Chapter 42: 42: The Entire Audience is Shocked
"He's awake, Grandpa, Patriarch Chen really woke up!"
The young girl Tang Duoduo covered her sensuous cherry lips in shock, her delicate face retaining a look of shock for a long time.
Tang Renjie stepped forward and said gravely, "Patriarch Chen, how do you feel?"
"How do I feel?"
When questioned by Tang Renjie, Chen Qiankun swung his arms and lifted his legs, puzzled, he said, "I'm fine!"
"You're really fine?" Tang Renjie asked in astonishment.
Chen Qiankun replied with a puzzled face, "Why do you ask that?"
"Old Chen, you don't know, but you've been unconscious for almost two months!" Lu Jing said excitedly.
Upon hearing this, Chen Qiankun was shocked and said, "What? I've been unconscious for two months?"
He couldn't believe it and looked toward Chen Lin and Chen Haonan, only to see the siblings nodding their heads one after another.
"No way?" Chen Qiankun exclaimed in horror.
He knew his health was poor and had noticed his body turning dark a long time ago, but he had never expected to have been unconscious for two months.
Lu Jing sobbed, "Fortunately, we encountered Master Ye today. If it wasn't for Master Ye driving out the evil wraith, I'm afraid you really would have been gone today, Old Chen!"
"Evil wraith? What evil wraith?" Chen Qiankun asked.
"Dad, this is what happened..."
Chen Lin stepped forward and recounted the whole cause and effect.
After listening, Chen Qiankun's eyes widened in disbelief, "There was an evil wraith inside the longevity lock? And this wraith was the transformation of the father and son from the Mingguangzong Dynasty, Zhu Changluo? That can't be possible, can it?"
Having been a scholarly person since his youth and firm believer in materialism, Chen Qiankun never believed in the existence of ghosts and spirits.
"Patriarch Chen, it's true! The tombs of the father and son from the Mingguangzong Dynasty, Zhu Changluo, were robbed, their skeletons discarded in the wilderness by tomb thieves. Filled with resentment, the father and son gave birth to two evil wraiths that hid within the longevity lock!"
"Your Chen family's old patriarch died years ago precisely because of this wraith! Your health issues, they were also caused by the wraith entering your body! Previously, when I met Chen Haonan in Yaozhen Pavilion, I helped him drive out the evil wraith inside the longevity lock!"
"Today, I have expelled the wraith inside you; from now on, you don't have to worry about an evil wraith endangering your lives!" Ye Fan said slowly.
As soon as Ye Fan finished speaking, Chen Haonan hastily said, "Dad, everything Master Ye said is true!"
"This... this..."
Unable to calm his heart, Chen Qiankun instinctively looked at Tang Renjie and Tang Duoduo.
Tang Duoduo then expressed her doubt, "Grandpa, could that scene just now have really not been a deception?"
"Let me examine Patriarch Chen thoroughly, and it will be clear!" Tang Renjie said.
The next moment, Tang Renjie approached Chen Qiankun and examined him from head to toe.
After the examination, Tang Renjie said in surprise, "It's incredible, Patriarch Chen has indeed recovered, his vitality fully restored with no hidden dangers detected! Could it be that there really are evil wraiths in this world?"
"What? Grandpa, has Patriarch Chen really recovered?" Tang Duoduo said, shocked.
Ye Fan gave a cold smile, "Now do you and your grandpa believe what I just said?"
"You..."
Targeted by Ye Fan, the faces of both Tang Renjie and Tang Duoduo stiffened.
Reflecting on how they had just arrogantly expelled Ye Fan and scoffed at everything he had said, grandfather and grandson couldn't help but feel their faces flush with embarrassment.
"Master Ye, is there really such a thing as evil spirits in this world?" Chen Qiankun asked in disbelief.
Responding to Chen Qiankun's inquiry, Ye Fan nodded, "The world is vast and strange! There's an old saying, 'You may choose not to believe in ghosts and gods, but you should never disrespect them,' and there's some truth to it."
"This..."
Hearing what Ye Fan had said, Chen Qiankun, Tang Renjie, and the others all looked dubious.
Ye Fan knew that what he had said was not enough to prove anything, so he continued, "Firstly, let me say something common! Newborn babies often cry incessantly for no apparent reason, just as if they are possessed, and that is because they can see things that are different when they are just born!"
"That may be so, but there's no scientific basis for that, right?" Tang Duoduo stated bluntly.
Chen Qiankun and the others also nodded in agreement; they had all heard of this claim, but it did not prove the existence of evil spirits.
Ye Fan gave a cold smile, "How many things have scientific evidence? Let me ask you, in the countryside, in the middle of the night when there is not a soul in sight, the village dogs often bark crazily, as if they've gone mad! Especially near the graveyards, their barking becomes more intense. Little do people know, it is because dogs see unclean entities!"
"Not only that, but many times, a perfectly normal person suddenly goes mad and gets sent to a mental hospital. Why would these patients suddenly lose their minds? It's because they've been invaded by evil spirits!"
"Divine Doctor Tang, right? Being a divine doctor yourself! You should be well aware that in the hospital morgue, strange occurrences happen from time to time at midnight. Have you never considered that this might be due to the overly heavy resentment of the deceased, thus manifesting as evil spirits?"
Ye Fan rattled off three examples in one breath, leaving Tang Renjie and Chen Qiankun speechless and unable to retort.
Indeed, Ye Fan was talking about things that are often encountered in life.
"Grandpa, it seems that many patients in the mental hospital suddenly go mad. Could it be that they are all possessed by evil spirits?" Tang Duoduo seemed to have realized something, her small face turning pale.
Tang Renjie took a deep breath and slowly said, "It's hard to say! But one thing is certain, strange happenings do indeed occur in the hospital morgue at midnight!"
"Let me ask another question, you all know about ghostly encounters, right? How would you explain that?"
Ye Fan sneered, "Furthermore, there are many unsolved mysteries in this world. To this day, which one has been explained by science?"
"This... this..."
As Ye Fan brought up so many examples, Chen Qiankun and the others couldn't help but feel their hair stand on end.
"I just remembered something!"
Suddenly, Chen Lin spoke up, "Two years ago, my cousin said his grandfather appeared in his dream, telling him that Central Plains Bridge would collapse and advised him to take a detour on his way to work!"
"The next day, my cousin half-doubted the dream, but he still did as the dream instructed and avoided the Central Plains Bridge. Just as he arrived at the company, the media reported that Central Plains Bridge had collapsed, and a large number of cars had fallen into the river, with at least a hundred people dying!"
"Yes, yes, yes, that's true!" Chen Qiankun suddenly remembered.
They all originally thought it was a coincidence, but now that Chen Lin mentioned it, they all looked shocked.
Without a doubt, it was because of the elderly man's dream that Chen Lin's cousin had narrowly escaped disaster on his way to work.
"Sss! It seems that there are quite a few instances of elders appearing in dreams!"
Tang Renjie couldn't help but gasp. Born in the mountains, he too had heard of supernatural events from a young age.
At this moment, hearing Chen Lin's story about the dream, he couldn't help but shudder.
"Could it be that there's some truth to the existence of evil spirits in this world?"
Tang Renjie's aged pupils contracted fiercely, a chill rising from his feet and spreading throughout his body.
"If evil spirits truly exist, then what we saw just now was real?"
Thinking back to the black ghoul face that had emerged from Chen Qiankun's body, young Tang Duoduo shivered, her face deathly pale.