Early the next morning, Li Feng opened his eyes, feeling a little disoriented.
This had never happened since he began cultivating.
The reason was that, after falling asleep the night before, he had kept dreaming.
His dreams had been a jumble of the Delivery Ghost's memories of death and his own memories of dying in his previous life.
This made him all the more certain that turning ghosts into Ghost Servants was not something to undertake lightly.
"Whew!"
Exhaling a stale breath, Li Feng rubbed his eyes before slowly getting up to wash.
When Li Feng went out, he once again ran into his beautiful next-door neighbor, Zhang Qian.
The instant she saw him, Zhang Qian fixed him with an intent gaze.
"Hmm? What's wrong? Is there something you need?"
Noticing her odd behavior, Li Feng looked at her in surprise.
"Huh? N-no, nothing!"
At his direct question, Zhang Qian immediately withdrew her gaze sheepishly, an embarrassed blush rising to her cheeks.
Li Feng gave her a meaningful look but did not press her, heading toward the elevator as usual.
While they waited, Zhang Qian kept sneaking glances at him until she finally could not resist speaking.
"Um... Mr. Li, are you an accomplished cook, too?"
"Cook?!"
Li Feng was surprised at first, then abruptly realized something.
Could Zhang Qian have smelled the aroma of the takeout the Delivery Ghost transformed yesterday?
He could not help smiling as he said:
"Haha, I wouldn't call myself accomplished. My food is just edible!"
Li Feng was not lying.
An orphan in both his previous life and this one, he knew how to make a few ordinary home-cooked dishes.
But his skills only extended to cooking food through and making it edible. Delicious was certainly not the word.
"You're far too modest, Mr. Li!
"The noodles you made yesterday smelled heavenly. They had my mouth watering...
"Gulp!"
As she finished, Zhang Qian seemed to recall the utterly tantalizing aroma of last night's noodles, and her throat bobbed involuntarily.
"Noodles?"
Li Feng gave her a surprised look, his expression turning thoughtful.
She only smelled the noodles?
This gave him a deeper understanding of the Delivery Ghost's abilities.
Without real ingredients to carry it, the aroma of its transformed takeout could probably only be smelled by its target.
But with real ingredients, that special aroma might travel as far as the food's natural smell could spread.
While thinking this over, Li Feng kept his expression composed and smiled again.
"Hehe, they're nothing special. If we get a chance sometime, I'll make you some noodles, Zhang."
"Absolutely! Then let me thank you in advance, Mr. Li!"
Zhang Qian's eyes lit up, and she accepted without the slightest hesitation.
What else could Li Feng say? He could only smile and nod.
"Hehe, sure!"
Chatting and laughing along the way, they soon reached the residential complex's entrance, where one turned left and the other right.
Since he had set out early today, it was only a little past eight when Li Feng reached the Investigation Department.
Apart from the regular staff, none of the actual Investigators had arrived yet.
But the instant he stepped into the Investigation Department, an alarm suddenly sounded inside.
Li Feng's foot froze in midair, and he looked awkwardly at the many staff members who had turned toward him.
One quick-thinking staff member moved an arm and pressed a button on a workstation.
Bzzzt!
In the next instant, a chilling wave of deathly white light swept through the Investigation Department and its surroundings.
Then a scarlet column of light shot onto Li Feng, enveloping him completely.
At the same time, the phone in his pocket began humming and vibrating faintly.
In that instant, Li Feng felt an overwhelming sense of danger and restraint. Any wrong move would bring a fatal strike.
"Stop! I'm Investigator Li Feng!"
He did not even dare lower his left foot, which remained stiffly suspended in midair.
A person in heavy protective clothing approached cautiously, one hand pressed firmly to their waist, ready to draw a gun at any moment. They forced a strained smile.
"Investigator Li Feng, sir, our apologies!
"Please explain why we're detecting ghostly energy inside your body..."
"Ghostly energy?"
Li Feng suddenly understood.
He sensed the motionless Delivery Ghost floating outside the mind fog within his mind space.
His own aura seemed to have become somewhat eerie after he devoured the powers of the Wedding-Dress Bride and the Delivery Ghost.
But because of the shielding and sealing effects of the mind fog and his bed, people and detection devices could not easily sense it.
The Delivery Ghost, however, which he had driven outside the mind fog out of distaste, had its aura fully exposed.
As for why Zhang Qian and the passersby had noticed nothing unusual about him, he figured the Delivery Ghost was too weak, compounded by the shielding of his body and skin, daylight's suppression of ghostly energy, and other factors.
At most, ordinary people would feel a slight chill around him, but they would not give it much thought.
The Investigation Department's sensitive detection equipment, however, could even detect ghostly energy inside a person's body.
Naturally, it had easily picked up the energy emanating from the Delivery Ghost inside Li Feng.
Still, Li Feng was not particularly surprised.
He had never intended to conceal the Delivery Ghost. Instead, he planned to use it as his publicly known power, disguising his own abilities, which had felt increasingly eerie ever since he devoured the Delivery Ghost's power.
He had simply intended to tell everyone about it after entering the Investigation Department.
He had not expected his colleagues in the Investigation Department to make such a production of it.
He had been detected and locked onto before he even made it through the door.
Watching the regular Investigation Department staff approach cautiously, Li Feng said with a rueful smile:
"You could at least let me explain...
"I encountered a Vengeful Ghost yesterday, and through a lucky coincidence, I managed to tame it..."
"That's why there's Ghostly Energy inside me..."
"Oh, so that's what happened..."
After hearing Li Feng's explanation, everyone nodded in understanding.
Despite their words, however, none of them lowered their guard.
Seeing their reactions, Li Feng glanced at the sky. Since the sunlight did not reach this spot, he prepared to release the Delivery Ghost.
Just then, Li Feng suddenly noticed joy flash across their faces, as though a weight had been lifted from their shoulders.
Something stirred in Li Feng's mind.
Sure enough, a familiar voice sounded behind him a moment later.
"All right, deactivate the defenses. Li, come with me!"
"Lady Yuan!"
"Captain!"
Indeed, the newcomer was Yuan Chengfang.
After hearing Yuan Chengfang's words, the others finally relaxed completely, and someone reached for the equipment's switch.
Bzzzt!
In an instant, the red light enveloping and locking onto Li Feng dissolved.
"Whew!"
Li Feng could not help letting out a long breath.
Although it had never attacked, being restrained and targeted by that red light had still put Li Feng under immense pressure.
"Captain!"
Li Feng turned around and addressed Yuan Chengfang with another rueful smile.
At the same time, another question occurred to Li Feng.
Yuan Chengfang had arrived far too quickly.
From start to finish, not even three minutes had passed.
Yet Yuan Chengfang, who usually arrived last, was already standing before him.
Clearly, someone had notified her as soon as the anomaly was detected.
But Yuan Chengfang was not anywhere nearby.
The only possibility was that Yuan Chengfang was extraordinarily fast, capable of covering several li in under five minutes.
That explained why Yuan Chengfang was usually so casual about attendance, and why she never stayed long even when she did come in.
Whenever the Investigation Department discovered a problem, she could arrive immediately.
This made Li Feng clearly realize that even within the Danger Level, the gap in strength between different sublevels was enormous.
In a sense, with his skin beginning to develop supernatural properties and his command of the mind fog and the Delivery Ghost, Li Feng could now be considered low-level dangerous tier.
But compared with Yuan Chengfang, who was Advanced Danger Level, the difference was far from small.
In just under three minutes, he could run a little over one li at most, and he would be half-dead with exhaustion afterward.
Yuan Chengfang, by contrast, had covered several li in under three minutes and looked perfectly relaxed, as though she had been here all along rather than rushing over.
"I never expected you to have an opportunity like this..."
Yuan Chengfang studied Li Feng with interest and said with a soft laugh:
"Well? Would you like to switch to cultivating the Ghost Path?
"Ghost Cultivators might not look like decent people, but it's actually quite a good path.
"Especially for our Investigation Department. They're invaluable for detection and searches..."
"Captain!"
Li Feng was at a loss for words.
"All right, all right. Come with me!"
Yuan Chengfang shook her head and led the way inside.
In Yuan Chengfang's Office, all the curtains had been drawn. A deathly white candle flame illuminated the entire room.
Although it brought light, it brought no warmth. Instead, a sinister chill filled the room.
Yuan Chengfang sat in her office chair, watching Li Feng with interest.
Without hesitation, Li Feng willed it, and the Delivery Ghost slowly materialized before them. The surrounding chill intensified.
However, Li Feng's skin could devour Ghostly Energy, while Yuan Chengfang was Advanced Danger Level. That energy could not even approach her, let alone affect her.
Both of their gazes settled on the Delivery Ghost.
The blood-soaked Delivery Ghost looked toward the candle flame as soon as he appeared. His nostrils fluttered, and he grew visibly restless.
Without Li Feng's command, however, the Delivery Ghost could only remain obediently where he stood, inhaling a little harder.
Wisps of cold Ghostly Energy emanating from the deathly white flame swirled gently and drifted toward the Delivery Ghost, who inhaled them little by little.
For a time, the room fell utterly silent.
"Haha, excellent!"
After a long while, Yuan Chengfang finally broke the silence with a laugh.
"I never expected this. Li, not only are you exceptionally gifted in martial cultivation, but you're also remarkably talented at taming ghosts..."
"Huh?"
Li Feng looked at Yuan Chengfang in bewilderment.
She glanced at the motionless malevolent ghost, then turned back to Li Feng with a smile.
"Hehe, you probably don't know this, but other Ghost Cultivators who have only just begun taming Vengeful Ghosts can't do what you're doing now.
"Faced with the temptation of a Spectral Candle's power, newly tamed Vengeful Ghosts would have lunged at it long ago. Even ghost tamers who control their ghosts' cores find it difficult to suppress them completely.
"And you've managed this through your innate power alone, without any secret Ghost Cultivator techniques..."
"Oh!"
Li Feng glanced at the Delivery Ghost, understanding dawning on his face.
"So your talent as a Ghost Cultivator is every bit as good as your talent for martial cultivation. It might even be greater.
"That's why I asked whether you'd consider switching to the Ghost Path..."
"Well... I'll have to think about it."
Li Feng hesitated.
For some time now, Li Feng had been considering his future cultivation.
Regardless of whether the Human Body Tempering Art he practiced could break through its bottleneck and evolve into something more profound, as the Humanity Visualization Method had.
He needed a powerful cultivation art he could openly display.
Faced with Yuan Chengfang's suggestion that he switch to the Ghost Path.
Thinking of the mind fog, which could completely refine malevolent ghosts and turn them into spectral servants, and the mind space, which could house them, Li Feng was genuinely tempted.
However, apart from the Human Cultivation Method, he only had one free choice of another cultivation method. Naturally, he had to choose carefully.
Then he considered his various current abilities, especially the supernatural properties revealed by tempering his skin and hair with the mind fog.
Li Feng kept thinking that he should wait until these abilities grew stronger and more fully developed before choosing a cultivation art suited to them.
Choosing a cultivation technique now still felt a little too soon.
Seeing Li Feng's expression, Yuan Chengfang smiled and dropped the subject, turning to the Delivery Ghost instead.
"What abilities does this Vengeful Ghost you've taken control of have?"
"Heh, he can conjure up takeout...
The takeout can strengthen a person's mind to a certain extent. With good ingredients, it can also improve their physical fitness.
At the same time, anyone who eats the takeout gets marked. Within a hundred meters, he can clearly sense their exact location.
Even farther away, as long as they're within two kilometers, he can still pinpoint their general direction..."
"Oh?"
Yuan Chengfang's eyes lit up with interest.
After all, not every monster or ghost would unleash its power without restraint.
Many would find ways to suppress their power and avoid being locked onto by the Tracking Compass.
Even if they were detected briefly, they might still escape.
But combined with the Delivery Ghost's ability, it would be much easier to pinpoint their location and ultimately track down the target.
"Come on, have him conjure up some takeout..."
"Sure! What would you like to eat, Captain?"
"Can I have anything?"
"Only something either he or I have seen or eaten before..."
"I see..."
Yuan Chengfang thought for a moment, then quickly said:
"Then give me a serving of braised pork. I'm craving some!"
"Sure!"
Li Feng nodded readily, then looked at the Delivery Ghost.
The Delivery Ghost looked up at Yuan Chengfang, slowly twisted his body, and opened the delivery box at his side, taking out a serving of takeout.
Instantly, the rich, sweet aroma of braised pork spread through the air.
Gulp!
Gulp!
"Hehe..."
Two audible gulps rang out. Li Feng and Yuan Chengfang exchanged a glance and smiled together.
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