Chapter 17: Hidden Dangers Emerge

“Benefactor of the Lin Family??? Him?” Hearing Second Uncle Lin refer to Xie Sui that way, Lin Chenghai’s expression twisted as if he had bitten into an apple and found half a worm.

Because he was so shocked, his fear of his father briefly dissipated, replaced by a sudden suspicion that Second Uncle Lin was suffering from early-onset dementia.

Lin Chenghai pointed at Xie Sui, his voice frantic with frustration. “Dad, you haven’t been scammed by him, have you? I know this guy, he’s-“

“Mind your manners!” Second Uncle Lin’s eyebrows shot up as he swatted away Lin Chenghai’s pointing hand.

“How dare you speak to Mr. Xie like that? Mr. Xie is a benefactor of our Lin Family and a peer of mine. From now on, you will treat him as an elder! Apologize to Mr. Xie right now.”

Second Uncle Lin felt a surge of anger just looking at his useless son.

This boy did nothing but cause trouble and leave messes for him to clean up. He spent his days indulging in wine and women, showing zero concern even when the family was in crisis. Last night, Second Uncle Lin had tried to summon Lin Chenghai to the ancestral hall, but the boy was nowhere to be found.

Judging by his current state, he must have been out drinking himself into a stupor with his pack of fair-weather friends again. No wonder he hadn’t answered his phone.

Second Uncle Lin felt a twinge of regret. He blamed himself for focusing too much on the family business and neglecting the boy’s upbringing. Aside from Lin Ziyan from the eldest brother’s branch, not a single member of the Lin Family’s younger generation was worth a damn.

Being lectured by Second Uncle Lin in front of Xie Sui left Lin Chenghai feeling incredibly stifled.

He looked at Xie Sui, then at Second Uncle Lin’s exceptionally grim expression. After struggling with himself for a long time, he ultimately lacked the courage to defy his father.

Lin Chenghai curled his lip, mumbling reluctantly, “Sorry, Mr… Mr. Xie. I was out of line. I shouldn’t have shouted at you…”

As the young master of the Lin Clan, he had run rampant in Rongcheng for years. When had he ever had to act so submissively? What made it even more infuriating was that Xie Sui didn’t even flinch at the apology; in fact, the man hadn’t even looked him in the eye from start to finish.

“This is your son?” Xie Sui asked, sounding somewhat uncertain.

Second Uncle Lin let out a soft sigh. Though he didn’t want to admit it, he nodded.

Xie Sui fell silent.

Was this what they called a bad seed from a good harvest?

Fine, considering the Lin Family had given him seven hundred thousand, he wouldn’t be too petty about it.

After a moment’s hesitation, Xie Sui offered Second Uncle Lin a sincere suggestion. “You should probably find the boy a job. Being this drunk so early on a workday is really a bit…”

His gaze swept over Lin Chenghai’s hairy legs exposed beneath the bathrobe, and Xie Sui shook his head helplessly.

It was truly an eyesore.

Likely because he had been agitated upon seeing Xie Sui, Lin Chenghai’s strides had been wide and hurried. This caused the slit in his bathrobe to flare open, leaving his underwear fully visible, yet he seemed completely oblivious to the fact.

Following Xie Sui’s gaze, Second Uncle Lin also noticed his son’s disheveled lower half.

A vein popped on Second Uncle Lin’s temple as his blood pressure spiked instantly.

Seeing that Second Uncle Lin looked ready to pull off his belt and thrash the boy, Xie Sui decided to save his former employer some face. He politely bid the father and son goodbye and quickly pressed the elevator button to depart.

He had no desire to get involved in someone else’s family drama, nor was he interested in watching Second Uncle Lin discipline his child.

In contrast to Xie Sui, who had enjoyed a restful night in a five-star hotel’s presidential suite, Taoist Master Xuanxu hadn’t closed his eyes all night.

Because of his bungled interference, the Lin Family naturally hadn’t booked a presidential suite for him as they had for Xie Sui.

Taoist Master Xuanxu couldn’t bring himself to spend money on an expensive five-star hotel, so he had picked a random, cheap budget hotel by the roadside and checked in with his two disciples.

The faint morning light filtered through the gap in the curtains, hitting Taoist Master Xuanxu’s face and making him squint.

In just one night, he seemed to have aged ten years.

The more he had thought about things throughout the night, the more terrified he became. Fear had manifested into something physical, pressing down on his chest and making it difficult to breathe.

The words Xie Sui had spoken had become an inescapable nightmare, playing on a loop in his mind.

Taoist Master Xuanxu stood by the window, the light and shadow splitting his face into two halves. A flash of desperate, murderous intent crossed his eyes.

He couldn’t just sit and wait for death. Since he didn’t know when Xie Sui would expose him, it was better to strike first.

As long as Xie Sui was silenced forever, no one could threaten him, right?

Taoist Master Xuanxu’s face gradually contorted, his entire being radiating a sense of frantic madness. He no longer possessed the slightest hint of the transcendent, sage-like aura he had displayed at the start; he looked exactly like a violent old madman.

His internal terror had transformed into irrational resentment. Taoist Master Xuanxu now harbored a poisonous hatred for Xie Sui.

People like him never looked inward to find the source of their problems. In his eyes, the fact that he had been reduced to this state was entirely Xie Sui’s fault.

Yes, it was all Xie Sui’s fault.

He couldn’t be blamed for being ruthless; that man named Xie had forced his hand!

Having made up his mind, Taoist Master Xuanxu reached into a hidden compartment in his backpack and pulled out a talisman.

Unlike the traditional Xuanmen talismans made of yellow paper and cinnabar, this one was written on Purple Talisman¹ paper. Furthermore, the material used to draw the sigil wasn’t cinnabar, but a dark red liquid that looked very much like dried blood.

From top to bottom, the talisman radiated an exceptionally sinister aura. Just looking at it was enough to make one’s skin crawl.

If Xie Sui were here, he would have immediately recognized that the aura emanating from this talisman shared the same source as the group of people he had been searching for.

Taoist Master Xuanxu held the Purple Talisman, his hands shaking uncontrollably.

Finally, his resentment toward Xie Sui overcame his reason. Gritting his teeth, he used a needle to prick the pad of his left ring finger, squeezing out a bead of blood and letting it drop onto the talisman.

The blood vanished the moment it touched the paper. Then, the Purple Talisman began to hover in the air without any wind. Suddenly, a blue flame appeared out of nowhere, instantly consuming the talisman.

In just a few seconds, the evil-smelling talisman vanished from the room, leaving not a single trace of ash behind.

After the Purple Talisman vanished, the space in front of Taoist Master Xuanxu actually distorted. A transparent vortex formed by the spatial warping quickly enveloped him. Once the vortex dissipated, he aged at a speed visible to the naked eye.

If staying up all night had only caused a decline in his spirit and energy, this bout of aging manifested physically on his body in a very real way.

Previously, Taoist Master Xuanxu showed no signs of old age. He had been the picture of vitality with white hair and a youthful complexion, a ruddy face, and an upright posture, looking every bit the part of a transcendent master.

However, after using the Purple Talisman, his back instantly hunched over. Layers of wrinkles and age spots crawled across his entire face at a visible rate. Taoist Master Xuanxu now looked older than an ordinary man in his sixties, appearing like someone who had just barely survived a major illness. All the vitality in his body had been drained away, making it look as if he might pass away at any moment.

Taoist Master Xuanxu coughed softly and slowly sat back down on the bed.

Although his own cultivation was meager and he could do nothing against Xie Sui, there were countless practitioners in this world.

Following these years of Spiritual Recovery, Xuanjiao and Shijiao² had expanded rapidly, and the number of disciples under them had increased accordingly. Because the numbers grew too quickly, the control each sect had over its disciples had weakened, leading to an increase in Evil Cultivators who would use any means necessary to further their cultivation.

Having traveled the world for so many years, Taoist Master Xuanxu had accumulated many connections.

The Purple Talisman he had just used was given to him by an Evil Cultivator. Years ago, he had saved that Evil Cultivator’s life by chance, and the man had given him this talisman before leaving.

The function of this Purple Talisman was, simply put, to issue a bounty. It was a contract talisman that required the consumption of five years of one’s lifespan to activate.

As Taoist Master Xuanxu activated the talisman, all the intelligence in his mind regarding Xie Sui was sent out along with the contract to everyone capable of receiving the talisman’s message.

As long as someone practiced the same cultivation method as that Evil Cultivator, they would receive the talisman’s message regardless of whether they knew each other.

If the contract was completed according to the bounty’s requirements, the person would not only gain five years of lifespan but could also keep any spoils of war for themselves. The requirement Taoist Master Xuanxu issued was to kill Xie Sui. Both Xie Sui’s corpse and soul could be handled however the executor saw fit.

The corners of Taoist Master Xuanxu’s mouth curled up uncontrollably, and a sinister smile appeared on his aged face.

He didn’t believe Xie Sui was truly that strong. He wanted to see if the man could escape unscathed when faced with a siege from those ruthless Evil Cultivators.

Naturally, it was impossible for Xie Sui to know immediately about the underhanded schemes Taoist Master Xuanxu was plotting in the dark; after all, he didn’t have the ability to predict the future.

Xie Sui had already arrived at the Rongcheng station.

He hadn’t originally planned to return to Zhaoping City, intending to take a bus directly from Rongcheng back to his hometown. However, just as he was about to buy a ticket, his phone suddenly rang.

The caller ID displayed his home landline number.

This ‘home’ referred to the house he rented in the Zhaoping City Urban Village.

The landlord had set up the broadband using the landline number. Xie Sui had to use this number to pay the internet bill, so he had memorized it.

Seeing that familiar number appear on his phone screen, Xie Sui frowned.

Currently, there were only the Little Ghosts he kept to watch the house. Under his instructions, they shouldn’t easily let anyone in… So who had broken through the defense of those Little Ghosts to call him using the landline?

As various thoughts flashed through his mind, Xie Sui stopped hesitating and answered the call.

Hearing the static coming from the other end of the phone, Xie Sui breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, it wasn’t someone breaking into his room; it was just a ghost call.

An-an, this little ghost, really was full of surprises.

While streaming from the haunted house the day before yesterday, Xie Sui had wondered if he could get her to call him through Zhang Yun’s phone. He hadn’t expected her to actually pull it off now. Horror movies really didn’t lie.

The reason An-an was calling him was because of that neighbor uncle who had trespassed into Xie Sui’s home yesterday.

According to her, that man had been knocking on his door since the middle of the night.

This time he didn’t dare pick the lock to break in again, but simply kept knocking at Xie Sui’s door.

He was extremely persistent, knocking for an hour at a time, resting briefly, and then continuing. His knocking was interspersed with his wailing pleas for mercy, which was a huge public nuisance.

Setting aside what the other tenants in the building thought about the man’s disruptive behavior, the group of Little Ghosts in Xie Sui’s room were the first to find it unbearable.

They were already filled with deep resentment because they couldn’t be reincarnated, and their emotions were very unstable. If they continued to be harassed by the noise, they would likely go on a rampage.

Xie Sui sighed somewhat helplessly.

That neighbor uncle had folded so quickly. It was only the second day, so the Blood Calamity on him should have only partially manifested.

Fine, he should make a trip back to Zhaoping City first.

If the neighbor kept knocking like this, Xie Sui was truly afraid the Little Ghosts in his house would cause some trouble.

It wasn’t that Xie Sui was repaying evil with kindness by worrying about the man’s safety; he simply didn’t want the guy to die at his doorstep… He didn’t want to be investigated by the Law Enforcement Team because of this fellow.

Translator’s Notes