Jing Ci's Apprentice

When Jing Ci returned to the park, the old man was still sitting in his wheelchair by the lake, holding a fishing rod.

But his fish basket now contained even more assorted junk.

"Teacher, every time I watch you fish, I feel like we don't need to run a general store at all."

Jing Ci shoved his hands into his pockets and sighed. "We could make enough just selling scrap."

The old man sat as still as a mountain. He didn't even turn his head, let alone answer.

"I've finished everything I needed to do."

Jing Ci seemed to think of something and smiled faintly. "I have to say, that kid is pretty clever."

The old man gripped his fishing rod and gazed at the shimmering lake. "You don't often praise anyone."

Jing Ci replied frankly, "To master the path of evolution at zero rank... that talent is better than mine was. Much better. In a way, that kid is even more formidable than his father. I saw Thunder from headquarters, too. Her talent is downright monstrous."

"Is that so?"

The old man fell silent for a second. "Didn't that kid ask what our purpose was?"

Jing Ci shook his head. "Not a word. He's probably waiting for us to explain it ourselves."

"He's got patience."

The old man said mildly, "Calm and collected. Good."

"Teacher."

Jing Ci said quietly, "The Tribunal is about to make another move. Do you think...?"

"It doesn't matter."

The old man's gaze was as calm as mist, and his voice grew distant. "I'll keep watching."

The shimmering lake suddenly rippled. Its waters seemed to boil, and the fish at the bottom swam about in alarm. As the water churned violently, a terrifying rumble of thunder seemed to burst from its depths.

The moonlight was swallowed by darkness, yet a vast shadow appeared reflected on the lake.

It was a mass of black clouds gathering in the heavens.

The clouds swirled and surged, seeming to form a stern, terrifying face as it looked down upon the city below.

Faint music drifted across the rooftop bar of the Deep Sky Technology Building as the sea breeze wafted by.

"Strange. Gu Jianlin isn't an Evolutionist, so who left behind the Ancient God Breath we sensed?"

Deacon Nie asked suspiciously, "Could it have been that person?"

Yan Wu looked down at the brightly lit nightscape and said gravely, "I don't know. Would you dare ask?"

Deacon Nie shook his head. "Of course not."

"The Saint's orders are for us to keep a close eye on that person. We need this Calamity to hold the line in Feng City, in case something comes out of the Qilin Immortal Palace. But when there's no danger, the Calamity is the greatest danger of all."

Yan Wu snorted. "As for the Gu family's son, are you really saying you don't know what his deal is?"

Deacon Nie shook his head. "We've investigated him many times. There's nothing suspicious."

"That's strange. The organization behind Joker is testing him, too."

Yan Wu's expression was hard as stone. "We couldn't recover either of the two Mythic Armaments today. Just bad luck, I suppose. I had hoped Yan Feng and Yan Ye would each get one, then secure an Omega slot for the Undersea Palace expedition."

"Don't worry. With the young masters' talent, no one can compete with them."

Deacon Nie smiled. "It's a shame Thunder took that slot, but she's the princess of headquarters, after all. There was nothing we could do."

Yan Wu stood with his hands behind his back, his voice low and curt. "At least the Gu boy awakened late. I heard he's pretty efficient at absorbing elixirs. If he'd awakened two years earlier, he might really have become a force to reckon with."

"He's just a child, and he has no backing. Elixirs in the Ether Association's resource vault are always in short supply. He'd be lucky to exchange for one a month. The only way around that would be to enter the Omega Sequence, and that's impossible."

Deacon Nie smiled as he tried to reassure him. "Don't dwell on it. Just wait for Minister Lu to advance and take over the position. If I'm right, the Saint plans to carry out a thorough purge of Feng City next—Fallen and Unclean alike. As for that Evolutionist, so long as he isn't one of that person's people, catching him will earn us a great deal of credit."

Yan Wu gave a slight nod and said coldly, "I don't consider him a threat. The Gu family has fallen into ruin. He's their only surviving branch, so let him be. I don't think Joker was killed by him. I suspect it was that person."

Deacon Nie was taken aback.

"You mean Gu Ci'an's student?"

He murmured, "After the Blood Moon Massacre, that girl defected. No one's seen a trace of her since. I thought she'd left Feng City long ago. I didn't expect her to dare show her face again."

It was already hard to believe that Gu Jianlin had killed Joker single-handedly.

But what if someone had secretly helped him?

"I checked Feng City's security records. Lu Zijin once withdrew the security detail protecting Luodong Residential District for a while. Gu Jianlin was the only Ascender's family member living there. I suspect she did it to make it easier for that girl to come and go." Yan Wu's voice was cold.

"Now that you mention it, that does seem possible."

Deacon Nie considered it. "It's a shame Gu Ci'an protected that student so well. No one ever learned her real identity. All we know is that she's a fourth-tier Asura of the Ghost Slayer Path. She has several Mythic Armaments, too. She's elusive and hard to deal with."

"She's probably an Evolutionist, too."

Yan Wu licked his lips. "That's dangerous."

At the word Evolutionist, Deacon Nie instinctively grew wary. He said solemnly, "These heretics who defile humanity's faith and usurp the power of the gods deserve to—"

He faltered and hurriedly shut his mouth.

He could think such things, but he couldn't say them aloud.

He was too weak.

He shouldn't meddle in affairs this important.

"If it was that girl, then the traces of an Evolutionist at the scene make sense."

Yan Wu said coldly, "I'll have Yan Ye and Yan Feng keep looking. We'll try to find her."

Deacon Nie nodded. "There's nothing special about Gu Jianlin himself. His ability to inherit his father's profiling talent is a contribution to all of humanity. No one can deny that. What's most important is to draw out whoever's protecting him."

Yan Wu grunted and turned to leave.

The hospital room was empty. Gu Jianlin lay on the bed, silently enduring the tearing pain as his thoughts churned.

"There's a third person at school, someone at least as strong as Lu Zicheng?"

That was strange.

Before the operation, he'd used his profiling ability to locate nearly every Ascender in the school.

Cheng Youyu was the exception. He was a student himself.

Gu Jianlin had already guessed that the fat kid wasn't what he seemed.

After all, the fat kid had warned him not to go out unless he had to, after Joker started slaughtering animals.

Unless that third person had never shown themselves.

But why would someone want to save him?

Gu Jianlin couldn't figure it out. Just then, his phone vibrated. It was a video call.

The caller ID read Su Youzhu.

He hurriedly lay down, pulled the hospital blanket over his gown, and answered.

The video showed the dormitory at Fengcheng No. 2 High School. Su Youzhu leaned against the bathroom sink. Her exquisite, snow-white face was as expressionless as ever as she eyed him suspiciously.

"Isn't it late? Won't you wake your roommates?"

Gu Jianlin felt guilty on instinct, afraid he hadn't fooled the girl in front of him.

"No. Everyone's talking about the explosion in the cafeteria. No one's going to sleep yet."

Su Youzhu said calmly, "Was that... you guys?"

Gu Jianlin felt even guiltier, but then he remembered that the Ether Association's cleanup should have covered everything. That gave him the courage to bluff. "Ahem. The main culprit was the criminal suspect. It had nothing to do with me. But we did make a mess of the cafeteria. We must've caused everyone trouble and disrupted their studies and meals."

As for the financial losses to the school, the Ether Association should cover them.

Still, he felt a little guilty about everything else. He'd disturbed the other students, after all.

"It's fine. Everyone's just disappointed they didn't blow up the whole school."

Su Youzhu gave him a few more looks. "Stop hiding. I know you're in the hospital."

Gu Jianlin reluctantly lowered the blanket and sighed.

As expected, he couldn't fool her.

"Are your injuries serious?"

Su Youzhu asked softly.

"Not really."

Gu Jianlin shook his head. "They just wanted to be safe, so they kept me here for observation."

Su Youzhu studied him carefully. Once she was sure he wasn't lying, she remarked casually, "I used to think you were tall and skinny, and always looked sickly. You didn't seem very dependable. I didn't expect you to make me feel so safe."

She was referring to what had happened in the cafeteria.

Gu Jianlin didn't know what to say. "At least I didn't drag you into it."

Su Youzhu stared at him earnestly. "Is Uncle Gu's situation really that complicated? Will more people like that come after you? Or did you join that organization so you could go after them?"

Gu Jianlin was startled. He had no idea what the Ether Association had told her.

"That person named Lu Zicheng told me everything."

Su Youzhu sounded as if she already knew exactly what he'd been up to.

Gu Jianlin's heart tightened.

But her next words nearly broke him.

"You joined S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Su Youzhu asked earnestly.

Gu Jianlin covered his face with one hand. "What exactly did Lu Zicheng tell you?"

"Lu Zicheng said S.H.I.E.L.D. really exists, and that it has a branch in our country. Uncle Gu was a senior investigator for S.H.I.E.L.D., which is why he made so many enemies among criminals. S.H.I.E.L.D. was supposed to be secret, but since you're directly involved, they made an exception and recruited you because you can profile people."

Su Youzhu said with a perfectly serious expression, "And as his family, I'm entitled to know. But I have to keep it secret."

Gu Jianlin waved a hand. "Don't listen to his nonsense."

Su Youzhu gave him a doubtful look.

"Our organization is called the Justice League," Gu Jianlin said with a perfectly straight face.

Su Youzhu fell silent for a moment, then burst out laughing, like a frozen river thawing.

Gu Jianlin knew the girl was pretty, but she rarely smiled.

She was even prettier when she did.

Clearly, she hadn't believed him about S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Justice League.

She probably just thought he'd joined some kind of special department.

As long as she didn't start imagining he was in the Dragon Group or something, he didn't care what she thought.

"Anyway, I'm still not going to tell Mom about what happened today."

Su Youzhu's smile faded. She said softly, "But you have to be careful. You can't keep going like this. This time was dangerous. What if something goes wrong next time?"

Gu Jianlin thought, Of course I'll do it again next time.

But he couldn't say that, so he brushed her off. "Don't worry. It probably won't happen again. I'll likely be under observation for a day or two, then go with the teachers to take care of the independent admissions process."

Su Youzhu was about to say something when someone knocked at the door. It was probably the dorm supervisor coming to check on the students.

"Good. I'll wait for you at school."

She said calmly, "I'm hanging up."

Gu Jianlin nodded. "Good night."

The call ended.

Phew. He'd finally managed to fool her.

For some reason, even though she was keeping an eye on him, he didn't find it annoying at all.

Instead, it made him feel a little warm inside.

"She's a good girl, which is all the more reason not to drag her into this. We still haven't found the organization behind Joker."

Gu Jianlin said quietly, "I can't let my guard down."

His head started hurting again, and the pain spread through his body.

If he were still an ordinary person, he would've passed out already.

Ever since becoming an Ascender, a lot of things had changed. For instance, he had much more energy, his ability to think had grown stronger, and even his nervous system seemed more developed.

His ability to endure pain had improved along with them.

That was a side effect of transforming into a Qilin.

Gu Jianlin gritted his teeth through the pain, picked up the vial from his bedside table, and downed it in one go.

The elixir tasted bitter and herbal. After he swallowed it, it felt like he'd gulped down a block of ice. The chill spread through his body, easing the tearing pain considerably.

A cool sensation flowed through the depths of his soul, gathering into a wisp of spirituality.

There wasn't much of it, perhaps only a tenth of his total spirituality.

But it was enough.

The Soul-Pacifying Bell could enslave souls.

He wanted to see what Joker had been after.

To be safe, Gu Jianlin first activated the Non-Existent Lock. Its silver-white chains trembled and floated into the air, swirling around him and crisscrossing to form a barrier.

The entire hospital bed vanished from perception.

Only then did he take out the Soul-Pacifying Bell and infuse it with a wisp of spirituality, awakening it.

Amid the clear chime, black light spread like mist, revealing the vague outline of a shattered soul.

Joker's soul.