Chapter 138: The Cost of a Windfall

“No, no one has a grudge against me. I’m just at the center of a vortex where danger lurks everywhere. I could be caught in the crossfire or targeted at any time,” I said vaguely.

“I see. No wonder you had to invite an apotropaic item into your home for protection. It’s a helpless situation. Dharma artifacts can mostly only drive out ghosts and ward off evil; they don’t have good solutions for human-made disasters. When dealing with humans, Yansheng items are indeed stronger,” the shop owner sighed.

He knew that many customers were cryptic about their privacy.

Unless it was absolutely necessary, diviners and physiognomists generally wouldn’t pry too deeply and would only make their own deductions.

He misunderstood, thinking I had sought out the Yansheng item solely to drive away ghosts.

In reality, I had only recently discovered that the residential area I lived in was unstable, and it was under Senior Sister Mo’s suggestion that I modified the Pi Xiu to be more aggressive.

I didn’t bother to correct his misunderstanding, only asking, “Owner, if absorbing wealth luck leads to bad things happening, is there any way for me to evade these risks?”

“Of course there is. If you can take that ill-gotten wealth and use it to help the poor or save a life, even if it’s not the most orthodox path, it still counts as performing good deeds and accumulating merit. That can minimize the backlash to the greatest extent,” the owner advised.

“Alright, thank you for the guidance,” I said gratefully.

I paid the fee according to the listed price; a single face reading only cost a few hundred yuan, which felt like quite a bargain.

However, as I left the shop after bidding the owner farewell, my keen hearing caught him muttering a sigh to himself.

‘It just had to be a Pi Xiu… it only takes in and never lets out. If you take it in and want to send it back out, it’ll be difficult…’

I didn’t quite understand what he meant, and it wasn’t appropriate to turn back and ask.

I walked out of the Feng Shui shop; I had obtained the Buddha statue I came for, so I could head back now.

Just as I got off the bus and prepared to cross the road to return to Liubai Court, a car suddenly sped toward me at an extreme velocity, letting out a piercing screech of brakes.

I didn’t have time to react at all.

Just as the car was about to slam into me, the Iron-wire Dragon Gu shot out and pushed hard against the vehicle, shoving me backward slightly.

“Ugh!”

Then, I felt a massive force collide with my body, sending me flying through the air.

I rolled twice on the ground before coming to a stop.

The thought that flashed through my mind at that moment was actually: ‘Earlier, I caused Lu Bao to be hit by a car, and now, only a few days later, it’s my turn to be hit. Is this karma? Or is it the bloody calamity the owner mentioned?’

“Ah? Little—little sister, are you alright?”

A young woman, looking to be in her late twenties, got out of the car and ran over to me with a face full of panic.

“Do I look like I’m alright?” I snapped.

Blood was constantly flowing from the scraped skin on my body, staining my clothes red and making me look incredibly wretched.

The intense pain also made it impossible for me to climb up for a moment.

“I’m—I’m sorry! Let me help you up.”

The woman was so anxious she looked ready to cry.

She reached out to help me, but someone nearby warned her, “Let her lie there and rest for a bit. In case she has a fracture, forcing her up will only make the injury worse!”

“This… what should I do? I…”

The woman was at a loss, her mind completely blank.

Suddenly, she thought of something, and her eyes lit up. “Right, I’ll compensate you! I’ll pay you!”

“Huh?” I couldn’t comprehend this older sister’s logic.

In this kind of situation, shouldn’t she normally call an ambulance or the traffic police? How did she skip straight to the compensation step?

“I’ll pay you forty thousand—no, fifty thousand yuan! Just please, don’t call the police, I’m begging you!” the young woman cried.

I was speechless. I was still pinned to the ground, unable to move, and she wasn’t thinking about a rescue, only about a private settlement.

However, I also realized that while I looked quite miserable, most of the injuries were just skin abrasions.

There was a lot of blood, which looked terrifying, but I didn’t seem to have any fractures; my limbs could still move.

Once the initial sharp pain from being thrown passed, I gritted my teeth and stood up, moving to the side of the road to rest.

Only then did the young woman remember to take a pack of tissues from her car to help me stop the bleeding.

But the moment those tissues were pressed against me, they were instantly soaked through with blood, looking quite gruesome.

Because I had lost too much blood over the past few days, I began to feel dizzy, and my vision started to darken.

“I’ll pay you sixty thousand yuan, is that okay? As long as you’re willing to settle privately, I’ll give you sixty thousand. That’s more than enough for medical bills and mental distress.”

The young woman continued to ramble in my ear; she seemed to care only about her driver’s license and points.

I was growing impatient from the noise, so I nodded and said, “Fine. Give me sixty thousand, and we’ll call it a private settlement.”

“That’s great! Wait a moment, I’ll transfer the money right away, and then I’ll call an ambulance for you,” the young woman said excitedly.

So, it wasn’t that she had forgotten to call an ambulance; she was just in a hurry to get me to agree to a settlement first.

“No need for an ambulance. I can take a taxi to the hospital myself,” I said.

Actually, I had a few mass-produced experimental Rejuvenation Talismans from the Supernatural Events Department at home.

Since my injuries were all superficial, the Rejuvenation Talismans would likely be enough to treat them; there was no need to go to a hospital.

“Alright then. I’ve already transferred the money. Hurry to the hospital. I’m leaving now.”

After the transfer, the young woman hurriedly drove away as if she were fleeing the scene of a crime.

I looked at the newly transferred sixty thousand yuan on my phone and let out a bitter smile.

So this was it.

This wasn’t just karma for harming Cao Dian; it was a windfall.

Normally, when someone is hit and injured, the compensation for medical bills and mental distress would be around four to five thousand, maybe ten thousand at most.

To get paid over fifty thousand, the person would usually have to be severely injured.

It was because of the wealth aura plundered by the Pi Xiu that this young woman had been so anxious and impulsive as to pay me sixty thousand yuan.

But this was a price I was unwilling to pay.

If the Iron-wire Dragon Gu hadn’t given me that push at the critical moment, I estimated I would have been heavily injured, or perhaps even killed.

No wonder the Feng Shui shop owner said that the wealth aura plundered by the Pi Xiu wasn’t a good thing and could easily lead to backlash.

The danger had arrived quickly indeed; risk and reward truly coexisted.

Getting such thrilling windfalls every day wasn’t what I wanted.

It seemed I had to follow the owner’s advice and find a way to use this ill-gotten wealth to help the poor as soon as possible to accumulate some merit.

I climbed to my feet and swayed as I walked toward Liubai Court.

The onlookers, seeing my wretched state, didn’t follow me and soon dispersed.

Strangely, I had drawn a lot of attention on the street, but once I entered Liubai Court, even though I was covered in blood, the people around me only gave me a cursory glance.

They went back to their business as if nothing were wrong, as if seeing someone covered in blood was perfectly normal.

I didn’t forget how precious my blood was.

Along the way, I did my best to press down on the wounds with tissues to prevent too much blood loss.

As for the blood remaining on my body, the Golden Bee Gu and the Iron-wire Dragon Gu were already drinking their fill.

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