“For over a decade, Dai Shengfan has never shown his face, but I know that he was the one who sent all those people here.”
Lu Xincheng was not at all surprised by the answer. Just as Wen Yaozhi had said, the number of lives on Dai Shengfan’s hands was far more than one. Everyone in the villa tonight was like a chosen sacrifice. In this grand massacre, Lu Xincheng’s death was merely the beginning.
Wen Yaozhi also understood the connections within a split second. His eyes met Lu Xincheng’s in the air. Lu Xincheng did not look at him directly, only glancing with a side-eye. For the first time since their reunion, Wen Yaozhi saw such a cold gaze, as if saying, “This is what humans do. Is it not even more sinful than a vengeful ghost?”
Wen Yaozhi: “…”
Just as Wen Yaozhi was about to speak, an abrupt sound rang out.
“Beep, beep, beep.”
It was a very primitive cell phone ringtone.
Wen Yaozhi pulled the old phone from his pocket and answered.
“Where are you?” The low voice of a middle-aged man came from the other side. There was a lot of noise behind him; Wen Yaozhi could vaguely hear the background sounds of an airport terminal. He held the phone but did not speak.
The voice on the other end asked, “Hello, can you hear me? Are you still down there?”
“Yes,” Wen Yaozhi replied, deliberately lowering his voice.
“Good. Are you alright?” Dai Shengfan’s tone carried a hint of doubt, as if he were surprised that Yang Jingtai could escape unscathed. “Wait there, I will be arriving soon.”
“Mhm.” Wen Yaozhi quickly hung up.
He put the phone away and turned to Lu Xincheng. “He is here.”
“I know. You should go up.” Lu Xincheng’s tone was remarkably natural, which left Wen Yaozhi momentarily speechless.
Those heterochromatic eyes lingered on Lu Xincheng for a long moment. Before turning to leave, he spoke slowly, “There is a restriction at the entrance of the basement. Do not bother trying to leave.” Wen Yaozhi’s tone was actually quite casual.
The corners of Lu Xincheng’s mouth curled slightly. “Thanks for the warning.”
Lu Xincheng pinned down the severed head that was trying to roll away secretly, lifted it by its hair, and watched the tall figure disappear from sight.
“Why did you let him go? I saw that you two are on good terms. You should have at least had that little priest break the restriction to let us out.”
“Does he look like a priest to you?” Lu Xincheng looked down at the shameless head. “Besides, even if I were let out, what about you? Impossible.”
“If he is not a priest, then what is he?” A look of confusion appeared on the head’s face. If he were not a priest, how could he possess such high-level skills?
“A Ghost Hunter.”
“What?” The expression on the head’s face was as if it had been struck by lightning.
Ghost hunters were notorious, existing as living versions of Yama. Taoists and Buddhists might perform humanitarian rites for the deceased, but ghost hunters only knew how to strike with their blades.
“So, you should be grateful that he did not scatter your soul to the winds.”
A sense of awe arose in Gong Yu’s heart. He thought to himself that it was no wonder the basement had suddenly become so quiet today; it turned out a “living ancestor” had arrived. Even the way he looked at Lu Xincheng became three parts more respectful. “Then what about you? Why would he let you go?”
Lu Xincheng gave a perfunctory smile and shrugged. “Who knows? Perhaps he just finds me pleasing to the eye.”
“Huh?” The head was bewildered.
Suddenly, the head thought of something. “I just heard him on the phone with that man named Dai. This kid won’t help him deal with us once he goes up, will he?”
“Oh no, oh no,” the head muttered anxiously. “He is a ghost hunter. He will definitely help that villain deal with me.”
He was so anxious that he wished he could grow two legs. However, he saw the young ghost lying peacefully on a rattan chair, taking a nap.
“Are you not worried at all? There is a restriction on the basement and we cannot get out. If a few more priests, monks, or ghost hunters show up, we will be trapped with no escape.”
Lu Xincheng opened his eyes, his tone as gentle as if he were comforting a child. “What is there to fear? Can you not die anyway?”
Gong Yu grew frantic. “I am not afraid of one or two priests. But if a group of purple-robed priests shows up and sets up a formation, they could trap me here forever.”
Lu Xincheng said slowly, “A group of purple-robed priests is not easy to hire. Why would Dai Shengfan go through such a grand effort to kill you?”
The head sneered, “Because I am the last person in this world who knows his ugly true face.”
A helicopter landed on the villa’s helipad.
A middle-aged man wrapped in a trench coat stepped off the aircraft, followed closely by two personal bodyguards.
The butler approached through the whistling night wind. “The young master has been picked up and settled in the side building.”
Dai Shengfan nodded. “How is he?”
“He woke up for a while when he first arrived home, but he has fallen back asleep now.”
“Do not wake him up. Let him rest well.”
Dai Shengfan did not stop, heading straight for the main building of the villa.
It was now four o’clock in the morning, the darkest hour before dawn.
Wen Yaozhi sat on the steps in front of the small villa. Ziwu was not on his back but was leaning diagonally against his leg.
From a distance, Dai Shengfan saw the sharp figure guarding the door.
As he drew closer, his brows furrowed. Recalling the image of the middle-aged priest with a long beard and a bun he had seen in the files, he looked at the young man before him with hesitation.
Wen Yaozhi neatly spread the contract out in front of him. Upon seeing the two red personal seals at the bottom, Dai Shengfan finally broke into a hypocritical smile. “Master Yang, you have worked hard.” He had heard that Taoists had charms capable of changing one’s appearance for a short time. The principle was said to involve temporarily changing what others saw, which sounded very mysterious, though Dai Shengfan had never seen it before. He assumed this commission was special and the priest did not want others to see his face.
Wen Yaozhi gave a slight nod. “Transfer the final payment to a different card. I have sent the card number to you.” He waved the old satellite phone.
“Alright.” Dai Shengfan did not doubt him and stepped forward to enter the villa.
Wen Yaozhi reached out to stop him. “It is better to let your subordinates go in first. I fear,” he paused, speaking every word clearly, “that the inside might make you feel a bit uncomfortable.”
“Thank you for the warning, but it will not.” Dai Shengfan’s expression remained unchanged as he pushed the door open.
The duration of the soul-summoning ritual had already passed.
The door was pushed open, revealing a room in utter disarray, with light bulb fragments and splattered blood everywhere.
Dai Shengfan’s pupils contracted slightly as he performed a quick scan of the room.
“Boss, a total of five bodies have been found on the first floor.” After patrolling, a bodyguard reported in his ear.
“Very well. You can call the police now.”
The other bodyguard asked, “Boss, the basement door is open. Should we go down to check?”
“No, close the door first.” Dai Shengfan sat down comfortably on a partially intact sofa and dialed a number. “Master, it is time for you and your disciples to come out. Yes, right now.”
Dai Shengfan’s voice trailed off.
Staring at the tall man who walked in, he slowly put down the phone after hanging up. “The final payment will be transferred later. Is there anything else, Master Yang?” Dai Shengfan maintained a patient and polite expression. “I thought you had already left.”
The young man stood with his arms crossed, the slender weapon that was hard to identify tucked into the crook of his arm. “It seems you still need my help.”
Dai Shengfan waved his phone. “It is fine. It is just some finishing work that I have already arranged. I will not trouble you, Master.”
The host had already issued an order to leave, but the priest showed no intention of leaving at all. “Do you not want to know what happened below?”
Dai Shengfan’s patience ran out. He gave a signal, and the two bodyguards moved to “politely” escort the man out.
Wen Yaozhi did not resist at all, allowing the two bodyguards to grab both of his arms.
“The living dead inside. I can kill him.”
These words were like a bombshell in Dai Shengfan’s ears.
For a moment, a clear look of surprise flashed across his face. He did not expect Yang Jingtai to actually see Gong Yu and still be able to escape unscathed.
Then, he raised his hand, signaling the bodyguards to release him.
“That living dead man, I have already trapped him with a spell. He is now completely powerless to fight back.”
“Impossible. How is that possible?” The disbelief on Dai Shengfan’s face was clearly not feigned.
“Do you not believe me? You can follow me down to see for yourself.”
Dai Shengfan’s face went blank.
“Boss, no. It is too dangerous down there.” Dai Shengfan waved his hand at the bodyguards, and they immediately shut up.
He looked at the young man, his eyes sparkling with sharp light. “Fine. I will go down with you.”
Deep in the underground cave.
The head’s gaze shifted upward, his pupils slightly dilated as he recalled events from long ago.
The final scene of the television drama “Tears of Lovesickness” was set to be filmed on location in an abandoned mine.
Before formal filming began, the site needed to be expanded. During construction, a small-scale collapse of the cave structure occurred. Fortunately, no lives were lost, but many members of the construction crew sustained injuries of varying degrees.
The secrecy surrounding the construction accident was handled very well; no one knew about it except for a few high-level executives.
The collapsed cave had been cleared, revealing a vast space beneath it.
As the head writer and producer of the project, Gong Yu entered the cave with Dai Shengfan after the accident.
Under a small patch of collapse, they saw scattered raw ores below. The white, bright, and colorful crystals emitted a dazzling light.
The angle of the rock wall was relatively gentle, so the two entered the collapsed area along the wall.
In the center of the layers of crystal grew a strange plant.
It was a Rou Lingzhi, a fleshy ganoderma.
Its grey-purple, fan-shaped canopy was full and plump.
Enclosed within the translucent and flawless white crystals, it appeared both dangerous and mysterious.
In the world of fungi, this color would immediately signify that it was highly poisonous.
However, Gong Yu was certain it did not belong to any known species of fungi. Furthermore, it was impossible for any plant to grow in this waterless, lightless, and sealed cave.
Neither of them knew what it was at the time.
However, on the day after seeing the Rou Lingzhi, a strange thing happened. “Just by catching a tiny bit of its divine essence, we obtained unparalleled luck over the next few days.” As Gong Yu spoke, his eyes were clouded with an aura that was both devout and fearful.
He was a veteran lottery player, but his luck was truly terrible. He bought tickets repeatedly but never won. On the second day after coming out of the cave, his wife called him to say that a ticket from the last draw had won the first prize. On the third day, he received a call from a publishing house. His new work had won an award. It was not just any award, but a national-level one with significant prestige. This was a first for Gong Yu in his ten-plus years in the industry. It was even more exciting to him than winning the lottery, and he was moved to tears on the spot.
Within those two days, no matter what Gong Yu did, whether big or small, it was as if he were protected by the Goddess of Luck. Everything went so smoothly that he began to feel that life could indeed be this wonderful and pleasant.
Thirty years of hard work could not compare to a single stroke of luck.
However, such good luck only lasted for two days and disappeared without warning on the third day.
Only then did Gong Yu realize that the luck brought by that treasure was a consumable.
When he went down into the mine again, he found that the plant had completely changed its appearance. Its luster had dimmed significantly, and the originally plump and upright fleshy petals had withered quite a bit.
And this time, the contact did not grant him any increase in luck.
A week later, the final location shoots for the crew began in the mine as planned.
Gong Yu was very surprised when he received the news.
This was because after the accident, the construction foreman had privately told Dai Shengfan that the soil structure inside the cave was unstable and unsuitable for a large number of people to enter. Excessive weight could cause a secondary collapse.
Gong Yu had been present and heard it clearly.
Moreover, if everyone from the crew went down, would the secret of the white crystals and the treasure not be revealed?
Gong Yu did not know Dai Shengfan’s intentions at the time; he only faintly sensed that something was wrong.
Therefore, although he was not scheduled to work on the day of the opening ceremony, he went anyway.
As a result, a secondary collapse truly occurred inside the mine.
The second collapse was much worse than the first in terms of scope and intensity. Amidst the shaking ground, screams of pain were heard everywhere.
Because he was somewhat prepared, Gong Yu was not injured. At that moment, he had only one thought: he must get that treasure that brought luck!
After the collapse, the cave was pitch black. He found the Rou Lingzhi almost entirely by memory and intuition.
Fortunately, the treasure was undamaged.
Just as Gong Yu was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he heard a sound from above. A massive rock came rolling down toward him. His mind went blank, and his only thought was to protect the treasure.
The giant rock slammed heavily onto his lower body, causing a piercing pain in his waist. Worse still, the rare treasure was also pinned beneath him.
Disregarding the pain, he struggled to check the item he was protecting.
Gong Yu prepared for the worst, but he never expected that it would not be withered.
The Rou Lingzhi emitted a strong grey-purple glow, and its canopy seemed to be infused with some kind of essence, becoming visibly plump and fresh to the naked eye.
In the dark cave, after the initial chaos, there were only scattered, weak groans, forming a sharp contrast with the vibrant and strange plant.
Everything seemed eerie and unsettling. Gong Yu did not understand for a moment how the treasure, which had been withered before, had suddenly regained its vitality.
However, he knew he might not make it out alive.
Even if he did get out, he would be a broken man.
“So, you ate that thing?”
“Yes.” A flash of regret appeared in Gong Yu’s eyes. “If I had known what it was then, I definitely would not have touched it.”
Gong Yu ate the thing with the mindset of a dying man grasping at straws.
Afterward, he fainted.
What Gong Yu did not expect was that he had somehow intercepted Dai Shengfan’s prize.
When Dai Shengfan went down into the cave and saw only the stem of the treasure left, his heart was filled with boundless resentment, and he wished he could cut Gong Yu open alive.
A look of immense mockery appeared in the head’s eyes. “I ate half of the treasure. That scum could not bear to lose the luck, but he did not dare to eat it like I did. So, he tricked his wife into eating the remaining part.”
“His wife was already pregnant at the time. Do you not think this is karma? Hahahaha!” Gong Yu laughed with a distorted expression, acting extremely arrogant.
“He had a stroke of luck, but both his wife and child were gone. You have no idea how satisfying it was at that time.”
Lu Xincheng remembered something, and a look of confusion slowly rose on his face. “His son was also gone?”
“Yes. He hypocritically built a temple for them underground. What is the use of gilding it with gold and silver? No matter how respectable he appears in public, it cannot hide the fact that he is more dark and foul-smelling than a sewer.”
Lu Xincheng walked up to the grandly renovated mahogany archway.
“You cannot go in. There is also a restriction placed here by a priest. You cannot come out, and you cannot go in.”
“For all these years, I have been waiting here. If that beast still has even a shred of conscience, he will have to come down here one day and kowtow in front of his wife and child.”
“Then, I will send him to meet those souls who died at his hands.”
Lu Xincheng looked at the head, the smile on his face appearing somewhat certain. “I think you will see him very soon.”
“How do you know?”
The question was interrupted by a voice.
“Brother Xiao Xin!”
The boy’s loud voice echoed in the cave.
Lu Xincheng looked in the direction of the sound and saw someone running toward him like the wind, giving him a tight hug.
The force was so great that it nearly knocked Lu Xincheng to the ground.
Lu Xincheng’s vision went dark from the impact. Once he steadied himself, he saw who it was, the gluttonous boy he had met at the hospital.
A trace of hard-to-capture surprise flashed in his eyes, and then he curved his beautiful eyes. “Xiao Sui.”
The boy was overjoyed to see Lu Xincheng. In his eyes, the other man was like the warm sun in winter, making him instinctively want to get closer. He also quite liked the unique and pleasant cool fragrance on Lu Xincheng’s body. Like a small animal, he rubbed his shoulder against Lu Xincheng’s. “I felt a familiar aura as soon as I got home. It really is you!”
Lu Xincheng looked at the boy closely. It had only been a few days since they met, but he looked like a completely different person from when they first met at the hospital.
The child who was previously sallow, thin, and had sunken cheekbones now had a ruddy complexion, and even his height seemed to have increased.
Dai Sui said with a smile, “You did not even tell me you were coming to my house to play?”
“Your house,” Gong Yu’s face changed instantly. He looked the boy up and down and said warily, “You say this is your house? Who are you?”
The boy looked toward the sound and finally saw the head on the ground. His eyes immediately widened. “This is a ghost!”
The boy jumped behind Lu Xincheng.
Gong Yu frowned and muttered, “What are you making a fuss about? Is the person in front of you not also a ghost?”
Dai Sui instinctively replied, “Brother Xiao Xin is so good-looking. How can you compare to him?”
Gong Yu was speechless. “Who exactly are you? What is Dai Shengfan to you?” Gong Yu stared intensely at Dai Sui.
Just as Dai Sui was about to answer, his expression changed abruptly. “Oh no, my dad is coming.” His eyes darted around, locking onto a pile of stones in the corner. “I will hide first. He cannot find out that I am not sleeping properly.”
He quickly hid himself, giving Lu Xincheng a “shush” gesture before crouching down.
About a minute later, Lu Xincheng heard the sound of footsteps coming from the other end of the cave.
Someone had entered the basement.
And there were two of them.