My family tree hollow connects to the modern era : Chapter 35

This situation was completely outside the script Hel had prepared. Regardless of how he looked at it, he never imagined he would end up on the receiving end of things. Furthermore, it turned out that Bai Zhizhi was the one who held the key; how could that even be possible?

Watching Hel, who looked pale and unwilling to accept reality, Bai Zhizhi smiled and looked him over. “To teach you a lesson, where do you think it would be best for me to dismantle you? Should I break a leg or an arm?” Bai Zhizhi shook his head, continuing, “If I break your arms and legs, you’ll still come to provoke me like a cheap nuisance. Why don’t I just destroy your ability core? Didn’t you want to seek justice for your brother? This way, you two will be exactly the same. That’s what makes for good brothers, right?”

As Bai Zhizhi said this, he made a gripping motion in the void with his fingers. Hel felt his ability core trembling violently, as if something was tugging and pulling at it, wanting to break through his body from within. A shivering fear instantly crawled all over Hel. Losing his ability core meant losing everything he was proud of. From this day forward, he would become a cripple, and those he once looked down upon would be able to climb over his head.

Terrified, he panicked and screamed, “It wasn’t me! It was Eke! Eke was the one who plotted against you; I knew nothing about it from start to finish!”

Eke was also present today. However, because of his role in Ousen’s ability core being destroyed, he had been terrified and stayed quiet and obedient, and at this moment, he was kneeling and buried in the spirit soil just like the others, suppressed by a force. If he hadn’t egged him on, Ousen wouldn’t have been crippled. Although Ousen had also wanted to stir up trouble among Chinese practitioners and thus they had hit it off immediately, the root cause was ultimately him. If Ousen had just been an ordinary psychic, Eke wouldn’t have been this worried, but Ousen came from a family of psychics with several other powerful members. Eke’s only fear was that if the blame couldn’t be shifted onto the Chinese, he would be the one retaliated against once he returned to the U.S.

He had shared his concerns with Hel, who already held a grudge against Bai Zhizhi and had been looking for a chance to deal with him. Now that the reason was served on a silver platter, Hel figured that no matter how powerful Bai Zhizhi was, the pressure of cooperation between nations would be enough to ensure the Bureau couldn’t protect him. But how did things turn into this? Director Wells had actually abandoned Hel? If he could abandon Hel, then Eke likely had even less chance of survival.

When Hel pushed him forward, Eke had never been so terrified. His whole body was suppressed and unable to move, and even if he wanted to resist, it was nothing but futile struggle. Meeting Bai Zhizhi’s gaze, Eke could neither open his mouth nor move his head; he could only beg with eyes full of horror, hoping Bai Zhizhi would let him go.

Bai Zhizhi waved his hand and pulled Eke out of the soil as if pulling up a carrot. “I almost forgot about you. You dared to offend me the very first time we met. I taught you a lesson, but you didn’t learn from it. Are people from your country all like this? Arrogant and conceited, yet lacking skill, and without a shred of self-awareness.”

With a surge of spiritual power from Bai Zhizhi, two miserable screams rang out in the meeting room. Hel and Eke vomited blood simultaneously, spitting it out mouthful after mouthful, which made Song Cheng frown deeply. Such fine spirit soil, ruined by being polluted like this.

Bai Zhizhi forcibly extracted the ability cores from their bodies they were crystals about the size of a knuckle, different from both demon pearls and human cultivation cores. Hel’s core was blue, and Eke’s was red; they actually looked quite pretty. Unfortunately, no matter how good-looking they were, they were things that belonged in other people’s bodies. Bai Zhizhi tossed them away in disgust and looked at the two men slumped on the ground: “Destroying you is much more interesting than killing you. As for the rest of you psychics from your country, anyone who feels dissatisfied is welcome to come back again. I’ll destroy anyone who dares to show up!”

The few psychics still buried in the soil, seeing what Hel and Eke had become, wished they could bury their heads along with their bodies in the dirt, fearing that Bai Zhizhi might notice them. They no longer had any thoughts of revenge; they only hoped to survive and return to their country.

Bai Zhizhi clapped his hands, put away the small bell, and looked at the Bureau Chief and Deputy Director. “I’m done. Do you have any other business?”

Song Cheng smiled. “Since the misunderstanding is cleared up, there is nothing else. Are you returning to the courtyard? I’ll arrange a car to take you.”

Bai Zhizhi nodded. “Fine. In the future, if there’s anything like this, just tell them to go to the courtyard to find me. You saved me a long trip.”

The Bureau Chief glanced at the psychics who had lost their suppression but were still kneeling, too terrified to crawl out of the soil, and couldn’t help but say, “I suspect such things won’t happen again in the future.” Bai Zhizhi walked to the door, then suddenly remembered something and turned back. He tossed out his small cloth bag and made a light gesture with his two fingers in the void; all the spirit soil in the meeting room flew back into his bag.

Seeing this, the Bureau Chief couldn’t help but extend a trembling hand. Bai Zhizhi, while tying the mouth of the small bag, looked at them: “I was just showing you the actual product so you wouldn’t think I was making empty claims to trick you. I have spirit soil; you can rest assured and trade with me boldly. As for what to trade with, make a list for me.” Although the soil wasn’t valuable, it couldn’t be given away for nothing; his Fox Tribe never engaged in losing business. After saying this, Bai Zhizhi hooked the drawstring of the bag on his finger and left in a circle.

After sending Hel and Eke for medical treatment, the Bureau Chief invited the remaining few psychics to another room to change clothes—in case Bai Zhizhi hadn’t cleaned it up properly and they tried to smuggle spirit soil out in their pockets, what a loss that would be! After all, when the U.S. traded with them, it was always calculated by the gram. Looking at the meeting room that had been full of spirit soil a moment ago and was now empty, the Bureau Chief sighed, feeling the emptiness of a beautiful dream shattered.

Catching a glimpse of Song Cheng beside him, the Bureau Chief put away his regretful expression and asked, “You didn’t stop him earlier—were you wanting to see what he would do?”

Song Cheng replied, “Facts prove that Jiang Lin’s estimation was correct. Bai Zhizhi understands good and evil and knows right from wrong; he doesn’t act purely on instinct. If it had been any other high-level psychic in his place today, they wouldn’t necessarily have spared their lives.” Song Cheng looked at the Bureau Chief: “You didn’t stop him either.”

The Bureau Chief chuckled. After saying this, Song Cheng looked at the team leaders: “In the future, if you have dealings with Bai Zhizhi, remember not to offend him easily, and do not treat him as an ordinary small demon. I fear his strength is not beneath mine.” Although he could feel that their cultivation levels weren’t far apart when Bai Zhizhi acted earlier, demon races are inherently stronger than humans; with equal cultivation, it is difficult for a human to beat a demon. Fortunately, Bai Zhizhi had no ill feelings toward humans; as long as they treated him with goodwill, they would certainly be able to get along harmoniously.

The team leaders shook their heads: “Rest assured, Director Song; we wouldn’t offend him even if we offended everyone else.” They had known about Bai Zhizhi before because he held the key to the energy field, but they knew nothing else. Seeing him extract ability cores with his own hands today, they weren’t stupid enough to offend him. That said, it had to be admitted that the little fox demon was very satisfying today. Constrained by the pressure of cultivation resources, they had to忍气吞声 (swallow their pride) on many matters as long as no principles were violated. They were simply outmatched in the current situation. Crippling two high-level psychics today—this kind of heavy blow would be enough to make them hurt for a while.

Bai Zhizhi was extremely satisfied with the day’s harvest on his way home. He had crippled two annoying fellows and intimidated the others; they wouldn’t dare to come hopping in front of him and make a nuisance of themselves again. As for killing them, he truly hadn’t considered it. It wasn’t that he was afraid of killing, but rather that he feared his father would be able to see at a glance that he had been stained with blood. Killing a human was different from killing a demon beast; creatures with spirits, unless they threatened his own life, should not be killed outright. If he killed a human, his father would surely notice, and upon investigating, his secret of using the treehouse to visit here would likely be exposed. Therefore, crippling them was better than killing them, and he still wanted to stay here and play a bit more.

Lu Mingyu, having received the news, returned to the Management Bureau immediately. Although he was wary of Bai Zhizhi, the fact remained that the U.S. psychics had intruded without cause, and Bai Zhizhi’s counterattack was reasonable. He had to go back and explain the situation. However, upon returning to the Bureau, he saw the Deputy Director in the doorway, directing traffic: “Be careful! Lift the tables, sweep the gaps, check thoroughly to see if there’s anything left. You lot, sweep your shoe soles, empty your pockets, check everything carefully.”

“Oh, Little Lu is back. Move aside, don’t block the way.”

Lu Mingyu looked inside the room; several team leaders were crawling on the ground, searching for something inch by inch.

Lu Mingyu: “??” What was going on? Where was Bai Zhizhi? What were these people looking for?

The Bureau Chief sighed; being poor was just like this. Though it was a bit embarrassing, what if something had been left behind?

After understanding the sequence of events, Lu Mingyu thought, “…”

Confirming that Bai Zhizhi’s matter was resolved, Lu Mingyu contacted Uncle Gao again. Seeing that he had returned to the courtyard, Lu Mingyu set the matter aside and started assigning people. He had already identified who was in Miao Sheng’s little circle. This case was highly likely to be vengeance from an aggrieved spirit, and the spirit was most likely Zhuang Lixu. Miao Sheng’s group included two other people: Liu Tao and Qin Yilun. Because their family backgrounds were similar, the three had been close since childhood. If Miao Sheng had bullied Zhuang Lixu, the other two had definitely participated. He arranged for two people to keep watch at those two families. Now that Miao Sheng was dead, the next most likely targets for retaliation would be those two households.

Liu Tao’s father was a director at the He Gong Electronics Group, and his mother was a cellist; it was common for them to be so busy that they didn’t come home. Liu Tao arrived back in the family’s nanny van, and the butler stepped forward to open the door: “Young Master.”

Liu Tao’s eyes were pitch black. His pupils rotated slowly, his line of sight falling on the butler with a stuttering effect, and his voice carried a hoarse, cold tone: “When will Mom and Dad be back?”

The butler was slightly taken aback, feeling that the Young Master’s voice sounded a bit strange. He looked over with concern, worrying if he had fallen ill. However, as soon as he looked up, he met Liu Tao’s gaze, which was eerily calm, and felt an inexplicable chill surge through him.

Liu Tao tilted his head slightly and asked again: “When will Mom and Dad be back?”

The butler collected himself and replied: “The Master is at the company, and the Mistress has a performance at the orchestra; they won’t be back until Wednesday at the earliest.”

Wednesday—today was Monday, so there were two days left. He could wait.

Liu Tao nodded: “I see.”

As he spoke, he carried his bookbag and walked toward his room. However, his walking posture was noticeably stiff. The butler once again displayed a strange expression, wondering if he should call the family doctor to take a look. By the time the butler turned away and stopped watching him, Liu Tao slowly turned his head to the side. A cold, gloomy gaze lingered, and finally, after curling his lips into a cold sneer, he lifted his feet to continue toward his room. If anyone were observing closely, they would see that from the moment he entered, his heels never once touched the ground.