Chapter 57: Conspiracy Theory Cultivation

Over sixty years old, Sheng Zuchang wore a look of sheer bewilderment. His voice trembling, he said, "I don't know any Hsieh Ya-li at all. Did you find the wrong person?"

Li Xuan sneered, lightly sweeping the blade of his knife through the air. "The air is filled with her unique entomogenous fungi, and you still claim you have no connection to her? Enough of this nonsense. My mission is merely to eradicate the remnants of the True Immortal Temple. Take your grievances and complain to King Yama in the netherworld."

Sheng Zuchang's face drained of color as he scrambled backward across the floor. Suddenly, his concealed right hand whipped out, clutching a pitch-black handgun!

Before he could pull the trigger, his arm was pinned beneath Li Xuan's boot, who had lunged forward instantly. With a flash of the blade, the arm was cleanly severed, and blood sprayed across the floor.

At first, Li Xuan could not be certain that Sheng Zuchang was connected to the True Immortal Temple. Coming here was merely based on deduction.

Meeting him with a kick and dropping Hsieh Ya-li's name was just a bluff to observe his reaction, but he never expected the man to actually pull out a firearm.

Fortunately, his nerves had been taut and he remained fully coiled for action.

He had sliced this old geezer just in time!

Sheng Zuchang's face turned pale as blood continuously gushed from the wound, knowing that if he failed to staunch the bleeding in time, he would die right here. Enveloped by the shadow of death, he could not help but plead, "Help me stop the bleeding... please... We have no grudge between us. I am already over sixty, having spent the better part of my life studying the culture of folklore and ghosts. I don't ask for much, and I wouldn't dare dream of becoming an immortal—I just want to live a few more decades!"

Li Xuan picked up the handgun from the floor.

It was his first time touching a real firearm. The object did not look large, but it felt heavy and substantial in his hand. Pressing the release button, he ejected the magazine to take a glance. The gleaming golden bullets held a considerable appeal for any man.

He would check the model after finishing the mission.

Sheng Zuchang was still pleading, "The immortal has descended, bestowing blessings with great difficulty... I am too old... I must hold onto this chance."

Li Xuan grabbed Sheng Zuchang by his remaining arm and dragged him toward the inner room, leaving a long trail of blood smeared across the floor. "Tell me the whole story from beginning to end," Li Xuan said. "If even a single word sounds fishy to me, today will officially mark your final day."

Walking inside, he saw that the desk lamp in the study was switched on, the desktop cluttered with piles of paper.

Approaching it, he found a vast array of Daoist scriptures, talismans, ritual implements, along with photographs of Liao Zhenfu, Chiu Miao-fang, the priest, Chen Liangwang, and FBI agent Kevin Wright.

Seeing that Li Xuan clearly recognized these materials, Sheng Zuchang let out a sorrowful sigh in his heart and said, "I met Huang Yifeng and Lin Daosheng a long time ago. Several months ago, they suddenly underwent a complete personality transformation and moved a thousand-year-old Daoist temple from Guangdong on the mainland. I went to Huang-Lin Building to inspect the temple and recognized it as being in the Song Dynasty style...

Because I had once imparted vital guidance to Huang Yifeng and Lin Daosheng, they invited me to join them in seeking the Dao and ascending to immortality.

They claimed that the master from their past life had found them, awakening the memories of their previous existence, and that now everything was ready except for the eastern wind. By helping their master slay five human ghouls and then having a Taipei police officer named Huang Huo-tu facilitate their ritual liberation, the grand undertaking would be complete!

At first, I didn't believe it, but after seeing that young girl with double pupils, I believed it. And when I sensed that there was already an 'elder sister' who had successfully attained immortality, I immediately decided to convert to the True Immortal Temple!

It is rare to live to seventy, and since I am already in my sixties, it is only natural that I fear death...

The day before yesterday, I learned that the True Immortal Temple had collapsed, that Huang Yifeng, Lin Daosheng, and all the believers were dead, and that Hsieh Ya-li had vanished. I felt as though the sky were falling.

Last night at midnight, the 'immortal' came to me in the form of a child, telling me that fortune was being granted to me. If I killed the remaining two human ghouls, on the day of ascension, she would certainly remember me!

You just said Hsieh Ya-li is dead... Wh-what on earth happened?"

Li Xuan planted his boot squarely on Sheng Zuchang's abdomen, nearly knocking the wind out of him, and demanded, "With a body over sixty years old, you managed to take down Chen Liangwang and the foreign investigator, both in the prime of their lives?"

Sheng Zuchang hurriedly answered, "The immortal gave me a black-green pill. After swallowing it, my body was filled with strength. Combined with the fungus-control techniques previously bestowed upon me by Hsieh Ya-li, killing two completely unprepared people wasn't all that difficult. Besides, I acted in the dead of night, exactly when people are most exhausted and fast asleep."

It seemed Hsieh Ya-li was thoroughly dead.

Yet, the task of slaying the human ghouls had been taken over by her sister, who refused to touch the ghouls herself and instead employed an old man like this to do it...

Was she afraid of accumulating karmic entanglement?

At that moment, Sheng Zuchang's complexion turned greenish-blue, thick green veins burst across the whites of his eyes, and he vomited a black-green liquid from his mouth. Looking in extreme agony, he struggled as he stared at Li Xuan. "Help me call an ambulance... Quickly, I'm not going to make it. I'm not reconciled to this! I spent my whole life studying this, and just as I finally touch upon true ghosts and deities, why..."

His head slumped to one side, and he breathed his last.

Li Xuan reached out to check. There was no pulse, and his heart had stopped beating.

He drove his knife into Sheng Zuchang's heart and twisted it twice to prevent any sudden resurrection tricks, then proceeded to thoroughly search the room, gathering Sheng Zuchang's research notes to read them closely.

Aside from the research kept out in the open, he discovered a hidden compartment inside the bookcase. It also contained research regarding the True Immortal Temple, but these were Sheng Zuchang's private, personal materials.

This old bastard hadn't trusted the True Immortal Temple one hundred percent after all. He was also afraid that they acted according to "ancient ways of thinking" and would murder all their modern followers after slaying the human ghouls to sever their karmic ties.

Attaining immortality required cutting off all mortal attachments.

Countless similar Daoist tales existed, and Sheng Zuchang had been terrified of becoming the one who got cut off...

In secret, he had intensified his study of Song Dynasty Daoist cultivation methods and behaviors, trying to determine their sect, how many people had actually achieved immortality, how the reincarnation process worked, what the subsequent steps entailed, and whether there were any failure-recovery plans...

Li Xuan spotted such an entry in Sheng Zuchang's notes.

If Hsieh Ya-li failed to slay the human ghouls, would the "immortal" step in and finish the job? And once completed, who (assuming Hsieh Ya-li left behind no corpse) would be delivered to Huang Huo-tu to undergo ritual liberation?

Sheng Zuchang had deduced that perhaps the "immortal" had never truly achieved immortality in the first place, but had instead become a ghost akin to an intermediate state of existence, lingering between reality and illusion!

Hsieh Ya-li was merely a puppet pushed forward to complete the ritual.

Once all the human ghouls were slain and the puppet underwent ritual liberation, this "immortal" would surely seize Hsieh Ya-li's "fruits of labor" through some kind of ritual!

Throughout the densely written notes, Sheng Zuchang's anxiety practically overflowed from the pages as he analyzed both Hsieh Ya-li and the immortal sister through the lens of conspiracy theories.

He was cautious, and his direction had been spot on.

He had simply failed to account for Li Xuan, who had suddenly materialized out of nowhere over the past few days.

Although Sheng Zuchang maintained a minor cooperative relationship with the Taipei police as a "consultant," he lacked the clearance to freely investigate anyone's file at will.

Even the day before yesterday, upon learning that the True Immortal Temple had been "breached," Sheng Zuchang had initially suspected that a third-party faction had emerged.

And just last night, right after executing the "immortal's" instructions, he was hunted down by Li Xuan with a knife today, kicked the moment the door opened... completely leaving him no time to plan ahead.

After finishing the notes, Li Xuan looked back down at Sheng Zuchang, thinking to himself that this fellow was truly a man of talent.