Danger! Danger! Data Anomaly

[Completed work: The Metaphysics Master Carries the Team. Upcoming metaphysical fiction: The Grandmaster Comes Down the Mountain. Please support the official version on Jinjiang. Writing isn’t easy, and the author suffers from injuries to their hands, shoulders, neck, and lower back. Please respect the fruits of their labor.]

Qi Xingye felt like something had latched onto him.

At first, it was the faint reflection of a woman ghost in the mirror, shadows of trees twisting into roaring monsters, and footsteps following right behind him. But whenever he tried to look, there was nothing there.

Then one night he woke up freezing and found a monster in his bed. He turned his head and saw a ghost outside the window, watching him in silence with a sinister smile.

When morning came, he found gnawed remains in his house: human bones and... grotesque, misshapen corpses.

And he was the only one who could see them.

Qi Xingye sought out a master, who sincerely advised him to see a doctor.

He said, “...I’m not crazy!”

There was a knock at the door.

A tall man in a black uniform emerged from the night. His lowered gaze carried the weight of a mountain. He arrived before Qi Xingye with a fully armed team.

“Shang Nanming, Abnormality Investigation Bureau. Your house has been contaminated by a rift. Leave immediately.”

Qi Xingye was dumbfounded. “...Then where am I supposed to live?”

What could be worse than being coveted by monsters? Poverty. Sleeping on the street.

But even more dumbfounded than Qi Xingye were the investigators who rushed in as if facing a powerful enemy.

In the corner, the monsters were tied up like dumplings and trembling. When they saw the investigators, they burst into tears as if they’d found family.

They fled from Qi Xingye in terror while desperately burrowing into the investigators’ arms, refusing to let go and begging them for help.

The investigators fell silent and looked at Qi Xingye in unison.

Qi Xingye awkwardly scratched his cheek. “So... is this house still mine?”

He looked as sincere as a delicate little flower. “I’ll catch a cold if I sleep on the street. I refuse!”

Shang Nanming: “…”

“Would you be interested in working as a consultant for the Investigation Bureau?”

As head of the Abnormality Investigation Bureau, Shang Nanming had seen too many people turn into monsters after being contaminated, including investigators. In the end, none escaped a horrific, miserable death.

But then he met a pure and steadfast soul, one that could not be contaminated and would always remain rational.

So powerful and radiant, it made him unable to look away.

“If investigators are destined to be accompanied by death, then meeting you is the gift death has given me.”

Upcoming story: The Grandmaster Comes Down the Mountain

According to legend, a thousand years ago, the Xuan Yi Sect had an astonishingly gifted founding grandmaster. He battled the Ghost Emperor for eighty-one days and nights, then used his own body to suppress the evil spirits and preserve peace in the human world.

But the legend is so old that no one can verify it anymore. Even the Xuan Yi Sect no longer believes it.

All that remains is a lone history book describing how the Grandmaster of Xuan Yi was a gentleman of impeccable bearing, dressed in white like three layers of snow, while the Ghost Emperor was cruel and capricious, despising all humanity.

·

Lin Qi, who left the path of cultivation to become an idol, doesn’t believe it either. If there really were such a grandmaster, would the Xuan Yi Sect have fallen so far that only his master and he were left?

But his master kicked him in the backside, so he still went up the mountain to pay his respects to the Grandmaster. He even lost his phone without realizing it.

A few days later, he got a message: “I’m alive. Come pick me up.”

Lin Qi: “!! Who are you??”

The person on the other end sneered. “Your grandpa, Xie Daoling.”

The Grandmaster of Xuan Yi’s surname really was Xie.

·

Xie Daoling has a nasty temper and a sharp tongue. Everyone who came to the Xuan Yi Sect for help, as well as Lin Qi’s coworkers in the entertainment industry, got scolded. One had it coming, another was a disgrace. No one was spared. The trouble was, his combat skills were maxed out. They couldn’t beat him or out-argue him, leaving the celebrities furious enough to spit blood.

Other stars’ fans: Who are you? Get lost!

Then other metaphysical sects chimed in: Isn’t that our grandmaster? What’s he doing at the Xuan Yi Sect?

His disciples’ disciples, all clamoring to acknowledge their ancestor, packed the doorway. The powerful and influential flocked to him.

But Xie Daoling said, “I don’t take junk. Get lost.”

The fans were stunned. “Okay, I admit we were a little loud earlier. What kind of immortal has descended to earth?”

Only Lin Qi, grinding his teeth in the competition to claim him as a grandpa, protested: “He’s a fraud. Don’t believe him! What happened to that gentlemanly bearing you promised?”

The evil spirits and villains, beaten black and blue: “What gentleman? How can a Taoist priest be this vicious?”

Xie Daoling smiled. “Your grandpa here is a gentleman. Got a problem with that? Come and fight me.”

Theme: Stay rational and forge ahead.