Leaving the bedroom, Zhou Yi looked up. The treasured visage had yet to emit any light, so it seemed it was not too late. Zhou Yi did not want to be late on his first day of duty.
Zhou Yi pushed open the courtyard gate and headed toward the Provincial Governor's Office.
After arriving at the eastern courtyard, Zhou Yi saw Uncle Du already standing in the square, where a few scattered people were also waiting.
Zhou Yi walked over to Uncle Du, greeted him, then quietly stood to one side.
Du Wei also nodded at Zhou Yi, then lowered his head and began drawing something on a sheet of paper.
Gradually, as time passed, more and more people gathered in the square. In the end, they split into five squads, each with only around twenty people, standing in the square with clear boundaries between them.
Zhou Yi looked at the leaders of the other squads. They were all about the same age as Uncle Du. It seemed they had all clawed their way up through years of endurance.
Then, the captains gathered together. After dividing up the patrol areas, they separated again and returned to their respective squads.
Du Wei also walked over to his own squad and began assigning patrol duties. This was fairly similar to Green Bamboo Village, but Luoshi City was far too large, while the Provincial Governor's Office was short on manpower, so patrols were generally carried out alone.
Zhou Yi was assigned his patrol duty for the night. He had originally been worried that he was unfamiliar with the routes and would embarrass himself by taking a wrong turn, but just as he was about to set off, Du Wei called him over and handed him the sheet of paper he had been drawing on.
Zhou Yi took it and saw that it was actually a route map, with the names of every street marked out. A wave of warmth rose in his heart.
"Uncle Du, thank you." Zhou Yi raised the route map in his hand as he spoke to Du Wei.
Du Wei merely waved his hand. "You're my nephew. What are you thanking me for? All right, hurry along."
Zhou Yi nodded and prepared to leave. Just as he was about to set off, Du Wei called out to him again, pulled him aside, and said in a low voice, "If you encounter anything strange, remember to protect yourself first. Don't fixate on Yin Energy."
"Got it!" Zhou Yi said solemnly.
This time, Zhou Yi finally walked out through the gates of the Provincial Governor's Office. Holding the route map before him, he compared it with the street names as he walked, making sure he would not take a wrong turn.
Next, Zhou Yi slowly began patrolling the streets. After making one round, he had already memorized his patrol route.
He put away the route map and prepared to begin his second round. By now, it was already deep into the night.
While Zhou Yi was making his second patrol, a cold wind suddenly swept toward him. His body flashed aside, and he was already gone from where he had stood.
He turned and stared at the empty ground before him. There was clearly nothing there, yet his spiritual senses kept warning him that something was there.
Another gust of wind blew past. Zhou Yi dodged again. After evading it, he closed his eyes and spread his spiritual power into the surroundings.
"Found you!"
Within his perception, Zhou Yi could only "see" what seemed to be a lump of rotten mud, a creature constantly dripping something from all over its body, making him feel nauseated.
Zhou Yi could not even tell where this strange creature's head was or where its feet were.
The monster seemed to realize that Zhou Yi could see it, so it turned and ran toward an alley nearby.
Zhou Yi activated his movement technique and gave chase, but after entering the alley, he lost sight of the strange creature.
Then another cold wind struck. Zhou Yi tilted his head and dodged the attack, only to realize that the strange creature had attacked from within the wall.
By now, Zhou Yi was growing irritated from the strange creature's sneak attacks. He could not help but ignite the Vital Energy throughout his body and throw a punch at the wall.
After that punch, the wall was covered in cracks. At the same time, a howl reached Zhou Yi's ears. It seemed the strange creature had indeed been hiding inside the wall.
Zhou Yi's punch forced the strange creature out, allowing him to observe it with his spiritual power once more.
Seeing Zhou Yi block the alley entrance, the strange creature let out a howl at him. The sound poured into Zhou Yi's mind, and he found it unbearably piercing.
Zhou Yi immediately used Vital Energy to seal his ears. Once he could no longer hear the strange creature's cries, he began circulating the Indestructible Golden Body, intending to end the fight quickly.
Zhou Yi's body rapidly grew taller, soon surpassing two meters. His broad frame nearly filled the entire alley, muscles bulging all over his body, veins standing out across them, like a living Vajra descended into the world.
Seeing that its howls no longer affected Zhou Yi, the strange creature charged at him. Just as it neared him, it suddenly rose into the air, trying to leap over Zhou Yi and flee outside.
How could Zhou Yi allow it to succeed? He immediately stretched out a hand as large as a palm-leaf fan and swept it through the air.
"Got you!!!"
Zhou Yi roared. The sensation in his hand was strange—the strange creature's entire body was slick and slippery, frantically secreting some substance. Yet beneath Zhou Yi's monstrous strength, it could not break free.
He slammed the strange creature into the ground. The bluish stone bricks shattered one after another. After taking the blow, the strange creature struggled even more fiercely in Zhou Yi's grasp, but how could Zhou Yi let it go? He gathered all his Vital Energy into his fist and blasted a punch at it.
This strange creature was clearly less able to take a beating than the one from yesterday. After only one punch, it stopped struggling, as though it were dead.
But Zhou Yi had not heard the panel's notification. He threw punch after punch at the strange creature in his hand.
The strange creature seemed to grow smaller and smaller. By the end, all that remained in Zhou Yi's hand was something that looked like a layer of skin.
"Yin Energy +800"
Only then did the panel's notification finally sound. The Yin Energy gained from this strange creature was actually three hundred more than yesterday's, yet Zhou Yi felt this one had been far easier to deal with. It had not even caused much of a commotion. He could not make sense of it.
After putting away the layer of skin dropped by the strange creature, Zhou Yi left the area. As for the damage caused by the battle, it was generally handled by the authorities.
At that moment, Zhou Yi noticed that the door of a residence beside the street stood wide open. Before he even approached, he smelled blood.
"Not good!"
Zhou Yi rushed through the door. An even stronger stench of blood hit him. The smell was so heavy that he could not determine where it came from, so he could only search room by room. Soon, he found the room from which the bloody smell was coming.
Zhou Yi pushed open the door. The sight before him made his mind go blank. Though he had seen many scenes involving strange creatures, this one still made his scalp prickle.
The room was littered with chunks of flesh and blood. A family of three sat around a table, their bodies covered in wounds, their eyeballs long gone from their faces. Yet they still groped across the tabletop with their hands, and whenever they found a piece of flesh, they grabbed it and stuffed it into their mouths.
Hehe~ So fun.
Zhou Yi's eyes had already turned bloodshot at the sight. Hearing a sound from above, he looked up and saw a childlike strange creature sitting atop a roof beam, snickering at the scene below.
Then it turned its head toward Zhou Yi. This strange creature had no eyes either, but its hollow black sockets stared at Zhou Yi, making every hair on his body stand on end.
Zhou Yi clenched his fists tightly and directly activated his Indestructible Golden Body form. He crouched, then leapt forcefully toward the roof beam. Watching Zhou Yi jump at it, the strange creature neither dodged nor evaded, allowing Zhou Yi's fist to strike its body. Yet, astonishingly, Zhou Yi's fist passed straight through it.
Zhou Yi felt as though he had punched empty air, while the strange creature continued to "look" at him with its eyeless sockets. A faint smile appeared on its face, as though mocking Zhou Yi for overestimating himself.
Zhou Yi was thoroughly enraged. He immediately pushed the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Skill to its utmost limit. Since he was indoors, he did not need to worry about anyone seeing the dragon-elephant phantoms.
The strange creature, which had been smiling just moments ago, now wore an expression of terror.
Seeing this, Zhou Yi gave a light laugh and said to it, "So you know fear too."
Then Zhou Yi reached for the strange creature again. It had just tried to flee when the dragon-elephant phantoms behind Zhou Yi blocked its path. Zhou Yi threw a punch, sending the strange creature flying straight into the wall opposite.
"Since you're afraid, why would you do something like this?"
"Don't you like playing? Come on, I'll play with you."
Zhou Yi attacked the strange creature as he roared. At this moment, the strange creature was being toyed with like a toy by Zhou Yi.
"Feel their fear."
Zhou Yi said calmly.
Then the dragon-elephant phantoms behind Zhou Yi rushed at the strange creature, each striving to be first. One Dragon One Elephant tore and bit at its body until it was ripped into pieces, then swallowed the shredded flesh into their bellies, leaving behind only a head with a terrified expression.
"Yin Energy +1500"
A wave of weakness spread through Zhou Yi's body. It seemed that using divine powers still placed too great a burden on his current body.
Before you continue