I become a god in another world

Chapter 634 I See All Living Beings
Chapter 634

If something is abnormal, it is a monster.

As the village chief, Wu Jiabing was knowledgeable and eloquent. His greeting to the group from the Demon Suppression Division was reasonably polite and respectful, even in such a hurried situation, and he did not appear to be impolite at the moment.

He remained calm and composed in the face of Yu Lingzhu's reprimand, which made him seem even more special.

The four villagers who started the fire were somewhat angry, while Wu Jiabing glared coldly at them, signaling them not to cause trouble.

Zhao Fusheng's eyes darted around, and he quickly smoothed things over:
"Village Chief Wu, please don't mind her. My sister has a bad temper and her words can be harsh."

Yu Lingzhu was stunned for a moment, her face fell, and she wanted to refute, but in the end she only snorted softly:

Who is your sister?

Wu Jiabing chuckled:
"It's alright, it's alright. As long as the adults don't blame me for saying the wrong thing, it's fine."

Zhao Fusheng smiled broadly:
"You said the village isn't haunted because there are spirits and deities protecting it? What's the origin of these two spirits and deities?"

Wu Jiabing shook his head:
"I can't explain it clearly; it happened before I was born."

While they were talking, Wu Jiabing led the group through a back alley of a bungalow. After walking for about five zhang (approximately 10 meters) through the alley, they entered an open area.

"That's our ancestral hall up ahead," Wu Jiabing pointed.

Everyone looked in the direction he was pointing, and saw that the deep mountains formed dark shadows in the rain and mist, and were not very clear due to the heavy rain.

Wu Jiabing immediately gave the order:
"Raise the light higher, raise it higher."

The four villagers immediately raised their torches, and in the firelight, Zhao Fusheng and the others saw a fairly large building being constructed in the distance, near the deep mountains.

Although Baili Temple has a large number of villagers, it is actually located in a poor and remote area. Most of the houses in the village are dilapidated and small, but this ancestral hall is quite imposing and elaborate, yet it feels somewhat oppressive on a rainy night.

Why are the lights off?

After pointing, Wu Jiabing looked at the dark ancestral hall and frowned in dissatisfaction, saying something.

"Perhaps it's windy tonight, and everyone went to help out with Sister-in-law Dou's matter, so they didn't come to the ancestral hall to add lamps," a man holding a lamp replied.

Wu Jiabing pointed at him and said:

"Fa Cai, go and light the lamp, so the adults don't have to go in the dark."

The one holding the torch, who was called "Lucky," responded and ran off into the rain, quickly heading towards the ancestral hall.

The group walked behind, and when they were halfway there, the lights at the entrance of the ancestral hall came on.

Once the ancestral hall was lit up, it illuminated the surrounding area, making it roughly visible.

A high wall surrounds the ancestral hall, with an open entrance in the middle. Through the entrance, one can see the shrine inside, with two lifelike statues sitting side by side on it.

A dirty red cloth was draped over the statue, covering half of its head.

From a distance, the dark brown wooden door and entrance, with its large amount of wood weathered and discolored over time, appear solemn, dignified, and somewhat oppressive.

In the dim light, the clay shell of the statue was mottled, and only the two red satins stood out brightly against the oppressive color, giving people a particularly uncomfortable feeling.

Behind the red cloth, two pairs of eyes seemed to be spying on everyone.

Zhao Fusheng was the first to feel uncomfortable.

For some reason, she started to feel itchy and unconsciously reached out to scratch her arm.

Amidst the heavy rain, the sound of her fingernails scratching her skin was muffled, but the movement could not be hidden from the people around her.

"Sir, what's wrong?"

Chen Duozi, holding the umbrella, stepped forward and asked warily.

Zhao Fusheng's heart was pounding wildly.

Perhaps influenced by Yu Lingzhu's earlier words, she also had a sense of déjà vu about the scene.

"grown ups--"

Zhao Fusheng remained silent for a moment without replying. Chen Duozi grew anxious and reached out to grab Zhao Fusheng's arm, but Zhao Fusheng immediately snapped out of his daze.

"fine."

As she spoke, she became wary again, lowered her head, raised her arm, and pulled up her half-wet sleeve—her hand was clenched into a fist, revealing the outline of her forearm muscles.

A red mark the size of a copper coin appeared in the middle of the arm.

The skin inside the red mark is slightly dry, resembling a tinea mark.

"Oh, sir, this is... this is a mosquito bite, or... or did I touch something? It looks like my skin is peeling off—" Chen Duozi felt a pang of heartache upon seeing the red marks and quickly tried to examine them closely.

Upon hearing the word "skin," Wu Shaochun immediately felt a chill run down his spine.

The strangeness of the night reminded him of the past in Dog Head Village. Seeing Zhao Fusheng scratching himself and Chen Duozi saying "peeling skin," he hurriedly said:
"grown ups--"

"Don't worry, it's not the same thing."

Zhao Fusheng shook his head.

She looked coldly at her arm, where a red mark about the size of a longan. Perhaps because she had been looking at it for too long, she began to hallucinate—as if a dark spot appeared within the red mark, and then a malevolent consciousness awakened.

Suddenly, a crack appeared in the red seal, and a ghost eyeball squeezed out from the crack.

Zhao Fusheng's consciousness faded, Chen Duozi and the others around her disappeared, and she could no longer feel Kuai Manzhou's hand that she was holding in her palm.

The Wu family soldiers, villagers, and ancestral hall were all gone, replaced by two ghostly figures standing side by side in the distance, coldly staring at her through a red cloth.

Suddenly, the red cloth turned into blood-red light, revealing the faces of the ghosts and gods, which turned out to be two identical pale faces.

It was a girl's face with a slightly childish appearance, her eyes tightly closed, her lips deathly pale, like a dead person.

But the moment Zhao Fusheng saw the face clearly, a bad premonition welled up in his heart: the face was unusually familiar, it was Zhao Fusheng's appearance.

The moment she met that face, her mind went blank. Just as she was filled with horror, the two 'Zhao Fusheng' figures sitting side by side opened their eyes at the same time.

The three "Zhao Fusheng"s stared at each other.

Suddenly, time and space began to distort.

Zhao Fusheng could only see himself in the person opposite him.

Suddenly, the torrential rain all around began to slow down, one drop, two drops, a hundred drops, ten thousand drops—

She saw countless raindrops suspended in mid-air.

Between each raindrop, there seems to be a thin thread, almost invisible to the naked eye, swaying gently, making the surrounding world seem to be woven into an enormous net.

And the other end of these fine threads that tethered the raindrops was all tied to Zhao Fusheng.

In an instant, Zhao Fusheng recalled Zang Junji, who was suppressed at the bottom of the abyss in the seventeenth level of hell.

……

She lost her composure for a moment, but then she forcibly regained her senses, and then the strange thing happened again.

Each transparent raindrop reflected her shadow and the two 'deities' seated in the shrine, and countless images of 'Zhao Fusheng' were captured within the raindrops.

At this moment, Zhao Fusheng's mind was torn apart.

She realized that these 'Zhao Fusheng' trapped in the raindrop mirror world were not her, but perhaps familiar faces she had seen before. It was also possible that these 'Zhao Fusheng' were the original Zhao Fusheng who had died in the paper figure Zhang's scheme to divert attention from the disaster.

One moment she was analyzing, the next she was suddenly bewildered: Who is Zhao Fusheng? Is she the girl from Jiumen Village who was sold to the Demon Suppression Division by Zhao Dayou and his wife and died from the resurrection of the vengeful ghost?

Zhao Fusheng was greatly shocked.

In that instant, the appearance of the two young girls sitting in the shrine changed.

In an instant, they transformed into a man and a woman, their clay faces aging rapidly and wrinkles appearing.

The red cloth on his head had turned into a dark blue hat, his face was stiff, and a door panel was strapped to his back.

More than that.

Among the countless raindrops, the faces of all the 'Zhao Fusheng' characters underwent a transformation.

Faces that Zhao Fusheng had seen before appeared one by one in the raindrops.

Paper Doll Zhang, the Fan Brothers, Meng Po, Shen Yishu—

Lu Zhuer, Sun Shaoyin —

Rewinding time, we find Zhuang Si Niangzi, Gou Lao Si, and even Wu Da Jing, as well as the manager of Ding An Lou in Bao County. A stranger who once brushed past Zhao Fusheng, and then, in the cycle of time, Hu Saozi, whom we met briefly 58 years ago at the Zang Family Ancestral Hall, are all transported back to an even more distant past.

The bustling traffic, the noise from next door, the woman's screams, and her distant memories from her teenage years.

"Zhao Fusheng, something has happened to your mother."

"Fusheng, something's happened to your mother—"

That eerie voice, which had haunted her for many years, echoed strangely in her heart during those midnight dreams.

This was her deepest nightmare during her teenage years.

But it was precisely at this moment that Zhao Fusheng's senses were awakened.

She calmly gazed at the countless faces around her.

All beings see me, and I see all beings.

Hardship had tempered her, but it did not destroy her mind; on the contrary, it made her will even stronger.

At this moment, Zhao Fusheng calmly looked back at the countless faces staring at him in this bizarre world.

'Bang bang bang.'

The faces that met her gaze began to shatter one by one.

It was as if countless eyeballs were exploding, turning into a spray of blood mist.

The vengeful ghost began to scream silently, glaring at her with venom, and lunged at her.

Zhao Fusheng remained unmoved.

Behind her, a pitch-black ghost monument slowly rose, and the abyss below surrounded her, making her an isolated island, preventing vengeful ghosts and vengeful spirits from getting close.

……

"Fusheng, Fusheng——"

"grown ups!"

Several shouts could be heard from afar.

These shouts, mixed in with the mournful sounds, did not make her feel despair or coldness; instead, they seemed to be guiding her through her confusion.

See your true self in the illusion, find your way out in the maze of evil spirits.

'Drip, drip, drip.'

The sound of rain resumed, and the chill seeped into Zhao Fusheng's clothes and into his heart.

The red light before her eyes dissipated, the illusion shattered one by one, the laws of the vengeful ghost failed, and it finally disappeared unwillingly.

On Zhao Fusheng's arm, where the itching was excruciating, the red spot silently cracked, oozing black blood filled with resentment.

The ghost lies dormant for now, waiting for its next opportunity.

Zhao Fusheng was fully conscious.

'Clatter.'

A torrential downpour began.

She had already walked several steps away without her noticing. Chen Duozi, holding an umbrella, followed beside her, looking at her anxiously.

"fine."

Once Zhao Fusheng came to his senses, he shook his head.

Her aura was chilling, carrying a faint lingering ghostly scent.

Kuai Manzhou looked at her nervously.

As someone with profound knowledge of ghost control, Kuai Manzhou sensed a terrifying aura emanating from Zhao Fusheng just moments before—as if she had become a different person, no longer making the child feel warm and close, but instead as if she had fallen into an endless winter, facing a biting cold.

At this moment, her eyes brightened again. Although her face was pale, the reassuring feeling that made Kuai Manzhou feel at ease returned.

She is Zhao Fusheng.

"I was momentarily lost in thought when I suddenly saw this ancestral hall," Zhao Fusheng said casually, not wanting to worry Chen Duozi and the others at this time.

Everyone knew her temperament and naturally knew that she couldn't possibly be so distracted as to lose her composure like this.

Clearly, something happened the moment the lights came on at Baili Temple and the two ghost statues appeared, nearly putting her in danger. However, she didn't want to tell Wu Jiabing and the others about it at the moment.

Yu Lingzhu, however, was skeptical:

"Is it real or fake? Are you seeing ghosts? This village is really eerie."

Before Zhao Fusheng could reply, Wu Jiabing chuckled decisively:
"There could never be ghosts here!"

"Are you so sure?" Yu Lingzhu retorted, unconvinced.
"Even the emperor himself in the capital wouldn't dare to be so certain."

"it is true!"

Wu Jiabing remained silent, but one of the villagers holding the torch was indignant:
“We haven’t had a ghost case here for decades.”

His words surprised Zhao Fusheng.

She forced herself to calm down, not to feel uneasy about the previous vision in the rain, but to focus on the present.

Zhao Fusheng took a deep breath, clenched her fist, and almost instantly regained her composure.

"How come there haven't been any ghost cases?"

When she spoke again, there was no longer any unusual quality in her tone:
"Everyone dies eventually, and no matter who it is, there is always the possibility of a vengeful ghost rising after death."

"No."

The villagers shook their heads:

"At least not here. Our land is protected by the two grandparents."

Another villager also said:
"Besides, as long as you pay your taxes honestly and abide by the law, you will be protected. How could you encounter ghosts?"

"Who is protecting you?" Zhao Fusheng asked again.

Wu Jiabing quickly interrupted:
"Of course, it's because of the protection of God and the gods enshrined in the ancestral hall."

After saying that, he added:

“Sir, it’s getting late. Are you still going to go into the ancestral hall? I think the hot water is almost ready. Why don’t we go back, wash our faces with hot water, soak our feet and get some rest so we can set off early tomorrow morning?”

Zhao Fusheng turned to look at him, her gaze filled with undisguised inquiry, which made Wu Jiabing extremely uneasy.

After a long pause, he lowered his head, and Zhao Fusheng asked him:
"Village Chief Wu, I have something to ask you."

She didn't bring up the issue that made Wu Jiabing uneasy again, but instead asked:

"How far is it from here to Wuqing County?"

Yu Lingzhu stared wide-eyed at her, a look of disbelief on her face: "Are you crazy?"

Just as everyone was asking questions, Yu Lingzhu felt they were about to get to the crucial point when Wu Jiabing started dodging the issue and talking about other things, which meant that their questions might have touched on some useful information.

But then Zhao Fusheng abruptly changed the subject and asked a question that seemed completely unrelated.

Wu Jiabing breathed a sigh of relief.

He was initially worried that Zhao Fusheng might say something shocking – this group of people looked arrogant and domineering, like they came from out of town and didn't know their place. He was also afraid that if Zhao Fusheng and his group stayed one night, they might cause him a big mess.

Hearing her ask such a simple question, the heavy pressure in his heart suddenly eased, and he even felt a little happy. His vigilance lessened, and he quickly replied:
"It's not very far. After passing Eagle Beak Cliff, it's about ten miles ahead, which will take about two hours, and then you'll be close to Wuqing County."

"Who is the current prefect of the prefecture?" Zhao Fusheng asked again.

"Prefect, prefect?"

Wu Jiabing was stunned for a moment. He turned to look at the villagers around him, who looked blank and shook their heads, not knowing.

“I really didn’t notice who the prefect was,” Wu Jiabing replied.

Zhao Fusheng noticed that he said 'didn't notice' rather than 'didn't know'.

After Wu Jiabing finished speaking, he seemed to realize that he had said the wrong thing, and a look of annoyance appeared on his face.

(End of this chapter)