Chapter 190: The Shattered Dao Heart

Song Xizheng was so startled he sat bolt upright from where he’d been lying half-dead, thoroughly frightened out of his wits.

Was that enormous float about to send him flying clean off the vehicle entirely?

He had to admit, in that particular moment, he’d genuinely panicked without any restraint whatsoever.

What on earth had Linglan gone and done?! How had these tourists ended up completely losing their minds like this?!

Song Xizheng hurriedly began gathering his things together for the road ahead, since he’d surely need them on the way.

Thud—

A loud crash sounded from somewhere outside.

"Holy crap, this is insane! Absolutely, completely insane!"

Song Xizheng felt certain he had to run now, or he’d end up not just with a broken float, but ejected from the shelter entirely as well.

Or worse — outright killed instead!

Muttering curses under his breath, he tucked his weapon away on his person, dashed toward the doorway, and peered through the peephole to check on the situation outside.

Lin Yun wasn’t sitting idle either; she’d stepped out of her own shelter to survey the surrounding area.

Song Xizheng would most likely come this way eventually. Given just how unlucky he tended to be, she figured she might as well scope out the area around here on his behalf.

That poor kid, honestly — what rotten luck he seemed to have.

After the float across from his crashed into his own once more, the door finally gave way and broke apart.

The shelter ejected Song Xizheng out into the open.

Song Xizheng tumbled straight into the float, but paid no mind whatsoever to the pain, quickly checking on the situation outside instead.

Perhaps because the float no longer looked worth targeting, the tourist driving the other vehicle went on to crash into several other parked floats nearby instead.

Song Xizheng glanced down at his own clothes, gritted his teeth, and scrambled off the float at once.

Several tourists noticed Song Xizheng climbing down and were momentarily startled before giving chase.

But after catching the faint scent of lubricant clinging to him, they simply turned and walked away without a word.

What was that strange, lifeless puppet doing hiding inside the car anyway? It had momentarily tricked them into thinking he was food.

The tricolor vests found it odd that puppets had turned up here of all places, but they had no time to look into it any further.

Song Xizheng slipped away from the whole troublesome scene around the float using his own graceful evasive footwork.

"Hey, what a coincidence, Song Xizheng!" George called out, greeting him cheerfully.

Song Xizheng: "???"

But George had no time to actually chat with him, being far too busy trying to make his own escape.

A whole crowd of ghosts, having chased him straight out of the haunted house, trailed right along behind him.

This left Song Xizheng utterly and completely dumbfounded.

Song Xizheng: "Wow!"

He decided not to dwell on it further, and mapping out his route mentally, ran off toward the parent-child interaction area while keeping a careful eye on his surroundings.

Half an hour later, Song Xizheng peeked out cautiously from behind some bushes, looking thoroughly suspicious in every way.

He glanced around to check the situation, then withdrew back into hiding, intending to stay close against the bushes instead.

Song Xizheng was absolutely covered in branches and weeds by this point, looking every bit like some kind of wild man from the forest.

Perched right on top of his head was even a thick, uh... um!

Lin Yun stared silently at the furtive, wriggling creature crouched in the grass and said nothing at all.

After a two-second pause, she quickly opened her personal panel and snapped a couple of photos.

Song Xizheng was still carefully wriggling along when suddenly someone patted him twice on the shoulder.

He froze completely instantly, not daring to move.

He turned his head stiffly and realized, ah, it was Sister Lin — she was safe after all.

"You little darling, you really are something else."

"No one’s around right now, come with me."

Under Lin Yun’s utterly indescribable gaze, Song Xizheng let out a couple of awkward chuckles, tossed away the tree branch he’d been clutching (he had no idea where it had even broken off from), and followed along behind her.

As they passed by a particular spot, Lin Yun let out a couple more soft meows.

A short while later, Sang Biao and Tuan Tuan came rushing back to rejoin them.

"Get out of here already!"

The two people and their two animals crept back toward the mushroom house together like a group of sneaky thieves.

"You can pick one to hide in, I’m heading off now." Lin Yun gestured toward the mushroom houses once more.

Song Xizheng nodded, turned around, and went off to find a suitable shelter for himself, careful not to look in whatever direction Lin Yun had gone.

He didn’t pick some hidden corner spot; since only one day remained, he simply chose the outermost mushroom house available instead.

Shortly afterward, Song Xizheng sent a message.

Song Xizheng: "Woohoo, I’m alive!"

Song Xizheng: "Damn it, who else truly understands the beauty of being suddenly thrown out of a sanctuary while completely oblivious to any danger?"

Song Xizheng: "I get it now, truly and deeply."

Lin Yun replied as well: "[Image] [Image] [Image]"

Song Xizheng: "?"

Song Xizheng: "..."

Lin Yun stared at the chat window for another two full minutes, then scratched her head, puzzled. Was something wrong with her own profile? Why weren’t any messages coming through at all?

[Host, only you could possibly take photos this abstract.]

[If you submitted this photo to our internal photography contest, you’d be guaranteed to win first place, no question.]

"Really? He could actually take first place?"

[The package assigned to the host happens to rank dead last.]

[Last place still technically counts as first place, in its own way.]

"I really hope you can keep talking to me like that in the next world too."

Lin Yun let out another snort. In just a few more days, she’d be back in the spotlight herself! She fully intended to expose the system’s true colors to everyone!

The system fell instantly silent once more.

They’d already behaved themselves for now, but no doubt they’d try something again eventually.

A long while passed, quiet and uneventful for once.

From another mushroom house nearby, Song Xizheng suddenly let out a sharp, explosive scream: "Aaaaaah! Delete it! Delete it right now, Sister Lin!!!"

Song Xizheng: "My face may not be handsome enough to be outrageous, sure, but it’s certainly not that unflattering either!"

"Delete it! Delete it, please!!!"

Song Xizheng’s inner composure, his whole Daoist heart, had been utterly, thoroughly shattered.

After receiving Song Xizheng’s broken, defeated voice message, Lin Yun closed her personal panel with tremendous satisfaction.

Ah, what a wonderful little photo shoot that had turned out to be!

Lin Yun remained completely oblivious to the turmoil happening outside, simply lying there peacefully instead.

...

Vivian stared coldly at Linglan standing before her, cradling yet another rabbit doll in her arms.

"How impressive. I certainly never expected you’d be capable of pulling off something like this."

Linglan stared back at Vivian with an equally cold expression on her face.

Honestly, she was genuinely afraid of Vivian deep down; she had no real idea just how powerful the girl truly was.

A man in black robes stood behind Vivian, and Linglan worried he might suddenly step in to assist her at any moment.

"Linglan, if you hand the item over now, I’m willing to forgive you this once."

Vivian had been in a foul mood ever since her teddy bear went missing. She’d been searching for it for quite some time now, yet had turned up no trace of it whatsoever.

On top of that, a key and a scroll had also gone missing, one right after the other.

Every clue pointed straight back to Linglan.

Linglan had no idea exactly how Vivian had figured it out, but if those particular items ever got out, she wouldn’t even know what had killed her.

Linglan said nothing at all; she simply didn’t believe a word Vivian was saying.

"Heh, not going to say anything at all? Fine, that’s perfectly fine by me."

"Linglan, I know perfectly well you’ve been looking after Tong Yin all this time, and you certainly don’t want her to die, do you?"

Linglan was visibly shaken. "What exactly did you do to Tong Yin?!"

Although she’d had Rose hide Tong Yin away somewhere, she couldn’t be entirely certain the hiding spot Rose had chosen was actually safe.

"Why don’t you take a guess."

Vivian smiled faintly, then turned and walked away without another word.

Since somebody had gone and hidden herself away, they might as well just flatten the entire amusement park instead.

That way, absolutely everyone could be found, one way or another.

She had to get her belongings back; she had to keep her family alive, no matter the cost — even if that meant becoming a monster herself in the process.

Bonus Chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it. ⁦(⁠/⁠^⁠-⁠^⁠(⁠^⁠ ⁠^⁠*⁠)⁠/⁩