Chapter 222: Spirit Realm Mission

"So what's the Songhai Branch's stance?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.

"If the Fu Province Branch can shield Zhu Rong, then the Songhai Branch can shield the Slaughter Cessation Palace Master just the same."

That answer told Zhang Yuanqing everything, and he grinned. "So the Zhu family has to take this one on the chin."

The Zhu family, and the whole Fu Province Branch that was backing them, had no jurisdiction in Songhai. As long as the Songhai Branch stood in front of her, there was nothing they could do to the palace master. They were just using their own tricks on them.

Fu Qingyang kept both hands in his pockets, his handsome face still icy, and gave a small nod. "The palace master looks unhinged and reckless, but the thing is, she isn't. She calculates every move."

Zhang Yuanqing agreed. The palace master was essentially telling the Zhu family that she could peel the skin off Zhu Rong's face, slap the Zhu family right in front of everyone, and there was nothing they could do about it.

He could hear her unspoken challenge in his mind. Come sniffing around my boy toy again, and next time it won't just be a face being peeled off. It'll be a corpse. And there'll still be nothing you can do.

Of course, actually killing Zhu Rong would be unforgivable for the Zhu family. If they were blocked from pursuing her in the open, they would surely go after her in the dark. Therefore, the palace master hadn't killed Zhu Rong, just beat the lesson into her, hard.

A threat was delivered, with a little room left over. However much it stuck in their throats, the Zhu family would swallow it. She had judged it just right.

In any case, the issue with Zhu Rong was handled for the moment. Once he had the strength, he'd settle things with her properly. The Bronze Sparrow Tower case still demanded justice, and she was going to pay the price.

Zhang Yuanqing moved on to something else. "Centurion, regarding the case of Kou Beiyue's sister. Did the higher-ups give any answer?"

Fu Qingyang's fine, spirited brows drew together. "I've received no answer, and there won't be one. If you want to clear Kou Beiyue's name, clear his sister's name, fine. But you can't make the Public Security Bureau admit that one of its own squad leaders forged evidence and framed him. If you're willing to take a step back, hear my suggestion."

Zhang Yuanqing straightened. "Go ahead, Centurion."

Fu Qingyang's eyes stayed on the fight down in the arena. "The new Shakou District Public Security Bureau Chief took office last week. He's out to make his mark by cleaning up the ranks. As a result, he pulled the old cases from the past few years back out.

"It turns out the evidence around the case regarding the death of Kou Beiyue's sister was full of holes. The real culprit is someone else entirely. So he's rescinding the warrant on Kou Beiyue. The Shakou District Bureau will reopen the case, and they'll be sure to catch the killer."

He turned his head to look at Zhang Yuanqing. "If you're willing to go with that, I'll make the arrangements."

Fu Qingyang certainly knew how to play politics. Zhang Yuanqing thought back to the Chi Yue'an affair and the way this cold young lord had pinned the whole thing on Dark Rose and marveled inwardly.

It was the best that could be done. Kou Beiyue would clear his name and be able to hold his head up high again. The goal would be met.

"Fine," Zhang Yuanqing replied.

Fu Qingyang inclined his head slightly and looked back to the ring. "Your second solo Spirit Realm dungeon should be coming up soon. Here's a fun little tidbit. In the elders' group chat, plenty of the old timers are dying to know what difficulty your second solo Spirit Realm dungeon turns out to be. They're more hyped for it than for this Saint-tier tournament."

Zhang Yuanqing blinked. "How about you?"

The words were barely out and he regretted them, because he could already hear Fu Qingyang's answer: The tournament holds no suspense. The champion is going to be me.

But that wasn't what Fu Qingyang said. "While in the Transcendent tier, the Female Marshal cleared one S-rank dungeon, two A-rank dungeons, and one slaughter dungeon before breaking through to the Saint tier.

"The old-timers are gauging your potential off your dungeon count and their difficulties, as well as the speed at which you level up. If your growth curve at the Transcendent tier looks like the Female Marshal's, then you've got the makings of an Alliance Chief. And if your growth curve at the Saint stage looks like hers, then you—"

"Then I become a candidate for the next Alliance Chief?"

"Then you can rip Crossing Pawn’s title right out of his hands."

Crossing Pawn’s title. Zhang Yuanqing thought about it seriously for a few seconds, and the corner of his mouth twitched.[1]

Well played, Zhang Yuanqing conceded. So this was where the ambush was waiting. He had been careless. Fu Qingyang didn't so much as flush, and there was no trace of shame on his face.

"I'm curious about the difficulty of your next dungeon as well," he said flatly. "Remember, report to Li Dongze before you go in."

***

At nine the next morning, Zhang Yuanqing made his way down to Fu Family Bay and stepped into Fu Qingyang's lavish office. The centurion was sitting behind the broad desk, dressed in snowy white, watching his subordinate enter.

"The Shakou District Bureau got back to me," he said. "They'll go along with my suggestion, but none of their people will show their face. You'll have to deliver the news yourself. Also, they won't be providing compensation to the family."

He pushed a document across the desk, stamped with the Shakou District's official seal.

"This statement is the biggest concession they'll make."

Zhang Yuanqing's face darkened. Deliver the news myself? No compensation?!

The Shakou District Bureau's attitude was piss poor, as though a grudging surrender had been wrung out of them by some deadbeat who wouldn't quit, dripping with disdain and arrogance. We agree, but that's us doing you a favor. Don't you dare fantasize that any of our people will handle this in person. And compensation? Don't even think about it.

Zhang Yuanqing drew in a long breath. "Fine! But, Centurion, I'll have to trouble you to pass a message to the Shakou District Chief for me. Make sure it gets through."

Fu Qingyang nodded. "What message?"

"Tell him to go screw himself!"

***

Inside Wuhen Inn, Kou Beiyue, dressed in a food deliveryman's uniform, sat in a chair by the front desk, his brow knotted, scratching at his scalp every so often. Xiao Yuan, slender and graceful, stood behind the desk.

"Are you worried about Yuanshi Tianzun?" she inquired. "He's already dealt with the curse. There won't be any aftereffects."

"Really?" Kou Beiyue's face lit up. "That's good, then."

Immediately, though, the spark of joy sank back under the initial, oppressively gloomy expression.

Xiao Yuan frowned. "If something's wrong, say it."

Kou Beiyue had been like that for a long while, and she'd at first assumed he was fretting over Yuanshi Tianzun's safety.

"My dad's sick," Kou Beiyue mumbled. "Yesterday I snuck over to where they're staying to see him."

"Sick with what?"

"Ankylosing spondylitis[2]."

"Right. So you need money," Xiao Yuan said.

Kou Beiyue went quiet, and it took a long time to squeeze out a single word, "Yeah."

It was as if letting go of that single word helped the prickly, self-conscious kid set his dignity and pride aside as well.

"Ever since my sister and I got hit with all that, my dad's been living in depression," he went on. "He couldn't stand staying in the place he'd lived in for decades. He moved my mom out and cut off contact with the relatives. My mom has a weak heart, and she's always on medication, so my dad is under huge pressure.

"He's had it rough. Yesterday I went to see him, and all of a sudden his hair had gone white. He's so dark and thin and he's changed so much I barely knew him. I want so badly to step outside and see them. To be with them. To let them know they can hold their heads up as people again... But I don't dare."

Kou Beiyue scrubbed hard at his face. "Xiao Yuan, I miss my mom and dad. I want to go home."

Xiao Yuan listened in silence, her gaze having drifted somewhere far off.

Right then the inn's glass doors swung open, and a young man in a public security officer's uniform walked in, briefcase in hand.

Xiao Yuan looked the young man up and down. Kou Beiyue wiped the dejection and grief off his face at once and hauled his cocky chin upward, put on a swagger, and gave the newcomer a glare.

"What the hell are you doing, dressed up in a dog's hide? Peel it off now. Whenever I see somebody wearing a dog's hide, my fist starts itching."

Zhang Yuanqing sneered. "You can't beat me anyway. And anyway, I bet I can move my lips a little and have you calling me daddy."

Kou Beiyue wasn't about to take a taunt like that lying down, and his brows immediately shot up. "Bullshit! If you've actually got the goods to do that, I'll call you that every time I see you from now on."

The words were barely out of his mouth when Zhang Yuanqing pulled a document from the briefcase and held it up in front of his eyes.

What the hell is this garbage? Kou Beiyue thought angrily.

He was about to swat it aside when his eyes swept across the page. Slowly, his eyes grew wider, his body grew rigid, and his breathing became quick and shallow.

Seeing that stunned expression bloom on the normally blunt, coarse, and emotionally-closed Kou Beiyue caused Xiao Yuan to pause. From the way Yuanshi Tianzun was dressed, she managed to connect the dots. The dullness in her eyes flared into a brilliant light.

Zhang Yuanqing patted the document against Kou Beiyue's cheek, the way some tycoon slaps a wage slave across the face with a fan of banknotes.

"Call me daddy!" he barked.

Kou Beiyue's face tightened, and he turned a furious red.

***

The white sedan rolled slowly into Pingxiang Town.

Pingxiang Town sat near Jinshan City. There were no highrises, no handsome public works, and was filled mostly with the red brick houses that were found in any township. The classier ones had white paint slapped on the walls and glazed red tiles laid over the roofs.

The supermarkets, shops and restaurants along the town's main street were all decorated in a style stuck somewhere around the turn of the century.

Before long, and following Kou Beiyue's directions, the white sedan pulled up in front of a four-storey red brick building. His parents lived here. More precisely, they lived in one of its rooms.

As the economy grew, industrialization pushed citizens out of the cities and into the villages and towns. The flood of new arrivals meant a demand for lodging, and throwing up a building and collecting rent became the fastest and steadiest way for locals to make money.

Kou Beiyue's parents lived on the third floor of the building, in the room nearest the stairwell.

Zhang Yuanqing had heard from Kou Beiyue that his parents had been scraping by these past two years, riding out small illnesses, and not daring to see a doctor unless things were truly serious.

The Kou family actually owned a place in Jinshan City, which the old couple had never sold. They would rather grind their way through the bitter days than let it go. The most likely reason was fear that their beast of a son wouldn't be able to find his way home someday.

The three of them got out, went into the red brick building, and climbed the stairs to the third floor.

Kou Beiyue drew several deep breaths, his right hand lifting then falling several times until at last he worked up the nerve and knocked.

A few seconds later, the door opened. Behind it stood a middle-aged woman, thin and worn, with very dark skin that was blotched with sun spots, and deep-seated crow's feet at the corners of her eyes. Every line of her face had been weathered by hard years.

The woman's gaze fell on Kou Beiyue, and she froze. Then her lips began to tremble, and her eyes trembled with them. She just stood there looking at him as tears poured down her face.

Zhang Yuanqing watched in silence from the side. He could read a host of emotions in her face and in her eyes all at once. Rage, grief, hatred, longing. It was hard to imagine one person experiencing such a tangle of feelings in the space of a few seconds. At that moment, her heart had to be drowning in a tide of raw emotion.

Kou Beiyue pressed his lips together, looked at his mother, and said nothing. He hated that his parents hadn't trusted him, hated that everyone had wronged him. Yet he would not cry. He would not say one soft, yielding word. A boy his age was stubborn, right down to the bone.

Then a low, furious roar came from inside the room. A middle-aged man in an undershirt came rushing out, a kitchen cleaver in his grip, his spine stiff and rigid. His face was murderous, his features twisted in anger, and yet the grief in his eyes ran as deep as the abyss.

Zhang Yuanqing couldn't stand idly by. He slipped past the woman, met Kou's father and his swinging cleaver head on, and wrenched the blade out of his hand.

"You animal! I'll hack you to death, you animal! You've still got the nerve to show up here. How do you have the nerve!" the middle aged man roared, tears bursting from his eyes.

Kou Beiyue's eyes reddened, yet he craned his neck stubbornly and stayed silent.

Zhang Yuanqing said "calm down," "don't do anything rash," and "I'm a Public Security Officer" over and over, trying to talk the man down as he wrestled with him, until he finally got him seated at a table.

Their place was simple. It had one room and one bathroom with the bedroom adjoining the kitchen. No—there was no kitchen. What passed for the kitchen was a table by the window with a gas burner on it. A gas canister stood beside it.

"Don't get worked up. Calm down!" Zhang Yuanqing said one more time, then took out the statement the Shakou District Bureau had provided him and laid it on the table.

"Kou Beiyue's case is being revisited. Our preliminary investigation had determined that he is innocent. Here is a statement from the Shakou District Public Security Bureau." As he spoke he pulled out his badge. "I'm an officer with the Shakou District Bureau."

When she heard all this, the middle-aged woman at the door all but threw herself at the table, reading through the statement together with her husband, whose hands were shaking as he held the paper.

A dozen-odd seconds later, the woman broke into wailing sobs, as if all the wrong of the past two years were pouring out of her in an instant. Kou Beiyue's father kept swiping at his eyes, tears streaming down the old lines of his face. There was no telling anymore whether they were tears of joy or sorrow.

"Officer, thank you, thank you," the woman repeated as she gripped Zhang Yuanqing's hand tightly, choking on her grief.

Zhang Yuanqing, who'd braced to get chased with a cleaver, suddenly lost every feeling he had. This was what they were owed in the first place. Why did it come across like some act of grace?

He set the briefcase on the table. "There's three hundred thousand in here. Compensation from the Public Security Bureau."

He turned and left quickly, feeling completely done with all of it.

Xiao Yuan pulled the door shut behind them, not disturbing the family's reunion, and left with Zhang Yuanqing.

"Why the sudden change in mood?" she asked as they moved beyond the red brick building, her voice carrying a rare thread of gentleness.

"That compensation came out of my own pocket. The Shakou District Bureau wanted no part in admitting this. All they gave was a statement. They can't see how Kou Beiyue was wronged, or the humiliation and despair of a victim's family.

"They've never once thought these common folk were owed an accounting. No—they denied them even an explanation."

Zhang Yuanqing gazed toward the horizon. "I saw the arrogance of those on top. It made me angry. But there was nothing I could do about it."

***

The next day, at half past nine in the morning, the White Tiger Guard's new favorite was seated in the arena beside the guild leader.

"Centurion, the Kou Beiyue matter is handled. Thank you, truly."

Fu Qingyang didn't look at him, his eyes steady on the ring. "I don't hear any thanks in your tone. Oh, and I passed along yesterday's message."

"Thank you, truly!"

Fu Qingyang nodded, satisfied. "Mm. Now I hear it."

Zhang Yuanqing let out a sigh. However it had gone, it was settled at last. Next up was steadying himself for either the slaughter dungeon or his second solo Spirit Realm.

If the second solo dungeon came after the slaughter dungeon, then it wouldn't be a Nocturnal Specter-exclusive dungeon, it'd be an Astral Envoy-exclusive one.

There was no telling what an Astral Envoy's instance looked like.

Time slid by. By noon, four sets of competitors had already finished their matches. It was the round of sixteen, and the caliber of the competitors was a clear cut above those from the last two days.

According to Fu Qingyang, if all went smoothly, the quarterfinals and semifinals would be held the following day, and the day after that would be the championship match.

"Yuanshi, going by the timing, your solo dungeon should open in the next couple of days, right?" Guan Ya asked.

"I've been reading strategy guides lately," Zhang Yuanqing said, his voice ringing with confidence. "I'm sure I'll make it, even if it's an S-rank dungeon."

The Celestial Ritual Set had given him a hefty dose of assurance.

From the back row, Phoenix Descending put in a warning. "Don't get cocky, jackass. An S-rank trial dungeon and an S-rank Level 3 dungeon aren't even remotely on the same plane."

The danger in the Sheling Tunnel dungeon had been certain death for an ordinary person, but for a Level 2 or 3 Spirit Realm Walker, it was child's play. That meant a Level 3 S-rank solo dungeon, or even an A-rank one, was extraordinarily perilous.

Zhang Yuanqing was just about to answer when he heard the Spirit Realm's chime in his ears.

【Ding! Spirit Realm map loading. You will enter the Spirit Realm in 60 seconds. The dungeon you are entering is "Mute Village." Number: 1018.】

【Difficulty: A】

【Type: Solo (death type).】

【Main Quest: Survive for 24 hours.】

【Note: No non-Spirit Realm items may be brought in.】

【Spirit Realm No. 1018

【Introduction: One day, the villager Wang Xiao'er dug up an ancient tomb in the back mountains. Inside lay a woman's corpse and a wealth of burial goods. Wang Xiao'er stole the burial goods, meaning to take them to the provincial capital and sell them to some wealthy household. Who'd have guessed that that very night, she came out from the grave to pursue him...】

Zhang Yuanqing had never expected his solo dungeon to open at a time like this. His past three Spirit Realm missions had all been triggered at night. It had given him the false impression that his Spirit Realm missions would always happen at night.

Something tickled his mind. Wait. Mute Village?

He'd read through every Spirit Realm guide the Taiyi Sect had handed over, and there was no Mute Village dungeon guide in there. Was this a dungeon with no guide? Or was it one the Taiyi Sect had simply never logged?

There was a difference between the two. If there was no guide, it meant it would be the first time anyone tried to clear it. If it was the latter, then some Nocturnal Specter outside the Taiyi Sect might have already cleared it, but no Taiyi Sect Nocturnal Specter had, so there was no guide in the database.

Either way, a dungeon without a guide in the database was potentially very rewarding. But for the one going in, the danger spiked just as sharply.

Zhang Yuanqing's expression shifted. "Centurion, my Spirit Realm mission is here."

1. Crossing Pawn is known as Little Qingyang. It’s implying that Zhang Yuanqing would only ever be second to Fu Qingyang. ☜

2. Ankylosing spondylitis is a long-term inflammatory disease that mainly affects the spine and the joints where the spine connects to the pelvis, leading to stiffness, pain, and potentially the fusion of spinal bones. ☜