A knock echoed through the silent office. The Black Guard of Impermanence, with his narrow eyes and horse-like face, glanced at his subordinate.
Moist Madam cautiously approached the door and whispered, "Who is it?"
A deep, familiar voice answered from outside, "It's me!"
Moist Madam's face lit up with joy as he hurriedly opened the door.
He and Heaven's Injustice were close allies. Within the Black Guard of Impermanence's inner circle, the Boss's influence had gradually assimilated the group's tastes, causing them to lose interest in normal women.
Only Heaven's Injustice and Moist Madam retained a strong sexual interest in two-legged women, while avoiding female beasts like the plague.
In the darkness outside, Heaven's Injustice stood silently, his cold gaze sweeping over the Black Guard of Impermanence and Moist Madam as if confirming something.
Seeing his comrade's icy expression and unfamiliar eyes, Moist Madam's heart sank. Then, he watched as Heaven's Injustice pulled a palm-sized clay figurine from his pocket.
The figurine depicted a bare-chested giant struggling to carry a massive mountain on his back.
Under the astonished gaze of Black Guard of Impermanence and Moist Madam, Heaven's Injustice tossed the clay figure into the office.
Thud!
The clay figure crashed to the floor with a dull, heavy thud.
In the next instant, Black Guard of Impermanence and Moist Madam were frozen in place, their bodies trembling as if burdened by mountains, utterly unable to move.
Standing outside the door, Heaven's Injustice drew the pistol from his waist, aimed it at Moist Madam's head, and calmly pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bullets pierced her skull one after another, shattering the bone and splattering blood and brain matter.
At that moment, Moist Madam's body had only just begun to transform, with hardened chitin covering barely half her body before her life was abruptly extinguished.
Heaven's Injustice, still standing in the doorway, turned the gun toward Black Guard of Impermanence, who was standing farthest inside the room, and emptied the remaining bullets into him.
Yet the bullets failed to harm the Saint in the slightest. Even without activating his Gu transformation, a Witchcraft Master could easily withstand bullets with his sheer physical strength.
Seeing the bullets' ineffectiveness, Heaven's Injustice collapsed stiffly to the ground. From the darkness beyond the door, a white-robed figure slowly approached.
Black guard of Impermanence watched the approaching white figure and said, "The Holy Grail is in my Inventory. Kill me, and it will be reclaimed by the Spirit Realm."
Fu Qingyang reached out and grasped the Bronze Eight Directions Sword, his voice calm as he said, "It makes no difference."
Returning to the Spirit Realm meant that no Witchcraft Master would obtain this Rule Item for a very long time.
Black guard of Impermanence sneered and shouted, "Did you hear that? The Five Elements Alliance wants the Holy Grail to return to the Spirit Realm!"
Inside the convenience store, Zhang Yuanqing finished his instant noodles and ordered a bowl of oden. Leaning against the counter, he chatted amiably with the store clerk, an elderly woman.
"Oh, your son goes to business school? That's great! There must be tons of pretty girls there. His girlfriend must be gorgeous," Zhang Yuanqing said enviously.
"Eh, she's alright," the woman sighed, finding the young man's words pleasant. "What university do you go to, young man?"
Zhang Yuanqing shook his head wistfully. "I didn't go to university. I started working right after high school. That's why I think people who get into university are elites. My dream used to be to get into Songhai University."
"Songhai University? That's a prestigious institution," the auntie said, offering a comforting remark. "These days, college degrees aren't worth much. Education isn't as valued as it used to be. Once you're in the real world, you have to rely on your own hard work."
For some reason, even though her son was just an ordinary college student, she felt a surge of pride, her mood brightening considerably.
"You're right, Auntie. You've been through it all," Zhang Yuanqing nodded repeatedly. "Could I have another spoonful of soup?"
The auntie obliged, adding another spoonful to his bowl.
"Thank you. Your cooking is delicious. Could I have a skewer of kelp?"
After a moment's hesitation, the auntie handed him a skewer.
As Zhang Yuanqing sipped the hot, spicy soup and chatted casually with the auntie, a sudden, intense wave of palpitations washed over him.
The battle has begun!
The Black guard of Impermanence had indeed been lurking near Songhai Third Primary School. Zhang Yuanqing maintained his composure, quietly summoned Little Goofball, and instructed him to observe the fight.
He planned to monitor the battle through his Spectral Servant's perspective. The feeling of being out of the loop in such a critical situation was unbearable. If anything went wrong, understanding the situation immediately would be crucial for devising countermeasures.
Furthermore, he yearned to witness a battle between high-level Spirit Realm Walkers.
Little Goofball lay prone on the ground, lifting his head. His gaze was immediately drawn to the snacks and drinks lining the shelves on either side, his dark, round eyes brimming with longing.
"You can't eat anything. Get to work!" Zhang Yuanqing commanded.
I'll just buy some snacks later and eat them in front of you to make up for it, he added mentally.
Reluctantly, Little Goofball crawled out of the convenience store and vanished into the night.
At the Black guard of Impermanence's shout, a crimson streak of flame shot from the distance and exploded beside Fu Qingyang.
Like a firework blooming, the silent campus suddenly lit up.
Amidst the scattering flames, a tall, muscular figure materialized. Instead of engaging the Fu Family Scion—who was said to be invincible below the Sovereign Realm—in close combat, he extended his hand and clenched it into a fist.
The flames in the air coalesced into fiery arrows, their tips pointing downward, aimed directly at Fu Qingyang.
Facing this Peak Saint Scout, close combat would be unwise, even for a Fire Master.
"Which branch of the Five Elements Alliance are you a Deacon of? Or are you a Fire Master secretly trained by the Night Rose?"
Fu Qingyang stood his ground, leaning on his sword, his expression unwavering despite the dire situation.
The masked man's voice was rough and distorted, making it impossible to discern his true identity. "You don't need to know," he growled.
He clenched his right fist and pressed it downward, unleashing a storm of fiery arrows that streaked across the sky.
Fu Qingyang moved through the "arrow rain" with effortless grace, dodging with side steps, lunges, and retreats. His Bronze Eight Directions Sword flashed in a blur of motion, each strike shattering the arrows into blinding sparks.
He moved with the precision of a supercomputer, predicting the trajectory of every arrow with uncanny accuracy.
Seizing the opportunity, the Black guard of Impermanence staggered out of the office, one shaky step at a time. The Night Rose's Fire Master had bought him precious time.
"I underestimated you. I didn't realize you'd already secretly seized control of Heaven's Injustice," the Black guard of Impermanence sneered. A spherical bulge swelled in his abdomen, slowly rising until it lodged in his throat.
"Gah!" He convulsed violently, vomiting out a toad the size of a soccer ball.
The toad's abdomen pulsed, emitting a loud croak. Then, it opened its massive, blood-red maw and spewed forth a dense, violet mist.
The mist spread like thick smoke across the campus, coalescing into a low-hanging cloud. The vegetation withered rapidly, drained of life.
Fu Qingyang frowned. Scouts lacked poison resistance, and evasion alone couldn't counter this toxic cloud.
Suddenly, the violet mist began to flow toward a corner of the campus, draining away as if through a floodgate.
The Black guard of Impermanence's expression shifted slightly as he turned toward the source of the drain. There stood a three-meter-tall humanoid mass of flesh, its gaping maw greedily devouring the violet mist.
This poison, feared even by Saints, had no effect on it whatsoever.
"The Gu King?!" the Black guard of Impermanence shrieked. "What are you doing here? Fu Qingyang, you're colluding with the Gu King! Well, well, well, the Fu Family Young Master, the Deacon of the Five Elements Alliance—what a disgrace!"
The Fire Master scoffed. "Fu, we're all the same here. None of us are better than the others. At least Night Rose belongs to the Orderly Faction. Your connections are even lower than mine."
Fu Qingyang disdained to explain, choosing silence instead.
The Gu King roared with laughter. "You're right, Fu Qingyang! Thank you for the intelligence. I'll repay you handsomely."
Amidst his maniacal laughter, the Gu King absorbed the purple mist. His flesh swelled, as if gathering power. Moments later, countless fine needles of blood mist erupted from his pores.
Instead of enveloping the campus, the blood mist coalesced into a towering, five-meter-tall giant with indistinct features.
As a Sovereign Realm Witchcraft Master, the Gu King could have poisoned the entire population of Songhai if he so desired. But such crude methods were beneath him. For a true master, the precise control of mist—the delicate manipulation—was the true art.
In this regard, the Saint Stage Black guard of Impermanence was far inferior to the Gu King.
The blood mist giant advanced on the Black guard of Impermanence with graceful strides.
At that moment, a pillar of pure, radiant light descended from the dark night sky, striking the Gu King directly.
Sizzle!
The blood mist dissolved in the golden light, and the Gu King let out a tormented roar.
Solar Divine Power!
The instant the radiant pillar descended, the Grand Protector revealed his position.
He stood atop the teaching building, cloaked in black and masked in black, gazing down at the crowd below.
In the night wind, a slender red thread, like a probing tendril, reached out. Instantly, thousands upon thousands of crimson threads erupted, radiating outward like dense beams of light, clustering and spreading in waves as they coiled around the Grand Protector.
The source of these threads was a woman clad in a Song Dynasty-style gown and a silver mask. She hovered in the air, her skirt billowing, her presence ethereal and commanding.
The Grand Protector's figure vanished into thin air, only to reappear moments later suspended mid-air. A thread as fine as a cow's hair was wrapped around his ankle—the very thread that had yanked him out of his Night Roaming state.
"Hmph!"
The Grand Protector snorted dismissively.
In an instant, the red thread burst into searing golden flames, melting through it effortlessly.
At that moment, a sigh echoed through the night sky: "It seems every ghost and demon has crawled out of the woodwork tonight."
As the words faded, the campus, once barren and withered, sprang back to life. Tender green grass sprouted in clumps, saplings pierced through the concrete, and within seconds, they grew into towering trees that scraped the heavens.
In an instant, the primary school was enveloped by a lush forest, teeming with life.
But that wasn't all. Spectral animal figures descended from the sky: troops of monkeys, towering two-meter-tall brown bears, jade-white giant elephants, and solitary, vividly striped tigers.
These creatures stared coldly with hollow eyes, their menacing gaze fixed on the living beings within the schoolyard.
Outside the iron fence, a round and adorable Infant Spirit clung to the gaps between the bars, trembling as it peered inside.
The Spectral Servant's body housed Zhang Yuanqing's consciousness.
At that moment, only one thought filled his mind: I don't understand this, but I'm deeply shaken.
It wasn't just about displaying earth-shattering power to prove one's strength. The aura emanating from the high-level Spirit Realm Walkers in the school, the skills they wielded—all of it sent a primal shiver down Zhang Yuanqing's spine.
Especially when the forest descended and the animals materialized, Zhang Yuanqing keenly sensed that the primary school had been sealed off.
A hazy blue barrier now enveloped the entire area.
"The elders of the Hundred Flowers Association are far more powerful than I imagined," he thought. "This is both good and bad."
The good news was that the Black Guard of Impermanence and the Night Rose members would have a hard time escaping anytime soon.
The bad news was that if the Officials maintained control, even if the Palace Master of Ceasing Slaughter obtained the Roster, she would still have to compromise. Zhang Yuanqing could only hope she would be wise enough to destroy the Roster.
Suddenly, Zhang Yuanqing noticed Little Goofball had left the fence and was crawling toward the intersection outside the school.
This wasn't Zhang Yuanqing's doing, nor was it Little Goofball's own idea. It seemed more like an instinct.
After a moment of surprise, Zhang Yuanqing immediately understood what was happening. At this critical moment, Little Goofball's Treasure Hunting instinct had activated.
The Infant Spirit was still young, having only just mastered the Exchange ability. The higher-level Treasure Hunting skill remained beyond his control.
There must be some treasure nearby, attracting him and triggering his Treasure Hunting instinct.