novelraw Chapter 1269
Chapter 1269
Humans have the human realm, demons have the Demon World, ghosts have the ghost realm… it should have been like that.
But in this world, humans, demons, and ghosts coexist. What humans don’t know is that those fantastical beings live right beside them… simply because they hide themselves well, and carefully follow certain rules.
The sudden prohibition on using powers had no impact on humans… but the demons living and working in the city were so terrified that many collapsed on the ground.
Most demons chose nighttime jobs. Fewer humans were active at night, so the chance of exposure was low. And late hours made it easier for them to absorb moonlight essence.
The clash of two gigantic demonic auras more than an hour ago frightened every demon active in the city, making them too scared to take even a single step. Then they discovered they had completely lost the ability to use their powers.
The only thing to be thankful for was that the prohibition did not undo their human disguises.
But losing their abilities still terrified them. Before long, many ‘human-shaped’ creatures gathered behind the pet hospital—the back door, of course.
【Gathering Herbs】
These two words pasted onto the back door made the demons feel something was very off. Although Lord Long often went out to gather herbs from time to time—normally nothing unusual—it just had to happen on such a bizarre night.
“Let’s go. It looks like this strange phenomenon is only happening in this city…” A demon adjusted his glasses. “I just called a cousin in another province. Nothing’s happening over there.”“Yeah, I asked my concubine in a nearby village too—everything’s normal… luckily she’s pregnant with our second. I sent her there to rest. Who knows if this would affect the baby…”
“Even spirit bodies don’t seem to be affected.”
Besides demons, there were wandering ghosts. Most ghosts dissipate within seven days after death, consumed by the world’s strong yang energy. Only those in extremely yin-heavy places or those who died with huge resentment would turn into fierce ghosts and survive their ‘first seven days,’ lingering in the world.
“But this king feel like I’m stuck in mud—this king can’t even pass through walls anymore!”
The speaker was a fierce ghost living in one of the city’s infamous haunted houses—though it called itself ‘this king,’ it was just a ghost of a few decades. Even Fengdu City wouldn’t take it in.
“You long-lived types, you’ve seen a lot. Any ideas?”
“No idea! You young ones think old folks know everything! Ridiculous!”
“Bah!”
The demons and ghosts gradually dispersed—still anxious, but they learned from various sources that once outside the city limits, everything returned to normal. So they weren’t panicking to death.
Worst case, they could just move away. They stayed here only because the True Dragon resided here, making it more free than other cities. But being under the True Dragon’s watchful eye also meant you couldn’t do anything bad.
So many demons living here were dog-type or otherwise weak-bodied species—the so-called peace-seeking mutts.
The truly vicious ones would never choose to live here…
“If abilities never come back, wouldn’t that mean humans, demons, and ghosts all have to live normally here?”
The thought flashed across many supernatural minds. Oddly enough, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. They wouldn’t accidentally reveal their real bodies, and although they couldn’t use demonic energy, their physical strength remained far above humans. Those with heavy labor jobs were completely unaffected.
“What’s really strange is that… we can still cultivate. What is this supposed to mean??”
They could still absorb moonlight essence to slowly recover demonic energy… and the world’s spiritual energy was normal too. In fact, because of the Mount Tai spiritual burst, spiritual energy had been growing stronger recently.
They simply couldn’t understand it. But some sharper ghosts realized another truth:
“This place just turned into a safe zone!” The glasses-wearing demon—who once studied economics at a human university—said, “Property prices are going to soar!”
Shortly after, he decisively invested all his family assets, bought land in the suburbs, built a massive hotel, and named it: Peace Grand Hotel.
But that was later.
---
Cheng Yun paced anxiously—he was in the underground chamber of Chen Er’s villa.
Chen Er truly knew some eerie, unorthodox arts. The basement was dark and ominous, with many strange-looking idols. He himself stood at the ritual altar holding a wooden sword, wearing a yellow Taoist robe—except underneath he was only wearing large boxer shorts, which ruined the atmosphere.
Cheng Yun didn’t dare interrupt him muttering incantations. He glanced at Zhong Luochen lying on the ritual platform.
Zhong Luochen’s clothes had been removed—only underwear remained. The blood on the chest cavity wound had been cleaned, but that only made the horrifying hole more obvious. With a wound like that, how could anyone survive?
Chen Er had written strange symbols all over his body with cinnabar. An eerie chill filled the air… but this was an enclosed basement with no windows. Where was the wind coming from?
“...Heavenly spirits, earthly spirits, Zhong family’s second son, named Luochen, born in the year of Wuchen, month of Jiazi, day of Xinyou, hour of Hai—return at once!”
Chen Er spat a mouthful of blood onto the wooden sword, then thrust the tip onto Zhong Luochen’s forehead.
Cheng Yun couldn’t see the occult workings. He only saw Chen Er shout again, then lift the sword. He grabbed a small cloth pouch from the altar.
The bag suddenly began swelling as if something were flowing into it. In moments it ballooned. Chen Er quickly tied it shut with a red string.
Now pale and sweating, he slumped against the altar and said weakly, “It’s done… I called him back.”
“Young Master… is inside that?” Cheng Yun swallowed hard, staring at the cloth bag—Chen Er called it the Universe Pouch.
“You don’t trust me?” Chen Er snorted.
“No—Master Chen, that’s not what I meant… it’s just… I can’t see anything…”
Chen Er waved him over. “Come here. I’ll temporarily open your yin-yang eyes. Mortals can’t see spirits.”
“Huh? Open my yin-yang eyes? But…”
“Relax, it’s only temporary. You’re not a natural spirit-seer.” Chen Er said calmly. “And I won’t do it for you every time. Your Young Master’s soul has returned, but he’s muddled and weak. He’ll need to be nourished with yin energy daily. After some time he’ll recover consciousness. For now, he’s just a little ghost.”
“Having a ghost is better than having nothing…” Cheng Yun shivered.
Chen Er glanced at him, then said, “That’s right. Having a ghost is better than nothing. He can’t return to life, but making him appear before humans someday… isn’t impossible.”
“There… there’s still a way?” Cheng Yun asked urgently. “Master, don’t lie to me!”
“Let him receive the incense of ten thousand families and, as a ghost, cultivate a golden body.” Chen Er rubbed his temples and said solemnly, “My master once told me that a ghost can use this method to become a peculiar kind of ghost-immortal. But receiving the incense of ten thousand families is extremely difficult. Incense offerings aren’t just about burning sticks of incense — the believers must worship devoutly, gathering the collective will of the masses. And it takes a long time. When the golden body is finally achieved, it will attract a heavenly tribulation. If he can’t survive it, his soul will truly be scattered with no chance of reincarnation. Not even a Great Luo Golden Immortal could save him!”
“Having a way is better than having no way at all…” Cheng Yun took a deep breath. “Master Chen, help me open my Yin-Yang Eyes first. Let me see the Young Master…”
Chen Er said no more. He picked up some willow leaves, lit a talisman, burned it into talisman water, dipped the leaves into it, and smeared Cheng Yun’s eyelids.
Of course, this would do nothing for an ordinary person — it needed a bit of magic power infused into it. Chen Er had trained under Huang Qifa and had only learned superficial bits of everything, except for diligently cultivating his magic strength. But he had no natural talent for such arts, so his magic had always been barely usable — just enough to open someone’s Yin-Yang Eyes. Yet in the past month, his once negligible magic had unexpectedly made a breakthrough, allowing him to develop a small trace of real magical power — otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to perform the soul-summoning ritual earlier.
“Alright, try talking to your Young Master.” Chen Er finished smearing the eyelids. “I’m tired. I’ll go shower and rest.”
“Wait… Master, I don’t see anything at all!”
Chen Er, halfway up the stairs, paused and frowned. He walked back and rubbed Cheng Yun’s eyes again with the willow leaves, chanting. “This time it should work.”
“…I still can’t see.”
Unwilling to accept it, Chen Er kept rubbing. “How about now?”
“Can’t see!!”
“And now? Can you see anything?”
“No…”
“Damn… again! Come on, look! Do you feel anything?”
“I feel it! Master, my eyes hurt — because you’re rubbing them raw! I get it now, you’re a fraud!”
“No, something’s wrong! Where’s my magic power?!”
Chen Er lowered his head, thinking for a long moment, before slowly saying, “It must be that the soul-summoning drained all my magic. Give me a few days to recover! I really did summon your Young Master — if you hug this Universe Pouch tonight and think of him, he should appear to you in a dream.”
He tossed the Universe Pouch at Cheng Yun… who could only catch it half-heartedly.
…
…
Only half the building remained… huge chunks of concrete piled across the ground — a scene straight out of a post-earthquake disaster.
In the pitch-black basement levels, the original research facility had been completely destroyed. Everything was sealed off… even the emergency lights had died.
A space of pure darkness.
At that moment, a massive black cocoon slowly emerged from the deepest level — sensing a tremendous approaching danger during Wang Hu and Heishui’s battle, he had ignored the fate of the research personnel and burrowed underground to complete his body transformation.
The body replacement process had gone unexpectedly smoothly — so smooth it exceeded even 24’s expectations. This bald young man’s body was practically a perfect vessel crafted specifically for consciousness transfer.
He effortlessly wiped out the young man’s faint consciousness and officially took over the body — and to his pleasant surprise, this vessel contained far greater potential than he had originally detected.
If his original body in his sub-world was the pinnacle of the “mage” path, then this one had the potential to reach the peak of the “warrior” path.
…Was he really going to walk the “low-tier magic-and-martial-dual-cultivation” route?
He slowly opened his eyes — and at that moment, the black cocoon dissolved.
Mr. 24 blinked, froze, and then gradually realized… The joy of acquiring a new vessel vanished instantly.
Because… his body was stuck!
Wedged in the concrete. Unable to move.
24 despairingly discovered that although this new body was strong, it was not strong enough to break free from the cement. Even worse, he couldn’t use his power!
After struggling for several minutes, the immortal sorcerer from another sub-world uttered his first words in his new body:
“…Help.”
…
…
“…At 1:49 AM today, a localized earthquake occurred on XX Road…”
In the morning, Auntie Ren held a cup in one hand and a toothbrush in the other, staring at the morning news without blinking — she rushed out of the bathroom as soon as she heard the report.
“What the— was there an earthquake last night?”
She hadn’t felt anything upon waking.
“Morning… Sister Ren.” Li Zi dragged herself out of her room, hugging a pillow, sporting heavy dark circles under her eyes.
“What happened to you? Did you stay up stealing things all night?”
“Last night…” Li Zi gave a weak laugh — she couldn’t possibly explain that she hid under her blanket and the more she tried to sleep, the more she couldn’t. “I’m starving. I need to recharge or I’ll die. Only good food can heal my frightened soul… So, breakfast?”
“Oh, none today. Luo Qiu left early. There are some biscuits in the cupboard; just make do.”
“Unbelievable! There isn’t even a bakery downstairs!!!” Li Zi stomped, tossing her pillow to the ground. “I’m moving out!!”
Auntie Ren ripped open a wafer package and tossed it—
Li Zi leapt and caught it with her mouth.
“Good girl, good girl.”
(End of Chapter)