Chapter 1 Nan Zhou

A dilapidated church, surrounded by a broken fence. Moonlight streamed through the church's window lattices. A priest stood before the holy statue, praying. The long night was silent, until a low roar echoed from outside the church.

The fence was smashed apart.

The figure that broke into the church stumbled, a bloody flame burning all over its body.

It rushed straight in, heading towards the church.

The praying priest was startled by the abnormality. He turned around and saw a horrifying scene… The church wall collapsed with a loud crash, and a human-shaped figure staggered into the space. "It" could no longer be described with the word 'human'. Scarlet flames burned its hair, clothes, and those scarlet eyes.

It was a monster.

"Want me...to kneel..."

The monster sputtered out a mumbled roar, as if it were speaking to the nonexistent air.

"How is this possible!"

The priest retreated before the holy statue, clutching the cross on his chest tightly, his face pale. He whispered holy names, hoping to be protected… At that moment, the holy statue behind him seemed to truly manifest its power!

An invisible pressure descended.

The ground cracked with a snap, and invisible spiderwebs spread.

The monster burning with blood-fire roared, its knees slamming heavily onto the ground. It tried its best to stand up… But its knees shattered, its patellae caved in. The spirit contained within this body was burning at a rapid speed.

It was as if a god had extended a palm, pressing down on the monster’s forehead.

And so it knelt before the holy statue, struggling as it looked up.

And then... it died.

Leaving behind only a hollow shell of flesh, its burning flames growing weaker and weaker, until finally returning to nothingness.

…

…

Bai Shu looked at his palm.

A wisp of scarlet flame, tightly gripped between his palms, gradually weakened. That wisp of blood-fire was extremely tough, and tenacious.

Imprisoned by "Daoliu" (Inversion) in a mental predicament that was impossible to escape, it still wanted to "compete" with him.

He had given Xiao a chance.

But Xiao… was far too lacking.

They were not even on the same level.

Even setting aside abilities, and only using Xiao's most proficient mental power for an attack, this battle would still end in an overwhelming victory.

If Xiao was willing to kneel, to submit.

Then… there would have been no need to continue this battle.

Bai Shu didn't care whether Xiao lived or died. To him, Xiao's existence was like an ant he had inadvertently seen under the shade of a tree.

Whether to kill it or leave it was merely a whim.

But this wisp of blood-fire’s mental will surprised him. It would rather die than yield, never mind… kneeling.

What did kneeling matter, across thousands of miles?

At least it could have saved its life.

Unwilling to kneel… then die.

The wisp of scarlet flame struggling in his palm scattered with the wind, slowly unfolding, turning into ashes that vanished into the air.

Bai Shu was expressionless, watching the last wisp of this S-ranked fugitive's spirit shatter into pieces within the mental domain of "Daoliu" (Inversion). His gaze finally landed on the woman who had fallen in the grass.

In fact, he was very curious.

What kind of extraordinary ability did this mysterious person named "Xiao" possess, to be able to manipulate people's mental will from such a distance, and refine transcendents into his own vessels?

After the blood-fire dissipated.

The woman's spirit did not awaken… The most solid iron law in the world was indeed "life and death."

Xiao's vessels were all dead people, just like the Tribunal's former genius adjudicator "Zhou Yu." Even if the body remained, the spirit had already perished.

Once Xiao abandoned the body.

Then, after the spirit of this body completely shattered, the "extraordinary source substance" condensed within the body would dissipate… It wouldn't be long before these extraordinary source substances returned to nothingness.

Bai Shu squatted down. He came before the woman and frowned… This body emitted a faint stench of decay. Because the spirit had perished, the body began to rot rapidly. In fact, Xiao's "vessels" were not truly alive, they were more like puppets, but almost indistinguishable from normal people.

He extended two fingers and gently brushed them across the woman's neck.

In order to maintain the body.

This vessel had been constantly applying some kind of powder with a strange texture. Perhaps there were other maintenance methods. No one could guarantee that their mental strength would be highly concentrated twenty-four hours a day. Xiao, who was far away, would always need to rest… And this vessel would also need to find a suitable place to recuperate when he rested.

Perhaps this would be a clue.

This woman's name was Ye Ningqiu…

Zhou Jiren had given him a well-documented file, and some of the important figures in Dadu were recorded in it.

If he remembered correctly, this was a rather famous leader of the Nanwan faction. She was usually extremely low-key, and the reason for her low profile should be related to the fact that this body could not frequently show her face…

Now Ye Ningqiu was dead.

To be precise, "Xiao" was dead.

Bai Shu took out his communicator and transmitted this message to some old fellow who liked to sit behind the scenes and play the role of a hands-off manager. From the perspective of a certain condition that the two had agreed upon in the underground bar, he had completed the "task."

As for tracking down subsequent clues… that was no longer his concern.

"Chen Mei, survived."

"Xiao, killed."

Not long after the two short messages were sent, he received Zhou Jiren's reply.

"Received!"

"You're worthy of being called, Nagano the Invincible!"

At the end of the second sentence, there was a rather cheap smiley face emoji.

Bai Shu frowned. Just as he was about to put away his communicator, Zhou Jiren's message came again.

"—There's good news."

Bai Shu raised his eyebrows and subconsciously looked around… When he made this action, he found it somewhat self-deprecatingly funny. He was used to being a ghost, and sometimes he even forgot that he was still "alive."

Pursuing an unattainable end.

Trying to grasp an untouchable hope.

Leaving the underground with Zhou Jiren and coming to Dadu… was actually a flash of luck in his heart. Sometimes what was more painful than "death" was, perhaps if he tried again, there would be hope?

He took a deep breath, but the other side suddenly had no news.

The old fellow who had given him a hard time by selling him a secret had very immorally played at disappearing.

While waiting, Bai Shu suddenly realized… that what he was feeling now should be called… anxiety?

Because there was hope.

That was why he was anxious.

In that case… he had started chasing again.

The communicator rang.

On the other end was Zhou Jiren's low, apologetic laughter, "Ah ha, there was some trouble at the auditorium, just finished dealing with it… Thanks for your help."

"There's no need for nonsense, I just killed a bug."

"Cough…" Zhou Jiren choked.

He adjusted his tone and said seriously, "The door has been opened, I bet right… Gu Xin is the right person."