“…A blade of grass appeared in my soul space. Yala, care to explain?”

Late at night, on the balcony of the Su family home.

Su Zhou looked up at the stars above, gazing towards the distant lights. While contemplating the vastness of the universe, he murmured, “Good thing it didn’t grow on top of my head, otherwise it’d be ‘greened, Su Zhou’s head is greened!’”

“That’s the spirituality of the Wisdom Tree.”

Yala coiled around Su Zhou’s head, saying nonchalantly, “Such divine trees generally span the ‘material realm’ and the ‘spiritual realm’, or even multiple realms. What entered your soul is the nascent Wisdom Tree’s spiritual part, which is also the most important part.”

“The applewood in the material realm is merely the husk of the divine tree, even a degraded husk. After losing contact with its spirit, it not only fails to bear fruit but may even wither and go dormant. But now, you can perceive the current state of the divine tree at any time through the connection between your soul and its spirit—it won’t even grow without your permission.”

“Sounds like I’m playing a farming game… My soul space won’t be full of this kind of grass in the future, will it?”

Su Zhou muttered to himself, stirring his own spirituality to try and touch the ‘Wisdom Tree sapling.’

The nascent spirit of the Wisdom Tree sapling appeared crystal clear, with a sacred light lingering around it. This light occasionally transformed into an angel holding a flaming sword, and at other times, into a shimmering ocean of light.

And Su Zhou, upon touching it, quickly learned the current state of the Wisdom Tree.

—Hungryhungryhungryhungryhungryhungryhungryhungryhungryhungry!!!!

It felt like clicking ten signals on a map, making him feel hungry too—the only thing the nascent spirit of the divine tree could currently convey to Su Zhou was extreme ‘hunger’!

“Uh, is this urging me to fertilize and water it?”

Swallowing his saliva, Su Zhou, freed from the mental wave of ‘so hungry!’, asked Yala speechlessly, “But I remember, it’s not supposed to drink ordinary water, right?”

“It does drink that too. You need to water it every day. But if you want it to grow strong, even bear fruit, you need the spirituality of spiritual objects—like demon blood, or water from the Moon Well, water from the Tianhe River, that kind of thing.”

The serpent spirit’s answer was simple and direct. It seemed a little tired, as if guiding Su Zhou through the ritual was not as easy as it seemed. It said softly, “Any other questions, Su Zhou? I want to rest for a while…”

“Thank you for your hard work, Yala.”

Su Zhou was still grateful for Yala’s help. Although it was a win-win situation for both sides, a cooperative relationship based on mutual respect was much better than one based on mutual suspicion. However, even so, he still had one question to ask: “Does it really have to be the blood of demons and devils? Can’t ordinary monsters work?”

“What ‘ordinary’ monsters are you talking about!” Even though it was about to fall asleep, Yala couldn’t help but retort, “You don’t actually think there are such things as ‘small fry’ in this world, do you? Is this a game?”

“Every monster, every devil, is a unique existence, with its own life and value to be hunted. This powerful, unique, and one-of-a-kind ‘true spirit’ is the source of ‘spirituality’!”

“However…” But saying this, the serpent spirit’s tone couldn’t help but change. It seemed to have thought of something, and then said with a smile, “If you really had to say it, things that don’t have a true spirit but do have spirituality… vengeful spirits and evil spirits would be the most typical examples, being more in line with the existence of ‘small fry.’”

“Once you get your weapon and enchant it, you can try to find a vengeful spirit one level higher than the black shadows to hunt and see, as a warm-up before slaying devils.”

With that, Yala nestled in the boy’s hair and fell fast asleep. Su Zhou didn’t disturb it, standing on the balcony and looking down at the silent neighborhood at night.

“Vengeful spirits, evil spirits…”

Muttering to himself, Su Zhou stared at the black shadows wandering around the neighborhood at midnight, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully.

He slept without dreams that night.

When Su Zhou got out of bed, it was 5:30 AM on July 26th. Of course, his parents hadn’t come home yet, which was normal. He had heard that the police and doctors had been increasingly busy in recent years, with many people keeping sleeping bags and pillows in their offices, and their units providing meals and showers.

Actually, this wasn’t a big deal, but the most regrettable thing was that there were very few new recruits in these professions, with a serious lack of fresh blood. Su Zhou’s grandfather often complained before he passed away a few years ago, saying that there were fewer and fewer young police officers nowadays, and the quality was uneven, with serious problems at the grassroots level.

Social problems, hopeless.

5:45 AM.

Familiar with watering the potted garlic and cooking, he fried two pieces of steak, then used the remaining oil with onions and garlic (homegrown) and black pepper to make some black pepper sauce, which he paired with two cold fried dough sticks and soy milk, solving his Sino-Western breakfast. (Total: 1530 calories)

6:20 AM.

Having sorted the garbage, he took it downstairs to throw it away. Su Zhou ran a few laps around the neighborhood, greeting the early-rising neighbors and shopkeepers like Boss Chen, whom he knew well, who were already preparing to open their shops. He even ran into a few classmates from school. Heaven knows how they woke up at six o’clock, but maybe they were getting up early to study? Anyway, he didn’t chat much.

“Do you think Su Zhou looks a little more handsome?”

“Yeah? Look, exercising every day really helps. I’m going to drag my grandson out for a run too!”

“…(Ordinary passerby classmates gaze enviously at his figure)”

After running for about an hour, Su Zhou went to the breakfast shop next to the neighborhood entrance, ordered a large bowl of stir-fried noodles and a large bowl of mixed noodles, paired with egg and meat patty casserole soup and a few bean paste sesame balls, with extra chili, which he considered breakfast. (Total: 1517 calories)

Yes, he ate breakfast twice a day, lunch once, dinner once, and a midnight snack once, occasionally supplementing with bread, burgers, and such in the afternoon.

The ruthless, high-calorie eating machine started up again after breakfast.

7:40 AM.

After going home for a shower, Su Zhou, after confirming that he had almost finished copying his summer homework, started doing one-handed push-ups, using the other hand to look at his phone and type, posting and flaming people.

Of course, showering was just a habit. He didn’t even sweat doing this kind of ordinary muscle exercise anymore. His perfect body’s heat dissipation ability was simply a bug. As long as he wore a short sleeve, his exposed skin could act as a heat sink.

“Heh, the Dao that can be spoken of is not the Constant Dao. Something you can see casually, you call that Daoist arts? Short-sighted, I suggest you read through the Daoist scriptures before discussing this issue with me.”

“Do you understand witchcraft? Do you know rituals? Have you summoned spirits, successfully conducted rituals, or been able to see specters? What? None of that? Then what are you talking about, embarrassing fool!”

“I do! You don’t believe me? What does it matter to me if you don’t believe me, I really can! Nyah nyah nyah~”

After battling with people online on forums and Tieba for half an hour, releasing his inner keyboard warrior, Su Zhou switched to reading a book, and his exercise changed to sit-ups—this popular dark suspense novel called "Shi Zhi Qu" (Moth of Time) was quite good, with a lot of things related to the occult, which were quite interesting.

8:30 AM.

The serpent spirit Yala woke up.

“Sigh, I didn’t expect my current wisp of a soul to be so fragile. Just guiding a ritual made me sleepy.”

The ruby-like little snake emerged from Su Zhou’s hair, complaining, “It’s been so many years, I haven’t been this weak in a long time. This is practically the weakest I’ve ever been in history.”

“You must have been weaker when you were sealed.”

Su Zhou, who was doing a one-finger handstand while reading a novel, increased his taunting power, making a guess: “I bet you couldn’t even speak at that time.”

“If you can’t speak, then say less.” Yala paused, then replied stiffly, “So, what do you plan to do today? Go to a demon sighting for reconnaissance?”

“I’m not stupid.” Su Zhou put down the novel in his hand, raised a finger, waved it around, and tutted twice.

“Of course, I’m not going!”

And at this moment.

Just as Su Zhou and Yala were discussing his exploration plans.

In the morning, at the busy Hongcheng Public Security Bureau, an unexpected visitor arrived.

A black official car stopped at the main entrance of the police station, and several leaders who had been working overtime day and night came to greet it, their smiles sincere, without a hint of flattery or affectation.

It could be seen that on the side of this car were two inconspicuous dark characters.

【Zhengyi】 (Orthodox Unity)

Below were some smaller characters

【Hongzhou Zhengyi Academy】 (Hongzhou Orthodox Unity Academy)