Realm Walker

Zhang Yuanqing stood frozen in place, his brain still struggling to catch up. A perfectly healthy man, dead just like that? And in such a bizarre, horrifying way?

Fu Qingyang, by contrast, was the picture of composure. He pulled out a key card and opened the iron door.

"Go check whether any spirit residue remains," he instructed calmly.

"R-right..."

Zhang Yuanqing snapped out of it, swallowing his shock, and strode into the cell, stopping beside the bed. His eyes flooded with a thick, inky black liquid that swallowed the whites entirely. He surveyed the room for a moment, then shook his head. The dark energy receded from his eyes, returning them to normal.

"There are no spiritual remains," he reported. "Chi Yue'an's soul was completely obliterated. It was a clean and complete death. Nothing was left behind."

Fu Qingyang considered this briefly. "A Hex Master's Killing Art Curse. Killing a Saint remotely like that means the caster is of an extremely high level. They would also need the details behind Chi Yue'an's, plus something containing his DNA—blood, flesh, hair, that sort of thing."

A Hex Master's Killing Art Curse. Was the organization behind Chi Yue'an the Psychic Assembly? No, that didn't track. If it were, the Full Inspection would have exposed him. Besides, just utilizing the Killing Art Curse didn't necessarily make someone a Hex Master. They could be using an item instead.

Zhang Yuanqing's voice was grave. "Is the Killing Art Curse a type of curse? A Saint-tier Hex Master skill?"

Come to think of it, he wasn't unfamiliar with the Hex Master class. Heaven's Injustice, Black Wuchang, and even the dungeon boss in Yin Yang Town had all been Hex Masters. But this kind of remote killing was something he'd never witnessed firsthand, and the thought of it sent a chill down his spine.

Fu Qingyang methodically gathered up the wooden cangue and shackles, speaking as he worked. "The Killing Art Curse is a type of curse. In a sense, it's a curse in its purest form, and can be considered true sorcery. Among the three great Evil classes, the Hex Master's defining trait is insidiousness. Most of the time, they won't confront an enemy head on. Instead, they poison them, or find opportunities to collect the target's information, like birth details, DNA, and photographs. Then they set up a ritual altar and perform these remote killings, or Fortune Shearing.

"Of the information collected, DNA is the most critical. Once a Hex Master gets hold of it, the target is virtually dead. Only a handful of abilities can neutralize the curse."

So, I've never actually faced a real Hex Master in action, Zhang Yuanqing realized. He'd need to be more careful about protecting his DNA from now on. He couldn't go touching women of unknown origin, either. After all, DNA wasn't limited to tissue samples alone.

He drew a deep breath and forced his attention back to the matter at hand, frustration creeping into his voice. "I should have just killed him immediately and used spirit consultation."

"There's no point regretting what's already done," Fu Qingyang stated plainly, as though discussing the weather. "The fact that they chose to silence him is practically an admission of guilt."

The centurion always carried that air about him, the look of a man who wouldn't flinch if the sky fell. An unshakeable confidence in the face of all things.

"So it really is Chi Yue'an's ex-wife," Zhang Yuanqing said heavily.

Fu Qingyang gave a short grunt of acknowledgement. "That seems most likely. But with Chi Yue'an dead, there are no witness to corroborate it. She's not from the Five Elements Alliance, so we can't compel her to be brought in to face the Full Inspection. For now, our hands are tied."

He turned his head toward his trusted subordinate and let out a soft, rueful sigh. "I hear that old lady from the Zhu family holds grudges. You got her ex-husband killed and cut off her income stream. I wouldn't put it past her to come after you. Then again, I imagine you're well past the point where one more enemy makes a difference."

Zhang Yuanqing recalled the gruesome way Chi Yue'an had died, and a jolt of alarm ran through him. "Centurion, every one of these powerful enemies and dangerous factions I've provoked was for the sake of the organization! The organization should be looking out for me, not mocking me."

"The Killing Art Curse requires a medium," Fu Qingyang replied without a trace of sympathy. "Just keep any access to your DNA secure and you'll be fine. What's she going to do? Knock on your door and ask for a strand of hair?"

"I'm worried she'll try to seduce me for it," Zhang Yuanqing said.

Fu Qingyang thought for a moment. "I'll warn her against it. This case isn't closed yet. We'll settle things with her when the opportunity arises. We also need further confirmation. What if it's not her?"

Zhang Yuanqing nodded. As long as the suspect could be identified, there could still be a future reckoning would. This was what people meant when they said justice might arrive late, but it never failed to show.

Fu Qingyang raised his left wrist and checked his watch. "Go find Guan Ya. My guests will be here in ten minutes."

***

Inside the combat training room on the west side of the villa's ground floor, Guan Ya wore a loose fitting training outfit, stretching her legs by the window. A few meters away, Zhang Yuanqing was doing the same.

Fu Qingyang would warn the old lady from the Zhu family to stay away for sure, but that didn't mean she'd swallow her anger quietly. The Killing Art Curse was nearly impossible to guard against. One lapse in vigilance and he could find himself blindsided.

The urgency to grow stronger pressed down on Zhang Yuanqing like a physical weight. Dungeons took time to open, and there was no rushing that, but there were other things he could do.

In the real world, he currently had two avenues for increasing his strength. First, wait for the Official Tournament to begin, place well, and earn rewards. Second, hunt down a Transcendent-tier Evil-class Walker, refine them into a Yin corpse, and become a truly outstanding powerhouse at the Transcendent stage. Those two goals would be his focus for the foreseeable future.

Of course, he also had to keep dodging the Demon Eye Heavenly King. He really hoped the branch elders would deal with that radical lunatic soon. As long as that man was still out there, even sleeping felt dangerous.

Zhang Yuanqing pulled himself from his thoughts and turned to look at the exquisite, alluring mixed-heritage beauty beside him. "What made you suddenly want to practice sparring today?"

I suddenly felt like beating you up, that's what, Guan Ya seethed internally, but she flashed him a pleasant smile instead. "It's been a while since we sparred. I want to see if you've gotten rusty."

Zhang Yuanqing let out a laugh. "I've been training footwork and punches at home every day."

Just then, gazing through the floor to ceiling window, he spotted a black luxury car pulling up outside the villa. The door opened, and out stepped a golden-haired, blue-eyed stunner. Her skin was creamy and milk pale, her figure athletic yet generously curved.

Behind her walked a middle-aged man in an impeccably tailored suit. He had short, light brown hair, with fine crow's feet at the corners of his eyes, and a gaze that was deep and mature. He carried the seasoned charm of a man who'd lived well and seen much.

Zhang Yuanqing's eyes went wide. He immediately pressed himself against the window for a better look. Wait, isn't that Annie and Mr. Bill? What are they doing at Fu Family Bay? Are these the guests Fu Qingyang mentioned?

Guan Ya followed his gaze through the landscaped trees and spotted the two foreigners entering the villa. Her eyes lingered briefly on the stunning Annie, then flicked to Yuanshi, who looked like he was about to pop his eyeballs out and hurl them through the glass. She ground her teeth, and an inexplicable wave of irritation surged through her.

"Stop gawking," she snapped. "Time to train."

She launched herself into the air, and her long, straight legs clamped around Zhang Yuanqing's torso in an instant. She twisted her hips mid-flight, rolling like a crocodile, and slammed him flat onto the hardwood floor with a resounding crack.

"What the hell! That's a cheap shot!" Zhang Yuanqing roared.

The two of them tore into each other, and the training room filled with a rapid staccato of impacts.

***

Out in the lush, green courtyard, Bill Tarantino suddenly turned his head toward the west side of the villa.

"What is it?" Annie asked.

He looked away, a mild smile on his lips. "I thought I felt someone watching us just now."

Annie flashed a smile dripping with confidence. "People watching us is perfectly normal. Who could possibly resist my charm?"

Bill's gaze drifted forward again. "Indeed. In that case, beautiful lady, might you deploy that charm on the young master of the Fu household and secure us the best possible deal?"

Annie laughed. "Of course!"

***

An hour later, Zhang Yuanqing emerged from the training room with a bruised and swollen face and stumbled into the adjacent shower room to wash up. Honestly, that woman had no sense of restraint at all. It wasn't like he'd used the legendary, long lost Dragon Claw Hand on her or anything.

After showering, he returned to the living room and peered out through the doorway. The black luxury car was still parked outside.

He wandered into the dining room and settled in to enjoy the meal the Bunny girls had prepared to replenish his energy. He cut a piece of steak, placed it in his mouth, and chewed slowly.

It occurred to him that Fu Qingyang's family owned a vast business empire overseas, and that the centurion himself had grown up abroad, just like Guan Ya. As a result, it was perfectly natural for him to have connections with foreign Spirit Realm Walkers.

Zhang Yuanqing finished his steak at a leisurely pace, then picked up a bowl heaped with mashed potatoes. He scooped it up spoonful by spoonful, savoring the soft, velvety texture of the potatoes that had been seasoned with pepper and some sort of special sauce. It was perfectly seasoned, with a lingering aftertaste that demanded another bite.

Just as he finished the mashed potatoes, footsteps echoed from the direction of the staircase, accompanied by Ling Jun's eager voice.

"Miss Annie, don't rush off! I was wondering if I might have the honor of inviting you to dinner. Fu Qingyang is a repressed freak who doesn't know how to treat a lady properly, but I do! Miss Annie? Miss Annie?"

Zhang Yuanqing half-leaned his head around the doorframe and peered out. Bill and Annie were striding toward the exit as though they couldn't leave fast enough. Ling Jun trailed after them in his flip flops, bouncing along like a puppy, saying "Miss Annie" this and "dinner together" that, the words tumbling out in a relentless stream.

It was a textbook simp's performance.

Sadly, all of Ling Jun's princely enthusiasm didn't earn him so much as a backward glance from Annie. She climbed into the luxury car, and it pulled away from Fu Family Bay.

Zhang Yuanqing stepped out with a glistening sausage speared on his fork and grinned. "Foreign fillies might have fine breeding, but they're too spirited and too proud. It looks like they'd be hard to tame. Young Master Ling Jun, you might want to stick to domestic options."

Ling Jun shrugged and flopped onto the plush sofa in the living room. "I don't know about her spiritedness, but her standards are definitely high. She doesn't spare ordinary Spirit Realm Walkers a second glance."

"Ordinary?" Zhang Yuanqing swallowed the sausage. "Didn't you tell her who you are? You're one of the most prominent young masters on the entire continent."

Ling Jun let out a dry laugh. "I was just messing with her. The world is full of beauties worth savoring, but the women of the Aphrodite Society are the one sort of flower you never pick. They're roses with thorns.

"You know about the Aphrodite Society, right? It's an organization made up entirely of Love and Desire class practitioners. The women of that class have a skill that lets them exact a price from any man they've slept with. Every single one in the upper echelon of the Aphrodite Society has lovers scattered across the globe. They build their power by sleeping with men, and they've carved out empires by doing it."

Zhang Yuanqing put on a suitably shocked expression. "There's actually a class like that? At which tier does that skill unlock? Saint or Transcendent?"

"Transcendent, if I remember right," Ling Jun said with a sigh. "That Annie just now, if I'm not mistaken, is already at the Saint tier. What a waste..."

If she'd been a Transcendent-tier beauty, he could have leveraged his higher level to suppress her powers and walk away without paying any price at all. But for someone at the same tier? Not a chance.

Zhang Yuanqing took the opportunity to probe for information. "So they're foreign Spirit Realm Walkers? What brings them here?"

"What else would a Void class practitioner be doing? Business, of course," Ling Jun replied as he settled into lecture mode. "The Songhai Branch sorts through its lower-value and overstocked items and materials every year and puts them up for sale. The Void class are the merchants of the Spirit Realm world, and they have an almost obsessive drive for trade. The Merchants' Guild, made up of Void-class Walkers, has stockpiles that dwarf every other organization on earth, with the widest variety of goods you'll find anywhere.

"As long as one can afford it, one can buy items and materials for any class from them. June and December are the designated trading periods. The elders obviously can't be bothered with this sort of thing, and after Fu Qingyang arrived, trade negotiations became his responsibility. That Annie just now was throwing bedroom eyes at Comrade Fu the entire time, trying to corrupt him with her beauty. She had devious intentions indeed."

In the future, I could sell my outdated items to Mr. Bill, or trade for things I need, Zhang Yuanqing mused. That would be far more cost effective than turning them in to the branch. After all, more merit and commendations weren't particularly useful to him anymore.

He recalled Annie's furious departure. "So the centurion didn't take the bait?"

Ling Jun rolled his eyes. "Take the bait? That man looked her dead in the face and said, 'If this deal includes Miss Annie's body, you'll need to pay me an additional fee for emotional damage.'"

Zhang Yuanqing silently covered his face. That's absolutely savage.

He was beginning to realize that Fu Qingyang was, underneath it all, a man with a vicious tongue. The longer you spent around him, the more you discovered that beneath the cold, ascetic exterior lurked a soul that could cut with words alone. He didn't need Ling Jun to spell out whatever happened next. He could picture it perfectly.

"Business is business," Ling Jun said matter-of-factly. "There's always haggling involved. They'll be back in a few days. The sheer volume of materials and items from the Songhai Branch is an irresistible lure for any Void-class Walker."

He looked Zhang Yuanqing up and down. "Did you use the legendary, long lost Dragon Claw Hand on Guan Ya again?"

"No! I didn't do anything this time. She just attacked me out of nowhere," Zhang Yuanqing complained, sounding deeply wronged.

Ling Jun gave him a knowing look, then spoke with the gravity of an elder dispensing wisdom. "Yuanshi, I've recently gotten to know quite a few beauties here in Songhai. Let me introduce you to some. They're very understanding, very gentle, virtuous, and very alluring, as long as you've got money."

Zhang Yuanqing pulled out his phone, his expression the picture of righteous indignation. "I am not that kind of man!"

***

The next day, Zhang Yuanqing finished breakfast and headed out with his aunt. The two stood side-by-side in the elevator car, her with her small crossbody bag, and him Yuanqing with his backpack. The polished elevator doors reflected their images with mirror-like clarity.

Jiang Yu'er had dressed simply, in a pale yellow t-shirt, slim-fitting cropped pants, and white sneakers. The outfit showed off her figure beautifully while adding a touch of youthful energy. Paired with that sweet, demure face, she could easily have passed for a well-developed teenager rather than the twenty-five-year-old woman she actually was.

Zhang Yuanqing admired his aunt's radiant beauty in their makeshift mirror. Beyond the delicate, adorable features, her smooth and luminous skin had a jade-like quality to it, the kind of complexion that made you wonder if she'd been carved from porcelain. It was nothing like those "rosy and fair" faces you saw everywhere else.

Jiang Yu'er tilted her head up at a forty-five degree angle, studying the top of her nephew's head. She raised a small hand to measure him.

"Have you gotten taller?" she asked.

Becoming a Spirit Realm Walker had triggered a second growth spurt, and he had indeed gained four or five centimeters. But Zhang Yuanqing wasn't about to dwell on that topic. He tilted his gaze down at a matching forty-five degrees and grinned.

"You've grown too," he observed, deflecting her question.

Jiang Yu'er's eyes went wide with fury, and her hand came down in a karate chop against the back of his neck. "How dare you! You'd flirt with your own aunt? Is there anything you won't do, you little beast?"

The two of them roughhoused for a while, right up until the elevator reached the ground floor and the doors slid open.

Jiang Yu'er instantly reverted to her perfect prim, ladylike composure. Under the polite, deferential gazes of several residents waiting outside, she hooked her arm through her nephew's and stepped gracefully out of the car.

Once outside the building, Zhang Yuanqing climbed into his aunt's car, and they set off for Songhai University.

With the Chi Yue'an case wrapped up, he'd returned to his life as a college student. He didn't have any work assignments for the time being, so if there were classes, he needed to attend them. He couldn't just lounge around at home all day. Grandma would be the first to object.

The white car pulled up to Songhai University's main gate. Zhang Yuanqing got out and waved goodbye to his aunt. He watched her car merge into the flow of traffic, then shouldered his backpack and turned toward the campus.

That was when a figure at the school gate caught his eye.

It was a young man in athletic wear. He had handsome features and a friendly smile, and wore a sports headband across his forehead. He was the textbook image of a sunny, clean-cut heartthrob.

Girls entering and leaving the school kept stealing glances at him, but he paid them no attention. He swept the ground in front of the gate with quiet, focused strokes of his broom, clearing away every speck of dust.

The Demon Eye Heavenly King.

Zhang Yuanqing felt his heart skip a beat. Then it began hammering, hard and fast, slamming against his ribs like it wanted out.

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