Becoming a Commandant

"Impossible! You... you are a ghost... how could you have a letter from the Demon-Slaying Division?"

Master Tea first looked shocked, then lowered his voice to a growl, "Could it be that you, this evil ghost, murdered Zhang Miaoji and stole the letter to deceive me..."

"Alright, alright, don't get excited, old man."

Li Hai shook his head and reverted to his living state right in front of the old man, leaving the other party dumbfounded.

"You... how did you become human again?!"

Clearly confused by the situation, the old man began to ramble, "I must be near death, so... so I'm hallucinating."

"No, this is not a hallucination."

Li Hai lied through his teeth, "I am indeed human; I simply possess a Bloodline Divine Ability that allows me to temporarily transform into a ghost."

He then gave a brief summary of how he had slaughtered evil spirits in the cursed lands of Guo Family Fort and how he had happened upon Zhang Miaoji.

"Fine, I understand."

Too weak to bother discerning the truth from the lies in Li Hai's words, the old man gasped, "In any case, you are a human and not a ghost. Knowing that is enough."

With that, he gritted his teeth and laboriously pulled out a jade box the size of half a palm, covered in strange talismans, and said intermittently:

"This is a Soul-Binding Cocoon, a rare secret artifact. An hour ago, I managed to seal the ghost wreaking havoc here inside it."

He handed the jade box to Li Hai, then reached out with great effort to pass over an old, worn book.

"The cataclysmic incident at this Ox-Horn Town outpost was no accident. Someone must be pulling the strings behind the scenes; otherwise, such a massive cursed zone could not have appeared out of thin air without warning. I no longer have the strength to investigate this."

He looked at Li Hai with a deathly pale face, "Take this Soul-Binding Cocoon. To be safe, you should go into hiding and keep a low profile. The headquarters will send people to survey this place in a few days. When they arrive, you can hand it over to the Demon-Slaying Captain from headquarters.

Also, this book is the personnel roster for this Demon-Slaying Division outpost. Find a blank page and carve your name into it—use your finger."

"Carve it with my finger? Very well."

Li Hai took the book and flipped through it, discovering that the pages were made of a material that was neither metal nor jade, and was quite hard. An ordinary person would likely struggle to leave a mark with a carving knife, let alone a finger.

But for Li Hai, this was a piece of cake—or rather, for any martial artist at the Force-Body Circulation level, it was a trivial task.

In the blink of an eye, Li Hai had carved his name onto a page of the roster with his finger.

Strangely, as soon as he finished carving his name, the roster began to shimmer with light, as if it had been activated.

Seeing this, the dying old man spoke once more:

"Congratulations, you are now officially a member of the Great Jing Demon-Slaying Division. There is a device somewhere in this training ground that should have already molded and printed your Captain's token. You can go find it later."

After blurting out a long string of words, the old man leaned back against the wall, exhausted, and whispered:

"Everything has been handed over. Don't worry about me; I'm beyond saving. Go quickly, turn back into a ghost and leave this place. Let me... let me sleep for a little while longer."

With that, he closed his eyes and gradually lost all signs of life.

Seeing this, Li Hai could only sigh and turn to leave.

But just then, as if experiencing a final burst of vitality, the old man suddenly opened his eyes and shouted at Li Hai with great spirit:

"Young man, remember this well... there are no gods, immortals, or Buddhas in this world. There are only us Demon-Slaying Captains, sacrificing our lives to protect the common people. From this day forward, you are the shield for all under heaven. Others may retreat, but you cannot; others may flee, but you cannot. If the sky is shrouded in darkness, then you... you must be the only sun!"

After roaring these words, the old man's life force vanished instantly, and he breathed his last.

"Until the end, I didn't even know if you were truly Master Tea."

With a complex sigh, Li Hai transformed from human to ghost and drifted through the obstacles to the outside.

He did not follow the old man's final wish to leave immediately, but instead began to wander through the quiet, gloomy training ground.

"Since this is an organization outpost, there should be a warehouse or something similar."

Muttering to himself, Li Hai scanned his surroundings, trying to find anything of value.

Perhaps due to his Wildness, he soon discovered what appeared to be the outpost's warehouse in a corner of the vast training ground.

Inside the storehouse, several rows of large iron cabinets stood in neat lines.

Because most of the warehouse had collapsed, many of these cabinets had been crushed into scrap metal, their contents mangled beyond recognition.

However, a few iron cabinets had survived, successfully preserving what was inside.

Opening one of the iron cabinets, Li Hai found it neatly stacked with thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of yellow talismans.

"Good stuff."

He nodded, his palm glowing with the character Naihe, and in an instant, he stored the iron cabinet into the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven.

He then opened the second iron cabinet, which contained various files and documents. After a casual glance, Li Hai tossed them into the grotto as well.

The third iron cabinet contained sets of neatly folded black uniforms—the double-breasted leather gear worn by the Demon-Slaying Captains.

"To be honest, these clothes look quite sharp."

With a thought, Li Hai stored this cabinet into the grotto as well.

The fourth iron cabinet held pairs of black boots that matched the uniforms.

Needless to say, since they were part of the same set, Li Hai stored the entire cabinet away.

Then came the remaining fifth, sixth, and seventh iron cabinets.

There were various silver banknotes of small and medium denominations, a considerable number of medicine vials, seven or eight strange secret weapons of unknown function, and a pair of Bamboo-Joint Steel Whip that shimmered with a dark red glow.

All of these items were promptly tucked away into his pockets.

No, that pair of clearly extraordinary Bamboo-Joint Steel Whip was instead hung by Li Hai at his left and right waist.

In short, he had a very satisfying time looting the spoils.

At the same time, Li Hai also discovered that in the corner of this collapsed warehouse, there sat the very Token Printing Device that the old man from the Demon-Slaying Division had mentioned earlier.

So, the old man's original intention was to lead me to discover this warehouse and take everything away.

Pondering this, Li Hai paced over to the device and found that a token, still radiating heat, had already emerged onto its tray.

He picked it up to take a look and saw that it read—

[Name: Li Hai]

[Serial Number: 3527]

[Rank: Wood-Rank Lieutenant]