Cyber Ghosts

“How dare you!” Seeing Liu Shuai jumping at him, Hao Ning stared at him and retreated. He moved seven or eight steps quickly in a short time. At the same time, he touched Liu Shuai by hand. He used less than half of his power to make Liu Shuai’s legs immediately numb. Liu Shuai sat down on the chair immediately, rubbing his legs and complaining, “Hao Ning, are you serious? I’m kidding with you. Now I am in trouble. I don’t know whether I will be crippled or not.”

“Sorry, sorry…” Hao Ning didn’t realize that his Kung Fu was so powerful. He just played it with only ten percent of his power. He apologized immediately, “Don’t worry. There will be no side effects. But you can’t move for a while ‒ Well, you just said what was so dangerous?”

“That’s not the way it should be. Wait! I will fight against you again after my power recovers!” Liu Shuai rubbed his thighs, sadly. After their fight for fun, the atmosphere in the meeting room turned into much relaxing. Liu Shuai said while he was rubbing his legs, “Blame on me, I was too excited. After all, we are safe now. Hao Ning, if Jiang Ziya got out with you, he would have a way to force you to confer the gods. Right?”

“Err… You are right.” Hao Ning hesitated. Thinking that if Jiang Ziya used Liu Shuai or his relatives to force him, he might be obedient.

“After you conferred the gods, you would be the Ancestor of all Immortals, right?” Liu Shuai continued to ask.

“Well, maybe.” Hao Ning recalled.

“And then he would loot your body? No. It was not him. It should be the force that had bewitched Jiang Ziya and all Immortals in the world of the Creation of Gods would loot your body.” Liu Shuai laughed grimly, looking at Hao Ning. “Don’t forget. You were just a common person. The force could bewitch Jiang Ziya. How could you escape from it?”

“What you said seemed right…” Hao Ning nodded. He felt something must be wrong here when he recalled the details in the book. He continued to ask, “But Jiang Ziya promised me in the Gods Creation World at that time. He assigned me to be the subordinate in charge of all Immortals. So, I think he wanted to be the Ancestor of the Gods.”

“This was his strategy, a strategy of retreat for progress.” Xiao Hao also understood the whole thing. He looked at Liu Shuai admiringly, “The descendant of Yun Zhong Zi does have special skills. Even I didn’t notice this. If the bewitched Jiang Ziya told you this directly that he could not seal the gods, and he needed you to seal the gods in this secular world, and then he would bewitch or loot you, what would you do?”

“I would…” Hao Ning thought of this. He got an idea and said immediately, “I would do what Nezha did. Rather than troubling this secular world, I would stay in the Gods Creation World! Oh, I see. The reason why he said he would go out to seal gods was that he just needed me to take him out of that world and was trying to relax my vigilance!”

Hao Ning couldn’t help wiping his sweat. Fortunately, he was determined at that time and resisted Jiang Ziya’s temptation. Thinking of the whole thing, Hao Ning didn’t consider that he resisted his temptation because he was a nobleman. At that time, he just concentrated on how to save Zhou Yuan. So, he was not interested in any other things. If that happened now and Jiang Ziya promised him a Maserati, he might take him out of that world. Thinking of this, Hao Ning couldn’t help blushing. “I am just a pleb. Don’t test me like this again.” He thought.

Thinking of this, he felt it was frightening. He couldn’t help asking as he looked at Nezha in front of him, “How did you guys get out of that world? Are you sober now or bewitched? And, the Uncle you mentioned several times before was Jiang Ziya?”

“Right, Uncle Jiang and I were out of the Gods Creation World,” Nezha nodded. He added, “We were sober. Otherwise, wouldn’t you these talented people torture me into pieces?” It seemed that Nezha had been here for a long time. He already knew some hot expressions of times.

“How could you be sober?” Hao Ning asked, curiously. “I do not believe that it was your better nature that asserted yourselves.”

“Well? Wasn’t the fight between you and us that got rid of the bewitches on the Immortals and Uncle Jiang?” Nezha said in confusion. “And after that fight, Uncle Jiang and I came to this secular world to seek for his soul.”

“You were so great, Hao Ning.” Liu Shuai was so happy that he patted Hao Ning’s shoulder. “You were so great in the Gods Creation World. Could you even get rid of the bewitches on the gods within a fight?”

“Go away. Don’t make trouble.” Hao Ning knew that there must be something wrong with the whole thing. But there were too many unanswered questions here, so he had to focus on some important ones, “Did you come here to seek for the soul? Did Jiang Ziya’s soul get lost? Why?”

“He was bewitched so deeply that his soul left his body.” Nezha’s eyes dimmed down. “If we can’t find his soul, he will not have the right to confer Immortals. If so, the true spirits of the Immortals will be in unstable conditions. And the Gods Creation World may be bewitched again.”

“Oh, I see,” Hao Ning nodded. He understood a little. “So, where is Uncle Jiang now?”

“I have no clue.” Nezha shook his head. “It was a grave dangerous thing to cross the spell boundary. At that time, we did not have much time to cross it, and Uncle Jiang and I seemed to have encountered a torrent. The torrent separated us. Before having been separated, Uncle Jiang told me: The journey to seek for the soul will be full of dangers. If we are separated, I should turn to Master Hongjun for help. And you are the Master Hongjun.”

“… But I am…” Hao Ning and others looked at each other, confused. They had regarded Nezha’s story as a joke or something. But after hearing Nezha’s experience, they all felt confused. Before, they could think that Nezha was too young that he made some mistakes. But Jiang Ziya, as a leading figure in the war between Shang and Zhou, had the courage others might not have to sacrifice himself and even the whole Gods Creation World to keep the secular world safe. He told Nezha such words at the final time. Such a nobleman must know what he was doing.

“Well, Hao Ning, are you indeed the Master Hongjun?” Liu Shuai began to doubt his own judgment. After all, the story Nezha told seemed to be a true story. “Did you recover your original simplicity? Your present state is just an illusion, and now you are a slumbering reincarnated tycoon who is powerful enough to change the world and re-create the chaos Hun Dun?”

“Re-create the chaos Hun Dun? I can only have one bowl of dumplings Hun Tun at one time and it should be three fresh vegetables stuffing inside! And what the hell is Hongjun?” Had you ever seen any Hongjun who couldn’t practice power? Thinking of this, Hao Ning felt angry, “You are Master Hongjun. Damn you.”

“Well…” Zhou Yuan asked the thing he had been concerned all the time as he saw that all things went more and more clearly, “You guys just mentioned that Monkey King and I…”

“Yeah, yes.” Xiao Hong also said hurriedly. He did not concern whether Hao Ning was Master Hongjun or not. What he cared was that if there were any other relatives alive in the world. “So, what happened to Uncle Sun?”

“Didn’t you just say that Monkey King had been in the realm of Nirvana…” Hao Ning said, confused. He had thought that this thing was over already. He had not expected that Zhou Yuan and Xiao Hong were interested in this thing again. A few minutes ago, it was this Hong Hai’er who was sure that Monkey King had been in the realm of Nirvana.

“Well, as time goes by, theories should be advanced, too.” Xiao Hong smiled shyly. He had an idea in a sudden, “Well, just like what it says in the Black Swan, nothing is impossible. After hearing what Nezha said, I think the whole thing was reasonable. It is not like something is wrong with your head ‒ that problems caused by crossing the spell boundary of the Gods Creation World. I was just wondering about this, so I asked.”

“I have never expected you are such a person with high taste. Have you read the Black Swan?” Hao Ning knew that the Black Swan was a book. It mainly said a story about that people had thought that all swans were white until people found a black one, and then people realized that theories human concluded about the world were not perfect. Xiao Hong’s points were that his previous understanding of the world was based on his past experiences, and the understanding should be changed according to new things as time went by.

But when he heard Xiao Hong said that “It is not like something is wrong with your head”, he understood what happened in a sudden. Did you think that I had become a fool when I crossed the spell boundary? He had wanted to scorn them, but then he thought that Xiao Hong had fought on his side before, so he controlled his anger and continued to explain, “It was a little weird at that time. When I felt hopeless, Xiao Hong, your true spirit and Monkey King showed in front of me. We fought together against the bewitched soldiers of Shang and Zhou. Because their numbers far exceeded that of us, Monkey King sacrificed himself to create an opportunity for us to escape from the Gods Creation World.”

“Sacrifice himself? He just did what my parents did…” Xiao Hong said sadly. “Is that all? Any more details?”

“About details… Yes, there are.” Hao Ning remembered one detail. “You did say one sentence before Monkey King sacrificed himself: I just met you some time ago, and you…”

“I just met you some time ago…” Xiao Hong thought of this sentence. “That is to say. Monkey King appeared near my true spirit in a sudden?”

“You lost me. What did you mean?” Hao Ning did not understand why Xiao Hong concluded his points like that. “How did you get your conclusion?”

“Brother Hao Ning, my true spirit has always been in your Mountain Lojia between your eyebrows,” Xiao Hao was a little excited. “Before you entered the Gods Creation World, I had a link with my true spirit. If at this time, Monkey King appeared in front of me, I should have known. But you just said that I once had said ‘I just met you some time ago’. That meant it was highly possible that my true spirit might have met Monkey King after my true spirit entered the Gods Creation World. That was to say that Monkey King had been in the Gods Creation World and he couldn’t get out of it due to some reasons. He planned to let you get him out of the Gods Creation World.”

“What you said made sense!” Hao Ning nodded. “But why was Monkey King in the Gods Creation World?”

“I don’t know. I guess his part of true spirit was left in the Gods Creation World after his Nirvana. Or there were some other reasons.” Xiao Hong was so thrilled to tremble. “Then, what happened? What did Monkey King say about Zhou Yuan?”

“He said when Zhou Yuan mentioned ‘She deserved to live without a husband,'” Hao Ning nodded, looking at Zhou Yuan. “Monkey King finally knew who Zhou Yuan was.”

“Err…” After hearing this, Zhou Yuan blushed a little, looking at others embarrassingly. At that time, he had lost his soul and always said something hurting others’ feelings. He did say some bad words about Avalokitesvara.

“If you are Monkey King,” Hao Ning looked at Zhou Yuan ironically, adding, “You do have the same temper with Monkey King.”

“Don’t talk bullshit!” Zhou Yuan did not want to talk about this. “If so, how can I become Monkey King?”

“About this…” Hao Ning thought for a while and continued to say, “Stay to your original aspiration and control your restless heart.”

“Control my restless heart and stay true to my original aspiration?” When Zhou Yuan heard this sentence, he was stunned for a while and then mocked at himself, “The duty of the moment god is to discover people’s hypocrisy, goodness and beauty. I can be busy tapping others’ original aspirations, but how can I find out my own aspirations? Hao Ning, Monkey King did set difficult questions for me…”

“Stop sighing. I think you’re good now,” Seeing Zhou Yuan being in a melancholy mood, Liu Shuai patted his shoulder. “If you were Monkey King, so what? It would be better to be a happy moment god. Am I right?”

“Then how did you meet Mr. Fei?” Hao Ning thought that Nezha was not a bad boy. He was wondering why Nezha stayed with Mr. Fei.

“When I came to this secular world, I was alone,” Nezha replied. “Thinking that Uncle became aged and would be at greater risk after losing his soul, I just wanted to find Uncle as quickly as I could. At that time, I met a group of ghostly men. They called themselves some “Grandma” and they wanted to kill me. After fighting, I defeated them finally, but I was extremely exhausted and sank into a coma at that time. Mr. Fei saved me then. He asked me who my Uncle was after I woke up. I didn’t trust him at first and didn’t want to tell him. But who knew that he spoke out my identity immediately and guessed correctly that I came from a book? I thought that he already knew much about me and he seemed not to be a bad man. So, I told him that I wanted to find my Uncle Jiang and go to help him as quickly as possible.”