The Terror of the Heavens Begins with Gu

Chapter 167 A conversation with Xie Yali: He helped me become an immortal!
In the pitch-black, gloomy space, a short-haired woman with her eyes closed, her face pale, as if she were already lifeless, suddenly opened her eyes.

His eyes moved, and his two pupils flashed by.

"Why haven't I passed my tribulation yet? Becoming an immortal... is indeed not that simple."

The woman slowly sat up.

"Sister, why is my tribulation even more difficult than yours?"

A sudden breeze ruffled her short hair.

Footsteps sounded.

Two middle-aged men walked up to the woman and prostrated themselves on the ground without saying a word.

……

Although the phenomenon of bullets turning corners occurred before his eyes two years ago, Huang Huotu did not actually witness the bullets turning corners. But now, he has witnessed the power of ghosts and gods.

Looking into Li Zhen's deep and eerie eyes, Huang Huotu, filled with horror, retreated to the entrance.

"You're saying that once I die, that person won't be able to become an immortal? Everything will end? And no more innocent people will be killed?"

"That's the theory."

Will my daughter...will she also return to normal?

"Probably."

"Kevin and my colleagues won't die?"

"According to their predetermined fate, they will all die."

Huang Huotu lowered his head, remained silent for a moment, and then asked, "Who exactly are you? A... mage?"

Having served as a police officer for many years, he possessed strong mental fortitude and quickly adjusted his mindset.

Li Zhen replied vaguely, "Yes."

Huang Huotu took a deep breath: "How do I know if you're telling the truth? Maybe you're just trying to lie to me and make me want to take my own life."

The phone he was holding suddenly vibrated.

Looking down, Huang Huotu was a little surprised.

After pressing the answer button, he put the phone to his ear and heard Kevin's voice.

"You haven't come back yet?"

"I... ran into some things and won't be back for a while. Is there something wrong?"

“Since that vehicle is a special vehicle used to transport integrated circuits, it couldn’t have just appeared in the city center for no reason. I circled the place where the body was found and found something interesting. If you don’t have time, I’ll go and check it out myself.”

Upon hearing Kevin's words, Huang Huotu's heart skipped a beat.

He glanced at Li Zhen subconsciously, his voice becoming somewhat hurried: "Don't worry, we can go to the relevant departments to look up information about that vehicle first thing tomorrow morning. As long as that vehicle is used to transport integrated circuits, we will definitely be able to find useful information."

Kevin chuckled and said, "I don't have anything to do right now, so going out for a walk might be a good idea."

Huang Huotu's expression became even more urgent: "You don't know anyone here, get out... Hey? Hey!"

Kevin had already hung up the phone.

Huang Huotu glanced at his phone and immediately called Kevin back, but this time no one answered.

He grabbed his phone and looked at the few remaining steps outside the door, which looked like they could collapse at any moment.

Looking somewhat agitated, Huang Huotu stretched out his foot and stepped on the step.

A crash was heard, and the half of the step that had fallen behind also plummeted downstairs.

Seeing the smoke and dust rising from the first floor, Huang Huotu broke out in a cold sweat.

Realizing the great risk of going down from here, Huang Huotu immediately ran to the window.

The window frame is made of wood, and the edges are rotten. If you just find something to smash it a few times, you should be able to break the window open completely.

Although the third floor is high, there is a tree a little distance away.

If I could risk jumping up that tree, I could safely return to the ground...

Huang Huotu pushed against the window twice, and then heard Li Zhen say, "If you don't go down, Kevin won't die. On the contrary, as long as you go down, Kevin will definitely die."

Huang Huotu's body remained frozen in place.

Li Zhen said calmly, "Kevin Wright has only been in Taiwan for a few days. Would he disobey your arrangements and go out on his own? Think about it, who is he? An FBI agent, would he do something so capricious? Just think about it and you'll know that this doesn't make sense."

"I don't know if I should believe you." Huang Huotu turned to look at Li Zhen.

Li Zhen pointed to the person next to him and said, "Sit down. The more you do now, the more mistakes you'll make. You might as well do nothing."

Looking uneasy, Huang Huotu picked up his phone and called Kevin Wright again, but no one answered.

Huang Huotu slowly put down his phone, his expression becoming even more anxious.

He paced back and forth by the window a few times, then looked at Li Zhen and asked, "If I don't go back, will Kevin be alright?"

Li Zhen affirmed, "As long as you don't fall under her control, and if you don't want anything to happen to Kevin, he'll be perfectly fine."

Huang Huotu said absentmindedly, "I won't let anything happen to Kevin, I won't let anything happen to my colleagues... and I won't help anyone become an immortal!"

"You have no choice. Once you miss this opportunity, you won't have a second chance to choose."

Huang Huotu looked out the window.

His phone vibrated again, startling him.

He looked at his phone and realized it wasn't Kevin calling back, but his friend Li Fengbo.

As soon as the call connected, Li Fengbo's urgent voice came through.

"Huotu, where have you been? I can't find you anywhere. I'm injured and have been taken to the hospital. You need to come and take care of me for the night, otherwise no one will be there to call a doctor after my medication is finished."

"You're injured? I'm outside right now..."

Li Fengbo said irritably, "Damn it, what are you doing out there? Is it more important than coming to the hospital to take care of me? I'm about to die, hurry up and come here!"

Huang Huotu silently hung up the phone.

Li Zhen said, "You see, they all really want you to go back."

"I don't want to see innocent people continue to be killed." Huang Huotu covered his face with his palm and rubbed it hard.

Li Zhen nodded: "Like you, I don't want to see innocent people die either."

The phone started vibrating again.

Huang Huotu glanced at his phone screen but didn't answer.

The noise lasted for a while and then stopped.

Huang Huotu had just breathed a sigh of relief when his phone rang again.

This time, it wasn't Li Fengbo who broke in, but Huang Huotu's wife, Qingfang.

After a slight hesitation, Huang Huotu answered the phone.

His wife, Qingfang, came through the phone, her voice trembling with tears: "Huotu, where are you? My sister... my sister is missing! I can't find her anywhere! Please come... please come back and find her!"

"younger sister……"

The news of his daughter's disappearance struck Huang Huotu's most vulnerable spot.

He could no longer remain calm and grabbed a broken chair, smashing it against the window.

"It's all fake, all fake! They wouldn't dare do anything... They just want to..."

Li Zhen suddenly pressed his hand to his chest.

His vision blurred for a moment, and his primordial spirit, which had been imprisoned in his body, almost left his body again.

The three evil spirits within his body began to stir again, plunging Li Zhen's primordial spirit into a predicament of being attacked from both inside and outside.

This situation was even more serious than before, as his connection with the red-eyed bats and the little devils was completely severed.

In fact, the moment he bit off half of his tongue, the little devils were no longer under his control.

Even with Li Zhen's powerful primordial spirit, he can only barely maintain the status quo and prevent his condition from getting worse.

That mysterious woman was in a special state, and there wasn't much she could do. She mostly guided the situation, which led to the occurrence of certain phenomena.

For example, Li Zhen's body is stiff, and he occasionally bites his tongue when he speaks, so he just bit off a small piece of his tongue.

For example, if there are problems with his own primordial spirit and body, then naturally the phenomena of his primordial spirit leaving his body and being devoured by evil spirits will occur.

By merely guiding certain phenomena, that person plunged Li Zhen into enormous trouble, almost temporarily crippling Li Zhen's cultivation.

However, Li Zhen didn't come away empty-handed. Through gradual probing, he had confirmed the conclusion that the woman was indeed under significant restrictions.

Naturally, Li Zhen's willingness to directly test Huang Huotu and that woman wouldn't be a risky move without a reason.

In the original series, this woman only made a move once, and never again.

Xie Yali relied on that special mold during the killings and the final dismemberment.

Without the ability to use mold, she couldn't even control the yellow fire and earth.

If her sister could step in at any time, some things wouldn't need to be so complicated.

However, Li Zhen was not sure whether the woman was capable of taking action or what methods she could employ.

If the opponent's strength exceeds his expectations, Li Zhen is prepared to temporarily withdraw and think of another way...

Even though the other party did not exceed his expectations, the methods they displayed were still terrifying. They could kill people invisibly, and even Detective Li did not understand how they did it.

Having visited so many mission worlds, this was the first time Li Zhen had encountered a situation where he couldn't understand the opponent's methods.

Is it really a ghost or immortal?

Finally, they smashed the window open, and Huang Huotu climbed onto the windowsill without hesitation.

Li Zhen looked at Huang Huotu and said weakly, "Two years ago... you made a big mistake, and two years later, you're going to make another irreparable mistake?"

Huang Huotu paused, stopping at the window.

Li Zhen said coldly, "Two years ago, you could have handled things better and prevented them from getting to the worst possible state. But you made a mistake, and now you're going to make... the worst choice ever? Kevin, your colleagues... many innocent people will be killed because of you."

Huang Huotu's body swayed slightly.

The phone he was clutching in his hand came through his wife's urgent voice: "Huotu, who's talking? Can't you come back now? Your sister is missing! What are you doing? What's more important than your sister?"

The phone fell through the window.

Huang Huotu slid off the window and curled up helplessly by the window, clutching his head.

"I...I'm just...just an ordinary person. What exactly do you want from me?"

His wife's desperate voice kept coming from the phone, each word a torment to his agonizing heart, like a sharp knife cutting his heart into a bloody mess.

Li Zhen sighed with pity: "They are determined to become immortals and have been preparing for so long. They won't give up easily. As long as you don't fall into their control, the worst thing won't happen..."

With a whoosh, a gust of wind blew into the room, and Li Zhen, who was speaking, was suddenly struck as if by a heavy blow, and crashed heavily backward into the wall.

The fire scattered and flew out, making the whole house very eerie.

A continuous series of "thump-thump" sounds rang out.

Dust kept falling from the roof.

It looked like some enormous thing was crashing into the wall.

Li Zhen struggled to lift his head.

A pair of terrifying double pupils filled his vision.

But in just a moment, those double pupils vanished as if they were an illusion.

Li Zhen struggled to sit up from the ground and looked at Huang Huotu, who had stood up.

With a crazed expression, Huang Huotu looked around and shouted like a wounded beast, "You're here, aren't you?"

“He said, ‘You know everything.’ He said, ‘It was you…it was you who saved my daughter. In this matter, you essentially saved my whole family. I thank you!’”

"However, I am a police officer from the Municipal Criminal Investigation Division, and I will not cooperate with you in anything!"

"You know me, I'm not a good policeman, not a good husband, and not a good father. I have nothing left to cherish in this world."

"If you kill Kevin or hurt my colleagues, I swear, I will die right now!"

Since the incident two years ago, Huang Huotu has become disheartened, and the only thing he can't let go of is his daughter and wife.

But he himself knows that he is now a complete burden to his wife and daughters.

If he had signed that divorce agreement sooner, his wife and daughters might already be living better lives with other people.

If his death could end this evil ascension ritual and save Kevin and the innocent, it would be a worthwhile thing to do.

The sound of the impact disappeared.

The whistling wind then disappeared.

The room returned to silence.

The phone, which had been silent for some unknown reason, started vibrating again with a buzzing sound.

Huang Huotu and Li Zhen looked at the phone together.

The phone, which was originally by the windowsill, is now not far from Li Zhen.

He reached out and picked up the phone, then pressed the answer button.

There was no response from the other end of the line.

A thought struck him, and Li Zhen asked in a slightly hoarse voice, "Xie Yali?"

A sinister voice, devoid of much variation in tone, rang out: "Who are you?"

Upon hearing that voice, Li Zhen actually relaxed.

“I am Li Zhen,” he said. “Li is the character for ‘detective’.”

“Detective Li?” Xie Yali said quietly, “I’ve never heard of this name before. In the predetermined path, there doesn’t seem to be anyone like you.”

Li Zhen said calmly, "How could becoming an immortal be so easy? If you could control all the variables, wouldn't becoming an immortal be a piece of cake?"

"That makes sense." Xie Yali chuckled. "What did you want to gain after all that scheming?"

After a moment of silence, Li Zhen said, "Take me with you to become an immortal!"

Xie Yali said, "Since you know me so well, you should know that I cannot help you become an immortal?"

"If you can't do it, can't even a fairy do it?"

"Do you think immortals are omnipotent? That they can bring people back to life? That they can make people ascend to heaven in broad daylight? Then why have I suffered in the mortal world for so long?"

"Won't your followers in the True Immortal Temple become immortals with you? Many of them are highly educated people like lawyers and teachers. If you didn't use immortality as bait, why would they listen to you?"

“You know a lot. They are my followers and have done me a favor, so I can take them with me to ascend. But why should I help you? The focus now is on the Yellow Fire Earth, not you.”

"Your time is running out. If you want to complete the ceremony smoothly, it would be best if both Officer Huang and I could cooperate with you. What do you think? If I could replace Huang Huotu and complete the final disintegration for you, that would be the best of both worlds."

"Oh? A replacement for Yellow Fire Earth? Interesting idea? But why are you so sure you can replace Yellow Fire Earth?"

“I’m not sure, but I think it’s the best option. The specific method is something you should think about.”

"Even if I had a way to replace Huang Huotu with someone else, why would I use you instead of someone else? Why should I accept your threats?"

“Officer Huang is right here with me. I don’t think your ritual can completely bypass Officer Huang. I have to say something more. Officer Huang’s condition is very wrong. His self-destructive tendencies are very obvious.” Detective Li warned, “So, don’t kill Kevin, and don’t kill Officer Huang’s colleagues. Otherwise, Officer Huang might commit suicide on the spot if he is provoked.”

He paused, then continued, “Kevin isn’t the only one who doesn’t believe in ghosts and gods. If you don’t have a suitable replacement, you can go find one now. I believe Officer Huang won’t object to you killing a villain.”

"As for the disintegration of your followers, let them figure it out themselves..."

Sweating profusely, Huang Huotu suddenly ran to Li Zhen's side and snatched the phone from Li Zhen's hand.

"Stop killing! I will not allow you to kill anyone!"

Xie Yali's unhurried voice came from the phone: "What is your birth month and date?"

Knowing the question was directed at him, Li Zhen answered, "November 31st."

"I won't do anything for you! I won't watch you kill people!" Huang Huotu frantically pressed the hang-up and power-off buttons.

Even though the phone was switched off, Xie Yali's voice still came through the receiver: "Interesting, very interesting fortune telling, really interesting... It's all in the dark..."

Huang Huotu roughly threw the phone on the ground and stomped on it with all his might as if he were a madman.

"I said, stop killing people! Stop talking about becoming an immortal!"

A "crack" sound rang out, and the phone was shattered by being stomped on, but Xie Yali's voice did not stop.

"Take Huang Huotu's blood, hair, and nails, and bring Huang Huotu to meet me... I also really want to see you..."

Huang Huotu stomped on the phone repeatedly until it was broken into pieces.

Xie Yali's voice did not sound again.

Like a wild beast, Huang Huotu, panting heavily, suddenly slammed into the wall...

(End of this chapter)