Chapter 75: Fate’s Mockery, An Unexpected Encounter with the Gu Family
Chapter 75: Fate’s Mockery, An Unexpected Encounter with the Gu Family
People often said that liquor gave cowards courage, meaning that under the stimulation of alcohol, a person could become extremely excited, leading to a relative instability and lack of clarity in their reasoning.
Even worse, like being dead drunk.
And at such times, it was often when a person’s willpower was at its weakest.
Especially someone with a fragile psyche, a guilty and fearful heart. For example, the young man named Xiao Tao in that small, dilapidated house earlier. The robbery in the early hours of the morning had left him excited, tense, and terrified… Yet he had to force himself to keep up appearances to show his strength and courage among his friends, then rely on the stimulation of alcohol to spout some big talk. But the more he did this, the more unclear and unsteady his consciousness became, and the more prone he was to having, hallucinations!
And also, most easily, falling for tricks!
Standing outside the window, Su Chunfeng coldly watched the three men wrestling inside.
When the one called Xiao Tao was quickly beaten to the ground by Lin Qiang and the other man and pinned down firmly, Su Chunfeng revealed a ruthless, cold smile. He formed a hand seal with his left hand and silently chanted, “Snap…”
“Xiao Tao, have you fucking lost your mind!”
“Dare to lay hands on me? I’m gonna finish you off today!” Lin Qiang, his forehead broken by a bottle and his face covered in blood, was straddling Xiao Tao. He gripped Xiao Tao’s collar with one hand and swung his big palm to slap him fiercely.
The other man held Xiao Tao’s two hands down tightly so he couldn’t move, cursing, “Dammit, asking for death!”
“Hey, hey, Brother Lin Qiang, don’t hit me, why are you hitting me?” Xiao Tao, pinned on the ground and beaten black and blue, suddenly cried out in shock and begged for mercy. “Hong Liang, Hong Liang, why are you holding me… Where’s that guy? Where did that guy go? Damn, what’s going on?”
Both Lin Qiang and Hong Liang paused, saying, “What the hell are you babbling about?”
“Where did that guy from earlier go?”
“Who?”
“The, the one we robbed, the one driving the car…”
Lin Qiang and Hong Liang both shivered violently at the same time—as the saying went, if you did nothing wrong, you wouldn’t fear a knock at the door at midnight. Those who had done wrong, no matter how bold, would inevitably feel a twinge of guilt. Combined with the effects of alcohol, any psychological disturbance caused by an event would be several times more intense than usual.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Lin Qiang slapped Xiao Tao across the face.
At that moment, Hong Liang suddenly let go of Xiao Tao’s hands. He raised his hand in shock and pointed at Lin Qiang. “That, Brother Qiang, you, who are you really?”
“What the hell do you mean ‘who’?” Lin Qiang was suddenly alarmed.
“Damn it!” Xiao Tao abruptly shoved Lin Qiang off him, grabbed a plate scattered on the floor, and smashed it down on Lin Qiang’s head.
Hong Liang, greatly startled, picked up a stool and swung it at Xiao Tao. After hitting him, he looked somewhat dazedly at Lin Qiang, who had scrambled up cursing and pounced on Xiao Tao. Hong Liang quickly kicked out, swung the stool at the stumbling Lin Qiang, then bent down to grab the small wooden table that had been knocked over earlier, lifting it high and smashing it down.
Xiao Tao, having suffered, reached into his pocket and pulled out a dagger…
For a moment, roars and curses inside the room seemed like they might lift the roof.
Outside the window.
Su Chunfeng watched the brawl inside, smirked coldly, turned, and strode away.
When he reached the alley entrance, got on his bicycle, and was about to leave, he heard the sound of two doors opening in the alley behind him. Looking toward the sound, he saw several figures hurriedly heading toward the old, dilapidated house where the fight was still raging. Presumably, the neighbors couldn’t stand it any longer and came out to see what was happening at that house, hoping no one would get killed.
Su Chunfeng couldn’t be bothered with this. He pedaled his bicycle back the way he came.
Passing through Beili Village, he stopped at a small shop that still had its lights on to buy a pack of cigarettes. He casually inquired and learned that the village he had just left was called Sanli Pu Village.
At this very moment…
On Provincial Highway 313, at the construction section where Su Chunfeng had earlier cast his art to release the Immortal Spirit Root-Seeking Bird, a silver-gray Peugeot sedan was parked.
Under the car’s headlights, a young man who looked about twenty-eight or twenty-nine, wearing a suit and leather shoes, was squatting on the uneven construction site. He was feeling the faint traces of an earth seal left on the relatively flat ground. After a while, he took two steps forward, dug out some damp little paper wads from the broken soil and mixed stones, picked them up, sniffed them by his nose, then turned his head and said with a smile, “I don’t know what happened, but a master performed an art here.”
The back door of the car opened. A dignified, handsome middle-aged man in his fifties, wearing a black trench coat, got out of the car. “Are you sure?”
“Can’t be wrong.” The young man stood up, holding several small paper wads, and handed them over, saying, “Probably discarded after drawing the talisman.”
The middle-aged man took them, looked, sniffed, and nodded. “A master indeed. Acting freely, any time, any place, a single spark of spiritual light becomes a talisman.”
“Also, this master used an earth seal,” the young man said as he walked to where he had been standing just before, crouched down, and pointed at the small patch of ground that had been smoothed and polished by shoe soles.
The middle-aged man frowned as he looked. “He came here to find someone.”
“Dad, should we wait here then?” the young man asked with a smile.
“Wait for what?” The middle-aged man smiled. “It has nothing to do with us. Waiting here would only arouse suspicion and displeasure for no reason… Let’s go.”
“Okay.”
“Oh, by the way, Xiao Han,” the middle-aged man suddenly thought of something as he walked toward the car. “When we get back, find out if any unusual events have happened around here.”
“Alright.” The young man agreed, opening the car door and getting into the driver’s seat.
Just as these two were talking and about to get into the car, Su Chunfeng turned the corner from that small path on his bicycle and immediately saw the two men standing by the car under the bright headlights not far away. His heart gave a jolt, but he quickly regained his composure. While silently reciting a heart mantra spell incantation to dispel and suppress the residue of spell aura inevitably lingering on him from the earlier art casting, he rode his bicycle toward them without the slightest pause—he knew very well that if he stopped, it would arouse the suspicion of those two men.
By the time Su Chunfeng on his bicycle neared the car, the two men had already gotten in.
However, they didn’t hurry to start the car. Instead, they rolled down the window, both looking somewhat puzzled and curious at this teenager dressed in a denim jacket, about sixteen or seventeen years old, riding a worn-out bicycle slowly over, then bumping across the potholed road section.
As he passed by the car, the teenager even glanced with considerable curiosity at the car and the two men inside.
“Hmm, this kid is a bit odd. What’s he doing out so late at night?” The young man in the driver’s seat said with a smile.
“He is a bit strange,” the middle-aged man in the back seat frowned slightly. “I think I faintly sensed some residual spellcasting aura on him just now, but it disappeared very quickly. Strange.”
The young man exclaimed in surprise, “You mean him?”
“Yes.”
“How is that possible? He’s only about sixteen or seventeen, right?”
The middle-aged man smiled somewhat self-mockingly, waved his hand, and said, “Probably because he just got close to the target of the art? Forget it, let’s go…”
“Okay.”
The car started, slowly crossed the rough section, then accelerated, soon overtaking Su Chunfeng and speeding away.
Su Chunfeng on his bicycle let out a sigh of relief—the moment he turned the corner from the small path earlier, it was fortunate he had promptly recited the heart mantra spell incantation to suppress the inevitable residual spell aura on himself from the art casting. Otherwise, the other party would definitely have sensed that he was the one who cast the art. Moreover, he was now certain that the father and son already knew a master had performed an art here.
Su Chunfeng recognized them.
The middle-aged man was named Gu Yuebai. The young man was his son, named Gu Han.
They were from Pingjing County in the western part of Jinguanzhuang City, the provincial capital of Central Hebei Province. In the not-too-distant future, they would become famous figures in the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts, especially in the Central Plains region near the capital.
The Gu family was an occult family, skilled in divination.
It should be noted here that among all esoteric arts, “Divination” was the most diverse, with a long history and many practitioners. Divination primarily included the three supreme arts known as “Liu Ren,” “Tai Yi,” and “Qimen Divination.” Among them, Tai Yi focused on celestial elements, used for predicting state affairs, and was taboo for emperors, hence not widely renowned. Qimen focused on earthly elements, used for predicting collective matters and warfare, possessing powerful destructive arts, often applied in military, political, and family development matters. Liu Ren focused on human elements, used for predicting human affairs and fortunes. Derived from these three supreme arts were also prophecy, dream interpretation and fulfillment, character analysis and interpretation, lot drawing, the study of names, as well as various methods for exorcising evil spirits, vanquishing demons, and subduing monsters that circulated in the world.
Precisely because over ninety percent of Jianghu mages practiced some form of “Divination,” and among divination arts, Qimen practitioners were the most numerous, the esoteric Jianghu was broadly referred to as the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts.
And what the Gu family specialized in was Qimen within divination.
In Su Chunfeng’s memory, Gu Yuebai should already be at the Late Qi Refining Stage now. By the end of 2012, it was said Gu Yuebai made a breakthrough and stepped into the Awakening Spirit Realm.
His son, Gu Han, was also a genius in spell cultivation. He should currently be at the Early or Mid Qi Stabilization Stage.
In Su Chunfeng’s previous life, there was that time in the capital because of Wang Haifei’s death. In rage for his beloved, he stirred up a storm of bloodshed in the Jianghu, fighting all the way from the capital to Sichuan. At that time, the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts was in a state of alarm. They had to find intermediaries to sue for peace, proposing a reconciliation with Su Chunfeng…
The one who came to negotiate and act as mediator back then was precisely Gu Yuebai.
During the peace talks, the unconvinced Gu Han, without his father’s knowledge, privately engaged Su Chunfeng in a magical duel. He admitted defeat in less than three moves, proving himself a straightforward and upright person.
Thinking of past events, Su Chunfeng couldn’t help but feel astonished. “How did Gu Yuebai and Gu Han, this father and son pair, come to Shatai City? And to pass by this place so coincidentally, just happening to encounter my art casting? Damn it all… This damnable fate really loves to mock people, as if it’s not satisfied unless it throws those from the Jianghu together.”
Pondering this, he had already returned to the outside of the Maguan Town Police Station.
Su Chunfeng spat in contempt, cursing fate in his mind, while putting his bicycle back onto the rotavator behind the tractor.
Shaking his somewhat dizzy and aching head, he forced himself to perk up and pretended a panicked expression. He jogged to the guardroom, knocked on the window, and said with extreme urgency, “Officer, just now while I was looking for a shop by the roadside, I heard two people passing by on bicycles say that on their way back from the night shift early this morning, they saw the guys who robbed my dad and uncle. They said they were a bunch from Sanli Pu Village named Lin Qiang and Hong Liang…”
“What?” The officer on duty immediately stood up, surprised. “Are you sure?”
“Really! They said they saw five people total who robbed a big tractor used for plowing! Two people on the tractor got beaten up. I bet they were talking about our vehicle for sure.”
“Wait here!” The duty officer hurriedly picked up the phone.