Chapter 27: New Discoveries

Lin Bei shrugged and said, "I wanted to pay for it, but since you didn't play by the rules, I had no choice but to take it by force, did I?"

"You!"

Qi Dachuan glared at Lin Bei with fury, but he dared not take a single step forward. He knew he couldn't win in a fight, and with fewer men than the other side, rushing in would be nothing more than a suicide mission.

Looking down at the ancient jar in his hands, Qi Dachuan felt a pang of reluctance. From the moment he first laid eyes on this jar, he felt a fated connection to it. That was why, after being outbid by Wang Jianjun, he had signaled his son, Qi Tianyou, to play dirty. But now that Lin Bei had come in person, it was clear he was determined to have it. No matter how much he liked the antique, Qi Dachuan wasn't about to risk everything in a death match with Lin Bei over it.

Gritting his teeth, he tossed the jar toward Lin Bei. The movement startled Zhang Shisan, who stood nearby. Though he knew the structure of the ancient jar wasn't easily broken, he instinctively leaped forward to catch it. His speed was so swift that Qi Dachuan’s eyelids twitched. It was the first time he had ever seen someone as stout as Zhang Shisan react with such agility.

After checking the seal on the jar to ensure it was still intact, Zhang Shisan breathed a sigh of relief. He nodded at Lin Bei, signaling that the demon remained securely trapped.

Seeing this, Lin Bei took out his checkbook, scribbled on it for a moment, and shoved it at Qi Dachuan. "That’s three million. My bodyguard was prepared to pay two million for this jar. The extra million is for your emotional distress and the medical bills of your security guards."

Without waiting for Qi Dachuan to react, Lin Bei led Ma Xiaoling and the others away. Watching his retreating back, Qi Dachuan gnashed his teeth in hatred, yet he never dared to stop him.

His son, Qi Tianyou, asked with unconcealed frustration, "Dad, why are you so afraid of him?"

Qi Dachuan glared at his son and scolded, "He is one of the top ten wealthiest men in Hong Kong and has excellent ties with the mainland. In a few years, the handover will happen—do you really have to ask why I’m afraid of him?"

Qi Tianyou shrank back, not daring to utter another word. However, having suffered such a significant loss, he found it impossible to let go.

***

Outside the hotel, Lin Bei looked at the jar in Zhang Shisan’s arms and asked, "How do you intend to handle this?"

Zhang Shisan pondered for a moment before replying, "Take it back to the mainland, find a place with good feng shui, and bury it. Besides, I should look for an apprentice. My Taoist arts must be passed down so that after I’m gone, someone will be there to keep this demon suppressed."

Lin Bei shook his head. "That’s treating the symptoms, not the disease. The spiritual energy in this world is waning; sooner or later, it will become a world devoid of magic. That will have a huge impact on practitioners like us, but for demonic cultivators, it might actually be the best time for them. If he breaks free then and starts wreaking havoc, who will be there to suppress him?"

Zhang Shisan frowned. He knew this wasn't a long-term solution. But if he could have killed the demon, he would have done so long ago instead of dragging it out to this day. The demon’s physical body had long since withered away over time, leaving only its primordial spirit. If it couldn't be destroyed completely in one strike, it might possess someone and inevitably return to wreak chaos.

Seeing the conflict on Zhang Shisan's face, Lin Bei offered his own plan.

"Why don't you just let it out? We can join forces and beat it until it’s utterly destroyed, so it can never be reincarnated!"

Zhang Shisan’s mouth twitched, and he gave Lin Bei a strange look. The young man looked refined and had a gentle smile, but his thirst for battle was intense. Not a single monster or ghost that fell into his hands ever came away unscathed—he was even more ruthless than the folks from the Lushan Sect.

Seeing Zhang Shisan still hesitating, Lin Bei pulled Ma Xiaoling and Zhong Fabai forward. "Surely, with our combined strength, we can handle that demon?"

Zhang Shisan had no way to refuse now. He considered his own Taoist skills to be among the best of this era, and Zhong Fabai and the others were certainly no less capable. While the demon was powerful, it wasn't so strong that it could withstand the combined might of the world's top exorcists.

Zhang Shisan sighed. "We need to find a suitable place and make preparations before we act."

Lin Bei smiled upon hearing Zhang Shisan’s agreement. He was so eager to slay demons because, when he destroyed those two corpse-ghosts earlier, he had clearly felt that he could now fluently execute the eighth form of the Sun Breathing technique. Not only that, but the Wudang internal energy he had inherited from his counterpart in the martial arts world had also made a breakthrough.

Lin Bei suspected that when these monsters died, they released energy that he happened to be able to absorb. He had once asked Ma Xiaoling about this, but she had looked completely bewildered. Given her extensive knowledge of both Eastern and Western occultism, she should have known about it—unless it was a unique ability possessed only by him.

Lin Bei guessed this was a special effect resulting from the convergence of his power across multiple worlds. Since he currently could not actively enter that mysterious space, he naturally couldn't experiment with his other selves. Thus, he had come up with another way: using the monsters of this world as his test subjects.

The demon sealed in the jar was the perfect specimen. Moreover, he wasn't exactly deceiving Zhang Shisan; destroying the demon once and for all was far better than binding future generations to the task of keeping it suppressed.

"Leave this matter to you and Master Zhong. If you need men or money, just ask. For any tools you need, you can contact Uncle Qiu; he’ll handle it for you."

Since Lin Bei had put it that way, what else could Zhang Shisan do? He nodded in agreement. Zhong Fabai watched on with a cheerful grin, offering no objections; he knew Lin Bei wouldn't leave him empty-handed.

In reality, they didn't even need Zhang Shisan to search for a location suitable for a formation. A single phone call to "local experts" Uncle Qiu and Uncle Feng would provide the answer. Even Zhong Fabai, a shut-in who usually hid in the suburbs, knew of a suitable spot.

After consulting with Uncle Feng and Uncle Qiu and whispering a few words with Zhong Fabai, a location was finally chosen.

"Mr. Lin, we think it’s better to find a place with fewer people. If the demon really does manage to escape, it won't be able to find someone to possess immediately."

Lin Bei nodded, finding the logic sound. "So, where have you decided to act?"

Zhang Shisan and Zhong Fabai exchanged glances. "Brother Feng told me that Shiluozhou has few residents, and there is a spot there perfect for setting up a demon-subduing formation. How about we go there?"

Lin Bei thought he had misheard. "Where did you say?"

"Shiluozhou!"

"..."

Lin Bei stared at Zhang Shisan and Zhong Fabai, at a loss for words. A place that had managed to suppress a Qin corpse for over a hundred years definitely had excellent feng shui. But if something went wrong and they accidentally let the Qin corpse out, it would be another massive headache.