Roadmap to the Boundless Sky-Chapter 127: Break The Curse

While the puppet wore real clothes and seemed like a real person from the distance, there was no way Chen Chuan could mistake him for a real person.

“Did you forget to take something? Let’s come out for now,” Lei Guangcheng said behind him.

“Yeah, okay,” Chen Chuan said and walked out of the room. Lei Guangcheng looked into the room at his son playing with wooden blocks, but failing to build a tower as always. He gently shut the door behind him.

Once they were downstairs again, Lei Guangcheng cast a glance at Chen Chuan. “Did you see something? You can tell me. No matter what it is***, I can accept it.”

Chen Chuan looked at his second self briefly. After he walked into the room, he had started blurring out a little, and the effect still persisted. He pondered over his words for a bit before asking, “How does your son appear to you, Mr. Lei?”

Lei Guangcheng was silent for a while before he answered honestly, “Unsociable, dull, quiet, and unable to make friends. But those aren’t due to his personality. He was hurt in the past and has an anomalous substance of unknown origin tormenting him. It's all my fault, so I'm willing to accept that he's no longer like the others. I don't even mind if he won't accept me as his father anymore. I just wish for him to grow up well.”

“Then, I’ll tell you what I see,” Chen Chuan said.

Lei Guangcheng stared at him as he waited for his answer.

Chen Chuan met his gaze squarely and said slowly, “I did not see a boy, but a puppet.”

Lei Guangcheng was stunned for a long time before he suddenly strode over and grabbed Chen Chuan’s shoulders. Chen Chuan stood still and did not avoid him.

“Is that true?” Lei Guangcheng asked while staring at him intently.

Chen Chuan nodded.

“Is that so... That must be it...” Lei Guangcheng mumbled and teared up as he shook Chen Chuan’s shoulders. “Thank you! Thank you, Chen Chuan!”

“Have you thought of something, Mr. Lei?” Chen Chuan asked.

Lei Guangcheng sucked in a deep breath before answering, “Yes. It’s a question that has been plaguing me for two years.”

He seemed to have calmed down, since he let go of Chen Chuan’s shoulders and took two steps back. He asked gravely, “Are you sure that you saw a puppet and not anything else?”

“Yes,” Chen Chuan affirmed.

Lei Guangcheng nodded and said, “Please wait here a moment. I need to make a few calls.”

“Please do,” Chen Chuan said and sat down on the sofa.

Once Chen Chuan was seated, Lei Guangcheng left the room. Even though he appeared calm, Chen Chuan could tell from his trembling figure that he was suppressing his emotions with incredible self-control.

After around half an hour, Lei Guangcheng came back and sat down on the sofa across from Chen Chuan. He did not say anything even after a long time had passed.

Chen Chuan did not say anything either.

Some more time passed before Lei Guangcheng removed his glasses and searched his pocket, but he did not seem to have found what he wanted, so he wiped off the vapor on the glasses using his sleeves. After he put his glasses back on, he looked at Chen Chuan and said earnestly, “Chen Chuan, I never thought that I’d be able to save my son through this method before today. Thank you.”

“Mr. Lei—” Chen Chuan started, but Lei Guangcheng interrupted him with a wave of his hand.

“I haven’t lost my mind. I know what you said is true.” He turned his gaze upward. “It’s been two years. Who would have thought that I’ve been taking care of a puppet for two whole years?”

He laughed at himself. “I call myself an expert in secret cult rituals, yet I was unable to recognize one right in front of my face.”

“Looks like you do believe me, Mr. Lei,” Chen Chuan remarked.

“In matters of reason versus emotion, emotion often wins out. That’s why I never tried to explore that possibility. Thank goodness I was able to make a rational judgment when I was told the truth and didn’t choose to immediately deny it.

“If you hadn’t given me that reminder, I would’ve had a hard time reaching this breakthrough. It seems like my worries clouded my judgment.”

He sighed.

Chen Chuan gave this some thought. “I may be overstepping, but may I ask what’s going on?”

“It’s not as if I can’t tell you.” Lei Guangcheng removed his glasses again to rub his teary eyes. When he put them on, he regained his composure. “As the director of the Cult Investigation Bureau, I often clash with criminal cults. While I was enforcing a crackdown on a secret cult years ago, someone leaked my address.

“Later on, I learned that a fugitive from the criminal cult entered my temporary residence and cursed my son. It’s not all that complicated. In simple terms, he brought my son into contact with a supernatural being.

“I tried many ways to solve the problem, but all of them failed.

“This even caught my ex’s attention. When she saw me performing a ritual on my son, she immediately sued me, but she did not understand that if a curse is no longer controlled, it will affect those around the cursed as well.

“The government has a rule stating that we can’t reveal these things to normal people aside from law enforcers, so I couldn’t tell her about it. I could only give hints to her that she needs to stay away from our son.

“Our parents had forced us to get married, so I didn’t love her, nor did we understand each other. Even if I told her the truth, she might have only thought that I was rambling and lying to scare her into giving me full custody of our son.

“I tried all sorts of ways to mend the situation, but she started hiding from me. Then, half a month later...”

He sighed deeply. “Honestly, if I had noticed the problem sooner, perhaps I could have prevented the tragedy, but I’m glad that my son has nothing to do with his mother’s death. Neither of them have to bear that burden...”

Lei Guangcheng picked up the glass of water beside him and drank it all in one gulp before slamming it on the table.

He looked at Chen Chuan. “Did you know that my son has to be alive for the ritual to continue? This means that they’re hiding him somewhere.”

“Do you need help, Mr. Lei?” Chen Chuan asked.

“Thank you... but I already have a pretty good guess as to where they’re hiding him. Just wait here,” Lei Guangcheng said. A few moments passed, and he took a deep breath. “But I’ll need to destroy the ritual’s curse first.”

“Is it hard?” Chen Chuan asked once he noticed Lei Guangcheng’s expression.

Lei Guangcheng’s lips quivered as he slowly clenched his fists, only to fail moments later. After trying a few times, he finally formed two fists. “I need to kill my son upstairs. That way, the ritual’s effects will cease.”

Chen Chuan’s gaze froze. He could understand the pain he was going through right now.

It was no wonder why Lei Guangcheng had never considered this possibility despite being the director of the Cult Investigation Bureau. He was a father, so he would do anything to avoid hurting his son. This ritual was pure torture to the human psyche.

“Are there no other ways to do it?” he asked.

Lei Guangcheng shook his head. “The ritual was created with the intention that only this cruel method could end it and so destroy a family. If I don’t use this method, the ritual’s effects won’t be fully extinguished and come back later on.”

He sucked in a deep breath. “If I don’t carry out my responsibility as a father, I’ll bring misfortune to my son. I have to be the one to bear the consequences.”

Lei Guangcheng stood up and said, “Chen Chuan, please help me one more time. I need you to come with me, so that I can remember I’m destroying a puppet. I don’t think I’ll be able to do it otherwise.”

Chen Chuan stood up and said gravely, “I’m willing to help, but... aren’t you worried that I could be mistaken?”

Lei Guangcheng looked straight into Chen Chuan’s eyes. “You’re Mr. Cheng’s disciple, and you’ve personally taken out a lot of supernatural beings. You even got rid of the Flying Heads in Barbarian Mountain. I’ve noticed as well that the time between each supernatural-related mission you take isn’t all that long, yet you’re not affected by it in the slightest.

“You might be unaware, but you have an incredibly unique talent to resist the onslaught from strange entities. Your word carries more weight than that of other people.”

Chen Chuan realized that Lei Guangcheng had gone out not only to make plans to save his son, but also to look into his background. He could understand why he did that. After all, this concerned his son’s life. There was nothing wrong with him being cautious.

He had a general gist of what was going on now. Lei Guangcheng was not the only one who saw the puppet as his son. It was likely that others saw the same thing. But Chen Chuan’s second self absorbed all the attacks from supernatural beings, so he was not affected. That was the talent Lei Guangcheng was referring to.

“Please wait here for a moment.” Lei Guangcheng left and returned with a hammer. “Let’s go.”

Chen Chuan followed him up to the third floor again.

Once Lei Guangcheng opened the door, he turned to Chen Chuan for confirmation. Chen Chuan looked into the room and saw that the puppet was still curled up quietly in the corner. He gave Lei Guangcheng a nod.

Lei Guangcheng tightened his grip over the hammer and walked in. What he saw in the corner was still his obedient son. He should have realized the problem long ago. In two years, his son had not changed in the slightest.

He did not grow at all.

His instincts screamed at him to shut his eyes, but if he wanted to break the ritual’s curse, he could not do that. Feeling like he had lead in his legs, he walked forward and, with considerable effort, brought the hammer high above his head.

His son looked up at him innocently. “Daddy, why would you hit me?”

Lei Guangcheng teared up. “I’m sorry, Xiao Ying.”

Then, he brought the hammer down, again and again.

Chen Chuan saw the puppet cracking and splintering under the hammer. His second self also started blurring out more.

With a final swing, the puppet broke apart with a crack, and a marble serving as the puppet’s eye fell on the floor.

Lei Guangcheng was gasping for air. He was finally able to see the ruined puppet. The hammer slipped from his grasp and dropped with a clatter.

He stumbled two steps back and extended an arm toward the wall to support himself.

Chen Chuan took a look at his second self. The blurring effect was disappearing.

Lei Guangcheng took a long time to recover, but once he did, his eyes began to sparkle. “Thank you. Let’s go down.”

Chen Chuan nodded. He cast one last glance at the puppet before following Lei Guangcheng down.

Once they were downstairs, Lei Guangcheng started waiting for good news, while Chen Chuan kept him company. For a time, the only sound in the living room was the ticking from the mantle clock.

Around ten minutes later, the phone in the living room rang.

Lei Guangcheng practically flew to the phone, but when he put his hand on the receiver, he paused for a moment and slowly picked it up. He tried his best to make his voice steady as he said, “Hello, Lei Guangcheng speaking.”

A clear and excited voice cut through the silent air in the spacious living room. Even Chen Chuan could hear it.

“Mr. Lei, we found your son! We found him!”

Tears welled up in Lei Guangcheng’s eyes.

“He’s quite weak right now. Those guys have only been giving him the bare minimum of water and food. Still, he’s relatively fine. We’ll send him to you right now.”

Lei Guangcheng kept his raging emotions in control as he said, “Thank you, Lao Gao! Thank you for your hard work.”