Police at the Door

Police at the Door

The sudden appearance of someone with an unbelievably vicious tongue would have been bad enough, but the username "Li Bai's Demoness" was practically an open provocation.

It was like a smoking grenade had been tossed into a chicken coop—the entire "17th Floor" forum was blown into chaos.

A mob of people engaged in a war of words against "Li Bai's Demoness," but this suddenly appeared, newly registered ID was like an undercooked, unboilable, unbreakable, and unchewable copper pea. No matter which way the wind blew, she picked fights with whoever she saw. Even as swords flashed across the forum and spit flew everywhere, "Li Bai's Demoness" remained unmoved, taking "if you had reason, never let up; if you didn't, make a fuss anyway" to its fullest. Yet she never used a single swear word, causing quite a few foul-mouthed netizens to be muted by the "17th Floor" forum administrators instead.

The forum's war of words raged from the first half of the night into the second. Many netizens couldn't hold out any longer and logged off one after another. Fewer and fewer people remained to trade insults with "Li Bai's Demoness," and they had completely fallen behind. Those left had already realized that this woman was simply a crazy provocateur—the more people there were, the crazier she became.

The deepest darkness before dawn was torn open by a sliver of light on the horizon. The outcome of the battle had already been decided, but "Li Bai's Demoness" was still enjoying herself and showed no intention of stopping. She had previously traded barbs with those high-level IDs, but now she refused to spare even the small fry. Tuzki, who had first uploaded the audio evidence to the forum, had long since been roasted until not even his shadow remained.

Drip!

A clear drop of water rang out inside the room.

Every corner was filled with hazy mist. The dantian, which felt slightly swollen, suddenly trembled for no apparent reason, and a crystal-clear droplet appeared.

Then came a steady succession of drips. Droplets appeared out of thin air within the mist, falling like a light rain and gathering into a shallow pool of Gang Qi. Guided by the Canglang Jue, it slowly flowed into the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, thoroughly nourishing the parched and famished channels and making the acupoints along the way lively again as it condensed even more hazy energy.

With a soft hiss, a white stream shot three feet from Li Bai's mouth and nose before retracting.

Li Bai slowly opened his eyes, and the trace of worry finally faded. Postnatal True Qi did not need a Gang Qi seed for guidance; it naturally condensed into Innate Gang Qi.

His martial cultivation had recovered by ten percent. Having glimpsed the mysteries of Origin Returning Realm Gang Qi ahead of time while still in the Mortal Transformation Realm, even ten percent was enough to keep three or four ordinary dozen-strong men from getting close.

While the sky had yet to brighten completely, Li Bai silently recited the Maha Bolan Sutra once more, condensing two strands of Spiritual Power before using one on the spot.

Crack! The Spirit Crystal he had taken out the previous night turned into fine grains of sand, and the spiritual energy within it was drawn into Li Bai's middle dantian, attaching itself to the grain of spiritual energy, the size of a soybean, that had solidified like stone.

Although this strand of spiritual energy was not abundant, it was already enough to release the crudest introductory spell of the arcane path.

The human body had three dantians. The lower dantian cultivated martial arts and condensed True Qi and Gang Qi. The middle dantian gathered spiritual energy and refined the Crimson Palace, forming even more powerful Origin Force. The upper dantian was the sea of consciousness, storing Spiritual Power and allowing one to cultivate Purple Palace Divine Sense.

With the changes in the Heaven and Earth Rules, the martial cultivation dependent on the lower dantian could recover completely given enough time. The Spiritual Power in the upper dantian could be rebuilt step by step, and it was not impossible to go further, refine essence into spirit, and cultivate Divine Sense.

Only the middle dantian had been affected the most. Li Bai keenly sensed that the strand of spiritual energy absorbed from the Spirit Crystal was slowly shrinking and solidifying at an almost imperceptible rate.

It probably would not take long for it to be assimilated by the soybean-sized remnant of spiritual energy. Even the crack caused by the Maha Bolan Sutra would heal completely, making the cultivation of the scripture extremely important.

Relying on the Chaos Green Lotus, the Innate Exotic Treasure within his mind, to activate all sorts of cultivation techniques on its own was no longer possible. In the path of cultivation, Li Bai could only do everything himself, with no chance of slacking off.

Martial arts and the arcane path were like rowing against the current: if one did not advance, one fell behind, and all previous efforts would ultimately be wasted. If his Spiritual Power did not condense, the local specialties he had brought back from the other world would become flowers in a mirror and the moon reflected in water—visible, but unattainable.

This was both pressure and motivation.

The leave personally approved by Dean Zhou was like finding a pillow just when one wanted to sleep. It gave Li Bai ample time to consolidate his cultivation and adapt to this world's Heaven and Earth Rules.

A human and a demon shut themselves inside the rented apartment for two whole days, and Li Bai's solidified block of spiritual energy became covered in countless tiny cracks.

After preparing breakfast, Li Bai dragged the Azure Flood Dragon Demoness away from the laptop, which she had clung to for three days and three nights. The price he paid was getting robbed of first blood once again.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

Li Bai was sharing two baskets of steamed frozen dumplings with the Demoness when he heard someone knocking on the door.

A loud voice came from outside. "Is anyone home? Public Security Bureau."

"Go hide. Don't let them see you."

Li Bai gave Qingyao, who was in her Flood Dragon form and stuffing down meat buns one after another, a meaningful glance.

The latter nimbly dashed toward the laptop, only to be grabbed by the dark-faced former and tossed into a pet enclosure by the tail. The newly purchased enclosure had finally found a use.

Anyone who saw something like a green snake or Azure Flood Dragon smacking away at a computer would find it abnormal.

Why did this Demoness have no self-awareness at all?

"Coming, coming!"

Li Bai shouted as he opened the door.

Two police officers stood outside and looked him up and down.

"Li Bai? Let me see your ID card and temporary residence permit."

"That's me. Please wait a moment."

Li Bai quickly took out the documents.

There were no special police or joint-defense officers, which meant it was probably nothing serious. If they had come to read the water meter, he would have to be careful—there would definitely be a large squad of criminal investigators outside, with snipers most likely lying in ambush beyond the window.

"You're still eating breakfast, aren't you? No rush. Finish eating first, then come with us to the station and give a statement."

The two police officers were quite considerate. They did not hurry him and let him take his time.

"Yo! Xiao Li, what did you do?"

The door opposite suddenly opened, and Brother Yang stuck his head out with a gleeful look on his face.

The landlord never minded making a situation worse.

Li Bai said irritably, "Yeah! I just wiped out an entire family, and the Public Security Bureau came knocking."

"What?" Brother Yang shuddered and hurriedly said, "Don't scare me! Officers, this kid only rents my place. Apart from the utilities and rent, he basically never talks to me. I never expected that this mild-mannered young man would actually be a murderer."

He was desperate to distance himself from Li Bai, afraid of getting burned.

"It's nothing like that. We're only here to ask him to cooperate with an investigation."

The two police officers glanced back at Brother Yang. They could tell the landlord had been thoroughly frightened.

If Li Bai were a murderer, there was no way two ordinary local officers like them would have come knocking. Wiping out an entire family was pure nonsense.

Besides, the ID card verification had shown a clean record, with no criminal history at all.

"Oh, oh! You carry on!"

Afraid Li Bai would come out with another shocking remark, Brother Yang glared at him angrily and slammed the door shut.

Li Bai finished the rest of his breakfast in two or three bites, then left a few buns in the large bowl. The resentful Azure Flood Dragon in the pet enclosure would presumably crawl out and eat them on her own.

"Let's go!"

Li Bai locked the door and followed the two police officers downstairs. Behind him came the faint click of a lock. Clearly, landlord Brother Yang was gritting his teeth and spying on him. Li Bai could even guess what the man was thinking: he was probably cursing Li Bai to get handcuffed the moment he entered the station and never come back.

The moment he stepped out, the Azure Flood Dragon Demoness, who had been forcibly stuffed into the enclosure, came rushing out again. She swallowed the meat buns left on the table in three or two bites, then pounced back in front of the laptop.

A new challenge post had appeared on the local online forum, "17th Floor."

"Li Bai's Demoness: You bunch of trash! If you've got the guts, come out and fight! If you don't, get dragged out and fight anyway!"

After tasting the sweetness of victory and discovering that such an interesting thing existed in this world, the Demoness continued stirring up trouble without tiring.

The ID "Li Bai's Demoness," which could battle nonstop for three days and three nights, finally made the local netizens realize that Huxi City had produced a monster.