The Situation Gradually Escalates / Cornered

Based on this public opinion, the competition did not suffer many setbacks; instead, its popularity increased due to the influence of the television program.

What started as a competition that was only popular in the Kawamori region quickly spread and became a very popular competition throughout the country.

For a moment, Yotsuya Miko didn't know if something was wrong with her or with the world.

Her expression right now is probably like this:

[Mobile Phone for Seniors on Electric Trams]

Chapter 138 The Gradually Spreading Situation

Just as Yotsuya Miko was participating in the next match with a bitter face, Kawamori Divine Gate made a move.

The timing of Divine Gate's actions differed slightly from that of Yotsuya Miko's movements. Due to the competition, the public's attention was more or less drawn to it. This made Divine Gate's work somewhat easier, as they took advantage of the competition's duration to conduct their search.

Although the search was not much more efficient than that of Yotsuya Miko, Kawamori Divine Gate, with his extensive experience fighting the Shepherds, still managed to find one of the Shepherds' members on the third day of the competition.

Then nothing was found, because this member committed suicide using Spiritual Power.

Although Divine Gate tried to stop his suicide, it was too late, and the lead was lost. The search for the shepherd became difficult again. This was not good news for the members of Divine Gate's Special Affairs Department, as they did not have enough time.

This wasn't good news either for Shimizu Tenpu and other members of the Divine Gate who came to assist them.

"So decisive... it doesn't seem like a decision I would make at all."

Shimizu Tenpu examined the corpse; he was among the first team to arrive at the scene to assist in the search. After using his Spiritual Power to examine the shepherd's body, he quickly noticed something amiss.

Clearly, both the Special Affairs Department's description and the Spiritual Power residing within this member indicate that he was not a fanatical psychic capable of suicide. On the contrary, he cherished his life greatly, his face filled with terror the moment he was discovered by the Special Affairs Department, and then, as if out of control, he raised his hand to his head.

After that, his mind went completely blank.

"I've never heard of Spiritual Power having such an effect."

Another external collaborator present at the scene expressed his confusion. Although Divine Gate's use of Spiritual Power wasn't all-encompassing, their mature system allowed them to understand the nature of Spiritual Power and thus deduce its potential applications. Firstly, it was certain that Spiritual Power could only exist in a certain medium, whether it be the human body or an object. Spiritual Power within an object could only passively exert its influence, while Spiritual Power within a human body could only be used by the individual in question and couldn't be used to command someone to commit suicide.

Unless, this is not Spiritual Power, but some other kind of energy.

Yuria thought of one person: Yotsuya Miko. After cramming on the nature of Spiritual Power, she realized just how terrifying Miko's abilities were to exorcists.

It can unleash tremendous power from a small ball, create wish-granting devices, alter the memories in others' minds, make them obey its commands, and even summon thunder.

However, possessing such immense power, she would probably disdain the shepherd's actions.

The examination of the body is ongoing, and these tasks have been handed over to other external Investigation Department personnel. Meanwhile, members of Divine Gate's Special Affairs Department continue to cooperate with another group in the search operation.

Shimizu Tenpu and Yuria were also assigned to the side searching for the Shepherds, cooperating with the Special Affairs Department's operation.

Yuria later reported everything that had happened on the corpse to Miko.

Yotsuya Miko didn't have a deep understanding of the use of Spiritual Power because this form of energy was too rudimentary. However, after hearing Yuria's explanation, she became slightly interested.

"If that's the case, it seems the Shepherd possesses Spiritual Power techniques that Divine Gate is completely unaware of, or perhaps some other kind of energy?"

"Yes, that's about it."

"Can it manipulate people's consciousness...? I'd like to see that too."

The morning's competition had just ended. Although she reluctantly went onto the stage, she tried her best to maintain her calligraphy skills and slack off as much as possible. She thought it would be another boring day, but unexpectedly, Yuria brought her good news at this time.

"So, where did you put the body?"

"Let me see..."

Yuria suddenly stopped, her gaze fixed on the convoy that had already left with the bodies, and sighed.

"It seems like they've left. I don't know where they went."

These external collaborators all seemed to have their own purposes. For example, Shimizu Tenpu was openly tasked with catching spies, but secretly he didn't know what he was supposed to do. The other external collaborators who came to Kawamori Divine Gate didn't communicate with them much, let alone have any contact with Kawamori Divine Gate.

They seemed to know something, yet also didn't know something; some of them had their eyes on the corpse.

In the afternoon, when it was time for Yotsuya Miko to participate in the competition again, Yuria asked Shimizu Tenpu about the whereabouts of these people.

"Those people? They probably brought the bodies back to Jianping."

"Jianping?"

Jianping is now the capital of the country.

"Hmm, Kawamori can't definitively determine the Spiritual Power remaining in the corpse's body, but Jianping has the technology and might be able to investigate something. To ensure the preservation of that Spiritual Power, they must head to Jianping as soon as possible."

But perhaps it's completely unnecessary.

Yuria thought to herself that what Jianping could do, someone else on their side could probably do as well, and even better. Unfortunately, she couldn't voice that fact.

"Should we continue investigating the shepherd?"

"That's right, it would be best to catch the other Shepherd member before Jianping's results come out."

Shimizu Tenpu lit a cigarette in the car. Unlike the Kawamori Special Affairs Department, he wasn't under as much pressure about capturing the shepherds, but he didn't hesitate to take action.

"The faster we act, the more advantageous things will be for us, and the greater the credit will be."

"... I see."

"It seems the interior of the Divine Realm Gate is quite chaotic, "Yuria remarked. However, she didn't intend to take his words seriously. Although she didn't Miko, based on her observations of her senior over the past few days, things were far from what he described.

The people in Divine Gate's Special Affairs Department made the pressure public, while her senior—

She glanced at the nearly empty pack of cigarettes beside the man, but said nothing more.

Okita Qishen might be right. For a newbie like her, this business trip could be considered a vacation, but for others, it was a completely different story.

"Senior Tianfeng, are we just going to give up on the spy?"

"Give up?"

Shimizu Tenpu shook his head.

"No, it just hasn't shown itself yet. It's alright, someone's watching."

Chapter 139 In a Dilemma

"Jianping..."

Walking down the streets at night, Yotsuya Miko felt a sense of peace.

After learning about the body from Yuria, her curiosity about the Shepherds organization increased slightly.

"This kind of organization seems very interesting."

She didn't have as much information as Divine Gate, but she was lucky enough to find a psychic connected to the incident.

"The current leader is a remnant of a certain faction, and not only that, he has also mastered some of that faction's methods."

The Divine Gate has not been smooth sailing. During its reign over the psychic world, various psychic forces with ulterior motives have emerged. The most devastating blow to it came from an incident more than a decade ago.

"Okita Qishen obviously knows about this matter, so it's a bit strange that he sent Shimizu Tenpu, who was once involved, to this occasion."

Yotsuya Miko did not believe that someone of her status as the head of the Investigation Department would not know that Shimizu Tenpu's younger sister, Shimizu Muxia, had died in that disaster, and that it was because of that incident that Amamiya Xingqiu completely left the Tengu Family of Kawamori.

"If it's based on revenge, then it's entirely understandable that the current leader, or higher-ups, of the Shepherds organization have ties to the past. But can he guess what I'm thinking? Or is he planning something else?"

She twirled the ends of her loose hair, feeling troubled by this trip to Kawamori.

It was as if trouble had already come knocking on his door the moment he saw Amamiya Xingqiu in the car.

"If we put all that aside, the most direct reason why Shimizu Tenpu came here is--"

"Investigate the corruption that occurred at Divine Gate."

As Shimizu Tenpu pondered this, he looked at the other Shepherd member who had been captured. Before that strange power killed him, he had used the talisman he had prepared beforehand to completely seal the Spiritual Power within this person.

"Behave yourself!"

The Special Affairs Department members reacted quickly, taking out handcuffs and locking the Shepherd member's hands as soon as Shimizu Tenpu tackled him to the ground. Only after the hands were completely locked did Shimizu Tenpu release them, and the original Spiritual Power seal dissipated.

With his hands locked, even if that strange force wanted him to commit suicide, he could no longer do so.

That's what he thought, but reality was quite the opposite; even with his hands locked, the man's face was still filled with terror.

"Don't want..."

Before he could even utter a word, his face turned pale, as if he had fainted from a severe shock.

Shimizu Tenpu silently probed the man's mind with his Spiritual Power and sighed softly.

He's dead.

"Let's go, let's go to the next place."

He calmly walked out of the scene, approached Yuria who was standing on the periphery, and took out the last cigarette from his pack.

Use the instrument to light the fire.

Spiritual Power sealing cannot be maintained indefinitely, due to the nature of Spiritual Power itself. This is precisely why such a peculiar power to kill others appears so eerie.

At least, he had never witnessed such power before.

Where is the body?

Yuria looked towards the people inside, but because of the crowd, she couldn't see the corpses and didn't feel too uncomfortable.

"It will be sent to Jianping as well; we don't need to worry about it."

It seems highly unlikely that they can uncover the shepherds' base through their network of contacts. Such encryption methods are far more insidious than ancient suicide by poison.

"Has the Kawamori Special Affairs Department never encountered this situation before?"

No.

Shimizu Tenpu frowned; this was one of the reasons that made him uneasy.

He didn't understand why shepherds these days would go to such lengths, concealing their forms with such extreme care.

But such concealment... makes it completely impossible to detect.

At this point, we probably won't find anything through the search alone, unless...

Shimizu Tenpu took a drag of his cigarette, and the ashes fell to the ground.

"Let's go back, to Kawamori Divine Gate."

Before coming to Kawamori, Okita Qishen had given him two choices.

"The Shepherds are an organization founded after that incident, and they've been deeply entrenched in Kawamori for several years. But it's unbelievable that Kawamori Divine Gate hasn't accomplished much during those years."

Minister Okita held up the documents in his hand.

"I'm going to give you two tasks. One is ostensibly to cooperate with Kawamori -Divine Gate's investigation, but in reality, it's to find out who the higher-ups at the Shepherd's are. The other is ostensibly to capture spies within Kawamori- Divine Gate, but in reality, it's to investigate the internal corruption within Kawamori -Divine Gate. You can decide which task to take on yourself, but I'll give you a little reminder."

He stood up and casually stated a piece of information.

"It seems that the shepherd's leader has a close relationship with Tongsheng Yuanhe."

"Tong Sheng..."

Shimizu Tenpu stubbed out his cigarette.

He understood what Okita Qishen meant; in fact, the two tasks complemented each other, only one was closer and the other farther away.

After the first shepherd he encountered died mysteriously, he should have changed his target. But he couldn't wait; he didn't know when that important spy would finally be sacrificed.

Because that person, that Tongsheng Yuanhe, had one thing he had to do no matter what.

"The trail has gone cold. All we can do is wait."

The man's face was now calm; he was used to keeping everything to himself.

This is a good habit; at least since that incident, no one has been hurt or even killed because of him.

Yuria, completely unaware of what he was thinking, simply followed silently behind him without uttering a word.

She acted like a clueless newbie, clutching her phone tightly in her hand.

Just as Miko said, we've really gotten involved in a huge conspiracy.

She inwardly complained, feeling uneasy about both the dead person and the behavior of the senior in front of her.

It wasn't the unease of encountering spirits, because if she did encounter spirits, she could use the tools given to her by the Miko to destroy them. This unease was more like a feeling of not knowing but sensing something was wrong. She knew nothing, but others could talk to each other in riddles as if they were completely detached. It was as if she had been abandoned, which was extremely distressing.

Ultimately, it comes down to her abilities and character.

Yuria glanced at her phone, realizing that her current role was probably just to be a tool for the most powerful player in this conspiracy. Besides, why was this exceptional player suddenly getting entangled in something as trivial as the tournament?

She complained, sensing something absurd.

If Yotsuya Miko hadn't participated in the competition, she probably would have already resolved the matter given her abilities, right?