Chapter 67: Redemption
At those words, the oppressive aura blanketing the lobby dissipated entirely, and Zhang Yuanqing and Xie Lingxi both exhaled in quiet relief. The sensation of being watched by a starving wolf was finally gone.
The woman behind the front desk narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing the young man and woman standing just a counter's width away, then cast an imperceptible glance toward the entrance of the hotel.
"Understood," she said in a cool, detached tone. "Please wait a moment."
She withdrew her gaze and walked further into the depths of the in, the clacking of her heels growing fainter and fainter.
Xie Lingxi let out a long breath, her small face pale.
"Bro Yuanshi, I... I just thought of something," she whispered, and Zhang Yuanqing turned to look at her.
"We couldn't find any information on 'Master Wuhen.' Is it possible that it's not because he's obscure, but because... because our clearance level is too low?"
If a mere receptionist could exert such terrifying pressure, then the level Master Wuhen operated at had to be beyond imagination.
Zhang Yuanqing nodded, his expression grave. "I thought the same thing. That's why I was just about to run, and I was quite confident I could make it."
"Huh?" Xie Lingxi stared at him in shock, her bright eyes wide. "My legs had gone completely soft! I didn't even think about running. All I wanted was to bury my head in your armpit."
That's exactly why I was confident I could escape. I only needed to outrun my teammate, Zhang Yuanqing grumbled internally.
He spread his arms, clamped her head under his armpit, and asked, "Does this give you a sense of security?"
"Bro Yuanshi, let go of me! Let go, this is so embarrassing!" Xie Lingxi demanded, struggling with all her might.
She yanked her head free, straightened the headphones that had gone crooked on her head, and lowered her voice. "Bro Yuanshi, my headphones are a prop. They can monitor every sound within a five hundred meter radius."
She listened intently, then murmured, "That woman got into the elevator. It stopped on the fourth floor... She opened the second door to the left of the elevator. Wait... She vanished?!"
Xie Lingxi looked up, astonishment written across her face. "She just disappeared."
Disappeared? Had that guest room somehow blocked outside surveillance? Zhang Yuanqing patted the girl on the shoulder, signaling her to stay calm.
The two waited in silence. Throughout, Xie Lingxi kept glancing toward the entrance to the hotel, confirming that the bodyguards her family had sent were still watching over her. Only then did she feel the faintest sense of security.
About ten minutes later, she tilted her head and whispered, "She's back out."
A few more minutes passed. Zhang Yuanqing heard the elevator chime as it returned to the first floor. The clacking of heels followed, and the strikingly beautiful woman reappeared in the lobby, regarding them both.
"Follow me."
When the youngsters hesitated, she swept her cold gaze over their tense faces and scoffed, "If you're scared, you're welcome to turn around and go home."
Zhang Yuanqing smiled. "You look so kind and gentle, Sis. Anyone can tell you're a good person. We're not scared."
Xie Lingxi spoke in a soft, delicate voice. "Ma'am, we're only here to pass along a message. We mean no harm."
The woman's expression softened. She gave a slight nod and led them into the elevator, up to the fourth floor.
She stood in the corridor and glanced toward the second guest room to the left of the elevator. "Go on in."
Zhang Yuanqing saw the room number—404—and the corner of his mouth twitched. What a great number.
He took Xie Lingxi by the hand and led her to the door, then twisted the handle.
Click!
The instant the latch disengaged, a quiet yet immense power seemed to descend over them, and the scene before their eyes shifted rapidly.
The carpet lining the corridor became plain celadon tile. The concrete, white-painted walls transformed into a structure of brick and timber, and the fluorescent lights gave way to the soft, flickering glow of candlelight.
Zhang Yuanqing and Xie Lingxi looked around in stunned silence. They were standing inside the great hall of a temple. The domed ceiling rose seven or eight meters overhead, adorned with an intricate weave of interlocking geometric patterns and the painted images of heavenly deities and Buddhas.
Beneath that ceiling sat a golden Buddha, five meters tall with eyes downcast, fingers a flower pinched delicately between its fingers. Its expression seemed at once compassionate, majestic, and coldly severe.
Eighteen thick candles burned on the altar before it, their flames bright and steady.
Below the Buddha rested a meditation cushion, and upon it sat a monk in dark green patchwork robes. His frame was enormous. Even sitting cross legged, he was as tall as Xie Lingxi standing.
The two youngsters exchanged a silent glance, a mix of fear and gravity in their eyes. One moment they had been in a hotel corridor, and the next, they were standing inside a strange temple.
If not for the absence of any notification chime, they would have suspected they had been pulled into the Spirit Realm for another mission.
Master Wuhen is far more terrifying than I imagined, Zhang Yuanqing realized in awe. What level of Spirit Realm Walker could possibly have abilities like this?
Zhang Yuanqing drew a deep breath and addressed the green robed figure's back with respect. "Might you be Master Wuhen?"
A deep, hoarse voice reached them, speaking in a strange cadence, as though the speaker were enduring some kind of pain. "A Nocturnal Specter and a Musician. You belong to an official organization?"
Zhang Yuanqing did not dare conceal the truth. "Yes!"
Silence filled the hall for over ten seconds before that deep, ragged voice echoed through it once more. "What did Ashamed Father say before he died?"
Zhang Yuanqing's own voice fell, almost involuntarily. "He asked me to tell you this: 'I'm sorry. To this day, I still don't know whether I was the one who was wrong, or if it was this world.'"
As he spoke those words, he recalled once more the look in Ashamed Father's eyes just before the end, the gaze that flickered with loathing and sorrow.
Another long silence took over the hall, so long it made Zhang Yuanqing and Xie Lingxi's hearts race with unease.
At last, Master Wuhen released a sigh. "I see."
Xie Lingxi hesitated, then mustered her courage and asked softly, "Master, he saved my life. He wasn't a bad person. Why... Why was he given an Evil class?"
The monk in dark green patchwork robes spoke slowly as he began to narrate.
"He once had a daughter. She was clever and well behaved, with excellent grades all through school. When she went to university, she gradually changed. She began chasing material things and competing blindly with her classmates.
"To provide for her, Ashamed Father worked day and night, desperate to earn enough money to satisfy her. But he could never keep up with her growing demands. Then one day, he discovered she had borrowed enormous sums of money online, and that compromising photographs had been taken of her.
"He had no way to repay those debts. Worse still, he felt his daughter had disgraced the family. The two had a terrible fight. He threatened to sever their relationship entirely. He believed it was all her fault. She had become greedy, selfish, and unrecognizable.
"Later on, the lending company took control of the girl. They forced her into prostitution, toying with her, humiliating her without restraint. In her despair, she jumped from a building and took her own life.
"Ashamed Father broke down completely. He began to believe that he had been the one at fault. If he could have given his daughter a comfortable life, or if he had possessed the money to pay off her debts, none of the tragedy would have happened. He regretted his argument with her countless times. If only he had comforted her then, stayed by her side, perhaps everything that followed could have been avoided. He was the one who had pushed his own daughter into the abyss.
"After she died, he tried to sue the lending company and the men who had tormented her, who had driven her to death. But the company held considerable power in the district, and he lost the case."
"He sank into despair for a long time before finally realizing that his daughter had not been in the wrong. It was him. It was this world. He came to believe that no one could change their environment, but only be shaped by it. When society screams about the importance of material wealth and money in your ear every waking moment, you will inevitably be influenced, become obsessed with money, become fixated on possessions. No one is immune.
"His daughter had not yet entered the real world. She had not understood how cruel people could be. She had been led unknowingly into spending, into borrowing, and that was how she had ended up on the road of no return.
"This world was rotten to the core, and so he decided to avenge her himself. He stormed into the lending company and killed the men who had abused her and driven her to death, then fled the scene. It was that very act of slaughter that earned him his Character Card and transformed him into an Enchanting Demon."
The monk paused to let them process the story, then continued speaking.
"Ashamed Father was a man of extremes, but he was no bloodthirsty villain. And yet, once someone accepts an Evil class, there is no turning back. He walked further and further down that road of no return, his level climbing ever higher, his suffering deepening with every step.
"One day he found me, and he began to follow me in spiritual practice, hoping to resolve the fury in his heart and find redemption. But he was too extreme. He did not wish to slaughter innocents, yet he stubbornly refused to make peace with the world.
"Perhaps death, for him, was the best possible end."
No wonder he had thrown himself in front of Xie Lingxi. His daughter had been about the same age as her. He regretted the countless times he never reached out to pull his daughter back. That desperate lunge to save her had not truly been for Xie Lingxi. It had been for the daughter who had leapt from that building all those years ago.
Zhang Yuanqing glanced at the little green tea princess. She stood frozen, speechless, the rims of her eyes turning red.
He let out a quiet sigh. "Master, I believe he already found his redemption."
Master Wuhen, still with his back to them, offered neither agreement nor denial. He waved one hand gently, and two faint glimmers of light streamed out from his sleeve, landing at the feet of Xie Lingxi and Zhang Yuanqing.
They looked down. Two pieces of jade lay there, black as ink and roughly half the size of a palm. Inside each, dark luminescence churned and shifted between countless shapes, dreamlike and mesmerizing.
After only a few seconds of staring, both of them felt their vision darken and their heads swim with dizziness.
"Thank you for bringing back his final words." Master Wuhen said, his voice calm and even. "These are called Dreamlink Jade Talismans. Crush one, and you can reach me. Should you encounter danger, I will intervene on your behalf once. This applies only to the real world. They are ineffective within the Spirit Realm."
There was a brief silence, indicating that their conversation was done.
"Now leave."
The Buddha, the candlelight, and the whole world seemed to twist and shatter around them. Zhang Yuanqing and Xie Lingxi found themselves back in the hotel, standing before the open door of what was a standard single room.
At their feet lay two black jade stones.
