"Looks like you've uncovered quite a lot these past few days." Catherine smiled. The fact that Master Tongtian had grasped the Hunter Guild's schemes so accurately made her admire him all the more.
Zhang Yuanqing pulled over a chair and sat down. His eyes swept across the spacious, lavish private room and caught sight of surveillance cameras mounted in the four corners of the ceiling.
Looking away, he fixed his gaze on Catherine's fair, graceful back and said coolly, "I originally assumed the Hunter Guild just took money to do jobs. But the tone of your voice on the phone and your demeanor now tell me that you are the ones who wanted to assassinate Julian to stoke internal strife in Heaven's Punishment. Does the Hunter Guild belong to the evil faction?"
"Want to find out?" Catherine turned her head, the corners of her lips curving up. "Strip down and get in!"
Zhang Yuanqing's gaze drifted past the surveillance cameras in the four corners again. "I don't have a habit of being naked in front of an audience," he said coldly.
Her eyes shone with flirtatious charm as she glanced around at the cameras. With a sweet smile, she said, "The ones behind those lenses are the Hunter Guild's president and two vice presidents. We vet new recruits with extreme rigor. Tonight is your final trial to join the Hunter Guild, and they are responsible for reviewing you."
*One president and three vice presidents...* Zhang Yuanqing felt a touch of reluctance, but Master Tongtian was an eccentric, reclusive Illusionist—how could he flinch before such a trivial scene?
Keeping his face blank, he stripped off his white T-shirt and black casual pants, pulled off his boxer briefs, and tossed them aside. Under Catherine's gleaming gaze, he stepped buck naked to the edge of the pool and waded into the water.
The moment his body sank into the warm water, Zhang Yuanqing felt a tremor in his heart. The myriad churning emotions in his mind swiftly dissolved, leaving behind upright, solemn thoughts, as if he had transformed into the incorruptible Judge Bao.
"This is..." Zhang Yuanqing looked down at the pool.
Catherine smiled. "This is called the Holy Pool, one of the three sacred relics of the Holy See. It's an item of the Knight class, once managed by the Knights of the Holy See. Its purpose is to cleanse evil desires and hostility from the heart. Whenever the knights returned after purging heretics, they had to soak in the Holy Pool for an hour."
*What a good thing. If I get the chance to snatch it and ship it back home, letting those corrupt officials soak in it for an hour every day, the world would become a much better place...* Zhang Yuanqing's first thought was that Heavenly King Demonic Eye would certainly love this item.
At the same time, he understood why Catherine had invited him to share a bath. This was the final trial.
As thoughts flickered through his mind, he saw the item's properties while submerged in the pool:
[Name: Paladin's Bathing Pool]
[Type: Bathtub]
[Functions: Cleansing, Covenant, Oath]
[Description: One of the three sacred relics of the Holy See. During the turbulent Middle Ages, the curses of witches and the taint of vampires posed the greatest threats to the Holy See's clergy. To save fallen knights and prevent corruption, the third-generation Paladin forged this sacred artifact.]
[Remarks: Real men meet with their balls bare.]
Covenant and Oath were standard Knight skills, but "Cleansing" piqued Zhang Yuanqing's curiosity. He guessed it was a unique skill inherent to the item that incorporated Knight characteristics.
The skills of high-grade items did not always replicate Spirit Realm classes one-to-one; instead, they blended class abilities with their own traits, evolving into entirely new skills.
For example, the abilities of the Rogue Dial did not belong to any class.
Unfortunately, because he couldn't store this item in his inventory, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't ascertain the exact effects of "Cleansing." If it merely stripped away emotional "impurities," he felt its power was far too low to match the title of one of the "three sacred relics."
Catherine gently splashed the water, droplets clinging to her fair, delicate, melon-seed face. Seeing Master Tongtian's gaze remain profound and placid, she pouted and said resentfully, "Am I not beautiful?"
Zhang Yuanqing sneered. "I think Donna is far more beautiful than you."
Catherine's face darkened, dropping all coquetry. "Master Tongtian," she said coldly, "on behalf of the Hunter Guild, I will now conduct your final assessment. Swear an oath to answer my questions honestly.
"Once sworn, if you lie, you will return to the Spirit Realm on the spot. Keep that firmly in mind. You have ten seconds to prepare."
With that, she raised a pale, shapely arm and swept it across the surface of the water.
A pure, brilliant golden light flared from the bottom of the pool, dyeing the clear spring water into a basin of liquid gold.
Catherine's fair, jade-like body appeared even more breathtakingly alluring, resembling a celestial maiden bathing in the Jasper Pool.
*Angry? Hmm, she holds intense jealousy toward Donna. That's a clue...* Without a change in expression, Zhang Yuanqing swore the oath and said, "No need for ten seconds. Ask."
Catherine said nothing until the ten seconds had fully elapsed, adhering strictly to procedure. Then she asked, "State your age, origin, Spirit Realm ID, and class."
"Twenty-six years old. Born in Songhai, China. Spirit Realm ID: Master Tongtian. Class: Illusionist!" Zhang Yuanqing answered candidly.
***
Inside a bedroom at the headquarters building of the New York Bank.
A sword scar suddenly split open across the forehead of the yin corpse that shared Master Tongtian's exact appearance. The scar widened, darting rapidly down its body. With a soft *poof*, the entire torso tore in two.
The skin on the corpse's surface melted, gathering like venom until it formed a human skin as thin as a cicada's wing.
With one hand toying with Yata no Kagami, Zhang Yuanqing's clone scooped up the skin with the other. "Mission accomplished! Hope the original gets through smoothly."
He folded the Perfect Human Skin neatly and placed it on the bedside table. Then, picking up Little Red Riding Hood from the desk, he stowed the ruined yin corpse into the hat's spatial pocket. Turning to Commandery Princess Yinyao, who sat at the desk watching Western adult videos, he asked, "Princess, are you lovesick, or in heat?"
"Neither!" Commandery Princess Yinyao raised her little megaphone and patted the Elvis Presley speaker in her waist pouch with the other hand. "I need to record dialogue audio to use against enemies. I do not speak foreign tongues."
From the computer speakers came breathless, involuntary profanities uttered amid excessive ecstasy: "Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck!"
***
Catherine scrutinized him. Seeing Master Tongtian entirely unharmed, the corners of her mouth curved into a smile, and she continued, "We investigated you. You kept a very low profile in the Second District. The Five Elements Alliance has no more than three criminal records on you, and all your victims were officials."
"I've killed plenty of people: tyrants, corrupt officials, unscrupulous merchants, and rich second-generation brats riding on their ancestors' coattails to commit evil—far too many to count," Zhang Yuanqing said calmly. "When an Illusionist kills, how could those fools in officialdom ever track it down?"
Catherine nodded slightly. "You seem to harbor intense malice toward those groups!"
"My home was forcibly demolished. My parents died because of it."
"Why come to the Free Confederation?"
"I want to participate in the year-end killing trial. I came here to hunt for First District items to boost my chances of advancing to Dominator."
"What is your opinion of the Five Elements Alliance?"
"Trash."
"Heaven's Punishment?"
"Trash among trash."
"The Hunter Guild?"
"Still trash."
Catherine froze, gazing in astonishment at the young man three meters away. When he spat the word "trash," his tone, gaze, and micro-expressions belonged to an unrivaled monarch who held dominion over all living souls.
She had met all kinds of men, but never one so wildly arrogant and self-assured.
Putting aside her stray thoughts, she continued, "If you discovered that someone in the Hunter Guild had crossed your bottom line, what would you do?"
"I have no companions. There is no one in this world who cannot be killed—myself included."
Catherine smiled. This was typical of an evil-class walker harboring deep obsession: eager to destroy the world, including themselves.
In the eyes of evil classes, there were no companions!
So-called companions were merely fellow travelers whose interests temporarily aligned, fit to be betrayed and discarded at any moment. Even within an evil organization, the same held true.
Right then, the phone resting beside the pool chimed.
Catherine turned to pick it up. After reading the message, she smiled radiantly. "Your answers have been approved by the reviewers. Next is the cleansing of evil thoughts. Master Tongtian, if you truly suffered a tragic, unjust past as you claimed, this pool will wash away the malice in your heart, granting you purification and releasing the shackles on your soul.
"Of course, this is only temporary. No skill in this world can permanently eliminate the malice of an evil class."
The soul of an evil class was a source of pollution. Cleansing could at most purge the filth that leaked from the source; with time, evil thoughts would gradually sprout again, returning everything to how it was.
Without waiting for Zhang Yuanqing to reply, she added, "That is, assuming you truly belong to an evil class!"
Zhang Yuanqing's brow furrowed at once.
"Skills can be disguised with items. With sufficient preparation, you can disguise yourself as any class. But evil classes share a universal trait: the higher their level, the stronger their evil thoughts. Malice etched into the soul is nearly impossible to fake." Catherine offered a meaningful smile. "Of course, even if someone belongs to an orthodox class, as long as their soul is brimming with malice, we gladly welcome them."
While she spoke, Zhang Yuanqing's mind worked in overdrive. He now understood the true purpose of "Cleansing"—this was the Hunter Guild's way of verifying evil classes.
The Covenant of Freedom was indeed meticulous. Even when recruiting a mere Saint-stage member who wouldn't even enter core management, they exercised such caution.
No wonder none of the major orthodox organizations had been able to root out the enemies lurking in their ranks over the past century.
*Malice... that's something I shouldn't lack.* Though Zhang Yuanqing was reluctant to admit it, after experiencing Master Wuhen's scripture readings, he understood deeply the issues hidden within his own soul.
Inside this body lurked a soul that even evil classes looked upon with pity and shock.
Zhang Yuanqing glanced up at the surveillance cameras. "How does the cleansing work?"
"The water in the pool will dilute the malice in your soul. Picture yourself... as a pool of ink. The deeper the malice, the darker the water becomes," Catherine said with a chuckle. "Among Saints, the evil-class walker with the deepest malice I've ever seen turned the water a creamy coffee color."
Her smile faded, and she gazed intently at Zhang Yuanqing. "This is the final step. Don't let me down."
Her lips parted slightly, as if chanting an incantation.
The next instant, a blinding golden light erupted from the bottom of the pool before contracting into a stream of radiance. It surged into Zhang Yuanqing's body through his ankles, burrowing up through his calves, thighs, abdomen, and chest, finally converging at his glabella.
Zhang Yuanqing threw his head back, his face twisting into an expression that blended agony and exhilaration.
Immediately after, a sight that drained the color from Catherine's face unfolded: a pitch-black hue bloomed rapidly around Master Tongtian, spreading, spreading...
In the blink of an eye, half the pool was tainted like dark ink.
Catherine's expression shifted drastically. She sprang out of the water as if the ink were something terrifying.
"This..." Naked by the pool's edge, her lovely eyes were filled with shock. How could a peak Saint Illusionist harbor such dreadful, bottomless malice?
Following the rule that higher levels brought deeper evil thoughts, with malice this terrifying, Master Tongtian couldn't possibly be a Saint—he had to be a Dominator at the very least.
Earlier, she had acted unconcerned because she took pride in being a Dominator, unafraid of mere contamination. But Master Tongtian's malice was no weaker than that of an evil-class Dominator. If she were tainted by such filth, as an orthodox walker, she might very well lose her sanity.
*Ring! Ring! Ring!*
The phone beside the bath rang. The caller ID showed the president of the Hunter Guild.
Catherine gathered her wits and answered. After listening for a few seconds, she set the phone down and looked at Zhang Yuanqing with mixed emotions.
"You passed the assessment. The president asked me to warn you: come here once a month to cleanse your malice. We need rational companions who can communicate effectively."
*Even evil classes worry about me going insane?* The corner of Zhang Yuanqing's mouth twitched.
***
Ten minutes later, Zhang Yuanqing sat cross-legged by a coffee table wrapped in a bath towel, a cup of coffee placed before him. Across from him sat Catherine, likewise draped in a towel that revealed her fair cleavage.
"Congratulations on joining the Hunter Guild. From today on, you are an internal member. Let me go over the benefits first." Catherine took a sip of coffee and said, "A monthly salary of five hundred thousand confederation dollars, and one free bounty request each month. From now on, you keep all rewards from the missions you undertake; the guild takes no cut.
"The guild will periodically assign you missions that you cannot refuse. Upon completion, there will be cash, materials, dungeon walkthroughs, items, and other rewards, depending on the mission's difficulty..."
Zhang Yuanqing listened quietly, then nodded. "No problem!"
He also took a sip of coffee before shifting the topic. "I want to know the true background of the Hunter Guild, as well as intelligence regarding the Holy See and the Pope's relics."
Catherine smiled. "Have you ever heard of the Covenant of Freedom?"
Zhang Yuanqing shook his head.
"The oldest Spirit Realm walker organizations in the world were the Holy See and the Covenant of Freedom. The Covenant belongs to the free faction, formed by free classes and a group of orthodox classes who yearned for freedom. The fall of the Holy See was the achievement of our forebears."
"I see. In the words of the orthodox faction, you are fallen ones among the orthodox classes."
"Fallen ones?" Catherine giggled. "I am no fallen one. I have merely seen through the essence of the universe. The pinnacle of order is the absence of order. The pinnacle of chaos is destruction. Destruction is the only eternal, unchanging order. This... is God's revelation!"
"God's revelation?" Zhang Yuanqing's brow twitched. "Did you say... God?"
Catherine's words were strikingly similar to what Shanhe Yongcun, the former elder of the Taiyi Sect and Grand Protector of the Dark Night Rose, had once said.
Chapter 688