In the world of Spirit Realm walkers, being a spy was never easy.
A Knight's oath, an Illusionist's emotional sensing, a Scout's lie detection and deterrence—any of these could easily uncover an undercover operative.
Theoretically speaking, planting a spy was extraordinarily difficult. High-tier Spirit Realm walkers possessed far too many ways to see through a person. To date, the only method capable of flawlessly masking every flaw was the Lunar power.
While an Illusionist had myriad transformations, they were individual techniques incapable of covering a group.
The same applied to items like the Perfect Human Skin.
"We received the Lunar protection," Channing Lu confessed to his "comrades" without holding anything back. "At our regular monthly gatherings, we pray to the supreme existence to receive the Lunar protection. But we don't need to pray every single time, as the protection lasts for a very long duration."
*The Lunar protection...* The Palace Master of Halting Slaughter's gaze dimmed slightly as she cut straight to the point: "Do you remember the summoning ritual?"
High-tier Night Wanderers could create spirit talisman arrays unique to themselves. Supplemented by materials rich in Night Wanderer spiritual energy, these formed a summoning ritual.
A certain spineless scoundrel of a man frequently relied on similar methods to seek help from an older woman from over a thousand years ago.
"I remember..." Channing Lu replied.
"Draw it," the Palace Master instructed.
Just then, the three Dominators looked down at the ruptured floor below. Figures of Heaven's Punishment Wind Mages and Lightning Mages were appearing; the clash between Dominators had alerted the personnel on duty.
Taking advantage of the moment as Channing Lu shot beams of lightning from his fingertips, searing charred lines of the talisman array onto the wall, the Palace Master softly hummed a lullaby.
*Thud, thud, thud...*
The swarming Lightning Mages and Wind Mages collapsed one after another, falling into deep slumber.
After memorizing the spirit talisman array drawn by Channing Lu, the Palace Master manipulated red strings to erase the scorched patterns on the wall. She turned to the Sole-Heir Knight and Winnie behind her:
"I'm done asking!"
Winnie opened her inventory, retrieved a black wooden stake, and said coldly, "Drive it into Channing's heart, and sever his limbs."
Zhai Cai caught the wooden stake and flicked it into Channing Lu's chest. With a squelch, blood splattered in all directions.
Channing swayed as his eyelids grew heavy, yet he stubbornly refused to collapse.
Walking on air, Zhai Cai raised his sword and brought it down, cleanly severing Channing's arms and legs.
The executive director finally went down. He let out no scream, only sinking into a deep sleep.
Winnie said in a low voice, "I will call headquarters and have them dispatch a commissioner to take custody of Channing. Until then, I hope the two of you can remain at Heaven's Punishment to prevent any unexpected incidents. I will compensate you for your services."
The Palace Master of Halting Slaughter and Zhai Cai nodded. Remembering that Winnie was blind, Zhai Cai hurriedly added, "Alright!"
***
On the road connecting the harbor to the urban district, brilliant starlight repeatedly rose into the air. Each surge was spaced over a hundred meters apart, followed by a lull of several minutes before lighting up again a kilometer or two away.
Under the alternating use of Night Travel and Star Escape, even a Wind Mage of the same rank would find tracking him exceedingly difficult.
At first, several Wind Mages had looked down from high above and barely clung to his tail, but under harassment from wraiths, they had completely lost track of him.
Even so, the Dark Night Rose Stargazer did not dare let his guard down. Until he reached the densely populated downtown area, he was not entirely safe.
Among the Saints of the orthodox faction, there were Void practitioners.
They were the only Saints who posed a threat to him.
By comparison, although that fellow named Jumang possessed absurd combat prowess, he could not possibly match a Stargazer in tracking and speed. Even if Jumang transformed into a bird, he could never hope to catch up.
*Why did such a powerful Beast King suddenly appear in the Second District?*
During those brief dozen or so seconds when Jumang fought Typhoeus, he had withstood petrifying beams, poisonous fumes, and aberration. Before that, he had equally evaded concerted attacks from multiple Saints.
And none of that relied on Dominator items.
Everyone assumed the root of Jumang's might lay in his items, overlooking his intrinsic strength instead. They had been misled!
This Beast King's combat prowess was likely greater than even Jealousy Divine General's.
Could such a formidable Saint truly have been cultivated by Fu Qingyang?
What a joke. Before June of this year, Fu Qingyang himself had only been at the peak of Level 6, the exact same tier as Jumang.
Once he escaped, he would contact the Grand Protector and have him employ Stargazing to deduce Jumang's identity and uncover his background.
At that moment, the Dark Night Rose Stargazer's eyelids grew heavy. An overwhelming drowsiness washed over him, and he nearly dozed off on the spot.
His heart lurched in alarm. Recognizing this as a Dream Master's "Dream Intrusion" ability, he realized he was under attack by a Dream Master.
*Where did a Dream Master come from?*
Even as confusion gripped him, bright blue light flared in the night sky as a tree-shaped bolt of lightning struck down with pinpoint precision.
In this life-or-death crisis, there was no time to execute Star Escape. The Stargazer dove and rolled nimbly to the side, evading the brunt of the strike. Yet the lightning was simply too swift. A branching arc grazed his leg; his trouser leg instantly turned to cinder, and his charred thigh gave off the aroma of roasted meat.
Just as the Dark Night Rose Stargazer prepared to use Star Escape, he saw a deep nocturnal tide surge forward like floodwaters, shrouding the entire surroundings beneath a dark veil.
Starlight flared as he unleashed Star Escape regardless, only to find himself emerging at the perimeter of the night curtain.
The area had been sealed.
Simultaneously, footsteps sounded from the dense darkness. The Stargazer looked back—it was Jumang!
"Impossible!" he cried out in terror. "You couldn't have caught up with me! That's impossible!"
How could a Beast King ever catch up to him?
He belonged to one of the professions with the strongest escape capabilities in the entire Second District.
"What's so impossible about it? Who says I can't use Star Escape?" Zhang Yuanqing raised his right arm, clad in the Bracer of Thunder, and snapped his fingers.
His body instantly dissolved into starlight, rematerializing over a dozen meters away amidst rising astral brilliance.
The Dark Night Rose Stargazer was utterly dumbfounded.
An item?
No, it was not an item! As a Level 6 Stargazer, he immediately ruled out the possibility of an item being used. He at least had that degree of discernment.
"You're a Stargazer too?!" he blurted out, unable to believe his own words.
The corners of Zhang Yuanqing's lips curled upward. He wiped a hand across his face. "Guessed right!"
His facial features rippled like water before settling into a rather handsome, youthful countenance.
The Dark Night Rose Stargazer froze as though struck by a binding curse. His body went rigid, and his eyes locked onto that face. Only after a long pause did his lips tremble as he spoke:
"Yuan... Yuanshi Tianzun..."
Zhang Yuanqing wasted no more words, giving him no opportunity to speak further, and activated the Thunderblast skill of the Bracer of Thunder.
*Pop!*
Blinding blue light erupted, illuminating the area shrouded in night, as ferocious lightning-attribute spiritual power formed a shockwave that swept in every direction.
The pavement was shaved down raw, and the roadside greenery was pulverized into dust. The Dark Night Rose Stargazer instantly withdrew a yellow mud-stained greatcoat from his inventory and draped it over himself, then slipped on a suit of rattan armor.
He spat out a dense swarm of wraiths, having them tightly surround him.
The next instant, the shockwave crackling with electric arcs crashed in. The protective wall formed by the wraiths was annihilated first, followed by the rattan armor turning into charcoal, before the yellow glow shattered with an explosion.
The Dark Night Rose Stargazer's body was torn to shreds, severed limbs slapping against the ground while his organs still steamed with heat.
Zhang Yuanqing also fell stiffly to the ground, reduced to a blackened lump.
A few seconds later, he coughed out a puff of black smoke and recovered from the agonizing pain. "Fuck... that hurts like hell..."
Groaning, he climbed to his feet. He saw the shattered remains of the Stargazer in the distance, alongside a spirit floating in midair.
The spirit's aura was feeble and its eyes were vacant, resembling a wisp of pale smoke on the verge of being scattered by the wind.
A Stargazer's spirit was exceptionally robust; even if the physical body died, the spirit would survive and retain its consciousness. The current state was solely because the Thunderblast attack had thoroughly crippled the spirit.
Lightning-attribute abilities were the natural bane of ghosts and spirits.
Zhang Yuanqing staggered over, pulled out the Mountain God Scepter to heal his injuries, and combined it with a Night Wanderer's powerful vitality. Within two or three minutes, the wounds caused by the Thunderblast were fully mended.
Next, he walked over to the spirit. Thick, sticky dark energy surfaced in his eye sockets. Opening his mouth, he inhaled and swallowed the spirit whole.
Fragmented images flashed past like a revolving lantern as he sifted through the Stargazer's incomplete life.
Within those memories, he discovered two crucial pieces of intelligence.
Inside a dimly lit secret chamber, the black-robed Grand Protector had looked at him with a profound gaze: "Make a trip to New York County. In the river of destiny, I saw a blazing sun that makes me deeply uneasy."
"A blazing sun?" the Stargazer had asked in bewilderment.
"In the near future, New York County in the Free Confederation may give birth to a Lord of the Sun. This signifies that the Night Wanderer supported by Heaven's Punishment is extremely likely to ascend the throne and become the third demigod of the Night Wanderer profession." The black-robed Grand Protector's tone had been grave: "The future holds countless possibilities. We must change it."
"Can you not notify the leader?" the Stargazer had asked worriedly.
"The leader is attending to a matter within the Spirit Realm," the black-robed Grand Protector replied. "If that matter succeeds, the entire world will undergo earth-shattering changes. Free professions across the globe are awaiting the arrival of that day."
***
Zhang Yuanqing suppressed the dizziness brought on by absorbing the spirit of an equal-ranked Stargazer while knitting his brows.
Stargazers possessed the ability to deduce the trends of all things. The Grand Protector's deduction revealed two pieces of information: first, that he possessed the potential to become a Lord of the Sun.
Second, he had been too high-profile in New York County recently, turning into one of the key figures capable of altering the faction war. As a result, he stood out distinctively in the river of destiny, allowing the Grand Protector to detect him through deduction.
He recalled that the Grand Protector, Shanhe Yongcun, primarily cultivated lunar power. If it were a Dominator primarily cultivating astral power, wouldn't they see even more clearly?
Fortunately, the Grand Protector had only deduced that a Lord of the Sun might emerge in New York County, but could not pinpoint the exact target, leaving it entirely disconnected from Yuanshi Tianzun.
This was likely thanks to the Pitch-Black Heart.
Though that Illusion God item remained sealed, its status tier remained intact, granting formidable anti-divination and anti-deduction capabilities.
As for the other piece of information, it reminded Zhang Yuanqing of the intelligence extracted from Monster Hass's memories.
—The evil faction was waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity to wipe out the Sea God Church.
Connecting that to the Grand Protector's words, he suspected that the opportunity the evil faction awaited was related to Ling Tuo. Ling Tuo was brewing something massive.
*I must inform the President about this.*
Zhang Yuanqing put away the Box of Night and glanced around. The night was deep and silent, with no sign of Wind Mages nearby. He retrieved Little Red Riding Hood and shook out his phone.
After powering it on, he contacted the Five Elements Alliance support squad lurking around the harbor and received word that the fleeing Saints had already been wiped out.
"Retreat immediately. Do not give the evil faction Dominators a chance to launch a counterattack," he instructed.
"Understood," Guan Ya replied.
Zhang Yuanqing put away his phone, paused in thought, and dissolved into starlight.
Half an hour later, he appeared on the rooftop terrace of an uninhabited villa in the suburbs of New York Port.
The Grand Protector's deduction had sounded an alarm for him. He needed to divine what benefits and hidden dangers this operation might bring him.
Then he would decide whether to retire the Jumang persona. At any rate, he still had two alternate identities: Sect Master Tongtian and Xiaoyao Sword Immortal.
If the deduction revealed no major issues, he would continue using it for now.
It was late October; in just a month and a half, the Slaughter Instance would begin.
Chapter 726