The Wanted Poster

Realizing this, Ming Kuan suddenly turned his head and met a pair of eyes so deep they seemed bottomless.

"Ling Yanyun?" Ming Kuan asked tentatively.

In Cang Xing's eyes, the person who arrived was Ling Gong, one of the three souls of Ling Yanyun. Ling Gong wrapped his arm around Ming Kuan's waist, his gaze shifting toward the drifter. The drifter noticed something unusual and looked back, his eyes perfectly calm.

"Mou Jin, I am taking you away." Ling Gong withdrew his gaze and looked back at Ming Kuan.

Before Ming Kuan could react, Ling Gong wasted no time. He pulled Ming Kuan close, and the two vanished into the night. The drifter remained calm as if nothing had happened, sitting on the filthy floor, his eyes reflecting the clear sky.

Ming Kuan returned to the research institute once more. This time, the three souls extracted from Ling Yanyun's body were all looking at him.

"Are you all Ling Yanyun?" Ming Kuan asked slowly.

One of the men, who was refined and gentle, wearing clothes embroidered with white camellias, said, "You could say that. There are three souls within Ling Yanyun's body; I am one of them. Over the past few days, we have molded our own bodies. In other words, we are no longer Ling Yanyun. My name is Yun Yizhi."

Yun Yizhi pointed to the man who had just brought Ming Kuan back. "He is Ling Gong."

He then pointed to the person leaning against the wall, playing with a short blade. The blade glinted coldly between his slender fingers. "He is Yan Dixa."

"The problem now is," Yan Dixa said, catching the blade and narrowing his long, narrow eyes lazily, "There are three of us, but only one Mou Jin. How do we divide him?"

"There is a way," Ling Gong tilted Ming Kuan's face up. "Extract Mou Jin's soul. Mou Jin's soul, Mou Jin's body—that makes two parts."

"So, that means one of us won't get Mou Jin." Yan Dixa looked up, his gaze slightly cold. Ling Gong remained silent, accepting the logic. The three looked at each other, sparks of conflict hidden in their eyes.

Ming Kuan was startled. Didn't this matter require the consent of the person involved? He hurriedly said to the system, "I want to return to the real world immediately. I must leave the Cleansing Pool." The system agreed.

Ling Gong's hand supported the back of Ming Kuan's neck as he said coaxingly, "It won't hurt. It'll be over in a second."

Ming Kuan was anxious. They wanted to extract his soul so soon? In reality, he wasn't the real Mou Jin; the soul extracted would certainly not be Mou Jin's. He urged the system again. The system indicated: "You are detaching from the Cleansing Pool."

At the same time, Ling Gong's hand sank completely into Ming Kuan's hair. Ming Kuan felt a sharp, crushing pain in his head, so intense he could barely breathe. He felt his body become weightless, and then he lost consciousness completely.

*

Cang Xing slowly opened his eyes. From the five "Mou Jin" souls sent to the base, it was clear that Ming Kuan had not returned to the Angel Realm. His soul had been extracted by Ling Gong and imprisoned in a glass cage.

Ling Gong pushed the door open and entered. Seeing Cang Xing on the bed, his cold eyes warmed in an instant. He walked over and lay down beside Cang Xing. Cang Xing felt fearful and uneasy. This Ling Gong was actually one step faster than the system in extracting Ming Kuan's soul; it was terrifying. He didn't want to imagine himself being locked in a cramped glass cage.

Ling Gong reached out to smooth Cang Xing's furrowed brows, reassuring him: "You can stay here with peace of mind. I won't do anything to you for now."

Cang Xing lowered his eyes, his long, raven-like lashes trembling slightly. Ling Gong looked at him entranced, his eyes reflecting Mou Jin's face. He infatuatedly caressed Mou Jin's face, murmuring, "Mou Jin."

Cang Xing suddenly felt conflicted. Ling Gong liked Mou Jin, but unfortunately, this body did not contain Mou Jin's soul, but an external one.

"Sometimes I am very confused," Ling Gong touched the corner of Cang Xing's eye. "Is what I like Mou Jin's body or Mou Jin's soul? The first time I extracted Mou Jin's soul, the result was that the soul extracted wasn't Mou Jin but someone else. Afterward, Mou Jin, who originally had no soul, suddenly came back to life, and I knew another soul had appeared in his body. I have extracted five souls from Mou Jin's body, and not one of them was Mou Jin."

Ling Gong's voice was raspy, like a cold midnight wind. "I keep asking myself: is the thing that infatuates me Mou Jin's face, Mou Jin's body, or the nameless soul inside this shell named Mou Jin?" Cang Xing opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.

"Alright, rest, Mou Jin." Ling Gong covered Cang Xing's eyes. The warm touch made Cang Xing feel strangely at peace.

The next day, Ling Gong stayed by Cang Xing's side constantly. His expression was gentle and lingering, his affectionate embrace enough to make one shiver, and his eyes held only Mou Jin's reflection.

Finally, on the second day, Bu Bifan had said that Ling Gong had to go on a very important mission today and wouldn't be back immediately. She would take this opportunity to help him leave the base. The two met at a corridor intersection. To the right of the corridor, the sounds of wailing from the soul nutrient tank echoed continuously, piercing the air. The atmosphere was tense and horrific.

Bu Bifan turned toward the steel wall and twisted a small point on it. The steel wall in front of them slowly lowered, revealing a square exit. Bu Bifan stepped inside. Sensor lights flickered on one by one, emitting a dim glow. Cang Xing walked beside Bu Bifan. He couldn't see her expression clearly; she only looked straight ahead toward the exit.

"I want you to go meet a person named Xi Chang," Bu Bifan said as they walked.

"Xi Chang? Does he have a connection to the Xi Chang Stone?" A person named Xi Chang, or the Xi Chang Stone named after him—the two were definitely related.

"When you meet him, he will naturally tell you," Bu Bifan didn't answer directly. "After you get out, go find Yun Yizhi first. He will take you to see Xi Chang."

Cang Xing was stunned to hear Yun Yizhi's name from Bu Bifan. A turn appeared ahead, and Bu Bifan pulled Cang Xing back. "There are mobile surveillance devices over there. Stay here." Having said that, she pulled out a silver gun and stepped forward lightly. Cang Xing hid behind the corner of the wall, his eyes fixed on Bu Bifan.

Several mechanical spheres were patrolling the area. Bu Bifan fired directly, shooting down five spheres. The other spheres suddenly glowed with red dots, emitting rapid beeping sounds. Bu Bifan clicked her tongue and fired several more shots into the centers of the spheres. The surveillance devices emitted black smoke and fell.

"This base is where the organization KILL raises The Fallen. There aren't many members here, and Ling Gong took the rest with him this morning," Bu Bifan waved for Cang Xing to come over. "So even if the surveillance alarms go off, no one will come. It's basically safe."

Cang Xing walked over, and the two continued forward. After a while, Cang Xing faintly heard several low growls, like those of wild beasts. Bu Bifan ignored them and kept walking straight. Sure enough, a row of The Fallen stood ahead. Those dry skeletons all held five-edged blades, their sharp hooked edges gleaming with a cold green light.

Bu Bifan reassured Cang Xing: "It's okay. Just walk past. They won't attack us."

Cang Xing nodded and looked at Bu Bifan again. Her plump face had turned into a white skull. He looked at her entire body in horror; she had transformed into one of The Fallen.

Bu Bifan said apologetically, "Did I scare you?" Facing a skeleton that spoke with a gentle voice, Cang Xing shook his head. "No, it's fine."

It turned out this gentle female doctor was one of The Fallen. The rumors that The Fallen were terrifying and lacked humanity seemed not entirely true.

"I need to transform into The Fallen form to take you through; only then will they not act." Bu Bifan's long, bony fingers gripped Cang Xing's arm. They weren't as cold as he imagined but carried a hint of warmth, making Cang Xing once again dismiss the malicious rumors about The Fallen.

They walked through the group of Fallen guards. Cang Xing looked closely at each of their faces; their eye sockets were empty, devoid of any human emotion. Bu Bifan was different; she seemed to have emotions, whether they were feigned or real. He thought of Yan Dixa's status as a high-level Fallen; perhaps Bu Bifan was the same. They could transform into human form and possess feelings.

"My rank is higher than these guards. As long as I don't give the order, they won't dare move," Bu Bifan said while entering a password. "Like Yan Dixa, both he and I are high-level Fallen."

Cang Xing heard this and realized Bu Bifan knew Yun Yizhi hadn't been killed and knew Yan Dixa was a high-level Fallen; she seemed to know everything. The door opened, and light from outside shone in. Facing the light, Bu Bifan said, "Go quickly." She pushed Cang Xing toward the light.

Cang Xing stood outside, looking at Bu Bifan's Fallen face. She said one last thing: "Xi Chang really wants to see you. If possible, please tell him to stop everything. Only you can do it." After saying that, the door slammed shut.

Cang Xing blinked. Xi Chang wanted to see him? Did Xi Chang know Mou Jin? Why was he the only one who could stop Xi Chang? To see Xi Chang, he had to find Yun Yizhi first. Yun Yizhi and Xi Chang definitely had a connection. Yun Yizhi's rebel organization was called "Qing Jian." Cang Xing asked the system for the address of their encampment; he decided to go there to find Yun Yizhi.

The base was located in a wild suburban area, overgrown with weeds, and the wind was bone-chilling. He couldn't reach his destination on foot alone; he needed to go to Mou Jin's house to get a fly-wing. Having made up his mind, he left the wilderness. Once in the city, he asked a passerby for directions. This place was Light City, about a hundred miles from the capital of the Landiao Empire; he could only take a bus back. Fortunately, he still had some money on him.

After thanking the passerby, he was about to head to the station when the people around him suddenly stopped and looked at him with strange expressions. Cang Xing suddenly felt uneasy. The passerby he had just spoken to suddenly blocked his path, gripped his wrist tightly, and said forcefully, "You look very much like a wanted poster. I can't let you go."