When the professor received the call from the hospital, he was completely dumbfounded.
"What? The Soul King was beaten and injured by two old men? He's lying in a hospital right now?"
Are you kidding me? That was the Soul King; how many people in the entire country were his match? Such a person could be beaten and injured?
Soon, the identification reports of the two old men were handed to the professor's desk.
"Perfected Lord Wenchang, Dongyunzi-so it's those two!"
These two had quite a reputation in the Cultivation World, especially since the Ming King Perfected Lord Wenchang's path on the Literary Dao had been cut short, the gentleman thief Dongyunzi had been caught by surveillance, and Senior Tan had failed to adapt to modern society after coming out of seclusion. These two were cases that could not be bypassed.
The realms and reputations of these two were directly proportional. If their realms were insufficient and they were mere nobodies, no matter how badly they failed to adapt to modern society, how many people would pay attention to them?
The professor ordered his men to quickly transfer the Soul King from the hospital and bring him back to headquarters for treatment.
Headquarters had specialized superpowered persons for healing; the effects were much stronger than a hospital.
Currently, the only good news was that Perfected Lord Wenchang and Dongyunzi had moved too fast. The Soul King had been injured before he could react, without using a superpower or exposing his identity as a superpowered person.
A superpowered person was no different from an ordinary person when not using their esper ability.
"Perfected Lord Wenchang, Dongyunzi..." The professor muttered these two names repeatedly, gnashing his teeth.
No matter how great these two were, they were no match for the organization. If he wanted revenge, it wouldn't be a difficult task.
The problem was that these two were not lone individuals; they had wide circles of friends in the Cultivation World. Once the organization taught these two a lesson, the next show would be a group of cultivators crossing the ocean to settle the score.
Regardless of the battle's outcome, the end result would be the organization's hard work and low-profile development over so many years going down the drain.
"Just wait until I get Humanity's Supreme Treasure, the two of you just wait!"
The professor dialed a phone call. "Red King, come over here."
The Red King's ability was named "Red Sun", the extreme of yang energy and flames. Although it wasn't specialized in restraining vengeful ghosts like the Soul King, he could still be considered half an expert.
As for the problem of not being able to see vengeful ghosts, over the years the organization had reverse-engineered the Soul King to create a type of lens that could see vengeful ghosts, though the manufacturing process was complex, resulting in only a few pairs of glasses.
They just needed to give a pair to the Red King.
"Is that Class Three's Zhou You?"
"What is he doing under the tree?"
"So weird."
During the evening self-study break, Zhou You stood by the pine tree under the teaching building, rolling his sleeves up to his shoulders and his pants up to half-length. Standing blankly and motionlessly under the pine tree, he had quite a bit of performance art going on.
Classmates taking advantage of the break to go to the convenience store or school gates to buy snacks would sweep a couple of glances at Zhou You as they passed the entrance of the teaching building.
The evening self-study bell rang, and Zhou You quickly ran back to the classroom.
"Bitten all over by mosquitoes?" Chu Xiaoyao looked at Zhou You with a strange expression.
This was Zhou You's newly researched cultivation method, the Mosquito Body-Refining Method.
Mosquitoes were most numerous around trees, so Zhou You ran under the tree during the break to get bitten by mosquitoes, exposing his skin as much as possible and not daring to move for fear of scaring the mosquitoes away.
To outsiders, it looked quite bizarre.
"Don't bring it up. Why were there so many people downstairs during the break?" Zhou You wanted to cover his face, yet he didn't want to look like he had lost face, his hand reaching halfway into the air before dropping back down.
Even though Chu Xiaoyao taught cultivators to remain unfazed by humiliation or honor, Zhou You felt his state of mind was far from being as formidable as the Female Emperor's. With people coming and going, he simply couldn't handle it.
Although it was humiliating, the effects were also remarkable-Zhou You was covered from head to toe in mosquito bites.
"Want some floral water?" Chu Xiaoyao kindly suggested.
"No." Zhou You's determination in seeking the Dao was firm; he resolved to study during evening self-study while enduring the itch without scratching, simultaneously refining his skin.
Studying and cultivating without delaying either.
When evening came and it was time to go home, Zhou You lay in bed and started scrolling through short videos.
The Female Emperor taught well: cultivation required a balance of tension and relaxation.
He had started studying and cultivating intensively early in the morning. Although he occasionally chatted with Nuomi in between and listened to Chu Xiaoyao recount her thrilling experiences on the Primordial Continent, overall he had spent a very busy day.
He wouldn't cultivate right before sleeping at night, rewarding himself with a little relaxation.
Nowadays, everyone was glued to their phones scrolling through short videos, and the livestreaming industry was booming with all kinds of broadcasts.
Zhou You kept swiping upward, refreshing livestream rooms. Most of them he would swipe past after just a glance; none of them attracted him much.
A female streamer caught Zhou You's gaze, causing him to pause in her room.
"Family members, it's this weight-loss pill. Lose sixty pounds in two months, personally tested and proven effective by the streamer. Not 399, not 299, just 199, and you can take two bottles of weight-loss pills home."
The female streamer had a melon-seeded face, a plump chest, and a slender waist. Her voice was full of temptation, like a small hand stroking you, making you shudder with comfort. She stood up to demonstrate the weight-loss effect while also showing off her figure, drawing countless viewers to watch.
Orders were placed continuously.
What attracted Zhou You wasn't the female streamer's looks, but rather her weight-loss pills.
Losing sixty pounds in two months-losing a pound a day-what kind of weight-loss pill was that absurd?
Zhou You wasn't the only one who realized this; expressions of doubt could constantly be seen in the bullet comments.
"Lying, aren't you?"
"How could this possibly be true?"
"Hook up?"
The female streamer smiled faintly, stirring the heartstrings: "Family members can check out my homepage. It has a detailed daily record of my weight. This weight-loss pill really works."
Zhou You possessed a strong investigative spirit and clicked on the female streamer's homepage, where only a single video was posted.
In the video, the streamer stood on a scale. It started at 180 pounds, with the News Broadcast playing in the background to prove the time. Afterward, the footage continuously switched between the streamer, the weight, and the News Broadcast, accompanied by a cheerful BGM, finally freezing two months later when the streamer had gone from a barrel waist to the water-snake waist envied by many. It looked quite enticing to anyone watching.
Zhou You paused the video several times; both the time and the weight matched up, not looking fake at all.
Many viewers felt their hearts flutter after watching the video and frantically placed orders.
After all, the female streamer was slim and frail; she didn't look like she had lost weight through working out. Since taking medicine could make her lose weight this fast, how could they not hurry up and place an order!
Yet Zhou You always felt something was off. It didn't look like Photoshop, nor did it look like AI special effects.
As he casually paused the video, he noticed that scales had grown around the female streamer's ankles, and her pupils were vertical.
"A monster?"
Thinking of this, Zhou You curiously sent both the livestream link and the video to Su Tingxue to verify, along with cropped screenshots of the scales and vertical pupils.
"Is this a monster?"
Zhou You originally thought it would take a long time for Su Tingxue to reply, but unexpectedly, Su Tingxue responded very quickly.
"Right, this is the snake monster Lin Ling'er, a repeat offender."
"She uses a Transformation Technique to change her body shape and weight, then sells weight-loss pills on livestreams, scamming quite a few viewers and making a fortune."
"The Monster Race and cultivators frequently use spells to scam people in livestream rooms. It's quite common."
"Hold on, I'll handle it."
Then there was silence.
Just as Zhou You was wondering what Su Tingxue meant by "handle it," he casually clicked back into Lin Ling'er's livestream room, only to find the room had been banned.
So efficient?
Behind her screen, Lin Ling'er gnashed her teeth.
"Who has too much time on their hands and reported me?!"
After casually banning Lin Ling'er's account, Su Tingxue lay on her bed holding her phone, hesitatingly wanting to send Zhou You a message to ask him for a favor, but feeling too embarrassed.
Actually, she had been hesitating earlier about whether to message Zhou You, never quite making up her mind. Zhou You speaking to her out of the blue had startled her.
She typed and deleted her text over and over, still unable to decide whether to send it.
Zhou You watched Su Tingxue's interface constantly display "typing...", bewildered by what she was doing.
Finally, Su Tingxue made up her mind, feeling that sending text messages about this kind of matter wasn't very good-she might as well just video call.
"Are you available for a video call?"
Su Tingxue's response was a direct video call dialed by Zhou You.
Su Tingxue hurriedly tidied up her appearance and connected the call.
In the video, Su Tingxue was sitting on the edge of her bed wearing pajamas, sitting upright.
"Uhm... there's something I want to ask a favor for." This matter was hard for Su Tingxue to put into words.
"What is it?" Zhou You asked with curiosity.
"Today during the day, I was entrusted by someone to get rid of a ghost, but I ran into some trouble. That ghost is a bit tricky to deal with. Among the people I know, you are the only one who can handle this ghost."
Catching ghosts?
Zhou You's interest was piqued. Come to think of it, he hadn't had a taste of action in several days.
"Can't you catch it? Is it another Sight-Obscuring Ghost?"
"It's not a Sight-Obscuring Ghost. I can handle Sight-Obscuring Ghosts by myself now," Su Tingxue said with considerable pride. Her Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye had broken through to the Mind's Eye level; Sight-Obscuring Ghosts could no longer hide from her.
"Then what kind of ghost is it?"
"Have you ever heard of a Poverty Ghost?"
Zhou You froze. "Are you cursing me?"
Seeing Zhou You misunderstand, Su Tingxue hurriedly explained, "No, no, it's a real Poverty Ghost, a ghost that makes people poor."
"In terms of cultivation level, a Poverty Ghost isn't considered high, but it has a characteristic: anyone who approaches it will automatically have money deducted."
"I was thinking that you don't seem afraid of having money deducted and have no reservations about dealing with a Poverty Ghost. Could I ask you to make a move?"
Zhou You fell silent for a moment.
You just wanted to call me poor, and you did it without using dirty words.
Before you continue