Chapter Twenty: Sudden Upheaval

I hurriedly rose to my feet and bowed deeply to the old man in the black robe, clasping my hands in respect.
“Elder, I believe if we want to uncover anything, we must start with you...”
“Sigh... Sit down, sit down.”
With a wave of his large hand, an invisible force pressed me firmly onto the stool.
Before I could marvel at the sensation, the old man spoke.
“My days are numbered anyway. What harm is there in telling you...”
He fiddled with the tea set for a moment, then began to narrate.
“Your grandfather should be Lin Changhe, yes?”
My expression changed drastically. This old man, whom I’d only met once before, actually knew my late grandfather’s name.
“Yes...”
I replied, trembling.
Just then, the white staff at our waists began to tremble violently, to the point that my waist ached from its vibrations.
“Take it out,” the old man instructed, clearly aware of the problem.
I grasped the staff with one hand and placed it on the table.
Before I could react, the old man seized my hand.
Startled, I wondered if he meant to silence me for good.
But I had clearly overestimated myself; once he had my wrist, I couldn’t budge at all. Thankfully, he didn’t grab my broken arm.
“Don’t move,” he said, eyes fixed on the staff.
I thought it over—he didn’t seem intent on killing me. If he wanted to, he wouldn’t bother with so many words.
So I stayed still, watching to see what he intended.
He conjured a black dagger out of thin air with his other hand and slid it over my fingertip.
I thought he might sever my finger, so I squeezed my eyes shut, afraid to look.
But he merely made a shallow cut, and a drop of blood trickled from the wound, falling precisely onto the staff.
I wanted to see what Qian Xiaozhen was doing, but when I turned, he had already closed his eyes. I called to him, but he gave no response.
“He’s been immobilized by my spell. I wish for the next conversation to be only between us.”
That explained it. Only now did I realize how childish my earlier urge to resist had been. If my guess was right, the old man could crush me with a mere gesture.
After releasing my hand, he lowered his gaze to the white staff.

I followed his gaze, and to my surprise, the drop of blood had already been absorbed into the staff, as if by magic.
“If memory serves, this staff is your grandfather’s life weapon.”
My grandfather was a mere farmer—how could he be acquainted with someone as powerful as this black-robed elder?
I voiced my doubts, and the old man hesitated, as if weighing whether to tell me.
After a deep sigh, he finally spoke.
“Your grandfather was once a figure of storms in the martial world.”
He left the sentence unfinished, having spoken only that much, which left me anxious.
“Please, elder, tell me more.”
I stood up earnestly and bowed again.
This time, he didn’t use his power to press me back to the stool. He simply said, with a trace of regret,
“Child, some things can’t be told by others; you must seek the answers yourself...”
Though I didn’t fully understand, his meaning was clear enough.
“And this staff?”
I sat down again and asked,
“This is not merely an attractive staff—it is also a blade.”
“I awakened it with your blood just now, but to truly wield it, you’ll need an opportunity.”
“When the time comes, you’ll understand its true meaning.”
I touched the staff; aside from feeling colder, nothing else had changed.
“Elder, could you now tell me about the village?”
He seemed to have anticipated my question, and with a resigned wave, he glanced at Qian Xiaozhen, who suddenly gasped for air as if suffocating, his eyes snapping open as he greedily inhaled the surrounding air.
He looked at me in confusion, then at the old man, as if he understood something.
“Listen well. I’ll say this only once.”
I hurriedly steadied Qian Xiaozhen, urging him to pay close attention.
“You guessed correctly. I am a sorcerer from the Demon Realm, but four hundred years ago, the Demon Realm underwent a revolution, a reshuffling of power.”
“The newly appointed Demon Lord relied on his immense cultivation to oppress the people and bring chaos to the realm.”
At this, the old man sighed deeply.
“I could not endure the Demon Lord’s brutality, so I fled to the mortal world.”
“When the Demon Lord learned of this, he spared my life for old times’ sake, but used a secret technique to seal me eternally in this village. After all, I was still of the Demon Realm, so I used most of my powers to seal the villagers’ mouths, preventing them from speaking and thus from divulging the secret of this place.”
“But there’s no such thing as a secret that doesn’t leak. Word reached the Ghost King, who sent his centurion to capture me and make me their strategist.”

After this lengthy explanation, the old man’s complexion worsened, and he coughed several times.
Having experienced so much, I was no longer resistant to the strange or new; I found it easier to accept, so I understood his words.
“No wonder that man was so formidable—he was the Ghost King’s centurion...”
I muttered to myself.
Looking up, I saw the old man had closed his eyes, his hands working in mysterious calculations.
After a long moment, he slowly opened his eyes and spat out a mouthful of dark blood.
I hurried forward to support him.
“Heh, old age...”
He waved me off, indicating it was nothing serious.
“Child, I just cast a divination... That Ghost King of yours may not be the true Ghost King...”
I was stunned—Ghost King? The one who orchestrated the deadly game? And not the true Ghost King?
The old man seemed to know what I was thinking. He wobbled to his feet and said,
“Take things as they come, follow the flow.”
I was overwhelmed by the barrage of revelations; my head throbbed.
Since the Ghost King appeared, I’d been exposed to all sorts of phenomena that ordinary people never encounter: spiritual energy, the ghost realm, the demon realm, the Ghost King...
One incredible event after another had happened around me, and I finally realized I was only at the tip of the iceberg, with so much more waiting for me to explore.
I glanced again at the old man—he was gazing out at the mountain peaks beyond the window, lost in thought.
...
“You should leave now. They’ll be here soon.”
The old man suddenly spoke, leaving me confused.
Who were “they”? Why were they coming—could it be the villagers?
As I pondered, the sky changed abruptly; where moments ago the sun blazed, now dark clouds gathered, threatening rain at any moment.
Yet the old man remained calmly by the window, unmoving.
A sense of impending danger weighed on me, so I quickly retrieved the staff from the table and stood up beside Qian Xiaozhen.
Perhaps this was the calm before the storm...