Chapter 36

Yue Yin sat by the tree, a damp cigarette dangling from her lips, her expression somber.

Nearby lay the scattered bodies of Li Shushu and others, their blood mixing with the rain. If anyone stumbled across this scene, they’d likely scream, believing they’d stumbled upon the site of a mass murder.

The reality, however, wasn’t far from that grim assumption.

The rain pattered down as Yue Yin, legs crossed beneath the tree, waited as if expecting lightning to strike. But she wasn’t a fool waiting for a bolt—she was waiting for that lumbering water ghoul to bring her grilled cold noodles.

Yet after a long while, Yue Yin finally admitted the truth to herself: she’d been stood up.

Perhaps this was karma. Just this morning, she’d flaked on Li Shushu’s group, and now it was her turn to be ghosted.

After a moment of thoughtful frowning, Yue Yin broke into a laugh, but it was bitter. “Wow.”

In all her years, she’d never encountered anyone with the audacity to bail on her.

Her smile vanished, replaced by a cold glint. “You brought this on yourselves.”

They would all pay.

She rose, taking a sniff of the air to follow the faint trail left by the cowardly ghoul, then pedaled off after it.

…

Meanwhile, Captain Li received a frantic call: “There’s been a murder! Someone’s killing people!”

The panicked voice on the line was nearly incoherent. “At Xinghu Park! There’s a young female serial killer here, she’s murdered five or six people—the ground’s covered in blood and bodies!”

Captain Li and his team shot to their feet.

Simultaneously, someone in their office turned around and muttered, “City A may be small, but it’s hardly been peaceful lately.”

City A was a central metropolis, but its confrontations with malevolent spirits and cult followers were far less intense than in City B or City C, where such battles were fierce.

As a hub of power and economy, City A was typically a lower-risk area for the malevolent incidents common in City B and City C. These cities, with their massive populations, attracted both evil spirits and cultists alike. Recently, Vice Minister himself had led a team to suppress a wave of dark cult activity there, even moving City A’s A-Level forbidden item A83 to keep things in check.

Now, however, troubling news continued to flow from City A.

An A-Level malevolent spirit had nearly exposed itself to the public. An A-Level ability user had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, without a clear origin. And frequent spirit uprisings and cult activities indicated more unrest to come.

Then came a call to the Vice Minister that night from Captain Li: “Sir! An S-Level ability user has appeared.”

“Our assessment of that A-Level ability user was off—she’s more than A-Level…we suspect, no, we’re certain she’s S-Level.”

The Vice Minister, usually unperturbed, rose from his seat.

After wrapping up his ongoing case, he immediately traveled to City A. As one of the only three S-Level ability users in the country, he was in high demand. Diplomacy required him, countering malevolent spirits required him, and the struggle against cults and false gods depended on him.

Arriving overnight in City A, he spent the following days meticulously reviewing Yue Yin’s files.

Once he’d identified her, he refrained from approaching. S-Level ability users were like demigods. Just by observing her up close, Yue Yin would sense his presence.

He wasn’t afraid of her. If she were indeed an evil force like the cultists or malevolent spirits, he would end her.

But he wasn’t about to recklessly provoke a potential enemy of her caliber.

The Vice Minister’s investigation involved more than a few documents. He summoned every ability user in the division who’d come into contact with Yue Yin, calling them in one by one.

Captain Li handed over Yue Yin’s files, preserved meticulously in the archives. The Vice Minister barely glanced at it before tossing it aside.

Seated calmly, he ordered, “Start over.”

“Her birth, her parents, her life experiences—everything, big and small.”

“I want to know even the smallest details—if she took a friend’s snack in elementary school or borrowed a pen, I want to know.”

His gaze swept the room, sharp and clear. “I expect you to be thorough. Don’t make me think I’m working with incompetents.”

Captain Li and the others, swallowing hard, dared not argue. Even the usually outspoken junior agent, who often criticized the Vice Minister’s reforms, kept his head down.

This was the sheer authority of an S-Level ability user, the most god-like existence among humans.

Before meeting him, this junior agent had dismissed the Vice Minister as an arrogant, heavy-handed politician. He’d scoffed at the Vice Minister’s policy of sealing forbidden items.

Now, face to face, he grasped how formidable the Vice Minister truly was.

In his years working at the Paranormal Incident Management Department, the junior agent had met many ability users and malevolent spirits. Among them, he’d encountered cunning, ruthless, and arrogant A-Level users. But none exuded the calm, quiet dominance of the Vice Minister.

The Vice Minister’s strength lay in his effortless control. It felt like a battle of wills, where each glance from him signaled a chess move, a quiet but relentless encroachment.

The junior agent found himself suddenly comparing Yue Yin to the Vice Minister. On the surface, Yue Yin seemed like an ordinary high school girl.

But on that one night, she’d unleashed havoc on the malevolent forces in City A, killing someone so ruthlessly that even the Paranormal Incident Squad had recoiled.

Could the Vice Minister, a known reformer unafraid of even the mighty Metaphysical Society, be any less formidable?

The junior agent finally grasped how naive he’d been in his previous grumbling about the Vice Minister.

As he left the office, he muttered, “Not a single S-Level ability user is simple…”

Days later, the Vice Minister received an updated, exhaustive report on Yue Yin.

It detailed every known event in her life. Her father’s death, her mother’s remarriage, the hidden aspects of her life following her disappearance—right down to her secret diary.

“Up until she was sixteen, she seemed like nothing more than a miserable soul.”

“Very unfortunate.”

Captain Li and the others had already investigated Yue Yin, but reading this report in full, they felt a somber silence settle over them.

Her life, while not tragic, had been poor and filled with neglect, both at school and at home.

“Very unfortunate,” someone mumbled softly.

With her father’s inheritance, Yue Yin should have lived a life similar to her stepsister Shen Baozhu—wealthy, envied, and carefree.

She had suffered unnecessarily, enduring hardships she shouldn’t have had to face.

And according to the report, her life hadn’t improved much after returning to the Shen family.

Captain Li pointed to the file, his voice heavy. “Since returning to the Shen family, Yue Yin appeared outwardly unchanged, but privately, she exhibited…”

He hesitated, struggling for words.

The Vice Minister lightly tapped the page, skimming Yue Yin’s diary, his expression unchanging. “Hatred, jealousy, madness, resentment.”

In his hands was Yue Yin’s diary, which she had hidden at school, tucked away in a secure spot.

She likely hid it at school to avoid being discovered by the housekeepers at the Shen family estate. If this diary were ever found, her consequences would be anything but pleasant.

——”August 5th. The weather’s beautiful, but my heart feels like it’s pouring rain. I hate everyone. I envy Shen Baozhu. She thinks she’s some princess, it’s disgusting. She pretends to be this saint, like she’s doing me a favor.”

——”My mother is utter garbage, a phony lily, obsessed with some vile man. She doesn’t even deserve to live. I want to kill her.”

——”Today’s Shen Baozhu’s birthday, and she’s in the spotlight. Everyone’s congratulating her while I’m treated like some hideous creature in the gutter, with them all laughing down at me.”

——”I know I’m weak. Secretly, I’m insanely jealous, but I can’t even refuse the slice of cake Shen Baozhu offers.”

——”Everything makes me sick. Only Shen Xiaodi doesn’t—he’s just an idiot.”

…

——”It’s gone. Everything my father left me is gone. They sold the villa, the place I grew up.”

——”They mock me, belittle me. I want to kill them, kill every one of them.”

——”I’ve learned of something strange, something about an evil god.”

——”I heard it, a call of pain. In a river of blood and tears, I will be saved by the Great Thousand-Faced Moon.”

——”Thousand-Faced Moon, Thousand-Faced Moon, Thousand-Faced Moon… O Great Hydra, save me, save me. It hurts so much.”

As the entries continue, her writing becomes more and more chaotic. She begins using a red pen, each word like a raw, bloody heartbeat leaping off the page, a sight that would unsettle anyone reading it.

——”The Old Ones beyond all spaces, Mother of the Deep Ones, Mother of all monsters.”

The diary abruptly ends there, the last entry dated just one day before she was taken by the Life Association. She never wrote anything else in it, as though she’d abandoned it.

“We had no idea.” Reading the deeply private diary, Captain Li and his team were horrified.

“Yue Yin is a cultist.”

And yet they had utterly failed to notice!

Yue Yin had hidden it too well. Only now, with her diary in hand, did they realize that the gentle, delicate girl had such a wild inner world.

Captain Li’s team even suspected Yue Yin had devolved into an evil spirit herself, given how she’d gone from an ordinary girl to someone with such immense power.

Unlike the others, who were shocked and furious, the Vice Minister remained calm throughout, only raising an eyebrow slightly as he read the final line.

His gaze fell to the last few pages of the diary, and he tapped it lightly, summarizing. “Her emotions run the gamut here—malice, jealousy, inferiority, fear, madness.”

The Vice Minister seemed thoughtful, murmuring, “These are intensely negative emotions that could easily foster malevolent spirits.”

The others were visibly agitated. Captain Li, tormented by guilt for overlooking her, muttered, “Minister, we need to capture her immediately. A person with this much darkness is a severe threat to public safety. Shen Hao Ping died three days ago, proof that she’s already started her revenge. Who knows who might be next…”

The Vice Minister interrupted, looking annoyed: “Who? Bai Xiulian? Shen Baozhu? Or everyone here?”

He scoffed, “I’m tired of you fools. Your abilities are limited, but your arrogance is boundless. Throwing around ideas of capturing an S-class ability user—are you volunteering, or should I go?”

Everyone fell silent, ashamed. His bluntness left them uncomfortable, realizing they’d harbored such thoughts without even noticing.

Xiao Jun, though resentful, dared not speak under the Vice Minister’s weighty gaze. His scrutiny made Xiao Jun’s back break out in a cold sweat after mere minutes.

After a moment, the Vice Minister leaned back in his chair, gaze sweeping over everyone. “Resentment has its target. Her diary reflects deep anger, jealousy, insecurity, and helpless rage.”

“She seeks revenge on specific people, not the entire world.”

“But…” Captain Li hesitated, voicing his concern, “if we leave her be, what if she grows addicted to killing and get used ignoring human life, like the one in City C?”

He mentioned the cult leader in City C without naming the entity directly.

Captain Li struggled, “And Bai Xiulian and Shen Hao Ping are citizens. Even if they’re guilty, they deserve legal recourse…”

The Vice Minister, exasperated, shot him a look, musing, “Why is this our concern?”

Everyone stared at him in shock.

They were, after all, part of the Paranormal Incident Management, a government agency for protecting citizens! And yet the Vice Minister was saying it wasn’t their concern?

Xiao Jun, alarmed, cried, “Minister!”

The Vice Minister raised an eyebrow, interrupting, “What is our purpose?”

Yu Yu answered, “The Paranormal Incident Management Department? Protecting civilians from harm by malicious entities and ability users?”

The Vice Minister chuckled, “No. We’re just the world’s repairmen, patching things up as we go.”

His joke landed with silence, no one found it funny.

The Vice Minister shrugged, looking bored: “You’re all so humorless.”

Then he straightened up, “So according to you, we’re justice.”

“You’re suggesting we protect those who hurt others over a girl who’s been hurt. Just because she’s powerful now?”

“Is that justice? It’s not.”

He closed the diary, ending the conversation with Captain Li and the others. He wasn’t their parent, with no time or patience to guide them toward understanding.

He only gave orders. If they were so eager to mess with Yue Yin and get themselves killed, that wasn’t his problem.

He had better things to do.

Pointing to the file, he concluded dismissively, “Yue Yin may not be the same person.”

The team looked at him, puzzled.

“Ever since the Life Association sacrificed her, the Yue Yin who returned doesn’t quite match who she was before.”

Based on the diary, Yue Yin should be a creature of deep bitterness, envy, and hostility. Upon becoming an S-class, she should have immediately sought revenge, obliterating the entire Shen family—even their pets wouldn’t have been spared.

But she hadn’t.

Instead, she behaved oddly, taking her brother to give fortune readings and muttering bizarre, almost mad statements.

“I am the Great Thousand-Faced Moon, Mother of Monsters, Hydra. Foolish mortals… They have no idea what they missed.”

According to information provided by the Shen family’s servants, the Vice Minister recited the words, a wry smile playing on his lips. The team couldn’t help but smirk at her absurdity.

The Vice Minister’s gaze turned serious: “Funny, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s funny. But the real joke?”

He smirked coldly. “The real joke is that you fools never considered that every word she said was true.”

No one laughed.