As evening self-study drew to a close, Lu Ming twirled a gel pen between his fingers, weighing his next moves.
During the daytime breaks, the transfer student Lin Qiye had become the star of Class 2-2, constantly swarmed by classmates.
Lu Ming, however, hadn’t gone out of his way to approach him.
First, he had tracked down An Qingyu in another class to confirm his location.
At the same time, using his spiritual pressure, he had scanned the school to locate everyone currently implanted with snake seeds by the Nanda Serpent Demons.
Having reached the Cup Realm as an Awakened and becoming a Soul King’s Agent, Lu Ming possessed an extraordinarily keen sense for human spiritual pressure.
Every person had a distinct spiritual pressure—what this world of divine slayers referred to as mental strength.
In the original story, Lin Qiye could spot the anomalies with his eyes, but Lu Ming could detect changes directly through spiritual pressure.
Although humans host to snake seeds showed no outward physical differences, not even the slightest abnormality in spiritual pressure could escape Lu Ming’s perception.
Lu Ming was no saintly martyr.
If he were strong enough, he would step in to save everyone.
But under current circumstances, he knew that making a move risked alerting the primary serpent demon personality inside Li Yifei.
Besides, Li Yifei was An Qingyu’s ultimate “angel investor.” Lu Ming was still only at the Cup Realm.
Even with his Zanpakuto as a trump card, he hadn’t reached the point where he could act with total impunity.
Furthermore, Lin Qiye would encounter the Ghost-Faces and the Nightwatch squad tonight.
Lu Ming couldn’t afford to waste his strength at school.
Unlike Lin Qiye, who only wanted to protect his aunt and cousin and had no initial intention of joining the Nightwatch, Lu Ming had already mapped out a plan to enlist.
Previously, he hadn’t considered the Nightwatch because he lacked the power.
After all, if even An Qingyu and Li Yifei couldn’t join directly, an ordinary human like himself stood no chance.
Now, things were different.
He was a Divine Agent, possessing power far beyond ordinary mortals.
The Nightwatch accepting him would be a natural progression.
He just needed an opportunity—a natural opening to join their ranks.
*** The bell rang, signaling the end of evening study.
A group of students, led by Class Monitor Jiang Qian, clustered around Lin Qiye to walk him home.
Lin Qiye found their overwhelming enthusiasm a bit difficult to manage.
However, after a few words from Jiang Qian—and after she brought up his aunt—Lin Qiye accepted reality and let himself be escorted out the school gate, surrounded like a filling inside a dumpling.
Lu Ming quietly put on his jacket and fell into step behind them.
As an orphan living in the school dorms, he wasn’t supposed to leave campus at night.
But having crossed paths with Lin Qiye today, he knew the world line was officially in motion.
After tonight, he might not even need to attend school anymore, so breaking dorm rules by stepping off campus was the least of his concerns.
At the Cup Realm, he could slip off campus completely unnoticed.
As for his roommates, they would simply assume he had climbed the wall to spend the night at an internet cafe.
Once outside, he tailed Lin Qiye from a distance, maintaining a buffer of fifty meters.
Even though Lin Qiye’s vision was currently capped at ten meters according to the original story, Lu Ming maintained a healthy distance out of sheer respect for the protagonist’s calamity-magnet physique.
He was never arrogant.
Even though he was no longer an ordinary human, he wouldn’t underestimate anyone.
Besides, he genuinely wanted to see how Lin Qiye, the Proxy of Michael, would unleash his true power.
Observing divine power at close range would be invaluable for learning how to leverage the Soul King’s power in the future.
Staying at a safe, undetected distance was absolutely necessary.
Lu Ming focused his senses entirely on the surroundings, creating a stark contrast with the group ahead, who were laughing and chatting about trivia regarding the Mist.
Lu Ming shook his head helplessly.
If he hadn’t shown up, most of these ordinary students surrounding the protagonist would be dead within minutes.
*You should be grateful,* he thought.
Shaking his head, he could already sense the burst of spiritual pressure coming from the old town district.
He knew the Nightwatch squad had already activated their Boundless Domain, kicking off tonight’s Ghostface hunt.
And the group ahead still had no idea they were about to become collateral damage…
*** Cangnan City, Old Town District.
“Zhao Kongcheng, a Ghostface King has appeared among the Ghost-Faces.” “After the Ghostface King fled, two Ghost-Faces slipped into the sewers!” The middle-aged man, Zhao Kongcheng, eyes glinting sharply, barked into his receiver, “Which direction?” A voice came through the earpiece: “Southeast!” Understanding his orders, Zhao Kongcheng didn’t hesitate for a second.
He slammed the accelerator and sped off toward the southeast.
Meanwhile, Lin Qiye, Wang Shao, and the others had reached the point where they needed to part ways.
Following from a distance, Lu Ming pinched his nose.
The foul stench wafting off the Ghost-Faces was truly stomach-turning.
Watching Wang Shao turn into another small alley, Lu Ming leapt onto a brick wall, intending to take a shortcut to intercept the Ghostface and save Wang Shao.
To his surprise, Wang Shao and the Ghostface crossed paths far faster than expected.
The moment he stepped into the alley, Wang Shao let out a terrified shriek.
“Tsk, that fast?” Lu Ming recalled that it hadn’t happened this quickly in the book.
“Whatever, time to step in.” Lu Ming accelerated.
Though detached by nature, he wasn’t about to stand by and watch an acquaintance get eaten by a monster.
Outside the alley, Jiang Qian, Liu Yuan, and Li Yifei heard Wang Shao’s scream and immediately sprinted toward the alley.
None of the three knew what lay ahead; they simply acted on instinct.
Lin Qiye’s expression turned grave as he realized something was terribly wrong.
He hesitated, reluctant to get involved.
This situation was clearly dangerous, and he still had his aunt and cousin to care for.
Yet, remembering how kind these classmates had been to him, Lin Qiye bit his lip and ultimately turned around, rushing into the alley.
*** Wang Shao never imagined that the mysterious monster Li Yifei had warned them about would appear right before his eyes.
If given another chance, he would never have put on a show of insisting on walking Lin Qiye home.
He never even walked down this alley normally!
*Am I going to die?* The monster with the ghastly face slammed into him.
A sickening stench surged into his nostrils, and its long, blood-red tongue brushed against his cheek before coiling tightly around his neck.
Despair flooded Wang Shao’s heart!
Behind him came Jiang Qian’s piercing scream.
In his terror, Wang Shao knew it was useless.
Against a monster like this, no matter how many people came, it wouldn’t make a difference.
“Run!” Paralyzed by fear for a fraction of a second, Liu Yuan and Li Yifei scrambled to turn and flee.
Nobody wanted to die!
Liu Yuan didn’t care about Lin Qiye, who was running into the alley toward them.
All he knew was that Lin Qiye was blocking his escape route.
He couldn’t afford to worry about a blind kid; he knew that if he was even a second too slow, the monster would catch him.
Losing control of his footing, Liu Yuan collided heavily with Lin Qiye.
Stumbling, he scrambled up on all fours and kept running for his life.
Lin Qiye completely lost his balance, missing his chance to retreat.
There was more than one monster in the alleyway.
Sensing the aura of the three students, the second Ghostface charged straight for Lin Qiye.
Wang Shao, his neck constricted by the first Ghostface’s tongue, and Jiang Qian, frozen in place by terror, had already been marked as easy prey.
Lin Qiye stumbled out of the alley mouth, but in those few short breaths, the monster had closed within ten meters of him.
At that moment, he finally saw the monster clearly…
*** “I’m going to die…” Despair completely consumed Jiang Qian and Wang Shao.
Wang Shao was on the verge of suffocating, while Jiang Qian sobbed, her legs trembling too violently to move.
Just then, a pink cherry blossom petal drifted across their field of vision.
In this pitch-black alley, the delicate pink petal looked impossibly out of place, drawing their eyes to it instinctively.
The next second, a familiar voice drifted down from above.
“Scatter, Senbonzakura!” Instantly, countless petals erupted into the air, filling Jiang Qian and Wang Shao’s sight.
Immediately after, the monster let out an agonizing screech.
They could hear the dreadful sound of flesh being shredded into thousands of pieces.
At the same time, a realization washed over them: they were saved…