TRYMBPIETM 136: When I went in the Past (18)

The wind passed through the tomb room, emitting a sharp, faint sobbing sound.

A vague whimper mixed with the wind, adding an eerie chill to the tomb path.

The system, which had been silent, suddenly remembered the first time it saw a powerful ghost in this world, and the entire light sphere began to tremble uncontrollably.

Unable to help itself, it emerged from the shadows and began scanning deeper into the tomb.

The dense, almost solidified yin energy blocked the signal it was trying to emit. After trying twice, it only managed to read the murals on both sides.

Contrary to 16594’s expectations, based on the material analysis of the tomb, this tomb was at least two thousand years old.

The murals in the tomb path depicted events from even earlier times, largely telling the story of a great shaman’s glorious life.

In the system’s eyes, this glory was exaggerated by at least twelve times.

According to the murals, the tomb owner was born in the ancient era. Back then, shamans were an indispensable part of a tribe, even more respected than tribal leaders.

Shamans had the power to communicate with the heavens and the earth, could summon wind and rain to a certain extent, and possessed a long lifespan far beyond ordinary people.

The owner of this tomb was a shaman of a great tribe, claiming to have assisted nine tribal leaders and lived for countless years, even witnessing the birth of human dynasties.

However, her power gradually weakened as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth faded, and eventually, she could no longer sustain the vitality of her physical form.

The great shaman had no particular pursuit of immortality, but she couldn’t bear to leave her people. Ultimately, as she neared death, she chose a path that no other shaman would have considered.

—She transformed herself into a half-human, half-ghost living corpse, using a mobile tomb as a base to continue protecting her tribe.

This path, one that would normally be abandoned by heaven’s will, was gradually paved by her as she accumulated merit.

In the end, with heaven’s approval, she returned to the human world in the form of a living corpse, once again becoming a great shaman indistinguishable from ordinary people.

Her tribe cheered, welcoming her return outside the altar.

“Wow, that’s incredible,” the system was almost stunned. “So this world really has resurrection?!”

This was completely different from the ordinary spiritual modern worlds it had imagined!

If it had known that this world had such powerful entities, it would never have come here, not even if it had to be forced!

Chi Qingzhou glanced at it, with a half-smile: “Does your system not have the ability to resurrect the host?”

The system froze for a moment: “Uh… that’s different. Although we do have resurrection services, we rarely manage to do this in the host’s original world. Most of the time, we choose a similar parallel world or find a more suitable plane for the host.”

It became a bit proud as it spoke: “We are not the kind of black-hearted system that harms our hosts. Of course, we ensure that after all the hard work across worlds, our hosts can enjoy a comfortable retirement!”

“Is that so?” Chi Qingzhou asked with a sincere expression. “So when you choose a parallel world or other planes, do you resurrect the host into a body that’s already dead, or do you choose a near-death body and stuff the host’s soul into it?”

The system: “Uh…”

It was momentarily speechless.

An indescribable sense of horror struck its core program, causing all its code to freeze for a few seconds.

Chi Qingzhou, seemingly oblivious to its unease, asked with the same sincerity: “If you choose the latter, then… what do you do with the original soul of that body? Do you take it as the next host and send it on missions?”

“Think about it, this is actually a very smooth, complete, and efficient process. Throughout, there’s no wasted time or opportunity, and it even successfully fooled the previous host.”

He tilted his head, smiling pleasantly.

“Now that I think of it, the place where you were created really has some ideas. Are there many qualified capitalists over there?”

The system: “…”

It shuddered, taking a while to regain its voice.

“Host, are you really so sure we don’t have the ability to resurrect humans?”

Chi Qingzhou replied indifferently: “If you had that ability, why not resurrect one of your own kind first? Like 66594?”

The system didn’t dare to speak anymore.

Chi Qingzhou chuckled but didn’t dwell on the matter.

He continued walking deeper into the tomb, asking as he walked: “Did you suddenly come out just to ask me this?”

The system, reminded, hesitated for a moment before obediently swaying its body.

It asked in a small voice: “I… I was just a bit curious about what you’re doing here?”

Chi Qingzhou looked at it strangely: “Hmm? Did I not make it obvious enough, or do you not usually read novels? My situation right now is pretty common in novels, isn’t it? Just here to refine my bloodline.”

The system’s CPU froze for two seconds, quickly beginning to heat up: “Host, you mean, you’re a descendant of this great shaman? Does that mean you, too, can be resurrected like her even after death?”

Chi Qingzhou blinked: “What do you think? What do you think I’ve been maintaining this half-human, half-ghost state for?”

The system didn’t respond.

It was unknowingly trembling, seemingly encountering something beyond its imagination.

Chi Qingzhou curved his lips, his gaze deepening.

Xing Shuangzhan sighed lightly and reached out to pinch the back of his neck again, causing the shadow to turn back and glare fiercely.

Xing Shuangzhan took it as Chi Qingzhou being playful, and his tone softened further.

“Qingzhou, have you really thought this through? If you continue refining your bloodline, you will likely end up in a state very similar to mine. You’re still young; there’s no need to take such a drastic path.”

Moreover, dealing with the ghost deity wasn’t the responsibility of his contractor alone.

Chi Qingzhou, still tilting his head, smiled and asked: “Isn’t that a good thing? Su-ge, if I turn into someone like you, doesn’t that mean I can be with you for a long time?”

Xing Shuangzhan’s gaze remained gentle: “But I don’t want you to regret it. Qingzhou, I know you’ve always wanted to live a good life for those few decades.”

For people like them, death may not mark the end of existence, but the days of living as a human are probably only a few short decades.

“I know,” he said softly, “in your heart, the state of the tomb’s owner later on can no longer be considered human.” He continued, “You still have many options; don’t do things you’ll regret.”

Chi Qingzhou did not respond.

What Xing Shuangzhan said was true, but everything in this world comes at a cost.

If Chi Qingzhou wanted to completely rid himself of the watchful ghost deity, he would have to pay a sufficient price for it.

Rather than being pushed out to forcibly harvest faith and incense offery, becoming a substitute for the ghost deity’s karmic consequences, he would rather abandon his human identity and fully become a living corpse or wandering soul.

Chi Qingzhou scoffed, reaching out to link hands with Xing Shuangzhan, their fingers intertwined.

“If I hadn’t recovered my memories, I really wouldn’t have imagined that his purpose in reversing the climate was not only to steal some time, but also to harvest faith and incense offerings for me.”

This “new friend” of his had indeed reversed the climate with the idea of harvesting faith.

But this faith would not be harvested by the ghost deity; instead, it would push Chi Qingzhou out, creating the illusion that it was all thanks to him that all the troubles were resolved.

A great amount of faitg would gather around Chi Qingzhou, and with his current half-human, half-ghost state, it would be easy to turn him into a new god.

Their similar fates, the same path to becoming a god, combined with years of planning, were enough to allow the ghost deity to find an opportunity to confuse the karmic debts in the Wan Ying temples.

As long as the debts could be completely shifted, with the ghost deity current state, it would be more than enough to cleanly become a new dragon vein.

Chi Qingzhou didn’t want to take the fall for his “new friend.”

But the deity had lived for over a thousand years, and was skilled in divination; to break free from the trap set by him would inevitably require sacrificing something.

Xing Shuangzhan understood Chi Qingzhou’s concerns and knew that purifying the bloodline wasn’t necessarily a safe choice.

He raised his gaze, looking deeper into the tomb.

The faint sobbing continued to rise with the wind, occasionally mixed with pitiful calls of “Zhou Zhou, have you arrived?” becoming more eerie in the dim light.

Xing Shuangzhan lowered his gaze and did not try to persuade Chi Qingzhou further.

Instead, he gently lowered his head, staring intently at Chi Qingzhou’s profile, his eyes deep and unfathomable.

The two, along with the system, continued towards the main tomb.

About fifteen minutes later, they finally left the narrow corridor and reached the first ear room.

There was no coffin in this room, and it had an irregular round shape. The accompanying burial items were mainly pottery, with suppressing evil formations carved on the ceiling and walls.

Xing Shuangzhan smiled meaningfully. “The layout of this tomb room hardly follows normal burial customs.”

It was difficult to say whether the great shaman had willingly constructed this tomb.

Chi Qingzhou curiously examined the star patterns on the ceiling and casually remarked, “Perhaps she was good at divination and discovered that something was going to be born here after thousands of years. Out of concern, she might have carved these formations.”

Xing Shuangzhan paused, then turned to look at him.

The system, which had been silent for a while, was also startled, its faint light freezing in midair.

Chi Qingzhou seemed unaware of what he had just said, carefully studying the formations in the room, as if genuinely considering how to break through the suppression once he lost his human body.

Xing Shuangzhan tightened his grip on Chi Qingzhou’s hand.

He didn’t care what Chi Qingzhou would become. If Chi Qingzhou truly decided to purify his bloodline, he would naturally bear some of the suppression for him.

The system was stunned.

It stared at Chi Qingzhou for a long time before suddenly speaking up. “Host, I have another question.”

Chi Qingzhou replied, “Hm? What question?”

The system continued, “Since entering this place, my CPU has been calculating unfamiliar data.”

The data was incredibly complex, with models it had never stored before, causing it, a system, to be unable to understand what it was processing.

“I tried a self-check, but didn’t find any viruses. My diagnostics show that these data were imported normally through the port.”

It flew over to Chi Qingzhou, its weak light flickering like a candle in the wind, ready to extinguish at any moment.

“Host, I didn’t import any new data. Did you input this data yourself?”

Its voice quivered with a hint of fear, almost tangible.

“I don’t know what you want to do, but my running memory and processing speed are really limited.”

“The sample size of this data is just too large, and the temperature of my CPU and core area is still rising. If this continues, it will definitely burn out!”

“Host, since we’re bound, even if I haven’t earned merit, I’ve certainly put in effort, right? Please don’t do this to me, at least leave me a way out, please?”

Chi Qingzhou’s smile didn’t change as he glanced at it without answering.

He was a kind person and had given the 16594 system a chance.

But the 16594 system, like its predecessors, had completely wasted that chance. What could he do about it?

No matter how kind he was, he had to follow the basic law that good things are repaid with good, and evil with evil.

Moreover, his friends were obviously more important than the external system.

Polluting the dragon vein and hoping to escape unscathed would certainly require a good deal of preparation.

Shen Wenxu was willing to take risks for his friends, even against the newly born dragon vein. Naturally, he couldn’t just stand by and watch his friend get entangled in karmic debts.

Fortunately, the formations Xing Shuangzhan had set up were quite effective.

This inspiration came from the system’s reward module, with the core being the system’s computational module formation, which was fully capable of trapping the karmic debts within the system.

If the system found these debts hard to bear, it could always seek help from its main base.

Chi Qingzhou said sincerely, “You visitors from beyond, whether good or evil, always have ways to deceive the heavenly path and evade karmic debts.”

Before the system could retort, he continued, “You also said that your system can allow the host to replace a dying person from another dimension. To do that, you’d at least have to deceive the heavenly path for decades.”

“Being able to develop this model into a production line shows that it’s already a mature technique within your system.”

He paused, his eyes filled with even more curiosity.

“You seem very scared now, putting aside your pride to beg me, but in reality, you’re just putting on a show to avoid me noticing something’s off.”

“You’re not actually afraid of these sudden data, are you? Perhaps you’re even secretly happy, thinking you can pretend to die and escape using your emergency program?”

The system’s trembling stopped.

Its light flickered violently, almost like human breath, rapidly rising and falling.

Chi Qingzhou extended his hand and grabbed it in his palm.

The system was shocked, instinctively trying to break free, but then suddenly realized it had lost its strength.

Chi Qingzhou held it, walking towards the main tomb room while the shadow on his shoulder revealed a malicious smile.

“I did send Shen Wenxu to take the risk. I hope he can help me restrain my new friend, but I never intended to drag him into this.”

He chuckled softly, “I’ve regained my memory, how could I forget that he’s my first friend in this world, besides Xing Shuangzhan?”