The Murderer

Right, they had almost forgotten about that kid. Li Dongze's words reminded the captains that the Kangyang District Spirit Realm team had already recruited a Night Wanderer of their own and no longer needed to borrow one from the Taiyi Sect. Da Jiba's face lit up with delight, and he immediately said, "Then what are we waiting for? Contact that kid right away! See, this is why we have to train our own Night Wanderers. When push comes to shove, our own people are the most dependable." The other captains' furrowed brows relaxed. Da Jiba had a point. Although the Taiyi Sect's Night Wanderers were always cooperative when it came to official business, they were outsiders in the end; using them would never be as convenient as using one of their own. Li Dongze glanced at Fu Qingyang. Seeing him give a slight nod, Li Dongze took out his phone and stepped out of the conference room. "I'll go get in touch with him." *** Having finished his morning major courses, Zhang Yuanqing swung his backpack over his shoulders and left the classroom. He planned to skip his afternoon classes to visit the office of the Kangyang District Spirit Realm Second Squad. In the future, the focal point of his social life and daily focus would shift toward the Spirit Realm squad. Zhang Yuanqing didn't particularly like school, nor was he terribly interested in his studies. The youth of Songhai all possessed an indolence that went right down to their bones, lacking wolfish ambition and any real drive to hustle. There were only two kinds of people in this world who fought tooth and nail: those who had cultivated proactive habits from childhood, and those forced by circumstance. After becoming a Spirit Realm walker, Zhang Yuanqing had finally regained that long-lost fighting spirit. For one, his life was on the line; for another, it fulfilled a young man's dream of roaming the world with a sword in hand. The Spirit Realm was fraught with danger and bizarre horrors, but once someone got a taste of its rewards, they would never again be content to remain a mere mortal. Reaching the ground floor, he was just about to unlock a shared bike when the phone in his pocket rang. It was Li Dongze. "Decurion?" Zhang Yuanqing answered. "Where are you right now?" Li Dongze spoke with rapid-fire urgency, cutting straight to the chase. "At school." "Songhai University, right? I'll have Guan Ya come pick you up right away." *Pick me up?* Hearing the urgency in Li Dongze's voice, Zhang Yuanqing asked tentatively, "What's going on?" "A colleague was murdered. We need a Night Wanderer to devour the spirit and retrieve his memories. Um, you can handle that, right?" Li Dongze asked with a touch of uncertainty. *Uh, I should be able to...* Zhang Yuanqing said, "I can give it a shot?" Devouring a spirit wasn't hard; it was an innate ability of a Night Wanderer. His instincts told him he could do it, but when it came to reading memories, he had never actually devoured a spirit before and possessed zero experience, so he didn't dare make any promises. "Then that's settled." Li Dongze said nothing more and hung up. Zhang Yuanqing put away his phone and walked toward the campus gates. A few minutes later, he stopped outside the main entrance to wait for Guan Ya. At the same time, he noticed a girl standing on the curb not far away. She wore a pleated maxi skirt and held a designer handbag, looking like she was waiting for someone. Xu Yingying? Zhang Yuanqing scrutinized this class belle for a moment. Her outfit was meticulously put together—bracelets, necklace, earrings, handbag... each piece looked exorbitantly expensive, setting her worlds apart from most of the female students at the university. A girl from an ordinary background could never pull off that kind of look. Noticing Zhang Yuanqing's gaze, Xu Yingying gave a faint smile. She brushed aside a strand of hair and straightened her posture, striking her most alluring pose while a small spark of superiority flickered in her heart. This boy was rather good-looking, so she had instinctively flaunted her charms. However, she was already living in an entirely different world from ordinary college students, and that filled her with boundless condescension. The accessories she wore alone were worth an entire year of living expenses for a normal college student. Just then, Xu Yingying saw a blue sports car drive up and pull smoothly to the curb by the campus gate. The woman behind the wheel wore a sharp white dress shirt and dark sunglasses that obscured her face. Still, her fair, sculpted jawline and finely chiseled lips made it obvious that she was a top-tier beauty. Xu Yingying pursed her lips and shifted her stance, turning the logo of her designer handbag toward the sports car. At the same time, she saw Zhang Yuanqing jog over, open the door, and slide inside. The wealthy beauty stepped on the gas, speeding away with her young boy toy in tow. Xu Yingying's mouth dropped open in shock. For a moment, she couldn't tell whether this male classmate of hers was a low-key rich kid or a peer in her line of business—a fellow kept companion trading youth and dignity to a wealthy patron. *** Kangyang District Public Security Bureau, morgue. Standing beside the autopsy table, Zhang Yuanqing lifted the white sheet, revealing a gruesome corpse. The deceased was covered in bruises and blade wounds. The slash across his chest had cleaved through flesh and bone, exposing a ghastly, mangled mess. If this had been two days ago, seeing such a corpse would have definitely made Zhang Yuanqing sick to his stomach. But after surviving the brutal ordeal at the Mountain God Temple, a dead body was no longer enough to cause much of a ripple in him. "You can begin." Leaning on his cane, Li Dongze spoke with anticipation from the side. Zhang Yuanqing nodded. He examined Zhao Yingjun's corpse and sensed the remnant spirit lingering inside the cold body gradually growing active, steadily stirring awake. A Night Wanderer's aura held a fatal allure for spirits and was capable of awakening dormant souls. Silently channeling the Lunar force within him, Zhang Yuanqing let an ink-black darkness wash over the whites of his eyes and his pupils. He reached out and made a grasping motion toward Zhao Yingjun's body. He pulled forth an ethereal figure. The figure bore Zhao Yingjun's features, but its expression was blank and its gaze hollow. After death, ninety percent of human consciousness dissipated, leaving the spirit in this dull, vacant state. With the mind scattered, memories were naturally fragmented as well, preserving only those rooted in deep obsessions. Memories from right before death were typically the most vivid and closest to the moment of passing, so they tended to survive. After extracting the spirit, Zhang Yuanqing was suddenly gripped by a primal craving to feed. He parted his lips naturally and drew a soft breath. Zhao Yingjun's spirit dissolved into wisps of green smoke and drifted into his mouth. A throbbing ache flared between his brows, and his consciousness felt as though it were expanding, stuffed with a flood of alien thoughts and sensations. Zhang Yuanqing heard muffled sobs and whimpering wails. Then, a harsh, sinister voice rang in his ears: "My patience is running thin. You'd better answer me straight." He realized he was currently reading the spirit's final memories. Slowly "opening" his eyes, his surroundings came into sharp focus: a lavishly decorated master suite. He was slumped across a plush king-size bed, stripped stark naked. Clothes were strewn haphazardly across the floor, along with pieces of women's lingerie. Not far from him, curled up near the headboard, was a young woman. She was equally bare, her pale, slender legs, tight abdomen, and perky bust fully displaying her youthful, stunning curves. The weeping came from her. *A woman? Naked?* The scene took Zhang Yuanqing aback. *Why didn't the Decurion give me a heads-up about the crime scene? How could he make me watch something so unsuitable for minors? I'm still just a kid...* Through the deceased's point of view, he looked toward the person standing beside the bed. It was a vicious-looking man with a half-finger-long scar on his left cheek, sparse eyebrows, and a cruel, somber gaze. In his hand, he held a gleaming yanagiba knife. *The murderer!* Zhang Yuanqing stared fixedly at the face, etching every feature into his memory. At this point, half his mission was already complete. The man pointed the tip of the blade at "Zhang Yuanqing's" chest and snarled, "Where is the Holy Grail? Where is the roster?" He had clearly asked this question many times before; his expression was steeped in impatience, and murderous intent surged in his eyes. "I don't know, I really don't know... Please, I'm begging you, let me go." Zhang Yuanqing heard "his own" voice begging for mercy. Squatting beside the bed, the man lost the last shreds of his patience. He rubbed his face in exhaustion and muttered, "I gave you a chance, but you're useless. I gave you a chance, but you're useless..." With that, he pushed the tip of the yanagiba knife into "Zhang Yuanqing's" chest. Agony tore through him, and his vision instantly blurred. Zhang Yuanqing collapsed limply onto the floor, catching a glimpse of the man unbuckling his belt, grabbing the beautiful woman by the ankle, and yanking her forcefully toward him. The vision snapped to an abrupt end amidst the woman's piercing scream.