Chapter 7: Discussing Dreams

Shen Yanping's gentle words woke him up: "Little Brother Pei, how did you wake up?"

Pei Ye was dazed for a while, without any concealment, and told his dream from last night.

First, compared to the black Chi that came for no reason, Pei Ye naturally trusted these familiar faces of more than ten years more; second, he knew nothing about these strange and divine things, so it was better to seek the help of Inspector Shen.

However, to his disappointment, the three were also blank.

Feng Zhi frowned with his two thick eyebrows: "What does this have to do with dreams—what do you think, Shen Yanping?"

Shen Yanping also shook his head: "At least in the Immortal Platform literature I can access, I don't remember any Chi-shaped Immortal Hunt that can enter dreams."

Chang Zhiyuan then said: "Then let's temporarily attribute it to the stimulation of pain. If there is a chance tonight, we can try to see if we can use pain to wake up the soul-lost person."

"There will be seven more people tonight... but this fire symbol doesn't seem to appear in advance. How do we distinguish what kind of people are more delicious in the eyes of that 'god'?"

The three were silent for a while.

"I think, perhaps it is based on martial arts talent." Pei Ye suddenly said slowly.

Shen Yanping's eyes widened slightly: "Reasonable!"

Martial arts talent is of course a combination of many factors, but the three people here all understand that the youth refers to the quality of the "Dantian Seed."

Feng Zhi bid farewell: "I will go verify this."

Chang Zhiyuan said: "Inspector Shen, the road out of the mountains was destroyed by mudslides. You must use the soul bird to send a letter to the Immortal Platform."

"When I saw this ritual at home, I had already released the soul bird, stating the urgency of the situation, and asked the Immortal Platform to transfer it to the prefecture government, asking Commander Jing to arrive as soon as possible."

Chang Zhiyuan sighed: "There are many people in the prefecture who can surpass this criminal, but only Commander Jing has the ability to arrive on time."

Feng Zhi quickly verified the identities of the victims and gave a positive answer.

"Since that's the case, leave this place to the two adults first." Chang Zhiyuan thought for a while, put on his bamboo hat, and called for someone to hand him a long staff. "I'm going to urge the notification and investigation of the whole county, and concentrate the possible victims in the county government for protection."

"Are you worried that they will catch people in advance?"

Chang Zhiyuan nodded: "We have no way of knowing whether they have already locked onto twelve candidates, or whether they extract seven people only when the ritual begins. If it's the former, they might want to grab people before the reinforcements arrive."

"However, even if Feng Zhi and I make full preparations, I'm afraid we won't be able to take a few moves from him." Shen Yanping said in a low voice. "Even if these people are concentrated in the county government, it might... just be wiped out in one go."

Chang Zhiyuan was silent for a while: "We can't just sit and watch the criminals harm the people. At least, this will kill at most the three of us. If we leave them at home, seven whole families will die. How many neighbors will be affected, not to mention."

Shen Yanping nodded heavily.

Pei Ye clasped his fists and resigned: "Several adults, I also want to go home first."

"You can, but return to the county government for protection as soon as possible." Chang Zhiyuan hesitated for a while, then said: "Little Pei, Lin Lin told me about you... please mourn, this murderer is too dangerous, absolutely... don't be impulsive."

Pei Ye was silent for a while: "Don't worry, Chang, I have self-knowledge."

After saying that, he didn't wait for Chang Zhiyuan to reply, "tear" tore off a strip of cloth to wrap his forehead, and strode south.

Although he had been drenched in the rain all night, the pain was fortunately not triggered. But this absolutely did not mean he could always be lucky. Now his abdomen was faintly uncomfortable. If the rain didn't stop tonight, it would definitely flare up once. Pei Ye had to go get wine and medicine.

Walking on the street, Pei Ye pondered. Although the three adults held a relatively negative attitude, the conjecture about the Chi dream still made his heart sway, and every word of those conversations was vivid in his mind.

If there really was such a Chi, where did it come from?

"We prosper together, we suffer together." Was his fate bound to it to some extent?

He remembered the sentence "The rest is up to you," meaning that he was still among the seven people tonight?

The soul loss last night was the Chi waking him up. Clearly, there would be no such help tonight. According to what it said, he had to use the so-called 【Standardized Harvest】 to resist the "Immortal Lord's Spirit Summoning."

So where should he go to find the method to use it?

Fate...

Pei Ye locked his eyebrows. He did feel a kind of hard-to-grasp familiarity with the character "Zhun."

For Pei Ye, who read very few books, the uncommon character "Zhun" would definitely not be seen often, so he had an impression after seeing it once occasionally. But this impression was too blurred. Pei Ye thought hard for a long time, but he really couldn't remember it.

However, precisely because he read few books, the books he had read were limited. There was definitely no such thing in the literacy books at home. Then it was most likely in the county government office, which he had seen when he went to read stories by taking advantage of Uncle Lin's convenience.

When he returned to the county government, he could search for it.

On the way back, Pei Ye tried several mantras and finger seals to try to activate this so-called "fruit," but there was no reaction. Until he felt that he was acting as strange as Old Xiangzi, Pei Ye put this section aside.

Crossing the main street and arriving in the south of the city, he soon returned to the familiar alley.

After arriving at the door, Pei Ye didn't go in, but went straight over to the adjacent courtyard gate.

Besides getting wine and medicine, Pei Ye had two things to do when he went home. The first was that he had to ask Old Xiangzi to tell him the story of "the big-eared one becoming an immortal" in detail; the second was to ask Grandpa Yue to see if he knew any news about this symbol.

The broken firewood door had no bolt and was only tied with a rope. Pei Ye pulled it off, pushed it open, and strode in.

The already narrow courtyard was messy, leaving only a path leading to the house.

"Old Xiangzi!" Pei Ye shouted, but no one answered.

Pei Ye walked toward the small house. As soon as he pushed the door, he smelled a heavy, moldy, and damp smell. A piece of black smoke rose from the ground, which was the scattered incense ash that had been stepped on and turned black.

This small room was like a strange Buddhist hall. The laughing Buddha in the center was stained with patches of dirty grease. The smaller Arhat and Bodhisattva statues fell on the table. There were two extinguished residual incense sticks on the incense burner.

In the corner were piled up the Three Pure Ones, Confucius and Mencius, Guan Yu, the God of Wealth, Lu Zu, the Kitchen God, and so on. It could be said that everything that should be there was there, but many had already rotted, some had spotted mold, and even the few relatively intact ones were covered with a thick layer of dust.

The small house had only three rooms in total. Pei Ye pushed one open and saw that they were all empty. One room was piled with messy things, and the other room had a bed board supported by stones, with a quilt covered with a layer of grease on it. ===== CHAPTER 8 =====