Chapter 158

Li Zhuiyuan nodded.

Because part of the boy’s memory was still covered over, there had been many things in the earlier conversation he could not understand, lacking the necessary frame of reference.

But now, he felt he understood some of it.

Not only that, he also found the whole process strangely familiar—this way of speaking in layers of aliases and insinuations instead of saying things directly.

Li Zhuiyuan frowned slightly. He was very curious about what kind of life he would be living “in the future,” if even speaking required so much circling around and implication.

“So, little one, you really understood?”

“Mm.”

“Then tell me.”

“You only cared about making yourself happy. You walked the road to its dead end first, and left no road for those who came after.”

“Crude, but not wrong.”

“So the trouble I’ll have ‘in the future’ is your fault?”

“How can you blame me? Look, I didn’t even leave descendants behind, so how could I have imagined that who knows how many years later, a little thing like you would end up with the same illness and walk the same road?”

“That’s true.”

“How much of what I just demonstrated for you did you really grasp?”

“I understood the core of it all. Even if the memories in this dream get blurry later, I’ll still be able to work backward from instinct and reconstruct the techniques, the formations, and the feng shui.

“I have a feeling this won’t be hard. It feels like I do this sort of thing all the time.”

“That’s normal. After all, you even restored that fellow’s Twelve Edicts of Fengdu.

“To be honest, if we hadn’t pulled this off, then one day if you and some descendant of the Yin Clan stood before him together, and you said your surname was Yin while the other one was the impostor, he might slap the real descendant to death and decide you were the genuine one.”

“That absurd?”

“When someone has existed for long enough, blood descendants don’t mean much to him anymore.”

“That makes sense.”

“Let’s begin.”

“All right.”

During the earlier demonstration, the shadow had already set the formation and adjusted the feng shui layout. All Li Zhuiyuan had to do now was sit inside it and start driving it with himself as the source.

The shadow stood behind Li Zhuiyuan, placed a hand on the boy’s head, and said in a low voice,

“Whether human, god, or ghost, all have spiritual thought. The difference is that malevolent spirits are loathed by heaven and earth, so their spiritual awareness is generally incomplete. That makes them easier to control, but that doesn’t mean they’re the only things you can control.

“Gods take on countless forms. Some are mountains and rivers that gained sentience, some are ghost kings elevated into rank, some are shaped by incense and worship. But when they walk the world, all of them are still fundamentally spiritual bodies, and so they too can be deceived, toyed with, manipulated in the palm of your hand.

“If you want to command them, you must first strip away their mystique. Peel off that outer layer, and you’ll find that they’re really nothing special.”

A feeling of agreement rose in Li Zhuiyuan’s heart.

So... had he encountered gods before?

The shadow continued, “Ordinary people have very weak spiritual thought, so they’re harder to catch. But you can borrow from them—help them first gather water, then guide the current with your own will.

“Because of the peculiar pathology you and I share, this method won’t backfire on us.

“But even so, this method must never be abused. It can easily bring disaster on yourself and is not tolerated by the Heavenly Dao.”

“What counts as not abusing it?”

“If it’s used for the righteous path, then it isn’t abuse.”

“I understand.”

“Close your eyes and focus. I’ll guide you through one full cycle first.”

Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes. The one behind him closed his eyes as well.

In the next instant, Li Zhuiyuan felt his mind and will suddenly open wide. It was as though he were a person walking across a wilderness, experiencing shifting winds and clouds, the turning of the seasons.

Then his viewpoint rose higher and higher, gradually separating from that person until he was above him, watching him walk from another perspective, watching spring, summer, autumn, and winter wheel around him.

This was the artistic conception within the lesson.

Li Zhuiyuan understood clearly that the reason this blurry shadow dared to teach him like this was because the other party was certain he had already thoroughly mastered the technical layer of the art.

What the shadow was doing was opening broader horizons for him on that foundation.

In the memories Li Zhuiyuan currently had, Li Lan often took him to see a psychologist. Under repeated hypnosis, there were many times when, out of boredom, he would reverse-hypnotize the psychologist just to make the doctor quiet down and let the tedious sessions pass more peacefully.

Hypnosis was one-on-one. You first lured the other person out, then used the landscape of their memories to guide them toward the outcome you wanted. The dream ghost worked on the same principle.

But what the shadow was teaching him was to build an entirely new environment and directly replace the original one.

Li Zhuiyuan finally understood what the shadow had meant earlier by “not tolerated by the Heavenly Dao.”

The boy still “didn’t know” exactly what malevolent spirits were, but he felt that even malevolent spirits would probably have trouble accepting a technique this utterly wicked.

One full cycle ended.

Li Zhuiyuan slowly opened his eyes. Suddenly, he felt that the things in his vision had not changed at all, and yet he was sensing them in a completely new way.

The shadow spoke. “Well, little one? How does it feel?”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “You were holding back just now.”

The shadow grabbed the boy by the head and shook him back and forth in anger.

“You little brat! If you didn’t share the same illness as me, I really couldn’t have taught you this secret art. Teaching you would only have harmed you—just like the person who taught it to you did.”

“So I have a master?”

“That probably wasn’t your master. More likely your enemy.”

“Then why didn’t he kill me?”

“He wanted you to suffer a fate worse than death.”

“Then he’s actually kind of nice.”

“That’s because he didn’t expect this. He probably only thought you were a lot like me. He never imagined you could be this much like me.”

“He still taught me something. He was probably the one who gave me your book too.”

“He should only have that one in his hands. The rest, after I finished writing them, I deliberately scattered. He probably didn’t have the fortune to obtain them.”

“Fortune?”

“When I calculated your fate pattern just now, I not only saw that you were crossing the waters by boat, I also saw that your fortune is extraordinarily deep.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“Of course. If it weren’t for the fact that your fortune keeps flowing without end, I’d really suspect you’d cultivated some evil method for stealing other people’s luck. And that would be far too low-grade.”

“Is it because there’s too much of it?”

“So much that even if you’d started accumulating merit and doing good deeds from the womb, you still couldn’t have built up something this heavy.”

“Could it be ancestral virtue?”

“No, the nature of it is different. If anything, I suspect someone may have actively exchanged fates with you.”

“Fortune is a good thing, right?”

“What kind of stupid question is that?”

“Who would be willing to give all that to me?”

“That’s something you’ll have to ask yourself. You’re good at acting, good at lying—who knows, maybe you sweet-talked someone into being so happy they were willing to give you anything.”

“Tricking someone into that doesn’t seem very good.”

“True enough. But at the very least, that person must have been sincere toward you.”

“I really want to clear away the fog in my mind and see who it was.”

“Once this is over, you’ll have plenty of time. Let’s move on to the next step.”

“Open the formation, draw on the feng shui!”

“Open it.”

Li Zhuiyuan began activating the formation while also stirring the feng shui layout into motion.

The shadow had already prepared the hardest part, like a cook who had finished all the tricky prep work. What Li Zhuiyuan needed to do now was simply put it in the wok and stir-fry it.

Li Zhuiyuan didn’t know whether the “future” him could do this.

The truth was, he could not.

He was skilled in formations and highly proficient in feng shui, and he could use formations to drive feng shui or use feng shui to guide formations, but he could not truly fuse the two into one.

Because of that ignorance, he still did not realize just how enormous an advantage he was gaining this time.

To a certain extent, it could be said that through the shadow’s personal, step-by-step instruction, the inner core of his path of formations, his path of feng shui, and his path of techniques had all been raised to a higher level.

The formation opened. The twelve earthly branches began to turn. Every branch had its own form. At a glance, they resembled the twelve zodiac animals, but within them lay endless mysteries.

A feeling of inevitability rose in Li Zhuiyuan’s heart.

It was as though he had already lived through a scene like this before.

Or perhaps he had long known that this shadow had always favored a similar style, preferring to embody techniques through beast forms.

That might also be because he did not like speaking with people—at least not in the past—and habits formed early had gradually hardened into a fixed style.

Formation lines flowed. The Rat of the Zi branch opened the formation, the Ox of the Chou branch arranged the law, the Tiger of the Yin branch presented itself at the front. With those three shifting one after another, a cloud of black mist appeared before Li Zhuiyuan.

The shadow spoke. “How much do you know about The Great Emperor of Fengdu?”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “From books, a little. He should be called Yin Changsheng.”

“Then do it according to what you learned from the books. Do you need me to teach you how to desecrate this great emperor and stir up his wrath?”

“No. I can do it.”

“Remember, you only get one chance. Since you’ve decided to anger him and become enemies with him, then don’t hold back. Use every means available.

“If you use him as a blade, he’ll be furious.

“And if you use him as a blade, but fail to make that blade sharp enough, the great emperor will only be even more furious.”

“I understand. There’s one more thing. That little ghost outside—the one you mentioned. What does it look like?”

The shadow reached out and drew in the air, and an image descended, sketching the dream ghost’s appearance: head bowed, holding a lantern, dressed in damp white clothing.

“A little ghost can’t create a spectacle this large. Someone is helping it from behind. Those people are probably the true targets your future self wants to deal with.”

“I understand.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Go to the dream next door.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “You said the member of the Yin Clan in the dream next door should also be one of mine.”

“That’s right.”

“I should go say hello to her first.”

“Then do you also plan to ask for her permission?”

“I’m just going to say hello. If she’s one of mine, then she’ll definitely agree.”

“So, you’re taking her feelings into consideration?”

Hearing that, pain showed on Li Zhuiyuan’s face.

The shadow lowered his head and carefully studied the boy’s expression, then laughed.

“Hahahahaha! You brat, you’re better than me! At your age, I hadn’t yet deteriorated that far, but you’ve already started treating the illness.”

“Maybe it’s because I have a good mother.”

“That really could be it. Early onset, early treatment.”

“Did your illness ever get cured?”

“I’m missing that part of my memory.”

“I don’t really believe you.”

“Sometimes, if you know the answer too early, you can’t make it across. I can only tell you this: you’re much better than I was in the past. Back then, I wouldn’t have cared at all about so-called... companions.

“It’s a pity you won’t be able to take the memories from this place out with you. Otherwise, I’d really want to ask you to help me apologize to the person who taught you this art.”

“It’s fine. You said that both of us are good at acting. I think... I’ll probably just trick him.”

“That makes sense. That kid was always a bit foolish. I even teased him before—someone that dense could probably get tricked into guarding a gate for somebody someday.”

“I’m going.”

“Go, then. I can’t leave this dream. I’ll wait here to watch what you do. I want to see... the great emperor enraged!”

“The Tiger of Yin, return to position. The Rabbit of Mao, guide the way!”

…

On the bridge, the dream ghost’s figure, after vanishing for a while, appeared once more.

It had just gone outside again. That group had urged it again, and once again it had brushed them off.

“What are they hurrying me for? Hurrying me for what? There are three terrifying beings here—who do they think I dare rush? All talk from the sidelines, not—hm?”

It was in the middle of grumbling when it suddenly noticed that the dream under its control had changed again. The two independent dreams had somehow formed a connection.

That confused it, but soon the woman’s dream from before actually began to rewind.

The dream ghost immediately turned to look to both sides of the bridge. On one side, the turtle was still churning on the lake surface. On the other, the fierce ghost had actually begun to retreat.

It had already prepared itself for a near-certain death, planning to divert the disaster elsewhere. But if things could recover and turn for the better, then nothing could be better than that.

The dream ghost immediately began swaying with excitement. It was a kind of overwhelming joy that came only after despair gave way to hope.

A guess formed in its heart. Perhaps those three terrifying beings were all unwilling to crush it to death. If so, then didn’t that mean they were treating it like a fart and letting it go?

…

Yin Meng stood numbly at the doorway of the coffin shop.

She saw a mother and daughter pass down the street ahead under an umbrella. The little girl had just started to point in her direction when another black umbrella blocked her view. Beneath the umbrella stood a boy.

As he studied the surrounding environment, he walked toward the coffin shop.

Yin Meng didn’t recognize him, but as he drew near, an inexplicable sense of reliance rose in her heart.

It was as though, so long as he was here, everything in her would finally have something to rest on. She would no longer feel lost.

She didn’t even think to wonder who he was or why he made her feel this way, because once she saw him, she no longer wanted to think.

Li Zhuiyuan walked into the coffin shop, folded up his umbrella, and shook off the water.

“What’s your name?”

“Yin Meng.”

“You’re one of mine.”

“Oh.”

“Will you listen to me?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’m going to do something.”

“All right.”

“These things will be very humiliating for you.”

“That’s fine.”

“So you agree?”

“I agree.”

Li Zhuiyuan was a little surprised. Everything had gone far too smoothly.

His first thought was that maybe all of his future companions were this obedient.

But very quickly, from the numbness and exhaustion deep in the girl’s eyes, he understood the true reason.

She had been tormented to the point of withering away. At a time like this, she was at her most helpless.

If he truly had some future connection with her, and they really were on the same side, then that vague sense of familiarity would make her instinctively cling to him as a lifeline.

The umbrella he had just put away was opened again.

“Then I’m off to work.”

“All right.”

The boy raised the umbrella once more and stepped back into the curtain of rain.

Summoning her courage, Yin Meng called after him in a hoarse voice,

“Then what do I need to do?”

“Just obey.”

“All right. I’ll be good and obey.” After a pause, the girl called out again, “Don’t abandon me.”

Hearing that, Li Zhuiyuan stopped and turned back to look at her again.

He still didn’t know what would happen in his future, but something about the girl’s tone left him puzzled.

Li Zhuiyuan did not know what position he would hold in the team later, nor did he know that Yin Meng, like Zhuangzhuang once had, had gone through a period of anxiety about her usefulness and place within the group.

Trying to understand things while blind to the whole elephant was bound to lead to misunderstandings.

Still, Li Zhuiyuan remembered that the shadow had said he was not actually seventy or eighty years old. He was still very young—only a little older than he was now.

So he was still a child. And if he was a child, then this definitely had nothing to do with romantic feelings.

Besides, it was impossible that everyone in his team was a child, so the girl before him must in truth be at least an adult. That meant there was an age gap.

Li Zhuiyuan tried extending a hand and pointing downward.

The signboard of the coffin shop immediately fell, and Yin Meng was standing right beneath it.

Hearing the noise, Yin Meng looked up. The signboard hung suspended over her head.

Li Zhuiyuan lifted his finger upward, and the signboard returned to its original place.

A smile appeared on Yin Meng’s face. “You’re amazing!”

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head.

Just now, when she had nearly been struck, there had indeed been a slight ripple in his heart, but only a slight one.

It was nothing like the time he rode bumper cars with Li Lan, when that girl in red Hanfu was about to be hit and he had almost lost control and gone mad.

Though they both looked like girls of the same age, this girl and that girl were not comparable in his heart.

So then... how had he met that Hanfu girl?

He was genuinely curious.

It couldn’t possibly just be because she was pretty, could it?

…

“Heh... hehehe... hahahaha!”

Inside the amusement park, although he could not leave this dream, the shadow with his hand on the boy’s head could still watch the scene unfolding in the dream opposite through that connection.

Ordinary people would find it hard to understand that, even at a time like this, the little brat still had the leisure to pause and distinguish which girl held more weight in his heart.

But he understood.

Because he and the boy were the same kind of person.

And people like them, when faced with any special emotion appearing in the depths of their hearts, would be filled with astonishment—and then with immense curiosity.

But there was one thing the shadow could not understand:

“Can heartless people like us really have someone we like?”

Next Chapter >