QT- I’m Almost Died
Chapter 229. Clash Between Gods
Regardless of any doubts he might have about Lin Nianci, Abbot Changjing followed Chang Sheng down the mountain after the young monk brought the luggage. Although the monks of Longyin Temple usually lived in seclusion, focusing on Buddhist practice, they would certainly do their part without hesitation if the world fell into chaos.
Except for a few young monks, all the senior monks in the temple brought their luggage and lined up to walk to the helicopter.
Chief Yan was completely taken aback that the monks of Longyin Temple would come in full force. His expression was slightly surprised, yet he was also deeply moved. Compared to those powerful sects, these simple-minded monks seemed quite endearing. They couldn’t possibly be unaware of the price of activating the formation, yet they still chose to sacrifice lives. Their current level of skill was the result of arduous cultivation, yet they showed no signs of selfishness, cowardice, or pride.
They regarded ‘saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda’ as their guiding principle and were willing to die for the sake of all people.
Chief Yan clasped his hands together, expressing his deepest gratitude, and said, “Thank you, Abbot! One helicopter can’t carry so many people. I’ll have another helicopter sent over. Please wait a moment, Abbot.”
Abbot Changjing bowed in return and said that they could wait.
Looking at these solemn and dignified monks, standing in neat rows with firm yet compassionate eyes, Chang Sheng felt an overwhelming sense of shame. In a daze, he inexplicably recalled a statement by Fan Jialuo——Has the Tianshui Sect fallen to such a state? Is there any point in its continued existence?
Before this, Chang Sheng never felt that the sect had fallen into depravity. On the contrary, he considered it the purest sacred place in his heart, a supreme paradise transcending the mundane world. There were secluded forests, precipitous peaks, temples high in the clouds, and altars shrouded in mist. It was more like a celestial realm than the mortal realm. The people there were also among the most intelligent, talented, and powerful in the world.
But now, having experienced the baptism of blood and seen through the cowardice and indifference of his fellow disciples, and reflecting on his own previous recklessness and foolish selfishness, Chang Sheng actually developed a subtle sense of agreement with Fan Jialuo’s words.
The Tianshui Sect’s decline stemmed from their apathy and contempt for all living beings. In fact, their mentality was no different from Ma You’s. The only difference was that the Tianshui Sect only regarded mortals as ants and would not actively harm them, while Ma You treated mortals as toys and manipulated them at will.
This kind of depravity is top-down, as can be seen from Taoist Zhi Fei’s attitude towards Chief Yan. His disciple caused such a huge mess, yet during a phone call, he couldn’t even be bothered to personally visit the crime scene. So many people died, so much blood was shed, but in his mind, it was no more than a few ants dying, not worth mentioning.
If you were walking along a path and found a group of dead ants lying in the soil beside the road, would you deliberately stop to look at them? That would be so pointless.
Chief Yan must have sensed this subconscious contempt and indifference, which is why he treated the Tianshui Sect members with such hostility. In contrast, how did Master Changjing and Longyin Temple conduct themselves? Compared to their profound sense of righteousness, the Tianshui Sect has been reduced to a truly contemptible existence!
With this in mind, Chang Sheng drafted a detailed WeChat message and sent it to Taoist Zhi Fei. He felt that the Tianshui Sect desperately needed to rectify its conduct, otherwise everyone’s path in the Tao would only become narrower and narrower.
But Taoist Zhi Fei replied as…：【These worldly affairs are none of your concern, you only need to focus on your cultivation. Our Tianshui Sect is a reclusive sect, having long severed ties with the secular world. They are simply not in the same world as us. 】
Upon seeing this message, Chang Sheng felt a complex mix of emotions. The disciples on the mountain and the people below, they were all human, living on Earth. Wasn’t this statement, not in the same world, just self-deception? For those who cultivate the Tao, both entering and leaving the world are experiences, it’s the same wherever they are. How could the secular world be denigrated to such an extent? In truth, there is no such thing as a secular world or a sacred place, is there? Human hearts are all similar, everyone is selfish, cowardly, and indifferent. Who is truly more noble than whom?
Having experienced so much, Chang Sheng’s worldview, outlook on life, and values have all been shaken to varying degrees. The more darkness he witnessed, the deeper his self-reflection, the stronger his identification with Fan Jialuo became. He knew perfectly well that doing so was a desecration and betrayal of his sect, but he couldn’t control his thoughts. He had witnessed it firsthand, so he had this awareness.
As he was lost in thought, Chief Yan pointed to the somewhat dilapidated gate of Longyin Temple and said, “Your temple isn’t very popular, is it?”
Abbot Changjing smiled contentedly, “It’s a small temple with little food and clothing, and few incense offerings, but it’s truly a good place for quiet cultivation.”
Chief Yan sighed, “You do not receive offerings from the people, yet you resolutely and generously help those in need. I greatly admire the character of you monks!” He rolled his eyes and his tone became disdainful, “Unlike some Taoist temples that are always receiving offerings and are rolling in money, yet they have no sense of social responsibility whatsoever. When things are fine, they act high and mighty, but when trouble comes, they run away faster than anyone else.”
Abbot Changjing understood the implication in his words. He couldn’t agree to nod or disagree, so he could only give an awkward smile.
Chang Sheng, Chang Zhen, Lin Nianci, and Lin Nian’en were all blushing with shame. They hadn’t expected the Taoist Association to shirk responsibility so cleanly, nor had they expected that the Tianshui Sect, with all its resources, couldn’t clean up this mess. Now they had lost all face and dignity, anything they said would be wrong, and even the Tianshui Temple seemed to have become a thorn in the government’s side.
Chang Sheng was deeply worried, always wanting to salvage something for his sect, but unfortunately, Taoist Zhi Fei completely disregarded worldly people and their opinions and attitudes, leaving him only able to watch helplessly in despair——
Half an hour later, the two helicopters flew away from Longyin Temple and landed in front of a square.
Chief Yan took out a list and said, “We will arrange the rescue order according to the length of time they have been imprisoned, rescuing those who were imprisoned the earliest. Is that alright?”
Abbot Changjing nodded in agreement, then led the monks to sit on the open ground and chant the sutra for the innocent victims, while the nine disciples of the Tianshui Sect were responsible for drawing the formation. These nine people were all weak, and it took them a long time to draw just one array, and it was full of mistakes, wasting a lot of talisman paper and cinnabar.
Chang Sheng gasped for breath, feeling like he was about to explode on the spot.
Lin Nianci sat quietly to the side, her face aging with every passing second. With each person Ma You killed, a wrinkle appeared on her face, this backlash seemed utterly illogical. She had no blood relation to Ma You, nor any personal relationship with him, so why were his sins being attributed to her?
While Abbot Changjing closed his eyes to ponder this question and silently awaited the formation of the Tianshui Sect, Fan Jialuo and Song Rui were conducting an in-depth analysis of Ma You. Every word and action of his was scrutinized under a magnifying glass.
The female resident who was the first to be trapped in the elevator and the only one to survive came to give a statement at the call of the police. Upon hearing that the ghost that was going on a killing spree outside was the stranger she had briefly interacted with in the elevator, she immediately trembled with fear.
“Don’t be afraid. This is an expert hired by our police. With him here, Ma You can’t get close to you,” Liao Fang said softly, pointing to Fan Jialuo.
The female resident, who had been burying herself in the sofa, composed herself before recounting what happened that day, “It was my laziness, I wanted to save a few steps. I clearly saw the warning sign but still went into the elevator. My apartment is on the eleventh floor, but the elevator got stuck between the fifth and sixth floors. I immediately pressed the emergency intercom, but there was no response for a long time. I also tried calling the number on the warning sign with my phone, but no one answered.”
The female resident’s voice began to hoarse, “I immediately called my husband, but the signal in the elevator was very poor. Even though the call connected, I couldn’t hear anything. When I dialed again, the signal was completely lost. To make matters worse, my phone was almost out of battery. I kept calling my husband, and after more than ten minutes of this, my phone automatically shut down. Now, all my hopes rested on that emergency intercom.”
The female resident hugged herself tightly, her voice filled with anguish, “I frantically pressed the intercom and shouted into the crack in the door, but no one responded. Time seemed to pass very slowly, yet also very quickly. I don’t even know how long I’ve been in the elevator. I couldn’t pry open the elevator door, I couldn’t reach the ventilation vents, and the feeling of having nowhere to escape was driving me to the brink of collapse.”
“I was crying and screaming for help. I was exhausted, hungry, and thirsty.” Tears welled up in the female resident’s eyes. After a long pause, she said in a trembling voice, “When I was at my most desperate, a voice came through the emergency intercom. He asked me why I kept pressing the alarm.”
With tears in her eyes, the female resident said with great indignation, “From his words, I immediately deduced that he had actually been able to hear me pressing the alarm all along, but he was just too lazy to pay attention to me. I cleared my mind for a moment and realized that there was a surveillance camera in the elevator! The person who responded to me could not only hear the alarm, but also probably see me struggling in the elevator.”
“I was furious.” The female resident said, her eyes blazing with anger, only to be extinguished by an even greater fear in the next second, “I started cursing into the microphone, and after a while I realized there was no sound on the other end. That person had hung up the phone. He ignored my pleas for help, but he was still silently watching me. I could feel his gaze. I looked up at the security camera, and suddenly it felt like it had turned into a ghostly eye, staring intently at me.”
The female resident covered her face and began to sob softly. Liao Fang quickly patted her back, hoping to make her feel better. Her husband hugged her and comforted her gently.
After crying for a while, the female resident finally said in a muffled voice, “I chickened out and pressed the intercom again, ready to apologize to him. But he didn’t answer. I could only kneel down under the monitor, bow and kowtow to him, and exaggerate my words as I begged for mercy. My pleading seemed to work. When I shakily stood up to press the intercom, the call connected. I was ecstatic. I showered him with compliments and promised a hefty reward, raising the offer to five thousand yuan. I thought he would finally come to my rescue, after all, I was a living person, and even the most rude man couldn’t just stand by and watch me die in the elevator. “
The female resident looked up, her voice a mix of tears and laughter, and said, “But I underestimated the terrifying nature of people. A human life is truly worthless in some people’s eyes. The call did go through, but he just wouldn’t say a word, only listening to my monologue. Whether I cried, begged, threw a tantrum, or threatened, he didn’t respond. At first, I thought he had hung up, so I put my ear close to the microphone to listen. Guess what I heard?”
The female resident’s arms instantly broke out in goosebumps, and her face contorted with fear, “I heard his panting, very, very heavy, very, very excited. I was terrified, and I fell backward, landing hard on my bottom. Seeing me fall, his panting intensified, and he made a hoarse, cracking sound in his throat, as if he had reached some kind of climax in an instant. Can you imagine what it feels like to be surrounded by that kind of sound?”
The female resident unconsciously scratched her arm, her voice trembling as she said, “It felt like snakes were crawling all over your skin, cold, sticky, disgusting, yet impossible to get rid of. I screamed in terror, and he was panting on the other end. This went on for a long time. He was watching me the whole time, listening to my voice. I was scared out of my wits. I don’t know how long I cried or screamed, maybe a little over an hour. Anyway, I couldn’t hold on any longer. My eyelids became heavy, like I was about to faint.”
The female resident clenched her fists tightly and gritted her teeth, saying, “At this moment, he finally spoke. He said—— Are you about to die?”
At this point, the female resident’s eyes were red and almost bleeding, “At that moment, a glimmer of hope surged in my heart. I thought, I’m about to die, surely he’ll save me, right? He can’t be that cold-blooded. So I looked up at the intercom and said intermittently—— Yes, I’m about to die, please save me quickly.”
The female resident pointed to her bloodshot eyes, her voice filled with a chilling hatred, “I stared intently at the intercom, stared intently, I couldn’t believe there could be someone so evil in the world. But I was too naive. He was silent for a long, long time before letting out a soft chuckle and hanging up. I can still clearly recall his laughter. It was a very cheerful, very light laugh, as if he had encountered something extremely gratifying. He actually took pleasure in the loss of a life!”
The female resident began to tremble violently, and after a long while, she said in a tearful voice, “For more than a month, I’ve been dreaming about his panting and laughter, and then I wake up screaming. He’s not human, he’s a ghost! The most evil ghost in the world! You say he killed all those people on the street, and I’m not surprised at all. The police investigated at the time, and they only said that the phone line was crossed, and they couldn’t find the person on the other end, but I know that evil ghost is one of those security guards, and the phone line wasn’t crossed at all!”
At this point, the female resident finally broke down, hugging herself and crying bitterly.
Fan Jialuo enveloped her with a gentle magnetic field, stroking her back softly as he said, “It’s alright, you should get some sleep. When you wake up again, these nightmares will be gone.”
The female resident, who hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for months, actually fell into a deep sleep under his patting, within seconds. Her husband stared at Fan Jialuo in astonishment, then immediately thanked him, before stammering out a request. He wanted to stay at the police station for the night, even sleeping on the floor was fine. The psychological trauma Ma You had left them was simply too deep.
Seeing that the female resident was snoring loudly, Zhuang Zhen didn’t want to kick her out right away, so he brought two blankets for them to make do for the night.
After leaving the meeting room, Fan Jialuo and Song Rui went into the office to check on the latest developments in the case.
Xiao Li opened a series of web pages to explain, “Ma You is still killing people. The list of victims hasn’t been compiled yet, but the number is definitely no less than one hundred. All the people he’s imprisoned are young and beautiful women, at least thirty or forty of them. And that’s just those who reported it to the police, who knows how many more haven’t. One of the women is named Du Shasha, an internet celebrity. She was arrested while livestreaming, and 200,000 netizens watched the whole thing online. Public opinion is uncontrollable. The situation is getting bigger and bigger, and the whole of Beijing is under martial law, like a war. Supermarkets are being looted, shops are being vandalized, and everyone is staying at home, afraid to go out. This scene is comparable to the end of the world.”
Xiao Li opened Ma You’s social media page and said angrily, “Look at his latest Weibo post.”
Fan Jialuo and Song Rui bent down to look, only to see a line of text pinned to the top by Ma You——Are you ready to welcome your god? Only those who submit can live forever.
“Are all those who refuse to submit destined to die? Is he planning to destroy the world?” Song Rui said coldly, “Even if those who submit live, it will be worse than death, because Ma You will not treat them as human beings.”
Fan Jialuo shook his head and remained silent.
Xiao Li scrolled down a long page and said, “I’ve discovered something new. Ma You seems to be a fan of Du Shasha, having tipped her over 100,000 yuan. His monthly salary is only three or four thousand yuan, so this 100,000 yuan might be all his savings. Do you think he might be particularly fond of Du Shasha and even personally go to the space where Du Shasha is imprisoned to see her?”
Meng Zhong’s eyes lit up, and he immediately said, “We can ambush at the place where she disappeared! What if he comes back!”
Song Rui shook his head and said, “He won’t go to see Du Shasha.”
“Why? He spends all his salary on Du Shasha. Ma You must truly adore Du Shasha, he’ll definitely go see her. Teacher Fan, you can definitely catch him there.” Xiao Li said excitedly.
Song Rui shook his head again, “Ma You has been completely transformed. His personality gradually split after gaining the power of space. In the past, he was a mortal, prone to inferiority and fervently idolizing a so-called goddess. But now he is a god, a supreme being. How could he possibly be interested in a mortal? Everyone in the world is his toy. Du Shasha is utterly worthless because he can find countless toys more beautiful and exquisite than her. Even worse, he would intensify his torment of Du Shasha to sever ties with his past self. He won’t go.”
Dr. Song’s analysis has never been wrong. Xiao Li’s mood plummeted instantly, and he couldn’t help but wail, “According to you, does that mean we’ll never be able to catch him in our entire lives?”
Fan Jialuo stared at Ma You’s Weibo for a long time, and said thoughtfully, “I know how to catch him. If he doesn’t show himself, none of us will know where he is hiding, but we can make him come forward on his own.”
“How can we get him to show up on his own?” Meng Zhong immediately asked.
Fan Jialuo looked at Dr. Song and slowly asked, “What kind of being can make a god willingly step down from his altar?”
Song Rui lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, then realized, “It’s another god.”
Fan Jialuo nodded and said, “That’s right. The only thing capable of making a god stand fully on guard is another god. And I am that god.”
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