Lu Chen immediately grew wary. This killing intent wasn't as domineering and deadly as Black Claw Heart Rot Sha, but it could directly invade a person's mind, plunging them into hallucinations without their even realizing it until they went mad and dropped dead.
He immediately put on a look of alarm, instinctively taking half a step back, as if the killing intent had thoroughly frightened him.
But beneath his lowered eyelids, his gaze remained calm.
Lu Chen meekly agreed while quietly retreating to his tool rack. Using the pretense of organizing his tools as cover, he swiftly pulled a half-finished Calming Talisman from the pile of shoddy talisman paper.
With his back to everyone, he focused all his attention and roused the faint thread of inner force in his dantian. As quickly as he could, he traced the one line he had mastered onto the paper with his fingertip, the line shimmering with a faint light.
The paper trembled softly. The line flashed and vanished. Though it wasn't a complete talisman, a trace of cool, tranquil intent had already settled onto the rough yellow paper.
Calm the mind!
Lu Chen silently recited the true meaning of the line, which he had gleaned from that fragmentary text.
Without drawing attention to himself, he folded the half-finished talisman and tucked it into his chest.
A cool sensation flowed from the paper, coursing through his limbs and bones. His slightly muddled mind instantly cleared.
"What are you standing around for? Get to work!" Foreman Wang urged impatiently.
"Yes, yes!"
Lu Chen hurried forward, picked up his tools, and began processing the troublesome cat demon.
With the Calming Talisman bolstering him, the pervasive Yin Illusion Sha Qi was still there, but it could no longer sway his mind in the slightest.
His knife work remained precise, but he deliberately made his movements clumsy and halting.
"Ow!"
Lu Chen pretended his hand had slipped. The Boning Knife clattered to the ground, startling even him.
"Ugh..."
He then pretended the killing intent had struck him, stumbling back two steps and clutching his forehead as he gasped for breath.
This string of clumsy theatrics earned him nothing but even more contemptuous sneers from Foreman Wang and Zhang Mazi.
Yet amid this seemingly perilous process, Lu Chen's blade always managed to avoid the points where the killing intent erupted from the most treacherous angles, cleanly and methodically separating the cat demon's hide, bones, sinews, and claws.
In the end, Lu Chen carefully extracted a peculiar bead the size of a longan from the cat demon's brow. It was pitch-black all over, and light seemed to ripple across its surface.
The Phantom Eye Pearl!
It was the concentrated essence of the Three-tailed Cat Demon. It wasn't a particularly valuable material,
but it was a crucial ingredient for refining illusion-based magical artifacts and pills!
When Lu Chen presented the bead along with the other materials, Foreman Wang's eyes nearly bulged out of his head.
He repeatedly inspected the flawless Phantom Eye Pearl, then looked at the materials on the ground, all processed to perfection. His expression shifted from disappointment to surprise, and finally to a greed that was difficult to describe.
Zhang Mazi, who had been waiting nearby to enjoy the show, was even more dumbfounded, his mouth gaping wide enough to fit an egg.
This... This damn thing actually worked?
"Ahem... Well, you got lucky." Foreman Wang coughed awkwardly, scrambling to save face. "Looks like you really are a Fortunate General, kid."
Once again, the reputation of being lucky was firmly pinned on Lu Chen.
Lu Chen acted as if he had narrowly escaped disaster, still shaken, and repeatedly agreed.
[Processed Three-tailed Cat Demon, gained 3 months of Demon Devil Lifespan.]
The system's notification rang in his mind. It wasn't much, but at least his lifespan reserves were no longer an awkward zero.
He held the Phantom Eye Pearl that Foreman Wang had inspected and then returned to him. It felt cool in his hand, and he could faintly sense a weak mental fluctuation emanating from within.
Back in the cold, damp Corpse Handling Room, Lu Chen firmly barred the stone door.
He opened his palm and examined his unexpected prize—the Phantom Eye Pearl.
The bead was pitch-black all over, yet seemed to contain a deep starry sky. Faint streaks of light occasionally swept across its surface, giving it a mysterious beauty.
Lu Chen tried to probe it with a wisp of his mental power.
The instant his mental power touched the bead, a cold, disorienting force suddenly surged back at him!
His vision abruptly went black. Countless blurry, twisted images flashed wildly through his mind like scenes in a lantern show—dark woods, bloody hunts, and a pair of enormous, icy eyes brimming with murderous intent...
"Hah!"
Lu Chen jolted awake, drenched in cold sweat, his heart pounding wildly.
Those had been fragments of the Three-tailed Cat Demon's memories from before it died!
He immediately severed his mental connection to the Phantom Eye Pearl and regarded the beautiful bead with lingering trepidation.
This thing was far more dangerous than he had imagined. At the same time, it made him realize that these special Monster Materials containing mental power might also hold value as a way to uncover information.
It was an unexpected discovery. He carefully wrapped the bead in oiled cloth, hid it against his body, and decided to study it once his mental power grew stronger.
The next day, Lu Chen went as usual to the storeroom to hand over the assorted Monster Materials he had processed the day before.
Just as he finished registering them and was about to leave, Clerk Chen, who usually couldn't be bothered to pay him any mind, suddenly called out to him.
"Kid."
Clerk Chen leaned back in his chair, squinting his cloudy old eyes as he drawled, "The materials you've been turning in lately have all been pretty good. The Division happens to have a batch of discarded Monster Materials scraps piled up that need handling. They're short a hand, so go with the Warrior Team."
Lu Chen was taken aback.
"Where to?"
"Nanling Ghost Market." Clerk Chen took a sip of muddy wine and said indifferently, "It's a tough assignment, with no money in it, but... at least you'll get to see a bit of the world."
Nanling Ghost Market!
Lu Chen's heart gave a hard thump.
From his predecessor's memories, he knew it was the largest cultivator market around Nanling Prefecture. All kinds of people gathered there, and rare treasures, Monster Materials, and even stolen goods too illicit to sell in the open all made their way there.
For someone like him, a corpse handler trapped at the very bottom of the Demon Suppression Division, this was undoubtedly a tremendous opportunity!
"Thank you, Clerk Chen!" Lu Chen suppressed his excitement and bowed deeply to him.
Clerk Chen impatiently waved him off and bent back over his desk, as if nothing had happened.