Chapter 76: Defy Heaven, Alter Fate (1)

According to Feng Youyun's own account, ten years ago his company had already grown quite large locally, earning him a lot of money—and making many enemies. One of them was his longtime friend.

As they say, the business world is a battlefield; this friend lost in commercial competition, saw his company go bankrupt and liquidated, accumulated massive debts, suffered severe psychological trauma, refused Feng's generous merger and acquisition terms, and chose to leap from the rooftop.

Before jumping, he called Feng and, besides accusing him of betrayal, hurled a long string of curses in a strange, unintelligible local dialect.

Later, Feng visited his friend's hometown and asked elderly locals, who revealed the dialect's meaning: a curse that his entire family would die, leaving him alone, childless, and without descendants.

Feng naturally didn't believe such madness, but soon his wife fell seriously ill and was hospitalized, while his son—once exceptionally healthy—developed a constant fever and slipped into unconsciousness.

Helpless, Feng believed the claims of itinerant sorcerers and secretly funded an orphanage, bringing the friend's ten-year-old son into society, providing him food, clothing, and education—in a sense, adopting him—to counteract the curse.

【Task Objective: Find Feng Youyun, uncover the truth behind the residence】

【Task Trigger Condition Met】

"Wudun Town may not be the most prosperous small town, but it's certainly the most modernized and IoT-integrated. IoT devices blanket the town, controlled by a supercomputer ranked among the top ten nationwide, managing all electricity, internet, lighting, even water levels. Yes, the river levels here are computer-controlled—that's why homes along the river can install their AC units so low."

Feng Youyun nodded. "I know a bit."

"Quiet." You Anjian pressed his lips together, hand still on his sword. "Your father's commission is to protect his family. I'll first take you to a safe zone in town, then return to rescue him."

Until a month ago, the curse seemed to return, clinging to Feng's grandson, Little Feng.

Feng said: "He started having nightmares a month ago—dreaming he was pinned down by a ghost, with a skinless figure crawling toward him."

Like Stephen King's novel, "The Tall Grass."

"Mm." Little Feng, as a rich second-generation, was shy and scratched his head awkwardly. "Just reached marriage age this year and got married."

Wudun Town has a dense network of waterways, with houses built along the rivers. With the World Internet Conference approaching, the streets are filled with foreigners, tourists, journalists, livestreamers, and tour guides introducing the town.

"A ghost wall?" Bai Zhi wore a solemn expression. Since she had albinism, her face was naturally pale—no one could tell if she'd turned even whiter from fear.

"Huh?" You Anjian raised an eyebrow. "You took your enemy's child into your home and made him manage your daily meals and living arrangements?"

This was clearly a scam—and a crude one at that, the kind of con artist who feared the employer would realize and call the police, so he fled in a hurry.

Li Cheng secretly tested the Shadow Realm traversal ability granted by the Ink Spider's Gift—but it failed to activate.

"The curse from ten years ago was probably fake. This time… it's hard to say."

You Anjian said: "When I accepted this mission, I agreed with my guildmates to check in every hour. It's only been ten minutes since our last contact. That means they'll know I'm missing within at most fifty minutes and report it to the Special Affairs Bureau. We can wait here fifty minutes until they arrive."

A system notification interrupted You Anjian's words.

He didn't say the second half—he probably thought Feng's life was too stubborn to end?

The roads, bridges, power poles—any trace of human civilization—vanished entirely. All that stretched before them was an endless, identical forest, as if copied and pasted.

The four players exchanged glances. You Anjian shrugged indifferently. "Though the scanner detected no abnormal fluctuations, and Miss Bai Zhi sensed no curse traces, we'll still follow standard procedures for anomalous events."

Yuan Zhixia, pretending to be a passing tourist with a camera, paused slightly, then replied: 【The World Internet Conference attracts many experts, entrepreneurs, and political figures—it requires Special Affairs Bureau security. Are you also in Wudun Town?】

"It's not as high-end as you imagine. Mid-tier players can achieve similar effects using Shadow Realm techniques and barriers. My boss and a colleague can do it easily."

Blood plasma, meat pulp, and bone shards sprayed. A torrent of blood mixed with organ fragments splattered across the SUV's windshield. The wipers, sensing "rain," activated automatically, smearing the gore into an even coat.

"I know—but what if?" Feng Youyun, before hiring the four players, had consulted the Special Affairs Bureau. He spoke cautiously: "The Bureau has records of similar incidents—even before the Killing Grounds descended, there were strange, ambiguous events no one could explain."

————

Little Feng didn't know if the method worked, but his father's son recovered quickly—aside from being weak and short of breath, he was otherwise normal. Feng's wife's condition also improved markedly; she lived peacefully for two or three years in the villa, passing away peacefully in her sleep.

As the car drove along a shaded road, Little Feng's phone rang—it was the villa's butler, also Feng's adopted son, Zhao Xinglang.

Ten years ago, there was no Special Affairs Bureau, no Summoned Ones. Ordinary wealthy bosses encountering such supernatural matters tended to panic and act recklessly.

The night passed without incident. The four players took turns keeping watch in the hallway, encountering nothing strange. Little Feng did not have nightmares, and Feng's grandson, Little Feng Jr., showed no new bruises.

"The entity creating this barrier probably killed Zhao Xinglang."

"There are some—but rarely. The probability is like an ordinary person winning the grand prize on their first lottery ticket."

Bai Zhi took a deep breath, pulled a drone from her inventory, and launched it out the window, ascending steadily to observe the surroundings.

You Anjian said: "The timing doesn't match."

【Reward 3: Random Item ×1, Quality Based on Mission Rating】

A distant rumble of thunder woke the crying infant. Little Feng and his wife frantically rummaged through their bags—searching for a pacifier, then a bottle.

Two seconds passed before Little Feng's wife finally screamed. You Anjian instantly shifted into reverse, backing the SUV onto the shaded road, then activated the windshield washer to wipe away the crimson smear.

You Anjian muttered casually, pulling out a gray parchment and tearing it open.

Little Feng was about to ask, but the call abruptly ended. He lowered his phone—and saw the three other cultivators tense instantly, staring grimly ahead.

"I see."

"Mr. Feng, please arrange for you, your son, daughter-in-law, and grandson to stay in two adjacent rooms tonight. Don't lock the doors. We four will take turns keeping watch in the hallway. What do you think?"

He seemed not to see the car at all, staring straight ahead. Suddenly, his body swelled violently, like an inflating balloon, growing round—then burst with a loud pop.

I'm afraid it's already too late.

He and his wife, Fu Jirong, had been childhood friends since youth—he was twenty-two, she twenty. In modern society, such early marriage among highly educated families was rare, let alone having a child so quickly.

After answering, the voice on the other end was extremely noisy, as if disrupted by electromagnetic interference: "I you. Don't. Fast."

【Reward 1: 500 Experience Points】

"As you say." Feng sighed in relief. He had money—but not enough to send his entire family to the Special Affairs Bureau's family compound, where they'd be guarded 24/7 by specialists, safe from anomalies.

The villa in the mountains arrived. Zhao Xinglang stood inside the iron fence, a large pool of blood and debris beneath his feet, holding his phone in a call position, expression dazed and vacant.

You Anjian asked: "By the way, Mr. Feng—where is the child you adopted, your enemy's son?"

You Anjian pondered. From his tone, Feng had pushed his son to marry and have children early—was he unafraid of the childless curse? Or did he believe that having a grandson early could erase the curse's existence?

Another low rumble of thunder echoed across the sky, signaling rain was coming. The car had no spare diapers. You Anjian turned the steering wheel and drove toward the mountain villa.

Li Cheng and Yuan Zhixia chatted casually and learned that not only the Special Affairs Bureau, but also the Whale Song Guild, Prometheus, and other organizations had sent representatives to the Internet Conference. The town's density of cultivators was extremely high.

For now, it seemed this was the only option.

【Mission Name: Defy Heaven, Alter Fate】

This parchment is called the 【Shadow Realm Scroll】, a popular item from Lujie, rare quality, consumable. Its specific effect: draws the surrounding environment into the Shadow Realm.

Uh, whatever makes you happy.

Two days to earn 240 game coins — Li Cheng treated it purely as a business-funded trip, admiring the Jiangnan water-town scenery through the car window all the way.

Li Cheng and the other two followed the Feng family, driving an SUV toward the town.

"Hello? Hello?"

Old Feng said, "The child is good-hearted — he wouldn't hurt his family."

You Anjian shook his head and said, "An ordinary ghost wall couldn't cover this large a range, let alone block the system's friend-communication function."

Marry early, have a child sooner — fewer worries. That was Old Feng's thinking too. Their family really does have over a hundred million in assets waiting to be inherited.

That's understandable too. In script missions, players can be chivalrous heroes who cut down ten foes in ten steps, or local tyrants who dominate a region — but once they return to the real world, they still have their own lives and jobs.

Some players, even with hundreds or thousands of game coins in hand, still tighten screws in factories, work as mall security guards, or drive for ride-hailing apps — just to ease the survival pressure the killing grounds bring.

After waking up, the Feng family was in decent spirits. After breakfast, Old Feng sorted through some corporate materials in the villa for the World Internet Conference. The dark, burly man 【Wang Beipo】 stayed behind in the villa to protect her.

"Xinglang is different. Before his father jumped from the building, he force-fed Xinglang pesticide, trying to poison him to death. He was rescued afterward, but he's been silent and withdrawn ever since, not fond of socializing. I told him to study business administration, manage the company — he wouldn't go either. So I just let him stay home long-term."

You Anjian pursed his lips and said, "That wandering occultist — do you still have his contact info? Did you pay him back then?"

You Anjian silently grumbled to himself at this, but didn't speak up to mock her.

"Block the system?" Bai Zhi said, stunned. "What level would that take? Lv30? Lv40?"

The parchment tore open — nothing happened. Clearly this place had already formed some kind of barrier, not allowing a Shadow Realm to exist at the same time.

"Wudun Town is the first place in the country where cutting-edge internet technology is actually applied. It's already using autonomous driving, drone food delivery, and intelligent garbage sorting in practice. On top of that, it has the most advanced meteorological system, including but not limited to radiation monitoring, wind-energy observation, and real-time 3D lightning positioning."

Bai Zhi said softly, "Mr. Feng, your grandson's symptom is mysterious bruising on his body — what about your son?"

Yuan Zhixia? What is she doing here?

After the four players heard Old Feng's account, You Anjian pushed his round-framed sunglasses up and said slowly, "Boss Feng, you should know about the killing grounds, right?"

【Mission Reward 2: 500 game coins】

【Mission Type: Mandatory Mission (Team)】

【Mm, there's a protection-type commission.】

The phone had no signal, GPS positioning failed — worse, the vehicle had clearly reversed over a thousand meters, long past the length of the tree-lined road, yet still couldn't see the outside highway.

According to Fu Jirong's account, little Feng was conceived via IVF and born at the private hospital the Feng family had invested in — little Feng was healthy as a child, until he was twelve and ran a fever that wouldn't break, after which his health took a steep nosedive.

An adopted son is still a son — surely the friend who cast the curse wouldn't kill his own biological son too?

Old Feng shook his head. "Back then, the ritual tools, ceremonies, incense money and the like — all in all, it came to a bit over eight hundred thousand yuan. That occultist was introduced by a friend of a friend. We never contacted him again after that, and we don't even know his name or where he lives."

"Boom—"

"We're trapped."

"Xinglang... is dead?!" Little Feng was still in a state of enormous shock. He suddenly came to his senses and said urgently, "My dad — my dad's still in the villa!"

You Anjian, in the driver's seat, glanced at the young couple and asked casually, "You two married pretty young?"

"You've already met him — the butler here, Zhao Xinglang."

"The so-called curse was cast ten years ago, and your wife passed away seven years ago — but it wasn't until four and a half years ago, when the killing grounds descended, that anomalous events on Earth really began to appear: evil spirits, fierce ghosts, curses, Transcendents — all of it came pouring out at once."

After thinking for a moment, Li Cheng sent her a friend message: 【You came to Wudun Town?】

Li Cheng glanced at his chat interface with Yuan Zhixia — a line of bold text floated up clearly: 【Friend Communication Temporarily Unavailable】.

He paused, then said, puzzled, "But since he came back to his hometown these past two days, he hasn't had nightmares like that anymore."

【Mission Time Limit: 50 minutes】

Listening to the tour guide's introduction, Li Cheng suddenly noticed a familiar figure by the roadside.

【Mission Reward 4: Random Skill Scroll ×1, quality depends on completion rating】

【Mission Failure Penalty: Next mission will be converted into a punishment mission】

(End of Chapter)