Lanting’s displayed strength left Bai Heng shaken to his core.
Hearing the youth casually speak of retaliating against Gu Guixi, Bai Heng felt a sharp pain in his knees. As he knelt there in humiliation, a trace of relief and fear flashed through his heart.
Lanting caught this shift in emotion, and the youth suddenly asked, “What are you happy about?”
Narrowing his eyes with a calm expression, Lanting continued, “I’m guessing you’re glad that if I go cause trouble for Gu Guixi, you’ll have the chance to slip away.”
The youth tilted his head. “Am I right?”
His thoughts guessed correctly, Bai Heng stiffened, lowering his head in silence.
Lanting let out a soft laugh, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “Such deep affection indeed.”
Seeing Bai Heng’s reaction and recalling the guesses he had formed ever since Bai Heng exposed his own identity, Lanting grew even more certain of his theory.
Bai Heng didn’t love Gu Guixi nearly as deeply as he always put on.
As for the soul-replacement array.
The moment Xu Xiaoyu had manifested earlier, Lanting observed that while the female ghost showed no reaction to Bai Heng whatsoever, as if she didn’t know him, the vast majority of her remaining karmic debts were frantically surging toward Bai Heng.
Bai Heng was unquestionably connected to Xu Xiaoyu’s death.
“I advise you to let me go quickly, or someone won’t let you off the hook.”
Seeing that Lanting had no intention of inflicting further injuries, Bai Heng hardened his attitude again after a moment of thought.
Yet Lanting completely ignored him, refusing to spare him even a glance no matter how wildly he ranted.
Gritting his teeth, Bai Heng threatened, “This is illegal detention! I can call the police!”
Catching his gaze, Lanting frowned. To the man’s absolute horror, Lanting dipped a finger into the remnants of milk left in his cup, flicked a droplet of liquid through the air to form a sealing barrier, and instantly muted Bai Heng’s ceaseless rambling.
Bai Heng opened his mouth to cry for help, only to find he could no longer utter a single sound no matter how wide he opened his mouth. Disregarding the sharp pain in his knees, he braced his hands against the floor and tried to crawl away.
Lanting didn’t stop him, watching with dark, heavy eyes as the man crawled out.
Along the way, Bai Heng’s tender hands scraped and bled. When he finally hauled himself past the gates of the Lan residence, a wave of elation washed over him, but that smile froze instantly the next second.
Gu Hezang, dressed in clean, crisp Daoist robes, squatted ungracefully on the ground, boredly sketching talismans in the dirt with a twig.
Lifting his gaze to lock eyes with Bai Heng, Gu Hezang split into a grin revealing eight white teeth.
His upper and lower lips parted to deliver a casual greeting: “Long time no see, little trash.”
A while later, a notification popped up on Lanting’s phone.
Lowering his gaze, he saw Gu Hezang had sent him a sticker.
A chibi Daoist priest kneeling in gratitude, accompanied by a voice message.
“Thanks, smooth operation.”
Gu Guixi had been having a miserable time lately. The Lan family’s aggressive offensive sent the Gu family’s stock prices plunging wildly in a short span of time.
Business partners dropped away one by one, and even those who had lavished praise on them right after terminating contracts now rejected requests to renew partnerships.
All previously collaborative projects were cancelled, leaving the Gu corporation facing a massive capital chain fracture. After burning through penalty payouts just to patch the holes, they had no funds left to pay employee salaries.
Within a mere month, a massive wave of employees handed in their resignations.
With the Gu corporation reduced to an empty shell, Gu Guixi’s father suddenly suffered a stroke and lay bedridden in the hospital. His mother went to tend to him, leaving the entire weight of the company resting entirely on Gu Guixi’s shoulders.
Yet without the Lan family’s backing, Gu Guixi struggled immensely to keep things afloat.
Worse still, while he was up to his neck in panic, Bai Heng neurotically called him over and over, trying to force him through threats of police involvement to cut ties with Lanting.
During their final phone call, a dark-faced Gu Guixi finally snapped and exploded. “Don’t forget, the child in Xu Xiaoyu’s belly was yours! You’re the one who deserves to die the most. Go ahead and call the police if you want, at the worst we’ll drag each other down and rot in prison together!”
With that, Gu Guixi slammed his phone down hard onto the floor, shattering it into pieces.
At that moment, a knock sounded at the door, and his secretary walked in holding a resignation letter.
Gu Guixi stared at her with a gloomy expression. “The Gu company hasn’t treated you poorly. You’re resigning at a time like this too?”
Without answering, she simply placed the letter squarely on his desk and flipped her hair back.
“A resignation notice, not a resignation application, so I don’t need your approval. I’ve already packed my things and handed over my accounts. Well, not that there’s much to hand over anyway.”
“I’ll be taking my leave now, President Gu.”
As the click of high heels faded away, Gu Guixi slammed a fist down onto the desk with a deafening crash.
Working back-to-back shifts at the company for days on end, his physical condition plummeted sharply. Late at night, he completely lost consciousness and slumped over his desk in a faint.
When he opened his eyes again, the surroundings were deathly quiet, everyone else in the office building having already left.
Gu Guixi rubbed his throbbing temples with an ugly expression. “Not a single person bothered to check on me.”
Today, yet another party proposed terminating a contract, aiming to kick the Gu corporation out of a half-completed project. After Gu Guixi scrambled through endless negotiations, the other party finally agreed to a temporary postponement.
Since the project still required his personal oversight, he stayed behind to work overtime, needing to produce a better solution by tomorrow morning.
His mind felt sluggish and his eyelids heavy. After resting for a while, he finally dragged himself up to pour a cup of coffee.
As the dark liquid trickled into the cup, Gu Guixi stared down at it, suddenly feeling a chill sweep over him.
Frowning, he turned his head to check. The windows were shut tight, and the air conditioner was blowing warm air.
Everything looked completely normal.
The coffee was ready. Gu Guixi picked up the cup and took a sip, but the bitter brew lacked any pleasant aftertaste, carrying instead a bizarre, coppery sweetness.
Gu Guixi: “”
For some inexplicable reason, his hands began to tremble. Gathering his courage, he looked down, the liquid in the coffee cup was bright red, exuding a pungent scent of iron and rust.
“Clatter!”
Gu Guixi dropped the coffee cup in panic, shattering it on the floor. The moment it broke, another wave of cold air washed over the back of his neck, like a sudden breeze.
Though he mentally warned himself never to turn around, Gu Guixi mechanically swiveled his head anyway, only to find the space behind him entirely empty, with nothing there at all.
He let out an instant breath of relief, turning back around to clean up the shattered ceramic.
Yet the exact instant he turned his head back, a bloody, distorted face suddenly lunged close right in front of his eyes.
The entity slowly opened its mouth, blowing a wave of foul, fishy black air across Gu Guixi’s rigid face, bringing a bone-chilling cold.
Overwhelmed by sudden terror, Gu Guixi began thrashing and letting out frantic, panicked shrieks.
“President Gu… President Gu?”
Someone suddenly called his name. As Gu Guixi flailed his arms wildly in a panic, a dull throbbing hit his brain, snapping him instantly back to reality.
The intern hired just recently stood before his desk, staring in utter confusion at the cold-sweat-drenched, terrified Gu Guixi.
“Um… President Gu, are you alright?”
This wasn’t the first time he had experienced such a nightmare. Gradually pulling himself out of the lingering terror, Gu Guixi cast a lingering glance at the intern, watching that bloody face in his mind gradually revert to the neat, fresh features of the young staff member.
Taking a deep breath, Gu Guixi steadied himself. “What do you need?”
The intern handed forward a letter. “Ah, I’m here to resign.”
Having summoned Xu Xiaoyu last night to trap Gu Guixi in a nightmare, Lanting purposely waited outside the Gu corporation’s office building early this morning.
Just as he anticipated, a guilty-conscience-stricken Gu Guixi abruptly abandoned his work and walked straight out of the building. In his panicked state, he didn’t even notice Lanting’s striking white hair.
As Gu Guixi drove off, Lanting hailed a taxi and tailed him all the way to a hillside graveyard.
Watching from a distance, he saw Gu Guixi arrive at an empty clearing, drop to his knees to burn paper money, and light incense. Amidst thick billowing smoke, the man spent a long time muttering incoherently with an expression mixed with bitter regret and terror.
It wasn’t until dusk fell and night began to settle that Gu Guixi crept away in fear.
Lanting walked over slowly, stepping on the charred remnants of paper ash. Staring at the small, grave-like mound before him, he reached out and patted the rusty old sword.
This was the first time he had taken the initiative to touch the rusty sword. The blade gave a start before instantly leaping into the air.
Lanting leaned his back against a tree trunk, crossed his arms, pointed his chin forward, and casually ordered it with a tone of absolute authority.
“Dig it up.”
The rusty sword: “”