Chapter 562: The Best Candidate

After completing the registration at Qingnang Cottage and waiting for a moment, Fang Ji obtained his entry permit without a hitch.

Fang Ji stopped at the fork in the road, recalled the information he had asked about at Qingnang Cottage, then lightly tapped his left palm with his right fist and nodded thoughtfully.

“An operator of The Midnight Watchers Society from Hua City, Lu Yibei, staying in Hongyan Annex, Block D, Room 25…”

After saying that, as if worried he might forget, he repeated it several more times in his mind. He looked left and right at the roads branching off from the fork in different directions, chose one at random, and continued forward.

He considered his sense of direction extremely good. If he went this way, he would definitely reach Hongyan Villa.

The proof was that he had traveled all the way from Yan City, a thousand li away, to Shizhou City. Though he had gotten lost several times on the way, he had always relied on intuition to judge the way and found the correct direction again.

Three minutes later, Hongyan Villa.

Just as Fang Ji had expected, there had not been the slightest deviation along the way.

Stopping before the large gate with a blue-lacquered goose head holding a ring in its beak, he raised his head and looked at the plaque above the gate, on which was written “Hongyan Villa,” then stepped over the threshold and walked inside.

As soon as he entered, he saw an elegant garden ahead. Among vigorous emerald bamboo, strange rocks were piled in layers. In one corner of the garden stood an octagonal pavilion, with the three large characters “Welcoming Pavilion” written on it. Copper bells hung from its eight upturned eaves, and when the breeze passed, their sound was as crisp as spring water.

Fang Ji’s gaze lingered on the pavilion for a few seconds, then he withdrew his eyes and walked forward along the straight corridor passing through the garden.

At the end of the corridor, the road split into four, extending in different directions. Wooden signs marked “A, B, C, D” hung overhead. Faintly visible ahead, amid the concealing emerald bamboo, was a cluster of buildings built against the mountain.

Following the road with the wooden sign marked “D,” he soon found the D-block annex located on the southeastern side at the foot of the mountain.

The annex formed a rectangular ring, like the Chinese character hui (回), with three floors and a dozen or so rooms on each floor. Fang Ji counted the room numbers one by one as he searched, and soon arrived before the door of Room 25.

Stopping before the door, he pondered for a few seconds, organized his words, took a deep breath, and knocked on the wooden door full of anticipation.

“Knock, knock, knock—!”

“Hello, may I ask if this is where Lu Yibei, an operator of The Midnight Watchers Society from Hua City, is staying? I’m Fang Ji, an operator of The Midnight Watchers Society from Yan City. There are some things I’d like to discuss with you.”

Inside the room, no one responded.

“Knock, knock, knock—!”

“Excuse me, is Operator Lu here?”

After knocking again, Fang Ji waited for a while. Seeing that there was still no response, he turned and went back to the garden he had passed through earlier.

He remembered that there was a pavilion for receiving guests in the garden. When he had passed by just now, two disciples of the Great Pure Palace had been in the pavilion, holding their phones and playing games, with intense game sound effects coming nonstop.

They should have been there for quite some time. Perhaps they knew where that guy Lu Yibei had gone.

I’ll go ask them… Fang Ji thought.

————

When Fang Ji arrived before the pavilion, both disciples inside were staring at their phones with tightly furrowed brows. The atmosphere was tense; even Fang Ji, who did not understand games, could vaguely tell that they were in a deadlock.

Fang Ji did not dare disturb them and could only stand outside the pavilion, waiting quietly.

“Hurry up and get over here, let’s team fight!” said the long-faced disciple.

“Don’t rush me, I’ll solo kill this guy first!” said the other, slightly chubby disciple.

“What the hell? Weren’t you going to solo kill him? How did you get counter-killed?”

“No… I had a 90% crit rate, traded five basic attacks with him, and didn’t crit even once. He had a 20% crit rate and every hit was on fire. That’s fucking absurd! This guy must be hacking, right?” the slightly chubby disciple said angrily.

“Tsk, I told you to come team fight. What’s the point of saying all this now? Surrender!”

The long-faced disciple initiated a surrender and put down his phone. Only when he raised his head did he notice Fang Ji, who had already been waiting outside the pavilion for a while.

He frowned slightly and asked, “May I ask who you are?”

“Oh, hello…” Fang Ji responded. He took a step forward and introduced himself. “My name is Fang Ji, a student here for advanced training.”

Hearing this, a smile appeared on the long-faced disciple’s face. He rose and cupped his hands, saying, “An operator of The Midnight Watchers Society? Apologies, I have been discourteous.”

Operators of The Midnight Watchers Society, who always worked on the front lines against hauntings and illegal psychic ability organizations, risking their lives at their jobs, had always been figures worthy of respect in the eyes of disciples of the Great Pure Palace.

Of course, that was under the premise that they did not know certain operators who shall remain nameless slacked off, loafed around, and spent every day being salary thieves.

“However, what brings you to Hongyan Villa? I remember the advanced training class has separate dormitories.”

Fang Ji imitated the long-faced disciple’s manner, cupped his hands in return, and said, “I came to look for Operator Lu Yibei, but he isn’t in his room, so I thought I’d come over and ask you.”

“Operator Lu Yibei?” The long-faced disciple thought for a moment, shook his head, then looked at the slightly chubby disciple beside him. “Do you know?”

The slightly chubby disciple thought for a bit. “Is he that guy carrying a metal case on his back?”

Metal case…

Fang Ji briefly recalled the scene of his first meeting with Lu Yibei on Xuanwu Terrace. His eyes immediately lit up, and he said repeatedly, “Yes, that’s him.”

“Oh, I know him! I handled his registration when he went out. He said he was going to Shizhou City to visit an old friend. He left just over ten minutes ago,” the slightly chubby disciple said. “Mm, he probably hasn’t crossed the Chain Suspension Bridge yet. If you hurry and chase after him now, you should still make it. If worst comes to worst, wait at the station at the foot of the mountain. The next bus to Shizhou City is in half an hour.”

Fang Ji cupped his hands toward the slightly chubby disciple. “Thank you for letting me know. In that case, I won’t disturb you two any longer.”

After saying this, he strode quickly toward the outside of Hongyan Villa.

“Boom—!”

Before Fang Ji had gone very far, he heard a tremendous sound from behind him. Turning his head to look, he saw the two disciples standing before the half-collapsed pavilion, covered in dust and dirt, both looking completely bewildered.

Then the two exchanged a glance. The long-faced disciple said in a deep voice, “Last time we discovered there were termites, I told you to clean them up. You didn’t do it?”

The slightly chubby disciple scratched the back of his head, his face red. “I forgot.”

Long-faced disciple: “…”

Fang Ji stared at the two disciples for a few seconds, then shook his head.

It had just entered the rainy season recently, precisely the season when termites reproduced. For buildings like those in Hongyan Villa, which were often over a century old, if management was neglected, they were indeed easily damaged by termites. He did not find it strange.

————

After leaving Hongyan Villa, Fang Ji walked briskly forward by intuition. It was as if he had activated precise navigation; he did not take a single wrong turn, and soon caught up with Lu Yibei, who had left one step ahead of him.

Standing at the mountaintop, across the straight mountain path descending downward, he saw Lu Yibei from afar, several hundred meters away, about to reach the foot of the mountain.

A flash of excitement passed through his eyes, and he hurriedly quickened his pace.

Before he had gone very far, he saw Lu Yibei stop at a bend in the mountain path, look left and right, take something out from his bosom, and calmly toss it into the shrubbery beside the mountain path.

What did he throw into the bushes?

Harboring doubt, Fang Ji followed up and stopped at the same place as Lu Yibei. He bent down, parted the branches and leaves of the shrubbery, and looked around. Then he saw three pale paper figures, each the size of a palm, with short, thick limbs and an adorably simple appearance.

“Hm? This is…”

Fang Ji picked up one paper figure and held it in his hand, examining it carefully.

Paper Cicada Immortal, a simple puppet made based on spell formation and Alchemy.

Looking at the paper figure, a piece of unfamiliar content flashed through Fang Ji’s mind. It was as if it had appeared out of thin air, yet also as if it had always existed deep in his memories and he had merely suddenly recalled it.

This was not the first time such a phenomenon had occurred. Ever since his journey from Yan City, whenever he occasionally came into contact with many things related to psychics, hauntings, spell formations, and the like, similar situations would always arise.

This feeling, as though he was gradually recovering lost memories, made him firmly believe that coming to the Great Pure Palace had been the correct choice.

But…

“Why would Operator Lu Yibei place puppets in the shrubbery? What does he plan to use these puppets for?”

Fang Ji muttered to himself, raising his head to look at Lu Yibei in the distance. Yet he discovered that, for some reason, Lu Yibei had suddenly quickened his pace. In the instant Fang Ji was slightly dazed, Lu Yibei’s figure disappeared into the passage beside Zhen Ting Hall.

Seeing this, he had no time to think. He slipped that Paper Cicada Immortal into his trouser pocket and ran after him. ——

Inside the Ancestral Hall on the Back Mountain of the Great Pure Palace. Amidst lush greenery, an ancestral hall perched on the cliffside. Though modest in size, it exuded a solemn, dignified air. This was the only place within the Great Pure Palace that had remained unchanged for hundreds of years. Back then, although Lu Ming had proposed the concept of a green memorial ritual to prevent accidental fires, Zhang Huainan felt that putting LED incense candles in the ancestral hall and looping DJ-chant scripture tracks felt rather like a nightclub—unreliable and disrespectful to the sages. So he rejected Lu Ming’s proposal and, on behalf of the sages, expressed his thanks for the good intentions (physically & magically).

The ancestral hall was surrounded by dense, quiet woods, birdsong ringing crisply in the distance. Through the gaps on either side of the screen wall, the flicker of the ever-burning lamp could be glimpsed. Its light illuminated the massive offering table and the countless spirit tablets behind it, as well as Zhang Huainan in a blue robe standing before the table. By custom, whether the Headmaster or an elder, one must bathe and burn incense before going into seclusion. Though, as a catastrophe-class psychic, he knew well that in this world, unless one turned into a haunting after death, one would simply dissipate into nothingness—and disciples of the Great Pure Palace never believed in gods or ghosts. But for people of Country Z, honoring the sages had never been merely about asking for blessings; more often it was about gratitude and remembrance.

After offering incense, Zhang Huainan bowed respectfully to the spirit tablets, then called softly toward the outside of the hall. “Qingxiazi, come in.”

Qingxiazi, who had been waiting outside the hall for some time, strode in, went around the screen wall, stopped at the main hall’s threshold, first bowed to the spirit tablets within, then inclined to Zhang Huainan. “Headmaster, I heard something from Xinyi just now that I think I should report to you.”

“Oh? What happened to that girl? Let’s hear it.” Zhang Huainan smiled with interest. “Here’s what happened…”

In a few minutes, Qingxiazi succinctly recounted the rumor she had heard today. After listening, Zhang Huainan shook his head, turned, and glanced at a few spirit tablets behind him. “That girl was definitely duped. Which of these do you think could possibly rise from the dead? Next time she meets that fraud, tell her to ask for his Dao title—he won’t be able to answer.”

Following where he pointed, Qingxiazi’s gaze fell upon the spirit tablets of several of Zhang Huainan’s senior martial sisters, and the corner of her mouth twitched despite herself. “Also, say that again—who was the other person with Fu Xinyi?”

“His name is Lu Yibei, Lu Ming’s child, currently a reserve operator of The Midnight Watchers Society in Hua City,” Qingxiazi said firmly. Zhang Huainan, “…”

I gradually understood. Could that sign of yin thriving over yang have been caused by that kid impersonating several of my senior sisters? Bold kid, truly bold! Seeing Zhang Huainan remain silent for a long while, Qingxiazi probed, “Shishu Headmaster, is there something wrong with that kid? Could he be connected to that group?”

“No… he won’t be a bad influence on my precious disciple, will he?”

As far as Qingxiazi knew, after the Great Pure Palace’s reforms were completed, an unknown faction had taken advantage of the increasingly open atmosphere to infiltrate the sect. But that faction hid extremely well; every attempt to sweep them out only caught disciples influenced by them, never uprooting the source. Even the Headmaster could not fully pinpoint the mastermind. Some elders had tried sending disciples undercover into that faction, but those disciples were instead turned. Although, to date, that faction had not done anything truly harmful to the Great Pure Palace, they had subtly made some disciples increasingly dependent on various emerging technologies and psychic artifacts. However, neglecting the importance of improving one’s own strength was like building a tower on sand—topple in an instant, leading to big trouble sooner or later. That unknown faction was like eczema somewhere on the body—you couldn’t see it, couldn’t scratch it, couldn’t cure it, yet it itched unbearably all the time. Precisely because of that faction’s existence, she felt something was off about Lu Yibei. After all, the Palace’s reforms had been proposed by Lu Ming; the faction infiltrated after the reforms; and Lu Yibei was Lu Ming’s only child. “…”

Zhang Huainan pondered for a moment, then looked again at Qing Ji’s spirit tablet behind the offering table and smiled wryly. “He does have some issues, but they have nothing to do with that group, and he won’t lead Fu Xinyi astray.”

He might run her into the ground, though. Qingxiazi nodded. “Then should we hold off on letting Xinyi train to the standards of a Class A Psychic for now? I’m worried she…”

Halfway through her sentence, Zhang Huainan waved a hand to interrupt. “No need. You already promised that girl, and besides, I believe her potential is more than enough to bear it.”

Although Zhang Huainan was fully aware of little tricks like Huá Sāng pinning everything she’d done on Fu Xinyi, he also saw that Fu Xinyi was indeed good material. How many ordinary people could, like Fu Xinyi, maintain self-discipline under high pressure, day in and day out, for over a decade? The ability to persevere is itself a rare talent! Zhang Huainan felt this was quite similar to his younger days. When Qing Ji put him through special training, his worst month saw less than two days of sleep total. Fu Xinyi’s nowhere near that yet. Endure it and you’ll be fine! My disciple truly has the makings of a catastrophe-class talent! Qingxiazi nodded and cast Zhang Huainan an inquiring look. “Then that kid Lu Yibei…”

“Just assign a disciple to keep a casual eye on him,” Zhang Huainan said evenly. “In your view, Shishu Headmaster, who would be best to keep an eye on him?” Qingxiazi frowned. No sooner had she spoken than a light shout came from outside the door. “Old man! I brought you roasted soft-shelled turtle!”

Hearing the call, Zhang Huainan stood with his hands behind his back and grinned. “There, the best candidate—right on cue.”

The best candidate is Huá Sāng? Qingxiazi blinked. While she was dazed, Huá Sāng walked in carrying one and a half fragrant roasted soft-shelled turtles. Seeing this, Qingxiazi’s face went ashen. “Old man, it smelled too good while roasting, so I ate half first. You don’t mind, do you?”

As the words left her mouth, she noticed Qingxiazi’s presence, stiffened, the corner of her mouth twitching, and gave an awkward laugh. “Shi-Shifu, you’re here too? I-I can expl—ow!”

Before Huá Sāng could finish, Qingxiazi’s palm landed on her pert backside. “Wretched disciple! You were barely well-behaved for a few days after going down the mountain, and the moment you’re back you start acting wild again, is that it?”

“One day you’re going to anger me to death and be happy about it! Can’t you learn from your junior sister? If you’re like this, I’d rather you stayed at the foot of the mountain forever, moping around like you’re half-dead!”

“And those golden softshell turtles in the Cold Pool—were they for you to eat? I…”

Watching Qingxiazi’s soft palm rise and fall and Huá Sāng cooperating with her Shifu’s performance, wailing nonstop, Zhang Huainan finally couldn’t help cutting in. “Alright, alright, you two can stop acting. It’s too fake!”

As if I don’t know her? Never mind slapping—hack her with a sword, summon lightning on Zi Xiao Terrace to strike her, and she still wouldn’t feel a thing. “Your lesson is well taken, Shishu Headmaster…” Qingxiazi turned and respectfully inclined to Zhang Huainan. He glanced at her, waved it off, then looked at the intact roasted soft-shelled turtle in Huá Sāng’s hand. “Isn’t that another one? Why are you only giving me half?”

Huá Sāng hid the roasted soft-shelled turtle behind her, pouting. “In your dreams. This isn’t for you; it’s for the big shots!”

As she spoke, she carefully guarded against Zhang Huainan trying to snatch it, slipped past him sideways, took a few steps forward, set the roasted soft-shelled turtle on the offering table, then turned and handed the half-eaten one to Zhang Huainan. Zhang Huainan, “…”

If your Founding Patriarch really knew you were roasting and eating the descendants of his cherished pets, he’d be doing well not to thrash you! Forget it—given is given. Once you leave, it’ll end up in my stomach anyway, won’t it?

Zhang Huainan thought for a moment, then accepted the roasted soft-shelled turtle Huá Sāng handed him and said with a smile, “Not bad. Roasted quite well! However…”

Halfway through, his expression suddenly darkened. His half-narrowed eyes flew open, a flash of ruthlessness passing through them as he said in a low voice, “However, stealing and eating the golden softshell turtles from the Cold Pool violates the sect rules. Do you know your mistake?”

He looked as if he truly had been angered. Huá Sāng: “???”

When did that sect rule come out? Have you eaten any less these past few years? What trick is this old man trying to pull now? Seeing this, Qingxiazi’s heart tightened, and she hurriedly stepped forward, cupping her fists. “Headmaster Martial Uncle, it was my poor teaching. If there is punishment, punish me instead!”

As if he had not heard Qingxiazi at all, Zhang Huainan took two steps forward and continued to say to Huá Sāng, “Your punishment is to go keep watch on Lu Yibei.”

“That’s it? No problem!” Huá Sāng said indifferently.

“He has gone down the mountain, to Shizhou City,” Zhang Huainan added.

“I’ll think about it…” Huá Sāng changed her tune. Watching him around Zhenwu Mountain was fine, but if she had to leave that range, she had to consider it.

“No need to think, no need to think!” Qingxiazi said repeatedly. As she spoke, she pulled Huá Sāng outside, lecturing her in a low voice as they walked. “Headmaster Martial Uncle has already shown mercy. What are you still thinking about? Keeping an eye on that boy won’t make you lose a chunk of flesh!”

“But Shifu, it’s not like you don’t know. Once I go down the mountain, it feels like my body has been hollowed out. I just don’t want to move!” Huá Sāng muttered.

“Endure it!” Qingxiazi glared at Huá Sāng, then took a handkerchief from her robes and wiped the oil from the girl’s little mouth, saying gently, “Look at you. A young girl, eating until your whole face is covered in oil—what kind of behavior is that? Next time after you eat, remember to wash up.”

“And also, before you go down the mountain later, come to my place first. I’ll give you a proper bath and have you change into a clean set of clothes.”

“I know, Shifu.”

Watching Qingxiazi and Huá Sāng walk away, Zhang Huainan looked as if he wanted to say something but stopped himself. Then he shook his head, reached back, grabbed the roasted soft-shelled turtle from the offering table, and stuffed it into his mouth.

Just then, a spirit tablet fell to the ground with a clang.

Zhang Huainan bent down to pick up the spirit tablet and glanced at it, then immediately put the roasted soft-shelled turtle back onto the offering table.

That spirit tablet was undoubtedly the Founding Patriarch’s spirit tablet…