Chapter 1 The Oppression

Accompanying those words, the oppressive feeling enveloping the front hall vanished, and Zhang Yuanqing and Xie Lingxi breathed a sigh of relief. The sense of crisis, like being stared at by a hungry wolf, was gone.

The woman at the front desk narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing the young man and woman across the desk, then unobtrusively glanced outside the hotel.

"I understand. Please wait a moment, both of you."

She withdrew her gaze, leaving those cold words behind, and walked into the depths of the hotel, the sound of her high heels fading into the distance.

"Huff..." Xie Lingxi exhaled, her small face pale, and whispered, "Yuan Shi gege, I, I suddenly remembered something..."

Zhang Yuanqing looked at her.

Xie Lingxi voiced her guess: "We couldn't find any information on 'Master Wuhen.' Is it possible that it's not because he's unknown, but because... because our access is too low..."

If a front desk clerk possessed such terrifying pressure, one could imagine what level Master Wuhen was at.

Zhang Yuanqing nodded gravely:

"I thought of that too, so I was planning to run away just now, and I'm very confident I could have escaped."

"Ah?" Xie Lingxi was taken aback, her bright eyes widening. "My legs were completely weak just now. I didn't even have the thought of running. I just wanted to bury my head in your armpit."

*That's* why I was confident I could escape. I just had to run faster than my teammate... Zhang Yuanqing mused inwardly. He spread his arms and clamped Xie Lingxi's head in his armpit, asking:

"Does this make you feel safe?"

"Yuan Shi gege, let go of me, let go of me, it's embarrassing..." Xie Lingxi struggled hard.

She pulled her head out of Zhang Yuanqing's armpit, straightened her crooked headset, and lowered her voice:

"Yuan Shi gege, my headset is a prop. It can monitor all movements within a five-hundred-meter radius."

She listened intently and whispered:

"That woman is in the elevator... The elevator stopped on the fourth floor... She opened the second room on the left side of the elevator... She disappeared?!"

Xie Lingxi looked up, astonished. "She disappeared without a trace."

Disappeared without a trace? Did that room isolate outside observation? Zhang Yuanqing patted the little girl's shoulder, signaling her to be patient.

The two waited in silence. During the process, Xie Lingxi frequently looked outside the hotel, confirming that the bodyguards her family brought were watching her, which made her feel slightly safer.

About ten minutes later, she tilted her head and whispered, "She's out..."

A few minutes later, Zhang Yuanqing heard the "ding" of the elevator. The car returned to the first floor, followed by the sound of high heels, and the beautiful auntie returned to the front hall, looking at them, and said:

"Come with me!"

She coldly swept her gaze across the solemn young people and scoffed, "If you're scared, you can go home."

Zhang Yuanqing laughed, "Jiejie, you look kind and compassionate, definitely a good person. We're not afraid."

Xie Lingxi said softly, "Auntie, we're just here to deliver a message. We don't have any bad intentions."

The woman's expression softened, and she nodded slightly, leading them into the elevator to the fourth floor.

She stood in the hallway, looking at the second room on the left side of the elevator, and said:

"Go in."

Zhang Yuanqing saw the room number: 404!

What a name... The corner of his mouth twitched. He pulled Xie Lingxi to the door and turned the doorknob.

"Click!"

At the moment the soft sound of the latch echoed, it was as if a calm and powerful force enveloped them, and the scenery before their eyes rapidly changed.

The carpet in the hallway became simple celadon tiles, the white painted walls became a structure of mixed bricks and wood, and the bright lights became flickering candlelight.

Zhang Yuanqing and Xie Lingxi looked around in astonishment. They were in a temple hall. The seven- or eight-meter-high dome was a caisson with a swirling pattern and painted with a sky full of gods and Buddhas.

Beneath the caisson was a five-meter-high golden Buddha, holding a flower and lowering his eyebrows, his expression both compassionate, majestic, and stern.

The offering table was lit with eighteen thick candles, their light bright.

Under the Buddha was a prayer mat, on which sat a monk in a cyan robe, his figure tall. Even sitting, he was as tall as Xie Lingxi.

Zhang Yuanqing and Xie Lingxi exchanged glances, their eyes filled with horror and solemnity. One moment they were in the hotel hallway, the next they were in a strange temple.

If it weren't for the lack of a dungeon notification in their ears, they would have suspected that they were in a Spirit Realm doing a mission again.

This Master Wuhen is more terrifying than I imagined. What level of Spirit Realm Walker would it take to have such methods... Zhang Yuanqing took a deep breath, looking at the back of the figure in the cyan robe, and said respectfully:

"Are you Master Wuhen?"

"Night Watcher and Musician, are you people from the official organization?"

A low, hoarse voice came, the tone strange, as if enduring some kind of pain.

"Yes!"

Zhang Yuanqing didn't dare to hide it.

The hall was silent for more than ten seconds, and then the low, hoarse voice echoed again:

"What did my shameful father say before he died?"

Zhang Yuanqing's voice unconsciously lowered. "He asked me to tell you: I'm sorry, I still don't know if it was me or this world that was wrong."

As he said these words, he once again recalled the look in Shaming to be a Father's eyes before his death, that look flickering with hatred and sorrow.

The hall once again fell into a long silence, a silence that made Zhang Yunqing and Xie Lingxi panic.

Finally... Master Wuhen sighed:

"I understand."

Xie Lingxi hesitated, mustered her courage, and asked softly:

"Master, he saved my life. He's not a bad person. Why, why did he become an evil profession?"

The monk in the cyan robe slowly said:

"He used to have a daughter, very smart, very well-behaved, and she always had good grades in school. When she went to college, she gradually changed, began to pursue material things, and blindly compared herself with her classmates. To support his daughter, Shaming to be a Father worked day and night, desperately earning money, but he was increasingly unable to meet his daughter's needs. Until one day, he discovered that his daughter had borrowed a lot of money online and had indecent photos taken.

"He was unable to repay those debts and felt that his daughter was embarrassing and disgraced his family. The father and daughter had a big fight, and he threatened to sever their relationship. Shaming to be a Father believed that it was all his daughter's fault, that she had become materialistic, selfish, and unrecognizable.

"Later, the loan company controlled the girl, forcing her to work in the flesh trade, wantonly playing with her and humiliating her. In despair, she jumped off a building and committed suicide.

"Shaming to be a Father broke down. He began to feel that it was his fault. If he could give his daughter a comfortable material life, if he had money to pay off his daughter's debts, this tragedy would not have happened. He regretted that fight countless times. If he could have comforted his daughter and accompanied her, perhaps the later events would not have happened. He personally pushed his daughter into the abyss.

"After his daughter died, he planned to sue the loan company, to sue those villains who tortured his daughter and forced her to death, but that loan company had a lot of influence in the local area, and he lost the lawsuit.

"He was depressed for a long time and realized that it wasn't his daughter who was wrong, it was him, it was this world. He believed that people cannot change the environment, that people are influenced by the environment. When this society roars about material things and money in your ear all day long, you will definitely be influenced, become materialistic, and no one can be an exception.

"His daughter had not yet entered society and did not understand the sinister nature of people's hearts. She was induced to consume, induced to borrow, and finally embarked on this path of no return. This world was terrible, and he decided to personally avenge his daughter..."

"He broke into the loan company, killed the villains who had humiliated her and forced her to death, and then fled the scene. It was that massacre that earned him the role card and made him a bewitching demon."

"Shaming to be a Father is a biased person, but he is not a bloodthirsty villain. However, once you become an evil profession, there is no turning back for life. He went further and further on this path of no return, his level getting higher and higher, but he became more and more painful.

"Until one day, he met me and followed me to practice, hoping to resolve the hostility in his heart and find salvation. But he was too biased. He didn't want to kill innocent people, but he stubbornly refused to reconcile with this world.

"Perhaps death is the best destination for him..."

No wonder he wanted to save Xie Lingxi. His daughter was about the same age as this girl. He regretted countless times not pulling his daughter up back then. That leap was not to save Xie Lingxi, but that daughter who committed suicide by jumping off the building... Zhang Yuanqing glanced at the little green tea. Xie Lingxi was silent, her eyes red.

He sighed silently and said:

"Master, I think he has already been saved."

Master Wuhen, with his back to the two, remained noncommittal, and gently waved his hand. Two beams of light swam out of his sleeve and landed at Xie Lingxi's and Zhang Yuanqing's feet.

The two looked closely and saw two pieces of jet-black jade, half the size of a palm, with black light surging inside, transforming into various forms, like a dream.

After only a few seconds of looking, Xie Lingxi and Zhang Yuanqing felt their eyes go dark and their heads spin.

"Thank you for bringing back his last words. This is called the 'Tongmeng Jade Talisman'. Crush it and you can contact me. If you encounter danger, I will help you once. Only in the real world, invalid in the Spirit Realm," Master Wuhen said lightly:

"Leave."

The Buddha statue and candlelight twisted, shattered one after another, and Zhang Yuanqing and Xie Lingxi returned to the hotel. They were standing in front of the open door. Inside the room was a standard single room.

Two black jade stones lay at their feet.