A Major Incident

The ringtone played for a long time before the call was finally answered. The voice on the other end was crisp and precise, but cold:

"I'm reviewing Ou Xiangrong's file and piecing together his movements. You have ten seconds."

Among the official Spirit Realm Walkers, the various squads were the main force handling cases, while the stewards coordinated things behind the scenes. They only went out in person when a case proved particularly difficult.

Centurions sure were intimidating. Li Dongze cleared his throat and reported in a low, serious voice:

"Centurion Fu, we've killed Ou Xiangrong."

The answer had clearly caught him off guard. There was silence on the other end. After a few seconds, Fu Qingyang's voice came through, no longer cold:

"Where did you find him?"

Li Dongze replied:

"We killed him at Songhai University. He was trying to force Xu Yingying to tell him where the Holy Grail and the Roster were, but she knew nothing about them. She's just an ordinary student. Your judgment was right—Ou Xiangrong really had lost his mind."

Fu Qingyang praised him. "Well done, Li Dongze. You were sharp this time. You've successfully prevented a major bloodshed. I'll put in a good word for you with the Elder Council. Were there any casualties?"

"No," Li Dongze paused. "Centurion Fu, we weren't the ones who killed him."

"You didn't kill him?" Fu Qingyang sounded puzzled. Then, as if something had occurred to him, he said, "I almost forgot. There's an elder from the Water God Palace at Songhai University. Was that person the one who stepped in? I'll have to pay a visit sometime and thank them."

There's an elder at Songhai University? Li Dongze looked stunned. Then he realized Centurion Fu had misunderstood and explained:

"Yuanshi Tianzun killed Ou Xiangrong—the Night Wanderer I recently recruited."

A level-one Night Wanderer had killed a level-three Bewitching Demon?

The centurion fell silent again. More than ten seconds later, Fu Qingyang said, "Understood. Have him submit a report."

After a pause, his voice turned amused. "Well done."

After ending the call, Li Dongze gripped the steering wheel, beaming. His foot pressed harder on the accelerator without him realizing it.

White Dragon pulled out his phone and started a temporary group chat with the other squad leaders. "Look at Li Dongze, acting so smug his mustache's about to reach his eyebrows."

Green Vine: "Their squad just earned a major merit. If I had a subordinate like that, I'd be smug too."

Under the official organization's rules, the whole squad was rewarded whenever one member earned merit, to strengthen their sense of collective pride. The other members would also receive bonuses and performance credit.

If the squad leaders had previously been merely envious of this Night Wanderer Li Dongze had recruited, now they were jealous enough to consider playing dirty.

Kangyang District Public Security Bureau, morgue.

Li Dongze closed the morgue door, leaving the squad leaders outside.

He looked at Zhang Yuanqing beside him, his gaze deep, and said:

"Night Wanderers can devour spirits to gain experience, but the side effect is that, over time, their minds become contaminated. If you've already tried using this method to grow stronger, you should understand what I mean."

Zhang Yuanqing nodded.

"Have you tried using that item to purify the impurities?" Li Dongze prompted. That was his solution.

Seeing Zhang Yuanqing frown in thought, Li Dongze immediately smiled. "Looks like that item comes at a steep price."

Yeah. Use it too much and you get anemic, with your energy and blood depleted. Zhang Yuanqing suddenly remembered something: he had once found a Spirit Crystal in the Mountain Goddess's mouth.

Now it seemed likely that the crystal had formed from the soul of a Spirit Realm Walker who died in the Mountain God Temple.

That had to be why the item description called it a Night Wanderer's finest nourishment.

The impurities in the Spirit Crystal were probably mental contamination, but the goddess had purified them. By that logic, the Demon Subduing Pestle should be able to purify mental contamination too.

With that thought, Zhang Yuanqing opened his Inventory and took out the Demon Subduing Pestle, made of brass and engraved with elaborate patterns and incantations.

He briefly explained the item's effects and cost, then said, "If I go berserk in a bit, jab me with it. In the thigh, though."

"Got it!" Li Dongze took the item.

Zhang Yuanqing went over to Ou Xiangrong's corpse and pressed his palm against the man's chest. He took a deep breath. Thick, black energy welled up in his eyes, awakening the spirit that lingered in the corpse.

A sharp ache swelled between his brows, and his consciousness expanded. Something that wasn't his own forced its way into his mind.

Through the haze, Zhang Yuanqing saw himself, the underground parking garage, and the eerie Red Dancing Shoes.

This was the battle that had just taken place in the parking garage.

Zhang Yuanqing silently waited for the battle to end. The scene changed quickly. This time, he was in a dim room. A masked man stood before Ou Xiangrong, holding an exquisitely crafted crystal cup filled with a liquid as red as blood.

"As a Bewitching Demon, your evil is pure. You have decent potential. Drink the wine in the Holy Grail, and you'll become my servant."

"Every half month, you'll have to drink from the Holy Grail again. Otherwise, not even the gods can save you."

"Remember my name: Judge of Ghostly Eyes."

In a cheap rental apartment, a man wearing a mask and baseball cap stood in the living room and said coldly:

"Judge of Ghostly Eyes is dead. His right-hand man, Black Impermanence, escaped with the Fallen Holy Grail and the Roster and is hiding somewhere in Songhai City. If you don't want to die when the poison takes effect, find him for us. The Spirit Energy Society won't let you down."

The scene changed again. He saw a blue sky and a group of thugs dressed in strange clothes, kicking and punching him.

The abrupt shift left Zhang Yuanqing confused. Several seconds passed before he realized he was being bullied.

These were memories from Ou Xiangrong's past? Who would have thought that a ruthless killer like him had once gone through something like this?

"Ou Xiangrong, did you think I was just talking to hear myself speak?"

"Ou Xiangrong, you'd better appreciate that we're even bothering to talk to you."

Don't hit me. Don't hit me. Zhang Yuanqing felt the intense fear in Ou Xiangrong's heart as the man curled up in terror.

"Useless! You got bullied again? If they hit you, hit them back! Why are you crying to me? How did I end up with a loser like you for a son?"

A middle-aged man cursed, spittle flying.

This time, Zhang Yuanqing felt despair in Ou Xiangrong's emotions.

A jumble of fragmented images flashed by. With each similar incident, his mindset grew more twisted and violent.

Just then, a brilliant, pure golden light burst into his mind, driving out the violence and pain and bringing warmth.

Zhang Yuanqing's eyes flew open. He saw the bright ceiling lights and the white walls, as well as Li Dongze, whose face was bruised and swollen and whose suit was disheveled.

"Squad Leader, are you all right?"

Zhang Yuanqing was startled. He touched his face and found it wet with tears.

"I'm fine." Li Dongze casually tossed the bloodstained Demon Subduing Pestle to the floor and straightened his clothes, grumbling:

"I should've asked Guan Ya to come. She's better at fighting than I am. That was not elegant at all."

Once he had tidied himself up, he eagerly asked, "What did you find? Any more clues? You look terrible."

"I'm just a little sad."

His experience had gone up again, but this time, Zhang Yuanqing wasn't happy about it.

Li Dongze looked enlightened. "Because of Ou Xiangrong's memories?"

"Yeah."

A spirit's memories were incomplete and fragmented. It only retained the experiences it couldn't let go of.

After all these years, Ou Xiangrong still couldn't let go of what had happened to him in school. It had affected his entire life.

He was a criminal who deserved to die, but Zhang Yuanqing still felt awful.

Li Dongze sighed.

"I don't know what you saw in those memories, but I understand. Night Wanderers from the Taiyi Sect hate devouring the spirits of Evil Profession users most of all. That's why. Yuanshi, do you know why the concept of Evil Profession exists?"

He didn't rush to ask about the case. Instead, he used the opportunity to comfort Zhang Yuanqing and teach him.

"During faction conflicts, we've killed countless Evil Profession users. After compiling the data from the Taiyi Sect's Night Wanderers' Spirit Inquiries, we observed a pattern: every Evil Profession user was a real-world villain or criminal.

"In other words, the Spirit Realm chose its Evil Profession users from among specific groups of people."

Zhang Yuanqing was taken aback. "So they didn't become bad people after becoming Evil Profession users. They were already bad people."

"But they weren't all born bad. Humanity itself created them." Li Dongze sighed.

"The Spirit Realm doesn't actively foster evil. Every Evil Profession user is born from humanity's own sins. It's a bleak and hardly uplifting observation, but that's the world we live in. You understand, but don't go spreading it around."

Zhang Yuanqing nodded silently.

"Also, one more thing. You killed Ou Xiangrong, so you should've gained some reputation, right?" Li Dongze said.

"Spirit Realm Walkers don't lose Moral Value for killing each other. But if you have reputation, Spirit Realm Walkers on your own side will think twice before attacking you. Say you have ten reputation points. A Spirit Realm Walker on your side who kills you will lose twenty Moral Value. Heh. Being orderly and being good aren't the same thing."

After saying this, Li Dongze patted his shoulder. "All right, back to business. Let's not waste time."

There are kind people among Orderly Profession users, but also chaotic and neutral ones? Could an Evil Profession user reform? Zhang Yuanqing pulled his thoughts together and said gravely:

"Squad Leader, I think I saw something major in Ou Xiangrong's memories."

"Something major?" Li Dongze smiled. "He was only a level-three Bewitching Demon. How major could it be? I've been on the job for years. I've seen all kinds of major incidents. Go on."

He wasn't being arrogant. Li Dongze simply felt that Yuanshi was inexperienced and might not have a good sense of what counted as major.

"Here's what happened." Zhang Yuanqing recounted the memories he'd read.

A few minutes later, Li Dongze came sprinting out of the morgue and roared at the squad leaders outside:

"We've got a major incident!"