Chapter 78: The Harvest
The official Walkers filed in one after another, splitting into two teams of their own accord. One team tended to the wounded while the other swept the scene, delivering finishing blows and eliminating any lingering threats.
A female member of the Hundred Flowers Society crouched down to examine the two poisoned Fire Sages, and she said urgently, "Centurion, their vitals are extremely weak. They need diluted Life Essence administered immediately, or their lives will be in danger."
Within the Lawful faction, both Musicians and Wood Demons possessed skills that touched on the domain of life, but neither class had the power to bring someone back from the brink of death at the Transcendent tier. That kind of potent ability was something only high level Walkers could command.
Because of this, Life Essence, an item of the Musician class, had always been a critical strategic resource for the official Walker organizations. It could produce immediate, dramatic results even in dying patients. Every year, the Five Elements Alliance purchased vast quantities from the three Musician noble families, and each vial was extraordinarily precious.
"Treat them immediately," Fu Qingyang ordered, his voice low and firm.
The Wood Demon woman unclasped her tactical pack, produced two syringes, and administered intravenous injections to both poisoned Fire Sages.
Big Muscle, who had been rendered unconscious from his severe injuries, received the same treatment. Li Dongze wasn't so lucky. The Hundred Flowers Society's Wood Demon only performed basic first aid on him—stopping the bleeding, purging the toxin, and wrapping his wounds. Green Vine and the others were treated as well.
Fu Qingyang walked over to Guan Ya, shrugged off his jacket, and draped it over her shoulders.
"Are you alright?" he asked, his brow furrowed.
Guan Ya pulled the suit jacket's collar tighter around herself and shook her head.
Just then, the captain-level Walker who had been sweeping the battlefield returned with his team and reported, "Centurion, all enemies have been eliminated. No survivors."
The captain let out a sigh of admiration. "All four venomous beasts had bodies on par with Level 3 Fire Sages. The fact that they managed to take them down without a single casualty is incredible. But there's something I don't understand. Two of the beasts had no wounds on them at all, and their bodies were stiff and ice cold, as though they had been dead for several hours. How did you all manage that?"
At those words, Ling Jun raised an eyebrow and immediately crouched down beside the corpse of Rampaging Recklessly, studying it closely.
Something clicked in Fu Qingyang's mind, and he turned to Guan Ya. "What happened?"
"Yuanshi killed those two," Guan Ya replied, blunt and to the point.
"No, not two." White Dragon, having received treatment, leaned on her blade for support and corrected her. "Three."
The young woman who had been bandaging Big Muscle looked up, her face alight with excitement. "Yuanshi Tianzun? The rookie who cleared the S-rank Jinshui Amusement Park? Where is he? I haven't even seen what he looks like yet!"
Her direct superior curtailed her excitement with a single stern look.
Three? Fu Qingyang glanced over at Green Vine and Tang Guoqiang, and neither of them offered any correction. The injured Level 2 Walkers all wore the same expression, a complicated mix of admiration and fear, as though they were all remembering the same thing.
Ling Jun clicked his tongue twice. "This is definitely the work of a Nocturnal Specter. He's only Level 2 and already this powerful? How long has this kid even been a Spirit Realm Walker?"
His voice took on a tinge of regret as he added, "Letting him go to the Five Elements Alliance was a terrible decision."
Fu Qingyang spared him a glance, then turned back to Guan Ya. "Where is Yuanshi Tianzun?"
Guan Ya looked toward the second floor. "Upstairs, dealing with something."
***
Compared to the wreckage and chaos of the ground floor, the rooms on the second level were in decent shape. Zhang Yuanqing found the item he was looking for in the third room facing outward.
It was an incense burner, sitting quietly on a table. It had a bronze tripod for a base, and the main body of the burner had been carved from dark ebony in the shape of a toad. It squatted on the base with its great mouth gaping wide toward the heavens.
Zhang Yuanqing fought the itching in his throat and stumbled over to the bed, yanking open the curtains and throwing the window wide. He gulped down several deep breaths of fresh air, and the dizziness receded considerably. Only then did he return to the table and pick up the toad incense burner. Lines of information materialized in his vision.
【Name: Celestial Toad Incense Burner】
【Type: Apparatus】
【Function: Toxin】
【Description: In ancient times, a genius from a certain Hex Master tribe in the Southern Mountains resolved to create a colorless, odorless toxin that could kill without a trace. After years of relentless research, he successfully crafted this incense burner. However, he discovered that while the toxin within was indeed colorless and odorless, it was not particularly potent, and took effect slowly, so he discarded it. Half a month later, every single person in the tribe was dead.】
【Note: Have you stacked your poison resistance yet?】
Zhang Yuanqing immediately stowed the item in his Inventory. What a treacherous thing.
The description and the note was enough to help him understand the item's characteristics. First, the toxin did not distinguish between friend and foe. Even its owner would be poisoned. The reason Rampaging Recklessly had managed to endure it was because of the naturally high poison resistance that Hex Masters possessed.
Second, the Celestial Toad Incense Burner was the kind of item that grew deadlier the longer it was left out. Its toxin would continuously grow more volatile, and without proper storage, it could endanger an entire area, potent enough to kill even the people of a Hex Master tribe.
At that moment, something odd occurred to him, and he reopened his Inventory and reread the Celestial Toad Incense Burner's description again.
"Ancient times... the Southern Mountains... a Hex Master tribe?"
That information gave him something else to chew on. Based on the description, some high-level Spirit Realm Walker from a distant era had to have created that item. It had then either ended up in the Spirit Realm, where Rampaging Recklessly obtained it, or it had been passed down through the real world all along. Of course, none of that mattered. What mattered was the term "ancient times."
What era did "ancient times" refer to? How many years ago was that? Were there Spirit Realm Walkers back then? This status panel was clearly a modern concept, though.
Well, whether it was truly a modern concept was up for debate, but if people in antiquity also had such a panel system... The dissonance was staggering.
"I should find time to look into the origins of the Spirit Realm, if I even have clearance for that, Zhang Yuanqing muttered under his breath.
If it turned out the ancients had no concept of a panel, then the source of the panel information they were all so familiar with became deeply unsettling. Whether the very concept of a Spirit Realm Walker even existed in ancient times was itself a question mark.
"The Spirit Realm is hiding a lot of secrets. I've always felt that the existence of Morality was unreasonable. It has too many traces of deliberate design, and is nothing like something that would be considered naturally occurring..."
At that moment, Zhang Yuanqing noticed his colleagues downstairs were evacuating en masse. He hesitated no more, and quickly left the room and descended the stairs.
The official Walkers on the ground floor had already been dismissed. In the center of the living room, a young man in a white suit sat in a high-backed chair, set against the backdrop of shattered furniture, deep crimson bloodstains, toppled sofas, and cracked walls. His suit was white as snow, and his handsome features were set in a cold and severe expression. He stood in stark contrast to the devastation around him.
Zhang Yuanqing studied the man in the white suit, while the man in the white suit studied him right back.
When Zhang Yuanqing stepped off the final stair, the young man gave a slight nod. "Fu Qingyang."
There's actually a man in this world more handsome than me, Zhang Yuanqing thought to himself as he bowed respectfully. "Greetings, Centurion."
He had long heard of this centurion, who had been mentioned many times by Li Dongze. Born into a prestigious family. A prodigious talent. Calm and brilliant. Decisive and righteous. A rich fool with more money than sense... Well, that last one was Guan Ya's assessment.
He had finally met this "legendary" figure in person. There was pride, nobility, and a certain sharpness about him. Fu Qingyang was the sort of person you thought twice before joking with. Strangely, though, Zhang Yuanqing didn't find him off-putting. Fu Qingyang's pride and nobility were pure, and his bearing perfectly matched his appearance.
Fu Qingyang sat upright in the high backed chair, his tone level and calm. "No need for pleasantries. I've been keeping an eye on you for a while now, and I wanted to meet you long ago. But Guan Ya said you were a shameless lecher with plenty of nerve but no guts, so I decided to observe from a distance a bit longer."
Do you discriminate against lechers?! Wait, no, I'm not a lecher...
"That's a misunderstanding on her part," Zhang Yuanqing explained quickly. "I believe Centurion Fu should form his own judgment."
"She strongly recommended that I promote you to Squad Leader," Fu Qingyang said evenly. "She believes you're one of the top talents in the new generation of the Five Elements Alliance."
Zhang Yuanqing reversed course without missing a beat. "She really does have an eye for people."
Fu Qingyang fixed him with a deep, penetrating gaze, and for some reason, Zhang Yuanqing's eyes flickered away instinctively. He didn't like that kind of sharp, all seeing stare.
I hate the gaze of a Scout... Zhang Yuanqing grumbled inwardly. He was about to force himself to meet those eyes again when Fu Qingyang looked away first, turning toward the corpse of Rampaging Recklessly.
"What's your take on this battle?"
His tone was calm. More than a question, it felt like a test, the kind a superior gives a subordinate they've taken notice of.
Knowing the centurion thought highly of him, Zhang Yuanqing chose his words carefully. "The enemy knew our deployment and our numbers in advance. They had us completely figured out. Someone else was behind this."
Fu Qingyang was even more blunt. "Someone on our side colluded with Rampaging Recklessly and sold you out."
Zhang Yuanqing nodded. In other words, there's a traitor among us.
Fu Qingyang glanced at Rampaging Recklessly's corpse. "That's why I sent everyone away. What happens next stays between you and me."
Zhang Yuanqing understood his meaning. He walked over to that ugly, grotesque body, and looked into its eyes. Something dark and viscous stirred within its depths.
The spirit lingering within the husk awakened. Wisps of it drifted upward, coalescing above the corpse into a translucent specter that bared its teeth at Zhang Yuanqing, seething with feral rage.
"After I devour an evil class spirit, I might go a bit berserk." He produced the Demon-subduing Awl and handed it to Fu Qingyang. "This item can purify mental corruption."
He had given the Awl to Li Dongze before out of trust in the man's character. He was now giving it to Fu Qingyang for a different reason—the man was wealthy enough that he wouldn't covet someone else's items.
Fu Qingyang accepted the item with a slight nod.
Zhang Yuanqing said nothing more. He drew a deep breath and drew the spirit into his mouth.
The space between his brows swelled violently, and something foreign, something that did not belong to him, forced its way into his sea of consciousness.
***
Countless fractured images surged outward into his mind's eye, flashing past like a dying man's final visions. These were the most vivid memories from Rampaging Recklessly's life.
Rampaging Recklessly had been born into poverty. He studied hard to change his fate, only to enter society and discover that the education he had been so proud of counted for very little. After working for a few years, he found that the more diligently he labored, the more tasks his superiors piled onto him. He became a corporate drone.
He couldn't compete against those with connections. He couldn't compete against sycophants who flattered their way up the ladder despite having no talent. Ten years of work and he still couldn't afford his own home, yet owning a home was the starting line for marriage. His father was a simple farmer with no savings to speak of.
He didn't know where his future lay. He grew lost and confused, until one day he exploited his position to amass a fortune. From that moment on, Rampaging Recklessly spiraled into corruption, and he found he relished the thrill of it. Playing by the rules led nowhere. Cutting corners, on the other hand, filled his pockets to bursting.
At last, the scene shifted. Zhang Yuanqing saw a dim bedroom, and a spectral figure floating beside the bed.
"Where is Black Wuchang now? Trust is the foundation of cooperation. It seems neither of us trusts the other enough yet."
"You have two options. First, wait for the Fallen Ones in the Registry to lose control one by one..."
"As a gesture of sincerity, I will share the official Walkers' deployment and movements with you."
***
In the same dim bedroom, Rampaging Recklessly slit his wrist and let the blood drip into an ink-black wooden bowl inscribed with curse script. The blood in the bowl twisted and contorted, forming a human face.
"Boss, someone from Dark Rose has come looking. They want to meet with you."
"It's too early for a meeting. When one conspires with the tiger, one must be careful. Has their leader come?"
"I don't know. Boss, seizing control of the Fallen Holy Grail as soon as possible is what matters."
"Are you trying to tell me how to do my job?"
"I wouldn't dare!"
"What else did he say?"
"He said he will provide the official Walkers' action plans, so I could set up an ambush and take some pressure off you."
"It's worth a try."
Dark Rose? What kind of organization is that? Black Wuchang is hiding in Songhai, and the person he's been waiting for is the leader of Dark Rose? They seem to be cooking up some massive conspiracy. Tch, the intel from this one is incredible...
A flash of golden light scattered the images, and consciousness returned. Zhang Yuanqing opened his eyes and found himself handcuffed to the high backed chair.
Huh. No pain. No signs of a beating... A wave of delight washed over him, but then he reconsidered the situation. That simply meant Centurion Fu had overpowered him so completely that excessive force hadn't even been necessary. Suddenly, he didn't feel so pleased.
Seeing him awaken, Fu Qingyang asked immediately, "What did you find?"
