Chapter 407: Heart-Slaying Dao Inquiry

"Not kicking me out anymore?" I pulled out a cigarette but didn't light it.

Li Jingyu looked a bit embarrassed and muttered, "Can you blame me? You insisted on coming over past eleven at night. Who wouldn't overthink that?"

"I've delivered the message. Whether you take legal action next or resolve it with your own abilities is up to you. My advice is not to rush. The evidence you have is enough to get you back into the company and secure your rightful share of the estate, but taking down Li Chunqiang completely will be difficult." I shot Li Jingyu a flat look, steering away from her earlier comment. "And I doubt you want two conflicting voices running the company, right?"

"You know me quite well." Li Jingyu blinked, looking like a lazy fox. She kicked off her high heels, sat on the crude wooden bed, and rubbed her ankle. "Business is a battlefield. If Li Chunqiang won't show mercy, he can't blame me for being ruthless. I've been secretly contacting the out-of-province business division lately. I built that market from scratch, and there are people inside the company who want me back too."

"As long as you know what you're doing." A lone man and woman sharing a room late at night really wasn't appropriate. Li Jingyu and I finalized parts of our plan. Ultimately, at her strong insistence, I made a copy of the recording for her before leaving with the rest of the evidence.

I hailed a taxi on the road and headed back to Jiangcheng through the night.

It was past one in the morning by the time I reached Ting Tang Road. Exhausted, I stepped into the Adult Shop. The moment I opened the door to the second floor, I saw a dark silhouette standing silently in the middle of the room.

I froze for a moment. The temperature difference between the inside and outside was stark. With gusts of nether wind blowing, I was certain the shadow inside wasn't anything clean.

I pulled out the Great Divine Mantra of the Big Dipper. Normal Celestial Master talismans would weaken at night, but the Great Divine Mantra of the Big Dipper was different. It drew upon starlight; the brighter the stars shone, the stronger the talisman's power became.

Silver and gold threads intertwined across the Talisman Paper. Flecks of starlight gleamed like brilliant diamonds in the dark, suppressing the ghost so heavily it couldn't lift its head. I raised the talisman high and took a step inside. To my surprise, the evil spirit backed away in a very human-like manner and cowered in the corner.

'I don't feel any malice from it...' Staring at the shadow, I activated my Judging Eye. The ghost was hideous and had only one arm—it was Leng Qingxuan's Lesser Vehicle Grade D ghost servant.

"Are you here for the incense burner? Why didn't Leng Qingxuan come himself?" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The Butcher ghost couldn't understand me at all. It held its posture, pointing its single remaining arm at the desk.

I followed its gesture and saw a piece of white paper pinned beneath a water cup on the desk.

"A letter? Leng Qingxuan sent you to deliver this?" I turned on the second-floor lights and read it word by word in confusion.

"Lu Chen is taking action personally. He intends to capture your blood relatives and subject them to the Heart-Slaying Dao Inquiry to force your submission! Be on guard!"

It was a short sentence, but even after reading it several times, I couldn't grasp its meaning.

'Capture my blood relatives? Is he going after the people around me? And what does Heart-Slaying Dao Inquiry mean?' My brow twitched. I sensed something major was about to happen, but I couldn't pinpoint where the danger was coming from. 'Lu Jin wants to force my submission, but I'm all alone. What could he possibly use to threaten me? Others might fear his status as a high disciple of Profound Truth, but I don't even fear death. Why would I care about a mere Daoist from Profound Truth?'

Unable to make sense of it, I made up my mind to seek out Blind Liu tonight to discuss it. He ought to know more about these orthodox sects than I did.

As for Leng Qingxuan, I hadn't interacted with him much, but I had a decent impression of him. Sending a ghost late at night to warn me was a favor I needed to remember.

"Thank you, Daoist Master Leng," I murmured.

Seeing me pocket the paper, the Butcher ghost, its task complete, fled instantly—as if I were the vicious fiend in the room and it was just a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

The warning in Leng Qingxuan's letter had banished all my sleepiness. I threw on a jacket and headed to Blind Liu's place.

...

At two in the morning, I stood outside the single-story house where Blind Liu lived, surprised to find his lights still on.

Smoky yellow light filtered through the window. I knocked lightly on the door, and Blind Liu quickly came out.

A square wooden table sat directly under the lightbulb. Two sheets of yellow paper were spread out on it, and cinnabar powder was scattered in the inkstone, looking like roiling flames.

"Old Liu, don't tell me you foresaw my arrival and stayed up waiting for me?" I believed in ghosts and gods, but I remained somewhat skeptical of physiognomy, fate-reading, and similar metaphysical arts. In my heart, I firmly believed the future couldn't be controlled or predicted. There was no such thing as inescapable destiny in this world; as long as you were willing to act, there was always a sliver of a chance to change things.

These thoughts were likely influenced by Lu Xing. He was my enemy, but one aspect of his actions couldn't be denied. Afflicted by the eight characters tribulation fiend, he was destined for a bitter, isolated life. Yet, if one refused to submit to heaven's will, they could simply defy the heavens and alter their fate.

Much like Lu Xing, I held no reverence for the heavens above. Perhaps that was one of the reasons I could obtain the Fate Manipulator Token and gain the acknowledgment of the Eight Characters Divine Fiends.

"Your whereabouts are erratic; no one can predict them. I've just had this persistent feeling lately that something huge is about to happen." Blind Liu retrieved the Bamboo Shoulder Pole leaning in the corner and pointed to its top few joints.

I leaned in for a closer look. Fine cracks webbed across the bamboo joints, showing faint signs of splitting.

"This Bamboo Shoulder Pole might look ordinary, but it's actually older than I am. Nothing has happened to it in decades," he said.

"It's a decades-old relic. It's perfectly normal for it to crack." I didn't take it to heart, only feeling a bit of pity for the item.

"Do you know when this first crack appeared?" Blind Liu gave me a strange look. "Do you remember that rainy night when Lu Xing tried to destroy the Lanjiang Dam, and you gave me a call?"

I blanked for a second. "Yeah, that happened."

He sighed and continued, "That day, right after I hung up the phone, the pole let out a crisp snap. That was when the first crack appeared."

I didn't know how to respond to that. To help me, he had nearly gone completely blind, something I still felt deeply guilty about. "Can this pole predict fortune and misfortune?"

"I can't say for sure. The pole was passed down from my ancestors. The Liu family has always been honest and dutiful, never stepping out of line—until my generation." He set the pole down and walked to the window. "When you entered the yard, did you notice the bamboo outside blooming?"

"I didn't pay attention..."

"When bamboo blooms, families break and people die. Never mind. Tell me, why did you come looking for me this time? I'll do my best to help."

Blind Liu's tone was heavy, as if he had just made a life-or-death decision.

Seeing him like this, I suddenly realized the situation might be even more severe than I'd imagined.

"Old Liu, you don't need to intervene this time. I'm just here to ask you a few questions."

I held nothing back from Blind Liu. I told him everything, from the Three Yin Sect targeting the people around me, to Li Changgui's bizarre will, down to Leng Qingxuan's warning.

Blind Liu furrowed his brows as he listened. Only after a long silence did he look at me with a bitter smile. "You really are a grade-A disaster. I thought offending the Jiang family and Lu Xing was already the absolute limit. But look at you—it's bad enough that the evil Three Yin Sect wants you dead, but even Miaozhen temple, the leader of the orthodox sects, refuses to let you off. Both the righteous and wicked paths, the Daoist, ghost, and Buddhist lineages... Gao Jian, oh Gao Jian, you really haven't left yourself a single way out, have you!"

"Is it really that bad? I feel like I haven't even done anything, yet I've inexplicably become a thorn in all their sides." I put on an innocent expression. Truth be told, I had just been quietly minding my own business running my livestreams, trying to survive, and somehow ended up tangled with multiple factions.

"Don't you think asking these questions now is a bit redundant? If I were you, I'd take a trip down to the Bridge No. 3 Crematorium first."

"Why go there? To unseal that fierce entity and take them all down with me?"

Seeing my dead-serious expression, Blind Liu swallowed whatever he had been about to say. "I was going to suggest you pick out a good burial plot while you're still alive. Anyway, back to business. How do you want me to help?"

"I know these factions want to harm me, but I don't know what methods they'll use." I slowly calmed down and began to analyze the situation logically. "The Two-Faced Buddha is in Xinhu, and Lu Xing hasn't recovered from his injuries yet. They probably won't make a move against me. The ones I need to guard against are the Jiang family, the Three Yin Sect, and Miaozhen temple."

"The Three Yin Sect is an evil faction split into three branches: Lord Snake, Meng Po, and Ghost Infant. They're hidden in Jiangcheng with deeply rooted, intertwined networks. I have no idea what tactics they'll use against me, so I can only meet force with appropriate tactics."

"The Daoists of Miaozhen temple may be shameless, but they're still an orthodox sect. They disdain underhanded schemes, so they'll likely use an open conspiracy to force my submission." I thought for a moment before adding, "The Maoshan Yin Master, Leng Qingxuan, sent me a letter. He said Lu Chen intends to capture my blood relatives for a Heart-Slaying Dao Inquiry. Setting aside whether I even have blood relatives in Jiangcheng, what does Heart-Slaying Dao Inquiry mean?"

"To think a grand Celestial Master of Profound Truth would resort to such lowbrow tricks. They are unworthy of being called an orthodox sect!" Blind Liu's voice carried a hint of anger. "The ancients said, to hear the Dao in the morning and die content in the evening. The Heart-Slaying Dao Inquiry implies exactly that. It's a punishment Miaozhen temple uses exclusively on sect traitors."

"A punishment? Then why does it involve blood relatives?"

"Betraying one's sect—regardless of whether they are righteous or evil, ancient or modern—is a capital offense. Different schools have different punishments for traitors. The Heart-Slaying Dao Inquiry has an elegant name, but it is actually incredibly vicious. The Celestial Master of Profound Truth will bring the traitor's parents or children to a Yin meridian node and force them to drink a medicinal broth bred with a Child Gu venomous insect. Once the poison is swallowed, they scatter the Yin energy, dissolving it into the victim's bloodstream. On the surface, the person will seem perfectly fine, but in reality, they won't live past a week. The only way to save them is to find a close blood relative to drink a medicinal broth containing the Mother Gu venomous insect and draw the Child Gu out."

"During the process of extracting the Child Gu, the person's state of mind cannot waver in the slightest, otherwise both will die from having their hearts devoured by hundreds of insects. And right at that crucial moment, the fully prepared Celestial Master of Profound Truth interrogates the traitor, forcing them to confess to all the crimes they've committed."