Chapter 302: You Are Guilty

The river's surface was turbulent, but beneath the water, it was abnormally calm. It was a strange sensation. My body sank continuously, a slow process I was powerless to change.

River water flooded into my body. My ears rumbled as if I had been isolated in another world.

Breathing became difficult. Perhaps I was just too tired. A good sleep would fix everything.

My heart beat slower and slower. I gradually closed my eyes. The blood-red hue in my pupils had long since faded. In the final fraction of a second before my eyes shut completely, a young man who looked remarkably like me appeared in front of me.

Its face was as pale as paper, its black hair thrashing wildly. Endless strands wrapped around me.

'Fate Ghost?'

In the dark depths of the riverbed, it felt as though something had grabbed me, pulling me upward.

My perception blurred. I only knew that I was gripping something as my consciousness began to scatter.

Vaguely, I heard a scream in my ear. I had never heard it before—it sounded like a child.

Currents washed over my body as time ticked away, second by second.

...

Sunlight shone on my face. At a twitch of my fingers, gravel scraped against my palms.

My body felt like it had been hit by a car. My bones felt completely shattered, throbbing with a piercing ache.

I blinked a few times before managing to open my eyes. Blood seeped from wounds all over my body, my skin covered in bruises.

"I survived?" I had actually survived a fall from a forty-one-meter dam. I didn't know how long I'd been unconscious here. I was so weak that moving a single finger was incredibly difficult.

"Jiangcheng wasn't flooded. Two-Faced Buddha's plan was stopped." I held this posture, gathering my strength for a while before slowly propping myself up.

"Clink."

Half of a token by my palm caught my attention. "Why is only half of Lu Xing's Eight Characters Divine Fiends Token left?"

I racked my brain, trying to recall. On the dam, this token—which had gathered the Eight Characters Divine Fiends—had already been covered in cracks. When I dragged Lu Xing down the dam with me, I happened to see that he was still holding it, so I subconsciously fought him for it.

"To think the token actually shattered." I brought it up to my eyes. I didn't know if it was a coincidence, but the half I held bore the words Tianyi, Heavenly Physician, and General Star, along with a blank corner that should have originally held the words Red Luan.

"Is Xiaofeng alright?" Lu Xing had said that Xiaofeng was going to ignite her Fate Pattern to force the great array to stop. By the looks of it, she had succeeded. I just didn't understand what price had to be paid to ignite a Fate Pattern.

"It probably wasn't that simple. But as long as she's alive, that's what matters." Stowing the token away, I carefully tested my limbs and staggered up from the riverbank.

Straightening my back, I looked out into the distance. As my gaze swept across the river, I suddenly noticed someone watching me from the opposite bank.

"Lu Xing?"

He stared in my direction for a long time. The distance was too great for me to make out his features; I could only roughly tell that he was very tall and lean.

Seeing that I had spotted him, the man didn't linger. He quickly walked away.

"As long as it isn't Lu Xing. That bastard is probably buried at the bottom of the river by now." Some fishermen along the river also worked part-time retrieving corpses. For every body they fished out, the authorities gave a subsidy of a few hundred yuan, so I didn't pay the tall, skinny man any more mind.

I started walking. The moment I took a step, a crisp pop sounded from my knee. The intense pain made me grit my teeth. "It seems my injuries are much worse than I imagined."

Unable to walk, I had no choice but to stay where I was and wait for someone to pass by. Although Jiangcheng had been saved, my 'bounty' hadn't decreased. Reporting my location to the police would yield a hundred-thousand-yuan cash reward. Even if just for the money, there should be plenty of 'good Samaritans' willing to save me.

Sitting on the riverbank, I checked my belongings. "The Underworld Live Show Phone is still in Jiang Chen's sports car. Leaving the broadcast abruptly this time—I wonder if I'll be punished."

I took out the tightly bundled raincoat tucked securely against my chest and slowly unwrapped it. Even though I had been very careful, the array Talisman Paper and the Upper Vehicle Talisman inside had still gotten soaked by the river water.

With a dark expression, I looked at these talismans that orthodox lineages would treat as sect-stabilizing treasures. "Fortunately, the material is special, so they aren't damaged. I just don't know if they'll still work after drying out."

As my eyes swept over the talismans one by one, I suddenly noticed a small pile of ash. "Did one of the talismans 'spontaneously combust'?"

A similar situation had occurred back during the Route 14 Spirit Bus broadcast. The Soul-Tethering Dream Mother-Child Talisman I had exchanged for activated directly when I encountered danger, pulling me into a dream and helping me avoid a life-and-death crisis.

"Which talisman 'spontaneously combusted' this time?" I thought back for a moment. To prepare for this broadcast, I had exchanged for the complete Two Dragons Emerging from Water Array talisman set, a Random High-Tier Talisman, and an Upper Vehicle Talisman that only cost six points—the Hardship-Relieving Rebirth Divine Talisman.

After checking, I found that the one reduced to ash was indeed the Hardship-Relieving Rebirth Divine Talisman.

"How did this talisman activate on its own? Did I already die once?" A mere Upper Vehicle Talisman couldn't possibly extend a person's life. My eyes narrowed as a sudden realization hit me, and I pulled the Black Embroidered Cloth Bag from my clothes.

I opened the bag and poured out its contents.

Besides river water and gravel, there was also a dark eyeball.

Holding that eyeball in my palm, I focused my attention and used Chasing Eye to inspect it. However, even after searching it seven or eight times, I couldn't see the Fate Ghost.

"A Mahayana Fate Ghost can die in place of its master." Blind Liu's words exploded in my mind. I slowly recalled fragmented memories: when I fell into the river and was continuously sinking, I seemed to be pulled upward by something; when my heart was beating slower and slower, something entered my body, injecting me with new vitality.

"It was the Fate Ghost..."

Holding the Embroidered Cloth Bag, I sat by the river for a long time. I had saved Jiangcheng and saved Xiaofeng, and I had miraculously survived myself, but the Fate Ghost was gone.

When I brought the Fate Ghost out from the hands of the Death Spirit Divine Fiends, I had been carefully on guard against it. I didn't know the methods to manipulate ghost entities, yet it obeyed my every word. I let it freely devour other ghosts, and later, even when its power reached the Mahayana tier and far surpassed my own, it never developed any malicious intent toward me.

"A yin soul ghost?"

My mind fell into sudden chaos. The ones who had forced me into a dead end were humans, yet the one who fished me out from the bottom of the river was a ghost.

Shielding my eyes from the sunlight, I held that pitch-black eyeball up. "You helped me so many times, yet in the end, you died because of me."

I stared intently into the center of the black pupil. Although the Fate Ghost's figure wasn't there, a single strand of black hair was still coiling within it like a water snake.

"The Hardship-Relieving Rebirth Divine Talisman must have been used on you. The Heavenly Dao is heartless, yet it left a sliver of life. Today, you died for me; in the future, I will absolutely resurrect you!" Cupping my hands, I bowed slightly to the black eyeball. When I was on the verge of death, the heavens full of gods and buddhas gave no response. The one who saved me was the Fate Ghost. So what if I bowed to a ghost?

Putting away the Black Embroidered Cloth Bag, I pushed against the ground and crawled toward the highway, where someone finally noticed me.

"Hey, stay down, don't move! Why are you covered in wounds? Good heavens, were you in a car accident?"

"Could you help me call 120? If possible, call 110 as well; they've been looking for me for a long time." The person helping me looked kind, not like a bad guy at all. "Thank you. The police will reward you for me later."

I finally couldn't hold on anymore. My arms gave out, and I collapsed.

My consciousness was a daze. I felt myself being moved. There were ambulances and police cars; the wail of sirens and the noisy shouts of passersby filled my ears. I was transferred to the First People's Hospital, where the police confiscated my belongings, and I spent several hours in the emergency room.

I slept groggily. When I woke up, I found one of my hands handcuffed to the hospital bed, while my other hand was being held in someone's palm.

A faint fragrance drifted to my nose. I turned my head; it was Tie Ningxiang, also wearing a hospital gown.

"You're awake. Stay lying down, don't move. You can sleep a little longer if you want."

Her words were gentle, impossible to refuse. I looked at the United Heart Jade at her collar and slowly withdrew my arm. "How is Xiaofeng?"

Just as Tie Ningxiang was about to answer, several armed police officers sitting on the other side of the ward walked over.

With loaded guns and in full tactical gear, they acted as if they were guarding an extremely dangerous criminal.

They asked Tie Ningxiang to step outside, then lined up in a row. Their leader said to me, "Gao Jian, due to your suspected involvement in twenty-one charges including intentional homicide, arson, kidnapping, robbery, theft, and causing a traffic accident, your arrest has been approved by the Jiangcheng People's Court!"