The instant Han Feng died, a wrinkled old man suddenly opened his eyes in a bungalow near the bar and blurted out, "Leave, leave now!"
A young attendant next to him asked in bewilderment, "Master, where are we going? We’re not waiting for Master Han anymore?"
The old man was precisely the Master Zhang that Ye Dong mentioned. He said with a dark expression, "Han Feng is dead… We need to go now. This place won’t stay hidden for long!"
His master’s message made the young man turn pale, and he dared not say anything else. He quickly packed up their things and prepared to leave.
Master Zhang finally calmed down a little when his disciple left in a hurry, but his expression was still ugly.
He didn't expect that the opponent would be so decisive, killing Han Feng as soon as they had a disagreement…
‘Isn’t he afraid that I’ll hurt Lin Duo?’
‘Or did we all guess wrong—he doesn’t actually care about Lin Duo’s life at all?’
‘That’s possible. For example, if he also wants that item, then… Hmph! I won’t let you get it so easily!’
A malicious glint flashed through Master Zhang's eyes.
……
"I'm back!"
A soft voice came from the front door of Lin Duo’s house. Lin Duo had already returned home, and it was her older sister Lin Ke who came back at this time.
"You're back…" Lin Duo looked listless as she walked out of the kitchen with a piece of toast in her mouth, which fell as soon as she opened her mouth, sending her into a flurry trying to catch it.
Lin Ke laughed as she watched her idiot younger sister and patted her head. "Where are Mom and Dad?"
"They called and said they won’t be back tonight." Lin Duo took another bite of toast, then stared at Lin Ke eagerly. "Sister, I'm hungry!"
Lin Ke immediately rolled her eyes and said helplessly, "I'll cook now… By the way, weren’t you going to summon your first Heroic Spirit today? Did you succeed?"
Normally, a high school freshman like Lin Duo would summon her first Heroic Spirit in school, but not all such attempts succeed. Only talented and hardworking students would be able to summon Heroic Spirits easily, but even then, the success rate was only around 20%.
Speaking of Heroic Spirits, Lin Duo suddenly became very happy. "Of course I succeeded! What's more, I summoned a King Level Heroic Spirit!"
"King Level?!” Lin Ke’s eyes widened, and she couldn't help suspecting that she had misheard.
She wasn’t a high school girl like her younger sister. As a Tier 2 Heroic Spirit summoner, she deeply understood the meaning behind King Level.
They were first-rate Heroic Spirits. Summoning them meant gaining endless honor and glory, as well as unimaginable power.
If not for the fact that it was impossible to take someone else’s Heroic Spirits or transfer Heroic Spirits between summoners, then summoning King Level ones may also represent a disaster.
"Then where’s your Heroic Spirit?" Lin Ke hurriedly asked.
"Well…" Lin Duo immediately faltered. "He had something to do and left…”
Lin Ke's gaze became strange, as if her little sister had said something stupid. "You mean, your Heroic Spirit didn't follow you? You’re not lying, are you…"
Her older sister's suspicious tone made Lin Duo angry from embarrassment. "Mr. Gu Nan is a very incredible person!"
But Lin Ke only shrugged helplessly. The two agreed that when the next opportunity arose, she would definitely introduce Mr. Gu Nan to her sister. Lin Duo then pursed her lips and went upstairs.
……
Lin Duo sat alone in her room, muttering, "Mr. Gu Nan is a King Level Heroic Spirit! Plus, he…"
She remembered what Gu Nan said to her when he was first summoned.
"Something unclean?" Lin Duo sat at the desk and took out a small box from her drawer, then stared at it.
This box was something she accidentally found when she went back to her ancestral home last time. Next to the box was a note left by Grandpa.
Lin Duo couldn't understand the words on the note, nor could she find a way to open this box.
But a few days ago, several people suddenly knocked on her door, wanting to buy the box in her hands, which piqued her interest in this box.
Lin Duo's eyes stopped on the box. She felt the inside of the box shake gently, but it also seemed to be just an illusion.
She felt her head turn heavy, and whispers stirred gently in her ear.
"Let me out… Let me…"
Lin Duo was so scared that she hurriedly threw away the box in her hands. Only then did she realize that her back had already been soaked in cold sweat. A cold breeze blew, making her body burst into chills.
Lin Duo swallowed and couldn't help taking a deep breath. "It was also like this last time… But there weren’t any strange voices last time…"
While thinking about this, she felt the coolness behind her getting heavier and heavier and subconsciously looked back.
The scene behind her made a chill shoot up from her tailbone all the way to the back of her head—a faceless woman was standing in front of her with her head lowered.
"Ahh!" Lin Duo exclaimed in horror. She picked up objects around her and threw them at the woman, then turned, trying to run for the door.
But as soon as she turned, she saw the same faceless woman again, except she wasn’t standing upright this time, but hanging upside down from the ceiling beam.
Messy long hair hung down, revealing a face as pale as white paper.
Lin Duo was almost suffocated. She felt her consciousness being constantly eroded, becoming blurred little by little.
Fortunately, her remaining consciousness reminded her of Gu Nan’s words before he left. With the last of her strength, her mind called upon her own Heroic Spirit.
Heroic Spirits could accept their summoner’s summons and directly return to the latter’s side, but at the cost of consuming vast amounts of energy that far exceeded that of an ordinary teleportation.
Ordinary Heroic Spirits simply couldn’t afford such a price. Only a Heroic Spirit at Gu Nan’s level could afford to squander energy like that.
The faceless woman slowly drifted near, almost touching Lin Duo, until a hand shot out from thin air and grabbed her neck.
Gu Nan's figure slowly walked out of the void, clutching the throat of the faceless woman with one hand. The woman began to struggle violently.
Her figure suddenly became blurred, then sharpened again, changing like this over and over.
She looked like she wanted to turn into spirit form to leave, but Gu Nan caught her, so she couldn’t escape.
"Mr. Gu Nan…" Only then did Lin Duo sign in relief. She quickly got up from the ground and hid behind Gu Nan. "J-Just what kind of person is she?"
"Person? She’s not a person." Gu Nan answered casually. This was precisely the reason he didn’t just snap her neck.
She wasn’t a person, so naturally her throat wasn’t a fatal weakness.
However, Gu Nan's words made Lin Duo's face pale again. She stammered, "N-Not a person, then could she be…"
Gu Nan turned his head to glance at the trembling Lin Duo, then lifted the faceless woman in his hand, almost sticking her blank face to Lin Duo’s face.
"Ahhhhh!" A series of screams came from the girl's mouth.
"She's just a Heroic Spirit," came Gu Nan's belated explanation.
