Causal Medium

"Old World Miracle... What was that?"

Ji Xun immediately became alert.

Clearly, the cellar still concealed some mysterious presence beneath the surface.

He kept a close eye on his Attribute Panel, ready to retreat at the slightest sign of anything wrong.

But after observing carefully for a while, there seemed to be no danger.

One of the JOKER Trickster traits gave him a chance to understand Demonic Whispers.

Perhaps because he had stayed in the cellar for so long and heard enough of those tinnitus-like Demonic Whispers, he had received Revelation.

It even allowed him to grasp fragments of their meaning: sacrifice, pleasure, faith, ancient gods...

They were not words, but an indescribable impartation of knowledge, seemingly pointing toward things humans could not comprehend.

A divine miracle?

Ji Xun pondered it.

Though he did not understand what that indescribable thing was, its manifested effect was Mental Pollution.

No wonder his head had been buzzing all this time.

Thinking of something, Ji Xun reached for the Clown's Myriad Mask card tucked into the inner pocket of his trousers and silently chanted, "Release!"

The mask possessed resistance that could exempt him from all kinds of mysterious powers. Since this was Mental Pollution, the mask should be useful.

The moment he put on the Ancient Relics item, he immediately felt the world around him become clearer.

And he instantly made a new discovery.

"As expected, something was hidden here."

Without the interference of that indescribable external factor, the cellar looked immediately different in Ji Xun's eyes.

It was as though a blurry filter had been removed. In his vision, the Dark Energy on each corpse seemed drawn by a mysterious force, gathering on an inconspicuous wall brick.

Ji Xun walked over and stared at the brick he had not noticed at all before.

Only because he now possessed the relevant knowledge had it revealed itself.

The moment he focused on it, he received Revelation.

Causal Medium

Description: A condensed mass of energy containing powerful dark Extraordinary Traits; a spiritual medium that touches upon an Old World Divine Miracle. An evil Flesh Attribute material containing an exceedingly faint trace of divinity.

"This was actually an Extraordinary Material?"

Although Ji Xun did not know what this amber-like object was, he could see the terrifying Extraordinary Traits within it.

If the uncontrolled Extraordinary Trait energy leaking from these corpses was a unit of one, like scattered stars, then Ji Xun felt this black amber-like substance was at least one hundred, shining as brightly as the moon!

What surprised him even more was that its Extraordinary Traits seemed capable of being directly devoured.

Seeing that it was also overflowing with Extraordinary Traits, Ji Xun wondered whether Feast Devour could work on it as well.

With that thought, he cautiously reached out and touched it.

Then, as if he had discovered a new continent, his expression froze.

A surging tide of Extraordinary Traits poured into his body.

"You used Feast Devour. Constitution +0.021"

"You used Feast Devour. Strength +0.018"

"You used Feast Devour. Toughness +0.009"

"You used Feast Devour. Dark Affinity +0.04"

"..."

"It really worked!"

Watching the numbers on his panel shoot upward, Ji Xun's eyes lit up at once.

What an enormous surprise!

The efficiency was outrageous—dozens of times greater than devouring any corpse he had encountered before.

The purity and density of the Extraordinary Traits were unlike anything Ji Xun had ever seen!

Looking at the changes in his stats, he made a rough calculation. If he truly devoured this entire piece, his Strength, Agility, Constitution, and other attributes would likely exceed three.

What did it mean for almost all his attributes to become more than triple their current values?

His physical combat power might become more than ten times greater than it was now!

This was absolutely a treasure that could bring a leap in his strength.

"Good stuff."

With a turn of thought, Ji Xun realized this was the first time he had encountered such a strange and evil extraordinary object.

But poison could also cure disease. It might be evil to others, but to him, it was a tremendous tonic.

Seeing this medium, he now understood what had happened to these corpses.

The bodies in this cellar seemed to have been part of some evil ritual, which gathered Extraordinary Traits and condensed them into this Causal Medium.

But for some reason, the Golden Oak Security Company's Field Agents had discovered it. They had fled in a hurry and had not had time to take the item away.

Ji Xun did not know who had arranged the ritual, but there was no need to guess. Anyone who sacrificed living people was clearly no decent sort.

Probably some evil wizard, or perhaps one of the Outer God Cults.

Therefore, taking this Causal Medium would inevitably draw major trouble.

In that instant, the criminal chaos of Sinless City seemed to reveal a glimpse of itself.

But...

Major trouble?

No, no, no.

Ji Xun had never considered that point from beginning to end.

Ever since discovering that the Extraordinary Traits in this thing could be devoured, his thoughts had already begun deducing all the risks he would face after taking the medium.

The cellar had already been searched once. The two men in suits outside clearly did not know this thing existed, so they would not know if he took it.

The corpses had only recently died. The cellar had likely been attacked by surprise, and there had not been time to transfer the medium.

And if the person who had arranged the ritual was not dead, then that person would definitely know about it.

When he returned and found the item gone, the first people he would suspect would definitely be the Golden Oak Security Company's Field Agents.

If "that person" had a way to confirm that the company's Field Agents had not taken it, he would inevitably turn his suspicions toward the Corpse Collectors.

A whole chain of causal possibilities unfolded in Ji Xun's mind.

But it was not much of a problem.

He needed this Causal Medium not to sell it, nor to keep it as a collectible.

After all, catching a thief required evidence.

If he absorbed this thing, would there not be no evidence left in the end?

The only uncertainty was that he needed some time to absorb it.

There would definitely be risks.

But compared with the rewards, it was absolutely worth taking the risk!

Ji Xun made his decision almost instantly.

Not far away, Gibb was still seriously processing the corpses under the dim light, completely unaware of what was happening here.

He felt not the slightest psychological burden about taking such an evil material.

Once Ji Xun made up his mind, he would not hesitate.

He carefully removed the Causal Medium, then quietly stuffed it into the abdomen of one corpse, hiding it among the flesh and tissue.

Normally, no one would touch these corpses again before they were burned, so the item would be safe hidden inside one.

After that, the corpse collection work continued as usual.

The three Corpse Collectors upstairs, including Dong Jiu, had no intention of coming down to help. Ji Xun and Gibb remained busy handling all sixteen corpses.

After more than half an hour of work, they finally carried the sixteen body bags upstairs one after another.

Dong Jiu called out to everyone, "All right, we're done!"

Hearing that, the two men in suits who had been standing guard at the door also walked in.

They counted the eighteen bodies on the ground and, seeing that all were present, showed no intention of opening the body bags for inspection.

Ji Xun thought they had passed without incident. Yet just then, the pale-faced man in a suit suddenly pulled out an antique camera and casually said, "I'll keep a photo of the scene."

Before anyone could react, he clicked the shutter at the Corpse Collectors in the room.

Pfft—

The magnesium flash erupted in dazzling light and white smoke, blinding everyone for an instant.

More strangely, at the moment the firelight flared, the entire room seemed swept by some mysterious force.

It felt as though even their souls had begun to float.

In that strange state, the pale-faced man's low voice sounded beside their ears. "Did you discover anything unusual while collecting the corpses?"

Dong Jiu, the other two men, and Gibb all shook their heads in unison, responding as though hypnotized, "No."

At the edge of the group, Ji Xun wore the same expression as the other four and gave a dull reply.

But inwardly, he muttered, So it really came to this...

When he had come upstairs earlier, he had already guessed that he might encounter some situation in order to keep the Causal Medium he had hidden from being exposed.

For example, hypnotic questioning.

That was why he had put on the Clown Mask before coming up.

He had not expected this to happen.

Yet Revelation had already shown what had just occurred: "You exempted yourself from one instance of memory alteration."

The mask, combined with the JOKER Trickster trait, could exempt him from all cognitive alterations not exceeding the rules of the Mark.

His preparation had accidentally paid off.

Hearing their answers, the pale-faced man paid no attention at all. He took a card resembling a photograph from the camera and flicked it lightly.

It was as though certain memories of the Corpse Collectors had already been extracted by that photograph.

They had searched the place once already, so they presumably had not overlooked anything.

The question had merely been routine procedure.

The pale-faced man was already very practiced at this. After questioning them, he added a sentence with powerful psychological suggestion: "You merely collected some ordinary corpses. Forget the details of the cellar. There is nothing worth remembering."

The words seemed to possess some kind of magic. The expressions of the Corpse Collectors stiffened noticeably for an instant, and they nodded blankly as though dazed.

Only after the white smoke from the magnesium flash gradually dispersed did focus slowly return to their eyes.

Ji Xun's professional performance did not reveal any flaw.

Erasing memories?

It seemed to be a necessary confidentiality procedure for these Field Agents.

After giving it some thought, Ji Xun found it understandable.

Because of their work, Corpse Collectors often came into contact with bodies and crime scenes. Some of those naturally involved sensitive incidents. But if even low-level temporary workers like them knew classified information, then perhaps the entire city would know it.

A confidentiality procedure was only normal.

He simply had not expected this world to possess such a miraculous method as "using a camera to alter memories."

After taking the photograph, the bearded man had completely lost interest in staying in this ruined house. He waved a hand and said, "All right, take the bodies away."

Captain Dong Jiu also seemed to have completely forgotten what had happened after the photo was taken. Smiling, he said, "Captain Lu, we'll be leaving first, then."

Field agents were formal company employees, nothing like temporary workers such as Corpse Collectors. But Dong Jiu had already submitted an application to become a field agent, and they might become colleagues someday, so naturally he wanted to make an impression early.

Ji Xun played the role of a qualified lackey throughout, helping carry all eighteen bodies onto the truck.

Once they got into the vehicle, Dong Jiu and the others seemed to finally recover from that abnormal mental state.

Dong Jiu had already reached the seventh stage of curse power and was the strongest among the Corpse Collectors. He seemed to sense something as he muttered, "Strange... It feels like I forgot something. Did we forget to take something?"

It was as though he remembered doing something, yet in the blink of an eye, had no impression of it whatsoever.

The others had completely forgotten as well.

No one took it seriously.

The steam car carrying the corpses sped away through the streets.

Inside the carriage, Ji Xun remained silent.

After experiencing this incident, he finally realized that the waters of Sinless City ran deeper than they appeared.

And the profession of Corpse Collector was not as ordinary as it seemed.

He had previously wondered why, despite coming into contact with so many corpses and murder scenes every day, he had never heard old hands like Dong Jiu mention encountering any bizarre assignments.

Now it seemed that perhaps it was not because there had been none.

Rather, they might have handled similar strange incidents before and simply no longer remembered them.

At that thought, a strange gleam hid in Ji Xun's eyes. Suddenly, he felt this job was becoming more and more interesting.

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