"I-I'm scared." The once energetic little chubby winter melon was now clinging to his mother's shoulder, sniffling as he looked at Shen Changan. "He's a big bad guy, so fierce."
"Yes, this bad guy is too big, so he needs you little wizards to work together to defeat him." Shen Changan ignored the noisy adults and said to the ceaselessly crying children, "As long as you wave your magic wands, and chant 'Surrender and give up, you pumpkin villain!', he won't be able to come out and do evil anymore."
"Re… really?" The little chubby winter melon clutched his wand, looking eager to try it out.
"Of course." Shen Changan held down the troublemaker firmly to the ground, not giving him a chance to get up. "Quick, little wizards, the brave warrior needs your help."
The adults present gradually realized that the appearance of this troublemaker had even left them with psychological shadows, let alone the nearby children. Is this person trying to eliminate the children's psychological trauma?
Sure enough, a few bolder kids waved their wands at the plague demon, chanting, "Transform, transform, become a pumpkin. Surrender and give up, pumpkin villain!"
"Alright, thank you little wizards for your help. As a brave warrior, I have conquered this bad pumpkin. I will now hand over the bad pumpkin to the police uncle." Shen Changan looked around at the surrounding adults, "Does anyone have rope? I'll tie up his arms first, in case he throws around more messy stuff and causes more trouble."
"Here, here." A supermarket owner squeezed through the crowd, taking out a long hemp rope. "Is this enough? If not, I can bring you a few more."
"Enough, enough, we're just tying up a person, not wrapping zongzi." Shen Changan took the rope and swiftly tied up the plague demon.
"Hey young man, you must practice martial arts right? You're more skilled at tying pigs than the old pig butcher in our hometown."
Hearing this, the plague demon was furious. How dare these ignorant peasants compare him to a lowly pig! He wanted to lift his head to see who was speaking, but Shen Changan slapped his head back down as soon as he lifted it slightly.
"Behave yourself, don't look around!" After quickly tying up the plague demon's hands and body in a few moves, Shen Changan said to the onlookers around, "Make way, everyone. I'll take this person to a less crowded place so as not to scare other children."
Seeing his work badge for maintaining public order, no one objected to his actions. Moreover, the person looked so disgusting that even those who wanted to watch the commotion were repelled by his nauseating appearance. They all expressed their gratitude for handing him over to the police.
At this time, the supermarket owner brought over a very large snakeskin bag, and put it over the plague demon, immediately covering more than half his body.
It's better to cover up unsightly things after all.
Plague demon!
I'm a plague demon!
The plague demon who struck fear at the mere mention of his name, shouldn't be treated like this. It must be because these people didn't know his power. From glorying in his might at birth, to being mocked, watched, and ignored by humans, to being knocked down to the ground by humans, the plague ghost who was only three days old experienced the great ups and downs, joys and sorrows of his demon life.
The moment he was covered by that filthy snakeskin bag, he was enraged. His five consciousnesses and six senses frantically gathered all the ugliness and evil in the human realm together. He wanted the whole world to be shrouded in disease and suffering.
But just as he was about to exert his power, his back was suddenly slapped hard. That slap carried endless auspicious energy, not only shaking his five consciousnesses and six senses, but also dealt a heavy blow to his demon body.
This was the human who had just beaten him senseless!
The plague demon felt it. Not only did this human have the auspicious aura of merit on him, he also had a mysterious and terrifying power. This power seemed like an endless abyss - as long as he dared to harm this human, he would be swallowed up by this force, dissipating into the heavens and earth.
Seeing Shen Changan taking the plague demon away, Gao Shujuan stopped Chen Panpan and Ding Yang who wanted to follow: "There has just been an incident here, you guys stay here and communicate with the patrol police. I'll go over and take a look."
Taking advantage of no one paying attention to her, Gao Shujuan took out two purification talismans and tossed them into the air. The talisman automatically fluttered without any wind, dispelling the green mist in the air.
After the spiritual energy of the talisman was used up, it fluttered down to the ground. Just as Gao Shujuan was about to leave, she saw a three or four year old child staring at her with burning eyes.
Gao Shujuan: "..."
The child bent down to pick up the talisman paper, and threw it into the trash can with his little short legs. His eyes were full of contempt for the adults' irresponsible behavior.
Gao Shujuan hid her face and walked away. When she found Shen Changan, he had tied the plague demon to a tree and was squatting next to it playing on his phone. There was a half-empty bottle of mineral water beside his feet.
"Changan, stay away from that..." Gao Shujuan wished she could take out hundreds of talismans on the spot and paste them all over the plague demon's body.
"It's fine, the police will be here soon." He had just washed his hands with mineral water, but still felt a little uncomfortable. Thinking that Auntie Juan was also disgusted by this person's getup, he said, "Auntie Juan, I'll keep watch here."
Gao Shujuan was about to speak but stopped herself. She looked at Shen Changan, then at the plague demon twisting and turning but unable to escape, her heart was surging like stormy waves in a turbulent sea.
Plague demons were sometimes called god of Plague, because not only did they bring death and disease, they could also come and without a trace, taking on an invisible form. But this plague demon subdued by Shen Changan not only couldn't transform, he couldn't even escape.
From the first time she saw Shen Changan, Gao Shujuan had been shocked by the aura of merit surrounding him. Even if a person started doing good deeds from the day they were born, it would be impossible to accumulate so much merit.
After urgently consulting texts overnight, she learned that someone with such a strong golden meritorious aura should be a tenth reincarnation meritorious body. These people did good deeds, accumulated virtues, and made huge contributions to humankind in almost every lifetime, in order to attain this kind of golden meritorious body that was hard to come by in a thousand years.
Even more shocking was that no one in the cultivation world had discovered such a good seedling. No cultivator had been sent to protect him, and he had grown up alone like this. It was simply heaven's blessing that he hadn't been devoured by demons and monsters as a health tonic before reaching adulthood.
"Changan, what do you think...this person is dressed as?" Gao Shujuan asked.
"No idea what the heck it is, it just looks disgusting." Shen Changan nudged the plague demon with his toe through the snakeskin bag. "What's your name?"
"Ignorant mortals, I am the god of plague. Treating me with such disrespect, I will surely bring divine punishment upon you!" The plague demon roared, "I will make you regret this!"
"God?" Shen Changan looked with disgust at this uncured psycho. "With your filthy and nauseating look, you don't seem like a god at all, more like a demon."
In the realm of gods and immortals, even evil gods were also considered gods. The plague demon was not wrong to call himself a god, as he was born from the heavens and the earth, he was different from ordinary demons and monsters.
But after being mocked as a demon by Shen Changan, Gao Shujuan clearly felt the plague demon gained more of the demonic aura and lost some of the spiritual and malevolent energy bestowed upon him by the heavens and earth.
This newly born plague had completely transformed from a plague god into a thorough plague demon.
Gao Shujuan was from the cultivation world. Although not yet fifty, she was already on equal standing with seniors of the cultivation world and had seen many extraordinary people and events. However, the scene before her now still made her take a sharp breath.
The prophecy of the ten lifetimes' meritorious body was indeed powerful, no wonder it is a once-in-a-millennium occurrence. If Buddhist cultivators discovered Shen Changan, they would probably beg while crying for him to cultivate Buddhism and strive for the rise of Buddhism.
"Auntie Juan?" Shen Changan noticed that after he mocked this psycho as a demon, Auntie Juan's expression had become especially bizarre, as if he had suddenly turned into a shiny gold ingot, too precious for words.
"Huh?" Gao Shujuan snapped back to her senses. "You're right, ugly unscrupulous things like this, what else could they be but demons?"
Shen Changan: "..."
Something feels strange.
"Wuwuwuwu..." The plague demon struggled for a long time but couldn't break free no matter what. Feeling desperate, he wondered- Is its glorious life really going to end in such a humiliating and suffocating way?
Just who was this human who caught him? How could he be so powerful?
Shen Changan didn't have to wait long with Gao Shujuan before seeing Captain Li coming over in person with his men. Seeing these people following Captain Li were dressed in plainclothes, Shen Changan thought they were undercovers blending into the crowds and didn't ask much before handing the person over to them.
These people lifted the snakeskin bag and looked inside with excited expressions, before covering it back up. One middle-aged man in particular was hardly able to contain his excitement, and reached out to shake Gao Shujuan's hand: "Gao... comrade, you have made a great contribution by capturing him. Well done, well done!"
"No..." Gao Shujuan chuckled awkwardly then turned to look at Shen Changan. "Leader, this matter has nothing to do with me. This scoundrel was subdued by Changan."
"This is..." Zhao He's cultivation was shallow, but he was good at interpersonal relationships, so he specialized in handling unconventional events in the security department. Turning to look at Shen Changan, who had an outstanding appearance and tall body, the kind of looks girls would like, he thought this was Gao Shujuan's junior sect member so he smiled and said, "It's true that there are all kind of talented people in the rivers and mountains, blue comes from indigo, yet it surpasses indigo. This young comrade is the hope of our community!"
"Thank you for your compliment, leader." Shen Changan blushed a bit. He had just done a small thing within his ability, how could he be praised like he had saved the world?
"It's not just a compliment, not just a compliment at all." Zhao He patted Shen Changan on the shoulder, "To be able to subdue something so vicious by yourself, it shows our younger generation is promising!"
Shen Changan: "..."
Does the Civil Service Department really struggle to retain talent? He just caught a troublemaker, and the leader praised him like this. Are they worried he might jump ship in the future?
Listening to these two talking nonsense and not letting the cat out of the bag but somehow still making sense, Gao Shujuan coughed dryly. "Director Zhao, please take him away for now. I will give you a detailed report on other matters later. It's late and Changan has worked hard all day. He should go home and rest."
"Yes, yes, yes." Zhao He quickly nodded. It was rare for the cultivation world to produce a capable junior. Worried that capturing the plague demon may have depleted too much spiritual power and damaged his foundations, Zhao He quickly said, "Young comrade, go back and rest quickly. You mustn't neglect your health. Stay home and take a day off tomorrow, I'll help ask the leader to approve your leave."
"Huh?" Shen Changan turned to look at Gao Shujuan. Is there some misunderstanding here?
"Changan, go back first, rest well tomorrow, and come back to work the day after." Gao Shujuan smiled kindly at him. "Director Zhao is right, young people's health is the most important."
"Oh." Shen Changan guessed they still had other secret work to discuss in private, and left, understandingly.
As he walked through the plaza, some children's parents recognized him and came over to thank him. Most of the kids had fallen asleep, snoring sweetly in their parents' arms.
Seeing their sleeping faces, Shen Changan couldn't help smiling. "As long as the kids had fun, it's late now, take them home to sleep early."
"Little brother, thank you so much for just now." The parents of the kid who had turned him into a pumpkin came over. The little chubby winter melon was sleeping on his dad's shoulder like a little piglet, with the small devil wings on his back crooked and twisted.
The child's father was very grateful: "If not for you, our little one would definitely have nightmares when he got home. But now, he's now dreaming of going to catch bad guys with the pumpkin knight."
"Children need to be spirited." Shen Changan chuckled and waved to the child's parents. At this time, the buses had stopped running, and there were many people trying to catch taxis near the square. Should he walk back or ride a shared bike?
At times like this, he envied those who had cars.
That tree spirit under the office building had said he was some amazing ten lifetimes of merit reincarnation. But thinking carefully about it now, besides not being afraid of ghosts, it didn't seem really useful.
He was still a poor dog without money or a car, unable to fly or teleport and couldn't avoid squeezing onto the bus when he needed to.
"Sigh." Shen Changan sighed at the sky. So what if he wasn't afraid of ghosts? They couldn't give him money to spend anyway.
"Sir." As Shen Changan buried his head searching for a shared bicycle after leaving the bustling plaza, a middle-aged woman silently walked up to him, startling him so much that he almost dropped his phone while scanning the QR code.
"Hello?" Shen Changan felt this woman looked a bit familiar, as if he had seen her somewhere before.
Perhaps from the cold or fear, the middle-aged woman's shoulders trembled slightly: "Thank you sir for helping me take revenge for my daughter. Please accept my bow."
After saying these words, the woman knelt before Shen Changan, who was caught off guard by the sudden turn of events and couldn't react for a moment.
"Ten years ago, my daughter went out and never returned. I searched for her tirelessly, only to find out that her soul had been captured by the earthbound spirit in the Mountain Spring Valley. I regretted my powerlessness, unable to even enter the barrier set up by those evil ghosts." The middle-aged woman bowed to Shen Changan again. "That day, I saw them lure ordinary tourists into the mountains but didn't dare stop them. My ghostly powers are low, I couldn't tell the police the truth so I could only watch helplessly as they got trapped. Unexpectedly, two days later, you suddenly appeared at the foot of the mountain. Please forgive my audacity in giving you a fake tour brochure. I beg your forgiveness."
Only then did Shen Changan realize this woman had no shadow behind her, she wasn't a living person at all. She said she was looking for her missing daughter, so did she die before her daughter went missing… or after?
Shen Changan didn't dare think further, because either possibility meant this was a tragedy. It turned out that the staff at the Mountain Spring Villa were all ghosts and monsters. No wonder the trapped tourists, though terrified to the extreme, couldn't even utter a plea for help.
"You..." Seeing the woman's body gradually turning transparent, Shen Changan asked, "Did you find your daughter?"
"Enslaved by evil ghosts for ten years, she had long lost her senses. Perhaps at the moment sir broke down the resort's gates, her soul had already returned to the underworld." The woman bowed down again. "While sir has a meritorious body and is not afraid of ghosts, I used sir for my vengeance, which is my sin. Today, getting the fortune to thank sir, my wish is fulfilled. I wish sir a worry-free life, good health and longevity."
The woman's body grew fainter and fainter, almost disappearing. She had a smile of relief, seemingly happy that her daughter's soul had been saved.
"Thank you." Shen Changan pursed his lips. "I also wish you and your daughter a happy and fulfilling life in your next reincarnation."
The woman gave a faint smile. A soul that should have gone to the underworld but instead overstayed in the human realm for nearly ten years, even made use of a meritorious human for vengeance, was fated to dissipate. What next lives were there?!
However, when she looked up and saw the sudden glow of a soul-guiding lamp in the sky, her whole ghostly self froze. The light of that lantern, compared to the streetlights on both sides of the road, seemed so insignificant, but it could guide the souls to the underworld.
She stared blankly at the dim blue light of the ghost lantern, then suddenly whipped her head to look at Shen Changan. He was standing next to a dilapidated shared bicycle, his face adorned with a gentle smile.
"Thank you sir, your great kindness will be remembered forever." The woman gave Shen Changan three bows and nine head knocks, before turning into a ray of soul light that disappeared into the soul lamp.
In just a few minutes, Shen Changan had been bowed to again and again by a female ghost much older than himself. He felt a little embarrassed and scratched the back of his head. This ghost lady was too polite. All he did was say some nice words, yet she gave him such a grand gesture.
He hoped she could be reunited with her daughter in the underworld. Among the sea of people, it was already not easy to cultivate a mother-daughter bond. Moreover, she had put in so much effort for her daughter's soul. If they couldn't even meet one last time, it would be too regrettable.
As the female ghost followed the soul summoning lamp to the underworld, she suddenly heard her daughter's voice.
"Mother."
"Mother."
She hurriedly turned back and saw her daughter standing at the end of the road. Her eyes turned moist, wanting to shed tears, but as a ghost, where were there tears left to shed.
"Sinful ghost Lu Yi, violating the underworld's decrees by overstaying in the human realm for nine years and ten months, and using a ten lifetimes meritorious noble for vengeance, your crimes are unforgivable and you should be sentenced to soul scattering. But because a noble spoke gracious words for you, your heavy crimes are pardoned and your sentence is reduced to five years' servitude in the underworld, before being reincarnated into the mortal realm."
After riding the rickety shared bike to the district where Dao Nian lived, Shen Changan thought the security guard would ask for his identity. Unexpectedly, the other party opened the gate and let him in without a word when he saw him. He even helped him park the shared bike outside the community.
"Mr. Shen, the streetlights aren't bright enough at night. Be careful where you step." After walking a few steps away, Shen Changan could still hear the security guard's warm and friendly reminder.
"Thank you." Shen Changan thanked him and walked through the lush trees in the community. There were so many trees that they blocked the light from the streetlights, making the road a little dark, but Shen Changan didn't find it eerie or scary at all, rather a different kind of tranquility.
Passing through the shade of the trees, Shen Changan saw a light turned on at the end of the road. He focused his gaze and saw Dao Nian holding a delicately designed glass lamp, sitting quietly in his wheelchair as if waiting specifically for his return.
In that moment, countless emotions surged in his heart. He ran over to Dao Nian in a few steps and squatted by his side, asking, "Dao Nian, were you waiting for me to come back?"
Dao Nian expressionlessly looked at the sweat on his forehead: "It's midnight."
"I'm sorry for coming back late," Shen Changan reached out and touched Dao Nian's hand. Finding it a bit cold, he stood up and said, "It's cold outside. Let me push you back in."
"Wait." Dao Nian tugged at his sleeve, signaling him to keep squatting. "It's midnight, a new day."
Shen Changan looked up at him.
"Happy birthday."
In this dark night, Shen Changan felt warmth spreading through his entire being, even his eye rims were getting warm.
"Take this," Dao Nian placed the exquisite glass lamp in Shen Changan's arms. "I'm giving you a wish."
"Can I make any wish with this?" Shen Changan looked at the lamp in his hands. It seemed to be made of glass with delicate patterns on the outside, and there was something glowing inside, resembling stars. It was full of girlish charm.
He didn't expect Dao Nian to have such a cute little hobby. As a friend, Shen Changan naturally went along with it.
Dao Nian looked at him for three seconds. "Anything is fine."
"Then I..." Shen Changan rolled the star-like lamp in his hands, smiling at Dao Nian. "I hope Dao Nian can live happily, and that we celebrate each other's birthdays together every year."
The night wind brushed through the trees, making a rustling sound. Dao Nian remained silent for a while before asking, "That's it?"
"That's it." Shen Changan reached out and poked Dao Nian's hand. "So, can my wish come true?"
"It can." Dao Nian lowered his gaze, looking at the Star Wishing Lamp in Shen Changan's hand. "From now on, I will come to find you on your birthday every year."
"It's not about you coming to find me on my birthday, it's about you spending my birthday with me, and me spending yours with you." Shen Changan stood up and patted Dao Nian's shoulder and said with a big smile. "As a man, you must keep your word. You can't discount the wish I made."
Another moment of silence.
"Alright."
"So how about giving me a smile now?" Shen Changan pointed to the corner of his mouth. "Be a little happier, hmm?"
Dao Nian stared at him for a while, then lowered his eyelids after a while. "I think I can give you another chance to make a wish."
"Hey, hey, hey, no, no, no, don't." Shen Changan didn't give him a chance to object. He quickly put the pretty little lamp into his pocket and pushed Dao Nian back. "The most important thing in life is to keep your word. How can I go back on my word? I, Shen Changan, am not that kind of person."
Dao Nian silently touched the corner of his mouth, forced the corner of his mouth to twitch up slightly, then swiftly let it drop back down to a blank expression.
Smiling is so troublesome, it's better to be untrustworthy.
After all, I… am not human anyway.