Chapter 471: Ancestral Shoulder Pole

The phone in my pocket was still vibrating. I glanced at the caller ID; it was Yun Chuan.

"Yun Chuan, I will definitely be there on time. Don't worry."

"Destined Patron, something happened at the Daoist temple. I'm afraid we'll have to push back our agreed time. Just get to the Bridge No. 3 Crematorium before five in the afternoon."

Having just survived a life-and-death ordeal and worrying about my tight schedule, I quickly agreed.

I hung up and gripped my phone, still looking with lingering fear at the exposed wires and the tools scattered across the floor.

"There were no warning signs, nor was it planned by anyone. It just happened by accident. There was no way to defend against it." I was like a startled bird at this point, finding everything dangerous. I pressed my back against the wall, shuffling my feet under the strange stares of the surrounding nurses and patients.

"It seems I'm destined to suffer a calamity today. My opponent this time isn't a human, nor is it a ghost, but the invisible, intangible will of heaven." I actually felt quite helpless about it. Honestly, the Two-Faced Buddha who had tried to defy the heavens and alter his fate, and the Underworld Live Show that hunted the masses, were the true enemies of heaven's will. I was just a chess piece in their hands. Was it really necessary to target me like this? Did heaven's will feel threatened by me?

"The will of heaven is unpredictable. It's an ethereal thing. It looks like I need to find Blind Liu and discuss this with him properly, and I have to be quick. If I'm too slow, I probably won't ever see him again." The incident I had just experienced at the bathroom door completely shattered any illusions of luck I had left, confirming my previous prediction: October 30th was very likely my date of death.

My mind was a mess, all sorts of thoughts constantly surfacing. I walked to the elevator doors and watched the red floor numbers above them continuously change until they reached my floor.

The silvery-white elevator doors opened to the sides. Without overthinking it, I lifted my foot, ready to step inside.

"Stop!"

A furious roar suddenly erupted from my spirit platform. I jolted as if waking from a dream, my raised front foot hovering in midair.

"This..."

Although the elevator doors had opened, the car itself hadn't arrived yet. It was an entire floor below! If I had taken that step just now, I would have fallen straight down the shaft!

This was a four-story drop. I peered downward; the bottom of the elevator pit was filled with complex wiring and compressors. Falling down there meant certain death.

"This elevator is trying to eat me alive!" A chill ran down my spine; I had been only one step away from death. "Thank goodness that voice in my spirit platform spoke up at the critical moment. Still, seeing how it rarely talks and has been recuperating all this time, its injuries probably haven't healed yet."

During the Route 14 hearse livestream, I had haphazardly used the Deity-Inviting Talisman, causing this great immortal to get stranded in my spirit platform. According to the information I had gathered from multiple sources, it should be the true body of the Blood Fox—the Turbid Blood Ancestor, an entity that had slaughtered immortals and buddhas in the past to become a taboo existence.

The elevator car finally descended, and everything returned to normal, as if the scene from just a moment ago had merely been a hallucination.

The elevator doors opened completely, and the nurses and patients' family members inside walked out. They all looked at me a bit strangely as I stood perfectly still directly in front of the doors.

"Sir, are you feeling unwell? Your forehead is covered in sweat, and your face is completely pale. Internal Medicine is on the third floor. Should I take you there?" A warm-hearted nurse had stopped beside me. I shook my head.

"Has this elevator ever had any issues before?"

"A long time ago, there was one incident. I heard the elevator doors suddenly opened on their own. But after the workers came to inspect and repair it, it never happened again."

"Oh. Thank you."

I turned and left, entering the emergency stairwell and hurrying down the steps. I could faintly hear the nurse muttering, "What a weirdo."

Not daring to get distracted again, I fled the hospital and called Blind Liu right away. I wasn't mentally prepared for something as insanely difficult as going against the heavens, so I needed to find a professional to ask for his opinion.

"Old Liu, I'm at the entrance of the First People's Hospital. Can you come over?"

Blind Liu, who was still telling fortunes beneath the Tianqiao overpass, clicked his tongue in amazement after hearing about my situation over the phone. He hurried over immediately, carrying a bamboo basket on his back and using his shoulder pole like a walking stick.

I stood alone in the open space outside the hospital, constantly scanning my surroundings and enduring the puzzled looks of passing onlookers. When I saw Blind Liu approaching, I finally looked as if I had been saved. "Old Liu, don't come any closer to me. Let's just talk while keeping a distance of two or three meters."

"Are you possessed?" With people constantly coming and going, Blind Liu suddenly pulled two talismans out of his hemp Daoist robe and mysteriously slapped them onto my body. "This is Talisman Paper for enhancing one's luck. It should do some good."

He stepped back a few paces, pinching his fingers to calculate, and asked, "Tell me, what exactly happened?"

I told Blind Liu everything I had seen on the Death Train, as well as what I had just discovered. His brows knitted together, his expression turning awful. "I've never heard of the Death Train. But going by your description, that train is indeed meant to ferry vengeful spirits to the Underworld. This is considered a part of the heavenly dao and reincarnation. By saving people who were supposed to die, you violated the heavenly laws. Furthermore, by boarding a train meant for the dead while still a living person, you committed a taboo. No wonder you saw yourself on that train. The heavenly dao is heartless. From the moment you got on, whether you were dead or alive, your Yang Lifespan was already over in the eyes of the heavenly dao. If you don't die, it means you've slipped through a loophole in the heavenly dao."

"Don't make it sound so terrifying; I haven't lived long enough yet." In my heart, I was already cursing the Underworld Live Show to death. The mutual plotting between it and the Two-Faced Buddha had ultimately pushed me forward as a sacrifice to the heavenly dao. Wasn't this just screwing me over?!

"I just cast a hexagram for you. Your path ahead is completely severed, as if chopped by a heavenly blade. You already have one foot over the edge of a cliff. It only takes the slightest bit of external force for you to fall into an abyss of eternal damnation, tumbling into a bottomless chasm." After saying that, Blind Liu shook his head again. "However, you don't need to panic. Whenever I cast a hexagram for you, nine times out of ten it's a dangerous omen like this. What with yin and yang clashing, or Destiny conflicting... you've basically run through every single perilous hexagram I know. I reckon you'll be able to turn bad luck into good fortune this time too. If there's nothing else, I'm heading back. I haven't packed up my fortune-telling stall over there yet."

"Big bro, I really might not be able to escape this calamity! Could you not dismiss me with such a casual tone?" Blind Liu had grown entirely used to the perilous omens on me; he didn't feel there was anything special about this one either.

"Didn't I give you two talismans? I just drew them yesterday. They're very effective."

"Forget it. I could draw these talismans myself." I pulled a long face, wanting Blind Liu to help me come up with an idea. Unable to do anything about my pestering, he told me to recount everything I had encountered over the past few days without leaving a single detail out.

At first, he didn't care much, until I mentioned that I had been hit with a King Yama Notice. Blind Liu's eyes suddenly went wide. His fingers trembled, and he even snapped off a few of his beard hairs.

"No wonder. If King Yama wants you dead at the third watch, who would dare keep you until the fifth?" Under Blind Liu's explanation, I finally realized that there were many factors contributing to why I was in this current situation.

My own merit was in the negative, making me despised by this world. I had been cursed with hex sorcery back at the Henshan Psychiatric Hospital, and the mark of violent death on the bridge of my nose was constantly draining my vitality. According to Blind Liu, if this were anyone else, they would have been dead through and through long ago.

Then, I had received the Three Yin Sect's King Yama Notice. This extremely vicious Black Talisman became the fuse for everything.

The crafting method for the King Yama Notice had long been lost. Most of the existing talismans were incomplete versions passed down from ancient times, but even an incomplete version wasn't something a living person could resist. This talisman contained the mysteries of life and death. As long as the Talisman Incantation wasn't broken, it could be repeatedly activated until the victim died.

The Three Yin Sect had suffered such a massive loss at Xinhu High School, so naturally, they wouldn't let me off. Therefore, Blind Liu guessed that they must be using the power of their entire sect today to activate the talisman, wanting King Yama to take me away.

The six paths of reincarnation were all part of the heavenly dao, and the will of heaven was already targeting me to begin with. This provided the perfect opportunity to just go with the flow, setting a date of death for me.

"When an ordinary mortal kills, they use tools or their limbs. When the will of heaven kills, it uses all of creation. You will never be able to guess where the truly fatal threat will come from. Perhaps even a tiny, careless movement will cost you your life." Blind Liu sighed and handed me that Bamboo Shoulder Pole, which was already splitting at the front end. "May you be blessed with good luck. This Bamboo Shoulder Pole has been passed down by my Liu family's ancestors and can predict good and bad fortune. If you see a sharp increase in the cracks on the pole, it means danger is arriving."

I took the shoulder pole, my heart feeling incredibly heavy. "There are still ten hours left before today ends. If I don't survive this, it's all over."