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Chapter 82 - 84 Deceiving Heaven and Changing Fate (Part 2)

Chapter 82: Chapter 84 Deceiving Heaven and Changing Fate (Part 2)

Here it is, what I say comes.

Still pressing his hand on the sword, Zhangsun Yao rolled his eyes skyward and gave the heavens the middle finger.

"Mr. You, what exactly happened?" Feng Youyun asked anxiously.

"Just call me by my full name, Mr. You sounds a bit weird..."

And it feels like it might subtly be associated with products "sold for eighty years in Europe and America" like Oswald Sanitary and Adolf Oil-Removing Shampoo.

After pondering for a while, Zhangsun Yao still told the truth to Feng Youyun and his wife, "...The general situation is this: your home has been dragged into the killing field and has become the location for the task.

Since this is a forced task, we are definitely going to carry it out. You and your wife have two choices: the first is to stay in the car and wait for us to come back. The second is to go back to the mansion in the mountains with us."

"This..." Feng Youyun hesitated for a moment but still clenched his teeth and said, "We will go with the three of you."

He had come across some information about killing fields and knew very well how dangerous they were. He was even clearer that in such an environment, only by sticking close to the Transcendents could one increase the chances of survival. Besides, his father was still in the mansion.

"Good." Seeing his determination, Zhangsun Yao didn’t say anything more and pressed the gas pedal.

After the vehicle chose to move forward, the ghost wall phenomenon disappeared instantly, and they were back in front of the iron gate.

The ground was littered with abundant fragments of human bones, and skulls too mangled to discern faces were half-buried in the soil. The strong scent of blood attracted flies, which buzzed while circling in the air.

Flesh, scattered due to the explosion, was imprinted like a human shadow on the stone pillar beside the fence, retaining the posture of someone making a phone call.

Feng Youyun was mixed with sorrow and fear, his face deathly pale, while his wife threw up directly, vomiting onto the roadside bushes.

The perfectly alive people they had seen during the daytime had suddenly died so abruptly; even Zhangsun Yao’s face was looking rather grim. Just as he was about to step around the remains, he saw Li Cheng, who had been silent all along, suddenly squat next to the debris and flip his hand to reveal... a pair of chopsticks?

"Damn, brother, you’re not hungry, are you?!"

Zhangsun Yao was startled. He had merely heard from Zhangsun Yao that this Ant was a very special newcomer, but he didn’t know the specifics of how.

"Of course not, and besides, this isn’t cooked."

Li Cheng casually replied with no intention of dining. Holding the chopsticks, he sifted through the pile of shredded flesh and found Zhao Xinglang’s wallet (with ID inside) and the shattered smartphone, from which he picked out a SIM card.

Then he took out a disposable phone and inserted Zhao Xinglang’s SIM card into it.

(These disposable phones are non-contract devices pre-charged with sufficient credit, mainly available for tourists or temporary cell phone users without the need for registration or signing contracts. They can be bought from modest streets.)

The contact list can be stored on the phone’s memory or on the SIM card. Fortunately, Zhao Xinglang’s was on the latter, so it was easy to retrieve his contacts.

"Uh... why are you going through his contacts?" Zhangsun Yao couldn’t help but ask, "Isn’t our target supposed to be Feng Youyun? We only have fifty minutes according to the system."

"The task goal, [Find Feng Youyun, Uncover the Mansion’s Truth], at first glance might make one think that Feng Youyun triggered the anomaly at the mountain mansion and knows the truth about the place. But if you think of it another way, this could also be a narrative trap."

Li Cheng said casually, "Feng Youyun’s company is based in Su City, where he usually resides as well. This mansion in Wudun Town serves as his ancestral home; he only stays here for a period each year.

When he’s not here, the mansion is managed by three people: the housekeeper (adopted son) Zhao Xinglang, a maid, and a gardener. Now with Zhao Xinglang dead and Feng Youyun listed as missing and needing to be found by the mission log, there should still be the maid, gardener, and the temporarily hired Wang Beipo in the mansion.

Perhaps it’s these three alive people, along with the deceased Zhao Xinglang, who colluded with external foes and triggered this anomaly.

Maybe everyone in the mansion is dead, except Feng Youyun who is still alive and witnessed the process of the anomaly.

We can’t rule out these possibilities yet."

As Feng Youyun had mentioned earlier, Zhao Xinglang had a relatively reclusive personality, with not many close contacts in his phone, only Feng Youyun, Feng Youyun, some classmates, the mansion’s maid and gardener, etc. His note for Feng Youyun was [Uncle].

Li Cheng pondered and then turned to ask Feng Youyun: "How is your relationship with Zhao Xinglang? What was his relationship like with your parents? Did he know his family went bankrupt because of your dad?"

Feng Youyun who was unexpectedly questioned, was caught off guard but managed to respond after being prodded by his wife, "I got along fairly with Xinglang. He knew about his family and my family’s issues long ago. His father’s business was already struggling, and even without my dad’s business competition, it couldn’t have lasted.

In the two years we brought him over until my mother passed away, my mom treated him extremely well, like her own son."

"So that’s how it is..." Li Cheng pondered, but said nothing more and turned to Bai Zhi, "Is the drone still charged? Could you please survey the house first?"

Bai Zhi took control of the drone, circling it in the air around the mountain mansion, but detected no sign of life. When the drone tried to enter the mansion, its connection to the controller was abruptly severed and it slowly landed on the ground.

This situation had also occurred during the Death Curse script task before, and it seemed as if the mansion was enshrouded by a certain power, isolated from the mortal world.

This left only one option.

Several people proceeded into the house side by side. The light around them suddenly dimmed, and the air was filled with a cold, penetrating chill, allowing them to clearly see their breath when they exhaled.

Tap, tap, tap!

The sound of hurried footsteps came from above, and Wang Beipo’s figure flashed past the second-floor railing. He looked panicked, with multiple external injuries on his shoulder, ribs, and arms, as if he was avoiding something.

"Wait! It’s us, don’t run!"

Zhangsun Yao hastily shouted and waved his hands, but Wang Beipo seemed not to hear and continued to dash forward wildly, his figure springing up and swooping down before disappearing around the second-floor corridor turn.

Zhangsun Yao had no choice but to dart up to the second floor, quickly pursuing, but after the turn, he found that Wang Beipo’s footsteps had suddenly vanished, and the doors on both sides of the corridor were all shut.

"Ran so fast?"

Zhangsun Yao’s brows furrowed as he made his way back to the first floor. Not just because continuing the pursuit would separate him from his teammates, but also because...

"Wang Beipo has no shadow, right?"

Li Cheng stood calmly on the spot, even leisurely taking out a tape measure and sizing up the length of the breath vapor while casually saying: "Three possibilities: first, he has a special skill that allows him to remove his shadow. Second, he’s been ensnared by something and can neither see nor hear us. Third, he’s already dead, and what we saw just now was an illusion.

Personally, I believe the latter two possibilities are more likely..."

Seeing his calm analysis, Bai Zhi couldn’t help but turn her head and ask, "Aren’t you scared?"

"Why should I be afraid? The four of us arrived at the villa last night and didn’t trigger the task. It only got triggered this afternoon when we were separated. It’s very likely that the system considered, if there are four players together, the difficulty of this task would be significantly lower."

Li Cheng said indifferently, taking steps towards the left side of the corridor—he seemed to hear some noise from that direction.

It was no illusion; the further he walked, the clearer the voices from inside the study became.

The door to the study was not closed, and Zhao Xinglang, who had already died in front of everyone and whose body exploded into pieces, stood perfectly fine behind the desk, speaking excitedly into the air: "...how could you believe such nonsense? All that talk about destiny, it’s all lies!"

Seeing Zhao Xinglang alive again shocked the little Feng’s family even more, while the three players immediately noticed that Zhang Xinglang’s feet were similarly shadowless.

He seemed to be conversing with someone who wasn’t there, pausing for a moment before angrily saying: "Using such a young child as a sacrifice? Isn’t that enough? Still orchestrating all this? How could you bear it?"

A young child, a sacrifice? Who was he talking to?

Zhangsun Yao hesitated for a moment, pulled out his sword, and gently tapped Zhao Xinglang’s shoulder with the sheath.

The sword sheath passed through Zhao Xinglang’s body as if there was no substance to contact, and Zhao Xinglang remained oblivious, angrily slamming his fist on the table and leaving the words "I will never believe you again,"

before he rushed out of the study and took out a mobile phone from his pocket—the same one found in the pile of corpses.

Everyone followed the strangely behaving Zhao Xinglang, watching him exit the villa and approach the iron fence inside. Using the mobile to call Feng Youyun’s number, he said: "Hey, I’ve come to understand some things, where are you guys? Don’t come back to the villa, hurry and go, don’t come back..."

Before he could finish saying the word "come," his body jerkily swelled and then, as seen before, exploded into pieces.

"Xinglang..." Feng Youyun had a sorrowful look on his face, while Zhangsun Yao’s expression was uncertain—he had realized that what they just saw was Zhao Xinglang’s pre-death image. It didn’t have a physical form. Hence, only one set of explosion marks from a human body could be seen around the fence area.

Wait, a pre-death image, does that mean... Wang Beipo is certainly dead?

Zhangsun Yao swiftly turned around, only to see Li Cheng still standing in front of the study door, with a serious and earnest expression.

Zhao Xinglang was "alive" again; or rather, his image was continuously repeating. At this moment, he stood in the study, holding up something missing in his left hand and angrily slamming the table with his right, speaking to someone nonexistent: "What is this? What is this? How could you believe such nonsense? All that about destiny, they’re all lies!"

Zhao Xinglang, like a tape recorded on a loop, repeatedly reenacted the conversation.

Zhangsun Yao couldn’t help but ask: "Who is he talking to? Old Feng? The nanny? The gardener? It couldn’t possibly be Wang Beipo, could it?"

"We’re not sure yet..."

Li Cheng moved in front of Zhao Xinglang, examining his eyeballs closely, trying to figure out who he was talking to by the reflections on his irises.

Unfortunately, due to the curtains being drawn in the study, the light inside was dim, making it only vaguely possible to see a person’s reflection in his eyes, not enough to distinguish their identity. When shining a flashlight directly on it, excess light would simply pass through Zhao Xinglang’s body.

"Deceiving Heaven and Changing Fate, does it refer to destiny?"

Li Cheng pondered for a moment. "In this pre-death image, Zhao Xinglang’s left hand appears to be holding something, thin and flat, probably something like a piece of paper. It’s likely still in the study; everyone, help search for it."

"I found it." Moments later, Bai Zhi pulled out a piece of yellow paper from between the cracks under a cabinet, "Is it this one?"

The yellow paper was full of creases, with burnt edges on one side, while the edges on the left side were smooth, as if they had been cut from some old book.

As for the content on the paper.

[Rénwǔ guǐmǎo dīngchǒu][Longevity and Fortune, extending lifespan]

jǐsì xīnyǒu jiǎwǔ][Pearl’s aura, serenity, and joy]

What was this? Birthdate characters, destiny manipulation techniques?

Li Cheng thought quickly, "The former, April 12, 2002, between 2 and 3 am. The latter, June 11, 2004, between 12 and 1 pm."

Remembering Feng Youyun mentioning on the car ride that he and his wife married early, just after reaching the legal age limit, Li Cheng turned to the couple and narrowed his eyes: "Are these your birthdays?"

Amid their surprised and bewildered expressions, the couple slowly nodded their heads.