Chapter 406: Another Porcelain Bottle
To be honest, Yang Haoran was still somewhat surprised deep down that Zhao Hong would say such things to him under these circumstances. Ra_N.0{bEs
He wasn't surprised by Zhao Hong's courage. Spirit Mediums and the Underworld Office were inherently antagonistic; a Spirit Master's soul falling into the hands of an Underworld Official would undoubtedly result in Soul Transformation. So, for Zhao Hong to say such things without considering the consequences, he had nothing to be surprised about.
What surprised him was the content of Zhao Hong's words. Zhao Hong planned to make a move against him soon, and he hadn't known about this, which caused his surprise.
Seeing that Zhao Hong was unwilling to say more, Yang Haoran's smile remained unchanged.
"I am an Underworld Official. If I want to know something from you, it's not like I can't find out just because you won't speak. Don't tell me you're dead; even if you were alive, I could forcefully extract your soul and make everything perfectly clear," Yang Haoran said with a smile.
His words elicited no reaction from Zhao Hong. Zhao Hong merely stared at him with venom, not uttering a single word.
Yang Haoran smiled, saying nothing, and then directly activated his Ghost Eye.
As his eyes turned inky black, Yang Haoran saw scenes from Zhao Hong's life through his Ghost Eye, and in an instant, he learned a great deal of information.
After a few breaths, Yang Haoran closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they had returned to normal.
"You truly deserved to die."
Hearing this, Zhao Hong burst into laughter, her laughter sounding utterly insane.
Yang Haoran ignored the madly laughing Zhao Hong, summoned his Soul-Gathering Bead, and directly drew Zhao Hong's soul into it.
Just now, through his Ghost Eye, scenes from Zhao Hong's life flashed through his mind like a fast-forwarded movie, and through this information, he learned what kind of person Zhao Hong truly was.
Zhao Hong had a fairly good reputation among her friends and colleagues, but this was merely a facade she had created. In secret, she had caused the deaths of many people, quite a few of whom were her own relatives and friends.
Including the Spirit Master she had previously killed, who was once one of her friends, but under her deception, that Spirit Master had almost lost his life at her hands back then. Although he eventually escaped, he had lost his Guardian Spirit.
The reason Zhao Hong chose to work at the crematorium, and stayed for many years, was naturally to acquire more souls.
However, she had always acted with great caution. Some of the souls from bodies entering the crematorium would be forcefully extracted by her, while others would not. Because if she were to extract all the souls from every body, it would very likely attract the attention of the Underworld Officials. Although she did attract the notice of Night Watchers a few times during that period, no one ever managed to trace it back to her. Hence, no Underworld Official had ever come looking for her over all these years.
As for her intention to make a move against Yang Haoran recently, through the conversations Zhao Hong had with her Guardian Spirit while she was alive, Yang Haoran understood what was going on.
Zhao Hong knew that Yang Haoran, this newly appointed Emissary of Death, was not as powerful as Deng Feng. Since she already harbored a deep hatred for Underworld Officials, and furthermore, the Spirit Power within an Underworld Official's body was a great supplement for her Guardian Spirit, she had set her sights on Yang Haoran.
Zhao Hong had already made her plans. She intended to find a way to help her Guardian Spirit advance to the Evil Spirit realm soon. This way, dealing with Yang Haoran, the Underworld Official, would be foolproof. Little did she know, fate had a twist in store; Yang Haoran had, instead, set his sights on her first, and played the role of the fisherman.
As for how Zhao Hong planned to elevate her Guardian Spirit to the Evil Spirit realm in such a short time, she also had her own scheme. And what was involved in her plan would also be of immense benefit to Yang Haoran.
This benefit thrilled Yang Haoran at this moment. For him, this benefit was an unexpected surprise. However, he didn't show it right now, because he still needed to clean up the battlefield before him.
Bai Xue didn't know what Yang Haoran had seen within Zhao Hong's soul through his Ghost Eye. Seeing that Yang Haoran didn't mention it, she didn't ask further.
The spatial rift had long since vanished. Above Zhao Hong's corpse, various items were piled up like a small mountain.
Over the next half hour, Yang Haoran and Bai Xue sifted through all of Zhao Hong's collected items.
First were some of Zhao Hong's personal items. Yang Haoran wasn't a pervert; these things were useless to him.
Although Bai Xue was also a woman, she had no interest whatsoever in the personal items of this middle-aged woman, Zhao Hong, and naturally wouldn't need them.
There were quite a few of these personal female items, but Yang Haoran and Bai Xue discarded them all. However, during the cleanup, the two of them inevitably felt a bit awkward.
After removing this portion of items, the vast majority of the remaining collected items were related to Spirit Masters and predominantly consisted of books.
There were secret manuals documenting Spiritual Arts. Some of these manuals were incomplete, some were complete, and some were entire volumes. They recorded various Spiritual Arts, while others were just a few yellowed, thin pages detailing a single Spiritual Art.
There were also some secret manuals detailing how to quickly cultivate a Guardian Spirit, how to improve rapport with a Guardian Spirit, and how to strengthen the connection between master and Guardian Spirit.
Another portion of the books introduced various ghosts and gods, explained strange phenomena, and documented various organizations and professions in this world, among other things.
Apart from books and secret manuals, there were also some items that neither Yang Haoran nor Bai Xue could comprehend. Among them, one item piqued Yang Haoran's interest.
It was a bottle, an opaque white porcelain bottle, the size of a regular beverage bottle.
The reason this porcelain bottle captured Yang Haoran's interest was that he possessed an identical one. The porcelain bottle he held was originally acquired from Deng Feng's home. However, to this day, he still hadn't figured out its purpose.
What he hadn't expected was that even before he understood the porcelain bottle's function, he would discover an identical one among Zhao Hong's possessions.
Yang Haoran didn't ask Zhao Hong what the porcelain bottle was for, because by recalling the information he'd gained from Zhao Hong's soul earlier, he knew that Zhao Hong had also acquired this porcelain bottle by chance. Afterward, she too had tried to figure out what the mysterious object was, but ultimately found nothing.
In other words, Zhao Hong didn't know what this strange porcelain bottle was either. She merely found it peculiar, and thus collected it.
Aside from this porcelain bottle, Yang Haoran hadn't recognized a few other items either. However, by recalling the information obtained from Zhao Hong's soul, he still managed to understand their purpose and value.
Among Zhao Hong's collection, the vast majority of items were related to Spirit Masters, and the only things unrelated to Spirit Masters were a few books. This greatly disappointed Bai Xue, as she had no interest in any of them.
However, when Bai Xue found a box and opened it, a look of surprise and delight appeared on her face.
Upon opening the box, a powerful surge of Demon Qi immediately emanated from it. Inside the box was actually a Demon Pill. The reason no Demon Qi had been sensed before was that the box had a seal, preventing any of the Demon Qi from escaping. After Bai Xue broke the seal and opened the box, the Demon Pill instantly released a powerful aura of Demon Qi.
Discovering a Demon Pill made Bai Xue as excited as a child. This was because a Demon Pill held immense value for her. As long as she absorbed and refined it, her strength would advance by leaps and bounds. Its effects were incomparable to ordinary heaven and earth treasures. After all, a single Demon Pill represented the culmination of a demon's lifelong cultivation essence. Its immense value was self-evident.
Given the current treatment she received from the Spirit Police, even if she worked for the Spirit Police for another ten years, the heaven and earth treasures she acquired wouldn't amount to the value of this single Demon Pill. How could she not be happy?
Of course, the heaven and earth treasures given to her by the Spirit Police were only of ordinary quality. If they were high-grade items, that would be another matter entirely.
Yang Haoran didn't contend with Bai Xue for this Demon Pill. After all, he wasn't a demon. A Demon Pill's use was limited in his hands. Aside from allowing him to recognize demon script and demon curses when worn, he hadn't yet discovered any other use for it. Moreover, he already possessed one Demon Pill; taking another would be a waste.
But Bai Xue was different. Bai Xue was inherently a great demon. Only in her hands could the Demon Pill's value be maximized. Therefore, Yang Haoran naturally wouldn't compete with her for it.
Furthermore, Bai Xue had rendered Yang Haoran a great service on this trip. She had risked her life to help him; he certainly had to compensate her. Just moments ago, he had been fretting over what to use as a thank-you gift for Bai Xue. The appearance of the Demon Pill solved that problem instantly.
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