Chapter 12: Could There Really Be Gods in This World?

Su Chen smiled as he took out the little paper figure, tapping its head gently.
"You’re quite perceptive."
The tiny figure waved its hands and clung tightly to his index finger.
When Su Chen placed it over his dantian, the little creature immediately pressed its hands and feet against the spot, remaining motionless.
Seeing this, Su Chen closed his eyes.
That golden glow was the power of merit—The Heavenly Master Mansion had always cultivated through merits.
As Su Chen exhaled a breath of stale air, his body finally entered the realm of the mysterious sect.
He retrieved the paper figure again, glanced at its head, where faint facial features were beginning to show, and smiled as he slipped it back into his pocket.
Just then, someone tapped his shoulder.
Turning around, it was Lin Jingyu.
Yu Dingqiang followed closely behind him.
Su Chen understood immediately: "The master’s in trouble?"
Yu Dingqiang nodded repeatedly, as if afraid of being overheard, glancing around before lowering his voice: "Master, my teacher seems to have lost his soul from shock. We found him in the restroom, unconscious. When we revived him by pressing his philtrum, he was delirious and insisted on eating feces."
The more he spoke, the more embarrassed Yu Dingqiang became.
He had thought his teacher was competent, but in a crisis, the truth had surfaced.
Still… he had apprenticed under him for five years, called him master for five years. Though resentful and ashamed, he couldn’t just abandon him.
After some thought, he and his fellow disciples quietly took their teacher home. When Lin Jingyu arrived, the three of them were pooling money to ask Su Chen for help, but they had only managed to gather about eighty yuan.
Yu Dingqiang handed the money over to Su Chen. "Master, please help my teacher. Though he’s a fake Taoist, he hasn’t really deceived anyone, and his fees are low…"
Su Chen calculated silently with his fingers, then stood up. "Let’s go."
Yu Dingqiang was stunned. "…Huh?"
"No one else is coming for divination today. I’ll go take a look."
Eighty yuan was eighty yuan—enough to buy four pairs of leather shoes.
On the way, Lin Jingyu whispered a few words to Su Chen about the fake Taoist.
His name was Cai Zhengqing, from Nanshan in Cuicheng. He claimed to have learned his skills living near a Taoist temple, absorbing knowledge by osmosis. The people of Chunming Street saw him perform rituals with some semblance of skill, and with his kind attitude and low prices, they gradually grew fond of calling on him for help.
"But buddy, even though he’s fake, he seems to really see something—otherwise, how could he claim to see ghosts?"
Su Chen nodded. "Some people are born with yin eyes, able to see spirits. Sometimes, those with very low fortune can see them too."
Lin Jingyu understood. "Then maybe his luck’s just really bad. Otherwise, how else could he have lost his soul in the restroom?"
They arrived at a shabby shack.
Pushing open the door, they saw Cai Zhengqing struggling wildly.
Zhang Qiang and Liu Tao were each holding him down, sweat beading on their foreheads.
Hearing footsteps, they turned in terror but relaxed upon seeing them.
"Senior brothers, you’re finally back."
Then in unison: "Master, please save our teacher."
Su Chen smiled at the three of them.
Despite their quick betrayal before, he hadn’t expected them to be so devoted after all.
At that moment, Cai Zhengqing broke free from his disciples’ hold and lunged forward. "I want something tasty, something tasty!"
Yu Dingqiang quickly shielded a corner where a chamber pot was kept.
Su Chen’s reflexes were swift; with a hand chop to Cai Zhengqing’s neck, the man’s eyes rolled back, and his body slowly went limp.
"Master."
Zhang Qiang and Yu Dingqiang helped support the man, laying him on the bed.
Lin Jingyu swallowed hard, watching Su Chen approach calmly and couldn’t help but touch his own neck nervously.
Su Chen began his practice seriously; his heavenly eye remained unopened, so he resorted to divination. After consulting Yu Dingqiang about Cai Zhengqing’s birth chart, he casually grabbed a few peanuts from the table, cracked them open, and tossed the shells into the air. As they settled, he narrowed his eyes.
Lin Jingyu quietly tugged on Yu Dingqiang’s arm. "What’s he doing? Casting a spell?"
Yu Dingqiang chuckled, then scowled. "How would I know?"
Lin Jingyu was speechless.
"Right, you’re all just pretenders with elementary educations, reading less than me. If you could really see ghosts, that’d be something."
Yu Dingqiang, Zhang Qiang, and Liu Tao were speechless.
Showing off!
"It’s not a lost soul, nor possession," Su Chen’s voice brought them back to focus.
Liu Tao hurriedly asked, "Master, then why is our teacher like this?"
Indeed, why?
Could it be the fashionable illness from those little comic books—mental illness?
It shouldn’t be.
Taoists often deal with corpses; they should be brave. Even if frightened by ghosts, it wouldn’t cause such severe mental problems…
Suddenly, Su Chen’s eyes brightened. "No, there’s another possibility."
Yu Dingqiang and Lin Jingyu asked in unison, "What?"
"Divine possession."
When Su Chen spoke those words, his voice trembled.
Could gods really exist in this world?
In his previous life, gods had long vanished from history, so when ghostly energy resurged, all rites invoking gods became useless. In the end, disciples of the Heavenly Master Mansion had only been able to form formations using all their cultivation to perish alongside the ghost king.
If gods existed, their master, uncle, senior brothers, and junior brothers wouldn’t have died.
Thinking this, Su Chen exhaled slowly.
It was all in the past now.
Since he had been reborn into this world, there was no point dwelling on what had been.
Relaxing his body and mind, he met Lin Jingyu and the others’ astonished gazes and raised an eyebrow. "Take me to the restroom where your teacher was found."
Gods should be lofty beings. How could the gods of this world appear in such a filthy place as a restroom?
"Divine possession? Is that like summoning a god?" Lin Jingyu asked curiously on the way.
Before Su Chen could answer, Lin Jingyu furrowed his brow and scratched his forehead.
"Wait a minute, would a fake Taoist summon a god?"
Su Chen shook his head. "Divine possession is when a god places part of their divine power into a person, controlling their body. Whether voluntary or not, ordinary people cannot resist it."
"Oh, I get it. So Cai Zhengqing was passively possessed." Lin Jingyu’s eyes lit up. "Chosen one! Which deity took a liking to him?"
Zhang Qiang, accompanying them, smirked.
You want that chosen one, don’t you?
Su Chen glanced meaningfully at Lin Jingyu, who looked puzzled and then suddenly halted.
"No, no, no."
He looked at Zhang Qiang. "Xiao Qiang, if it’s passive, maybe your master offended a god and got punished?"
Zhang Qiang was startled. "…Huh? Then what do we do?"
Seeing Su Chen continue steadily forward, he hurried to catch up.
"Master, master, if my teacher is like this, is there no hope?"
Su Chen said, "I don’t know."
Zhang Qiang’s face darkened, then he decisively clasped his hands in prayer. "Guanyin Bodhisattva, Three Pure Ones, please let nothing happen to him."
"Heh," Lin Jingyu patted his shoulder. "Xiao Qiang, your faith is pure."
"It doesn’t matter; I’ll believe in whoever works."
Su Chen smiled faintly and shook his head.
About ten minutes later, they arrived at a public restroom.
A small stall selling rough toilet paper stood nearby. Lin Jingyu introduced, "This is Old Yu, the restroom manager."
Then he whispered, "Don’t buy his toilet paper; he charges ten cents a pack—ripoff."
As he spoke, he suddenly stopped because Su Chen hadn’t responded, his eyes fixed intently on Old Yu.
Lin Jingyu glanced at Old Yu suspiciously.
Was there something wrong with Old Yu?