Chapter 96: Defy Heaven, Alter Fate (1)

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

As the saying goes, the business world is like 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, accusing him of betrayal, then hurled a long string of curses in a strange, unintelligible 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 lineageless.

Feng of course didn’t believe such mad ramblings, but soon his wife fell seriously ill and was hospitalized, while his son—once exceptionally healthy—fell into constant fever and unconsciousness.

Helpless, Feng believed the claims of a Jianghu fairy 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 of the residence】

【Task Trigger Conditions 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 the air conditioning units along the riverbanks can be installed so low.”

Feng Youyun nodded. “I know a bit.”

“Quiet.” You Anjian pressed his lips together, hand on his sword. “Your father’s commission is to protect his family. I’ll get you to a safe zone in town first, 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, scratching his head awkwardly. “Just met the legal 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 were filled with foreigners, tourists, journalists, livestreamers, and tour guides introducing the town.

“A ghost wall?” Bai Zhi’s expression turned grave. Since she had albinism, her face was naturally pale—no one could tell if fear had drained her color further.

“Huh?” You Anjian raised an eyebrow. “You took your enemy’s child in, and now let him manage your household?”

This was clearly a scam—of the crude kind, the kind that panics and flees at the first sign the employer might call the police.

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

“The curse from ten years ago was almost certainly fake. This time… it’s uncertain.”

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 in at most fifty minutes and report me to the Special Affairs Bureau. We can wait here fifty minutes until they arrive.”

A system alert 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 anomalies, and Miss Bai Zhi sensed no curse traces, we’ll still follow standard procedures for abnormal events.”

Yuan Zhixia, posing as 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 in Wudun Town too?】

“It’s not as high-end as you think. Mid-tier players can achieve similar effects using Shadow Realm and barriers. My boss and a colleague can do it easily.”

Blood plasma, meat pulp, 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 evenly.

“I know—but what if?” Feng Youyun, having consulted the Special Affairs Bureau before hiring the four players, whispered cautiously: “The Bureau has records of similar incidents—even before the Killing Fields appeared, there were strange, unexplainable anomalies nobody could clarify.”

————

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 normal. Feng’s wife’s condition also improved markedly; she lived peacefully for two or three years in the villa, then passed away peacefully in her sleep.

As the car drove along the 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 Chosen Ones. Ordinary wealthy bosses facing such supernatural events easily panicked and made reckless choices.

The night passed without incident. The four players took turns guarding the hallway, encountering nothing strange. Little Feng didn’t have nightmares, and Little Feng’s grandson showed no unexplained bruises.

“It’s probably the entity creating this barrier that killed Zhao Xinglang.”

“There are some—but rarely. The probability is like an ordinary person winning the lottery on their first try.”

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

You Anjian said: “The timing doesn’t match.”

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

A distant rumble of thunder woke the crying infant. Little Feng and his wife frantically rummaged through bags, grabbing pacifiers and bottles.

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

You Anjian casually said, 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, 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 guarding the hallway. What do you say?”

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.

It’s probably already too late.

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

After answering, the voice on the other end was extremely noisy, as if under 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, safe from anomalies.

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

You Anjian asked: “By the way, Mr. Feng—where is the child you adopted from your enemy’s family?”

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

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

Li Cheng chatted casually with Yuan Zhixia 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.

【Task Name: Defy Heaven, Alter Fate】

This parchment was called the 【Shadow Realm Scroll】, a popular item from Loushi Street, Rare quality, consumable. Its effect: pull the surrounding environment into the Shadow Realm.

Uh, if you’re happy, then fine.

Earning 240 game coins in two days, Li Cheng treated it as a company-funded trip, gazing out the window at the Jiangnan water towns along the way.

Li Cheng and the other two followed Little Feng’s family, driving an SUV into town.

“Hello? Hello?”

Feng said: “This child has a kind heart—he won’t harm the family.”

You Anjian shook his head. “A normal ghost wall can’t achieve such scale, let alone block the system’s friend communication function.”

Marry early, have children early—fewer worries. That was Feng’s thinking. Their family had hundreds of millions waiting to be inherited.

This was understandable. In scenario missions, players could be assassins or tyrants—but back in the real world, they still had lives and jobs.

Some players, even with hundreds or thousands of game coins, still worked in factories tightening screws, guarding malls, or driving Didi cabs—to ease the survival pressure from the Killing Fields.

Waking up, the Feng family all seemed in good spirits. After breakfast, Feng organized corporate materials for the World Internet Conference inside the villa. The burly black man 【Wang Beipo】 stayed behind to guard her.

“Xinglang is different. When his father jumped, he’d already poisoned him with pesticide, trying to kill him. He was revived, but ever since, he’s been silent, withdrawn, avoiding social interaction. I told him to study business management, but he refused. So I let him live here permanently.”

You Anjian sneered: “That Jianghu fairy—do you still have his contact info? Did you pay him at all?”

You Anjian silently scoffed inside but said nothing.

“Blocking the system?” Bai Zhi gasped. “What level would it take? Lv30? Lv40?”

The parchment tore—nothing happened. Clearly, this place had formed a barrier that forbade the coexistence of the Shadow Realm.

“Wudun Town is the first place in the nation to implement cutting-edge internet tech: autonomous driving, drone food delivery, smart waste sorting, plus the most advanced meteorological system—including radiation monitoring, wind energy tracking, real-time 3D lightning localization…”

Bai Zhi whispered: “Mr. Feng, your grandson’s symptom is unexplained bruising—what about your son?”

Yuan Zhixia? What’s she doing here?

After hearing Feng’s account, You Anjian adjusted his round glasses and said slowly: “Mr. Feng, you know about the Killing Fields, right?”

【Reward 2: 500 Game Coins】

【Task Type: Mandatory (Team)】

【Hmm, there’s a protection-related commission.】

The phone had no signal. GPS failed. Worse—the car had already reversed over a kilometer, far beyond the length of the shaded road—but still no sight of the external highway.

According to Fu Jirong, Little Feng was conceived via IVF at a private hospital funded by the Feng family—Little Feng was healthy as a child until age twelve, when he developed a persistent fever, after which his health plummeted.

An adopted son is still a son. The friend who cursed him wouldn’t kill his own biological child too, would he?

Feng shook his head. “The ritual tools, incantations, incense fees—all added up to about 800,000. The fairy was recommended by a friend of a friend. I never contacted him again. I don’t even know his name or address.”

“Boom—”

“We’re trapped.”

“Xinglang… dead?!” Little Feng was still reeling. He suddenly snapped back, excitedly shouting: “My father—my father’s still in the villa!”

You Anjian, behind the wheel, glanced at the young couple and asked casually: “You two married early?”

“You’ve already met him—he’s the butler here, Zhao Xinglang.”

“The curse was cast ten years ago. Your wife died seven years ago. But it wasn’t until four and a half years ago, when the Killing Fields descended, that anomalies—ghosts, curses, cultivators—began appearing on Earth.”

Li Cheng thought for a moment, then sent her a friend request: 【You’re in Wudun Town?】

Li Cheng glanced at his communication interface with Yuan Zhixia—brightly displayed: 【Friend Communication Temporarily Unavailable】

He paused, puzzled: “But since returning home these past two days, he hasn’t had similar nightmares.”

【Task Time Limit: 50 Minutes】

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

【Reward 4: Random Skill Scroll ×1, Quality Based on Completion Rating】

【Task Failure Penalty: Next Task Becomes a Punishment Task】

(End of Chapter)