Spirit Realm Walker

The ringtone played for a long time before the call connected. The voice was crisp and articulate, but cold.

—I’m reviewing Ou Xiangrong’s files and analyzing his behavioral patterns. You have ten seconds.

Among the official Spirit Realm Walkers, individual squads served as the main force for handling cases, while Stewards coordinated from behind the scenes. Only when facing particularly troublesome cases would they personally step in.

The Centurion is under a lot of pressure, Li Dongze thought.

He cleared his throat and reported in a low, serious voice, ”Centurion Fu, we have eliminated Ou Xiangrong.”

That statement was clearly unexpected, and the phone went silent. After several seconds of silence, Fu Qingyang’s voice came through, no longer cold.

 —Where did you find him?

Li Dongze replied, ”We eliminated him at Songhai University. He was trying to force Xu Yingying to reveal the whereabouts of the Holy Grail and the Registry, but Xu Yingying didn’t know anything. She’s just an ordinary female student. Your judgment was correct. Ou Xiangrong had indeed become mentally unstable.”

Fu Qingyang’s voice glowed with pride as he replied.

—Excellent, Li Dongze. You were very perceptive this time, and successfully prevented a large-scale incident. I’ll petition the Council of Elders for commendations for your team. Were there any casualties?

”None,” Li Dongze said. He paused for a moment, then added, ”Centurion Fu, we didn’t kill him.”

Fu Qingyang’s voice grew confused. 

—You didn’t kill him?

There was a pause as though the Centurion had suddenly thought of something. 

—I almost forgot, there’s an Elder from Water God Palace at Songhai University. Did that person take action? It seems I need to find time to visit and express my gratitude.

There’s an Elder at Songhai University? Li Dongze wondered for a moment, stunned, then immediately realized that Centurion Fu had misunderstood.

”The one who eliminated Ou Xiangrong was Yuanshi Tianzun, the Nocturnal Specter I recently recruited,” he explained to his superior.

The Centurion on the phone fell silent again. He seemed to be trying to process the fact that a Level 1 Nocturnal Specter had killed a Level 3 Enchanting Demon. After a long silence, Fu Qingyang finally responded.

—Understood. Have him submit a report. Well done. 

There was an undercurrent of amusement in the Centurion’s voice.

After ending the call, Li Dongze gripped the steering wheel with glee, and unconsciously stepped harder on the accelerator.

White Dragon unlocked her phone and created a temporary group chat with the other squad leaders.

White Dragon: Look at Li Dongze being all smug. His mustache is practically flying up to his eyebrows.

Green Vine: His squad achieved great merit. If I had a subordinate like that, I’d be proud too.

According to the internal regulations of the official organization, to deepen squad members’ collective sense of honor, the entire squad would receive commendations when one of its members achieved merit. If the squad leaders had felt simple envy over this Nocturnal Specter that Li Dongze had recruited before, they were now jealous enough to consider abandoning all pretense of martial virtue.

***

The morgue, Kangyang District Public Security Bureau.

Li Dongze closed the door to the morgue, leaving the other squad leaders outside.

His gaze was serious as he looked over at Zhang Yuanqing beside him.

”Nocturnal Specters devouring spirits can increase experience points,” he said. ”The side effect is that over time, the mind becomes contaminated. If you’ve already tried improving your strength this way, then you should understand what I mean.”

Zhang Yuanqing nodded.

”Have you tried using that item to purify distracting thoughts?” Li Dongze asked. It seemed this was the solution he had come up with.

Seeing Zhang Yuanqing frown in thought, Li Dongze immediately smiled. 

”It looks like using that item comes with quite a cost.”

Indeed, using it too much easily causes anemia and depletes both qi and blood, Zhang Yuanqing agreed. 

He suddenly remembered a forgotten detail. 

He had once found a Spirit Crystal in the mouth of the Three Paths Mountain Goddess. Looking back now, that crystal had very likely been formed from the condensed soul of a Spirit Realm Walker who’d died in the mountain temple, which was why the item’s description said it was the best supplement for Nocturnal Specters.

The impurities in the Spirit Crystal were probably mental contamination, but the goddess had purified it. Based on that reasoning, the Demon-subduing Awl could definitely also purify one’s mental contamination.

With this thought, Zhang Yuanqing opened his Inventory and took out the brass-forged Demon-subduing Awl, which was carved with exquisite patterns and incantations.

He briefly explained the item’s effects and cost, then said, ”If I go mad, just stab me with it. Um, stab my thigh.”

”Got it!” Li Dongze acknowledged as he took the item.

Zhang Yuanqing walked to Ou Xiangrong’s corpse and pressed his palm against the other’s chest. He took a deep breath, and thick, dark energy surged from the depths of his eyes as he awakened the remnant spirit in the body.

His forehead ached with swelling pain, and his consciousness immediately expanded as something that didn’t belong to him forcefully pushed itself into his brain.

***

In a hazy state, Zhang Yuanqing saw himself in the underground parking garage facing the eerie Red Dancing Shoes.

This was the battle that had occurred earlier that day in the parking garage.

Zhang Yuanqing silently waited for the battle to end, and the scene quickly changed. This time, he was in a dim room. A masked man was standing before Ou Xiangrong, holding an exquisitely-crafted crystal cup filled with liquid red as blood.

”As an Enchanting Demon, your evilness is pure. You have decent potential. Drink the wine in the Holy Grail, and you’ll become my servant.

”Every fifteen days, you must drink the wine from the Holy Grail again, or not even the gods can save you.”

”Remember my name. I am Ghost Eye Judge.”

***

In a cheap rental apartment, a man wearing a mask and baseball cap stood in the living room.

”Ghost Eye Judge is dead,” he said coldly. ”His trusted subordinate Black Wuchang escaped with the Fallen Holy Grail and the Registry and is hiding somewhere in Songhai City. If you don’t want to die from poisoning, then help us find him. The Psychic Assembly will never mistreat you.”

***

The scene changed again. He was outdoors, under a blue sky. A group of thugs in outlandish clothes were punching and kicking him.

The change in scene was so abrupt that Zhang Yuanqing felt confused. After several seconds, he realized he was experiencing bullying.

Were these Ou Xiangrong’s old memories? Who would have thought that this cold blooded killer had once had such experiences?

”Ou Xiangrong, are you treating my words like background noise?”

”Ou Xiangrong, you should cherish the times we talk to you nicely.”

Zhang Yuanqing felt Ou Xiangrong’s intense inner fear as he cowered in terror.

Don’t hit me, don’t hit me…

***

”You useless thing, you got bullied again? If someone hits you, hit them back. Why do you come crying to me? How did I give birth to such waste?” a middle aged man cursed furiously, spittle flying.

This time, Zhang Yuanqing felt Ou Xiangrong’s despair.

Many chaotic, fragmented scenes flashed by rapidly. One similar incident after another flew by, and his mind became increasingly twisted and violent.

Just then, a beam of brilliant, pure golden light broke into his sea of consciousness, dispelling the violence and pain and bringing warmth.

Zhang Yuanqing’s eyes snapped open. He saw bright fluorescent lights and white walls, and Li Dongze in front of him. His superior’s face was bruised and swollen, and his suit was crumpled.

Zhang Yuanqing was greatly alarmed. He immediately touched his own face and found it covered with tear stains.

”Squad Leader, are you okay?” he asked immediately.

”I’m fine,” replied Li Dongze as he casually tossed the bloodstained Demon-subduing Awl onto the ground and straightened his clothing.

”I should have let Guan Ya handle this instead,” he complained. ”Her combat skills are better than mine. This isn’t elegant at all.”

After he finished adjusting his attire, he asked eagerly, ”How was it? Did you discover any new clues? You look like you’re in terrible condition.”

”I’m just… a bit sad.”

His experience had increased again, but this time, Zhang Yuanqing felt no joy about it.

Li Dongze offered him a look of understanding. 

”Is it because of Ou Xiangrong’s memories?” he asked.

”Mmhmm,” Zhang Yuanqing acknowledged.

Spirit bodies had incomplete and fragmented memories, and only retained experiences that were hard to let go of.

After all these years, Ou Xiangrong still had not been able to get over his experiences during his student days, which affected the rest of his life.

Although the man was a damnable criminal, Zhang Yuanqing still felt deeply uncomfortable.

Li Dongze sighed, then said, ”Although I don’t know what you saw in those memories, I can empathize. Taiyi Sect’s Nocturnal Specters hate devouring Evil-class spirits the most, and this is exactly why. Yuanshi, do you know why the concept of Evil classes exists?”

Instead of immediately asking about case clues, he took this opportunity to guide and teach his subordinate.

”In factional conflicts, we’ve killed countless Evil-class enemies. After summarizing the spirit interrogation data from Taiyi Sect Nocturnal Specters, we observed a phenomenon. Every Evil-class Spirit Realm Walker was a villain or criminal in reality. In other words, Evil-class Spirit Realm Walkers are selected by the Spirit Realm from specific groups.”

Zhang Yuanqing was stunned by this revelation. ”So they didn’t become bad people after being assigned an Evil class. They were bad people originally.”

Li Dongze sighed again, then continued, ”Their evil isn’t entirely innate. It was created by humanity itself. The Spirit Realm doesn’t actively cultivate evil. The birth of any Evil-class Walker is humanity’s own karmic fire. This phenomenon is depressing and not exactly positive, but this is just how the real world works. Take this as information, and don’t spread it widely.”

Zhang Yuanqing nodded silently.

Li Dongze continued, ”Let me tell you about something else. You killed Ou Xiangrong, so you should have gained Reputation points.

”When Spirit Realm Walkers hunt each other, no Morality points are deducted. But if you have Reputation, it will make Spirit Realm Walkers from the same faction more wary. If you have 10 Reputation points, any Spirit Realm Walker from the same faction who kills you will lose 20 Morality points instead. Heh, being lawful and good are different things.”

After saying all this, Li Dongze patted his shoulder. ”Alright, let’s talk business. There’s no time to waste.”

Among the Good classes, are there also lawful, chaotic, and neutral ones? Zhang Yuanqing wondered to himself. If so, among evil classes, might there be some who have reformed? 

He pushed away these thoughts, steadied himself, then said quietly, ”Squad Leader, I think I saw something major in Ou Xiangrong’s memories.”

”Something major?” Li Dongze asked with a smile. ”He’s just a Level 3 Enchanting Demon. How big could it be? I’ve worked for so many years. What ’major incident’ haven’t I seen? Go ahead, do your best.”

He wasn’t being arrogant. In Li Dongze’s view, Yuanshi lacked experience, so his definition of ”major” might not be accurate.

Zhang Yuanqing began recounting the memories he had seen in detail.

”It’s like this…” 

A few minutes later, Li Dongze sprinted out of the morgue, roaring at the squad leaders outside, ”We have a major incident on our hands!!”