Chapter 212: The Villain Decided to Eliminate the Threat
The strength of Big Brother’s hand was something only those who had experienced it could truly understand.
With just a few slaps, the group of teenagers was stunned into silence, and Shi Bai quieted down as well.
Yu Guang easily grabbed Shi Bai’s hands and feet, holding him firmly like he was restraining a small wild boar. He asked, “Can we talk properly now?”
Shi Bai couldn’t move, but his reddened eyes glared at Yu Guang with even more hatred.
He was just a child, yet the hatred he harbored was so vivid and intense. Yu Guang even sensed a faint trace of malice emanating from him, something only evil spirits possessed.
In Longshi Town, many people knew of Shi Bai because he was a “child born of a ghost.”
Shi Bai’s mother had died tragically just before giving birth. Her abdomen was torn open, and an evil spirit emerged, but Shi Bai miraculously survived the ordeal. He was born from the same ripped abdomen yet wasn’t killed by the newborn spirit.
Because of his identity as a “child born of a ghost,” Shi Bai and his sister lived a difficult life.
Shi Bai understood at a very young age that it was his infamous reputation that made it impossible for his sister to find anyone willing to hire her.
Because of him, their life was so hard.
From the moment he became aware of things, Shi Bai had always been afraid. He feared that one day, his sister would abandon him too, just like everyone else.
To avoid being abandoned by his only family, he worked hard to find food and wanted to earn money to support their household. But for a child just a few years old, this was far too difficult.
His sister once told him that she had found someone willing to marry her and would move to the Liu family to live a good life. She instructed him to stay home, behave, and not cause trouble by going to the Liu family.
Shi Bai waited for three days, but his sister never returned. He thought, ‘She must have decided she didn’t want me anymore, either.’
For the first time, he disobeyed her. He secretly went to the Liu family, only to find his sister’s lifeless body and the evil spirit that had grown from within her corpse.
The night the Liu family was devoured, Shi Bai was at the Liu household as well.
When the evil spirit consumed everyone in the Liu family, Shi Bai thought his turn had come, that he was about to die too.
He watched the spirit approach him slowly, trembling with fear but not moving an inch.
However, the spirit did not eat him.
In his despair, a flicker of hope arose in Shi Bai’s heart. Could it be that his sister still remembered him?
Could she still recognize him? Perhaps she had only changed form; she wasn’t truly dead.
The spirit didn’t devour him but also ignored his desperate cries. Instead, it followed the scent of humans to find new prey.
When Shi Bai heard the terrified screams of the townsfolk, he knew he had to take his sister away.
He wasn’t afraid of his sister consuming people, but he understood that if she kept doing so, the townsfolk would summon someone to destroy her.
So, he used every means he could think of to lure the spirit away, keeping her from staying in the town to feed. Instead, he guided her back to the small straw hut where they had once lived.
The sister who had turned into a malevolent spirit no longer responded to his calls. She no longer scolded or resented him, but she also no longer hugged him, washed his hair, or mended his clothes.
But every time she tried to leave to hunt humans, he stopped her and kept her by his side.
Shi Bai told himself it was fine. He would take care of her from now on, and they would depend on each other just as they had before.
Back when they lived in town, Shi Bai was already unwelcome because of his identity as a “child born of a ghost.” He was often driven away.
After his sister became an evil spirit, his return to town nearly cost him his life.
With his head covered in blood, Shi Bai fled back home and never dared to show himself in town again.
He avoided everyone, scavenging food from the wild fields at the foot of the mountain to barely fill his stomach.
The townsfolk, afraid to go near his house, assumed he had disappeared or died.
Because of the deaths of the Liu family and that couple, the townsfolk decided to summon cultivators from the Exorcism Bureau to eliminate the evil spirit.
Fortunately, the two cultivators who came that time deemed his sister too powerful for them to handle. They told the townsfolk to wait for the Exorcism Bureau to send reinforcements and then left.
Worried that stronger cultivators would come to kill his sister, Shi Bai drove her further into the mountains, hiding together in the wilderness.
He thought she would finally be safe. But one day, after heading out to dig some wild yams to stave off their hunger, he returned to find the ground covered in the rancid remains of evil spirit bile.
His sister had been killed.
He had tried so hard to stop her from attacking people, had taken her deep into the mountains to keep her safe. Why couldn’t they just leave them alone?
He touched the foul-smelling bile, dropped the yams in his hands, and stumbled down the mountain back to town.
Everyone there was celebrating. They rejoiced that the evil spirit had finally been slain and their fears could rest. Every single person was full of gratitude for the powerful cultivators who had saved them.
The faces that once looked at him with cold disdain and disgust were now alight with admiration and reverence. They gathered around the bulletin board and the newly erected stone monument, recounting the scene of the young cultivators slaying the evil spirit over and over again.
To them, those cultivators were righteous heroes. But to Shi Bai, he hated them so deeply he wanted to kill them.
At that moment, the auxiliary system’s notification jolted Yu Guang’s memory, and he finally realized who this child was.
Shi Bai, who would one day rename himself Chu Shi, was destined to become a member of the protagonist’s team—a companion of the main character.
Because Yu Guang had entered a reset world, this was several years before the story officially began. Even the future final antagonist was currently only a twelve- or thirteen-year-old child. The members of the protagonist’s team were all just kids right now.
When the story began, Shi Bai would already be a withdrawn and gloomy teenager with a unique ability to control evil spirits.
His unusual birth had given him a special constitution—evil spirits wouldn’t harm him, and, when his will was strong enough, he could briefly control them.
Now Yu Guang understood why Shi Bai was so insistent that they had killed his sister.
Shi Bai mistakenly believed that the evil spirit possessed his sister’s emotions and rationality, thinking that she hadn’t truly died.
A child his age might seem capable of understanding reason, but in reality, they often couldn’t be reasoned with—especially a child like Shi Bai, who had gone through such extraordinary experiences.
The boys of the Tianchong Class initially thought their big brother would let the child go after giving him a beating. But after a brief moment of staring into Shi Bai’s eyes, their big brother suddenly stood up, carrying the boy with him.
“Let’s go,” Yu Guang said.
“Big Brother, are you taking this kid with us?” one of the boys asked.
“Yes, his constitution is somewhat unique,” Yu Guang replied.
Since their big brother had decided, no one objected.
Shi Bai struggled only briefly at first, then suddenly went quiet and obediently let them take him away.
Seeing the fierce glint in his eyes, it was clear to everyone that he wasn’t plotting anything good.
Yu Guang, leading his younger team members, handed Shi Bai over to the tallest and sturdiest of them, Wu Jin.
Wu Jin carrying the child looked like a bear holding a wild boar cub.
Pei Wenjue glanced at Shi Bai and chuckled, turning to Ban Ying. “Look at that kid—his face screams ‘suffering indignation in silence.’ I bet he’s thinking about how to get revenge.”
“Keep an eye on him,” Ban Ying warned. “Don’t let him cause trouble and make things harder for Big Brother.”
But no one expected that Yu Guang wouldn’t even give Shi Bai the chance to cause trouble.
When they left Longshi Town for their next mission to eliminate an evil spirit, Yu Guang brought Shi Bai along as he approached the spirit alone.
“Big Brother,” one of the boys whispered nervously, “this kid may be a brat, but he doesn’t deserve to die. Feeding him to the evil spirit seems a bit harsh.”
Pei Wenjue smacked the boy on the back of the head. “What nonsense are you spouting? Big Brother would never do that. At most, he’s just trying to scare the kid.”
Shi Bai, however, was pale with terror as they got closer to the evil spirit. The familiar stench of its bile reached his nose, and his small face turned ghostly white.
“Let me go! Let me go!” he screamed, struggling once again.
The evil spirit noticed their approach, its grotesque body twisting as it loomed toward them.
“Get away! Don’t come any closer!” Shi Bai screamed shrilly.
The boys watching nervously from a distance saw the impossible: as Shi Bai shouted, the spirit actually retreated.
“Huh? What’s going on?”
“Big Brother said he was special—was this what he meant?”
Yu Guang continued holding Shi Bai as he edged closer to the spirit. The evil spirit, drawn by the aura emanating from Yu Guang, drooled from its gaping “mouth.” Yet it ignored Shi Bai, who was even closer.
Shi Bai noticed this as well, his expression turning blank with confusion.
Yu Guang lifted Shi Bai closer to the spirit’s gaping maw. Once again, Shi Bai yelled, “Don’t come closer! Back off!”
The spirit’s hideous body writhed reluctantly but obeyed, retreating further.
Shi Bai recognized the scene. It was just like all those times his “sister,” turned into an evil spirit, had stopped leaving when he pleaded with her.
But this spirit wasn’t his sister. Why would it listen to him?
A realization dawned on Shi Bai, his eyes widening in shock.
Seeing the look on his face, Yu Guang stepped back, signaling the others to take care of the evil spirit.
Placing Shi Bai down at a safe distance, Yu Guang looked him in the eyes and asked, “Do you understand now?”
“Evil spirits are born from human corpses. They do not inherit the memories or emotions of the deceased. They feel no emotions, possess no reason, and act only on their desire to consume humans.”
“The reason this spirit didn’t eat you and obeyed your commands is solely because of your unique ability.”
“Your sister has long since passed. The evil spirit you kept by your side was never your sister.”
Yu Guang’s words were clear and firm. Once he finished speaking, he stood to the side, watching the others exorcise the spirit.
Tears began to fall. Shi Bai’s dreams and nightmares had been shattered all at once.
…
After slaying the evil spirit, they settled nearby to rest.
Shi Bai no longer glared at everyone with his eerie, sinister eyes. Instead, he sat to the side like a dejected, lifeless doll.
The boys began chatting about the earlier exorcism, their curiosity piqued by the child’s unusual constitution. They pestered their big brother, asking how it worked.
They had all encountered the child at the same time, yet none of them noticed anything unusual. How did their big brother know so much?
Since Shi Bai appeared quiet and dazed, no one paid much attention to him. No one noticed when he quietly slipped away.
His small figure darted through the bushes and ran down the path leading back to Longshi Town.
He wanted to go home.
He refused to believe what those people had told him.
Tears streamed down his face as he ran, but suddenly, he tripped and fell hard to the ground.
Instinctively, he looked at his feet, wondering what had caused him to stumble.
The ground was smooth, with no stones, but black thread-like strands, resembling hair, were wrapped around his ankles.
Shi Bai tried to pull the strands off, but his body was suddenly yanked upward.
The threads coiled around his feet, hands, waist, and even his neck, suspending him in midair.
Terrified, Shi Bai struggled frantically, never having encountered anything like this before.
A figure silently appeared in front of him.
Shi Bai recognized the person as one of the group from earlier—someone who always stayed close to their leader. He wore a strip of cloth over his eyes and was a quiet blind man.
He shouldn’t have been able to see, but even through the cloth, Shi Bai could feel an unsettling gaze fixed on him.
Yu Yin removed the cloth from his eyes, revealing pitch-black pupils. He locked eyes with the dangling child.
Shi Bai froze for just a moment before struggling again.
Seeing his unaffected reaction, Yu Yin seemed to confirm something. A faint smile curled at the corners of his lips.
He grabbed Shi Bai’s chin, and countless fine threads extended from his palm, drilling into Shi Bai’s head.
“Ugh… it hurts… Get away from me…” Shi Bai whimpered.
Shi Bai felt the threads burrowing into his hands and feet, piercing into his body like parasitic leeches crawling beneath his skin.
Forced to meet Yu Yin’s gaze, a voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
“So it’s you. I almost didn’t recognize you. I remember—you and your companions caused me quite a bit of trouble.”
Shi Bai had no idea how this person could project their voice directly into his head without moving his lips, nor did he understand the meaning of the words. He only felt a growing sense of fear.
When Yu Guang had grabbed him earlier, Shi Bai’s instincts told him they wouldn’t kill him.
But this person in front of him? Shi Bai was certain he intended to kill him. His body trembled uncontrollably as he sensed the imminent danger.
Yu Yin truly did want to kill him.
It had taken Yu Yin slightly longer than Yu Guang to recognize Shi Bai. In the future Yu Yin remembered, Chu Shi and his group had been relentless thorns in his side.
Chu Shi’s team had slaughtered numerous evil spirits Yu Yin used as sustenance, dismantled his puppets within the Exorcism Bureau, and twice nearly invaded his lair.
They had been the greatest threat Yu Yin had ever faced.
Of course, in the end, he had killed them all.
He particularly remembered Chu Shi—the boy who could look directly into his eyes without succumbing and who could control evil spirits. After killing Chu Shi, Yu Yin had turned him into one of his most formidable puppets.
Using Chu Shi’s reanimated body against his former companions had been especially satisfying. Yu Yin still relished the memory of their expressions—anguished, despairing, utterly devastated.
The suffering of the brave and fearless was a rare and exquisite pleasure.
Now that he had encountered this boy earlier than expected, Yu Yin decided to eliminate the threat preemptively.
He spread his hand over Shi Bai’s terrified face, preparing to send threads plunging deep into the boy’s brain.
“Youngest,” a voice interrupted.
