The Sparrow That Writes

"OK."

The car started.

Only then did Shi Jing suddenly come to his senses, breaking out in a cold sweat.

"Was that an internal inspection?"

He seemed to have been hypnotized just now. Luckily, another body had warned him, or he might have revealed the truth.

A few minutes later, the vehicle arrived at the scene.

The three team members immediately secured the target area and quickly began their operation.

A few minutes later, someone was brought out.

The captain gave him a meaningful look. "Two people were captured during this investigation, and we got some intelligence on the Insect Blood Society. You did very well."

"I was just lucky." Shi Jing smiled.

"This wasn't something luck alone could accomplish. There was a Transcendent item at the scene that concealed all traces. Your senses are very sharp."

After saying that, the captain entered the house ahead. Before long, they dragged out a man covered in injuries.

Chief?

Shi Jing recognized the man at once and was somewhat surprised.

"I didn't expect him to be captured so easily."

At the same time, in a café one kilometer away.

"The Shadow Bureau has made its move." Cheng Junneng's expression was rather interesting as he put down his phone.

"Does she actually have the ability to influence the authorities' actions?"

He could not help becoming curious about the identity of the girl before him.

At that moment, Alice seemed to receive some news. She stood up and patted her skirt. "The Chief has been dealt with. I should be leaving too."

"So soon?"

"Mm. I originally thought we could handle it on our own, but I underestimated them. So I used a little bit of another power."

"A little bit..." Ji Xue muttered. "How is that just a little?"

"Miss Alice, is there some organization behind you? Are they also in conflict with the Insect Blood Society?"

"What do you think?"

Alice smiled meaningfully, waved her hand, and left the two of them looking at each other in confusion.

"This matter is temporarily over. My situation should be safe for now, right?"

Back home, Ye Xin felt like a deflated balloon and lazily flopped backward.

Three girls lay side by side on the bed.

One was unconscious, one was a vegetable, and only Ye Xin was relatively normal.

"There's a high chance the Chief will reveal my identity. But even if he does, it'll be difficult for them to find my location. No... not necessarily. For safety's sake, Alice should find somewhere else to live."

Her golden hair was too conspicuous.

Ye Qian had come to recognize her own weakness.

Her level had increased, but the improvement in her attributes was extremely limited. Even if she gained several more levels, it probably would not be enough for her body to withstand bullets.

"I need to learn more information and gain a clear understanding of my future."

She felt around in her pocket and took out a slip of paper.

The Black Mask had given it to her after the transaction ended. It recorded the time of the next gathering.

"This should be the only way for now."

Letting out a breath, she forcibly nudged her sleeping original body. After fussing over it for a minute or two, she finally woke up.

Suppressing the intense dizziness, Ye Qian got up, put on a coat, walked to the mirror, and tried to make herself look a little healthier before taking her ID and heading out.

She went alone to a nearby hotel. Pretending to be exhausted, she rented a room and immediately fell asleep.

The clones all remained at home.

Toward evening.

"Shi Jing, the higher-ups believe you rendered great service this time. This is your reward."

Called into the office, Shi Jing was surprised as he watched the captain smilingly push a box toward him.

When he opened it himself, a round sphere and a certificate came into view.

He reached out and touched it. The sphere turned into a beam of light and flowed into his body.

Life Energy ×600

"This is..."

"Congratulations. You're now an official member of our team." The captain smiled. "Since your strength is too weak, I applied for this Life Energy for you, and the bureau approved it."

"Thank you, Captain." Shi Jing thanked him in delighted surprise.

Holy hell, he had struck it rich.

The Shadow Bureau was far too wealthy. Six hundred points of Life Energy at once—he did not even know whether he could obtain that much after completing a mission on his own.

Best of all, Ye Qian herself could allocate this energy and use it directly.

"Since I've managed to infiltrate the Shadow Bureau, I should still improve Shi Jing's body a little."

She had proliferated quite a few times recently and deeply felt her lack of strength. She decided to use these free resources to raise her level.

"I'll leave 160 points for Shi Jing. That's just enough to raise him by two levels."

She transferred all of the extra 440 points to Ye Qian herself.

Her original body rose from LV7 to LV9, consuming 320 points.

She then spent another 100 points to raise Ye Xin from level 6 to level 7.

Everything was settled, leaving only 20 points in the end.

"It gets used up way too fast," she complained inwardly.

It had been manageable at lower levels, but once the levels got higher, would that not mean she was raising a whole bunch of bodies at the same time?

This was indeed troublesome. She would probably have to selectively slow down the development of some bodies in the future and focus on improving her original body.

While her original body slept this time, she did not waste any time. Instead, she began controlling Shi Jing and fully reviewing the knowledge of the Transcendent world in his mind.

She had to admit that although this guy's status was low and he had only recently been brought in, some of the intelligence he possessed was still very useful.

"Can you choose a class advancement at LV20?"

Transcendent power encompassed an enormous system.

Starting from LV1, each level provided steady improvement.

However, the attributes gained from each level were limited for everyone. Even so-called geniuses could not gain more than 0.5 at most. This meant that leveling alone could never bring about a leap in individual strength.

So how could one become stronger, or even extend one's lifespan?

Very simply: advancement.

In fact, the process of using Life Energy to raise one's level was laying the foundation for advancement.

Once an ordinary person reached LV20, the quantitative accumulation of life would be sufficient. At that point, they could choose a path of their own and break through, becoming an existence on a higher level.

Such higher existences were known as Transcendents.

Interestingly, breaking through was not simply a matter of meeting the requirements. It required rather abstract methods to achieve.

The most common method was a ritual.

One would hold the corresponding ritual to make a breakthrough.

Only a very small number of people would request the gods of the corresponding domains, or certain existences beyond the present world, to help them ascend.

"Request gods and existences beyond the present world? I didn't expect this world to have gods too?"

She realized that she might have misunderstood the place she had transmigrated to.

For example, the steam engine had only been invented a hundred years ago here, while the large-scale spread of tools such as cars and mobile phones had actually been promoted by The Church.

For instance, the local Light Prayer Church preached that all things were created by the God of Light Prayer, and that all technology could exist only with the gods' permission.

Five years ago, The Holy See had once caused all technology in an entire town to fail. In that state, people discovered that every technological product had lost its function. Even microscopic particles had vanished, and the world had returned to how it was in the past. 2

The sparrow That Writes

"It can actually make technology fail."

Thinking carefully, this had always been a Transcendent world leaning toward the mysterious. It was just that some force—perhaps The Church—had interfered, causing technology to advance by leaps and bounds until it became what it was now.

In earlier times, ordinary people lacked knowledge of the Hidden World.

Now, thanks to the advancement of the internet, communication had become much more convenient. Yet it was still not easy for ordinary people to come into contact with hidden information around them.

Most importantly, all information involving LV20 and above had problems.

Level 20 was a watershed. Beyond it, power itself carried toxicity, and all knowledge could drive people into collapse and pain.

After roughly reviewing the information in Shi Jing's mind, Little Soul let out a small breath.

"If I want to break through to LV20 sooner, relying on Otherspace alone is still too slow."

In reality, she could first consider using Purple Crystal Coins to buy some items that would improve her strength. Of course, exchanging them for money was important too. Several bodies were waiting to be supported now.

"If I can buy Life Energy, then earning Purple Crystal Coins will be even more necessary."

Unable to wait any longer, and with the next gathering still several days away, she began thinking about contacting relevant people.

"It's not like there's no opportunity."

There were more Transcendents in reality than she had imagined. Especially in recent years, the large-scale emergence of players from other worlds had further increased their numbers.

Even if only one Transcendent appeared among every thousand people, that would still be an astonishing number. The actual ratio was probably far higher than that.

"Let Alice use Empathy."

That yellow dog from before had run off somewhere, so she shifted her target to a sparrow.

"Phew, so this is how the world looks through a sparrow's eyes?"

Under Empathy, everything felt strange.

Yet everything in its vision was very clear. Aside from the colors being somewhat different from what humans saw, its eyesight was actually better than her own.

She tried exerting influence, and the sparrow began to fly.

The streets below flashed past. After flying forward for a kilometer, the sparrow landed on a windowsill.

A beautiful girl stood by the window.

"Wow, what a cute little sparrow." The girl bent down and blinked at it excitedly.

"Aren't you afraid of me?" Surprised that the sparrow had not fled, she immediately brought over some melon seeds from beside her and placed them in front of it. "Do you want some?"

Normally, the sparrow would have fled long ago, but at Alice's instruction, it overcame its fear and pecked at a few seeds.

"So this is what it feels like for a sparrow to eat. It seems pretty nice."

Alice actually became a little absorbed in it.

Knock, knock, knock!

At that moment, someone opened the door, and the girl hurriedly sat up straight.