Penitent's Treasure

Human Skin Paste. The name alone was nauseating enough.

And the truth was indeed no better. Tang Qi scooped up the paste, glanced at it silently, and the Special Interface appeared.

Curio: Human Skin Paste.

Information Fragment One: Norman had always wanted to become a woman. He craved beautiful human skin, and to that end, he murdered thirteen young girls. The Dugong Sea Demon used Supernatural Power to refine the thirteen girls' skins into a box of paste.

Information Fragment Two: Applying it would allow control over weak-willed creatures within the area permeated by its fragrance.

Information Fragment Three: Diluting it with clean water into perfume could keep a woman's skin in its best condition for thirty years.

A single box of fragrant paste had yielded three Information Fragments.

Even Tang Qi could not help but take notice. After reading them, however, he fell silent.

It was a supernatural item. There might have been some ethical concerns, but Tang Qi was not particularly squeamish. After thinking it over and failing to come up with many uses for it, he put the paste away for the time being.

Stana watched Tang Qi do this with her own eyes and instinctively wanted to say something. But the scenes she had just experienced immediately resurfaced in her mind, and she swallowed the word "evidence" before it could leave her mouth.

At that moment, the Police Chief was still reeling from the shock of witnessing another world. Countless questions surfaced in her mind, awaiting answers from this "informed person" before her.

Tang Qi knew that, so he turned to the second piece of evidence.

It was a small cloth pouch. Amid the bloody chunks of flesh, it had somehow remained unstained by blood.

When he opened it, he found grains of sea salt inside, each one glittering like a diamond.

The interface appeared before his eyes.

Curio: Sea Demon's Tears.

Information Fragment One: The Dugong Sea Demon imprisoned an enemy Siren and forced her to weep every day until she died. Blue sea salt possessed the power to break curses and purify evil. Red Sea Salt allowed one to briefly unleash Siren's Wail, causing targets to fall into chaos or die.

Information Fragment Two: Returning these to the Siren race would earn their friendship.

Tang Qi had been expressionless in the face of the Human Skin Paste, but this time, he nearly failed to conceal the delight on his face.

Good stuff!

The thought rose instinctively in his mind.

After reading the two Information Fragments, Tang Qi held the pouch and gave it a slight shake. Sure enough, several azure grains of sea salt scattered from the surface, revealing two slightly larger pieces of Red Sea Salt beneath them.

Blue purified evil, while red briefly turned one into a Siren.

Although he was already considered someone within the Supernatural Realm, Tang Qi still could not help but be surprised.

With his first experience behind him, Tang Qi smoothly stuffed the pouch of sea salt into his clothes.

Then he reached out again and grabbed the final item.

This time, his hand closed around a soft fabric.

It gave him the same feeling as when he had first obtained the Parchment Scroll containing the Golden Furnace Meditation Method. Unfortunately, when Tang Qi unfolded it, what he saw was a Treasure Map.

It was a very simple map, drawn on an unidentified piece of animal hide. The terrain it depicted covered the entire Divine Eagle Federation, and many locations had been marked with red pigment.

Unlike Tang Qi, Stana was clearly much more excited when she saw that it was a Treasure Map.

"A Treasure Map?"

"These places seem to all be monasteries. Could it be a map showing the distribution of monasteries across the Federation?"

"Look more carefully."

Tang Qi suddenly handed the Treasure Map directly to Stana. The Police Chief accepted it instinctively and studied it carefully. She first frowned in thought, then her expression abruptly changed as she said hesitantly, "This is... the Path of Penitence?"

"At the beginning of the Divine Eagle Federation, twelve powerful figures made tremendous contributions. They were collectively known as the Twelve Saints."

"One of them, Martin Sims, was known as The Penitent."

"As an ascetic, he set out from East Town in the Eastern Federation. He slew demons and rebels all the way, endured countless hardships, and eventually reached Barlow City in the far north. Along the way, he established many monasteries and churches."

"The predecessor of St. Thorn High School, Thorns Church, was one of them."

As he spoke, Tang Qi pointed at a location on the map. Compared with the other places marked in pigment, Thorn High School was indeed inconspicuous.

"So it came looking for The Penitent's treasure? Perhaps the murders were the result of it being unable to restrain its desires?"

Stana glanced at the numerous chunks of flesh on the ground and asked.

"Not treasure—inheritance. Many rumors claim that Martin Sims left his ascetic teachings in one of the monasteries along the Path of Penitence. Perhaps it came for those things."

After answering that, Tang Qi directly changed the subject. Pointing at his house, which looked as though it had been ravaged by a hurricane, he asked, "Chief, the police department will compensate me for this, right?"

Though she was unaccustomed to Tang Qi's abrupt change of subject, Stana immediately replied once she recovered. "They will. After all, the murderer came here because he was following me. I'll contact the department and have people sent over right away, though they'll probably be here soon anyway. There was such a huge commotion that the school must have called the police too."

"Oh, and you were the one who shot the murderer dead. Once I file my report, you'll receive a generous reward as well."

"No, Chief Inspector Stana."

The moment Stana finished her last sentence, Tang Qi looked at her very seriously. His tone was incomparably sincere as he said, word by word, "You were the one who shot this murderer dead."

Claiming credit?

Those words would never have existed in Stana's career as a police officer.

But this time, as she looked into Tang Qi's eyes, which seemed to shine, she could not bring herself to refuse.

Especially when Tang Qi added, "I'm only a student. I need to protect myself," as his reason, Stana could only violate her principles for the first time. Torn, she nodded and accepted this enormous credit.

But simply taking advantage was not Stana's style.

The beautiful Police Chief seemed to think of something. She swept her gaze around the floor, the scenes from earlier replaying in her mind, along with the officers who had died before her not long ago, their heads exploded by Siren's Wail. The events of this single day had shattered her former worldview.

No matter how slow she was, she should have realized that she had come into contact with a world on another level.

Besides, she was Stana, hailed as the number one rising star of the Messer City police force.

She lacked neither decisiveness nor resolve.

"Little wizard, don't you think you should explain a few things to me?"

As she spoke, Stana handed the third piece of evidence to Tang Qi.

But this time, Tang Qi waved it away and refused. "That thing is useless to me. It's just a route map of the Path of Penitence. You could find one in any library in the Federation. You can take it back to the police department as evidence."

"As for the explanation you want, I can only tell you something cruel, yet kind."

"Chief Inspector Stana, you do not belong to that world. Perhaps you wield tremendous authority before ordinary people, but once you step into that world, you will definitely... die. This case is over. Forget those things that defy science. Treat it as an accident."

Having been bluntly refused by Tang Qi, Chief Inspector Stana was obviously unhappy. If she had not been wary of the Supernatural Power on Tang Qi's person, she would have flicked this uncooperative boy on the forehead long ago. Besides being a rising police star, she also bore the title Violent Beauty.

Even so, she did not give up. Pointing at the disgusting chunks of Siren flesh on the ground, she put on a despairing expression and shouted softly, "Look at this kind of flesh. How am I supposed to... hm?"

Halfway through her shout, Stana suddenly saw the chunks of flesh that clearly belonged to a monster slowly turning into ash. In the end, only the corpse of the perverted serial killer remained on the ground—a high school student from the Anglo States named Norman.

If the day's events had not been so incredibly real, especially the battle just now and the house that had not been restored along with everything else, Stana would have believed everything before this had been an illusion.

She could only swallow the words on the tip of her tongue.

At that moment, the wail of approaching police sirens reached her ears.

When Stana looked up again, all she could see was Tang Qi's retreating figure as he walked toward the second floor. She wanted badly to threaten him with something, but she realized she had no way to threaten Tang Qi.

A wealthy young man whose parents had died, who possessed Supernatural Power, and who hid inside an aristocratic high school—there was simply no way to get at him.

After thinking it over, Stana was even prepared to consider methods that crossed the line. After all, a Transcendental World had been laid bare before her. She had experienced it herself, yet could not truly enter it. The frustration and impulse were stronger than when she had wanted to defeat countless muscular men and claim first place at the police academy.

It was then that she suddenly spotted several gleaming brass shell casings on the floor. Her eyes immediately lit up. She cast a smug glance at Tang Qi's back, then turned and left without any of her earlier reluctance or entanglement.

But just as she stepped through the front door, Tang Qi's voice drifted into her ears.

"Ma'am, those bullets are called Furnace. Every one of them is the product of my hard work. Unless it's a critical moment, you'd better not waste them."

"Damn!"

Hearing that voice so suddenly, Stana nearly stumbled.

She turned at once and glared fiercely at the figure by the second-floor window. Then she turned back, explained the situation to the police officers who had just arrived, and got into the second patrol car. This time, she truly left.

But as she departed, Tang Qi, whose eyesight had been enhanced, clearly saw a faint curve appear at the corner of the Police Chief's lips.