Chapter 12 Spirit Master

"What?!"

"Where is the entity?"

Panic surged through the crowd as they frantically scanned their surroundings, yet they found nothing.

"Fang Xiu, what nonsense are you spouting at a time like this? Where is the entity?"

A colleague, visibly shaken, glared at Fang Xiu with undisguised anger.

"Exactly! Why are you deliberately trying to scare us?"

Fang Xiu remained impassive, his features—handsome and pale—appearing almost ethereal under the dim light. Coupled with his emotionless expression, he exuded an eerie stillness, akin to a lifeless marionette.

Under his tranquil, abyss-like gaze, an unsettling discomfort crept over the crowd, their earlier clamor gradually dissipating.

Then, Fang Xiu spoke, his voice as calm as still water.

"Wang Xiaoli is missing."

Wang Xiaoli?

"Impossible! Wang Xiaoli was right beside me! Wang Xiaoli, say something!"

A colleague hurriedly called out, but no reply came.

His heart sank. Trembling, he raised his phone to illuminate the spot where she had been—only to be met with empty space.

"Wang Xiaoli! Wang Xiaoli!"

He shouted her name twice, but silence was his only answer.

Panic erupted like wildfire.

"She's really gone!"

"Could it be... the entity has appeared?"

"Fang Xiu, did you see what it looked like?" Wang Zitong suddenly asked.

Despite their prior animosity, in the face of an existential crisis, personal grievances were momentarily set aside.

Fang Xiu answered with his usual composure. "The darkness impairs visibility. I didn't see the entity—only that Wang Xiaoli vanished."

He spoke as if discussing something utterly mundane, as if it were not a living, breathing person who had just disappeared, but a mere ant crushed beneath an indifferent foot.

Under normal circumstances, anyone witnessing such an event would at the very least show some degree of alarm.

Yet Fang Xiu displayed not the slightest ripple of fear—no trembling hands, no unsteady breath, not even a flicker of unease.

The crowd was not blind to this abnormality. Having navigated the intricacies of the workplace for years, they all possessed a certain instinct for reading people. And in Fang Xiu, they detected something distinctly unsettling.

Wang Zitong narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "You don't seem afraid of the entity at all. Are you... a Spirit Master?"

Fang Xiu shook his head. "What is a Spirit Master?"

Wang Zitong's frown deepened, the uncertainty in his eyes growing.

"A Spirit Master is someone who wields the power of their own spirit," he explained. "I don't understand the details, but my cousin once told me that within every person's soul lies immense power. However, our souls are shrouded in dust—like a luminous pearl covered in grime.

"A Spirit Master is someone who wipes away that dust, allowing their soul to radiate its latent brilliance."

Wang Zitong was about to elaborate further when Wu Dahai interrupted, his voice edged with desperation.

"Young Master Wang! Now is not the time for explanations! People are disappearing—shouldn't we be thinking of a way to escape?"

"Shut up!" Wang Zitong snapped, his fury flaring. "Escape? Where to? How? Do you think running aimlessly won't trigger some unknown taboo? Do you think you'll survive?"

His chest heaved as he struggled to control his temper.

"And another thing—what I'm telling you right now is crucial to our survival!

"Do you think Spirit Masters are born? They're not! They are made.

"The best way to break free from this nightmare is for someone among us to become a Spirit Master!"

"So... Spirit Masters are forged within the entity's domain?" Fang Xiu interjected.

Wang Zitong glanced at him in surprise, as though astonished by his composure and keen perception under such dire circumstances.

"Exactly. To become a Spirit Master, one must harness the power of the entities.

"As I said, the soul is like a pearl covered in dust. To cleanse it, two conditions must be met.

"First, one must experience the ultimate terror of a life-and-death crisis. Only by enduring such an ordeal can the dust on the soul be loosened—or, alternatively, through an immense emotional upheaval.

"Second, one must come into direct contact with an entity. The entity's power must invade the soul, much like using a cloth to wipe away dirt.

"But there's a risk," he added grimly. "An entity's power is not pure—it carries a form of corruption. While it cleanses the soul, it also stains it.

"If the soul is a luminous pearl, then the entity's power is a blood-soaked cloth. As it wipes away the dust, it inevitably dyes the pearl in crimson.

"The so-called 'radiance of the soul' is, in truth, a distortion—warped by the entity's influence."

Fang Xiu listened in silence, thoughts whirling.

So this world was governed by the principles of the mind—power stemmed from the soul's connection with the supernatural.

Life-and-death situations acted as catalysts, akin to heat applied to a chemical reaction.

If that were true, then why had he not yet awakened as a Spirit Master?

He had met both conditions—he had faced countless near-deaths, and he had certainly encountered entities.

Could it be that he had already awakened, but simply hadn't realized it?

Wang Zitong's voice pulled him from his musings.

"Therefore," he declared, "every single one of you has a chance to become a Spirit Master. And once someone awakens, we may have a way out!"

Fang Xiu's gaze sharpened. "What are the signs of awakening?"

"The body becomes stronger—beyond ordinary human limits. Your senses sharpen drastically. And once the soul is fully illuminated, you'll awaken an ability unique to yourself.

"That ability is a direct reflection of your inner being. No two souls are alike—therefore, no two Spirit Masters will share the same power."

An ability? A reflection of the soul?

Fang Xiu's first thought was death regression.

Could that be his power?

No… something wasn't right. His physique was unchanged, his senses no sharper than before.

And besides, his instincts told him that death regression was not a product of his soul's awakening—it was something he had possessed from the very beginning.

Which meant… he had yet to become a Spirit Master.

But why?

He had experienced death. He had come into contact with entities. By all logic, he should have met the criteria.

Then, it struck him.

Perhaps… he had not fully satisfied the second condition.

Every time he had interacted with his wife, he had died. He had never survived the encounter long enough for a true connection.

As for the countless entities in the world—he could see them, but he had never truly engaged with them.

This time, however, was different.

This entity lurked unseen, yet it did not require visibility to kill. It had already begun taking lives.

A string of seemingly unrelated events wove together in his mind—the vanished asylum, the entity that could kill without being seen, the existence of Spirit Masters…

There was a connection. A pattern yet to be unraveled.

Though they stood on the precipice of death, Fang Xiu felt an unfamiliar sensation stirring in his chest.

For the first time in a long while—hope.

Because he had glimpsed a path forward.

A path to vengeance.

Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he caught movement.

"Another one is gone."