Go all out

Chapter 22: The Background in the Old Photo

I remained silent for a long time. Neither the rat spirit nor Tian Zhan seemed to be rushing me; they had both already sat down. Sometimes supernatural beings are more compassionate than humans. To be honest, it moved me deeply, and it made me look at the Rat Spirit with less anger. “One river splits into two streams, and both streams eventually flow into the sea!” I looked at the Rat Spirit and spoke slowly. The Rat Spirit gave me a deep look, her face betraying a hint of contemplation, and finally she nodded at me. “You’re different from your master,” the Rat Spirit said, looking at me. “Different? Do you mean my brother has surpassed his master?” Tian Zhan asked in confusion. “His master’s skills aren’t so easy to surpass. It’s just that, compared to his master, he’s missing something—something very important. You could say that this one thing determines the course of a human’s entire life!” the Rat Demon said meaningfully. I was taken aback for a moment. Compared to my master, I was certainly far inferior—but what was this “something missing” the Rat Spirit was talking about? What could it be? “Why are you being so mysterious?” Tian Zhan pouted in annoyance. He walked over, grabbed my arm, and pulled me toward the exit. “All right, we can go now…” I nodded and followed Tian Zhan outside. As far as the eye could see, there were still swarms of rats; the big one bowed respectfully. The two of us stepped back onto their backs. We’d just crossed a cliff edge—if they hadn’t taken us back, it would probably have taken us several days to make our way down the mountain. “By the way, what did you mean by what you said earlier?” Tian Zhan couldn’t help but ask. “She’s very likely not going to survive this lightning tribulation. It has nothing to do with whether she’s pregnant or not—it’s a life-or-death situation either way. In other words, even if she were to force the child out of her womb, the outcome would be the same,” I said slowly. Tian Zhan froze. “So, according to you, she’s as good as dead?” “Not exactly. There’s still a one-in-nine chance of survival. If she can seize that one chance, she should have no trouble surviving this lightning tribulation. If she can’t, then she’s as good as dead.” “So what do you think the final outcome will be for her this time?” Tian Zhan couldn’t help but ask again. “That’s hard to say. The Way of Heaven is cyclical, and everything is bound by cause and effect…” I looked at Tian Zhan curiously. “Why are you suddenly so concerned about her?” “Get lost, you jerk. It’s sympathy, okay? And that old guy—he knows his lightning tribulation is coming soon, yet he’s still out having a good time. How irresponsible.” Tian Zhan muttered under his breath. I was speechless. She didn’t know that a rat spirit could get pregnant either—after all, in human terms, it’s very difficult for a woman over forty-five to conceive, and she probably thought the same back then. But who can predict such unexpected things? After that, neither of us spoke. My mind was in a bit of a jumble. I’d learned a lot from this rat spirit—mostly about my master. Even that spirit creature that had been following us all day was inexplicably linked to him. Was he really not as straightforward as I’d imagined? My feelings were mixed. Half an hour later, the group of rats delivered us to the other side of the cliff. The large rat respectfully said, “Have a safe journey, you two,” then led the rest of the rats back. Now that we knew where my mother was, Tian Zhan and I didn’t stop to rest. We set our sights on the cave thirty li away and pressed on. What put my mind at ease was that, even though it was pitch black, Tian Zhan and I each lit a torch, and no wild beasts came out to block our path along the way. That injured spirit creature also seemed to have vanished—it never appeared again. While this surprised me, it also stirred a vague sense of unease in my heart. I wasn’t sure where this sudden unease was coming from; I just had a feeling I was getting close to something—that something was about to happen. I shook my head vigorously to dispel this inexplicable unease—it was completely unfounded. Tian Zhan was by my side, and I was on my way to find the mother who had given me life. What could possibly go wrong? “Wait!” Tian Zhan suddenly stopped. He glanced around, and a gleam flashed in his eyes! I looked at him in confusion. “What’s wrong?” Tian Zhan pointed to a spot in the distance. There was an ordinary-looking tree, with a massive boulder beside it—nothing out of the ordinary at all. I was even more puzzled. “Don’t you find that spot a little familiar?” Tian Zhan suddenly asked me. “No.” Tian Zhan seemed at a loss for words. He took out his phone, opened the photo album, and pulled up a picture—it was the old photo we’d found at the village chief’s house, which Tian Zhan had discreetly snapped with his phone at some point. I looked at the photo a few times, then instinctively glanced back at the spot Tian Zhan had just pointed out. It really did seem somewhat familiar. The background where the four people were standing in the photo appeared to be right under that large tree, and the village chief even had one hand resting on that boulder. “Let’s go check it out.” When Tian Zhan said that, my curiosity piqued, and I followed him over. After shining our flashlights around the area, we didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. However, three of the four people in the photo were already dead, and we still didn’t know who the remaining one was—which naturally made us even more curious about this place. “There’s something a bit off about the feng shui here, but I can’t quite pinpoint what it is. When we come back in daylight, I’ll take a few photos and have my friend who knows about feng shui take a look.” Tian Zhan finally said with a sigh. I don’t know the first thing about feng shui, and Tian Zhan’s real strength lies in ghost-hunting techniques—this feng shui issue has us both stumped. “Mm-hmm.” I nodded. But after hearing Tian Zhan say that, I felt like the airflow around here wasn’t quite right—it felt a bit stifling. I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination. In any case, since we couldn’t find anything here, there was no point in wasting any more time. Tian Zhan and I continued on toward my mom’s place. Thirty kilometers really isn’t a distance you can cover in a short time. Since we’d emerged from the cliff opposite the rat demon, Tian Zhan and I had been walking nonstop for over three hours. It was now nearly 1:00 a. m. , and I was utterly exhausted, but Tian Zhan didn’t even break a sweat. His physical stamina was truly beyond my reach. Gritting our teeth and pushing through, Tian Zhan and I finally reached the edge of a cliff. The opposite side was pitch black. Tian Zhan’s eyes darted back and forth, scanning the area across the cliff and the slope below. He sniffed the air and let out a strange chuckle. “There’s definitely a demonic aura, but it’s deeply concealed. Your mom’s deliberately hiding from you. We’ve got no choice—let’s go over there and take a look first,” Tian Zhan said. I sighed inwardly. Why on earth is my mom hiding from me? Does she think I brought Tian Zhan here to kill her? “It doesn’t look like the cliff is very deep—maybe thirty or forty meters. We’ll use a rope to climb down from here. I’ll go down first; you wait for me up here.” I looked down at the pitch-black bottom of the cliff and shook my head. “No, I’ll go down first. What if my mom attacks you?” The two dreams I’d had the past two nights—the look in my mom’s eyes just before she and Tian Zhan died—wouldn’t leave my mind. I didn’t know why I’d had those dreams, but I didn’t want anything to happen to either Tian Zhan or my mom. Tian Zhan glanced at me and could only nod. He pulled a coil of nylon rope from his backpack, tied it to a large tree, and gave it a few hard tugs to test its strength before he felt confident enough to loop it around my waist. He then tossed the remaining rope down the cliff. “Be careful. Wait for me at the bottom of the cliff. Once I get down, we’ll keep heading that way,” Tianzhuan said solemnly. “Mm-hmm.” I nodded, gripped the rope tightly, then walked to the edge of the cliff. I slowly let out the rope, bracing my feet against the rocks as I slid down bit by bit. It was pitch black, so I had to proceed with extreme caution, inch by inch—after all, falling from this height would mean certain death! I felt a bit nervous. It took me over ten minutes to descend just over ten meters, and my hands were already aching terribly. I admit I’m not exactly the most agile person, but I had no choice—after a brief rest, I had to keep sliding down. Just as I was gasping for breath, I suddenly heard Tian Zhan’s furious shout from above: “Xiao Tian, watch out!” Tian Zhan’s voice was filled with terror and heart-wrenching despair, as if he’d witnessed something happening suddenly but was powerless to stop it. I instinctively looked up, wondering why Tian Zhan had shouted like that, when I suddenly felt my body plummeting. I stared in shock as a rope fell onto me from above—my face went pale in an instant! Because the rope had snapped!!