Chapter 467: Yellow Springs Token

Lighting a cigarette, I sat in a chair in my small store, watching the curling smoke and listening to the ticking of the clock.

'I will die on October 30th. There are fifteen hours left until today ends. What will happen in these fifteen hours? How will my life come to an end?'

'A car crash? Deliberate murder? Or maybe a flowerpot will fall from a high building and smash right into my head, or I'll accidentally fall and a branch on the ground will pierce right through my neck?'

Trying to guess how I would die was a truly awful experience. Worse still was knowing for certain that something was going to happen to me, yet having no way to guard against it specifically.

Danger could come from anywhere. It might be a carefully orchestrated murder, or what finally killed me might just be some small, inconspicuous thing.

'Should I turn down Yun Chuan's invitation and ask Tie Ningxiang to put me in a sealed cell for violent felons, just to ride out today first?' Plenty of ways to avoid the risk crossed my mind, but none of them were very feasible.

'It's a pity I only saw myself in the October 30th Carriage and didn't notice any wounds on that version of me.' I carefully recalled everything I had seen on the Death Train. I had been sitting all alone in the October 30th Carriage with my head bowed and a somewhat stiff expression on my face.

'Going off that alone, there's no way to tell how I died.' Frowning tightly, I lit one cigarette after another. It was a bizarre feeling, facing an established fact and being powerless to fight it. If I hadn't survived so many live broadcasts and forged a resolute will, the torment probably would have driven me mad by now. Not everyone can stay calm and composed in the face of life and death; in fact, the more a person has struggled on the brink of death, the harder it is to accept dying.

'I didn't die during an Underworld Live Show broadcast. Could I actually be murdered in my everyday life?'

I was powerless to fight back, and I didn't even know who my enemy was. All I knew was that it would ultimately end with my death.

'Could this be destiny?' In that instant, I seemed to understand those who defied fate a little better. Seeing death and misfortune ahead yet being powerless to change them—that was the greatest torment a person could endure.

'Two-Faced Buddha didn't hesitate to sacrifice so many lives, dragging in the innocent and even trying to bury all of Jiangcheng. Did he pay such a massive price to defy the heavens because he had also seen the future? And what kind of destiny did he see?' As my thoughts drifted, I remembered something the Death Train attendant had once told me. She said I was a small fish that had leaped out of the River of Destiny and caught a fleeting glimpse of the scenery downstream—a view the fish in the river were never meant to see.

If every person was like a fish in the River of Destiny, swimming toward the sea along a predetermined course, the vast majority would never leap above the surface in their entire lives, merely carried along passively by the current. A few, through special encounters, could occasionally leap out of the water and glimpse a much wider world. I belonged to that group. As for Two-Faced Buddha and the Underworld Live Show, they had likely escaped the control of the River of Destiny altogether and become the anglers sitting on its banks.

'Heaven and earth are the chessboard, all living beings are chess pieces. Until one transcends, one is no different from an ant.'

Enlightenment dawned in my heart. My will, tempered by the mortal multitude on the Death Train, grew brighter still. In Buddhist terms, my mind was now as clear as crystal, possessing true wondrous awareness.

'Does this count as a blessing in disguise?' The pressure of death hadn't crushed me; instead, it had made my will even firmer.

'Blindly hiding probably won't change destiny. Natural disasters and man-made calamities are impossible to predict, so I might as well follow my heart.' I checked my watch and decided to attend Daoist Priest Xianqing's funeral. Before that, though, I needed to make a trip to the bank and redeem a few items to carry with me. If I didn't make it through today, having all the points in the world wouldn't do me any good. I might as well splurge for once and spend my points; maybe one of those items would, by some stroke of luck, let me change my fate.

Fully armed, I brought along all my talismans, treating this even more solemnly than an actual live broadcast.

'There are fourteen and a half hours left until today ends.' I locked the store door, hailed a taxi to the Central Bank, and browsed the Underworld Live Show's item catalog on the way.

After eleven live broadcasts, the catalog now held over a hundred different items. I focused on the newly added goods. 'If the Dream Wing Gu is fed Dream-Entangling Grass over a long period, it can grow again, but ten points isn't really worth it. The Map of Partial Yin-Yang Regions is useless to me too; I never want to go back to that wretched place for the rest of my life. This Damaged Good and Evil Asura Mask looks decent—it can slightly mask changes in heavenly secrets and keep others from divining my fate—but it's of little use to me. With Nine Locks Binding the Body, even I don't know what my own fate is, so why would I worry about someone else divining it?'

After thinking it over, I settled on the first item to redeem: the Benefactor Talisman. It allowed the bearer to receive help from a benefactor when running into trouble or danger. Although it was a single-use talisman, it only cost three points, which was acceptable.

The Three Pure Ones Bell, Five Directions Command Flags, and Altar-Suppressing Wood Block were all Daoist ritual implements. While they wielded astonishing power and could subdue demons and banish evil, they wouldn't directly help my current predicament. The fatal tribulation I was facing wasn't necessarily related to ghosts or monsters.

I looked through the catalog again and again until my gaze finally settled on the Yellow Springs Token. This treasure was a supreme artifact of Ghost Cultivators, possessing the ability to open the Ghost Gate once. With this token in hand, one could cross the Yellow Springs in reverse.

The heaven-defying description was tempting, but the item had severe restrictions on its use. It could only open the Ghost Gate once every solar year, and its price was exorbitant—it cost forty-four points to redeem.

It had taken me eleven live broadcasts just to save up a hundred points, and redeeming this single token would cost nearly half of them!

'I originally meant to save up enough points to redeem the Dragon-Capturing Technique for Blind Liu, to repay him for helping me so many times. Looking at it now, I was far too naive.' Saving points was a way to face the next live broadcast with greater security. As for the claim that ten thousand points could let me return to the starting point, I had never even considered it. For me, saving up ten thousand points was harder than ascending to the heavens.

'Forty-four points for a token. If it really has the ability to cross the Yellow Springs in reverse, then even if it can only be used once a year, it isn't too bad a deal.' Witnessing my own death had put immense pressure on me. In the end, I made up my mind and sent a message to the Underworld Live Show: "I choose to redeem the Benefactor Talisman and the Yellow Springs Token."

"A total of forty-seven points. Confirm redemption?"

"Confirmed."

"Redemption successful. Remaining point balance: fifty-three."

Seeing the receipt message from the Underworld Live Show, I felt my hands shaking. 'Forty-four points. I've never redeemed anything this expensive. I just hope it can actually be of some use.'

I arrived at the Central Bank without incident. Guided by the new male manager, I soon walked out carrying a black package.

I got into another taxi and told the driver to head toward Qingtu Temple. Sitting in the backseat, I untied the black cloth package.

The first thing that caught my eye was a talisman made of yellow paper. A single line was written on the back of the talisman's head: "No need for your words; a benefactor points the way."

The Talisman Paper didn't come with an instruction manual or anything of the sort, so I tucked it safely into my pocket for the time being and looked at the second item in the package.

It was a pure white box that felt very cold to the touch. The material was unusual; it didn't feel like white jade, but more like bone.

Without thinking much of it, I opened the lid right away. A sharp sting pricked my palm, and blood flowed out almost instantly. What followed was even wilder—in broad daylight, a sinister yin wind blew up from beneath the floor! The wails of ghosts and howls of wolves echoed inside the taxi, and a Carved Wooden Peace Talisman the driver had placed beside the steering wheel suddenly burst apart! It startled him so badly that he nearly wrenched the wheel and crashed into the truck ahead!

With bizarre phenomena erupting left and right, I hurriedly snapped the lid shut, not daring to look any longer.

"The wooden carving exploded?" Still deeply shaken, the driver slowed the car down. That had been a close call just now, and he kept turning back to apologize to me. I took a deep breath and didn't say much.

'As expected of something that cost over forty points, it really is astonishing.' What happened just now had nearly caused a traffic accident, leaving a lingering fear in my heart as well. I didn't even dare stay in the taxi anymore and walked the rest of the way to Qingtu Temple on foot, on edge the entire journey for fear that another accident might happen.

By the time I reached Qingtu Temple, it was already eleven in the morning. I calculated the time: there were thirteen hours left until today ended.