The Human Collector

The translucent phantoms spreading through the air lasted for less than ten seconds.

They twisted and contracted violently, eventually vanishing into thin air as if they had never existed at all.

The entire training hall returned to its original, quiet state.

"Good grief, are all sorcerers this dramatic? It felt like watching a 3D movie."

Watching the scene before him, Gu Yuan was thoroughly impressed by Sun Miaomiao's display of sorcery; it was his first time seeing someone perform such arts in reality.

It certainly looked flashier than a brawl between martial artists.

The Bronze Compass held in Sun Miaomiao's hand let out a faint "click," the frantically spinning needle coming to an abrupt halt as the blue light on its surface dimmed.

"Hm? How could this be?"

Sun Miaomiao crouched on the ground, looking at the yellow paper talismans and then down at the unresponsive compass, scratching her head in confusion.

"Why isn't my compass reacting at all?"

Clearly, the investigation had hit a dead end, which left her feeling quite dejected.

"Uh, did you find anything, Sister Miaomiao?" Gu Yuan walked forward and asked, looking at the troubled Sun Miaomiao.

Sun Miaomiao deflated, sitting cross-legged on the floor and holding up two fingers.

"Although I didn't find anything, there are still two possibilities."

"The first is that the missing student never came to this training hall at all."

"That's impossible. Didn't I hear that surveillance footage captured her entering the training hall?" Gu Yuan leaned in toward Sun Miaomiao, eyeing the compass in her hand. "What is the second possibility?"

Sun Miaomiao was silent for a moment.

She looked up.

"The second possibility is that the missing person was carrying a Dao artifact specifically designed to shield against sorcerous detection, or... a sorcerer with a cultivation realm far higher than mine erased all traces here."

After saying this, she grew despondent again, extending a finger to draw circles on the smooth floor.

"Ah! I thought I could easily earn another big meal!" She let out a long sigh. "It looks like I'll have to rethink this from the ground up."

Gu Yuan was already accustomed to her ability to switch states at any moment, but he was more curious about something else.

"Sister Miaomiao, what realm are you in right now?"

Hearing this, Sun Miaomiao instantly straightened her back, her entire demeanor lifting.

"Ahem!" She cleared her throat.

"I am a heaven-gifted prodigy... no, a prodigy among women! I am currently a Second-Tier Object-Control Realm sorcerer, and also a First-Tier Qi-Condensation Realm martial artist!"

Seeming to feel that wasn't enough, she added, "I joined the Destiny Bureau headquarters during my junior year internship! I only applied for a transfer back to Sea City later because I wanted to be closer to home."

Gu Yuan nodded, following her lead to ask the question he was truly concerned about.

"Then, if someone really could erase the traces so that even you couldn't detect them, what realm would that person be?"

Sun Miaomiao pondered for a moment, her expression turning serious.

"If the other party could erase things to the point where even my compass can't detect them, they would be at least in the Alchemist Realm."

"Uh, Sister Miaomiao, what realm is the Alchemist Realm?" Gu Yuan scratched his head in embarrassment.

He was well-versed in the cultivation system of martial artists, but he was a complete blank slate when it came to the cultivation system of sorcerers.

"The Alchemist Realm is equivalent to the Qi-Transformation Realm of you martial artists," Sun Miaomiao explained.

"But if you really had to fight, a sorcerer of the same tier would have the upper hand."

"After all, Qi-Transformation Realm martial artists have only just begun to develop the true utility of their Dao foundations, while we sorcerers have been playing with the application of energy from the very beginning."

Martial artists were indeed inferior to sorcerers in terms of combat power during the early and middle stages; only after reaching the Core-Formation Realm and becoming proficient in using the power of their Dao foundations would their combat power slowly catch up, or even surpass them.

Gu Yuan firmly committed this information to memory.

After all, he was quite interested in these sorcerers; who wouldn't want to learn such flashy techniques? Plus, he had heard that sorcerers made a lot of money.

Thinking of this, Gu Yuan suddenly leaned in closer, looking quite eager.

"By the way, Sister Miaomiao, how does one go about cultivating as a sorcerer? I feel... I might have a lot of talent for it."

This remark seemed to strike right at the heart of Sun Miaomiao's professional expertise and her excitement for being a mentor.

"Ahem."

She stood up directly from the floor, brushed the dust off her pants, and struck the pose of an expert.

"Well, that's different from you martial artists."

"For martial artists, once you turn sixteen, you undergo a unified Dao foundation awakening ceremony. Only those who can awaken a Dao foundation can step into the Qi-Condensation Realm and become a true martial artist."

"Without a Dao foundation, you'll be nothing more than a bottom-feeder for life."

She paused, then continued.

"But for us sorcerers, it's all about spiritual power. As long as your spiritual power is naturally strong enough to reach a certain critical point, your soul will awaken on its own, allowing you to sense the energy of heaven and earth and step across the threshold of sorcery."

"Of course, people born with a high concentration of spiritual power are very, very rare."

As she spoke, she looked Gu Yuan up and down.

"Your words..."

A faint, ghostly blue radiance quietly welled up in Sun Miaomiao's eyes, fixed directly upon Gu Yuan.

Gu Yuan felt as if he had been scanned by something, yet he felt nothing particularly unusual.

A few seconds later, the blue light in Sun Miaomiao's eyes dissipated, and a look of surprise appeared on her face.

"Huh? Your mental power is quite high. You might actually have the potential to cultivate the Warlock system!"

"Ahem, I told you, I have a lot of potential." Gu Yuan cleared his throat.

"Geez~ I know you have potential. When I get back, I'll give you a breathing technique related to mental power. You can take a look at it. For someone with strong mental power like you, it should be quite easy to get started, and long-term practice can increase your mental power a bit."

After saying this, Sun Miaomiao waved her hand listlessly: "Work's done, work's done. I'm going back to apply for a long-term meal ticket—no, wait, a long-term investigation warrant—from the captain. This matter can't be rushed."

The two packed up their things and walked out of the training hall one after the other.

The afternoon sun was somewhat blinding, casting a warm glow upon them.

Just as they exited the training hall, they ran into a slightly stout middle-aged man wearing the standard cleaning uniform of Haicheng No. 1 High School.

He was pushing a cleaning cart, passing by them at a leisurely pace.

He looked no different from any other logistics staff member in the school, his face bearing the honest, simple smile left by years of hard labor, and he even nodded kindly as he passed the two of them.

Gu Yuan also returned the smile out of politeness.

However, at the very moment they brushed past each other, Gu Yuan's gaze inadvertently swept over the man's head.

His footsteps came to a sudden halt.

There, above the head of the man with the honest smile, a line of ink-black characters was radiating an ominous aura.

[Human Collector].