Chapter 121 Elevator
Chapter 121 Elevator
[The reason I came here is because I covet the Yin family's inheritance. ]
This time the text on the screen was very long and took some time to read. Feng Yushu lowered his head and read silently:
[The Yin family is an ancient family. Their people have been stably controlling the rules of more than one ghost throughout the long history measured in centuries.]
[This type of inherited family generally instills in the younger generation the moral concept of sacrifice and the life philosophy of sacrificing oneself to maintain the family's prosperity. ]
[In this way, the aristocratic family turned the strange rules into a dangerous but controllable violent weapon, and with blood as the bond, the weapons were passed down steadily from generation to generation within the family until modern times.]
"There is actually such a thing..." Feng Yuxu was fascinated by what she saw. She had never come across such secrets before. She couldn't help but continue reading, wanting to know what happened next.
【Then their family was wiped out.】
"Ah this..."
[Although Kunpeng is dead, his wings are still strong. Even the Ascender who wiped out the Yin family back then could not plunder all the wealth of this thousand-year-old family, so I came here to get the only remaining legacy they hid in Yanglao Village.]
Having said that, there is no need for further explanation.
Ning Zhe is not someone who would be tempted by money. Worldly wealth is nothing but dirt to the ascended ones. There is only one possibility for the "legacy" that could tempt a person like Ning Zhe.
"The ghost of the Yin family." Feng Yusu had the answer in her mind.
There is no strong or weak in rules, only suitable or unsuitable, easy to master or difficult to master. A ghost that can be hidden in such a place by a thousand-year-old family like the Yin family at the moment of extermination is undoubtedly extremely practical.
At this very moment, 'Fenwu' is still lurking in the dark.
A ghost passed down from generation to generation in a noble family and a stable rule that has been tested for thousands of years are exactly what Ning Zhe needs right now.
[The letter from Ji Taixuan's mother mentioned that his grandfather hid a 'thing' that could kill the Ascended One in the deepest part of Yanglao Village. That's what we are looking for.]
Ning Zhe then typed new words on the screen:
[The letter also said that it was a depth that could not be reached by human power.]
Feng Yusu suddenly felt puzzled. Since he knew where it was, what was he waiting for?
Since the Yin family's ghost was hidden in the deepest part, why did Ning Zhe stop after committing suicide three times? Why didn't he go straight down to the deepest level of Yanglao Village in one go, but stopped at the silent -3 level?
We don’t have enough money.
Before Feng Yusu asked the question, Ning Zhe gave the answer.
"Not enough money?" Feng Yusu's expression hesitated for a moment, but she soon understood what Ning Zhe meant.
Money is used to 'go back'.
The way to fall from the human world to a deeper world is death, which is an irreversible unilateral process. The underworld is not a field that the living should set foot in. From the moment they committed suicide twice, the corpses that sank to the bottom of the lake were pressed with a huge weight, and there was no possibility of seeing the light of day again. They could never go back to the human world again.
Unless... there is some way to bring the dead back to life.
Coincidentally, Wutong can do it.
"This is the ancestral property of the Yin family. It just so happens that the God of Wealth Wutong is also a ghost of the Yin family... Maybe it's not a coincidence. Wutong's life-saving money is the rope to climb back to the human world from the abyss, and the elevator from the basement back to the ground. This is a perfect process designed by humans, with a beginning and an end."
Thinking of this, some of the questions that once troubled Ning Zhe also had answers.
The reason why Ji Wuxie, Ji Taiyu's father, risked his life to go to Izumo Mountain was probably to retrieve the "Wutong" from the dead Ji Bochang. That was the Yin family's god of wealth, and the Yin family fully understood the rules of Wutong.
But Ji Bochang's cruelty was far beyond everyone's expectations. He set a trap and planned for Wutong to get out of control. He sent out invitations to a group of unsuspecting upgraders. In the future predicted by Lan Shiwen, the God of Wealth bought the entire Yundu City.
With no hope of recovering Wutong, Ji Wuxie had no choice but to return to Juxian Garden and try to recover the two remaining ghosts of the Three Immortals of Fu, Lu and Shou that had not yet been unsealed.
Then he died.
"Let's do a math problem first..." Ning Zhe closed his eyes slightly and listed some important information in his mind:
1. Every time you go down a level in Yanglao Village, you will need to kill yourself once, which means you will lose a life.
2. If you want to return to the previous floor from the current floor, you need to buy a life from Wutong.
3、五通会坐地起价，在初次交易中，1条命的初始价格是1枚买命钱，第2次交易则涨到2枚钱买1条命，第3次则是4枚钱买1条命
……1、2、4、8、16……以此类推。
"If the space-time structure of Yanglao Village is regarded as a building with different floors, Wutong is the elevator used to go upstairs. However, you need to pay to start this elevator, and the price will double every time you start it." This is Ning Zhe's most intuitive view of the Yin family's ancestral business.
So how many floors does this 'building' have?
This brings us back to the folk saying that has some Taoist connotations:
[When a person dies, he becomes a ghost. When a ghost dies, he becomes a demon. When a demon dies, he becomes a scoundrel. When a scoundrel ... barbarian. When a barbarian dies, he becomes a widower. When a widower dies, he becomes invisible.]
If the last "invisible" is also considered as the first layer of the world, then the layered world structure of Yanglao Village has 1 layers. To return from the deepest "invisible" to the first layer of "people", you need to buy 7 lives.
1个人想要从深渊的尽头返回现实，需要花费1+2+4+8+16+32+64=127，127枚买命钱。这是最理想的情况，因为宁哲实际上并没有完全摸清五通的涨价规则，他目前见过的交易最大的一次买命，便是花费2枚铜钱购买1条命的施雨柔和季云英姐弟。
2后面是4，4后面是什么？是8还是16？
The rule for the price increase of Wutong, is it doubling or squaring?
Ning Zhe didn't know, so he didn't dare to gamble. However, even if he didn't gamble, even if he calculated based on the most optimistic scenario, it would cost 1 life-saving coins to get one person back to reality from the deepest part of Yanglao Village.
That was a huge sum of money that Ning Zhe could not afford.
"I didn't expect that even if I became an extraordinary person, I would still be troubled by money." Ning Zhe shook his head.
As the truth became clear, he realized that he did not have the capital to go to the deepest part of Yanglao Village to find out what was going on.
[Ningzhe, what should we do now? ]
Feng Yushu's typing speed suddenly increased a lot. Knowing that Ning Zhe's trip might be in vain, she looked more anxious than Ning Zhe himself:
Is there any way to make more money here?
Ning Zhe patted her shoulder and asked her to calm down. He raised his head and moved his gaze away from the locked door. He looked for a window or a small hole in the old brick wall that he could sneak in through, and typed a new line of words:
[I'll go inside and take a look. Wait for me for a moment.]
Feng Yusu nodded obediently.
However, Ning Zhe did not set off immediately. Instead, he spent a few minutes typing a long paragraph on the screen again:
[You should be careful outside and don't act rashly. There should be a rule in this village that can lead to death. "
"Instant death rule?" Feng Yusu frowned.
[Our previous experience in front of the land temple proved one thing: humans cannot kill the dead, but ghosts with the instant death rule can. ]
[In simple terms, using conventional means such as swords or guns can only change a person's life from 1 to 0, but cannot change 0 to -1. If you want to do something like "killing the dead", you need an instant death rule similar to special allowances and karma.]
For example, the death taboo of the snake god.
[A dead person will not die again unless you force him to die with rules. ]
[Since Ji Taiyu's mother asked him to come here and go to the deepest part of Yanglao Village, it means there must be a way to go to the deepest part. ]
Otherwise, how could Ji Taixuan, a mere mortal, go to the deep world that could only be reached through killing rules?
If the Five Powers of the God of Wealth are the upward elevator leading to the ground, then the unclear rule of instant death is the downward elevator leading to hell.
“Even if I cannot obtain the Yin family’s inheritance hidden deep inside, I must at least figure out the situation here first, so that I can be prepared when I come again in the future.” Ning Zhe made his goal clear.
After searching around and not finding an open window, Ning Zhe simply stopped wasting time. The boy's body turned into a wisp of thin smoke, and then turned into a bee, flew through the screen grid above the gate, and entered the small building.
After entering the door, Ning Zhe changed back to his original appearance and was about to walk in, but before he took a step, Ning Zhe paused and the facial features changed quietly.
To be on the safe side, he changed back into Ji Taixuan's appearance.
Although it was daytime, the living room on the first floor was still dark and enclosed because the doors and windows were closed. It was even quieter after all the colors faded.
There is an upside-down "Fu" character pasted on the single-door refrigerator, an old appliance from seven or eight years ago. A mosquito and fly sieve is placed on the round wooden table, and two plates of simple home-cooked meals can be vaguely seen inside. A wooden cupboard is leaning against the wall, with broken porcelain pieces all over the floor.
Everything in front of me is so quiet, so strange, and yet so familiar, as if I had walked into an old faded photo.
Ning Zhe's calm gaze swept across the living room and stopped at the broken porcelain under the cupboard. A few large pieces could vaguely reveal the original shape of the broken bowl.
"Wasn't this broken bowl swept away by grandpa a long time ago? Why is it still here?" Ning Zhe was a little confused. Could it be that there was a time-delayed synchronization between the -1 layer and the 1 layer?
But if that is the case, how do we explain Ji Taixu, who was on the 0th floor before, breaking the bowls in the cabinet?
Or...was it really Ji Taixuan who broke the bowl?
Just as Ning Zhe was thinking, the door not far away opened.
A frail figure walked out from behind the door. That soft outline was so familiar, as if she had been holding his hand and walking happily on the way home just a dozen minutes ago.
"Brother, you're back?" Yin Lishang stood at the door of the room, with a smile blooming on his face covered with acne and pimples.
Ning Zhe's face suddenly turned pale.
It was not because he saw Yin Li’s injured cheek but because... he heard her voice.
(End of this chapter)