UCS Chapter 130

“So you called the police and had that unknown man sent to the station?”

Gao Gusheng looked at Gao Shi’s complicated expression and asked carefully, “What is it, Dad? Did I do something wrong?”

Gao Shi grabbed his son’s head and gave it a vigorous rub. “No. You did exactly right. Keep it up next time.”

Truly an approach he had never anticipated.

Gao Gusheng, having received his praise, bounced with the energy of an excited dog. “Yes! The delivery’s here, I’ll go get the door!”

Gao Shi’s phone continued to buzz furiously. Lu Xingzhi had come back from City A thinking he might have a few peaceful days, only to find himself caught up in a serial murder case.

He had led his team in digging a five-metre-deep pit through Xiao Yusheng’s villa and garden combined, and had turned up thirteen human bodies and five dog bodies in total.

All of the remains were incomplete. In the end they had to resort to DNA analysis just to establish the total count.

That bastard had fed the flesh to his own dogs and ground the bones into pigment. By the time they dug them up, the skeletal remains in the garden could not even be assembled into a single complete human form.

Lu Xingzhi had handled more cases than he could count, and this one still left him seething.

He had been planning to rest for a few days. Instead, during his leave, he had dropped by the station to show off his vacation to his civil officer friend who was still grinding away, and of all things, a living person had vanished right out from under everyone’s noses.

Lu Xingzhi’s eye twitched. An uneasy premonition rose in his chest. When he learned it was Gao Gusheng who had brought the man in, he silently covered his face, signalled to his friend, and called Gao Shi.

This was probably going to be handed over to the Anomaly Management Bureau and the spirit management bureau.

And his hard-earned leave after three straight months of work was probably gone too.

…QWQ

Gao Shi thought back over what he had seen in the dream and asked Gao Gusheng, “The man you found today — what did he look like?”

Gao Gusheng considered. “Decent looking? His whole body was covered in cracks like he’d been shattered. I was going to call an ambulance but he wouldn’t let me, so I sent him to the police station instead.”

Cracks…

Celestial Master Zhang in the dream had no cracks on his body.

“Oh, right,” Gao Gusheng suddenly remembered. “I thought his whole presence felt kind of gloomy. Xiao Hei said he had a very heavy yin energy.”

A small wisp of the black mist emerged from Gao Gusheng’s neck and bobbed up and down, as if nodding.

Heavy yin energy, severe injury, and a refusal to go to the hospital.

Combined with the time he had spent unconscious, it was all but certain that the man was Master Zhang.

But if that was the case, what about the senior student who had been acting so strangely earlier that day?

At the mention of the senior, Gao Gusheng instinctively frowned; he seemed to harbor an aversion toward him.

“Dad, I don’t like Zhang Xu.”

“Well, it’s not exactly dislike… it’s just that when I’m around him, I feel like I’m losing control.”

Gao Gusheng scooted over to sit between Gao Shi and Ying Bujie. Like a frightened fledgling, he sought the comfort of their reassuring presence to calm his nerves.

It was rare for Gao Shi to see his son—usually fearless and bold—looking so shaken; he handed him a cup of iced cola.

Gao Gusheng took a long, deep gulp before saying, “Zhang Xu… he’s strange. His personality is completely different from how the other students described him.”

Ying Bujie asked, “Possessed by a ghost?”

Gao Gusheng shook his head. “Xiao Hei said he didn’t sense any yin energy.”

“But the weird thing is, Xiao Hong said he didn’t sense any spiritual energy either.”

The little squirrel hopped onto the top of Gao Gusheng’s head and nodded knowingly, then burrowed into his hair, covering itself with its tail and shivering.

“Xiao Hong said that while the guy had no spiritual energy, he was terrifying—he exuded an intense, oppressive aura.”

That didn’t make sense.

If it were ghost possession, there should be yin energy; if it were possession by a spirit creature, there should be spiritual energy. Only an ordinary human would have neither. Gao Gusheng continued, “The key thing is my reaction—I…”

He scratched his hair. “Dad, do you think it’s possible for me to fall in love at first sight with someone out of the blue?”

“Well, that’s not quite right; it doesn’t really count as love at first sight. I didn’t feel my heart race like this the previous times I saw the senior. Could it be that I hadn’t actually seen his face clearly before?”

Gao Shi shook his head inwardly.

His foolish son possessed a face that defined the pinnacle of aesthetic perfection; seeing his own reflection every day, he was hardly the type to lose his heart over someone else’s looks. If anything, he’d be more likely to fall for someone’s muscles than their face.

Yet, Zhang Xu had a lean, well-proportioned build—hardly the sort of physique that usually made Gao Gusheng’s heart skip a beat.

Gao Gusheng took a frustrated, massive gulp of soda; his fear of losing control completely overshadowed any shyness he might have felt discussing this with his fathers. “When I saw Zhang Xu today, my heart started racing the moment I laid eyes on him, and I felt an instinctive urge to get closer to him. I felt the same way on the walk home whenever I thought about him—though not quite as intensely. Even now, just thinking about him makes me feel that nervous flutter you get when talking to a crush.”

He pulled Gao Shi’s hand and placed it against his chest. “Look, Dad—I can’t even mention him without my heart rate spiking.”

It was almost like some sort of strange love spell.

Clutching his stuffed monkey, Gao Gusheng groaned in distress, “The thing is, I’m certain I don’t like him, yet I have no idea why my heart is racing. Do you think… could he have awakened an ability? Is his power to make people’s hearts race until they die?”

Ying Bujie looked down at Gao Gusheng; his cheeks were flushed pink and his eyes held a soft, wistful gleam—he certainly looked like someone who had fallen in love.

Ying Bujie closed his eyes, then slowly opened them. A silvery-white halo shimmered across his brow and eyes as he perceived the pulse of Gao Gusheng’s central nervous system—a clear sign that his heart had been stirred by romance. Yet, this stirring of emotion did not feel natural; it was as if the heart were being tugged into motion by an external force.

Ying Bujie felt a shift within; a black vortex rose in his hand.

The moment the vortex appeared, the temperature in the room plummeted—an irresistible chill that seemed to seep outward from the very marrow of one’s bones.

Gao Shi surmised that this was the shattered “Reincarnation.”

In Ying Bujie’s vision, the black vortex swirled toward Gao Gusheng’s core soul, catching the invisible tethering force in its wake; yet, that invisible force seemed to exist on a separate plane from the black vortex, neither interfering with the other.

Ying Bujie’s pupils contracted slightly as his silvery-white spiritual energy surged from a trickle into a rushing river. Enveloped in this brilliant aura, the energy overflowed with such intensity that tiny, shimmering specks of light drifted outward—resembling scattered fireflies or a flowing galaxy.

The vortex slowly expanded, and a surge of invisible pressure rose up; the Black Mist and the little squirrel trembled, huddling together in fear.

Gao Shi, his hand resting on Gao Gusheng’s shoulder, lit a cigarette.

There weren’t many cigarettes left in the pack; he would have to ask Kong Miao for another one later.

As he slipped the nearly empty pack back into his pocket, he watched through the haze of smoke as the black vortex—held in Kong Miao’s palm—drew closer to Gao Gusheng’s soul.

The soul was tugged at, yet Ying Bujie controlled the vortex with even greater ease than he did his own body; the vortex churned through the void without inflicting the slightest harm on Gao Gusheng.

Suddenly, something was wrenched away from beside Gao Gusheng’s soul by the vortex and vanished without a trace.

Gao Gusheng felt a sudden lightness wash over his entire being—an indescribable sense of relief. Ying Bujie’s face turned slightly pale as the vortex receded back into his body.

Gao Shi stubbed out his cigarette, opened the window to air out the room, and handed a piece of “Iceberg Lava” chocolate to Ying Bujie.

“How is it?”

He rarely smoked in front of Gao Gusheng; after all, secondhand smoke was bad for a child’s health.

Ying Bujie didn’t answer immediately; he simply took the chocolate and ate it, scooping it up with a spoon. He ate quickly, and in the blink of an eye, the entire piece was gone.

Finally, he let out a soft breath, placed a slender index finger against his lips, and shook his head slightly.

Gao Shi asked, “You can’t say it? Is it related to… *that*?”

“Mm.”

“Don’t say it; it might be overheard.”

Could it be that what Gao Gusheng was entangled with was the very plot that controlled everything?

“Does it have sentience?”

Ying Bujie replied, “It does, but… it shouldn’t be *this* kind.”

Their conversation was cryptic, leaving Gao Gusheng feeling dazed and confused. He rubbed his head and let out a sigh of relief when he realized that thinking of Zhang Xu no longer made his heart race.

He reached out for some fried chicken, wanting to comfort the “Fried Imperial Consort” he had neglected, but suddenly felt a wave of dizziness and pitched forward.

Fortunately, Gao Shi and Ying Bujie both reached out—one from the left and one from the right—and grabbed Gao Gusheng by the shoulders to pull him back; otherwise, he would have ended up washing his face in ketchup.

“Lele?”

“He’s fine. His soul was just slightly affected during the expulsion process—it’s not a bad thing.”

Gao Gusheng struggled to wave his hand. “I… I’m okay…”

He suddenly fell silent.

Because, through the hazy blur before his eyes, two indistinct figures had appeared.

High above in the heavens, immortals were locked in battle; he was but a tiny, tiny flower, gazing upward at the sky.

The winds and clouds churned violently as a massive golden axe cleaved through layers of dark clouds—much like shattering a thick sheet of ice. Interlocking silver and black gears ground the clouds into dust, transforming them into a gentle spring rain.

Droplets of blood, haloed in golden light, fell upon his tender shoots. Two blood droplets—one icy cold and the other searing hot—achieved a perfect balance within him; they transformed into a soothing, warm current that enveloped him in blissful comfort.

Time passed, and someone clad in black cloud-patterned brocade lifted him up, their cold fingers brushing against his leaves—

“A spirit flower… bearing both his bloodline and mine?”

The mist cleared from Gao Gusheng’s vision. He shook his head in bewilderment and noticed a halo of gold and silver light encircling him—strikingly similar to the protective circle the Monkey King had once drawn around the Tang Monk.

Seeing Gao Gusheng wake up, Gao Shi breathed a sigh of relief and waved his hand to dispel the halo. Gao Gusheng scratched his head. “What’s up, Dads? Why draw a circle around me? Am I supposed to be Tang Monk meat or something?”

Gao Shi ruffled his hair. “Mm, there’s really no difference between you and Tang Monk meat.”

Gao Gusheng had just undergone his initial awakening. An overpowering, alluring fragrance erupted from his body, drawing in every living—and unliving—creature within a hundred-mile radius. Specters and ghosts wandering the night flocked toward him like moths to a flame.

The newly formed Underworld task force team was left dumbfounded; they were like cats staring at a beach teeming with fish after the tide had receded—completely at a loss for where to even begin their feast.

Ying Bujie simply sealed off the entire villa, leaving only a small opening at the window; any ghosts that strayed near would slip through that gap and be swept straight into the cycle of reincarnation.

This mass reincarnation event lasted a full hour, effectively sending every ghost in City B off on a journey through a new life. The local Spirit Management Bureau team exchanged bewildered glances; Yin Ling had no choice but to call Gao Shi. “Brother Gao, was this your doing? Could you leave a couple for us?”

Gao Shi walked over to the window while taking the call. He had just finished battling malevolent spirits—venting the rage he felt after seeing his son bullied in a dream—and now he felt a craving for a cigarette.

Gao Gusheng’s fragrance was incredibly potent—he was practically a guide leading souls along the Yellow Springs Road. Had he not been yet to fully awaken, his father might well have proposed a partnership to turn him into a full-time reincarnation facilitator.

Gao Gusheng himself was oblivious to the commotion. Recalling the visions he had seen, he asked, “Dad, I think I saw things from my past life. When you dug me up back then, did you say I was a spirit flower born of your and Papa’s bloodlines?”

Ying Bujie nodded. “Yes.”

Gao Gusheng thought back to the combat scenes he had witnessed; even the most cutting-edge technology couldn’t render special effects that spectacular. After all, who doesn’t harbor a dream of the immortal cultivation world deep down? Gao Gusheng sighed enviously; leaning in, he grabbed a couple of green grapes. “Dad, when will I fully regain my memories?”

Ying Bujie recalled his past speculations—and the kiss Gao Shi had planted on his collarbone in their previous life—before slowly saying,

“Actually, it might be a good thing if you don’t get them back.”

Gao Gusheng: ?

##