Chapter 17: The Carousel Incident (Part 5)

Event: Once you’ve booked a room, you must stay in it, otherwise you’ll be targeted.

Note: The seven people who died in the fire became, in the mouths of local citizens and taxi drivers, an uncanny location. They ultimately transformed into human-head balloons drifting over the city, waiting for a chance to move. No one died in this incident. The injury state was the charring of bodily tissue from fire burns.

The human-head aberration had been an aberration twisted and condensed from seven dead victims. It had the potential to become urban legend: ghost call. Unfortunately, no matter how powerful it was, it could not compare to a cheat user. It had not even had time to display all its abilities before it was eliminated.

Given how quickly humans now forgot things, as well as the population base of a small county town, whether this human-head aberration could revive was still a question mark.

In any case, the overall materials were very vague.

Behind this were the files on the seven victims from before the human-head aberration’s death. Chen Yi skimmed them ten lines at a glance and did not look closely.

The dead were gone. Looking too much would only add to the frustration in his heart.

He only raised his head and said, “There are already forty uncanny incidents?”

Captain Ye said, “Those are the ones already confirmed. There are still some that haven’t been confirmed, after all, this is nationwide.”

“What was the Number One uncanny incident?”

“The Lost Woman. When she asks for directions, her mouth splits all the way to behind her ears. For now, no deaths have appeared, and we also haven’t been able to lock onto her location, so it still hasn’t been dealt with. We’ve only sealed off that area.”

“You’ve searched everywhere? The sewers, under tree roots and flower beds? Inside walls, concrete bridge piers?”

“…”

Captain Ye fell silent. Chen Yi had opened a new line of thought for him. However, that incident was not his responsibility, and the location where it happened was in another city. He could make a call about it later.

Chen Yi actually did know about The Lost Woman.

Rather than calling it The Lost Woman, it would be better to call it urban legend: slit-mouthed woman.

In the later stages, the slit-mouthed woman was a boss neither especially large nor especially small. She originated from humanity’s malicious imagination toward women at night, and was a relatively old horror legend.

However, all aberrations definitely had a carrier. If no one had died nearby, then perhaps a small animal with deep resentment had died instead.

As long as the carrier was found, one could very effectively control the slit-mouthed woman’s evolution. Naturally, in the later stages, she would not be allowed to eat so many people.

One thing worth mentioning was the greatest boss the protagonist faced in the early stages, urban legend: Seven Nights.

Originating from the ancient legend of the Seven-Night Return of the Soul, it was an extremely powerful S-rank urban legend and destroyed an entire city.

When urban legend: Seven Nights caused trouble, urban legend: slit-mouthed woman and several other urban legends were also causing trouble.

The Demon-Suppression Bureau split the Night Watchers into several routes. The protagonist went to urban legend: Seven Nights, so Chen Yi had absolutely no idea about the endings or handling methods for the other urban legends.

As for urban legend: Seven Nights…

Putting aside for now whether Chen Yi would be able to utterly crush it by then, he knew the rules for eliminating it perfectly clearly.

Chen Yi thought about many things along the way, then slept for a while in the car. When he opened his eyes again, the car was driving along the mountain road toward Lishui Village.

“The environment here is very good.” Captain Ye looked left and right, a kind smile appearing on his aged face.

Chen Yi had always regarded Captain Ye as the Old Night Watchman, and his tone was respectful when he replied, “There are no factories nearby. Almost everything is original ecology. Lishui Village has a long rainy season, distinct seasons, and trees grow willingly, so naturally, every aspect is very good.”

“It is a place blessed with outstanding people and spiritual land. Only such a place could produce a talent like Sect Master Chen. I heard that Pang Xiaolei and the others are all cultivating a technique called the Spirit Nurturing Art. What is Sect Master Chen’s cultivation?”

Chen Yi said, “Only the third step of Qi Refining.”

He could hand the sect over to the state, but not idling. Idling was his life, the foundation of lying flat like a salted fish!

If people knew that he could idle cultivation, that he could level up even while sleeping, and that cultivating meant double progress, wouldn’t he be urged into cultivation and forced to become humanity’s “number one expert”?

Ah, no, no, no!

He was the sect master of The Lurker Sect. The sect’s purpose was to stay low-key and survive quietly.

Wasn’t the “number one expert” just a stepping stone for the protagonist after the protagonist gained fame and success?

Besides, wasn’t lying flat nice?

Chen Yi relied on the fact that no one’s cultivation was higher than his, and that no one could see through his cultivation, so he spoke nonsense. He also swore that sooner or later, he would find a technique to hide his cultivation, then cultivate a whole pile of “number one experts.”

In any case, anyone could do it. Just do not make him face the protagonist.

But even the cultivation of the third step of Qi Refining made people look at him sideways.

It counted as the peak of the early stage of Qi Refining.

Three steps formed one phase: early stage, middle stage, and late stage, plus the peak great perfection of one step, for a total of ten steps.

Entering Qi Refining depended on aptitude. For the short end, there was Chen Yi, who took less than an hour. On the long end, there was Chen Yi’s mother, who took more than four hours.

Most of the military had “outstanding” aptitude and needed about two hours to enter.

Pang Xiaolei had been the first to cultivate the technique, and during this period, he had never stopped cultivating. By today, two days had already passed, yet he had still not cultivated even the first step after entering.

The others likewise had no step level.

From this, it could be seen how transcendent Chen Yi’s third step was.

“Once I enter and begin cultivating, Sect Master Chen must give me more guidance,” Captain Ye said.

“You want to join the sect too?”

“Of course. That is exactly why I came.”

Ding!

Disciple plus one.

Chen Yi turned to look at Tang Qirui.

“Minister Tang?”

Tang Qirui smiled. “Naturally, I’ll join.”

Ding!

Disciple plus one.

It seemed that counting the people Pang Sen brought, plus the two of them, this was the advance team sent by the state.

Trust needed to increase little by little. The contact and cooperation between both sides would definitely go from small to large, then to full cooperation.

Chen Yi looked at the system mission.

Main Mission: Develop the Sect

Reward: Divine Ability: Delusion-Piercing Eye Technique, Spiritual Field ×1, Spiritual Seed ×1, Low-Grade Spirit Stone ×10

One: fifth step of Qi Refining. 0/1, incomplete.

Two: reputation. 1000/2100, complete.

Three: Recruit Disciples Broadly (Four). 12/30, incomplete.

He wanted both the divine ability and the spirit stones. As for the spiritual field and spiritual seed, they were good things too.

In a cultivation civilization, adding the word “spiritual” already revealed that they were anything but ordinary.

As they chatted, before they realized it, they had arrived at Lishui Village.

The road ended at the village entrance. The houses built on the mountain stood in neat rows, but between them were all winding goat paths. Farther out were fields again.

Transportation was extremely underdeveloped.

Every year, transporting the grain harvested from the fields to the station was very troublesome. This was just how farmers in the mountains lived.

The Jinbei van, ordinary and low-key on the outside but modified on the inside, drove directly into the village office compound without revealing anything, yet it still drew the attention of the villagers.

“What is the village chief’s family doing? Ever since Chen Yi came back, outsiders keep coming to the village. He isn’t planning to do livestreaming or some kind of development project, is he?”

“Chen Yi is a top student who graduated from a key university. Talented people won’t stay in the village. In the city, they casually earn ten thousand a month. We scrape food from the soil, and a whole year is only one or two months of someone else’s income.”

“I saw he brought the children back too. Where’s the children’s mother?”

“She must be at work. City people are so busy. Chen Yi is the phoenix son of our village. Don’t talk nonsense in front of outsiders and ruin his reputation.”

“Hey, Zhao Hua, I didn’t even say anything and you’re already mocking me. So in your eyes, I’m that kind of person? This year when you harvest grain, don’t call my family…”

The village women’s hearts for gossip were indeed strong, but it also depended on the person.

Chen Yi was the only scholar from the village in decades to test into a key university. This was something the entire village took pride in. In any case, there was nothing wrong with Chen Yi bringing the children home. If anyone asked, he had returned to visit family!

Chen Yi was at the fourth step of Qi Refining, with sharp ears and clear eyes.

He heard the aunties chatting at the village entrance and shook his head with a smile.

“Shall we go?” Captain Ye was already impatient to go up the mountain.

Tang Qirui also followed behind Chen Jiankang with great anticipation, leaving the office compound.

Chen Yi, however, fell behind.

They left the compound and walked along the village’s main road, heading west.

Along the way, the villagers they saw all looked around curiously. Some elderly people asked directly.

“Jiankang, what are you going to do?”

“People from the province came for an inspection.”

“Inspect what?”

“Everything. If there’s anything, everyone will be informed.” After Chen Jiankang answered, he glanced at his son. His overflowing fatherly love gave Chen Yi goosebumps all over.

After they left the village tail, the view suddenly opened wide.

In the distance, mountain ranges rose one after another, lush and green. Nearby, terraced fields shimmered as wind blew over emerald waves.

Green mountains and clear waters, a place of spiritual beauty.

Halfway there, Chen Yi asked, “Dad, have you cultivated?”

“After I finish this busy period. The beginning is always hard. Without me organizing things, would you know where to start?” Chen Jiankang had felt very accomplished recently and did not want to stop working.

“…”

Chen Yi thought of how his father had run to the county early that morning to find Wang Ping’an, and stopped talking.

It was fine. He still had the Technique Transmission system. As long as he had a cheat, even a fool could become a mighty expert, let alone his father, whose aptitude was at least “ordinary.” Cough!

They went up the terraced fields. In the middle, Tang Qirui stopped to catch his breath twice. Everyone waited for him unhurriedly, and the rims of his ears turned slightly red.

“I heard that after practicing Spirit Nurturing Art, just entering can increase one’s strength by one or two times. Is that true?”

“Yes.” Chen Jiankang patted his own waist and said, “That spiritual energy stuff is just like immortal qi. Once it’s inhaled into the body, I won’t say you shed your mortal body and exchange your bones, but your physical condition really does improve quite a bit. My waist and cervical spine used to have problems, and I had to stop and catch my breath several times climbing this stretch of mountain. Now I can go up in one breath. Given Minister Tang’s age and physique, after entering, you’ll be much stronger than me.”

Chen Yi glanced sideways.

Climbing mountains was a skill mountain people developed from childhood. Chen Jiankang was a native-born Lishui Village man. He had to manage his own fields, help when other families called, and patrol in daily life. Never mind Tang Qirui—even ordinary police protection personnel might not necessarily outwalk him.

Smooth-talking! The old man was dishonest!

As they spoke, they arrived before the orange grove.

This time, the people coming clearly all knew where the entrance was. They stared at that orange tree, but could not see anything strange about it.

“A miraculous method.”

Saying this, Tang Qirui was the first to walk in.

Captain Ye stayed at the very end. Faintly sensing someone’s gaze, he turned back to look toward the village. His line of sight seemed to pierce through a thousand mountains and ten thousand waters, finally landing on a balcony.

He had resolved several uncanny incidents and carried an aberrant tool himself, so his physical condition had long since been improved. It was twice what it had originally been, even more than what entering Qi Refining increased.

It was just that he had no systematic method of cultivating spiritual energy. What he absorbed was still the spiritual energy left after aberrations were eliminated, which was like a slow poison to the body, carrying endless hidden dangers.

But from more than a thousand meters away, he could still sense that someone was looking at him.

The Wang family.

Wang Pingyuan once again stood on the balcony, looking toward the orange grove through a telescope. Sure enough, Chen Yi had brought people with him again, and they had disappeared in front of that tree.

Why couldn’t he get in?

He was sure it was that tree.

Just as he was muttering to himself, his gaze met another person’s. That line of sight was like a bullet striking his forehead. Wang Pingyuan felt his breath catch and hurriedly lowered the telescope, not daring to look again.

The people Chen Yi brought were more formidable each time.

On this side, after he could no longer sense the gaze, Captain Ye turned and walked into the orange tree.

As a result, the moment he turned, there was a thud. He really did hit it.

He clutched his forehead and sucked in a cold breath. “Hiss…”

At the same time, Chen Yi, who was waiting to receive them, suddenly saw the water mirror appear before his eyes and rapidly flash red.

Moreover, as the controller of the Mountain-Protecting Grand Array, Chen Yi received the signal that an outside enemy had invaded.

An outside enemy!?

Chen Yi’s heart moved. He said, “Dad, take Minister Tang to the Scripture Pavilion first.”

He raised his hand and wiped. The thin mist receded. As if looking through one-way glass, he saw Captain Ye outside, holding his forehead and hissing in pain.

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