dkrc Chapter 175 The Mastermind Emerges
Chapter 175 The Mastermind Emerges
Chapter 175 The Mastermind Emerges
Yuanmeng Central Hospital.
Li Jiuhe, Li Yi, and Luo Shuo sat together, looking at the hospital bed in front of them.
Lying on the bed was Tong Cheng, who had already undergone surgery and was still in a coma.
Tong Cheng's injuries were too severe. Although he had received ordinary treatment, he would still need to rely on his own sequence energy to pull through.
After all, his injury was caused by the Withering Lord, not an ordinary injury.
If you observe Tong Cheng's bandaged wounds up close, you can see that the muscle tissue around the wounds is growing little by little.
It's just that the growth is rather slow, and it's unclear how long it will take to fully heal.
At this moment, several police officers with live ammunition are guarding the ward.
Inside the ward, Luo Shuo would glance at Tong Cheng from time to time, and then turn to look at Li Yi from time to time.
He was very curious about Li Yi, after all, this girl had survived in the deserted wooden house for so long before coming out, and she had entered the wooden house in two different ways.
One ending is that he was strangled to death by Yu Minmin and his body was dumped in the Wangchuan River; the other ending is that he is now seeing Li Yi alive.
This made Luo Shuo even more astonished by Li Yi's mother Lin Fengya's ability to sequence sequences.
He directly suspected that Lin Fengya's abilities were probably unmatched anywhere else in the world. It wasn't just rare; her abilities were comparable to Li Jiuhe's, and could be described as unique.
"Uncle, why are you staring at me like that?" Li Yi couldn't help but ask.
This question put Luo Shuo in an awkward position.
He coughed twice, and before he could answer, Li Jiuhe interjected, "Uncle Luo helped Dad a lot in finding you. So now that you've come out of the deserted wooden house, he's naturally very concerned about you."
"Oh." Li Yi nodded, then smiled sweetly at Luo Shuo and said, "Thank you, Uncle Luo!"
Luo Shuo immediately smiled and said, "No need to thank me. Your father and I are friends and colleagues, just like your Uncle Tong. We will definitely do everything we can to rescue you."
"Dad, will Uncle Tong wake up?" Li Yi asked Li Jiuhe, still a little worried.
Li Jiuhe nodded emphatically: "Of course he can. Your Uncle Tong's strength has increased again, so he will definitely recover."
Li Yi breathed a sigh of relief, jumped off the stool, stretched lazily, and turned to look at the door of the ward.
A short while later, she suddenly spoke towards the doorway, her tone somewhat stern, like a little adult.
"Didn't you listen to what my dad said? Uncle Tong won't die, so—what are you still doing here?"
Li Jiuhe and Luo Shuo were taken aback and turned to look at the door, which was closed and empty.
Luo Shuo was unaware of the situation and was surprised, but Li Jiuhe immediately understood.
"Xiaoyi, is there something dirty there?"
Li Yi nodded: "Yeah, I don't like it here. I wouldn't have come to the hospital if I hadn't come to see Uncle Tong. I often see them here. Just now, there were two ghosts guarding the door, it felt like they were waiting for Uncle Tong to die."
"Ah!" Luo Shuo was so startled that he quickly stood up.
Li Jiuhe then asked, "And now?"
"I've already yelled at them and they're gone." Li Yi put her hands on her hips, still seemingly a little angry.
In reality, she didn't change her Onmyoji form at all. If she had changed her form, those filthy things would have slunk away without her even saying a word.
"Why am I—I have nothing—" Luo Shuo stood at the doorway, trembling with fear.
"This is Xiaoyi's sequence ability," Li Jiuhe said.
"So her ability is—"
Onmyoji.
"Ah? An Onmyoji!" Luo Shuo's expression changed, and he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
His voice rose a full eight octaves at that moment, clearly quite surprised.
Several police officers who were guarding outside quickly rushed to the visiting window of the ward and took a look, thinking that something had happened inside.
Seeing that it was just Li Jiuhe and two others talking, they were relieved and dispersed.
Seeing Luo Shuo's appearance, Li Jiuhe's heart skipped a beat, and he asked, "Are you very familiar with Onmyoji, this kind of sequence user?"
As mentioned in the Death Pass, the number of Onmyoji is very small; before Li Yi awakened, there was only one in the entire Tian Shu Kingdom.
Moreover, it seems that the pass is unwilling to mention Onmyoji or similar sequence users more. Li Jiuhe guessed that Li Yi's ability to communicate with Yin and Yang might have violated some of the pass's secrets.
After all, this thing is a death pass, and it's also a sequence item that can communicate between the living and the dead.
Strictly speaking, it's possible that Li Yi's abilities might suppress it.
Luo Shuo nodded and said, "I am not only familiar with Onmyoji, but I also collaborated with an Onmyoji from our country some time ago."
At this point, he looked regretful: "That Onmyoji had a very hard time because she was the only one who could see ghosts, but the Order Rectifiers had already officially declared that there were no ghosts in this world. This resulted in her living space being squeezed very small."
Li Jiuhe knew very well that although the Order Restorers were all in a vegetative state, they were a group of people who influenced the operation of the world and were officially recognized and supported.
Moreover, there was only one Onmyoji at the time, and he was alone. Even if this person could provide proof that there were ghosts, he would be suppressed by the Order Rectifiers.
Looking at it this way, it seems that these order restorers have all agreed on the same thing. Could it be that they also have some kind of unspeakable secret?
"What did you collaborate with that Onmyoji on?" Li Jiuhe asked curiously.
Luo Shuo said, "It's very simple. I helped her find an important item belonging to a deceased person. She said she wanted to use the item to communicate with the deceased. I just took the money, did my job, and didn't ask about what happened afterward. But it was after that incident that I learned that Onmyoji can command ghosts."
"Commanding ghosts?" Li Jiuhe and Li Yi both looked at them with surprise.
"Yes, not only can it communicate with the dead, but it can also directly command ghosts to do things for them." Luo Shuo nodded, "The kind that will do whatever you tell them to do. I saw it with my own eyes back then."
"We can't see anything at all, can you—" Li Jiuhe asked in confusion.
However, before he could finish speaking, he saw Li Yi looking up at the door, seemingly lost in thought.
Li Yi then beckoned, "Come in."
With a whoosh, the door opened a crack and then closed again, but there was no one in sight.
Luo Shuo shrugged and said to Li Jiuhe, "Look, this is what I witnessed with my own eyes back then."
"Squat down." Li Yi pointed to the corner near the door.
Li Jiuhe and Luo Shuo looked at the empty corner of the wall, then exchanged a glance, both of them seeing the word "bewildered" in each other's eyes.
"Dad, it really works!" Li Yi said with a face full of joy.
"So you—are you currently controlling a ghost?"
Li Jiuhe paused, then corrected himself, "It should be said, 'to control a creature from the Abyss.'"
"Hmm." Li Yi nodded and explained, "But they don't seem to be very bright, and they can't talk, so they can't communicate with me."
"Have we been unable to see them at all?" Li Jiuhe asked.
Li Yi frowned, unsure how to answer; in fact, she didn't know the answer either.
"We won't remain invisible forever. If the aura within the abyss erodes our world, they will slowly be revealed to us."
The words came from the direction of the hospital bed.
Everyone turned to look and saw that Tong Cheng had woken up, his face pale and his head turned to the side. He had obviously been looking at the empty corner of the wall.
Of course, even in his current state, Tong Cheng still couldn't see the ghosts in the house.
"Uncle Tong, you're awake!" Li Yi ran happily to the bedside.
Tong Cheng smiled and nodded slightly: "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, my dad rescued us," Li Yi said immediately. "So my dad really is like you said, he's really amazing now—"
Tong Cheng was still unable to move, but he turned his gaze to Li Jiuhe and then narrowed his eyes slightly.
Before long, his gaze shifted downwards and landed on the shoulder bag that Li Jiuhe often carried.
"What are you carrying? I sense—it's dangerous!"
"Huh? What is it?" Li Jiuhe asked, puzzled.
He immediately opened his satchel and took out the items one by one.
Upon seeing the exquisite dagger from Guo Fan, Tong Cheng's pupils constricted slightly, but he made no comment. Clearly, he recognized the object, but it was not the dangerous item Guo Fan had described.
Until Li Jiuhe took out the black box.
"That's it." Tong Cheng said immediately, "Get away from this thing right now, it's dangerous."
"Isn't this the black box that the Guan family used to deal with you?" Luo Shuo asked in surprise.
After Li Jiuhe emerged from the Boundary Stone, he and Shao Gang went to seek help from Minister Shao.
"The Guan family? Why would they want to target you?" Tong Cheng was even more surprised.
Li Jiuhe briefly recounted what had happened during that period to Tong Cheng, who frowned as he listened, clearly believing that the matter was not easy to handle.
"Then the Guan family members who are targeting you seem to be from one of their branches, because if it were the main branch, you would already be dead," he analyzed. "You just said—they would cover your body with this black box after killing you?"
Li Jiuhe nodded: "It was my precognitive ability that told me this, but I don't know why."
"Let me take a closer look at the black box," Tong Cheng said.
Although he was now conscious, he was still unable to move his body and couldn't even lift his arms.
In reality, although Tong Cheng's body was bandaged, there was still a hole inside, and this hole was slowly growing and healing.
Li Jiuhe brought the black box close to Tong Cheng's eyes and slowly rotated it so that he could see its full appearance.
After observing for a while, Tong Cheng's eyes gradually filled with confusion: "I detected a familiar aura on this black box."
"What's that aura?"
"It was the person who had been spying on me from the stage when I used the power of the stage to kill the director of the Wangchuan City Investigation Bureau."
""
"That person?!" Li Jiuhe and Luo Shuo also remembered that Tong Cheng had mentioned this before.
"I'm still wondering if that person is Si Mingyu!" Luo Shuo said.
"No, this person's strength back then was clearly above mine." Tong Cheng snorted coldly at this point, "But now—that's not necessarily the case."
He then looked at Li Jiuhe: "Give the black box to the nearest shelter and let them handle it. Don't touch it again. I feel that this thing is just what you need to control."
What is this black box? Would it be convenient for me to take a look?
Just then, words suddenly appeared in front of Li Jiuhe's eyes on the Death Pass.
It had no idea that Li Jiuhe was carrying a black box until Tong Cheng revealed it, which finally caught the attention of the pass.
"What do you think?" Li Jiuhe asked in his heart.
[I'll hold you in the palm of my hand, this passport of mine, and press you against the black box. Just don't let go for now.]
Li Jiuhe calmly grasped the black box in his hand, pressing his palm tightly against it.
Unseen by anyone, the black pass card had already emerged from his palm and was affixed to the black box at that moment.
Before long, a string of text appeared at an extremely fast speed.
[This black box contains—a—a passage through a spacetime rift! Are you sure you haven't opened it?]
"no."
The pass surprised Li Jiuhe greatly. He replied, "The moment I obtained this thing, I felt that it was mysterious and dangerous, so I never thought of opening it."
[Thankfully, we didn't open it. If the spacetime rift inside had opened, we might all have been sucked in. This—this is exactly the same operating principle as the haunted house we saw before, plus the spacetime rift I opened with my pass—!]
Li Jiuhe was completely stunned.
At that moment, he suddenly realized that when the Guan family found him with this thing, they probably wanted to take him directly into the space-time rift.
This operation was exactly the same as Si Mingyu's plan, and even went a step further!
Si Mingyu intended to use the Morning Bell of the Second Seventh Day to open a spacetime rift, then use the Tongue of the Dead to absorb the Spacetime Fearful Insects, creating a clean space, and using his own Sequence ability as a guarantee, so that he could try again if the operation failed.
Guo Fan, on the other hand, used other different sequence objects to replace them, and executed the same plan.
In other words, the haunted house replaces the Tongue of the Dead in absorbing the Time-Space Fearful Insects, and the Death Pass replaces the Morning Bell of the Twenty-Seventh Day in order to open the Time-Space Rift.
The only difference is that it lacks its own sequence capability as a guarantee.
In retrospect, Si Mingyu's plan was more comprehensive, but it ultimately failed in its execution.
Now let's look at this black box again.
Once this thing is opened, the spacetime rift is already there. Although it's unclear why it was able to be locked in the black box, it's obviously an extremely sophisticated technique.
Once opened towards Li Jiuhe, it can absorb his sequence ability and enter the space-time channel.
What Li Jiuhe doesn't yet know is whether the reason for doing this is to bring someone into this world, or whether the people of this world want to go to the other side.
However, he was certain of one thing: the person behind the scenes couldn't guarantee that they would be able to successfully traverse time and space, which was why they needed his sequence ability as a guarantee for the reset.
More text appeared on the death pass.
[I never expected you to be in this plan too! We really are in the same boat. Haha, fate brought us together!]
Li Jiuhe didn't have time to continue examining the text that appeared. Instead, he gripped the black box tightly and said to Tong Cheng, "Since this black box carries the aura of the person who spied on the stage back then, I'll have Luo Shuo track him down and see what happens."
Tong Cheng nodded, but added a reminder: "Be careful!"
Li Jiuhe handed the black box to Luo Shuo.
Luo Shuo immediately narrowed his eyes, rubbed the surface of the black box, and began to use his tracking ability.
Gradually, his brows furrowed, his complexion turned pale, and large beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
This appearance suddenly felt extremely familiar to Li Jiuhe.
A moment later, he suddenly realized that when he first asked Luo Shuo to track down Li Yi's whereabouts at the Wangchuan City Investigation Bureau, this guy was just like that.
Later, Luo Shuo himself said that he discovered another clue while tracking Li Yi, and then followed it out of curiosity, only to be devoured by a powerful force.
"Luo Shuo, stop right now—" Li Jiuhe immediately said.
The next second, Luo Shuo's whole body trembled violently, his eyes opened, and blood seeped from his eye sockets, nostrils, and mouth at the same time.
His appearance startled those around him. Li Yi stepped forward and placed her small hand on Luo Shuo's shoulder.
A visible black and white aura appeared, surrounding Luo Shuo and rolling around.
The pressure on Luo Shuo suddenly eased, and he was instantly relieved from the tense and high-pressure state. This force was absorbed by the surrounding black and white aura and then slowly dissolved into the air.
"Xiao Yi?" Li Jiuhe looked at Li Yi's actions with hesitation.
A moment later, Luo Shuo reached out and patted Li Yi's hand, speaking softly, "Thank you, child! I'm alright now."
Li Yi withdrew her hand, and sensibly took several tissues from the tissue box by the bedside, handing them to Luo Shuo so he could wipe the blood off his face.
As Luo Shuo wiped the box, he looked at Li Jiuhe and said, "Brother Li, I'm certain that the powerful force I accidentally encountered when I was searching for your daughter's whereabouts belongs to the owner of this black box."
Initially, both Luo Shuo and Li Jiuhe believed that the power should come from Si Mingyu, since Si Mingyu's mental strength was extremely powerful.
The characteristics seemed to match perfectly, but it was only at this moment that they realized that the force belonged to someone else, and that it was the owner of the black box.
So everything makes sense.
The real mastermind, after Si Mingyu's plan failed, used the black box as bait to find the Guan family again.
It is unknown how he made this branch of the Guan family believe that as long as Li Jiuhe was killed and the black box was placed close to his corpse, they could obtain what this branch of the Guan family needed.
However, it was clear that the Guan family had also been deceived, because last time outside Yecheng in the Boundary Stone, before the mission reset, Li Jiuhe saw Guan Jikun's expression change from ecstatic joy to surprise after opening the black box.
Clearly, what appeared after the black box was opened was not what he had expected.
The mastermind's goal was still to achieve the plan he initially had Si Mingyu execute through the Guan family.
However, the Guan family also failed, and Li Jiuhe was then given the double insurance of opera mask and Nuo mask.
The protection of these two powerful forces caused his enemies, who posed a threat to him, to momentarily forget his existence.
Lying in his hospital bed, Tong Cheng asked with surprise, "You mean, the mastermind behind all of these things is the same person?"
"Yes." Li Jiuhe nodded emphatically.
Tong Cheng seemed to remember something, his expression changing: "This is bad. You had the mask and disguise as double insurance, preventing them from easily discovering you. But just now—Luo Shuo tracked that person down again. With that guy's strength, he'll definitely rekindle his memory of having you as a target. In other words, just now—he might have remembered you!"