Chapter 133.2

The child spirit’s face turned red with anger.

Right now, He wanted nothing more than to kick this spirit medium in front of Him flying.

But Li Zhuiyuan, having finished his candy, had already gone back to arranging the formation, so He could only endure it.

At last, Lin Shuyou finished all his buildup. Pressing his right thumb to the child spirit’s brow, he shouted:

“Gather evil!”

Yin aura surged into His body, and the child spirit returned to normal.

He shot to His feet, reached out, grabbed Lin Shuyou by the throat, and lifted him up.

Of course He would not kill Lin Shuyou. After all, His future prospects still rested on him.

But He was truly furious, because this guy’s hands had been far too slow, making Him let out several piglike grunts.

“Can you learn this properly or not?”

Lin Shuyou nodded hard.

After setting Lin Shuyou back down, the child spirit deliberately glanced at Li Zhuiyuan, who was still hard at work.

Rubbing his neck, Lin Shuyou ran back into the shop.

Deng Chen had also come downstairs, but he did not dare go out. The child spirit was sitting outside, and He was a genuine malevolent spirit.

Lin Shuyou asked, “Do you have any candy left at home?”

“No. That was all of it.”

“What about drinks? Something like Jianlibao?”

“I don’t drink soda. Tea okay?”

“Do you have brown sugar?”

“I do. Do you need ginger too?”

“No, no need.”

When Li Zhuiyuan had finished about half the formation, another series of squeaks came from behind him.

This time the child spirit reacted faster. He immediately stood up and walked over to Li Zhuiyuan on His own.

He did not want to have to learn how to squeal like a pig again.

Lin Shuyou came out carrying a bowl of brown sugar water. The child spirit immediately glared at him, scaring him so badly he nearly spilled it.

The Yin gods were the totem of the Officers of the Command Banner. That psychological imprint, built up since childhood, was not something that could be erased overnight.

Li Zhuiyuan took the brown sugar water with his left hand. As he drank, he raised his right hand toward the child spirit: Four Ghosts Lift the Sedan.

The child spirit, who had been about to leave His body, was pulled back again, buying Him more time.

He asked, “How much longer?”

“Halfway done.”

“Then... there’s not enough time?”

“There is. The second half takes less time.”

The child spirit went back and sat down.

Lin Shuyou came trotting over, holding a Sealing Talisman Needles. Pointing at the needle in the child spirit’s chest, he said, “Lord Child Spirit, this one may be about to expire. Shall I replace it for you?”

The child spirit said nothing.

Pfft!

Pfft!

To be safe, Lin Shuyou inserted the new Sealing Talisman Needles first, then pulled out the old one.

The child spirit noticed that Lin Shuyou was still clutching other talismans in his hand. He had already sampled that kind before. Once inserted, the Yin aura in the body would erupt explosively.

So he had already made preparations, had he?

Li Zhuiyuan looked up at the changes in the white fog and said to Lin Shuyou, “They’ve come with reinforcements. Go bring them in, and take—”

“Got it! Understood!”

Lin Shuyou ran into the dense fog to fetch them.

Seeing that he had already dashed off, Li Zhuiyuan said no more and kept hurrying to finish the formation.

Sure enough, Lin Shuyou not only failed to bring Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng in from the perimeter, he got himself lost in the white fog too.

What was worse, Tan Wenbin had actually been slowly feeling his way here and was just about to come in. But after hearing Lin Shuyou shouting “Brother Bin, Brother Bin” somewhere in the mist, Tan Wenbin went looking for him, threw off his own rhythm, and also ended up wandering in circles inside the fog.

The child spirit realized what had happened and could not help sighing:

“You’ve had it rough. For my sake, you still have to keep him around.”

Li Zhuiyuan did not refute that, because next he was going to stick a Dissolution of Evil Talisman Needles into the child spirit. Better to let Him feel pleased with Himself a little longer.

The formation was complete.

Li Zhuiyuan straightened up and instinctively knocked his forehead with his left fist.

He really had exhausted himself to the limit today. Sugar could only ease it so much.

He was very sleepy now. He wanted a good sleep, preferably sprawled on the carpet in Ah Li’s bedroom. The material of that carpet was genuinely excellent, very comfortable to lie on.

And just then, the child spirit’s time was up again.

Looking at the completed formation, the child spirit said, “I believe you were not deliberately stalling for time.”

If he had been stalling on purpose, then logically he would have finished arranging the formation only after using the Dissolution of Evil Talisman Needles.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “If I wanted to do an experiment, I wouldn’t choose this sort of environment.”

“Can this formation trap me?”

“In my current state, I’m not capable of that yet. But thanks for the suggestion. I can try it in the future.”

“If you even have a future, would you still need to keep trying this?”

“I’ll take that as a blessing. Oh, and this is for you.”

Li Zhuiyuan tossed a Dissolution of Evil Talisman Needles to the child spirit, while he himself remained standing where he was, holding a small Flag markers in his hand.

Once that flag was planted, the isolation formation would activate, and Li Zhuiyuan would not be able to go in.

The child spirit bent down and picked up the Dissolution of Evil Talisman Needles from the ground.

This time, he was actually being asked to stab himself?

“I think you may have mistaken my mercy for retreat.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “After waiting this long, are you really willing to throw away your share of this merit?”

The child spirit said nothing further.

“Get ready. I’m starting the formation.”

Li Zhuiyuan planted the small array flag in his hand. An invisible halo spread outward, completely covering the area where White Crane Child sat. The formation activated.

White Crane Child drove the Dissolution of Evil Talisman Needles into His own chest.

Boom!

His body suddenly swelled. White qi and black qi burst out not only from His eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, but also from several ruptures that exploded open across His body, pouring out wildly.

The Dissolution of Evil Talisman Needles were a violent medicine. Only those who had used them knew how terrifying the effect truly was.

Only this time, Lin Shuyou did not have to bear the backlash and damage from the talisman needle.

And the formation’s isolating effect was very obvious too, because the ruptures exploding across the child spirit’s body stopped after recovering only a little.

The child spirit raised His trident and, once again aiming at His own chest, slashed down hard, immediately opening it wide.

He sat there and cut out the organs inside one by one—heart, liver, lungs, and the rest—then tossed them out.

What He threw out quickly turned into mist and dissipated, while new organs began growing inside.

The child spirit was a little astonished. How could it still regenerate?

He looked toward the boy standing outside the formation.

The boy made a gesture: continue.

Please go on killing yourself. Don’t stop.

Because the speed of regeneration had already slowed, and the child spirit’s face was turning pale.

That meant recovery of the body’s vital areas was still continuing, because that was necessary for survival. But now that it could no longer draw on outside power to repair itself, it could only reallocate what remained within the body.

The child spirit began cutting again, slicing off each bit as soon as it regrew a little, then tossing it outside.

As He cut, He could not help raising His head to look at Li Zhuiyuan outside the formation and saying,

“There really seems to be no one in there.”

To keep one’s expression unchanged in the face of such an extremely bloody and cruel scene was already difficult. But as an Yin gods, the child spirit could sense that even the boy’s emotions had not fluctuated in the slightest.

That meant the boy truly did not care.

Li Zhuiyuan gave no response. He reached into his pocket, found the last peeled candy, and put it into his mouth.

By now he could no longer taste sweetness in it. It even seemed a little bitter.

“Ugh...”

Inside the formation, the child spirit’s body suddenly froze.

This body had already been damaged to a critical threshold. Even though He still had time remaining, it could no longer continue to support His stay.

The child spirit looked once more at Li Zhuiyuan outside the formation.

The boy raised his hand and, just as he had when he first felt sleepy earlier, knocked on his own forehead again.

The child spirit raised His trident.

Puchi...

The three prongs pierced straight through His skull, from the brow to the nose to the mouth.

And even at the very last moment before departing, the child spirit left a final twist of force in His wrist. After the trident pierced His skull, He gave it a savage wrench.

Four balls of light flew out of the utterly ruined body, yellow, red, green, and white.

Li Zhuiyuan took a deep breath, forced himself awake, and activated Walking the shade.

For him, tired was truly tired, but as long as his nose was not bleeding and his eyes had not gone blind, this body of his could still be squeezed for more.

In his Walking the shade vision, a red ape, a white centipede, a green ox, and a yellow pig were all sprawled weakly on the ground.

Li Zhuiyuan raised his left hand: Four Ghosts Lift the Sedan.

Already terribly weak, they were pressed down by another layer of suppression from Li Zhuiyuan.

The sedan tilted, focusing especially on suppressing that pig.

Only after doing all that did Li Zhuiyuan withdraw the formation. A gust of wind blew through, carrying away every trace.

Li Zhuiyuan walked over to the four of them.

At that moment, Deng Chen came out of the shop.

Li Zhuiyuan looked at him with an indifferent gaze.

Although he had chosen to trust this black python, with such enormous benefits at stake, there was no guarantee others would not be tempted, or even take desperate risks.

The boy was too tired to test the nature of a snake. He simply hoped to warn the other party through his gaze and bearing: I may be exhausted, but I still have more than enough power to suppress a snake like you.

Deng Chen stopped walking. He was not frightened.

Which meant that, in his heart, he had no intention of snatching profit from the flames.

Deng Chen asked, “Do you want that sealing sketch?”

“Sketch?”

“The sealing diagram is divided into the divine diagram and the sketch. The complete divine diagram was shattered long ago by that Dragon King of the Qin family. As for the five of us who were split off from it, each of us retained a portion of the initial draft.”

Li Zhuiyuan understood what Deng Chen meant. To use an imperfect analogy, the divine diagram was like a painting, while the sketch was like the seal stamped over the painting, and one placed there by the one who imposed the seal himself—something like the author’s inscription on the opening page of a book.

Deng Chen continued, “Today is the first time we five have met since being broken apart into five pieces, so none of us knows what exactly the sketch contains.

“But I suspect it should contain information about the one who imposed the seal. You may want to know that. It may even be useful to you.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “What, do I need you to merge into them?”

“No, no, no!” This time Deng Chen really was scared out of his wits, his eyes nearly bulging out. “I wouldn’t dare. How could I? I’m not a pig.”

If the other side misunderstood and thought he had the same ambition, then he would surely die.

“Then what should be done?”

“I only need to get a little closer, and I can piece the sketch together.”

“Then go ahead.”

“All right, all right.”

Deng Chen took a few more steps forward, then closed his eyes.

Li Zhuiyuan was still in the Walking the shade state, so he could see a black python crawl out from Deng Chen’s body. After circling once around the four Yin beasts that he had suppressed, a gleaming thread flew out from each of them, and the black python swallowed them, one with each head.

Then the black python returned to Deng Chen’s body.

Deng Chen opened his eyes.

Li Zhuiyuan asked, “Where’s the sketch?”

Deng Chen pointed to his own eyes. “In my eyes. Shall I go develop it and show it to you?”

“Go.”

“Yes.”

Deng Chen immediately ran into the photo studio.

Li Zhuiyuan knew that the owner of this photo studio had been afraid of him all along.

When they first met, and he helped take his picture, he was probably already afraid while developing the photo.

Earlier, when they had joined forces against the pig, that fear had lessened somewhat. But now that the overall situation had been settled, his fear had deepened further.

Because he knew he was no longer useful. He had been used up. And by the most ordinary logic, the proper next step would be to dispose of him as well.

That would fit the consistent style of righteous-path people. It was not that righteous-path people were all bloodthirsty by nature, but doing so would, first, let them claim merit under the name of “slaying demons and eliminating evil.” Even killing the innocent and claiming merit for it was still merit.

Second, it would also reduce their karmic entanglements. If you let it go and it later committed evil again, a share of that would be recorded against you as well.

Li Zhuiyuan walked up to the pig. The pig was now incomparably weak. It was looking at him with an expression that was both stupid and oddly adorable.

Using the last of its strength, it sent him a “voice”:

“I can help you... plot against Heaven together.”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded.

He admitted that this pig really did have that capability.

Seeing that, the pig’s mouth split in a fawning smile as well.

Li Zhuiyuan bent down, reached out, gently patted the pig’s head, and said:

“I am the heir to the Dragon Kings of the Qin and Liu families...”

The smile on the pig’s face froze.

“Heh...” Li Zhuiyuan suddenly found it very amusing, amusing enough that he could not help laughing aloud.

See? This pig understood him very well. It truly understood.

It even knew exactly when he would formally declare his identity.

And it also knew what he would do next after formally declaring it.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Do you know why you lost?”

Anger, grievance, and unwillingness appeared on the pig’s face.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Since you understand me so well, then you should know very clearly: how could I possibly let you keep living?

“You understood me perfectly. You knew what choice I would make. And yet you still clung to a trace of wishful thinking and asked that extra question.”

The boy knew clearly that the reason he had managed to turn things around this time, even after losing the initiative at first, was because he had successfully gambled on this aspect of the other party’s nature.

It had won every earlier step, but precisely because of that, it had less room to maneuver at the final step, because it had been only one move away from success.

The moment that pig appeared at the entrance to the photo studio and said to him, “How about we make a deal,” Li Zhuiyuan knew he had won the gamble.

He and this pig were alike in one point: both were very smart. So he understood the weakness of this kind of so-called clever person. Sometimes they thought too much and became overly hesitant.

The difference was that the pig could become blinded by being inside the game, while he, on occasion, did not much like himself, and so possessed one extra measure of self-reflection that the pig lacked.

Li Zhuiyuan stood up, lifted his foot, and stepped on the pig’s head. His left palm opened, and black Karmic fire flared to life again.

Habits that ought to be maintained had to keep being maintained.

Even if not for his own sake, it would at least make composition easier when Ah Li drew it.

“Heir to the Dragon Kings of the Qin and Liu families—Li Zhuiyuan.

“Today,

“I send you on your way.”

His palm turned downward, and the Karmic fire poured out like liquid mercury, falling onto the pig. The pig’s body burned and, in an instant, vanished into nothing.

Beside it, the monkey, ox, and centipede trembled in terror.

“You three can go together.”

…

Li Zhuiyuan walked into the photo studio just as Deng Chen came out holding a photograph in both hands. His eyes were tightly shut, showing that he had not dared peek at what was on it.

“Thanks for your trouble.”

Li Zhuiyuan reached out and took the photograph.

Only then did Deng Chen dare open his eyes. He looked out through the display window.

Outside, the four of them were gone.

His face turned deathly pale at once. He knew that next, it should be his turn.

In the end, he still had not escaped this fate. But compared with being merged into that pig and losing himself under its control, such a clean ending might not be a bad thing.

Thunk.

Li Zhuiyuan tossed a bloodstained strip of yellow cloth onto the counter.

Deng Chen stared at the wrapped cloth in surprise. Something small inside seemed to be wriggling constantly, and he could also sense a familiar aura.

“The other three were all badly wounded. It’ll take them many years to recover. Leave them here with you and raise them.”

“Thank you, thank you!” Deng Chen was about to kneel in thanks.

“That’s enough.” Li Zhuiyuan snapped his fingers toward the outside. “Pa!”

The white fog, which had already become a dead miasma after losing its controller, began gradually dispersing at that sound.

“Go bring my companions over.”

“Yes, understood.”

Deng Chen immediately ran out.

Li Zhuiyuan shook his still-injured and aching right hand, then lifted the photo before him with his left.

On the photograph was a line of text. The handwriting looked strangely familiar:

“With this Five-Organ Sealing Diagram, I hereby suppress and kill the Heavenly Thief Wei Zhengdao!”

So this sealing diagram had originally been used to suppress Wei Zhengdao?

But why did the handwriting feel so oddly familiar?

Then Li Zhuiyuan realized the photograph was double-sided. There was writing on the back too.

Deng Chen surely had not done that to save development costs. Which meant this so-called sketch must originally have been written on both sides. In other words, it was probably written at different times, with each side added separately?

Li Zhuiyuan turned the photograph over.

It read:

“Damn it, what a lousy diagram. Suicide attempt failed.”

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