Chapter 43: Dealing with a Level-Two Anomaly

Yunzhi executed her qinggong and sprinted several dozen meters before realizing that Ziji was still standing stock-still in place. Thinking he might have noticed something amiss, she hurriedly stopped to wait for him.

Although the Dream-Weaving Bracelet disguised her as a spirit, Muxue had warned her that in the spirit realm, all wild zones unrestricted by the System Gods were extremely chaotic: major spirits devoured minor spirits, and minor spirits consumed spirit entities.

As for living humans, they were "fresh delicacies" eagerly sought after by both major and minor spirits, as well as spirit entities.

Now, Yunzhi's aura as a living human was gone, but within the spirit domain, she was merely a low-level, rank-one minor spirit with an unfamiliar face.

Therefore, it was best to avoid traveling alone whenever possible.

Her frantic dash earlier was primarily because she had been clinging tightly to Ziji's arm the whole time. Once the sudden terror subsided and she reflected on it, she felt a little embarrassed and awkward.

Not knowing how to handle the situation, she decided to put some distance between them first and figure things out later.

However, after running quite a distance and taking in the gloomy, eerie surroundings with the bizarre, wailing cries that seemed to linger in her ears, Yunzhi's bravado instantly deflated.

What was pride compared to safety?

Fortunately, seeing her stop, Ziji quickly caught up and asked with concern, "What is it? Is something wrong?"

Yunzhi replied, "I was going to ask you the same thing. Did you discover something?"

Ziji thought to himself: *Yes, indeed.* He had discovered that he was no longer repulsed by physical contact with a young woman—to be precise, physical contact with Yunzhi.

Entering the spirit domain this time undoubtedly carried risks, but danger hadn't actually materialized just yet.

He knew Yunzhi had clung to his arm purely out of fear. The moment she learned the spirit domain's danger level wasn't particularly high and let go of his hand, for some reason, he had felt a faint sense of disappointment...?

It must have been disappointment, right?

Ziji had never experienced such emotions before. Given the current circumstances, it certainly wasn't the right time for deep introspection, so he crudely and simply categorized this feeling as "concern," fearing that Yunzhi might run into danger if she acted alone.

He solemnly warned, "The ancient castle ahead has the densest concentration of spirit qi in the vicinity. There are bound to be rank-two spirits there, so you'd better stick close to me and not wander off on your own."

Yunzhi replied, "Oh, alright. Then you'll walk in front?"

Ziji actually wanted to hold Yunzhi's hand again as they walked; it made him feel more secure. However, with the S-rank spirit artifact, the Dream-Weaving Bracelet, even if they got separated, they could sense each other's locations, and if one party faced life-or-death danger, an emergency teleportation function could even be activated.

This left him without any excuse to grab her hand.

With a cold expression, Ziji strode ahead.

Inwardly, however, he wondered: once they got out of this small spirit domain, should he search the internet to see if it was normal to want to cling to a good friend?

Seeing Ziji clearing the path ahead, Yunzhi felt a great deal of reassurance. After all, his superpower was the lightning element, which was the ultimate counter to spirits and spirit entities! Furthermore, his rank was already at level two.

It was safe to say Ziji's strength allowed him to walk unhindered through this small spirit domain!

It seemed she might actually save the points she had reserved for the spatial safe house this time, and Yunzhi briskly hurried to catch up.

Soon, a four-story ancient castle appeared before them.

A middle-aged butler wearing a swallow-tailed coat, with the flesh on his face and hands beginning to rot and emitting a decaying stench, stood before the castle gates.

His grayish-white eyeballs rolled stiffly, and he spoke in a bizarre voice, "I wonder where the two fellow spirits hail from? My master does not seem to have invited any guests."

Because this small spirit domain was a "back garden" jointly carved out by the four strongest spirit kings in the spirit world, all four spirit kings had stationed subordinates here, each occupying vast territories in the east, west, south, and north.

Aside from the spirit kings' personal servants, some rank-two minor spirits who couldn't survive in the wider spirit world would also hide here to escape the mandatory requirement of entering a spirit instance once every week to month.

The central area was tacitly recognized as a public zone.

The region Yunzhi and Ziji had just entered was located in the western portion of the central area.

This ancient castle, situated in the western district of the small spirit domain, was the territory of the Spirit King Xidel.

The living humans/souls imprisoned within the castle were precisely the "healing" materials required by Spirit King Xidel.

The consciousness of the spirit world—in other words, the System God—wishing to help thoroughly, had transmitted even more information to Yunzhi through Muxue.

For instance, if she encountered other spirits while in the central area of the spirit domain, the danger level was at its absolute highest, as the central area served as the wilderness of this spirit domain.

Once they reached any of the four cardinal districts, the resident spirit servants were permanently bound to a specific spirit king. Before figuring out her and Ziji's identities and intentions, they wouldn't rashly make a move.

In addition, she learned that Spirit King Xidel, who occupied the western district, was pursuing the female Spirit King Hongyan, who occupied the southern district.

Female Spirit King Hongyan held no romantic interest in Xidel. However, constrained by the fact that she was the weakest among the four spirit kings and fearing she would offend Xidel, she had never openly rejected him, maintaining a somewhat friendly relationship with him.

Even more wondrously, Hongyan also maintained friendly relations with the other two male spirit kings.

A fairly popular saying in the spirit world was that whichever spirit king managed to successfully advance to Spirit Emperor first would have Hongyan as his empress.

Regardless of the world, once basic survival needs were met, those in power loved chasing power and profit.

The three male spirit kings might not have cared deeply for Hongyan; each of them already had several pretty and cute female spirit lovers—and their preferences weren't necessarily confined to female spirits or even human shapes. However, Hongyan was the most beautiful among the high-ranking female spirits, and the highest-ranked among the beautiful female spirits.

Whoever could openly marry Hongyan would symbolize absolute strength and status.

It not only meant being a Spirit Emperor oneself, but also having a beautiful female spirit king as a wife.

Moreover, marrying Hongyan was equivalent to possessing an entire harem.

One of Female Spirit King Hongyan's innate skills was "Thousand Metamorphoses"—her face could transform into the visage of any woman whose soul she had consumed.

Muxue, a newcomer with immense potential, had been able to grow so rapidly not only due to her own hard work, but also because she had caught the eye of two spirit kings simultaneously, who had secretly opened some back doors for her.

Spirit King Xidel had taken a fancy to Muxue's soul itself. Her entry into the spirit world had been intentionally orchestrated by Xidel's subordinates.

Not long after Muxue entered the spirit world, Female Spirit King Hongyan had taken a liking to Muxue's face.

Though her facial repository contained hundreds of faces of beautiful female spirits, she happened to lack a cold, ethereal beauty like Muxue.

Xidel and Hongyan had never managed to successfully negotiate the ownership of "Muxue," but both believed that once Muxue advanced to rank nine and became a newly minted spirit king, it would be the optimal "hunting moment," which would maximally boost their strength. For now, Muxue remained safe.

The ones currently in danger were Taoqi, Tiantian, and another kidnapped individual who were candidates for Xidel's healing materials.

In short, due to the intricate relationships among the various spirit kings, whether in the spirit world or the small spirit domain, the spirit servants of the other three spirit kings would afford some courtesy to Female Spirit King Hongyan's servants.

Who knew if the two households might become one on some future day?

Yunzhi understood Muxue's intention in transmitting this information to her.

Yunzhi said, "Greetings, my older brother and I are newly recruited spirit servants of Female Spirit King Hongyan. We came here this time to inquire about the quality of the healing materials you've managed to secure recently. We mustn't delay Spirit King Xidel's healing process."

Spirit King Xidel was originally the strongest among the four spirit kings, but ever since he was injured in an SSS-rank hell-difficulty instance, his strength had dropped to third among the four.

Female Spirit King Hongyan would periodically dispatch spirit servants to express her concern.

The middle-aged butler lingered his grayish-white eyes on Yunzhi's excessively pretty face for a couple of seconds, thinking to himself that this little female spirit, who looked as though she had just arrived in the spirit realm, would sooner or later become one of the collectibles in Female Spirit King Hongyan's facial repository.

Outwardly, however, he was extremely respectful. "So you are subordinates of Female Spirit King Hongyan. Please, follow me inside and take a look. The healing materials we captured this time are of exceptionally high quality, and one of them is particularly capable of accommodating spirit qi—worth two of any ordinary ones!"

With that, the middle-aged butler flicked a strand of spirit qi, and the castle gates swung open of their own accord.

These gates were capable of recognizing specific spirit qi signatures.

Though ugly in appearance, this middle-aged butler was a powerful, seasoned rank-two spirit.

Since victory could be achieved through wits, it was best not to resort to brute force for now, lest Taoqi and Tiantian inside the castle be inadvertently harmed.

No, not just the two of them; there was also the aura of a third living human, and that third person's aura was even more vigorous than Taoqi's and Tiantian's... It almost felt like an... Esper?

Yunzhi and Ziji exchanged a glance and followed behind the middle-aged butler.

The middle-aged butler wore a stiff smile as he walked and introduced, "Since they entered the spirit domain today for their very first day, they can only withstand the lowest concentration of spirit qi. We've temporarily locked them in the innermost room on the first floor. Tomorrow they'll be moved to the second floor, the day after to the third, and the day after that... hehe, they can be sent to the fourth floor and presented to the master through the Soul-Capturing Mirror for his enjoyment!"

As he spoke, the middle-aged butler smacked his lips with a hint of covetousness. It was a pity that although the healing materials found this time were of high quality, there were only three of them in total, leaving him and the other spirit servants with nothing to share.

Fortunately, the master only ever consumed living souls; the flesh|body was always left at their disposal. When the time came...

The middle-aged butler warmly extended an invitation. "If the two fellow spirits are free the day after tomorrow, please be sure to come and partake in the feast!"

Yunzhi tried hard to keep her voice steady, but still couldn't help a trace of trembling, "Wh-what kind of feast?"

The Soul-Capturing Mirror, as the name implied, must surely only suck away the soul...

The information relayed by Muxue indicated that the materials required by Spirit King Xidel were always "living souls," which meant the physical body shouldn't be included.

They regarded living humans as "healing materials"—surely they weren't going to hold a funeral for their deaths, were they?

Could it be... what she was imagining?

Yunzhi's scalp began to tingle.

The middle-aged butler chuckled merrily. "Of course it's a feast hosted using the bodily materials of the very flesh I'm currently wearing! Among the three living humans caught this time, I noticed a young fellow whose physical constitution is exceptionally good. I plan to use his body as my new skin. Although my old body is beginning to rot and can no longer withstand the erosion of spirit qi, meat is meat after all—it mustn't go to waste!"

Yunzhi: ...

Damn it, this was too disgusting! Even sparing one's own corpse was too much to ask?!

The middle-aged butler offered a knowing explanation. "You must both be new spirits who died not long ago, since you don't even know the three ways to possess a physical body in the spirit domain. First, during the three-month protection period for new spirits, you can continue using your living body, and it will even be restored to its optimal living state. Second, once you reach rank seven, you can manifest one yourself using spirit qi. Third, you can use fresh, recently deceased corpses as skin. A single corpse can last for two to three months!"

Ziji asked strangely, "Why is having a physical body so necessary?"

The middle-aged butler replied as a matter of course, "When you were alive, you were human for decades, able to walk firmly on the ground. Who wants to keep floating around forever? Besides, without a body, the sensation of pain is multiplied several times over, you lose your sense of smell, you can't taste the aroma of food, and you can't experience the joy between men and women—how boring is that?"

"Besides, without a body, how can you smuggle yourself into the mortal realm to run errands for the master?"

Yunzhi: ...

Ziji: ...

Clearly, the last sentence carried the most information, yet this guy had saved it for the very last.

It seemed that the ones who kidnapped Taoqi and Tiantian were likely not living humans.

Following this conversation, the butler led the two of them deep into the labyrinth-like ancient castle.

With a flick of his fingertip, he projected a strand of spirit qi and unlocked the door to the room.

Inside the room, under the illumination of a gloomy green spirit lamp, three weak individuals sat on the floor.

Special spirit talismans were affixed to their bodies, keeping them in a constant state of wakefulness so they could better absorb the spirit qi.

With vacant eyes, all three slowly turned their heads toward the doorway.

Ziji projected an invisible, formless wave of spiritual consciousness to impart a mental suggestion. When the three of them saw his and Yunzhi's faces, their eyes merely widened slightly, and they refrained from speaking.

The middle-aged butler boasted, "Take a look, fellow spirits! The quality of these three living humans is exceptionally good! The two on the left were brought in not long ago and have already absorbed 0.1 to 0.2 units of spirit qi! The girl on the right, who has been here the longest, has already absorbed 0.4 units of spirit qi!"

Yunzhi first looked at Taoqi and Tiantian. Confirming that their clothes were intact and they had suffered no injuries aside from a bit of dust and grime on their faces, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Only then did she look toward the third person in the room, who was suspected to be an Esper...

Yunzhi's eyes suddenly widened in shock. How could it be Jiao Youxuan? She was a rank-two mental-type Esper!

Jiao Youxuan blinked gently.

She was quite helpless as well.

She had just returned from the nation of pastries when she received a distress signal from the Haicheng Supernatural Affairs Bureau.

Mental-type Espers were extremely rare, and she was always flown to wherever she was needed.

Learning her lesson from the previous infiltration into the nation of pastries, where all her tracking and positioning devices were discovered and discarded, this time she had implanted a high-tech nano-tracking device into her body.

This ensured that no matter where she was kidnapped—even abroad—expert hackers cooperating with the Affairs Bureau could pinpoint her location.

Jiao Youxuan never imagined that this time, putting herself in danger to take the place of an innocent girl—the place she was ultimately brought to would look so deeply underworldly: red moons, ancient castles, and the living dead!

No matter how formidable the hacking technology or how advanced the tracking device, it simply couldn't locate the underworld!

She wondered if this place was even within Earth's boundaries anymore?

Would she still have a chance to be rescued this time?

The person—or rather, the living dead—who had captured her was also rank-two, with spiritual power slightly superior to hers. Her mental hypnosis Esper ability worked, but its effect was limited.

Upon learning that he was about to leave to hunt down a second and third target outside, Jiao Youxuan didn't hesitate to overdraw her mental energy to implant a mental suggestion, ensuring he wouldn't need to use mental power to shield the surrounding surveillance cameras during his operation.

Issuing a mental suggestion directive that forced the other party to cancel their mission outright or carry her out directly directly contradicted their established objective, making the difficulty too high to achieve.

However, simply forgetting to shield the surveillance cameras still carried a relatively high probability of success.

Now, seeing the figures of Yunzhi and Ziji, Jiao Youxuan knew her mental suggestion must have succeeded; otherwise, these two experts wouldn't have been able to track her down so quickly.

Yunzhi realized this as well. She and Ziji must have so smoothly tracked the surveillance footage of Taoqi and Tiantian being taken thanks to Jiao Youxuan's mental suggestion.

She merely glanced at Jiao Youxuan, afraid of giving the butler any clues, and said nothing further, instead telling the middle-aged butler, "The healing materials you've selected this time are indeed of exceptional quality. I imagine Spirit King Xidel's condition will improve very soon!"

The middle-aged butler was just about to brag a bit more when rapid footsteps approached. "Old Wright, what are you doing? Who did you bring over? Don't let the living humans I went through so much trouble to catch get away!"

A tall, robust man standing about 180 cm tall walked over.

Old Wright said, "Old Li, these are spirit servants dispatched by Female Spirit King Hongyan..."

Old Li appeared to be in his forties, with an honest and unpretentious expression. His body looked "very new" and bore no resemblance whatsoever to the living dead.

Yet, as he drew closer, Yunzhi could still catch a faint scent of decay.

Upon seeing Yunzhi's face, Old Li's gaze froze in place.

"You must have died recently, haven't you? The quality of your physical shell is truly wonderful; it looks so durable... Little sister, care to play with me? Accompany me for three days, and I'll allocate one of the female corpses in the room to you later. We'll freeze it with a Spirit Fresh Talisman first, and when your current body expires, you can put on your new skin."

Ziji's spiritual consciousness had already scanned and inspected the room. There were a total of six spirits inside, four of which were rank-one minor spirits, leaving only the two before him as rank-two spirits.

If he weren't afraid that fighting here might inadvertently harm the three living humans inside, Ziji would have dearly loved to electrocute these two right on the spot.

Especially this lecherous Old Li who kept staring at Yunzhi!

Old Li thought to himself: if this pretty female spirit hadn't been a subordinate of Female Spirit King Hongyan—meaning she was likely a reserved face desired by Female Spirit King Hongyan—he would have taken her by force.

A rank-one minor female spirit; wasn't she just like clay in his hands, to be molded or flattened as he pleased?

Unfortunately, the two living humans found for master Xidel couldn't be touched casually either. If their bodies were overly saturated with spirit qi, it would accelerate the erosion of their souls by spirit qi. If they accidentally died before the fourth day, it would delay the master's healing.

If frequent trips to the mortal realm hadn't increased the risk of exposure, and if he didn't currently have guard duties, Old Li would have loved to dash to the mortal realm's red-light district to carouse and enjoy himself.

Old Wright disapproved slightly as he persuaded, "Old Li, while on duty, you really shouldn't..."

This Old Li possessed formidable combat power, but he had a particular weakness for lust.

Among the three living humans this time, two were young and pretty women. Had Old Wright not constantly intervened, Old Li would undoubtedly have tried to take advantage of them.

Old Li said impatiently, "Old fogey, I advise you not to meddle in other people's business, unless you still want that young man's body to use as a new skin!"

Old Wright promptly fell silent, casting a helpless look toward Yunzhi.

Ziji clenched his fists, exerting extreme self-control to suppress the urge to kill Old Li right then and there.

Yunzhi spoke up, "Talking about this here doesn't feel quite appropriate. Shall we find another room to chat in private?"

She was only rank one, and Ziji was rank two.

Yet the opposition had two rank-two spirits.

Now was not the time to strike.

It would be best to separate Old Li and Old Wright and deal with them individually... furthermore, the battle site should ideally be far away from this place.

With that, Yunzhi turned and walked away first. Old Li assumed she was feigning agreement while actually plotting an escape, but after walking only a few meters, Yunzhi turned her head back and flashed him a sweet smile.

"Brother Li, come along."

Old Li immediately gave chase.

Ziji wanted to follow as well, but was intercepted by Old Wright. "Hey, your younger sister agreed to it herself; as an older brother, don't stand in the way of her future. Opportunities to secure a young, pretty female corpse as a backup skin don't come around often. Old Li is being quite generous!"

Knowing Yunzhi wouldn't be in danger—she was deliberately luring Old Li away to create an opportunity for him to deal with Old Wright alone—Ziji darkened his face and said, "Butler Wright, let's change places to talk as well. I'd like to understand how a man can quickly acquire a backup skin?"

Butler Wright casually flicked a strand of spirit qi, closing the door to the room where the three captives were locked.

"Hehe, young man, you've asked the right person. Female Spirit King Hongyan never allows new spirits to venture outside to run errands for her, and her spirit servants have always favored capturing young, pretty girls... Working under her, it's indeed not very easy to find a suitable new skin in time."

"Among the male spirit servants under Female Spirit King Hongyan, the only ones who can change into new skin every three months are her male favorites—your face and figure certainly meet the criteria, but faces and figures are things that must be replaced every three months. If a male spirit under a female spirit king wants to rise in rank, he still has to rely on strength, and your strength is still a bit too low right now."

"Young fellow, would you consider switching jobs and coming to work for us, Spirit King Xidel?"

"The kind of work Old Li does is definitely something you can handle."

"He never listens to orders. Whenever he goes outside, he spends half the day in the red-light district. Once, when he couldn't find a suitable living human, he even kidnapped a poorly-qualified old man back here. The boss has long wanted to arrange for someone else to keep an eye on him."

"Your physical quality is excellent; next month it will surely still look as good as new! Going outside to handle tasks will definitely not be a problem!"

Old Wright didn't mind Ziji's taciturn nature. Willingness to listen meant the young man was interested.

Low-level spirits loafing around in the small spirit domain were all greedy for life and afraid of death, daring not to enter instances, which meant their ranks couldn't rise, leaving them unable to obtain a physical body through their own power.

What low-level spirit could resist the temptation of a stable source of bodies?

When Ziji's spiritual consciousness scanned and confirmed that Yunzhi had slipped into a room and then flashed into her spatial safe house, and seeing that their current location was sufficiently far from where Taoqi and three others were imprisoned, he no longer held back.

A ball of purple lightning he had been brewing in his hand for a while fiercely smashed toward Old Wright right beside him!

Old Wright's face drained of color in shock. "Y-you, how can you be a lightning-element?"

The lightning element was the absolute nemesis of spirits. No low-level spirit's innate talent was ever lightning, otherwise, they would end up counter-attacking themselves.

Unless they advanced to rank seven and could manifest a physical body, only then could a secondary talent gained from rewards possibly be the lightning element.

Old Wright narrowly dodged the face-smashing attack of the first lightning ball, but his shoulder was still struck by the electricity. His pupils turned red, and thick spirit qi erupted from his entire body, surging toward Ziji.

His innate talent was—Corrosion!

Otherwise, his current body wouldn't have looked tattered and ruined only two months after being replaced.

Alas, the dense spirit qi failed to touch even the hem of Ziji's garment before being blocked by a barrier of lightning energy.

Ziji struck again, forming a web of massive lightning energy that tightly bound Old Wright.

Old Wright struggled desperately as spirit qi scattered in all directions. The ceiling, floor, and several surrounding rooms were pitted and corroded by his spirit qi.

Just as Old Wright's spirit qi threatened to spread toward the direction Yunzhi had left earlier, attempting to alert Old Li, his body—already showing obvious signs of decay—was enveloped by the dense web of thunder and lightning, turning into a charred corpse.

Even Old Wright's spirit failed to escape, blasted smaller and smaller by the lightning net until it finally dissolved into non-aggressive, stray spirit qi that dissipated into the air.

This was complete and utter death.

Meanwhile, in the room on the other side, Yunzhi had already emerged from the spatial safe house, and two sharp ice prisms violently stabbed toward Old Li's eyes from a meter away.

Being at such close range, Old Li had no time to dodge.

With that single encounter, his eyes were pierced through by Yunzhi's ice prisms, forcing his spirit out of the physical shell...