Chapter 142: Children’s Laughter (21)
From the moment the child appeared, Yan Shixun quietly observed him.
Starting with Lin Ting’s old belongings, it seemed he had found the right angle—this child clearly cared for Lin Ting. He cherished the things she valued and was unwilling to damage them.
However, this also played right into Yan Shixun’s hands, essentially confirming his suspicions, proving that the ghost child was indeed Lin Ting’s son.
“Do you want to kill Chi Yan?”
Yan Shixun rarely showed gentleness, whether towards ghosts or humans. He was not reluctant to use psychological tactics, watching them as their mental defenses crumbled step by step, until they revealed the truths he sought to know.
Like now—he could have held his composure and waited, letting the child lose his temper first and speak out. That would have weakened his aura from the start and made the conversation that followed much smoother and simpler.
But Yan Shixun didn’t choose that route.
Instead, he spoke up, asking the child about his original intentions, even though it might provoke him and touch a sensitive point.
Angering a vengeful ghost was never an easy situation to handle.
Not to mention that Yan Shixun still had unhealed wounds on his body, greatly hindering his ability to fight and making it impossible for him to match his peak state.
But despite that, Yan Shixun chose to proceed in this manner.
As he looked at the child before him, he couldn’t help but think of himself.
It wasn’t just the child’s earlier words, “An Evil Spirit Bone Transformation prevents reincarnation,” but also because, in Yan Shixun’s view, he could clearly see that the child, entangled in ghostly energy, had no trace of vitality or the path of the Dao.
Even ghosts existed within the Six Paths and Five Elements, subject to the regulation and rules of the heavenly Dao.
Yet, this child no longer carried any of that aura.
—He had been abandoned by the Dao and would never enter reincarnation.
Heaven and Earth are indifferent. In the grand scheme of the Dao, there were never any useless pieces on the chessboard.
Yan Shixun had never shared the belief held by some of his peers, that an Evil Spirit Bone Transformation was a sign of evil, a mistake made by Heaven and Earth that should be eradicated.
But this wasn’t because their words directly led to him being abandoned by his parents when he was young, filling him with resentment.
Yan Shixun always viewed his life with cold, rational detachment. He felt no emotional impact from being abandoned.
In fact, it was the opposite. He saw it clearly—had his parents not abandoned him at the market, he would never have encountered Li Chengyun and had the chance to walk the path of challenging Heaven and Earth alongside others.
Moreover, even though his parents had thrown him away far from home, he still remembered the way back.
Heaven and Earth are fair. When they take something, they give something in return. The Evil Spirit Bone Transformation had been stripped of vitality, but in exchange, they were endowed with extraordinary talents and intelligence.
Yan Shixun was no exception, and in fact, he was among the most outstanding in history.
But at that time, he saw it all clearly.
His fate with his parents had come to an end.
Although his parents had feared him because of a fortune teller’s prediction, afraid that he would bring harm to the family, they had not killed him or abandoned him in the deep mountains to fend for himself. Instead, they had shown the last bit of kindness by leaving him at the market.
There were people, there was food, and there was a possibility of survival.
That was enough.
At that time, the young Yan Shixun, with only two candies in his pocket, had coldly watched his parents hurry away without turning back, and he didn’t chase after them.
After being picked up by Li Chengyun, the young Yan Shixun never forgot the “Evil Spirit Bone Transformation” incident. He never gave up thinking about it.
Then, one day, while in meditation, he saw a glimmer of the Dao.
He realized—Evil Spirit Bone Transformation were not a mistake of the Dao. On the contrary, they were part of a preparation by the Dao for certain matters.
It was like a crisis management mechanism.
Because the Evil Spirit Bone Transformation had to face terrifying challenges, it was granted immense power by the Dao, with everything, including humans, gods, and ghosts, handed over to it. However, this power made it impossible for the entity to bear the weight of a human body.
In the end, it died prematurely.
Now, the child sitting in front of Yan Shixun was in the same situation.
But unlike Yan Shixun, any Taoist or shaman who had mastered their craft would vaguely sense the presence of the Dao on Yan Shixun. He was a person watched by the Dao.
However, this child lacked even the faintest trace of Dao energy… No, there wasn’t even a ghostly presence left on him.
He was as clean as if he had never existed.
Yan Shixun was very clear that, from the Dao’s perspective, the child could not bear responsibility and had thus been completely abandoned.
And because of this, Zhang Wubing had always been mumbling in confusion that he hadn’t noticed any ghost.
So, even though the child was dangerous and powerful, Yan Shixun’s heart softened just slightly.
If he hadn’t survived and had died in his youth, would he, like this child, have been abandoned by the Six Paths and the Five Elements, unable to reincarnate, wandering aimlessly until his soul completely vanished?
“It seems you’re well aware of the Evil Spirit Bone Transformation.”
Yan Shixun said, propping his head up with one hand and naturally smiling. “Then you should also know that after Chi Yan fed you so many fetuses, you’ve crossed the boundary between life and death by repeatedly enduring the loss of vitality. Even among ghosts, you’re already a special existence.”
“If you’re willing to align with the Dao, abandon your pursuit of Chi Yan, and follow the Dao’s rules, perhaps the Dao will be willing to accept you again and let you reincarnate. Or…”
Yan Shixun paused and continued, “Become a ghost deity.”
The child, whose face had originally been grim, froze after hearing Yan Shixun’s words.
He stared seriously into Yan Shixun’s eyes with his large, bright, and beautiful eyes. After a moment, he suddenly started laughing with a “giggling” sound.
“I didn’t expect Big Brother to have an Evil Spirit Bone Transformation too,” the child said, tilting his head with an innocent smile. “But how strange, why are you still alive?”
“Aren’t you supposed to have died?”
Yan Shixun paused for a moment, unusually unable to respond.
To be honest, this had always been a question that confused him.
—Why was it that, in all the records, no Evil Spirit Bone Transformation had ever lived past adulthood, yet he had lived a long life without illness, full of vitality, with no sign of dying young?
After learning the truth about the Evil Spirit Bone Transformation from Li Chengyun, the young Yan Shixun had fallen into a state of confusion, so he kept reviewing his life and experiences, trying to find an answer.
He didn’t find an answer, but through this constant introspection, he had unknowingly developed a calm and cautious personality.
Unlike other colleagues who blindly followed the rules of the Dao, Yan Shixun preferred to use his own mind to judge good and evil, following his own will in deciding whether to help ghosts or punish people.
Only the truth he found himself, the judgment he made, was truly worth following.
However, Yan Shixun didn’t leave the process entirely empty-handed.
In his repeated reflections, he had confirmed one thing.
If there had been any strange occurrence worth investigating in his life before adulthood, it was that he had once encountered a strange person in the marketplace.
This person wore a straw hat and sat under the eaves of an old building, gazing coldly at the bustling market below, as if walking at the edge of the world, unwilling to step in.
He wore ancient general’s armor, with cold, gleaming bloodstains all over it, and his sharp sword at his waist was also broken and stained with blood.
The only thing visible beneath his hat was his gaze, sharp and cold, making it impossible for anyone to look him in the eye.
It was the kind of image of a great general Yan Shixun had seen on TV as a child.
However, despite his incongruity with the marketplace, many people passed by him with laughter, as though they couldn’t see him at all.
Even when someone occasionally noticed the corner, they would slowly shift from confusion to fear and immediately run away.
But at that time, little Yan Shixun had no particular reaction.
He wasn’t afraid of the man; he just thought the man looked a little pitiful.
Because the man seemed to be chasing something, yet could never find it, growing increasingly desperate, even losing the courage to live.
He’s like me.
Little Yan Shixun thought.
We’re both alone, no one cares about us.
But…
Little Yan Shixun hesitated and then decided to give one of his two candies to the man.
He only had two pieces of candy, which were his only reliance to survive and avoid starvation.
But he wanted to share that hope of surviving with the man, so they could both live.
Little Yan Shixun thought to himself, as for tomorrow… the sun would rise again, opportunities would appear once more, and perhaps he would find new food.
But nothing was more important than helping this man who had lost all hope to survive right now.
Thinking this, little Yan Shixun walked up to the man. Under the man’s increasingly bewildered gaze, he pulled out the cheap fruit candy from his pocket. Pretending to be nonchalant, he nonetheless very solemnly asked the man to live on.
—But don’t even think about getting the strawberry flavor.
I already shared my rations with you, so at least let me keep my favorite flavor for myself.
The apple flavor was delicious too, so after eating this candy, please bandage your wounds, drive away the evil spirits around you, and try your best to keep living.
Although over the years, as he grew up, Yan Shixun had forgotten many of the details from that day, he remembered very clearly his own thoughts at the time, as well as how the man, after taking the candy, smiled and grasped his hand, promising to give him a return gift.
Yet there was nothing there.
So later, when Yan Shixun roamed among evil spirits and monsters alongside Li Chengyun and gradually witnessed the vast and boundless world, a question arose in his heart—
Was he able to survive because of that “return gift” from the man back then?
Who was that man? Why had he looked like that at the time? What had he gone through to become so desolate and broken?
And what exactly was that…. return gift?
Yan Shixun had once thought about going back to find that man from the marketplace, but even after asking many people from all walks of life, he gained no clues.
So he had no choice but to temporarily set it aside in his heart.
Waiting for the day when the truth would eventually reveal itself.
Just as Yan Shixun was lost in thought over the child’s question, he suddenly felt the seat cushion beside him sink slightly.
He instinctively looked up sharply and saw Ye Li very naturally sitting on the wide armrest of the single-seat sofa. Because of his posture, he even casually rested his hand on Yan Shixun’s shoulder.
Yan Shixun’s temple twitched. In the end, he couldn’t hold back and directly asked in front of the child, “What are you doing?”
Ye Li’s gaze toward the child remained indifferent, but when he answered Yan Shixun, his tone carried a hint of amusement: “Husband, husband. Within one zhang’s distance, you are my husband. Of course, I have to stay by my husband’s side at all times, just in case he runs off with someone else.”
“……”
Yan Shixun silently glanced at the stunned child across from him, feeling speechless. “This kid isn’t even five years old. If you count the time after his death, he’s eighty. Are you sure you’re guarding against the right person?”
Ye Li very naturally corrected himself: “Since this is a conversation between father and son, it’s only normal for me, as the mother, to be involved too.”
Hearing words so eerily similar to what he himself had once said to persuade the ghost child, Yan Shixun: “……”
Meanwhile, the child, faced with the sudden appearance of not only a father but also a mother, looked utterly shocked.
For once, he felt a bit of regret, wondering if he had chosen the wrong identity.
What made him even more wary was that when this self-proclaimed “mother” looked at him, he could feel a trembling rising from deep within his very soul.
Apprehension and fear mixed into a complicated emotion, pushing aside the anger he had originally directed at Yan Shixun.
But in the next moment, the child suddenly laughed.
“You asked me whether I wanted to kill Chi Yan.”
The child’s voice remained soft and innocent, yet the words he spoke were chillingly cruel: “I already killed her.”
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