Volume 2, Chapter 33 – New Cell Phone

Today she’d planned to go to the Jobs Directorate to put up her job request, so Bai Xiang was heading out in the afternoon. She warned Bai Zhuqing to keep the other disciples in line today, especially Chen Jing.

It wasn’t impossible that some people might go mad enough to break into the dojo just to kill her, but she’d already made arrangements—there would be Chilong Army units stationed and patrolling in the south, and their firepower was nothing the Inspectorate could compare to.

So as long as they didn’t leave the premises, they were perfectly safe.

After giving her instructions, Bai Xiang went to the back to inform Bai Shengju.

“You want to work as a security consultant?” Bai Shengju frowned deeply when he heard.

This idea… really was the sort of thing only little Xiang’er would come up with.

“Are you confident?” he asked, testing her. “This isn’t like going out into the wild to kill demons. It’s much harder!”

If it were anyone else, Bai Shengju would already be chewing them out.

A proper security consultant’s job was to help clients deal with Demon Pools. Their role was somewhat like fengshui masters in ancient times, and those exorcist Daoists.

Like fengshui masters, they could see the “fengshui” of a Demon Pool—point out where the Demon Pool’s encroachment on this place came from, why it had formed here; and they also had marvelous methods to eradicate it at the root. It was essentially a combination of two professions.

So it was very difficult. Don’t look at how much security consultants earned—every one of them had climbed up over the corpses of those who’d made mistakes.

Even they themselves couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t botch the next commission, because Demon Pools came in all shapes and forms, endlessly bizarre. Even among Demon Pools of the same type, like those raised by major Daoist sects, there were still subtle differences between each one.

“The Startling-Spirit Cicada itself has a certain restraining effect on ‘Demon Pool phantom-gods’.” Bai Xiang didn’t spell everything out. “Grandpa should know that much.”

Bai Shengju frowned and slowly nodded.

There were indeed passages to that effect in the scroll copy Bai Xiang had transcribed for him.

So-called “Demon Pool phantom-gods” referred to a strange power of Demon Pools that could interfere with a person’s soul in both subjective and objective ways, causing people to make wrong judgments about what was happening.

The subjective type was illusion.

For example, the Demon Pool ‘Shenli’. In the process of separating your soul, under normal circumstances you wouldn’t feel anything wrong. That was your mental will being interfered with, causing you to overlook the fact that you were being polluted.

As for urban legends like “lost in a ghost wall,” “ghosts crying by the river,” and so on, they were usually classified under this category too.

Objective interference was much more serious. It meant that not only what you saw and thought was affected—your objective circumstances were also interfered with.

Take ‘Shenli’ again as an example. Once the soul separation was complete, even if you woke up and knew you had “died,” there was no possibility of going back.

That was the objective reality—that your body and soul had indeed been split apart.

It was a fact, regardless of your will.

The phantom-god aspect was the most troublesome, most disgusting part of Demon Pools. Many security consultants, in terms of strength, were fully capable of eradicating a Demon Pool, but they still died because they were caught by the phantom-god and made a fatal misjudgment.

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And “The Startling-Spirit Cicada,” carrying the words “startling spirit” in its name, definitely wasn’t called that casually.

According to Bai Shengju’s research, if Shenming Sword successfully reached Condensing the Aspect and gained the mimetic outer Aspect of the Startling-Spirit Cicada, then the “cicada song” it produced would have a certain degree of offensive power against the soul.

Sound was the most discourteous king in the mortal world. As long as something was alive, it was forced to hear it.

Don’t want to hear it?

Unless you turned yourself deaf.

So Shenming Sword was one of those extremely rare sword arts that could interfere with Demon Pool phantom-gods. On this point, Bai Xiang hadn’t exaggerated.

But was the effect really that strong?

Bai Shengju had yet to reach Condensing the Aspect himself and didn’t know much about this field.

Fortunately, he trusted Bai Xiang, and in the end he agreed, telling her to start with “smaller commissions” and accumulate some relevant experience.

“Creak—”

Pulling open the main gate, Bai Xiang prepared to set out for real.

This time she hadn’t called Ma Yue, because she had a feeling someone would want to talk to her about private matters on the way, and bringing anyone along would be awkward.

“Honored little grandaunt, you finally came out!”

The old beggar was still lying at the gate. When he saw it was her, he flipped over and jumped up at once, imitating Bai Zhuqing as a little tail.

“We’re from the Demon-Suppressing Bureau… I’m not lying. Look at this token!”

“I’m colleagues with your Aunt Tao Shuohua, Aunt Tao~ She’s told me a lot about you. Every time she says your talent is astonishing and your outlook is sound!”

This was the first time I’ve seen Little Taozi think so highly of someone!

The old beggar groused inwardly, recalling the blissful expression Tao Shuohua wore when praising Bai Xiang.

See that?

A peerless genius!

I was the one who discovered her first!

An old man like me won’t stoop to argue with the younger generation…

The old beggar’s face looked like he was constipated as his tone finally grew a little sharp.

“Hey! An old man like me waited for you all this time. Forget not giving me a bite to eat—why won’t you even answer when I talk to you!”

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No respect for your elders—what outrageous behavior!

“‘An old man like you’?”

Bai Xiang stopped and turned back, looking at him with a half-smile. “‘An old man like you’?”

The old beggar didn’t get it at first. Then his expression grew serious. “How did you notice?”

“Your hands.”

Bai Xiang kept walking and spoke as she went.

“The wrinkles and age spots on the backs are easy to fake.”

“But the sword calluses on the other side aren’t.”

“…” The old beggar followed her in silence.

After a while, he suddenly tore off the fake beard and eyebrows from his face, revealing a visage that was still on the older side, but clearly much younger than before.

“My name is Yu He,” he introduced himself formally. “I’m at least sixty. Doesn’t that qualify me as ‘an old man like me’?”

Bai Xiang ignored him. Yu He didn’t get angry, just kept chattering at her from the side.

“Have you had breakfast?”

“I have.”

“Have you had lunch?”

“I have.”

“You’re going to the Jobs Directorate, right? Why didn’t you have someone drive you today?”

“I’m taking a cab.”

“That’s so expensive~ How about I treat you?”

Bai Xiang finally turned her head again and met his eyes. Her golden irises very obviously spelled out contempt.

The so-called lofty Demon-Suppressing Bureau doesn’t even assign a car to a sixty-year-old veteran?

She was clearly thinking just that.

Yu He’s face gradually turned red. “It’s not like that!”

He launched into a long rant at her—something about “the organization having difficulties,” something about “field investigators not being suited to having cars”—until the road was filled with the sound of cheerful bickering.

“I may not have a car! But I can give you this!”

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Seeing Bai Xiang reach the roadside and actually about to hail a cab, Yu He finally panicked and pulled something out to hand to her.

Bai Xiang looked down and saw he was holding a phone.

But it wasn’t a “Nokia” anymore. It was the standard flat body, large screen, wrapped in a leather case that was black outside and red inside.

It was a smartphone.

“I’ll show you how to use it… eh?”

Before Yu He finished, Bai Xiang had already plucked the phone from his hand.

He stared, dumbfounded, as she fumbled a few times and lit up the screen, then swiped once to unlock it. His eyeballs nearly popped out.

Sure, it was an unbound device with no password set—but she seemed a little too familiar, didn’t she?

“You’ve used one before?”

“No.”

“Then how—?”

“I’ve seen other people use it.”

Yu He fell silent.

He couldn’t be sure whether anyone on the level of Fang Xiaochun or Xiang Xian, whom Bai Xiang could come into contact with, used such devices.

“This is our Bureau’s communications unit…”

Yu He sighed and started explaining it to her honestly.

“This thing can do a lot, but there are three main functions.”

“First, you… right, that icon you just tapped. Once you go in, you have to line your eyes up with the camera there and complete an iris scan.”

“Then the device recognizes you as its owner. After that, no one but you can open it, and if someone forces it three times, it’ll self-destruct and burn.”

Bai Xiang completed the scan on the spot without the slightest politeness.

“Explain the other functions.”

“You’re smart—you can guess what having an identity does.” Yu He nodded. “That’s right. From now on, you’re a member of our Bureau. You can not only use this to contact others in the main group chat, you can also access our intranet—that’s the second function.”

“Intranet?”

“It has a lot of classified data you can’t find outside.”

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“I can see all of it?”

“Not yet. Your rank is very low right now.”

“How many ranks are there?”

“Six for the time being. They’re numbered from six up to one, according to our own tradition, not like foreigners.”

“I’m at Rank Six now?”

“Right… Each rank has its own permissions, and you have to rank up to unlock them. You already have the basic ones: identity verification, communication, and access.”

Yu He paused, then added, “Third, you can also use the main group chat to post your own commission jobs. That group covers all of Qizhou. As long as your price is right, someone will help you.”

Bai Xiang found that interesting. “My colleagues, you mean?”

“Of course. You don’t expect Lord Fang himself to come do things for you, do you?”

“What’s the usual reward—rank-up points?”

“No. Points can’t be traded; you can only earn them through missions!” Yu He said seriously. “As for the reward… you can offer whatever you want. No one cares. Even if you toss in a single shoe as payment, if someone wants it, they’ll naturally… oh, sorry, that was thoughtless of me.”

Halfway through, he remembered Bai Xiang was a woman and that analogy wasn’t very appropriate.

“If you want to use this kind of internal transaction, there are rules to it.”

He hesitated. Seeing she didn’t mind, he continued explaining how to use the device.

“You have to deposit things at the Gold Bank—that’s where your rewards go. Then you post your commission through this. Our middlemen on the other side will notarize the transaction for you. Once they confirm the other party’s completed the job, they can withdraw the reward.”

“No face-to-face deals?”

“Most people don’t want too many others knowing who they are.”

“This is a good thing.” Bai Xiang was fully absorbed in playing with the phone now. She’d already opened the intranet search bar and was testing some search terms.

“Why’s the main group limited to Qizhou?”

“Because Lord Fang only has authority over Qizhou.”

Yu He sighed.

Feeling there was more behind those words, Bai Xiang stopped what she was doing and looked at him.

“Lord Fang is only the State Governor of Qizhou.” Yu He spread his hands. “Even the ‘establishment’ of this Demon-Suppressing Bureau—if not for the ‘Yu Rites’ being passed down from the very beginning and stipulating that it must exist…”

“Guess whether we’d still be around today.”