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Zhan Yan earnestly persuaded Matthias not to use his “incantations” anymore.

It would be fine if there were no ghosts, but if there actually were ghosts nearby and they were angered by this silly foreigner, Matthias would unnecessarily bring disaster upon himself.

Big Strong Ma was quite open to advice; he nodded obediently and asked: “Then I won’t use them anymore. But why? Look, this incantation was quite effective.”

Of course it was… The four little ghosts on the map had been exhausted from green icons to yellow icons.

When he got back, he was definitely going to find out who taught Matthias those two sentences!

Even if people nowadays weren’t superstitious, they still had some sense of respecting ghosts and gods from a distance. It was one thing to teach a foreigner some joking phrases like, “Hello, I am a foreigner.” but teaching him this kind of thing was a bit malicious. Unless this person was a steadfast, pure materialist.

Zhan Yan was somewhat unhappy: “Who is that friend of yours?”

Matthias was still tipsy and excited that his “incantation” had worked: “Do you want to meet him? I’ll send you his contact information.”

Zhan Yan said while “driving”: “Yes, of course I want to meet him.”

When he got back, he would recommend this person to the True Science News Agency!

A true materialist doesn’t fear being tested; if they’re fake, then let them experience the feeling of having their worldview shattered.

The four little ghosts stubbornly helped lift his car all the way to their destination. Zhan Yan felt a bit embarrassed and thought that when he had the chance, he would treat them to a stick of incense; he couldn’t do it now as he didn’t have any on hand.

The two of them checked into the farmhouse late at night. After settling the half-drunk Matthias in, Zhan Yan found the farmhouse owner to buy some gasoline to ensure they wouldn’t break down again tomorrow.

At night, Zhan Yan entered the system backup interface as usual to work on the jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle was just missing a little bit, and Zhan Yan estimated he could finish it in the next few days.

Once that was done, he could find Di Ting’s single horn.

Having nearly finished the puzzle, Zhan Yan checked the time; Xiao Gu would be calling in a few minutes.

Zhan Yan exited the system backup interface and took out his phone to wait for Gu Jiancheng to call him.

One minute passed, two minutes passed… fifteen minutes passed.

Zhan Yan took out his phone to check the time. Yes, a long time had definitely passed; why hadn’t Xiao Gu called yet? If he didn’t call soon, he was going to fall asleep.

He flipped through the Gossip System.

Ah ah, Dawn World was at the critical point of connecting to Reincarnation. Xiao Gu couldn’t leave, and because he was fully concentrated, he temporarily couldn’t use his shadow avatar skill.

Zhan Yan immediately woke up and began fully concentrating on searching for relevant gossip posts to see the situation.

Infinite indeed hadn’t given up this opportunity to cause trouble, but fortunately, their side was fully prepared, and it concluded smoothly.

—Halfway through, Xiao Gu even found a chance to send him a message telling him he was busy tonight and couldn’t call.

Ghost King Wan Yan successfully mooched off the soul repair within Dawn World. He let out a yawn, and a tiny teardrop of candle wax floated out of his body.

“Mew-wu.” Ghost King Wan Yan was so sleepy his eyes sparkled with tears.

I’m so sleepy.

Zhan Jinli caught him, and Wan Yan fell asleep curled up in his arms.

Gu Jiancheng stared at him, checking Wan Yan’s condition, and asked: “How is it?”

Zhan Jinli: “He’s recovering, but I don’t know to what extent.”

Gu Jiancheng nodded; he caught that drop of Candle Dragon power: “Do you guys still want this?”

Zhan Jinli glanced at it. Previously, Wan Yan relied on the Candle Dragon power to recover his memories. Now that his soul was repaired, he could bear those memories himself and no longer needed the Candle Dragon power.

He shook his head.

Gu Jiancheng: “Then I’ll take it.”

He remembered Approaching Science had wanted this thing—although it was meant as a gift for the Wan Yao Alliance.

Zhan Yan used his mini-encyclopedia to look it up; the recovery brought by Dawn World had a certain effect on Wan Yan, but it still couldn’t solve the root problem.

So he still had to find the horn.

Zhan Yan subconsciously clicked open the system backup interface, ready to continue the puzzle, when he unexpectedly heard a rooster crow from outside.

Ah… it was actually already 4:30 AM.

Only when Zhan Yan relaxed did he realize he was incredibly sleepy.

He had stayed up almost the entire night without realizing it. Zhan Yan closed the Gossip System.

He couldn’t take it anymore, he had to sleep…

He slept straight until noon, and was forcefully woken up by a worried Matthias.

He slept for less than eight hours.

Zhan Yan got up, washed his face, and felt refreshed.

The farmhouse had a vegetable patch where you could pay to pick vegetables to cook and eat. Matthias was very interested in this and dragged him along to pick vegetables. As he picked, he recounted the legends and stories he had collected about “fairy rings” and “little elves”.

Matthias: “Yan, I heard that here, plants can also become spirits.”

“Then can vegetables become spirits too?”

Zhan Yan blanked for a moment. This was truly a new perspective he hadn’t considered.

Zhan Yan: “Around here, becoming a demon generally requires a long period of cultivation; vegetables are probably eaten before they even reach the right age, right?”

Besides, many plants are annuals or biennials and don’t live that long.

But Zhan Yan was actually a bit curious now. He decided to mobilize his connections.

Cha King: “Are there vegetables that have cultivated into demons?”

Put Down That Grape: “Yes.”

“Some of them even go on to become agronomy professors.”

Puyang Xia went to the cultivators’ convention group chat, whose name had changed again—”Xiaoqiu Peak 12th Illusion Convention September 20th”.

Puyang Xia: “@Earth’s Three Immortals-A Single Flower”

“Have you finished researching that new variety of giant potato?”

Following the group members, Zhan Yan dug up the other two of the Earth’s Three Immortals: one was an eggplant spirit, and the other was a green pepper spirit.

Puyang Xia had already asked for a basket of giant potatoes for him.

Matthias had already picked a large basket of vegetables; with mud smeared somewhere on his face, he sighed to Zhan Yan: “Yan, I’ve looked for many supernatural incidents, but I’ve only seen real ones here with you.”

Zhan Yan thought to himself, Of course, otherwise the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau would be working for nothing.

In the evening, the two of them were having a barbecue in the farmhouse courtyard, with mosquito coils lit nearby.

In the suburbs far from the city, a sky full of stars was visible.

An old-fashioned umbrella-shaped lamp illuminated the yard, the smoke faintly visible.

Cicadas were in the trees, crickets in the bushes, and frogs by the pond. Zhan Yan was flipping the meat skewers when he suddenly received a call from Gu Jiancheng.

Zhan Yan glanced at his watch; classmate Xiao Gu was calling three hours early.

“Matthias, come flip the barbecue for a bit, I’m going to take a call.”

Matthias chattered happily, using Chinese: “Okay, don’t worry, my barbecue is super delicious.”

—He learned it from the person who taught him to play mahjong.

Zhan Yan gave him a thumbs up and looked for his earphones while taking the call.

From the phone, Gu Jiancheng heard the sound of the wind blowing through the bushes, the crackling of the charcoal fire, and the chirping of insects near and far.

“Yan Yan, are you outside?”

Zhan Yan: “Yes, Matthias is here—my mom’s business partner, the foreigner we bumped into at Great Love last time. I’m accompanying him on a trip.”

Gu Jiancheng: “Ah? Isn’t school starting soon?”

Zhan Yan: “Yes, he said he wanted to travel to school with me. Foreigners have no concept of the distance between two cities in our country; at first, he even told me he wanted to cycle.”

With Matthias’s physique, by the time he accompanied him cycling to school, a tenth of his semester would be over.

Gu Jiancheng grew jealous: “I could have done that too…”

If he had known Yan Yan wanted to travel to school, he could have done it too…

Zhan Yan put on his earphones to take the call: “We’ll arrive at school the day after tomorrow.”

Matthias’s cheerful voice also carried over: “Yan, the barbecue is ready, it’s number one!”

He was still using his broken Chinese.

Gu Jiancheng: “Yan Yan, I’m ready too, super special number one.”

Zhan Yan burst out laughing: “Then what should I do? I can’t eat you either.”

Gu Jiancheng whimpered pitifully twice: “Then you go eat the barbecue first, I’ll call you again tonight.”

Zhan Yan scrolled through Gu Jiancheng’s gossip posts while on the phone.

[Deep Shadow Gu Jiancheng felt very regretful that Ghost King Wan Yan hadn’t recovered. He said to Lin Yuan Ghost King Zhan Jinli: “Is your divine ability temporarily unable to recover?”

Lin Yuan Ghost King Zhan Jinli believed Deep Shadow Gu Jiancheng still wanted to continue pushing him and remained very vigilant.]

Zhan Yan: Pfft.

The psychological trauma Xiao Gu left on his brother…

After hanging up the phone, Zhan Yan dragged out a small system backup interface and continued with his puzzle.

Matthias was grilling corn, adjusting the heat with one hand and holding skewers in the other.

He looked up and saw Zhan Yan walking over, raised a skewer, and greeted him: “Come have a taste!”

Matthias’s barbecue skills were genuinely not bad; the heat was just right, but the seasoning was a bit too salty.

Matthias drank beer and ate skewers, pulling Zhan Yan to tell ghost stories.

Zhan Yan: “Aren’t you scared late at night?”

Having had two bottles, Big Strong Ma completely forgot how scared he had been by Tian Youcheng back then. Holding his beer, he boasted: “I’m not scared at all.”

The most important thing was, didn’t he have a professional right by his side?

Then tell them.

Zhan Yan started telling him a few ghost stories, about how you shouldn’t look back if you hear someone calling your name at night, or how you might mysteriously disappear if you walk under the shade of a tree… He told stories while eating and working on his puzzle at the same time.

After a while, Zhan Yan felt thirsty.

“I’m going to get some drinks.”

Matthias nodded and continued grilling meat.

The drink box was placed under a tree. Zhan Yan walked over and bent down to grab a drink; the puzzle was only missing the final piece, so he straightened up and willed the final piece into place.

Star-trail-like lines outlined a four-legged strange beast with a dragon’s head. Zhan Yan straightened up, intending to look closely, when the beast’s pattern suddenly began to enlarge.

The strange beast began to move, stepping out from the system interface with a sky full of stars serving as its backdrop, each star trail blending perfectly into the night sky.

Zhan Yan looked up at the starry sky, his pupils dilated, and he involuntarily held his breath.

The cicadas’ chirping disappeared, the crickets grew distant, and the wind solidified amidst the starlight.

The strange beast that emerged from the illusion lowered its head and pressed it against Zhan Yan’s forehead.

For a moment, Zhan Yan faintly felt as if he were this strange beast, merging with the entire starry sky.

A tiny flame suddenly flared up, igniting an exceptionally unique point of light in the starry sky.

Zhan Yan felt a force pulling him, and a realization suddenly hit him: he was being taken away.

Zhan Yan: !

Why was this puzzle auto-starting!

Where would he go? The place hiding Di Ting’s single horn? How long would he disappear? It wouldn’t be for several days, right? That would be terrible; a living person suddenly disappearing…

No, no, he couldn’t just disappear like this, quickly stop!

The Candle Dragon’s tiny flame had its own ideas; the strange beast drawn from star trails was enveloped in a layer of soft candlelight.

The scene before Zhan Yan’s eyes was rapidly blurring.

…He couldn’t resist. What should he do? What should he do?

A flash of inspiration struck Zhan Yan. He quickly threw the completed strange beast image into the password translator; the previously un-parseable password was rapidly parsed, and without time to read the result closely, he forwarded the parsed message to Deep Shadow first.

The next second, his location completely changed.

Matthias waited and waited… and waited. He waited for ten minutes, but didn’t see Zhan Yan return.

“Yan?” he called out loudly, but no one answered.

“Yan? Yan?” Matthias shouted a few more times, “Where are you?”

He walked over carrying his skewers and beer.

The drink box was still under the tree, but Zhan Yan was nowhere to be seen.

A cool night breeze blew past; Matthias was instantly startled awake from his drunkenness, breaking out in layers of cold sweat.

Help, help! The ghost stories are true!

Even the professional was taken away by ghosts!