The Hidden Hand Emerges

Fortunately, Spirit Descent was not limited by distance. The moment Yin Yunze decided to activate it, it took effect.

Yin Yunze's vision went black, followed by an indescribable sensation of weightlessness.

Then Yin Yunze lost all perception of the real world.

Before, no matter how intently Yin Yunze focused on the world on this side, his perception of the real world would only become a little dull. It was like someone concentrating so hard on one task that they overlooked other things happening around them.

Even so, you could still sense the existence of your own body.

This time, Yin Yunze had completely lost his perception of the real world.

Somewhere in the Unseen, however, Yin Yunze had a premonition that he could leave this state and return to reality whenever he wished.

On top of that, Yin Yunze was asleep in his bed at home in the real world, so the situation did not make him panic.

After only an instant of darkness, Yin Yunze once again became aware of the world around him.

But Yin Yunze found his first impression of this world less than pleasant.

The first thing he felt was a dizzying, head-over-heels jostling.

Opening his eyes, Yin Yunze discovered that someone seemed to be carrying his current body over a shoulder, moving at great speed.

It was a thoroughly unpleasant experience. Perhaps because the body was so young and sensitive, the jostling made Yin Yunze feel like throwing up.

The second thing Yin Yunze noticed was a sour stench rushing into his face, fermented by a long stretch without bathing. It hit him so hard that his breath caught, and he immediately felt even more nauseated!

Before, it had been like watching a movie, with only sights and sounds. Now that Yin Yunze had possessed a body, he also had taste, smell, and touch.

He had gone from a member of the audience watching a movie to a person living inside it.

Everything was exactly the same as it was for Yin Yunze in the real world.

If there was one difference, it was that this body was perhaps newer, and thus much more sensitive than the one Yin Yunze had used for over twenty years.

Because of that, though, Yin Yunze felt much worse.

"Ugh..."

The jostling and the sour stench made Yin Yunze retch.

Hearing Yin Yunze retch, the kidnapper warned him between heavy breaths, "You little brat, I'm warning you, don't puke on me! If you do, I'll beat you to death!"

Forcing down his nausea, Yin Yunze looked toward the voice and discovered that he actually knew the person who had kidnapped Zhao Wan.

There were several hundred people in Clear Creek Village, and while many of their faces were familiar to Yin Yunze, there were few he could claim to know.

But Zhao Cheng, the man before him, happened to be one of those few.

A few days ago, Zhao Cheng had failed to know his own weight in the scales, earning himself a slap from Sun Qin before leaving in disgrace. Yin Yunze had not forgotten it so soon.

So, he's here for revenge? But he wants to beat me? Let's see who beats whom!

With that thought, Yin Yunze did not intend to probe Zhao Cheng's motives any further. He stirred the Power of Incense Offerings and prepared to blast Zhao Cheng in the face with Fox Fire.

There was no other reason: the jostling was making him so miserable that Yin Yunze did not want to waste any more words!

"Who are you? Why can't I move?"

But just as Yin Yunze was about to act, he heard a girl's timid voice in his mind.

The familiar voice made Yin Yunze recognize it instantly. It was Zhao Wan.

That's not right, is it? Wasn't the vessel supposed to go dormant after Spirit Descent?

According to Spirit Descent's skill description, under normal circumstances, a believer would fall asleep after Spirit Descent succeeded. Whatever the possessing deity did during that time would have no effect on the believer whatsoever.

After all, there were always things that were not quite suitable for believers to know about.

Thinking this, Yin Yunze remembered that something seemed to have gone wrong with this Spirit Descent from the very beginning.

He had never heard of a normal Spirit Descent being achieved by intertwining spiritual-body threads, either!

Since things had gone wrong at the start, it was only natural that Zhao Wan had not fallen asleep afterward.

But with Zhao Wan watching from the side instead of sleeping, Yin Yunze could not be so brutal.

To avoid frightening Zhao Wan, Yin Yunze put aside the idea of blasting Zhao Cheng on the spot for the time being.

Forcing down the discomfort in his stomach, Yin Yunze composed himself and replied to Zhao Wan, "Wan'er, I'm Green Hill Yi Yun. What happened to you?"

"It's Lord Yi Yun!" Zhao Wan's voice filled with delight at Yin Yunze's words. "Have you come to save me?"

"Yes. But you're too far away, so I need to borrow your body for the time being." Yin Yunze offered this explanation to reassure Zhao Wan.

Zhao Wan, however, did not seem to understand what he meant and readily agreed. "Lord Yi Yun, use it however you like!"

"..." He wanted to explain in more detail, but on second thought, it seemed unnecessary. So Yin Yunze abandoned the explanation and asked again, "Wan'er, what happened? Didn't I tell you to go home? How did Zhao Cheng capture you?"

"At first, I really did mean to go straight home, just like Lord Yi Yun told me."

As she spoke, Yin Yunze sensed a trace of grievance in Zhao Wan's heart. "But Uncle Cheng said Mother had woken up and was looking everywhere for me, and he told me to come with him... Uncle Cheng had helped Mother with things before, too, so I thought Mother really had sent him to find me... It wasn't until he took me to the village entrance that I realized something was wrong, but Uncle Cheng just picked me up and ran out of the village..."

Listening to Zhao Wan's explanation, Yin Yunze realized that he really could not blame her.

Zhao Wan had not been there at the time, so naturally she did not know that Zhao Cheng and Sun Qin had fallen out. And when Sun Qin returned home, she most likely would not have told a child like Zhao Wan about such a shitty mess.

Thus, in Zhao Wan's eyes, Zhao Cheng was naturally still the uncle who helped Sun Qin out and got along well with her.

After all, she was only a ten-year-old girl, and she was dealing with an uncle related to her by blood, who had also used the standard line that Sun Qin had sent him.

Putting himself in her shoes, Yin Yunze felt that even an ordinary adult might have been fooled, much less a little girl like Zhao Wan.

Even so, this made Zhao Cheng all the more despicable in Yin Yunze's eyes.

Secretly, Yin Yunze began preparing Fox Fire again.

That brief interval had also given Yin Yunze time to think things through.

Zhao Wan and Yin Yunze were now sharing one body. As long as Yin Yunze closed his eyes when he threw the Fox Fire, Zhao Wan would not see the miserable sight of Zhao Cheng being blasted in the face, and naturally would not be frightened.

This time, Yin Yunze also strengthened the Fox Fire he was preparing to blast into Zhao Cheng's face by another thirty percent.

But just as Yin Yunze was about to carry it out, he saw two people standing not far away.

He did not know whether to call it a coincidence, but these two were also among the few people Yin Yunze knew.

They were none other than Spirit Medium Wang and her scabby-headed son, who had been driven out of Clear Creek Village entirely as Sun Qin had gradually gained a voice over this period.

Well, he could not be called Laizitou anymore.

Ever since Yin Yunze had given him a haircut with Fox Fire, not a single hair had grown on Wang Laizi's head.

The appearance of the two made Yin Yunze temporarily abandon the idea of striking.

After all, even thinking with his toes, he should have known that it was no coincidence the two were here. They were probably inextricably linked to Zhao Cheng's kidnapping of Zhao Wan.

With these three gathered together, they definitely weren't holding in any good farts.

If it had been one person committing a crime of passion on impulse, that would have been one thing. At most, it would have been one person's brain damage.

But with a group committing a crime, there was no telling whether more people were involved than the three he could see now.

He might as well take this chance, while he had not been exposed, to listen and find out what was going on with the three of them.

If there were only the three, it would be easy enough to kill them after hearing them out.

But if he could drag someone else out, say, if Song Zhao and Song Ran were involved too...

Yin Yunze did not want anything like this to happen again! After all, who could guard against a thief for a thousand days?

"Whew! Why are you hiding so far away?" Looking at the two, Zhao Cheng spoke irritably between heavy breaths. "Do you know how tiring it was to carry this girl all this way? Couldn't you have come closer to meet me?"

"Heh, we would have liked to come closer!"

Hearing him, Spirit Medium Wang replied with a smile that did not reach her eyes, "That's all thanks to your dear sister-in-law. Now, whenever the villagers see me and my son, we're like rats crossing the street, with everyone shouting for us to be beaten! One jin of rice for every beating they give us—what a generous offer!"