Saving Oneself

After hearing his parents say they would have to work overtime today, Yang Fan snuck into his father's room after school. From the pocket of an old coat hidden inside the wardrobe, he skillfully took out several small-denomination bills. Considering his long-term operations, he didn't take too much, only a little money from his father's secret stash. After leaving the house, he wandered around the black market, aimlessly looking for a place to eat. As a result, he helplessly discovered one thing: there wasn't a single eatery here that he hadn't eaten at before.

At this moment, the sign of Baiji Diner caught his eye. He opened his round eyes wide and muttered, "When did a new shop open here?"

As soon as he approached the shop, he was attracted by the rich, spicy aroma of chili oil. Stepping inside, he saw that most of the diners had a bowl of red noodles placed in front of them, emitting an enticingly spicy scent. He couldn't help but swallow his saliva, walked up to Bai Yinuo standing at the cash register, and asked, "Sister, what are they eating?"

"It's red oil cold noodles." Bai Yinuo looked at this cute, chubby little boy, lowered her head, and said, "What would you like to eat, little friend?"

Hearing Bai Yinuo's answer, Yang Fan felt a bit disappointed because he had been eating cold noodles frequently lately and was already tired of them. He originally intended to leave, but when he turned his head, he saw the nearby customers eating with great relish.

Moreover, the cold noodles in front of them looked very abundant, and the toppings included meat, which was completely different from the red oil cold noodles he usually ate. So Yang Fan waved the money in his hand and said to Bai Yinuo, "Then give me a portion of red oil cold noodles. I want to taste how it is!"

"Can you eat spicy food? There are mild, medium, and extra spicy options."

Although young, Yang Fan loved spicy food. He replied, "I can! I want a medium spicy portion!"

Yang Fan looked at the bowl of red oil cold noodles in front of him, covered with a layer of minced meat, crispy fried soybeans, green bean sprouts, and shredded cucumber neatly arranged on top, making one unable to resist picking up their chopsticks. Yang Fan swallowed his saliva, picked up a large mouthful of noodles, and stuffed it directly into his mouth. After eating one bite, he couldn't help but widen his eyes: "Ah! So spicy!"

The taste of this dish was completely different from the cold noodles he had eaten elsewhere. The spicy and rich aroma of the chili oil hit his taste buds. Taking another bite of the noodles brought a cool, smooth, and refreshing sensation, and the sauce was perfectly balanced. Yang Fan felt as if every cell in his body was screaming because of this wonderful flavor. Although he felt it was very spicy, he still couldn't bear to put down his chopsticks. Because he ate too quickly, his mouth was flushed red from the spice, and a thin layer of sweat broke out on the tip of his nose and his back.

After finishing the bowl of noodles, he leaned back in his chair with satisfaction, patting his round belly. The frustration of being unable to recite his text from memory had vanished. Although Yang Fan was only in the sixth grade, his appetite was not small. He couldn't satisfy himself with just one bowl of red oil cold noodles. Therefore, when Yang Fan left, he used the remaining money to buy another portion, intending to save it for a late-night snack.

He hid the bowl of red oil cold noodles behind his back and quietly opened the door. After finding that his mother was not at home, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he walked quickly to his room, hid the cold noodles in a locked drawer, intending to enjoy it slowly at night.

During dinner, Yang Fan was a bit distracted. While chewing his rice, he kept thinking about the red oil cold noodles hidden in the drawer. "Why are you eating so little? Don't you complain about being hungry every day?" Yang Fan's mother, Ding Lin, said suspiciously, "Did you sneak out to eat? Did you forget what I told you? You need to lose weight. Especially eat less outside food, especially the food in the black market. That place is unhygienic and will make you gain weight."

"Absolutely not!" Yang Fan shook his head repeatedly.

"Come here and let me smell you!" Ding Lin pulled Yang Fan to her side, sniffing the collar of his shirt.

On the outside, Yang Fan pretended to be innocent, but in his heart, he was trembling with fear, afraid that Ding Lin would see through his secret eating. Fortunately, Ding Lin sniffed around and didn't smell anything special, so she smiled at Yang Fan and patted his shoulder encouragingly, "Very good, it seems you didn't go out to eat. Progress!"

Yang Fan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he had changed his clothes and brushed his teeth five times after returning; otherwise, he would have been exposed today.

Clearly, he could have killed the guy with a single strike, but to make his lover happy, Dao Nian chose a fighting style that would make Shen Changan enjoy watching more.

This was undoubtedly the greatest humiliation for the grey-clothed man.

Beneath the Heavenly Dao, all things were ants. He could barely maintain his human form anymore; his body turned into a chaotic mass of resentful energy, with only his brain barely retaining a human shape.

Dao Nian was afraid that killing him directly would affect Shen Changan's interest, so he stretched out his hand to seal this mass of resentful energy inside a barrier so he couldn't escape. Then he walked over to Shen Changan's side, sat down, and took him into his arms: "Are we still fighting?"

"Um..." Shen Changan didn't expect Dao Nian to understand him so well. He leaned against his shoulder, looked at the monster struggling in pain inside the barrier, and asked him in confusion, "Although you didn't kill me every time, I feel like you are full of hatred toward me. Can you tell me why?"

"I won't tell you..."

"You're already in so much pain, say it to make me happy." Shen Changan felt a sweet, metallic taste rising in his throat. He turned his head to look at Dao Nian, "My love, get me some immortal fruits."

Dao Nian conjured a table filled with all kinds of fruits, the spiritual energy so abundant that it could make any cultivator cover their face and weep.

Relying on the sweetness and faint fragrance of the fruits to suppress the taste of fresh blood in his throat, Shen Changan looked at the monster inside the barrier, who was so angry that he was thrashing around blindly, roaring as he stood on the brink of collapse. Shen Changan smiled with narrowed eyes, "Are you performing a headless fly thrashing around act?"

Dao Nian held Shen Changan's hand, which was trembling from trying to endure the pain, and silently transferred spiritual energy to him.

"Dao Nian..." Shen Changan thought he had disguised it perfectly, but he didn't expect to be exposed so quickly.

"Changan, my blood can alleviate your pain. Don't be so stubborn." Dao Nian smoothly cut his palm with spiritual energy, then fed it to Shen Changan's mouth, "Be good, drink a little more."

Shen Changan couldn't describe in words how sweet and fragrant the fresh blood in Dao Nian's palm was. His entire body and brain were telling him that he should drink this blood, he must drink it.

Just by lowering his head, he would instantly obtain everything in the world.

But his remaining reason told him that if he drank Dao Nian's blood, he might indeed obtain everything in the world, but Dao Nian would no longer exist in this world.

"Don't mess around." Shen Changan closed Dao Nian's hand, "Science has long told us that blood cannot cure diseases. Even if I, Shen Changan, fall to my death, die of pain, or starve to death, I will absolutely never drink my boyfriend's blood. Give up on that idea!"

"But you are like this now..."

"What is there to fear?" Shen Changan held Dao Nian's hand tightly, "I am the Dao of Vitality. As long as the living beings in the world do not lose their desire to live, I will not die."

"Speaking of which, I still have to thank... this nameless monster." Shen Changan disliked that the fabric on his body wasn't soft enough, so he reached out to tear a piece of fabric from Dao Nian's clothes and bandaged the wound on his hand, "Since I know you don't want to recover using magic, I can only use human bandaging methods."

His wound treatment was very professional. Back then, before he went along with the plan to infiltrate the criminal gang, he had been trained in emergency bandaging, which was an important training course.

"Ahhh!" The monster threw himself against the barrier, looking at Shen Changan with blood-red eyes, "In every lifetime, you died a tragic and unjust death, never obtaining true love, living in loneliness until you died. Have you completely forgotten those who betrayed and harmed you? Why don't you hate the humans of this world? Even when you were burned alive by those ignorant humans, you still wanted to reincarnate as a human to protect them?"

The memories of ninety-nine lifetimes were a bit too much. Shen Changan tried to recall for a long time before remembering the lifetime the monster was talking about.

In one lifetime, he was pursued by enemies and severely injured, but was saved by the villagers of a village. After his wounds healed, to thank these villagers, he stayed in the village to teach them how to write, practice martial arts, and hunt. Two years later, a plague suddenly broke out in the village. At this time, rumors spread in the village saying that he was a calamity star, and because their village saved a calamity star, they were punished by the heavens. To appease the anger of the "heavens," they finally decided to burn the calamity star to death.

The feeling of being burned alive was not pleasant, but in the moment before Shen Changan died, his main emotion was not anger or resentment, but sadness. Sadness for the ignorant villagers; even if he died, the people in the village would not be able to survive.

Shen Changan still clearly remembered when he was locked in the woodshed, waiting to be burned on the wooden stake the next day, several children who were shivering from the cold had painstakingly crawled into the room through a small hole. They hugged him, wanting to cry loudly but not daring to make a sound, whispering to him not to die.

The children placed the dinner they had secretly hidden into his hands. Although the cold night had frozen the food to the point where it was almost inedible, he heard the children's empty stomachs growling, so he shared the food equally with them.

"Teacher is not a calamity star." The child who was missing his front teeth gnawed on the cornbread, crying until tears and snot flowed down, "Teacher, we will save you right now."

Unfortunately, before the children could carry out this grand rescue plan, they were discovered by the adults and dragged back home. Until his death, he still clearly remembered the scene of the children using their teeth to bite the ropes because they couldn't untie them, but in the end, their teeth fell out instead.

The monster thought that what he saw was the ugliness of human nature, but what he saw and remembered was the hope of humanity.

In every single lifetime, he would encounter disgusting dark sides and people with ugly souls, but he would also meet people with beautiful souls. Those souls were like bright stars in the sky; as long as one was willing to look up, they could be seen.

Many years had passed since that lifetime, and Shen Changan felt he had done nothing wrong.

Humans had begun to learn how to overcome various difficulties and hardships on their own, no longer burying the living with the dead, and even the so-called "calamity stars" were rarely seen anymore. Although they still made mistakes, they were not beyond redemption.

"Look at you... sorry, I forgot you are no longer human." Shen Changan corrected himself, "Can't your mind be a bit more open and look further ahead? Don't always think about destroying the world, destroying humanity, and destroying the entire planet. Don't you watch TV or read manga and anime in your daily life?"

The monster: "..."

Shen Changan shook his head and sighed: "Most people who do such things end up with an extremely miserable end, while this world remains perfectly fine. With so many literary and artistic works, none of them could wake you up. Tell me, how foolish must your brain be?"

"Dao Nian, I feel like this person... looks familiar." Shen Changan gently nudged Dao Nian's stomach with his elbow. He didn't know if it was his illusion, but he felt that when he leaned against Dao Nian, the pain seemed to have lessened a lot.

Could this be the power of love? Can love make a person forget all pain?

"He was the tyrant who ordered your execution when you reincarnated in your first lifetime." Seeing Shen Changan pressing his entire body against him, Dao Nian quickly opened his arms, slightly adjusting his posture to make him lean more comfortably.

"Can you beat him up again?" Shen Changan seriously considered this question.

"Beat him to death directly?" Dao Nian pondered for a moment, "It's not impossible..."

"Wait." Shen Changan held Dao Nian's hand, "Help me up."

Dao Nian took his wrist instead, directly picking him up in a princess carry. Shen Changan wrapped his arms around his neck and pointed at the monster in the barrier: "Go over there."

Through the barrier, Shen Changan clearly saw the hideous and hideous face of this monster: "Did you also interfere with my destiny in this lifetime?"

The monster lay prone on the ground, letting out a hoarse laugh: "What do you want to ask about? Do you want to ask about your incomplete soul after your parents died, or your grandmother who always wanted you to die, or how you were always bullied by your classmates during your youth?"

"I was wrong." Shen Changan wrapped his arms around Dao Nian's neck, saying expressionlessly, "A person like you is not some villain at all; you can only be considered a scumbag with clumsy methods. No wonder in the end your country was ruined and your home was lost, and you were reviled by tens of thousands of citizens. A person born a tyrant, even if he lives for tens of thousands of years, is still just a low-character waste."

When Shen Changan was angry, there would be no expression on his face. He looked at this crazed monster and only after a long time did he say, "Your soul has long been twisted; you stopped being human long ago."

Closing his eyes, he hugged Dao Nian's neck and sighed, "Greed and desire so easily give birth to a twisted monster."

After Old Man Zhang hung up the phone with Minister Wang, he began to call Shen Changan, but for some reason, at the critical moment, Shen Changan's phone couldn't be reached.

"What's the use of finding a deity boyfriend?" Old Man Zhang threw his phone aside, stuffed his magical treasures into his bag, and said to the otaku ghost, "Hide well. Those fierce ghosts escaping from hell love to use ghosts like you as tonic the most."

"Don't worry, Daoist Master Zhang. I stay with everyone every day, so I've also learned some ghost-catching skills." Chen Yuan pressed down a ghost that was about to escape, and by the way, tied up the ghost-holding bag, "If you need any help, just let me know."

Old Man Zhang looked at Chen Yuan a few times: "How is your relationship with the nearby ghosts?"

"I'm not very close to the wandering ghosts outside, but I'm quite close to the ghosts who like to stay in other people's houses." Chen Yuan pulled out his phone, "What do you want to know? Let me help you ask."

"You ghosts... also have a chat group?"

"Of course we do. Even after becoming ghosts, we can't give up our interest in social media." Chen Yuan opened the chat group.

"To be able to go online with one's own ability, they must be very capable ghosts." Speaking of this, fearing that Daoist Master Zhang would catch all his online ghost friends, he deliberately explained, "Don't worry, they are not evil ghosts. They just linger in the human world because they like to go online."

Old Man Zhang: "To give up reincarnation just to go online, this spirit is truly commendable."

"Actually, not all of them are addicted to the internet and thus linger in the human world." Chen Yuan sighed, "The ghost netizen I met last month was only 17 years old when he died. Because he hadn't reached his destined time of death, he couldn't go down to the underworld. When he was alive, his academic performance was decent, but because he liked to play games, his parents, hoping their son would become a dragon, sent him to an internet addiction treatment center. That facility treated him with electroshock therapy, resulting in a sudden heart attack, and he was gone just like that."

"After he died, his parents shed tears and snot saying they regretted it, but what's the use?" Chen Yuan sneered, "There is only one life. Once it's gone, it's gone. Can a few words of regret save it?"

Old Man Zhang sighed. He had heard of such things before, but there was nothing he could do.

"Ask those friends of yours if anyone has seen Shen Changan." Old Man Zhang opened the attic door, "I'll go to the neighborhood to check. In case some dirty thing takes the opportunity to cause trouble, I can stop it."

Hearing this, Chen Yuan asked in the chat group while following Old Man Zhang downstairs.

There were quite a few elderly people downstairs in the neighborhood. Some were standing, some were sitting, but at this moment, they were all gathered together complaining that the power supply bureau hadn't notified them in advance about the power outage, preventing them from watching their favorite TV dramas.

Seeing Old Man Zhang coming down, they smiled and greeted him: "Old Zhang, going out to practice Tai Chi sword again?"

"Yes." Old Man Zhang smiled, "Going out for a stroll."

"A stroll is good. Since the power is out, there's nothing else to do anyway." An old lady said, "When the power comes back, I'll cook a pot of mutton soup with my husband. Tonight, when it's done, I'll bring you a bowl."

Old Man Zhang was stunned, forced a smile, and said, "Don't worry, the power will be back soon."

Walking out of the neighborhood where there wasn't a single ghost, the smile on Old Man Zhang's face disappeared. He looked at the gloomy sky, feeling as if a bone-chilling wind was seeping into his flesh.

"Daoist Brother Zhang."

Dharma Master Yan Yin, Grandmaster Yun Feng, and several other masters, some wearing Buddhist robes and some wearing Taoist robes, rushed over. Their expressions were grave, even carrying a hint of resolve.

"Didn't you all go to Mount Tai?" Old Man Zhang was a bit surprised to see Yun Feng, "Why are you back so quickly?"

"Before this, we calculated that the Vitality was in Wuming City. So after offering sacrifices to heaven at Mount Tai, we rushed back here. We didn't expect that as soon as the plane landed, this happened."

"How is the situation at the airport?"

"Not very good. Many planes have made emergency landings, and flights that haven't taken off don't dare to take off anymore." Grandmaster Yun Feng shook his head, "Other countries are the same. Rumors of the impending apocalypse have already begun to appear on the internet..."

"This is no longer a rumor." Old Man Zhang smiled bitterly, "If we can't overcome this hurdle, I'm afraid the end of the world will really come."

"Did Shen Changan say anything?" Yun Feng was stunned for less than two seconds before calming down.

"I can't contact him." Old Man Zhang shook his head, "The human world is already in such chaos, I don't know how the underworld is doing now."

"We'll know just by asking." Yun Feng's expression was heavy, "Since things have reached this point, we should also cooperate with the underworld."

"How do we ask?" Old Man Zhang was a bit helpless, "The people in the underworld don't use phones."

"Prepare an altar."

"Things are different now. Perhaps someone in the underworld will respond to us."

Grandmaster Yun Feng had guessed correctly. The underworld was also in chaos at this time, but unlike the human world, in the eyes of many female ghosts, the sudden chaos in the underworld was because those straight, toxic male ghosts were dissatisfied with the changes in the regulations of the Scissors Hell, so they deliberately went to cause trouble. Therefore, as soon as the chaos occurred in the underworld, several powerful female ghosts automatically stood up to help the ghost messengers maintain order.

If any evil ghosts took this opportunity to cause trouble, they would be pressed to the ground and beaten by the female ghosts together, then tied up with ropes and dragged before the ghost messengers.

Many male ghosts, to make a good impression in front of the ghost messengers and strive to reincarnate into a good family in their next life, were also very active in maintaining order, wishing they could write the words "I am a hound of hell" on their faces.

Therefore, after a brief moment of chaos, the underworld gradually restored its calm.

In the Hall of Yama, King Yama and the four judges did not breathe a sigh of relief because the underworld had restored its calm. They looked at the chaotic image of the mortal world from the Yin-Yang Mirror, realizing that something major was wrong.

"The Vitality is unstable." Judge Cui closed his eyes, sensing something in the air, "But it has gradually calmed down now. Although it is still weak, it hasn't reached a critical level."

"Do you mean the Dao of Vitality?" Judge Wei frowned, "Could it be that the Heavenly Dao has discovered the whereabouts of the Dao of Vitality and wanted to devour it but failed?"

"No." King Yama shook his head, "The Dao of Vitality has not disappeared because the Heavenly Dao is protecting it."

"But... doesn't the Dao of Vitality counter the Heavenly Dao?" Judge Zhong was puzzled, "Since when did the Heavenly Dao become so merciful?"

"Why do you all feel that the Heavenly Dao and the Dao of Vitality are enemies?" Judge Cui said, "Although the saying that the Dao of Vitality counters the Heavenly Dao has always existed, this is also just a rumor. For many years, our underworld has never found any trace of the Dao of Vitality, nor have we seen the Dao of Vitality and the Heavenly Dao in conflict. And the Heavenly Dao seems to have never deliberately searched for the Dao of Vitality. They are like the two most unfamiliar existences, neither ever encroaching upon the other. The so-called countering is just the wishful thinking of certain living beings."

"They don't counter each other, so could they be in love?" Judge Zhong waved his hand, "Then it's too late. Now, the Heavenly Dao loves humans the most."

Humans?

A flash of light crossed King Yama's mind, but quickly disappeared. He always felt he had overlooked a very important matter.

What was it?

Several wisps of smoke drifted into the Hall of Yama. Some of these wisps drifted in front of Judge Wei, some in front of several other judges, and some even drifted in front of King Yama.

"The deity-inviting incense of mortal cultivators?" Judge Wei caught the wisp of smoke, frowning, " We haven't responded to the deity-inviting incense of the mortal world for many years. In recent years, cultivators have also gradually become sensible and no longer invite us. Why did they suddenly use so much deity-inviting incense today?"

"Four judges, go meet them." King Yama released his hand, and the deity-inviting incense disappeared in the hall.

"Now that the human world is in chaos, this is a special time. Responding to the invitation of humans does not count as breaking the rules."

Across the Nine Provinces, in major temples and shrines, countless cultivators sat cross-legged, reciting scriptures to pray for peace.

The scriptures, along with the incense smoke, slowly rose into the sky, penetrating the sea of clouds, and finally gathered into an invisible stream that entered Shen Changan's body, repairing his wounded body.

Major power plants began to urgently activate power generation equipment.

Employees in different departments returned to their posts one after another.

Without traffic lights, there were still traffic police and traffic volunteers directing traffic.

The mobile phone signal was not good, but many neighborhoods and volunteers in the communities cooperated with each other.

Even hospitals dispatched ambulances to densely populated neighborhoods, and doctors in clinics and major pharmacists entered a state of emergency readiness.

Over the past hundreds of thousands of years, the ones who truly saved humanity were never deities, but humanity itself.

As long as they did not give up hope, there would always be a way to survive.