TRYMBPIETM 116: Revival of All Things (37)

Although Master Ji Nan said that the list had been entrusted to someone for delivery in the morning, Chi Qingzhou did not receive it until he went to bed that night.

He wasn’t in a rush anymore, not pressing for it, and by the usual time to sleep, he simply washed up and rested.

The next morning, around 6 a.m., someone knocked on his door.

At first, Chi Qingzhou thought it was the person delivering the list, but when he walked out of the bedroom, he sensed that there was nothing at the door.

No living beings, nor any other kinds of creatures.

In his perception, there was only a piece of paper stuck to the door.

Chi Qingzhou paused for a moment, then stepped forward and pushed the door open, holding the door with one hand as he stepped outside.

A white sheet of paper came into his view, with only one line of text written on it.

【The peach blossoms in Linghe Village have bloomed.】

There was no signature, and the handwriting was unfamiliar.

The white paper was ordinary A4 printer paper, with ink from the most common black ballpoint pen.

The entire note seemed to be trying to avoid leaving any traces of identity.

Chi Qingzhou narrowed his eyes.

This method of doing things, he could already imagine, even if they checked the surveillance cameras or investigated the fingerprints, they would surely find nothing.

The system, hidden in his shadow, gave a small sound of realization and cautiously called out to Chi Qingzhou, “Um, Host?”

Chi Qingzhou turned his head and looked toward the shadow. “Hmm?”

The system floated out of the shadow, circled the doorframe, and explained, “Host, when you opened the door just now, I saw some changes in the task progress in the background.”

Chi Qingzhou’s expression grew more serious. “Tell me in detail.”

The system quickly responded, “The task to slap Fu Wenan in the face, the progress just regressed by 3%, and there’s now an asterisk added to the end of the task!”

“Asterisk.” Chi Qingzhou repeated.

He remembered that when he accepted the task involving Xue Jinshi, the system had explained the meaning of the marking symbols for tasks.

Any task marked with an asterisk meant there was a chance that the task involved events related to Xing Shuangzhan, and whether it could be triggered or whether they could find the ghost energy that had been stolen from Xing Shuangzhan depended entirely on his luck and actions.

He stood for a moment, his expression unreadable, before suddenly smiling.

“This asterisk appeared suddenly, right?” he confirmed with the system.

The system didn’t dare deceive him about such matters, and quickly answered in the affirmative, also providing the approximate time when the asterisk appeared.

It asked with some concern, “Host, this Fu Wenan is really strange. First, the task progress mysteriously stalled, and now it’s mysteriously regressed. Does he have some issue?”

An issue? Not exactly an issue.

Chi Qingzhou manipulated the shadow to tear the note off the door, then turned and walked back inside.

When he discovered the Wan Ying Temple in Hengming City, the authorities would undoubtedly take action to deal with it once they learned of the news.

Even though the ghosts in the temple had received incense offerings, they had no ability to contend with the national machinery. Even if they had temporarily focused on Fu Wenan, they would soon be unable to cause him any more trouble as they would have their own problems to handle.

Without the ghost deity’s intervention, this assumption would likely prove true. But unfortunately, that god seemed very interested in dragging him along.

Chi Qingzhou tossed the note onto the coffee table and sat down at the dining table to eat.

After Xing Shuangzhan merged with his body, he gradually developed normal human physiological needs and sat at the other side of the table, accompanying Chi Qingzhou for the meal.

The two of them had no particular rule of “no talking while eating” or “no talking before bed.” After finishing their meal, Chi Qingzhou also finished discussing the note.

Seeing Xing Shuangzhan rise to take the bowl and chopsticks to the kitchen, Chi Qingzhou interlocked his fingers and rested his chin, lazily squinting his eyes.

In a tone full of interest, he pleasantly speculated, “He probably never intended to do anything to Fu Wenan from the beginning. He just treated him as a means to delay my progress.”

“He made Fu Wenan send this note, probably hoping that I would pause my journey to help my younger brother.”

“After all, I’m a kind person. My brother has asked for my help, and I can’t just stand by while either he or Fu Wenan gets into trouble.”

Xing Shuangzhan paused washing the dishes, turned around, and looked at Chi Qingzhou closely.

Chi Qingzhou spread his hands and couldn’t help but smile, “What’s your trick this time?”

Chi Qingzhou blinked innocently, “How can this be called a trick? I just think that He must not have studied modern history well, so I’m thinking of giving this leaky fish a bit of a lesson.”

Xing Shuangzhan made a gesture of listening attentively.

Chi Qingzhou took out his phone and found Cheng Yufei’s number.

Before dialing, he extended his left hand, pointed to his head with his index finger, and smiled, “He definitely doesn’t understand what the people are like the vast ocean, doesn’t know about an intelligence agency called, and has no idea that our country has always held the most simple view of gods and Buddhas—”

“Gods like this, who can’t fulfill the people’s wishes and only cause trouble, should be dragged down from their throne and directly hammered into pieces.”

…

Chi Qingzhou was sternly reporting the criminals to the Paranormal Control Bureau when he received a call from Fang Mingge, saying that something even stranger had happened near the filming location.

Chi Qingzhou casually asked, “What strange thing?”

Fang Mingge on the other end said, “Teacher Chi, there are a lot of peach blossoms blooming around Linghe Village, both inside and outside the village.”

But due to certain historical reasons, Linghe Village doesn’t grow peach trees. There are no peach trees within a 20-kilometer radius of the village.

Fang Mingge said, “The last time I filmed Wanxiang was also in Linghe Village, and the entire crew stayed there for a long time. As far as I know, Linghe Village still maintains a habit of patrolling twice a week and transplanting peach tree saplings when they find them.”

To transplant trees legally, Linghe Village even went through the necessary procedures and formed a patrol team.

With such efforts, there really isn’t a single peach tree in the entire village.

But since yesterday, not only has the weather been abnormal, but many trees have started sprouting peach blossom buds.

The villagers and people from the crew went to check, and in the entire village, pear trees, apricot trees, elm trees, and even trees that don’t usually bloom have all sprouted peach buds, and by this morning, they had already started to bloom.

Fang Mingge’s voice was somewhat heavy, “I have someone in the Paranormal Control Bureau. I heard them say that this abnormal weather seems to be related to some god, but when I went to check today, these trees didn’t have any divine power. Instead, they are tainted with very strong yin energy and karma.”

“I suspect this is related to the moving of a tomb.”

“Teacher Chi, I can’t handle this. When can you get to Linghe Village?”

Chi Qingzhou paused, his tone becoming slightly subtle, “Peach blossoms?”

Why peach blossoms? Could it be because my mother is there?

But isn’t that too literal?^[1]

Even Chi Qingzhou felt it was a bit far-fetched.

He thought for a moment and replied, “I’ll definitely get to Linghe Village by tonight at the latest.”

Fang Mingge sighed with relief, was about to respond, but the door behind him was suddenly pushed open hard, hitting the wall with a loud crash.

Chi Qingzhou heard a somewhat familiar voice on the other end of the phone.

The voice was panting, as if it had been running for a long time, and spoke weakly. But the emotion was particularly agitated, as if something unbearable had happened.

Chi Qingzhou heard him shout, “Director Fang, I just went to the hospital, and Mrs. Chi is really missing! I checked with the doctor and looked at the surveillance footage. There was no sign of her from the ward to the hospital’s main entrance!”

Chi Qingzhou fell silent for a few seconds. His mother had actually disappeared?

It seemed that the peach blossoms in Linghe Village might be related to his mother.

Fang Mingge obviously thought of this too.

There was a gasp on the other end of the phone, and his voice moved slightly further away, “Are you sure she’s missing? Did you only check the surveillance from the ward to the main entrance, or did you check all of it?”

“I checked everything! I even went downstairs to look, and there are no signs in the yard. Should we report it to the police?”

“Wait a moment,” Fang Mingge said, then leaned closer to the phone and asked, “Teacher Chi, Madam Chi is missing. Should we call the police?”

Chi Qingzhou had already recognized that the person speaking earlier was Shen Wenxing, and he understood the situation.

He and Shen Wenxing weren’t very close, only having met once during the last episode of Scenery Along the Way, but that was enough for him to see that Shen Wenxing’s talent in cultivation was average, and his strength was on the lower end.

If his mother’s disappearance was related to the ghost deity, even if Shen Wenxing had investigated the scene, he probably wouldn’t have discovered anything useful.

He pondered for a few seconds before replying, “Then please have Director Fang call the Paranormal Control Bureau. You’re on-site and understand the situation better than I do.”

Director Fang responded with a “no trouble,” then asked, “Do we need to send a message to the Xuanxu Sect?”

Chi Qingzhou thought for a moment. “No need. If they really want to get involved, they’ll certainly investigate on their own.”

…

At 9:30 AM, Chi Qingzhou finally received the list that had been entrusted for delivery.

The person Master Ji Nan had hired was a familiar face, a friend Chi Qingzhou had met only a few months ago—Lu Yao.

She looked much different from the last time they met; not only had her previous aggression disappeared, but the Yin energy around her had grown more intense, and she was now dressed in the attire of an underworld official.

Chi Qingzhou took the list from her hands, his eyes curving into a smile. “Ah Yao, did you pass the civil service exam?”

Lu Yao was somewhat lifted by the smile, and her mood improved a little.

The frown she had unconsciously loosened as she shook her head. “I’m not a formal underworld official, just a temporary recruit since the underworld is short-staffed.”

Chi Qingzhou said seriously, “It’s okay. With your abilities, you’ll definitely become a full-time official. By the way,” he paused and asked carefully, “I heard from the Paranormal Control Bureau that Master Ji Nan gave you the list last night, but you only arrived today. Did you encounter any trouble on the way?”

Chi Qingzhou had originally thought the person delivering the list would be a living person. Since living people needed time to travel, that made sense.

But now, standing in front of him was Lu Yao, who had obtained a temporary underworld official identity and could use the underworld’s direct channels. Therefore, unless she encountered some trouble, it wouldn’t have taken her so long to arrive.

Lu Yao nodded in confirmation. “It actually has something to do with the weather reversal.”

Chi Qingzhou looked at her curiously.

Lu Yao continued, “I left Damingguang Temple last night with the list, but halfway through, I encountered a batch of souls who had died wrongfully.”

These souls were almost devoid of reason and were on the verge of becoming vengeful spirits. Since Lu Yao was a temporary underworld official, she couldn’t ignore the situation, so she had to stop for a while.

She called for colleagues, expecting to quickly bring the souls back to the underworld.

Lu Yao furrowed her brow again. “But I was mistaken. After we captured a batch of souls, we soon discovered a second and third batch nearby. You know how short-handed the underworld is right now. I called for reinforcements twice, but they couldn’t spare anyone.”

Unfortunately, these souls couldn’t be ignored, or they might turn into vengeful spirits at any moment, and Lu Yao had no choice but to stay.

They were bringing the souls to the Yama Hall, thinking that they could manage the situation in a few hours.

But on the way, some of the souls, who had previously been dazed, suddenly turned into vengeful spirits, broke free from their soul-binding ropes, and fled.

The direction they fled in led to a small city, which didn’t have many permanent residents, and neither the Paranormal Control Bureau nor the Xuanxu Sect had established a station there.

A few underworld officials saw the situation and could only send one to pursue the vengeful spirits, which made it impossible for Lu Yao to continue.

After repeated setbacks, it wasn’t until this morning that Lu Yao, with the help of her colleagues, finally managed to make time and arrive at Chi Qingzhou’s residence.

This girl, who had previously not been very serious, now showed a trace of coldness on her face.

She asked, “These accidents are too coincidental. I feel like something doesn’t want me to deliver this message to you. Is there anything special about the books on this list?”

Chi Qingzhou smiled lightly. “Nothing special. It’s just that I might have read quite a few novels about the revival of spiritual energy.”