The Finest Sacrifice

The next day, Wu Zhong was groggily awakened by the Daoist.

"Brother, get up. Stop sleeping."

Wu Zhong sat up, feeling completely refreshed. He must have slept for a long time—he had never slept this long before. It felt amazing.

"Daoist priest, how should I address you?" Wu Zhong asked as he got out of bed.

The Daoist clasped his hands inside his sleeves and raised them slightly in greeting. "This humble Daoist is Zhang Qinglang of the Celestial Master's Mansion."

"My name is Wu Zhong," he replied.

Zhang Qinglang smiled. "Come on, let's have breakfast."

"The fried rice noodles here are incredible. You have to try them."

Wu Zhong nodded and went to wash up first.

Afterward, he obediently followed Zhang Qinglang to the cafeteria. It was all buffet-style, and the food was exceptionally plentiful.

Wu Zhong rarely ate breakfast. Usually, he skipped it to save money.

Now that he saw such a lavish spread, why hold back? He dug in without restraint.

Zhang Qinglang only had a simple bowl of fried rice noodles beside him, watching Wu Zhong eat.

Wu Zhong could not help asking, "This looks like a military base. Why is a Daoist like you here?"

Zhang Qinglang answered casually, "Exorcising demons, defending the Dao, serving the people."

"..." Wu Zhong stared blankly. Then, setting that aside, he pressed on, "Can you cultivate immortality?"

"Huh?" Zhang Qinglang laughed. "Of course I can. I'm a legitimate sixty-sixth-generation disciple of the Celestial Master's Mansion, proficient in the Six Lines. Want me to divine a reading for you?"

"I mean actual spells. The kind where you fly swords around," Wu Zhong said.

Zhang Qinglang smiled. "Uh, I can do that too, though I haven't mastered it."

Wu Zhong grew excited. "Immortal cultivation really exists? Can you show me?"

To his surprise, Zhang Qinglang shook his head. "I can't demonstrate it. Spells aren't to be used lightly. At most, I can divine a reading for you."

Wu Zhong curled his lip. "Then give me a reading."

"Give me three numbers." Zhang Qinglang extended his palm.

"Um... 233?" Wu Zhong said at random.

Zhang Qinglang pinched his fingers together in calculation, then clicked his tongue. "Extremely inauspicious. There's no hexagram worse than this. You'll soon suffer a bloody calamity, plagued by evil spirits. Be careful not to lose your life."

"..." Wu Zhong's mouth twitched. Did he really need to be told that?

"You... you're messing with me, right?"

Zhang Qinglang burst out laughing. "Just tell me whether I'm right!"

Wu Zhong snorted. "What else?"

Zhang Qinglang drank his soy milk. "You also have a windfall coming, worth more than your entire fortune."

The moment he said that, Wu Zhong was startled inwardly.

Still, he first shoveled the buns and fried rice noodles into his mouth, finishing them all.

With his cheeks stuffed full, he said, "That's true. Someone on Spending Treasure suddenly added me, then gave me a million. I've never seen that much money in my life."

Zhang Qinglang raised a brow. "Oh? Someone gave you a million for no reason?"

Wu Zhong wiped his mouth. "Really. Though I usually post my account online and call people Daddy, asking them to send me fifty or something."

"But I never expected someone to suddenly give me money—let alone a whole million!"

"At first, I wanted to transfer it back, but transfers take two days to arrive... Honestly, those two days were agonizing. I got greedy."

"You know about my grandpa's situation. I urgently needed money, so I canceled the transfer and spent a few tens of thousands first... Tsk, if that person wants the money back, I'll slowly pay him back later. I'll just treat it as borrowing from him... Oh, right, that isn't illegal, is it? He transferred it to me out of nowhere."

He spoke with complete seriousness, and Zhang Qinglang could not spot a single flaw.

"Interesting. Someone transferred a million to you... That's no small sum."

Wu Zhong drank a glass of milk. "Exactly. Let me show you..."

As he spoke, he reached into his pocket, then blinked. "Oh, right. You confiscated my phone. If you want to see it, go ahead. The transfer records are all there. I don't have any privacy to hide."

Zhang Qinglang gave an absentminded hum. "That isn't my department. I merely divined it."

Wu Zhong did not believe him. "Divined it? You definitely saw the transfer records on my phone."

Zhang Qinglang said earnestly, "I really did divine it. A windfall is very easy to calculate."

Wu Zhong did not believe him at all. In his eyes, this guy was clearly using divination as an excuse to probe him with words.

His phone had been taken away last night, so there was no way to hide the fact that Against the Light had transferred him a million.

Besides, with these people's authority, checking every bit of his financial activity would be effortless.

Still, the money had indeed been sent by Against the Light, and he had indeed wanted to transfer it back before canceling it.

All those records could be checked.

He had merely concealed the fact that he knew Against the Light. From the looks of it, these people had not figured that out yet. If he did not mention Against the Light, how would they know he had Against the Light as a Penguin contact and specifically investigate a deleted friend?

They would definitely start by investigating the Spending Treasure trail, and the transfer contact on Spending Treasure had indeed been newly added yesterday.

As for asking online for "send me fifty so I can eat," that was also true.

He often ran out of money after paying rent at the end of the month, his finances stretched to the absolute limit. Sometimes, when there were still several days left and he had no money for food, he simply did not eat, going three days without nine meals.

So he really had posted his Spending Treasure account several times, begging strangers for food money. There had even been times when some generous guy actually sent him fifty yuan to eat.

Wu Zhong had spliced two true stories together, and Zhang Qinglang did not doubt him in the slightest.

But he also knew this deception would not last long.

They would surely become curious about the person who transferred the money, trace the trail back, and eventually discover that Against the Light had run away.

Fortunately, Against the Light had run away... The issue of the money would then be focused on Against the Light rather than himself.

As long as Against the Light was not found, the matter would remain like this for now.

"Finished eating? If you are, we're setting off." Zhang Qinglang stood and beckoned.

Wu Zhong followed him. "Setting off? Where are we going?"

Zhang Qinglang sighed. "Five Old Peaks."

At noon, Lu Guangqi, Zhang Qinglang, and the others brought Wu Zhong up the mountain.

This was the summit of Mount Lu, where a mountain pass divided the peak into five parallel summits. From afar, they resembled five old men sitting on the ground, hence the name.

The myth of the Five Elders had existed since ancient times. Daoism called them the Five Elders Celestial Venerables, and in astrological and divinatory teachings, they were respectively the Eastern Azure Spirit, Southern Flame Spirit, Central Yellow Spirit, Western Vast Spirit, and Northern Azure Spirit.

The Five Elders Shrine worshipped these Five Elders Celestial Venerables, whose prototypes were the... Five Directional Supreme Emperors of historical legend!

But the place had now changed beyond recognition.

The second peak, symbolizing the Eastern Azure Spirit, and the peak symbolizing the Southern Flame Spirit had both been destroyed.

Enormous, terrifying cyclones occupied their summits, swallowing heaven and earth!

Wind and clouds converged from every direction, the intense wind pressure reaching the speed of sound.

Clouds could vaguely be seen churning and darting about within, while the roaring sounds were deafening.

"Good heavens... The situation here is actually this severe?"

Wu Zhong wore mountaineering gear, bundled up thickly and wearing an oxygen mask.

Mount Lu was only 1,360 meters above sea level.

Yet Zhang Qinglang had prepared equipment for him as though he were climbing Mount Everest.

"Of course it's severe."

Lu Guangqi finally explained the situation to Wu Zhong. "Forget those ghosts and gods. Mount Lu's cloud dragon alone has created a super hurricane through its inhalation of matter. Within a five-hundred-meter radius, trees are uprooted and rocks are stripped away and shattered."

"The temperature has plummeted to minus seventy degrees Celsius, while turbulent air currents generate continuous noise exceeding 165 decibels!"

"If this anomaly appeared in a city, it could suck up an entire skyscraper in half a minute. Fortunately, it is located at Five Old Peaks, whose dangerous terrain has slowed the spread of the disaster. Even so, Five Old Peaks will vanish completely within a month."

Wu Zhong was stunned. If this continued, would Mount Lu not disappear? Even Xunyang City might be finished.

Yesterday, from far away, he had only known that the climate was abnormal and there was a major storm.

He had not expected the reality on site to be so devastating.

Wu Zhong raised his head. From far away, he could already see the center of the cyclone, gleaming like a ball of light.

"What is that light ball?"

Lu Guangqi said, "It is the cyclone. Because it constantly devours matter, all the high-speed friction in the air produces intense light and terrifying noise, as well as infrasound."

"As for what lies inside, we don't know. We only know that the ghosts and gods reside there. It may even be another world."

"We can only be thankful that it is small, so it does not devour much gas per second."

Wu Zhong said in shock, "That isn't much? It's swallowing heaven and earth!"

Zhang Qinglang said from the side, "It looks severe from a local visual perspective, but the actual amount is not much. Compared with the planet's enormous atmospheric volume, this rate of atmospheric loss is only eighty-seven times Earth's own natural atmospheric escape rate."

"Even if it continued for a hundred years, the total global atmosphere would decrease by only 0.00016%, which is negligible."

"Of course, Mount Lu would disappear over time, and the cities along the middle and lower reaches of the great river would suffer persistent climate anomalies."

"But compared to that, the intelligent ghosts and gods are the primary threat."

Wu Zhong understood that they were professionals, and this disaster had been caused by the ghosts and gods, had it not? The ghosts and gods themselves were the greatest threat.

"What did you bring me here for? They want to kill me, yet you brought me here?"

Lu Guangqi said, "To negotiate, of course."

Wu Zhong's entire body shook.

The others led him along fixed steel cables, step by step, toward the area beneath the cyclone.

That was the most dangerous zone. They could go no farther. Any farther ahead, and people would be blown into the air.

Many people in firefighting suits were also positioned nearby in every direction, encircling the cyclone. They had clearly been stationed there for a long time.

"Ji Meng! I brought the person!" Lu Guangqi shouted.

Wu Zhong was dumbfounded. "What does that mean?"

Zhang Qinglang held him down and slightly shook his head, signaling for him not to make a fuss.

But Wu Zhong felt utterly uneasy. The ghosts and gods wanted to kill him, yet they were openly declaring that they had brought him here. Had it been arranged beforehand? Negotiation? Negotiating what? Trading his life?

"Roar!"

A dragon head emerged from the cyclone, followed by a dragon-headed, human-bodied monster squeezing out from within.

Then came another monster with bull horns.

Wu Zhong vaguely felt they looked familiar, as though he had seen them somewhere before. But when he remembered they resembled illustrations from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, he understood.

The two monsters looked down from the sky and were overjoyed at the sight of Wu Zhong.

"Buzz!"

Without saying a word, the dragon-headed monster immediately radiated murderous intent. Gripping a wooden staff, it pointed it at him.

With a crash, the wooden staff began growing at high speed, thick and fierce, extending straight toward Wu Zhong in a violent strike.

Wu Zhong had no way to resist. The wind here howled so fiercely that he could barely stand, and he had to rely on Zhang Qinglang to hold him up.

Bang!

Just as the vines spreading from the wooden staff were about to strike Wu Zhong, a massive wall of air condensed into existence.

It was incomparably solid, rising from the ground like a gigantic wall!

The air wrapped into a sphere, completely enclosing the cyclone and the entire five-hundred-meter radius around it!

Buzz! Even the storm seemed to halt for an instant.

Wu Zhong stared wide-eyed. He could tell that a huge group of firefighters had joined forces to create this enormous Air Shield.

So it was not Lu Guangqi alone who possessed this superpower. A whole group of people had it?

Could this actually be a spell? Was Zhang Qinglang telling the truth when he said he knew spells?

Boom!

Just as Wu Zhong thought the shield could block the wooden staff, Zhang Qinglang dragged him swiftly backward.

But the wooden staff continued extending, smashing straight through the Air Shield. Fragments of solidified air spiraled through the sky like rain falling upward.

Pfft!

The wooden staff was unstoppable. It even curved around, leaving no way to evade it, and struck Wu Zhong squarely in the chest without the slightest resistance before stopping.

"Urgh..." Wu Zhong grunted. He realized the impact was not strong; it had merely bumped him.

But the dragon-headed monster thrust forward hard, intending to pierce through Wu Zhong while it had the chance.

Multiversal Moment! Lu Guangqi snapped his fingers.

His clothes instantly exploded apart, leaving him naked in the howling winds and minus-seventy-degree cold.

His muscles bulged across his body, shimmering with golden light.

He struck like lightning, crushing the long vines extending from the wooden staff in his grip before pushing back with a massive palm.

Pfft! Pfft! Wood chips flew everywhere!

The endless thorny vines exploded all the way down their length!

Rumble!

Golden light erupted like mountains collapsing and seas overturning, sending shockwaves soaring into the sky.

From over two hundred meters away, he blasted the two ghosts and gods into nothing but bubbles!

"Holy shit!"

Wu Zhong panted heavily, staring in shock at the blazing Lu Guangqi. He looked like a god descending into the world.

So powerful! There really were superheroes in this world!

Compared to him, Wu Zhong's door-welding ability was complete garbage!

Yet everyone present remained grave, their eyes fixed on the cyclone.

Sure enough, the two ghosts and gods had not died. Before long, they emerged from it again.

The dragon-headed monster finally spoke. "Wonderful energy. It is something this universe does not possess. This sovereign greatly enjoys it."

Wu Zhong's pupils shook. They had been blasted apart, and they were completely fine?

Zhang Qinglang had been telling the truth when he said these ghosts and gods were immortal and indestructible.

How the hell were they supposed to deal with that? They kept getting stronger and could not die—were they not invincible? Sooner or later, they would turn the world upside down.

"Ji Meng, I cannot kill you, but you will never get past me either." Lu Guangqi's voice rang out powerfully.

God Ji Meng said indifferently, "It was bound to happen sooner or later."

The many firefighters present all fell silent. This was the most troublesome thing about these ghosts and gods.

They could not be killed, yet they kept growing stronger. They were already clearly stronger today than they had been yesterday.

Though they were still weak for now—almost anyone present could casually shatter or suppress them—what about the future?

Lu Guangqi called out, "Tell me, where did you come from?"

"And why did you send a Night Wanderer to hunt him down?"

God Ji Meng could not be bothered to answer them anymore. His deep gaze remained fixed on Wu Zhong.

Instead, the horned monster beside him swayed with the howling wind and answered, "We already told you. This world belongs to the gods. We are merely returning home."

"As for him... he must die."

The two ghosts and gods both stared intently at Wu Zhong.

Wu Zhong looked back at them. The longer he looked, the more familiar they seemed, yet he could not remember where he had seen them before. He only had a strange sense of déjà vu.

Lu Guangqi frowned. "This world belongs to you? What a joke. Are you saying you're Old Ones? Then how do you speak Mandarin?"

The horned monster disdained to answer. It merely said, "The gods have no need for the acknowledgment of the ignorant."

"This human is our finest sacrifice. Offer him to us, and we can promise not to harm you."

Lu Guangqi pondered. "A sacrifice? Devouring him would bring you tremendous benefits, wouldn't it?"

"What is so special about him?"

The horned monster said, "He means nothing to you, but to us, he is one in ten thousand."

That made it quite clear: there was nothing special about Wu Zhong himself.

It was simply that ghosts and gods might need a particular kind of sacrifice to grow or recover their strength. Perhaps it was determined by one's date of birth, or perhaps something else.

"You mean he was unlucky enough to be exactly the type of sacrifice you need, and humans of that type are one in ten thousand. He was the closest one to you, wasn't he?"

"And after devouring him, you can recover your strength?"

Lu Guangqi's analysis was orderly and convincing.

God Ji Meng snorted without confirming or denying it.

The horned monster said proudly, "We can restore our divine power without him."

Lu Guangqi fell silent. Indeed, these ghosts and gods had been growing stronger all along. A little thought made it obvious that all they needed to do was devour matter.

Perhaps devouring Wu Zhong would allow them to recover faster?

He considered it. He thought it over.

Wu Zhong was thrown into a panic. These people were not actually going to hand him over, were they?

"Decide quickly! If you refuse to hand him over, we'll kill him ourselves. It makes no difference."

"No matter where he hides, even at the ends of the earth, the Day-and-Night Patrol Gods will take his life sooner or later!"

The horned monster kept pressing them.

Lu Guangqi remained calm and composed, his golden aura standing firm amid the gale. "The Day-and-Night Patrol Gods? If you kill him from too far away, how will you devour him?"

The horned monster burst into laughter. "I never said we would devour him. Killing him is the sacrifice."

"If you are willing to do the work for us and offer his life as a sacrifice, that works too."

Wu Zhong's face turned green. That meant anyone could kill him!

Either way, he had to die!

Lu Guangqi shook his head slightly. "I do not have the authority to decide whether to sacrifice him. I need to report to my superiors and let them decide."

"But we can discuss the price first."

"What?" Wu Zhong's eyes widened. What did that mean? So they really could sacrifice him?

"Didn't you promise to protect me?"

He struggled desperately, trying to run.

But Zhang Qinglang held him down firmly. Even the air around him seemed to solidify, locking him in place.

Upon hearing this, God Ji Meng finally spoke. "Mortal, what do you wish to discuss?"

Lu Guangqi said, "Your promise is too vague. Even if you secretly send Night Wanderers out to kill people, it would be difficult for us to stop them or even notice them."

"So if you want this sacrifice, show some sincerity first... for example, stop that vortex and cease devouring."

God Ji Meng shook his head. "Impossible."

"Impossible?" Lu Guangqi frowned.

The horned monster said, "We finally succeeded after exhausting every scheme we had. How could it be shut down so easily?"

"Name another condition."

Lu Guangqi said, "Then move somewhere else. Outer space, the ocean, even the desert."

The horned monster continued shaking its head. "No. Pick another."

Lu Guangqi proposed several more demands in succession, all centered around that vortex.

Yet no matter how he asked, the vortex was determined to remain here. Any condition related to it was nonnegotiable!

"This won't do, that won't do—then can you guarantee that you will never come out again?" Lu Guangqi shouted.

God Ji Meng shook his head. "This is our home. The gods have waited too long to return home."

"How about this? Three years. So long as you sacrifice this person, I can guarantee that no ghost or god will leave this place for the next three years. How does that sound?"

Lu Guangqi frowned and shook his head. "How can a promise that relies on voluntary compliance earn anyone's trust?"

God Ji Meng said solemnly, "Human hearts truly have grown corrupt. You do not even believe a god's promise?"

"A god's promise must never be broken. Otherwise, ghosts and gods will truly perish."

"Is that so..." Lu Guangqi's eyes lit up. He stepped back and said, "Then let's leave it at that for today."

The golden light around him faded as he led the others away.

Along the way, Wu Zhong was completely at their mercy and remained silent.

After returning to the base, someone helped him remove all his gear.

Seeing his cold expression and low spirits, Zhang Qinglang knew what he was thinking. "Don't worry. We won't sacrifice you."

"That was all a pretext. Captain Lu was trying to pry out information and stall them for the time being."

Wu Zhong tugged at the corner of his mouth and forced out a smile. "Really? Is that it? You scared me to death. Don't scare people like that again."

Zhang Qinglang laughed. "Relax, relax. You're perfectly safe with us. You've seen how capable we are too..."

"If that little ghost dares show up, this Daoist will blow him away with one shot."