Everyone in the room heard the wolves howling.
"We will arrange the water and electricity very soon," Director Lu said, taking the opportunity to stand up and take his leave. "We won't disturb you any longer. We still have to go to Donghua Village to investigate the beast attacks from the other night. Mr. Shen, if you need anything, feel free to contact us at any time."
The police officers outside were all ordinary people. Lingering outdoors for long periods indeed made it easy to attract wild beasts.
"Mm." Shen Yun nodded.
Chief Zhao, dressed in his police uniform, also stood up. He hadn't had a chance to speak from beginning to end. In fact, after hearing the classified information about the Otherworld, he had consciously kept silent.
Xiao Jiu walked the two men to the door.
Then, they saw that at the boundary of the Thunder Tribulation's range, a hundred or two hundred meters away, dozens of massive, starving wolves were howling and prowling. However, due to the lingering aura of the Celestial Tribulation, they didn't dare to enter.
After the Spiritual Qi outbreak, the proportion of animals undergoing mutation and frenzy was far greater than the proportion of human Cultivators. If the state hadn't reacted in time, decisively mobilizing the army and establishing refugee camps, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
"Rest assured, Ms. Xiao Jiu, we will clean them up very soon," Director Lu said. With his strength, dealing with a few beasts in the early stages of frenzy was overkill.
Xiao Jiu glanced at the police officers waiting in full battle readiness. Suddenly, a bright bolt of lightning erupted from her bangs and vanished in a flash. The mournful cries of beasts immediately echoed from afar as over a dozen starving wolves, strengthened by Spiritual Qi, collapsed to the ground with black smoke billowing from their bodies.
To their astonishment, they had all been killed instantly!
Both Director Lu and Chief Zhao watched with their hearts pounding! Manifesting Spiritual Power to strike instantly from a hundred meters away! This was a sign that she had at least cultivated Divine Thought! On top of that, it was a rare Thunder Series talent!
They wondered which country had been so unlucky to finally produce such a genius, only to have her abducted by their country's Golden Core youth to act as a maid.
"Excellent cultivation, Ms. Xiao Jiu." Director Lu gave a thumbs-up in praise, his admiration for Shen Yun growing even deeper. Nowadays, foreign countries had basically restricted the travel of people with such talent because they worried these individuals would run off to Huaxia to seek the path of immortality and never return. That was just how charming Huaxia was today.
"You flatter me, I'm still far behind Master." Xiao Jiu pursed her lips into a smile. Turning her head to look inside the house, her eyes were filled with an unmistakable, deep affection.
Director Lu felt he couldn't stay here any longer. He was already twenty-nine years old and still single! He chanted in his heart that he couldn't compare, he just couldn't compare. Taking his leave, he hurried away. It wasn't until he had walked more than a dozen meters and heard the door close behind him that he finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Beside him, Chief Zhao felt even more like his footsteps were floating.
"Chief Zhao." Director Lu turned around, resting a hand on Chief Zhao's shoulder, and narrowed his eyes. "You should know the severity of this matter, right?"
Chief Zhao recalled the term he had heard inside the house just now: the Otherworld! He immediately stood at attention, his posture straight and his gaze firm. "I am willing to accept all arrangements made by the organization."
"Very good." Director Lu finally regained a bit of his sense of status and patted Chief Zhao's shoulder. "Don't go back to the police station after you return. Come directly with me. Nine times out of ten, you're going to be my comrade-in-arms."
A flash of pleasant surprise crossed Chief Zhao's eyes. This era was full of opportunities. An ordinary police officer like him being able to rely on his abilities to become a chief made many people envious. But similarly, the greater geniuses left him completely in the dust. Let alone the Golden Core youth behind them, even Director Lu in front of him, who was a few years younger, was completely beyond compare.
Desire, strength, status. Never before had there been an era like the present, one that made people so desperate for success.
Meanwhile, Xiao Jiu returned to Shen Yun's side after closing the door. She was holding back laughter.
"Just laugh if you want to," Shen Yun said helplessly.
"PFFT... HAHAHA." Unable to hold it in any longer, Xiao Jiu clutched her stomach and curled up on the sofa, rolling around. The inadvertent flashes of skin made Shen Yun's heart flutter.
"Is it really that funny?" Shen Yun felt a bit gloomy.
"It's just... Master is so amazing." Having seemingly laughed enough, Xiao Jiu crawled over and rested against Shen Yun's legs, her bright, beautiful eyes looking up at him full of admiration.
"The amazing one is clearly you, Xiao Jiu." No matter how thick-skinned Shen Yun was, he still felt a bit embarrassed at this moment. "I merely took your place as a Golden Core. You were even the one who recognized the origin of that Array..."
"No way." Xiao Jiu shook her head, her straight black hair undulating like waves, a lingering smile on her face. "Xiao Jiu was originally Master's property to begin with. Everything belongs to Master, so please don't say you took my place. However, Master's performance just now was exactly like the protagonist of a novel, running rings around them with your bluffing."
It really was quite a bluff. He believed the higher-ups had now firmly established his identity as a Golden Core, and it seemed they didn't pay too much attention to Xiao Jiu's background.
"It's going to get more and more troublesome later on," Shen Yun said, shaking his head. He knew very well that behind one lie lay countless more. Although he could keep up this facade for a while by relying on Xiao Jiu, he ultimately had to catch up with his own strength. Otherwise, exposure was only a matter of time.
Shen Yun looked at the Command Spell-like pattern on the back of his hand. This was his true trump card. It was just that its power might have already been exhausted, and he didn't know when he would be able to use it a second time.
Xiao Jiu also looked at the back of Shen Yun's hand. She cupped it gently, her fair, slender fingers stroking his skin. "Master, it was this that awakened Xiao Jiu's sentience."
"I can faintly feel that between us..." Shen Yun hesitated.
But Xiao Jiu knew what he was trying to say. Reaching out, she untied the black ribbon fastened around her neck. Sparks of electricity flashed. A dark green willow branch faintly emerged, wrapped around her neck, and extended all the way into Shen Yun's arm. This was the source of the connection between them.
That Bodhi Branch seemed to have been refined into some sort of magical artifact. While retaining its original effects, it tightly bound Shen Yun's body with Xiao Jiu's body, and even their Golden Cores and souls.
"If anything happened to Master, Xiao Jiu's sentience would probably be wiped out as well." Xiao Jiu reached out a slender finger, seemingly wanting to touch the branch on her neck, but it phased right through. A trace of fear appeared in her eyes. "This is truly a... terrifying artifact."
"Xiao Jiu, you..."
"It's okay." Xiao Jiu smiled sweetly again. Holding Shen Yun's palm, she placed it against her cheek and rubbed it gently. "If it's Master, whether it's chaining or binding, it doesn't matter what you want to do. After all... Master will still cherish Xiao Jiu as well as you did in the past, right?"
For some unknown reason, Shen Yun could faintly sense Xiao Jiu's emotions. Scenes from the past suddenly flashed through his mind like a movie.
Only, from a different perspective. He saw his own delighted expression when he first bought the phone. He saw his focused gaze when applying the screen protector. He saw his careful movements when using a cotton swab to clean the dust from its crevices. He even saw his patience later on when the chip aged and the phone became sluggish.
He thought, "Is this... Xiao Jiu's memory?"