A Dart Alarms the Hall Master

Nuoding City Spirit Hall Branch.

Steward Ma Xiunuo's study.

The warm evening sunlight streamed in through the window lattice.

The door was slammed open with a bang.

A small figure swept in like a gust of wind.

"Grandpa! Grandpa, look!"

Sisi wore her hair in two horn braids, her little face flushed red from running as she held up something gleaming as though presenting a treasure.

Ma Xiunuo had been reviewing documents. At the sound, he looked up, his face immediately breaking into a kindly smile.

"My little darling, what new discovery have you made today?"

Sisi darted up to the desk in a few steps and carefully placed a leaf-shaped dart on it.

"Look! It's a gift from my new friend. Isn't it pretty?"

It was a metal leaf with an unusual design. Its edges gleamed with sharp, cold light, and the veins on its surface were clearly visible, a faint halo flowing across it beneath the lamplight.

Ma Xiunuo adjusted his reading glasses and picked it up.

It felt slightly heavy in his hand, with an excellent texture.

"Mm, what exquisite craftsmanship."

He praised it sincerely.

Such workmanship could not be achieved without decades of practice.

It was at least the work of a Master Blacksmith.

Which rich young master could be so lavish?

Out of habit, he sent a thread of Soul Power into it.

It was an instinct of Soul Masters, to inspect an object's material and construction.

His Soul Power seeped into the dart's core along the leaf-vein patterns like mercury spilling across the ground.

The next moment.

The smile on Ma Xiunuo's face froze instantly.

His hand jerked violently.

The dart nearly flew from his grasp.

Hiss—

What the hell is this?!

Cold, chaotic, depraved, and filled with a nauseatingly evil stench.

It was like sludge that had rotted in a gutter for a hundred years, mixed with dead rats.

Though this aura had been sealed away until it was extremely faint and concealed very deeply.

Its essence...

Was absolutely the power of an Evil Spirit Master!

There could be no mistake!

Ma Xiunuo's face went deathly pale.

A layer of fine cold sweat instantly beaded across his forehead.

For the first time, he looked at his granddaughter with fear in his eyes.

"Sisi."

His voice was dry and hoarse, without a trace of warmth.

"Tell Grandpa."

He stared fixedly into Sisi's eyes, enunciating every word.

"Who exactly gave you this dart?"

"Tell me every detail of your meeting and every word you said, exactly as it happened!"

Sisi had never seen her grandfather like this before.

He was no longer smiling, no longer kind.

He looked like a lion ready to devour someone.

Frightened, she shrank her neck back. Her eyes reddened, and she nearly burst into tears with a wail.

But she still held them back and recounted everything that had happened that afternoon, detail by detail.

"...It was at the academy gate, that genius we saw last time..."

"...He gave me a black stone. It felt chilly..."

"...He said he made it, and that I had to bring it back for Grandpa to see..."

The little girl's account was halting, but she did not miss a single key point.

Ma Xiunuo listened quietly.

The expression on his face kept shifting.

A six-year-old child? A Work-Study Student at Nuoding Academy?

His name was Han Yuchen?

Information raced through his mind.

No. A six-year-old child could not possess such pure, condensed evil power.

Much less be foolish enough to personally deliver such evidence into the hands of the Spirit Hall Branch's Hall Master.

Wouldn't that be walking straight into a trap?

Wait.

A flash of lightning crossed Ma Xiunuo's mind.

A black stone... chilly...

Bring it back... let Grandpa see it...

Those keywords were like a key, instantly unlocking the rusty lock in his mind.

He abruptly rose to his feet. His chair scraped backward with a piercing sound.

This was not a gift!

It was a warning letter!

A warning letter delivered into his hands in the most covert, clever manner possible!

That child named Han Yuchen was not an Evil Spirit Master!

He was using this method to tell me—

There is danger!

There are Evil Spirit Masters!

Ma Xiunuo's breathing instantly became ragged and heavy.

He immediately thought of someone.

The branch's Supervisor, Xiao Yu.

Over the past few months, Supervisor Xiao's behavior had grown increasingly strange. He often stayed alone in the abandoned basement.

The last time Han Yuchen had come to Spirit Hall to have his spirit assessed, Xiao Yu's gaze at the child had been filled with undisguised malice!

At the time, Ma Xiunuo had thought it was merely a personal grudge.

But now that he thought about it...

A terrifying thought began to grow wildly in his heart.

There was a mole inside the branch!

A hidden Evil Spirit Master!

Ma Xiunuo felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.

He looked once more at the exquisite dart on the desk.

His gaze had changed completely.

Fear had turned into utterly unbelievable shock.

A six-year-old child.

Not only had he discovered the existence of an Evil Spirit Master.

He had even thought of using such a method—shifting blame and killing with a borrowed knife—to warn him, the Hall Master.

Throughout it all, he had not entangled himself in any consequences or exposed the slightest trace.

This...

Was this the wisdom and temperament a six-year-old child could possess?

This kid has more schemes than a honeycomb briquette!

He was practically a little monster!

He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He walked over to Sisi, crouched down, and gently stroked his granddaughter's head with a trembling hand.

"Don't be afraid, Sisi. Grandpa was wrong. I scared you."

His voice became gentle again.

"Your new friend is a good person. Stay closer to him in the future."

"Now go back to your room first. Grandpa has some official business to handle."

After comforting Sisi and watching her obediently leave the study.

The warmth vanished from Ma Xiunuo's face without a trace.

In its place was a gravity like a storm about to break.

He rang a bronze bell on his desk.

Ding.

The crisp ring echoed out.

In less than three seconds, a dark figure appeared soundlessly inside the study.

He was a middle-aged man with a steady aura and bulging temples, a four-ring Soul Ancestor.

The captain of Spirit Hall's guard unit, Ma Xiunuo's absolute confidant.

"Hall Master." The Guard Captain bowed in salute.

Ma Xiunuo wasted no words and directly handed him the leaf-shaped dart.

"Feel the aura on it."

The Guard Captain accepted it and sent his Soul Power inside as instructed.

The next moment, his expression was identical to Ma Xiunuo's earlier one.

Shock and disbelief.

"Hall Master! This is... an Evil Spirit Master?!"

"That's right." Ma Xiunuo's voice was as cold as ice.

"From this moment on, secretly monitor Supervisor Xiao's every move for me, around the clock."

"In particular, whether he comes into contact with that abandoned basement."

"Remember, this is secret surveillance. He absolutely cannot discover it!"

"Yes!"

The Guard Captain nodded heavily. A flash of killing intent crossed his eyes before his figure merged into the shadows once more and vanished.

The entire study was left with Ma Xiunuo alone.

He sat back down in his chair, rubbing the cold dart between his fingers.

His eyes were as deep as an abyss.

Nuoding City was about to change.

At the same time.

Nuoding Academy, rear mountain.

Tang San was drenched in sweat, as though he had been pulled straight from the water.

His feet moved in mysterious steps, his figure leaving afterimages between several large trees.

Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track.

A faint violet light flickered in his eyes as he stared intently at a boulder the size of a human head ahead of him.

Whoosh!

A pebble shot from between his fingers.

It struck a leaf fifty meters away with perfect accuracy.

Mysterious Jade Hand, Purple Demon Eye.

Huff—

He exhaled a long breath of stale air and dropped onto the ground.

He was tired, utterly exhausted.

Yet his eyes shone with startling brightness.

The Mysterious Heaven Skill had successfully merged with this world's Soul Power.

He could feel the power within his body undergoing a qualitative transformation every day.

Han Yuchen's calm, unruffled face surfaced in his mind without warning.

That guy...

Was a monster.

I have to catch up! I absolutely can't let him leave me behind!

Tang San clenched his fists, his gaze incomparably resolute.

Academy Library.

The most secluded corner.

Master Yu Xiaogang had buried himself in a pile of yellowed old papers.

Wearing glasses, he looked utterly focused as his fingers traced line after line of ancient text.

"...In the ancient war, Gods fell, and their fragments scattered across heaven and earth..."

"...Evil Spirit Masters defy the heavens, seeking to sacrifice all living things and reforge a fallen god's body..."

He murmured under his breath, his brow knitting tighter and tighter.

Recently, records of Evil Spirit Master activity had been appearing with increasing frequency.

And every clue seemed to point toward some vague and ethereal legend.

God's Shards.

A powerful sense of unease hung over him.

He had a feeling that something major was about to happen.

Night fell.

Nuoding City appeared peaceful, but undercurrents surged beneath the surface.

Han Yuchen lay on the hard plank bed in the Work-Study Student dormitory, one arm beneath his head as he stared at the ceiling.

His Spiritual Power quietly spread out like an invisible net.

He could sense it.

In the direction of Spirit Hall, a grim and tense atmosphere was slowly gathering.

The aura of a Soul Ancestor clung like a gecko to the shadows of a certain building.

Heh.

The fish had taken the bait.

That old man Ma Xiunuo was pretty efficient after all.

He'd saved me quite a bit of trouble.

A faint smile curved Han Yuchen's lips.

The chess piece had already been placed.

The prey had already entered the net.

Next, all he had to do was wait for that fish to expose itself.