The Stars Beyond

Chapter 36: Something Went Wrong

The honking of cars early in the morning, the crowded buses, hurried office workers, and students running with their backpacks... These are the signs as a new day of tense and busy life officially began.

Wang Xuan found time for a quick breakfast at a small roadside restaurant. A pancake, a cup of sweet soy milk, and a bowl of salty tofu pudding was what he chose to start his day with. On that day, he put an end to the age-old argument between the northern and the southern region of the country about whether their breakfast should be sweet or salty. Please visit fr𝐞𝐞w𝒏.𝒸𝑜𝔪 website to read fastest update

"Am I early?" he wondered, realizing he was the first one to arrive at the office. About ten minutes later, the youthful and fashion-conscious Liu Xue arrived. The rest of their colleagues trickled in half an hour later..

With little to do in the morning, Wang Xuan sent and received some emails and made quick work of two drawings. Then, he discreetly resumed his research on Taoist texts. At the same time, he was also keeping an eye on his older colleague Chen Yongjie, who seemed to be always on the phone, inviting people to go fishing.

Something's definitely off. Wang Xuan thought, his heart racing.

Throughout the morning, his older colleague made several phone calls, mentioning things like "going fishing," "last night's storm," and "today's fine weather." To Wang Xuan, it all sounded like coded language. He did not even want to think about the "fishing" part. Having experienced things in the Greater Khingan Range firsthand, he was certain that the "last night's storm" was a reference to the elimination of the Ashen Blood organization. As for the mention of "today's fine weather," it likely meant that various factions were now keeping a low profile.

It was at that moment that Wang Xuan began to find everyone suspicious!

For instance, the guy wearing black-framed glasses, who had been on the phone talking about "killing all night long," was now looking sleepy. The two older women who loved playing Mahjong were whispering about the "turn of fortune," and how luck doesn't last forever. They planned to have a rematch the next time one of them dealt the tiles.

And then there was the poetic colleague, who was a bit sentimental and liked to write poems when he was free. Early in the morning, he recited a new one: "I take the sky as my stage and hang a string of fireworks. With a loud bang, they explode so splendidly, astonishing the mortal world."

Wang Xuan had the nagging feeling that something was very off.

Wang Xuan found his heart pumping. His mind was filled with unsettling thoughts. Who are these people? Were they all part of some sort of operation last night? Are they the crew of a starship that shot down a bunch of enemies last night?

Finally, his eyes landed on Liu Xue, the young woman next to him who was applying lipstick while looking into a small mirror. Even she seemed off. She remarked that the lipstick wasn't the right shade; she preferred a melancholy red, a hue imbued with a sad and mournful air. She believed that only such a color could achieve a sort of ethereal beauty. Listening to the veiled language used by everyone around him, Wang Xuan found himself getting a headache. He forced himself to sit still and focus on his Taoist texts, despite his growing unease.

Finally, lunchtime mercifully arrived. His colleagues, ever so cheerful, invited Wang Xuan—the newcomer—to try out a newly-opened restaurant outside their design institute. Wang Xuan ate absentmindedly, his thoughts were elsewhere. He wanted to ask them about their strange comments but he was afraid of being too direct.

After lunch, the older colleague, ever the steady one, approached Wang Xuan privately. Yet his first words nearly made Wang Xuan turn and walk away: he asked if Wang Xuan wanted to go fishing. Given his dangerous experience in the Greater Khingan Range, where he'd almost been targeted by an Ashen Blood space warship, Wang Xuan had no desire to tread in muddy waters any further.

"You're still young. You still have the capacity for passion," the older colleague said. "You should cherish that."

"Are you trying to use me as bait again?" Wang Xuan asked, deadpan.

"What are you talking about? I'm just inviting you to go fishing at an abandoned machinery factory behind our design institute. There's a lake there, the size is just nice. It is surrounded by reeds and full of wild fish. Boy, I can imagine how fat and juicy they are."

Wang Xuan eyed him suspiciously. Is he indirectly admitting that he is a senior member of the Adventurer’s Guild?

"It's me," the older colleague admitted, as if reading his mind. "Let's go. We've just had lunch, so we can talk while we walk. Let's fish for a bit." His car, an old and faded sedan, had its trunk filled with all sorts of fishing gear.

Wang Xuan quickly leafed through the pages to find the entry on Earth Immortal Grass. Its description was enchanting: consuming a single plant could extend one's life by two hundred years.

"That's why people in the New World are going mad. To extend life by two hundred years is like being reborn twice for ordinary people. As for the old moguls, the heads of life science institutes, they're practically frantic and are all taking action."

Wang Xuan's emotions surged, but he quickly grew alert again. He could not shake the feeling that the old man was "fishing" for something, perhaps setting him up for another one of his schemes.

"Sounds like things are pretty lively over in the New World. You give me this ancient book, whet my appetite with all these tales. What do you want from me? Tell me!" Wang Xuan demanded.

"Ah, youngsters these days are so suspicious. Not like our generation—we were all so naive and pure-hearted. You're overthinking it," the old colleague sighed. Then, with a sudden jerk of his fishing rod, he finally pulled up... a soft-shelled turtle.

"Stop messing around, I'm fishing here!" The old man promptly tossed the turtle back into the water. According to him, the creature had clearly just been released not too long ago, half-dead and not worth keeping as nourishment.

"Opportunities to go to the New World are rare. You'll have to earn your place, young man," the old colleague offered as he prepared to leave.

However, ever since the conversation took that turn, Wang Xuan found himself on guard around his former colleague. He felt a tingling unease; even if he did decide to go to the New World, it would probably be wise to avoid involving the old man.

That evening, Wang Xuan returned home, practicing his old techniques and contemplating the Ascension Stone he had been studying. His thoughts also lingered on the exotic plants and rare minerals mentioned in the ancient book he'd received.

"Spending my days diving into the Daoist scriptures and my nights practicing the old arts—this life isn't bad at all. I'll think about going to the New World later. For now, let's focus on finding the Ascension Stone," he mused to himself.

Not far from the city was an ancient temple that had stood for a millennium. Wang Xuan planned to visit it soon. Tomorrow being a Saturday, he intended to visit his parents first thing in the morning. It wasn't a far trip; he usually returned home every two weeks or so.

"There's a mountain near my home, steeped in legends. I think there's a story about a fairy or a celestial maiden," Wang Xuan pondered. While he couldn't visit the ancient temple just yet, he could certainly take a detour through the mountain when he visited home.

But as the old adage goes, "Man proposes, God disposes." That night, Wang Xuan was troubled by a nightmarish dream. In it, a woman—clad in white, wearing red shoes, her long hair flowing freely—approached him. Her beautiful face was marred by two lines of blood. She got so close that her face almost touched his, jolting him awake with a start.

Since he began practicing the old arts, Wang Xuan had enjoyed uninterrupted sleep, free from nightmares. But tonight was strangely different. Regulating his breath, he managed to calm his nerves and soon drifted back to sleep. But within an hour, he was jolted awake once again, feeling as though a chill wind brushed against his face. The same woman, tears of blood staining her cheeks, haunted his dream once more.

Realizing something was terribly wrong, Wang Xuan was gripped by an unsettling sense of impending doom. Though he had never been one to believe in such things, the reality remained that every time he fell asleep, he would dream of that woman.

"It looks like I won't be going home tomorrow," he thought. Uncertain of what was happening to him, Wang Xuan hesitated to head home, sensing that he'd somehow become tainted by something ominous.

That night, the cycle of falling asleep and waking in terror repeated itself, over and over again, until the dawn finally broke. He immediately contacted his old colleague, Chen Yongjie, feeling that even Qing Mu couldn't help him with this one.

"Really? Something like that happened?" The old colleague, Chen Yongjie, took Wang Xuan's claim seriously. As an experienced adventurer, he'd encountered inexplicable phenomena that he himself couldn't quite explain to this day.

"Don't worry. Later, I'll have someone deliver a talisman to you. It was personally crafted by an old Taoist who has lived for more than a hundred years. It should be quite effective," the older man assured.

True to his word, the talisman was delivered that afternoon. However, as night fell, the eerie and unsettling phenomenon occurred again. To make matters worse, the Taoist talisman that was supposed to protect him spontaneously combusted, nearly setting his bedding and hair on fire. Wang Xuan was left utterly dumbfounded.

The second half of the night was even more horrifying. Just when he'd finally managed to fall asleep, he was abruptly woken by a bone-chilling coldness. He felt something in his arms—something covered in fur and staring at him with a pair of terrifying eyes!

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