Realm Walker

In the office area, Wang Tai sat alone, his attention fixed on the computer screen, paying no mind to the noble Yuanshi Tianzun coming up the stairs.

Hey, Brother Wang Tai, Zhang Yuanqing greeted him silently in his mind, then turned and headed toward the Squad Leader's office.

The frosted glass door stood open. Li Dongze sat on the edge of the reception sofa, one hand braced on his cane, his broad shoulders still swollen with muscle, chatting amicably with Teng Yuan.

On the other side of the office, a girl with fiery red hair was hunched over the desk, diligently doing her homework. Guan Ya sat beside her offering guidance, though her expression seemed somewhere between tired and exasperated.

Li Dongze glanced toward the doorway and his eyes lit up. "Oh, our great hero has arrived."

"Squad Leader," Zhang Yuanqing greeted Teng Yuan first, then turned to Li Dongze. "It seems we have a guest today. Welcome, Comrade Li."

Li Dongze's expression froze. His gaze bounced between Teng Yuan and Yuanshi, and he forced a smile. "It seems that while I was away, you've successfully won the respect and recognition of the team. Excellent, Teng Yuan. I was worried you'd struggle to get along with your colleagues like before."

"Not really," Teng Yuan replied in his characteristically flat tone. "I just did what needed to be done."

"Hmm?" Li Dongze grunted nasally.

"I just revised a few regulations. Increased the meal stipend, issued the summer heat allowance two months early, eliminated the wage deduction for tardiness..."

As Teng Yuan droned on, delivering his list of accomplishments in the same passionless tone, Li Dongze's expression gradually went blank.

"Here you go, Squad Leader. Have a cola," Zhang Yuanqing said as he handed Teng Yuan a cup of the fizzy drink, pouring fuel on the fire.

"Oh my God, this is heresy! That is not how you lead a team!" Li Dongze protested loudly. "This is not elegant at all."

Zhang Yuanqing settled into the seat beside Jiang Jingwei as the two of them continued to bicker. The girl was working on a set of multiple choice questions, her little brows knitted tight, her face solemn, as though the problems on the page were enemies she couldn't overcome.

The questions were typical middle school math problems, dealing with triangles, square roots, equations, the Pythagorean theorem, and so on.

"Perfect timing," Guan Ya said, with the expression of someone who had given up on life entirely. "You teach her."

Since he'd walked right into it, there was no escaping now. Zhang Yuanqing scanned the completed questions, noted that they were all perfectly correct, and grinned. "Not bad at all. Pretty impressive."

Guan Ya ground her teeth. "I did those."

Zhang Yuanqing took one glance at the open-minded lady clenching her jaw and let out a sigh. "Fine, I'll take over. What can I say, I'm a Scorpio. Even if it were a pig, I'd still feel sorry for it."

As he said this, he studied Guan Ya's delicate features and an unbidden thought flashed through his mind. That elegant nose of hers... it'd look great as a pig's snout.

Guan Ya shot him a suspicious look and fished a compact mirror from her handbag. "Is something wrong with my face?"

"No!"

"Then why did you just look at me with such disgust?"

"I didn't! Sis Guan Ya is the prettiest of all," Zhang Yuanqing declared, denying everything. "To prove my sincerity, I'll even give you a kiss."

"Get lost!"

Zhang Yuanqing smoothly pivoted the conversation back to Jingwei, softening his voice as he did so. "Jingwei, which middle school math topics do you feel confident about, and which ones haven't quite clicked yet?"

Jingwei tilted her head and pondered for a moment. "The ones I'm confident about are... addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division?"

"Middle school topics!" Zhang Yuanqing stressed.

Jingwei shook her head in reply.

"You're not confident in a single one? That's impossible," Zhang Yuanqing declared. He refused to believe any child could be this hopeless.

Jingwei looked down at the multiple choice questions and had a sudden revelation.

"Actually, I have picked up a few tricks. If three answers are long and one is short, pick the short one. If three are short and one is long, pick the long one. Two long and two short, go with B. If they're all different lengths, always pick C. That's basically how I handle multiple choice questions."

Zhang Yuanqing's blood pressure spiked. "And besides that?"

The expression on Jingwei's small face turned deadly serious. "There's one more thing that's absolutely crucial... knowing when to give up!"

Guan Ya felt her blood pressure rising too.

Zhang Yuanqing was silent for a few seconds.

"Tell you what," he finally said. "Give me five hundred yuan and I'll do your homework for you."

Jingwei was stunned. Were there actually such kind people in the world?

"Absolutely not!" Guan Ya snapped. "You're hurting her. She's already this hopeless—"

"Then you teach her," Zhang Yuanqing retorted, and Guan Ya immediately fell silent.

"The ancients said, 'One must teach according to the student's nature,'" Zhang Yuanqing continued. "Everyone has different talents. The idea of forcing everyone through the same rigid system is inherently flawed. This girl clearly isn't cut out for academics. Her gifts lie elsewhere. What's the point of spending all that time studying things that don't suit her?"

"Exactly!" Jingwei cried, slamming the table in enthusiastic agreement. "I like fighting. Yuanshi, let's go to the sparring room. I'll teach you how to fight."

Zhang Yuanqing blinked. "Oh, so I'm the student now?"

At that moment, Li Dongze stopped lecturing Teng Yuan and turned to Zhang Yuanqing with a serious expression. "There are two reasons why I came here today. First, the squad is having dinner tonight to celebrate your award of A-rank Merit, and also to celebrate everyone earning another group commendation. Second... I need to give you a warning."

A warning? Zhang Yuanqing's demeanor shifted to match his superior's.

Li Dongze's voice dropped low. "It's early May now. In another month, the biannual large-scale slaughter dungeon will open. Every year around this time, certain Level 3 Transcendents and Level 6 Saints look for opportunities to advance themselves through a class change.

"For Spirit Realm Walkers, this is a major event. The Five Elements Alliance, the Taiyi Sect, and the noble Spirit Realm families jointly hold a tournament to select the most outstanding candidates. The purpose is twofold. On one hand, it's a way to assess the potential of promising members. On the other hand, it identifies the very best candidates for focused cultivation."

"I get it," Jingwei chimed in. "Mock exams. My school does mock exams every month."

Li Dongze nodded in acknowledgment, then continued, "Evil organizations hold their own version of these 'mock exams,' but theirs are far bloodier and crueler. Their approach is to send their most promising talents into major cities to hunt down the official organizations' likely candidates.

"In theory, even a Level 3 Scout like me could be a target, since I'm also eligible for the mid-year slaughter dungeon. But Jiang Jingwei, Yuanshi, the two of you are far higher in priority than me. Especially you, Yuanshi. You've cleared two S-rank dungeons in succession and been awarded A-rank Merit. You shine too brightly. Evil-class Walkers will absolutely have their eyes on you. They'll try to hunt you down to make a name for themselves and earn rewards."

Zhang Yuanqing's heart sank. He recalled the veteran Walkers on the official forum discussing this very topic when he'd been browsing the day before.

"Squad Leader, I'd like a copy of the bounty list for Transcendent-tier evil organization members," he said immediately.

"Go look it up in the database yourself. Your clearance is already higher than mine," Li Dongze replied. "For the next few days, keep a low profile. Wear a mask and a hat when you commute. And Teng Yuan, don't just slack off at home either. With you holding down Squad Two, plus the rest of us, no Evil-class Walkers would dare make a move."

Teng Yuan gave a slight nod and added, "Yuanshi, I'll look into filing a 'constant anxiety' stipend for you."

Zhang Yuanqing wasn't sure whether to thank him or be offended.

"By the way, if they're hunting talented people, wouldn't Centurion Fu be in danger too?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.

Fu Qingyang was young, only in his twenties, and already at the peak of the Saint tier. He was determined to join the Council of Elders, which meant he would certainly participate in the slaughter dungeons this round to advance to the Sovereign tier. That made him a target for Evil-class hunters as well.

"Of course. There's no shortage of Evil-class Saints who want him dead," Guan Ya said. "Back when he was stationed in the capital, the number of evil class operatives who tried to assassinate him was beyond number, but none of them succeeded. Although, he wasn't as high-level back then. The ones coming for him now would all be peak Saint-tier fighters."

Zhang Yuanqing glanced at her. Worry filled the open minded lady's eyes. When Li Dongze had mentioned people wanting to assassinate him, she hadn't shown a shred of concern. But the moment her cousin came up, the worry was immediate.

Hmph, he thought indignantly. Women. He had given his heart to the wrong person.

"Yuanshi is only Level 2 though," Jingwei said into the silence. "He probably won't make it in time for this class change anyway, yet he still has to deal with the risk of being hunted. What a raw deal!"

"Yuanshi still has to go through one multiplayer Spirit Realm dungeon that hasn't opened yet," Li Dongze noted, turning to Zhang Yuanqing. "Even if you clear it, you might not reach Level 3. And even if you did, you'd be the weakest possible Level 3 Walker. Participating in the slaughter dungeon would be a stretch."

***

Li Xianzong strolled up to a large villa on the outskirts of Songhai, wearing a black tank top and camouflage pants and with his hands in his pockets. He appraised the three-storey building, bent his knees, and leapt three or four meters into the air, clearing the perimeter wall and landing inside the grounds.

With one hand still in his pocket and the other flicking a butterfly knife through lazy, glinting arcs, he unceremoniously shoved open the villa's double wooden doors.

The ground floor of the villa was empty. The decor was extravagant, with smart appliances and expensive handcrafted furniture all around, every detail broadcasting the owner's obscene wealth.

Li Xianzong's ears twitched. From the second floor came the faint, agonized screams of a woman. His lips curled. The butterfly knife weaved through dizzying patterns in his hand as he ascended the spiral staircase.

He had come to find a Protector of the Void Sect, a peak Saint-tier figure and an exceedingly dangerous individual. According to the intelligence Tianlingling had gathered, this Protector was hunting Fu Qingyang.

Li Xianzong reached the second floor and pushed open the master bedroom door. It was a massive room, with an area well over a hundred square meters. To the left of the entrance sat an enormous, plush bed large enough for six or seven people.

To the right hung an assortment of bizarre objects. No—to be precise, they were instruments of torture, covering every inch of the wall.

On the bed, seven or eight burly men were tormenting a beautiful woman. They barely glanced over their shoulders at the new arrival before turning back to their wretched work.

This went on for half an hour. Li Xianzong leaned against the doorframe, watching without expression. When all of them had finally had their fill, one of the more muscular men dragged the half-dead woman off the bed and over to the wall of implements. He threw her to the floor, took down a leather whip, and brought it crashing down.

Crack!

A deep, bloody welt split her skin.

Crack. Crack. Crack. The lash fell again and again, tearing open the delicate flesh in raw red lines, leaving the woman trembling and shrieking.

After dozens of strikes, Li Xianzong tapped the doorframe with his butterfly knife and said with a grin, "Had enough fun? My patience has limits."

One of the men who'd been savoring the woman's suffering stormed over, snarling. "Get the hell out of—"

Li Xianzong drove the knife into his chest. He yanked it free, releasing a thick gush of blood.

The man clutched his chest and crumpled to his knees. The others didn't so much as blink. The one whipping the woman did not stop, while the rest continued watching.

A few more minutes passed. Suddenly, the woman stopped screaming. Her pitiful act vanished, the terror on her face replaced by a cold, regal expression.

"Leave," she commanded flatly.

Only then did the men dare stop. They bowed, dragged the corpse of the dead man out, and closed the door behind them.

The woman sat on the floor with her legs drawn up, her body covered in wounds. Yet her expression was imperious, queenly, and a smirk played at the corner of her mouth. "I despise people who touch my toys. You'll stay and play with me for three days. Otherwise, I won't show the Bing Zhu Sect any face."

Li Xianzong bared his teeth without the slightest hint of fear. "If it were up to me, I'd saw off your head, then grind the rest of you into mincemeat and flush it down the drain."

The woman's body shuddered. Her legs pressed together involuntarily, a flush of heat rising to her cheeks, and she let out a coy, breathy laugh. "What a lovely idea. Enchanting Demons are my favorite toys. I do so enjoy your brutality. Come, then. Have your way with me."

Li Xianzong surveyed her beautiful face and alluring figure, then sneered. "I'm here to propose a partnership. Besides, the only thing that interests me is killing."

According to the intel, this woman was a deviant. She craved degradation, craved being brutalized and violated, and her appetite was insatiable. One or two men were never enough. Every day she demanded a crowd. And anyone who failed to satisfy her ended up dead.

The woman glanced at the conspicuous stillness below Li Xianzong's waist and let out a soft laugh. "So, you're broken goods. Get out. I despise interruptions to my entertainment."

But Li Xianzong didn't leave. Instead, he smiled. "Are you interested in Yuanshi Tianzun? What about Fu Qingyang?"

The woman's eyes gleamed. She ran her tongue across her red lips. "You have three minutes."