Daoist Zhao frowned. “Bullshit. Do you even know what this thing is… Forget it. You’re already beyond saving. Just wait for the police to come.”
“The police?” Su Xun was stunned again.
“There’s a bloodstained hatchet under his bed. My guess is that Old Madam Ma was killed by her grandson.” Daoist Zhao shook his head.
“Your guess? Brother, could you stop messing around? I only went along with you because you swore this guy was a murderer.” Wang Lei suddenly grew nervous.
Daoist Zhao asked mockingly, “Oh? So you do get scared after all?”
Wang Lei muttered something under his breath.
“I asked around. It was definitely him… And besides…” Daoist Zhao looked at Su Xun. “Your grandfather died because of this, too.”
“What?” Su Xun was shocked once again.
Looking at Ma Xiaomin, who continued to struggle, Su Xun found it hard to believe. But Daoist Zhao’s certainty planted a seed of doubt in his heart.
“Ma Xiaomin, how exactly did my grandfather die?”
Ma Xiaomin suddenly stopped struggling. He raised his head and looked at Su Xun, his eyes still fixed and vacant. He did not deny anything.
A complicated mix of emotions surged through Su Xun. “Y-you killed your grandmother? And my grandfather, too?”
Ma Xiaomin suddenly split his mouth into a grin. “They deserved to die. Every last one of them. That old hag secretly wanted to become an immortal and wouldn’t tell me. Hahahaha! I found out. The immortal told me how to achieve immortality. I did it. I did it!”
His body twisted violently, as though he were having some kind of fit.
“So you killed your grandmother? What about my grandfather?” Su Xun raised his voice.
“Old Man Su? Hahahaha! He minded other people’s business! He minded other people’s business!” Ma Xiaomin stared at Su Xun’s face. “You’re just like me. We were both abandoned. We were both abandoned, so why were you able to leave? That old hag beat and cursed me every day, but you got to go to school and move to the city. Why? Why?!”
The venom in his words made Su Xun’s scalp prickle.
“If you thought it was unfair, why did you hurt my grandfather?” By now, Su Xun was convinced that Ma Xiaomin had been the one who did it.
But Ma Xiaomin’s next words left both Wang Lei and Su Xun utterly stunned.
“I killed that old hag and offered her as a sacrifice to the immortal. The immortal also wanted a virgin boy and girl. It took me so long to find them—so long! But that damned old man just had to come pay his respects to the old hag at that exact moment! He saw the boy and girl I’d brought home. He took them away!”
Ma Xiaomin was nearly hysterical.
“He even told me not to do anything reckless, or he’d tell everyone in the village. Hahahaha! I wasn’t afraid, but he ruined everything! He made all my efforts come to nothing! He had to die! You have to die, too! Every member of the Su family has to die!”
Su Xun wanted to punch him, but seeing the drool dribbling from the corner of Ma Xiaomin’s mouth and his crazed expression, he found himself unable to say anything.
Fortunately, voices could already be heard outside. A moment later, two uniformed officers entered. They seemed to know Daoist Zhao, and after exchanging a few brief words with him, they handcuffed Ma Xiaomin.
“You think it’s over? You think you can stop me? No! You’re all catalysts. You don’t understand! You don’t understand!”
“He’s lost it,” Wang Lei commented.
Su Xun stared blankly as Ma Xiaomin was dragged away. Soon, the puzzled villagers began gathering around.
Daoist Zhao glanced at Su Xun, said nothing, and returned to sit beside the coffin.
After the coffin had remained in the mourning hall for three days, Su Xun’s grandfather was buried. Su Wenqiang hurried away with his wife and younger son, without even saying a word to Su Xun.
Su Xun tidied up the house, but his heart felt hollow.
When Daoist Zhao left, he told Su Xun the latest developments. It had been confirmed that Ma Xiaomin had killed his grandmother and intended to abduct children, but there was no way to prove that he had killed Su Xun’s grandfather.
“There’s nothing we can do. To convict him, we need evidence. Some things can’t be used as evidence. You understand?” Daoist Zhao said.
Su Xun nodded.
“All right, I’ll be going.” Daoist Zhao stood up to leave. “Oh, right. Your… soul is unsettled. You may see some unpleasant things. Just don’t look at them.”
His words sounded rather strange. Su Xun nodded, then asked, “Daoist priest, may I ask your full name?”
Daoist Zhao waved his hand. “Zhao Chengyang. I run an incense and candle shop!” He looked Su Xun over a few times, then took out a business card and handed it to him. With an enigmatic smile, he said, “If you run into any problems, come find me.”
Watching him walk away, Wang Lei nodded repeatedly. “Exactly. With a shop like that, you’d never have to worry about a lack of customers!”
Su Xun rolled his eyes.
The sun was already slanting westward by the time Su Xun finished cleaning up. Reluctantly, he locked the door. Only after Wang Lei urged him several times did he finally leave with him.
To get out of the village, they had to take a winding path. Su Xun instinctively glanced down. From there, he could just see Old Madam Ma’s courtyard—and that single glance made his hair stand on end.
The gate to Old Madam Ma’s house was tightly locked, but a figure dressed in bright red stood in front of the earthen house. Its deathly pale face was turned toward Su Xun.
Su Xun’s entire body went rigid.
Half the sun had already sunk below the horizon, and a chill spread through him. Just then, he saw a black shadow emerge from the house and pounce straight at the figure in red.
“What are you doing? Come on, let’s go. I don’t want to walk at night.” Wang Lei turned around and urged him onward. “But seriously, the braised pork knuckle made by the cook in your village was incredible! Absolutely amazing! I regret not shamelessly asking for another one.”
Su Xun pointed at the house and tried to say something, but then froze.
The house still stood there in silence, yet the area in front of it was empty. There was no figure, no red clothing, and no Old Madam Ma.
“Come on.” Wang Lei urged him again. He even turned around, walked back to Su Xun, and followed his gaze. “How about we stay one more night?”
Su Xun shook his head repeatedly. This was getting more than a little frightening. They should leave as quickly as possible.
After that incident, Su Xun began to realize that his life was gradually becoming abnormal.
He often saw inexplicable things: a woman crouched atop a traffic light, an old woman standing at the corner of a staircase. They all stared straight at him, their eyes revealing something he could neither explain nor understand.
Wang Lei remained as carefree as ever. He thought Su Xun was merely under too much stress. But this also confirmed for Su Xun that the “people” he saw were clearly not human.
What he truly could not endure was that, after those eerie things discovered he could see them, they began clinging to him. As a result, a constant stream of faint, fragmented whispers circled in Su Xun’s ears, nearly driving him mad.
At last, Su Xun pulled out the business card he had crumpled from carrying it around for so long.
Looking at the three characters “Zhao Chengyang” printed on it, Su Xun picked up his phone and called.
“Hello?”
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
