Chapter 98: Well, here I am
The master’s female disciples were few, and among the nine disciples chosen to be tomb guardians, only one was a woman named Huang Yuren.
Being a woman favored by the master, she naturally had something unique about her, which was her skill in formations.
Xin Liu immediately understood why he couldn’t find the last two disciples’ tombs; they must have been hidden by Huang Yuren using formations.
Apart from the jade scroll in her own tomb, the jade scroll in another tomb was likely also in her possession.
With this, all nine jade scrolls had already surfaced.
“Junior Sister Yuren, so it was you. Why didn’t you say so earlier? We almost ended up killing each other,” Xin Liu said with a broad smile.
Huang Yuren smiled slyly, giving the plain-looking man’s face a touch of lively mischief.
“I woke up late, so I naturally didn’t dare to reveal myself, unlike Senior Brother Xin Liu.”
Xin Liu didn’t understand her meaning but said, “Since we, as fellow disciples, have recognized each other, we should help each other. What do you think, Junior Sister?”
“Of course,” Huang Yuren replied with a meaningful expression. “After all, only the two of us remain among the nine tomb guardians.”
Xin Liu’s expression stiffened slightly. “How can it be just the two of us? Have you seen the others?”
“I have. The other Senior Brother didn’t want to resurrect the master; he just wanted to collect all the jade scrolls and live a carefree life. How could that be allowed?”
“In a fit of anger, I had no choice but to kill him and send him to apologize to the master himself.”
“Senior Brother Xin Liu, do you think he deserved to die?”
Xin Liu hesitated. “…Of course, he deserved to die. You did the right thing.”
After a moment’s thought, he added, “To be honest, I also have two jade scrolls here, and there are four in Feng Xuexiang. You have two, and there’s one in the Crisis Bureau as well.”
“In that case, all nine jade scrolls are gathered. There’s no time to lose; let’s find the master’s tomb and bring him back to the world of the living!”
“There’s no rush,” Huang Yuren said. “One of the two jade scrolls in my possession is actually the one from the Crisis Bureau.”
“Senior Brother Xin Liu, you may not know this, but there was never a jade scroll in my tomb. The last jade scroll is in the master’s tomb.”
This was indeed news to Xin Liu.
Even to his favored disciples, the master wouldn’t reveal everything.
Among the nine disciples, Huang Yuren was the most loyal, and the master relied on her the most.
What she said was not impossible.
“But if we don’t have all nine jade scrolls, how can we find where the master’s tomb is located?” Xin Liu feigned concern.
“There’s no need to worry, Senior Brother. The master anticipated this. Once I awakened, I could use formation techniques to deduce the location of the master’s tomb with the other jade scrolls.”
Seeing Xin Liu’s expression change several times, Huang Yuren moved closer, gently taking his arm to reassure him. “Don’t be anxious, Senior Brother. We should first choose an auspicious day and prepare everything properly before we go to welcome the master.”
“But Senior Brother, your body seems too worn out. It’s no longer useful, is it? Perhaps it’s time to find a new one.”
Her considerate words made Xin Liu’s hair stand on end.
Huang Yuren was not some sweet and caring junior sister; if she spoke like this, she must have had ulterior motives.
“Ah, Junior Sister, you might not know that finding a body that can host a ghost is difficult. Possessing another person consumes soul energy, so I have to be careful. Besides, this identity is still useful; I can’t just change it so easily.”
Xin Liu stiffly responded, keeping one arm tense.
Huang Yuren laughed and lightly slapped his arm. “Well, there’s a suitable body right here!”
“Junior Sister, do you mean…” Xin Liu glanced at the unconscious Deputy Chief Pang nearby. His round belly and middle-aged appearance made Xin Liu feel a bit repulsed.
“Of course, not him.” Huang Yuren finished speaking just as a disheveled figure stumbled out from inside the house.
“Both of you, Ninth Uncle is going mad inside! We might need the exorcists to set up a barrier formation outside to prevent Ninth Uncle from dragging the entire Feng family into the illusion realm!”
Feng Zaiyin was injured, and his vision was a bit blurry. He forced himself to finish speaking and then noticed Deputy Chief Pang lying on the ground.
“What happened to Deputy Chief Pang?”
He then saw that the person standing next to Mr. Wu was actually Feng Zaixing. Immediately sensing something was wrong, he began to step back.
“Him, what do you think?”
“He seems suitable, but I might need Junior Sister’s help.”
“Of course, I’ll help you, Senior Brother.”
Hearing this exchange, Feng Zaiyin quickly realized that this “Mr. Wu” wasn’t who he seemed to be and tried to retreat back into the glass villa.
But Xin Liu and Huang Yuren weren’t going to let him escape.
They both moved forward to block him, trapping him in place.
In no time, Feng Zaiyin’s entire body was enveloped in gray smoke, while Feng Zaixing’s body fell to the ground, lifeless, exuding a stench of rotting organs.
Ming Tang, clutching his chest and pale as a ghost, retreated outside, only to find the others still in the courtyard, with Feng Zaiyin and Deputy Chief Pang both collapsed on the ground.
“What happened? Hurry and leave this place!” Ming Tang urged.
Huang Yuren pointed to Feng Zaixing’s corpse and said, “We came out and encountered this person sneaking around trying to attack us. He’s the one possessed by the ghost that Feng Xuexiang has been harboring.”
With the situation so dire, Ming Tang didn’t have time to ask more questions, assuming that Feng Zaiyin and Deputy Chief Pang were injured and had fainted because of this person.
“Hurry and get out. I’ve temporarily sealed the expanding power of Feng Xuexiang, but it won’t hold for long. We need to get people here immediately…”
The news couldn’t be kept hidden and quickly spread to others.
*
Far away in Qinglu Village, Yu Shi was busy cleaning the kitchen when suddenly, a sound rang in his mind.
The system, which never spoke unless he actively sought it out, unexpectedly activated.
[Mr. Yu Shi, the male protagonist of this world is in critical condition and is about to die!]
Its tone was unusually excited.
“Long time no see,” Yu Shi greeted before asking, “But my task is to monitor the villain. What does the protagonist’s imminent death have to do with me? Was it the villain who killed him?”
[No, but…]
The system hesitated, its voice sounding as if it were on the verge of tears.
[I trusted you, Mr. Yu Shi, which is why I left a management program behind to handle things while I dealt with an emergency in another world. But now…]
The system had returned after receiving an alert that the protagonist of this world was on the brink of death, only to find that the plot of this world had been completely derailed due to Yu Shi’s interference.
How could this have happened? The hosts it had signed contracts with had all seemed quite reliable before. But now, one after another, they were causing trouble!
Typically, it’s very difficult for a “transmigrator” to change the predetermined fate of a story.
System 06 had signed contracts with many hosts, but those who managed to alter the plot were extremely rare exceptions.
Most couldn’t even manage to monitor the villain and would quickly exit the world due to various accidents.
But the Yu family brothers, how could they be so… They even managed to manipulate the villains they were supposed to monitor.
Poor System 06 had never encountered anything like this before.
Its host causing trouble for the protagonist? The systems in charge of the protagonist group would surely lodge a complaint against it!
It had already been complained about several times in another world!
Yu Shi, sensing something from the system’s unfinished words, asked sharply, “‘Handling an emergency in another world’—does it have something to do with my brothers?”
At this, Yu Shi noticed the system’s voice seemed even more distressed, with faint sobbing in the background.
[It’s your fifth brother, Yu Le’s world. Something has happened there. Due to the rules, I can’t disclose the specifics.]
Even though the system didn’t say it, Yu Shi understood.
With Lele’s personality, without his older brothers to keep him in check, he would do anything.
Yu Shi felt like a parent being scolded by a teacher because of his younger brother. Apologetically, he said, “I’m really sorry, Lele has caused you so much trouble.”
Seeing Yu Shi’s good attitude, the system’s tone was filled with hope:
[Mr. Yu Shi, the protagonist can still be saved. Could you please go check on the situation and help out? Our job as a system isn’t easy either.]
Although Yu Shi felt guilty for how his brother had stressed the system, he wasn’t sure if he could save the protagonist, so he hesitated.
Suddenly, Jiang Mang called.
On the other end, Jiang Mang was even more anxious than the system, saying:
“This is bad, this is bad! Zhou Shi, Uncle Xuexiang is in trouble!”
“He was disturbed during his slumber and woke up prematurely. Now he’s in a frenzy, completely out of his mind!”
Without hesitating, Yu Shi put down the cloth he was holding and said, “I’m heading over now.”
*
The Xue family was already planning to visit the Feng family. Upon hearing that something had happened to Feng Xuexiang, even Xue Shanwei, the family head who had been ill for a long time, came personally to the Feng family to inquire about the situation.
“It was Feng Zaixing. He was possessed by an evil spirit and previously pretended to submit to Ninth Uncle. When Ninth Uncle fell asleep, he caused trouble and woke him, leading to this disaster,” Feng Zaiyin, looking pale and still recovering from serious injuries, explained.
His pallor was not fake. Feng Zaiyin’s soul was more resilient than Xin Liu had anticipated; Xin Liu hadn’t been able to devour it and could only suppress it temporarily within the body.
During the struggle for control of the body, Xin Liu suffered some setbacks.
If it hadn’t been for his junior sister assisting with an array, he might have failed to seize the body this time.
Fortunately, in the end, he managed to take control of the body.
“Nonsense! You claim Zaixing did it, but how do you explain why you, Master Ming, and two people from the Crisis Bureau were also at the scene? I think you’re slandering him!”
Second Brother Feng, whose son had died, was red with anger.
“Shamefully, I invited Master Ming to help cousin Zaixing. I intended to exorcise the evil spirit from his body.”
Xin Liu, using Feng Zaiyin’s body, showed a guilty expression and said, “I didn’t expect that he would refuse to back down, even at the cost of mutual destruction, which ended up disturbing Ninth Uncle.”
“To control him, both the Crisis Bureau agents and I were injured. Thankfully, Master Ming was there to temporarily stabilize the situation.”
At that moment, Ming Tang was leading hundreds of exorcists from the Ming family, setting up a trapping array and standing guard outside the glass villa with the Feng family’s exorcists.
Second Brother Feng didn’t dare approach the area, nor did he dare to question them directly. All he could do was rage from a distance. The more he pressured and acted aggressively, the more innocent and credible “Feng Zaiyin” appeared.
As an elder, Xue Shanwei listened to their argument and then made a request: “Given the chaos in the Feng family right now, Xuexiang can’t stay here any longer. I want to take him to the Xue family for the time being.”
“No way!” Second Brother Feng immediately objected. “He’s a spirit demon of the Feng family. How can he go to another family to rest? That’s against the rules.”
Xin Liu, however, was more tactful, saying, “You’re Ninth Uncle’s uncle, so of course, you can take him to stay with you. But given Ninth Uncle’s current condition…”
Just getting close to him was dangerous—how could they safely move him?
Others might not know, but Xin Liu was well aware that the four jade scrolls within Feng Xuexiang’s body were merging. Even if the Xue family’s snow demon were mobilized, they wouldn’t be able to subdue him.
He would continue in his madness until his strength was completely drained.
“There’s no need for you to worry about that. I have my own way,” Xue Shanwei said as he left with his daughter and granddaughter to check on the situation at the glass villa.
As they walked, Jiang Mang, who was trailing behind, received a phone call. Her stern expression softened as she spoke briefly to her aunt and hurried towards the Feng family’s entrance.
Noticing this, Xue Shanwei asked, “Where is Xiao Mang going?”
“She’s going to pick someone up, that Zhou Shi,” Xue Ruoya replied.
Xue Shanwei was familiar with Zhou Shi and knew that his nephew was quite fond of him.
Gazing at the ominous aura gathering above the glass villa, Xue Shanwei sighed, “He’s just an ordinary person, isn’t he? What good can he do by coming here at a time like this? Xuexiang… this time… sigh.”
…
Jiang Mang, upon picking up a weary Yu Shi, was startled. “You seem to have lost weight?”
“I’ve been working all winter, so I’m looking a bit more fit,” Yu Shi replied briefly before asking about Feng Xuexiang’s condition.
“We’re not sure of the details yet. We were just about to check,” Jiang Mang said as they walked. “Feng Zaiyin mentioned a few things, but I think what he said was as good as nothing. He acts all high and mighty, but he doesn’t seem trustworthy. He might be lying.”
They wasted no time and quickly arrived outside the glass villa, where a crowd had gathered. The head of the Xue family was speaking with Ming Tang.
“Grandfather, Aunt, I’ve brought Zhou Shi. He wants to go inside and see Uncle,” Jiang Mang said.
Ming Tang noticed Zhou Shi and, with a hint of guilt on his face, advised, “You shouldn’t go in. Feng Xuexiang isn’t in his right mind at the moment. Entering would be extremely dangerous.”
“There’s no need to persuade us further, Master Ming. I must go in and see,” Xue Shanwei said, instructing Xue Ruoya to stay outside with Jiang Mang.
“Xiao Xiu and I will take Zhou Shi in together. That will suffice.”
With Xue Xiu, a spirit demon, by their side, Xue Shanwei felt confident they could protect an ordinary person.
Unable to stop them, Ming Tang watched as the three of them approached the villa’s entrance.
As expected, they were met with resistance from the overflowing energy. The violent wind cut across everyone’s faces and bodies like knives—except for Yu Shi.
He stepped into the wind without any hindrance and turned back to look at the astonished Xue Shanwei and the slightly moved Xue Xiu.
“I’ll go take a look first,” he said before disappearing into the swirling wind.
As Yu Shi walked through the courtyard, the fierce wind vanished, though gusts still came from ahead, like countless hands gently trying to push him back.
“Don’t want to see me?” Yu Shi asked, standing in the courtyard.
Letting him in but not wanting him to approach.
“Well, like it or not, we’re going to meet,” Yu Shi said, pushing against the wind, steadily advancing forward.
The wind, though persistent, didn’t blow forcefully enough to stop him; it could only swirl softly around him as he walked.
