Chapter 263
The moment Xiao Li discovered the crack, the same thing had already happened all over the world.
A big road.
A woman was fleeing desperately. The heavy rain had overturned the umbrella that she was holding and the strong wind had almost blown her to the ground. The raindrops poured on her face and drenched her entire body. Her dyed brown hair stuck to her body but she had no time to care.
It was a major road in a big city and it was full of traffic on weekdays. At this time, due to the rain and the news, she was the only one on the road.
The businesses near the road had eaves and some even had wide roads, including the exit of the underground subway station. It could accommodate many people sheltering from the rain but the woman just rushed forward without looking at it. It was as if there were invisible beasts chasing behind her fiercely that were more terrifying than the rainstorm.
In fact, she was an ordinary person, not a reincarnator. She was originally here on a business trip. Once she came out of the airport, she was blocked by heavy rain and temporarily lived in a hotel near the airport.
The reason why she braved the heavy rain to leave the hotel was because she was worried about her daughter staying alone. She wanted to go back early to take care of her daughter but didn’t expect to encounter a ghost along the way.
She spent tens times the normal amount of money to get a taxi and was willing to take her in the rain. Just as they reached the elevated highway, the driver frequently stretched his head to look at the rearview mirror and it raised her alertness.
She also followed curiously to look in the rearview mirror. At first, she was blocked by the rain and couldn’t see clearly. Then after the driver gave a prompt, she saw a shadow. It was like a person. She used the word ‘like’ because there was no person that could chase a taxi on a highway. It got closer and closer until she could gradually see the outline of the ‘person’.
The driver asked her in a panic, “You see it too… right? d.a.m.n, I shouldn’t have been tempted by money. I didn’t expect that the website’s words were true… it really is haunted!”
Without waiting for her answer, the driver increased the speed by stepping on the accelerator. He drove off the elevated highway but the ‘person’ behind them was still chasing.
Seeing that this ghost was going to catch up, the driver parked the car on the side of the road, leaving her and fled. He disappeared on the other side of the road. She hurriedly chose the opposite direction and wanted to find a place to avoid the rain.
She didn’t expect that the ghost would choose to follow her instead of the driver! She was immediately frightened and her legs softened. Then she thought of her daughter at home and felt she couldn’t die here. She gritted her teeth and ran forward, looking back at the ghost from time to time.
The ghost followed her like a cat catching a mouse, as if enjoying the fear of the woman. Finally, it rushed forward like it was tired of playing!
“Ah— help! Help me!”
She screamed loudly and stayed where she was, closing her eyes.
The moment the ghost was going to touch her, a hand grabbed her and pulled her back. At the same time, an invisible ball rolled in front of the ghost. Pale grey smoke spread out and blocked the ghost’s vision. It looked for a while and found no signs of the woman. It wanted to leave but was trapped in place by the smoke item.
The woman looked back in shock and found two men and a woman standing behind him. It was a young man wearing gold-rimmed gla.s.ses who grabbed her.
“Are you okay?” The woman in the group asked.
She stammered, “I-I’m fine.”
The young man with the gla.s.ses stood in front of her and checked on the ghost in the smoke. Then he turned to his companion and said, “This item can trap it for five minutes. There really are gaps nearby but not many. Only two.”
The other man said, “Try that method.”
“Thank you so much. Without you, I don’t know what I would’ve done.” The woman recovered a bit and thanked them. “What are you called? Once the rain stops, I-I will treat you to a meal.”
The young man with gla.s.ses replied without turning his head. “There is no need for a meal. I am Tian Ji, the other man is Jiang Yishe and the woman is Wu Tianyi.”
Wu Tianyi told the woman, “You are safe so you can leave.”
The woman had a lot to ask but Wu Tianyi’s att.i.tude was very tough. She had no choice but to follow the words and leave. Wu Tianyi sent the woman to the intersection in front before walking back.
Tian Ji took out a small, light blue crystal from the inside of his jacket pocket.
If Xiao Li was here then he would recognize it instantly. This was a chaos power fragment. It was just that compared to the piece left over after the nameless female corpse incident, the one in Tian Ji’s hand could only be considered a ‘droplet’. It was 20 times smaller and was more like a sequined rhinestone.
Tian Ji bypa.s.sed the trapped ghost and brought the chaos fragment in his hand close to the edge of the crack that had become visible to the naked eye over time.
He saw that after approaching the crack, the crystal seemed to have inhaled some type of power and was turned into powder. The powder floated into the crack and then the crack slowly healed, as if a zipped was pulled shut. Then the crack disappeared completely and the air returned to its previous appearance.
Tian Ji took a deep breath. “That guy w.a.n.g Huai is right. After solving a ghost in reality, large or small fragments will appear. Bring the chaos power fragments to the cracks to close them.”
“If there are enough closed gaps then it is equivalent to using the power of the chaos fragments to repair the well entrance. This can keep the G.o.ds from the well entrance and prevent reality from becoming an instance.”
The anxiety in Wu Tianyi’s tone was hard to hide. “A crack is really a drop in the bucket. This is a fragment that we got after solving many ghosts. How many cracks do we need to heal to stop the G.o.ds? I don’t know if there are enough fragments in the world. After all, there are still many ghost incidents that haven’t been resolved and the fragments are in the hands of ghosts.”
Tian Ji browsed his phone in silence. There was a WeChat group that could only be used by reincarnators after they verified their ident.i.ty and guaranteed they weren’t part of the Judges.
Now this WeChat group was sharing news that reincarnators had obtained chaos fragments. Everyone contributed their own small power. Some people were happy to announce they had ‘healed’ one crack while others ‘healed’ two. At present, the most was a record of five.
At the same time, some of the fragments were collected by the people of the Judges.
They spread the symbol of the underworld through various channels, triggering the mutation of ghosts in reality. It was like raising a Gu. They let out these mutated ghosts, causing trouble to the reincarnators and expanding the cracks. Some of the ghosts were killed by the Judges themselves to obtain the chaos fragments that would be sacrificed to the G.o.d of the underworld.
Jiang Yishe suddenly asked, “What is Sherlock’s opinion?”
“There is no news yet…” Tian Ji murmured, “This isn’t in line with his style. I always feel he is planning something big.”
***
Yun Province.
w.a.n.g Huai was driving in the driver’s seat as the tires rolled through the ditches.
He didn’t have a specific destination. Xiao Li originally asked him to drive to the railway station but after browsing the ticketing website, he found that even the trains were out of service. Therefore, the car started to circle around endlessly.
Ye Zeqing saw Xiao Li staring at the phone screen silently and thought this person was thinking. He didn’t want to disturb Xiao Li but seeing the car driving back and forth, he couldn’t help asking, “What are you doing?”
“Checking the route to S City.” Xiao Li frowned slightly and finally stopped looking at his phone. He stared in front through the car window.
“From here to S City? Airplanes and trains are out of service and it will take several days at least by car. I don’t know if the inter-city expressway is open…” Ye Zeqing calculated it before asking again, “Why go to S City? What’s special over there?”
“It is the source of the chaos fragment that the female corpse obtained.”
Ye Zeqing hesitated. “This… so?”
“Since it is one of the places where chaos is broken, there should be many cracks there—at least, more than the side of the nameless female corpse. I need to find a place with many cracks.”
Ye Zeqing stopped talking for a moment before wondering, “…Why?”
Xiao Li didn’t answer his question and suddenly patted w.a.n.g Huai. “Go over there.”
He was referring to the docks. There were usually various cruise ships, fishing boats and small boats. However, no one was there at this time. Only the boats were tied up at the docks. w.a.n.g Huai originally intended to bypa.s.s here when Xiao Li gave the order. He took another look at Xiao Li but didn’t say anything. Instead, he turned around and drove toward the docks.
The car plunged onto the beach by the docks. The tires slipped and w.a.n.g Huai told them, “We’ll have to do down and walk.”
They got out of the car. Shen Chenzhi firmly held the Eternal Soul Umbrella and covered Xiao Li. The group stood on the edge of the docks, one step away from the rolling waves.
The heavy rain fell into the sea as if the Milky Way was rolling down. The gusty wind caused huge waves and there were dark clouds in the distance. The sea and the sea met, the end of the sea poured into the end of the sky and it looked like the eve of Atlantis’ end.
The wind on the beach was bigger than the ones in the city. Ye Zeqing felt like his entire body was being blown and he couldn’t breathe. If he wasn’t heavy enough, he might be blown into the sky and fly directly.
Before Ye Zeqing could open his mouth, Xiao Li blocked him with a question. “Is that a ship over there?”
Ye Zeqing squinted. He didn’t see anything at first so he took out his phone and zoomed in continuously with the camera. After zooming in to the extreme, he found a small black spot that looked like a ship. Its stern faced the docks and there was a strange cross totem engraved on it. It had sailed far away.
In this weather, ordinary people would never set sail on the sea. Even if they did, they would be swallowed by the sea.
“It is Tang Huaqing’s ship,” w.a.n.g Huai suddenly confirmed it. “It is a ship item that can ignore the surrounding storms. He got it from a certain island world. I have seen its stern pattern in a certain instance.”
Xiao Li pondered on it for a moment before looking at the sea again. This time, he wasn’t looking at the distant ship but in another direction. Over there, a dilapidated ghost ship was coming this way.
Between the wind and the heavy rain, it rode the waves. It sometimes stayed high on top of the waves and was sometimes covered by the waves. It was like a ghost but it always floated steadily on the sea.
The ghost ship finally stopped in front of Xiao Li. The moment the hull was horizontal to them, the skull printed on the sails fluttered in the wind. Even though it was drenched by the rain, it still unfolded with a rustling sound.
Then Captain Sturt’s energetic voice was heard. “Moriarty, get on board!”
The author has something to say:
@Say it to Sherlock/ Moriarty/ Hercule bot, I heard that his reality seems to have encountered a big problem. What do you think?
[What do you think? Go and see him.]
[I’ll take a look. I absolutely won’t go in and help him…]
[I kind of want to see him become a plot character. It is fun to think about. Finally, I won’t have to light incense for myself. I can light incense for the reincarnators of other worlds in advance.]
[His post has a high degree of likes. Sherlock is in trouble so everyone likes it?]
[Wait, what did I see. Sturt, you traitor!]
[Captain Sturt: Stupid ghosts were still watching while clever ghosts have already fired the first shot. Set sail, set sail~!]
Proofreader: Tofu