Chapter 65: Follow-up Move
Laugh and let bygones be bygones?
Cheng Yuan laughed. He laughed so hard his stomach started to hurt.
"Old Witch, back when you had the upper hand, why didn’t you want to laugh and let bygones be bygones? Now that you’re at a disadvantage, you suddenly do? How is it that you get to have it both ways?"
Wang Yuanju’s expression darkened. She knew this matter couldn’t be resolved peacefully. "Xiaocheng, the Jin Family admits defeat. Name your price. What will it take for you to let us go?"
"I have only one condition. Report how you conspired with powerful people to frame me for a crime I didn’t commit, getting me thrown in prison. Report it all truthfully to the Disciplinary Bureau. Make those influential figures who helped you pay the price, and we can consider this matter over."
When Cheng Yuan had said this before, Jin Tianxiang had dismissed it as a joke. But now, his heart was incredibly heavy.
’Is this really the only way?’
’But if I betray those powerful people, the Jin Family won’t be able to survive in Luocheng!’
Wang Yuanju understood her son’s hesitation. She said in a low voice, "Tianxiang, as long as the green mountains remain, there will be wood to burn! Our roots are in the Provincial City! Do as Brother Cheng says!"
Wang Yuanju’s words were a wake-up call. ’That’s right,’ he thought, ’our roots are in the Provincial City. The most important thing is to save our own skins first!’
’Cheng Yuan has humiliated us like this. The Wang Family in the Provincial City will never let him get away with it!’
"Fine! I’ll cooperate!"
Cheng Yuan snorted, then took out his phone and started recording. "President Jin, you may begin."
Jin Tianxiang gritted his teeth and recounted everything in painstaking detail—how he had conspired with the influential figures and how they had framed Cheng Yuan.
’Since I’m already betraying them, I might as well go all the way,’ he thought. ’I have to make sure they can never recover from this. Otherwise, the Jin Family is finished!’
"Cheng Yuan, I have a ledger at my house. It has enough evidence to put those people in prison for life. Do you want it?"
Cheng Yuan raised an eyebrow, not expecting this pleasant surprise.
"Take me to it."
"Okay."
Jin Tianxiang struggled to his feet. Together with Wang Yuanju, he helped up Qian Tieshou, who had a broken leg. Then, they led Cheng Yuan away from Huijing Garden.
An hour later, the group arrived at the Jin Family villa.
Jin Tianxiang shakily opened the safe, pulled out a small notebook, and handed it to Cheng Yuan.
"It’s all in here!"
Cheng Yuan flipped open the notebook. What he saw was shocking.
"You should have thought of the consequences before you acted."
Jin Tianxiang gritted his teeth. "Cheng Yuan, can you remove the curse for me now?"
Cheng Yuan grinned, revealing a set of pearly white teeth.
"Sure, I’ll help you remove the curse!"
Cheng Yuan circulated his Celestial Witch True Essence, channeling his full power into a Mystical Technique.
Cheng Yuan raised a hand and pointed. A black aura emerged from Jin Tianxiang’s body. The aura was freezing cold and coalesced into various shapes before finally taking the form of Jin Pengfei. The temperature in the bedroom instantly dropped by five or six degrees.
As if in a trance, Jin Tianxiang screamed at the shadowy figure of Jin Pengfei, "Pengfei! Dad treated you well! Don’t come back for me!"
"Spirits of heaven, spirits of earth, Witch God, lend me your Divine Power! I exorcise this sorrow, I exorcise this suffering, I gather this sinful soul to guide it toward rebirth!"
Cheng Yuan chanted, leaping about the bedroom like a shaman performing a ritual dance.
Cheng Yuan’s movements were comical, but none of the three onlookers could bring themselves to laugh.
Because as Cheng Yuan moved, a massive amount of black aura began to pour in from all corners of the room.
The aura gathered, swirling around Jin Pengfei’s shadow. The shadow grew larger and more solid until it formed a humanoid figure whose face was unmistakably that of Jin Pengfei.
Suddenly, a vortex of black aura materialized in front of Jin Pengfei, like a gateway to the Six Paths of Reincarnation.
Jin Pengfei suddenly dropped to his knees before Jin Tianxiang and Wang Yuanju. He kowtowed deeply several times, then rose and leaped into the black vortex.
The black vortex spun rapidly, swallowing Jin Pengfei in an instant.
The vortex gradually faded, and the bedroom returned to normal.
"President Jin, how do you feel? Is it better now?"
Jin Tianxiang took a moment to feel his surroundings. The room was warm again, and the terrifying presence that had made his heart pound was gone. He was ecstatic. "It’s gone! The curse is broken! Thank you for your mercy, Mr. Cheng. I must also ask you to please remove the needle from my mother."
Cheng Yuan nodded slightly and walked over to Wang Yuanju.
Removing the needle was much simpler.
Cheng Yuan simply patted Wang Yuanju’s body a few times. She felt a slight stinging pain on the top of her head as a Silver Needle emerged from her Baihui Acupoint.
Cheng Yuan twirled the freshly removed Silver Needle and said coolly, "There. From now on, the debt between us is paid."
Jin Tianxiang forced a smile. "The debt is paid."
Wang Yuanju glanced at Qian Tieshou, then asked hesitantly, "Mr. Cheng, your medical skills are so brilliant... could you heal Old Qian’s knee? I can pay you!"
"There’s no need for money. It’s a trivial matter."
Cheng Yuan took out a Silver Needle and pricked Qian Tieshou’s knee a few times. Qian Tieshou immediately felt the pain in his knee vanish and thanked Cheng Yuan profusely.
Cheng Yuan waved his hand and casually turned to leave.
Jin Tianxiang and Wang Yuanju obsequiously escorted Cheng Yuan out of the villa.
The moment the main door closed, a venomous light flashed in the eyes of Jin Tianxiang and Wang Yuanju. They would make Cheng Yuan pay for this monstrous humiliation in blood.
"Tianxiang, make the arrangements immediately. We’re going to the Provincial City!"
"Right!"
...
What Jin Tianxiang and Wang Yuanju didn’t know was that after walking out of the villa, an equally ruthless glint had flashed across Cheng Yuan’s face. He understood the importance of cutting the weeds and pulling up the roots.
However, the Jin Family had security cameras, as did Huijing Garden. If he killed them both, it would be impossible to explain.
So, if they were to die in the Provincial City, or go insane there, it would no longer be his problem.
Cheng Yuan found a hidden corner and formed a hand seal. Jin Pengfei’s shadowy form suddenly erupted from the soil.
Cheng Yuan pointed a finger, and Jin Pengfei’s shadow slipped back into the villa, heading straight for Jin Tianxiang.
Cheng Yuan had left a contingency on Jin Tianxiang. Even if he ran to the ends of the earth, Jin Pengfei’s Residual Soul would be able to find him.
That was right. Cheng Yuan had no intention of being so kind as to actually exorcise Jin Pengfei’s spirit. He had merely used the black aura to feed it, making it stronger.
Cheng Yuan had refined Jin Pengfei into a Yin Pet.
Previously, the most Jin Pengfei could do was frighten Jin Tianxiang in his dreams.
But now, Jin Pengfei could directly destroy Jin Tianxiang’s Sea of Consciousness, driving him mad or turning him into an imbecile.
His plan for Wang Yuanju was even more vicious.
While removing the needle, Cheng Yuan had punctured one of her cerebral blood vessels, using his Celestial Witch True Essence to temporarily plug the wound. In about three hours, the blood vessel in Wang Yuanju’s brain would rupture.
As for Qian Tieshou? He had injured his father. His death was a certainty.
Cheng Yuan had coated the Silver Needle in a rare poison. The moment Qian Tieshou experienced any intense emotional fluctuation, the poison would activate.
With that, Cheng Yuan had finally, truly taken his revenge.
’No, not quite,’ he thought. ’I still have to send those powerful officials to prison.’
With everything taken care of, Cheng Yuan hailed a taxi and headed home.
It was time to look into the matter of his father and the Jujube Tree Immortal.