Chapter 72 Extra Chapter: Adventure Blogger Lan Shuyin 1
In late autumn in southeastern Guizhou, the fog is always exceptionally thick.
To film a video about a "century-old blood vine," Lan Shuyin is currently resting in a stilted house built into the mountainside in a Miao village.
The old wooden building creaked underfoot, but opening the window revealed a breathtaking view of fiery red maple leaves covering the mountains, offering a unique and rustic charm. Lan Shuyin held a cup of herbal tea that Kui Li had just brewed to dispel dampness, while scrolling through videos on her phone.
Suddenly my screen was flooded with messages:
[Sister Yin! Are you there? Please see this and reply!]
I'm finished! I'm really finished! My grandma...
I should have listened to you! I shouldn't have believed in those folk remedies and bought those centipede beads!
[Sister Yin, you're knowledgeable and know many experts. Could you please help my grandmother? I'm willing to do anything, no matter the cost!]
[Image][Image]
The two photos show the elderly man with patches of red, swollen rashes on his body, and his face so swollen that it is almost impossible to recognize him.
Lan Shuyin frowned deeply as she looked at the shocking photo.
She immediately replied: 【Go to the hospital.】
The message was sent and received a reply almost instantly:
[I went to the hospital a long time ago! But the doctor said it was an acute systemic allergic reaction complicated by infection, and they've already issued a critical condition notice!]
[That bead...that bead is definitely suspicious! Sister Yin, I beg you, please expose him for me! This is that scammer's business card!]
The despair conveyed in the text almost overflowed from the screen.
When Wei Li returned, he saw her silently looking at her phone, sighing softly.
"What's wrong?" He approached and gently placed his hand on her shoulder.
Lan Shuyin handed him her phone, her voice tinged with a lingering sadness, “An old fan bought ‘centipede beads’ online to treat his family member’s illness… and this is what happened.”
She gazed at the heavy fog outside the window and murmured, "Life is unpredictable... Sometimes you see the suffering of others, but you find that there is only so much you can do. It's such a helpless feeling."
After saying that, he laughed at himself, saying, "I seem to be getting more and more sentimental."
"You've done what you could." Wei Li stroked her hair, his voice gentle and soothing, carrying a strange calming power. "Doing your best and having a clear conscience is the greatest kindness. As for life and death, fate is beyond human control."
Soon after, Lan Shuyin compiled the information of the unscrupulous seller and the fans' painful experiences into a video and released it, which, as expected, caused a huge uproar on the platform.
Public opinion quickly escalated.
The hashtags #CentipedeBeadScam# and #BewareOfFolkRemedyTraps# have been trending on social media.
The platform responded swiftly, launching a crackdown on live streams and accounts promoting "fake health and wellness products and folk remedies." As a result, various shady characters claiming to offer "ancestral secret recipes" or "miracle products" were banned.
Lan Shuyin knew very well that her actions had undoubtedly cut off the source of income for many people and offended many interest groups.
She was mentally prepared for a backlash and smear campaign from online trolls, and even for encountering trouble.
However, occasionally a few negative press releases that attempt to stir up controversy and imply that she "exaggerates" or "gains traffic" will appear, but they always disappear quietly from the internet before they gain any traction.
Any attempt to massively damage her reputation will be nipped in the bud.
It was as if a powerful, hidden protective net was firmly shielding her from all backlash from the shadows.
On the contrary, because of this incident, her number of fans skyrocketed, quickly surpassing the million mark.
"Ah Li, did you do this?" After returning from the Dolomites, Lan Shuyin was shocked to see the number of her followers. She had originally gone abroad to travel and avoid the limelight, but in the end, she realized that she had worried too much.
Kui Li simply smiled faintly and pushed a freshly brewed calming tea to her side. The tea was clear and bright, exuding a soothing and warm fragrance.
"Do whatever you want. I've said it before, you just need to try to love this world with you in it. As for you—"
"It's enough for me to love."
...
Deep in the Qinling Mountains, the Mani stones of the Wanxianzhen ruins stand silently in the twilight. Countless stones engraved with scriptures are piled up into mounds, exuding a desolate and ancient atmosphere in the rising mountain wind.
Lan Shuyin never expected to encounter an "acquaintance" who was almost frozen stiff in this place.
Fang Huan huddled behind a pile of rocks, sheltered from the wind. His face was pale, his lips were purple, and he was trembling uncontrollably. He was delirious and clearly suffering from hypothermia.
Kui Li moved him to a more sheltered spot, casually tossed the emergency blanket over, and then lightly waved her wrist.
In an instant, countless blue morpho butterflies appeared out of nowhere, their wings shimmering with a fiery blue luster. They quickly gathered around Fang Huan, forming a warm protective circle that shielded him from the biting cold.
Noticing Lan Shuyin's gaze, Wei Li remained calm and explained, "I heard you mention these butterflies before, so I just started raising some."
"Oh, after I told you."
"Uh-huh."
"Didn't you put this cute thing on my head to monitor my every move?" Lan Shuyin wasn't stupid; when many details were pieced together, the truth couldn't be clearer.
Kui Li's eyes darted around, and he stammered.
This is not a good place to start a fight, Lan Shuyin just smiled and said, "Think carefully about how to explain it when you get back."
At this moment, Fang Huan's trembling gradually subsided, and his unfocused gaze regained focus.
When he saw the two people in front of him clearly, a fleeting look of astonishment and complexity crossed his eyes.
"Thank you." His voice was still weak and hoarse.
"What are you doing here? And all alone in this state?" Lan Shuyin asked. This was definitely not the route or timing that an ordinary explorer would choose.
Fang Huan leaned against the cold stone and remained silent for a long time, so long that Lan Shuyin thought he wouldn't answer.
He finally answered, "To maintain the way things are now."
He raised his eyes and looked at Lan Shuyin and Wei Li, his eyes filled with a resigned weariness and self-mockery.
"This rejuvenation was nothing more than a deal I made with some powerful beings, forcibly reversing a portion of my life force." He raised his hand, looking at the smooth, youthful back of his hand, which was faintly tinged with an abnormal bluish-white.
Kui Li said calmly, "I reminded you."
“Yes, but I’m not willing to accept it.” Fang Huan forced a bitter smile. “My youth is temporary. To maintain it, I need to constantly draw on new life, or find a more powerful alternative.”
As he said this, his gaze involuntarily swept over Kui Li, then quickly looked away, filled with deep apprehension.
"Legend has it that beneath the mani stones of this Ten Thousand Immortals Formation lies the life marrow condensed by ancient cultivators." He looked at the endless pile of stones, a hint of longing and despair flashing in his eyes. "I originally wanted to take a risk, but unfortunately... I overestimated myself and underestimated the dangers here."
He closed his eyes, his voice as soft as a sigh.
"In the end, it's nothing more than drinking poison to quench thirst, jumping from one abyss to another, even deeper one."
Fang Huan remained tight-lipped about everything else. He asked them for a bowl of hot soup and a down jacket, then walked back unsteadily.
As night deepened, the heating in the guesthouse shone softly. Lan Shuyin held a slightly warm teacup in her hands and couldn't help but ask the question that had been lingering in her mind, "Tell me, what exactly did Fang Huan make a deal with? The being he mentioned, the one that can reverse aging... how incredible is that? Do you know anything about its origins?"
Upon hearing this, Wei Li's face flashed with disdain. "It's not that mysterious. The so-called 'rejuvenation' in the spiritual cultivation path is never about creating life out of nothing, but about stealing or transferring it. Its essence is to transfer the life of others to oneself, a very insidious trick."
He tapped his slender fingertips lightly on the wooden tabletop, and a wisp of extremely fine black mist emanated from his fingertips, lingering and drifting for a moment before suddenly dissipating.
"In this world, there are some extremely ancient beings who have long lost their fixed form. What remains in the world is nothing more than a wisp of obsession or consciousness, relying on various contracts and exchanges with people. They cannot give life out of thin air, but they can use the enormous amount of death energy or resentment they have accumulated as a medium to forcibly borrow lifespan from the fate of others, deprive them of vitality from their flesh and blood, and then transfer it to the supplicant."
"Similar to... robbing Peter to pay Paul?" Lan Shuyin tried to understand.
"The east wall has collapsed, and the west wall has long been hollowed out by termites."
Kui Li's voice was steady, carrying a detached indifference accustomed to the bizarre, "Those destinies forcibly borrowed are often accompanied by extremely heavy karma and resentment. The recipient may seem to have regained their youth, but inside they have already been corroded by death energy, like a beam hollowed out by termites, outwardly bright but crumbling at the slightest touch. They need to constantly seek new nourishment to maintain this false prosperity until they completely become puppets of those beings, or are utterly annihilated in a violent backlash, their souls scattered."
He looked up, his gaze fixed on the deep night outside the window, as if he could pierce through the darkness and glimpse those strange things wandering in the cracks of time.
"In folk tales of the strange and supernatural, it is common for spirits to give people gold and silver, only to find out in the end that it is just paper money from the underworld, or for a beautiful woman to offer herself to him, only to find out at dawn that she is just a skeleton in disguise. The principle is similar, using illusions to lure people into paying a heavier price. What Fang Huan encountered was just a more sophisticated version."
Lan Shuyin pondered, "So, his current youth was bought with someone else's life, or something else?"
"Perhaps it's his own future, perhaps it's a blessing for his loved ones... Once the deal is made, there's no going back." Wei Li smiled dismissively. "No need to delve into it. Going against the laws of nature is ultimately just a mirage."
His tone had already brought Fang Huan's story to a close. But Lan Shuyin sat there, the turmoil in her heart difficult to calm down.
She knew that there were many things that Wei Li had not told her.
It wasn't exactly a deliberate attempt to hide anything. He never stopped her from inquiring, and if she asked, he would give her an answer. But he himself never took the initiative to lift that veil.
Like a snow-capped mountain silent in the depths of eternal night, the part floating on the water is already breathtaking enough.
But Lan Shuyin couldn't help but wonder what kind of past was hidden in that larger and darker part underwater.
However, one must eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time.
For example, right now.
"Then let's not talk about other people's business." Lan Shuyin leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Not giving him a chance to be ambiguous, she tilted her head back, her nose almost touching his thin lips.
"Tell me about the Blue Morpho butterfly, what exactly happened?"
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Author's note: The next story is about Wei Li, and the one after that is about Jiang Wuyang.
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