Chapter 112: The God of Wealth

The best way to investigate a missing person is undoubtedly to start by searching their residence for clues.

Xu Tianze had two places of residence.

The dormitory at the fire station no longer held any investigative value.

Perhaps it might have, four months ago, but with his resignation, anything valuable was likely cleared out and tossed into the trash. However, his interpersonal relationships within the fire department might yield unexpected insights. Thus, Juno and Lin Cheng, two psychics capable of mutual oversight, were sent to investigate. With their abilities, questioning living people was perfectly feasible.

According to Ma Mei,

before resigning, Xu Tianze had already shown abnormal signs. Though he couldn’t directly convey information, he might have hinted at something during casual conversations. Moreover, the “they” he referred to clearly indicated he was not an isolated case—it was likely an organization.

The bonds among firefighters are forged through life-or-death experiences.

If even colleagues and comrades remain silent, then there was no hope to find anything from elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Lan Yi, Wang Aojia, and Li Yang followed Ma Mei to her residence in search of new clues.

They were fortunate.

On the third day inside the artificial divine realm 2055, they caught a lead.

All of them were reborn souls, having experienced countless artificial divine realms. They were no novices but had gradually formed hypotheses about this strange artificial divine realm 2055 in their minds. Xu Tianze was a very obvious hint—he might no longer be in this time frame.

He was in the future.

It sounded absurd, but in the artificial divine realm, it was not impossible.

As for further conjectures,

Lan Yi didn’t rush to conclusions but pondered another question: Juno seemed to have discovered something but hadn’t spoken out directly; she only confided to herself that the humans in this world were like ash without fire, implying that the difference between humans and spirits might not be as vast as imagined.

Ma Mei’s current residence was an old dormitory building.

At first glance, it resembled a shantytown.

The guard post at the entrance had long been abandoned, piled high with miscellaneous trash and debris. There wasn’t even an old man on watch. During this winter’s light snow, the biting cold wind swept through, carrying eerie howls that came and went, adding a heavy, oppressive gloom to the atmosphere.

“Everyone living here is elderly, with little security. People leave every now and then,”

Ma Mei’s withered, aged face showed a flicker of life.

Along the way,

Li Yang had already displayed some extraordinary talents of a psychic, enough to convince this old woman that they were professionals. If ghosts truly existed, these people were undoubtedly expert ghost hunters.

That was not an exaggeration.

The fate of any ghost encountering Lan Yi would likely be no better than that of a non-human race facing the old demon Lan.

Ma Mei lived on the first floor.

It was winter now, and by her account, even during broad daylight, the lights had to be on; otherwise, it was difficult to see.

The apartment had three rooms and one living room. The living conditions were decent, cleaner and tidier than expected. The kitchen and living room were connected. Of the three rooms, one was a storeroom, and another was Xu Tianze’s bedroom.

“The police also came looking for clues. They just flipped through Tianze’s books and left.”

Ma Mei was very reserved.

It felt as though she was no longer the master of the house, and that those now searching for clues—Lan Yi and the others—were the true owners.

“Here.” Before long, Lan Yi’s finger pointed to a wall in Xu Tianze’s bedroom. In psychic vision, a faint rectangular glow appeared on the wall.

“That’s a load-bearing wall, right?” Li Yang stroked his chin. To hide something in a load-bearing wall, especially one that seemed flawless on the outside, would be impossible without psychic vision.

“I’ll do it!” Wang Aojia stepped forward.

He raised his hand, and his large, fanlike palm pressed firmly against the plastered wall. His five fingers clung like octopus tentacles. With his strength, an entire section of the originally attached wall was pulled out as if sliding out a drawer.

At this moment, Li Yang thoughtfully gestured for Ma Mei to wait in the living room. From the faint glow seeping out, he realized whatever was hidden was likely not something good. While it might not affect psychics, it could be dangerous for ordinary people.

The surface was very smooth.

Lan Yi noticed that all four sides of the wall section Wang Aojia had pulled out were extremely smooth.

It was as if an incredibly thin, ethereal weapon had sliced through it, smoothing the brick, cement, and steel to the point where even the fractured steel edges had mirror-like surfaces.

That alone wouldn’t have caught Lan Yi’s attention.

It was the faint residual traces on it that were key.

“The innate weapon of an Obsession?”

Not just Lan Yi, but the other two also noticed the clue.

Ghosts or Obsessions, when psychic energy is overly concentrated and human emotions intensely converge, can create weapons unique to them. These weapons appear intangible and unreal but can affect physical reality, manifesting rule-like properties on objects that have no psychic attributes—such as turning stone to gold, absolute defense, severing with a single cut, or guaranteed hits.

If this wall section had been cut out by such an innate weapon,

then Xu Tianze was definitely an Obsession.

But the question remained: if he was an Obsession, how had he evaded the psychics’ search?

That question would have to wait for now.

With the wall section carefully removed and placed aside, the hidden object within was revealed.

It was a statue with its head wrapped in red cloth.

The red cloth seemed stained with blood, filthy.

The statue was made of metal.

Lan Yi’s “Azure Splendor” technique didn’t even need to be activated fully; with just a wave of his hand, the statue flew out, floating in the center of the room. Its torso resembled a human’s, entirely bright red, though the head was obscured.

“What is this statue?” Wang Aojia frowned.

“There should be similar beliefs in the main world, as these are the heartlands of the river civilizations. The details might differ,” Li Yang said after a moment’s thought.

The old demon Lan’s choice was much simpler.

“What’s this? Your son deliberately hid it at home. Perhaps his whereabouts are connected to it.”

Bringing out the floating statue, Lan Yi chose the fastest method: he asked.

He asked the people of this world.

Ma Mei was half frightened to death when she saw the statue fly out but upon hearing it was related to Xu Tianze, the other half of her soul was forcibly pulled back. She examined the eerie statue carefully.

Even without unwrapping the red cloth,

Ma Mei soon recognized which deity the statue represented.

“This is the God of Wealth.”

“God of Wealth? Guan Yu? Doesn’t seem right,” Li Yang frowned.

“Not Guan Yu, the God of Wealth, nor Zhao Gongming, the Martial God of Wealth. This is the roadside God of Wealth. He used to be especially effective. When sending off travelers, no matter rich or poor, the Five Road Gods of Wealth would give money. The poorer you were in a year, the more they gave,” Ma Mei asserted confidently, revealing the superstitions unique to her generation.