GRMFBS CH71

Zhan Yan got out of bed to pack his suitcase.

He first took out all the snacks, followed by his clothes. He saw the wooden box pressed under his clothes, which contained the stone given to him by Elder Luan. Zhan Yan paused for a moment and opened the box.

In the dream just now, besides the three Ghost Kings, a notable name had also appeared: Candle Dragon.

The item description of the stone had changed:

[This is a stone that has solidified with a few drops of candle tears shed by the Candle Dragon’s candle. It once possessed a trace of the profound power of the Candle Dragon, but it has now been exhausted.]

Looking at it this way, the dream he just had was perhaps a “drifting fragment in the long river of time.” That melon strip which was originally [Loading…] only finished loading because it was affected by the power of the Candle Dragon. But he had obtained this stone yesterday and didn’t have the dream last night. Was the trigger condition that he bumped into the little white cat while carrying the stone on his way back?

After packing up, Zhan Yan decided to check out the hidden board on the chaofan forum. Luowang had said there was information related to the Candle Dragon there, and he hadn’t had the time to look at it yet.

The only information regarding the Candle Dragon in the hidden board was a single mission: Find the Candle Dragon Remnant.

As for what the Candle Dragon Remnant was, there was a vague description under the mission:

“Time has no end.

“Time loops endlessly.

“The sun rises and sets, the moon rises and sets.

“The hour hand turns a full circle and returns to the origin; the minute and second hands do the same.

“People are born and die, and after death comes new life.

“The sunset here is exactly the sunrise on the other side of the planet.

“Time loops because it has no end.”

The font of this description was very special; every stroke looked like a segment of a dragon’s body occasionally revealed amidst the clouds.

As Zhan Yan read on, he felt as if he was once again seeing that dragon encircling the world in his dream. It folded itself into a knot, head swallowing its tail. The Candle Dragon bit off its own scales, dripping burning blood. The blood solidified into a candle, and the burning candle illuminated the shadow of the world. That shadow fell into the coiled loop of the Candle Dragon.

The Shadow of the Candle Dragon.

Zhan Yan suddenly snapped back to his senses, a tingling numbness spreading all over his body, all his hairs standing on end. He knew why the people in this world had no impression of the events from twenty-six years ago! That tragic battle had taken place within the shadow of the Candle Dragon.

The Candle Dragon—opening its eyes brought day, closing them brought night; this was a mythical beast related to time. Time extends infinitely, and time also loops back and forth. Like an Ouroboros, time loops because it is infinite, and time is infinite because it loops.

But this didn’t mean that everything would repeat exactly as it was… Zhan Yan couldn’t quite understand this for the moment; this was the supernatural power and mystery of the Candle Dragon.

Twenty-six years ago, the Candle Dragon tied itself in a knot, and the candle born of its dripping blood cast the world’s shadow, which fell into its looping body. Ghost King Lin Yuan said, “The Candle Dragon is looping.” Wait until everything was over, the Candle Dragon would untie its knot, the time within the shadow would loop back to the node, and everything would eventually be restored.

To put it in an easier-to-understand way, the Candle Dragon had “saved the file” of their world. But not every living being could be looped by the Candle Dragon.

Time was like a string, and the Candle Dragon had tuned its frequency. The beads strung on the string would vibrate along with the frequency of the string’s vibration, but the heavier the beads, the harder it was for them to be moved by the string’s frequency. Those overly powerful beings were like heavy beads. Their time, just like their information, was stable and difficult to interfere with.

And between what had been looped and what failed to loop, there existed a trace of severance. That was the Candle Dragon Remnant.

The six sub-columns in the information panel vanished, and the sea of information stars resurfaced. Gold, purple, blue, green, and white—stars of various colors hung in different positions, forming a dazzling river of stars. He saw that shining golden star: the Candle Dragon.

The truth of the world had lifted a slight curtain for him, allowing him to peek into a bit of time’s mystery.

Zhan Yan slowly exhaled a breath. The six sub-columns resurfaced, and the sub-column named “Domain” swelled with a new star once more. Domain, territory, world. He was gradually coming to understand this world.

That snippet of text introducing the mission had been endowed with a wondrous power; it was a method of “transmitting a seal from mind to mind,” and also a layer of assessment. Those qualified to read it would directly gain cognitive understanding of the Candle Dragon Remnant.

Zhan Yan checked his watch; over two hours had already passed, and if he kept searching, there would be no end to it. He exited the forum and decided to do Deep Shadow’s healing-type mission first, allowing himself a moment to recover his wits.

In the evening, Old Bao also returned, enthusiastically bringing tea and coffee.

“How can eating snacks not be paired with tea and coffee?”

Duan Hong tasted a piece of the snacks and asked for some more, but he just held them without eating. Seeing his heavily preoccupied look, Zhan Yan asked, “Did you run into some trouble?”

Duan Hong hemmed and hawed: “I-I don’t know how to say it either.”

After hesitating for a long time, the others in the dorm finally pressed it out of him. Duan Hong lowered his head and took a deep breath: “O-okay, I’ll say it. You guys better not disbelieve me.”

“I… I ran into a ghost.”

This was the reason he had been hesitating and refusing to speak earlier. Running into a ghost—what a feudal and superstitious phrase. Had he not experienced it firsthand, he wouldn’t have believed it either. Right now, he couldn’t hold back the urge to confide in them, but he was also terrified that others wouldn’t believe him.

After a while, Duan Hong slowly raised his head.

Gu Jiancheng still had that expressionless face, extremely calm. Bao Qingshan looked as if a great realization had suddenly dawned on him. Zhan Yan was deep in thought.

Duan Hong: How are you all so calm? Is running into a ghost something not at all uncommon? Could it be that I was the only one in the dorm who originally didn’t believe in ghosts?

Seeing that he had stopped talking, Zhan Yan urged him, “Keep going, how did you run into a ghost?”

In this overly tranquil atmosphere, Duan Hong absentmindedly began his story. A couple of days ago, he accompanied a friend to the suburbs to collect specimens. The wild fields in the suburbs had never been developed, and there were still some wild graves from the old days remaining. They were covered by weeds, and no one offered sacrifices to them anymore.

Duan Hong hadn’t seen it at the time and accidentally stepped on a wild grave. After that, he became entangled by a ghost. That ghost said Duan Hong had stepped on his grave and must give him an adequate amount of sacrificial compensation, otherwise, it would continuously haunt him.

Duan Hong made the offerings according to the ghost’s demands, but yesterday that ghost came looking for him again, saying the offerings he gave last time were of poor quality and telling him to offer a new batch, otherwise it would still seek him out.

Duan Hong felt he was being extorted. Offering one more time wasn’t out of the question; his main fear was that this ghost would haunt him from now on, using this excuse to make him give offerings every other day without end. But he didn’t know what to do either. These past two days, he had been searching for famous temples and Daoist shrines nearby, preparing to go pray and see if he could find a reliable master.

Bao Qingshan patted his chest: “Relax, I think you’ll definitely be fine.”

Duan Hong managed a weak smile.

Bao Qingshan: “You have to trust me! I’m someone who can guess over eighty percent correctly on multiple-choice questions! I’ll accompany you when you go offer sacrifices to that ghost this time!”

While listening to the story, Zhan Yan simultaneously opened the gossip strips and had just finished ‘eating’ them.

[Wild ghost Quan Liping saw Duan Hong step on an ownerless wild grave and decided to extort a full meal out of him.]

[Duan Hong prepared sacrificial offerings for the wild ghost Quan Liping.]

[The offerings wild ghost Quan Liping extorted were stolen by the dog demon Pang Wang.]

[Wild ghost Quan Liping discovered the offerings were gone, became furious, and decided to extort him once more.]

Zhan Yan: …Pfft.

Hearing that Old Bao was willing to accompany him, Duan Hong was deeply moved.

Zhan Yan: “I’ll go together too!”

Bao Qingshan was someone who genuinely cultivated; he could definitely resolve this matter! Zhan Yan wanted to spectate; he hadn’t yet seen with his own eyes how these people took action! Plus, he had brought the Eight Treasures Cinnabar his sister had given him, so his safety was guaranteed!

Hearing that Zhan Yan wanted to go, Gu Jiancheng’s heart skipped a beat. Behind Zhan Yan was an unknown supernatural connection. If he wanted to go, he would likely be intending to use that supernatural connection—whose safety was questionable—to resolve it! It was best to let Yan Yan have as little contact with those things as possible. It would be better for him to resolve it!

Therefore, Gu Jiancheng: “I’m going too.”

Duan Hong was deeply moved. This was the resounding camaraderie of college roommates!

The next day, they all went together first to buy the offerings. Halfway there, Zhan Yan was blocked again by the little white cat.

“Meow.”

“Where’s the cat food you promised me yesterday?”

Zhan Yan looked at him with mixed feelings. Ghost King Wan Yan stalking him to demand cat food. This world was truly extraordinary!

He crouched down to negotiate with Ghost King Wan Yan: “Will tomorrow work? I have to accompany my classmate to deal with some matters today.”

The little white cat stared at his pocketful of food a couple times, unmoving: “Meow.”

“Spit it out.”

Inspiration suddenly struck Zhan Yan, and he pulled Duan Hong—who was carrying even more food—forward.

“Him right here, my roommate. He ran into a ghost. That ghost is threatening him for offerings. If he doesn’t offer them, it comes to cause a ruckus. These are all the sacrifices brought for that ghost.”

The little white cat looked Duan Hong up and down a couple of times, circling to his front and taking a sniff.

Duan Hong was baffled: “What is this cat doing?”

Zhan Yan: “Quick! Give him the tasty stuff in your pockets!”

Duan Hong dazedly pulled out a pastry: “Can this cat eat this?”

The little white cat snatched a cookie in its mouth, looked at Zhan Yan again, grumbled, “Cat food!”, and then bounded into the bushes and left.

Duan Hong was baffled: “You know this cat?”

“I do. Didn’t you know?” Zhan Yan spouted nonsense with a completely serious face. “This cat is super effective at answering prayers!”

Duan Hong: “Huh?”

Bao Qingshan: “Huh?”

Gu Jiancheng felt like Zhan Yan was bluffing people, but he decided not to expose it.

Zhan Yan: “Have you ever heard the legend of the fat orange cat at the neighboring polytechnic university?”

Duan Hong thought back for a moment: “I think I’ve heard of it. Supposedly, as long as they pray to that orange cat before their exams, they won’t fail.”

Zhan Yan nodded earnestly: “Right! This cat is the exact same!”

Bao Qingshan’s interest was piqued: “Praying to it stops you from failing too?”

He had skipped quite a few classes this semester; finals were going to be very dangerous!

Zhan Yan: “That’s not necessarily true. But if you give it offerings, your wish might just come true! Since you’ve already run into a ghost anyway, praying to it doesn’t cost you anything.”

Duan Hong agreed. Right now, his belief in mysticism was beyond the ordinary. Besides, with a cat’s small appetite, how much could it possibly eat? Feeding the ghost extorting him was worse than feeding the cat!

……

Ghost King Wan Yan swallowed the cookie in one gulp, twitching his whiskers in dissatisfaction.

It wasn’t as tasty as yesterday’s. But that was okay; that person promised to make him cat food! He had followed this person and eaten three meals. The first meal, the cat food, tasted pretty good, just a little bland. The second meal of chicken wings was the most delicious! The third meal was yesterday’s snacks; not as good as the chicken wings, but still very nice.

With his rich experience in staging accidents for extortion, sticking with this person meant he would get to eat more tasty things!

The little white cat wiggled his nose and arrived at the outskirts of the city like the wind.

Quan Liping sat on the broken stele of the wild grave, shaking his leg while waiting for the offerings, simultaneously unleashing a torrent of curses at the demon who dared to steal his sacrifices.

Hah! This time, your granddaddy is personally sitting right here to stand guard. Let’s see who still dares to come and steal!

The little white cat’s pupils dilated as he leaped over, flipping the ghost off with a single swipe of his paw.

Hah! Who do you think you are, trying to eat the same snacks as me!