52: Chapter 52 You Can Call Me a Cultivator

In Su City's shopping market with the most complete range of product categories.

Zhang Mu walked into stores one by one, picking out the things he needed while talking to Song Lan on the phone.

"I really have urgent business, otherwise I would definitely leech a meal off you before leaving."

"The auction is tomorrow? Don't you need to run advertisements and build up hype?"

"Preparations are almost done?"

"Haha, that's true then. Alright, I'll attend the auction."

Hanging up the phone, Zhang Mu pulled a cart full of goods and called a van to haul them home.

After paying the bill and the driver left, he immediately lined up all the instruments neatly on the tiled floor.

Scanning from left to right, although they were all used to collect physical characteristic information, the mediums utilized were different.

Including but not limited to cameras, infrared, light waves, sound waves, vibration waves, radio waves, etc. He was well-prepared to ensure that when he entered the shadow state, no means could detect him.

Following the manuals, Zhang Mu set them up along the four walls of the living room and powered them on.

He placed a cup of hot tea in the middle of the living room, checked the instruments once more, and found no problems; they were running normally.

He brought over a full-length standing mirror, then stood above the teacup, his eyes fixed on himself in the mirror, and mobilized his mana to activate the Shadow Technique.

His body didn't feel any different, but the person in the mirror was like pencil writing being rubbed hard by an eraser—the colors and traces slowly dimmed until they disappeared completely.

Looking around at the seven or eight instruments monitoring the living room without any blind spots, he maintained his invisible state and checked the work logs one by one; not a single one could capture him.

Walking back to the living room to ponder for a bit, he picked up the phone on the coffee table and first looked at the mirror.

The phone seemed to be floating in mid-air. He controlled his mana to envelop it, and the phone disappeared from the mirror.

Convenient, and with no possibility of being monitored by modern instruments. Good grief, this isn't just 'shadows'; it's practically like entering another dimension.

Withdrawing his mana, his figure changed from faint to solid, slowly emerging.

Checking the work logs again, sure enough, records of him being monitored appeared.

Next was the Transformation Technique.

From the panel's description, this thing didn't change physical structure but rather created illusions.

Standing before the full-length mirror, Zhang Mu searched his mind for various literary descriptions of an 'Immortal's' appearance and began mobilizing mana to construct the image.

An Immortal naturally needs an immortal aura. Although there's the saying of 'returning to one's true self,' what I want is for others to think I'm full of immortal energy at first glance.

Thinking this way.

Soon, a figure matching the public's perception of an Immortal appeared in the mirror.

Eight feet tall, wearing a classic plain white robe, with waist-length hair half-tied at the back of the head and three thousand silver strands draped over the back.

The age of the face was in its thirties. The appearance wasn't particularly intoxicating, rather somewhat ordinary, but the ethereal and elegant temperament in every movement,

Made it inevitable for anyone who saw him to fall prostrate like a collapsing mountain, crying out 'Immortal' in shock.

"Done." Zhang Mu looked at the fictional image he had created and nodded with satisfaction.

Basic preparations were ready. He deactivated the illusion and glanced at the wall clock; he had been busy without stopping since noon, and it was already past nine in the evening.

He washed up and went to bed, having a good night's dream.

The next morning, the sky was just beginning to brighten.

Zhang Mu got up, first downed a bottle of potion to replenish his mana, then transformed into the Immortal appearance he had carefully constructed last night, activated the Shadow Technique, and hurried toward the school.

...

Around nine in the morning.

Zhao Qi groggily pulled back the quilt, brushed his teeth, washed his face, changed into a short-sleeved white shirt and black trousers, and fastened his pistol holster.

Leaving the room, he walked along the corridor to the door of Yue Ruo's room.

*Knock, knock—*

"It's past nine, get up quickly. Any later and the boss will call to scold us again."

Yue Ruo seemed to have woken up long ago; before he finished speaking, she pulled open the door. She was dressed like Zhao Qi and was full of energy, clearly having finished washing up.

"Let's go."

Closing the door, the two walked side-by-side toward Ye Ming's room to complete their daily task of 'questioning the case party.'

When they first brought Ye Ming in, they would ask every day for clues regarding the source of the unknown energy.

No progress had been made, and plus they were convinced Ye Ming had faked the data, so it had now evolved into just going through the motions to appease the boss.

Arriving at the door, Zhao Qi knocked first: "Mr. Ye, are you up?"

Receiving Ye Ming's reply, he pushed open the door and entered the room with Yue Ruo.

"Mr. Ye, we have basically determined that you faked your thesis data. Do you accept this investigation result?"

"I have no objection." Ye Ming, who was sitting at the desk flipping through a book, responded with his back to them.

Good, daily check-in complete.

Zhao Qi and Yue Ruo both muttered in their hearts at the same time and turned to leave the room.

Just as they reached the doorway, a gentle, jade-like male voice suddenly sounded behind them.

"Truly, interesting."

That's not Ye Ming's voice, is it?

The two thought subconsciously and immediately reacted, spinning around violently together, their hands reaching for their waists.

"This..."

Seeing clearly that someone had appeared behind Ye Ming at some unknown time, Zhao Qi and Yue Ruo's fingers, which had touched the holster buckles, instantly froze, completely forgetting that in an emergency, they should immediately draw their guns.

The room has no windows, and the only furniture is a solid bed and a desk; there's simply no place to hide. Besides, it's only been five seconds at most since Yue Ruo and I turned around. When did he appear?

How did he get into the room?

Supernatural power? Demon or spirit? Ghost or monster?

Zhao Qi's mind was a mess right now, with all sorts of outrageous thoughts emerging one after another. Forcing himself to calm down, he stared at that person with trembling vision, which finally stabilized a bit.

Meanwhile, Yue Ruo was no better off than Zhao Qi. Her hand was pressed against the holster, her mouth slightly agape, staring at the person without moving.

If she met this person dressed in ancient clothing on the street, she would at most think it was cosplay and give him a few glances.

But with such a person suddenly appearing the moment her and Zhao Qi's eyes left the room, there was no way she could associate it with role-playing.

The room is completely enclosed, and I heard him speak about three seconds after I turned around. Just... what exactly is he?

A person? A ghost?

The two, who had been searching bitterly for abnormal things all over the world to no avail, did not show excitement when truly facing an 'anomaly' now.

Instead, they were so at a loss that they didn't know how they should react.

After all, although they held the title of Special Agents of the Bureau of Investigation of Abnormal Events, they had never even seen an anomaly from a distance, let alone faced one directly at such a close range.

Ye Ming's attention was also drawn by the voice that suddenly sounded behind him. He turned around instinctively and was stunned on the spot when he saw an extra person in the room.

Zhao Qi and Yue Ruo still had to think about the reason why there was no place to hide in the room to then wonder how this person appeared.

But Ye Ming, who stayed in the room every day, was the one who knew best that he was the only one there.

Even Ye Ming, who prided himself on having a 'big heart,' was somewhat lost and helpless at this moment, staring blankly at the person before him.

The room only has one entrance, the door. The investigators turned to open the door after finishing their questions, so it's impossible he came in through the door.

Then...

How did he get in?

Who is he? Or what is he?

The three were speechless, their gazes fixed on one spot. To be precise, there were too many questions they wanted to ask in their minds, such that for a moment, they weren't sure what to ask first.

The air froze for a while.

Perhaps seeing that the 'anomaly' had no intention of hurting anyone, Zhao Qi took a deep breath and pinched the tender flesh on the inside of his thigh.

The piercing pain barely allowed him to regain his senses. While secretly pressing the holster buckle, he asked, "This demon, uh... what are you?"

His fingers had already pulled open the fabric cover of the holster and touched the gun handle and trigger. With a weapon in hand, although he was temporarily unsure if it could cause effective damage, it was better than facing an 'anomaly' empty-handed.

Zhao Qi felt a slight sigh of relief in his heart, and with force in his palm, he was about to draw the gun.

The movement was very swift; however, halfway through, his right hand, which was drawing the gun smoothly, froze again.

"For your ease of understanding, you can call me a Cultivator."