Chapter 264: Master, Promise Me, Alright?
“This person is the one who allows you to reincarnate countless times?” Yu Yan stared coldly at the word ‘Realmspirit’, and it looked as if frosts were about to appear within his eyes. In his hand, it seemed like a mystic art was about to materialize.
“Don’t, don’t, don’t! Master!” Zhu Yao grabbed onto his hand, and sternly said. “This is a voice transmission talisman he passed me, it’s not the person himself.”
Master, don’t act recklessly!
Only then did he put down his hand, though, he seemed to have subconsciously hugged her a little tighter than before.
“Are you able to find out where the voice transmission talisman originates from?”
“Where else can it come from? Obviously, it’s the other Q…” Wait a minute! Zhu Yao was startled for a moment. She suddenly recalled that even QQ would have login addresses stored, and as long as she could find his IP address…
“Master, I know of a way to locate him!”
She opened up the technical team’s colleagues chat group, and everyone’s avatars were greyed out. Because it was the weekend, basically not a single one of them was online on QQ. She instantly swept out her phone, found the number of a colleague, and called him.
The phone rang for several dozens of times, yet, no one picked up.
Yo, this little one is rebelling, huh!?
She immediately typed out a short message over: Within a minute, return my call! Otherwise, I will cancel your right to have end-of-year leaves, forever.
The moment the message was sent, her phone rang in less than five seconds.
I knew you were acting dead!
“Hey, Mouse!”
“Boss…” A teary voice sounded from the other end of the phone. “Do you have to be this inhumane? Today is a weekend, please let me go? If I work overtime now, my girlfriend will kill me. For my lifelong happiness, please be merciful, Boss!”
“Shut up, the hell you talking about?” Zhu Yao’s face darkened. Was she that inhumane? In the past, at the very most, she had only called him in for overtime two… three… four… five times a month. Mn. It was not serious in the least. “I’m only looking for your help, not for overtime.”
“Eh!?” Mouse was stunned for a moment, and then he suddenly became spirited. “Boss, speak. As long as it’s not overtime, Mouse will climb a mountain full of blades and swim in a sea of fire for you, without the slightest of hesitation. I will do my best till my heart ceases to beat!”
“Do you have a computer near you?”
“Yes!”
“Help me investigate a QQ account. Look for its most recent IP, and clearly investigate the specific location of the IP.” Zhu Yao sent over Realmspirit’s QQ logs.
“So it’s a small matter like this!” Mouse heaved a sigh of relief. “Don’t you worry. Give me five minutes, and I will quickly help you ha… Oh I mean, investigate it. Looking at the friendship between us, do you want the service to include hacking his computer? Like infecting it with several hundreds of viruses or something.”
“…” What’s with this vengeful tone?
The ‘patapata’ keyboard tapping sounds came from the other side of the phone.
“This IP…” His voice sank. “Sunlight Small District. Block 11. Boss, this is your house’s address, right?”
Sunlight Small District, the small district she lived in with Guoguo? How could that be possible!? A chill suddenly ran down her spine. It couldn’t be that scary, right?
“Eh, these addresses are…” Mouse suddenly exclaimed, and his voice instantly carried hints of resentment. “Boss, you can’t be making fun of me, right? I checked the login records of this QQ account, and the login addresses are basically centered at two places. One is the small district you rented a place in, while the other, is the company’s address.”
“…” !!!
“Looking at the login times, all of them coincides with Boss’s work schedule. This can’t be your own smurf account, right?” Mouse said, while feeling as if he was about to cry. “Boss, I understand your feelings as a single old-aged young lady, but I’m only going out for a tour with my girlfriend. Can you not damage a couple’s relationship like this? Valentine’s’ Day is still far away!”
“Scram!” Zhu Yao’s voice sank. This old lady has already escaped that label, alright? “Send me the information of the IP. After that, you can be on your way.”
“Yes!”
Mouse dropped the call, and a moment later, the QQ interface shook for a few times. A picture file was sent over.
As Mouse had said, most of the IPs belonged to her home’s and the company’s, and even the login times were all exactly the same. Why did she feel this was a little frightening?
“The numbers here, are they dates?” Yu Yan suddenly pointed at the final record, and asked.
“Mn, it’s in the order of year, month, date… Wait a minute!” Zhu Yao fiercely widened her eyes. “7/19? Isn’t that today? 23:14…”
Zhu Yao turned to look at the time stated at the bottom of the screen, and was stunned. Wasn’t that right now!?
She flipped open Realmspirit’s QQ chat, and his avatar was still greyed out. Instantly, flames of fury surged within her.
She instantly sent a message over.
Zhu Yao: Realmspirit, get your ass out here now. I know you’re there! You’re actually playing a game of invisibility with me.
There was no response from the other side.
Zhu Yao: I give you three minutes to reply me. Otherwise, I’m going to smash this computer.
To be using the same IP as her as, and even at the same time without the slightest of deviation, there was only one possibility. Realmspirit was not hiding in some physical location, but right within her computer.
Zhu Yao: Three…
Zhu Yao: Two…
Realmspirit: What happened to the promised three minutes? Why did it become three seconds?
Zhu Yao smiled. You’re finally revealing yourself?
Realmspirit: Young maiden, you’re too cunning. You actually played with my frail and weak heart.
Zhu Yao: Your sister’s frail and week! Confess now. What’s with all this?
Realmspirit: Haah, isn’t all this for the sake of our pure friendship? You were injured from soul devouring, if I hadn’t sent you back here, your soul would have scattered. Even someone like me can’t resurrect a scattered soul belonging to another world.
So her situation back then was so dangerous.
Zhu Yao turned to glance at her master, and instantly clicked on the voice communication option. The other side paused for a short while, but it got through a moment later.
“Young maiden.” Realmspirit’s voice sounded from the computer, and electrical current noises could be faintly heard. “You don’t even know how hard it was to send you back here. Uuuuu…”
“Then what’s going on with my master?” Zhu Yao asked. “Why did you bring him over as well?”
“Uh…” His voice paused for a moment, and an instant later, he reverted back to his cheap personality. “Aiya, don’t mind such small details. The timespan to activate the spatial transfer was a little limited, so the occurrence of slight mistakes should be completely understandable. Just treat it as a buy-one-get-one-free offer.”
“…” Why did she feel as if she had been treated as goods? “So you’re saying, we still have to return?”
“Of course, young maiden. This is a just a short vacation. Once your soul has completely stabilized, the heavy responsibility of saving the world is still waiting for you! Could it be that young maiden doesn’t want to return?”
Zhu Yao sank into silence for a moment. She really did not know. She was not someone with high ambitions in the first place, and had never felt that she should do something earth-shakingly huge. Other than her attachments to that place, she really could not find any aspect of that cultivation world that was better than her own world.
Though the people here were selfish as well, had their own shares of problems too, and that there were lunatics who set fires and kill people as well, similarly, here were various types of good people too. As someone who had been raised well and properly, she believed that there were still many good people in this world. Unlike the cultivation world…
“Young maiden, don’t be like that. You said you would help me.”
“This time is just an accident. If not, I can write you an apology statement of two thousand words? Three thousand words should be fine too?”
“Don’t give up, my dear friend. The white hole and a whiter tomorrow are waiting for you.”
“Even if you don’t return, your master still has to return too, right?”
Zhu Yao was startled for a moment, before turning to look at the person behind her who had an indifferent expression. “Master…”
Yu Yan tightened the hand which was wrapped around her waist, and his chin leaned down on her head. “There’s no need to worry. If you don’t want to leave, your master shall accompany you.”
She was instantly moved for a moment. Emotions filled her chest, and felt as if they were about to burst out. As expected of a good boyfriend. I request rubs, I request hugs.
“Young maiden… you can’t be this inhumane!” Realmspirit wailed out. “My world cannot go on without you!”
“Scram!” This old lady doesn’t want to live in your world.
“I’m telling the truth. You saw it yourself. Those worlds were all at the brink of collapse.” The voice that had always sounded easy-going, now carried a heaviness that had never been heard before. “If this continues, the worlds will collapse one by one, and will finally meet their complete demise. You’re the only one who can help me.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to help you, but you have seen it yourself as well. No matter which world, slaughter and schemes were widespread, and all practitioners even viewed killing stealing treasures as common occurrences. It’s as if as long as they could raise their own cultivation and ascend, everything they do is right and proper.” She heaved a deep sigh, and sternly said. “Realmspirit, I have long wanted to ask you. Just what does the so-called ‘cultivation’ in that world, actually cultivates? And the Heavenly Dao they strive towards, what kind of Dao is it? Why are those people who kill countless others able to live an enjoyable and long life, while good people like the girl Ying Luo are not treated well, causing even their future lives to be implicated as well?”
“Could it be that the so-called Heavenly Dao, is the Dao of massacre? I just can’t understand! IN the world I live in, there’s nothing more important than life itself. Killing others, to people like us, is something very terrifying, and something that we can never forget or tolerate. But in that world, in the eyes of most practitioners, it has already become part of their daily lives. The aspect of life is the same, but why is it that on this side, it’s prioritized over all others, while on that side it’s being looked down upon to such an extent?”
“It’s as if kindness and tolerance are seen as disgraceful by the common people. Realmspirit, don’t you think there’s a very huge problem with such a world? Be it Xiao Yi or Yi Ling, no matter how extreme their beliefs are, when traced back to the roots, they are both influenced by that world. If the world is as such, then there will similarly be another bug existence that can destroy the world in the future. The girl Ying Luo was right. The true Devil isn’t the Devil Race, but in the hearts of all practitioners.”
“Realmspirit, if you want to talk about bugs, then the true bug is the Heavenly Dao that created all these and connived them. If we see the Three Realms as a game, the problem lies in the main engine. No matter how well the additional procedures are fixed, it’s impossible to stop the entire game from collapsing. Realmspirit, what are getting me to fix? The Heavenly Dao?”
“…” He went silent for a short while. Then, his voice suddenly sank a little, as he said with emphasis on every word. “Then… What if I tell you that the Heavenly Dao can be altered?”
“…”
Realmspirit said that the Heavenly Dao could be altered, but Zhu Yao was suspicious of it. Was he really thinking that it was a game, and could be reprogrammed!? In the end, she still did not promise Realmspirit, but he did not seem to be in the rush either.
“Young maiden, you can think about it slowly. There might come a day when you’re bored to death, and decides to pay a visit?”
Was he treating transmigration as a tour? Something that can be done as long as she wanted to? Zhu Yao did not care about him, and instantly turned off the computer. However, she seemed to have faintly seen through his methods. It seemed like as long as she was still in a disagreement, Realmspirit could not force her to return.
Regarding Shao Bai’s issues, she had asked Realmspirit about them as well. Wang Xuzhi was indeed a part of Shao Bai. Back then, Shao Bai was split into two after entering the Heavenly World Crossing Door. One part of him was Yue Ying, while the other part was Wang Xuzhi.
However, the part that belonged to Yue Ying was merely a spiritual body, and he had only managed to reincarnate after wandering in the Underworld for many years. On the other hand, the other part of him did not pass away, due to him possessing the physical body of a phoenix. This was how the ruin in Ying Luo’s world came about. Shao Bai had already become a Devil the moment he realized she had opened the Heavenly World Crossing Door. However, because his soul was split into two, his Devil attribute was greatly weakened, allowing him to regain his sanity. Thus, he expelled all of the Devil attribute within his body, and sealed it within that ruin.
It could be said that the Devil which the girl Ying Luo had exterminated in the end, was actually Shao Bai’s Devil side which he had sealed. This was also why Wang Xuzhi was not a Devil, while Yue Ying was one.
Zhu Yao felt a little stifled in her chest. She had never seen Wang Xuzhi and Yue Ying as the same person. Though they both belonged to the same soul, they were two very different parts of it. It’s the same as how she would be forever unable to treat the two of them as Shao Bai. Wang Xuzhi was just and cheerful, like a little brother next door; Yue Ying was extremely stubborn, like a child with autism.
Though she cared and worried for both of them, she indeed did was not prepared to once again return to that world. She did not prepare to continue using that laptop either, and opted to buy a new one.
Ever since her return, she requested for a half-month long leave from the company. Using this period of time, she crammed her master with the knowledge and common sense of this world.
Though, as expected of her genius master, his learning speed was as fast as being on board of a rocket. Adding that he carried twelve hundred thousand percent passion towards everything to this world, though he still had the same ten-thousand-year unchanging icy look, as long as he discovered something new, his eyes would brighten like lightbulbs, and he would look as if he desired it. The questions he asked, had elevated from ‘what is this?’ to the basic working principles behind the object.
Only a ghost would know how a refrigerator creates ice, it’s simply stated as such on the television.
Her master was definitely a technology geek, right!?
Thus, a week later, she decided to head over to the company and cancel her leave. Before she went off, she repeated her instructions, removed all of the dangerous elements, and then reluctantly left the house. The moment she stepped out of the door, she could not help but turn back, pull on her master’s hand, and say with sincerity. “Master, promise me, just like how Erkang promised Ziwei1, before I return, do not tear apart the television in the house, alright?”
Yu Yan was startled for a moment. Turning around, he glanced at the Voice Recording Stone known as a television, his fingers twitched a little. He let out a sigh, and nodded. This Voice Recording Stone seemed to be very important to his disciple, he would leave it be then.
After sending his disciple to that teleportation formation (elevator) that could not even be classified in the lowest of grade, he returned to the house. His eyes were fixated at that ice type mystic artifact. Mn, his disciple did not seem to have mentioned that this could not be touched.
1. How Erkang promised Ziwei: Erkang and Ziwei are characters in the popular television show: Princess Returning Pearl (还珠格格). In this particular scene, Erkang was drafted in a war, and he promised Ziwei, his lover, that he would return.
