Chapter 32: Chapter 31: Director of the Ghost Suppression Bureau
Zhong Yi and Zhong Ling’s exploration of the Horned Demon Secret Realm had been exceptionally smooth so far. The two had already developed a preliminary understanding in battle.
When they encountered a few lone Horned Demons, Hong Ji would strike directly, plunging the slender Bone Swords that materialized in her hands into the creatures’ vulnerable eyes.
After a Bone Sword pierced a Horned Demon’s skull, Hong Ji didn’t even need to move. The sword would change shape inside the demon’s brain, killing it in an instant.
Although these Bone Swords had left Hong Ji’s body, they were made from materials she had absorbed and were thus considered a part of her.
For a brief ten-odd seconds, Hong Ji could still control these materials even after they detached from her body.
This was a development of her own abilities, honed as she refined her techniques in combat.
When facing a Horned Demon Swarm of several dozen, Hong Ji would take the lead on offense, while Zhong Ling commanded her nineteen Shattered Blade Butterflies to coordinate their attacks with her.
Whenever they faced a Horned Demon Swarm, Zhong Yi would decisively summon his Order Beast, the Resurrection Celestial Lord.
He showed no awareness that he was supposed to treat the Resurrection Celestial Lord like the revered Healing Element Order Beast it was. Instead, he commanded it to cast Recovery Enlightenment one after another, as if the skill cost nothing.
With Recovery Enlightenment active, Hong Ji and the nineteen Shattered Blade Butterflies could recover from their injuries by consuming their own Energy.
Otherwise, during a battle with a Horned Demon Swarm, it wouldn’t just be the nineteen Shattered Blade Butterflies that were easily killed by the demons after using their Unsheathing skill.
Even Hong Ji would have trouble holding on!
After a full day of continuous, grueling battles, both Zhong Yi and Zhong Ling had improved in terms of strength and mental fortitude.
As large numbers of Horned Demons fell, the strength of Hong Ji and the nineteen Shattered Blade Butterflies rose to the Mortal Beast Tenth Level.
A Horned Demon Swarm was typically led by a larger Horned Demon, which served as the elite unit within the swarm.
Killing these elite units had netted Zhong Yi a good thirty to forty Energy Cores.
After obtaining these Energy Cores, Zhong Yi directly fed them to his Lifebound Guardian Beast, the Resurrection Celestial Lord.
This allowed the Resurrection Celestial Lord’s Level to increase, reaching the Mortal Beast Tenth Level without having killed a single Horned Demon.
Zhong Yi gave the remaining Energy Cores to Zhong Ling, and the Level of her Lifebound Guardian Beast, the Wangyu Butterfly, also increased.
But more than their strength, it was Zhong Yi and Zhong Ling’s mental fortitude that had seen the greatest improvement.
Along the way, Zhong Yi and Zhong Ling had come to fully understand the depravity of the human heart in a dangerous environment.
Some Adventurers, when pursued by Horned Demons, would deliberately lead them toward other Adventurers to escape.
They would even command their Guardian Beasts to attack other Adventurers to ensure they were tied down by the Horned Demons.
Zhong Yi and Zhong Ling had encountered this exact situation. When faced with Adventurers who tried to use them as shields, Hong Ji would eagerly kill them without even waiting for Zhong Yi’s command.
Although killing humans and killing Horned Demons were both a form of reaping Life, the psychological pressure they placed on the pair was completely different.
Normally, Zhong Yi and Zhong Ling would have needed some time to process these feelings, but because they were carrying a pot containing a Bronze Quality Ice Spirit Flower...
...even when they weren’t being chased by Horned Demons, plenty of Adventurers and even entire Adventurer teams started getting ideas about them.
Encountering this situation frequently allowed Zhong Yi and Zhong Ling’s mental fortitude to grow rapidly.
Even Zhong Ling had become decisive, commanding her Shattered Blade Butterflies to fight back against any attacking Adventurers.
Although an unregulated environment like a Secret Realm could bring out the worst in people...
...when faced with Adventurers who wanted to steal the Ice Spirit Flower, there were still some Adventurer teams who would righteously step in to help them, asking for nothing in return.
All in all, they had encountered more kindness than malice.
Although this kindness wasn’t exactly helpful to Zhong Yi and Zhong Ling, it kept them from treating every Adventurer they met in the Secret Realm as an enemy.
Fortunately, the vast majority of Adventurers didn’t enter the Horned Demon Secret Realm purely to hunt Horned Demons. Most were there to find resource nodes and exploit the Secret Realm’s resources.
This meant that most Adventurers actively avoided Horned Demon Swarms. Zhong Yi and Zhong Ling, on the other hand, did the exact opposite, tracking the moving swarms by their footprints.
In the process of searching for these swarms, the pair encountered several teams that were nearly wiped out by Horned Demon Swarms, including a novice squad from the Thorn Travel Group.
Zhong Yi would command Hong Ji to wipe out the Horned Demon Swarm, saving these endangered Adventurer squads in the process.
In just one day, the duo of Zhong Yi and Zhong Ling had become the biggest topic of conversation in the Horned Demon Secret Realm.
News about them was carried outside the Secret Realm by departing Adventurers.
...
"Old Liu, I’m not kidding. Those two looked younger than my own son and daughter."
"The two of them commanded a Human-shaped Guardian Beast that was stranger than anything Bizarre, along with a dozen or so Shattered Blade Butterflies, and they saved me and Old Xu from a Horned Demon Swarm."
"A Horned Demon’s horn pierced Old Xu’s kneecap, and half his foot was bitten off. But you know what happened?"
"That young man summoned a healing Guardian Beast and healed Old Xu’s injuries on the spot!"
"Not only did his pierced knee heal, but even the half of his foot that was gone grew back."
"It’s just a shame about Old Xu’s Shielded Bull. The Horned Demons ate it until only half its body was left. I’m afraid Old Xu won’t be able to team up with me to explore Secret Realms anymore."
Just as someone nearby was about to join the conversation, they noticed the Secret Realm Entrance was heavily guarded by layers of the Starlight Army. Two figures stood prominently right in front of the entrance.
Beside the two figures stood an old man wearing rimless glasses.
The Adventurers coming out of the Horned Demon Secret Realm didn’t recognize the two people standing at the front, but the old man with them gave them a huge shock.
’The president of the Guardian Beast Union? Why would he grace a minor First Level Secret Realm with his presence!?’
’Is the Horned Demon Secret Realm about to erupt?’
’That’s impossible. If the Secret Realm were about to erupt, we would have definitely felt something while we were exploring inside just now.’
Even if a First Level Secret Realm really did erupt, the Starlight Army squad assigned to patrol here could handle it.
There would be no need for the president of the Guardian Beast Union to come here personally.
Just as the few of them were about to step forward and pay their respects, the woman with short, crimson hair—who looked to be no more than twenty, with exquisitely delicate features—walked up to them anxiously.
"I am a Director from the Ghost Suppression Bureau. I need you to cooperate with me and tell me what happened inside the Secret Realm."
Lin Zhuo never had a calm personality to begin with, and right now, she was practically frantic with worry.
For a full day, that little guy who had just awakened as a Celestial Destiny Seeker still hadn’t come out of the Horned Demon Secret Realm.
In the day she had been waiting at the entrance, Lin Zhuo had lost count of how many reports she’d heard of Adventurers dying in the Secret Realm.
If it weren’t for the strength restrictions on entering a First Level Secret Realm, Lin Zhuo would have been unable to stop herself from rushing in to find him the moment she arrived.
