I Can Die Countless Times, but You Can Only Die Once

At the mention of Spirit Coins and Spirit Incense, Fang Xiu felt a flicker of interest. He had only seen pictures of those two things on the Ghost Forum, never the real things.

Spirit Coins were the main currency circulating among Spirit Tamers, but very few Spirit Tamers actually treated them as money. More precisely, Spirit Coins were a spiritual material, a special kind of steel called mindsteel.

It was a type of steel developed by Investigation Bureau headquarters that could conduct spirituality.

This steel was extremely precious, with the ability to conduct spirituality. In other words, Spirit Tamers could use Spirit Coins to forge weapons, armor, and other equipment.

Ordinary weapons and armor were completely useless against Ghosts, but equipment forged from mindsteel could be used against them as long as spirituality was channeled into it.

The role of weapons and equipment should never be underestimated. Humanity's ability to stand out among animals was inseparable from its use of weapons and equipment.

When ordinary weapons and equipment proved useless against Ghosts, equipment forged from mindsteel became crucial.

As for Spirit Incense, it was another extremely precious resource developed by Investigation Bureau headquarters.

Spirit Incense could help keep Spirit Tamers from losing control of their minds.

Losing control of the mind was a problem every Spirit Tamer had to face. As their strength continued to grow, the contamination of their minds would worsen, eventually causing them to lose control. Spirit Incense, however, could suppress that contamination, making it a lifesaving miracle drug for every Spirit Tamer.

Wang Dehai kept making calls, mobilizing vast amounts of manpower and resources. The Investigation Bureau's reach was on full display.

He freely called on the various other government departments.

Once he finished his calls, he noticed Fang Xiu standing nearby and said to the young man, "Wang, take Mr. Fang to the lounge to rest. Shen, call an emergency meeting!"

With that, Wang Dehai left with Shen Lingxue, while the young man he had called Wang took Fang Xiu to the lounge.

In the lounge, Fang Xiu drank his tea with a calm expression, but his mind kept turning things over.

Green Vine City's Number One Spirit Tamer died just like that?

At the hands of two Ghosts.

Those two Ghosts must have been relatively high-level, but this also showed how fragile humans were.

Humans had bodies of flesh and blood. Even with spirituality, they were inherently at a disadvantage against Ghosts.

The simplest example was the Female Physician in Green Mountain Psychiatric Hospital.

The Female Physician wasn't a particularly powerful Ghost, but her skin was like steel. Ordinary firearms couldn't even penetrate that steel-like body.

Spirit Tamers, on the other hand, could activate most of their muscles and unleash strength beyond that of ordinary people once they awakened their spirituality. But if a bullet actually hit them, they would still be injured, or even killed.

That was the difference.

Ultimately, Spirit Tamers had too little room for error. Even with powerful abilities, their bodies were still flesh and blood. The slightest mistake could get them killed by a Ghost. Bai Qi was a perfect example, killed in a surprise attack.

Ghosts were different. They had powerful abilities too, but they also had a much greater margin for error. It was difficult for a Spirit Tamer to kill a Ghost in a single strike.

It was like saying, "I can make countless mistakes, but you can only make one." How were you supposed to fight that?

But Fang Xiu did not care about Spirit Tamers' inherent disadvantage against Ghosts.

Because Spirit Tamers were weak, not Fang Xiu.

Unlike ordinary people, his situation when facing Ghosts was this: I can die countless times, but you can only die once.

Fang Xiu sat quietly in the lounge. Through the window, he could see numerous uniformed staff rushing about. Clearly, Bai Qi's death was a major event, one significant enough to shake all of Green Vine City.

Before long, afternoon arrived.

Fang Xiu figured that the immediate aftermath should have settled down somewhat. It was time to act.

He had no intention of sitting here doing nothing all day.

Then he glanced at the young man sitting nearby. His face had remained pale, and he had not recovered all morning.

Fang Xiu did not know whether he was troubled by Bai Qi's death or feared being held accountable afterward for an oversight in his intelligence work.

Fang Xiu slowly rose and walked over to the young man.

Only then did the young man react.

"You..."

He had barely uttered a single word when a knife-hand strike slammed into the back of his neck.

The young man instantly lost consciousness and passed out.

After knocking the young man unconscious, Fang Xiu quickly stripped off his uniform, changed into it, and left the lounge.

He planned to disguise himself as a staff member to gather information. Under normal circumstances, that would never have worked, but Bai Qi's death had thrown the entire Investigation Bureau into chaos. This was the perfect time.

Holding some documents, he copied the people around him, pretending to be in a hurry as he roamed freely through the Investigation Bureau.

He activated his spirituality, and his senses rapidly sharpened. Conversations and phone calls from offices and corridors reached his ears.

"Deputy Captain Bai might have been cold and distant, but there was no questioning his strength. He was the strongest in all of Green Vine City. I never imagined such a powerful Spirit Tamer would die just like that."

"Yeah, who could have seen it coming? If you ask me, his death could have been avoided. The problem was that Captain Yang and Deputy Captain Bai never got along. They were always competing with each other. If they'd gone together, how could Deputy Captain Bai have been killed in a surprise attack?"

"Li, I haven't been at the Investigation Bureau long. Tell me more. What was the conflict between Captain Yang and Deputy Captain Bai?"

"What conflict? It was pure pride. Deputy Captain Bai was widely recognized as the strongest, but when they chose the captain, Captain Yang Ming won. Deputy Captain Bai never accepted that."

"Wait, if Deputy Captain Bai was the strongest in Green Vine City, why did he lose to Captain Yang?"

"Heh, because of Captain Yang's ability, of course. Do you know what his ability is?"

"I heard someone say Captain Yang's ability was luck."

"Exactly. Captain Yang's ability is luck. It's a passive ability, and aside from giving him dumb luck, it's fucking useless. That's why Spirit Tamers from other cities have always called him the weakest captain."

"Wait, then how did Captain Yang win the contest for captain? Deputy Captain Bai was supposedly unbeatable among Second-Tier Spirit Tamers."

"How else? Dumb luck, of course. On the day they fought, who knows what bad food Deputy Captain Bai had eaten the day before, but as soon as the fight started, his stomach acted up. He got the runs.

"During their fight, Deputy Captain Bai didn't dare exert himself at all, afraid it would all come shooting out. So he lost. Captain Yang's ability might be lousy, but he's still a Second-Tier Spirit Tamer. Against an opponent who didn't dare use his strength, winning was naturally easy."

"Huh? Wait, if he had the runs, why didn't he call a timeout?"

"Are you stupid? Don't you know what Deputy Captain Bai was like? He was the classic aloof show-off. Making him call a timeout to use the toilet in front of everyone would have been worse than killing him. So he could only keep fighting as though nothing was wrong.

"Poor Deputy Captain Bai thought no one knew he had the runs. But plenty of Spirit Tamers were there that day, all with sharp senses. They'd smelled it ages ago."