Marking the Power, First Night Out

Looking at the braised pork on the desk, Li Feng willed his authority into action, cutting off the Ghost Delivery's influence over him.

In an instant, the braised pork, which had smelled so delicious and looked so mouthwatering, lost every trace of its aroma and appeal.

Looking at the braised pork was no different from looking at clumps of ordinary Ghostly Energy.

Yuan Chengfang glanced at the braised pork before her, then picked up a piece with her fingers and put it in her mouth, unconcerned about the grease.

Of course, with his strength, he could tell that the braised pork was merely Ghostly Energy mixed with World Spiritual Force, condensed into an illusory form. There was no actual grease.

Once the Ghostly Energy dissipated, any greasy stains it left would disappear as well.

"Mmm, excellent! What an exquisite delicacy!"

Yuan Chengfang closed her eyes slightly, savoring it.

Then Yuan Chengfang opened her eyes and began digging in.

After finishing, Yuan Chengfang leaned comfortably against the back of her chair, eyes narrowed as she rubbed her stomach.

A little while later, Yuan Chengfang opened her eyes and looked at Li Feng.

"Not bad. There's obvious Ghostly Energy residue, so anyone with a little strength could detect it.

But for tracking someone in a hurry, it's certainly enough...

As for refining the mind...

It's decent enough...

It should still be of some use to you, Wu Cheng, and Zhao Fei..."

In truth, although the Delivery Ghost's abilities had their uses, they were rather impractical.

If you were chasing an enemy in a hurry, how would you get them to eat it? And if you could make them eat it under those circumstances, would you still need to track them or pinpoint their location? Why not simply capture or kill them?

As for refining the mind, it was better than visualization, but only marginally. Its main advantage was probably the absence of invading illusions.

After testing the Delivery Ghost's abilities, Yuan Chengfang took Li Feng down to the first basement level.

The device that detected fluctuations in nearby Paranormal Entity and demonic powers was inside a sealed chamber on that level.

It was an enlarged Compass, but instead of a needle at its center, there was an eye.

Beneath it lay intricate, mysterious patterns connected to various parts of the Investigation Department, used to sound alarms or lock onto targets.

The moment Li Feng entered the chamber, his body abruptly stiffened. Instinctively, he looked toward the Compass in the center of the room—or rather, the eye at its center.

The eye was pitch-black, and it stared back at Li Feng without blinking.

An eerie gleam shifted within it, as though it could see through all Li Feng's secrets.

Under that strange eye's gaze, Li Feng felt as though he had been stripped naked and put on display. His whole body squirmed with indescribable discomfort.

At the same time, Li Feng felt his head begin to spin slightly.

"Don't keep staring at it!"

Just then, Yuan Chengfang's voice suddenly reached his ears.

Humm!

Li Feng instantly came to his senses, and the mind fog within his mind space surged.

The Bed he had condensed also sent out a cooling sensation, shielding him from the Paranormal Entity's eye.

"Whew!"

Li Feng lowered his head and let out a long breath, secretly shaken.

What a strange eye.

"Captain, what is that...?"

"That's an offshoot of a Ghost Eye. It can detect supernatural power and see through what's real and what's false...

Combined with the power of the Tracking Compass, it can instantly lock onto supernatural power within a certain range..."

Glancing over the Compass, which had been enlarged more than tenfold, Li Feng could not help asking in puzzlement.

"Then this Compass must have a huge search radius, right?"

Those standard-issue Compasses, each only two palms in size, could already search within a two-kilometer radius.

Surely this Tracking Compass, more than ten times larger, could cover all of South City?

"A huge radius?

Heh, didn't you just hear?

It only covers the Investigation Department."

"Huh?"

Li Feng was astonished. He had assumed that a Tracking Compass enlarged more than tenfold, combined with that strange eye, would surely have an enormous search range.

"Heh, combining the two makes it more sensitive. It can even lock directly onto specific targets and detect the power inside their bodies.

But because their powers clash, its search range is far smaller than that of a normal Tracking Compass.

It can only serve as a defensive detection system for the Investigation Department.

You gain some things and lose others..."

Yuan Chengfang shook her head with a faint sigh.

"All right! Time to get down to business.

Feed your Vengeful Ghost's power into the Compass.

Once the Ghost Eye marks the Vengeful Ghost's power, it won't trigger the alarm again..."

"Oh!"

Li Feng nodded and immediately summoned the Delivery Ghost, directing it over to the Compass to feed its power into it bit by bit.

Humm!

The next instant, a ghastly white wave of light burst from the Compass, swept over the Delivery Ghost and Li Feng, then abruptly retracted.

"That's enough!"

Beside him, Yuan Chengfang nodded, signaling that Li Feng could stop feeding power into it.

Li Feng breathed a sigh of relief. With a slight thought, the Delivery Ghost vanished and returned to his Mind Space.

After they left the chamber, layer after layer of defenses and locks fell into place.

Mechanical locks, electronic locks, supernatural seals, ghost energy seals—there was a whole assortment of them.

When they returned to the first-floor lobby, Wu Cheng and Zhao Fei had already arrived. They had learned what had happened earlier and were discussing it curiously with the others.

Upon seeing Li Feng, the two immediately came over, their faces full of envy.

"Holy shit, Feng! Tell us how you got lucky enough to control a Vengeful Ghost..."

"Yeah, seriously! You're making us green with envy..."

Surrounded by everyone like the center of attention, Li Feng could only recount how he had gained control of the Delivery Ghost.

Of course, he merely said that the Delivery Ghost had tried to possess him, and then, without knowing how, he had somehow gained control of him by chance.

Afterward, everyone asked Li Feng to summon the Delivery Ghost again, and even had him conjure up a serving of takeout for them.

The instant the takeout appeared, everyone's eyes went wide, their gazes fixed on it.

The ordinary staff nearby were especially affected. Their eyes reddened slightly, and they looked ready to lunge forward and snatch it at any moment.

"Ahem!"

Just then, Yuan Chengfang gave a sharp cough. It seemed to shake their minds, instantly snapping everyone out of it.

Recalling their state moments earlier, they could not help feeling shaken.

If Yuan Chengfang had not brought them to their senses, they might well have started fighting over that serving of takeout.

Yet even after recovering, they still kept glancing at it.

Seeing this, Li Feng felt an idea stir.

If I suddenly conjured a serving of takeout during a fight, could it disrupt the enemy's actions?

Higher-level enemies might ignore it, but the Delivery Ghost could level up too.

At the very least, this takeout should be useful for disrupting and dealing with small fry.

Even knowing they were being influenced, the people here still couldn't break free, could they?

Only Yuan Chengfang could ignore it.

Wu Cheng and Zhao Fei could restrain their impulses.

Looking at everyone's hungry expressions, Li Feng smiled and directed the Delivery Ghost to conjure several more servings of takeout.

Unfortunately, with the Delivery Ghost's current strength, he could only produce a dozen or so servings a day. It was nowhere near enough for everyone, so each person could only have a little.

Even so, everyone was thoroughly satisfied.

Besides, most of the staff present were ordinary people and could not ignore the corrosive effects of ghost energy.

Having just a small taste was actually the perfect amount.

The ghost energy that entered their bodies would disappear completely over the course of an afternoon, or after half an hour in the sun, without causing them any harm.

For Wu Cheng and Zhao Fei, the power within their bodies would clear it away on its own in just ten minutes or so.

After chatting and joking with everyone a while longer, Li Feng finally left the Investigation Department under their envious gazes.

Once home, Li Feng resumed his cultivation and immediately noticed the difference. His skin began rapidly strengthening and transforming.

By the end of the day's cultivation, he felt that his skin tempering was nearing major completion.

Sure enough, I need to devour more Paranormal Entity power or Ghostly Energy.

Involuntarily, Li Feng looked out the window at the darkening sky.

But then Li Feng shook his head.

Even if he wanted to go out searching for Monsters and Demons, he should wait until he had fully absorbed everything he had gained this time.

After tidying up, he got into bed and began visualizing. The ground within his Mind Space gradually spread outward.

At the same time, a phantom Bedroom identical to his real one rapidly took shape.

After discovering that the Bed's supporting ability was unexpectedly useful, Li Feng had begun actively visualizing and condensing his Bedroom.

He wanted to see what abilities it would possess once he finished visualizing it and made it fully solid.

However, compared with the Bed, which was a little over two meters long, the Bedroom was much larger and far harder to condense.

Finishing the day's visualization, Li Feng looked at the extremely insubstantial Bedroom around him, then willed himself out of his visualization state and prepared to rest.

But suddenly, Li Feng looked toward the Delivery Ghost beyond the Mist.

Although the Delivery Ghost was his Ghost Servant, he did possess a simple consciousness of his own.

In that case, could I order the Delivery Ghost to keep drawing in the World Spiritual Force after I stop visualizing and cultivating?

Once the thought occurred to him, Li Feng did not hesitate. He immediately issued an order to the Delivery Ghost.

Left to himself, the Delivery Ghost would not actively cultivate because his intelligence was incomplete. He would merely keep producing and delivering takeout, slowly accumulating power.

Only after reaching the Horror Level, when his intelligence became relatively complete, would the Delivery Ghost develop the concept of active cultivation.

But the Delivery Ghost was now under Li Feng's absolute control.

Then could I order him to draw in and devour the World Spiritual Force outside, just as he did while I was visualizing?

With that thought, Li Feng immediately sent him an order.

The Delivery Ghost had already been doing this during his earlier visualization.

Thus, there was no problem with understanding the command.

Upon receiving Li Feng's order, the Delivery Ghost immediately got to work, drawing in the World Spiritual Force outside bit by bit.

Hahaha...

Sensing this, Li Feng could not help laughing inwardly.

To think it actually worked.

From now on, wouldn't that mean I was cultivating around the clock?

Even if it was less efficient than visualizing myself, a full day and night of this probably wouldn't fall far short, would it?

That would be equivalent to twice the cultivation Li Feng could manage alone.

After waiting a while longer and confirming that there were no problems, Li Feng finally fell into a deep sleep.

The first thing Li Feng did upon waking the next day was sense his Mind Space.

Compared with before he went to sleep, the ground within his Mind Space had expanded another ring, and the illusory Bedroom seemed slightly more solid.

Over the next few days, Li Feng's life returned to a simple routine between home and work.

That continued until his Skin Tempering and visualization progress hit another bottleneck and slowed down.

Looking at the gradually darkening sky outside, Li Feng assessed his condition and kept bolstering his courage.

He had now tempered ten strands of hair, though their strength remained unchanged, and they could still extend only five meters at most.

Moreover, Li Feng did not intend to temper any more strands.

He felt that ten supernatural strands of hair were enough to handle most situations.

If ten strands were useless, then having more probably would not make much difference.

Instead, it would slow down his regular cultivation.

Within his Mind Space, the ground had reached four or five meters across, and the Bedroom was already half-solid.

If it had been completely transparent before, it now resembled frosted glass.

The mind fog now naturally covered a five-meter radius, while the range over which he could control it outside his body had reached a full five hundred meters.

Any farther, and the mind fog would slip out of his control and disperse.

With his current strength, as long as he was cautious, he should be able to devour some power from weaker supernatural entities or malicious ghosts at a distance.

Click!

After psyching himself up once more, Li Feng surrounded himself with surging fog, flung open the door, and strode outside.

He glanced toward the elevator, but ultimately headed for the stairwell.

Tap, tap, tap...

Accompanied by soft footsteps, Li Feng quickly made his way downstairs, carefully avoided the residential complex's surveillance cameras, and climbed over a section of the Compound Wall.

There had not been any surveillance cameras in the complex before.

They had only been installed recently, after the property management learned that Li Feng was an Investigator, to further advertise the complex's safety and boost property prices.

Thinking about it, Li Feng could not help grumbling inwardly. He had really brought this trouble upon himself.

After climbing over the Compound Wall, Li Feng proceeded cautiously along the street.

Only after getting farther from the complex did Li Feng grow bolder. Mist shrouded his body, concealing him, while a cloud roughly two or three meters across drifted swiftly ahead.

Around that conspicuous mass of Mist lay another patch spanning more than ten meters, so faint it was almost imperceptible.

Although he had chosen to go out exploring, he could hardly throw himself straight into danger.

It was better to let the mind fog clear the way ahead.

As it drifted through streets and alleys, the distance between them soon grew to three or four hundred meters.

Yet after searching for an hour or two, Li Feng had found neither anomalies nor malevolent ghosts—not even the slightest trace of anomalous power or ghostly energy.

For a moment, Li Feng could not help feeling discouraged.

At the same time, he felt some regret.

He had been so focused on going out at night without being spotted.

He had forgotten to bring the Tracking Compass.

With the Tracking Compass, wouldn't he have been able to tell at a glance whether there were any anomalies or malevolent ghosts nearby?

He could have searched far more freely and covered a much wider area.

With these thoughts in mind, Li Feng decided to call it quits for now and try again tomorrow night.