Chapter 258: Alliance

I had a premonition that the eighth live broadcast would be a turning point.

With the eight characters gathered, the tragedy from five years ago might play out again. But unlike five years ago, I was no longer a rookie police officer who could only passively participate. This time, not only would I step onto the board, I would be the main force directly confronting Lu Xing.

"Three days from now is the time of the mourning apparel, condolence visitor, and funeral door. We need to prepare early so we aren't scrambling when it happens," I said, taking a pen and paper from my pocket to sketch on the hospital bed. "Over the past few days, I've been going out at midnight to investigate, and I've visited seven places in total."

I roughly mapped out Anxin Hotel, Bridge No. 3 Crematorium, Xinhu High School, and the other sites on the paper according to their locations in Jiangcheng. "These seven places seem completely unrelated, but in truth, they are all connected to the divine fiends. Each location corresponds to a specific fiend's past and memories, holding their lingering attachments and reluctance to let go."

"A Fate Pattern is preordained by heaven itself. You're entangled with so many divine fiends at once, your destiny illuminated by the stars of the heavens. Aren't you afraid of losing your original fate?" Blind Liu rested his thumb against the middle joint of his finger, calculating a divination. "Even now, I still can't deduce your Fate Pattern. There are too many entanglements; heaven's secrets are obscured."

"My life is completely ordinary. There's nothing to deduce."

"To form karmic ties with the Eight Characters Divine Fiends at the same time and still be alive and kicking... if you call that Fate Pattern ordinary, I'll be the first to call you a liar." Blind Liu stopped his calculations and looked at the locations I had sketched. "It's highly abnormal for the Eight Characters Divine Fiends to appear in the same city to begin with. There has to be another connection between these buildings. It's very likely they were artificially arranged."

Blind Liu hit the nail on the head. I thought about it for a moment and realized he made sense, so I hurried out of the hospital and bought a map of Jiangcheng.

I found the buildings on the map and connected them with lines, perfectly outlining a polygon.

"Where have I seen this shape before?" Looking closely, the polygon was almost identical to the Octagonal Token I got from Zichou, only missing a single corner.

"I've experienced seven live broadcasts and visited seven locations. Based on this, the site of the eighth live broadcast should be..." I extended the lines on the map, roughly tracing out an area. "Lanjiang Dam!"

Jiangcheng was bisected by a great river. The famous Lanjiang Dam was situated upstream, boasting a water level drop of forty-one meters between its upper and lower reaches—roughly the height of a fifteen-story building. Its maximum storage capacity was 2.3 billion cubic meters. If anything went wrong with the dam, it would be an apocalyptic disaster for the entirety of Jiangcheng.

Could the eighth live broadcast really take place here? The broadcast tasks from the Underworld Live Show always seemed baffling at first glance, but they actually held profound meaning. It was simply because I knew too little that I ended up being led by the nose every time, only able to passively fight my way out.

If the eighth live broadcast was still related to the divine fiends, then the location was very likely here. I had already encountered seven of the Eight Characters Divine Fiends. Only the eight characters tribulation fiend remained unseen.

"Old Liu, a question just occurred to me. Do you know what the tribulation fiend represents?" I was already intimately familiar with what the Eight Characters Divine Fiends were, but I didn't completely understand their specific meanings.

Blind Liu came from a family of feng shui masters and loved to read. Although his Taoist abilities were average, his knowledge was quite profound. "The ancient text 'Compendium of Three Destinies' has an introduction to it. When the tribulation fiend is auspicious, it indicates extraordinary intelligence, outstanding talent, swift execution without a trace, an all-encompassing mind, nobility, and unexpected martial wealth. When it is inauspicious, it implies confusion and depravity, a highly malicious nature, chronic illness or criminal incarceration, injury by weapons, inner ruthlessness, and merciless greed."

"Generally speaking, the tribulation fiend governs the inauspicious. It rules over disease, injury, and criminal disaster."

Hearing Blind Liu's words, a person suddenly surfaced in my mind. He closely matched the manifestations of the tribulation fiend Fate Pattern.

"Lu Xing!"

I frowned in deep thought. The more I pondered it, the more I felt it was possible.

Xiaofeng had once told me that Lu Xing wanted to kill seven people. Tie Ningxiang was sixth, and Xiaofeng was the very last, ranked seventh.

That brought up a suspicious point. Everything Lu Xing did revolved around the Eight Characters Divine Fiends, yet he spent so much time just to kill seven people. Assuming each person corresponded to one divine fiend, he should need to kill eight people—unless Lu Xing himself was one of the divine fiends.

"This eighth live broadcast must be related to Lu Xing. It's time for the Eight Characters Divine Fiends to come to an end," I muttered to myself. Revolving around the divine fiends, the Two-Faced Buddha had begun laying out this scheme twenty years ago. Five years ago, they must have gathered them all once, but due to various accidents, they failed. Today, five years later, Lu Xing was gathering the Eight Characters Divine Fiends once again, and their true purpose was about to surface.

I made a mark around the Lanjiang Dam and looked at Blind Liu and Mr. Gu. "Three nights from now, a disaster that will affect all of Jiangcheng will occur. I hope the two of you can lend me a hand."

Blind Liu nodded immediately. "My Liu family has lived in Jiangcheng for generations, and we hold deep affection for this land. It's only right to help you."

Mr. Gu didn't hesitate much either. "No problem. Our goals align. That little girl named Xiaofeng is extremely important to me. If I don't rescue her, I won't be able to eat or sleep in peace."

"Thank you both."

"There's no need. Helping you is helping ourselves," Blind Liu said, waving his hand. "Jiangcheng is a massive tomb. Once you provoke the karma here, no one can stay out of it."

"If we can't stay out of it, then we will face it head-on. I traveled all the way here from Miaojiang. What kind of strange occurrences and dangers haven't I seen?" Mr. Gu shook his black robe, reverting to the appearance he had when we first met. He looked like a grandmaster, complete with his own "entrance effects."

Blind Liu and Mr. Gu both agreeing to help was great news for me. I made a pact with them: three days later, at the time of the mourning apparel, condolence visitor, and funeral door, we would bring our talismans and artifacts and move out together.

I discussed some specific details of the operation with them, then left on my own, heading to the next location to find another person who could help me.

The Blues Bar was deserted during the day. The door was half-open, and a waiter was inside cleaning up.

"Is your boss here?"

The waiter had seen me a few times, so we were somewhat familiar. "She's in the back room. Looks like she got into another argument with Sakurako. I'd advise against going in right now."

"An argument? With Sakurako's personality, how could she get into a fight with her mother?" I didn't interrupt the waiter's work and followed his directions to the staff break room. Standing at the entrance, I could hear Onitsuka Ayaka's voice right through the door.

"If your teacher hadn't called me, I wouldn't even have known you skipped school all morning! What were you doing this morning? Why didn't you go to school? You were perfectly fine when you left the house. Did you go looking for Gao Jian?"

"Sakurako, you're still young. Adult matters aren't something you can interfere with."

"I've always respected your choices and believed you'd make the right ones. I see every effort you make, but what on earth is going on with you lately? Cutting class, skipping school, and now you've even learned how to lie to me!"

...

Only Onitsuka Ayaka's voice could be heard from the room, making it sound as if she were talking to herself. I admitted that knocking on the door right now was definitely a bit awkward, but time was tight and I couldn't worry about that.

"Knock! Knock!"

"Who is it? Didn't I tell you not to come over unless it's an emergency?" The door opened, and Onitsuka Ayaka looked up, surprise flashing in her eyes. "Gao Jian? Why are you here?"

Before I could reply, a rustling sound came from inside the room. A neatly dressed little girl delicately squeezed her way to the door. "Gao Jian!"

"You need to call me 'Uncle'."

I nervously glanced at Onitsuka Ayaka. The beautiful young mother's slender brows were raised and her almond eyes were wide open; she was clearly in a fit of rage. "Boss, cool down. You can't be so harsh when disciplining a child."

"If you're so good at it, you do it! This wretched girl has been defying me all morning without saying a single word. Now she opens her mouth the moment she sees you. Anyone who didn't know better would think I was her stepmother and you were her biological father!" Onitsuka Ayaka spoke out of anger, her chest heaving so intensely that her thin clothes nearly burst.

I stood awkwardly at the doorway, unsure if it was appropriate to go in. "Sakurako isn't the type of child to just play around. There's definitely a reason why she didn't go to school. You need to be patient and ask her."

I squatted down in front of Sakurako and placed my hands on her shoulders. "Sakurako, why didn't you go to school this morning?"

The little girl grabbed a notebook, took out a pen, and wrote in it: "I dreamed you died yesterday. Drowned in a reservoir."