Chapter 33: Great Cleanup Operation (Part 1)

In truth, the smell alone was enough to tell that the aberration in the mirror house was not much. It should be the kind that had only been born recently and still had little destructive power against humans.

Pang Xiaolei said that lately, there had been a lot of these aberrations in the city. As the Spiritual Energy Revival grew more intense, one would be wiped out here, only for a new one to pop up over there. The days of demons, monsters, and A Hundred Ghosts Walk the Night were not far away.

Chen Yi liked punching one “little friend” after another. When he ran into an aberration that he could crush to death with a finger, he absolutely had to bully it a little.

After entering the mirror house and lifting the black cloth, what appeared before him was a space folded and reflected by countless mirrors.

The light from the shadowless lamps fell from above. Under the mirrors’ folding, the light was infinitely amplified, easily confusing human cognition on a visual level.

Only after Chen Yi came in did he realize he had been a little overconfident.

He was actually a bit lost. He could not find his way out.

Tsk!

The space folded by the mirrors split into infinite versions of himself in his eyes. The indistinguishable directions made him keep circling inside the mirror house.

At some point, the stench grew stronger, as if it had surrounded him completely.

The moment he realized he had fallen into an aberrant domain, Chen Yi decisively stopped walking.

The layered black flower in his eyes began to rotate.

The Eye Technique, which had already advanced to the master level, had undergone a new change.

Golden flowing light filled the entire heart of the flower and finally condensed into a complete lotus. The black petals, which had originally seemed wicked and uncanny, instead revealed a trace of holiness after being filled with vast swathes of gold.

This also made Chen Yi, who was operating his divine ability, seem stern, sacred, and inviolable, exuding an air of majesty.

Moreover, after reaching the master level, the Delusion-Piercing Eye Technique was finally no longer limited to seeing through illusions. It now possessed killing power.

The instant Chen Yi operated his divine ability, he saw, among the countless reflections in the mirrors, the shadow closest to him.

That shadow wore exactly the same clothes as him and even made the same movements, but its appearance was extremely wretched. It had small eyes, a bulbous nose, and the skin on its face looked as though it had been cut open seven or eight times, then sewn together from human skin of different colors, light patches and dark patches all over.

It had already crept this close?

Chen Yi was a little frightened.

His eyes snapped open.

The reflection let out a miserable scream.

“Aaah—”

It turned to ash and vanished.

A true case of “whoever he glared at died.”

Chen Yi was still unsatisfied as he returned from the aberrant domain to reality and continued getting lost.

In the end, he spent more time than he had imagined before finally finding the exit.

Do not be fooled by how easily Chen Yi dealt with the aberration. That was because his cultivation was high. If it were the sect’s current members, whose cultivation was generally only at the first level of Qi Refining, they would have had to circle around and probe for a long time when encountering an aberration like the one just now.

That was not even mentioning aberrations similar to pseudo-folklore rules. One careless move, and a person could lose their life.

This was also why everyone hoped Chen Yi could complete his missions as quickly as possible.

Talismans, pills, and weapons were all means of increasing combat power. When cultivation was not high, they could only pile equipment onto the front-line fighters.

So if he could not see it, then so be it. But since he had run into it, Chen Yi still had to wipe it out in passing. Perhaps he had just saved a life.

After leaving the mirror house, Chen Yi went straight to the restaurant.

It was still dinner time, and there were many customers in the restaurant. Almost every seat was full.

Chen Yi searched all the way to the place where his mother and the others were sitting, only to discover that aside from them, there were actually other people at the table.

And they were acquaintances.

…

City Center

Inside the Warehouse Behind the Criminal Protection Brigade

A five-person Night Watcher squad was fully equipped and preparing to set out on an emergency deployment.

Among the team was none other than Xun Shiming, whom Lou Ting had mentioned not long ago.

At present, there were ninety-four Night Watchers cultivating in the sect, and twenty-five of them had already reached the first level of Qi Refining.

These twenty-five people, not counting Captain Ye and Vice-Captain Pang, would be divided into two groups and dispatched to the provincial capitals of Xia to suppress, exterminate, and prevent ghost disasters across entire provincial and municipal regions.

They rotated once per week. More highly cultivated experts like Xun Shiming would even be stationed in super-large cities with populations exceeding twenty million.

Densely crowded cities overflowing with material desires were also high-risk areas for ghost disaster outbreaks.

Xun Shiming had already been here for four days.

Just now, the dispatch center had sounded the alarm. Within five kilometers to the northwest, there was an abnormal spiritual energy phenomenon, and the Night Watcher squad needed to set out to investigate the truth.

With the successive appearances of aberrations and cultivation civilization, the colossal entity known as Xia had also begun rumbling into motion in corners ordinary people could not see.

Sealing Talismans, Five Emperor Coins daggers, protective anti-contamination equipment, contamination-delay agents, and more had successively appeared.

Among them, the most widely applicable and the important invention that laid the foundation for all stability, the “spiritual energy tester,” was also grandly born.

At present, the “spiritual energy tester” could only detect spiritual energy riots, and its coordinates were also inaccurate. But in the current situation where everyone was groping blindly, the ability to set out in search of an aberration the moment it appeared not only reversed the roles of hunter and hunted between humans and aberrations, it had also saved countless ordinary people.

This was not the first time Xun Shiming had received a patrol mission right after nightfall.

More and more awakened people were hiding in the city. No one knew what kind of mindset influenced them, but most of them chose to wait and watch rather than contact the relevant departments to seek protection. Some people even walked around more under cover of night, using these special abilities to commit crimes. Because of that, they had awakened many aberrant incidents hidden in out-of-the-way corners.

Usually, when encountering this kind of situation, the aberration would be directly eliminated, while the awakened person would be placed under supervision, or gathered in one place for special training and monitoring.

Those who could awaken early were all outstandingly talented, but cultivation civilization was even more of a double-edged sword. Only those who had gone through layer upon layer of tests were qualified to come into contact with Xia’s current core secrets. This was a relatively long process.

Moreover, after taking on many missions of the same type, Xun Shiming and the Night Watcher organization gradually figured out the pattern.

The true activity time of aberrations was late at night. Those that became active ahead of time were all stimulated into their hunting instincts by self-awakened people. Basically every time, they would bring one back.

“Squad, attention! The spiritual energy riot phenomenon has disappeared! Repeat, the spiritual energy riot phenomenon has disappeared!”

The Night Watcher squad, which had just gotten into the vehicle and was preparing to set out, froze. After looking at one another, they finally all turned to Xun Shiming.

“Are we still going?”

“It disappeared in less than two minutes. Could the tester be broken?”

“Don’t tell me this awakened person is really strong and directly resolved it.”

“Recently, more and more awakened people have been hiding. They actively hunt aberrations to improve their abilities. At this time, with this kind of disturbance, it should be those hidden people making trouble.”

In the end, pairs of eyes landed on Xun Shiming’s face. Whether they went or not was still up to Captain Xun to decide. It was just that there was a high probability this would be another wasted trip.

Xun Shiming did not hesitate. “Set out!”

The car doors closed, and the vehicle sped like lightning toward the coordinates.

There were more and more awakened people. No one knew whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.

Before the appearance of cultivation civilization, the addition of civilian organizations would have helped the Night Watchers share the pressure. But now, that was hard to say.

Without operating a cultivation technique, the spiritual energy absorbed was already violent and chaotic, bad for the body to begin with. That was not even mentioning that a portion of ambitious people thought they had found a way to become stronger by hunting aberrations, when in reality, they were pushing themselves toward becoming “living ghosts.” It was no different from taking their own lives.

Those above hoped they could bring back all awakened people. They said it was unified management and a loss of freedom, but in reality, it was saving their lives and pointing them toward the true path.

Yet there were always people who thought too highly of themselves.

Under headquarters’ positioning reminders, the mission vehicle arrived at a residential district near the amusement park.

Current technology still could not conduct long-distance, precise positioning, so every Night Watcher was equipped with a personal spiritual energy tester. Its detection range covered a radius of five hundred meters, with precise positioning within one hundred meters.

It was somewhat better than a nose.

“Scatter and search. Report coordinates if you discover anything abnormal. Do not enter an aberrant domain alone.” Xun Shiming pressed his earpiece and repeated sternly, “I repeat, do not enter an aberrant domain alone. Notify me immediately.”

“Received.”

“Received.”

“Received.”

Three Night Watcher squads entered the sectors they were responsible for according to the initial arrangement.

Xun Shiming sat in the car and headed toward the deepest area.

Past experience told them that long-range spiritual energy testers were not precise enough, but the core area was more likely to contain a ghost disaster.

The team members in the car got out one by one.

In the end, aside from the driver, only Xun Shiming remained in the car.

Xun Shiming had already changed out of his most conspicuous combat uniform and into an ordinary plaid shirt. He was dressed like a programmer, yet a peachwood dagger was tucked into the back of his waist.

Finally, he glanced at the amusement park gate in front of him, hid himself in the darkness, and arrived at the outer wall.

The next second, a black shadow suddenly leapt high into the air, then landed inside the park without making the slightest sound.

…

Chen Yi looked at the young man and woman in front of him and only felt that they looked familiar. After rummaging through his memory, he matched them to their identities.

The man was a university classmate named Wang Zhiyuan. They had been in the same department, and back then he had even pursued Du Yuan. The woman was his current girlfriend. Most importantly, after graduation, they had ended up living in the same residential district.

Chen Yi rented his place, while Wang Zhiyuan’s home had been bought for him by his family.

What happened afterward was easy to understand.

Verbal mockery, showing off and putting him down from time to time. Especially when the original owner was a stay-at-home dad and often brought the children to the courtyard, every time he ran into Wang Zhiyuan, the other man’s words were full of an indescribable sense of superiority.

He had not expected to meet him at the amusement park, much less for them to recognize the children at a glance.

His mother, Xiang Lan, did not know the situation. Seeing Wang Zhiyuan call himself her son’s university classmate and a neighbor from the same residential district, she warmly chatted with him and treated him as one of their own.

“…That’s right. We only came down from the mountain today. My grandchildren saw an advertisement in the hotel and said they wanted to come play at the amusement park, so we brought them over.”

His mother, Xiang Lan, knew that her former daughter-in-law looked down on her, and she also did not want to make things difficult for her son, so she rarely came down the mountain.

But now, she had seen what her son was doing, and she had also gained a lot more confidence. When she spoke now, she did not really care about her identity as a rural person. She simply said whatever she ought to say.

Without exception, Chen Yi saw the unconcealable disdain hidden deep inside Wang Zhiyuan’s smile. Even the man’s body, which had been leaning forward, shrank back a little.

However, he seemed to notice that Lou Ting was different, so although he politely called Xiang Lan “Auntie,” his gaze kept sweeping toward Lou Ting’s face.

His mother, Xiang Lan, said, “This is my son’s friend.”

At this moment, Lou Ting had already resumed his cold elite demeanor. He glanced lightly at Wang Zhiyuan, then continued speaking quietly with the children in a foreign language.

He had only taken care of the children for a week or so, but the children could already understand quite a few short sentences.

Lou Ting’s appearance and temperament, as well as the elegance and confidence that seemed to seep out from his bones, not only caught Wang Zhiyuan’s eye, but also made Wang Zhiyuan’s girlfriend unable to look away.

Seeing his girlfriend’s expression, Wang Zhiyuan grew angry and spoke without thinking. “Chen Yi and Du Yuan are divorced, right? I thought Du Yuan was taking care of the children. So it turns out you’re the ones raising them?”

His mother, Xiang Lan, who had originally been smiling kindly, immediately darkened her face. “Is that something you can ask in front of the children? Aren’t you a college graduate? How can you have no manners at all?”

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