Doctor Sun was around forty years old, with fine crow's feet at the corners of his eyes. He possessed the steady, composed air of both a physician and a scholar, paired with an exceptionally warm smile. Seeing Zhang Yuanqing's stunned expression, he said with a smile:
"A person's likes and dislikes reflect their mental state better than anything else. Character is often mirrored in personal habits, and sexual orientation and kinks hold even higher diagnostic value than ordinary preferences.
"You don't need to feel embarrassed. A healer holds a parental heart. I've asked patients far more embarrassing questions and heard answers far harder to speak aloud. In our eyes as doctors, all living beings are equal."
*In the eyes of people like you, all living beings are just meaningless lumps of flesh...* Zhang Yuanqing complained silently to himself, involuntarily recalling how his aunt, back when she was studying medicine, had chattered away describing the dissection of a cadaver.
Zhang Yuanqing had nearly thrown up listening to it, while his aunt had remained steady as an old dog.
If it were an effect imposed by an item or skill, Zhang Yuanqing could transfer it to Little Doubi. But a Scout capable of seeing through people's hearts essentially possessed lie-detection abilities rather than exerting any force on the target.
Thus, even a spirit servant was of no help.
Zhang Yuanqing had no choice but to patiently answer the man's questions. "As for action flicks, yeah, I usually watch them. We're all adults—who hasn't? But finding good ones is getting harder these days, so I joined a bunch of gaming group chats to broaden my sources."
Doctor Sun interlaced his fingers and nodded. "That's very normal. When I was young, I was quite enthusiastic about those things too."
"Oh? So is it because you're older now?" Zhang Yuanqing chuckled.
"No, it's because I have a wife now. She's gorgeous, has a great figure, and I love her very much." Doctor Sun smiled as well.
Zhang Yuanqing felt like he had just been counter-taunted.
He continued answering the follow-up questions:
"I generally don't watch Western interracial stuff. I prefer Korean ones, and after that, films made by our neighbors across the sea in Japan. Compared to Western films, the Japanese really know what they're doing—just reading the movie title hits your sweet spot. As for the actresses' ages, I don't have many requirements, as long as they're of age."
Doctor Sun gave a slow nod. "Attracted to women of all stages. Hmm, very normal."
"Right, right. Men don't have that many demands. As long as she's pretty and has a good figure, our standards are very simple." Zhang Yuanqing chatted freely, slipping back into his socially outgoing persona. "When watching the videos, I definitely fast-forward. Are you even human if you don't fast-forward? When watching, I don't usually look for a girlfriend—they always come looking for me on their own, though deep down, I actually resist it."
Doctor Sun looked surprised. "Them? Well... given your status, it's normal to have plenty of female companions around you."
"No, I meant *these*." Zhang Yuanqing raised both hands, answering honestly. "The truth is, I don't have a girlfriend."
Doctor Sun's eyes instantly brightened with keen interest, and he pressed further, "Why don't you date? You don't strike me as an introverted person."
Zhang Yuanqing scratched his head. "In the past, I always felt girls were annoying. They weren't worth wasting my time and energy dealing with."
"And now?"
"Recently I met a few who made me willing to spend time and energy dealing with them, but later on, that feeling vanished again."
"Why?"
"..."
"Like I said earlier, all living beings are equal. Not only am I a Deacon, but I'm also a professional psychologist with rigorous training. No answer will cause me to feel unusual emotions, nor will I look at you strangely."
"Later, I felt that maybe sows were better than them."
"..." Doctor Sun froze, having completely never expected such an answer.
The great Yuanshi Tianzun, a seed-tier genius, actually possessed such a twisted fetish? What had distorted his worldview? Childhood sexual abuse? Betrayal by a first love? Perverted habits from his father or mother?
For a moment, Doctor Sun's gaze held both pity and vigilance.
Without a doubt, this was psychological deviance. And psychological deviance was unquestionably a massive hidden hazard.
In all his years of practicing medicine, a patient this twisted was truly rare as a phoenix feather.
"Look, look, look!" Zhang Yuanqing said indignantly. "You promised you wouldn't look at me strangely!"
Doctor Sun suddenly felt a touch embarrassed.
Zhang Yuanqing shrugged. "Actually, it was the price of an item. Ever since I stopped using it, my orientation has gradually returned to normal. Over the past few days, I've been actively teasing a woman on my team, slowly rediscovering my masculine impulses with her."
Doctor Sun breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright, on to the next question. Tell me about your family background. No need to mention names, addresses, or even occupations—just a brief overview."
"I live with my maternal grandparents, along with my aunt. My uncle, aunt, and cousin live right across the hall. My father died early on. My mother felt remarrying with a child would be difficult and worried a stepfather might mistreat me, so she simply raised me on her own. Her way of raising me was dumping me with my grandparents while she went out to work hard and earn money. She didn't manage me much, just gave me money. When I needed her for parent-teacher conferences growing up, she'd always tell me to ask my uncle because Mom was busy working and needed to earn money..."
Doctor Sun listened patiently, then suddenly asked, "Do you hate her?"
"No!"
"You're lying."
"...I really don't hate her, but I do resent her."
Doctor Sun finally nodded. "Next question: Did you ever abuse or kill animals as a child?"
"Sure did. I liked squatting at the entrance of the alley, dropping a piece of fatty meat I didn't want to eat, and watching ants haul it away in swarms. Just as they were about to succeed, I'd wash them all away with a stream of piss. There were also grasshoppers, frogs, dragonflies, and so on."
"What about cats or dogs?"
"Never that."
Doctor Sun scrutinized him for a few seconds before moving to the final stage:
"Once I finish this question, our conversation will be over. Yuanshi Tianzun, what are your thoughts on evil professions?"
Zhang Yuanqing weighed his words for a moment. "Loathing and pity."
Doctor Sun's eyebrows shot up. "Pity?"
Zhang Yuanqing nodded.
"I'm a Night Wanderer. I've seen the pasts of many evil professions. Most of their psychological distortions began in childhood, while a small portion witnessed too much injustice in society, gradually grew misanthropic, and degenerated into criminals. A philosopher once said that every time a demon is born among humanity, it means countless demons surround them.
"The evil profession is the demon born into the world, while those who pushed them onto this path are implicit demons. In my view, every sin is humanity's own karmic fire. Now that the internet is so developed, the birth of a demon might not stem solely from persecution by those nearby, but also from demons across all corners of the earth.
"So I pity them. But that doesn't stop me from cleansing their sins along the way whenever I encounter them."
Doctor Sun sank into deep thought.
After a long while, he murmured with emotion:
"You are a person adept at thinking. I've met many Spirit Realm novices whose views on evil professions are simplistic and uniform—viewing them as criminals, the degeneration of human nature, sources of danger, and enemies that must be eradicated.
"That isn't wrong, of course, but very few people reflect on the reasons behind the birth of evil professions and draw insights from them."
Zhang Yuanqing smiled. "Maybe it's not that they can't think, but that they're too lazy to think and don't want to bother."
The reason he reflected on these things was partly due to crossing paths with evil professions like Ashamed to Be a Father, and partly because after a Night Wanderer questioned spirits and absorbed the memories of spirit bodies, it generated a powerful sense of empathy.
Human joys and sorrows were not naturally shared; another person's suffering might just be a joke in someone else's eyes. Only when truly immersed in their shoes would one reflect.
It was the Night Wanderer profession that gave Zhang Yuanqing the foundation to ponder such matters.
"My questions are finished!" Doctor Sun smiled and nodded. "Thank you for cooperating. You may head out."
Once Zhang Yuanqing stepped out and shut the consultation room door, Doctor Sun rolled his chair on its casters toward the computer screen. First, he checked the box for Yuanshi Tianzun's mental assessment.
Then he added an evaluative note:
"Mental state normal, strong sense of justice. Likely due to family reasons, accustomed to masking internal detachment and depth behind an outgoing, enthusiastic facade. An idealist; not recommended for overly critical positions at this stage."
An idealist tended to uphold the justice in their heart rather than order.
Put simply, between procedural justice and outcome justice, such individuals leaned toward the latter.
Outcome justice was actually easier to earn the approval and resonance of the majority, but for enforcers of the law, procedural justice took precedence over everything.
***
Zhang Yuanqing returned to the second-floor waiting area. By this time, the personnel participating in the grand health check had already been leaving one after another.
Aside from the late-arriving members of Team Two, only two or three stragglers remained in line.
Li Dongze sat on a public bench, leaning on his cane with both hands, and chuckled:
"From your expression, I can tell Deacon Sun's questions just now weren't very elegant."
Zhang Yuanqing shrugged and gave a bitter smile.
"He actually asked whether I usually watch adult films and what kind of actresses I like! Why didn't you guys warn me earlier that the psychologist would ask such tricky questions?"
The moment he finished speaking, he noticed the members of Team Two, along with several nearby operatives, all turning to stare at him in unison.
Zhang Yuanqing's heart skipped a beat. "Wait, are those not standard questions?"
Team Two: "No!"
*Damn it!! Can I take back what I just said?* Suppressing the tidal wave of embarrassment surging inside him, Zhang Yuanqing put on an enlightened look. "He must have seen how young, handsome, and extraordinarily distinguished I am, which is why he asked such things. Haha. Hahaha..."
*As expected of you—thick-skinned as ever!* the members of Team Two thought.
Guan Ya asked with great interest, "Then how did you answer?"
Zhang Yuanqing glanced at her. "I said I don't like watching movies; I prefer playing Guan Gong."
Guan Ya: "..."
Zhang Yuanqing sat down beside the veteran driver and waited silently.
Leaning back against the chair, he closed his eyes and pondered.
The Tiger Tally was a rule-based item, and an extremely high-level one at that. Trying to pull a fast one in front of it was virtually impossible; otherwise, Master Wuhen wouldn't have replied as he did.
The purpose of deploying the Tiger Tally for this grand health check was to ferret out official walkers within the Songhai Branch who had been bought off or controlled by the Dark Night Rose and evil organizations.
Therefore, the questions coming up would definitely revolve around evil professions and the Dark Night Rose.
And he was neither.
If he had to name a blemish, it was merely his brief interactions with outliers among the evil professions, like Xiao Yuan and Wuhen. But Xie Lingxi could testify for him that it had been purely accidental.
As a holder of Class A merit, a minor matter like that would at most draw an inquiry and a warning; nothing serious would come of it, especially since Fu Qingyang was his superior.
As for the matter of the Demon Lord's successor, it was primarily the Taiyi Sect investigating it, while the Five Elements Alliance wasn't particularly keen, so it likely wouldn't be asked.
Having quietly analyzed it all, Zhang Yuanqing felt there was no major issue.
Roughly half an hour later, the members of Team Two completed the Tiger Tally's trial one by one. When Wang Tai emerged, Zhang Yuanqing took the initiative to head toward the consultation room at the end of the corridor.
The consultation room was spacious but simply furnished. A desk sat near the window, and behind it was Fu Qingyang, dressed in a white suit with his handsome ponytail tied back.
A camera on a tripod had its lens pointed directly at the desk.
"Sit. You're the last one—let's not waste time." Fu Qingyang gestured with his hand.
Zhang Yuanqing nodded and took his seat.
Fu Qingyang reached into empty space with his right hand and pulled out a palm-sized bronze tiger beast poised in a roaring stance, its head, spine, and tail forming a smooth, flowing curve.
*"Roar—"*
A soul-cleansing roar echoed in Zhang Yuanqing's ears. His pupils instantly dilated as he saw, deep within his sea of consciousness, a slender white tiger with upturned eyes lying on its side, radiating awe-inspiring majesty and a cold, stern gaze.
An unprecedented pressure; an unprecedented terror.
Zhang Yuanqing's face went deathly pale. His hands and feet cramped, his body trembling uncontrollably.
*Is this a high-level rule-based item?* He felt his very soul shudder, as if standing on the brink of an abyss.
Holding the Tiger Tally, Fu Qingyang's aura turned commanding and distant, like a marshal in command of a million-strong army. He slowly opened his mouth:
"Yuanshi, are you a hidden mole planted by the Dark Night Rose?"
As the words fell, Zhang Yuanqing "saw" the white tiger in his sea of consciousness fix him with a commanding glare, as though the moment he lied, it would pounce and tear him to shreds.
Zhang Yuanqing's lips trembled faintly. "No..."
Fu Qingyang waited a few seconds. Seeing no abnormalities, he nodded slightly and posed the second question:
"Have you had any private dealings with evil professions?"
Hearing the question, Zhang Yuanqing cursed inwardly. Reason told him he should conceal it, but under the white tiger's gaze, instinct moved first, blurting out the truth:
"Yes."
Fu Qingyang narrowed his eyes.
"B-but I think I should explain," Zhang Yuanqing said, his voice shaking like a traveler trudging through a freezing blizzard.
Fu Qingyang gave a slight nod.
Immediately, haltingly, Zhang Yuanqing recounted the process of getting to know Ashamed to Be a Father and passing along a message for him, but kept the address of Wuhen Hotel hidden.
"That's the whole sequence of events. Xie Lingxi from the Xie family can testify for me. Besides that, I didn't have much interaction with them."
Everything he said was true; he had merely artfully phrased having no further contact as not having much interaction.
Under the Tiger Tally's pressure, he could not lie, but wordplay lay outside the item's scope. As long as Fu Qingyang didn't nitpick, he was confident he could slide past this question without a scratch—or at least without any major fallout.
Fu Qingyang commented in a cold tone:
"I will report this matter to Elder Gou. As for his attitude toward it, you'll have to leave it to fate."
His tone was displeased, but he let it pass.
"Last question! The Taiyi Sect asked me to inquire about this." Fu Qingyang straightened his posture and asked, "Are you the Demon Lord's successor?"
Zhang Yuanqing's face turned white as a sheet.
Chapter 145