Chapter 592: Thanks for Watching

After sending a message to Lu Yibei, Huá Sāng waited for a long time, but no reply came. Gradually, she began to grow restless.

“…”

After pondering for a moment, she tucked the ferule into her collar, rose, and walked out of the room. At the main door, her footsteps paused slightly. With a deep gaze, she looked back at the empty room, then turned off the light and closed the door behind her.

After greeting the on-duty disciple, Huá Sāng left Chenyi Inn, hailed a taxi outside, and as the scenery beyond the window shifted from dark to bright, she arrived at Sleepless Street in only a few minutes.

Standing at the street entrance and looking at the brightly lit street ahead, Huá Sāng’s brows furrowed tightly. She raised a hand to rub her slightly aching brow and slowly let out a turbid breath.

Although the thought that she might have to conduct a carpet search for Lu Yibei throughout Sleepless Street was already making her tired, with human lives at stake and the true culprit who had caused senior brother’s death involved, she could not afford to be negligent. She could only overcome her reluctance.

However…

Not long after she entered Sleepless Street, she discovered something… wrong. No, it should be said that something was very wrong!

Spilled snacks, crushed fruit, injured passersby, collapsed lampposts… As far as the eye could see, the entire Sleepless Street was in chaos, as though a gale had swept through it.

With doubts in her heart, Huá Sāng asked several snack-stall owners along the way, and then understood.

It sounded as if they were all accidents, but five out of seven people mentioned a shoulder-length-haired girl. Based on the descriptions given by three of them, it could be preliminarily determined that the girl was Fang Ji…

Earlier, in that alley, Lu Yibei had been staying with Fang Ji. Could they still be together now?

Thinking this, Huá Sāng quickened her pace and followed the trail of those accidents deeper into Sleepless Street.

In her opinion, following the trail to see what was going on was always better than running around like a headless fly.

————

Meanwhile, in Song Wei’s dream.

After a brief moment of astonishment, Lu Yibei stared at Hu Chuan in a subtle way for quite some time, and her emotions gradually calmed.

Although this was Song Wei’s dream, at the same time, it was also a dream I constructed. And you actually dared to intrude?

Do you know this is called walking right into the trap?

Do you know how to write the word “torture”?

Although Meng usually used this dream-making ability to construct happy, beautiful dreams for people, Lu Yibei, borrowing that same ability, had always been skilled at creating nightmares.

Mm, the kind of nightmare that could frighten even a vicious and desperate person like Suolang Baima into losing control of his Spirit Pattern.

“Heh, you want to have a proper chat? Then I’ll have a proper chat with you!” Lu Yibei nodded with a cold laugh. The moment she thought of headless senior sister’s tragic death, her eyes shone with naked ferocity.

If things go wrong, I’ll immediately dispel the dream!

Can you fucking follow the dream over here and hit me or something?

As she spoke, she lightly snapped her fingers. The scenery around them abruptly began to change, like a reflection in water stirred by the wind, rippling outward in layer after layer, rapidly dispersing. Then the wind passed, and the ripples gradually stilled, but the “reflection” had already changed.

The workshop of Chili Hall vanished, replaced by a square room whose four walls were covered with padded leather to prevent impact injuries.

Inside the room was a desk. On the wall behind the desk hung a banner reading, “Leniency to those who confess, severity to those who resist.” Opposite the desk stood a metal interrogation chair that looked extremely sturdy at a glance.

This was precisely the layout of the Hua City branch of The Midnight Watchers Society’s interrogation room.

“Click—!” The crisp sound of the interrogation chair locking rang out.

In the darkness, Hu Chuan abruptly appeared on the interrogation chair, both hands firmly locked in place. He froze for a moment, then a playful smile appeared on his face.

With a “snap,” the lights turned on. A dazzling beam struck Hu Chuan’s face, making him instinctively want to raise his hands to shield his eyes, but the handcuffs restricted his movement. As he tugged against them, they gave off a grating friction that set one’s teeth on edge.

Only then did Lu Yibei finally see Hu Chuan’s face clearly, and her brows furrowed slightly.

The man before her was tall and handsome, with refined features and a fair, clean face. His rather thin lips carried a sincere smile. His eyes were especially deep; even the intense light of the interrogation room could not illuminate them, as though they hid many secrets that were hard to glimpse.

And Lu Yibei had seen this face before—on Wu Yutang.

“…”

Damn it, the dream had been interfered with!

As expected, trying to learn what this guy looks like through this method won’t work?

But that’s fine. As long as I can confirm that he’s Gu He—or rather, Hu Chuan—when I contact Zhang Huainan later, I’ll report him too!

At this thought, Lu Yibei said coldly, “Name?”

The familiar voice rang in his ears. Hu Chuan raised his head and looked forward. When his eyes gradually adjusted to the strong light and he saw clearly the appearance of the person sitting behind the desk, a look of realization appeared on his face.

“Heh, so it’s you. I never thought I’d still be able to see you in this lifetime!”

Lu Yibei fell silent for two seconds, ignored Hu Chuan’s words, and repeated, “Name?”

“Jiang Yuzhen…” Hu Chuan smiled. “Do you know? Back then, when I went to that person and attacked you, it was only a moment of impulse. Afterward, I regretted it very much…”

“Oh, right. Speaking of which, I even dreamed of you a few days ago. When I woke up, my pillow was soaked with tears!”

Lu Yibei: “…”

Seeing this face and immediately calling out senior sister’s name—looks like it’s definitely Hu Chuan!

But… Jiang Yuzhen. Is that a name someone like you can call?

Do you even deserve to?

After experiencing so many haunting incidents, Lu Yibei knew very well that some people were simply born full of malice. Their regret was never regret over having done something wrong; it was regret that, after committing evil, they had paid a price they were unwilling to bear.

Just like Hu Chuan. Lu Yibei wouldn’t dare say he felt absolutely no guilt over brutalizing the headless senior sister, but at least ninety-nine percent of his regret came from the terrible price he paid after coming into contact with Zhang Shuo.

“Age?”

“Age? Heh…” Hu Chuan gave a bitter laugh and shook his head. “Speaking of that, I suddenly remembered the first birthday you spent with me. We agreed we’d live to a hundred together. But who would’ve thought? Life is unpredictable. In the end, your age stayed forever at twenty. It really makes one sigh.”

“…”

Damn it. Why did Senior Sister stay forever at twenty? Don’t you freaking know?

How do you even have the nerve to say that out loud?

No wonder your whole body is covered in scars from being clawed by a giant panda!

Thinking this, Lu Yibei suppressed the anger gradually rising in her heart and continued asking, “Then why don’t you start by explaining the situation yourself?”

“Explain the situation…” Hu Chuan pondered for a moment, then shrugged. “What should I say? How I’ve lived these past few years? Honestly, it hasn’t been bad. Aside from having a home I can’t go back to, parents I can’t contact, and not being able to be myself, everything’s been just fine!”

“You know, all of this is thanks to you! I guess this counts as a life for a life between us, right?”

See that? This damn bastard is still blaming Senior Sister for ruining him!

Lu Yibei suddenly clenched her small fists, her breathing growing rapid as her chest rose and fell slightly. It took her a long while to restrain the urge to rush over and give Hu Chuan a beating.

After all, this was only Song Wei’s dream. No matter how realistic and vivid it was, no matter how cruelly she treated him, he wouldn’t feel the slightest pain. So the proper course was to find a way to get information out of him.

Since he had no intention of cooperating at all, she would have to use some extraordinary methods!

At that thought, Lu Yibei’s mind stirred, and the scene within the dream began to change once more.

For a moment, the sky spun, the earth trembled, and everything in all directions thundered in response. Along with the violent changes, countless turbulent currents howled.

Then Hu Chuan’s vision abruptly went black, and his ears sank into dead silence.

It was as if his consciousness blurred for an instant.

He closed his eyes, opened them again, and everything before him had already become completely different.

Welcome to the Witch’s Happy Graveyard… Lu Yibei, who was watching everything from the shadows, let out a cold laugh in her heart.

——————

A blood-red crescent moon hung overhead, along with stars both bright and dim, like countless eyes writhing densely across the gloomy curtain of the sky.

The wind blew past, sweeping up several sheets of pale joss paper that drifted through the air with a rustling sound. From afar came several strange cries of some unknown bird, like furtive snickering.

Across the slightly undulating wilderness all around, tree shadows swayed, wild grass lay bleak and desolate, and densely packed graves bulged from the ground like scales on the earth.

Some grave mounds were empty, with only a pitch-black opening. Before some stood tombstones faintly bearing a person’s portrait. Some graves had collapsed, as if whatever had been inside had already left and could no longer support the raised mound.

At a glance, this field of graves had no end, stretching all the way into the distant depths of darkness.

This place was the Lion Rock Public Cemetery near the Hua City crematorium, after being “slightly embellished.”

Lu Yibei knew this place very well. She had once “dug her own grave” here. Hu Chuan should have known it well too. Four years ago, in the dead of night, he had come here to steal “his own” ashes, and the crematorium’s columbarium was near the cemetery entrance.

Having suddenly appeared in a place like this, Hu Chuan’s face instantly turned deathly pale, and a trace of panic appeared in his expression.

“Jiang Yuzhen, come out! What kind of ability is scaring people with tricks like this? I’ve already paid you back with my entire life, isn’t that enough?” Hu Chuan shouted, his voice trembling.

His voice echoed through the empty graveyard, carrying far into the distance until it was completely devoured by the claws and fangs of the night.

After a long while, seeing that no one responded, Hu Chuan swallowed hard, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and staggered forward along the winding path, muttering nonstop as he walked.

“Jiang Yuzhen, I really didn’t mean for you to die. I only acted on impulse… It was them! They were all egging me on from the side!”

“Jiang Yuzhen, you know me. I’ve always cared about saving face. In that situation, I couldn’t back down. I could only… Look, I’ve already received the punishment I deserved!”

“Do you know? Ever since that day, I haven’t had a single peaceful night’s sleep. That man, he… he never treated me like a person at all. He performed all kinds of experiments on me, drawing all sorts of bizarre Spirit Patterns on my body…”

Hearing this, Lu Yibei raised her brows slightly and suddenly understood the origin of those strange scars on Hu Chuan’s body.

Those scars were most likely left behind when Zhang Shuo conducted Spirit Pattern experiments on Hu Chuan.

Zhang Shuo already possessed rare dual Spirit Patterns. He likely knew some secret method that allowed two, or even more, Spirit Patterns to coexist. And the purpose of his experiments on Hu Chuan was most likely to add new Spirit Patterns to himself.

“That man tortured me every day. I really couldn’t hold on anymore, so I could only run, run to all kinds of psychic sects. But I couldn’t escape! Those sects always shut me out, and that man could always find me! Like a devil, like a nightmare that would never fade away…”

Hu Chuan spoke with tears in his voice, his words filled with deep remorse. It was clear that he had suffered no small amount of inhuman torment under Zhang Shuo.

Lu Yibei: “…”

Sounds pretty miserable. Miserable enough that he could probably write tens of thousands of words in a letter of repentance…

If I hadn’t seen that time capsule buried beneath the cherry blossom tree, tainted by the Black Sun Fire Seed, I really might have believed his damn nonsense!

Since you’re so afraid of Zhang Shuo, then I’ll arrange for him to appear a little early. As luck would have it, I happen to know what Zhang Shuo looks like. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even be able to construct him in the dream!

As Lu Yibei thought this, her mind stirred. On the flat road beneath Hu Chuan’s feet, a rock suddenly emerged. Then, as if it were alive, it wriggled and tripped the tip of his foot.

Hu Chuan’s already trembling body abruptly lost its balance and pitched forward. He stumbled and fell against a tombstone. The moment he steadied himself by holding onto it, the tip of his nose was less than five centimeters from the portrait on the stone, as if he could feel the portrait’s icy breath.

And the person depicted in that portrait was none other than Zhang Shuo.

When Hu Chuan’s gaze focused on the posthumous portrait, in that instant, the air seemed to freeze. Beside it stood a tall soul-guiding banner, the paper money fluttering in the wind, like his fate, unable to escape the demon’s claws.

Then…

The fierce-looking man in the posthumous portrait suddenly gave a cold laugh.

It was only a faint one, leaving behind a blurry impression, yet also seeming like an illusion.

“Ah, ah, ah! He’s here, he’s come to catch me!”

Hu Chuan screamed in terror, pushing himself away from the grave and collapsing to the ground. Just then, footsteps sounded—from the end of the path, from the unseen woods, from the sealed tomb…

It was as if many people were approaching from all around. Hu Chuan looked left and right in panic, yet he could not see even half a figure. He scrambled backward on all fours, and at that moment, a pair of legs appeared out of thin air behind him.

His body stiffened. Trembling, he slowly turned his head back, and saw the back of a man.

The man wore loose black clothes and black pants, giving off an extremely ominous feeling.

The instant Hu Chuan turned around, the man slowly turned his head as well, revealing that face that could never be erased from his memory—Zhang Shuo!

In the next instant, something in the graveyard seemed to awaken. An ominous aura quietly spread, and in the darkness, pairs of abnormally scarlet eyes opened.

One after another, deformed figures bearing Zhang Shuo’s face emerged from the darkness.

Dozens, hundreds, thousands…

Beneath the scarlet moonlight, they gradually gathered toward Hu Chuan. Countless hands reached out from the darkness, climbing onto Hu Chuan’s body, tugging and clawing, as if they meant to drag him into the abyss.

Those faces, their eyes as savage as beasts, grinned hideously and growled in the most venomous tone, “You can’t escape. Did you think that by fleeing to the Great Pure Palace, you could break free from my control?”

“You’re nothing more than an insignificant test subject. Whenever I want, I can find you at any time!”

Seeing Hu Chuan’s mind gradually heading toward collapse under such a scene, Lu Yibei controlled those “Zhang Shuos” and asked in a low voice, “Well? Tell me, what exactly is that Esoteric Society where you’ve been hiding…”

“It is an existence that can kill you,” Hu Chuan murmured. Immediately after, a trace of a smile suddenly appeared at the corner of his mouth, then the smile grew stronger and stronger, turning gradually deranged until he was laughing so hard he could barely breathe.

Lu Yibei, “…” Damn it! What the hell are you laughing at? The ones around you are all people who once tortured you like a lab rat! You’ve got me completely stumped here.

For a moment, hundreds and thousands of Zhang Shuos wore hundreds and thousands of dumbfounded faces.

After a long while, the laughter gradually ceased. Hu Chuan ignored the hands crawling all over his body and slowly stood up, standing there in an especially eerie posture, the bones throughout his body letting out crisp cracks under the pulling of those hands.

“Jiang Yuzhen—no, or perhaps I should say, the friend secretly helping Jiang Yuzhen. Guess what happened after I fled to Shizhou City, visited the Great Pure Palace seeking help, only to be driven out by them like a homeless dog?”

“…” Lu Yibei did not speak, quietly waiting for the answer.

“I met that Lord. He was willing to help me, and then… pfft!” Hu Chuan’s eyes suddenly widened, his pupils shrinking to points from excitement. He split his mouth open, revealing an exaggerated smile.

“Then I ran into Zhang Shuo, who had chased after me, and then I killed him. Pfft, hahaha, hahaha!”

Lu Yibei, “!!!”

Hu Chuan had actually borrowed the power of that… Pink Fluffy Bunny to kill Zhang Shuo?!

A person who merely possessed psychic potential had actually killed an over-spec A+ rank psychic?

Pink Fluffy Bunny was actually terrifying to this degree?

“Do you know? Do you know? Before he died, I did lots of experiments on him too, just like how he tortured me! He kept begging me to spare him, but how could I possibly spare him?”

“When his Spirit Pattern went out of control and his flesh merged with objects, his body was just like the fireworks we saw at the fireworks festival that year—especially beautiful!”

“Oh, right, right, he actually isn’t dead. He’s been by my side all along! After he treated me like that, how could I let him die so easily?”

“…”

Hu Chuan was still rambling on and on, and Lu Yibei realized that something was not quite right. Hu Chuan’s evasive talk, his attempt to provoke her, his frightened, soul-scattered state—all of it had been an act.

Then what was his reason for doing this?

Could it be… to stall for time?!

Thinking of this, Lu Yibei’s heart abruptly tightened, and she hurriedly cut off the dream.

She was far too familiar with this job. After all, under normal circumstances, the person stalling for time ought to be her.

In the final second before the dream dissipated, she saw Hu Chuan bow slightly toward her and smile. “Thank you for watching the performance. Farewell, friend!”

————

The scene of the dream rapidly dissipated before her eyes. The instant her consciousness returned to reality, Lu Yibei abruptly opened her eyes and looked around.

The surroundings were deathly quiet. The narrow, remote alley was illuminated by dim yellow streetlights.

The unconscious Song Wei lay beside the twisted and deformed walking tractor, while Fang Ji cast a bewildered gaze toward her.

“Miss Rescuer, is something wrong?”

“While I was gathering information, did anyone come here?” Lu Yibei asked seriously.

Hearing her unusually solemn tone, Fang Ji froze, then shook his head. “N-no! What’s wrong?”

“If not, then—”

Before Lu Yibei could say the three words “hurry and go,” the lights around them suddenly went out. The streetlights, the lights in the residential buildings—all of them went dark. Dozens of rather powerful psychic energy fluctuations suddenly barged into the detection range of her psychic sense…