Chapter 128: Miss Shaluen

Lei Kedun reclined on the sofa in Ke Lai En's living room, closed his eyes to meditate for a while, and only opened them when he felt his spirit had mostly recovered.

His encounter with Yinsi Zangeweier was completely unexpected for Lei Kedun; had he not crafted two extra paper avatars these past days, the outcome would have been different.

"The audience really is an annoying channel!"

Being scheduled by 0-08 tonight worsened Lei Kedun's impression of the audience channel.

"Any spoken word inevitably becomes known—what a helpless trait!"

Ke Lai En nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, he saw the glass window again display a bodyguard lady in a black court gown with pale golden hair; her gaze watched Al, who was reclined on the sofa, with great vigilance.

"A wronged spirit? How rare!"

Lei Kedun also stared at Miss Shaluen's figure appearing on the glass window.

"This is my friend, who lives opposite, but he left to attend to other matters, so I chose to look for a bodyguard."

"This is the bodyguard I hired; under her protection I avoided being turned into a secret companion by Luo Sago and even managed to counter‑kill the opponent."

Ke Lai En introduced each of them.

"Al Tains, a crew member of the Future."

Lei Kedun gave his own sea‑borne identity.

"Shaluen."

"Are you the arsonist wanted at sea?"

Miss Shaluen's voice was restrained, offering no further comment.

Lei Kedun didn't mind, knowing this was simply Miss Shaluen's nature.

"The sea arsonist?"

Ke Lai En looked at Lei Kedun with slight puzzlement.

"When I was at sea, to process demon elixirs faster, I often provoked pirates; of course, I sometimes angered the navy and the Storm Church. I recall the bounty on me in Luen was about 5,000 pounds."

"Unfortunately, this assassination of Beikelong likely won't expose my identity, so the bounty probably won't increase further."

Lei Kedun recalled his own bounty amount, then explained, also to inform Miss Shaluen why Ke Lai En bypassed him to hire her as a bodyguard.

"Ambassador Yindisi Beikelong?"

Miss Shaluen's question sounded almost like a statement; if not for the slight tonal shift, Lei Kedun would have taken it as a mere fact rather than a query.

"Yes, the mastermind who sent people to assassinate that pitiful detective."

Lei Kedun gave Ke Lai En a look that said, 'You really know how to stir trouble.'

"It really was just an accident!"

Ke Lai En offered a brief defense.

Then he turned his gaze to Miss Shaluen, thought briefly, and said:

"Thank you for the protection; this matter ends here. The remaining 900 pounds I will pay you over two days; this is the withdrawal limit."

"Or should I give it to Marichi?"

Miss Shaluen's voice echoed in the living room, faint and ethereal:

"Give it to me directly."

"My promise was to protect you for three days, not just once."

Ke Lai En was taken aback; Miss Shaluen unexpectedly showed contractual integrity. Though it inconvenienced him, he still spoke:

"Fine."

Miss Shaluen lifted her skirt slightly, gave a small bow, and vanished from the glass window.

"What a stylish lady!"

Lei Kedun offered his assessment.

Ke Lai En nodded in strong agreement, then thought of another issue:

"I haven't been in Beikeland long before these events unfolded, and I've already obtained the subsequent demon elixir formulas; isn't that too coincidental?"

"Although I previously divined that my chance to grow stronger lay in Beikeland, this is too fast and too easy, isn't it?"

Lei Kedun stared at Ke Lai En with a strange expression, feeling the other had misinterpreted the word 'simple' due to the many incidents, then said:

"Simple? Do you mean surviving Luo Sago's grasp is simple, or getting onto Ambassador Beikelong's assassination list is simple?"

Ke Lai En was momentarily speechless, paused, then continued:

"What I mean is, everything is overly coincidental, as if an invisible hand is pushing the whole development behind the scenes."

"Extraordinary Trait Aggregation Law—haven't you noticed that what you attract is all related to the diviner's path?"

Lei Kedun reminded Ke Lai En.

"Extraordinary Trait Aggregation Law? That's rather odd! This kind of attraction can even indirectly affect fate—does every extraordinary being experience this, or do I have some strange trait?"

Ke Lai En fell into contemplation, intuitively believing something special lay within him; otherwise, wouldn't extraordinary beings descend into chaos under such passive attraction?

"Clearly the latter; the aggregation effect among extraordinary traits only becomes markedly evident above demigod level, requiring some concealment."

Lei Kedun gave a brief reply, saying little, lest Ke Lai En realize his Fool identity was already exposed.

Ke Lai En nodded thoughtfully, said no more; his remaining doubts concerned the Grey Mist secret, and he could not reveal them before fully trusting the other.

"You can owe me my payment for now; I'm not in a hurry for money. Rest assured, no interest—I know you're very poor!"

After delivering that cutting remark, Lei Kedun grabbed the nearby Tu Ba Ge and, via the spirit realm, made a short-range teleport back to the house opposite the street.

Looking at the empty sofa, Ke Lai En sighed:

"What does it mean to say I know you're very poor? I truly am poor."

Feeling his home suddenly grew quiet, Ke Lai En simply returned to his bedroom to rest.

When Lei Kedun returned home, he saw Crow Anu directing a group of spirits to tidy the room.

Seeing this scene, Lei Ke Dun sighed:

"Very good, everyone has learned to outsource tasks."

Lei Ke Dun and Tu Ba Ge both have no habit of tidying their rooms; originally Lei Ke Dun squeezed Tu Ba Ge, later it became Tu Ba Ge squeezing his own raven subordinate, but the raven Anu has now learned to squeeze the spirits under his command.

He went straight back to his own bedroom, and Lei Ke Dun, somewhat fatigued, dropped his head and fell asleep.

Until the next morning, Tu Ba Ge came upstairs carrying some fruit and several newspapers.

Lei Ke Dun curiously picked up a copy of the TasoK Report; he was very curious about what explanation the authorities would give for the death of Yin Di Si's ambassador Bei Ke Lang.

Today's headline in the newspaper was especially striking:

"Yin Di Si's ambassador Bei Ke Lang was murdered at the embassy in Bei Ke Lan De; the perpetrator is unknown! Suspected members of the terrorist group Morse Ascetic Order have infiltrated Bei Ke Lan De!"

"Morse Ascetic Order? Why pin the blame on them? Did someone discover the traces of my use of mysterious resurrection?"

Lei Ke Dun found it unbelievable that the Morse Ascetic Order would be the final scapegoat; he had thought they would simply pick any faction to take the blame, such as the Aurora Society, which would be quite fitting.

However, after careful thought, Lei Ke Dun felt that this scapegoating was actually appropriate, since the Steam Church on Yin Di Si's side would clearly accept this reason, and it might even be what they are promoting.

Putting down the newspaper, Lei Ke Dun glanced at the gloomy weather outside the window and sighed:

"Sunlight in Bei Ke Lan De is truly rare!"

He retrieved the long‑unused Demon Badge and the conspirator trait from Bei Ke Lang, quickly set up the ritual, and transmitted both items to the library located in the Spirit Realm.

Lei Ke Dun immediately closed his eyes to meditate, sketching the pattern in his mind while resonating his own spirit.

His spirit, rippling like water, caused a fragmented circular ring made of gears and chains to materialize behind him.

Lei Ke Dun's consciousness swiftly arrived at the deep‑realm library in the Spirit Realm, where he saw Hong Guang Aier Moria discussing a problem with Mr. Huang.

"Good morning! Mr. Huang, good morning! Mr. Moria!"

Lei Ke Dun, fairly familiar, stepped forward to greet them.

He then went to the corner where he kept his clutter, and retrieved the extraordinary conspirator trait and the Demon Badge that had just arrived.

"Mr. Huang, can you separate the portion of this trait that belongs to the fire domain?"

Lei Ke Dun handed the conspirator trait in his hand over.

"No. If it were still a material, it could be, but now it is a complete trait; even the Unshadowed's purification ability cannot isolate just a part of it."

Mr. Huang shook his head lightly and replied.

This was the first time Lei Ke Dun heard that Mr. Huang also had something he could not do.

"You want to ask why, during the Second Era, those ancient species could individually aggregate extraordinary power of a single domain? Like the Frost Dragon that gathers various frost‑domain abilities?"

Before Lei Ke Dun could ask, Mr. Huang voiced the question he intended to ask.

Beside them, Hong Guang Aier Moria chuckled twice and gave an answer:

"At that time, extraordinary traits had not yet formed a system as they are now; aside from the angel‑rank traits at the apex, the other extraordinary traits had not coalesced into a complete sequential demon elixir."

"Thus, back then creatures could easily locate and ingest partial traits of the same domain, but now most traits have fully coalesced; haven't you noticed that the primary materials for demon elixirs are essentially only two?"

Lei Ke Dun was momentarily stunned, but quickly recovered; a long span had passed since the emergence of the first Profane Stone Tablet, and in that time, extraordinary species had clearly not remained static.

Beyond the massive races of dragons, giants, vampires, humans, and elves, and those races protected by True Gods, the other species have certainly undergone turnover.

(End of Chapter)