—Ascension Ritual countdown: 0 hours, 30 minutes.
Beneath the cold lights of the Inspectorate lobby, a bespectacled Bald Uncle handed the Gray Notebook to Jiang Qi.
“The process is complete. This was the only item on you at the time. It’s been checked, so you can take it with you.”
“Thank you.”
Jiang Qi’s hand paused for a moment.
It hadn’t been burned?
Jiang Qi accepted it without showing anything, then slipped the Notebook into his pocket.
Perhaps the secrets he wanted to know were hidden in this notebook.
Jiang Qi lowered his head and looked at his hands, a complicated feeling surging in his heart.
The original owner of this body was also named Jiang Qi, and his dream was to become a Novelist.
In his previous life, he had been no different.
One mistake led to another, until he finally died suddenly from staying up late to write, becoming a complete joke.
“What a shame. We were both just mediocre writers.”
Jiang Qi tugged at the corner of his mouth in self-mockery. A soft sigh faded into the air.
Since Jiang Qi had nowhere to go, Wang Huan decided to arrange for him to stay at the Inspectorate Dormitory for now.
They would make further plans after he took part in the Ascension Ritual at midnight.
The female officer from earlier escorted him there.
Jiang Qi learned her name.
Shen Yuehuai.
—Ascension Ritual countdown: 0 hours, 20 minutes.
Each carrying a black umbrella, the two walked side by side through the downpour beneath the night sky.
Jiang Qi suddenly stopped and let out several hoarse, low laughs.
He held his forehead, his voice revealing an exhaustion he couldn’t shake off.
“Sorry, Officer Shen. I can’t really control myself.”
“Can I ask you something?”
Shen Yuehuai turned around. She was tall, her gaze only slightly lower than Jiang Qi’s.
“Go ahead.”
She stood beneath a streetlight on the road outside the Inspectorate, her blank gaze separated from Jiang Qi’s by an invisible wall.
“Has anyone ever Ascended before turning eighteen?”
“Or gained Strength like Inspector Wang’s without going through the Ascension Ritual?”
“It’s called Ascension Power.”
Shen Yuehuai corrected him.
“As far as I know, no. The Rules are the same for all humans.”
She stepped forward without the slightest hesitation.
“There’s only one exception.”
Jiang Qi immediately followed, pressing her for an answer.
“What is it?”
“World-Devouring Species.”
Shen Yuehuai’s voice pierced through the rain.
“They’re born in the Starry Sky, and have been on the Path of Ascension from the moment they come into existence.”
“Humans only get the chance to embark on the Path of Ascension at eighteen, and very few can become Ascendants.”
Jiang Qi’s heart sank.
The abnormality in his Left Eye and the Azure Mist were both beyond rational explanation.
He was glad he hadn’t rashly revealed the secret of the Black Inferno.
“Then... is the proportion of humans who become Ascendants high?”
“Less than one in two thousand.”
Jiang Qi stopped abruptly.
One in two thousand?
That number slammed into his heart.
What if—what if he couldn’t become an Ascendant?
Noticing his silence, Shen Yuehuai stopped too.
“Only a few can resonate with the Ascension Tower in the first place, and the resolve required to complete the ritual eliminates many more.”
Shen Yuehuai paused briefly. The wind and rain seemed to grow even more tumultuous.
“After all, you’re only eighteen.”
“That’s why, even though the investigation is still ongoing, you must put the Ascension Ritual first.”
“Every potential Ascendant is important.”
She changed the subject.
“Likewise, becoming an Ascendant is the fastest way for you to uncover the truth.”
“So recover well and get some rest.”
Shen Yuehuai looked back into Jiang Qi’s eyes.
“Even if you only have ten minutes.”
Recover well and get some rest.
He couldn’t remember how long it had been since anyone had said something like that to him.
Jiang Qi lowered his eyes, concealing the emotions roiling within him.
“Officer Shen, what exactly are the World-Devouring Species?”
“It’s a general term for invading life-forms from the Starry Sky.”
Shen Yuehuai was patient, and added,
“Not just living things. You can think of them as specters and spirits, demons and monsters.”
“Most of them can’t communicate, and they see us as food.”
“Is it okay for you to tell me this? Isn’t it classified?”
Jiang Qi was a little surprised.
“It’s all in the textbooks.”
Her calm voice came through. Just hearing it, he could picture that cold, expressionless face.
“Thank you.”
Jiang Qi spoke softly.
“For what?”
“Thank you... for not laughing at me for not knowing basic things or saying I hadn’t studied hard enough.”
“I thought you would.”
He added, as if mocking himself.
“Anyway, thank you very much for patiently answering my questions, Officer Shen.”
Jiang Qi raised his head and looked into Shen Yuehuai’s eyes.
“I’ll do my best.”
Shen Yuehuai’s gaze lingered only briefly.
She turned around, and a set of keys flew into Jiang Qi’s hand.
“We’re here. Room 802 upstairs.”
Jiang Qi caught them securely.
“Are you an Ascendant?”
The only answer Jiang Qi received was the tremendous white noise of rain pounding the ground and their umbrellas.
“Goodbye.”
Jiang Qi waved the keys in his hand.
Shen Yuehuai didn’t pause at all. She soon disappeared into the torrential rain at the street corner.
He stood there for a long time before turning and entering the Dormitory Building.
In the night wind, a barely audible voice drifted away with the rain.
“The truth.”
......
—Ascension Ritual countdown: 0 hours, 9 minutes.
Inspectorate, top-floor office.
“Come in.”
The room was dark. Only the light of a Holographic Screen illuminated the figure seated at the desk.
Though it was already late at night, the curtains were only slightly parted.
A wooden token on the desk read: Chief Prosecutor Shen Yun.
Wang Huan and Bald Uncle pushed open the door and entered. Light poured in from outside, then was quickly cut off as the door closed behind them.
Wang Huan placed the file on the desk.
“Boss, the Fire started at 10:20 tonight.”
“The Fourth Orphanage was quickly consumed by the great fire. No one survived except Jiang Qi.”
“The flames were fierce, spreading far faster than should have been possible.”
“I arrived at the scene in about two minutes and extinguished every flame within a minute.”
Wang Huan’s voice was thick with barely contained anger.
“I felt no resistance from any kind of Strength throughout the whole process. It was just an ordinary fire.”
“But that’s impossible! It’s been pouring all day!”
“What kind of fire could kill everyone in four minutes?!”
“And afterward, when we questioned people nearby, not a single witness had heard anyone calling for help or screaming. Nothing.”
Bald Uncle added,
“More than six hundred children couldn’t have been that quiet even if there hadn’t been a fire.”
Wang Huan was beginning to lose control of his emotions.
“It’s obvious a High-Tier Ascendant was responsible!”
“But I’ve checked every inch of the scene three times, and there isn’t a trace! Damn it!”
He punched the wall, and a little white smoke rose from it.
Shen Yun set down the file, his voice betraying no emotion.
“Has Yuehuai verified the Survivor?”
“Yes. What he said was true.”
Wang Huan answered.
“I also examined Jiang Qi’s body. He definitely hasn’t Ascended, yet he came through the Fire completely unharmed.”
Shen Yun lightly tapped his fingertips against the file.
【The moment I wrote my first sentence, I felt a wave of heat outside the window.】
【By the time I stood up, the flames were already right in front of me.】
“As Jiang Qi said, when an Ordinary Person is conscious, from realizing there’s a fire to coming into contact with it, they have only enough time to get up.”
Shen Yun’s voice was especially clear in the darkness.
“Jiang Qi noticed and saw the flames immediately, and you arrived at the scene in the second minute.”
“There’s only one possibility for an Orphanage that went completely silent...”
Shen Yun raised his index finger and held it between his eyes, splitting the light in two.
His left cheek was deathly pale in the light, while his right was swallowed completely by darkness, his expression impossible to make out.
“In the first minute—or rather, the instant the fire started—it had already killed everyone.”
—Ascension Ritual countdown: 0 hours, 5 minutes.
Inspectorate Dormitory.
Room 802.
Jiang Qi shut the door, shutting out the wind and rain.
He walked to the window and watched the world, blurred beyond recognition by the downpour.
He sat down at the desk and took the Notebook from his pocket.
Meanwhile.
Elsewhere, after a brief silence, Bald Uncle took over.
“That kid’s Notebook is pretty strange too.”
“There was no lingering trace of any Strength, and when we tested it with fire, it nearly caught fire right away.”
“It’s practically an ordinary notebook.”
“Oh, right.”
Wang Huan suddenly remembered something.
“Jiang Qi said he used it to practice writing because he wanted to become a Novelist. What was in his diary?”
“Don’t even ask. It’s not a diary—it barely even counts as a Notebook!”
“There was only one sentence on the first page...”
—Ascension Ritual countdown: 0 hours, 1 minute.
Jiang Qi had always believed that the essence of writing a novel was turning chaotic inspiration into a workable plan.
Rather than waiting for the perfect moment, it was better to begin with the smallest action and write the first line.
Jiang Qi opened the first page of the Gray Notebook.
The dormant Azure Mist in his Left Eye instantly began to churn violently!
“When I wrote the first sentence, the universe collapsed toward me.”
The Ascension Ritual begins now.