Realm Walker

Zhang Yuanqing had to admit, spending time with Xie Lingxi was genuinely enjoyable. It was like looking at a female version of himself. Good looking, capable, and silver-tongued to boot.

He deliberated for a few seconds before slowly nodding. ”Since I’m just delivering a message, I can bring you along.”

The girl did seem to have surveillance in mind, but since they didn’t know each other all that well, her concerns were understandable. At the very least, it proved that despite all her green-tea-princess airs, Xie Lingxi was someone who repaid her debts.

”Thank you, Bro Yuanshi.” Xie Lingxi flashed a radiant smile, then composed herself and said seriously, ”I remember he asked us to find someone called Master Wuhen. Before coming to Songhai, I looked into this person. There’s nothing on record.”

Zhang Yuanqing grunted in acknowledgment. ”Nothing came up within the Five Elements Alliance database too. But if Master Wuhen were an ordinary person, Ashamed Father wouldn’t have gone out of his way to keep you, an ’official person,’ out of the loop. Therefore, I suspect Wuhen is an Evil-class Walker.”

Both of them had used their own channels to investigate after ”logging off,” and had arrived at the same conclusion independently.

Xie Lingxi’s eyes sparkled with the delight of having her theory validated. ”That’s exactly what I thought. I believe Ashamed Father and this other person are the same type of person.”

”Still, there’s some risk involved.”

”Bro Yuanshi, the danger should be manageable. If the risk were that great, Ashamed Father wouldn’t have entrusted you with this on his deathbed. Since he did, he must have been confident you would be safe.”

She had rushed to Songhai precisely because she realized Master Wuhen might be an Evil-class Walker and feared that ”Bro Wang Tai” would turn the encounter into a kill order. She wanted to go along with him, and considered it as repayment for Ashamed Father’s sacrifice.

Zhang Yuanqing, on the other hand, had agreed to bring her along because the Xie family’s eldest daughter almost certainly had Spirit Realm Walkers guarding her. Having her along would help offset the risk.

”When will you be done with your business?”

”I’m visiting the Palace Master tomorrow,” she replied. ”I’ll be free the day after.”

Xie Lingxi picked up a small spoon and scooped up a bite of dessert. She savored it while resting her chin on one hand, gazing at the young man across from her. ”Bro Yuanshi, you’re so amazing. Clearing two S-rank Spirit Realms in a row... I really admire you.”

She knew he was a complete newcomer, yet she never once brought up the fact that he’d claimed to be an experienced Walker inside the Spirit Realm. Now that was emotional intelligence.

Zhang Yuanqing took a bite of dessert himself. He couldn’t help but marvel at her flattery and charm. This girl was young, but she played at a high level.

The kind of girl who constantly showered you with praise and admiration was actually the hardest to deal with, because it was almost impossible to refuse her. An ordinary man would have been wrapped around her finger in no time.

But Zhang Yuanqing was no ordinary man. He was a social butterfly of the highest order.

”Sis Lingxi, look at how beautiful the moon is tonight. Since you admire me so much, why don’t I stay and enjoy it with you? What’s your room number?”

Xie Lingxi’s face turned red. ”Bro Yuanshi, I... I’m still just a kid...”

”What a coincidence. So am I.”

***

Xie Lingxi sighed inwardly. She liked to use a retreating-to-advance strategy to seize control. Who could refuse a girl a few modest requests after she had showered you with praise and adoration? Get the man’s ego floating high enough, and he became easy to manipulate.

She had never dated, but she understood the dynamics between men and women all too well. Her mother was a master of this art, the kind of woman who could slap her husband across the face, coax him back to happiness, and still leave him believing he was the head of the household—a truly elite operator.

Xie Lingxi had grown up watching and learning, absorbing seventy to eighty percent of her mother’s essence. She had deployed these techniques on elders and peers alike, and they had never failed her.

But none of this seemed to work with Bro Yuanshi. He would ride her flattery straight to the top, and turn the tables on her instead.

Then again, she genuinely did admire this boy who was only a few years older than her.

”Let’s exchange contact info. I’ll come find you the morning after tomorrow.”

Zhang Yuanqing swapped phone numbers with her and left the hotel.

***

After leaving the hotel, Zhang Yuanqing dialed Li Dongze’s number while on his way home in the business car.

”Squad Leader, I’ve left the hotel. Heading home now.”

Li Dongze relaxed audibly, then teased him.

—So, should I start calling you the Xie family’s live-in son-in-law? Both Guan Ya and I could tell that the young lady is quite fond of you.

Zhang Yuanqing sighed dramatically. ”Instead of being the Xie family’s live-in son-in-law, I’d much rather be the Guan family’s live-in son-in-law.”

Li Dongze paused.

—Then you’d better step up your game.

He caught it immediately. This kid Yuanshi was probing for information about Guan Ya’s identity. How had he figured out she was someone special? From what he could tell, Yuanshi only knew that Guan Ya had a slightly unusual background, but did not know of her connection to Centurion Fu Qingyang.

Zhang Yuanqing laughed it off and steered the conversation beyond the topic

”The day after tomorrow, I’m going out with that girl from the Xie family,” he said seriously. ”It should only take about a day before I’m back.”

Li Dongze raised no objections.

—She asked for you by name, after all. Take good care of her.

Zhang Yuanqing felt relieved. The Squad Leader’s lack of opposition suggested the Xie family had a decent reputation.

He moved on to his second inquiry. ”Squad Leader, after clearing Jinshui Amusement Park, I advanced to Level 2 and received a pretty good item as a reward.”

Level 2? Li Dongze let out a sigh.

—One mission, one level. The speed of your advancement is genuinely enviable. Well, only the speed of it is enviable. The fact that you keep getting matchmade into S-rank Spirit Realms is more worthy of pity. So what is it?

”I want to join the operation to hunt down Black Wuchang,” Zhang Yuanqing said quickly. ”On one hand, it would contribute to Squad Two’s earning of merit. On the other hand, I think it would be good training for myself.”

Li Dongze didn’t refuse, though he hesitated briefly.

—A Level 2 Nocturnal Specter’s combat power exceeds other classes at the same level, so you do qualify. But the person in charge of this operation is at the steward level. It’s not my call. I’ll float your request up to Centurion Fu Qingyang tomorrow and let him decide.

”Thanks, Squad Leader.”

After hanging up, Zhang Yuanqing glanced out the window and noticed the driver had taken the ramp up to the wrong highway.

”What’s going on?” he asked with a frown.

The driver in the front seat replied, ”Taking a detour. Precaution against being followed.”

Precaution against being followed, he thought to himself. Right.

His reputation was growing by the day, and plenty of people now knew he was with Kangyang District’s Squad Two. In the future, traveling between work and home would require exactly this kind of vigilance. Zhang Yuanqing filed that detail away.

An hour later, the driver dropped him off at his neighborhood. Zhang Yuanqing took the elevator to his floor and was about to climb through the corridor window back into his bedroom when his ears twitched, picking up the sounds of intense combat from inside.

He sighed helplessly and chose the front door instead, easing the security door open as quietly as possible. Seeing that Grandma wasn’t lying in wait in the living room, he breathed a sigh of relief and turned the handle to his bedroom.

Inside, Jiang Yu’er sat cross legged in front of the television, controller in hand, button-mashing away.

When she heard the door open behind her, she snarled through clenched teeth, ”The boss in this game is a boy who won’t come home after school and just messes around outside. I’m going to hack him to pieces!”

Zhang Yuanqing strolled over without a shred of shame. ”I’ll help you hack him apart.”

”Get lost!”

Jiang Yu’er displayed an impressive amount of core strength by twisting about her waist, keeping her upper body perfectly still as she kept gaming, and launching a barrage of kicks at him with her long legs.

Zhang Yuanqing caught one of her cold little feet and gave it a gentle lift. She yelped and toppled backward onto the floor.

He sat down in her spot, picked up the second controller, and restarted the game.

Jiang Yu’er righted herself, rubbed the teardrop mole at the corner of her eye, and demanded with a huff, ”Where did you go to mess around?”

The two sat side by side, eyes fixed on the television, talking while they played.

”I had dinner with a high school girl today. She was incredibly impressed when she heard I’m attending Songhai University, and insisted on dragging me to a hotel so I could tutor her on homework. Booked a five star hotel and everything. Ha, as if I could afford a room.”

”So you came back?”

”No, I made her pay.”

”Just die!”

***

It was seven thirty in the morning.

At the dining table, Jiang Yu’er sat with a fried dough stick dangling from her mouth, looking utterly listless, her head bobbing up and down like a little hen pecking at rice.

Grandma was scolding her daughter when her grandson came shuffling out of his room with a yawn. ”Did you stay up late again? I’ve told you, no late nights unless it’s the weekend. Are my words just meaningless now?”

When she saw him, the old woman let out a cold snort, still angry about the previous day’s incident. But settling family affairs wasn’t something to do in front of everyone, so she set her jaw and marched into the kitchen to fetch a bowl of hot congee for her grandson. She might as well give him a decent last meal.

A few minutes later, Grandma noticed her daughter and grandson sitting side by side, both their heads bobbing in unison, and erupted in fury.

”What did you two do last night?!”

The two of them answered in perfect unison.

”Jiang Yu’er insisted on coming to my room to play games.”

”Zhang Yuanqing insisted I go to his room to play games.”

Immediately, they turned on each other. Zhang Yuanqing grabbed his aunt’s hair while Jiang Yu’er clawed at her nephew’s face.

Grandpa and Cousin ate on, utterly unfazed.

***

Two days later, at eight in the morning, Zhang Yuanqing took a taxi to the front entrance of the Huayu Hotel, having texted ahead. He didn’t have to wait long before Xie Lingxi emerged through the revolving doors.

She was dressed in light, sporty attire—black athletic pants, a white T shirt, a white women’s jacket, and white running shoes. Her long straight black hair was pulled back into a ponytail that swayed as she jogged over. Also worth noting was that she wore a pair of sleek white over-ear headphones. Anyone who didn’t know better would have thought she was heading out for a run.

Xie Lingxi stopped in front of him, her smile sweet as ever.

”Bro Yuanshi, I’ve had my driver bring the car around.”

”Did you get to see the Palace Master?” Zhang Yuanqing asked, curious.

She shook her head slightly, disappointment written on her face. ”She wouldn’t see me.”

”Fake family friends,” Zhang Yuanqing scoffed.

Xie Lingxi puffed her cheeks and widened her eyes. ”Of course not. It’s because the Xiahou family from the coast came to Songhai to make trouble for her. She had to prepare to face a powerful enemy, so she did not have the time to see me.”

”The Xiahou family?” Zhang Yuanqing searched his memory and recalled who they were.

After clearing an S-rank Spirit Realm, his clearance level had increased, granting him access to more highly classified materials.

In the world of Spirit Realm Walkers, the most influential forces within the Lawful-class faction were the two major official organizations: the Five Elements Alliance and the Taiyi Sect. Next came the five great families. Three belonged to the Scholar class—the Zhao, Liu, and Xiahou families—while two belonged to the Musician class—the Xie and Zhu families.

As for the family of the Palace Master of Slaughter Cessation Palace, there was no record of them in the files, likely because they had been struck from the registry years ago.

Xie Lingxi looked worried. ”The Xiahou family’s eldest son was crippled by the Palace Master last month, so now they’ve come for revenge. The Xiahou family has been building power for years. They have plenty of experts and connections everywhere, while Slaughter Cessation Palace is ultimately just a local Songhai organization. If it comes to a real fight, the Five Elements Alliance will almost certainly side with the Xiahou family.”

Slaughter Cessation Palace’s strength was considerably inferior to the Xiahou family’s. It looked like they were in for trouble.

Zhang Yuanqing spotted a luxury business car approaching and said, ”That’s not our problem to worry about. The car is here.”

***

Their destination was Jinshan City.

It lay a little to the north of Songhai. A trip by high-speed rail took only twenty five minutes, and driving got you there in about an hour.

They arrived at half past nine. The destination turned out to be a small hotel built on the outskirts of the city. The illuminated sign above the entrance read: Wuhen Inn.

Once the business car was parked, Zhang Yuanqing and Xie Lingxi stepped out and walked into the lobby.

The receptionist was a glamorous woman in her early thirties, wearing a professional smile. Her eyes were round and alluring, her figure voluptuous and striking.

”What kind of room would you two like?” she asked.

Zhang Yuanqing got straight to the point, lowering his voice as he said, ”We’re not checking in. We’re looking for someone. We’re looking for Master Wuhen.”

The glamorous receptionist maintained her smile, but those round, alluring eyes narrowed, and the light within them seemed to sharpen into something like a blade.

”There’s no one here by that name,” she said, enunciating each word deliberately.

The air around them seemed to congeal and both Zhang Yuanqing and Xie Lingxi felt an immense pressure bearing down on them, as though a starving wolf had locked its gaze onto them.

Exerting this level of pressure shouldn’t have been possible at the Transcendent tier. Was a mere receptionist this powerful?

Zhang Yuanqing drew a deep breath and said, ”Ashamed Father asked me to deliver a message to Master Wuhen.”