Chapter 10 A Decade

Ten years seems like a very long time, at least in the eyes of the public. Ten years ago and ten years later represent two completely different concepts, like the beginning and end of a great river.

But if you say it's long,

sometimes it doesn't seem that long.

Many people lower their heads and recall what they were doing and where they were ten years ago, and they are often shocked!

Ah, ten years, just like that?

So fast.

Especially at this moment, if you, like the scholar before you, use your last ten years as fuel and light a fire;

in reality, it only burns for a short while.

Not durable,

really not durable.

The fire is still burning, but it has already passed its most frenzied peak.

The middle-aged man continued to sit where he was. He was not afraid of the karma fire; he even ignored it.

A ruined City God, an old friend from the past,

pleaded with his life.

He accepted it.

In any case, the scholar didn't have many years left to live,

so why not let him die in a way that he himself considered brilliant, worthwhile, and great.

Just like a thousand years ago,

when the Netherworld had just changed,

when groups of City Gods rose up in rebellion,

they were brave, they were fearless, and they formed the largest group of rebels since the founding of the Netherworld.

Of course,

the final outcome

was like the karma fire surrounding him now,

burning brightly,

but before long,

it would be silent.

The City Gods, once under the jurisdiction of Mount Tai, perhaps because this group was primarily composed of local heroic spirits, retained the kind of courage lost by the bureaucrats in hell, who were steeped in officialdom.

When everyone was silent, when everyone chose to acquiesce, when everyone numbly watched the changing banners on the city walls,

they rebelled.

Not all City Gods rebelled,

some chose to cower, some chose to watch, and some chose to continue to "defend their territory."

Some, like cowards, hid after other City Gods charged forward, afraid to show their faces, just like the City God of Tong City.

Some continued as before, protecting the local feng shui, and did not participate in the riot back then.

But regardless, the City Gods were indeed the largest group that initially resisted the founding of the Netherworld!

Therefore, after suppressing the City God rebellion, as far as the Ten Kings of Hell and even the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva were concerned, everyone else could be slowly bled with soft knives, allowing the vast body of the Netherworld to fall into chronic death.

But only,

towards the City God system,

the Netherworld adopted a policy of heavy pressure.

Even the City Gods who had not participated in the rebellion, whether they were afraid of death or held different beliefs and continued to defend their territory, were subjected to indiscriminate suppression.

The Netherworld wanted to erase the existence of this system, as if they had never existed.

The middle-aged man once noticed

that the scholar had not participated in the rebellion.

Among the countless figures of City Gods charging into the Yellow Springs Road towards the Heavenly Palace,

he didn't see the scholar.

At that time,

he was slightly relieved.

Then,

he struck.

The newly established Netherworld and the newly crowned Ten Kings of Hell needed blood to prove themselves.

They succeeded.

He originally thought that after a thousand years, at this moment, with this opportunity, he could put down his status, and 'he' should also be able to put down his status.

Everyone could sit down,

just like in the past,

chat,

talk.

He knew that 'he' didn't have much time left,

'he' himself also knew that he didn't have much time left.

He could see 'him' off,

recall the past,

and say goodbye.

His status did not allow him to leave hell at will, so coming up once was not easy.

But he didn't expect

this to be the end.

The middle-aged man felt a little bored. The playmate who was once interesting enough to travel with him had become so boring and dull.

Perhaps 'he' had changed a long time ago, but he had always held on to a little fantasy about 'him'.

Ten years,

wouldn't it be better to sneak home for a look?

To actually be so extravagant as to burn it.

It was like when 'he' said he liked the vastness here, liked the whistling wind, liked the snow, liked the black earth,

and then,

'he' got sick,

'he' was buried here.

It seemed that 'he' hadn't changed after all,

from beginning to end,

he was so sentimental.

The middle-aged man shook his head,

but suddenly remembered something.

He turned his head to look at the pile of leaves outside his black halo.

My batteries!

…………

Flags shouldn't be randomly set.

After they are,

even if nothing happens, you'll feel uneasy.

Lawyer An felt a bit uneasy at the moment,

but he was too embarrassed to go back after not having collected many wild vegetables and mushrooms, so he continued to walk and pick on the outskirts.

Damn it,

this thought seemed to be the idea of a cannon fodder character in a ghost story, deliberately venturing into danger for the sake of face and then becoming the first to die, serving the purpose of warning the protagonist and setting the atmosphere for the opening.

Lawyer An really didn't understand, as a member of the Late Night Bookstore, why Xu Qinglang would watch ghost stories when he had nothing to do?

You are surrounded by ghosts, with hardly any living people, and you still watch ghost stories. What's the point?

But when he remembered that he had also discovered that his boss and Yingying had excitedly watched the entire series of zombie movies starring Lin Zhengying,

ha,

Lawyer An suddenly understood Xu Qinglang.

"A little girl picking mushrooms, walking barefoot on the frozen soil..."

Lawyer An hummed a song while continuing to pick mushrooms.

Anyway, there's no one around,

he can be as flamboyant as he wants.

He picked for about half an hour,

estimating that it was almost enough to go with that pig head to get rid of the greasiness.

Lawyer An decided to return to camp, no matter what, he had to reunite with the main force first.

But,

just as Lawyer An turned around,

suddenly,

in front of him and to the side,

a cluster of bright yellow light rose up.

Forest fire?

That was Lawyer An's first thought,

but then, the pure and fragrant smell that spread out

made Lawyer An suddenly realize,

damn it,

it's karma fire!

Lawyer An was very familiar with this stuff recently. Geng Chen liked to use karma fire when designing traps, and the two of them had even used it to kill two members of the enforcement team in Yangzhou.

This stuff was very useful, especially for ghosts. It was simply a weapon for destroying ghosts!

It's just that the karma fire Geng Chen made at the beginning, compared to the grand scene in front of him, was like the difference between a firecracker and a Patriot missile.

"Damn it, Old Xu really guessed right."

Lawyer An hurried to pack up the mushrooms.

He was too lazy to run to the other side of the fire to check the situation. A strong curiosity was also a significant characteristic of cannon fodder who died at the beginning of ghost stories.

Lawyer An didn't want to be cannon fodder, so he wouldn't go!

He ran straight towards the camp!

However,

as he ran,

Lawyer An had to stop again.

He realized he was running in circles.

This wasn't being ghosted, nor was someone attacking him. It was because the terrifying karma fire, after burning, distorted many things here, such as... people's senses.

Just like the heat waves formed when ordinary flames burn can cause people's vision to refract,

the effect of karma fire was even more terrifying.

Lawyer An didn't dare to continue running. In this situation, if he ran around randomly, there was a high possibility of the worst-case scenario, which was to run directly to the scene of the incident in a daze.

He simply squatted down,

holding the mushrooms in his arms,

not daring to use any other methods to break through the distortion here, for fear of attracting attention from certain parties, quietly waiting for this effect to dissipate, responding to all changes with constancy.

Waiting, waiting,

waiting for about five minutes,

Lawyer An closed his eyes and felt it, estimating that it should be about right, and then got up again, aimed in the right direction, and prepared to slip away.

But at this moment,

Lawyer An heard a "da da da" sound,

very, very close to him.

It was like something was tapping on his heartstrings.

Lawyer An had to admit,

as a ghost,

he was frightened.

It wasn't that Lawyer An was timid,

it was purely because the paving effect of the terrifying fire earlier was too good.

He didn't continue to run away.

If it's a blessing, it's not a curse. If it's a curse, you can't avoid it.

Lawyer An slowly turned around.

Who on earth was it?

Then,

Lawyer An was stunned.

He saw a middle-aged man with a slightly odd sense of fashion sitting on a small mound behind him,

holding two large batteries in his hand and constantly banging them together.

What,

there's a familiar feeling,

we seem to have met somewhere before, do you remember?

Lawyer An felt a little pain in his head.

He really didn't remember who this man was. There was a inexplicable sense of familiarity, yet it was completely illogical.

The middle-aged man also discovered Lawyer An. He turned his face, looked at Lawyer An, and frowned slightly. Honestly, he was also a little surprised.

This guy who wanted to take him to a brothel the first time they met,

how did he run into him again?

It really was,

haunting;

the middle-aged man frowned.

Was he cursing himself too?

Lawyer An couldn't sense any aura from the other party. He was as ordinary as an ordinary person.

But would ordinary people run to the deserted old forest in the middle of the night to play with batteries?

Then,

who exactly was this person in front of him?

The scene had changed,

from a barbecue stall to an old forest,

but one thing hadn't changed,

and that was Lawyer An's fondness for the person in front of him!

Everyone has their own advantages and characteristics. Lawyer An's characteristic was like having sensors all over his body, sensing all the "big shots" that existed around him.

The middle-aged man knew that he shouldn't remember him,

this… commoner.

However,

what surprised the middle-aged man was

that the other party walked over again.

Not as proactive as he was at the barbecue stall, sitting next to him,

this time he kept a little distance,

slightly respectful, slightly curious, slightly restrained,

and with three parts of inexplicable affection:

"What are you doing here so late?

Are you cold?

Are you tired?

Are you hungry?"