Vol. 15: The Black Cat and the Roe Deer

Back next to the indoor fountain in the meeting place, Jiang Xueming slipped out through a hidden door.

"How is it?" Wolf Brother immediately stepped forward to ask, and saw the priest crawling back with his face covered in blood.

"This is bad." Jiang Xueming washed the blood off his face in the fountain. The capillary damage from the Inspiration was nothing, but when he pulled out Wolf Brother's stick, Oscar was completely taken aback.

I wasn't calling you.

Jiang Xueming: "Be gentle, I know, I know, I really am being gentle."

In any case, it's good that Zhang Congfeng came back alive from that hellhole.

Oscar pressed on, "Tell me the details. I've already informed the brothers in the hunting party. The area beneath the meeting place is the site of the hunting party's early sanctuary, which has now been used by the remnants of the Madness Butterfly Sect to transform into a magic pool. The leaders of the hunting party are furious."

"The environment down there is harsh, and the concentration of the Vita Imprint virus is beyond the standard." As he said this, Jiang Xueming took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, revealing patches of red spots on his arms. "Moreover, the concentration of Spirit Calamity is not something ordinary psychics can withstand."

He asked Wolf Brother for help, to get out the Universal Elixir to remove Vita Imprint. He then removed the close-fitting shirt from his lower back.

The wolf immediately noticed the patches of sores spreading down the spine and from the ischium to the torso; some had already begun to ulcerate, which was quite frightening. The priest had only been in the shelter for less than half an hour, yet he had already developed such severe Spirit Calamity pollution, indicating that Madness Butterfly Butterflies could appear at any time in the underground shelter.

Oscar applied the medicine along Zhang Congfeng's wounds and was about to completely remove his shirt when the priest immediately stopped him. "No need, I'll take care of the back myself."

It would be impolite to peel it any higher. Xue Ming has a tattoo on his back—a blessing written by the old Khan with the power of his soul for the nameless leader, and also a mark used by the gunsmith and the General of Tears to identify him.

"I need to chase him down to Limbo and kill this demon completely to ensure Saladin's safety," Jiang Xueming explained. "There are at least six demon pools in the underground sanctuary. Based on their different spiritual pressure characteristics, we can deduce that they were built at different times. Nearly a hundred people should have gone missing in the town—why does the outpost seem to know nothing about these murders?"

"Because no case has been filed," Oscar responded. "Every week, the hunting party sends out advance teams. People stationed in the wilderness settlements die from all sorts of extreme weather and attacks by monstrous beasts, and no one knows the cause of their deaths. I think Saint Josh Joris took advantage of this, following the hunting party's advance teams to collect corpses in the wild and eventually transport them back to the meeting place to fill the magic pool."

"I used the chickpeas you gave me." Jiang Xueming finished dressing, took out his journal, and showed Wolf Brother Saint Josh's devilish body—this devil's body was all muscle, pinkish-white, much like the flesh of Flash Butterfly. The hardness of his skull was outrageous, and he had a pair of ram horns on his forehead.

It was these two large horns, each over twenty centimeters long, that held the devil's skull and cranium together tightly. This is why Jiang Xueming struggled so much when performing the craniotomy, needing to strike over two hundred times, even breaking Saint Josh's neck, before he could barely extract some brain matter.

It should be noted that Jiang Xueming's core strength is now not much weaker than that of a meteor. He has grown into a tall man of 1.85 meters, and the lengthening of his arms has given his strikes a stronger torque and acceleration. One strike should be enough to knock out an adult cougar.

If Berloberg were there, this inhuman Saint Josh would have been cornered in the spring and killed dozens of times by Xue Ming.

Before leaving, Xue Ming scattered chickpeas on Dragonstone Road. He estimated that the two large bags contained more than 10,000 chickpeas. If Oscar's claim that "the devil loves to do math" was true, these chickpeas could buy Saint Josh a few more minutes of time when he came back to life.

"Do you have a way? I need some mediums to send me to the Spirit Realm," Jiang Xueming requested.

Wolf immediately began to recall, trying to sift through the vast ocean of knowledge in his mind to find something useful.

"I don't actually have any of those kinds of spiritual tools on hand. I'm a Red Stone People, but if I had Lapis Lazuli, I could probably perform Inspiration spell."

"How about this?"

Oscar's eyes lit up, as if he had thought of something.

He took out the card for the Oriental Dream Paris Hotel and handed it to the priest.

"Call this club."

Xue Ming was completely confused. "Huh?"

He looked at the Jiali with alluring figures and different expressions on the cards, not quite understanding Wolf Brother's intention.

"What's going on?"

Oscar chuckled and explained, "Isn't there a black cat here? Look, look."

And look at the blue-eyed princess on the card, dressed in a semi-transparent silk robe. This black cat hybrid is the perfect medium in Oscar's eyes. You should know that after the Ming De beast sealed itself, it also chose to use the form of a black cat to preserve its spiritual essence in order to release spiritual energy to the maximum extent.

Ten minutes later, the supervisor and outstanding staff of Oriental Dream Paris knocked on the door of the meeting place.

The two girls were unaware of what was happening; all they knew was that a high-ranking member of the hunting party at the meeting place wanted them to provide services at his home.

Leading the group was a slightly plump black cat girl, no more than 155 centimeters long, with fluffy fur. Behind her followed a roe deer with clear eyes and a foolish expression.

Both girls have stage names: the cat is called Louise, and the roe deer is called Holly.

If Meteor saw these two prostitutes, he'd probably get a few slaps from Teacher San San again. These two are genuine hybrid monsters, their body odor and fur more like wild beasts, with very little human content. Their deformed skeletons and habit of standing on their hind legs allow them to gradually integrate into Saladin's human society.

Holly roe deer girl, had a head that protruded forward in a prismatic shape. Her large, watery eyes were indeed endearing, but the pungent smell of alcohol mixed with bits of fruit and wood shavings emanating from her Barry would make even the waiters at the hunting party's door turn away.

Louise found the wolf customer, stood arrogantly with her hands on her hips and head held high, sticking out a dark red tongue from her Barry, and spoke in a lukewarm, indistinct human language. "Is this the one who called for in-home hourly services?"

The Jiali, dressed in a green short-sleeved shirt and jeans, still maintained her "noble" persona when she approached the priest, since the advertisement on the small cards described her as the Ming De.

"Hello Louise," Oscar quickly greeted her, "I need your help with something."

"One hundred and thirty yuan per hour for a one-hour companionship, 20% off for four consecutive hours. You pay for the computer, but if it's a mobile game, you'll have to pay for medical expenses too. My eyesight isn't good, staring at a phone screen for a long time is very tiring." Louise looked at the big wolf with disdain, seemingly thinking that Oscar, the dog, was ugly. "No special services anymore. The Transportation Department is cracking down on the sex industry involving mixed-breed animals, so we can't sell ourselves anymore."

"No, no, no, I don't want you to sell yourself." Oscar revealed his true purpose. "I want you to help me with spiritual communication."

Louise asked in confusion, "Psychic communication?"

In less than a minute, Jiang Xueming emerged from the secret passage again, carrying two bags of chickpeas, and gave Saint Josh an extra shift.

"How's it going, bro?" Oscar asked eagerly, "Is it working?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes!" Jiang Xueming seemed very happy, never expecting that the bean could actually control the demon.

He had just carefully slipped back to the underground shelter, and from about fifty meters away he could hear Saint Josh's dazed voice, counting incessantly, staring blankly at the beans on Dragonstone Road.

He had originally carried four woven bags down there, and then scattered two large bags of chickpeas. As soon as the beans started rustling, the devil Saint Josh began to howl, seemingly suffering from mental damage and great spiritual harm. He climbed back to his pedestal and began counting again.

Xue Ming dared not linger too long, lest the Vita Imprint crawl back into his body, so he returned with the remaining two bags of beans.

"Brother Wolf, how about we talk to the hunting party and burn this shelter down?"

Oscar: "No way, this underground shelter is full of cultural relics."

Xue Ming: "Is it really not going to work?"

"Think about it, brother," Oscar said, changing his approach. "We're both Chinese. If some evil spirits got into Qin Shi Huang's tomb, would we destroy it all with explosives? That's where our ancestors sleep; we can't do that."

Xue Ming: "That's true."

"We're not Americans. We can't just go to the ancient royal tombs of Egypt and expect them to mummy people. The Onsa pirates have no qualms about blowing up graves, but this hunting party's underground sanctuary is a legacy left to us by Saladin. We can't do that," Oscar said, pulling the little black cat girl over.

"Let me introduce you. This young lady's name is Louise. She's the manager of Oriental Dream Paris and will be your medium."

Louise smiled awkwardly and said, "Hi."

Jiang Xueming was surprised; this Miss Black Cat did indeed look very much like the BOSS.

"This honey badger wants to go to the Spirit Realm," Oscar explained to Louise. "The hunting party has a morgue and a place for autopsies; we're going there to hold a ceremony."

At this moment, Louise finally began to feel fear.

She had only a superficial understanding of psychic rituals. She usually made a lot of money by staying in Dream Paris and playing games, drinking, and drinking games with customers. When she came to her senses, she realized that this business deal was dangerous.

"Hey, hey, hey! Hey guest! Hey sir!"

The way she was addressed kept changing, and Louise lost her initial composure, causing her persona to crumble.

"I don't understand any psychic powers. What do you two want me to do? Wait, wait, wait..."

Miss Black Cat couldn't overpower the tall half-wolf, so Holly, the silly roe deer, came to help. At first, Holly tried to pull the foreman out, but couldn't budge him. So she immediately helped the werewolf lift up Black Cat's legs and happily carried her to the morgue.

The advance team of the hunting party had returned to the meeting place. After greeting about twenty brothers, Wolf Brother instructed them to guard the hidden door next to the fountain and not to enter the shelter without permission. After completing these preliminary preparations, he escorted the priest and Miss Black Cat to the VIP room of the morgue—the forensic office used to dissect the corpses of the monsters and humans.

The Spirit Realm, also known as the Spirit Prison, is a realm between life and death.

Even ordinary people without Inspiration might be able to see spirits and enter their world the instant they enter the Gate of Death state.

Oscar busied himself for a while, pulling out a series of psychic tools from the dissection room, such as bone-removing shears and a saw, some hairs of unknown origin, and two boxes of incense and candles.

After the candles were lit, the ambient light seemed to dim slightly.

Louise sat beside the morgue, her hair standing on end. She could clearly sense that there were many spirits in the room, summoned by the scent of candles.

"Playing this high? It'll cost extra!"

Oscar had never performed such a ritual before—in the past, he would pull ghosts out of Limbo, and even the Lapis Lazuli ritual involved summoning spirits to the world of the living to speak and reveal the details of the case.

This time Zhang Congfeng to hunt down Saint Josh Joris. In the realm of Eastern mysticism, this would be considered an astral projection of the soul to travel through the underworld.

"Give it to me!"

While fiddling with the basin, Oscar stuffed two wads of banknotes into Louise's arms, totaling more than 20,000 dollars.

Louise immediately changed her tune. "I'd go through fire and water for you, Wolf!"

After preparing the props for the ceremony, Oscar held Xue Ming's legs, took off Xue Ming's shoes, and put them into a stainless steel basin.

Dilute sulfuric acid began to burn the skin on Xue Ming's feet, and he could feel a distinct stinging pain, but his facial expression remained unchanged—which surprised Oscar greatly.

"Father, have you performed these kinds of ceremonies before?"

Xue Ming shook his head. "I used to get beaten a lot when I was little, I'm used to it."

Oscar didn't ask any more questions. He scattered the petals of the purple datura in the four corners of the morgue. Xue Ming saw four blurry, almost indistinguishable spirits crouching in the corners. These souls were like the strange beasts and demons in Saint Josh's Devil's Notebook, chaotic forms of human-beast hybrids.

Immediately afterwards, the big wolf held Holly's arm, cut a scar, took blood from his fingertip, and performed a magic spell on Xue Ming's forehead, then moved it down her cheeks.

This half-wolf, experienced in psychic rituals, constantly observed the changes in spiritual pressure. He drew four King Solomon's seals on the priest's forehead, crown, throat, and chest as four layers of protection for the spirit. He muttered incomprehensible, mysterious incantations, not a single word of which Xue Ming could understand.

The wolf chose a severed hand from the medium's tools.

--This arm has been dried and preserved; it comes from a male wizard from four hundred years ago.

He placed the severed hand in Louise's arms, urging Louise to hold it.

"Louise, open your eyes wide! Louise, open your eyes wide!"

As the black cat girl grasped the wizard's corpse arm, her pupils dilated. The temperature began to drop due to the intense psychic reaction, and the entire room became damp and cold.

Oscar cupped Louise's face, gently pulling at the black cat's chubby cheeks. He then brought the little girl's body closer to the priest, before joining the priest's and Louise's hands together.

Oscar asked, "What did you see, Louise? What did you see?"

"There are so many fires, so many people." Louise was almost face-to-face with Xue Ming.

At this moment, Xue Ming felt a sharp, agonizing pain in her heart and lungs.

Everything seemed to have stopped moving.

The candle flame remained motionless, and the smoke condensed in mid-air.

The burning sensation from the soles of his feet grew stronger and stronger, and the flames shot up his calves. His skin and flesh began to crack, revealing the Fragrant Dream iron armor—this was the form of Xue Ming's spirit body, and his appearance upon arriving in the Spirit Prison should also be the form of his soul power.

Oscar stood frozen, time seemed to stand still. The little deer girl, playing on her phone in the corner of the room, had her head down, drool running down her chin, the glistening strands of saliva refusing to fall.

The strange beasts and demons crouching in the four corners gradually revealed their true forms. They all turned into chrysanthemum-shaped heads, soft lumps of flesh without limbs, and sharp teeth could be seen from the dark caverns in their heads.

The moment Xue Ming stood up, he felt as if his skin and flesh were splitting open, as if he had suddenly emerged from the thick cocoon of his body.

The pain in his chest grew stronger and stronger. He looked down and saw a keyhole in his spirit body, which had originally belonged to Fragrant Dream —it was gradually being filled with crystal-clear spiritual energy, and the pain slowly disappeared.

At this moment, Xue Ming was able to move freely, and he arrived in the Spirit Realm.

The morgue had been completely transformed. The once pristine walls were now covered in orange-red flesh, and a raging fire burned in the stainless steel basin, the flames still scorching his body—a mangled and gruesome sight, like the remains of an insect after molting.

He walked to the mirror in the morgue, and seeing his reflection clearly, he was certain that he had transformed into the form of Fragrant Dream. Within the helmet were a pair of bright green cat eyes, a pink nose, and slightly whitish fur beneath the breastplate, resembling the collar of a formal dress—he clenched his fist, and could hear the resounding sound of claws closing within his iron-clad gloves.

Time began to flow again, and Oscar, the great wolf of the material plane, breathed a sigh of relief.

He went inside.

Louise asked hesitantly, "Can I let go now? It's scary."

Oscar quickly restrained Louise.

"Not yet, you have to keep holding his hand. Right now, his soul isn't in his body, which will attract the covetous eyes of other little devils—if he gets possessed by an evil spirit, he won't be himself anymore, and that will be very troublesome."

This kind of spiritual ritual transcends the limitations of the range of soul power.

Jiang Xueming is able to move freely in her Fragrant Dream spiritual form.

He floated in mid-air, feeling as light as a feather, like a weightless hydrogen balloon, able to pass directly through the walls and arrive at the hall of the assembly hall. He passed through the hidden door again into the cave, where the previously pitch-black environment became bright, as if no evil psychic energy could hide from him.

The demon that Saint Josh Joris had transformed into still lay prostrate on one side of the pedestal, nervously counting the beans on the ground.

Seemingly sensing something, the goat-headed demon raised its head and saw a radiant cat-shaped spirit floating in front of it.

Jiang Xueming did not take action directly, as he did not want to leave behind any remnants of the Fragrant Dream's spiritual energy here.

At this moment, the demon pool in the Spirit Realm turned into bottomless pits. He embraced Saint Josh Joris's body and jumped into these bottomless pits, intending to bring the devil back to his mother on Earth.