Era of Magic and Martial Arts

Chapter 394 - 378: The Living God

"I... I’ll be right back."

Li Shang struggled to speak, his emotions fairly calm.

He hung up the phone and immediately dialed Chang Erbing’s number: "Bring people to my house right away, hurry!"

Chang Erbing on the other end heard the urgency in his tone, quickly agreed, hung up the phone, and went to arrange.

Though he’d only met Feng Mu once, Li Shang had a deep impression of him, especially after Chen Yang’s charred corpse and the unexpected death case he just heard about over the phone.

All of these deepened his impression of Feng Mu—ruthless, vengeful, lawless, an extremely dangerous madman.

And such a madman suddenly appeared at his home without any warning, he couldn’t help but let his mind run wild.

The car sped through the night, the dashboard’s glow casting Li Shang’s face in a ghastly green.

The tires splashed through the puddles, sending up a spray, raindrops urgently drummed against the car roof, as if sounding an alarm for something unknown to come.

Half an hour later, the car stopped downstairs, Li Shang pushed open the car door, and walked quickly into the stairwell.

The elevator was too slow, he couldn’t wait, so he took the stairs.

The stairwell lights were broken, darkness like a thick liquid, silently enveloping him.

Only a bit of dim light coming through the window barely illuminated the steps beneath his feet.

His soles thudded heavily against the stairs, echoing in the empty stairwell, each step felt particularly heavy, as if he was stepping not on solid concrete but an invisible mire.

Finally, he stopped at his front door, the security door tightly locked, with good soundproofing, it was eerily quiet inside, as if... there was no living person there.

Cold sweat seeped from Li Shang’s palm, the slippery feel made him unconsciously wipe his palm on his pants, trying to steady his emotions.

Li Shang took a deep breath, trying to calm his breathing, forcing himself to be calm.

The moment his fingers gripped the door handle, he could clearly feel his heartbeat thundering in his eardrums.

"Bang!"

The door was flung open by him, the dull sound of the impact echoing inside the room, carrying a sense of urgency even he hadn’t realized.

However, what greeted him was not the chaos or danger he had imagined—no scent of blood, no corpses, no smell of burning, there were no headless bodies, everything was unusually quiet.

Only the ceiling light in the living room cast a soft light, and a faint tea aroma enveloped the room in a sense of serene passage of time.

Li Shang slightly breathed a sigh of relief, his gaze sweeping over the living room, spotting Feng Mu sitting on the sofa, expression calm, gaze gentle, like an old friend waiting for the host to return.

"Back?"

His wife saw Li Shang standing at the door and hurried to greet him, deftly helping him take off his rain-soaked coat.

But Li Shang did not respond, merely staring silently at Feng Mu on the sofa, eyes cold as frost.

Then, he turned to his wife, speaking in a low voice:

"Go to the bedroom, I have something to discuss with him."

His wife sensed something was amiss from Li Shang’s tone, dared not ask any questions, nodded obediently, and went into the bedroom, closing the door.

"Captain Li, you’re back."

Feng Mu finally spoke, slowly standing up, slightly nodding, his tone as peaceful as if greeting an old friend.

His face bore that signature mild smile, gently elegant and seemingly harmless.

Such a smile might lower the guard of those who don’t know him, even fostering some goodwill.

But Li Shang, with a detective’s eye, easily saw through that this smile was nothing but a mask of hypocrisy, a carefully crafted [Mask].

Behind it concealed not warmth, but the cold, lethal cruelty of a predator.

"Feng Mu," Li Shang coldly spoke, his eyes slightly narrowed, voice filled with intense alertness, "What are you doing here? Are you alone?"

Feng Mu still maintained his calm smile, his tone as relaxed as making small talk:

"Captain Li has a lot on his plate. You once cleared my name with your keen insight. Didn’t I say before that I must thank you in person when I get the chance?"

Feng Mu’s tone was unhurried, carrying an inpenetrable composure, seemingly ignoring the cold and guarded tone in Li Shang’s voice.

What made Li Shang even more uneasy was—Feng Mu only answered his first question, lightly sidestepping the more critical second one.

In just two sentences, Li Shang felt an indescribable sense of oppression.

His gaze swept over the window, the rainy night as dark as ink, the street lights’ glow blurred, no one knew how many wicked plots lurked in the darkness.

"You really are thoughtful."

Li Shang sneered, but his eyes swiftly swept towards something on the coffee table.

On the table sat a black briefcase, its surface smooth, the case itself solid.

Feng Mu noticed his gaze, his smile deepening a bit.

Leisurely, he sat back down on the sofa, gently tapping the case lid with his fingers, producing a "thud-thud" sound.

Then, Feng Mu deliberately slowed his movements, his fingers gently resting on the clasp, with a slight force, the lid slowly opened, revealing a crack.

Golden light streamed through the gap, like a deity imprisoned had finally found a fissure to escape.

The light greedily licked every corner of the room, dyeing the white walls with golden leaf of a sanctuary, plating the worn sofa into a throne, even the dust floating in the air transformed into golden stardust.

From Mendeleev’s periodic table of elements, it was merely the metal with atomic number 79, density 19.32g/cm³, melting point 1064.18°C, absolutely cold and dead.

But in the long river of human history, it was the ever-living deity, stained with blood, coated in flesh, devouring souls across countless epochs.

Countless followers offered their lives for it, without a second thought to dying for it.

Yes, gold is the true deity worshiped by countless humans since ancient times, imprinted into human genes from the Ancient Era onward.

Li Shang looked at those neatly lined-up Small Yellow Croakers in the case, instantly feeling as if being watched by a deity, his soul subjected to an unprecedented interrogation.

The coldness in his pupils silently melted away, replaced by the scorching heat of 1064.18°C.

He knew Feng Mu was a dangerous madman, and this case of gold was absolutely burdensome, yet the words to send him off just wouldn’t come out of his mouth.

Who could refuse inviting a deity into their home?

Even knowing a deity might bring trouble, but offering one’s life to a deity isn’t that the wish of believers?

Li Shang gritted his teeth, with difficulty tearing his gaze away from the gold, then looking at Feng Mu, his voice somewhat hoarse, as if he’d swallowed a piece of Small Yellow Croaker:

"What are you doing?"

Feng Mu looked at Li Shang, his smile never wavering:

"Captain Li, this is my small token of goodwill, I have no other requests, just hope to make friends with you, and gold is the symbol of friendship, it never betrays or rusts.

It represents my good wishes. I hope our friendship can be as unbreakable as gold, from the very beginning, don’t you think so?"