Chapter 1 The Beginning

"I'm already here, what's the use of telling me this crap? Hurry up and tell your story. If I can untangle your knot, I won't have to die here with you." I urged impatiently.

I, Wan Qian, am not someone who likes to meddle in other people's business. If those people really have grudges against you, I can't control whether you seek revenge on them. If you think your sins are too heavy and you want to commit suicide, I can't control that either. But, if you want to drag me down with you, no one can accept that.

There's no need to say I shouldn't have come. I'm already here, whether I should have or not. You have the instinct to survive, and so do I. I don't want to die, so hurry up and tell me your story.

Ding Kan wasn't too resistant to my request. After all, he wasn't planning on living any longer anyway. How uncomfortable would it be to keep a secret in his heart? To have someone willing to listen to him before he died was me doing him a favor.

"Telling my story is no problem, but you have to tell me, how did you know I released the ghosts? I think my plan was pretty thorough, designed quite reasonably. No matter who investigates, in the end, it will all look like an accident. Why did you suspect me?" Ding Kan looked at me with a face full of confusion.

I rubbed my face and said, "To you, it might be seamless, but to me, there are many loopholes."

"Oh? Tell me about them."

"First of all, most of the people you attracted with the live stream were cultivators with considerable Daoist power, some with very high levels. But I didn't recognize a single one of them.

This is Hua City. I've been in this city since high school, for eight whole years. Although I'm a bit of a loner, always holed up in Funeral Street, and I don't have much contact with the local Yin-Yang circle's celebrities, we're still in the same city. I've at least heard of the more famous ones. Even if I haven't met them in person, I've seen their photos. It's impossible to be completely unfamiliar with them.

But this time, so many profound cultivators squeezed in front of the Heavenly Master's Mansion, and I hadn't heard of a single one of them. Obviously, they weren't locals.

The Heavenly Master's Mansion in Hua City had a big commotion, but not a single local cultivator came to see the excitement. All the people who came were from out of town, and their accents were very similar. Most of the cars came from the same region. That made me very suspicious.

There are many people in this world who like to watch the excitement, but to run so far to watch, that's a bit odd. And to arrive just in time for the most exciting part, that's too coincidental, right? Even if they were watching the live stream, they would have had to set off in advance, wouldn't they?

Secondly, there's Old Zhao, who lives across from my house. I was stuck in traffic and couldn't get in, so I called Old Zhao. I wanted to ask him what the situation was like, but Old Zhao told me that his car was even further back than mine and he definitely couldn't get in, so he simply went back.

Old Zhao set off much earlier than me, and there's only one road to the Heavenly Master's Mansion. There's no reason for him to be behind me. Something must have delayed him. But what could have delayed him? He was single-mindedly watching the excitement, so he obviously wouldn't have distracted himself with anything else. He must have encountered something on the road."

"That's right, everything you said is correct." Ding Kan said directly, "I tricked those people here using various methods. The big commotion at the Heavenly Master's Mansion was just a means for me to attract people. I also used many other methods. I also opened a live stream.

In order to gather all my enemies, I put in a lot of effort and used many tricks to eliminate those who weren't related to my revenge. Those in the Heavenly Master's Mansion who didn't have a grudge against me were lured away with other matters. Those who came to watch the fun on the road were also trapped by ghost walls.

Because the plan was meticulous, it basically didn't hurt any innocents. The only accident was you.

Sorry, Wan Qian, I have to have you die here with me. If your cultivation was a little weaker, I might have been able to play some tricks to keep your car out of my ambush zone, but unfortunately, you're more powerful than I thought. My tricks didn't work on you at all. So, Old Zhao was blocked outside, left in a huff, and escaped the disaster, while you can only die here with me.

But I still don't understand. Just based on these things, how did you figure out that I released the ghosts? Even if you could see that these things were meticulously planned, you couldn't see that I was the one who planned them. I was apprenticing, arranging challenges for you, and helping Qin Tianming investigate the female Feng Shui master. I've been diligently acting all along. There's no reason for you to see through me, right? Could it be that my acting skills aren't good enough, that I'm not hidden deep enough?"

"No, your acting skills are good enough, and you're hidden deep enough. Before you made your move, I didn't notice anything at all. I even seriously considered how to deal with that challenge. The reason I suspected you was because you were the only one who survived."

Ding Kan laughed self-deprecatingly, "It seems I really shouldn't have survived. If I hadn't survived, my plan would have been seamless, and it could have become a perfect revenge."

"People are really strange. Why did I rush out? Why didn't I just let the ghosts bite me to death? That way, everything would have been clean."

"Didn't you already say the reason? It's because of the instinct to survive. When you know danger is coming, not many people can sit and wait for death, especially not someone like you. You've never been someone who would sit idly by."

Ding Kan smiled even more mockingly, "Just because of that? Wan Qian, do you really think you understand me that well?"

I said, "I've never thought that I already understand you. People are the most complex and difficult animals to understand, and you're a very storied and complex person. Of course, I wouldn't dare say I understand you. I'm just a clear-headed bystander.

If you don't think the reason of survival instinct is sufficient, I can add another point for you.

You haven't died yet. It's not that you don't plan to die. You fought your way out of the Heavenly Master's Mansion because your enemies haven't all died yet. You haven't seen the victorious scene of revenge, so you can't die."

"Now that I've seen it, they're all dead. Why haven't I died yet? Have I suddenly become greedy for life and afraid of death again?" Ding Kan looked at me seriously, not questioning me, but seriously asking me.

Now, his entire soul is caught in the vortex of revenge. He can't even see himself clearly anymore. He needs me to help him see what his heart is really like.

I suddenly smiled, "They've all become ghosts, and you haven't immediately gone to die because of me. If I hadn't appeared, you would have died long ago."

"Wan Qian, you really think highly of yourself."