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  Yin Min arrived at Chuan Yue Gorge with the police and special forces, only to find that the thugs were about to shoot and kill Cheng Zhou. However, a young man standing next to one of the thugs suddenly pushed him away while holding a child, and then ran towards Cheng Zhou while shouting "Run quickly!"

  Another bandit raised his gun and the pre-positioned sniper immediately fired at the bandit.

  The thug who was knocked open by the young man raised his gun and fired back in the direction of the sniper, then pulled up another injured thug and ran.

  The special police went after them.

  Chengzhou rushed towards the young man who was holding a child and snatched the child from his arms.

  The young man saw a large number of police officers and immediately knelt down on the ground with his hands covering his head, crying.

  In the end, the two culprits ran away, and despite a large-scale deployment of police in Chizhou, they were not caught.

  While being controlled by the police, a young man named Lí Tiān voluntarily surrendered to the police and said that he was a computer engineer coerced by an evil cult, mainly in charge of the network.

  According to Li Tian, he was initially recruited online and did not know the purpose of these people. Later, during work, he discovered that they were not good people and had escaped once. On the way, he met Cheng Zhou and his son who were visiting the Ghost Castle, so he handed over a piece of paper with the cult's address and server password to Cheng Zhou.

  The police asked him why he didn't report it directly, and he said he was afraid of being implicated himself.

  In Lian Tian's continuous confession, a case development process gradually formed in the minds of the police:

  Chengzhou is really unlucky!

  He was already noticed by the cult because of his contact with Li Tian, and then Chen Yan, who went to the cult to find friends, called him for help. Cheng Zhou took the child to report to the police, and the cult that had been monitoring Cheng Zhou and his son thought that Li Tian might have revealed some secret to him.

  The cult then sent someone to abduct Cheng Hongye in order to threaten Cheng Zhou.

  Later, the police took Cheng Chou to Jiuhua Mountain to find his son. The evil cultists who had received the news one step ahead directly broke into the temporary work site of the police, and after shooting and seriously injuring a detective, they forced Cheng Chou to leave. They wanted to ask Cheng Chou what he and the police knew, and for this purpose, they also brought Lei Tian along.

  Just in time, the police arrived and rescued Cheng Choung's father and son, as well as Li Tian, who had turned himself in and tried to save them.

  Soon after, under Lian Tian's guidance, the police also found six survivors trapped in a very secret cave nearby, as well as the scene of the massacre.

  Unfortunately, the scoundrels had received news in advance and had all run away. And Lei Tian, who was the only one to know the details, did not know the true identity of those scoundrels either, because those evil cult scoundrels always wore masks and wore cassock-like robes.

  Although Li Tian cannot be released for the time being, he is not a major offender and was deceived and coerced. In the end, he also saved people and may eventually escape imprisonment.

  All this is after the event, let's not mention it for now.

  As for Cheng Zhou, he went back to work on the second day after returning home.

  Many people in the company wanted to come over and ask him about Chen Yan and his son, but after seeing his expression, no one dared to approach.

  Chengzhou visited Chenyan in the hospital after work, Chenyan expressed his gratitude sincerely and said he had caused trouble for him.

  Chen Yan had forgotten everything that happened on Jiuhua Mountain, just like the others who were rescued, including why she called Cheng Zhou for help - it wasn't until the police asked her that she found out.

  The hospital's interpretation is that Chen Yan was likely hypnotized by the cult like other rescued people, resulting in problems with her memory.

  The police gave an official explanation for the incident: it was all a large-scale online scam orchestrated by a cult organization to make money.

  Chen Yan's memory only stayed with going to rescue friends who were deceived by the cult, but after learning that she had already died, he wanted to report to the police, but as a result, he was trapped by the cult.

  Chen Yan also expressed deep apologies for involving her own son in the kidnapping by the cult after receiving Cheng Zhou's distress call.

  She said that she must have been flustered at the time and couldn't see the phone keys clearly while being detained, so she accidentally dialed Cheng's number - the police also thought so.

  As Cheng Chou walked out of Chen Yan's hospital room, he could still hear Chen Yan's mother asking her daughter if she had feelings for him, and then solemnly reminding her: "That man already has a child, don't get confused, being a stepmother is not easy!"

  Cheng Zhou then went to see Meng, who had been transferred back to Zijin City and was still hospitalized.

  Meng Han's condition is not bad, and his spirit is also quite good. The hospital has confirmed that he does not have stomach cancer, but rather a more severe case of gastric ulcer.

  "I heard you saved one of our colleagues this time, is that true?" Meng Han asked with a smile.

  "Where was it that he himself brought the tape to save him." Cheng Zhou deliberately asked, "By the way, why did he bring such a big roll of tape on his body?"

  "Haha! I heard that after that kid was rescued back, many people stared at him and asked him this question. So do you know what he said?"

  Chengzhou nodded in agreement.

  "He said... because that day his girlfriend called him and said the adhesive tape for sticking boxes was not enough, asking him to bring a roll back home after work. His girlfriend was preparing to move in with him and was packing her luggage. Haha, isn't that kid lucky?"

  Cheng Zhou left the police officer's ward with a slightly improved mood, his efforts had not been in vain, and the young technical detective was finally rescued.

  Unfortunately, on the way back, due to being accompanied by police, he didn't have the opportunity to go to Chizhou train station to look for the recipient. This feeling of having something weighing on his mind was unbearable, so he planned to take the train again to Chizhou this weekend.

  He thought that once he had solved all these bizarre events, perhaps his life, which had deviated from the normal track, would return to a correct, ordinary but safe path.

  And among these bizarre events, what gave him the most headaches and was also the hardest to resolve was...

  When he was almost home, Chengzhou inexplicably turned into a nearby supermarket and bought a pack of cigarettes.

  The dinner table at home is still very lively today.

  Cheng Chuan was still arguing with his son and competing with him to eat food, He Sheng smiled and watched them, while Situ buried his head and ate fiercely - because Situ's appetite was three times that of others, the living expenses of Cheng's family had doubled in just a few days.

  However, in the midst of the bustle, He Sheng couldn't help but cast a worried glance at Situ, and he could tell that something was off about Cheng Chou's situation.

  Situ raised his head and casually picked up a pair of chopsticks to toss some food into his bowl, "Eat! You're not old yet, why worry so much."

  He Sheng quietly ate his rice.

  "By the way, there's something I forgot to tell you." Si Tu said to Cheng Chou.

  "What's wrong?" Cheng Zhou turned his head to look at him.

  "That day, among the four people who attacked us, there was a woman who was quite fierce. Li Jiacheng almost couldn't hold on, but just as that woman was hitting you near, a little doll suddenly jumped out of your body, and that little doll rushed to that woman's body and shouted 'Mom'."

  "Ah……" Cheng Chou thought of the little kid in the dark room of the haunted castle. Because he didn't know how to help him find his mom, he kept carrying those two porcelain dolls with him. Unexpectedly, one saved him, and the other helped them out at the same time when finding his mom.

  "What's next?" Cheng Zhou asked hastily.

  "The woman recognized her own child and stopped hitting, no matter how much the little monk threatened her. Later, Li Jiacheng promised to let her go to the underworld with her child together, not separating them. The woman then hugged her child and waited on one side. She asked us to tell you that she and her child are very grateful to you."

  This is the second good thing I heard today, and Cheng Zhou smiled with his eyes narrowed.

  Cheng Chou's familiar figure reappeared, and He Sheng, feeling a little more at ease, gave Si Tu an approving glance.

  Hong Ye looked left and right, then gloomily bit the pork ribs into two segments with one mouthful.

  "What is that little monk after all?" Cheng Zhou asked.

  Situ and He Sheng looked at the red leaves together.

  "Stop staring at me! Can't you see I'm trying to have a conversation here? Continue!"

  What was done in secret has now become a settled matter.

  Cheng Zhou smiled and looked at his son, "Hong Ye, tell this stupid and foolish dad, is that little monk human?"

  Hongye felt a lump in her throat, put down her chopsticks on the table and stopped eating.

  "It is and it isn't."

  "What does it mean?"

  "It is a human spirit plus the accumulation of countless evil thoughts over time. The spirit comes from a thousand-year-old mountain child who fell off the mountain and was not found by his family, so the child's bones remained under the valley. Due to the heavy yin energy in the area, he was able to preserve his bones and spirit, which is very nostalgic for the feeling of being alive and has always hoped to return to the human world."

  Hong Ye swore that he didn't want to explain, but seeing his father's forced smile, his mouth involuntarily blurted out everything.

  "Is that the skeleton you burned?" Cheng Zhou looked at the red ribs on the table and also put down his bowl and chopsticks.

  The red leaves nodded.

  "Evil thoughts are the collective negative emotions of mountain monks, incense guests and tourists. At first, evil thoughts were just a half of self that a certain high monk who had been practicing asceticism in a cave on Mount Jiuhua 1,500 years ago intentionally discarded, this half of self is the part of the soul of the high monk that is commonly referred to as the main evil."

  That evil thought originally had no consciousness, but due to a coincidence and the fusion with the mountain wild child's spirit, it gained self-awareness from then on. It slowly began to intentionally absorb the evil thoughts of the monks and believers on the mountain to strengthen itself.

  For thousands of years, as the number of tourists on the mountain increased day by day, all kinds of negative emotions also increased. As a result, the evil thoughts gradually gained momentum and found that if they wanted to move up to the next level and gain physical form, one soul and one spirit were not enough, but three souls and seven spirits must be complete.

  Cheng Chou thought for a moment and asked: "It's just to absorb the three souls and seven spirits of others by creating a rift in the gorge? Then why does it need to find so many people?"

  "Not everyone's soul can merge with their own. That little monk has been absorbing until now, but he has only barely managed to get one soul and two spirits, adding to what he originally had, it's just two souls and three spirits."

  "Why did it deliberately send people to travel through time?"

  Hong Ye replied, "There are two reasons. Firstly, its entity cannot leave the corpse of that child at the foot of Jiuhua Mountain because the magnetic field there is special, which restricts its movement and also protects it. If it were to rashly run out like this, its soul would easily be dispersed. Even if it wouldn't, if it were to harm people, it would alarm the underworld authorities, who would send the yin si (a group of ghostly enforcers) to capture it."

  "How did you know so clearly?" Cheng Zhou wondered.

  Red Leaf patted her own belly, "I haven't digested it yet, and I want to know what's convenient."

  He Sheng and Situ exchanged a glance, at that time Hong Ye clearly told the little monk to lock it in his belly and digest it for a hundred years, just thinking about the pain...

  He was obviously a thousand times more hostile to anyone who dared to touch his reserve grain.

  "Haven't you digested it yet? Won't you get a stomachache?" Cheng Zhou's expression looked very calm, and his tone of asking his son was as if he was asking if he had eaten some spoiled meat dish.

  "I won't."

  "What about the second one?"

  Hong Ye was taken aback, wanting to erupt in anger, but he forcibly suppressed it. He wanted to see how long this timid and fearful big fool could pretend with him!

  "Second, it can't find a suitable soul so it plans to cultivate one itself. The spaces within the boundary are the worlds that those people crossed over into, also the game and animation scenes brought by Li Tian, and even more so, the nurturing grounds for Little Monk to cultivate souls suitable for himself."

  "Where did Yang Xin go after crossing over at first?"

  "Within its boundaries, it can create illusions, but after all, its capabilities are limited, so later on, it chose to use servers as the boundary, using game and animation scenes as carriers to set up a large number of illusory spaces."

  "You're saying..."

  "The little monk projected his consciousness into that server, utilizing the local special magnetic field and his cultivated illusion skills to form a unique interface within the server. And this interface still has a part connected to reality, which is the building those police took you to."

  "Why does it have to use two servers?"

  Hong Ye doesn't quite understand this, he is still studying it.

  "Perhaps it's related to the strength of his power," said Sze-to, "Red Leaf said it can't leave its original location, so if it wants to appear elsewhere and affect more people, it needs a projection."

  The server in Li Tian's house is the projection of its main body. Through this server, its branches can come out and affect those who log on to the servers locally.

  "But for those who log in from other cities, because they are farther away from the server, the impact can be ignored."

  "So that's why the police said they only found missing persons related to the crossing in Chizhou and Zigong..."

  "Yes. Fortunately, you were sensitive to the crisis and discovered that it was crossing this strange event in time, so you suppressed the little monk's conspiracy in time. Otherwise, when its projection spreads throughout China, no, just spreading across a province, and its entity can move on the server, we will find it difficult to catch again."

  Chengzhou figured it out and rubbed his nose, feeling a bit embarrassed.

  Compared with Situ's flattering words with ulterior motives, He Sheng's praise was much more sincere.

  "Yes, this time Cheng Ge really made a big profit, saving seven people! Including the policeman who was possessed and the one who was shot, that's nine in total."

  Chengzhou's mood has greatly improved and he can't help but curve up the corners of his mouth into a smile.

  Hongye stretched out her tender fingers and poked his mouth, "If you had bought me a computer earlier and let me go online, I might have caught Little Monk by now!"

  Chengzhou grasped his son's mischievous little hand and suppressed the soaring emotions once again. He now finally understood everything.

  "In other words, in the end those who crossed over all transferred their souls into a single-player game on a server? And in the end these people's souls will all disappear... no, change into the kind of soul that others need? After that realm is destroyed, can these people's souls still be saved?"

  "That's Li Jiacheng's business." Hong Ye said impatiently.

  "He said as long as the heavenly soul and earthly soul are still around, it can be saved."

  "What about theirs? Were they all thrown away as trash?"

  "No, Little Monk has another collaborator, the big fellow you drained dry. He likes to eat human flesh, and Little Monk provides it for him in exchange for electricity to run his servers." Red Leaf cut in ahead of He Sheng, almost intentionally.

  Cheng Zhou slapped the table.

  Everyone looked at him together, and Hong Ye revealed an evil smile.

  "I have another question, I remember Lian Tian saying that later on, the little monk had a requirement for the traverser to do some things before crossing over. Only those who did it could cross over. What did it ask those people to do? And what was its purpose?"

  "Oh, this...". Hong Ye saw that he hadn't achieved his goal and felt a little disappointed. He suddenly missed the old dad who would jump up at the slightest stimulation.

  Cheng Chou looked at him.

  "I won't tell you, humph!" Hong Ye stood up, turned her head and left.

  "Hey! You little brat, how dare you tease me like that? Come back here!"