Chapter Ninety-One: Shanghe Village, Five Households in the Tenth Group

Even Elder An Yingxiong and Elder Mu Tianshi had gone as well.

Yet Director Lin Tianming talked as if he were handing out a reward, when in truth he was merely sending him into danger. He had nothing whatsoever to do with the matter of the corpse in the deserted village.

This was nothing more than sending him to search for missing people and crawl through mountain caves. Shouldn't that be police work?

“Lin Yi, rest assured. I treat you as if you were my own grandson. Unless Zhang the Butcher nods in agreement, I do not want you lingering any longer in the Demon Prison. You have no idea; the cave has already been completely sealed off...”

“Before, the cave had already been explored. Your Grandpa An and Grandpa Mu both went in, and they came away with quite a haul. Besides them, I heard that some other grandmasters also went, but now that cave is sealed. It is not somewhere anyone can simply go whenever they please... Consider whether you can find those missing people first.”

“Your grandpa and the others went and still found nothing. If you cannot find them, so be it. But that cave produces stone milk. If you are lucky, you may discover some... mm, you will definitely discover some. At the very least, you can take away some that is several decades old. As for anything that is hundreds or even thousands of years old, I do not know whether any remains. Whether you can find it or not, I will make the call: whatever you find will all be yours...”

Listening to Lin Tianming continue explaining the assignment, Lin Yi's face broke into a grin.

This was indeed a reward!

Nothing more needed to be said. Director Lin Tianming was truly impressive.

“Nothing more to say, thank you, Grandpa Lin. Thank you, Director Lin. I knew that shedding blood and sweat for our Paranormal Investigation Bureau would surely bring blessings. I really think Grandpa Lin, you are too handsome, too perceptive, and far too fair and just.”

“All right, enough flattery. Come quickly. In a moment I will send you the location of the assignment, and I will also send your photo and relevant information to the guards stationed there. Remember, the more the better. Even if you do not want those stone milks, you can sell them or give them away.”

“However, time is limited, so you had better set out at once. My guess is that the higher-ups will soon issue an order to search that cave on a large scale. By then, things like stone milk will no longer be something just anyone can take away.”

“Grandpa Lin, received! By the way, since our mission is so urgent, should someone send a helicopter or something? I have never ridden in one. Even if there is none, if I take a plane, can I get reimbursed?”

“Pfft... You brat, you have already got so much money. Why would you still care about a little reimbursement? There is no helicopter, but I can send you a car. Shanghe Village is too close to us!”

“Heh heh...”

After hanging up, Lin Yi kept grinning like an idiot.

When sleep comes, a pillow follows. Lin Yi felt that his luck had erupted again.

He had already been planning to go to Shanghe Village and study the matter of the abandoned-village corpse. Now he could go openly and legitimately, and at the same time search for treasures. Was there anything better than this?

Buzzing with excitement, Lin Yi explained the matter to the puzzled An Miaoyi.

An Miaoyi could not help pouting. “I want to go too. Isn’t Grandpa Lin being way too biased?”

Lin Yi felt somewhat awkward and rubbed his nose before saying to her, “It’s fine. Didn’t Grandpa Lin say that people will be sent later? Then you can go too. Don’t worry. If there is a lot of stone milk, I will bring some back for you.”

Only after hearing that did An Miaoyi's expression clear.

Beep, beep, beep.

Outside Shengjing Academy, more than ten cars arrived at once.

Their makes and models were identical, and their plates were the white plates used by official vehicles.

Soon, a group of sturdy men stepped out of the cars... none of them were the sort of unusually powerful experts one might have imagined.

But each of these men was fully armed, weapons in hand, and the cold, murderous air about them carried a palpable sense of dread.

When the man in the lead answered a phone call, he could not help but look rather stunned.

Then he signaled for the others to put away all their weapons, and strode straight into the campus of Shengjing Academy, with the rest hurrying along behind him.

When they saw the scene inside the campus, every one of those men was left dumbfounded. Their formerly cold expressions vanished without a trace, leaving only blank shock.

These were the supposedly formidable children of the immortal sects, and yet they had been beaten into such a miserable state?

...

Lin Yi had left the campus, but his legend within it only grew larger.

This time, there was no need for any embellishment. The students and teachers of Shengjing Academy, everyone present, and even some passersby, had almost all witnessed the entire sequence of events: how Lin Yi had frightened away Zhang Ruofeng, the prodigies of the ten major sects, and even Jin Huishan of the Starry River Sect.

Liu Changfeng of the Long Blade Sect and Xuan Ku of the Little Thunder Sound Temple were among the few who had escaped disaster.

But Xuan Ku still counted as having taken a little damage; Lin Yi had given him a proper lesson.

Only, at present, no one knew about it, and Li Chunfeng did not dare mention it at all.

Liu Changfeng alone crouched within the crowd, witnessing everything from beginning to end. In the end, he fled in a sorry state, not daring to say another word to Li Chunfeng, and left on his own at top speed.

He was afraid that if he left too slowly, he would be lumped in as well, and Lin Yi might turn his blade on him.

As for Xuan Ku, the personnel of the Paranormal Investigation Bureau, together with An Miaoyi, had originally intended not to take him away.

But Xuan Ku shamelessly insisted on following them.

It was because Xuan Ku had discovered that Lin Yi had let something slip.

He had not awakened Zhang Ruofeng and the others, nor had he given them another round of treatment.

Zhang Ruofeng and the others had all fallen unconscious and not woken up, leaving Xuan Ku with no stage on which to display his Versailles-style showmanship.

So Xuan Ku fully approved of being taken away as well. Thus, together with Zhang Ruofeng and the others, he was carried off by the main force of the Paranormal Investigation Bureau.

Song Yuyan had left earlier.

Before departing, Song Yuyan and An Miaoyi stood far apart, gazing at one another.

It was as though sparks of electricity kept crackling between those eyes.

When the two women faced each other, the training field fell utterly silent.

This small-scale selection test had been declared an utter failure, and Old Dean Gu Leiming was so furious he could not speak for quite a while.

Still, because Shengjing Academy had produced a figure like Lin Yi, the old principal was deeply gratified.

Gu Leiming had been injured, and his breath was somewhat unstable after what Jin Huishan had done to him.

The reason Gu Leiming had been able to become president of the Spirit-reader Association in Shengjing City was that he had achieved a breakthrough in the midst of battle, standing at the crucial threshold of becoming a grandmaster.

And now, that too had been delayed.

Just now, when Jin Huishan fled, Gu Leiming had immediately sat down and circulated his inner breath, forcing himself not to vomit blood.

The strain on his consciousness and soul had prevented him from taking part in the later handling of Zhang Ruofeng and the others, leaving the whole performance to Lin Yi.

Now that the Paranormal Investigation Bureau had taken Zhang Ruofeng and the others away, Principal Gu Leiming naturally had to seek an explanation. In his anger, he and An Miaoyi also went to the Paranormal Investigation Bureau.

Many students at the scene were forced to sign a contract. Its contents were simple: do not expose anything regarding Lin Yi, or the appearance of the Paranormal Investigation Bureau, and pretend that nothing had happened today.

In truth, this was all a little too formalistic.

And when An Miaoyi's gaze met Song Yuyan's, Lin Yi's roommate, Lin Tianwen, and the other seven brothers, including the second eldest, Ma Si, all let out a long sigh.

It seemed that the strong had their own troubles as well.

Looking at their own brothers, ordinary and unremarkable, with no luck with women at all, was actually a kind of happiness.

If they were really as formidable and overpowering as the seventh brother Lin Yi, who knew how many women’s affairs would end up tangled around them?

Just from those two women, An Miaoyi and Song Yuyan, it was likely that Seventh Brother Lin Yi would never know peace again!

Of course, that was merely comfort.

In truth, Lin Tianwen and Zhao Wuji and the others wished they could become Lin Yi. That was the goddess An Miaoyi, and the cultivator from the Starry River Sect, Song Yuyan!

Just standing there, either one of them would make a man feel as though he had brought honor to his ancestors.

“This must be what it means to suffer and be happy at the same time...”

Zhao Wuji muttered under his breath while holding the phone that belonged to Emei Sect's Song Wanjun.

Lin Tianwen and the others nodded repeatedly.

Not long after, an ambulance arrived and took Lin Tianwen and the others to the hospital.

...

Lin Yi had profoundly explained what it meant for a man to be absent from the jianghu, yet the jianghu still forever carried his legend.

The teachers and students of Shengjing Academy watched as the central figures of this affair all departed. Their faces flushed, and then they turned and joined the ranks of the discussion!

The talk surrounding Lin Yi had only just begun.

...

One day earlier.

Night.

Shanghe Village consisted of ten groups in total.

The Tao favors the one that is complete by subtracting ten and leaving nine.

Nine is the utmost number.

Therefore, in ancient times, even the emperor referred to himself only as the sovereign of nine and five, never using the number ten, symbol of perfect completeness.

The first nine groups of Shanghe Village each contained roughly twenty households.

The tenth group was on Wolf Fang Mountain behind Shanghe Village.

Altogether, only five households lived there.

It was highly unusual.

Old Zhang was the only solitary elder among those five households.

Wolf Fang Mountain lay more than two hundred meters from Shanghe Village's ninth group, with an entire hill in between.

It was named Wolf Fang Mountain because the shape of the mountain resembled a wolf's fang.

The houses of the five households were built on the rocky ground near the relatively level root of the fang-like peak.

On ordinary evenings, the five households of the tenth group liked to visit one another and eat dinner together.

But today the wind was too strong, like the prelude to a torrential downpour.

The sky was overcast, the gale howled ceaselessly, yet it somehow failed to blow the clouds apart. That was something of a miracle.

Because the wind was so fierce, everyone ate at home separately and did not gather.

That evening, Old Zhang took the remaining half pound of braised pig's head meat from the fridge, warmed a pot of yellow wine, and drank it contentedly.

As a lonely old man, Old Zhang was the most cared for.

The other four households of the tenth group would often bring him a share of whatever delicious food they had cooked that day.

Whenever he suffered a headache or fever, the villagers would all, without any prompting, treat Old Zhang as an elder and look after him in every way.

So do not be fooled by the fact that Old Zhang was over sixty, with no children, no parents, and nothing binding him to the world. In truth, he was not lonely at all, and his mood was always bright and cheerful.

After drinking a little, Old Zhang felt that tonight's yellow wine had an unexpectedly strong kick.

Perhaps I really am getting old, he thought.

Lying at the head of the heated brick bed, Old Zhang decided to go to sleep early.

The sky was heavy and gray, the storm howled, and even the windows rattled and moaned.

Outside, the courtyard walls made of thorny branches were true wicker fences, and the gate too was a wooden one, so neither was especially sturdy.

Amid the raging wind, they kept making strange sounds.