"Still there?"
Chen Ying's eyes lit up. She had just heard Wei Gongcheng mention a Spirit Devouring monster, and she had assumed Murong's spirit was already dead. But Wei Gongcheng it was still there?
"Hmm," Wei Gongcheng nodded after looking around, "I arrived before you. When I saw the scene, I knew that the kid named Murong must have run away."
"They ran away?" Chen Ying asked quickly, "How did you know?"
"The people in the Underworld, including myself, have a natural talent for tracking spirits. Any trace left by a spirit allows us to judge its strength and condition," Wei Gongcheng explained. "The Night Wandering God also use this talent when tracking spirits. I just checked, and the aura of Murong's spirit after his death in this room is very obvious, with a strong sense of fear. Judging from the traces, it ran all the way to that location."
As she spoke, she pointed to the balcony of the room. Shen Xue's room was on the forty-second floor, a very high floor, and the glass there had clearly been damaged!
"Did she jump?" Chen Ying couldn't help but ask.
"Yes," Wei Gongcheng nodded. "Normal spirits can't escape in this room. Spirits are different from the ghosts and monsters that storytellers talk about, who can fly and disappear into the earth. They can't pass through walls, much less fly at will. The reason is simple: if they could pass through everything as storytellers say, they wouldn't be able to stand on the ground at all. From the moment they become spirits, they should fall to the ground and into the earth."
"Uh..." Chen Ying was taken aback. To be honest, she really hadn't thought about that.
Sometimes she would listen to storytellers tell tales of gods and ghosts. The ghosts in the storytellers' tales were incapable of touching mortal objects. Whether facing mortals or objects, ghosts could only pass through like air. Now that she thought about it, it really didn't make sense. If they could pass through city walls and all kinds of objects, how could they stand firmly on the ground?
Wei Gongcheng continued, "Spiritual bodies are very fragile. They are existences that are barely formed into human form by human spiritual power. In the current terminology of your academy, they are actually just a ball of magical energy, which is barely kept from dissipating by human spiritual suppression. Once they encounter a major blow, they may dissipate directly and cannot be gathered again. This is the true meaning of the soul being scattered. Therefore, the work of the Underworld is becoming more and more difficult. Many times when the Night Wandering God are collecting souls day and night, they find that some people, after death, will directly scatter themselves due to excessive shock or fear."
"The scattered spirits are very difficult to find, so many times descendants continue to burn incense and worship gods, hoping that their relatives are doing well in the Underworld. But in reality, in Liuzhou today, there have been at least a hundred cases where the souls simply cannot be found. I am now having a headache about how to explain this to the families, because some of them are relatives of the Fighter Army."
Chen Ying: "."
"Newborn souls are especially fragile," Wei Gongcheng, pointing to the broken window. "The glass in our Stargazing Tower is very strong; it's one in ten thousand that could shatter a newborn spirit here. That Murong Family boy is indeed outstanding. At only twelve years old, he was able to clearly choose the best escape route even after dying at the hands of a monster, and he actually managed to break through this window."
" Murong broke this?" Chen Ying was taken aback. She had noticed the broken glass in the room when she arrived, and she had always assumed it was a trace of a monster's invasion. After all, it was unrealistic to say that Shen Xue killed Murong. How could Shen Xue, a woman with weak blood and energy and a basic level of magic below the seventh rank, kill the future priest of the Murong Family?
"If I couldn't see the traces, I would also find it somewhat unbelievable." Wei Gongcheng walked closer and looked at it, saying, "Breaking through here requires a very high level of spiritual energy. Currently in the Underworld, apart from the evil spirits that ran in from the Yin-Yang Road, only Lu Ming and Madam Lu, who are imprisoned in Nanming Prefecture, have this ability."
"Then came the movement as they fell; the opponent used a wind magic technique!"
"Wind spells?" Chen Ying's eyes narrowed upon hearing this. Now that she mentioned it, he truly possessed extraordinary talent. Most sorcerers could astral projection, but those who could still cast spells after projection were mostly sorcerers of the Fourth Rank or higher. How old was that Murong Family kid? Already at the Fourth Rank?
"Is it possible to find him?"
"It's a bit risky," Wei Gongcheng sighed. "He ran away decisively and is a meticulous person. After using the wind magic, many traces were erased. In such a large Liuzhou City, finding a spirit that deliberately hides is probably a tough task with the current manpower of the Underworld."
"What should we do then?"
Chen Ying was somewhat anxious. She knew that the Underworld was short-staffed. Liuzhou was developing well, but the Underworld had always been short-staffed. Wei Gongcheng, the day and Night Wandering God, had been trying to recruit some people with criminal investigation experience. The positions had been left open, but so far there were only about twenty people. It was said that those wandering gods were so busy every day that they didn't have time to rest.
However, the matter Murong must be resolved as soon as possible, otherwise the academy's reputation will suffer a great blow!
"Let's look around first," Wei Gongcheng, gazing out the broken window as he fell into thought.
Was the one who killed Murong the same one who pursued Murong's spirit afterward?
He felt it couldn't be that. After all, the fact that it could completely empty Murong's internal organs proved that when Murong was alive, he had no ability to resist the monster that killed him. But as a spirit, how could he escape?
The difficulty of manipulating a soul after death is far greater than in life. If you can't escape it in life, how can you escape it after death?
There is only one possibility: the monster that killed Murong could not threaten Murong's spirit, and the one chasing Murong's spirit was someone else.
This is getting interesting. The monster from the capital should most likely be the Yin Devourer Monster that resides in the palace. If it is, it would be a miracle if a freshman like Murong could escape.
Based on current observations, it's highly unlikely to be that. So what could it be?
Is it related to the Yin Devourer Monster?
After Murong's death, could the one Murong to jump out of the window be the Yin Devourer, who emerged from the Great Azure Mountain and impersonated Shen Qi?
Chen Ying, seeing Wei Gongcheng deep in thought, refrained from disturbing him. Only after Wei Gongcheng had looked around again did she ask, "Should we inform the lord?"
"I've already notified them," Wei Gongcheng said with a smile. "Don't worry, things are going smoothly with the lord. If things get complicated here, he'll be back immediately."
Hearing this, Chen Ying breathed a sigh of relief. Her trust in Chen Qing had reached its peak; she felt that Chen Qing could handle almost anything.
"Go ahead, you need to go and calm those students down."
Chen Ying nodded upon hearing this. "Then I'll leave this to you, Senior Wei."
"Yes, I'll let you know as soon as I have any leads."
After Chen Ying bid farewell and left, Wei Gongcheng looked in the direction Chen Ying had left and his expression became serious.
His cousin from Great Azure Mountain hadn't responded yet, and he wasn't sure to what extent Chen Ying's memories had been altered, but it was highly likely he couldn't trust him!
But in the mortal realm, Chen Ying is the only one who can coordinate and mobilize the military to help with the investigation!
The second point is the Lord.
The Lord replied with only ten words: [The enemy is probing. Solve the case, stay calm!]
Wei Gongcheng understood that transmitting information over long distances consumed too much faith, but wasn't the wording a bit too brief?
Who is the enemy?
The Lord is far away in the West Sea, yet he seems to know who did it?
The "solved case" likely refers to Murong's case, meaning Murong's death was a test by the enemy? What aspect were they primarily testing?
Stay calm and composed.
These last four words deserve some deeper analysis.
Wei Gongcheng had been pondering the news since receiving it and roughly understood Chen Qing's meaning. The recent series of events were all probing by the enemy; they weren't sure of their lord's strength, so this case was a red line!
"Rumors... are they true?"
In a corner of Liuzhou, Murong Bingyun stared in astonishment at her somewhat transparent hands, then gazed blankly at the starry sky.
Legend has it that in Jiangnan there is God of the Underworld, after death, can avoid entering the Yin-Yang Road!
Many people took these rumors from the Jiangnan merchants as a joke. After all, any family of sorcerers knew that after a person dies, their soul cannot be preserved no matter what. Countless families had tried this many times. If the soul could be preserved in the mortal world, given the size of the sorcerer families, those influential ancestors would be no different from immortals.
Could Jiangnan really have accomplished this?
If that's the case, then is the legend that there's Underworld after death, and that the God of the Underworld can control the Underworld Lifespan of the souls in the underworld, also true?
Who exactly is Chen Qing?
Could it possibly alter the very fabric of heaven and earth?
However, he no longer had time to dwell on Chen Qing's extraordinary abilities; the question now was which side he should believe.
Murong Bingyun recalled her encounter in Shen Xue's room, and her already fragile soul began to split again.
He was certain that the monster was coming for him!
Shen Xue was just a decoy. From the very beginning, that thing was meant to lure me in. Its initial purpose was to get me—no, it should be said—the wolf mark on my body!
Murong looked at the wolf mark on his arm, which hadn't disappeared even after his death, and fell into deep thought.
If that's the case, what is the connection between my death and Jiangnan?
Could it be that Chen Qing orchestrated this herself?
If so, I should immediately flee Jiangnan. But according to the rules of life and death, if I escape Jiangnan, will I lose the protection of Jiangnan's special laws and be directly dragged into the Yin-Yang Road?
But if I stay in Jiangnan, how can I escape the monster's pursuit?
What should I do?