Nantong Grand Hotel.

Room 909.

“Crash!”

The sound of a shattered French window came from inside the room.

The formation master, sitting in another room on the same floor, stood up. On the carpet outside Room 909, the thin man slowly rose.

Both of them had heard the commotion inside but dared not enter without authorization.

Once you join the official system, you must follow the rules.

In the lobby on the first floor of the grand hotel, Yu Shu was talking with Secretary Xu.

Nantong was Secretary Xu’s hometown.

However, she had long since obtained a Beijing household registration and had brought her parents to Beijing. In her conversation, a faint sense of detachment from her former hometown was evident.

This was a kind of severing, proud of her new household registration status, unwilling to reveal too much of her past to outsiders, vaguely considering it a blemish.

Yu Shu did not understand why Li Lan chose such a person to be her secretary.

He and Li Lan belonged to different departments and had different responsibilities, but they had many interactions and collaborations in their past work. Although Li Lan was not a Xuanmen practitioner, her style of doing things often left this seasoned veteran secretly amazed.

A hotel staff member passed by and instinctively asked something in Nantong dialect. Secretary Xu replied in standard Nantong dialect, so standard it couldn’t be more so.

Yu Shu had once traveled extensively as a storyteller, and he had been to the countryside of Nantong.

This Secretary Xu was truly interesting. Proud of being a new Beijing resident, yet she still maintained her hometown dialect flawlessly, no less than elderly villagers who had little contact with the outside world.

As the typhoon approached, some arrangements had been made outside the hotel. Things that could easily be blown away by the wind were moved inside.

Yu Shu finished his conversation with Secretary Xu and walked to the hotel entrance.

The glass revolving door, pushed by the strong wind outside, kept deforming slightly, as if holding its breath.

Yu Shu pulled out a cigarette, bit it in his mouth, and before he could light it, his ears twitched slightly. He turned sideways and looked up.

But after waiting for a long time, no shattered glass fell, not even a tiny shard.

He instinctively thought that something might have happened in that room on the ninth floor.

He wanted to take the elevator up to check, but ultimately suppressed the impulse.

Being from different departments, it was inconvenient to meddle in others’ affairs, unless they sent him a collaboration notice.

Rubbing his nose, Yu Shu recalled the scene he had witnessed that day: Li Lan and the young man sharing a car.

He keenly sensed that something was about to happen in Nantong, and it was highly likely related to this pair.

Yet, neither the woman nor the young man were subjects he could investigate.

“Alas, this line of work is truly difficult.”

He lit the cigarette, took a deep puff, and slowly exhaled.

“Fortunately, my special occupation, like a foundry worker, has an early retirement.”

The masked woman’s figure appeared on the ninth floor.

She opened the door to Room 909.

At first glance, everything inside seemed normal. Li Lan was sitting in an armchair, drinking coffee.

But as the masked woman walked in and closed the room door, the scene before her eyes suddenly changed.

All the French windows were gone, and the wind and rain outside wildly poured in, blowing everything in the room.

Li Lan stood by the window, her hair scattered.

Masked woman: “Director Li…”

Li Lan turned her head and looked at the masked woman.

From the masked woman’s perspective, the director’s eyes were crimson.

The moment she met those eyes, the masked woman lost consciousness, standing blankly in place.

Li Lan retracted her gaze and continued to look at the raging storm outside.

She should have died long ago.

The reason she was still alive was because her son had not killed her that day.

This allowed her to now have both the perception of a participant and the perspective of an observer.

“Son, you should have killed Mama. If you had killed Mama, then perhaps it would still be Mama climbing out of the sea right now, not her.

Or, in your eyes, Xiao Yuan, do you recognize her more than Mama?

But son, I am your Mama.

Don’t be afraid,

Mama is here. Mama is here to help you, to protect you.”

Li Lan lifted her leg and stepped forward.

But her movement only went halfway before she froze.

From this moment on, not only did she stop, but even the wind and rain around her stopped.

Because it had arrived.

And she, therefore, lost her purpose as an eye.

Tiny turtles crawled out from the bathtub drain, from the air conditioner fan, and from every corner of the room.

Their numbers grew, becoming denser and denser, converging towards where Li Lan stood.

When an item with side effects loses its sufficient positive effect, it naturally reaches the moment of destruction.

Although Li Lan’s body could not move, her crimson eyes no longer showed intense emotional fluctuations, but rather a cold indifference.

“In your eyes, is my son already doomed to die?”

Xu Ming: “Boss, A-Jing is gone.”

Zhao Yi immediately looked at Old Tian Tou.

Old Tian Tou hurriedly waved his hand, indicating that he had not been the one to tell.

But his hand became increasingly weak in its waving, because his consistently red eyes along the way were indeed quite obvious, and Chen Jing, that child, likely noticed something because of it.

Zhao Yi: “Old Tian.”

Old Tian Tou: “Alas, young master, it’s my fault. I’ve lived comfortably for too long and am no longer suited to this pace on the river.”

Zhao Yi: “Old Tian, Old Tian, what can I say about you? Do you know how important A-Jing is to me? Do you know how much merit I’ve invested in training A-Jing, and how many times I’ve called that Li family ‘ancestors’?”

Old Tian Tou shrank his neck, not daring to speak.

Liang Yan: “Boss, what do we do now?”

Liang Li: “Should I turn back now to chase A-Jing and see if I can bring him back?”

Zhao Yi sighed and said, “You all know how fast A-Jing is. You also know how fiercely he’ll rush to rescue his brother Yuan if he knows he’s in danger. Even if you catch up, can you really fight A-Jing first?”

Liang Yan: “Then let’s return to Nantong too, boss!”

Liang Li: “That’s right, let’s go back together.”

Xu Ming pursed his lips, saying nothing, just nodding with difficulty.

Zhao Yi: “Never mind, never mind. You two are my soon-to-be wives, Old Tian is an elder in my heart, and A-Ming is my trusted brother.

A-Jing is important, but how could I bear to let you deliberately jump into that certain death trap?

This place is safe enough. We’ll set up camp here.

Let’s wait.

After things there are over, we’ll collect A-Jing’s body and… mourn the Li family.

I’m not in a good mood. Let me be alone for a while.”

After speaking, Zhao Yi walked into the already pitched tent, zipped it up, sat cross-legged, propped his forehead with his hand, looking gloomy and motionless.

On a road in Si’an Zhen, not far from Shinan Zhen, amidst the howling wind, a boy with the build of an elementary school student was carrying an adult and running at an extremely terrifying speed.

Chen Jing: “Brother Yi, if we just leave like this, won’t Sister Yan and the others follow immediately?”

Zhao Yi: “No, I left a puppet there, enough to keep them stable.”

Chen Jing: “Brother Yi, is Brother Yuan really in more peril than not this time?”

Zhao Yi: “It’s almost certainly a death sentence.”

Chen Jing: “Then why did you tell me this, Brother Yi?”

Zhao Yi: “The bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish!”

Chen Jing: “But the boat has already capsized…”

Zhao Yi: “Damn it, then hurry up and save the people! People are countless times more precious than fish!”

Siyuan Cun, at the village entrance.

Its figure was enveloped in a dense black, only noticeable in the flashes of lightning and thunder.

The next moment,

It opened its eye.

This eye was on its brow.

A beam of red light shone, and an invisible halo spilled down like mercury, covering the entire Siyuan Cun.

Li Zhuiyuan, sitting in the coffin, finished the last can of special Jianlibao beside him.

The crude herbal juice, which also had an effect that stimulated mental potential, tasted fishy, spicy, and bitter, indescribably awful.

Throughout this day, Li Zhuiyuan had relied on it to maintain his state.

Now, all his previous preparations were finally facing the ultimate test.

The initial style of the examiner was consistent with his deductions.

This at least ensured that the worst outcome would not happen, for example, all his preparations and arrangements becoming a joke.

“Snap!”

Li Zhuiyuan snapped his fingers.

In the farmland to the north, not far from the village entrance, the formation activated, drawing upon the fengshui energy that the young man had previously harnessed and bound within it.

In an instant, a furious blaze erupted.

The aura of Fengdu Dadi descended.

However, this aura was not very thick, and could even be described as somewhat faint.

In the past, when Li Zhuiyuan “borrowed a tiger’s prestige,” the display was much grander than this time.

This was because Fengdu Dadi had been prepared.

Being used as a pawn in daily life, while it might attract some trouble and burdens, ultimately still brought more benefits than drawbacks, with stable and considerable returns.

But this time, the Dadi was clearly unwilling to engage in a direct confrontation with this entity. Not that he dared not, but it wasn’t worth it.

At least, in the Dadi’s eyes, this “disciple” of his was not worth the price.

Li Zhuiyuan also knew this, so he arranged for his “master” to “appear” first.

Even a mosquito’s leg is meat; let’s use it to offset some of the cost.

Next, it was time to verify the problem-solving approach.

Given conditions:

Fengdu Dadi is unwilling to directly confront the great turtle, so is the great turtle willing to directly confront Fengdu Dadi?

The great turtle, to control costs, is unwilling to “slaughter indiscriminately” and will actively clear the field.

The great turtle does not know the specific situation in the village. Although it has opened its eye, it has not yet scanned the entire village.

Li Zhuiyuan was betting on the great turtle’s “perspective” characteristic, on its customary habits and mechanisms, and on his ability to successfully deceive it!

The young man was going to use a fake check to make the great turtle cash it.

And the young man had prepared more than just one fake check.

Now, the question was whether the first fake check could successfully pass.

The manifestation of “Fengdu Dadi’s” aura caused the gaze of that figure to pause.

It was like a person preparing to see the situation in the distance, when nearby, a light suddenly turned on, forcibly drawing your attention.

However, just as Li Zhuiyuan solemnly awaited the result… an unexpected turn occurred.

Even the most meticulous plan cannot account for every possibility, especially in a high-stakes confrontation like this.

However, this unexpected turn was not a bad one.

The “Fengdu Dadi,” whose aura was originally unremarkable, suddenly surged in momentum, sharply escalating!

The young man’s “Liu Shi Wang Qi Jue” was top-notch in aura disguise, but he had already done everything he could.

This strange increase in aura had nothing to do with Li Zhuiyuan himself.

Moreover, this was not Fengdu Dadi having a change of heart, his benevolent feelings overflowing, changing his original intention, and deciding to protect his closed-door disciple.

It had nothing to do with Fengdu Dadi either.

At this moment, the clean-faced, beardless portrait standing on the offering table in the farmland was becoming increasingly feminine, as feminine as the sworn father Tan Wenbin used to recognize.

And this was not the end; the degree of femininity continued to intensify.

If one were to stand before the offering table at this moment and look closely, one would notice that the Fengdu Dadi in the portrait gradually took on a feminine appearance.

The face of a woman.

Neither fat nor thin, not strikingly beautiful, but very pleasant to look at, with a hint of delicate charm, combined with a sense of simplicity.

In the portrait, the woman wore a mianliu crown and black and gold elaborate robes. Her gaze shifted from calm to determined, and then from determined to sharp!

It was she who was actively enhancing Fengdu Dadi’s aura here.

Li Zhuiyuan, sitting in the coffin, showed a flicker of complexity in his eyes.

He perceived that the one helping him at this moment was—Yin Meng.

Although the young man had a thin layer of emotions, he was still in a stage where he felt somewhat at a loss with such fervent perceptions.

After the Fengdu incident, Yin Meng was left in the Fengdu Yinsi.

She was nominally the princess of the Yinsi, but consider what kind of life the so-called Ten Yama Kings led in the underworld, coupled with the Dadi’s usual indifference towards his descendants.

In fact, Yin Meng’s life in the underworld was certainly not pleasant.

But she still considered herself a member of this team.

She had been diligently working, secretly learning and improving. With her ordinary talent, even a small improvement required immense sacrifice.

However, upon realizing that Brother Xiaoyuan needed help and she could provide it, she disregarded the risks and costs, choosing to act without hesitation!

For the Dadi, this was like guarding against everything, but a house thief is hard to guard against.

The Dadi guarded against outside disciples but was taken advantage of by blood relatives within the family.

In short, the momentum on Fengdu Dadi’s offering table was rapidly increasing, meaning the face value of this fake check was also rapidly rising.

The eyes of the figure standing at the village entrance closed.

The gushing red light instantly vanished.

Before long, that eye opened again, and the red halo flowed out once more.

However, the blackness enveloping this dark figure had faded considerably compared to before.

And the area where Fengdu Dadi’s offering table was located in the northern farmland seemed to have been cleared.

What should have been there was still there, in reality, but in its “perspective,” it had been removed.

Li Zhuiyuan’s lips curved slightly.

The fake check was cashed successfully.

Next, was the second one.

When its gaze again tried to cover the entire village, at the southern end of the village road, the offering table belonging to Dizangwang Pusa activated its formation, and fengshui energy began to circulate.

“Buzz!”

First, an ordinary golden light appeared.

Li Zhuiyuan was proficient in the “Dizangwang Pusa Jing,” so it was not difficult to disguise the Pusa’s aura with fengshui phenomena.

“Buzz!”

The ordinary golden light received a boost; its brightness and aura increased.

Every time the young man utilized the Pusa’s fruit position, Sun Baichen would appear in time to lend a hand.

Moreover, the Pusa portrait on the offering table was originally painted to resemble Sun Baichen.

However, an unexpected turn occurred once again.

“Buzz!”

The already strong golden light actually received another round of enhancement, becoming brilliantly radiant.

On the portrait, Sun Baichen’s face gradually changed; half was still Sun Baichen, while the other half was a different image of compassion and sorrow.

This was Pusa… taking action personally!

At this moment, Pusa chose to actively offer help to the young man.

One must know that Pusa’s main body was currently still under the eighteen layers of hell, suppressed under Fengdu Dadi’s foot.

But even facing such a perilous situation, Pusa still drew out a portion of her strength to manifest here.

Initially, Pusa had first plotted against and used Li Zhuiyuan. Li Zhuiyuan chose to actively stand against Pusa. Fengdu Dadi was able to successfully drag Pusa into hell for suppression, and Li Zhuiyuan also contributed to this.

But times have changed; there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests.

Pusa, sensing the pure relationship between this “master and disciple,” actively intervened.

Li Zhuiyuan in the coffin now understood why, that night on the second-floor balcony of the family compound, Fengdu Dadi beside him had suddenly shown a compassionate expression and uttered “Amitābha.”

Pusa knew she was sowing discord; she was being open about it.

Even if this master and disciple did not completely turn against each other in the future, Yin Meng, still in hell, would become the fuse for their future conflicts.

Fengdu Dadi, as the victor of the previous struggle, could sit back and calmly weigh gains and losses.

Pusa, as the loser at this moment, needed to constantly take risks and make big bets if she wanted to turn the tide.

Even if she too felt that the young man was definitely in grave danger today, she was still willing to stake a chance at a comeback for her own future!

If you can survive this calamity, when you return to Fengdu someday and attempt to break through the layers of hell, never forget that you have a helper deep in the eighteenth layer of the underworld!

The black shadow outside the village entrance, the eye on its brow, closed once more.

In an instant, it was as if this entire world plunged into darkness.

When this eye opened again, the Pusa offering table area in the farmland at the southern end of the village road had vanished.

“Boom!”

Under a flash of lightning and thunder, the originally dense black figure had turned gray.

Every clearing of the field meant a hefty price, and also a weakening of its own strength.

The great turtle’s main body was still in the sea at this time, synchronized with the eye of the typhoon, and had not truly landed in Qidong, Nantong.

Its appearance at the entrance of Siyuan Cun was actually a condensation of its greatly weakened strength.

But even so, it was still powerfully despairing.

Its reopened gaze once again attempted to envelop the entire village.

The peach grove, restored by Li Zhuiyuan, swayed its branches, and peach blossoms fluttered down.

This peach grove was originally formed by the resentful energy leaked from Qing’an, who had lived here for a long time. Therefore, Li Zhuiyuan did not bother to set up any fengshui illusions here, as it naturally represented Qing’an’s original aura.

Inside the coffin, Li Zhuiyuan’s knuckles were somewhat white.

He wasn’t too sure about the Qing’an aspect.

After all, compared to Fengdu Dadi and Dizangwang Pusa, Qing’an was clearly weaker.

In such a situation, it was easy for the great turtle to choose to clear people rather than clear the field.

Furthermore, Qing’an’s own state was very weak; he was in the late stage of self-sealing.

However, a fake check only needs to be convincing enough.

If Pusa, who was suppressed under Fengdu Dadi’s feet, could still trigger the great turtle to clear the field, then Qing’an might also have this chance!

Now, it remained to be seen whether Qing’an, who once followed Wei Zhengdao on the river journey, could catch the great turtle’s eye in terms of aura!

At the village entrance, that gaze closed once again.

Li Zhuiyuan gasped, and cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

Qing’an succeeded.

His current state and strength were certainly insufficient, but his past experiences and his current peculiar state made the great turtle choose to clear the field around him.

When that eye opened again, the peach grove had vanished.

It was constantly switching perspectives, removing one by one the potential threats it deemed troublesome or likely to incur higher costs.

What it ultimately wanted was a face-to-face encounter with only itself and that young man in the painting… no, the young man of today.

At this moment, its figure had shifted from gray to a normal human form.

In the flashes of lightning and thunder, one could discern specific human contours.

Li Zhuiyuan had calculated his advantages.

His advantage came from Li Lan; precisely because Li Lan didn’t enter the village, it created the foundation for his “bluff.”

But at the same time, the two paintings in the prophecy also played a decisive role.

A young man who, barely an adult, dared to lead people out of the East Sea and ultimately killed himself.

From the great turtle’s perspective, it was entirely normal for this young man to have an extraordinary background and be protected by various powerful characters.

In fact, Fengdu Dadi, Dizangwang Pusa, and the evilness of that peach grove should be the standard configuration for that young man.

Only with such configuration and resources could such a prodigy be forged.

Perhaps, there was an even deeper conspiracy theory involved.

This young man was originally created by these old schemers, in collusion, targeting its weaknesses, specifically so he could target it in the future!

Entities at their level indeed had such a need; when facing the increasingly strong pressure from the Heavenly Dao, allowing one to fall would be enough to buy them a long period of respite.

Therefore, rather than saying the great turtle came specifically to kill this young man, it was more accurate to say it came to preemptively disrupt this huge conspiracy aimed at itself.

And the young man’s “deception” further solidified this conspiracy logic.

Next, in the farmland in front of Li Sanjiang’s house, the offering tables of the Qin and Liu families activated their formations, and fengshui surged.

This was the part Li Zhuiyuan was most confident in faking; even without actual spirits, he could vividly simulate the feeling of spirits.

The auras of Dragon King spirits flickered continuously, alternating.

There was unwillingness, indignation, anger, and eager anticipation.

As an inheritor of two Dragon King lineages, Li Zhuiyuan understood perfectly how to portray them realistically. Each Dragon King spirit, while possessing its unique characteristics, also exuded a demeanor exclusive to Dragon Kings.

At this moment, Li Zhuiyuan raised both hands, with a talisman needle clamped between each finger joint.

He spread his arms, moved his hands to either side of his head, and then moved them inward.

Long talisman needles pierced into Li Zhuiyuan’s head, completely submerging.

Throughout, the young man’s expression remained unchanged.

Immediately after, the young man took out the purple-gold Luo Pan, pressed his palm gently, and the Luo Pan quickly rearranged and combined. The slot opened, and the copper coin dropped.

Li Zhuiyuan made no defense, picking up the copper coin with his bare hands.

At the moment of contact, the young man felt an extremely disgusting repulsion from within his body, but he still pressed it to his chest.

From his soul to his body, a dense aura of death emanated.

Ordinary feigning death could not deceive the eyes of the old women.

Successful feigning death was no different from true death, or even a more thorough death than a normal one.

Li Zhuiyuan formed hand seals, and a ghost gate appeared behind him.

This was the most difficult spell among the twelve Fengdu edicts.

In the past, it was used to fend off enemies; this time, it was used against himself.

The young man formed the seals in reverse, and the ethereal image of the ghost gate slowly moved forward, from behind him to in front of him.

As they brushed past each other, the young man’s Yintang was pitch black, and the three lamps above his head and on his shoulders swayed precariously.

Finally, the ghost gate appeared in front of the young man.

By changing the position of the ghost gate, the young man, originally standing outside the ghost gate, came to be “inside the ghost gate.”

Next, when the ghost gate closed, it would mean the young man’s descent from life to death.

But this was still some distance from the highest standard of “thorough death” that Li Zhuiyuan aimed for.

Li Zhuiyuan said:

“I have made all preparations. Now, it’s your turn to die.

I promise you, if I survive this calamity, I will definitely bring you back to life.

I admit that I have always wanted to put you to death, to completely resolve my condition.

But I will not achieve my goal through such deceit.

You know very well that some things are beyond your current capability.

Those people of mine, what they truly care about is me, not you.

Perhaps your acting can deceive most of them…

But do you

Have the confidence to deceive A-Li?”

Li Zhuiyuan relinquished control of his body, letting his consciousness descend.

The next moment, the young man’s demeanor turned chillingly cold; the main entity took control of this body.

Main entity:

“So much nonsense.

Either you and I die together today.

Or I die first to secure a slim possibility of my revival by you.

No need to hesitate, I’ll definitely choose the latter.”

At this point, Li Zhuiyuan had reached the depths of his consciousness.

Here, it was still Li Sanjiang’s house.

Li Zhuiyuan stood on the great-grandfather’s courtyard, his gaze moving upwards, landing on the door of his room on the second floor.

This was the main entity’s room.

For a long time, the main entity had been idle; he had not initiated a battle for control of this body. Except for occasionally scattering some fish fry in the pond, he spent most of his time in that room.

He ruminated and sublimated all the cultivation techniques, secret manuals, formations, fengshui, and everything else from his memory.

Li Zhuiyuan went upstairs, came to the balcony, pushed open the screen door, and entered his room.

The desk was empty. Behind it, A-Li’s drawing table only held a lonely scroll.

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the desk, reached out, and opened a drawer.

“Rustle… rustle… rustle…”

Scrolls of scrap paper, densely covered with writing, kept flying out of the drawer, gradually accumulating in a pile on the floor, submerging his ankles.

But this seemed far from over.

Recorded on these scrap papers were further essences of what he had learned and mastered, the crystallized wisdom of the main entity.

Li Zhuiyuan stepped on the thick cushion of scrap paper, came to A-Li’s drawing table, and opened the sole scroll.

“Buzz!”

The scroll unfolded, extending all the way under the drawing table, then continuing to unroll to the corner of the wall. When the young man’s wrist trembled slightly, the scroll curved, stood upright, and began to rotate again.

This painting seemed endless.

The images within were new interpretations of formations and fengshui, fresh insights comprehended by the main entity.

It was no exaggeration to say that if Li Zhuiyuan were given ample time to examine everything in this room.

Then his entire strength could achieve a comprehensive, complete, and significant improvement.

All the main entity’s past thoughts and insights would transform into nutrients to nourish Li Zhuiyuan.

Because “learning from the same source,” the absorption conditions and efficiency would also be incredibly high.

If it weren’t for “xinmo” (heart devil) being inherently opposed to the “main entity,” it would actually be equivalent to Li Zhuiyuan constantly keeping a part of “self-awareness” in his mind, continuously integrating and learning.

However, Li Zhuiyuan did not bend down to pick up a single piece of paper, nor did he examine any painting on the scroll closely.

Just a quick glance was enough, at least for now, it wasn’t time for studying.

Li Zhuiyuan exited the room, descended the stairs, and upon returning to the living room on the first floor, he walked to the cabinet and opened it.

Beside the flashlight was a key. Li Zhuiyuan took it out and walked to the iron door of the basement.

“Click!”

The lock opened. Li Zhuiyuan pushed open the iron door, then fumbled for the pull cord switch behind the door and yanked it down:

“Click!”

The dark basement instantly became brightly lit.

Rows of long benches, like in a grand auditorium classroom, were neatly arranged, with rows of people seated on them.

“Exactly how many did you carve?”

Li Zhuiyuan walked through the middle, observing everyone sitting silently on the benches, lifelike yet motionless.

He had originally thought that the main entity would only carve people close to him, meaning those the main entity intended to replace when he eventually took over.

But the truth was, besides carving the aforementioned individuals, the main entity had carved everyone he had ever seen in reality throughout Siyuan Cun.

This was clearly not something temporarily created after deducing a slim chance of survival.

Rather, it was all carved by the main entity even before that.

Was it boredom?

No, the main entity wouldn’t be so bored as to possess the emotion of boredom.

The main entity was conducting an experiment.

And the place most deeply etched in his memory was the experimental site chosen by the main entity, which was this village.

But the main entity’s goal was clearly not just this village; this village couldn’t satisfy its appetite.

When Li Zhuiyuan reached the deepest part, he saw a coffin inside.

The coffin was very new; it had just been carved.

The lid was closed, not open.

But it wasn’t hard to open.

If it were opened, what would be revealed inside would be emptiness; there would be no corpse.

But if it were not opened, it would be as if the main entity were still lying inside.

Like that torn straw mat unearthed from the ancestral grave of the Old Li family.

Before the mat was unrolled, everyone thought there was a corpse inside, but when it was actually opened, the corpse was gone.

Translated into the mental consciousness, this is easy to understand: when one believes the main entity is still present, even if the main entity dies, it can “return” due to one’s perception.

This was also the revival Li Zhuiyuan and the main entity had agreed upon.

If Li Zhuiyuan was unwilling to honor this promise, he could completely open the coffin immediately after the event was over. As long as he saw the emptiness inside, he could prevent the main entity’s reappearance.

Li Zhuiyuan once again marveled that such a thing could become possible within his own mental consciousness.

But that torn straw mat of the Old Li family had, in reality, perfectly enacted a similar scene.

Li Zhuiyuan walked back to the basement entrance and stood outside the basement.

The young man held the rusty lock from the iron door and knocked on the iron door.

“Clang, clang, clang… clang, clang, clang…”

Soon, the first person in the basement stood up and walked out, followed by the second, third, fourth…

After they left the basement, some went to the east and west rooms, others went to the second floor.

Those who emerged later lined up, walked down the courtyard, and through the path, reached the village road.

While progressing along the village road, they continuously left the queue, heading to their respective paths, to various residential houses in the village.

With each batch of people who emerged, Li Zhuiyuan felt his mental pressure increase by a degree.

When all the carved people from the basement emerged, Li Zhuiyuan felt as if a huge rock had been placed on his head.

But this was only the beginning.

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the courtyard, looked up at the rough sky.

It was so crudely done, like cheap wallpaper simply pasted on, and poorly done, with various air bubbles bulging.

Li Zhuiyuan raised his hand and began to modify the sky.

Each stroke of modification was like throwing a stone at his mind.

Finally, the rough sky transformed into a delicate night sky, with strong winds, torrential rain, and a typhoon.

Then he looked down at the ground.

Except for the great-grandfather’s house and that fish pond, which were three-dimensional and detailed, all other residential houses only had architectural surfaces facing his view; from other perspectives, they were empty.

Many villagers’ houses only had walls and chimneys, empty inside without a single piece of furniture, and even the ground beneath their feet was black.

Many villagers who had just emerged from the basement were now cooking, washing vegetables, and weaving clothes, as if performing a very sophisticated act without props.

Li Zhuiyuan took a deep breath. Fortunately, he had previously used the most decisive method to prematurely expend his mental potential.

Under the agonizing pain of his consciousness being almost torn, each dwelling, both its exterior and interior, was filled.

The young man clutched his head and squatted down.

Now, his head felt like it was about to explode from discomfort.

But humans, after all, are highly adaptable beings. The young man stood up, forcing his vision to refocus.

He looked around and saw A-Li sitting in a rattan chair on the second-floor balcony, Aunt Liu busy in the kitchen, Uncle Qin toiling in the field, and Liu Yumei drinking tea at the East Wing’s doorway.

Runsheng watched a gangster movie while making paper effigies, the gunshots were loud;

Tan Wenbin smoked and chatted with Zhou Yunyun on his大哥大 (Dage Da, an old-fashioned mobile phone).

On the wall of the main house, the old electrician A-You, with his hair standing on end, was touching wires.

Zhao Yi and Chen Jing were still staying at the Big Beard’s house.

Chen Xiyuan should be playing the flute in the peach grove at this moment.

They, like the villagers here, were all fake.

But the paper figures he left at the funeral all contained his red threads.

Not everyone could connect with his red threads.

Since he created this red thread secret method, the only ones who had truly connected with him were Runsheng, Yin Meng, Lin Shuyou, and Tan Wenbin.

Because the red thread was a two-way constraint.

If the connected party harbored any ill thoughts towards him, the young man, as the initiator of the red thread, would immediately suffer a backlash, or even sudden death.

But now, those willing to come back to save him with a dying heart had, in effect, passed the most stringent political review.

At least at this moment, they would not wish for his death.

Li Zhuiyuan was waiting for them to come in.

When they came to his funeral, they would enter here through the red threads left in the paper figures.

In their eyes, he had already died, but the great turtle that killed him had not yet left its “perspective” it had set up.

This was precisely a good opportunity for revenge and for the Heavenly Dao to eliminate evil.

The young man had pushed his calculations to the extreme, aiming to first weaken the great turtle in rounds, then draw it into his home ground, and finally hand it over to the powerful forces around him for the ultimate resolution.

Li Zhuiyuan patted his forehead vigorously, then put on a small raincoat, pushed his tricycle, rode it down the courtyard, and headed towards the village entrance.

Next, it was time to welcome the great turtle’s entry.

No, it was to wait for the great turtle to switch its perspective here.

All of this required the main entity to die precisely enough!

In reality.

With the eye closing and opening again, the two Dragon King lineage offering tables at Li Sanjiang’s house entrance also vanished.

At this point, all of Li Zhuiyuan’s arrangements in the village were completely depleted.

And the figure at the village entrance was completely revealed.

She had the figure of a woman, Li Lan, but her face was blurred, only the eye on her brow could be clearly seen.

Now, with no other obstacles, the red gaze projected by this eye could finally complete its coverage of the entire village.

After a thorough scan, it located Li Zhuiyuan’s position, and its gaze began to contract.

Inside the coffin.

The main entity looked at the paper figure of A-Li, whose hands rested on the edge of the coffin, looking into it.

Xinmo was right; only this girl could tell at a glance if he was “Li Zhuiyuan.”

This was also the reason xinmo deliberately placed the girl’s paper figure here.

At the village entrance,

Its gaze was continuously contracting, about to focus on that specific person, when it stepped out with its left foot, crossing the dividing line between the road and the gravel village path.

Main entity: “Ghost gate, close!”

“Buzz!”

The ghost gate closed, the main entity’s body lightened, and it fell into the coffin. A pre-arranged sutra blanket fell, completely covering the young man’s body in the coffin.

Its foot crossed the dividing line and landed on the ground.

At this moment, its blurred face became clear, transforming into Li Lan’s face. The third eye on its brow was also withdrawn, but its eyes still retained a scarlet hue.

Then, it saw a young man it had longed for in its heart.

The young man, wearing a raincoat, was riding a tricycle and actively driving towards it.

It instinctively walked towards the young man.

The young man excitedly waved his arms, his face beaming with a happy and joyful smile.

Even the wind and rain could not suppress the young man’s excited and cheerful shouts:

“Mama, welcome home!”