To Take the Blame or Rashomon

"Th-that's it? You summoned him just like that?" Shouzhen took half a step back in fright, his tongue somewhat tied.

It wasn't that he hadn't seen the world. His grandmaster had once taken him to visit the senior experts of Mount Longhu and the Maoshan Sect.

Whenever those seniors summoned souls, they would always set up an altar, draw talismans, and perform ritual pacing. The whole process took at least an hour, and whether it succeeded or not depended on the right time and place.

But someone like Lin Mo, who just casually tossed a handful of hair, spoke little but acted ruthlessly, and directly yanked the soul over by force...

This wasn't inviting a soul; this was outright kidnapping!

He once again thought of that mysterious Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Sect. His grandmaster had said that despite searching through all Daoist texts, he had never heard of this sect.

Looking at it now, it probably wasn't that they hadn't heard of it, but rather that they simply weren't qualified to know of it!

Lin Mo reached out his hand and lightly tapped the air with his fingertip, landing right on Billy Chen's chaotic soul.

Seventy-Two Divine Arts — Netherworld Communion!

As the finger fell, it was like a drop of clear water falling into a muddy swamp, instantly rippling outwards.

The chaos and resentment enveloping Billy Chen's soul were instantly dispersed, completely waking him from the illusion of death.

The soul that had originally been twisted by the car accident also slowly unfurled under this power, restoring the appearance he had in life.

"Where... where am I?"

Billy Chen opened his eyes in bewilderment, only feeling that his body was light and airy, without the slightest weight.

As his vision cleared, the first thing that caught his eye was Lin Mo's calm face.

He looked at Lin Mo, his eyes widening.

"It's you! I remember you!"

Billy Chen naturally remembered Lin Mo; he had just seen him not long ago.

"Yes, it's me."

Lin Mo's expression was placid. "We meet again. However, I have to remind you of one thing: you are already dead."

Billy Chen completely froze.

He subconsciously looked down at himself and raised his hands. They were a pair of nearly transparent palms, through which the scenery behind him could vaguely be seen.

His feet weren't even touching the ground.

"I... I was in a car accident..."

He muttered to himself as fragments of his memory began to return. Then, as if remembering the most important thing, he suddenly looked up and screamed, "Where are my parents?! How are they?!"

Lin Mo's answer was crisp and clean, devoid of any warmth. "They're dead too."

He paused, looked at Billy Chen's fear-contorted face, and asked, "Do you want to see them?"

Before his voice even faded, Lin Mo flipped his wrist, and two other souls, similarly trapped in chaos, were dragged out of the void by invisible chains.

Those two badly mangled souls just floated there in mid-air.

"Dad! Mom!"

Billy Chen's eyes nearly split open in grief. He wanted to cry out and rush over, only to find that he couldn't move at all.

However, before his heart-wrenching wail could escape his lips, Lin Mo blocked all his words with a single sentence.

"No! It was you guys!" Billy Chen roared madly. "If your car hadn't crashed into us, our family would have been absolutely fine!"

Lin Mo shook his head and pouted towards Liu Zheng beside him.

Liu Zheng understood, took a step forward, and said with a serious expression, "Billy Chen, you are mistaken. We are official agents in charge of investigating this matter."

Liu Zheng raised his hand to show the ID in his hand.

"The death of your family was no accident. The real reason is that thing you brought back from Britain."

Hearing this, Billy Chen's frantic expression instantly froze.

As if remembering something, his face turned deathly pale. He instinctively tried to kneel and beg for mercy, only to find that he was just vainly flailing his limbs in the air.

"Remembered?"

Lin Mo looked at him in this state and sighed helplessly. "Bringing back a few ancient books to study is nothing, but why did you have to swipe their Philosopher's Stone? Now look what happened. They directly sent people from their homeland to hunt you down, taking out your whole family in the process."

Billy Chen was completely stunned. He looked up, his eyes full of bewilderment and innocence.

"Philosopher's Stone? What is that? I only brought back a few ancient books. I've never seen any Philosopher's Stone!"

At this, even Liu Zheng's expression beside him started to crack.

"A red stone. Think carefully again, did you really not take it?"

Billy Chen shook his head like a rattle drum, his tone urgent.

"No! I really didn't! I only brought back the ancient books from the British Library, I didn't touch anything else!"

Great.

Now things were getting interesting.

It was either a Rashomon situation, or someone was a scapegoat.

Lin Mo unceremoniously grabbed the bat on his shoulder.

"Do you British bastards just send people to do the job without even investigating properly?!"

Squeezed in his hand, the little bat, despite being under control, naturally spoke in an emotionless tone: "The mission was issued directly by Secret Intelligence Section Ten. We are only responsible for executing it."

"..."

Lin Mo and Liu Zheng exchanged a glance, both seeing a trace of absurdity in each other's eyes.

Sure enough, the world was run by amateurs.

Foreign bureaucracies weren't all that professional either.

The real Philosopher's Stone was probably never on Billy Chen to begin with.

It was just unknown which step went wrong that caused Secret Intelligence Section Ten to set this unlucky bastard Billy Chen as the target, resulting in an entirely avoidable massacre of a whole family.

Even a novel wouldn't dare write it this way for fear of readers cursing it for lacking logic.

But reality is often more absurd than fiction.

Lin Mo pinched the bat in his hand, falling deep into thought.

If Secret Intelligence Section Ten got the wrong target, then where was the real Philosopher's Stone now?

And who gave them this wrong assassination target?

Before his eyes, Billy Chen's soul was curled up, his transparent figure trembling slightly in despair, as if he could be crushed by this heavy grief at any moment.

Lin Mo looked at him, feeling somewhat helpless as well, and swept his gaze over the others.

"So what do we do?"

The little Daoist priest Shouzhen looked at the tragic state of this family of three. His young face was full of compassion. He sighed and took a step forward.

"The dead have passed, and earthly ties must be severed. Leave it to this humble Daoist to perform a ritual and deliver their souls."

Saying so, he sat down cross-legged, preparing to chant the Supreme Scripture for Deliverance for the three of them.

However, Lin Mo raised his hand and gently grabbed his wrist.

The movement wasn't heavy, but it prevented Shouzhen from sitting down.

"Wait."

Lin Mo's gaze fell back onto Billy Chen's soul.

"Billy Chen, how about I give you a chance to take revenge with your own hands?"

As soon as these words came out, the air seemed to freeze.

Billy Chen lifted his head blankly, a trace of confusion flashing through his hollow eyes.

He didn't understand what Lin Mo meant, but the word "revenge" was like a needle, piercing fiercely into the depths of his numb soul.

So he subconsciously nodded.

Lin Mo weighed the squeaking black bat in his hand.

"Dead souls cannot be resurrected. This is an iron law of heaven and earth. That includes you, and it includes your parents."

Lin Mo's tone was very calm, as if he were stating the simplest of facts.

"But if you insist on taking revenge, I can have the mister take action and stuff your soul into this vampire's body."