Chapter Five: The Ability of the Xiezhi Spirit Pattern [4K]
The sound of the wind carries a faint smell of coal smoke.
Like a swift spirit deer, Jiang Li, under the cover of the night, quietly approached the suspicious man.
Passing over the high walls of the abandoned factory, crossing through the empty workshop, and climbing up the fiberglass roof along the metal pipes on the outer wall of the building, she moved like a breeze, making no sound at all.
As she advanced, Jiang Li kept her gaze fixated in a certain direction, with a dim golden glow deep within her eyes, flowing slowly like liquid mercury.
In her line of sight, everything she could see was shrouded in a layer of soft, white light resembling tranquil moonlight.
As that pure white light rippled, the buildings in her view quickly faded away, as if a thick fog was blown away by a strong wind.
After the buildings in her view disappeared, a shadow moving within the factory area appeared in Jiang Li’s line of sight.
From the silhouette’s outline, it was indeed the suspicious man from before.
Although the man used some unknown spirit energy item to effectively hide his spirit energy fluctuations, making it nearly impossible for her perception to detect him, he couldn’t escape Jiang Li’s eyes.
Once her newly acquired ability locked onto a target, the only way for it to escape capture was through d*ath.
The Book of Siye states: “[Mythological Species Xiezhi] Spirit Patterns grant three abilities: discern right from wrong, capture evil, and impose punishment.”
At this moment, what Jiang Li was using was the ability of [Capture Evil].
Of course, because the spirit pattern’s advancement carried immense risks and modified the power to a certain extent, her [Capture Evil] had undergone some subtle changes.
As she continued forward, a low building situated at the southeast corner of the factory area came into view after she had crossed nearly half the factory.
When she was about fifty meters away from the low building, Jiang Li slowed her steps and concealed herself around a corner.
Stopped moving? It seems like his destination is right here?
Jiang Li looked up ahead and soon spotted a dirty metal plate near the front door of the low building, where she could vaguely make out the words “Raw Material Storage Warehouse.”
This steel rolling factory had been idle for many years. The raw material storage warehouse had long been emptied, and the vast space was barren, only faint traces of coal and steel powder remnants could be seen.
With little effort, Jiang Li found the suspicious man at the location where the warehouse’s duty room used to be.
The duty room’s doors and windows were tightly shut, with dark curtains drawn, and through the gaps in the curtains, a strange red light could be vaguely seen.
Leaning against the wall by the window, Jiang Li restrained her spirit energy fluctuations and cautiously peered inside through the curtain’s seam, where she saw the scene inside the duty room.
The space of the duty room was small, about ten square meters, with almost bare-bones decoration. A round lampshade hung from the moldy ceiling, with an old light bulb smeared with some fresh bl**d, making the dim, yellow light take on a hint of red.
Beneath the chandelier, a murky-colored square table was placed, it was hard to tell how many filths it had been stained with to look like this, as if every wood grain was saturated with foul matter.
On the table lay three corpses, indiscernible in age or gender, each having their abdomens cut open, exposing their entrails, while upon their bare bodies, numerous spells had been inscribed with a sharp object.
A figure stood by the table, whispering something under his breath, his voice sometimes hoarse, sometimes sharp. As he continued to murmur, he raised both hands rhythmically, sprinkling some pale blue powder into the opened bodies of the three corpses.
The next moment, a nauseating, sickly flame rose from the corpses, and in the dim yellow light, the man’s excited expression looked like a wax mask.
In the cramped room, ghostly voices echoed; they weren’t merely the sound of air blown by the wind but rather the sound of vibrating vocal cords.
It seemed someone was wailing, sending chills down the spine.
Is he using the Sassam alchemical method to extract the Primordial Spirit?
If that’s the case, there would be no need to watch further.
Realizing what type of alchemy the suspicious man was performing, Jiang Li shook her head gently, channeling the spirit pattern and aiming it at the suspicious man to activate [Impose Punishment].
By judging through the spirit pattern’s powers, it was evident that capturing the man at this moment was the right action.
In an instant, the spirit energy fluctuations surged, and the air behind the suspicious man rippled with distinct waves, revealing a hideous shadow.
It had a massive unicorn head, with a half-transparent, deer-like blue body crawling on the ground. Its gigantic form nearly filled the entire duty room, and on its back rested a shrine-like wooden box, slightly ajar, with various instruments of torture vaguely visible inside.
The suspicious man seemed to sense something and abruptly snapped out of his trance induced by alchemy, raising his head suddenly. The next moment, his gaze connected with a pair of solemn, cold vertical pupils.
“Roar—!”
After a low growl, a series of unsettling sounds echoed in the duty room.
[Impose Punishment – Village Responsibility One]
Suddenly, the suspicious man was struck down as if he had been violently beaten, collapsing to the ground with his head cradled in his arms, writhing and screaming incessantly.
In his panic, he activated the spirit pattern to protect his body. However, just as his spirit energy began to flow, it felt as if it was constrained by some strange force, barely able to operate normally.
[Impose Punishment – Shackles Two]
After consecutively casting [Impose Punishment] twice on the suspicious man, and seeing that he had completely lost his ability to move, Jiang Li then took out the Grey Owl Badge from her pocket, lightly stroking it to send a message to Lin Kule waiting outside the steel rolling factory.
“Lin Kule, I’ve taken care of things on my end. Have the reinforcements arrived yet?”
Half an hour later.
Shancheng, near Chaotianmen, at a Happy Hotpot restaurant.
Though this hotpot restaurant was in the city’s center, it was hidden in a remote corner. Unless someone guided them, few would find their way here.
The restaurant’s decor was unremarkable, and cleanliness was abysmal; the floor felt like it was coated with a layer of grease, slippery and sticky.
Moreover, the taste of the hotpot was hard to describe, with a lamentable rating of only half a star on public review sites, and only ninety-one reviews, meaning nearly every guest had left a poor rating.
Despite this, the restaurant had been open for over twenty years, and local residents felt it was almost a miracle that it hadn’t gone out of business yet.
However, while everyone was puzzled, they didn’t care much about the underlying reasons.
After all, in every city, there are a few establishments that seem to be struggling yet remain standing, their existence akin to some urban legend.
And today, this mysterious hotpot restaurant welcomed an unprecedented customer—
A very beautiful silver-haired girl.
She sat quietly, staring at the red, bubbling broth as if lost in thought.
After a moment, footsteps approached.
A girl with a golden ponytail, round in front and plump at the back, emerged from the kitchen and sat opposite the silver-haired girl.
Jiang Li glanced at Lin Kule, then at the kitchen’s direction, and asked in confusion, “Why did it take so long? Was it really that tricky?”
From the suspicious man’s actions, it was merely an attack on a potential spirit energy user to extract the Primordial Spirit. Although his methods were ruthless and posed a significant threat, he could only be considered average for a member of the Solar Eclipse Society.
However, members of the Solar Eclipse Society like Miss Rabbit and Shuo E, who always sought to create big news, were actually in the minority, while the average folks like this suspicious man were the majority.
“Sister, are you doubting the unmatched abilities of Lin Kule?” Lin Kule countered.
Hearing that, Jiang Li was momentarily taken aback and quickly regained her composure, recalling the rumors surrounding Lin Kule.
It was said that Lin Kule had discovered strange tales or spirit energy attack incidents, no matter how small, always resulted in a major case.
“So this time—”
“That’s right!” Lin Kule nodded earnestly. “Don’t underestimate that guy. While he’s just extracting the Primordial Spirit and adding some addictive substances through his special alchemical methods, he’s very likely connected to the series of spirit energy attack incidents that have recently occurred in Shancheng.”
“That guy is probably a small fry, you could say he’s someone from the lower echelons, but there’s still some relation.”
“You must have heard from the Inspector General when you set out? Shancheng isn’t too peaceful.”
“Yes.” Jiang Li nodded. “I know.”
Before departing for Shancheng, Xing Yuan had mentioned to her that a group of Solar Eclipse Society members had been very active recently and had close ties with local believers of the Divine True Sky, and she wasn’t sure what they were plotting. If she could deal with those members, she might be able to expedite her review.
If she could finish earlier, she could return to Huacheng and see—
The figure of Luxianbei flickered in her mind, and Jiang Li gently shook her head.
Now was not the time to think about these things; focusing on handling the matter at hand was the right path.
After finally putting Wang Ying to sleep, Luxianbei, dragging his weary body, slowly headed downstairs.
Putting Wang Ying to bed was quite a tormenting task; had it not been for acquiring a few memories of babysitting while extracting worldly materials, he would probably have developed a fear of marriage and children.
Upon reaching the living room, he saw Jumeng snuggled up on the sofa, clutching a game controller, staring intently at the TV screen, causing Luxianbei’s brows, which had just unclenched, to furrow immediately.
Though he was not yet ready to depart, he surely needed to go to Shancheng soon.
However, going to Shancheng meant meeting Jiang Li, and meeting Jiang Li meant he couldn’t bring Jumeng along, yet he didn’t know how to persuade Jumeng to return to Peach Source.
It felt like he was caught in a deadlock.
Thus, amid many hesitations, Luxianbei procrastinated from the afternoon to deep into the night.
d*mn, if only I hadn’t heard that recording, then I could have thrown Stinky Sister and her things out without any psychological burden. But now—
There’s no way I can bring Stinky Sister to meet Miaomiao Sauce, right? One of us three will surely d*e, and the one most likely to d*e is me.
Maybe I should find some time to learn time management from Water Brother?
Thinking about this, Luxianbei walked over to Jumeng’s side, and just as he sat down, a pair of tender white feet stretched out, resting on his knees.
Jumeng adjusted her position, leaning back on the sofa, looking languid, with Luxianbei’s knees serving as her footrest.
Luxianbei glanced at the delicate little feet, their toes moving in sync with the game character, then looked at Jumeng and asked, “What are you doing?”
“I’m a bit cold.”
“If you’re cold, why don’t you just not set the air conditioning temperature so low?” Luxianbei tilted his head.
“No way!” Jumeng pouted. “I’d rather freeze than set it to sixteen degrees!”
Luxianbei opened his mouth but didn’t say anything further. Instead, he picked up another game controller from the coffee table and waved it at Jumeng.
“Want to have a match? I’ll let you have two-thirds of my health.”
For fighting games, having only a third of health left is just a matter of a simple combo.
“Fine, I’m in!” Jumeng retorted. “Also, who said you could only give me two-thirds? I’ve been practicing secretly lately; just half health will be enough!”
Thus, the game began, and in silence, Luxianbei smoothly completed a combo with a character that only had half health, five times in a row.
After his characters were wiped out on the fifth attempt, Jumeng put down her game controller, crossed her arms over her chest, squinted at Luxianbei, and grumbled, “Hey, something’s off about you today!”
“What’s wrong with me?” Luxianbei replied expressionlessly.
“Why haven’t you mocked me today?” Jumeng said. “Usually, by the third time I get wiped out, you start your sarcastic comments, but it’s already the fifth time today, and you haven’t said a word. That’s too unusual.”
Under normal circumstances, no one can endure being mocked by Luxianbei five times for getting wiped out. Generally, around the third time, they would be compelled to engage in a real fight with him.
“So you definitely have something on your mind!”
“Come on, if something’s bothering you, tell your sister so I can cheer you up.”
“Um,” Luxianbei hesitated, “Actually, I’m planning to go on a trip in a couple of days.”
“Where to?” Jumeng tilted her head.
“Shancheng.” Luxianbei answered honestly.
“Shancheng? That sounds great!” Jumeng’s eyes lit up. “I’ve always wanted to visit Shancheng; they say the food there is delicious, and there are many interesting urban legends to know.”
“When are we leaving?”
Looking at Jumeng’s excited and expectant expression, Luxianbei was momentarily at a loss for words.
Should I tell her that I never intended to take her along? What a cruel reality!
