Chapter 47: Bai Miao's Commission

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“There was a time when I was playing with an attribute-less energy stone that the nanny robot had replaced—it was completely drained of energy. He saw me and looked down on me for being useless, then snatched the spent energy stone away.”

“I was upset and didn’t even eat dinner.”

“The next day, he arranged for someone to prepare an entire warehouse full of energy stones from various elements for me! The most were attribute-less stones, then water-wood dual elements, because those are my two attributes.”

“But my body has serious genetic defects, so it’s hard for me to absorb energy effectively; it tends to dissipate naturally and can’t be retained. My level can’t improve normally either. Still, absorbing energy stones isn’t without benefit—it slightly strengthens my body and spirit, boosting me roughly from level F to F+, but if I don’t absorb for a long time, I’ll fall back to my original level.”

“At first, I was reluctant to use them, thinking it was a waste. But the butler told me that the Major General owns an energy mining star and told me to use whatever I want. Once I finish, the Major General will send another batch.”

“In short, except for the water, wood, and attribute-less energy stones which I keep a little of, the rest can be given to Sister Yun Zhi as payment!”

Yun Zhi: …
Cen Junfei: ……

Yun Zhi, who had thought she had achieved financial freedom, felt extremely poor for the first time. After all, she had to scrimp and save even when taking a single vial of supernatural energy recovery potion.

Advancement in supernatural abilities relied heavily on the extremely sparse energy in the air.

At her current low level, advancing from level one to two was comparatively easy; beyond that, it basically became impossible to advance.

The highest levels in the Supernatural Management Bureau barely reached levels three or four.

Those who reached levels three or four often spent contribution points renting energy training chambers, where energy was several times denser than outside.

There was no other way; that was Earth’s harsh environment!

Her wealth was less than that of an unloved little kitten—poor but resilient with a brave smile.jpg.

Qin Tianhai, who had just finished training, chattered: “These energy stones look a bit like the elemental stones from the high martial world, just more translucent. Sister Yun Zhi, if you have extras, hand a few over—I’ll trade with you.”

Cen Junfei said, “Sister Yun Zhi, I want my share too! I really want wind attribute energy stones!”

In a few days, it would be the third time they conducted a trade with Yun Zhi.

Yun Zhi said, “Uh, this depends on how well I complete Bai Miao’s commission. Her task involves unnatural forces and is quite complicated. I can’t guarantee success.”

“But if I have extras, I’ll definitely reserve some for you.”

Bai Miao said, “Sister Yun Zhi, that Su Man is really sinister. Anyone close to her might get cursed with bad luck, or have their luck stolen… Regardless of whether you complete the task, these energy stones are my payment to you.”

“If you complete the commission, when my generous owner sends the next batch of energy stones, I’ll also send you a thank-you gift. But my situation is special right now, so I can’t guarantee if or how many of these gifts I’ll get.”

Bai Miao also mentioned others close to Su Man who occasionally suffered misfortune, although not as severely or frequently as she did.

Apparently, because Su Man replaced Bai Miao’s previous name and identity, her luck-stealing rate against Bai Miao was between 50% and 80%, while against others it ranged from about 5% to 30%.

Of course, this was Bai Miao’s personal conclusion after more than two years of knowing Su Man—not necessarily accurate. Yun Zhi would have to investigate personally to know for sure.

Bai Miao earnestly said, “As long as Sister Yun Zhi completes this task, I’ll have indirectly helped innocent people escape their cursed fate and stolen luck. That’s a great deed and will earn at least 10,000 points. Then my spiritual power will reach level E, allowing me to take human form for an hour each day!”

“Even if my owner stops giving me energy stones or kicks me out, I’ll find a way to earn energy stones or bring you other useful gifts as thanks! Please!”

“This is probably my only chance to become human!”

Bai Miao’s reason for commissioning this task was largely because she was exasperated—Su Man and her shadowy backers had made her life miserable, finally dying to shield Su Man from disaster.

But in the end, these were all grudges from a past life.

To avenge past hatred, she gave away all the energy stones her generous owner allowed her to use, which might cause her new life—er, cat life—to shift from easy to hard mode. If there were no benefits for her now, Bai Miao wouldn’t have issued such a commission.

The generous owner wouldn’t care about losing that batch of energy stones but would definitely care about how his double-F useless cat lost so many stones, leading to repeated questioning.

If language barriers arose, beast-kin from the cat tribe could be called in to translate.

If Bai Miao’s answers displeased him or made him suspect she was a spy sent by the Beast Empire, she might be sent away…

Though this owner was not the best, he was at least wealthy, generous, and didn’t meddle much, giving her high freedom.

But what if the next owner was a cruel cat-abuser?

Or an ordinary person who could barely afford expensive natural food and only fed her synthetic kibble?

Even if the new owner loved her dearly, petting her dozens of times daily… it would still be annoying; she was not a real pet!

But to seize this one chance to become human, Bai Miao accepted even the possibility of such a fate.

…

Because accepting this commission might cause her to lose her luck, even though the reward was a large number of energy stones she coveted, Yun Zhi had to consider carefully.

Direct contact with Su Man could lead to luck theft, which was scary, but the mission was doable—Yun Zhi could stay inside a spatial safe house whenever near Su Man.

When going out, she could use invisibility talismans.

As long as Su Man and her backers couldn’t lock onto her, they couldn’t steal her luck.

However, this meant additional point consumption for the mission and invisibility talismans.

During the last trip to the Wraith Domain, using the two-person spatial safe house cost 500 points, but she earned 3,000 points, plus an extra 100 points from a trade with Lu Zijun. Currently, Yun Zhi had 5,990 points remaining.

She needed to chat with the group system to earn more point rewards.

Yun Zhi switched to the customer service page and asked the chat group system.

“System, Bai Miao only posted one commission to cross worlds and help innocent people. The main work is mine. She just pays a batch of energy stones and earns 10,000 points.”

“How many point rewards are you planning to give me for this commission?”

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Chat Group System: …

Damn it, ordinary commissions used to pay 500 points, and this girl was already working hard.

Now that her strength has improved, 2,000 points per commission feels too little.

But the difficulty is really on another level.

The system said, “Don’t compare my point system with the Good Deeds system. It awards Bai Miao 10,000 points, which seems generous, but raising spiritual power from level F to E costs 10,000 points!”

“And it’s an upfront investment in the host. If Bai Miao can’t take human form, she’ll only earn a point or two daily. The Good Deeds system binding her is a white binding; when the bond breaks, it has to compensate to transfer her soul across the stars with energy.”

“No choice. It subsidizes from its private store to give Bai Miao a chance to cross the ‘become human’ threshold. Then she can do more good deeds.”

“Think back to when I subsidized your missions, adding a 42-year time buff to the stamps Tang Panpan gave you, and even cleared the zombie virus attached to the gold and jewels Cen Junfei paid for?”

“Basically, don’t hold my point standards against me. If you want to earn more, I can’t let you earn nothing, right?”

“Flat rate: 2,000 points!”

“Also, don’t worry about your luck being stolen—you’re the host chosen by this former immortal artifact. No evil spirits or demons can steal your luck.”

Yun Zhi: …

Damn, this chat group system must have taken some training—it’s getting slicker with words.

It used to avoid chatting much because it was a newbie in the system world, scared that revealing too much would weaken its authority.

Now…

Well, who hasn’t become a slick old hand after years in the workplace?

Big Brother doesn’t speak of Little Brother.

Yun Zhi sighed: “Fine! 2,000 points it is. But if something unexpected happens and my expenses exceed that, you have to compensate me. You can’t let me lose out, right?”

After spending time together, the chat group system knew Yun Zhi’s character—kind and just, but also loves small money and points.

“Don’t worry, I guarantee your net points earned minus spent will be at least 500!”

The chat group system gave Yun Zhi reassurance—no need to worry about spending more points than earned.

Energy stones are good, but for Yun Zhi, Bai Miao wasn’t the only source. With her current level 2 supernatural ability, the water elemental crystal cores Cen Junfei provided were barely enough.

After settling the price, Yun Zhi switched back to the group chat and formally accepted Bai Miao’s commission.

She then opened a private chat with Bai Miao.

Bai Miao promptly prepaid a large batch of energy stones for Yun Zhi.

She kept only a month’s supply for herself; the rest went to Yun Zhi.

Yun Zhi counted: three boxes each of water and wood energy stones, 3,000 stones; five boxes of attribute-less stones, 5,000 stones; one box each of gold, fire, and earth, 1,000 stones; half a box each of wind, thunder, and ice, 500 stones.

A total of 15,500 stones—all low-grade energy stones.

There were also medium, high, and top-grade stones above that.

Because Bai Miao was too low level, she could only absorb the lowest grade stones. Medium grade would injure her if absorbed by mistake, so her owner only prepared low-grade stones.

For Yun Zhi, low-grade stones were already enough.

Only when supernatural ability reached level 4 would medium-grade stones be recommended.

Of course, if there were no medium-grade stones, low-grade could be used by absorbing more of them.

One water elemental energy stone contained roughly the same energy as a vial of water elemental supernatural energy recovery potion.

Yun Zhi thought, “This is just too fortunate!”

Water, ice, and attribute-less energy stones were all usable for her.

The attribute-less stones took more time to convert into water energy after absorption, so efficiency was slower.

Other elemental stones didn’t match her attributes and were not usually recommended, but in special cases might be used.

For example, if she had serious external injuries, absorbing wood elemental stones could accelerate healing and restore vitality.

In extreme cold, absorbing some fire elemental stones could provide warmth and cold resistance.

If water, ice, or attribute-less stones ran out during battle, absorbing mismatched elemental stones could still replenish energy, though with side effects.

Absorbing fire stones caused body heat and restlessness; thunder stones caused a tingling electric sensation all over—basically, some elemental forces she couldn’t fully convert would harm her body but still provide energy, which was better than none.

Yun Zhi planned to keep ten thunder stones for emergencies and send the rest to Zi Ji, as he might also find use for attribute-less and other elemental stones.

Zi Ji had helped her a lot when needed, and she had accepted many good things from Lu Zijun and Zi Ji as returns.

The rest would be for her own use and trading with group friends.

…

The next morning, Yun Zhi contacted her old acquaintance, hacker Xiao Jiu, to help investigate all information about Su Man.

Xiao Jiu was a normal-schedule hacker and had just woken up.

Seeing Yun Zhi’s transfer amount—300,000, and that was only a deposit—Xiao Jiu immediately perked up: “Got it, Sister Yun Zhi! I’ll start right away! If you want detailed info, it’ll take two or three days.”

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Yun Zhi: “The more detailed, the better! Send me whatever you find as soon as you get it.”

This mission target was quite sinister; Yun Zhi needed to know as much as possible before approaching personally.

Although the chat group system said no matter what tricks the other side had, they couldn’t steal her luck, it’s wise to know your enemy.

Yun Zhi thought for a moment and warned Xiao Jiu again: “Su Man’s situation is special. Try to gather info online starting with people around her. Don’t have anyone confront her directly, and absolutely no traces—no one can find out we’re investigating her.”

Xiao Jiu somewhat understood Yun Zhi’s situation. His hacking skills were top-notch, occasionally cooperating with official tech staff, but he disliked constraints and mostly took freelance jobs.

Because he often helped Yun Zhi recently, he even learned about the existence of “supernatural beings” and the Supernatural Management Bureau, and had been visited by bureau staff to sign a confidentiality agreement.

After learning Yun Zhi was a supernatural being, despite being older by several years, he switched from the usual “boss” to calling her “Sister Yun Zhi.”

That was rare—who knew if he’d ever ask for her help?

Xiao Jiu asked, “Sister, what’s going on? Is Su Man a supernatural being too? If so, I can’t get much info.”

The bureau’s supernatural beings’ private info was heavily encrypted by official staff.

Ordinary hackers could only access public info.

If not for frequent cooperation with Yun Zhi, and no deliberate secrecy, he wouldn’t have known she was supernatural. If he knew, his memories could be wiped.

Yun Zhi said, “Su Man probably isn’t a supernatural being, but she carries special artifacts beyond natural forces.”

“Also, she’s not from the official bureau, but her backers… who knows?”

“Get as much as you can. Above all, be careful—don’t alert them.”

Xiao Jiu: “Got it, I’ll be cautious!”

Xiao Jiu’s skills were impressive, and soon Yun Zhi received info on Su Man.

Su Man was the heiress of the Su family of the Su Chain Hotels, a second-tier wealthy family in X City.

As Bai Miao said, since being “lost” and found by the Su family, Su Man had lived smoothly and was showered with love.

No info surfaced that she was previously named Jia Man or that she wasn’t the Su family’s biological child.

Xiao Jiu said, “Much of her info was deliberately erased.”

Yun Zhi also asked Xiao Jiu to check on Su Bai Miao, the biological daughter later retrieved by the Su family.

Xiao Jiu said, “Su Bai Miao’s info was wiped even more thoroughly online. If not for hacking the household registration system, I wouldn’t have found the name ‘Su Bai Miao’ in the Su family’s phone contacts or among close classmates and friends’ phones. Also, that cancelled online drama could still be found. Publicly, she’s almost invisible.”

“Su Bai Miao’s classmates and friends don’t know she drowned. They think she went away to work in another place and lost contact due to no internet.”

Since it’s summer break, less contact among friends is normal. Su Bai Miao only had a few close friends at university.

“The Su family never held a funeral for Su Bai Miao.”

“Her body was never recovered.”

“The cruise ship’s surveillance cameras were shut down that night, and subsequent footage was specially handled—no useful info can be found.”

Xiao Jiu started from Su Man’s close contacts’ communications as instructed by Yun Zhi.

He found all messages expressed love and care for Su Man.

Even the little-known online drama she starred in was full of praise.

However, Su Man’s close family and friends frequently encountered minor misfortunes and setbacks.

Recently, Su Man’s mother, Tong Qiu, was hospitalized with unidentifiable illness—headaches, weakness, and malaise.

Su Man’s eldest brother lost a major business deal to a rival.

Her second brother, a somewhat famous race car driver, recently had a minor accident and his right leg was in a cast.

The youngest brother was a top 10 scholar but failed the college entrance exam and only got into a second-tier university. He then pursued esports but injured his hand in a fight, ending his pro career.

Su Man’s older cousin, Su Yuan, who had the least contact with her and was busy expanding overseas markets recently, had a bit less bad luck, but a planned cooperation deal was cut by 10% in profits.

With sick family members, Su Yuan planned to return home after finishing overseas work.

Su Man’s family all had bad luck, while her own career was smooth sailing.

She won five million in the lottery, shone brighter than contestants as a guest singer on a talent show, won first place in a quiz show, and landed a lovable female supporting role in a primetime drama…

Not only was the Su family unlucky, but even those frequently in contact with Su Man had misfortunes, though less severe.

Xiao Jiu was alarmed: “Su Man is really eerie! Sister Yun Zhi, if I keep digging into her info, will I get unlucky too?”

Yun Zhi: “Don’t worry! You haven’t had direct contact, so you’re safe. She doesn’t even know who you are.”

Xiao Jiu relaxed.

As for Su Man’s backers… Xiao Jiu found no leads.

There were three suspects, but further investigation risked alerting them.

Being just an ordinary person, finding three suspicious individuals was already good.

Yun Zhi: “That’s enough. I’ll investigate the rest personally.”

Xiao Jiu: “Sister Yun Zhi, please be careful! Retreat immediately if anything feels wrong!”