Chapter 169: Discontinuous Random Time Jump

Using his highest clearance, President George reviewed and cross-referenced all of the Black Cross Exorcism Company's past clients and commissions. He quickly found a similar case: "In 2022, in a small town in the southern United States, the townsfolk dreamed of something unclean. Upon waking, they uniformly adopted a posture with one hand pointing to the sky and the other to the ground. They adamantly believed that a luminous Awakened One from the East was about to descend and thoroughly purify this world of suffering.

"The local church considered this a supernatural incident. However, under the First Amendment, citizens have freedom of belief. They could only maintain continuous surveillance on the town to determine if further anomalies occurred.

"Three days later, all the residents of the town died in an extreme, morbid state of bliss, wearing twisted, bizarre smiles.

"This event was named the Blairwood Town Incident, or alternatively, the Buddha Incident.

"The town and all related files were completely sealed. No one investigated further."

Of course, the main reason was that everyone in the town had died. Even if the exorcism company wanted to pursue the investigation, there would be no client left to pay the commission.

The Black Cross Exorcism Company was a profit-driven organization. With no commission to earn, no ghost hunter would be foolish enough to accept the mission.

"In 2023, at a small temple in Japan," George continued. "At the start of the new year, when tourists went up the mountain to pray for blessings, they discovered over twenty monks sitting together in a circle, all dead.

"Similarly, before they died, they pointed one hand to the sky and the other to the ground, wearing blissful smiles. Their bodies were highly decomposed, with bones exposed. They had been dead for a full month.

"Strangely, for an entire week prior, witnesses saw monks coming and going from the temple. They were only discovered dead on New Year's morning. No one knew how these corpses had been able to move and live just as normally as living people for that entire month without raising suspicion.

"After gathering evidence and investigating, the local shrine classified it as a supernatural incident. The files were sealed, and in 2024, they were bundled and sold to the Black Cross Company."

Following this, incidents and files related to the birth of the Awakened One surfaced one after another in different countries. The victims all assumed the exact same posture, their faces bearing that same twisted smile.

Through AI comparison, the postures and angles of all the victims perfectly matched the Smiling Man that had appeared in Minghai City.

It remained uncertain who was the source of whom.

George said, "In mid-2025, an S-Level ghost hunter from our company named Lan suddenly vanished without a trace. Her whereabouts are still unknown.

"Her final words before disappearing were that she had seen the birth of the Awakened One, and that the world had perished in its eighty-six thousand, four hundred and fifty-first cycle, before moving toward a new life."

The highest title in the Black Cross Exorcism Company was the S-Level ghost hunter. To qualify, every single one of them had to have independently handled at least one S-Level incident.

Ghost hunters of this grade were the Black Cross Exorcism Company's most precious assets. They could take on commissions worth tens or even hundreds of millions, generating astronomical profits. The company had undoubtedly investigated why Lan had left without saying goodbye, but ultimately found nothing.

However, Senator Wilson cared nothing for this matter. The stock price of Black Cross had nothing to do with him; he was much more interested in the Awakened One.

"What exactly is an Awakened One?" he asked.

"Is this a Buddhist concept?"

George did not fully understand the ancient and obscure culture of Buddhism either, so he could only brace himself and explain, "Eastern Buddhism believes that the entire world is 'empty'—empty of people, empty of places. However, the human heart is deluded by three things: greed, anger, and ignorance. These three illusions cause all the wars, hunger, bloodshed, and conflict in this world.

"The first Awakened One, Shakyamuni, realized that the world was empty and nothing truly existed. But because people could not let go of greed, anger, and ignorance, they were deceived by false colors and desires. As a result, they became trapped in the six realms of samsara. Lifetime after lifetime, they eternally endure the exact same torment.

"I don't completely understand what these six realms of samsara are either. You can think of it as a massive time loop. The entire world is trapped in the same temporal cycle, where the exact same events repeat hundreds and thousands of times. For those trapped within it, nothing they do has any meaning.

"What the Awakened One seeks to do is to awaken the people of the world, making them realize that nothing in this world actually exists. His ultimate goal is to make everyone in the world see through their physical shells, transcend the cycle of life and death, and attain eternal silence, freedom, and perfection."

Wilson cut George off directly. "Very interesting.

"I've heard that when a person dies and becomes a ghost, it has a strong connection to their lingering obsessions from when they were alive.

"So according to your explanation, the fact that this Smiling Man in Minghai City assumed this posture after death is also related to his experiences and wishes in life?

"He wants to save people from those... six realms, that massive time loop?"

"It's still uncertain," President George said.

"But before the Smiling Man was even born, many supernatural incidents related to him had already occurred around the globe.

"If we ultimately confirm that he is the source, then this ghost's abilities are likely connected to time.

"I have already issued an emergency invitation to two S-Level ghost hunters. They've arrived at Yokota in Japan by fighter jet to observe the progression of the supernatural incident in Minghai City."

At this moment, whether in the northern or southern hemisphere, whether day or night, in Africa, the Americas, Europe, or Asia—people of different skin colors, races, and nationalities were all nervously staring at their televisions or mobile phone screens, watching the live broadcast from the skies above Minghai City.

The broadcast footage had been specially processed and heavily pixelated to prevent Meme contamination. But this did not affect the global population's focus on this battle in the slightest. Viewership had already broken past one billion, and the number was still skyrocketing.

Meanwhile, Xu Yuan had already completed countless combat simulations between the two sides in his mind.

He had roughly figured out the Smiling Man's Killing Rule.

To a normal person, or even a ghost, time was a continuous straight line that constantly moved forward and could never go back.

The year 2025, '26, '27, '28—it marched forward year by year.

But for this thing known as the Smiling Man, from its perspective, time was twisted and bent, constantly making random jumps.

Perhaps one second it was in 1997, the next second it jumped to 2017, and the second after that, it arrived in 3001.

Furthermore, the Smiling Man at every single point in time existed independently; they were not connected to one another.

This also explained why, even when Xu Yuan used the Final Decree to seal all of its rules and threw it into a new world, the Smiling Man could still return to the same spot the very next second.

You imprisoned the me of the previous second. What does that have to do with the me of the next second?

In theory, it was practically impossible to contain this Fierce Ghost that constantly scrambled and jumped through time.

Even if ordinary Fierce Ghosts were immortal and indestructible, one could still use items like the Urn or the Ghost Gate to restrict their area of activity.

But every Smiling Man was independent and discontinuous. It was impossible to lock up the Smiling Man of every single second, every single day, and every single year, right?

No one could achieve such a feat.

But Xu Yuan quickly thought of a solution.

The Smiling Man was an unclean thing born from Gao Tian's death. As long as he returned to the very beginning and ensured Gao Tian didn't die, then the Smiling Man wouldn't exist at any point in time.

Once the Time Coffin finished its duration and the Smiling Man was reverted back into a living person, he would just be an ordinary human, stripped of all his abilities.

Then, Xu Yuan would swallow Gao Tian whole, letting him turn into a ghost inside his own body.

Everything would be over.

"I see... that the people of the world are in so much pain... Hmm... hee hee.

"So... I just ate them... ate them, haha hee hee... then they won't be in pain anymore... right? There are so many, so many people in pain in your era... don't worry...

"I'll come to help you all... I'll eat up all your pain... one by one...

"So... when... will you... play with me...?"

The Smiling Man still maintained the posture of its neck bent at a 180-degree angle. However, it hadn't even realized that the wound on its neck had already begun to heal. The caved-in dent on its head slowly bulged back out, and the massive hole in its body pierced by rebar began to grow flesh and blood, pushing the steel rod out.

The Time Coffin's time had arrived.

Xu Yuan remained completely still, observing in silence. He was afraid of angering this drooling Smiling Man.

Accompanied by the cracking sounds of shifting bones, the Smiling Man's head was forcefully twisted back to a normal human angle bit by bit. Its heartbeat returned, its breathing returned, and the characteristics of a living person on its body grew more and more prominent.

Thirty seconds after the Smiling Man descended, the progression of the Time Coffin forcefully brought back the living Gao Tian, who had already died.

It was a success.

Xu Yuan knew in his heart that victory was assured.

This kid really had left a contingency plan for himself.

The very instant Gao Tian slowly opened his bewildered eyes and the twisted smile on his lips began to fade, Xu Yuan's mountain-like body appeared behind him. The next second, denying Gao Tian any chance to react, countless faces swarmed over like a tidal wave. They instantly tore and chewed him down to his skeleton, and, not even sparing the bones, dragged him straight into the depths of the mountain of flesh and human heads.

The ghost hunters far away in Minghai City and the 1.5 billion viewers across the world all witnessed this horrifying scene at the same time.

"The balance has been broken?"

"This Smiling Man got eaten?"

"Who's winning now?"

Xu Yuan landed with a deafening crash. Then, he prepared to digest the abilities Gao Tian produced after death. Now, Gao Tian would die once more, and the Smiling Man would also become just one among the countless human heads.

"Hee hee... you're finally... willing... to play with me... right?

"In so much... pain... why... aren't any of you... happy...?

"Smile... smile... haha... welcome... a better tomorrow...

"A tomorrow without pain... let's... dance together..."

That low, eerie, incessantly cackling laughter that made one's hair stand on end rang in his ears once more.

That twisted face appeared among Xu Yuan's countless human faces. But Xu Yuan hadn't devoured it. Quite the opposite—laughter acted like an invisible virus. One by one, the human faces surrounding the Smiling Man lost control and began echoing the roaring laughter.

As the laughter spread, Xu Yuan saw more and more heads joining the Smiling Man's ranks. Uncontrollably and excitedly, they laughed maniacally, giggled crazily, and chortled foolishly.

With the infection of the laughter, an even more bizarre event occurred. The faces parasitizing the mountain of heads slowly grew limbs and recovered their torsos, crawling out from the Artist's body. Having regained their freedom, countless corpses scrambled over one another to escape the Artist's body, pouring down Fangzhu Tower and crawling in all directions.

This sanity-shredding scene was also broadcast globally. Some elderly people even fainted on the spot, while certain high-ranking government officials and experts threw up upon seeing it.

Xu Yuan knew clearly that his own time was beginning to be distorted as well.

Because time was moving backward, these Fierce Ghosts that had once been devoured by the Artist were regressing to their state before they were consumed.

The moment Gao Tian died, the Smiling Man immediately materialized.

Now, it wasn't that he had devoured the Smiling Man, but rather that the Smiling Man had devoured him.