TRYMBPIETM 147: When I went in the Past (29)

The sudden sensation of having something taken away felt incredibly strange.

Even though Chi Qingzhou had already said that this power didn’t belong to him, Fu Wenan still couldn’t help but mind it.

He lowered his head, looking at his fingers, grasping at the air a few times. Hesitating, he wanted to ask more, but just as he opened his mouth, Chi Qingning immediately covered it with his hand.

“Oh, so that’s how it is.”

Chi Qingning nodded toward Chi Qingzhou, then turned around and stared at Fu Wenan with frustration, scolding him nonstop.

“Second Brother is so powerful. If he says there’s no need to mind it, then there’s really no need to! And besides, Second Brother already said that it wasn’t something that belonged to you. Wen-Ge, think about it—carrying around something that isn’t yours, is that really okay?”

Fu Wenan’s hesitant expression changed. Instinctively, he wanted to ask whether having that thing taken away would harm him, but as soon as his lips moved, Chi Qingning immediately increased the pressure of his hand.

Fu Wenan: “……”

He gave Chi Qingning a look, trying to signal that he wouldn’t say anything reckless. Who would’ve thought Chi Qingning would just grin at him—and then, without hesitation, press down even harder.

Fu Wenan’s face went blank: “……”

Seeing him behave, Chi Qingning quickly smiled at Chi Qingzhou again, then pushed Fu Wenan forward by the back.

Fu Wenan’s expression was still a little wooden, but he silently followed Chi Qingning’s lead, no longer mentioning what had just happened.

Chi Qingning let go of Fu Wenan and waved at Chi Qingzhou before hurrying back to the front of the group.

The smile on Chi Qingzhou’s lips faded, but his expression showed no displeasure.

His younger brother—his instincts were rather sharp at times.

For an ordinary person like Fu Wenan, being steeped in Xing Shuangzhan’s ghostly aura for too long would definitely affect his health. If he wasn’t careful, it might even cost him his life.

And when that happened, it would harm not only Xing Shuangzhan himself but also the cultivator who had performed the spell to transfer and conceal the ghostly aura.

Most cultivators wouldn’t get involved in such karmic entanglements, but the Fu family just had to take in Qing Zhi as their master.

After serving the ghost deity for so many years, Qing Zhi had long since forgotten about karma and retribution, single-mindedly seeking favor from them in hopes of greater benefits.

The ghost deity had ordered him to use Fu Wenan as a vessel to hide part of Xing Shuangzhan’s ghostly aura—and he actually did it.

If it weren’t for Fu Wenan’s soul being too entangled, the backlash on Qing Zhi would have come even sooner, and Xing Shuangzhan’s ghostly aura would have been immediately exposed to everyone.

If that had happened, the one who wouldn’t have been able to find peace wouldn’t have been Qing Zhi alone.

Even so, while Fu Wenan had avoided much trouble, his mind had already been heavily corroded by the ghostly aura.

On top of that, his fate had been artificially drawn out. Day after day, his rationality had worn thinner and thinner—until in the end, even his mind had become affected.

Chi Qingzhou balled up the extracted power in his hand, showing no intention of returning it to Xing Shuangzhan.

Behind him, the shadow bent down, reaching out to take the ball of dark ghostly aura from his palm.

“Who knows if being around an idiot for too long would make this ghostly aura abnormal too?”

Chi Qingzhou lifted his head, murmuring.

“Besides, compared to this bit of ghostly aura, merit of the same quality is much more useful.”

The rain poured down in torrents.

At some point, night had already fallen upon Linghe Village.

The sky, previously shrouded by dark clouds, was now strangely filled with stars. The cool-toned starlight flickered, intertwining with the still-intact Star Array within the tomb.

The unquenchable flames leaped continuously, inch by inch spreading across every corner of Linghe Village.

The film crew members called out to each other as they ran toward the center of the tomb, the vitality of living people once again stirring up the Absolute Yin land’s sinister aura. The eerie energy surged outward through the ground, drawing the inhuman villagers of Linghe Village like moths to a flame.

They seemed to believe that absorbing the Yin energy would prevent them from being burned by the flames. Instinctively chasing after the aura flowing toward different locations, they roared and fought, afraid of letting others take more than their share.

Outside the village, the blooming peach blossoms trembled under the rain, their pink petals tinged with an unnervingly thick red.

The shadow lowered its head, gazing at the circular outline formed by the peach blossoms, its blood-red pupils glinting with unrestrained delight.

Peach blossoms as the formation, Yin energy as the sigil, the living and the dead merging Yin and Yang, with firelight and starlight as the markers guiding the flow of power.

At this moment, every person and object in Linghe Village had become part of a complete sacrificial ritual, all centering around the mobile tomb as the formation’s core—waiting for Chi Qingzhou to activate it.

Sharing his vision with the shadow, Chi Qingzhou laughed.

His smile was sweet, as innocent and well-behaved as when he hadn’t regained his memories.

But his eyes were deep—that was the cautious gaze of someone who, even at the final step of a carefully orchestrated plan, refused to let down his guard.

The starlight gradually dimmed, and the circulation of Yin energy began to slow.

Chi Qingzhou remained composed, still not rushing to make a move.

A few more minutes passed, and in the east, a streak of silver-white light emerged.

Then, the southeast, the south, the southwest, the west…

One after another, silver lights flared up, swiftly injecting new life into the formation surrounding Linghe Village.

At last, the shadow placed the ghostly aura it had been holding into the formation’s core.

In an instant, the formation was activated.

Every deliberately untouched ghost deity statue in the various Wan Ying Gong temples flickered with a faint glow, and the stars in their pupils began to spin in reverse.

The shadow opened its hand before Chi Qingzhou, revealing the outer shell of System #16594, which it had specifically picked up from the ruins.

Subjected to the impact of the Source-Tracing Array and the forces of karma, the outer shell and the core had completely separated.

It wasn’t a biological death in the traditional sense, but without the shell’s protection, the system could never leave this world again.

Chi Qingzhou curved his eyes and placed the divine essence from his new “friend” into the broken shell.

The shadow clenched the hybrid mass in its palm.

Beneath it, tendrils spread outward, replacing the formation lines and instantly linking to all the densest areas of Yin energy.

Its two hands lowered in front of its main body, aligning with the hands of the body itself.

In that instant, the flow of power in the formation reversed.

Across the world, many people with strong intuition and heightened sensitivity—no matter where they were—felt something and instinctively looked up at the sky.

Some saw dazzling stars, some saw a brilliant sunset, and some were blinded by the glaring sun.

Yet their expressions were all the same—dazed, as if something had returned.

Many ordinary people were confused. They carefully looked around but couldn’t find any noticeable changes, so they could only carry on with their tasks, feeling inexplicably unsettled.

The cultivators, however, remained still, staring at the indistinct eye that had suddenly appeared in the sky, vaguely sensing the reason—

Faint streams of pure energy rose from different places, time converged once more, and the flow of events slowly moved forward.

…

Thousands of kilometers away.

Inside a Wan Ying Gong temple, Cheng Yufei from the Paranormal Control Bureau swept her gaze over the statues, unable to stop herself from frowning.

“This wild deity really is cautious, leaving behind revival contingencies in every single statue. No wonder Mr. Chi insisted on confirming the location of all of them before making a move.”

If they weren’t careful and missed even one, allowing that thing to quietly revive, all their previous efforts would have been for nothing.

Master Ji’e pressed his hands together in prayer, his expression unusually tinged with disdain.

On the other hand, Daoist Duming chuckled, his tone carrying a subtle hint of contempt.

“Even if we did miss handling one or two statues, it wouldn’t matter. The believers of the past were quite practical—if a deity couldn’t fulfill their wishes, its statue would be dragged out onto the street and smashed to pieces. But believers nowadays…”

They no longer prayed for rain or food. Many sought luck and wealth, and even expected to receive tangible benefits first before showing any devotion.

Daoist Duming shrugged. “Even those elderly folks who are easy to deceive would at least expect a free tray of eggs first.”

With its divine essence taken away by Mr. Chi, this deity couldn’t even grant good luck, let alone wealth. In fact, it couldn’t even produce a single egg.

What kind of deity had any competitive edge like that?

It was no better than a pyramid scheme.

Cheng Yufei: “…”

Master Ji’e: “…”

As absurd as it sounded, they couldn’t refute it—it made too much sense.

After a brief silence, both of them looked away.

Master Ji’e chanted a Buddhist prayer again and forcibly changed the topic. “Once the eye in the sky fades, time will have almost fully returned to its proper course. By then, we must quickly destroy all the statues to prevent the deity from seizing any opportunity to revive.”

Cheng Yufei nodded. “I’ll call the others now and tell them to be extra careful.”

The two of them spoke casually as they turned and walked away.

Daoist Duming clicked his tongue. “Workplaces these days are really getting less and less friendly. If Mr. Chi were here, he’d definitely give everyone a lesson about karma and how good deeds are rewarded.”

As if recalling something amusing, he glanced at the nearby statue and curled his lips into a rather intriguing smile.

The next moment, with a sharp crack, a fracture split open at the top of the statue’s head, spreading down its torso within half a second.

Daoist Duming flicked his horsetail whisk and let out a leisurely chuckle. “With that kind of structural integrity, you still dream of making a comeback? Just go to sleep already.”

Maybe in its dreams, it could salvage a bit of dignity.

Crack.

Crack.

More fractures spread across the statue, making the once-imposing golden figure tremble precariously.

Daoist Duming withdrew his gaze, looking instead at the indistinct eye in the sky, his smile deepening.

A new era…

It might be arriving soon.

…

Cheng Yufei and Master Ji’e walked away, one following behind the other.

After gaining some distance from Daoist Duming, Cheng Yufei turned and asked, “Master, tell me honestly—was this part of Master Ji Nan’s plan when he cooperated with Mr. Chi? I mean the plan to merge the ghost king Xing with the dragon vein.”

Master Ji’e pressed his hands together, his expression unchanged. “This is not a bad thing.”

Cheng Yufei nodded. “So it was. Do you all really believe this will suppress the violent nature of the ghost king?”

Master Ji’e responded with an unrelated remark: “Ever since Mr. Xing formed a contract with Mr. Chi, he hasn’t done anything too excessive.”

Cheng Yufei felt a headache coming on. “That’s not what I asked. Master, can you say something that actually makes sense to normal people?”

Master Ji’e simply smiled without answering.

Feeling utterly exhausted, Cheng Yufei decided that she should go see Master Ji Nan herself.

After all, he was the one who had an agreement with Chi Qingzhou. He would definitely understand the full picture better than anyone else.

In fact, Cheng Yufei had only recently learned that there were deep divisions within the Paranormal Control Bureau regarding this matter.

Some believed that as long as Xing Su shed his identity as a fierce ghost, his violent tendencies could be suppressed. Others argued that Xing Su’s ruthlessness stemmed from his very nature and had nothing to do with his identity.

The first group thought merging Xing Su with the dragon vein was a viable solution. The second feared it would lead to an even greater catastrophe.

Cheng Yufei didn’t know which side was right, but the fact was—Xing Su’s fusion with the dragon vein was already set in stone.

In her view, instead of debating whether it was good or bad, it was better to prepare an emergency response plan as soon as possible.

If the outcome of the fusion turned out to be unfavorable, at least they would be ready to react immediately and organize a rescue effort at the fastest speed.

After instructing her subordinates to make sure the statues were destroyed on time, Cheng Yufei entrusted the remaining work to Daoist Duming and hurried off to meet Master Ji Nan.

The indistinct eye in the sky flickered with shifting light. She glanced up at it and let out a quiet sigh.

“One Xing Su is already enough of a headache. Now there’s also a Chi Qingzhou that no one can stop… Hopefully, things will move in a good direction.”