Chapter 118
Chapter 118
The Selection Tournament.
This was the second time Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou had heard those words.
They had not expected it to come so soon.
Both their hearts sank, and they exchanged a glance.
Xie Qingling asked, “When, roughly?”
“Maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after,” Tang Yuanxiao said. “The Director only just told us. Really, I heard the news just a little before you did. Once headquarters makes its decision, everyone will know.”
So suddenly…
“Has Old Royal City been especially troubled tonight?”
Xie Qingling asked the question.
“Not inside the city. Outside.” Tang Yuanxiao gave a bitter smile. “Actually, all four districts in Old Royal City count as safe zones. The most dangerous place is the outermost belt around the city.”
“Patrols out there are generally handled by experienced core personnel from headquarters who know the terrain. That’s why you haven’t been there.”
“Send rookies like you out there, and you’d all be dead within a day.”
Districts where special incidents happened every day counted as safe zones…?
It seemed the situation really was dire.
Suddenly, Xie Qingling did not know what to say.
She looked up at the night sky, but could not see a single star.
The pitch-black night held only endless space and cold.
It was a night in Old Royal City, and a night in winter.
Wind within wind, cold within cold, and no knowing when dawn would come.
Xie Qingling lowered her head. “Squad Leader Tang, could you tell me about the second blessing? The Director didn’t explain it in detail.”
Ling Fang was not an Innate Spirit and had never received a second blessing. Naturally, he knew nothing about it.
Besides, she had rarely seen him these past few days.
After coming to headquarters, Ling Fang seemed to have become even busier, always plunging into the Technology R&D Department’s building first thing in the morning. The department barred non-staff from entering. Even if Xie Qingling craned her neck outside, she could see nothing.
Hearing her ask for his guidance in a reasonably humble tone, Tang Yuanxiao finally recovered a little of his dignity as a senior.
He gave a loud snort. “The second blessing is a second chance to open the Realm of the Gods and come into contact with the deities.”
“Only Spirit Wielders who are Innate Spirits and have already received a first blessing can receive a second one. What opportunities you find inside depends entirely on your own fortune.”
“Some have their original divine abilities strengthened. Some receive new blessings. Others encounter mythical creatures, like my Bifang.”
As he spoke, Tang Yuanxiao made no attempt to hide his pride. “The moment I entered, Bifang came straight to me. It was very pleased with me, and we signed a contract on the spot. So I acquired Bifang through my second blessing.”
What had actually happened was that Bifang, already dizzy with hunger, heard that Zhurong’s Chosen had arrived and seemed to see a long-term meal ticket on legs. Before Tang Yuanxiao could react, it bound itself to him. He had not even had a chance to regret it.
Tang Yuanxiao continued, “If you win the Selection Tournament, you can receive a second blessing.”
“There are only a few bouts a day, so the tournament moves pretty slowly. Starting tomorrow, you don’t need to come spar with me.” At last, he revealed his true intention. “Rest properly, conserve your strength, and win your matches. That’s what matters most.”
Once these two were gone, Tang Yuanxiao would no longer have to suffer a group beating every day.
Not even a dog would put up with a life like that!
Joy. Such joy.
He could finally live like a normal person again.
Xie Qingling nodded. “All right. Understood.”
When the conversation ended, Tang Yuanxiao was the first to leave. He did not want to look at them for even another moment, and his retreating figure seemed to radiate relief.
As for the tournament format and such, they would find out once it began.
Neither was an idiot. They did not need him to remind them.
After Tang Yuanxiao left, Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou did not return to the dormitories right away. Instead, they headed for the Medical Department.
They had taken some painful hits during training just now. They had come to get treated and recover, so that an unexpected incident tomorrow would not catch them unprepared.
These days, both had become regular visitors. The Medical Department was still packed with people. Xie Qingling took one look, then made her way along a familiar route to the innermost room – the Director’s office.
Yes, they had come to Gu Liansheng for treatment.
They had not originally had much of a connection with him, but he had a friendship with Ling Fang. That friendship was very useful, and it would be a waste not to use it.
So Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou freely spent the goodwill between Ling Fang and Gu Liansheng. Even as two rookies, they had found it very easy to make use of the Medical Department’s Director.
With enough visits, a friendship of their own naturally developed.
But today, the moment they stepped into his office, both froze.
They stopped at the door, silent for a moment, not daring to go any farther inside.
Because apart from the two of them, the office held two other people and five corpses.
The five corpses lay on stretchers, white cloths covering their bodies and faces.
They lay utterly still. Light fell on the cloths, making them a glaring white that forced the eyes to narrow.
Gu Liansheng sat cross-legged beside the five corpses, a heap of medicine cups at his side.
Red, green, yellow, black… The liquids came in all sorts of colors and looked as though they tasted dreadful, but he emptied them expressionlessly, one cup after another, each in a single gulp.
There was so much medicine. Who knew when he would finish it all?
Neither of the only two living people already in the office paid any attention to Xie Qingling and her fellow intruder. Both silently continued with what they had to do.
Xie Qingling turned her gaze to the other living person.
It was someone she knew.
Yang Ruoyu, a girl with a distinctly classical grace.
Yang Ruoyu knelt beside a stretcher, her eyes red, remaining silent for a long time.
A length of thick black hair showed beneath the white cloth covering the stretcher.
The hair fell in waves, shining in the cold light. It had clearly been cared for very well.
The only flaw was that blood now dripped steadily from that beautiful hair. Sticky blood coated the ends, tangling them into clumps.
With reddened eyes, Yang Ruoyu tried to wipe it away, but could not get it off.
She could not undo the tangles. The more she tried, the worse they became.
So dirty. So much blood.
She had almost rubbed her hands raw, yet the hair was still not clean.
Her Director loved to look beautiful. She treasured her lovely long hair above all, going for hair treatments whenever she had time.
If the Director knew it had become this dirty, this tangled, she would certainly be unhappy.
What was she going to do? If she did not get it clean, the Director would be angry!
Yang Ruoyu knelt on the floor, unable even to stand, yet her movements grew more and more frantic. She seemed almost mad, still trying with a hoarse voice to wake the person beneath the white cloth. “Director, get up and scold me!”
Jiang Moli, Director of Hope City’s Special Incident Response Department, the woman Xie Qingling had once met, was dead.
After a moment’s hesitation, Xie Qingling stepped forward and pulled the white cloth higher, covering Jiang Moli completely and interrupting Yang Ruoyu’s frantic wiping.
Yang Ruoyu abruptly raised her head and gave her a vicious look. Meeting it, Xie Qingling said, “If you can’t find the courage to face death, things like this will keep happening.”
“The dead lie down forever. The living can still move forward.”
“What you really ought to do is get up and smash those people’s heads open with your fists.”
Yang Ruoyu’s eyes flickered. After another brief silence, she decided to say no more.
This time, she merely lowered her eyes. She neither spoke nor looked at anyone, only stared blankly at the floor.
“No one has told you yet, have they? Headquarters is about to hold a Selection Tournament. The winners will get a chance at a second blessing,” Xie Qingling said.
“If you want to get stronger, you should pull yourself together right now. Rest, build up your strength, train harder, then go and win the tournament. Sooner or later, you must leave those people’s guts strewn across the ground, make their brains and blood burst out and splash onto the gravestones of the dead, to comfort their departed spirits.”
“If I were you,” Xie Qingling said, “that’s what I’d do.”
Yang Ruoyu stared steadily at her. After several long looks, she finally straightened her weak legs and stood. First, she bowed deeply to Jiang Moli’s body. Then, with reddened eyes, she said to Gu Liansheng, “Director Gu, I’m entrusting my Director to you.”
Gu Liansheng only nodded, without speaking. His mouth was full of medicine; he could not speak at all.
Then Yang Ruoyu strode out of the Director’s office without looking back.
By now, Gu Liansheng had finished most of the medicine. His face was a pallid blue-white. He looked as though he had little time left, as though he had suffered a grave illness and three souls and five spirits had been drained away,[^souls-spirits] leaving only a frail shell.
Xie Qingling had meant to leave. But seeing him like this, she hesitated, then decided to stay.
If he suddenly dropped dead, at least she could call someone over to treat him. Perhaps he could still be saved.
After a little over ten minutes, some color finally returned to Gu Liansheng’s face.
Still sitting cross-legged, he picked up a test tube, then put his hand into it.
He channeled his energy, forming drop after drop of silvery-white liquid at his fingertip.
Xie Qingling knew this liquid well. She had seen it, and had used it herself.
It was the solvent used to dissolve the Spirit inside a Spirit Wielder’s body after death.
About ten more minutes passed before the test tube was finally full.
By then, Gu Liansheng was sweating profusely and panting with exhaustion, looking much weaker. His already paper-white face had taken on an even more sickly bluish pallor.
He raised his head. Seeing Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou still there, he said feebly, “You two, go. I can’t treat you today. Don’t come to me.”
Gu Liansheng had never seen two such outrageous rookies. Truly, never.
Now he really believed that all Ling Fang’s complaints were true.
Absolutely outrageous.
Of course Xie Qingling would never do anything that heartless. She said with concern, “We weren’t asking you to treat us. You just looked so unwell, so…”
“Ah… It’s nothing.” Gu Liansheng took out a syringe, drew up the silvery-white liquid, then injected it into a corpse’s blood vessels.
“Those two potions you use are both refined using me,” he said. “It’s Shennong’s gift. My own body is a medicine furnace.”
“I thought the Technology R&D Department made all of it…” Xie Qingling murmured awkwardly.
“What you use normally is made by the Technology R&D Department. But offerings for a second blessing can only be obtained through my refinement.” Gu Liansheng’s silvery-white hair swayed slightly in the light, white as the purest snow in an endless snowfield. Coughing as he spoke, he said, “After all, these are offerings needed for a second blessing, for the Selection Tournament. I’ll just have to work a little harder.”
“The Selection Tournament is tomorrow.” Something occurred to him, and he suddenly grew thoughtful, tilting his head slightly toward Xie Qingling. His voice still sounded terribly weak. “You came to me because you want to win, I suppose? But do you realize that what you just said to that girl has created a very formidable rival for yourself?”
“She has just lost the mentor she loved and respected most. With you spurring her on like that, she’ll be desperate to win, like a cornered beast at the end of its rope. She won’t be easy to handle.”
Xie Qingling said nothing.
Before long, all the Spirit had dissolved, and Gu Liansheng drew it out again.
The offerings were divided into five bottles in total.
There was less than there had been with Yu Wei, essentially one bottle per person, but the silver radiance was even more brilliant, even more dazzling.
The sun rose and the moon set.
Soon, the Selection Tournament began.
[^souls-spirits]: Multiple soul components feature in traditional Chinese belief; here the expression figuratively describes extreme exhaustion.