Realm Walker

As expected, once he left Xu Xiu'er's bedchamber, his "communications" were restored, and he could sense Little Goofball's presence once more. He steadied his emotions and let his consciousness flow along the bond between master and spirit servant, descending into Little Goofball's body.

Zhang Yuanqing "opened" his eyes, and the sight before him gave him pause. His vision was distorted and dim. There were dark currents surging all around him, while countless particles and bits of debris drifted and swirled about him.

Am I underwater? Why is Little Goofball underwater?

He puzzled over it for several seconds, then decided to seize control and take command of Little Goofball's body. However, the attempt failed. Little Goofball was in an unusual state. The Treasure Hunting skill had activated on its own, and his body was being driven by instinct alone, blocking out any outside interference.

A similar situation had occurred on the night they'd hunted down Black Wuchang.

Zhang Yuanqing's heart stirred at the idea of treasure being in the water, but he didn't stop trying to take control. He exerted his influence bit by bit, working to interrupt the skill's hold on his spirit servant.

Little Goofball's consciousness had only recently awakened, and so his self control was weak and his instincts were difficult to override. However, as his master, Zhang Yuanqing had the authority to do so.

The last time, at Songhai Elementary, he'd chosen not to interfere, mostly out of curiosity about what treasure his spirit servant had discovered. This time, though, Guan Ya and Queen were in danger, and he couldn't let Little Goofball remain "out of control."

A dozen seconds later, Zhang Yuanqing was fully in command. He pulled Little Goofball's head out of the water.

His vision cleared up. He could see the surface of the river, the opposite bank, built from stacked bluestone slabs, and the moss creeping along the water's edge.

Then, Queen's voice reached his ears, saturated with despair. "I... I feel dizzier and dizzier, and my heart's racing faster. I could drop dead any second. Guan Ya, you're losing more and more blood. Can you still hold on? Give me the rifle, I'll cover us for a while."

Guan Ya was wounded? Had things really gotten this dire? Alarm and urgency surged through Zhang Yuanqing's chest.

He heard Queen sigh again. "Five minutes passed ages ago. Looks like Yuanshi and the others aren't coming to save us. Maybe they're barely surviving themselves. And here I was, counting on him to rescue us..."

Zhang Yuanqing paddled his limbs to turn toward the source of her voice.

Seven or eight meters away, Guan Ya stood at the edge of the street with her back pressed against a white wall, rifle raised, her face deathly pale. Her lower leg was wrapped in a dark garment, which served as a makeshift bandage. The injury clearly prevented her from standing unaided, so she relied on the wall to hold herself upright. With every shot she fired, her face lost another shade of color.

Queen, in her smoky eye makeup and silver earrings, stood guard beside Guan Ya looking utterly spent. Whenever an infant wraith lunged toward them, she threw herself in its path as a living shield, buying Guan Ya the opening to shoot it.

Queen wore nothing on top but a black sports bra, which propped up deep, pale curves that were generous and alluring. Her torso tapered down to a dramatically narrow waist that accentuated a smooth, flat stomach. It was a stark contrast to Guan Ya's toned midsection, which was all visible ab lines and lean muscle.

The dark garment binding Guan Ya's wounded calf was Queen's shirt, which she had stripped off and sacrificed as a tourniquet.

Six infant wraiths surrounded them, probing and striking like hyenas circling wounded prey.

How are there that many infant wraiths? Zhang Yuanqing wondered. He swiftly changed his mind, relinquishing control and issuing Little Goofball a single command: "Fight."

This was the perfect opportunity to train Little Goofball's combat abilities.

Bang!

Guan Ya squeezed the trigger and knocked back the wraith clinging to Queen's ankle. The shot sent the wraith reeling. It let out a piercing shriek as its form twisted and distorted.

Queen shuddered as she felt another bit of vitality draining away from her. She finally buckled, her legs giving out beneath her. She slid down the wall until she sat crumpled on the ground, her pretty face bone white.

"I... I can't hold on anymore..."

Things seemed to take a turn for the worse. The wraith that had been crouching by the river's edge, seemingly washing its head, had slipped out from the water at some point and was now crawling toward them, apparently eager to join the siege.

Also, it might have been her imagination, but Queen could have sworn the little brat's eyes were locked on her chest.

The plump, adorable infant wraith moved with startling speed, closing the distance in the blink of an eye. Guan Ya braced herself, swinging the rifle's muzzle to take aim at Little Goofball. Her expression turned grave. She could tell at a glance that this wraith's strength and speed far exceeded the other blue-black ones surrounding them.

Then, without warning, the chubby little baby's face twisted into a ferocious snarl. It opened its tiny mouth, let out a shrill battle cry, and tackled the nearest blue-black wraith to the ground.

Guan Ya's finger froze on the trigger, shock flickering through her striking eyes. The little thing wasn't coming for them?

"They... they're fighting each other..." Queen murmured in confusion.

A moment earlier, she had been sinking into despair, but the sight before her lit a brilliant spark of hope in her dull eyes, the radiance of salvation rekindled in the face of the jaws of death.

In the space of a heartbeat, Little Goofball had the blue-black wraith pinned firmly to the ground. No matter how it thrashed, it couldn't break free from a stronger member of its own kind.

Little Goofball lowered his head and bit into the wraith's neck, then drew a gentle breath. A wisp of dark smoke pulled free like a thread and streamed into his mouth and nose. His tiny body swelled, and his aura grew noticeably more powerful.

Having tasted something sweet, Little Goofball no longer needed Zhang Yuanqing's guidance. He let out another fierce little battle cry of his own accord and lunged at the remaining five wraiths.

The blue black infant wraiths would fight to the death against a powerful living enemy, but against a stronger member of their own kind, some primal instinct of submission took hold. They scattered immediately, fleeing in all directions.

Little Goofball gave chase, and soon vanished from sight.

"What just happened? Why did that little wraith save us?" Queen murmured, the relief in her voice tinged with utter bewilderment.

Guan Ya, looking equally confused and faintly suspicious, gently shook her head. "Whatever the reason, we're alive. And we didn't need some stinking man to come save us, either."

The striking, statuesque woman slumped against the wall, chest heaving as she fought to catch her breath. "True enough. At least the crisis is over."

As she spoke, both women heard rapid footsteps approaching from a distance, accompanied by Yuanshi Tianzun's voice.

"Guan Ya! Queen!"

Queen's expression grew agitated, and she forced her exhausted body upright in a panic. "My shirt, my shirt..."

Although her style and makeup leaned toward a mature, confident aesthetic, she hadn't quite reached the level of brazenness required to parade around in front of a group of men in just her underwear. She hurriedly unwound the makeshift bandage from Guan Ya's leg, ducked around the corner into an alley, and threw the shirt back on, ignoring the sticky bloodstains.

By the time she was dressed, her teammates had arrived. Before Queen could get a word out, the men took one look at her haggard face and said in perfect unison, "Were you drained too?"

"What kind of nonsense is that?" Queen spat.

Then, she spotted Lotus Eater draped across Fire Virtue's back and did a double take. "Who is that?"

"It's Lotus Eater!"

"What happened to him? How did he manage to wither away like that in half an hour?" she asked in shock.

While they exchanged stories, Zhang Yuanqing crouched at Guan Ya's feet, carefully extracting the bullet fragments from her wound. He furrowed his brow deeply.

"Your injury is serious. There's been too much blood loss. You can't fight anymore."

Guan Ya looked down at the concern and distress playing across his face, and the corner of her lips curved upward. "An experienced open-minded lady always leaves herself a way out."

As Zhang Yuanqing looked at her in puzzlement, she opened her inventory and produced a syringe.

"You still have diluted Essence of Life?" Queen exclaimed.

Zhang Yuanqing silently clicked his tongue. Fu Qingyang really is something else, showering his cousin with strategic grade resources like they're free samples... That settles it. When we're back in the real world, I'm going to suck up to him so hard.

"It's my last one. I saved it for emergencies."

Guan Ya slid the needle into the vein at her wrist and injected a third of the syringe's contents into herself, then administered another one-third to Queen.

Color flooded back into Queen's face, and her skin regained its dewy fullness.

She leaned in and asked quietly, "Guan Ya, are you some Elder's daughter or something?"

Only an official Walker with the rank of steward or above could requisition strategic-grade resources. A Level 2 Scout had no authorization to acquire them.

Guan Ya shook her head.

Queen's expression shifted, and she probed further, "A mistress, then?"

Guan Ya gave her a withering stare and turned away. "Fire Virtue, bring Lotus Eater over here."

Lotus Eater's voice was barely a whisper. "I don't need it. Don't waste precious Essence of Life on me. Earth Wraiths can absorb the earth's energy to nourish our bodies. Luckily, I'm only suffering from yang deficiency and a depletion of vital essence, not an actual wound. The ground beneath me is enough to restore my vitality."

Fire Virtue quickly set him down, and Lotus Eater sprawled flat against the bare earth.

Queen finally had the chance to ask what had happened. She surveyed the four men.

"Yang deficiency and a depletion of vital essence... What exactly did you all run into?"

Zhang Yuanqing gave a concise summary of events to Guan Ya and Queen. "By the time we reached Widow Xu's bedchamber, Lotus Eater had already been wrung out like spent tea leaves and tossed under the bed. Another moment's delay and he'd have died from yang depletion. Let this be a lesson, gentlemen: abstinence truly is the way. Abstinence keeps the troubles at bay."

Zhang Yuanqing saw no reason to claim personal credit. After all, if he played the "I alone resisted temptation" card, the others would likely gang up on him. And truthfully, he hadn't exactly maintained perfect composure himself at the start. His record was far from unblemished.

Better to let Lotus Eater serve as the cautionary tale that made everyone else look virtuous by comparison, rather than suffer mutual destruction.

Fire Virtue and Li Chunfeng nodded solemnly. "Lust is indeed a blade that scrapes the bone."

Lotus Eater's face turned beet red. He wanted nothing more than to crawl into a crack in the earth and vanish.

Some color had returned to Guan Ya's cheeks, but the moment the topic veered in this direction, she perked right up, her eyes gleaming with mischief. "It seems the chubby little boy had quite the romantic adventure. Was Xu Xiu'er nice and supple? Any different from a real woman? Come on, share the experience with us."

"Please... stop..." Lotus Eater whimpered.

Please stop. I still have my dignity!

Queen cast a sidelong glance at the other four men and smirked. "And you four? Did any of you sleep with Xu Xiu'er?"

"Absolutely not!" all four answered in perfect unison. "Only Lotus Eater couldn't resist."

Lotus Eater turned his face away, dead to the world.

"So what happened to you two? Why do you look like that?" Li Chunfeng asked, successfully redirecting the conversation away from them.

Queen gave a blow-by-blow recounting of the vengeful spirit ambush.

"That strange little wraith just chased the others off and disappeared," she finished with a frown, suspicion and doubt still lingering in her mind.

Fire Virtue looked puzzled. "Widow Xu's infant wraiths turned on each other? Or did that special little one deliberately save you?"

"I honestly don't know," Queen replied with a small shake of her head.

She glared at Zhang Yuanqing and huffed angrily. "Some Nocturnal Specter you are. Useless when we actually needed you. If that little wraith hadn't suddenly gone berserk and driven off the others, Guan Ya and I would have been done for."

Guan Ya studied Zhang Yuanqing for a moment, then ventured, "That little wraith is your spirit servant, isn't it?"

Queen's head whipped around, the silver rings at her earlobes swinging. She stared at Zhang Yuanqing, stunned.

Zhang Yuanqing raised his hand and snapped his fingers. A few seconds later, he directed his gaze toward the alley behind the group. Queen followed his eyes. There was nothing there.

Zhang Yuanqing breathed a wisp of the Power of the Dark Moon towards his teammates. A cold, stinging sensation prickled their eyeballs, then, one by one, they saw it: a plump, adorable baby sitting in the alley, its downy hair sparse and wispy, and round black eyes like a pair of dark buttons. Its little belly was swollen, and it wriggled its stubby limbs with considerable effort as it crawled toward Zhang Yuanqing.

How is that possible? Queen tried to get a better look, but the stinging chill faded from her eyes, and the infant wraith vanished along with it.

Not vanished—she simply couldn't see it anymore.

So, it had been =Yuanshi Tianzun's spirit servant all along. That wraith had been there the entire time. Which meant he'd planted his spirit servant near her and Guan Ya from the very beginning, just in case, ready to save them the moment things went sideways.

The faint resentment Queen had been nursing evaporated in an instant. Then a thought struck her, and her face flushed. He'd been seeing through the spirit servant's eyes earlier on, hadn't he?

Queen felt a pang of embarrassment as the realization sank in, though, alongside the embarrassment, there was a subtle undercurrent of confidence. She was quite satisfied with her figure, and the fact that Yuanshi seeing her in nothing but her underwear produced this particular blend of emotions, rather than outright anger, meant at the very least she didn't find him repulsive. There might even be a hint of fondness...

Guan Ya observed all of this with a single discreet glance at Queen, completing her psychological analysis in an instant.

Zhang Yuanqing remained blissfully unaware of the rich inner dramas unfolding in both women's minds. "Queen, I need a favor."

She bristled instinctively, nearly clapping her hands over her ample chest. "What?"

"Dive down into the river and take a look for me. I think there's something at the bottom of the river," he said, pointing at the water.

Queen blinked, then relaxed slightly. "Sure. Give me a moment."

She could use the chance to wash the bloodstains off her shirt anyway.

She walked to the bank and leaped in with a resounding splash, sending water spraying in every direction.

Zhang Yuanqing waited at the water's edge until murky sediment churned up from the riverbed. Queen vaulted back onto the bank, her body shedding water like oil sliding off glass, with not a single droplet clinging to her.

"There's nothing down there. I even blew the silt off the bottom to check," she reported as she fiddled with the silver ring on her ear.

Zhang Yuanqing was surprised. Nothing? That can't be right. Little Goofball's Treasure Hunting skill is never wrong.

He pondered for a few seconds, and a thought quickly took shape. Perhaps neither Little Goofball nor Queen had met the conditions. That was why Little Goofball had been crouching at the water's edge, staring down. He had sensed the treasure below, but simply hadn't been able to find it. It was the same for Queen. Despite searching thoroughly, she had come up empty-handed.

Something has to be hidden at the bottom of that river. Is it related to the hidden quest, or has another storyline opened up? Given everything this dungeon has revealed so far, there shouldn't be any additional storylines. If it's tied to the hidden quest, then whatever's in the river is most likely the item the Yin Yang Hermit left behind. The same item Demon Lord lamented being unable to obtain.

The thought set Zhang Yuanqing's pulse racing.

"I'm going down myself," he announced.

Queen pursed her lips. "You'll get the same result. If there's nothing, there's nothing."

With a splash, Zhang Yuanqing dove into the murky water, swimming toward the bottom. At the same time, he summoned Little Goofball, hoping the Treasure Hunting skill might help.

Little Goofball materialized on the riverbed, darting left, then right, circling about aimlessly like a headless fly.

After surfacing twice for air, Zhang Yuanqing finally gave up. There truly was nothing down there.

That made no sense. He'd already collected the two fragments of the jade pendant. If the item was connected to the hidden quest, it should have triggered the next stage of the quest. Had his reasoning been wrong? Was the jade pendant not the key after all?

His mind churned rapidly as he wrung the water from his clothes. As water dripped down in a quiet patter, it clicked. There's still one stage of the hidden quest I haven't completed, and I haven't fully unraveled this dungeon's storyline, either. I need to achieve those objectives first before the quest can truly be considered complete.

The next objective was clear: finish the final stage, decode the dungeon's remaining secrets, then head back over and check again.

He returned to where the group was resting. "Everyone, it's time we figured out what comes next."

Queen toyed with her silver earring and mused aloud, "There are only six people in town, and we've dealt with three. By rights, we should be nearing the end of the storyline."

Guan Ya shook her head. "Not quite. There are six people in town, but Granny Wang and the dead cat count as a single storyline. That means Yin Yang Town only has five plotlines. We've cleared the Cursed Cat and Widow Xu. If the evil team has been moving at a similar pace and cleared two of their own, then this final storyline will likely pit both sides against each other."

"The last character is the sorcerer," Zhang Yuanqing added quietly. "The one Squire Zhao brought to town."

***

Thick fog blanketed the entire courtyard of the Zhao residence, drifting about in pale, gauze-like wisps.

Then, abruptly, the gray haze shuddered and surged in one direction, like floodwaters released from a dam.

The fog thinned, and visibility improved.

Li Xianzong's figure emerged from the mist, a butterfly knife clenched between his teeth, a grotesque severed head dangling from his left hand, and an ornately-carved wooden box balanced on his right palm.

The lid of the box hung open. The fog streamed back into it like salmon returning to their spawning point, flowing into the container in a swift, dense current.

In moments, the fog had dissipated entirely. His five teammates lay sprawled across the inner hall: four unconscious, and one with his heart torn from his chest.

They'd lost another teammate in the fight.

If Li Xianzong hadn't reacted quickly enough, deploying the fog item early to trap both his allies and Squire Zhao inside, making him pick them off one by one, the squad's losses would have been catastrophic.

Five remained alive—Li Xianzong, the youth missing part of his left ear, the gaunt middle-aged man, the man in a tailored suit, and the quiet man with the crew cut.

Their classes, respectively were: Enchanting Demon, Hex Master, Hex Master, Enchanting Demon, and Illusionist.

"What a garbage dungeon," Li Xianzong cursed angrily. "The final battle hasn't even started, and we've already lost two."

Li Xianzong hurled Squire Zhao's head toward the mountain of gold, then strode over to his fallen companions and kicked them awake, one after another.

"You're all useless, every last one of you. More trouble than you're worth," he spat venomously.

His teammates winced and grimaced but didn't dare talk back.

The gaunt man glanced around nervously. "Is that thing dead?"

Li Xianzong sneered. "Want me to fetch its head so you can make soup with it?"

"Hey, I'd insist you join me for a bowl," the gaunt man replied as he bared his teeth in a grin. "What I really want to know is, what's next? I hope nobody else dies. If we lose any more before the big showdown even starts, how are we supposed to fight?"

"You think the Lawful team isn't losing people too?" the youth with the missing ear said flatly.

Li Xianzong was about to respond when he heard the notification chime.

【Ding! You have successfully killed Squire Zhao. Please proceed immediately to the town square. Kill the evil sorcerer and begin the final battle.】

***

Along the river, Zhang Yuanqing and his team received the same notification simultaneously.

【Ding! You have successfully overcome the temptation of lust. Please proceed immediately to the town square. Kill the evil sorcerer and begin the final battle.】