Chapter 46: Spirit Pool

"Quick! Quick! Quick!"

"First get these children to safety, notify nearby residents to evacuate and withdraw from this area!"

"Two of you, come with me. There's still a batch of children in the orphanage who haven't escaped. Bring your gear and follow me in to rescue them."

"Medical team, where's the medical team? There's a caretaker here with rebar through his stomach…"

Outside Heitu Gu'eryuan, chaos reigned. Personnel from the Public Security Bureau kept going in and out of the orphanage. This was the terror of a Martial Artist.

Even mere residual might could pose a fatal threat to ordinary people!

Members of the Zhenling Bureau patrolled the perimeter in pairs, their bodies constantly tensed, dreading any fish that had slipped through the net, not daring to let their guard down.

In the distance, the battle still raged on.

Su Lingwei stood anxiously at the very front of the crowd, gazing toward the back mountain.

A great battle was unfolding there, but it was not one she could take part in. Rushing in blindly would only make her a burden.

At that moment, a figure arrived at her side at extreme speed.

Once out of danger, Jiang Qin could no longer hold on and completely passed out.

The Xuan Snake's Report for Duty was indeed abnormal, but it could not withstand the instantaneous destruction of the meridians within his body. In the constant cycle of repair and destruction, it was extremely painful and unbearable for Jiang Qin.

It was as if his leg had been broken by someone, only to heal and be broken again, repeating endlessly…

"Jiang Qin!"

Su Lingwei turned pale with shock and caught him, frantically checking his injuries.

From the moment she met Jiang Qin, he had always carried an invincible air, instantly killing any enemy he faced, as if nothing could threaten him.

This was the first time she had ever seen him injured so severely.

……

An unknown amount of time passed.

Jiang Qin slowly awoke and opened his eyes.

Before him was an unfamiliar ceiling. The smell of medicine mingled with a faint fragrance, lingering at his nose. The unfamiliar environment made him instinctively tense his body.

As memories from before he lost consciousness flooded back, he gradually relaxed.

Turning his head, he saw Su Lingwei sitting by the bed, staring at him, a chicken drumstick in her hand, eating with great relish.

Seeing Jiang Qin awake, she finally breathed a sigh of relief and said:

"You were out for a whole day. Thank goodness you're finally awake."

"Where is this?"

"A star-rated hotel in Heitu Cheng. After you were injured, the wounds healed not long after, so I didn't take you to the hospital and brought you straight to the hotel instead. As for the Gods' Sect, it's been confirmed completely wiped out, not a single survivor."

Jiang Qin sat up, feeling that this sleep had been very comfortable.

Since becoming a Martial Artist, he had never rested so comfortably. His mental state was excellent.

His Dragon Pattern Black Clothing hung in front of the wardrobe, though now there was a hole torn in the chest area. He'd need to find someone to repair it before he could use it again.

Su Lingwei continued: "While you were unconscious, quite a few people came to see you. There was Bureau Chief Long from the Heitu Cheng Zhenling Bureau who just returned from the Frontier, and Shen Ling, who brought lots of delicious food."

"Bureau Chief Long also left a message before he left, telling you to go see him once you woke up."

"Mm, speaking of food, I am indeed a bit hungry." Jiang Qin nodded. Having not eaten for a day, he felt he could devour an entire Fierce Beast ox right now.

So he looked at Su Lingwei, and their eyes met.

After a moment of eye contact, Su Lingwei reluctantly handed over the chicken drumstick she had taken two bites of. "Here, you can have it."

"……"

Jiang Qin was speechless. He casually took out two plates of Fierce Beast meat from his Space Ring and began eating heartily.

After eating a full seven large plates, he finally contentedly patted his belly.

"Let's go, to the Zhenling Bureau!"

This time he had truly escaped death. It would be a shame not to get something out of it.

After a simple wash and a change of clothes, Jiang Qin and Su Lingwei left the hotel and hailed a car to the Zhenling Bureau.

There were far fewer people on the streets compared to two days ago, and many shops had not opened.

Clearly, the Gods' Sect incident had still caused considerable impact on the public.

The Heitu Cheng Zhenling Bureau was located in a building in the city center.

Led by an outer member, and under a host of admiring and respectful gazes, the two arrived outside the Bureau Chief's office.

"Knock knock knock—"

A man's heavy voice responded from inside:

"Come in."

The door pushed open, and Jiang Qin walked in.

The Bureau Chief's office was simply arranged, with no superfluous decorations, save for a photo frame placed at the corner of the desk.

Behind the desk, Long Xingtian, who had been handling documents, looked up. Seeing it was Jiang Qin, the first smile in two days finally appeared on his face. He pointed to the empty seat.

"You're here, sit down."

"This incident was all thanks to you two. Although I had long vaguely suspected there were problems with these orphanages in Heitu Cheng, the Fierce Beasts attacking the Frontier one after another made the situation urgent, so I had no choice but to overlook it. But I never expected these bastards to have such audacity!"

Mentioning this, Long Xingtian's anger surged. He slammed the desk heavily, showing just how furious he was.

The Great Examination had lasted five years, meaning every child in Heitu Cheng who met the standard over these five years had met with misfortune. The number was not merely over a thousand—probably several thousand at least.

What was even more unexpected was that Vice Mayor Wang Xingshan had actually colluded with the cultists.

And the Fengyue Group's Yang family had hired people to assassinate the mayor, a divine consciousness had descended upon Heitu Cheng…

If Jiang Qin hadn't held off the enemy this time, in just a few short minutes, that divine consciousness would have been enough to slaughter the entire Heitu Cheng. The consequences would have been unimaginable.

Jiang Qin also voiced the question in his heart: "Bureau Chief Long, what exactly is going on with that deity that suddenly appeared? Is just a bottle of blood really that powerful?"

Long Xingtian explained, "For a deity's consciousness to descend into this world, it needs a sufficiently powerful body. The body serves as the medium connecting to its power — the stronger the medium, the more of its power it can bear."

"But the consequences of doing so are also very severe."

He raised his hand toward the sky and said meaningfully:

"This world places extremely strong restrictions on deities from other realms. Sending even a wisp of consciousness across will inevitably trigger backlash — within a short period, it cannot act again. Moreover, once a body is occupied by a deity, after a period of time the body will collapse."

"If not for that, I'm afraid I truly wouldn't have been a match for that god that day."

Simply put, there is a time limit to the descent and backlash involved — deities would not lightly employ such a method.

One could see just how desperately that god had wanted to kill Jiang Qin at the time, but in the end it was still stopped by Long Xingtian, who had rushed back from the Frontier. After the battle, the physical body ultimately collapsed.

Afterward, Jiang Qin asked Bureau Chief Long for more information about deities.

Long Xingtian also held nothing back, telling everything he knew.

After a long while, Long Xingtian finally stood up and laughed:

"You've rendered great service this time. I've already reported the full account to headquarters. The mission you carried out has been elevated to S-rank. In addition to specially approving the two of you to take the formal Investigator examination, headquarters has also granted you the choice of any one S-rank technique and the opportunity to enter the 【Spirit Pool】…"