You just got out of the operating room, and I only just started peeling this apple, yet you’re already up. But I should have expected this. After all, you’ve pretty much left the boundaries of what’s considered human.”
Lu Yang snorted and relaxed, leaning back and lazily saying, “If I can’t be considered human, then what am I?”
Jiang Ziya gave it some thought. “A perverted human.”
“That still has the word human!”
Jiang Ziya stuffed two slices of apples into Lu Yang’s mouth and snapped, “Superman has the word man in it, but can he be considered human?”
“Yes!” Lu Yang chewed and asked in a garbled voice, “How come you’re the only one around? Where’s my dad?”
“Ah, he and your grandpa waited outside the operating room for you. They left to investigate after they saw you were fine.”
This father and grandpa are way too lax.
Jiang Ziya could not help but speak up for them, “Too many lives have been lost. It’s better to investigate quickly to prevent another homicide from happening.”
Lu Yang thought it over. “My dad probably isn’t investigating the case, but rather my crash instead. It wasn’t an accident. The other person definitely ran into me on purpose.”
Jiang Ziya cried out in shock, “What?”
Lu Yang looked at his left arm and asked, “How are my injuries?”
Jiang Ziya answered in a stupor, “Just a fracture in your left arm and excessive blood loss. The doctor said it’s not serious. You’ll be fine after taking some supplements.” That was why he had gone downstairs to buy some things to help Lu Yang recover.
Looking at his left arm, Lu Yang sighed. “When I landed, I had no choice but to sacrifice my left arm. It would be even more of a pain if I had injured other areas. Only injuring my left arm means I can at least still walk.”
…Just where do you, a patient who was just in a crash, plan to go?
Jiang Ziya continued to stuff apples into Lu Yang’s mouth and unhappily declared, “Don’t you think of going anywhere. Behave and get better!”
Lu Yang obediently chewed on the apple. “That’s too hard.”
Jiang Ziya rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, but Lu Yang cut in before he could speak to say, “If people keep dying, do you really plan on keeping me here, only to watch the students at our university get turned into sacrifices for the school wonders one after another?”
Jiang Ziya froze. He frowned and said, “Your dad is already investigating, and your grandpa is around, too. It doesn’t have to be you, right?”
“My gramps doesn’t get involved much lately.” Lu Yang despondently said, “He knows too much. Interfering would shorten his life.”
Jiang Ziya’s eyes widened. “You won’t get in trouble if you interfere, will you?”
Lu Yang shook his head. “It’s not like I know anything.”
Jiang Ziya heaved a sigh of relief. “That’s true. You only know how to slay.”
“Who says?! I know how to stab, too!”
Jiang Ziya rolled his eyes. He stuffed the remaining slice of apple into Lu Yang’s mouth. Then, he picked up the remote control and turned on the television in the hospital room.
When the television turned on, it was shockingly broadcasting the headlining news of the university homicides. The seven school wonders were explained in depth, with photographs in the background even. Although the photographs were blurred with mosaics, the two of them could tell that those images were all of the homicide scenes. They could not believe that the news even had photographs of those!
“Ziya, change the channel.” Lu Yang’s face darkened.
Jiang Ziya immediately changed the channel from one big news channel to the next, but no matter which channel he switched to, they were all reporting on the same news.
“I thought the police would have sealed away this information.”
“They should have.” Lu Yang frowned. “They would have at least spoken with the media and instructed them not to report on the details.”
But the news was detailed to the point of including photographs. Something was obviously wrong. It could have been that the culprit had released so much information that no one could keep it under wraps.
“Huh?” Jiang Ziya gestured at the television screen oddly. “Lu Yang, look at that. This is a video that the society filmed, right? It’s from the legend of the smiling student who jumped off of the building. The society got the falling black figure on video. This is that video, right?”
“Make a call.” Lu Yang opened his mouth to ask, “Ziya, you have the president’s phone number, right? Call him!”
“I don’t have it! I’ve only communicated through Jian Zhi, but he’s…” Jiang Ziya suddenly thought of something. “Lin Zhixiang might have his number. I’ll try calling her.”
Lu Yang froze. Lin Zhixiang? A thought abruptly came to him, and his face paled, but he did not say anything, quietly waiting for Jiang Ziya to call her. He already had a premonition.
Jiang Ziya hung up and frowned. “No answer.”
“That night, did she call you after?”
Jiang Ziya reflexively said, “No…” With just that single word, his expression immediately changed.
Something so big had happened. How could Lin Zhixiang not have made any contact after?!
Jiang Ziya frantically looked toward Lu Yang, who said with a heavy heart, “She was probably captured. To a practitioner, her ability is very strong and very useful, too. Call my dad right now. Tell him about this.”
Jiang Ziya quickly made the call.
Lu Yang frowned. That Jian Zhi and Lin Zhixiang had both joined the Supernatural Phenomena Studies Society was likely not a coincidence but rather a calculated occurrence. Lin Zhixiang believed herself to be existence’s bane. As long as preparations were made, it would not have been a hard feat to lure her into joining the type of society that the Supernatural Phenomena Studies Society was.
Jian Zhi’s guardian spirit was powerful. There had no doubt been plenty of small, inexplicable occurrences in his life. Along with his introverted and docile personality, getting him to join must have likewise not been difficult.
Lu Yang and Liu Yishi had the same conjecture: the president Xu Xikai was definitely problematic!
Jiang Ziya puffed out a breath. “Your dad says he got it. He’ll continue to text us about the progress of the investigation. He wants me to message this stuff to Yu Shu and think of a way to get her to make some guesses.”
Lu Yang approved of this immediately. “This is a good plan. Call her right away. Even if you annoy her to death, get her agreement to come up with conjectures. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of all communication expenses!”
“… I really wish you guys lived across from Yu Shu instead of me!”
Jiang Ziya could only force himself to send over the information from the investigation and give her a call.
“Do you really want to become vampire food or what?”
Yu Shu’s voice clearly indicated she had just been woken up.
Jiang Ziya quickly explained, “I’m not bothering you on purpose. My classmate has gone missing. If we don’t quickly find her, she might get taken away! Yu Shu, lend us a hand!”
“A hundred thousand… No, this kind of thing that can result in death, you owe me a million!”
Jiang Ziya looked at Lu Yang, who straightforwardly made an OK sign. With a twitching face, Jiang Ziya answered, “Okay, one million it is.”
“…Who’s next to you?”
“Lu Yang.”
“No wonder. There’s no way you could have so readily agreed to paying one million. I should have said five million. I hate rich big shots!”
“So you’ll help now, right?” Jiang Ziya relaxed. It was fortunate that he hadn’t mentioned that Lu Yang was beside him from the start, or they would be unnecessarily down by four million!
“No way, one million isn’t worth it. I don’t want money anymore, but you’ll have to do something for me in the future.”
That made Jiang Ziya wonder, Haven’t I been doing various menial tasks for her all this time?
Lu Yang, who only had one hand left to use, neatly swiped away the phone and hollered, “Take your five million! Jiang Ziya won’t help you do anything!”
Laughter came over the phone. “Classmate Lu Yang, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that you still owe me a favor? Jiang Ziya owes me even more favors. I don’t even know how to have him repay them all. If you don’t want to agree to it, then forget it. In any case, I can just call in a favor and get the same result. I dare you to not repay the favor! Just try it, hmph!”
The phone was hung up on them.
Jiang Ziya rubbed his nose and said, “Why did you argue with her? It’s just doing something for her. There shouldn’t be a problem.”
Lu Yang said with a scowl, “She hasn’t clarified what she wants you to do. When the time comes, you won’t be able to turn down whatever she wants you to do. Agreeing to an invitation with such a weird person like her is extremely dangerous! What if she wants you to turn those two spirits of hers into truths?”
“Uh, I wouldn’t be able to do that anyway.”
Jiang Ziya responded in some embarrassment. He had somehow mysteriously leveled up both of her sons, yet he wasn’t able to level up his family’s Xiao Xue. They were clearly together this entire time, so he really didn’t understand the requirements! He needed to believe that she was real, but he knew that she was real!
Lu Yang said in worry, “You need to think of how to repay the favors you owe her.”
Jiang Ziya thought about it. Yu Shu rarely ever left her apartment, House Keeper always made and brought over all sorts of delicacies all the time, and Hold Keeper could even pretend to be a charlatan. Also, with how Jiang Ziya constantly sought her out for help, he felt that he would never be able to repay the debt he owed her.
Seeing how Lu Yang was so worried that he was about to pull his hair out, Jiang Ziya could only agree for now. After all, he wasn’t worried about accruing too much debt. He would just have to slowly repay it.
Jiang Ziya tapped on countless files on his cell phone to send over. “I’m sending over all the data to her. She could get inspiration from them, so she won’t be able to resist opening them to take a look. If her deductions lead her to a conclusion that involves people’s lives, she won’t keep it to herself.”
Lu Yang’s face twitched. Jiang Ziya had only just promised to think of ways to repay his debt, and now he was already creating another chance to owe more.
“Send it,” Lu Yang said helplessly.
Knocking suddenly sounded on his door.
Lu Yang frowned and asked, “Who is it?”
His hospital room was a single patient room. No outsiders should be coming or going.
“T-this is Fang Da. Captain Hu sent me over to protect you guys.”
“Come on in.” Jiang Ziya already knew of this. Because Lu Yang was injured, Liu Yishi had been sending all the information to Jiang Ziya instead.
A young policeman walked in. His clothes were neat, and even his policeman cap was worn snugly on his head. He looked pale.
The two of them turned to look at him. The policeman actually backed up two steps in fright.
“You’re going to protect me?” Lu Yang felt exasperated. This guy who looked like he was scared out of his wits made Lu Yang doubt just who was going to do the protecting.
“Yes.” Fang Da took in a deep breath and slowly walked over. “Sorry, watching that corpse come back to life right before our eyes yesterday night was really too scary. I’m so glad that you and Mr. Liu were there to take her out…”
Lu Yang lifted his head and said, “Ziya, come here and help me take a look to see if the IV is working properly. I feel like my hand hurts a bit.”
Jiang Ziya gave an affirmative and stood up to take a look. “It seems fine?”
“Really?” Lu Yang said doubtfully, “It still hurts. Help me call the doctor!”
“Okay…”
“I’ll help you take a look.” Fang Da quickly walked over.
“Then, I’ll have to trouble you.”
Lu Yang’s expression was slightly pained, but right at that moment, an ancient sword suddenly shot out with a whirl, slashing toward where Fang Da’s head was.
Jiang Ziya’s eyes widened. He absolutely did not understand why Lu Yang was using Slay to cut someone. However, he remembered that Lu Yang said that Slay could not kill a normal person, so he didn’t put a stop to it.
Seeing that the sword was about to touch his neck, Fang Da could not help but take a large step backward.
Lu Yang shouted, “You really can see Slay. Who are you?”
“How did you find out?”
A curious smile stretched across Fang Da’s pale face.
“Taishang Laojun warned me to look carefully,” Lu Yang coldly replied.
Laojun’s warning had helped him take notice of Fang Da’s use of “take her out.” Hmph, we never took care of Li Yao. Fu Taiyi took that spirit away. Fang Da clearly knows this.
Only then did Jiang Ziya return to his senses and cry out, “He’s not Fang Da?”
“He’s not!” Lu Yang scoffed, “The barrier dimension in this hospital room and a bit of makeup made him look like Fang Da.”
Jiang Ziya’s eyes widened. He had not known this was possible. What was also strange was that after Lu Yang exposed the other person’s disguise, he really looked less and less like Fang Da, and more like…
“Xu Xikai!” Lu Yang shouted the other person’s identity before Jiang Ziya, afraid that Jiang Ziya would see through it and shout it.
“Fang Da” smiled and rubbed his face. It really was president Xu Xikai’s face.
Xu Xikai praised, “You really are strong. Even though I planned for you not to die from the car crash, as it wouldn’t be worth it to have Master Ah Lu interfere because of his grandson’s death, I hadn’t expected that your injuries would be so mild. To think you were able to dodge in such a situation and protect yourself to the greatest degree—as expected of ‘Slay’!”
Lu Yang had no plans to waste words on him. He already had Slay blocking horizontally across the door, getting rid of any possibility of escape.
Even though Slay could not kill a person, a practitioner who could see Slay would definitely hurt so much from getting stabbed in the vitals by the sword that they would fall to the ground.
“Wait , don’t you or that sword come close to me!” Xu Xikai pulled a police gun from his waist. “This isn’t a fake gun. Test it out, if you dare.”
Lu Yang narrowed his eyes.
Xu Xikai chuckled. “I know that to a person of your skill level, a short distance like this might not make it impossible for you to predict where I would shoot, dodge the bullet, and have the sword cut into me—”
He pointed the gun at Jiang Ziya and said, “But he definitely can’t dodge it! You may be able to subdue me, but in the time it takes to do that, whether or not Jiang Ziya would get shot would be difficult to predict.”
Lu Yang remained still. He calmly asked, “What in the world do you want?”
“You all know about the seven wonders now, right? They aren’t false at all. It’s just that they took place overseas. I merely changed them up a bit so that these legends would fit the university you’re studying at—what a university with hidden talents, don’t you agree?”
Lu Yang’s eyes flashed, and he said with certainty, “You kidnapped Lin Zhixiang?”
“Calling it kidnapping is too rude. She willingly came with me, for the sake of this.”
As he spoke, Xu Xikai tossed down an enlarged photograph of a black book. A complicated, circular sigil was outlined in gold on the book cover.
“The library’s thirteenth bookcase, a bookcase filled with forbidden books—I want one of those books.”
Lu Yang frowned.
Xu Xikai said with grave seriousness, “The book in the photograph is ‘Resurrection.’”
Chapter 3: It Has Begun, Part 3—The Bookcase—translated by lucathia (proofread by Taffygirl13 & Trespasserby)
Lin Zhixiang anxiously rushed to the guys’ dormitory. Along the way, plenty of boys gave her dubious looks, but she couldn’t pay them any mind. The moment she grabbed someone, she pressed, “Do you know where Jian Zhi is?” She grabbed several guys in succession for answers. When she learned the correct location of his room, she immediately headed over and pounded on his door thunderously.
“Jian Zhi? Jian Zhi!”
The door opened. A guy stared in bewilderment at Lin Zhixiang, confused over why this woman was crazed to this degree.
Lin Zhixiang pushed the guy aside and ran into the room. It was empty. She immediately spun around, grabbed the guy’s collar, and demanded, “Where is Jian Zhi? Where is he?”
The guy frantically said, “Jian Zhi went to participate in a club activity. He isn’t back yet. He should be back soon. You can just wait for him. Aren’t you overreacting?”
Lin Zhixiang ignored him. She took out her phone and called Jiang Ziya, only for no one to pick up after three consecutive tries. She paled but remembered that she also had Lu Yang’s number. She quickly called Lu Yang and told him everything, including how Jiang Ziya wanted her to find Jian Zhi, but she couldn’t find him. Now, even Jiang Ziya’s number was not connecting.
Lu Yang told her he would search for Jiang Ziya and hung up on her. He did not instruct her on what to do next.
Lin Zhixiang stared at her cell phone. She could not help but call Jiang Ziya’s number several times more, but it never connected. The unease she felt grew stronger and stronger… I really am existence’s bane!
She should never have dreamed of academics, of joining this club, of approaching Jiang Ziya and Lu Yang. In fact, she should have firmly embarrassed Jian Zhi long ago and made him give up on her…
“Hey, you okay? Jian Zhi will be back soon!”
The guy beside her felt uneasy. This girl looks like she’s about to cry. What in the world has Jian Zhi done? He took some tissues from the desk to give her in case the tears in her eyes overflowed.
“Don’t come near me!”
Lin Zhixiang shrieked, scaring the guy so much that he jumped back. She turned and ran off.
However, once she exited the dormitory, she fell into a daze and had no clue where to go. She stood blankly at the entrance until someone grabbed her and pulled her away.
Lin Zhixiang screamed, “Let go of me! Don’t touch me. You’ll die because of me!”
“Lin Zhixiang, it’s me.”
Lin Zhixiang stilled. Only then did she see who had come.
“President?”
Xu Xikai smiled at the few surrounding onlookers that had started to pay attention to them and said, “I’m sorry, my girlfriend was just bickering with me.”
After observing that Lin Zhixiang was neither struggling nor crying for help, those people smiled to indicate that they understood and left.
“Come!” Xu Xikai pulled Lin Zhixiang away.
“No, you can’t. You have to leave. You don’t understand!” Lin Zhixiang began to resist again. She cried out, “I-I’m the bane of all existence. Anyone who comes near me will be endangered!”
“Jian Zhi died.”
A single sentence from Xu Xikai put a stop to Lin Zhixiang’s struggling. She stared at him blankly and asked, “He’s really dead?”
Xu Xikai nodded, his eyes tearful. After he dragged Lin Zhixiang to a deserted location, he then cried out in frustration, “It was all my fault. I shouldn’t have planned something like a night venture. It was all me!”
“No, it’s not your fault.” Lin Zhixiang mumbled dispiritedly, “It’s mine. It has always been my fault. My parents died, and even my brother became crippled because of me. Has even Jian Zhi died now?”
“Two other club members also died. One drowned in the Pond of Meditation. The other died in the bathroom.”
Lin Zhixiang froze. She lifted her head in disbelief at Xu Xikai.
“I just learned from Lu Yang and the others that it wasn’t just our club members who died either.”
Xu Xikai said with some confusion, “There was even a female student who died at the abandoned campus that we didn’t go to. Just what is going on? Could it be that our venture put the school wonders in motion, and even uninvolved people got dragged in?”
“A f-female student?” Lin Zhixiang suddenly thought of something. A chill seized her heart, and she shook all over. “Do you know h-her name?”
“Yes.” Xu Xikai nodded. “Li Yao.”
Lin Zhixiang fell to the floor, her face as white as paper.
“What’s the matter?” Xu Xikai frowned. “What is this bane of all existence thing you keep talking about?”
Lin Zhixiang shook her head and kept mumbling over and over, “Get away from me.”
“I won’t leave if you don’t tell me!”
In order to get rid of Xu Xikai sooner, Lin Zhixiang had no more reservations. It did not matter even if the president choked her to death after hearing her out. She divulged her identity as “existence’s bane” in full detail, and even revealed that Li Yao had been a classmate of hers from the same major. They had done a small group project together before.
After divulging all of this, she lifted her head and gazed at Xu Xikai with a frightful but expectant expression.
Xu Xikai remained silent for a long while before he said, “No matter if this is your fault or mine, you and I both only have one chance at atonement.”
Lin Zhixiang’s eyes widened. I still have a chance?
“Since the school wonders have come true one after another, then that means that the thirteenth bookcase of forbidden books must also be real!”
Lin Zhixiang looked at Xu Xikai in confusion. So what if it’s real?
Xu Xikai explained, “The legend of the forbidden bookcase is the reason I started this society in the first place. I planned this activity because I knew that the forbidden bookcase has a specific book, one that can bring the deceased back to life: ‘Resurrection.’”
Lin Zhixiang retorted without a second thought, “Bring a dead person back to life? That’s impossible.”
“Look at this.”
Xu Xikai took out his cell phone and played a video. The video astonishingly showed Li Yao turning from a corpse back into a human step by step. In it, Li Yao asked in confusion, “Where am I,” “What’s going on,” before the video ended.
“Is L-Li Yao not dead?”
Lin Zhixiang grabbed the cell phone, nearly about to cry out of joy.
“No…” Xu Xikai’s complexion was ashen. He quietly said, “Lu Yang and his father believed the resurrected Li Yao to be a monster and cut her down again.”
Lin Zhixiang froze.
Xu Xikai quickly explained, “But you can’t blame them. I’m sure that anyone who saw a corpse come back to life would believe them to be a monster. He didn’t know that resurrection was part of the school wonders either. As long as we acquire that book, we can resurrect her again.”
Lin Zhixiang gazed at the Li Yao in the video and asked in a daze, “As long as we get that book, we can resurrect her?”
“Not just Li Yao. As long as we get the book ‘Resurrection,’ everyone can come back to life: Li Yao, Jian Zhi, the other club members, and even…”
Xu Xikai leaned forward, his voice softly enticing. “Even your parents who died because of you can come back to life.”
Lin Zhixiang’s eyes widened.
Xu Xikai pulled the cell phone away and took out an enlarged photograph. He placed it in her hands.
“Look at this. This book is Resurrection. It took me a lot of effort to discover it.”
Lin Zhixiang lowered her head to look at the photograph. She mumbled, “This is Resurrection? Resurre—”
Xu Xikai gently held Lin Zhixiang and glanced at the photograph. His lips curled up.
This was completely out of his expectations. He had thought the book of Resurrection would be white.
Xu Xikai pulled Lin Zhixiang up and forcefully said, “Come, it’s almost dawn. We don’t have much time left. We can’t just let our club members die because of our mistakes. They still have family waiting for them to return!”
Hearing the word “family,” Lin Zhixiang jolted and finally stepped forward and followed Xu Xikai away.
The library was obviously closed in the middle of the night, but this was not a problem at all for Xu Xikai. It didn’t matter either that the school had not agreed to lend the library to him. Why would the university lend the library to a club in the middle of the night?
Xu Xikai had never requested permission to borrow the library in the first place. In any case, these foolish students would never overly wonder about the possibility of such a matter to begin with.
Xu Xikai led Lin Zhixiang straight up to the second floor with assured strides, as if he were in his own home. Upon reaching the entrance, he carefully told her, “Count the bookcases with me one by one, all the way until we reach the thirteenth one.”
Lin Zhixiang nodded, forcefully squashing down the anxiety in her heart and the logic that held on by a thread. One by one, she counted with Xu Xikai. As the number went up, the unease in her heart also rose.
Resurrecting everyone should be okay, right?
They won’t become possessed by the devil like in the movies, right?
But Li Yao looked very normal, and… Lu Yang was able to cut her down! Even if they really are devils, Lu Yang can take care of them.
After making her decision, she sucked in a deep breath and counted the bookcases.
“One… two… seven… eleven…”
“Twelve!”
After counting up to twelve, Lin Zhixiang saw between the gaps of the books on the twelfth bookcase—the thirteenth bookcase!
A black bookcase with a wooden frame.
The thirteenth bookcase actually exists! Lin Zhixiang trembled. Does Resurrection really exist? What if it doesn’t? But what if… it does?
“Lin Zhixiang, let’s go!”
Xu Xikai waited for her to step over. Only then would the dust settle.
Trembling, Lin Zhixiang slowly moved her feet. She walked around the twelfth bookcase, toward the thirteenth.
Standing before the bookcase, she lifted her head to search for the book, Resurrection. However, out of her expectations, she saw a humongous mound of black perched on the bookcase, and it pounced down at her.
“Ah—”
Lin Zhixiang fell against the floor, the impact and the fright she had suffered over the course of the night directly rendering her unconscious.
“Stand down!”
Xu Xikai rushed forward and used the large cross he had prepared ahead of time to thrash the mound of black. Each strike caused the thing to shriek with pain, yet it refused to retreat and used both hands to hold onto Lin Zhixiang tightly without letting go.
“Don’t you want to resurrect Jian Zhi?”
Hearing Jian Zhi’s name, the mound of black hesitated and finally released its hold. It retreated back to the corner and huddled down, both arms hugging the mud below its feet. Tears of blood accompanied endless cries of “Jian Zhi,” “girl he liked”…
“It seems that Lin Zhixiang and the angel are not enough.”
Xu Xikai paid no attention to the unconscious Lin Zhixiang. He walked up to the forbidden black bookcase and casually looked through the books, which mostly consisted of all sorts of curses, yet Resurrection was not among them. There aren’t even any healing spells!
“As expected, Resurrection isn’t something that can easily be made to appear. As for Lin Zhixiang…”
Xu Xikai lowered his head to look at the unconscious Lin Zhixiang. “She has been so unfortunate, yet her morals are unexpectedly proper. How troublesome. This must be the fault of her crippled brother.”
Even though he complained, Xu Xikai’s mood was quite good. His plan was unfolding step by step, and the forbidden bookcase had already appeared. The only thing left to do now was continue to increase the strength behind the “belief.”
Up until Resurrection appears.
Chapter 3: It Has Begun, Part 1—Trouble Arises—translated by lucathia (proofread by Arcedemius, Taffygirl13, & Trespasserby)
At first, Liu Yishi hadn’t noticed that his son had gone missing. Both father and son were capable of solo operations. Dividing up the work was much more efficient.
Lu Yang had many resources in Taiwan. He was responsible for connecting them with support for their online operations, while Liu Yishi was responsible for going over what they knew with Hu Lican.
Liu Yishi had Hu Lican focus on the society. That society was extremely suspicious; looking into them was definitely the first priority of the investigation.
Their suspicions had proven correct. Club president Xu Xikai was a transfer student who had only just transferred over during the previous school year. He and Jian Zhi were classmates in the same department. When Xu Xikai first started the society, Jian Zhi was the first member.
Xu Xikai must have approached Jian Zhi because of his guardian spirit, the angel. Liu Yishi did not believe that Xu Xikai could be without any guilt. He had started the society and had personally directed the night venture—he is definitely involved!
But is he the mastermind? Liu Yishi frowned. He had not met Xu Xikai before, but Lu Yang had mentioned that Xu Xikai looked around his age. Even if he was not actually a university student, he definitely could not be over thirty. This was even a conservative guess. In fact, Lu Yang did not feel that Xu Xikai could be a single day over twenty-five.
Could such a youth possibly be the one responsible for this incident?
“We can’t apprehend him.” Hu Lican honestly divulged over the phone, “Even though we know what’s up, he hasn’t done anything on the surface. Even if he was the one who killed Li Yao, we don’t have any evidence at all. We can’t apprehend him based on that.”
Liu Yishi understood it well. If this were overseas, he at least had some connections he could use, even if it were in the name of “cooperating with the investigation” to have the suspect taken to a black room first. Yet, he did not have such means in Taiwan. More accurately, he was not acquainted with anyone who had such means.
On top of that, he highly doubted that they could still find “Xu Xikai.”
“Help me investigate Xu Xikai’s background more, such as who he was in contact with. I believe that he might not be the mastermind. It would not have been easy to carry out what was done. I don’t believe this was a crime he could have committed by himself.”
Hu Lican answered with a “roger” and hung up.
Liu Yishi placed Jian Zhi’s information aside and flipped through the next set of information. The first page showed Lin Zhixiang’s student photograph.
He gave a low hum as he pondered if it was a coincidence that this female student, who possessed the power of curses, had joined the society, or if this was another calculated event.
But this female student also knew Li Yao. Liu Yishi did not believe that there could be so many coincidences in this world. Lin Zhixiang must be involved with everything.
At this time, his father-in-law rushed inside, scaring Liu Yishi so much that he immediately stood up and properly greeted him.
However, Master Ah Lu said, “Ah Shi, go find Xiao Yang.”
“Xiao Yang is with Jiang Ziya.”
Even though he had been neck-deep in research, Liu Yishi could recall that Lu Yang had run over agitatedly not long ago to tell him that Jiang Ziya wasn’t picking up his phone, and that he was going to head over to take a look.
Liu Yishi had thought that it was very possible that Jiang Ziya was either dead to the world from exhaustion due to their late night, or it could be that he had forgotten to charge his phone before sleeping. However, when Liu Yishi considered that Jiang Ziya had the truth-seeing eye, he could not be certain either, so he had not stopped his son from heading over.
“Just now, when I passed by Laojun, the large stick of incense sudden’y broke! Xiao Yang was the one who placed the incense this mornin’.” Master Ah Lu frowned and said, “I sense somethin’ big. Go find him.”
Liu Yishi also grew nervous. Even though there was only one Lord, he could not deny that he had indeed directly and indirectly felt Laojun’s existence several times, and Laojun even deeply adored his son!
When he was young, Lu Yang had wanted to remain in Taiwan, and one of the reasons was because he wanted to stay by Laojun’s side.
Besides his parents-in-law, he also had to fight over his son with Taishang Laojun. Liu Yishi felt that being a father was truly difficult.
Liu Yishi quickly picked up his phone and dialed Lu Yang’s number. No one picked up still, but he wasn’t too nervous yet. He could be riding his motorcycle. After he called two more times without receiving a call back, then he truly got nervous!
Lu Yang had always paid close attention to his phone, practically to the point that he would never miss the ringing of his phone no matter when or where. After all, with their profession, it could be a matter of life and death. One or two calls could be explained away as his being unable to pick up the call on his motorcycle. But with the third call, even if Lu Yang was currently on his motorcycle, he would stop to look at his phone.
Liu Yishi decisively began to call Jiang Ziya’s phone but couldn’t reach him either. He was really nervous now. He stood up, about to go searching.
However, Master Ah Lu instead pushed him down on his shoulder, and it was with quite some strength. Then, the phone rang. Liu Yishi looked down to see that it was Jiang Ziya returning his call. He quickly picked up and asked if Lu Yang was with him.
“Lu Yang isn’t with me. I saw his text saying that he was going to come find me, but he still hasn’t gotten here!”
Liu Yishi’s heart fell, and he said, “Don’t worry, and don’t leave. Stay at home. Wait for an update from me. I don’t want you to go missing, too. Then, I really wouldn’t know where to start searching.”
A helpless and frustrated response sounded over the phone.
“Yuèfù, could you help search for Xiao Yang?”
Master Ah Lu put his fingers together and said, “It ain’t that nothin’s wrong, but I reckon it ain’t life threatenin’ either. It will be fine. You should look for him on your own.”
Liu Yishi wanted to cry but had no tears. He knew that Master Ah Lu actually cared a lot about Xiao Yang, his only grandchild, but he was just too lax with him, as evident in how Lu Yang had become an assistant when he was only in middle school. In the end, he was only an assistant for half a year before Master Ah Lu kicked his assistant out and had him work full time. Just from that, this grandfather was really too easygoing!
There are too many cases to finish. I’ll make sure to pick easy ones for Xiao Yang. Those were Master Ah Lu’s exact words.
However, hearing that Lu Yang’s life wasn’t in danger, Liu Yishi still felt a bit of relief. Master Ah Lu did not impart wisdom often. Whatever he did say was trustworthy.
As if proving his words true, Liu Yishi’s phone rang, and the display indicated it was from Lu Yang.
Liu Yishi quickly picked up. “Sweetheart, where are you? Why didn’t you answer earlier?”
“…” The other end stayed silent for a while before asking, “Is this Lu Yang’s family? This is the hospital.”
Liu Yishi jolted but did not waste any time. He immediately replied, “Yes, I am his father.”
“Your son was in a car accident. He is currently in the hospital.”
Although his hand shook, Liu Yishi still calmly asked, “Is his life in danger?”
“His exact condition is unclear for now. Please hurry and come to the hospital.”
Liu Yishi replied with, “I’m on my way,” and hung up right after. He lifted his head to see Master Ah Lu knowingly say, “Somethin’ happened after all?”
“A car accident.” Liu Yishi was now extremely thankful that his father-in-law had already told him it wasn’t “life threatening.” Otherwise, he would have been scared out of his wits by this news.
Hearing that it was a car accident, Master Ah Lu frowned and said, “Xiao Yang is very vigilant and skilled. He rides his motorcycle properly. He shouldn’t have been caught in an accident. You should look into how this happened.”
Liu Yishi nodded. Even though he knew Lu Yang’s life wasn’t in danger, he was still worried as his father. He indicated that he was going to head over to the hospital right away.
“I’ll take you there.”
Master Ah Lu looked at this fo’igna son-in-law and knew that he was only putting on a brave front. If he were to drive himself, he might get careless and get injured even more than Lu Yang. Master Ah Lu’s son-in-law wasn’t as nimble as his grandson.
When they arrived at the hospital, Lu Yang was still in the operating room. His frantic father and calm grandfather waited outside. In order to divert his attention to stop himself from panicking, Liu Yishi made several calls in succession to get things in order.
“Call that child over.”
Liu Yishi stilled before he understood that the child Master Ah Lu meant should be Jiang Ziya. He quickly called Jiang Ziya and told him that Lu Yang had gotten into a car accident, scaring him so much that he said he would come over right away.
Liu Yishi immediately understood why Master Ah Lu had wanted to drive him over. Can Jiang Ziya drive when his voice sounds so frantic? He could only warn him again: drive slowly, don’t worry, Ah Yang is okay, he’s still in the operating room, so even if you get here, you can’t see him.
After consoling him for a good long while, only then was he reassured enough to let Jiang Ziya come over.
Ending the call, Liu Yishi asked in confusion, “Yuèfù, why do you suddenly want to see Jiang Ziya?”
“To see if there is any change in whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing that he and Lu Yang are friends.”
That worried and relieved Liu Yishi at once. It was a good thing that Master Ah Lu was willing to take a look. No matter if it turned out to be good or bad, at least they would know. What worried him was that if Master Ah Lu was willing to take a look, then that meant it had to be something huge…
While feeling conflicted, Liu Yishi did not have to wait long for Jiang Ziya to arrive. He was out of breath. It was easy to tell how frantic he was.
When Jiang Ziya saw Liu Yishi, he immediately asked, “How is Lu Yang?”
“He is fine. The nurse said the injuries were mostly on his limbs. His life is not in danger.”
Jiang Ziya breathed a huge sigh of relief. Only then did he notice the old guy next to Liu Yishi. His eyes widened, and he immediately greeted, “Grandpa, hello!”
Master Ah Lu merely looked Jiang Ziya up and down in observation. Finally, his gaze honed in on Jiang Ziya’s left eye. Master Ah Lu’s forehead, which was perpetually wrinkled, furrowed even more deeply.
“How strange.”
Jiang Ziya froze. He did not know how to react to those two words and could only look toward Liu Yishi.
Liu Yishi indicated for him not to worry and to stand there patiently to allow Master Ah Lu a look. Countless people wish he would take a look at them!
Jiang Ziya could only stand there patiently to be scrutinized. He occasionally glanced in the direction of the operating room, only not as frantically as earlier. Lu Yang’s father and grandpa were both calmly observing him, so Lu Yang shouldn’t be in grave danger.
The awkwardness of standing there to be observed didn’t persist for long. The light of the operating room dimmed, and a handful of medical staff soon walked out. Liu Yishi immediately stood up and walked up to the doctor.
“Don’t worry.” The doctor smiled. “His upper left arm is not fractured too badly. The patient is very healthy and also youthful. Although he lost some blood, he will be fine after taking some supplements.”
Liu Yishi and Jiang Ziya relaxed and quickly thanked the doctor. Soon, they saw Lu Yang being wheeled out. Perhaps it was because he had been wearing a helmet that his face didn’t have any injuries. His condition did not seem all that bad. He practically looked like he was just sleeping.
“Ziya, keep Lu Yang company.” Liu Yishi glanced at his phone. “I’m going to investigate what happened. Xiao Yang rides his motorcycle very properly, and he has fast reflexes. He shouldn’t get involved in an accident for no reason.”
Jiang Ziya listened and blurted, “You think someone purposely hit him?”
“I just feel that something is wrong.” Liu Yishi clasped Jiang Ziya on the shoulder. “Don’t think too much about it. Just help me look after Xiao Yang.”
After that, he looked at Master Ah Lu. Before he could ask, the latter said, “I’ll take you.”
Liu Yishi immediately knew that his father-in-law wanted to tell him something. His father-in-law taking him to the hospital to see Lu Yang was already uncharacteristic of him. Now, he even wanted to drive him to his investigation? I can barely imagine it!
Jiang Ziya blankly watched Liu Yishi and Master Ah Lu leave with quickened steps. He felt that something was off, but then he figured that watching over Lu Yang was more important. He bowed his head and followed the hospital bed.
The nurse pushing the bed asked curiously, “Are you his brother? You don’t look alike.”
Jiang Ziya quickly clarified, “I’m just a friend.”
“Oh, then where is his family?”
“…They just left.”
Jiang Ziya suddenly realized what was off. Hey, I’m not a relative! Is it right to throw Lu Yang at me for me to look after?
The father and the grandfather, aren’t the two of you way too lax?
“Yuèfù…”
Liu Yishi was a bit uneasy.
His father-in-law’s “how strange” from earlier had scared him. Seeing that his son’s condition was fine—with a complexion that was even healthier than Jiang Ziya’s—he wanted an excuse to leave and ask Master Ah Lu just what was strange. He just hoped it wasn’t something that could not be divulged again.
In the end, Master Ah Lu said he would drive him, and he clearly wanted to tell Liu Yishi something without any prompting—this was even scarier!
Liu Yishi was inwardly shaking. He stutteringly asked, “Y-you once said that Xiao Yang and Jiang Ziya’s closeness, with their rare abilities, could result in great fortune or great misfortune. Could it be that…”
He did not dare to give voice to it. The spoken word at times could be a power in and of itself. It could be that only a slight push was needed for the direction to veer toward good or bad with no end in sight. That’s why I can’t say something negative!
“This has nothin’ to do with it!” Master Ah Lu denied in a single breath.
Liu Yishi felt his face redden, but the person before him was his father-in-law. He could not blow his top at him, not even at death’s door, so he forcefully held in his frustration.
Master Ah Lu glanced at his son-in-law and seemed to feel that his own behavior was unreasonable. He clarified what he meant with an explanation.
“Good or bad is yet to be decided. There are many changin’ factors. It is still too unpredictable even now.”
Liu Yishi did not feel comforted.
“That child’s power has just improved too quickly. It ain’t right. It normally shouldn’t improve at this speed. You should be wary.”
Liu Yishi asked doubtfully, “Maybe it’s because he has stepped foot into the innerworld and has seen too much lately?”
Master Ah Lu just shook his head. This made Liu Yishi begin to contemplate if this had anything to do with his own son. After all, the person Jiang Ziya interacted with the most was Lu Yang.
“Where to?”
“Huh?” Liu Yishi was not able to react right away.
Master Ah Lu clobbered his son-in-law on the back of his head. “Where are you headin’? I said I’ll take you, so I’m takin’ you. Do you take me for a liar?”
Liu Yishi quickly said, “No! To the police station.”
“Let’s go!”
Liu Yishi could only obediently get in his father-in-law’s… sports car, a bright red model.
Then, he drove it extremely slowly, not at all like a sports car. According to Xiao Chun-sǎo, when Master Ah Lu was young, he was the sort who floored the gas pedal and whatever the top speed was, was the speed he went at. But once they had their daughter, he no longer dared to do so. He was deathly afraid that his daughter would emulate him. If that happened, Xiao Chun-sǎo would have her husband’s hide, no condiments needed.
Once his daughter had been taken overseas by his son-in-law, Master Ah Lu had returned to his bad habits, the speedometer going haywire, earning him tickets and nagging from Xiao Chun-sǎo all the time.
Then, Xiao Lu Yang had returned to the country to live with his gramps and grandma. Master Ah Lu’s driving speed had once again dropped and stayed like that the entire time. Even though Lu Yang had already grown up and would not emulate him, he and Xiao Chun-sǎo were in cahoots. They warned Master Ah Lu that however fast Gramps dared to drive, his grandson would drive even faster!
A despondent grandpa used a sluggishly slow driving speed to take revenge on his grandson, but who knew that the grandson would not feel the need to rebel at all? However slow Gramps drove, he would drive just as slowly. He did not have a single word of complaint.
Once they reached the police station and Liu Yishi got out, he did not even have time to turn his head to say anything before the sports car drove off.
There was nothing Liu Yishi could do about his father-in-law, who had such a unique character.
He turned around and entered the police station. Hu Lican was already waiting for him.
“I’ve already gotten a hold of the security footage you wanted.” Hu Lican asked in concern, “Is Lu Yang okay?”
Liu Yishi nodded and said, “He fractured his left arm. The other injuries are all minor.”
Hearing that Lu Yang’s injuries were minor, Hu Lican breathed a sigh of relief. He had already watched the security footage. Coming out of that with only minor injuries was lucky of him—no, he should say, it was amazing of him!
“Come watch over here.” Hu Lican waved Liu Yishi over.
The computer screen showed the footage of the accident. The angle was great. The entire accident was clearly shown.
Liu Yishi’s face darkened at what he saw in the security footage. Lu Yang was driving his motorcycle properly through a green light when a car hurtled through a red light and rammed into him, sending him flying. Then, the car sped away without any intention of remaining.
The video ended in mere seconds, but Hu Lican tinkered with it and the scene replayed. This time, the playback was in slow motion, only for them to see that not only had the car not braked before impact, it had even sped up.
Fortunately, the moment before collision, Lu Yang seemed to have noticed the car, and with a twist of his motorcycle, he avoided a frontal collision but was unable to avoid being clipped. Then, he flew out.
It was also fortunate that Lu Yang was wearing a professional grade helmet. When he flew out, he immediately hugged his knees with his arms, and he landed in a roll that lessened the impact. Otherwise, the impact would have killed him or left him half dead. That was why Hu Lican had said that Lu Yang was amazing.
“It was done on purpose?” Liu Yishi quietly asked.
Hu Lican nodded and said, “It should be. The license plate was also modified. The license plate number doesn’t match the car.”
Liu Yishi said in consideration, “Lu Yang hasn’t taken all that many cases related to practitioners. Even if any bad blood has resulted, it shouldn’t come to the point of someone driving a car into him.”
“As I thought, it has to do with this case, right?!”
Hu Lican was not surprised. When he got the text from Liu Yishi saying that Lu Yang was in an accident, he reflexively felt that this had to be related to the case. Otherwise, the timing would be way too coincidental. That was why he had even left the scene of the crime and hurried directly to the location of the car accident to search for the security footage nearby.
“How about I assign a police officer to protect Lu Yang?”
Liu Yishi frowned. At first, he wanted to say there was no need, but then he considered how ridiculous this practitioner was. They might even dare to shoot someone dead.
“Send over that officer who was always the first to react on scene.”
“You mean Fang Da? No problem.”
Hu Lican turned his head and called Fang Da to have him head over to the hospital right away. Then, he held up a paper bag and took out a bunch of photographs to scatter over the table.
“These are photographs of the homicide locations at the university. There were a bunch of random sigils at the scenes again. Don’t tell me that these are actually magic circles used overseas to curse people?”
Liu Yishi scrutinized the “magic circles used to curse people,” a deep frown on his face. These illustrations weren’t without a source. The sigils were clearly based on the seven deadly sins. However, they had little to do with curses. On top of that, the homicides themselves had little to do with the seven deadly sins. With an angel involved, as well as school wonders, it was practically a huge mishmash of legends.
Seeing Liu Yishi deep in thought, Hu Lican did not dare to interrupt him. He waited patiently, but a phone call made his face lose all color.
Liu Yishi knew something must be wrong.
After hanging up, Hu Lican bitterly laughed. “The photos from the homicide scenes have been leaked. They’ve hit the news along with the seven school wonders.”
Liu Yishi paled. “Why didn’t you contact the media first?”
Hu Lican rubbed his face and said, “We did. But it’s everywhere on the net. With photos of the homicide scenes included, it’s a sensational story. Some small news channels have already been airing the story and causing an uproar. There’s no way that the big news channels wouldn’t follow suit.”
Liu Yishi frowned. He recalled Yu Shu’s guess, that the culprit wanted the Seven Wonders to come true.
It seems that it is no longer a guess.
Chapter 3: It Has Begun, Part 2—Club President—translated by lucathia (proofread by Trespasserby & Taffygirl13)
“Lad, be more careful. Look closely.”
Hearing a familiar voice warn him, Lu Yang immediately opened his eyes. He didn’t even have any confusion from just waking up. Two fingers on his right hand closed together as he planned to summon Slay.
Jiang Ziya originally had his head lowered as he peeled an apple. When he noticed the movement, he lifted his head to look at Lu Yang. He asked in confusion, “Why is your right hand raised?”
Lu Yang frowned. There was absolutely no sign of Slay appearing.
“Where is my Slay?”
Jiang Ziya was completely confused as he asked, “What Slay? Did you get a concussion? The doctor clearly said you only injured your hand.”
Lu Yang jolted and growled, “Stop fooling around. Do you think I’d get trapped by a mere barrier dimension? You actually believe that a hallucination can prevent me from summoning Slay? The bond between me and Slay can’t be stopped by any barrier!”
Lu Yang proceeded to chant, “Natural order of Heavens and Earth, disperse the foulness from the air, mighty gods of the eight cardinals, cut down demons and bind evil. Let the evil impurities dissolve away, let Taoism last for all eternity, let this imperial decree of Taishang Laojun be heard. Obey—”
This time, there was movement. The airflow whirled above. The range of the whirlwind grew larger and larger, almost as if the entire hospital room was about to get engulfed. The distorted room became rather eerie and dark.
A light suddenly flashed in the center of the vortex. An ancient sword appeared out of thin air.
Lu Yang sternly warned, “You dare impersonate someone close to me? Slay, cut him down.”
Jiang Ziya shouted in disbelief, “Lu Yang, you’re actually going to kill me?!”
Lu Yang coldly said, “The kind of thing you are has never been alive in the first place. What right do you have to die?”
Slay shot out, piercing directly through “Jiang Ziya’s” chest and out through his back. Jiang Ziya shattered into a bunch of pieces that scattered across the floor. The entire room began to twist and distort further. Lu Yang called Slay back to his side for protection. No spirit could get past Slay!
When he opened his eyes again, Lu Yang saw at a glance that there was actually another Jiang Ziya peeling an apple by his bedside. Lu Yang’s expression immediately changed. Am I still in the barrier dimension?
This Jiang Ziya slowly lifted his head… and froze. He helplessly said, “You’re up already? You just got out of the operating room, and I only just started peeling this apple, yet you’re already up. But I should have expected this. After all, you’ve pretty much left the boundaries of what’s considered human.”
Lu Yang snorted and relaxed, leaning back and lazily saying, “If I can’t be considered human, then what am I?”
Jiang Ziya gave it some thought. “A perverted human.”
“That still has the word human!”
Jiang Ziya stuffed two slices of apples into Lu Yang’s mouth and snapped, “Superman has the word man in it, but can he be considered human?”
“Yes!” Lu Yang chewed and asked in a garbled voice, “How come you’re the only one around? Where’s my dad?”
“Ah, he and your grandpa waited outside the operating room for you. They left to investigate after they saw you were fine.”
This father and grandpa are way too lax.
Jiang Ziya could not help but speak up for them, “Too many lives have been lost. It’s better to investigate quickly to prevent another homicide from happening.”
Lu Yang thought it over. “My dad probably isn’t investigating the case, but rather my crash instead. It wasn’t an accident. The other person definitely ran into me on purpose.”
Jiang Ziya cried out in shock, “What?”
Lu Yang looked at his left arm and asked, “How are my injuries?”
Jiang Ziya answered in a stupor, “Just a fracture in your left arm and excessive blood loss. The doctor said it’s not serious. You’ll be fine after taking some supplements.” That was why he had gone downstairs to buy some things to help Lu Yang recover.
Looking at his left arm, Lu Yang sighed. “When I landed, I had no choice but to sacrifice my left arm. It would be even more of a pain if I had injured other areas. Only injuring my left arm means I can at least still walk.”
…Just where do you, a patient who was just in a crash, plan to go?
Jiang Ziya continued to stuff apples into Lu Yang’s mouth and unhappily declared, “Don’t you think of going anywhere. Behave and get better!”
Lu Yang obediently chewed on the apple. “That’s too hard.”
Jiang Ziya rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, but Lu Yang cut in before he could speak to say, “If people keep dying, do you really plan on keeping me here, only to watch the students at our university get turned into sacrifices for the school wonders one after another?”
Jiang Ziya froze. He frowned and said, “Your dad is already investigating, and your grandpa is around, too. It doesn’t have to be you, right?”
“My gramps doesn’t get involved much lately.” Lu Yang despondently said, “He knows too much. Interfering would shorten his life.”
Jiang Ziya’s eyes widened. “You won’t get in trouble if you interfere, will you?”
Lu Yang shook his head. “It’s not like I know anything.”
Jiang Ziya heaved a sigh of relief. “That’s true. You only know how to slay.”
“Who says?! I know how to stab, too!”
Jiang Ziya rolled his eyes. He stuffed the remaining slice of apple into Lu Yang’s mouth. Then, he picked up the remote control and turned on the television in the hospital room.
When the television turned on, it was shockingly broadcasting the headlining news of the university homicides. The seven school wonders were explained in depth, with photographs in the background even. Although the photographs were blurred with mosaics, the two of them could tell that those images were all of the homicide scenes. They could not believe that the news even had photographs of those!
“Ziya, change the channel.” Lu Yang’s face darkened.
Jiang Ziya immediately changed the channel from one big news channel to the next, but no matter which channel he switched to, they were all reporting on the same news.
“I thought the police would have sealed away this information.”
“They should have.” Lu Yang frowned. “They would have at least spoken with the media and instructed them not to report on the details.”
But the news was detailed to the point of including photographs. Something was obviously wrong. It could have been that the culprit had released so much information that no one could keep it under wraps.
“Huh?” Jiang Ziya gestured at the television screen oddly. “Lu Yang, look at that. This is a video that the society filmed, right? It’s from the legend of the smiling student who jumped off of the building. The society got the falling black figure on video. This is that video, right?”
“Make a call.” Lu Yang opened his mouth to ask, “Ziya, you have the president’s phone number, right? Call him!”
“I don’t have it! I’ve only communicated through Jian Zhi, but he’s…” Jiang Ziya suddenly thought of something. “Lin Zhixiang might have his number. I’ll try calling her.”
Lu Yang froze. Lin Zhixiang? A thought abruptly came to him, and his face paled, but he did not say anything, quietly waiting for Jiang Ziya to call her. He already had a premonition.
Jiang Ziya hung up and frowned. “No answer.”
“That night, did she call you after?”
Jiang Ziya reflexively said, “No…” With just that single word, his expression immediately changed.
Something so big had happened. How could Lin Zhixiang not have made any contact after?!
Jiang Ziya frantically looked toward Lu Yang, who said with a heavy heart, “She was probably captured. To a practitioner, her ability is very strong and very useful, too. Call my dad right now. Tell him about this.”
Jiang Ziya quickly made the call.
Lu Yang frowned. That Jian Zhi and Lin Zhixiang had both joined the Supernatural Phenomena Studies Society was likely not a coincidence but rather a calculated occurrence. Lin Zhixiang believed herself to be existence’s bane. As long as preparations were made, it would not have been a hard feat to lure her into joining the type of society that the Supernatural Phenomena Studies Society was.
Jian Zhi’s guardian spirit was powerful. There had no doubt been plenty of small, inexplicable occurrences in his life. Along with his introverted and docile personality, getting him to join must have likewise not been difficult.
Lu Yang and Liu Yishi had the same conjecture: the president Xu Xikai was definitely problematic!
Jiang Ziya puffed out a breath. “Your dad says he got it. He’ll continue to text us about the progress of the investigation. He wants me to message this stuff to Yu Shu and think of a way to get her to make some guesses.”
Lu Yang approved of this immediately. “This is a good plan. Call her right away. Even if you annoy her to death, get her agreement to come up with conjectures. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of all communication expenses!”
“… I really wish you guys lived across from Yu Shu instead of me!”
Jiang Ziya could only force himself to send over the information from the investigation and give her a call.
“Do you really want to become vampire food or what?”
Yu Shu’s voice clearly indicated she had just been woken up.
Jiang Ziya quickly explained, “I’m not bothering you on purpose. My classmate has gone missing. If we don’t quickly find her, she might get taken away! Yu Shu, lend us a hand!”
“A hundred thousand… No, this kind of thing that can result in death, you owe me a million!”
Jiang Ziya looked at Lu Yang, who straightforwardly made an OK sign. With a twitching face, Jiang Ziya answered, “Okay, one million it is.”
“…Who’s next to you?”
“Lu Yang.”
“No wonder. There’s no way you could have so readily agreed to paying one million. I should have said five million. I hate rich big shots!”
“So you’ll help now, right?” Jiang Ziya relaxed. It was fortunate that he hadn’t mentioned that Lu Yang was beside him from the start, or they would be unnecessarily down by four million!
“No way, one million isn’t worth it. I don’t want money anymore, but you’ll have to do something for me in the future.”
That made Jiang Ziya wonder, Haven’t I been doing various menial tasks for her all this time?
Lu Yang, who only had one hand left to use, neatly swiped away the phone and hollered, “Take your five million! Jiang Ziya won’t help you do anything!”
Laughter came over the phone. “Classmate Lu Yang, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that you still owe me a favor? Jiang Ziya owes me even more favors. I don’t even know how to have him repay them all. If you don’t want to agree to it, then forget it. In any case, I can just call in a favor and get the same result. I dare you to not repay the favor! Just try it, hmph!”
The phone was hung up on them.
Jiang Ziya rubbed his nose and said, “Why did you argue with her? It’s just doing something for her. There shouldn’t be a problem.”
Lu Yang said with a scowl, “She hasn’t clarified what she wants you to do. When the time comes, you won’t be able to turn down whatever she wants you to do. Agreeing to an invitation with such a weird person like her is extremely dangerous! What if she wants you to turn those two spirits of hers into truths?”
“Uh, I wouldn’t be able to do that anyway.”
Jiang Ziya responded in some embarrassment. He had somehow mysteriously leveled up both of her sons, yet he wasn’t able to level up his family’s Xiao Xue. They were clearly together this entire time, so he really didn’t understand the requirements! He needed to believe that she was real, but he knew that she was real!
Lu Yang said in worry, “You need to think of how to repay the favors you owe her.”
Jiang Ziya thought about it. Yu Shu rarely ever left her apartment, House Keeper always made and brought over all sorts of delicacies all the time, and Hold Keeper could even pretend to be a charlatan. Also, with how Jiang Ziya constantly sought her out for help, he felt that he would never be able to repay the debt he owed her.
Seeing how Lu Yang was so worried that he was about to pull his hair out, Jiang Ziya could only agree for now. After all, he wasn’t worried about accruing too much debt. He would just have to slowly repay it.
Jiang Ziya tapped on countless files on his cell phone to send over. “I’m sending over all the data to her. She could get inspiration from them, so she won’t be able to resist opening them to take a look. If her deductions lead her to a conclusion that involves people’s lives, she won’t keep it to herself.”
Lu Yang’s face twitched. Jiang Ziya had only just promised to think of ways to repay his debt, and now he was already creating another chance to owe more.
“Send it,” Lu Yang said helplessly.
Knocking suddenly sounded on his door.
Lu Yang frowned and asked, “Who is it?”
His hospital room was a single patient room. No outsiders should be coming or going.
“T-this is Fang Da. Captain Hu sent me over to protect you guys.”
“Come on in.” Jiang Ziya already knew of this. Because Lu Yang was injured, Liu Yishi had been sending all the information to Jiang Ziya instead.
A young policeman walked in. His clothes were neat, and even his policeman cap was worn snugly on his head. He looked pale.
The two of them turned to look at him. The policeman actually backed up two steps in fright.
“You’re going to protect me?” Lu Yang felt exasperated. This guy who looked like he was scared out of his wits made Lu Yang doubt just who was going to do the protecting.
“Yes.” Fang Da took in a deep breath and slowly walked over. “Sorry, watching that corpse come back to life right before our eyes yesterday night was really too scary. I’m so glad that you and Mr. Liu were there to take her out…”
Lu Yang lifted his head and said, “Ziya, come here and help me take a look to see if the IV is working properly. I feel like my hand hurts a bit.”
Jiang Ziya gave an affirmative and stood up to take a look. “It seems fine?”
“Really?” Lu Yang said doubtfully, “It still hurts. Help me call the doctor!”
“Okay…”
“I’ll help you take a look.” Fang Da quickly walked over.
“Then, I’ll have to trouble you.”
Lu Yang’s expression was slightly pained, but right at that moment, an ancient sword suddenly shot out with a whirl, slashing toward where Fang Da’s head was.
Jiang Ziya’s eyes widened. He absolutely did not understand why Lu Yang was using Slay to cut someone. However, he remembered that Lu Yang said that Slay could not kill a normal person, so he didn’t put a stop to it.
Seeing that the sword was about to touch his neck, Fang Da could not help but take a large step backward.
Lu Yang shouted, “You really can see Slay. Who are you?”
“How did you find out?”
A curious smile stretched across Fang Da’s pale face.
“Taishang Laojun warned me to look carefully,” Lu Yang coldly replied.
Laojun’s warning had helped him take notice of Fang Da’s use of “take her out.” Hmph, we never took care of Li Yao. Fu Taiyi took that spirit away. Fang Da clearly knows this.
Only then did Jiang Ziya return to his senses and cry out, “He’s not Fang Da?”
“He’s not!” Lu Yang scoffed, “The barrier dimension in this hospital room and a bit of makeup made him look like Fang Da.”
Jiang Ziya’s eyes widened. He had not known this was possible. What was also strange was that after Lu Yang exposed the other person’s disguise, he really looked less and less like Fang Da, and more like…
“Xu Xikai!” Lu Yang shouted the other person’s identity before Jiang Ziya, afraid that Jiang Ziya would see through it and shout it.
“Fang Da” smiled and rubbed his face. It really was president Xu Xikai’s face.
Xu Xikai praised, “You really are strong. Even though I planned for you not to die from the car crash, as it wouldn’t be worth it to have Master Ah Lu interfere because of his grandson’s death, I hadn’t expected that your injuries would be so mild. To think you were able to dodge in such a situation and protect yourself to the greatest degree—as expected of ‘Slay’!”
Lu Yang had no plans to waste words on him. He already had Slay blocking horizontally across the door, getting rid of any possibility of escape.
Even though Slay could not kill a person, a practitioner who could see Slay would definitely hurt so much from getting stabbed in the vitals by the sword that they would fall to the ground.
“Wait , don’t you or that sword come close to me!” Xu Xikai pulled a police gun from his waist. “This isn’t a fake gun. Test it out, if you dare.”
Lu Yang narrowed his eyes.
Xu Xikai chuckled. “I know that to a person of your skill level, a short distance like this might not make it impossible for you to predict where I would shoot, dodge the bullet, and have the sword cut into me—”
He pointed the gun at Jiang Ziya and said, “But he definitely can’t dodge it! You may be able to subdue me, but in the time it takes to do that, whether or not Jiang Ziya would get shot would be difficult to predict.”
Lu Yang remained still. He calmly asked, “What in the world do you want?”
“You all know about the seven wonders now, right? They aren’t false at all. It’s just that they took place overseas. I merely changed them up a bit so that these legends would fit the university you’re studying at—what a university with hidden talents, don’t you agree?”
Lu Yang’s eyes flashed, and he said with certainty, “You kidnapped Lin Zhixiang?”
“Calling it kidnapping is too rude. She willingly came with me, for the sake of this.”
As he spoke, Xu Xikai tossed down an enlarged photograph of a black book. A complicated, circular sigil was outlined in gold on the book cover.
“The library’s thirteenth bookcase, a bookcase filled with forbidden books—I want one of those books.”
Lu Yang frowned.
Xu Xikai said with grave seriousness, “The book in the photograph is ‘Resurrection.’”
Chapter 3: It Has Begun, Part 3—The Bookcase—translated by lucathia (proofread by Taffygirl13 & Trespasserby)
Lin Zhixiang anxiously rushed to the guys’ dormitory. Along the way, plenty of boys gave her dubious looks, but she couldn’t pay them any mind. The moment she grabbed someone, she pressed, “Do you know where Jian Zhi is?” She grabbed several guys in succession for answers. When she learned the correct location of his room, she immediately headed over and pounded on his door thunderously.
“Jian Zhi? Jian Zhi!”
The door opened. A guy stared in bewilderment at Lin Zhixiang, confused over why this woman was crazed to this degree.
Lin Zhixiang pushed the guy aside and ran into the room. It was empty. She immediately spun around, grabbed the guy’s collar, and demanded, “Where is Jian Zhi? Where is he?”
The guy frantically said, “Jian Zhi went to participate in a club activity. He isn’t back yet. He should be back soon. You can just wait for him. Aren’t you overreacting?”
Lin Zhixiang ignored him. She took out her phone and called Jiang Ziya, only for no one to pick up after three consecutive tries. She paled but remembered that she also had Lu Yang’s number. She quickly called Lu Yang and told him everything, including how Jiang Ziya wanted her to find Jian Zhi, but she couldn’t find him. Now, even Jiang Ziya’s number was not connecting.
Lu Yang told her he would search for Jiang Ziya and hung up on her. He did not instruct her on what to do next.
Lin Zhixiang stared at her cell phone. She could not help but call Jiang Ziya’s number several times more, but it never connected. The unease she felt grew stronger and stronger… I really am existence’s bane!
She should never have dreamed of academics, of joining this club, of approaching Jiang Ziya and Lu Yang. In fact, she should have firmly embarrassed Jian Zhi long ago and made him give up on her…
“Hey, you okay? Jian Zhi will be back soon!”
The guy beside her felt uneasy. This girl looks like she’s about to cry. What in the world has Jian Zhi done? He took some tissues from the desk to give her in case the tears in her eyes overflowed.
“Don’t come near me!”
Lin Zhixiang shrieked, scaring the guy so much that he jumped back. She turned and ran off.
However, once she exited the dormitory, she fell into a daze and had no clue where to go. She stood blankly at the entrance until someone grabbed her and pulled her away.
Lin Zhixiang screamed, “Let go of me! Don’t touch me. You’ll die because of me!”
“Lin Zhixiang, it’s me.”
Lin Zhixiang stilled. Only then did she see who had come.
“President?”
Xu Xikai smiled at the few surrounding onlookers that had started to pay attention to them and said, “I’m sorry, my girlfriend was just bickering with me.”
After observing that Lin Zhixiang was neither struggling nor crying for help, those people smiled to indicate that they understood and left.
“Come!” Xu Xikai pulled Lin Zhixiang away.
“No, you can’t. You have to leave. You don’t understand!” Lin Zhixiang began to resist again. She cried out, “I-I’m the bane of all existence. Anyone who comes near me will be endangered!”
“Jian Zhi died.”
A single sentence from Xu Xikai put a stop to Lin Zhixiang’s struggling. She stared at him blankly and asked, “He’s really dead?”
Xu Xikai nodded, his eyes tearful. After he dragged Lin Zhixiang to a deserted location, he then cried out in frustration, “It was all my fault. I shouldn’t have planned something like a night venture. It was all me!”
“No, it’s not your fault.” Lin Zhixiang mumbled dispiritedly, “It’s mine. It has always been my fault. My parents died, and even my brother became crippled because of me. Has even Jian Zhi died now?”
“Two other club members also died. One drowned in the Pond of Meditation. The other died in the bathroom.”
Lin Zhixiang froze. She lifted her head in disbelief at Xu Xikai.
“I just learned from Lu Yang and the others that it wasn’t just our club members who died either.”
Xu Xikai said with some confusion, “There was even a female student who died at the abandoned campus that we didn’t go to. Just what is going on? Could it be that our venture put the school wonders in motion, and even uninvolved people got dragged in?”
“A f-female student?” Lin Zhixiang suddenly thought of something. A chill seized her heart, and she shook all over. “Do you know h-her name?”
“Yes.” Xu Xikai nodded. “Li Yao.”
Lin Zhixiang fell to the floor, her face as white as paper.
“What’s the matter?” Xu Xikai frowned. “What is this bane of all existence thing you keep talking about?”
Lin Zhixiang shook her head and kept mumbling over and over, “Get away from me.”
“I won’t leave if you don’t tell me!”
In order to get rid of Xu Xikai sooner, Lin Zhixiang had no more reservations. It did not matter even if the president choked her to death after hearing her out. She divulged her identity as “existence’s bane” in full detail, and even revealed that Li Yao had been a classmate of hers from the same major. They had done a small group project together before.
After divulging all of this, she lifted her head and gazed at Xu Xikai with a frightful but expectant expression.
Xu Xikai remained silent for a long while before he said, “No matter if this is your fault or mine, you and I both only have one chance at atonement.”
Lin Zhixiang’s eyes widened. I still have a chance?
“Since the school wonders have come true one after another, then that means that the thirteenth bookcase of forbidden books must also be real!”
Lin Zhixiang looked at Xu Xikai in confusion. So what if it’s real?
Xu Xikai explained, “The legend of the forbidden bookcase is the reason I started this society in the first place. I planned this activity because I knew that the forbidden bookcase has a specific book, one that can bring the deceased back to life: ‘Resurrection.’”
Lin Zhixiang retorted without a second thought, “Bring a dead person back to life? That’s impossible.”
“Look at this.”
Xu Xikai took out his cell phone and played a video. The video astonishingly showed Li Yao turning from a corpse back into a human step by step. In it, Li Yao asked in confusion, “Where am I,” “What’s going on,” before the video ended.
“Is L-Li Yao not dead?”
Lin Zhixiang grabbed the cell phone, nearly about to cry out of joy.
“No…” Xu Xikai’s complexion was ashen. He quietly said, “Lu Yang and his father believed the resurrected Li Yao to be a monster and cut her down again.”
Lin Zhixiang froze.
Xu Xikai quickly explained, “But you can’t blame them. I’m sure that anyone who saw a corpse come back to life would believe them to be a monster. He didn’t know that resurrection was part of the school wonders either. As long as we acquire that book, we can resurrect her again.”
Lin Zhixiang gazed at the Li Yao in the video and asked in a daze, “As long as we get that book, we can resurrect her?”
“Not just Li Yao. As long as we get the book ‘Resurrection,’ everyone can come back to life: Li Yao, Jian Zhi, the other club members, and even…”
Xu Xikai leaned forward, his voice softly enticing. “Even your parents who died because of you can come back to life.”
Lin Zhixiang’s eyes widened.
Xu Xikai pulled the cell phone away and took out an enlarged photograph. He placed it in her hands.
“Look at this. This book is Resurrection. It took me a lot of effort to discover it.”
Lin Zhixiang lowered her head to look at the photograph. She mumbled, “This is Resurrection? Resurre—”
Xu Xikai gently held Lin Zhixiang and glanced at the photograph. His lips curled up.
This was completely out of his expectations. He had thought the book of Resurrection would be white.
Xu Xikai pulled Lin Zhixiang up and forcefully said, “Come, it’s almost dawn. We don’t have much time left. We can’t just let our club members die because of our mistakes. They still have family waiting for them to return!”
Hearing the word “family,” Lin Zhixiang jolted and finally stepped forward and followed Xu Xikai away.
The library was obviously closed in the middle of the night, but this was not a problem at all for Xu Xikai. It didn’t matter either that the school had not agreed to lend the library to him. Why would the university lend the library to a club in the middle of the night?
Xu Xikai had never requested permission to borrow the library in the first place. In any case, these foolish students would never overly wonder about the possibility of such a matter to begin with.
Xu Xikai led Lin Zhixiang straight up to the second floor with assured strides, as if he were in his own home. Upon reaching the entrance, he carefully told her, “Count the bookcases with me one by one, all the way until we reach the thirteenth one.”
Lin Zhixiang nodded, forcefully squashing down the anxiety in her heart and the logic that held on by a thread. One by one, she counted with Xu Xikai. As the number went up, the unease in her heart also rose.
Resurrecting everyone should be okay, right?
They won’t become possessed by the devil like in the movies, right?
But Li Yao looked very normal, and… Lu Yang was able to cut her down! Even if they really are devils, Lu Yang can take care of them.
After making her decision, she sucked in a deep breath and counted the bookcases.
“One… two… seven… eleven…”
“Twelve!”
After counting up to twelve, Lin Zhixiang saw between the gaps of the books on the twelfth bookcase—the thirteenth bookcase!
A black bookcase with a wooden frame.
The thirteenth bookcase actually exists! Lin Zhixiang trembled. Does Resurrection really exist? What if it doesn’t? But what if… it does?
“Lin Zhixiang, let’s go!”
Xu Xikai waited for her to step over. Only then would the dust settle.
Trembling, Lin Zhixiang slowly moved her feet. She walked around the twelfth bookcase, toward the thirteenth.
Standing before the bookcase, she lifted her head to search for the book, Resurrection. However, out of her expectations, she saw a humongous mound of black perched on the bookcase, and it pounced down at her.
“Ah—”
Lin Zhixiang fell against the floor, the impact and the fright she had suffered over the course of the night directly rendering her unconscious.
“Stand down!”
Xu Xikai rushed forward and used the large cross he had prepared ahead of time to thrash the mound of black. Each strike caused the thing to shriek with pain, yet it refused to retreat and used both hands to hold onto Lin Zhixiang tightly without letting go.
“Don’t you want to resurrect Jian Zhi?”
Hearing Jian Zhi’s name, the mound of black hesitated and finally released its hold. It retreated back to the corner and huddled down, both arms hugging the mud below its feet. Tears of blood accompanied endless cries of “Jian Zhi,” “girl he liked”…
“It seems that Lin Zhixiang and the angel are not enough.”
Xu Xikai paid no attention to the unconscious Lin Zhixiang. He walked up to the forbidden black bookcase and casually looked through the books, which mostly consisted of all sorts of curses, yet Resurrection was not among them. There aren’t even any healing spells!
“As expected, Resurrection isn’t something that can easily be made to appear. As for Lin Zhixiang…”
Xu Xikai lowered his head to look at the unconscious Lin Zhixiang. “She has been so unfortunate, yet her morals are unexpectedly proper. How troublesome. This must be the fault of her crippled brother.”
Even though he complained, Xu Xikai’s mood was quite good. His plan was unfolding step by step, and the forbidden bookcase had already appeared. The only thing left to do now was continue to increase the strength behind the “belief.”
Up until Resurrection appears.
