Chapter 80: Deceiving Heaven, Altering Fate (5)

Feng Youyun? Old Feng?

Still gripping his sword, Bai Zhi squinted, straining to think, feeling she had almost grasped a thread—but could not pierce the paper to see the full truth.

"Master Pi Fu, what are you talking about?" Little Feng's voice trembled. "My father's still alive, isn't he?"

"Calm down."

Li Cheng smiled. "During my exploration of the villa, based on the clues and intelligence I gathered, I entertained many hypotheses. The first—and most obvious—was that the person speaking to him back then was Feng Youyun."

"In Old Feng's own account, he once had a business conflict, and before dying, Zhao Xinglang's father cursed his entire family. Soon after, his wife and son fell critically ill. To prevent the curse from taking effect, he followed the advice of a wandering mystic and adopted Zhao Xinglang to neutralize it."

Precisely because of this, the infant Little Feng inexplicably bore a palm-shaped bruise; the corpse of his long-dead mother could 'revive' and become a blood corpse, then launch a bloody massacre against the Feng family.

And yet he insisted on spending a fortune to hire players for so-called protection.

He continued speaking to himself: "But even under this assumption, many things still don't add up. For instance, why was there a coffin in the second-floor secret room? And why did the yellow paper in the study bear Little Feng's wife's birth chart and destiny pattern?"

Little Feng looked dazed. As a highly educated materialist, he didn't believe in destiny patterns, and couldn't imagine his father—whom he saw as a shrewd, brilliant tycoon—ever buying into such nonsense.

While Yu Anjian, Bai Zhi, and the others were still stunned, Li Cheng's serious expression suddenly collapsed into a grin. "Of course, like the first hypothesis, this one also has many flaws."

This alternate personality remained hidden until Zhao Xinglang reached adulthood and gained independent agency, then began his revenge against Old Feng.

"Correct," Li Cheng nodded. "Under this hypothesis, Old Feng used the Great Cave Primordial Destiny-Revoking Scripture to swap Zhao Xinglang's destiny pattern with Little Feng's, evading the curse. But the process produced an error—no one knew Zhao Xinglang had secretly split off a second personality."

Yu Anjian's eyelid twitched. He couldn't help blurting out: "This is insane. Could this even work?"

"So what did he use this book for? The answer: swapping destinies."

With this reminder, Yu Anjian recalled: back in Wudun Town during the day, Little Feng's family had mentioned this very thing.

Second step: swap destinies. Since Old Feng swapped his own destiny pattern with Little Feng's, he then swapped the destiny pattern of Little Feng's infant son, Tiny Feng, onto the body of his own long-dead wife.

Even I was fooled—I bought a pineapple from a shady fruit stall, brought it home, cut it open, and found nothing but furniture, a sponge, and a snail.

Li Cheng smiled. "I believe many years before Tiny Feng was born, Old Feng had already planned everything: guiding Little Feng to find a childhood sweetheart with a specific destiny pattern, then nudging them to marry and have children under the pretext of 'wanting grandchildren as soon as possible.'"

"Human cognitive capacity, knowledge boundaries, and social experience are limited. Under the right conditions, even university professors, top lawyers, corporate owners, and senior bureaucrats can be deceived—and manipulated—by crude lies. This has been common throughout history."

"Calm down. The process of unraveling the truth is precisely the process of eliminating all other plausible suspicions until only one explanation remains. And isn't this exactly what I'm doing—drawing conclusions from this hypothesis?"

"Personality split?" Bai Zhi blinked, then immediately understood. "You mean Zhao Xinglang?"

For example, if Old Feng had once obtained the Great Cave Primordial Destiny-Revoking Scripture, why didn't he connect it to the palm-shaped bruise on Tiny Feng's body and suspect someone had swapped his grandson's destiny pattern?

Li Cheng shrugged, ignoring the others' exasperated expressions and Yu Anjian's mutter: "The guy who ruined the later seasons of SpongeBob found @Master Pi Fu."

???

This is fascinating: Little Feng and his wife married very early—just as soon as they hit legal marriage age—and had their child via in vitro fertilization.

First step: obtain the Great Cave Primordial Destiny-Revoking Scripture, modify the villa, and secretly hide Old Feng's wife's coffin in the secret room. The Feng family rarely returned to Wudun Town; as Old Feng's adopted son and villa steward, he had ample time and resources to make these changes. To avoid detection, he could simply give the maid and gardener a few days off under any pretext.

Li Cheng said calmly: "The Feng family invested in a private hospital. Under Old Feng's orders, the hospital fabricated an excuse—say, one of the young couple had a medical issue—and encouraged them to try in vitro fertilization. Afterwards, the hospital could control Tiny Feng's birth time by inducing premature labor, ensuring he possessed a special destiny pattern."

This leads to the second hypothesis: personality split.

Little Feng and his wife had the Ten Thousand Blessings Longevity Destiny and the Pearl and Jade Radiance Destiny respectively; their son's destiny pattern was likewise extraordinary—capable of deceiving heaven, altering fate, refining the corpse through Yin, shedding the physical form, and transforming the body's substance.

Li Cheng grinned. "Downstairs, my dog Dahuang's parents divorced. His adoptive father raised him. Later, the adoptive father went bankrupt in business, but Dahuang caught the wave of the times and made a fortune. To repay his adoptive father's care, he now adopted his adoptive father as his own son. Truly, a filial son and a loving father."

Understand? Then forward this to the family WeChat groups: 【Spring Warms Flowers Bloom】, 【Love and Harmony】, 【Family Harmony Brings Prosperity】.

Otherwise, given Little Feng's looks and his status as a rich second-generation, he could have played the field for years longer before even considering marriage—no need to rush so desperately.

What the hell, reversing heaven and earth, huh?

Zhao Xinglang only just now realized what his second personality had done—hence his conversation with it in the study, asking: "How could you possibly sacrifice such a young child?"

Li Cheng's words carried no personal emotion; through his narration, one could almost see how Zhao Xinglang methodically, coldly, and relentlessly walked the path of revenge—even treating himself as a sacrifice.

Do you remember what Zhao Xinglang said in the study?

"Sacrificing such a young child isn't enough? You had to deliberately orchestrate all of this?"

Bai Zhi opened her mouth, then closed it again. Yu Anjian clicked his tongue. "Can you stop dragging this out? I'm dying of suspense!"

"At the time, Old Feng didn't know that 【no high-level transcendent power existed before the Killing Field descended】. He truly believed the charlatan's lies—especially that so-called Great Cave Primordial Destiny-Revoking Scripture."

Li Cheng casually spun a lie—it was second nature to him—and then resumed solemnly: "This leads to the third explanation: everything was within Old Feng's calculations."

"Whether it's plausible or not, Old Feng believed it. Remember what was written on the yellow paper in the study? It listed Little Feng and his wife's birth charts."

Li Cheng snapped his fingers. "This leads to the first hypothesis: he swapped Zhao Xinglang's destiny pattern with Little Feng's to deceive the curse. From Old Feng's perspective, everything made perfect sense—his son recovered from fever, but his personality changed drastically: from outgoing and lively, he became shy and withdrawn. Old Feng's wife also knew this, which is why, two years before her death, she treated Zhao Xinglang like her own son."

And Old Feng's purpose in doing this was the same as ten years ago: to extend his wife's life, at any cost.

Including his son's life, his grandson's life, even his own.

(End of Chapter)