GRMFBS CH164

His Majesty, the Chongming Demon King, failed to grasp the opportunity.

Zhan Yan’s system backup gained another piece of his dad’s dark history.

Zhan Yan was so worried, trying very hard to walk on eggshells to comfort his jealous demon king dad.

This was too hard, these days were simply too hard. Didn’t you appreciate the Tianshi very much? You even helped out when the Tianshi destroyed the Infinite Research Institute previously, and you praised the Tianshi to others, saying things like “brilliant soul”.

You praised her like this, yet you won’t allow me to praise her!

Zhan Yan felt extremely mentally exhausted.

The mentally exhausted Zhan Yan decided to find his sister to chat.

Zhan Suiru had just jolted awake from a dream.

The puppet butler gently shook her shoulder: “Are you alright?”

Zhan Suiru’s pupils constricted as she grabbed his wrist.

The puppet butler didn’t move: “Are you awake?”

Zhan Suiru slowly released his wrist: “What time is it?”

“It is currently 2:15 PM. Are you alright?”

Zhan Suiru rubbed her temples: “I’m fine, just had a dream.”

As the apocalyptic world gradually approached, she began to sense its presence.

She would start having dreams. Sometimes she dreamed of dead desolation, sometimes she dreamed of a time before everything happened, when her world was as vibrant and full of vitality as the current one. Her biggest worry every day was nothing more than her thesis deadline approaching—it was like growing up all over again in this world.

She had just confused the two worlds in her dream, and then the apocalypse arrived, instantly collapsing everything she possessed.

Anger and grief pounded in her chest; she probably screamed out in the dream, or perhaps waved her arms, which was why Xiao Ran came to wake her up.

Zhan Suiru took a deep breath, and upon recovering her senses, she realized Xiao Ran’s wrist was stiffly bent at a strange angle.

Zhan Suiru: “…Sit here, I’ll fix it for you.”

“I broke your wrist, why didn’t you make a sound?”

Puppet butler: “It doesn’t hurt.”

Zhan Suiru harrumphed.

Puppet butler: “You have a new message notification.”

Zhan Suiru: “Not looking.”

She had finally finished dealing with all those tasks, and temporarily didn’t plan on accepting a single new order.

The puppet butler paused: “It’s a message from your brother.”

Then she still had to look at it.

Zhan Suiru attached the repaired wrist joint back and clicked open her brother’s message.

Her brother shared all sorts of happy little things he had encountered recently. The big geese at their school had bitten a few more egg thieves, his senior bought ghostwriting services online only to end up buying it from his own advising professor, their professor’s cat prevented a thief from entering the house by acting cute…

Zhan Suiru couldn’t help but smile as she read.

Aiya, little brother is so cute.

Zhan Suiru started gossiping with her brother.

She had been busy lately and didn’t have any fresh gossip, but she did give the fish bait she made to her older brother.

Zhan Yan saw it in the Gossip System.

[Zhan Jinli received Zhan Suiru’s specially made fish bait as a gift; the corners of his eyes twitched, temporarily unable to distinguish whether Zhan Suiru was mocking his inability to catch fish or being serious.]

[Zhan Jinli sniffed the fish bait and felt it actually smelled pretty good.]

Zhan Yan was dying of laughter.

Fortunately, his older brother didn’t actually take a bite.

Zhan Jinli threw the fish bait Zhan Suiru gave him into the large freezer in The Bakery. He would take it out to feed the fish when he got the chance.

He wasn’t in much of a mood lately.

Deep Shadow was grinding too hard!

Now, his daily routine basically consisted of Deep Shadow making wishes to him, and then they would encounter anomalies, anomalies (plural), idiots helping Infinite revive, idiots helping Infinite revive (plural), and Black Nests… luckily there were no Black Nests (plural).

Then, Deep Shadow, this battle maniac, would begin his performance, and after the battle, he would continue making wishes to Ghost King Lin Yuan.

Zhan Jinli felt that Deep Shadow was like a wild boar released from its pen, dragging him, a half-dead salted fish, on a wild sprint.

This shouldn’t be.

He was a dignified Ghost King, how did he become a wishing machine?

Gu Jiancheng: “I hope I can peacefully finish dealing with this thing next.”

“Stop right there,” Zhan Jinli couldn’t help but stop him.

Gu Jiancheng: “The consumption of your divine ability is too great, and you can’t take it anymore?”

He stopped considerately. Although Ghost King Lin Yuan didn’t exert much effort in fighting anomalies, the current smooth progress in their investigation was all thanks to his Interdependent Fortune and Misfortune. Thinking about it, the consumption must be quite significant.

Zhan Jinli could still hold on, but he tacitly agreed.

He was afraid that if he said he still had strength left, Deep Shadow would drag him to continue brute-forcing it.

“Interdependent Fortune and Misfortune isn’t as simple as you think.” Zhan Jinli attempted to explain a bit of academics to him, “Safety and danger interchange, fortune and misfortune give birth to each other. Fortune and misfortune are just like Yin and Yang, life and death, hardness and softness, succeeding one another. Things will develop in the opposite direction when they reach an extreme; extreme prosperity leads to decline. Forcibly reversing fortune and misfortune will only invite even greater disasters in the future.”

Gu Jiancheng was dizzy from his lecture: “Didn’t you transfer the fortune and misfortune of two worlds twenty-six years ago?”

Zhan Jinli: “That’s why I’ve been paying the price for it these twenty-six years.”

Living people feared death because everything from before they were alive would turn to nothing after death. When a Ghost King reincarnated anew, they also needed to abandon things. His divine ability was uncontrollable, so for twenty-six years he didn’t dare to speak to others, nor did he dare to listen to others. If not for his family’s utmost tolerance, what kind of fate would such a situation have invited?

The fact that his life went smoothly now and he hadn’t become an unlucky bastard who got his teeth jammed just from drinking water was all thanks to the protection of merit.

Gu Jiancheng listened and took it in.

But he took it in a little too late.

Zhan Yan learned some not-so-wonderful news from Professor Miao: there was a problem at the Antai Ranch where they were supposed to intern, and it couldn’t accept interns right now. The batch of interns originally assigned there was randomly distributed into other groups.

After the internship list came down, Zhan Yan was assigned to a veterinary station, while Gu Jiancheng was assigned to a different breeding farm. That was a pig farm, implementing closed-off management. In other words, they wouldn’t be able to see each other for these three months.

Upon hearing the dreadful news, the big shot Deep Shadow was frozen in a daze.

Next, he would be able to peacefully investigate Infinite with nothing else to distract him.

Misfortune is that upon which fortune depends; fortune is that in which misfortune lies hidden.

Damn it! He really should have stayed further away from Ghost King Lin Yuan!

Lately, Zhan Yan had been eating the gossip of Deep Shadow and Ghost King Lin Yuan every day, actually feeling that the two of them paired up very well.

Deep Shadow hadn’t been treating Ghost King Lin Yuan like a wishing machine recently; their progress was slower than before, but they were steadily advancing.

Ghost King Lin Yuan, on the other hand, felt his days were much more nourishing. When Deep Shadow wasn’t acting crazy, he was an incredibly strong helper, making cooperation absolutely effortless.

Moreover, for some unknown reason, Deep Shadow had suddenly stopped grinding recently. It was as if he had previously been in a hurry to do something, but didn’t need to rush anymore. Like a salted fish that had lost its dreams, he eliminated anomalies with a vibe of “I’ll kill you guys when fate wills it” and “don’t rush, take your beatings slowly”.

Although he didn’t know what happened to Deep Shadow, Zhan Jinli felt his current state was very good.

Let’s just keep it this way. Without Wan Yan Ghost King stirring up trouble, having Deep Shadow as a partner to investigate Infinite, working during the day, and going back to feed Xingxing at night, life was very cozy.

As Zhan Yan searched through Ghost King Lin Yuan’s gossip threads, he felt Ghost King Lin Yuan would probably get along well with his brother—his brother’s personality of stubbornly keeping his mouth shut would definitely never trigger Ghost King Lin Yuan’s divine ability.

However, Ghost King Lin Yuan was a savory food lover, while his brother was a super sweet-tooth monster, so they probably couldn’t eat from the same pot.

Unexpectedly, Zhan Yan came across Wan Yan Ghost King’s gossip within Ghost King Lin Yuan’s threads.

Wan Yan Ghost King wasn’t playing with the “Lin Yuan” puppet anymore. He held the black iron fish pendant in his mouth every day, pondering how he could escape Mount Chaofu.

Ghost King Minghe was the earliest to reside on Mount Chaofu, so this could also be considered her territory. She surrounded Mount Chaofu with the Ming He River, and despite Kitty Wan Yan trying various methods, he simply couldn’t get out.

He squatted by the Ming He River, his tail slowly swishing back and forth behind him, his little cat ears twitching occasionally.

“I’m going to look for Bai Ze’s tracks,” Wan Yan plopped into the Ming He River.

He rummaged around at the bottom of the Ming He River for a while, searching further and further, gradually swimming in the direction outside Mount Chaofu along the flow of the Ming He River.

Visibility in the Ming He River was unclear; looking at anything was like it was covered by a crimson veil, and he could see at most three zhang away.

Wan Yan estimated that he had already swum very, very far, and should have long swam out of Mount Chaofu’s perimeter.

Hmph! Even if he failed a hundred times, he would try a hundred and first time!

The hundred and first time would definitely succeed!

He jumped onto the shore, but before he could cheer, he saw Ghost King Minghe sitting on the bank, looking down at him.

Looking up again, the tall and lush Wenyu Tree covered him overhead. Its branches swayed gently, the leaves rustling as if mocking him.

Wan Yan: “Why are you here?!”

Ghost King Minghe rested her chin on her hand: “Where did you want to go?”

Wan Yan: …

Ah, so angry!

How was he discovered again?!

If he couldn’t escape, he couldn’t find Lin Yuan. Unhappy.

The frustrated Wan Yan decided to rest for a bit first. He had already failed a hundred and one times; the hundred and second time would definitely succeed!

He flopped down under the roots of the Wenyu Tree, curled up with the black iron fish pendant, and fell asleep.

The sleeping Wan Yan had a dream again.

He dreamed he became very big, much bigger than he was now, with a horn growing on his head, majestic and domineering.

If he were this domineering now, Ghost King Minghe definitely wouldn’t dare bully him like this!

In his dream, he galloped and found Bai Ze. He took out the black iron fish pendant to show Bai Ze, happily saying he had made another friend.

This black iron fish pendant looked so small against him. When he was the size of a cat, he could hold it in his mouth, but when in his true form, it was about the size of his nail. Those two tiny fish eyes were even more incredibly small.

Di Ting used its claw tip to point at this incredibly small indentation and happily said to Bai Ze: “Look, it’s right here. Lin Yuan dotted the eyes for it!”

Bai Ze hooked the pendant from his claw and fiddled with it back and forth for a while:

“Once the eyes are dotted, it has spirituality.”

“Huh? Is the spirituality of this little thing of any use?” Di Ting asked.

“Hmm… Humans sometimes make compasses in the shape of fish.”

Di Ting felt this function was of no use to him. But he still liked it very much.

“Then you have to remember how you got it,” Bai Ze said.

“Of course I will remember.”

Wan Yan woke up from his dream. He fiddled with the black iron fish pendant, remembering Bai Ze telling him he had to remember how he got this pendant.

This pendant… When Lin Yuan answered his question, he said there was a record of it in the Travels of a Mountain and Sea Guest. He remembered it was written inside that in the mortal realm’s Mount Chaofu, there was a place called Yanluo Cave. A mortal named the Mountain and Sea Guest was curious about where the Yanluo Cave led, so he used a long rope to lower the black iron fish pendant down the cave.

And then this pendant descended all the way here.

Wan Yan suddenly looked up at the top of the Wenyu Tree.

That place led to the mortal realm!

[Wan Yan Ghost King escaped Mount Chaofu through the Yanluo Cave above the Wenyu Tree and entered the mortal realm.]

[Wan Yan Ghost King decided to go find Ghost King Lin Yuan.]