Settle Her Karma

The balding middle-aged man ran a hand through the hair around his bald spot and smiled at Su Yang.

"Young man, you've really landed the chief in a whole lot of trouble this time!"

"I reckon his superiors will give him a serious scolding, dock his pay for a few years, and lock him in a little dark room for a few months."

"Now, Old Wang, you can't put it like that."

Zhao Shengshen waved a hand, cutting the middle-aged man off at once.

"Everything today was done by the book. It's not my fault, and it certainly isn't Su Yang's!"

"Su Yang, go back and get a good night's rest! You must be exhausted after everything lately!"

"Don't overthink it. You're outstanding, and the Soul-Reaping Bureau will definitely value you!"

"There are things your parents left behind at the Soul-Reaping Bureau's Headquarters. When the time comes, I'll take you to see them."

Zhao Shengshen smiled at Su Yang, walked over, and patted him on the shoulder, his eyes full of encouragement.

Looking at the sturdy man before him, the trace of resentment in Su Yang's heart vanished without a trace, replaced by a good deal of guilt.

He was the one who had wiped out Maiden's Soul, yet the chief hadn't blamed him in the slightest. Instead, he had kept trying to comfort him.

"Chief..."

Zhao Shengshen shook his head, signaling that Su Yang didn't need to say any more.

His eyes happened to fall on the pitch-black long saber beside Su Yang, and his interest was instantly piqued.

"That saber of yours looks rather like a containment item at the Soul-Reaping Bureau's Headquarters... This must have something to do with the Sequence Ability you awakened, right?"

Speaking of Sequence Abilities, Zhao Shengshen seemed to recall something. He abruptly changed the subject, his expression turning serious.

"Remember, don't tell anyone exactly what your Sequence Ability is! Absolutely no one, not even those closest to you!"

"Even people on the same Sequence have different abilities!"

"Once someone with ill intentions knows exactly what your ability is, it becomes especially easy for them to target you and put you on the back foot."

Seeing Zhao Shengshen's serious expression, Su Yang nodded quickly.

Zhao Shengshen had made himself clear enough, and he understood.

You could never do without a heart guarded against others!

Even without Zhao Shengshen's warning, Su Yang wouldn't have gone around telling people about his Sequence Ability.

"All right, I really have to go!"

Zhao Shengshen gave the balding middle-aged man called "Old Wang" a look, and the middle-aged man immediately understood.

He patted Su Yang on the head and said heartily, "Kid, where do you live? I can get you there in the blink of an eye."

Su Yang stood up and raised a hand. The pitch-black long saber beside him vanished.

"At the end of the eastern section of Campus Road. Sorry for the trouble..."

Before Su Yang could finish speaking, white light flashed before his eyes, and his figure vanished from the Soul-Reaping Bureau.

When Su Yang opened his eyes again, he was already standing outside his front door.

A few gentle breezes drifted past, and the night light fell on the shabby door.

Su Yang still felt it was a little unreal.

I'm already at my front door? That ability really is convenient!

Su Yang glanced behind him and saw that the middle-aged man hadn't come along. He was standing alone in the night.

"That man only teleported me here? Is he still at the Soul-Reaping Bureau?"

"I wonder which Sequence that ability belongs to. It's incredible..."

Su Yang scratched his head but didn't dwell on it.

Right now, he had something extremely urgent to do!

It concerned the Dead Man's Book page he had kept hidden in his trouser pocket all along!

Su Yang took out his house key and gently opened the door with a creak, then slipped inside.

Once inside, Su Yang immediately took off the clothes he had changed into before going out that evening.

Only after taking them off did Su Yang realize that beads of sweat had long since soaked through his undershirt.

He then tossed the clothes onto the floor and took a yellowed page from his trouser pocket.

The page, once completely blank, was now covered in random bloodstains!

It was the very page Su Yang had torn from the Dead Man's Book!

"Phew! Good thing nobody noticed!"

Su Yang let out a long sigh of relief.

Back at the Soul-Reaping Bureau, Su Yang had been terribly nervous, afraid that Zhao Shengshen and the others would discover the page of the Dead Man's Book in his pocket.

If Zhao Shengshen and the others had discovered the Dead Man's Book's existence, there was no doubt that the Soul-Reaping Bureau would have confiscated it.

And Su Yang couldn't do without the Dead Man's Book at all right now!

The moment Su Yang's hands touched Maiden's Soul, the page of the Dead Man's Book folded up in his trouser pocket instantly went berserk.

The page leaped out of Su Yang's pocket on its own and clung wildly to the monster's mutilated face.

Just as the Dead Man's Book had done when absorbing other departed souls over the past five years!

In truth, Su Yang hadn't destroyed Maiden's Soul with a single slash at all! The Dead Man's Book had absorbed the undead once again!

And at that very moment, the Soul-Reaping Bureau had completely lost sight of Su Yang on its feed!

After the Dead Man's Book finished absorbing Maiden's Soul, Su Yang felt as though his body had broken through a limit.

He felt every cell in his body cheering, every muscle leaping for joy.

He didn't know if it was an illusion, but at that moment, Su Yang felt he could punch straight through the Soul-Reaping Bureau's marble floor!

It was a remarkable feeling, as though he had completely mastered his body for the first time!

Now, Su Yang could even control the rate at which his heart beat!

It was also at that moment that the pitch-black long saber appeared!

From the moment the long saber appeared, Su Yang felt as though it was connected to him by blood.

With a mere thought, Su Yang could summon the long saber out of thin air or make it vanish just as easily!

The long saber was like a living new organ that had grown on Su Yang's body.

It felt natural, and he could control it at will.

This had to be what they called the awakening of a Sequence Ability!

Examining the bloodstains on the page, Su Yang found them chaotic, with no discernible pattern!

They looked like a child's random scribbles, with nothing of value to be made out.

"How could this be?"

Su Yang knitted his brows tightly.

He had thought that, after absorbing Maiden's Soul, this page of the Dead Man's Book would display some words as before and give him some clues.

But Su Yang couldn't make anything out of these devilish scrawls.

After pondering for a while, Su Yang paced to the head of his bed. He reached under his pillow and took out the Dead Man's Book.

The Dead Man's Book looked no different from before, its cover still pitch-black.

Su Yang gently opened the cover of the Dead Man's Book. The title page, where blood-red words should have appeared, was also completely clean.

"Was I wrong? Is the Dead Man's Book really not going to change at all?"

"Even after absorbing a second-tier departed soul, there isn't the slightest change in the Dead Man's Book?"

He was somewhat disappointed!

Just as Su Yang was about to put down the Dead Man's Book, his eyes drifted over it, and he spotted a line of writing at the missing lower right corner of the title page.

Su Yang's breath caught. The writing wasn't on the title page!

It was on the page beneath it! Su Yang hurriedly turned to the next page, and sure enough!

Line after line of small, blood-red characters had appeared on the previously blank page of the Dead Man's Book.

They read:

[The deceased was named He Tong in life and Maiden's Soul after death.]

[A class C containment item of the Soul-Reaping Bureau, code name C-0188. Now recorded in the Dead Man's Book, code name 0.]

[Containment reward: Sequence Ability awakening.]

[Investigate the cause of her death! Settle her karma! You will receive further gifts from Fate!]

[Good luck, Su Yang!]