VESSEL - Extinction Countdown 939: Father Above

Yi Qing stood frozen, her eyes red and hands helpless, as hurried footsteps echoed outside the ruined temple.

With a flash of silver hair—Vanilla burst in, crying.

“Uncle Shisan!”

She threw herself onto Ye Shisan’s still-warm corpse, sobbing uncontrollably.

Yi Qing cried anxiously, “How did you get here alone? Stop this—leave now!”

Vanilla clung to Ye Shisan, unyielding. As they locked in a stalemate, an eerie chill descended, engulfing the temple.

Yi Qing swiftly grabbed Vanilla, clamping her mouth shut.

Rustling came from the eaves. Something small landed on the windowsill, sitting like a person.

Yi Qing gingerly focused her light, revealing a pitch-black cat, not a speck of stray fur.

Vanilla exhaled in relief, but Yi Qing’s grip tightened, her faint whisper in the girl’s ear warning, “Don’t move—a stray black cat at this moment is a bad omen.”

The cat pawed its face, meowing softly before hopping down and pacing deliberately toward Ye Shisan and You Long’er’s bodies.

As it drew closer, they noticed its paws left no prints and its pupils were strikingly red.

Confirming Yi Qing’s fear, this was no ordinary beast.

It circled Ye Shisan and You Long’er, then paused above Ye Shisan’s head, gently tapped his forehead with a paw.

A wrenching cough erupted as Ye Shisan gasped air into his lungs with desperate force.

Before the stunned eyes of Yi Qing and Vanilla, he awoke, followed by You Long’er stirring.

The cat flopped down with a soft plunk, sleeping like a pig in mere moment.

Before joy could settle, the air grew colder, a bone-chilling frost enveloping them.

Ye Shisan sat up, panting heavily, and noticed Yi Qing and Vanilla staring wide-eyed. “What? Mud on my face?” he asked.

They pointed tremblingly above his head.

He looked up, his heart jolting with shock.

A transparent girl in a flowing long robe floated there—Hong Lin!

“Ye Shisan, you’re honest,” Hong Lin said. “As you claimed, what’s within you is Zhu Qiu… yet not quite.”

Ye Shisan frowned. “How so?”

“I can’t explain, but your body mirrors Yan Yun’s, so it’s no wonder Zhu Qiu found you.”

“But ‘is and isn’t Zhu Qiu’—what does that mean?”

“His aura is there, yet that thing… I don’t think it’s truly him.”

“So, what’s your plan? Kill us all?”

As these words were spoken, Yi Qing and Vanilla grew visibly tense. They tried to speak, but Ye Shisan waved them off.

You Long’er scoffed boldly: “Let her try! If I die and haunt her, this brat’s no match for me!”

Hong Lin said nothing, landing steadily on the ground. She glanced at Ye Shisan, then scanned the others one by one, lingering on Vanilla, sniffing so close that her face paled with fear.

Pointing at Vanilla, she said to Ye Shisan: “Beloved, grant me this girl—her body is perfect for me.”

Vanilla wailed, trembling with terror. Yi Qing yanked her back, fixing her wary gaze on Hong Lin.

Ye Shisan’s face darkened. “And if I say no?”

Hong Lin smirked faintly. “Then I’ll take the cat and obey Father.”

The exchange left Yi Qing and Vanilla baffled, their eyes studying Hong Lin—a ghost, barely older than Vanilla, stunning like a black-haired doll. Yet her talk of “Beloved” and “Father” twisted their bonds, unsettling everyone.

What was this?

Ye Shisan exhaled. If Hong Lin forced possession, no one in this temple could stop her.

Only You Long’er dared interrupt: “Hold it! ‘Beloved’? You don’t get to call that—at most, call Ye Shisan ‘Father’!”

Hong Lin smirked again. “Then I’ll call him Father.”She lunged forward, hugging Ye Shisan but passing through, chilling him to the bone.

Yi Qing snapped: “Enough! You’ll ruin his health with this!”

Vanilla, her fear easing, muttered: “Ugh, another rival calling Uncle Shisan ‘Father’? Hmph!”

Ye Shisan then explained their ordeal, stunning Yi Qing and Vanilla with the tomb’s eerie tales.

Yi Qing recovered, saying, “If Xi Qing’s tomb leads to Zhuxi City God, Hong Lin must have seen your grandpa, Ye Dongsheng. She might know something.”

Before Ye Shisan could reply, Hong Lin, now possessing the cat, stretched lazily and spoke: “I saw Ye Dongsheng but never spoke with him. Common souls pass to Zhuxi City God unhindered.”

Her words firmly shut the door.

But she added: “Ye Dongsheng lived virtuously and would have been sent to Six Heavens’ Pure Land in Spirit Realm. By now, only your deaths—” she pointed at You Long’er and Yi Qing—“could reach Upper Realm to ask why.”

You Long’er leapt up: “Even if I knew, I couldn’t tell you!”

“Who says? I’ve heard Pure Land Spirits can perform Dream Sending. Just send a dream to my father. You’d sacrifice for him and die—a perfect twofold gain!”

You Long’er fumed: “Heard? You snake, scheming to ditch us!”

The cat cackled: “Of course! Father, my Beloved… his stray women must go!”

Yi Qing sneered, aiming her gun at the cat: “Why not send you off to dream to Ye Shisan.”

Hong Lin’s head emerged from the cat’s neck, smirking provocatively at Yi Qing: “Go ahead, try to kill me!”

“You think I won’t? Killing’s a crime, but a cat…”

“Sister Yi Qing, the cat’s pitiful—sell it to a hotpot shop!” Vanilla chimed in, seizing the moment to join the fray, making it into three against one.

As chaos loomed, Ye Shisan roared: “Holster that gun! Shut up—all of you! This is my call!”

Hong Lin retreated into the cat, leapt into Ye Shisan’s arms, and murmured tenderly, “Father above, Hong Lin obeys.”