Chapter 32: 032 The first transcendence
When Chen Hao suddenly announced that he wanted to leave the Yin Yang Master Association, everyone present was shocked, including Ye Yuqiao. Ye Yuqiao squinted her eyes in sudden doubt. She remembered Chen Hao telling her that the Chen Family held a certain weight in the Yin Yang Master Association and for the sake of family honor, he would never give up joining. Yet now, he chose to leave the association rather than be part of any corruption!
Once more, Ye Yuqiao looked at Chen Hao with renewed respect. In him, she gradually saw a kind of radiance, a light representing new strength and resilience.
Looking at Chen Hao's resolute gaze, Ye Yuqiao smiled sincerely from the bottom of her heart. Suddenly, her heart started pounding wildly, that scary feeling struggling within her once more!
"Haozi, you initially worked so hard to prove you were qualified to join the Yin Yang Master Association. Maybe you should reconsider!" Xie Da advised sadly.
"Hmph!" Chen Hao scoffed with disdain once again. His sarcastic laughter and defiant expression were like a loud slap, hitting both Xie Da and Ren Deshan firmly on the face. "My mind is made up. As the saying goes, we should not seek to associate if our paths diverge. From now on, the Chen and Xie families will sever all ties!"
Upon hearing Chen Hao's words, Xie Da became so angry that his face turned ashen, and he began to cough repeatedly!
Sitting on the side, Xie Xiaoluan patted Xie Da's back while cursing at Chen Hao, "You trash, have you even looked at the state your family is in? How dare you be the one to propose cutting ties with our family?"
Chen Hao raised his hand, flipped Xie Xiaoluan the middle finger, and taunted, "Xie Xiaoluan, is it because I haven't taught you enough lessons?"
"You!" Xie Xiaoluan wanted to argue back but was stopped by an extremely angry Xie Da.
Xie Da, gasping for breath, grabbed Xie Xiaoluan's arm and said, "Stop arguing, let's go!"
With that, Xie Da stood up, frowned at Chen Hao, hesitated, then after what seemed like an attempt to say more, he helplessly waved his hand, sighed sorrowfully, and sadly left. Xie Xiaoluan and Ren Deshan supported Xie Da on either side. For them, Chen Hao's departure from the Yin Yang Master Association was nothing but good news!
"Wait!" As the three of them reached the door, Chen Hao suddenly called out to them.
Xie Da stopped in his tracks!
Chen Hao got up and said to Xie Da's back, "Tell those posers pretending to be deities that they'd better not let me, Chen Hao, catch them, or I'll capture every single one I see!"
Xie Da didn't respond, nor did he acknowledge the remark as he stepped out of the door. Only Ren Deshan, who was supporting him on the right, left behind a remark, "Delusions of grandeur."
However, when Ren Deshan uttered this, he didn't really feel confident inside, because he had no idea how powerful the seal on Chen Hao's left eye actually was.
"Why aren't you leaving yet?" Chen Hao looked towards Xie Xiaofeng, who was sitting on the sofa.
Xie Xiaofeng's brows were tightly furrowed as if weighed down by heavy thoughts. Just as he was about to speak, Xie Xiaoluan called out his name at the door. With a look of helplessness, he said in a low voice, "Chen Hao, I'll come to see you another day."
"Our families are severed from today onwards!" Chen Hao said coldly.
It was only when he reached the door that Xie Xiaofeng turned around, looked at Chen Hao with a light laugh, and said, "I'm not representing the Xie family, I'm representing myself, Xie Xiaofeng, when I come to see you!"
At that moment, Chen Hao suddenly remembered that he had landed a heavy punch on Xie Xiaoluan's knee and said, "You better take your brother to the hospital. I don't think his knee will be all right."
Xie Xiaofeng hummed a response, then turned and left, not forgetting to close the door behind him.
Now, only Chen Hao and Ye Yuqiao were left in the room. Chen Hao hung his head sadly and sighed.
"What's the matter? Are you regretting it?" Ye Yuqiao sat down beside Chen Hao and asked.
Chen Hao buried his head and rubbed his tired face, then lifted his head, turned to Ye Yuqiao, and smiled, "Let's not talk about that anymore. Let's talk about something serious, shall we? Isn't it time for you to give me back my sensation?"
With that, Chen Hao extended his hand toward Ye Yuqiao, gazing at her entrancingly.
Ye Yuqiao was taken aback, her cheeks suddenly flushed, and she awkwardly looked at Chen Hao and shook her head coldly, "I'll return it to you tomorrow."
"Why is your face red?" Chen Hao teased, intertwining his hand with hers and then looked at Ye Yuqiao affectionately.
"Sorry to disturb you again!" Just then, an unexpected voice suddenly sounded in the air.
Chen Hao was startled and abruptly withdrew his hand. Looking towards the doorway, he saw the bald female ghost named Fang Xiaoxi standing behind the door.
Chen Hao scratched his head awkwardly and asked with a somewhat complaining tone, "Big sister, why are you back? How's everything at home?"
The female ghost smiled faintly and said, "The children's stepmother has admitted her wrongs and apologized to both me and my husband. She has also sworn to treat my children as her own in the future. Sigh, it hasn't been easy for her, what woman doesn't want her own children? It's not entirely her fault; we never considered her feelings. After discussing it, my husband agreed to have a child with her once my eldest daughter reaches high school."
Chen Hao and Ye Yuqiao exchanged a smile, both feeling that this issue was satisfactorily resolved, with all parties learning to consider each other's perspectives at the last moment.
"So, big sister, why have you come to find me?" Chen Hao asked, though he was quite clear in his mind that this female ghost had let go of everything and was ready to go where she was meant to.
The female ghost approached Chen Hao and Ye Yuqiao with a charming smile on her face. This was the smile she often wore during her life while struggling against cancer. However, that smile vanished in the final moments of her life when she knew she had lost the battle. Now, with the smile returned, she had found release in her resignation.
Ye Yuqiao stood up, ready to perform a spell to help the female ghost pass on to the Netherworld.
"Let me do it!" Chen Hao stood up and said to Ye Yuqiao, "I secretly learned how to conduct a soul's passage in class a couple of days ago, but don't worry, I only learned that, I didn't even look at the rest."
Ye Yuqiao nodded slightly with a stern face and said curtly, "Then you proceed!"
Chen Hao walked up to the female ghost and said with a silly smile, "Big sister, this is my first time conducting a passage for a Yin soul, so if my service is not up to par, please bear with it since there's nowhere to file a complaint anyway!"
The female ghost smiled again.
Chen Hao spread the fingers of his left hand and placed them on the female ghost's head, then began to chant the spell in a "yi yi ya ya" manner.
A few seconds later, white smoke rose from the ground, and a cold Nether Light shone from the east. After saying "thank you" to Chen Hao and Ye Yuqiao, the female ghost turned and stepped onto the Nether Light. Soon after, the white smoke dissipated, and the Nether Light vanished from sight.
Chen Hao turned to Ye Yuqiao and asked, "Ye Yuqiao, did I conduct the passage successfully?"
"What do you think?" Ye Yuqiao asked with a smile in her eyes, showing her playful side to Chen Hao for the first time.
..
Let's rewind to five days earlier. Although Chen Hao had left the Yin Yang Master Association, by assisting Ye Yuqiao, he still earned a substantial income. This covered his grandfather's hospital bills, the sustenance for the little ghosts at home, and his and Ye Yuqiao's living expenses.
Every night, Chen Hao would spend an hour cultivating his Nether Eye Power. Despite having learned the two abilities of Nether Vision and Nether Light, mastering the other two skills, Nether Eye's Fire and Nether Acupoint, was still a long way off.
In school, ever since the incident of Chen Hao single-handedly defeating nineteen members of the Brotherhood Gang spread throughout the school, no one dared to provoke him. Even the infamous Four Little Tyrants would keep their distance when they saw Chen Hao.
However, peaceful days are always fleeting. Although Chen Hao had encountered the Blue Snail Fairy at the Zeng family's home last time, he hadn't been in a hurry to eliminate her due to the weakness of his Yin Qi Spiritual Power. This time, he had to declare war on those pretender ghosts masquerading as immortals, starting with a phone call.
One afternoon, while walking home with Ye Yuqiao, Chen Hao's phone suddenly rang; it was an unknown number.
Answering the call, Mrs. Zeng's voice came through from the other end. Mrs. Zeng was crying and said urgently, "Is this Chen the junior master? Do you remember me? I'm Mrs. Zeng, I live at 71 Renmin Avenue, you were at my place a few days ago to drive away the Blue Snail Fairy."
"I remember, of course!" Chen Hao replied anxiously, "Mrs. Zeng, why are you crying? Has something happened at home?"
"Yes!" Mrs. Zeng's voice was choked with sobs. "After you drove away the Blue Snail Fairy that night, the next day my husband and I took down the altar and threw away her porcelain image. But within a couple of days, our family faced retribution: first, goods worth millions from my husband's company were destroyed in a transport accident; then, my daughter suddenly got a high fever that hasn't subsided for three days; last night, I had a nightmare about the Blue Snail Fairy, who said that it's easy to invite a deity but hard to send one away, and that our family must pay for betraying her; just now, my son fell down the stairs while going downstairs, his head got badly injured and was bleeding profusely, he's now undergoing checks at the hospital. He told me crying that someone pushed him!"
Hearing Mrs. Zeng's words, Chen Hao's anger flared up. After hanging up the phone, he relayed the situation to Ye Yuqiao. Then, he asked Ye Yuqiao to go to the hospital to accompany Mrs. Zeng while he rushed off to Red Leaf Mountain on the outskirts of Y City. Three days prior, he had learned from Ye Yuqiao that there was a fairy temple there, dedicated to the Seven Fairies, led by the Blue Snail Fairy.
As dusk fell, Chen Hao arrived at the foot of Red Leaf Mountain. Half an hour later, he climbed up to the fairy temple located halfway up the mountain.
Without a word, upon entering the temple, Chen Hao overturned the Eight Immortals table where offerings for the Seven Fairies were placed. Then, he jumped onto the altar and pushed over and shattered the Fairy figurines.
Suddenly, a chilly wind blew, and the candles in the temple flickered. The figurines that he had knocked to the ground started to shake and gleamed with a golden light. Chen Hao was startled, having only intended to vent his anger by smashing up the temple, but he did not expect the Seven Fairies to respond so quickly.
He jumped off the altar and, before fleeing, he didn't forget to set the yellow cloth on the altar ablaze with a candle.