Chapter 11 The Gathering
1205 Words
The full moon lasted only a fleeting night, yet beneath its radiant glow, countless events unfolded. For some, that brief night felt endlessly long.
That evening, after imparting his knowledge, the Taoist priest lured his pursuers away from He Xu’s location. Then, with his Cultivation fully unleashed, he eliminated nearly half of the encircling enemies before the Heavenly Tribulation arrived. When the final lightning descended, he detonated all his spiritual energy. By the next day, when the police arrived at the scene, they detained all witnesses. Eventually, state security intervened, but the scale of the incident was too vast to conceal—within a hundred-mile radius, devastation spread, and at the epicenter, where a small mountain once stood, only a massive crater remained.
That afternoon, the government announced the successful test launch of a 'XXX-type' missile, declaring a breakthrough in national defense technology. Amid nationwide celebration, the incident faded from public memory.
When He Xu finally awoke, he crawled out through the tunnel the priest had blasted open the night before. It took him a long time to realize he was now far from Shang City’s university district, stranded in a desolate suburb. If not for the unfamiliar surroundings, he might have dismissed the previous night as a dream. He felt unchanged—except for two indestructible pouches and fragmented memories crowding his mind.
"What the hell happened last night? Oh right, that priest—no, my so-called 'master'—said he left a jade pendant inside my dantian." Panic surged as He Xu recalled the words. He yanked up his shirt, frantically inspecting his stomach.
"Damn it! How am I still alive with a huge jade pendant stuffed inside me? Should I go to the hospital?" Finding no visible abnormality, he slumped in despair, muttering to himself.
"Grandpa~ Grandpa~ Your grandson is calling~ Grandpa~ Grandpa~ Your grandson is calling~" Suddenly, his phone blared from his pocket.
"What is it, kid?" Dazed, He Xu answered reflexively.
"The hell, Xu-ge! Do you even remember today’s group event? You can’t just skip it! Where the hell are you?" Xiao Bei’s aggrieved voice crackled through the line.
"Ah—no, no, you’re the grandpa here! I’m on my way back right now!" He Xu snapped back to reality, hastily promising.
"Hurry up, the sooner the better," Xiao Bei said before hanging up.
"Ugh, I almost forgot about the event. Whatever. That 'master' said some Sect would track me down using the pendant. Maybe they can remove it then. But first—how do I even get back to campus?" He Xu sighed, glancing at his stomach again before his terrible sense of direction betrayed him once more.
By noon, he barely caught up with the group just as they were heading for lunch.
"Xu-ge, you timed this perfectly—showing up right when we eat. Spill it. Where’d you disappear to last night? Some romantic escapade?" Xiao Bei blocked his path with a leer.
"Romance my a*s! I somehow ended up in the outskirts of Shang City. I swear I got abducted by aliens," He Xu grumbled, irritation flaring at Xiao Bei’s smirk.
"Whoa, you even bagged an alien? Dude, you’re legendary!" Xiao Jie chimed in, eyes sparkling.
"I—" He Xu rolled his eyes, speechless. These hormone-driven roommates are hopeless. Breathe. Just breathe.
"You three! Food’s coming—sit down. I saved seats!" A Nan called from a nearby table.
The meal was arranged for ten per table. He Xu realized with dismay that aside from his four male roommates, the other six seats were occupied by girls. His friends’ social prowess was terrifying—they’d somehow hijacked the seating plan.
"So, did aliens really kidnap you last night?" A quiet girl beside He Xu, who’d been observing the chatter, leaned in curiously. Her question drew the entire table’s attention.
"Nah, just joking. I partied downtown and overslept," He Xu lied, shooting a glare at his snickering roommates.
"Booooring," the table groaned in unison.
"Aliens are rare, but I once saw a UFO—" Xiao Jie seamlessly hijacked the conversation, steering the group into animated debate.
"I’m Zhou Heling. Let’s hang out downtown sometime," the girl whispered, lowering her voice after the sudden scrutiny.
"Sure. I’m He Xu. Sounds good," he replied hastily.
Before she could continue, Xiao Bei’s booming voice cut in.
"Last night, our country tested a cutting-edge missile near Shang City!" he declared with pride.
"Why so close to the city? Isn’t that dangerous? Usually, they test in deserts or oceans," a girl beside him fretted.
"Exactly! Online forums say the test site was weird. People miles away reported lightning storms and UFOs," A Nan added, flaunting his gossip.
"Uh, maybe it’s to prove we can strike accurately even in harsh weather?" Xiao Bei weakly countered.
"Hah! At this rate, we’ll wipe out Japan soon!" Xiao Jie crowed, derailing the topic entirely.
He Xu’s mind blanked at Xiao Bei’s words. A visceral certainty struck him—the "missile test" was no such thing. Connecting it to his "master’s" final words, he realized the destruction was the priest’s doing. And now, the man was likely dead.
A strange grief twisted in his chest. They’d met only once, yet the loss of someone so vividly alive hours ago left him hollow.
He drifted through the afternoon in a daze, dismissed by others as fatigue. By the time he biked Zhou Heling to the subway, their conversation blurred into vague promises he couldn’t recall.
---
At the Wang family estate, the household emerged from their bunker past noon. They’d been fortunate—the battle ended swiftly, and the mysterious assailants, focused on chasing the priest, spared those hiding. Only property damage remained, a trivial loss for the wealthy Wangs.
The young man surnamed He suffered the deepest shock. He’d encountered many with supernatural abilities, but none like the priest, whose power dwarfed even his department’s combined might. Yet despair gave way to hope—the priest had instantly diagnosed his fatal condition, something even his superiors failed to detect.
The priest’s ties to the Wangs became his lifeline. After intense negotiation, he secured their cooperation at the price of a decade-long servitude.
"Every sixty years, they come from the unknown. Last time, it was this priest—and now again. He must be over a century old, yet shows no aging. The Wangs rose by leveraging his power, while he used their resources," the young man mused, piecing together the intel.
"I’ve barely a decade left. Waiting sixty years isn’t an option. The only way is to help the Wang heirs absorb energy from those strange stones within ten years, summoning the priest. If they become his disciples under our guidance, it benefits the nation." Resolved, he strode out.
Old Wang had planned to share the priest’s secrets all along, recognizing the youth’s desperation. Accelerating his children’s training with supernatural tutors was an ideal arrangement—though as a seasoned fox, he still extracted his pound of flesh.
Neither realized their revered priest had perished the previous night. And for the oblivious Wang children, a few words had irrevocably altered their fates. When they eventually breached the priest’s talismans, the outcome would defy all expectations.
- Writer
