Deceiving Heaven and Crossing the Sea

"Ah!!!"

Caught completely off guard, the old man was hit squarely by the cinnabar. A searing burn flared in his eyes, and he instinctively clapped his hands over them.

At that very moment, the broken blade in Xu Tong's hand plunged deep into the old man's lower abdomen, the jagged edge sinking all the way to the hilt.

He had already decided Fatty Li couldn't be trusted. At a crucial moment, he was bound to call out to him—and Fatty Li had gotten into the habit of calling him Brother Xu lately, which made for an especially convincing misdirection.

The room was too dim, and there weren't many places to hide. It was tiny, and they'd already seen Li Bo disguise himself as a paper doll.

If he were the old man, the first things he'd suspect would be the Bridegroom or the other paper doll.

So he hid somewhere the old man would never expect.

He twisted both hands. "Pfft!" Blood sprayed from the old man's lower abdomen. The old man's lips trembled as he forced his eyes to endure the pain, then swung a fist backward.

But his punch struck nothing. Xu Tong ducked, spread his arms, and lunged into the old man's embrace, knocking him headfirst out the door.

"Take that!"

The old man rolled across the ground, then sprang up and kicked Xu Tong away with a rabbit-kicks-the-eagle move.

"What's this? Cinnabar?!"

He forced his eyes open despite the searing pain and took a closer look. His brows twitched. Then he looked at Xu Tong, who was getting up from the ground, and Fatty Li, who had just come out of the room. A sinister smile slowly spread across his lips. "Over at the mountain path, are you the bright horse delivering black hides, or the bootlegger from the underworld?"

"???"

Li Bo stared blankly at him, then turned to Xu Bo. "Brother Xu, what's that old bastard talking about??"

He shook his head. "It's probably coded slang."

When the two of them didn't respond, the old man's smile grew even more vicious. "So you're a couple of greenhorns, and you still dare come busting into Master Li's Mountain Gate Pass."

"Go screw yourself with that Mountain Gate Pass nonsense. I've only ever heard of Shanhai Pass. You old bastard, know what's good for you and get down on the ground. Your grandpa won't hold it against you."

Li Bo cursed fiercely, but inside he was terrified. His chest burned with pain. That whip the old man had cracked across him had torn his flesh open, and even standing was a struggle.

If the old man hadn't been drenched in cinnabar and stabbed hard by Xu Tong, Li Bo would probably have already bolted through the door.

"You two?"

The old man reached for his waist, but his smile froze. He glanced down and saw that the bell that had been hanging there was gone.

"Jingle, jingle..."

At the sound of the bell, the old man looked up and saw that Xu Tong was holding it.

"This is what you're looking for, right?"

He examined the bell. It looked ancient, and its surface was covered in tiny scratches. An entire Purgatory Illustration had been carved into it. In the moonlight, it looked terrifying.

"Don't move!!"

Seeing the bell in Xu Tong's hand, the old man hurriedly said, "Young man, don't do anything rash. Give me the bell, and we'll pretend none of this happened tonight. I'll even give you a box of gold bars. Just leave."

"Like hell I believe you! If you had a box of gold bars, would you be living in a place like this?"

Li Bo curled his lip, clearly unconvinced.

The old man didn't bother to argue. Clutching his wounded lower abdomen, he walked to the chicken coop and casually shoved it aside. Beneath it, he pulled out a small wooden box covered in chicken droppings.

He tossed it in front of the two of them.

"Bang!"

The box hit the ground and shattered, sending gold bars rolling everywhere.

"Whatever kind of immortals you are, we have no deep-seated grudge between us. This money is enough to let you live in comfort for the rest of your lives. Take it and go."

Li Bo stared at the gleaming gold bars in a daze. He picked one up and bit down hard on it. Once he'd confirmed it wasn't chocolate or a wad of paper, his breathing quickened.

If someone had just named a sum, Li Bo might not have thought much of it. But these were actual gold bars.

Each one weighed at least a pound. If he took them home... they'd be worth over a hundred thousand!

He did a rough calculation and even he was startled. If he took the box of gold home, he probably wouldn't have to worry about food or drink for the rest of his life.

Of course he was tempted. But he glanced sideways at Xu Tong and saw that he hadn't even looked at the gold. Li Bo swallowed the words that had been on the tip of his tongue.

Li Bo quietly slipped a gold bar into his pocket, then asked the old man, "You care so much about this bell. What's it for?"

"You wouldn't understand even if I told you. Take the money and leave, now!"

The old man had no patience to explain. Keeping his eyes on the bell in Xu Tong's hand, he urged them to hand it over at once.

Xu Tong glanced at the old man, then at the bell in his hand. His eyes narrowed to slits. "Fine. I'll give it back."

As he spoke, he tossed the bell away.

"Don't!!"

At Xu Tong's gesture, a shadow finally couldn't hold back any longer. It rushed out of the darkness and snatched the bell before the old man could reach it.

"Zhong Nan!!!"

The old man's eyes widened at the figure that had rushed out. He stared at him in disbelief, and all the confusion in his mind instantly fell into place.

His Mountain-Back Matron had been defeated, and cinnabar had been splashed all over him. He hadn't been able to understand how two greenhorns could have managed it.

Now he understood.

Looking at Zhong Nan, who had gotten hold of the bell, the old man slumped to the ground. His already aged face seemed to grow older still. "So you finally couldn't hold back."

"Couldn't hold back?"

Zhong Nan froze. He slowly turned to look at the old man, his face caught between a smile and a sob, his features contorted.

"You left me here for thirty-eight years. You made me neither human nor ghost all these years. You owe me. You owe me this!!"

The more Zhong Nan spoke, the more agitated he became. His expression turned almost deranged. "If it weren't for you, my mother wouldn't have died. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have ended up like this. It's been thirty-eight years. I've had enough. I never want to spend another minute in this damned place!"

Pointing at the old man, he stamped his feet, flailed his arms, and shrieked, as though he were trying to shout out everything he'd kept bottled up all these years.

"Is that guy... crazy?"

Li Bo stared blankly, unable to understand what had suddenly gotten into Zhong Nan. He turned to Xu Tong, hoping to see how he would react.

But when he turned around, Xu Tong had somehow found a little stool and was sitting there with a large handful of peanuts, watching with rapt attention.

Li Bo: "???"

Perhaps he felt awkward under Li Bo's strange stare. Xu Tong stood up with an exasperated look and walked over to him, quietly pulling a handful of melon seeds from his pocket.

Li Bo stared at the melon seeds Xu Tong had placed in his hand. "Where'd you get these??"

"They were stuffed into the bride's clothes. Make do with them."

Xu Tong casually took out a red date and popped it into his mouth. But he never took his eyes off Zhong Nan. As Zhong Nan lost control and vented his feelings, Xu Tong watched every move of his with utmost seriousness, like a model student paying attention in class.

Li Bo stood there dumbfounded for a long moment before finally realizing that the damn melon seeds weren't the point. "No, what I mean is... Mmph!!"

The moment he opened his mouth, Xu Tong stuffed a handful of peanuts into it. "Don't talk. Watch."

Li Bo grimaced and chewed a few times. Suddenly, his teeth hurt; he'd bitten down on something hard and brittle. He was just about to spit it out when Xu Tong's voice rang out beside him. "Keep it in your mouth!"

Li Bo had no idea what it was, but he didn't dare spit it out. He could only obediently keep it in his mouth.

By then, Zhong Nan had gradually calmed down. Looking at the old man's bitter expression, he finally couldn't bring himself to say any more.

He let out a long sigh, rubbed his face, and did his best to put on a smile before turning to Xu Tong and Li Bo. But when he saw them, he couldn't believe it—those two were actually eating?

Zhong Nan froze for a moment, but quickly composed himself and continued, "Anyway, thank you. Help me out one more time."

"Zhong Nan!!"

The old man looked up. His swollen eyes brimmed with tears. "Zhong Nan, you can't get out. Tomorrow is the Ghost Festival. If you deliver these wandering souls to the Ghost Overlords, you'll be able to pass on to a new life!!"

He tried to stand, but Xu Tong's knife had gone in deep, and the blood wouldn't stop flowing. He'd had enough strength a moment ago, but now he couldn't even get to his feet. He could only slap his thigh desperately. "Dad wouldn't hurt you. Dad wouldn't hurt you! What father in this world would hurt his own son?"

"Dad?? I thought he was your uncle??"

Li Bo cracked seeds without thinking. The more he watched, the more confused he got.

"Just look at the bowls and chopsticks in the kitchen. You'd know they weren't simply uncle and nephew."

Xu Tong pointed toward the kitchen. From the moment they'd entered the courtyard, he'd noticed that the bowls and chopsticks there came in pairs, one large and one small. There was a chicken coop, a water jar, and rice and flour. Clearly, the old man lived here.

But he was alone. Why would he need two sets of bowls and chopsticks? That meant someone lived with him, even if that person wasn't alive.

Zhong Nan watched the fire flare up again at the village entrance and shook his head.

"Dad, do you really believe that so-called Ghost Overlord? I don't. You've offered him so many wandering souls over the years. If he really had the power, he'd have agreed to help you long ago. I don't believe him. I want to take my chances myself."

The old man noticed the firelight, and his expression changed at once. He turned around and saw that the fires that had gone out in the village had flared up again. This time, it wasn't just one place that was burning—the whole village was on fire.

"How..."

As the old man stared in shock, a pig came running in from the village with a torch in its mouth. He recognized it at once. Wasn't that Zhang Hao, whose soul he'd hooked out?

Seeing everything he'd worked so hard to build over the years about to go up in flames, the old man's eyes reddened.

"You're asking for death!!"

He pointed angrily at Xu Tong. "You think he'll let you go? Deceiving Heaven and Crossing the Sea—you can't fool even a single person, so how are you going to deceive Heaven and Cross the Sea? You're all going to die!"

As he spoke, he pointed at the pig on the ground. "You too!"

Zhang Hao's limbs stiffened. He stared at Zhong Nan as if struck by lightning.

Seeing that his father had already exposed what he was planning, Zhong Nan didn't bother hiding it anymore. He clapped his hands.

A rustling came from the room. A bare paper doll walked out, its body stiff, as though it might collapse with every step.

Wasn't that the paper doll Zhou Yu had possessed?

"I'm going to use a ghost marriage to open a path and get out of here. Help me one more time. Just help me once more."

Zhong Nan looked at Xu Tong, who was sitting there peeling peanuts as if nothing concerned him. His brow furrowed, and he raised the bell in his hand. "Don't blame me. Once we reach the Yellow Springs Underworld, I'll apologize to you."

With that, he shook the bell hard. But after two shakes, it still didn't ring.

"Huh??"

Confused, he picked up the bell to take a closer look. The clapper inside was gone...