Chapter 10
Chapter 10
The first strike should have severed the Rakshasa’s foot at the ankle.
Given its enormous size and the force of its momentum, the fall would probably carry it more than a meter forward. Add its three-meter body length, and she could roughly calculate where its head should land.
Xie Qingling’s mind rapidly ran through the projection and calculations. Fixing on the spot she had worked out, she aimed at that point in the empty air, her gaze turning ruthless as she raised the Rakshasa Blade with all her strength.
“I’ll cut off your head!”
The blade bit into flesh.
Xie Qingling had practiced for four years. She couldn’t mistake that sensation.
The razor-sharp edge sank deeper, little by little, until it struck the bottom. The coldly gleaming white blade was gradually stained a brilliant, breathtaking crimson.
Was… was it over? Had she hit it?
Xie Qingling gasped for breath. Afraid the Rakshasa wasn’t completely dead, she wanted to go over and strike it a few more times. Only then did she discover that her right arm hung at her side at a horribly unnatural angle. Stabs of pain radiated from the joint, and she couldn’t summon the slightest bit of strength from it.
Was it dislocated?
Cradling her arm, Xie Qingling was just about to ask Dong Jia whether she could go over and add a couple more strikes when an exceedingly faint voice fell beside her ear:
“With your eyes, see what I see.”
Xie Qingling glanced to her right and discovered that, at some point, two pairs of feet in black ankle boots had appeared before her.
At the same time, the decapitated Rakshasa lying on the ground became visible.
–
“With your eyes, see what I see.”
Ling Fang carried a clay idol seated cross-legged on a lotus.
The idol held a monk’s staff in its left hand and a precious orb in its right. It appeared to be a bodhisattva, except its face was ferocious. Its bulging eyes in particular glared with naked fury.
A soft light radiated from the clay idol. In the darkness of night, it was like a beacon, releasing a faint and lustrous glow.
Wherever that dim light reached, lamps died and all sound ceased. The space around Xie Qingling seemed to enter another world, while everything belonging to that other world gradually revealed its true face.
At Ling Fang’s feet lay the Rakshasa head Xie Qingling had severed.
Carried by its momentum, it had rolled several times before coming to rest beside Ling Fang.
Blood splashed across the uppers of his shoes, several scarlet drops trickling down.
The Rakshasa’s eyes remained open. Its corroded eyeballs bulged slightly in shock, the severed ghostly head lying on the ground with a savage expression.
Head parted from body, blood covered the floor.
The Rakshasa had been decapitated by the weapon it had forged with its own hands.
As Ling Fang took in the scene, surprise and disbelief flashed through his eyes.
The person responsible for it all was half crouched on the floor, one hand braced against the Rakshasa Blade. Using it as a cane, she shakily pushed herself upright.
Xie Qingling’s face was white as paper.
Her body was utterly exhausted, and her dislocated arm in particular throbbed with pain and soreness.
She desperately wanted to lie down and have a good, long sleep.
But she couldn’t.
She refused to look too wretched in front of Ling Fang. This concerned the department’s assessment of her.
Through sheer force of will, Xie Qingling stood. She wiped her face, trying her best to look a little more alert, but her hand was covered in fresh blood. The gesture only smeared her cheek with gore, making her look exceptionally bedraggled.
Xie Qingling remained completely unaware. Flashing a broad, white-toothed grin, she immediately fired three questions at Ling Fang.
“Did I pass the assessment?”
“Did I get clearance?”
“Can I join you now?”
Her eyes were so bright, so full of spirit. Even after a life-or-death struggle, she still overflowed with vitality.
Ling Fang’s gaze swept over the Rakshasa’s separated head and body, then over the unconscious Dong Jia. Finally, he looked up at Xie Qingling and said, “Congratulations. You passed the assessment.”
“From this moment on, you’re one of us.”
The girl beside him with the high ponytail heard this and gaped in astonishment.
She stared at Xie Qingling as though looking at a monster. After several seconds, she muttered under her breath, “…She’s terrifyingly fierce.”
A Rakshasa had actually served as her trial.
This was a Rakshasa, an evil ghost that ate ghosts and humans alike!
To prevent an accident from harming innocent people, she had even deployed with them in her capacity as healer.
Yet when they rushed here, everything had already been settled.
And judging by the amount of blood at the scene, the Rakshasa was the only one that had been hurt.
This…
How had she done it?
Had their department just recruited a combat prodigy with terrifying offensive power?
The newcomer’s talent had to be incredible, right?!!
Ye Anran instantly grew excited. Her eyes shone as she stared at Xie Qingling, itching to grab her and ask exactly what had happened.
But Ling Fang’s voice quickly interrupted her fantasies. “Anran, there’s another ghost.”
Ye Anran immediately snapped back to attention and opened the silver case she carried with her.
The case bore an emblem of two snakes with their tails intertwined.
Ye Anran took a white banner from the case. Moving both hands slowly, she formed a complicated ritual gesture.
“Mystic Way of heaven and earth, I seal the spirits. Seize the soul and pursue the spirit; lock them within.”
In an instant, Xie Qingling felt a frigid aura spread around her. Strands of almost tangible black vapor were drawn out of the activity center and ultimately vanished into the white banner.
With them came one agonized scream after another.
That voice was –
The Four-Way Crossroads Ghost!
Xie Qingling froze. After a moment’s hesitation, she said, “Um… that ghost helped me. It hasn’t hurt anyone!”
Ye Anran didn’t stop, but Ling Fang, standing beside her, said, “The Ghost-Binding Banner only imprisons it temporarily. It won’t kill it. For ghosts like this one that have never harmed a good person, we usually make other arrangements.”
Ling Fang said nothing more about what those arrangements were.
Maybe her clearance still wasn’t high enough, Xie Qingling thought. After all, she was only a rookie. She didn’t press the matter.
Before long, Ye Anran’s movements ceased.
The Four-Way Crossroads Ghost’s screams abruptly stopped as well.
The white banner changed with them.
An image of the Four-Way Crossroads Ghost appeared on the previously blank banner:
It was a small child with four eyes, a stunted body, and thin, withered limbs like dead wood.
Looking at the Four-Way Crossroads Ghost’s portrait, Ye Anran smiled softly. Her expression was sweet, adorable, and utterly innocent, like a kindergarten teacher on her first day of work facing one of the children in her class.
“What an adorable little ghost. Don’t worry – big sister will take very good care of you!” Ye Anran giggled and patted its face. Then she rolled up the white banner and put it back inside the case.
After dealing with the Four-Way Crossroads Ghost, Ye Anran walked over to Xie Qingling and studied her curiously for several moments.
“I’m Ye Anran. I’m your Senior.”
“Let me see your hand…” While Xie Qingling stood there dazed, Ye Anran took her hand and enclosed it between her palms.
The repeatedly torn wound in Xie Qingling’s palm had stung terribly, but after so much time, coupled with the Rakshasa Blade’s cold, her hand had gone somewhat numb.
Without sensation, there was no pain.
Now, held between Ye Anran’s hands, Xie Qingling felt only a faint itch, as though a gentle breath of spring had wrapped around the wound.
Ye Anran whispered, “Rejuvenation.”
When she released Xie Qingling’s hand, Xie Qingling discovered that the wound in her palm had healed without any medicine!
If not for the layers of blood around it – some dried, some added later – no one could have known that a wound had ever split her palm.
Though she had prepared herself long ago and knew this world was both mysterious and absurd, a place where science didn’t apply at all, actually witnessing such a sight still shook her to her core.
Xie Qingling looked up in disbelief at the person responsible.
Noticing Xie Qingling’s stare, Ye Anran winked and said gently, “This is only part of my ability. I’m an Innate Spirit, and Innate Spirits are amazing! All you have to do is trust me.”
As she spoke, she began working on Xie Qingling’s hand again. The dislocated joint was soon healed too.
So… so incredible!
Xie Qingling still wore an expression of utter disbelief.
“And my friend… I don’t know whether she’s hurt. Could you help me check on her?” Xie Qingling flexed her fully recovered hand, then immediately pointed at Dong Jia.
“She fainted as soon as we appeared,” Ye Anran said. “Your friend seems awfully timid. She’s even scared of us.”
Xie Qingling: “…”
It probably hadn’t been Ling Fang and the others who frightened Dong Jia unconscious, but the Rakshasa suddenly becoming visible after it was beheaded.
Xie Qingling asked, “She’ll be all right, won’t she?”
“Of course she will. She was lucky enough to meet me,” Ye Anran said. “I guarantee she’ll wake up as if nothing ever happened.”
Ye Anran walked over to Dong Jia. Several silver needles had somehow appeared in her hand. She inserted them into several acupoints on Dong Jia’s head, her gentle voice sounding at the same time.
She spoke very slowly, as if murmuring under her breath, or softly singing an ancient lullaby.
Xie Qingling watched and listened from the side, both tense and worried, unable to think of anything to say.
Seeming to notice her anxiety, Ling Fang said, “She’ll hypnotize your friend and make her forget everything that happened tonight.”
Xie Qingling froze.
“For an ordinary person like her, forgetting everything that happened tonight will do more good than harm. At the very least, she won’t have to worry about constant nightmares afterward. When she wakes tomorrow, she’ll be in excellent physical and mental condition. Don’t worry. Anran has a divine blessing. She can do everything I’ve just described.”
A divine blessing?
Xie Qingling keenly caught the significance of those words, but before she could ask, Ling Fang spoke first. “Wait for me to contact you. We’ll stop here for today. I’ll tell you everything you want to know afterward.”
He raised a hand and tapped the Bluetooth earpiece hooked over his ear. Before doing so, he told Xie Qingling, “I still have to clean up the mess you left behind.”
The public facilities she had damaged along the way amounted to far more than what lay before them. Xie Qingling said, “Inside the University Student Activity Center – ”
“The Logistics Department will handle it.”
Then there was nothing to worry about.
Xie Qingling nodded, draped Dong Jia’s arm over her shoulders, and walked toward the dormitories one step at a time.
Dong Jia was more or less sleepwalking now. Though her thoughts had gone offline, her body retained some awareness of how to move. Supporting her as they walked wasn’t especially difficult for Xie Qingling.
At the same time, the call connected on the other end of Ling Fang’s earpiece.
Before the other person could speak, Ling Fang said directly, “Cancel all preparations for the intern’s assessment.”
“Why? Don’t tell me she can join us without taking the assessment?”
“No. She’s already passed.” Ling Fang smiled, deeply gratified. “She just killed a Rakshasa single-handedly and protected her companion – without a divine blessing.”
The person on the other end was silent for a moment. “…The newcomer’s that fierce?”
“She didn’t even use the protective talisman I left her.”
“…Holy shit!”
“If you old-timers don’t work harder, you’re really going to lose to a newcomer.”
Ling Fang was in an excellent mood. “All right. Send in the Logistics Department. It’s time to clean up.”