What do you mean you also want to return to the world?

Chapter 24 The Deal with Crimson

"Yes, it has always been with us."

Gao Ping's deep voice, coupled with the surveillance footage on the computer screen, instantly sent chills down my spine.

"This really is haunted," Shi Yan said, his voice softening.

"Don't say such things, Shi Yan," Qi Fei said immediately with a stern face. "There are no ghosts in this world. If we're talking about science... then it's clearly monsters."

"...Is there any difference?"

"Of course," Qi Fei said. "Ghosts can't be killed, but monsters can."

Uh, that sounds like it makes some sense... But whether it makes sense or not, Qi Fei's words at least helped to ease the tension. Shi Yan noticed that Gao Ping's tense face relaxed a lot when he heard "monsters can be killed".

As expected of a streamer, her ability to stir up and soothe emotions is truly remarkable.

Shi Yan mentally scoffed for a moment before getting back to the point: "So, that monster has been lurking in this venue all along, and hasn't even left yet?"

If that's the case, then wouldn't it be highly likely that they encountered that monster when they entered the venue?

"Yes." Gao Ping's answer confirmed Shi Yan's thoughts. "In fact, just two hours before you arrived, it was captured on surveillance footage. Of course, since it was the same two people, I couldn't tell which one was real and which one was fake, so I didn't dare to alert them."

As he spoke, he typed on the keyboard, showing Shi Yan the surveillance footage from two hours earlier. It was indeed the same person, just on opposite sides of the venue.

"It doesn't sound like it's always been there." At this point, Tang Shi, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke up, making her presence known. "It only appears in stages?"

"That should be the case." Gao Ping nodded slightly. "I've observed it; it never appears for more than ten minutes at a time. Of course, it could be longer, but after ten minutes, it will leave the camera's view, and I won't be able to track it anymore."

Shi Yan then asked, "Isn't the venue equipped with cameras for full coverage?"

"No." Gao Ping shook his head again. "They'll only be at the entrances and important office areas. They won't be in many other places, like the restrooms, my office, or the female employees' break room."

Qi Fei raised an eyebrow: "It sounds like it can even hide from cameras?"

"I don't know about that," Gao Ping said. "I'm not a professional, and I wouldn't dare to approach it rashly. But I must say, this monster is truly bizarre. It's been in the pavilion for so many days, and not only has it never had a case of a fake encountering the real thing, but no one else has noticed anything unusual. Do you understand what I mean? It's like a real person, not a ghost, possessing all the memories and personality of the person it's impersonated. If it hadn't suddenly transformed into my father and revealed its true nature, I wouldn't have known about this thing in the pavilion until now. So, can you please get rid of it quickly? I really..."

Gao Ping became more and more agitated as he spoke, clearly his fear of this thing had been rekindled.

But thinking about it, it's understandable. After all, he's the only one in the museum who knows the truth. He doesn't dare to tell the others rashly, nor does he dare to let the staff leave normally and release the monster. You could say he's under immense pressure from both the real and the supernatural realms.

"Hey, hey, don't worry," Qi Fei reassured Gao Ping again. "Please trust us, we're professionals. Look into my eyes, how about it, can you feel the sincerity...?"

"Your words sound so familiar... Ah, I remember now, that's how you tricked those women watching your live streams into putting antiques on their chests for you to appraise." Gao Ping was stunned at first, then suddenly realized, and finally sighed, "Don't say things like that to me. Sigh, it's my fault, I wasn't very emotional."

"That's normal." Qi Fei shrugged. "Demonic energy itself will influence and amplify negative human emotions to some extent. It's already quite good that you can still maintain your rationality. But I really didn't lie to you. Now that we're here, we'll resolve things."

After saying that, Qi Fei turned to look at Shi Yan.

"So, do you know how to solve this?"

Shi Yan: "..."

No, how did this jump to the point where we should know how to solve it?

Why does it feel like "This is offense, this is defense, this is Genichiro Ashina"?

No, it's even worse than that. He doesn't even know where Genichiro is!

Faced with the simultaneous gazes of the three, Shi Yan's expression stiffened, and then he asked awkwardly, "Could you give me another hint?"

"No, no, no." Qi Fei shook his head. "You already have enough information without any hints."

"Is this... enough?"

"Yes," Qi Fei said, counting on his fingers. "We already know the time, place, and general abilities of the monsters. What more could you want? You should know that in most cases, we can't get such accurate information. Many times, we just give you a 'haunted place, please go there immediately' and that's it. That's when you'll know what it means to be clueless."

"...Alright." Since Qi Fei had already put it this way, Shi Yan could only reluctantly agree. "Any other requests?"

"Of course." Qi Fei checked the time again. "It's 2:30 PM now. Given that the staff at this aquarium haven't been home for a long time, and that keeping them around monsters for extended periods can damage their mental health, this afternoon and evening are your last chance. If you can't complete the task by dawn tomorrow, Tang Shi will take over, and your assessment will be considered a failure."

So you only have half a day?

"And another thing," Qi Fei added, "the Sword-wielding Bureau has an unwritten rule: to keep ordinary people away from the supernatural as much as possible, and not to let their lives and values ​​be affected."

Shi Yan's lips twitched slightly: "So, you mean I can't alert the ordinary people in this building, and I have to quietly eliminate that monster?"

Qi Fei nodded: "If you can do it, please do."

How is that even possible?! The place is packed with people!

Shi Yan really wanted to say that, but he held back the words.

The reason is simple: he doesn't think Qi Fei is deliberately making things difficult for him. Besides, if he can't even deal with this little monster, how can he possibly deal with the two great demons inside his body?

He took a deep breath and said, "I understand."

……

After Shi Yan left the office, Tang Shi finally couldn't help but speak up: "Aren't you being too hasty? This is not the kind of assessment intensity a newcomer who hasn't been ranked should have."

Last night, when Tang Shi heard that Qi Fei was going to use this task as Shi Yan's ranking test, she was very surprised and immediately objected. But Qi Fei just casually replied, "If you fail, you'll just take the normal test." — His tone was as natural as if he couldn't do the bonus questions, so he would do some easy ones.

But Tang Shi clearly understood that this was fundamentally different.

First of all, the Sword Bureau has unified standards and venues for the grading exams for newcomers, and can guarantee safety to a large extent, so that no matter what, they will not lose their lives.

But this mission is different. It's a sudden task assigned to them by the Sword-Holding Bureau, and it carries a certain degree of danger. After all, no one knows the strength of the monster dug out of the ground, and even with the two current Sword-Holders present, their safety cannot be guaranteed.

However, Tang Shi's objection was of no use, because Qi Fei's reasons were equally compelling.

"There's nothing we can do. There's a troublesome guy watching him from the outside," Qi Fei repeated his reasoning. "Training him up step by step is what's really hurting him."

Yes, that's why Tang Shi couldn't continue to oppose it—that molten-level demon has still not been found.

Although the Sword-wielding Bureau's territory is the safest among the three major demon-slaying forces, no one dares to guarantee that the great demon won't come to Lin City to look for Shi Yan.

Therefore, it is indeed essential to enable Shi Yan to protect himself in the shortest possible time—well, not to mention self-protection, at least to enable him to send out a distress signal when encountering a powerful demon, so that he is not taken away silently.

Therefore, Tang poetry once again tacitly accepted this.

After listening to their conversation, Gao Ping asked with some confusion, "What's wrong? Is this young man something special? What's the matter?"

"I can't tell you the details, but I can give you an example," Qi Fei said with a smile. "Have you ever heard this saying? For a woman, beauty is a winning combination with any other card, but playing it alone can have a negative effect... And that kid, right now, only has 'beauty' as his card."

"Is that so..."

"Understood?"

"I think I understand," Gao Ping said thoughtfully. "There's just one small problem."

"What?"

"This is the first time I've ever heard of using 'beautiful' to describe a young man." Gao Ping looked at Qi Fei with a strange expression. "You're not a male prostitute, are you?"

Qi Fei's smile vanished.

……

"Excuse me, student, could you move aside?"

"Oh, oh, oh."

"Excuse me, if you don't have anything to do, please don't block this way."

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

Inside the venue, Shi Yan's search for the demon did not go smoothly.

Even if you're determined to overcome this hurdle, the problem is, it's like a math problem—if you can't solve it, you just can't. It's like attending a daily pep rally before the college entrance exam, crying your eyes out to your parents and teachers; if you still can't solve the problems on the actual exam, won't you still be unable to do them?

Just like now, looking at the more than one hundred staff members in the venue, he really couldn't tell who was human and who was a demon.

Instead of doing this, wouldn't it be better to go back to taking the college entrance exam?

The thought had just popped into Shi Yan's mind when it was instantly dismissed.

Forget it, compared to the college entrance exam, exorcising demons is much easier.

Shi Yan took a deep breath, cleared his mind of negative thoughts, and calmed himself down.

Since Qi Fei believes this task is within his capabilities, there's no reason he can't do it. Think about it carefully; the answer might be surprisingly simple.

But at that moment, a sinister laugh echoed in my mind.

"Hehehe..."

Shi Yan ignored him.

"Hehehe..."

Shi Yan pretended not to hear.

"Hehehe..."

Shi Yan gradually came up with an idea.

"Hahaha……"

Could the Crimson Aura be used to find the demon? After all, Qi Fei only gave him this task after he was able to summon the Crimson Aura...

Whether it was Shi Yan's line of thinking that was correct, or whether Fei Hong simply couldn't bear being ignored time and time again, she angrily shouted, "Bastard! Can't you hear me?!"

"I really didn't hear you speak," Shi Yan said. "I only heard someone laughing foolishly... Was that you?"

"You fucking..." Scarlet was about to curse instinctively, but she held back the words and said, "I understand now. You want to find the monster in this restaurant and then get into that... what... what bureau, right?"

Oh?

Shi Yan raised an eyebrow.

This guy was silent for most of the day; it turns out he wasn't sleeping, but observing me.

Moreover, she seemed to know where the monster she was looking for was.

"Of course I know." Crimson read Shi Yan's thoughts again. "Does a little demon of this level think it can hide in front of me? I saw it at a glance."

"So?" Shi Yan asked, "Are you going to tell me where it is?"

"That's all I wanted to say," Crimson said. "Want to know where it is? I can tell you, but..."

Shi Yan immediately understood: "This is a transaction?"

"Yes."

So it's the same old plan again. Is this guy trying to keep playing the old man again?

"Are you going to take half my life again?"

"No need for that, it's just a little demon." Crimson said generously, "A quarter is enough, just like that 'Phoenix Clan' thing."

"idiot."

"You!" Scarlet exclaimed angrily, "That phoenix can open a quarter of its bloom, why can't I?"

Shi Yan was too lazy to pay attention to her.

"One-quarter isn't enough? How about one-fifth, one-sixth?" Crimson immediately started lowering the price. "One-tenth, that's my bottom line! You can't just not offer anything, can you?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Shi Yan was too lazy to argue with Fei Hong and said bluntly, "As long as it's related to my life, I won't give you even a tenth, a hundredth, or a thousandth of it, let alone one-tenth."

"Fine, you've got guts!" Crimson stood upright in front of Shi Yan again, her expression a mixture of contempt and glare. "Even if you beg me to lend you my power again, I won't!"

"If you don't need it, then you don't need it."

"Then don't use my 'Crimson'! That's my power too."

"Who cares about you? I stole it myself, so I'll use it!"

"you!!!"

In the corridor, Shi Yan and Fei Hong glared at each other.

This scene, naturally, seemed very strange to others.

"What's the deputy director bringing that kid for? Why does it look like he's arguing with his own fingers?"

"Maybe he's under a lot of academic pressure. I saw he was wearing the uniform of Lincheng No. 1 Middle School, which is a key municipal school... Sigh, kids these days have it so tough, they're all studying themselves silly."

Hearing the crowd's comments, Shi Yan blushed and silently pressed the blush down.

Damn it, this girl's got a screw loose; I absolutely can't let her lead me astray.

Scarlet seemed to have given up arguing. She probably had already anticipated that Shi Yan wouldn't trade his life for power, so after her anger subsided slightly, she said, "If you're not willing to exchange your life for power with me, then let's trade something else."

"What else do you have besides strength?"

"Of course it's my Scarlet. Although you already have it, you still don't know how to use it, right?" Scarlet said. "I'll tell you how to use it, and then you can use it to find that monster, how about it?"

How to use the Crimson Flame? This thing is definitely more than just a little flame!

Shi Yan was naturally tempted, but remained wary: "What do you want? Since I'm not giving you my life, nothing else matters to you, right?"

"Yes," Scarlet said, "The Phoenix Clan."

Shi Yan was taken aback: "What?"

"I'm talking about 'The Phoenix Clan,' the Phoenix History Book from last time!" Crimson said impatiently. "Use that book to make a deal with me."

Shi Yan: "..."

"Are you going to change it or not!"

"……Change."