Chapter 69: Shadows on Campus

Ever since Xie Sui agreed to help, Lin Ziyan’s spirits had clearly lifted.

It would take some time to drive to the Lin family mansion, and Xie Sui wanted to ask Lin Ziyan about things related to Lin Laosan. Therefore, he took the initiative to start a conversation, saying, “I’m actually quite surprised that you’re afraid of your family finding out you’re in a relationship. After all, whether it’s Lin Zixin or your cousin Lin Chenghai, they both seem very…”

Xie Sui paused, trying to find a tactful way to describe the reckless behavior of these two wealthy heirs.

“I know, they’re both arrogant and overbearing, right?” Lin Ziyan smiled helplessly. “It’s precisely because my brother and cousin turned out the way they did that my father and Second Uncle keep such a close eye on me.”

“My Second Uncle has completely given up on Lin Chenghai. I heard him say he plans to support him the same way my grandfather supported my Third Uncle, giving him a trust fund but not letting him touch the family business.” Lin Ziyan had clearly started treating Xie Sui as one of his own, speaking of family scandals without any reservation.

“But Zixin is doing okay. After being personally protected by you once, Mr. Xie, he suddenly became very hardworking. Not only has he stopped skipping classes, he doesn’t even play with sports cars anymore. I heard he’s recently preparing for postgraduate entrance exams.”

Mentioning Lin Zixin, Lin Ziyan felt a bit emotional. “When we went back for the Qingming Festival to worship our ancestors a few days ago, Zixin came back too. He actually dyed his hair black. You have to understand, my father scolded him countless times for that red hair of his. Zixin used to prefer not coming home for New Year’s rather than letting my dad touch his hair. But this time, he actually dyed it back on his own initiative… all of this is thanks to you, Mr. Xie.”

Lin Ziyan was truly grateful to Xie Sui. If Lin Zixin could turn over a new leaf, the academic pressure on him would be much lighter. The family would certainly prioritize grooming the older Lin Zixin as the heir, which would allow Lin Ziyan to choose the university and major he actually liked.

Faced with Lin Ziyan’s relentless flattery, Xie Sui felt a bit awkward. To be honest, he didn’t know what was going on with Lin Zixin either. Since the last livestream, his top donor hadn’t even logged into his account.

Despite the awkwardness, Xie Sui didn’t forget his main goal. He had just heard Lin Ziyan mention Lin Laosan, the person he wanted to learn about, so he specifically brought him up. “You have a Third Uncle? When I went to your family’s ancestral hall last time, I don’t think I saw him.”

The Lin family’s attitude toward Lin Laosan would determine whether Xie Sui told them the truth.

After all, no matter how outrageous Lin Laosan’s behavior was, he was still the biological brother of Second Uncle Lin and Elder Lin. If Xie Sui told them the truth and received resentment instead of gratitude, it wouldn’t be worth the trouble.

Hearing Xie Sui ask about his Third Uncle, Lin Ziyan curled his lip in disdain. “Third Uncle… he seems to have gone mad ever since his son passed away. I heard that a couple of years ago, he joined some kind of cult. Every day he tries to egg on my father and Second Uncle, wanting them to donate all the Lin family assets to this cult, saying they can resurrect his son.”

This was the first time the well-behaved student Lin Ziyan had shown such contempt for an elder in front of Xie Sui. In that moment, he looked exactly like Lin Zixin; their expressions were identical, clearly showing they were brothers.

“I’m not afraid of you laughing at us, Mr. Xie, but the feng shui problem at our ancestral grave last time was very likely Third Uncle’s doing. Because besides my father and Second Uncle, only Third Uncle knows that back path up the mountain, and that’s exactly where the problem occurred.”

Once Lin Ziyan started venting about Lin Laosan, he couldn’t stop. He seemed to harbor a particular grudge against this uncle. Normally, he wouldn’t dare say such disrespectful things about an elder to his family, but hearing Xie Sui ask gave him an outlet to vent.

He spoke about how Lin Zixin and Lin Chenghai had been led astray by Lin Laosan when they were children, how Lin Laosan was a spendthrift who forced Second Uncle Lin to clean up his messes, and then about the ridiculous things he did because of his cult beliefs… regardless, the central theme of his venting was one thing: Lin Ziyan truly couldn’t understand why his father and Second Uncle continued to tolerate and support this parasite.

Xie Sui silently listened to Lin Ziyan recount Lin Laosan’s ‘glorious deeds.’ Lin Ziyan didn’t stop until the car pulled into the Lin family courtyard.

However, from Lin Ziyan’s words, Xie Sui could roughly guess the family’s attitude toward Lin Laosan.

Second Uncle Lin and the others probably still valued their fraternal bond. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have let Lin Laosan go unpunished after discovering he had sabotaged the ancestral grave, instead letting him run around freely, even allowing him to go to Wuqi Village to perform a Ghost Marriage for his deceased son.

The three brothers might have truly had a good relationship at the beginning; they were blood brothers, after all. If the relationship hadn’t been good, Second Uncle Lin and Elder Lin would never have left their children in Lin Laosan’s care.

Later, as they grew older, their thoughts became complicated, and they began to want more things… Xie Sui didn’t understand the grievances and rivalries of such wealthy clans, nor did he want to get involved.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Xie Sui decided not to tell the Lin family that Lin Laosan was already dead. He would just let them believe he was missing.

The car stopped in the courtyard. Just as Xie Sui stepped out, Second Uncle Lin, who had been waiting at the door, came forward to greet him.

Second Uncle Lin had always been grateful to Xie Sui. After all, Xie Sui had not only solved their company’s crisis but also saved Lin Zixin and caused a complete transformation in the boy’s character.

Recently, whenever Xie Sui was mentioned, Lin Zixin would become proactive and motivated. During the Qingming Festival, while Lin Chenghai was out drinking and carousing with his fair-weather friends, Lin Zixin had given him a harsh lecture. Seeing this had made Second Uncle Lin feel both relieved and happy.

If possible, he really wanted to send his own son, Lin Chenghai, to Xie Sui for a makeover… unfortunately, that brat Lin Chenghai had offended Xie Sui before. No matter how thick-skinned he was, Second Uncle Lin didn’t dare ask Xie Sui for help with his education again.

A father is to blame for a son’s failings. If only he hadn’t been so busy with company affairs back then and left Lin Chenghai in the care of the third brother, his son wouldn’t have been led into becoming the scoundrel he was today.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries with Second Uncle Lin, Xie Sui cut straight to the chase. “Where is Taoist Master Xuanxu now?” His primary goal in coming to Rongcheng this time was to deal with this particular Taoist.

Originally, Xie Sui had assumed the man was nothing more than a charlatan with a few parlor tricks, so he hadn’t paid him much mind. He never expected the old man would actually stab him in the back by placing a bounty on him through the Wuqi Sect.

Xie Sui was not the type to return injury with kindness. Since Taoist Master Xuanxu wanted him dead, there was no reason to let the matter slide.

There was only one way to cancel a longevity bounty: the death of the person who placed it.

Once the person was dead, the longevity they had sacrificed could no longer be utilized.

Seeing Xie Sui’s murderous aura, Second Uncle Lin hesitated. He wasn’t sure if he should bring the Taoist out. After all, they lived in a society ruled by law, and Taoist Master Xuanxu had been apprehended by the Lin Family. If this turned into a homicide case…

Sensing the man’s hesitation, Xie Sui offered a reassuring word. “I only want to have a chat with the Taoist. If you’re truly worried, you can stand by and listen.”

Second Uncle Lin gave a sheepish smile and said no more, leading Xie Sui toward the inner rooms.

Ever since the Lin Family had “invited” him over two days ago, Taoist Master Xuanxu had been in a state of constant unease.

He had initially thought the Lin Family summoned him because his tactics for fooling employers had been exposed, and they wanted their money back.

To his surprise, after being brought to the Lin manor, the Lin Family provided him with excellent food and drink. Aside from not allowing him to leave the premises, they placed no restrictions on him, nor did they ask for a refund.

This only made the Taoist more frantic. The Lin Family’s behavior gave him the feeling of a heavy silence before a coming storm.

That sense of oppression reached its peak today.

After shattering his third teacup, Taoist Master Xuanxu finally gave up on drinking tea. He paced the hall restlessly, and at one point even tried to climb the wall to escape the manor, only to be caught and dragged down by security guards.

Just as the Taoist was sitting on the ground throwing a fit like a madman, trying to force the guards to let him out, he suddenly noticed a figure slowly walking into the courtyard. It was a figure that had frequently appeared in his nightmares.

The man was wearing a white shirt of the same style as their first meeting. He was lean and tall, carrying a sports bag. From his appearance and attire, he looked like a perfectly ordinary college student. But in the eyes of Taoist Master Xuanxu, that handsome, refined face looked like a demon crawling out of hell.

It was Xie Sui!

How was he not dead? How could he possibly still be alive?!

Perhaps driven by a guilty conscience, the Taoist shrieked and threw his teacup lid at Xie Sui, but the young man dodged it with ease.

Second Uncle Lin stepped out from behind Xie Sui. He looked at the Taoist scrambling on the ground, unable to understand why this fraud was so terrified.

In his view, the only grudge between the two was that night in the ancestral hall when the Taoist had overconfidently provoked Xie Sui, only to be humiliated and forced to apologize.

Second Uncle Lin couldn’t understand why Xie Sui harbored such intense killing intent, nor could he fathom why the Taoist was scared witless just by the sight of him.

Xie Sui walked into the courtyard and stood before Taoist Master Xuanxu.

He looked down at the old Taoist who seemed to have aged significantly, watching him tremble in the corner. “Why are you so afraid of me?” Xie Sui asked with a hint of curiosity. “I’m the victim here, aren’t I? Where is that ruthlessness you showed when you used your own lifespan to put a bounty on me?”

Like a plucked chicken waiting for the slaughter, the Taoist craned his neck and screamed, “Don’t… don’t come any closer! In broad daylight, you wouldn’t dare commit murder, would you?”

“I won’t kill you. I have no desire to get my hands dirty.” Xie Sui stood with his back to the others in the courtyard, looking at Taoist Master Xuanxu with a blank expression. A flash of blood-red light flickered briefly in his eyes.

“I wonder, Master, have you ever heard the term ‘instant karma’? The evils committed in this life must be repaid in this life. Tell me, Master, how many evil deeds have you done?”

“If you have a clear conscience, I cannot harm you in the slightest.” Seeing the black misfortune and blood-red karmic obstacles rapidly gathering on the Taoist’s forehead, a mocking smile touched the corners of Xie Sui’s mouth. “But Master… I doubt I’m the only one you’ve harmed. How many people troubled by ghosts and spirits have met untimely deaths because of your deceptions?”

“Good is rewarded with good, and evil with evil. The cycle of cause and effect is never wrong.”

Xie Sui knelt down and lightly patted the Taoist’s shoulder. “Those who commit sins of the tongue and deceive others fall into the Hell of Tongue-Ripping¹ and descend into the Three Evil Realms². I hope you enjoy yourself after you die.”

With that, Xie Sui ignored the Taoist’s screaming curses and turned to walk out of the courtyard.

As he passed Second Uncle Lin, Xie Sui said, “Thank you for helping me find him. You can let him go now.”

To prevent any accidents, Xie Sui added one more instruction: “Do not let anyone contact him for the next three days. You wouldn’t want one of your family members to be mistaken for a murderer.”

Second Uncle Lin couldn’t help but shudder, quickly and respectfully agreeing.

A metaphysical master like Mr. Xie didn’t even need to cast a curse or use talismans to kill. He could determine a person’s life or death with just a few words. It was truly terrifying.

Their family must never make an enemy of Mr. Xie.

Thinking this, and seeing Xie Sui walking away, Second Uncle Lin hurried a few steps forward. “By the way, three days from now is my daughter’s big day. Would we have the honor of inviting you to her wedding ceremony, Mr. Xie?”

“I’ve been quite busy lately, so I might not have the time,” Xie Sui declined politely. He didn’t enjoy crowded occasions filled with strangers.

Second Uncle Lin smiled and said, “No matter, no matter. I was just mentioning it.”

As they walked out of the Lin manor, Xie Sui saw Lin Ziyan waiting by the gate with eyes full of entreaty. Xie Sui paused and said to Second Uncle Lin, “I heard Lin Ziyan is currently on leave. Could I borrow him for a day? I’m not familiar with Rongcheng and would like him to show me around.”

“No problem at all, of course it’s no problem.” The worry on Second Uncle Lin’s face swept away instantly. He hurriedly patted Lin Ziyan on the shoulder and pushed him toward Xie Sui’s side. “Xiao Yan, make sure you listen to everything Mr. Xie says.”

Because his own son was such a disappointment, Second Uncle Lin didn’t dare bring him before Xie Sui. As for that boy Lin Zixin, he had been staying at home these past few days, acting exceptionally well behaved, but as soon as he heard Xie Sui was coming, he had left the house early this morning and hadn’t returned yet.

Sigh… none of the adult juniors in the family were reliable. In the end, they had to rely on Lin Ziyan, a kid who hadn’t even finished high school, to build a connection with Mr. Xie.

Lin Ziyan followed Xie Sui into the car and left the Lin family mansion.

Fortunately, Xie Sui was there, otherwise he wouldn’t have known what excuse to use to leave the house.

Lin Ziyan was currently extremely worried about his girlfriend. During the days he had been home on sick leave, he hadn’t been able to find a reason to go out and see her, and he had no idea how she was doing.

After leaving the Lin mansion, Xie Sui didn’t take the car back to the hotel. Instead, he had the driver go directly to the residential complex where Lin Ziyan’s girlfriend lived.

The Lin family’s drivers were very professional. Seeing that Xie Sui was going to a residential area instead of the hotel, the driver didn’t ask any questions and obediently drove to the entrance of the complex.

Xie Sui and Lin Ziyan got out of the car and walked into the complex.

Lin Ziyan’s girlfriend lived in an old residential area. The roads inside were occupied by clutter on both sides, along with various electric scooters and bicycles. There was only enough space for one person to walk at a time, making it difficult for four-wheeled vehicles to pass through these narrow paths.

Therefore, the driver could only park at the entrance and wait for Xie Sui and the boy to return.

Today was the last day of the Qingming holiday, so students were all home on break.

Lin Ziyan knew his girlfriend’s habits. With midterms approaching, she definitely wouldn’t have gone out; she would be at home studying.

The nearest library to this complex required a forty-minute bus ride. In his girlfriend’s words, rather than wasting that time on the road, it was better to just study at home.

Lin Ziyan’s girlfriend was named Liu Yiyi. When the two reached the bottom of her building, Lin Ziyan called her, wanting to ask her to come down.

It would be quite abrupt for two strange men to suddenly knock on a young girl’s door, and Lin Ziyan wasn’t ready to meet his girlfriend’s parents yet.

While Lin Ziyan was off to the side making the call, Xie Sui looked up at the fifth-floor balcony of the residential building.

This complex had been built over twenty years ago. After years of exposure to the elements, the exterior plaster had inevitably peeled away, revealing the red brickwork beneath. Several thin green vines hung down from the railing of the fifth-floor balcony, as if trying to cover the exposed bricks.

Under Xie Sui’s gaze, those vines actually trembled, then suddenly retracted back onto the balcony as if they had received an electric shock.

The call was quickly connected. Hearing his girlfriend’s voice on the other end, Lin Ziyan’s tears fell instantly. “Yiyi, I…”

Xie Sui directly snatched the phone from Lin Ziyan and spoke to the thing on the other end: “Come down yourself, or I’ll go up. Pick one.”

Lin Ziyan stared blankly at Xie Sui, his hand still held in the position of holding a phone.

Though he was surprised by Xie Sui’s action of grabbing the phone, Lin Ziyan quickly realized something. His expression turned solemn as he asked, “Mr. Xie, could it be that Yiyi has already…?”

Xie Sui handed the now-disconnected phone back to Lin Ziyan. “She’s been possessed. The person on the other end isn’t your girlfriend. If we had come a few days later, your girlfriend would have completely turned into a wooden puppet.”

Recalling the eerie scene he had witnessed in the classroom where all his classmates had turned into puppets, Lin Ziyan’s face filled with terror, and he couldn’t even speak.

Not long after Xie Sui hung up, footsteps echoed from the dim stairwell, and a slender figure emerged from the building entrance.

It was a girl with a high ponytail.

Although Liu Yiyi’s name sounded gentle, her features were quite heroic and sharp. She was tall, standing half a head taller than Lin Ziyan.

Seeing his girlfriend appear, Lin Ziyan instinctively wanted to approach, but was immediately pulled back by Xie Sui.

Remembering what Xie Sui had just said, Lin Ziyan’s face turned pale, and his tears fell again.

‘Liu Yiyi’ ignored Lin Ziyan. From the moment she stepped out of the stairwell, she stared fixedly at Xie Sui, her eyes filled with nothing but fear.

“As expected, it’s a Zhangliu God³…” Xie Sui sighed softly. As he looked at the child’s soul attached to the living human body, the anger that had just risen in his heart vanished instantly.

The Zhangliu God, also known as the Ear-Reporting God, was a type of ghost-immortal with the power of precognition. They usually resided in wooden puppets shaped like children. Although these ghost-immortals had precognitive abilities, their foresight was limited and could not see too far into the future. Furthermore, they were often discarded by their masters for being too blunt and outspoken.

This kind of ghost-immortal was very pitiful and was usually man-made. One needed a hollow puppet made of camphor or willow wood, then forty-nine children’s skulls had to be ground into powder and injected into the hollow puppet. Finally, a child’s living soul had to be infused and refined for a hundred days before it could be used.

A living soul referred to a soul that was forcibly extracted while the child was still alive.

“Luyuan Conghua: Miscellaneous Records Part 2” recorded: “In the region between Wu and Yue today, there are those known as street fortune-tellers. They often take the birth charts of young children, curse them to death, and name them Zhangliu Gods.”

Most of the souls taken were the Shuangling⁴, one of the three souls that represents intelligence and wisdom. Once a child lost this soul, even if they were lucky enough to wake up, they would become a senseless, raving fool.

Once the soul’s spiritual energy was completely exhausted, the living soul residing in the puppet would dissipate, and the Zhangliu God would lose its power of precognition.

The moment Xie Sui arrived downstairs, the Zhangliu God had sensed his presence. The terrifying pressure emanating from Xie Sui made the Zhangliu God think its sensory abilities were malfunctioning. That was why it had manipulated the plants on the balcony to peek, only to be scared back by Xie Sui.

While it couldn’t distinguish that the terrifying aura originated from the White Tiger Fetal Fiend, it was already deterrent enough for the Zhangliu God, not to mention that Xie Sui was accompanied by forty-nine Ghost Infants filled with overwhelming resentment… He was practically a walking nuclear bomb.

Xie Sui frowned as he looked at ‘Liu Yiyi’. “But what I didn’t expect was that a Zhangliu God could actually possess a living person’s body. You are victims yourselves, so why turn around and help the villains who persecuted you to hurt others?”

‘Liu Yiyi’ hung her head and pursed her lips, looking somewhat aggrieved. “But the priest said that only by helping him capture more living souls would he send me back to my mom and dad. And I didn’t force Liu Yiyi… a Zhangliu God cannot lie. I told her the dangers of raising me, but she still chose to feed me her blood every day. The reason we swapped bodies and ended up like this was entirely her own choice.”

Xie Sui did not believe the Zhangliu God’s side of the story. Although it was said that a Zhangliu God could not lie, the person who created it could use various contracts and stipulations to induce it to deceive.

It was hard to say what this ‘voluntary’ choice really entailed. For a girl like Liu Yiyi, who had just started her second year of high school, there were far too many temptations that could lead her to step willingly into a trap.

Xie Sui spoke to it in a commanding tone. “Hand over your original body, and the Soul Vessel holding Liu Yiyi’s soul.” The wooden puppets used to house the souls of deceased children could not hold the souls of the living, so Liu Yiyi’s soul must be stored in a different vessel.

As long as he examined the talismans and formations on the Zhangliu God, he could figure out the background of the person who made it. After all, transforming an ordinary Zhangliu God into a Ghost Immortal cursed tool capable of possession required a massive amount of talismanic modification and carving.

Hearing Xie Sui’s demand, the Zhangliu God obediently pulled an exquisitely crafted, adorable girl puppet from her pocket. Without any hesitation, she handed over this original body that held the key to her life and death.

The moment Xie Sui took the puppet, he felt the wooden figure sealing the Ghost Infant in his backpack twitch.

Comparison is the thief of joy. Although the Ghost Infant lacked much reason, it could still distinguish between beauty and ugliness. When it thought about how it lived in those crudely made statues carved by Xie Sui where even the facial features were hard to distinguish, and then looked at the exquisite little puppet the Zhangliu God lived in that looked almost like a real person, the Ghost Infant felt wronged.

Despite feeling slighted, they didn’t dare speak up in front of Xie Sui. They could only express their dissatisfaction through silent, restless squirming.

Xie Sui had no time to empathize with the sensitive and fragile feelings of the Ghost Infants. His attention was entirely captured by the small puppet.

He turned the puppet over several times with an expressionless face. He wasn’t looking at the red talismans on the puppet, but rather at the craftsmanship of the carving.

Xie Sui had no artistic talent and couldn’t distinguish whether famous paintings or sculptures were real or fake, but he could recognize the carving habits of the person whose statues he had looked at for over ten years.

Xie Sui ran his fingers over the folds of the statue’s skirt, and as expected, he felt three small characters: ‘Zhangliu God’.

He was almost driven to a cold laugh, even feeling a bit like swearing.

It seemed this habit of carving characters into the folds of clothing was never going to change. You really are everywhere, Wuqi Sect.

The fact that the Zhangliu God had begun to spread through Lin Ziyan’s school was undoubtedly due to the Wuqi Sect acting as the driving force behind the scenes.

Clutching the puppet in his hand, Xie Sui continued his questioning. “Where is Liu Yiyi’s Soul Vessel?”

The Zhangliu God pinched the corner of her clothes, her voice very soft. “Her Soul Vessel isn’t in my hands. It’s at the school… I’m not sure exactly where.”

“You’re lying.” Xie Sui saw through her concealment at a glance. “Wasn’t it said that a Zhangliu God never lies?”

The Zhangliu God looked like she was about to cry. “I really can’t say. A restriction was placed on me. If I reveal this to anyone else, my soul will immediately scatter… and if, if Liu Yiyi returns to her body, then I can never go back. I want to return to my parents too.”

At this point, she looked up at Xie Sui and said hesitantly, “As long as you promise you’ll save me, although I can’t tell you where Liu Yiyi’s Soul Vessel is, I can ‘happen’ to walk past it… I’ll just be checking to see if Liu Yiyi’s Soul Vessel is intact, not actively telling you its location.”

Because the soul used to refine a Zhangliu God was the ‘Shuangling’ among the three souls, it was the source of human wisdom. Therefore, the reason and thinking ability displayed by a Zhangliu God were sometimes completely unlike an ordinary child’s, being even sharper than an adult’s.

Seeing that this was the only condition she proposed, Xie Sui agreed straightforwardly.

Even if she hadn’t mentioned it, Xie Sui would have saved these children’s souls trapped in puppets. He couldn’t stand to see children suffer.

For some reason, this Zhangliu God trusted Xie Sui implicitly. Even though he had only given a verbal promise, she was incredibly happy. She immediately left Liu Yiyi’s body and returned to the puppet in Xie Sui’s hand.

Fortunately, Lin Ziyan’s attention had been on Liu Yiyi the whole time. Seeing his girlfriend’s body about to collapse to the floor, he rushed forward and caught her.

Xie Sui said to Lin Ziyan, “Take your girlfriend straight to the hospital and get her some glucose IVs. Her health is very poor right now. Having been occupied by a foreign soul for so long, the Yin Energy in her body is too heavy. She’s likely suffering from anemia or malnutrition.”

“Okay.” Lin Ziyan wiped his tears with the back of his hand. “Mr. Xie, thank you so much. If it weren’t for you, I really don’t know…”

Xie Sui interrupted him. “Alright, no need for that. I’m in a hurry. Give me your student ID. I’ll take a taxi to your school myself.”

The Wuqi Sect was frantically amassing wealth and using the entertainment industry to rapidly absorb followers, and now they were even capturing the souls of the living. It felt like they were plotting something big. Before the Wuqi Sect could cause even greater harm, he had to resolve this as quickly as possible.

It was already past six in the evening when Lin Ziyan and Xie Sui left the residential area with Liu Yiyi.

To prevent Liu Yiyi’s parents from calling the police when they didn’t see her after returning home, Lin Ziyan called them to inform them of her whereabouts, even though he wasn’t prepared to meet his girlfriend’s parents yet.

Of course, the excuse he used was that they had met by chance on the street, and as a helpful passing classmate, he was taking Liu Yiyi to the hospital after she suddenly fainted from low blood sugar.

What Liu Yiyi’s parents would think was no longer within Lin Ziyan’s control. He now only hoped that Mr. Xie could resolve the situation at school quickly and return Liu Yiyi’s soul to her body as soon as possible.

Xie Sui, the man carrying Lin Ziyan’s high hopes, took a full hour to reach Lin Ziyan’s high school.

This was because there were two “No. 1 High Schools” in Rongcheng: Experimental No. 1 High and Rongcheng No. 1 High. When Xie Sui got into the car, he hadn’t specified which one, simply saying “No. 1 High.” The driver had taken him to Experimental No. 1 High, which was the furthest one from the residential complex.

Xie Sui was unfamiliar with Rongcheng and didn’t notice anything was wrong at first. It was only when the Zhangliu God reminded him that he realized the mistake.

The round trip took an hour of wasted effort… By the time Xie Sui reached Rongcheng No. 1 High School, the sky was already dark.

Xie Sui looked up at the campus fence, which was over two meters high and topped with a coil of barbed wire. He fell silent for a moment, circled back to a nearby supermarket to buy a carton of cigarettes, and then walked toward the school’s main gate.

The school entrance had one of those electric retractable gates, and next to the security booth was a small iron gate for pedestrians.

The light in the security booth was on. As soon as Xie Sui approached the gate, a middle-aged man in a security uniform poked his head out of the window. “The students are on break now. Outsiders aren’t allowed on campus.”

The corners of Xie Sui’s mouth curled up into a friendly smile. “Security Brother, my younger brother left his homework at school. He only told me about it today when I was nagging him to finish it. Since today is the last day of the holidays…” As he spoke, he discreetly slipped the carton of cigarettes to the guard, his voice sincere. “Could you please do me a favor? I promise I’ll be out very quickly.”

The security guard took the cigarettes and looked at Xie Sui, smacking his lips. “You’re a handsome young man, you don’t look like a bad person. But why didn’t your brother come himself? Why’d he send you to get his homework?”

Xie Sui told a blatant lie with a straight face. “It’s like this. My brother got whipped with a belt by my dad because he wouldn’t do his homework. Now he’s lying in bed and can’t get up.” After saying this, Xie Sui pulled out Lin Ziyan’s student ID and handed it to the guard.

The guard took the ID, looked at it carefully, and laughed. “Every family has its problems. My kid is the same, just hates doing homework. Even the belt doesn’t work on him.”

With that, he returned the ID to Xie Sui and went back into the booth to press a button. The iron gate clicked open.

Xie Sui thanked the guard and walked onto the campus.

From a distance, he could still hear the guard calling out, “Come out quickly! I’m telling you, I can see the surveillance monitors for the classrooms from this booth!”

Xie Sui crossed the playground and arrived in front of the teaching buildings.

Lin Ziyan had told him that their classroom was in the building on the left. Therefore, Xie Sui didn’t hesitate and walked directly into the leftmost building.

As soon as he entered the teaching building, Xie Sui detected a very strange smell. It was like the scent of burning firewood used for cooking in the countryside, mixed with a faint fishy odor… not the smell of blood, but more like the gamey scent of dairy products.

In addition to these smells, the entire building was filled with a very dense Yin Energy.

Xie Sui had heard that some schools were built on top of Mass Graves⁵ to use the students’ Yang Energy to suppress the Yin Energy.

However, Xie Sui hadn’t felt anything while standing on the playground earlier. Only this specific teaching building contained Yin Energy, which was very suspicious… It couldn’t be that there were graves only under this one building. If so, the students studying here were truly unlucky.

The things in the school were merely containers for the students’ souls. These souls were living souls and had not been refined; logically, they shouldn’t be emitting such heavy Yin Energy.

The most likely possibility was that the situation in this school wasn’t as simple as just the Zhangliu God.

However, the primary issue now was to find the container holding Liu Yiyi’s soul and then terminate the contract between her and the Zhangliu God.

The method these students used to raise the Zhangliu God was different from the usual way. Normally, raising a Zhangliu God only unilaterally consumed the deity’s spiritual energy, and the owner themselves would not be harmed.

But the relationship between these students and the Zhangliu God was more like the contracts used for worshipping Wild Immortals – I give you something, and you must pay an equivalent price.

The more one relied on the Zhangliu God, the more they had to pay. The price for using the Zhangliu God’s abilities wasn’t the consumption of its own spiritual energy, but rather a price paid by the owner.

At first, it might just be a few drops of blood or a few strands of hair on the wooden puppet every day. Eventually, the price would become heavier and heavier, turning into the sacrifice of one’s own soul and body.

Desire is bottomless. It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but difficult to go back. Once someone tastes the sweetness of a shortcut, it is hard to return to the arduous path of relying on one’s own hard work.

However, as long as the contract between Liu Yiyi and the Zhangliu God could be terminated, the other students who raised Zhangliu Gods could also be saved.

Xie Sui had discovered this issue while examining the small wooden puppet earlier.

Perhaps it was because adding such a body-snatching formation to the Zhangliu God was troublesome, or perhaps it was for ease of control, but the person who created these Zhangliu Gods had installed a switch on them that could control all the contracts.

As long as a contract between one Zhangliu God and a human was established, all students holding a Zhangliu God would sign a contract with them.

Conversely, as long as one Zhangliu God ended its contract with a human, all the Zhangliu Gods would be forced to terminate their contracts as well. The students whose bodies had been snatched by the puppets would have their souls returned to their bodies, while the living souls of the children would return to the puppets.

It was like a string of lightbulbs; if one went out, the others couldn’t escape the same fate.

Whether Liu Yiyi was the first to sign the contract with the Zhangliu God was no longer important. Terminating Liu Yiyi’s contract alone would be enough.

As Xie Sui walked through the corridors of the teaching building, the small wooden puppet in his hand would occasionally “accidentally” fall. Following the direction pointed by the puppet’s arm whenever it “accidentally” landed, Xie Sui arrived in front of a storage room door at the end of the hallway.

The storage room door was locked… Xie Sui felt a bit of a headache.

He glanced casually at the corridor’s surveillance camera. The camera on the wall was pointed directly at the storage room door. If he kicked the door in, it would definitely be recorded.

Xie Sui looked at the small wooden puppet in his hand. “Where is the key to the storage room?”

The small puppet spoke in a thin, reedy voice. “You are not my master. I cannot help you divine the future.”

Xie Sui replied nonchalantly, “I am not asking you to divine for me. Just do it for yourself. You are bored anyway, and since you have nothing better to do, why not divine where the key to the storage room is just for fun?”

The Zhangliu God: …

What kind of black-hearted capitalist exploiter of child labor was this?

The small puppet began to read in a dry, robotic tone. “Oh, I am so bored. Look, here is a locked door. Why don’t I divine where the key to this lock is?”

“[The furious security guard raises his flashlight. The flashlight startles the old cat. The old cat knocks over a flowerpot. The key is among the shards of the flowerpot.]”

A furious security guard?

Before Xie Sui could react to what that meant, he heard the voice of the middle-aged security guard cursing from downstairs. “Alright! You little brats actually dared to sneak into the school in the middle of the night. I don’t know which part of the fence is broken again… Once I catch you, I’m definitely telling your headteacher!”

Xie Sui leaned out of the corridor window and looked down.

He saw the security guard who had been in the booth earlier. The man was holding a flashlight, crossing the playground and heading straight toward the teaching building where Xie Sui was located.

Xie Sui was somewhat confused. He had entered the school with the security guard’s permission, and he had been inside the building for less than ten minutes. The “little brats” the guard was shouting about… probably didn’t refer to him, right?

Just as the security guard passed a flowerbed in front of the teaching building with his flashlight raised, a piercing cat’s cry suddenly rang out. Immediately after, a dark shadow darted out from the flowerbed, giving the guard a fright.

The shadow was a black cat. Its sudden appearance knocked over a flowerpot, which shattered on the ground. Perhaps because it was startled, the black cat actually extended its claws and swiped at the security guard.

The guard narrowly dodged the cat’s sharp claws, but the black cat’s strike wasn’t entirely fruitless. Its claws caught on the belt loop of the guard’s trousers. The narrow strip of fabric was torn open by the cat’s claws, and the keychain hanging from it fell into the shattered flowerpot.

However, because it was cushioned by the soil, the keychain made no sound when it hit the ground. The guard, who was now fuming and grabbing the old cat by the scruff of its neck, failed to notice that the keys on his waist had vanished.

Xie Sui looked at the keys amidst the shards and soil, then looked back at the small wooden puppet in his hand.

He was starting to have trouble distinguishing whether the Zhangliu God’s ability was prophecy or a jinx. Could it be that when the Evil Cultivator modified the puppet, they had also modified the Zhangliu God’s original divination function?

Forget it, now was not the time to think about such things. Whether it was a jinx or a curse had nothing to do with him. The most important thing now was to enter the storage room and find Liu Yiyi’s Soul Vessel.

Xie Sui did not intend to go downstairs to the flowerbed to pick up that set of keys.

Since the security guard wasn’t watching the monitors right now, he could just kick the storage room door open. As for the recorded footage of him breaking the door… well, he would let Lin Ziyan handle it. The Lin Family was wealthy and influential; they should easily be able to deal with a high school’s nighttime surveillance footage.

Xie Sui stepped away from the window, preparing to return to the storage room door to kick it in.

Just as he passed the classroom next to the storage room, a dark shadow suddenly rushed out.

Before Xie Sui could turn around, the shadow covered his mouth and dragged him directly into the classroom.

Translator’s Notes