Chapter 149: I’m Shattered.

Chapter 149: I'm Shattered.

"Hello?"

Wei Zhuo answered a call.

His tone was far from friendly, but everyone was used to it, so no one held it against him.

On the other end, the voice was filled with urgency: "Has Bai Hengqing taken the ancestral plaque?"

Wei Zhuo glanced at his phone, seemingly confirming if the caller was indeed Bai Ximing, as the tone was quite unlike him.

"Yes, the ritual has started," Wei Zhuo responded, "He mentioned that although Bai Ran was not of direct Bai lineage, he possessed a certain prowess. Using the power of bloodline to suppress malevolent spirits is a valid strategy. It's a pity Bai Ran is dead; otherwise, he would've liked to see if Bai Ran could devise more methods."

Wei Zhuo's voice was steady and matter-of-fact. There was a pause on the other end after hearing this.

Bai Ximing's tone shifted, sounding somewhat baffled, "Did he really say that?"

Wei Zhuo looked towards the ritual site, sensing the wind gravitating in that direction as if the atmosphere on half of the beach was being drawn there. He simply replied, "Yes."

A scoff emanated from Bai Ximing on the other end, "Idiot."

Wei Zhuo's eyes widened slightly, seemingly surprised by Bai Ximing's choice of words, and once again glanced at his phone screen.

With a mix of disdain and sarcasm, Bai Ximing added, "Come back now. Don't bother with him. Seeking help from our ancestor? Does he even know what kind of person our ancestor was?"

Without waiting for a response from Wei Zhuo, Bai Ximing hung up.

Wei Zhuo looked up, observing the faint apparitions forming in the sky. He patted the shivering young man beside him and said, "Let's head back."

The young man hesitated, glancing at the ongoing conflict in the distance, and queried, "We're leaving just like that?"

Wei Zhuo had already opened the car door. Before getting in, he posed a question to the young man: "Do you know what kind of person the Bai family's ancestral master was?"

The question caught the young man off guard, and he replied, "Benevolent, virtuous... what else was it? Unbiased, fair, and strict?"

Wei Zhuo nodded, placing his hand on the steering wheel and made a turn towards the highway entrance.

The sudden acceleration startled the young man, who exclaimed, "Are we just leaving them like that? Won't we be scolded, or even worse, dealt with?"

"Mhm," Wei Zhuo responded, "That's why we're heading to the Special Security Bureau."

The young man: "?"

——

"Clan leader Bai Xi Ming failed in his guidance, and his son, Chi Shen, became a malevolent spirit. No one can subdue him. We beseech the ancestral master to descend and punish the rebellious son!"

As he spoke, he quickly placed a summoning talisman into his mouth, shouting again: "We implore the ancestral master to descend and punish the rebellious Chi Shen!"

Suddenly, a towering apparition materialized in the sky. The spectral figure, clad in yellow, wielding a divine whip, emanated a radiant aura. He hovered majestically above the sea's surface, emitting a faint glow, appearing several stories tall.

"Who summons me?" The apparition's voice boomed like a bell, echoing in all directions.

Bai Heng Qing hastily bowed towards the phantom, pleading, "Ancestral Master, our family faces a calamity, a grave misfortune!"

The apparition lowered its gaze, scrutinizing Bai Heng Qing, and with a frown of displeasure, uttered, "It's you?"

The rest of the Bai family, initially in disarray, looked up to the phantom in the sky. Comparing it to the portrait of their ancestral master, the resemblance was not exact. Their ancestral image was depicted as an elderly sage, whereas this figure looked more like a warrior. But the attire matched, as did the divine whip. They immediately bowed down in reverence, saying:

"We, your unworthy descendants, seek your intervention against the wayward Chi Shen!"

The apparition glanced at those prostrating before him and then at Chi Shen, who seemed to be enjoying the spectacle, clearly growing impatient: "He's surnamed Chi, what does he have to do with me?"

Bai Heng Qing hesitated momentarily, gathering his thoughts, "He was mistakenly taken in as a child. He is truly of the Bai family bloodline!"

"Oh? And who might you be?" the apparition inquired. Without waiting for an answer, he seemed to divine the information himself, mumbling, "Ah, you're a Bai... How did you live so long? I assumed your line would have perished... Oh, you're not the clan leader? Did the current one pass away? No? How did you short-lived beings manage to survive this long?"

The other members of the Bai family trembled at these words, baffled by how their ancestral master seemed to discern their current predicament without much inquiry. Moreover, every word he uttered seemed to curse their lineage.

Bai Heng Qing turned pale, his voice trembling as he asked, "What... do you mean by that?"

"Can't understand?" The apparition, visibly irritated, bounded to the ground, shrinking multiple times in size. What was once a hazy figure now seemed almost solid as it stood before them. "To prevent you from tarnishing my reputation, I cursed your lineage. If your virtues diminish too much, you will face a shortened lifespan. Yet, impressively, you managed to modify your fates, redirecting all repercussions onto your clan leader."

Hearing this, Chi Shen tilted his head slightly, "So, my father would die at 50."

He was confiding in Ji Xing Chen. According to the family tree Wei Zhuo provided, the last three generations of clan leaders died at 50. They'd always found this suspicious, and now they understood why the clan leaders of the Bai family met premature ends.

Ji Xing Chen nodded, "I suspected as much."

They hadn't spoken loudly, but the ancestor still heard. He expressed his disbelief, "50 years?"

Chi Shen confirmed, "50 years."

"How is 50 years considered a short life?" The ancestor became enraged, brandishing his divine whip and tracing two circles in the sand. "This won't do. I need to intervene—"

"Farewell, Ancestor!" Bai Heng Qing shouted immediately, beginning to clean the ancestral plaque. He knew that if this continued, the entire Bai family would suffer. While he wasn't too concerned about Bai Xi Ming's fate, he deeply cared about his own.

"You expect me to come and go at your whim?" The ancestor grew even angrier, pointing at Bai Heng Qing, "Look at the blood debt you've accumulated, turning from red to almost black. What atrocities have you committed? Go to hell first."

Bai Heng Qing's voice abruptly stopped. His eyes widened with a look of urgent fear. Blood seeped from his orifices as he collapsed, twitching twice before laying motionless.

A soul emerged from his body, only for the ancestor to seize it effortlessly, tucking it into his sleeve.

"Second Master!"

No one had expected that Bai Heng Qing's plan, meticulously crafted to deal with Chi Shen, would backfire so terribly. They also never imagined that their revered ancestor had long forsaken them.

"Ancestor, please spare us!"

"Ancestor, we only followed the Second Master. We were forced!"

The ancestor's form began to fade. Glancing at his descendants, who now kneeled before him in desperation, he seemed somewhat resigned. However, he turned his attention to Chi Shen, "You seem to have questions for me."

"Where did you come from?" Chi Shen didn't bother with pleasantries, sensing that the ancestor might vanish at any moment, he got straight to the point.

The ancestor shook his head, "I come from everywhere and head to nowhere."

Chi Shen quipped, "Are you competing in the Redundancy Literature Awards?"

The ancestor burst into laughter, which soon turned raucous, "Some things are not meant to be revealed."

Chi Shen pressed, "What can you tell me?"

The Ancestral Master shook his head once more, then bowed deeply to Chi Shen, "I entrust the undeserving descendants of my Bai family to your care from here on."

As his figure began to fade, he playfully winked, "I know what you wish to ask."

With a sigh, he walked toward the vast ocean, murmuring, "Origins are origins, destinations are destinations... Justice will prevail... Benevolence and compassion..."

The Ancestral Master vanished, leaving behind only the Bai family members who had come to uphold the law. They all stared at Chi Shen in shock, still struggling to comprehend the events that had just transpired.

Chi Shen pondered for a moment and then broke into a smile, "Aren't you going to retrieve the Second Master's body?"

The others seemed to remember only then. Turning to retrieve their vehicle, they found it was already gone.

But soon enough, headlights illuminated the area. They sighed in relief, whispering amongst themselves, "How timid is this Wei Zhuo? He even runs away when tasked with watching a car—"

Their murmurs were abruptly cut off when they realized that the approaching vehicles were not theirs, but police cars!

Several police vehicles quickly pulled up nearby. The Bai family members thought to flee but found themselves encircled by individuals emerging from the surrounding rocks. These people had arrived earlier but remained hidden to avoid alerting their targets.

Among them were two elderly gentlemen with a distinguished air about them. After a brief discussion, they approached Chi Shen.

"Chi Shen, did your Ancestral Master just offer you a bow?" one of the old men inquired.

The other, slightly more unceremonious, added, "Don't you feel unwell? Receiving reverence from such a venerable spirit can shorten one's life! Under such circumstances, some might drop dead on the spot. Perhaps you should reciprocate the gesture toward his tablet?"

This elder had retrieved the spiritual tablet of the Bai family's ancestor.

Chi Shen, touching his chin and looking at the tablet, responded, "I believe that's appropriate."

The elder handed him three sticks of incense, then placed the spiritual tablet upright on the sandy shore.

As Chi Shen lit the incense and faced the tablet, he suddenly froze.

Before the eyes of the gathered crowd, the tablet, which had stood for countless years and had endured countless abuses from Bai Heng Qing without damage, suddenly cracked.

Both elderly gentlemen: "..."

Chi Shen: "...What just happened?"