Chapter 1 The Truth

So that's how it is. Zhang Yuanqing put down the corpse-suppressing talisman, his mind reeling.

"When my dad drew this talisman, he wasn't yet a Lingjing Xingzhe. The Xiaoyao School really is an organization passed down from ancient Night Tourers. Although they couldn't cultivate in the Dharma Ending Age, the 'Dao lineage' was preserved until modern times, kept in a small Daoist temple."

"The name of the Xiaoyao organization comes from this ancient sect."

"Wait, doesn't the World's End sound a lot like the Light Compass's prophecy?"

"Does World's End refer to the Dharma Ending Age? Unlikely. The Dharma Ending Age is the gradual withering of spiritual energy, which is different from the World's End. Could it secretly refer to the cause of the spiritual energy's decline?"

If the reason for the depletion of spiritual energy is attributed to the "World's End," then the logic makes sense.

In the distant past, there was a disaster that could be called the World's End, and then spiritual energy began to wither, and cultivators became weaker generation after generation.

And in the myths of various countries, there are also many legends about the ancient World's End.

"That's really possible. I remember Mr. Bill said that the Third District has not been opened until now. Whether the Third District is open or not is not important, but the important thing is that Mr. Bill has fantasized that the closure of the Third District is related to the Twilight of the Gods in mythology. The Twilight of the Gods is a disaster of the World's End level."

In addition, doesn't the Second World's End mentioned by my deadbeat dad coincide with the Light Compass's prophecy?

Damn, this Xiaoyao organization is a bit terrifying. They predicted the Second World's End in the distant past... Zhang Yuanqing thought, his scalp tingling.

"Uncle! Where did those Daoists go back then?"

If he was anxious just now, then now he was excited, so excited that he was shaking all over.

If he could find the people from Xiaoyao Temple, find the ancient books that had been preserved, he might be able to understand more information and secrets.

"Some were caught, some escaped." Zhang Zitao said, "At that time, the organization sent a group of people to smash the Daoist temple, and all the things inside were burned in a fire."

All burned, all scattered. Zhang Yuanqing couldn't hide his disappointment.

Saying goodbye to his distant uncle, Zhang Yuanqing drove back to Songhai. Along the way, his mind was filled with thoughts, and he repeatedly recalled the information he had obtained today.

The speeding car suddenly braked sharply on the side of the road.

"There's no point in thinking wildly. I have to do a profile of my dad." Zhang Yuanqing had an idea and opened the gang's warehouse.

Not the "Return of the Dead" warehouse, but the "White Tiger Guard" warehouse.

Through the permissions opened by Fu Qingyang, he quickly scanned the item bar, read the item attributes, and found a suitable prop.

Then he submitted an application to Young Master Qian to take the prop.

[Ding! Your application has been approved! Please check the prop in the item bar.]

A Lingjing prompt sounded in his ear.

This was a pipe, named "The Great Detective's Pipe." Continuously smoking this pipe could grant super strong logic, reasoning, profiling abilities, and keen insight.

This is simply the prop I dreamed of in my adolescence. The great detective Zhang Yuanzi should have such a pipe. Zhang Yuanqing opened the car window, leaned on the back of the chair, and took a hard puff of the pipe.

The taste of burning tobacco was spicy and pungent. In the past, he, who didn't smoke, would cough until his face was red, and his eyes were streaming with tears, but for a Star Officer, even Dichlorvos could be drunk in one gulp!

What was mere tobacco?

Zhang Yuanqing leaned on the back of the chair, closed his eyes, and took one puff after another, silently blowing smoke.

His brain became more and more clear. His father, Zhang Zizhen's, family background, personality, living environment, growth background, and style of doing things various pieces of information surged, but were well-organized, logically clear, and not messy.

Gradually, a vivid image appeared before his eyes. He pieced together a true Zhang Zizhen.

—A difficult life made him yearn to be extraordinary. After accidentally seeing the ancient books in the Daoist temple, he deeply believed in the contents recorded in them and began to portray himself as a savior, as a descendant of an ancient declining sect, rather than a rural boy with a difficult and ordinary background.

But even a savior has to eat, so he used the fake tricks learned in the Daoist temple to swindle and deceive. In order to make his words more convincing, and also to convince himself, he arranged for himself an incredible identity the reincarnation of the Ziwei Emperor.

He struggled alone for more than ten years. As he received education, read books, and became enlightened, he gradually stopped believing in the contents of the ancient books and gradually stopped mentioning the things in the Daoist temple.

Until one day, he, who had learned to draw talismans and had a rough understanding of the Night Tourer's skills, accidentally obtained a character card and became a Lingjing Xingzhe.

Witnessing the existence of superpowers, he discovered that everything recorded in the ancient books was true. From then on, he rekindled his childhood dreams, vowing to become a savior, but he had grown up and was no longer frivolous, so he silently leveled up, befriended three like-minded friends, and formed the "Xiaoyao" organization.

He shouted the slogan "In order to prevent the world from being destroyed."

That's right, the Xiaoyao organization's slogan was not a shot in the dark, not a joke, but had a reason and source. With the advent of the Light Compass, the Xiaoyao Four verified the records in the ancient books and decided to find the "Sun, Moon, and Stars" in the prophecy. Their disappearance was definitely not because of feuds or dungeons. They were a team with lofty ideals and a clear purpose.

They succeeded, or, were close to succeeding, but in the end encountered terrible changes. On the road to analyzing the truth of the World's End, they encountered obstacles and enemies.

Reluctantly, the Four had no choice but to disappear and hide.

Chu Shang, one of the Twin Suns of Lieyang, was from a prominent family, and it was useless to hide him. He was the first to encounter an accident, followed by Zhang Zizhen, the founder of the Xiaoyao organization.

The Twin Shadows were of unknown life or death, but were also likely to have encountered an accident.

Zhang Zizhen was unwilling to let his years of hard work and dreams go to waste, so he hid the secret in his son's soul.

He passed on his dream to his son, and then faced death calmly.

The profiling ended, Zhang Yuanqing took off the pipe and opened his eyes.

Many details could only be glossed over, because the existing information could only deduce a general process!

"Next, two things need to be determined. One: Did the Night Rose and the Soldiers of the Holy Light destroy the Chu family in order to seize the rule-type item to revive the leader of the Night Rose, or is there another reason behind it, or is someone using this to promote the demise of the Chu family?

"Two: The identities and backgrounds of the Twin Shadows."

Finding these two people and confirming whether they are dead or alive will verify my profile. As my dad's best friends, even if my mom doesn't know them, she should have an impression. I'll ask her about it.

Zhang Yuanqing glanced at his phone. The time was 11:00 a.m. He calculated the time difference. It should be morning in the area where his mother was.

He opened his address book and dialed "Chen Shu's" number.

"I'm sorry, the phone you dialed is turned off..." Huh? Still turned off?! Zhang Yuanqing's eyebrows shot up, sensing something was wrong.

His mom was a businesswoman, not a shut-in who would die at home without anyone noticing. She had to contact customers and employees every day, and had a lot of business to deal with. How could she keep her phone turned off for so long!

"Try calling her work phone."

Zhang Yuanqing remembered that his mom had two phones, one for personal use and one for work.

Maybe her personal phone was broken, and she was too lazy to fix it or replace it, but her work phone couldn't be turned off too, right?

His mom was a person who clearly distinguished between public and private matters. Zhang Yuanqing, as her son, didn't know her work number, but that didn't matter.

He sent a text message to Mr. Bill:

"Mr. Bill, I need you to do me a favor. Can you tell me my mother's number?"

A dozen seconds later, Mr. Bill replied with a message, sending a string of numbers (country code + phone number).

Zhang Yuanqing dialed the number, and a familiar voice, prompting the phone to be turned off, came from the speaker.

"?"

Did something happen to my mom? Zhang Yuanqing was shocked, and then a strong sense of panic and fear surged, his face instantly turned pale, and his adrenaline soared to the limit!

With a stiff face and slightly trembling fingers, he dialed Mr. Bill's phone number. After the other party answered, he said quickly:

"Mr. Bill, do you have a way to contact my mom immediately, not by phone, but in reality? Both of her phones are turned off. Something might have happened to her."

His voice didn't tremble, it was the final stubbornness of the Yuanshi Tianzun who had experienced life and death.

"I understand, please wait a moment." Mr. Bill's tone suddenly became serious.

The phone hung up, Zhang Yuanqing waited anxiously, his fingers unconsciously tapping the steering wheel, quickly and urgently.

About half a minute later, Mr. Bill's phone call came. Zhang Yuanqing immediately answered the phone, asking urgently and nervously:

"What's the result?!"

Mr. Bill's laughter came from the phone: "Your mother is fine. I just called her and contacted her. Well, she said she doesn't want to talk to you recently and has blocked your phone number."

Zhang Yuanqing was stunned. He hung up the phone silently.

I'm worried to death here, and she blocked me? Veins popped out on Zhang Yuanqing's forehead, and the chewing muscles on both sides of his cheeks bulged fiercely!

After a few seconds, he grabbed his phone and edited a text message to Mr. Bill.

"Mr. Bill, please tell her for me, just say I f**k your mom." Zhang Yuanqing quickly deleted it and re-edited: "Tell her, I "his granddaddy...."

Zhang Yuanqing deleted it again, his fingers trembling as he randomly clicked on the screen, but he didn't know how to curse, because he realized that for some people, if you scold them, you're the one who gets hurt.

After a few seconds of silence, he threw the phone on the passenger seat.

Enraged, he vented his anger on the steering wheel:

"F**k, f**k, f**k!"

A few minutes later.

"Hey, Queen, call a tow truck over here, I'll send you a location. No, I didn't have a car accident. The steering wheel was blown out by me. Why did I blow out the steering wheel? Because I wanted to blow out my mom's dog head, okay? You talk too much, you know? I'm asking you to do something, and if you say another word, I'll come back and hang you up and beat you."

"Right away, right away, Captain, don't be so fierce."

After waiting in place for half an hour, Zhang Yuanqing in the car heard a deep engine roar. Looking in the direction of the sound, a sapphire blue supercar came speeding towards him.

As it approached the small car parked on the side of the road, the sports car performed a dragon swing tail, drifting 180 degrees, and the sound of the tires rubbing against the asphalt road was sharp and loud.

After the drift ended, the blue sports car was exactly side by side with the small car.

The window slowly lowered, and a mixed-race girl wearing sunglasses smiled charmingly: "Get in the car, handsome guy, I'll take you to a hotel."

The wind ruffled her slightly curly hair, her white shirt was sexy and fashionable, and she had a charming, sweet smile on her lips.

Zhang Yuanqing's mood instantly improved. He opened the car door and smiled:

"Get a three-bedroom presidential suite!"

"Why?"

"Because a cunning rabbit has three burrows, and I have to check each one."

Guan Ya rolled her eyes, waited for Zhang Yuanqing to enter the sports car, and said:

"Leave the car and keys here, the tow truck is coming soon. The Queen said you're not in a good mood?"

So she came here specifically because she heard I was in a bad mood. Zhang Yuanqing sighed: "It's nothing, I had a fight with my mom."

Guan Ya started the car and drove out a good distance before tentatively asking: "Auntie has a bad personality?"

"It's not a matter of personality. How can you do business with a bad personality and low EQ?" Zhang Yuanqing said indifferently:

"My conflict with her is that she never cares about me, she only takes care of giving money. I should say she's too lazy to care about me. She doesn't care if I fight, she doesn't care if I skip class, she doesn't care if I'm sick. All she knows is to work and make money. Maybe in her eyes, as long as she gives money, she has fulfilled her responsibility as a mother. I can't expect more things. If I expect more, then I'm wrong, then I'm greedy. Forget it, let's not mention her."

Guan Ya chuckled: "Wow, we both have good mothers."

"Oh, you also have a mother who wants to sell her daughter." Zhang Yuanqing said: "I feel balanced all of a sudden."

"Get out!!" Guan Ya looked ahead, holding the steering wheel with one hand, and waved the other hand to chop him, angrily saying: "I'm not happy anymore, the kind you can't coax back."

Before Zhang Yuanqing could speak, she suddenly smiled mischievously:

"I'll tell you about Fu Qingyang's tragic childhood, so we'll both feel balanced. Oh, right, Ling Jun's childhood was also very miserable. Didn't you notice? Although he belongs to the Taiyi Sect, he's closer to his relatives on his maternal grandfather's side. When he came to the Fu family to play, he also came with the Great Elder of the Hundred Flowers Association. He only recognizes Teng'er as his sister, not those half-brothers and sisters."

Returning to the Fu Family Bay villa, it was already one o'clock in the afternoon. Zhang Yuanqing and Guan Ya were sitting at the dining table, enjoying the food prepared by the bunny girl!

"Ding ding ding"

The phone on the table kept ringing. He picked it up to check, it was the Eagle of Freedom replying to the message:

"I just destroyed a black gang group led by a Lingjing Xingzhe. Your previous question was too general, and I didn't know what direction to investigate. However, I retrieved the files from the past thirty years and found an interesting phenomenon."

"From 1999 to 2004, over a period of five years, our side's Lawful organizations suddenly deepened their cooperation, reaching many incomprehensible agreements. The major Lawful organizations each gave up some of their interests, forming a seemingly loose but actually close alliance, with cooperative businesses spanning various industries, and even opening up some permissions to each other. At the time, these were very remarkable reforms."

"Many of the regulations I know now were reached in those five years. Also, before 1999, the Lawful organizations would cooperate with Evil professions openly and secretly, but now, cooperation with Evil professions has become a taboo. Even the high-level members of the major organizations don't dare to openly cooperate with Evil professions!"

The Light Compass appeared in the world in 1998, and the overseas organizations suddenly reformed in 1999, and the cooperation between the major Lawful organizations deepened. And in the homeland, at the same time, the five major mainstream organizations also merged into the Five Elements Alliance. Zhang Yuanqing frowned.

The Light Compass's prophecy foreshadowed a great disaster. The Xiaoyao School's heritage records, on the other hand, were about the World's End.

After the Light Compass appeared in the world, the Lawful organizations suddenly deepened their cooperation, and became increasingly irreconcilable with the Evil professions, coupled with the Spirit Realm's promotion of the establishment of camp confrontation.

A terrible guess appeared in Zhang Yuanqing's mind.

The World's End is related to the Evil professions.