Mastery of the second realm, a friend's call

One light step took him into an entirely different world.

Outside, along the city's edge, the buildings were old and the facilities were dilapidated, but the area was at least relatively clean.

Here, however, the buildings were not only old and crumbling, but also covered in a thick layer of dust.

Clumps of withered yellow weeds lined both sides of the roads and even sprouted from some of the buildings' walls, lending everything an air of desolation and decay.

It was hard to imagine this was the same city.

Only a few steps separated two utterly different sights.

Walking down the desolate, ruined streets, Li Feng spread his mind fog to sense the conditions in the abandoned neighborhood.

Suddenly, Li Feng stopped and looked southeast.

Near what seemed to be the neighborhood's center, farther toward the city's outskirts, stood a dilapidated Orphanage. A haze so faint it was almost imperceptible slowly spread toward it, enveloping the building.

"Heehee..."

Suddenly, an eerie giggle rang out inside the orphanage, and the fog spreading over it was instantly repelled.

"Is that... a Paranormal Entity? A Vengeful Ghost?"

Standing in the distance, Li Feng sensed the faint, sinister chill radiating from the orphanage through his mind fog, his expression shifting.

Glancing at the eastern sky, which had already begun to redden, Li Feng ultimately decided not to approach.

Although the Orphanage lay deep within this abandoned neighborhood, it was daytime now. If a fight really broke out, it might well attract someone's attention.

If someone called the police and brought in people from the Investigation Department or Response Department, he would be in serious trouble.

After another long look toward the Orphanage, Li Feng turned to a nearby abandoned, structurally unsound building. With a slight push from his feet, he floated lightly toward it.

He landed silently, barely even stirring the dust.

Li Feng soon entered the building and climbed to the top floor. Once he found an out-of-the-way nook, his entire body rapidly shriveled like a deflating balloon.

The next instant, the Weird Painted Skin folded itself up and floated into an inconspicuous corner, gradually losing every trace of life until it seemed like an inanimate object.

Elsewhere, Li Feng abruptly opened his eyes, waking in his own bed.

Sensing the energy within the mind fog in his mind space—nearly twice what he had gained from the Wedding-Dress Bride—Li Feng broke into a broad smile.

Besides spending longer sweeping the South City boundary as the Weird Painted Skin, he also seemed to have found an unusually large number of weird entities and vengeful ghosts this time.

But none of that mattered, as long as he could gain more energy.

With so much energy acquired, Li Feng's cultivation began soaring again when he resumed training that day.

His Second Skin Tempering Realm quickly advanced from minor attainment to mastery. His strength reached over 340 jin, and his skin could withstand attacks from sharp blades.

Yet the greatest improvement was still in his mind, which was directly connected to the mind fog.

Room 1502 in his Mind Space was fully formed and solidified, multiplying the effectiveness of his existing abilities.

The greatest change, however, was in his Dual Focus ability.

This seemed to be because Room 1502 was entirely separate from Room 1501.

As a result, Dual Focus had grown tremendously stronger.

Li Feng could even vaguely sense that he might be able to strip away some stray thoughts from his mind, making it purer and clearer.

However, this ability had only just emerged, so it was not yet powerful.

Even Li Feng himself had only a hazy sense of it.

Under these circumstances, he naturally dared not try it lightly.

It involved his mind and consciousness, after all. If anything went wrong, it would be too late for regret.

He could only wait until it grew stronger before attempting it.

Truthfully, Li Feng was quite excited about this ability.

But he was not thinking of stripping away his own stray thoughts. He wanted to remove the lingering memories and thoughts he acquired when corrupting beings and converting them into Ghost Servants.

If his idea worked, he could convert Ghost Servants in vast numbers.

With endless Ghost Servants swarming everywhere, wouldn't capturing weird entities, vengeful ghosts, and demons to devour become a breeze?

Moreover, when the Weird Painted Skin devoured other living beings, it also acquired their memories.

That certainly made it easier to imitate them.

At the same time, however, the influx of memories could throw his own memories into confusion.

If it were truly a mindless Weird Painted Skin, that would naturally pose no problem. At worst, its thoughts would become muddled and its behavior deranged.

For Li Feng, however, that was unacceptable.

He could accept his cultivation making him stranger.

No matter how he changed, his true consciousness remained unchanged. He was still himself.

But if his consciousness became confused, or even dominated by someone else's memories, would he still be himself?

That was something Li Feng would never allow.

Now, though, with Room 1502 solidified and Dual Focus strengthened and transformed, the ability to strip away stray thoughts gave Li Feng a ray of hope.

Could he treat the fragments of other people's memories, lingering thoughts, and everything else he acquired as stray thoughts and strip them away?

Based on the information he received after the ability evolved, Li Feng thought he probably could.

It was simply too newly developed and too weak for him to conduct any practical experiments yet.

Besides the strengthening of the abilities derived from his mind space, his mind fog's range had expanded again, reaching a radius of forty meters. He could control it up to four kilometers away from his body.

Of course, the Weird Mirror, the Delivery Ghost, and the Ghost Cat—Chief—had all grown somewhat stronger as well.

Li Feng also made some adjustments to where they stayed.

He infused the Weird Mirror's power into every mirror.

In other words, all the mirrors in Room 1501 and Room 1502 were part of the Weird Mirror.

Only when all their power was combined would the Weird Mirror be complete.

Otherwise, unless Li Feng was using them, each mirror possessed only part of the Weird Mirror's power and was even somewhat weaker than when he first corrupted and converted it.

As for the Delivery Ghost, Li Feng moved him into the stairwell between Room 1501 and Room 1502.

He looked as though he were delivering food.

Yes, that suited his identity.

For a moment, even the Delivery Ghost's power seemed to strengthen again, becoming more harmonious and natural.

As for the Ghost Cat, Chief, he had the largest range of movement.

He could enter Room 1501, Room 1502, and even the stairwell.

However, the doors to both rooms had to be open.

Otherwise, he could only remain shut inside Room 1501.

Only after sorting through the changes brought by his improved cultivation did Li Feng go to bed.

The night passed uneventfully. When Li Feng arrived at the Investigation Department the next day, he found that adjusting his skin and appearance had indeed greatly reduced the attention people paid him.

At the same time, everyone felt puzzled.

Although Li Feng seemed little different from yesterday, he simply was not as handsome. He lacked yesterday's striking presence and no longer drew their attention so strongly.

Could it really have been yesterday's sudden change that caught everyone's attention?

Soon, however, they stopped dwelling on it and went about their own work.

Li Feng was thoroughly satisfied with their change in behavior. All the effort he had put into those adjustments had not been wasted.

After clocking in, Li Feng had just left the Investigation Department when his phone suddenly rang.

"Huh?"

Li Feng stopped in his tracks, wondering who was calling him.

Qu Bo Ming...

Looking at the name on the screen, Li Feng immediately sank into his memories.

This seemed to be a university classmate of his.

No, more precisely, he was his predecessor's university classmate and dorm roommate—one of his predecessor's few close friends.

After graduation, however, each had his own affairs to attend to, and they gradually fell out of touch, only speaking on the phone occasionally.

Especially over the past month, he seemed to have been undergoing some sort of secret training and had not contacted Li Feng at all.

Until now, when Qu Bo Ming called.

After a moment of silence, Li Feng finally answered.

He was Li Feng now, after all. Contact with people who knew his predecessor was something he could not avoid forever.

"Hey, Little Ming. How did a busy man like you find time to call?"

Right, get the first word in and gloss over the fact that I never called him.

"Fuck, I told you not to call me Little Ming.

"Call me Bo Ming, or just Qu Bo Ming.

"You could also call me big brother Bo Ming or big brother Qu.

"Hmm, calling me your godfather wouldn't be out of the question, either."

"Okay, Little Ming. Your godfather understands!"

Imitating the tone of the "Li Feng" in his memories, Li Feng traded jokes with Qu Bo Ming.

Only after quite a while did Li Feng get down to business.

"Did you need something?"

"What? Can't I call you without needing something?"

"Sure, of course you can.

"But didn't you say you'd just joined the Night Patrol Bureau and had some secret training, so you'd be really busy lately?"

Indeed, Li Feng's friend Qu Bo Ming was a trainee Night Patrol Officer with the Night Patrol Bureau.

"It's wrapped up for the time being.

"Anyway, the class representative organized a reunion and invited everyone to get together. Are you going?"

"Huh? There is one?"

Li Feng was rather baffled.

"Fuck, don't tell me you didn't know?"

"I didn't!"

Qu Bo Ming's silence was deafening.

"...Do you never check the Classmate Group Chat?"

"Uh... I've been pretty busy these past couple of days. I haven't had time to mess around on my phone..."

Li Feng was not lying.

Ever since transmigrating here, he had devoted all his attention to cultivation.

Especially lately, as his cultivation began displaying supernatural abilities, he had become even more driven to train.

He rarely even checked the Investigation Department app, let alone the Classmate Group Chat.

Hearing Li Feng's answer, Qu Bo Ming was left somewhat speechless.

Why did it feel as though an Investigator from the Investigation Department, supposedly the most relaxed job, was busier than a Night Patrol Officer like him?

"You? Aren't you guys supposed to have loads of free time? What have you been so busy with?

"Forget it, that doesn't matter. Just tell me whether you're going."

Qu Bo Ming was not especially concerned about what kept Li Feng busy. Who didn't have a few little secrets?