Chapter 278: End-of-Life Care, The Underground Kingdom (5k)

Watching Gauss rush off in a hurry to catch the bus to work, Wen Yan thought for a moment. Honestly, he actually kind of admired Gauss.

In some ways, this guy was pretty pure.

He said he wanted to experience the pain of working, so he really worked seriously. Except when he was on the job, helping patients absorb pain, at any other time he would never use his devil powers.

He lived just like an ordinary person, working hard to make a living, striving for his dreams.

It’s just that Gauss was fighting for his own dream.

After these few days, Wen Yan felt he shouldn’t laugh at Gauss. In terms of chasing dreams, Gauss was way purer than he was.

Although, being a devil, doing these things was honestly kind of weird...

Wen Yan thought it over carefully. What was he really doing it all for?

Thinking back, in his teenage years, it was for money, just to survive.

In his twenties, he worked hard to get into Virtue City Funeral House, all for the steady income and benefits here.

After so much happened, what was he doing it for now?

He glanced back at home—Sparrow Cat and Little Zombie, each holding a ripe tomato, happily sucking on it, while sitting together watching cartoons.

Guess it was still for a better life.

So he could live steadily, without crazy days like these, unable to sleep, wanting to order food delivery but not even able to do that.

All that hard martial training was for self-defense too.

He wasn’t like Qin Kun, or the legendary Tuoba Martial God, pursuing ever higher realms of the Martial Path, blazing trails where no one else had walked.

He practiced martial arts, but he never wanted to be number one in the world. Being able to protect himself was enough.

It’s just that right now, he was still far from even being able to protect himself.

Thinking back from childhood to his teens, to now, what he was after was always just a better life.

But everything that’s happened lately told him, the life he wanted wasn’t something he could make work just by doing his own thing well.

This time it was the Pain Demon Lord—what about next time?

Then he wouldn’t even be able to order takeout. Even if he wanted to tough it out, go out to eat on his own, there wouldn’t be a single open restaurant on the street. Craving milk tea? No chance.

He was starting to understand the reason for the Scorching Sun Department’s existence, and also started to see why Minister Cai went all out to avoid risks.

Everything he wanted depended on a stable big environment, on countless other people all living steadily within it as well.

So, he set himself a little goal.

Let his silly kid grow up healthy in a safe, steady environment.

And be able to have lots of food choices in the middle of the night if he wanted something to eat, and someone willing to deliver him a hot midnight snack.

At the very least, when he had money in his pocket, he could actually spend it, instead of this last time where he had cash but couldn’t spend it anywhere.

So, it’s simple: if someone stops me from enjoying my nice, easy little life, then don’t blame me for being ruthless.

With that thought, Wen Yan felt a lot more comfortable. That discomfort he’d been feeling lately—and why he found Gauss so irritating—was finally clear.

He wanted to kill Gauss because Gauss stirred up trouble and almost ruined his life.

He kept Gauss alive to avoid an even bigger mess if he killed Gauss and Gauss came back even worse.

So now that Gauss was behaving, hadn’t run off, and was even volunteering to go to work, Wen Yan found him more and more pleasing to the eye.

Thinking about it like this, there was no problem at all.

So for these few peaceful days, Wen Yan just went on with work as usual. When the weekend came, he planned to go wander around Yu State for a bit—Seventh Great-Uncle Master was still there, still had people to pick and more arrangements to negotiate, so things weren’t wrapping up soon.

First time working together, had to set an example for the future, couldn’t be sloppy or leave any hidden dangers—Seventh Great-Uncle Master took all this seriously.

That night, Wen Yan practiced his forms in the backyard as usual. In the middle of it, Old Zhao opened the door, shouting to Wen Yan.

"Wen Yan, quick, something’s happened."

Wen Yan finished up, then strode quickly to Old Zhao’s house entrance.

Looking inside, he saw a Ghost with a talisman on its forehead walking up from the basement.

Seeing clearly, Wen Yan was instantly shocked.

"Old Xi?"

Zhang Laoxi, with a talisman slapped on his forehead, wearing a Taoist robe, completely expressionless, hollow-eyed, walking outward—five brothers tried to stop him, but that talisman just flicked them right off.

Wen Yan stepped forward, reached out and tapped Zhang Laoxi’s forehead—Scorching Sun energy flared out, giving him a Blessing of Yang Energy.

Zhang Laoxi’s blank eyes finally regained a hint of focus.

He saw Wen Yan, then spoke immediately.

"Quick, report to the Scorching Sun Department, report to the Three Mountains and Five Ridges—there are Nether Souls causing trouble, preparing to build an underground Nether Soul Realm."

"Who killed you?"

"No one killed me. I used the Yin Spirit Possession Technique, but... if I could walk back here, it means seven days have passed already, so I must be dead."

Wen Yan quickly took out his phone and checked his call history.

Zhang Laoxi continued.

"It was supposed to be a simple thing, but I wanted to settle it thoroughly. Then I realized it wasn’t just a zombie case, there were Nether Souls too. The Nether Soul itself wasn’t that strong, but I never thought, just by accident, I’d dig up something big—a Nether Soul Realm. I got lost in there, had to risk using the Yin Spirit to leave my body, but luckily actually managed to walk out from the building behind."

"No, I talked to you on the phone just six days ago."

Zhang Laoxi checked the call time and shook his head.

"No time, there’s only two hours left. Go notify the Scorching Sun Department for me.

Tell the elders of my sect, I didn’t shame Fuyu Mountain. I couldn’t win, but at least I made it back to warn everyone.

With my strength, doing this much isn’t shameful."

"Let’s not talk about that. Tell me where your body is first, I’ll go retrieve it."