New Times, New Hell

Chapter 47 - Scientific Cultivation

The Zheng family mansion was completely dark, filled with gusts of cold wind that caused the residents to become unsteady on their feet. Fear rose in their hearts.

The mandrill that Zheng Dan had subdued seemed to perceive a threat. It kept growling nonstop. Mandrills were ferocious but not that intelligent; they relied on brute force to defend themselves. It scurried around the room, jumping back and forth and baring its teeth in the direction of the door. Its eyes were so red they looked like they were glowing.

All the Heavenly Masters in the room were beyond shocked. Zheng Dan abruptly turned around and pointed the eight trigrams mirror in his hand at the door. He yelled, “Uncles, please be careful. Something evil is intruding.”

Everyone else instantly regained their wits. He was right. This show of power had only ever been recorded in their ancestor’s notes. Even those Heavenly Masters who had been directly taught by their elders hadn’t seen anything like this before. Forget witnessing such an event, in the past few decades, stories of such power hadn’t even been spread among the citizens.

This was definitely a demon that would be hard to deal with. Even if all of them worked together, they might not be able to emerge victorious.

As soon as they reached this conclusion, the Daoists present all felt fear grip their hearts. Regardless of if they were truly skilled or only scammers, they all took out the magical equipment they kept on their persons and prepared to start their incantations.

Suddenly, they heard Zheng Yan say, “Everyone, there’s no need to be so nervous. This is the guest I’ve invited over……ke, I mean ghost, ghostly guest.”

Everyone present: “………………”

They almost simultaneously turned around to stare at Zheng Yan.

Zheng Shu was in disbelief. “You invited it? That’s impossible. You can invite such a……”

Before he could finish speaking, a low voice rang out from the thick dark void. “Zheng Yan, I’m here.”

Zheng Shu: “……”

With a clink, the copper coin sword in Zheng Jing’s hand fell onto the ground. His jaw dropped as he stared at his son. A pause later, he asked in incredulity, “Zheng Yan, you really invited it?”

Zheng Yan truly hadn’t expected Shang Que to personally come and make the situation larger than life. But it had already happened, so the only thing he could do now was bite the bullet and play along. Thus, he imitated what his family members normally did and put his hands together to bow. He greeted, “Great King, welcome.”

Everyone: “……”

Father and son, Zheng Guang and Zheng Dan, stared at the thick black fog outside the door in shock. The voice emanating from the void was low, but reached into one’s heart. Even they, who believed that their cultivation levels were in the top tier of the field, couldn’t help but feel panicked and somewhat powerless.

This definitely wasn’t a normal ghost. It was likely a ghost king that had cultivated for who knows how many years……

It was ultimately the official Heavenly Masters’ descendant that had enough willpower to make a stand at this crucial moment. Zheng Jing grabbed his son. “Zheng Yan, who is this that you’ve invited?”

Zheng Yan didn’t dare to directly share the name of Luofeng Mountain’s Ghost King. He was in the middle of thinking of a believable excuse when he heard Shang Que coldly hum. “This is a room full of Daoists, but no one can recognize me?”

The room full of Daoists: “……”

How could we recognize you? They had been Daoists since birth, but had never witnessed such an imposing scene.

Shang Que sounded extremely cross. “This king is angry. Right now I’m going to catch a few people to beat up.”

Everyone present: “…………”

Wait, this King is a little unreasonable?!

Zheng Yan: “…………” Fuck, Boss is only looking for an excuse to beat someone up, right!

Zheng Yan hurriedly rushed forward and tried to send a message through his eyes. “Great King, the ones standing around are my uncles. They’re all quite old, so if they get hurt, who knows how long it’ll take them to recover. Please have mercy, have mercy!”

Shang Que scoffed. “Looking at these people, I can see that not only are they quite old, they also have a lot of cunning plots.”

Everyone present: “…………” This was their first time meeting this ghost king, but why were his words so impolite?

Everyone felt anger rising in their chests. If this were normally, they would’ve started arguing a long time ago, but in the face of absolute power, they could only pitifully swallow this anger with dark expressions.

Zheng Yan comforted, “It can’t be helped, it happens with age. Hopefully Great King can forgive this.”

Everyone present: ……Was Zheng Yan taking this opportunity to mock them?!

Shang Que hrmph’d coldly again. “Because of you, I won’t beat up these rude old men for now.”

The cold wind billowed; the thick black smoke dissipated and reconjoined. Just when everyone was about to breath out a sigh of relief, the void suddenly spoke once more. “Isn’t that a young one? Since I can’t beat up the old ones, I’ll beat up the young one.”

The black fog spread out. The thick smoke took the form of an enormous arm and slowly pointed at Zheng Dan.

Shang Que: “You’re it.”

Zheng Dan was immediately bewildered. He instinctively held up the eight trigrams mirror in his hand and chanted while making hand gestures, “Demon king be controlled, serve me Xuan……”

Before he could finish, a faint cracking noise sounded out. Sudden pain bloomed in his hand. He looked down to see that his eight trigrams mirror had already broken into an infinite number of pieces and fallen to the ground. His fingers that had originally been gripping the mirror were covered in small cuts.

Zheng Dan was terrified. His expression instantly became bewildered.

Ever since birth, he had been hailed as a prodigy. He had learned the ways of the Dao since young, opened his third eye at age six, and recently subdued a red-eyed mandrill. His accomplishments were impressive even when compared to all of the Daoists in Huaxia. He had always been proud of these, but now, he realized for the first time that in the face of a true demon king, his skills were worth nothing.

Forget putting up a fight. He didn’t even have enough time to finish his incantation.

Zheng Dan looked at his broken instrument and turned his dazed gaze forward. He waited for the Ghost King to attack him, only to see the mandrill he had subdued suddenly charge forward and stand in front of him. It bared its teeth and waved its claws at the black smoke.

At the same time, his father Zheng Guang urgently shouted, “Hurry, mandrill. Protect Dan’er!”

Zheng Dan immediately became alert once more. That’s right, he hadn’t completely lost yet. He still had a mandrill he could control.

He inhaled deeply and started making gestures with his hands once more, planning to order the mandrill into action.

Only to see the black smoke change form once again. A huge fist appeared in the air and landed on the mandrill’s head. The Ghost King’s tone of voice was extremely displeased. “Where did this mandrill come from, it’s so ugly!”

With a “splat”, the originally ferocious mandrill landed on the ground, limbs every which way.

“Hu hu——hu hu——” The mandrill finally realized what was going on after falling on the ground. On the spot, it changed into a kneeling position and started kowtowing to the black fog incessantly. It was practically completely glued to the floor.

Zheng Dan: “……”

Zheng Guang: “……”

Everyone present: “……………………”

The scene instantly fell into an awkward silence.

Shang Que very disdainfully said, “Your level is too low. Don’t worship me.”

The mandrill pitifully changed its posture from kneeling in worship to huddling in a sorrowful ball.

The fist made of black smoke slowly shifted closer to Zheng Dan. Shang Que scoffed coldly, “Today I am adamant about hitting someone.”

At this crucial moment, Zheng Yan bravely stepped out and charged forward. He held up his phone and said, “Great King, have mercy.”

Only to see that his phone was connected to a video chat. Through the lens, Yu Zhengdu shouted in surprise, “Wow, this Ghost King is both black and big!”

Shang Que: “…………”

Yu Zhengdu clapped his hands together and said with a smile, “Xiao Shang, I ordered afternoon tea. Hurry and come back to eat with me.”

The billowing cold wind instantly stopped and slightly dissipated. Though they couldn’t see the Ghost King in the darkness, everyone could very clearly feel that this Great King had suddenly reigned in his own temper.

The enormous black-smoke-fist reconjoined then dissipated, until ultimately, it moved away from Zheng Dan’s head. But when it passed by the mandrill, it still was angry so punched the mandrill’s head a few more times, until the mandril couldn’t stop howling in pain. It didn’t dare to escape, though, so could only cradle its head and take the beating with tears in its eyes.

It really seemed like whack-a-mole.

Shang Que got rid of his anger and finally drawled out an “un” to the person on the other side of the screen. Even his voice was much gentler than before.

Zheng Yan exhaled a long sigh. In this company, CTO’s words were truly the most effective.

He turned off the video chat and sent Yu Zhengdu a sticker expressing his thanks.

Though Shang Que was a bit disappointed, he still hrmph’d and said, “This king is leaving now.”

Zheng Yan hurriedly bid farewell. “Great King take your time. Have a safe journey.”

The thick fog lazily retreated and slowly dissipated.

At this time, the mandrill who had a bump on its head from being hit suddenly charged forward. It reached out a thin arm to chase after the black smoke, strange sounds erupting from its mouth. It seemed in a great rush.

Shang Que very impatiently said, “Don’t follow me.”

Mandrill: “Hu hu——”

Shang Que: “Git. I don’t want a pet like you.”

Mandrill: “Ao ao——”

Shang Que: “This king will call a car after leaving. I don’t need a steed.”

Everyone present: “………………” What? Calling a car? Were they having auditory hallucinations?

But the situation now was already developing into one nobody could understand. Aside from suspecting that they had all suffered from auditory hallucinations, there was no other logical explanation.

While everyone was still confused, Shang Que’s patience finally ran out. They watched as the thick cloud flipped over and the mandrill shot backwards from where it had previously been. It landed with a “pada” sound, right in front of Zheng Yan. Zheng Yan jumped with fright.

Shang Que: “If you really want to be a pet so bad, then stay with him from now on.”

Zheng Yan: “!! I don’t……”

At the same time, Zheng Dan said, “That’s my monster……”

Shang Que scoffed coldly. “Is it yours just because you say it’s yours? Is your name written on it? Call him and see if he’ll respond to you?”

Zheng Yan: “…………” Though he couldn’t see a face in the black fog, this familiar language used for stealing monsters during games confirmed that this was indeed Boss.

Zheng Dan even moreso: ????????

Though this Great King’s words didn’t seem to be wrong, why did they carry the familiar feeling of……being spoken by an elementary schooler?

After Shang Que decided who the wild monster should go to, he left them a simple, “Leaving.”

And then the dark black void completely disappeared. Clear skies returned outside the door, and light entered the room once more.

The wind stopped, the clouds dissipated. Everything was normal.

The room was still silent, though. Everyone’s faces were filled with confusion. Some even couldn’t help suspecting: had everything been a dream just now?

Very soon, Zheng Yan’s screeches reminded everyone: no, everything just now had been reality.

They listened to Zheng Yan scream, “Don’t touch me——”

When they looked over, they saw the originally ferocious and proud mandrill subtly, shyly trying to hold his hand.

The atmosphere suddenly became incredibly awkward, especially for Zheng Shu, who had been the rudest. His face was filled with shock as he carefully looked at Zheng Yan and ingratiatingly asked, “Nephew, that ghost just now, was really summoned by you?”

Zheng Yan answered while trying to avoid the mandrill’s advances, “Yeah.”

Actually, they didn’t need to ask this question at all. That Great King had greeted Zheng Yan. The two of them seemed quite familiar with one another. Stuff like this couldn’t be faked.

Zheng Shu’s inquiry was only a final attempt to avoid a hopeless reality.

With Zheng Yan’s response, he almost burst out into tears. Not only him, but all those present who had originally wanted to gain some benefits and thus spoke rudely, were now shaking in fear. They wanted to cry, but had no tears.

How could they have known that Zheng Jing’s son had managed to gain such a level of cultivation in such a short period of time?

What happened to “he had no talents, he practiced for a year but didn’t learn anything”?

He casually summoned such a powerful ghost. If this were called talentless, then wouldn’t all of them be considered idiots?

Zheng Shu’s tone wasn’t as sharp as before. He squeezed out an ugly smile with great difficulty. “Who is he? Such magic hasn’t been seen in the mortal realm for hundreds of years?”

Zheng Yan put on a stern mask and faked confidence as he asked, “What do you think?”

Zheng Shu’s lips trembled. How could he respond to this? But he also didn’t dare to keep asking, terrified that the Great King would return after leaving and beat him up.

If the others were only scared, Zheng Guang and Zheng Dan were both horrified and bitter.

Especially Zheng Dan. Since young, he had been praised as the prodigy of the younger generation, and had been well respected by all of the Zheng Heavenly Masters. He had always been confident that given enough time, he would definitely become the official heir of the Zheng clan.

In order to get the eight trigrams mirror belonging to Zheng Yan’s family, his father had worked so hard in secret to gather all these people today to come and force it from their possession.

But in an instant, the situation had changed completely.

He had failed on the edge of victory. He was unimpressed; how could he be impressed?

Zheng Dan took a step forward and blocked Zheng Yan’s path. He no longer put up the modest front he had before. He clenched his teeth together and asked, “How did you invite……‘him’?”

As soon as Zheng Dan asked this, everyone else belatedly remembered too. Just now, Zheng Yan hadn’t performed any rituals. And only a short time passed before the Ghost King appeared. How did he do it?

Zheng Yan shook the phone in his hand and humbly explained, “This is the high-tech spell-casting that our company recommends. One press to call a ghost. More convenient, more rapid.”

The Zheng Daoists present almost choked. Zheng Dan asked with an especially bewildered expression, “Are you for real?”

Zheng Shu butt in, “I understand. No wonder big brother always said our nephew was fated to be with ghosts and gods. Big brother was right. Our nephew is a true prodigy!”

Zheng Yan turned to look at him in shock.

This scammer had absolutely no shame? Even grass on top of walls didn’t sway like this.

Zheng Shu was used to changing the direction of the boat in accordance to the wind. He was fearful that Zheng Yan would tell on him to the Ghost King, so switched sides on the spot. He excitedly looked at Zheng Yan and said, “Think about it everyone! Haven’t Zheng Yan’s grades been the best since elementary school? And he’s the first in the Zheng clan to get into a key university! He’s a prodigy, there’s no other way around it!”

Zheng Yan’s mouth twitched. That wasn’t what he said before……

Zheng Shu said with a sincere expression, “In the past we weren’t quick enough to catch on. Now I finally understand. Nephew is in with the times, unlike us oldies who are out of the times. Look at him. This is called rising abruptly because of accumulated experiences. How long has it been. His cultivation level has already surpassed all of us by who knows how much……”

As soon as Zheng Shu started praising him, everyone else was afraid that they would fall behind, so all agreed.

“I called it. With big brother’s cultivation level, he would never make a mistake.”

“As expected from the official heir of us Zheng Heavenly Masters. With such skill, I’ll bet no one else can compare”

“With nephew here, it’s entirely likely that the Zheng Heavenly Masters can regain our former glory.”

Zheng Yan coldly interrupted, “Sorry. My official job is being a product manager.”

Zheng Shu was unbothered by his apathy. He even looked at him with admiration and said, “Of course. Nephew has achieved success practicing cultivation through technological means. From now on, you’ll naturally continue on this path to keep learning more and surpassing yourself.”

Zheng Yan: “……”

Zheng Jing, who had always thought that the official Zheng Heavenly Masters’ legacy would stop in his hands, felt like lamenting. He pressed down on his son’s shoulders and praised, “Zheng Yan, in the past, Dad didn’t understand you so stopped you from pursuing science. That was Dad’s mistake. From now on, bravely chase after your dreams. Dad will always be your strongest support team.”

Zheng Yan: “……Thank you.”

……

Luofeng headquarters. Shang Que calmly walked through the door and very unintentionally passed Yu Zhengdu’s seat. He side-eyed the other. “Let’s have afternoon tea together?”

“Yes yes yes.” Yu Zhengdu stood up and took a cake out from the fridge. He hid in the break room with Boss to secretly eat it.

Yu Zhengdu said, “It’s work time right now. What we’re doing currently is considered getting paid to have afternoon tea. Be more lowkey.”

Shang Que nodded. A while later, he furrowed his brows and said, “I’m the boss.”

Yu Zhengdu shushed him. “Don’t brag.”

Shang Que: “Okay.”

Either way, it didn’t matter. He happily kept digging at the cake, only to see Yu Zhengdu pull out his phone while eating and send a voice message. “lan, I’ve received your invitation. I’ll definitely be there on time.”

Shang Que: “……”

Want to go back and beat those old Daoists up again!

Coincidentally, Kang Jin walked in to get some water at this time. Upon seeing this scene, his eyes lit up. “There’s cake!”

Shang Que looked over, expression cold. “You, wage deduction.”

Kang Jin: “……Why!!!”

The author has something to say:

At the end of the month, Luofeng distributes wages.

Everyone happily start to buy yuanbao candles.

Lu Lingxi: “Kang Jin, you owe the company two thousand.”

Kang Jin: “I request to quit.”

Lu Lingxi: “Chicken.”

Kang Jin: “……I’ll switch to asking for some nutrient potions instead qaq”