Chapter 63: BBQ Feast

Reciting the Rebirth Mantra before someone’s even dead.

[Is she trying to book a spot with White and Black Impermanence in advance?]

[You can reserve a reincarnation now? I’m dying, this loli is just too cute.]

I paid no mind to anything else, and simply continued chanting.

[Only ten seconds left on the thirty-minute mark, brothers, you can pop the champagne early!]

Grandmaster Maple took out the large bottle of champagne he’d prepared ahead of time and began shaking it vigorously.

[Cheers!]

Bang——!

With a burst of pressure, the champagne cork shot out with a loud pop.

The cork slammed hard into the wall, bounced off, and struck Grandmaster Maple’s funny bone right on the elbow with perfect precision.

Grandmaster Maple’s hand trembled, and he instinctively let go.

“Crash!”

The entire bottle of champagne crashed to the floor.

The shaken champagne inside sprayed out like cola, and after such a violent impact, it gushed out in huge spurts.

It shot straight at the power outlet.

Sparks flashed, and in a flash, flames leapt up!

Grandmaster Maple stared in disbelief.

His nest was really on fire?!

His room was packed with flammable stuff— bedsheets, clothes, the insulation on the walls.

The flames spread out of control almost instantly.

[???]

[??????]

Grandmaster Maple’s Livestream Room was filled with question marks and exclamations.

At first, the viewers didn’t really believe it.

They thought it was just another staged effect.

Some people even joked: [Didn’t expect it, even you, Grandmaster Maple, such a righteous guy, started acting as a shill for someone else.]

[No matter how cute she is, you wouldn’t ruin your own reputation, right?]

[Those fire effects look pretty realistic, though.]

“Ami li duo, xi dan po pi, ami li duo…” I kept chanting.

The calm, ancient mantra stood in stark contrast to the frantic, horrifying scene on the other side.

[Special effects my ass!] Grandmaster Maple roared, [The door’s blocked by fire, I can’t get out! Someone call the fire department for me! Cough cough… Hurry! I’m… I’m… cough cough…]

The toxic smoke choked him so badly he couldn’t get the words out.

Even more terrifying was that, after the fire started from the short circuit, the motel’s power never tripped!

This was the Boro District, and this motel was stealing electricity from the neighbor, who was stealing from the neighbor’s neighbor, and so on— every line a tangled mess, not a single safety switch in sight!

Which meant the champagne on the floor was now electrified.

Grandmaster Maple was ready to risk it all, planning to charge through the flames even if it meant severe burns.

But then… crackle crackle crackle~

He stepped right into the pool of champagne.

He convulsed and collapsed into the fire.

His clothes caught instantly, his skin sizzled, and his fat began to boil.

The saddest part was that, paralyzed by the electric shock, he couldn’t even scream.

In that moment, his only thought was regret.

If only he’d known…

[The Livestream Room you were watching has been forcibly closed for violating livestream regulations… bloody/grotesque/inappropriate content…]

Grandmaster Maple’s stream ended, forcibly shut down.

Having just witnessed a real, live human barbecue, the viewers stared at the pitch-black screen, stunned and speechless for a long time.

When they finally came to their senses, all of Grandmaster Maple’s viewers immediately switched over.

They flooded into my room like mad, frantically asking questions.

[It’s special effects, right? It’s gotta be special effects, right??]

[Host, don’t scare us, Grandmaster Maple isn’t really dead, right?]

[Say something! This was all an act, right? It had to be, right?!]

I didn’t answer.

The Livestream Room was silent, only the monotonous, ancient, spine-chilling sound of the Rebirth Mantra echoing.

Recalling the terrifying scene from moments ago, the entire Livestream Room was shrouded in an eerie, sinister atmosphere.

[Stop chanting! Please tell us what happened!]

[Is Grandmaster Maple okay??]

[Someone save him!!]

“…Suo po he.”

I chanted several more times, and only after finishing the last line did I open my eyes, looking at the barrage of comments with cold indifference.

“I wish it was just a performance too.”

“I warned him, again and again.”

“But sadly, it was his own choice.”

“Heaven’s will is hard to defy.”

[No way, right? He can’t really be dead? Anyone in Boro District, go check it out!]

[I’m here, I’m already on my way, I’ll be there soon.]

I knew the viewers were still in a daze—now was not the time to take new requests.

So I patiently waited a while longer.

Soon, the viewer claiming to be on-site appeared again.

[Check my feed, I posted a video.]

The video was obviously shot in a rush.

In the video, several fire trucks wailed their sirens, thick black smoke pouring from the building, though the flames had died down.

A horribly burned body was being carried out of the room.

Everyone looked closely; Grandmaster Maple’s jewelry still hung on the body, and the charred clothes, not yet fully burned away, were unmistakably his— now fused with his skin.

There was no doubt: the deceased was Grandmaster Maple.

No matter how much they didn’t want to accept it, this was now a hard, cold fact.

.

“Everyone dies eventually, there’s no need to get too hung up on it.”

I spoke expressionlessly.

There wasn’t the slightest trace of grief over his sudden death.

No need, and I couldn’t be bothered to fake it.

After all, I’d seen too much.

.

Maybe it was because Earth was too peaceful— even after the awakening of spiritual beings, order hadn’t fully collapsed.

People still weren’t used to death.

Not like Cultivators.

When two Cultivators meet in the wild, usually only one makes it back to the city alive.

Every Cultivator above the Jindan Stage has dozens of lives on their hands.

Death is just something they’ve long grown used to.

“I’ve already recited the Rebirth Mantra for him. As for what the Reincarnation Disk will assign him, that’s no longer my concern.”

[Is Order of Rebirth really real?]

[Is the host’s fortune-telling real too? Can you really break through Bai Ze’s prophetic blockade?]

[My worldview is shattered!]

“Next, please. Those who wouldn’t listen are already gone, but those who heed advice can still live well.”

[xx has opened up……]

[xxx has opened up……]

Thanks to Grandmaster Maple’s sacrifice, no one doubted “Bai Ze’s” ability anymore.

And the Livestream Room’s popularity soared to an all-time high.

The incident and the entire recording began to spread across every platform.

More and more people flocked in.

Hundreds of fortune-telling requests swept across the screen in an instant.

I couldn’t keep up.

“All right, everyone, stop. Don’t pay any more for now, I can’t handle it. Let’s get these hundreds of people in line first.”

“Starting from this one…”

For the next dozens of people, nothing major happened.

After all, most people live quiet, ordinary lives— there’s not that much life-and-death drama.

I gave them some pointers on recent taboos to avoid, and they left satisfied.

Getting told “You have a Fire Calamity” by a fortune-teller on the street might be thrilling, but here, everyone just wanted to hear: “You’ll be safe and sound.”

Just like that, the calm atmosphere lasted until dusk.

Until a frantic man burst into the Livestream Room.

[Please! Please, save my child! He’s been missing for three years!]

“All right, calm down. Turn on your video.”

The screen quickly showed the man’s face.

I studied his features, and immediately froze.

Not even when seeing someone about to die had I ever sensed such a strange aura.

“Your Fate Palace is stacked, your Children Palace is shrouded in gloom. You in me, me in you…”

“Mister, have you eaten any strange meat recently?”