TRYMBPIETM 104: Revival of All Things (25)

Qing Zhi was always full of ambition.

He came from an abnormal family.

His father was a con artist pretending to be a cultivator and also a rapist. His mother married him because of that.

His mother was no better, devoutly believing in some unknown cult, always thinking about having a child for sacrifice.

Most of Qing Zhi’s childhood memories were of the small rented house filled with smoke.

His father’s curses and his mother’s incoherent prayers always made him very irritated.

He didn’t have much fondness for this family, but he didn’t feel much hatred either.

As for his parents, he still had a bit of gratitude toward them.

They brought him into this world and unexpectedly provided him with a path to enter the cultivation world, which was the greatest contribution of these two people.

So Qing Zhi brought them eternal peace.

Back when the masters rushed into the rented house to save people, none of them realized that the one who truly succeeded in the ritual to summon a ghost deity was not Qing Zhi’s parents, but Qing Zhi himself.

And Qing Zhi took advantage of this, successfully being taken in by the Xuanxu Sect and even apprenticing under a master.

Since then, he began to pursue greater power and higher status.

Unfortunately, his luck wasn’t great.

At first, he only tried to use his fellow disciples as stepping stones, but no matter how much he planned, it always mysteriously fell apart at the last moment.

Later, to increase his chances of success, he gradually became accustomed to using more cruel and bloody methods. After a few brief successes, he started to face even bigger failures.

Qing Zhi couldn’t understand why this happened. Just when he was in despair, the ghost deity he had once worshipped appeared in his dreams.

He finally got the answer from the wild god. His fate was peculiar, completely fitting the phrase “abandoned by fortune.”

Qing Zhi finally understood why he was so unlucky, but he couldn’t accept this answer.

Why should he accept such a bad fate?

He still wanted to become someone powerful, to live a more luxurious life!

He firmly believed that the ghost deity had the power to change his fate. From that moment on, he resolutely worked for them.

The ghost deity generously fulfilled most of his wishes, spending some time pushing him to the position of an elder in the Xuanxu Sect and even taught him how to conceal his identity, allowing him to secretly gain offerings from several families.

Seeing so many benefits, Qing Zhi naturally paid more attention to the tasks they assigned him.

He carried out many tasks for the ghost deity. On one assignment, he discovered that his target’s fate was exceptionally unique.

This ten-year-old child named Chi Qingzhou was favored by Heaven, but abandoned by fortune.

How could such a fate exist in this era?

Qing Zhi felt both mocking and proud.

He despised how Chi Qingzhou was destined for misfortune, while feeling pleased with himself for making the right choice. Otherwise, he would certainly be like Chi Qingzhou, suffering every day from his bad luck.

Remembering the ghost deity’s instructions, an excellent idea suddenly arose in his mind.

Since the god’s command was to create trouble for this child, why not first give this child a bit of hope, and then let him discover that everything he does is in vain?

The more Qing Zhi thought about it, the more he felt this method was feasible. He carefully observed Chi Qingzhou’s adoptive parents for several days, then changed his clothes and “accidentally” ran into the couple.

He pretended to casually stir up the couple’s biological child desire for a new phone and computer, and used magic to confuse another neighbor into telling the adoptive parents that Chi Qingzhou had won a special scholarship last semester.

“Your eldest son is really promising,” Qing Zhi remembered how he provoked the couple, “With so much money, that little kid wouldn’t dare take it himself, so he must have entrusted you to keep it, right?”

The couple verbally agreed, but their faces unconsciously showed deep annoyance.

Qing Zhi was very satisfied with their reaction. That afternoon, he purposely stopped Chi Qingzhou on his way home from school and handed him the ritual method.

That was something he personally copied from the Xuanxu Sect.

Since 45 years ago, every time the Sect used this method, the main practitioner would face backlash.

But the sect had no choice. They owed Xing Su a karmic debt and had to repay it completely to avoid heavenly punishment.

Qing Zhi was particularly interested in this backlash.

Not to mention that Chi Qingzhou didn’t even have a offering—if he really found one, the backlash would be enough for him to drink a cup of bitter medicine.

Even worse, Xing Su, this world-destroying ghost, hated human sacrifices.

If Chi Qingzhou couldn’t find a suitable offering and ended up sacrificing himself, the scene would be interesting.

Qing Zhi eagerly awaited it. After completing the task assigned by the ghost deity , he didn’t rush to leave but kept a close eye on the developments.

Soon enough, he witnessed Chi Qingzhou, on the brink of death, sacrifice himself, and felt a thrilling pleasure for the first time.

Even though Chi Qingzhou ultimately escaped danger, it didn’t affect Qing Zhi from taking great pleasure in it.

He suddenly realized that watching someone with a similar fate to his own face trouble brought him so much joy.

He didn’t care much about what the ghost deity wanted to do, but couldn’t help but keep an eye on Chi Qingzhou for a while.

Before long, he felt something indescribably subtle.

Chi Qingzhou’s experiences were completely different from what he had imagined!

Yes, Chi Qingzhou is indeed unlucky, frequently encountering all sorts of troubles, many of which even put his life in danger. Yet, in the end, the results are always in his favor!

His life isn’t as smooth as others’, but whenever trouble arises, he always has a way to resolve it.

After each problem is solved, either he meets a benefactor or ends up reaping some material benefit.

Rather than calling these troubles problems, it’s more fitting to say they’re good opportunities handed to him on a silver platter!

Qing Zhi dare not think too much about it, and instead, faithfully carries out all the god’s orders.

Qing Zhi is filled with jealousy to the point where his eyes feel like they could bleed.

He truly despises people like Chi Qingzhou, who, despite their bad luck, can resolve all their problems with their own abilities.

It makes his past self seem particularly useless, as if it were a lack of skill that caused his many failures.

But is that his fault?

No!

It’s clearly because of his terrible fate that he had to rely on the ghost deity.

Qing Zhi hates Chi Qingzhou, wishing he would just die already.

He carefully suggested his own idea to the ghost deity, but the god remained noncommittal.

Compared to Qing Zhi’s urgent desire to put Chi Qingzhou to death, the god’s attitude was rather strange.

The god was both fearful of Chi Qingzhou and yet seemed to adopt a lenient stance toward Chi Qingzhou’s growing strength.

Sometimes, Qing Zhi feels that the wild god is treating Chi Qingzhou like some kind of prized beast, and this strange, split attitude makes him feel an inexplicable chill.

How did a mere human manage to provoke such a terrifying existence?

Then, something even more difficult to understand happens.

Fan Tao and Chi Jianming, as Chi Qingzhou’s blood-related parents, should have had some kind of restraining influence over him. They were also a crucial part of the ghost deity’s instructions.

But when he tried using their blood to limit Chi Qingzhou, he found that their blood connection to Chi Qingzhou had naturally been severed!

Qing Zhi was shocked. While fearing punishment for failing the task, he grew more suspicious of the god’s true intentions.

He secretly researched Chi Qingzhou’s fate and soon realized that the reason he couldn’t use blood ties to control him was because of that “favored by heaven” destiny.

How laughable.

Although Chi Jianming and Fan Tao were Chi Qingzhou’s biological parents, their bloodline carried the karmic debts they had accrued, and thus, the heavenly path deemed them part of Chi Qingzhou’s “cut fate.”

No matter how they appeared to be Chi Qingzhou’s family, in the cultivation world, they no longer had any blood relations to him. At most, they owed him karmic debts.

Qing Zhi stood up and walked out of the quiet room, his eyes filled with a sense of mockery that seemed directed at either himself or Chi Qingzhou.

“This is the fate of a person favored by heaven?”

It was so strange, and so terrifying.

If it were only Qing Zhi himself, he would never have gone up against Chi Qingzhou.

Against someone like that, every method seemed futile.

But the god’s orders must be carried out.

After pondering for a moment, Qing Zhi carefully closed the door of the quiet room, his expression as calm as ever.

He sat before the statue of the Three Pure Ones^[1] and began reading a book titled Huang Ting Jing^[2] with an almost intoxicated look on his face.

Suddenly, the sound of hurried footsteps rapidly approached the room, and soon after, an urgent knocking came at the door.

Qing Zhi put down the Huang Ting and showed an expression of compassion. He called out, “The door is open, come in.”

“Creak—”

The door to the room opened, and Fu Wenan stumbled inside, his face pale and his eyes full of panic.

Qing Zhi glanced at him and felt satisfied. He feigned surprise and said, “ Young master Fu, you don’t look too good.”

Fu Wenan forced a bitter smile. “Master, you weren’t wrong. Last night, I really had a nightmare. I—”

Qing Zhi made a gesture with his hand. “Sit down first.”

Fu Wenan paused, then sat down as instructed.

Qing Zhi asked him to wait a moment and took a few incense sticks from the side. After lighting them, he placed them into the incense burner.

Thin, blue smoke rose, and the faint fragrance gradually spread.

Fu Wenan sniffed, sensing a unique pine fragrance mixed with a light orange blossom scent that made him feel incredibly comfortable.

His tense nerves, caused by the nightmare, slowly relaxed, and he couldn’t help but become more convinced of Qing Zhi’s abilities.

He lowered his head slightly and sincerely said, “Thank you, Master.”

Qing Zhi returned to his seat. “It’s nothing. Young master Fu, what did you dream about last night?”

Fu Wenan exhaled, not paying much attention to the strangely familiar scent, his attention fully on the nightmare.

“I dreamed of a strange village, filled with people wearing minority ethnic clothing.”

“They had a lot of silver ornaments, and they jingled as they walked.”

“I saw a huge deer walking through the crowd, stepping onto a three-tiered stone altar. Oh, the villagers in the dream called that altar a ‘sacrificial platform.’”

“The deer was carrying someone on its back, but I couldn’t make out their face. I only saw they were wearing strange purple clothes.”

“They sang a song I didn’t understand, and the altar lit up with a white light. Then…”

Fu Wenan swallowed, his face growing even paler.

“Then the light floated higher, and I followed it, floating far away, flying to another village.”

“This village seemed to be on fire, with red and white lights everywhere. It was night, but the sky had turned a strange color.”

“I also saw a giant stone door. The frame was shattered, and a black shadow was holding the door, as if it were about to come out.”

Fear flashed across Fu Wenan’s face, and his body trembled uncontrollably.

“And then, I saw… Chi Qingzhou.”

His voice lowered, his teeth chattering.

“He was standing outside that door, as if he were looking at me, or maybe looking at someone else. He had a strange smile on his face, and he said, ‘Thank you, I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.’”