Chapter 56: Evolution (Part One)

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The man with glasses, the tall man, and the young man with a square jaw were currently standing beneath the building of Predation Zone One.

Moments earlier, they had clearly sensed a surge of powerful energy. Disguised by the underworld’s priceless artifact, the outburst of Qin Ye’s yin energy was utterly unrecognizable to cultivators of the human realm. All they felt was… the rooftop suddenly shuddered, then everything fell silent.

“It’s over?” The bespectacled youth stared up in disbelief at the rooftop. “That’s it?”

“No way… This is Predation Zone One… The very first predation zone in Baoyang City. Fifteen years ago, teacher Zhang Xinyue was raped and then dismembered. Yet… after her remains were sent to the morgue, they vanished overnight, and her murderer’s entire family perished. The case was classified as an E-level paranormal file. This… this is a ghost that’s been around for fifteen years…”

If Arthas were here, he would have smacked him mercilessly: Do you even understand the meaning of ‘old’? If a mere ghost, fodder for underworld enforcers these past fifteen years, dares call itself ‘old’, then what should I be—an ancient crone?

Just then, their phones rang.

“It’s me.” Zhang Chenghai’s voice came through. “Where are you?”

“Downstairs at Predation Zone One, sir…”

“I’m already aware of the general situation. Who exactly showed up? Are they part of the system?”

“No!” the three replied in unison, then described Qin Ye’s appearance. Zhang Chenghai fell silent for several seconds before speaking again. “Think carefully—did he have any other distinguishing features?”

The three exchanged glances and shook their heads.

Would being from the M87 Nebula count?

“Wait!” The man with glasses suddenly interjected. “There is one thing… I’m not sure if it counts. His camouflage gear… it didn’t look military-issue.”

“It was more like… those knock-offs you find in military surplus stores.”

On the other end, Zhang Chenghai’s lips twitched. Possible… it’s really possible… Wearing knock-offs to hunt souls, and it doesn’t clash at all with the persona of a cultivator… Has he really fallen on such hard times that he won’t throw himself into the embrace of the Party or the nation?

“You probably can’t make it to the next predation zone now. I’ll assign you a new task. Do your best to follow this civilian powerhouse. When you find the chance, explain the situation in Baoyang City to him. Try your utmost to persuade him to join the system. An underworld enforcer capable of instantly eliminating Predation Zone One… He’s likely not far from advancing to Soul Apprehender.”

“His strength is of vital importance to the situation in Baoyang City!”

“Yes, sir!”

Qin Ye had no inkling of any of this. At that moment, he was already hurrying toward the next predation zone.

Everywhere the crowds gathered, yin spirits carrying blood-red lanterns darted unchecked through the residential districts, their frenzied screams echoing. There were so many… tens of thousands of resentful souls accumulated over a century! They converged into rivers, swirled into seas—tonight belonged to the dead in a wild revelry!

Qin Ye did not act; he had more pressing matters to attend to. He slipped through alleys and major streets. Soon, he found that as he drew closer to the city center, these frenzied spirits finally met their match.

Confronting the wild, clamorous spirits stood the human realm’s silent, deadly armies.

Beneath the moonlight, the yin spirits surged like a raging river, while the military formations stood firm like rocks within the current. Guarding every critical point, they formed an unyielding line of shields that brooked no defilement!

Armed police, soldiers, police officers… together they formed an iron tide.

Ahead of them, an endless host of yin spirits floated, lanterns glowing crimson amid billowing yin energy, their ranks like mountain ridges rising ten meters high, surging toward the military lines like a tidal wave.

No words were spoken.

No one uttered a sound.

It was as if a sleeping dragon lay coiled there—solemn, steely, a hundred-strong formation radiating an unspoken aura of deadly resolve.

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Not a single soldier held a gun; instead, each carried a compact crossbow. They knelt as if cast from iron, arrowheads gleaming coldly in the moonlight.

The chill wind, whipped up by the ghostly tide, made their camouflage uniforms billow like waves. Qin Ye saw sweat bead on some foreheads, and the younger men’s hands trembled slightly. Yet not one of them retreated.

He didn’t know what they were carrying, but as the unseen spirits approached within fifty meters of the lines, they suddenly became visible.

Closer.

Closer still… forty meters, thirty… when they breached twenty meters, a resounding command rang out: “Fire!!” The twang of bowstrings echoed; hundreds of arrows soared into the night.

In an instant, a swath of spirits ahead was obliterated. Those that charged through were met by a sudden wall of flames, and countless wraiths shrieked as they turned to ash.

Qin Ye then noticed, ten meters in front of the formation, an ancient string of copper coins stretched across the road, densely hung with talismans.

“Their life force isn’t strong—useless against underworld enforcer-class wraiths, but sufficient for ordinary souls.” With a clearer sense of the Special Investigation Division’s strength, he withdrew his gaze and carefully slipped across the battle line. The next predation zone was just five hundred meters ahead.

A few minutes later, he stood before a derelict hospital.

All around was ruin—piles of building debris, not a single residential block in sight.

He stepped inside, confirmed he was alone, then unleashed the disguised yin energy. The wind howled as he assumed his underworld enforcer form.

The enforcer’s uniform. The ghost-head saber. The burning blade scraped along the floor, showering sparks as it moved—a screech that made no attempt to conceal his presence as he stormed up to the third floor.

“Hiss!!” No sooner had he reached the second floor than a chorus of shrieks erupted. Spirits clad in nurse’s uniforms and lab coats hurled themselves at him. He gripped his saber, reversed his grip, and drew a perfect circle. A sweeping arc of emerald ghostfire flared in the darkness.

A second later, with a single anguished wail, more than twenty spirits were wiped out.

“I’m a very democratic person, you know.”

The saber screeched along the ground as Qin Ye walked, speaking aloud, “So why don’t we discuss this? Is there any chance you’ll obediently come and lay your neck across my blade? It’d save me a lot of trouble, after all.”

A sibilant voice, thick with fury, drifted down from the third floor. “Demo…cratic?”

“Hiss… You… deserve… to die!!”

Qin Ye began climbing the stairs to the third floor. “As for democracy, naturally, you’re the people, and I am the ruler. Besides, I at least gave you the courtesy of asking, didn’t I?”

Before the words had finished, his saber cleaved a gleaming arc at the third-floor entrance.

The blade’s light made the air tremble, yin winds howling.

There, a wraith twisted into an inhuman shape, still clad in a lab coat and stethoscope, its corpse mottled with blue and purple, shrieked as it charged at him!

……………………………………………………

Eight o’clock sharp, underground at City Hall. Zhang Chenghai stared unblinkingly at the screen.

On the electronic display, the city center’s color slowly shifted from red to yellow. The three-kilometer ring around it remained bright red, but the central yellow zone was resolutely expanding outward!

“No… the pace isn’t fast enough!” His eyes darkened. This battle’s symbolic meaning far outweighed the question of victory or defeat. By morning, he wanted no trace of red left on Baoyang City’s map—only yellow throughout! Ideally, green at the very center!

“If there’s no significant progress by nine, prepare to deploy the Ghost-Slaying Treasure.” His voice was grim.

The staff responded without hesitation, but just then, a man in a lab coat stared at his own screen, rubbed his eyes in disbelief, then abruptly shot to his feet.

“Sir!!!” His voice was nearly unrecognizable. “Zone Seven… Zone Seven!!”

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Zone Seven? Everyone, including Zhang Chenghai, frowned in confusion.

But the man in the lab coat, face flushed with excitement, exclaimed, “Zone Seven… Zone Seven has been cleared!!”

“What!?” Zhang Chenghai’s first reaction was disbelief. He rushed over to the man’s computer and scrutinized the screen.

There, on the monitor, marking the old abandoned psychiatric hospital, the red dot that had been a thorn in his side had vanished completely!

“Who… Who did this?” He shot upright, scanning the room. “Who called in support?”

But the staff exchanged bewildered looks; no one replied.

A flash of realization struck Zhang Chenghai. His hands flew over the keyboard, pulling up a map.

“Zone Seven… four kilometers from Zone One. For a cultivator of underworld enforcer level, a ten-minute journey at most. But… here! Fangcao Third Street—the second military formation is blocking a vanguard of seven hundred yin spirits trying to break into the city center… If he didn’t want to be seen, he would have had to delay… That’s it! He never intended to join the system, so of course he’d avoid being spotted! Professor Wang! Pull up the surveillance footage from Shuncheng Street to Fangcao Third Street! Quickly!”

A nun beside him pondered for a moment. “You’re suggesting… this is the civilian cultivator who took out Zone One?”

“It has to be him!!” Zhang Chenghai slammed his fist on the table, eyes shining with excitement. “The kill took no more than five minutes! Master Shuiyue, could you do it? Elder Mei?”

The nun shook her head. “I couldn’t. Is this person perhaps using tonight’s gathering of spirits to attempt a breakthrough to the Soul Apprehender rank?”

“To dispatch a predation zone’s wraith in an instant—he can’t be far from Soul Apprehender.”

Zhang Chenghai drew a deep breath. “Most likely… Pass down my order—if any of our military units spot Ultra…man, don’t question him. Let him through immediately!!”

It wasn’t that he couldn’t eradicate those predation zones himself.

It was… tacit understanding.

Cao Youdao had never killed an ordinary mortal, but with a high chance that a Soul Apprehender-class ghost was hiding in the city, impossible to locate, he had no choice but to endure the humiliation of allowing these predation zones—which devoured lives nearly every week—to persist.

He even had to cover for Cao Youdao, week after week!

He was afraid—afraid that if he wiped out the predation zones first, the unseen adversary would, in a rage, turn on the common people. What then?

No one could shoulder that responsibility, nor dared risk it.

As a Special Investigator, the unique circumstances of Baoyang City were a slap in his face—but he could only choke down the indignation.

Tonight, the opportunity had finally arrived. Yet still he dared not act.

The enemy had yet to make a move—he had to hold the center, ready to respond at any moment.

But now, someone had made the first move.

Tiga Ultraman, from the distant M87 Nebula, had stepped in!