The weapon refiner is not doing her job properly

Chapter 161 Soul Search
Su Ninglong's eyes flashed like lightning, sharply sweeping across the dense jungle of buildings.

The rows of windows are like countless silent eyes, their gazes coming from all directions, making it difficult to discern the source. The focused gaze from just moments ago has vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed.

Just then, Shen Zhaoming finished his rapid analysis of the thief's communicator and revealed the key information.

"Found it. The reason those two took the risk was because someone on the black market offered them a reward: 'Three million star coins for stealing that metal block.'"

"What?" Upon hearing this, Su Ninglong's anger was replaced by a sense of absurdity, and she laughed awkwardly, "My... my master's sacred artifact is only worth three million star coins?! These ignorant fools!"

The two thieves, huddled to the side, were terrified by the "child's" furious expression. They clutched their heads tightly, fearing that the clenched little fists would strike them at any moment.

Shen Zhaoming: "..."

Silence is the best response at this moment.

The girl then placed her two slender hands on her hips. Rather than looking aggressive, she resembled an annoyed kitten trying to strike the fiercest pose, outlining a childlike stubbornness.

Her long eyelashes fluttered, and the sorrow hidden in her eyes seemed to say, "I'm angry, come and comfort me."

Just then, Yun Fei finished his battle and turned around to see Su Ninglong standing "leisurely" with her hands on her hips. He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and ask, "Hey, can't you lend a hand and make the battle end faster?"

Su Ninglong shook her head firmly: "No. My primary task is to protect your safety. The area was not peaceful just now; someone fired shots this way." Her tone was certain, as if stating an obvious fact.

People can actually laugh when they're speechless. Yun Fei forced a smile and said helplessly, "What you said makes a lot of sense."

His tone was filled with a sense of fatalism, as if he knew this would happen.

This time, however, Su Ninglong did not rush to leave as usual.

Her adversaries, determined to hunt her down, had laid an ambush at any cost and were undoubtedly watching her every move closely from the shadows.
He understood that if he continued to avoid the issue and passively wait for others to pass on sporadic information, it would be too roundabout and passive.

She lazily walked over to the dying parasite with her hands behind her back.

The golden flakes, gleaming with a dangerous, cold light, still hovered around him, like invisible guards.

At this moment, the parasite's body had completely collapsed and was cut into several pieces by Yun Fei's sharp blade, a gruesome sight.

What kept his brain alive was a compression device inside his chest cavity that was frantically spewing artificial blood; the scarlet liquid gushed out, staining the shattered ground red.

The eerie eyeballs on the parasite's body had vanished, leaving only empty, bloody holes.

Su Ninglong showed no fear and knelt down.

"Ning Long, don't come any closer!" Xue Wanshan's voice came urgently.

Although he witnessed Su Ninglong's almost "invincible" superpowers and fierce attacks, in his eyes she was still a child and should not easily approach unknown dangers.

“It’s alright,” Su Ninglong’s voice was calm and cold. Then, without hesitation, she placed her hand on the parasite’s cold, sticky, and cracked body.

“He cannot resist.” As soon as she finished speaking, she initiated a soul search.

Soul search—this is the cruel method the Enforcement Hall uses to deal with traitors and extract the last bit of information.

"Uh—hohoho!"

From the enemy's throat, which had long since lost its normal vocal organs, came an inhuman, chilling roar.

His distorted face was instantly consumed by extreme pain, and his muscles spasmed violently.

Su Ninglong's soul quickly penetrated deep into the depths and immediately sensed a strong sense of filth and chaos.

This person's soul has been torn to pieces.

That malevolent and ominous aura roughly and haphazardly glued these fragments of soul together.

Mixed within it are countless, infinitely magnified, inflated desires stemming from human nature—greed, violence, and twisted cravings…

It forms a disgusting and chilling picture of the soul.

Su Ninglong held her breath and carefully filtered through the roars and distracting thoughts, focusing on searching for valuable fragments of memory amidst the chaotic mess.

The faces of children flashed before Su Ninglong's eyes. They had been led to a basement with a strong religious theme by this person. First, they offered their blood and chanted scriptures to the idol. Su Ninglong couldn't see clearly, and more accurately, this person's soul had no memory of the scriptures.

In her rapidly flashing memories, Su Ninglong saw a somewhat familiar religious symbol.

The characters' hands inside the simulator elevator have similar patterns drawn on them.

The design features a triangle with several simple lines outlining the eyes in the center, and it is on the face of the deity being worshipped.

Su Ninglong tried hard to search for information about the appearance of religious "leaders".

But the moment this person's last bit of life was completely extinguished, the fragments of soul and memories that should have remained for a short time disappeared without a trace, as if erased by an invisible eraser.

Su Ninglong was startled, and her hand, which was pressed on the parasite, froze.

Isn't it said that after a person dies, their soul will linger in the world for a short time?

This sudden and complete annihilation left her somewhat bewildered.

The parasite's soul seemed to be clinging on by only a last shred of obsession.

When that broken body completely lost its vitality, its already shattered soul also vanished completely like a candle flickering in the wind, leaving no trace.

This was different from what she knew. Shouldn't a parasite be able to recover to the level of a normal person through willpower?
Su Ninglong stood up with a serious expression, took out a clean handkerchief, and slowly wiped her fingers that had just touched the parasite.

The hunters who had rushed to the scene held their breath, their gazes fixed on the small figure with complex emotions, a silent sense of dread filling the air.

Xue Wanshan's Adam's apple bobbed, his lips parted slightly, but he could only manage to squeeze out a hesitant question: "Ning Long, what...what were you doing just now?"

The scene before him sent a chill down his spine. The girl's methods far exceeded his understanding of what a "child" was.

Su Ninglong began, "This person..." but then stopped speaking. She couldn't reveal the information she had gleaned through soul searching on the spot, nor could she expose that she possessed this ability to touch the very essence of the soul; otherwise, it would inevitably cause unnecessary panic and suspicion.

She raised her clear eyes, a hint of childlike confusion and curiosity flashing across her face: "I'm trying to make sure he's completely dead. I recently learned a term, 'spirit corpse.' I heard that after a powerful spirit dies, their soul lingers, and specific methods are needed to allow it to rest. So..." She paused, her gaze sweeping over the remains on the ground, her voice carrying just the right amount of inquiry, "...do parasites or mutants like this also leave behind a soul after death?"

This explanation left the arriving support personnel looking at each other in bewilderment, with only one or two showing signs of understanding.

Clearly, most of them, even the hunters, had little to no knowledge of the concept of "spirit corpses," let alone any knowledge of it, and were unable to answer Su Ninglong's question.

Seeing this, Yun Fei naturally reached out and gently patted her head with a soothing tone: "What are you thinking? Once the parasite dies, it's dead. There's no soul left." He was resolute and utterly certain.

Su Ninglong nodded obediently, as if accepting the explanation.

"What's next?" Yun Fei looked at her. "Do you have other plans, or are you going to the police station?"

Su Ninglong said calmly, "Now that I'm out, I want to deal with a few undeveloped spirits. Let's go to the police station first."

Yun Fei did not object, having roughly guessed her intentions. He said, "Alright, after we finish explaining things at the police station, I'll go with you."

Su Ninglong didn't say much, but simply nodded slightly, tacitly agreeing to Yun Fei's arrangement.

Yun Fei turned to Shen Zhaoming and instructed, "From now on, hold her hand and make sure she stays here quietly and doesn't move around."

Shen Zhaoming silently cried out in his heart: Are you worried about this little darling running around and causing trouble, or are you too confident in my abilities as a "nanny"? He's not like Xingyuan, who can keep her in check. How could this little darling possibly listen to him obediently?

Despite his inner grumbling, that soft yet powerful little hand had already been placed in his palm.

He looked down and saw the girl's signature silver hair flowing smoothly, shimmering with a moonlit glow, so smooth that there wasn't a single frizzy strand.

Su Ninglong tilted her head back, looking at him with an expression that was a mixture of helplessness and strangeness, and slowly said, "Does Yun Fei want me to protect you...?"

He changed his mind halfway through his sentence, saying, "Never mind. You have to protect me and never leave my side, that's how you should understand it, right?"

Su Ninglong's expression was indescribable.

Shen Zhaoming silently looked away, his eyes revealing a blankness of "life is meaningless". He habitually raised his hand and put his glasses back on, as if the thin lenses could shield him from some of the troubles in front of him.

While the Star Police were still busy cleaning up and sealing off the scene, Su Ninglong couldn't suppress her curiosity and pulled Shen Zhaoming along, wanting to sneak over and examine the overturned truck wreckage.

She was so strong that Shen Zhaoming couldn't hold her back at all.

He had barely taken two steps when several vigilant police officers immediately stepped forward. "Don't come any closer! Do not disturb the scene!"

Su Ninglong was stopped and muttered under her breath, dissatisfied: "I didn't disturb the scene..." Her voice was a little aggrieved, as if she was defending her consistently "good record".

Upon hearing this, Shen Zhaoming, who was standing to the side, pushed up his glasses and said in a low voice with a hint of difficulty: "We did not disturb the 'scene'. But you and I... are both involved in this tragic accident."

Looking at the devastation and the lives lost, a heavy sense of guilt weighed on him, making it hard to breathe. After all, this disaster was indirectly related to them.

Su Ninglong immediately frowned and shook her head firmly, refusing to take on this heavy burden.

“No, it wasn’t us who caused it. It was those bad people who did the bad things. Why should we take the blame for other people’s crimes?” Her clear eyes were full of confusion and disagreement. “It’s clearly their fault.”

"Kid!" A male voice suddenly rang out from behind the shop window of the house next door.

An ordinary-looking passerby was seen pointing his finger almost at Su Ninglong's nose through the glass.

He heard Su Ninglong's explanation and accused her, "If you hadn't been desperately running away in front and they hadn't been chasing you so hard, would such a big accident have happened and so many people have died?"

Su Ninglong turned her head sharply and retorted without any politeness: "They clearly want to kill us, so our first reaction is to run away. Do you expect us to stand there and wait to die? Or start fighting right there in the air lane? That would only result in more casualties and a more tragic outcome."

The passerby was momentarily speechless, then stiffened his neck, his tone filled with malice and malice: "But the fact is that so many people died. It was your misjudgment, it was your fault. You are the root of all evil!" These words made it seem as if Su Ninglong was the mastermind behind this tragedy.

Faced with this illogical and purely venting accusation, Su Ninglong not only did not get angry, but instead a cold, almost mocking smile appeared on her lips.

At the same time, the sacred artifact that had been quietly hovering beside her like a golden fish suddenly stopped its graceful movement.

It silently changed direction, its sharp tip locking onto a passerby behind the shop window with unparalleled precision. The cold, metallic gleam flickered slightly in the air before shattering the glass.

This action revealed her attitude perfectly. She had no qualms about attacking a stranger, so why would she care about those who died in the so-called "accident" who were trying to pin the blame on her?

She has her own code of conduct and can be angry about the death of the innocent because that is what a righteous cultivator should do.

"Should be done" only represents a moral responsibility, not a necessity.

The "destroyer" on the truck was a trap set by the enemy; what did it have to do with her?

The real culprits were the villains who hid in the truck and set up the murder trap.

Su Ninglong would never blame herself for these things; only a fool would take the blame for the enemy's mistakes.

Passerby A was not harmed, but the hair on the top of his head was shaved off completely, turning into a smooth bald patch.

The indignation on Passerby A's face vanished, replaced by undisguised terror.

He made a gurgling sound in his throat, swallowed hard, and swallowed back all the accusations he was about to utter. His face turned pale, and he shrank back, not daring to say another word.

Shen Zhaoming, who was standing to the side, silently pushed up his glasses that had slipped down to the bridge of his nose. His sharp gaze behind the lenses caught a fleeting glimpse of calculation in the other person's eyes, which was not pure anger but a deliberate attempt to provoke him. He said in a low voice, "He's deliberately stirring up trouble."

"What?" Su Ninglong raised an eyebrow, her tone slightly amusement. "Is he trying to make me feel guilty with these accusations?"

Shen Zhaoming's voice was a little dry: "Maybe... How about we apply for psychological counseling when we get back? So that we don't leave any psychological trauma." These words sounded like a suggestion, but they revealed his insincerity.

Su Ninglong glanced at him and bluntly exposed him: "Are you saying that to yourself?"

Shen Zhaoming, having been exposed, did not refute it.

(End of this chapter)