*So that's how it is...*
Zhang Yuanqing set down the corpse-suppressing talisman, his thoughts erupting into absolute chaos.
*When my dad drew this talisman, he wasn't even a Spirit Realm walker yet. The Xiaoyao Sect really was an organization passed down from ancient Night Walkers. Even though cultivation became impossible during the Dharma Ending Age, their Daoist lineage survived all the way to modern times, preserved inside a small Daoist temple.*
*The Xiaoyao organization took its name from that ancient sect.*
*Wait... doomsday? Why does that sound so much like the prophecy from the Compass of Light?*
*Could 'doomsday' refer to the Dharma Ending Age? No, that doesn't fit. The Dharma Ending Age was the gradual withering of spiritual energy, which is completely different from an apocalypse. Fuck... could it be hinting at the reason behind the decline of spiritual energy?*
If the depletion of spiritual energy was attributed to a "doomsday," the logic clicked into place.
In the distant past, a cataclysmic disaster occurred, after which spiritual energy began to wither, leaving each subsequent generation of practitioners weaker than the last.
Moreover, mythologies across various nations throughout the world contained numerous legends of an ancient apocalypse.
*That's actually very possible. I remember Mr. Bill mentioning that the Third Major District still hasn't opened to this day. Whether it opens isn't what matters. What matters is that Mr. Bill wildly theorized the closure of the Third Major District was tied to the Twilight of the Gods from mythological legends.*
*Isn't Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods, an apocalyptic disaster in its own right?*
Furthermore, didn't the second doomsday his late father had spoken of align precisely with the prophecy of the Compass of Light?
*Hiss... this Xiaoyao organization was terrifying. Way back in ancient times, they foresaw that a second doomsday would come...*
As Zhang Yuanqing pondered this, his scalp tingled.
"Uncle! Where did those Daoist priests go back then?"
If he had merely been anxious earlier, he was now trembling with excitement.
If he could track down the people of Xiaoyao Temple or find surviving ancient texts, he might decipher far more secrets and information.
"Some were arrested, and some fled," Zhang Zitao answered. "Back then, the higher-ups organized a mob to ransack the temple. Everything inside was torched in one big fire."
*All burned, all scattered...* Zhang Yuanqing could hardly conceal his disappointment.
Bidding farewell to his distant uncle, Zhang Yuanqing drove back toward Songhai. Along the way, tangled thoughts flooded his mind, relentlessly turning over the clues he had gathered today.
*Screeech!*
The speeding sedan came to an abrupt, screeching halt at the side of the road.
*Senseless speculation won't get me anywhere. I need to build a psychological profile of my father.* With a single thought, Zhang Yuanqing opened a faction warehouse.
Not the warehouse of Return of the Dead, but that of the White Tiger Guards.
Using the permissions granted by Fu Qingyang, he swiftly scanned the inventory, reviewing item attributes until he found a suitable tool.
He then submitted a requisition request to the Money Prince.
*Ding! Your requisition has been approved! Please retrieve the item from your inventory.*
A Spirit Realm notification rang in his ear.
The item was a smoking pipe named "Great Detective Pipe." Constantly puffing on this pipe granted extraordinary logic, deduction, and profiling capabilities, along with exceptionally sharp insight.
*This is the exact item I dreamed of during my teenage years. Great Detective Zhang Yuanzi truly deserves a pipe like this...* Zhang Yuanqing rolled down the car window, leaned back against the seat, and took a deep pull from the pipe.
The burning tobacco yielded a pungent, harsh flavor. In the past, someone who didn't smoke would have ended up red-faced, coughing violently with tears streaming down their cheeks. But to a Starlord, even a gulp of raw pesticide would go down smoothly.
What was a little tobacco to him?
Zhang Yuanqing leaned back against the headrest with his eyes closed, puffing away in silence, exhaling plume after plume of smoke.
His mind grew clearer and sharper. The family history, personality, living environment, upbringing, and modus operandi of his father, Zhang Zizhen... vast swathes of information churned ceaselessly, yet settled into an immaculate, logical order.
Gradually, a vivid image formed before his eyes. He pieced together the real Zhang Zizhen.
—A difficult, poverty-stricken upbringing fueled his yearning to be extraordinary. Upon stumbling across ancient books in the Daoist temple, he believed their contents implicitly and began proclaiming himself a savior, the successor of an ancient fallen sect rather than a dirt-poor country kid from a wretched background.
Yet even a savior had to put food on the table. So, he used the parlor tricks he had learned from the temple to hustle and swindle. To make his words more convincing—and to convince himself—he gave himself an illustrious identity: the reincarnation of Emperor Ziwei.
He scraped by on his own for over a decade. As he received an education and broadened his horizons through reading, he gradually stopped believing the words in those ancient tomes and ceased mentioning the temple.
Until one day, having learned to draw talismans and possessing a rudimentary grasp of Night Walker skills, he unexpectedly obtained a character card and became a Spirit Realm walker.
Witnessing the reality of supernatural power firsthand, he discovered that everything recorded in those ancient texts was true. From that moment on, he reclaimed his childhood dream, vowing to become a savior. But having grown up, he was no longer rash or frivolous. He leveled up quietly, befriended three like-minded companions, and established the Xiaoyao organization.
They rallied under the slogan: "To prevent the destruction of the world."
Indeed, the Xiaoyao organization's slogan was never aimless banter or playful absurdity; it had a clear origin and purpose.
When the Compass of Light surfaced, the Four Scions of Xiaoyao verified the accounts from the ancient records and resolved to find the "Sun, Moon, and Stars" spoken of in the prophecy. Their disappearance had never been due to feuds or dungeons; they were a team driven by noble ideals and a resolute mission.
They had succeeded, or were very close to succeeding, only to encounter a terrible catastrophe. On their path to unraveling the truth behind doomsday, they ran into an insurmountable obstacle—and deadly enemies.
Left with no choice, the four had to vanish without a trace and go into hiding.
Chu Shang of the Blazing Sun Twins possessed too prominent a family background for hiding to be of any use. He fell victim to an accident first, followed by the founder of Xiaoyao, Zhang Zizhen.
The fate of the Shadow Twins remained unknown, but they had likely met with misfortune as well.
Unwilling to let years of dedication and dreams vanish into nothingness, Zhang Zizhen hid his secret inside his son's soul.
He passed his dream down to his son, then calmly faced death.
The profile complete, Zhang Yuanqing lowered the pipe and opened his eyes.
Many details could only be brushed over, as the current information was only enough to deduce a broad outline of what had occurred.
*Next, I need to confirm two things. First: Did the Dark Night Rose and the Soldier Master sect wipe out the Chu family solely to seize the rule-based item to revive the Dark Night Rose's leader, or was there an underlying motive? Or did someone exploit that incident to orchestrate the Chu family's downfall?*
*Second: The identities and backgrounds of the Shadow Twins.*
*Finding those two and confirming whether they're dead or alive will validate my profile... Since the Shadow Twins were my dad's closest comrades, even if Mom didn't know them well, she should remember something. I'll ask her...*
Zhang Yuanqing glanced at his phone. It was eleven in the morning. Calculating the time difference, it should be early morning where his mother was.
He opened his contacts and dialed "Chen Shu."
"Sorry, the number you dialed is switched off..."
*Hm? Still off?* Zhang Yuanqing frowned, sensing that something was wrong.
His mother was a businesswoman, not an isolated shut-in whose death at home would go unnoticed for days. She had to liaise with clients and employees daily, handling an endless stream of affairs. How could she possibly keep her phone off for this long?
*Let's try her work phone...*
Zhang Yuanqing remembered she had two phones—one personal and one for work.
Perhaps her personal phone had broken and she hadn't bothered to repair or replace it, but her work phone couldn't possibly be turned off too.
His mother maintained a strict boundary between public and private matters; even as her son, Zhang Yuanqing didn't know her work number. But that didn't matter.
He texted Mr. Bill:
*Mr. Bill, could you do me a favor? Could you give me my mother's number?*
Ten-odd seconds later, Mr. Bill replied with a string of digits—the country code followed by a mobile number.
Zhang Yuanqing dialed it. Through the speaker came the familiar automated voice indicating the phone was powered off.
*???*
*Did something happen to Mom?* An icy jolt of alarm seized Zhang Yuanqing, followed by a surge of panic and dread. His face drained of color, and his adrenaline spiked to its absolute limit.
With a taut expression and trembling fingers, he dialed Mr. Bill's number. As soon as the call connected, he spoke at a breakneck pace:
"Mr. Bill, is there any way you can contact my mom immediately? Not by phone, in person! Both of her phones are switched off. Something might have happened to her..."
His voice didn't shake—the final trace of stubborn composure belonging to Yuanshi Tianzun, a man seasoned by life-and-death trials.
"Understood. Wait a moment." Mr. Bill's tone grew grave at once.
The call ended. Zhang Yuanqing waited on pins and needles, his fingers unconsciously tapping the steering wheel in a rapid, agitated rhythm.
About half a minute later, Mr. Bill called back.
Zhang Yuanqing answered instantly, asking with tight, anxious urgency, "What's the situation?"
Mr. Bill's chuckle came through the receiver. "Your mother is fine. I just reached her on the phone. Ah, she said she hasn't felt like dealing with you lately, so she blocked your number."
Zhang Yuanqing froze. He quietly hung up.
*I was here worried to death, and she blocked me?!* The veins on Zhang Yuanqing's forehead bulged one by one, and the masseter muscles along his jaw clamped down fiercely.
After a few seconds of silence, he snatched up his phone and typed a message to Bill.
*Mr. Bill, please tell her for me: fuck your mother...* Zhang Yuanqing quickly deleted it and retyped: *Tell her: fuck her granddaddy...*
He deleted that too, his trembling fingers tapping erratically on the screen. He genuinely didn't know how to vent his fury, because he realized that with certain people, cussing them out only ended up hurting yourself.
After a few moments of silence, he hurled his phone violently onto the passenger seat and unleashed a torrent of rage against the steering wheel:
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!"
A few minutes later...
"Hey, Queen, call a tow truck over. I'll send you the location... No, I didn't get into an accident... The steering wheel was smashed to bits by me. Why did I smash it? Because I wanted to bash my mother's damn skull in, all right?! You ask too many damn questions. Just do what I asked. If you keep running your mouth, I'll hang you up and beat your ass when I get back."
"Right away, right away! Captain, don't be so fierce..."
After waiting by the roadside for half an hour, Zhang Yuanqing heard the deep, throaty roar of an engine. Looking toward the sound, he saw a sapphire-blue supercar tearing down the road at breakneck speed.
As it neared the parked sedan, the supercar executed a sharp tail-whip, drifting 180 degrees. The tires screeched shrilly against the asphalt.
Coming out of the drift, the blue sports car pulled up perfectly flush with his sedan.
The window rolled down smoothly to reveal a mixed-race woman wearing sunglasses. She offered an enchanting smile. "Hop in, handsome. Big Sis is taking you to get a room."
The wind playfully tousled her wavy hair. Her white blouse looked chic and alluring, and a sweet, charming curve graced the corners of her lips.
Zhang Yuanqing's mood brightened instantly. Pushing open his car door, he grinned. "Get a three-bedroom presidential suite."
"Why?"
"Because a crafty rabbit has three burrows, and I need to inspect every single one."
Guan Ya rolled her eyes. Once Zhang Yuanqing settled into the passenger seat, she said, "Leave the car and keys here; the tow truck will arrive shortly. Queen told me you were in a bad mood?"
*So she came all the way here because she heard I was in a foul mood...* Zhang Yuanqing sighed. "It's nothing. Just had a spat with my mom."
Guan Ya started the engine. After driving for a good distance, she probed gently, "Is Auntie hard to get along with?"
"It's not a matter of personality. If she had a bad personality and low emotional intelligence, she wouldn't be running a business," Zhang Yuanqing said flatly.
"The issue between us is that she never cared to manage me—she just gave me money. Or rather, she couldn't be bothered to raise me. When I got into fights, she didn't care; when I skipped class, she didn't care; when I got sick, she didn't care. All she knew was working and making money from morning till night. In her eyes, handing out cash was probably fulfilling her duty as a mother. Anything beyond that was something I couldn't hope for. If I asked for more, it was my fault for being greedy. Whatever, let's not talk about her..."
Guan Ya giggled. "Well now, look at that. We both have wonderful mothers, don't we?"
"Oh, right, you have a mother who wants to sell her own daughter off," Zhang Yuanqing remarked. "I feel completely balanced now."
"Get lost!" Keeping her eyes on the road, Guan Ya held the steering wheel with one hand and chopped at him with the other, snapping huffily, "I'm upset now, and you won't be able to coax me out of it."
Before Zhang Yuanqing could reply, an impish grin crossed her face.
"How about I tell you about Fu Qingyang's tragic childhood? That'll balance things out for both of us. Oh, right, Lingjun had a miserable childhood too. Haven't you noticed? Even though he belongs to the Taiyi Sect, he's much closer to his relatives on his maternal grandfather's side. When he used to visit the Fu family, he always tagged along with Grand Elder Baihui. He only acknowledges Teng'er as his sister, completely ignoring his half-brothers and half-sisters..."
By the time they returned to the Fujia Bay Villa, it was already one in the afternoon. Zhang Yuanqing and Guan Ya sat at the dining table, enjoying the meal prepared by the bunny girl.
*Ding ding ding ding...*
The phone on the table chimed repeatedly. He picked it up to look; Eagle of Freedom had replied:
*Just took down a street gang led by Spirit Realm walkers... Your previous question was too vague, so I didn't know which angle to pursue. But after pulling up archives from the past thirty years, I noticed an interesting pattern.*
*Between 1999 and 2004, within that five-year span, the orthodox factions on our side suddenly deepened their cooperation and reached numerous baffling agreements. The major orthodox organizations surrendered parts of their own interests to form an alliance that appeared loose on the surface, but was remarkably tight-knit beneath. Their joint operations spanned various sectors, and they even granted one another partial clearances. At the time, these were extraordinary reforms.*
*Many regulations I know of today were established during those five years. Furthermore, before 1999, orthodox factions openly and covertly collaborated with evil classes. But now, cooperating with evil classes has become an absolute taboo. Even higher-ups in the major organizations wouldn't dare openly associate with them.*
*The Compass of Light surfaced in 1998. In 1999, the overseas factions underwent sudden reforms, deepening cooperation among the major orthodox organizations. Meanwhile, at that exact same time back home, the five mainstream organizations merged into the Five Elements Alliance...* Zhang Yuanqing furrowed his brows.
The prophecy of the Compass of Light foreshadowed a great catastrophe... while the records of the Xiaoyao Sect called it doomsday.
Following the emergence of the Compass of Light, orthodox organizations abruptly forged closer ties, growing ever more irreconcilable with evil classes. Add to that the Spirit Realm actively fanning the flames of factional conflict...
A chilling suspicion surfaced in Zhang Yuanqing's mind.
—*Is doomsday connected to the evil classes?*
Chapter 401