Du An lowered his gaze, concealing the emotion in his eyes.
Priest Jun was one of the priests guarding the Shattered Eye. If he refused entry, there was truly nothing Du An could do.
Furthermore, his reasoning was sound and perfectly dignified. Even if Priest Zhu Yao, who had guided Du An here, came over, she would likely be persuaded.
But Du An was extremely perceptive. He knew full well that the man wasn't stopping him from entering the Shattered Realm solely because of the Corpse Worm outbreak.
In fact, ever since Du An had arrived at the Unreturning Place, Priest Jun had been subtly targeting him, constantly delaying his progress into the Shattered Realm.
At first, Priest Jun claimed that Du An hadn't mastered enough spells and that venturing into the Shattered Realm would be too dangerous. He had practically forced Du An to learn four or five spells before finally allowing him to explore the realm alone.
Not long ago, because Du An had lost a Realm-Breaking Stone, Priest Jun insisted he take time to settle down and reflect before returning to the Shattered Realm, supposedly to prevent another stone from being wasted.
The Corpse Worms hadn't broken out yet at that time, and Du An had only managed to enter the Shattered Realm a second time by reaching out to Priest Qian Que.
Yet now, Priest Jun was using the extermination of the Corpse Worms as an excuse to bar him once again.
Normally, however, only priests at the Star Glow rank or above participated in the extermination.
Spiritual Initiation and Cloud-Hidden priests usually descended into the Shattered Realm under normal circumstances to help them advance as quickly as possible.
Once promoted to the Star Glow stage, a priest's strength would undergo a qualitative leap.
They would also become much more effective in battle.
But right now, the Unreturning Place clearly wasn't short on combat-ready priests. Yet Priest Jun was forcing Du An to kill Corpse Worms and accumulate merit before he could descend.
Being hindered time and time again had already bred deep displeasure in his heart.
Still, Du An knew the gap in strength between a Cloud-Hidden priest and a Star Glow priest was vast.
Priest Jun only needed to unleash his Starlight Domain to cripple more than half of Du An's abilities.
Without spells of the same tier to counter it, defeating Priest Jun was virtually impossible.
Since he couldn't win, he would endure.
He was long accustomed to endurance, anyway.
He bowed, cupping his hands, and replied without a trace of emotion, "Understood."
Priest Jun waved his hand. "There's no rush. Go back and rest first. Replenish your spiritual rhinoceros, then go find the master of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda and join a squad hunting the Corpse Worms."
After Du An left, Priest Qian Que, who had been staring at the insects without a word, finally turned his head to Priest Jun and raised an eyebrow.
"Are you asking why I'm targeting him?" Having worked with Priest Qian Que for decades, Priest Jun naturally understood his body language. "I'm not trying to target him. I just—"
"—I just feel an unsettling impatience coming from him. If he can't settle his mind, it will hinder his cultivation. He's bound to cause trouble sooner or later."
Priest Qian Que lowered his brow, shook his head, and looked back at the bugs in the Unreturning Place.
"Haha." Priest Jun chuckled, his expression remaining serious. "I know. I just love worrying over thankless tasks."
A moment of silence followed.
"If I could restrain myself, perhaps I would have advanced to the Dark Moon stage long ago, just like you."
Because of the strange man's attack, a part of Li Ban's mind remained focused on the Wizard World.
When he returned to the Shadow World and called 9899 over for questioning, a hint of impatience colored his tone.
"I don't have that much patience. If you don't want your heart carved out, keep it brief: how did Shen 18 lock onto you?"
Li Ban sat in Shen 19's two-story house in the outer city, sprawled imposingly across the center of the sofa.
9899, having just been expelled by the mercenary corps, stood trembling across from him.
She didn't understand why Young Master 19 was wearing full-body mecha armor inside his own home, but perhaps he was guarding against something.
Hearing his question—and knowing that her heart, and indeed all her original organs, were in his hands—9899 hurriedly gave a brief account of her experience.
Listening to her story, Li Ban could only marvel at the coincidence.
She was actually the one who had seen him modifying the remains of the Mechanical Dog.
After handing it over to the Main Brain, she and her partner had received a massive sum of points, but they were soon sued by the Shen Family's drone company. They had been forced to pay an exorbitant settlement, and it had even cost 132 his life.
They had expected the Main Brain to deliver justice, never imagining that the Shen Family would pull out a mountain of regulations to prove that they were the ones in violation.
Li Ban understood immediately. How could two grunts like 9899 and 132 ever outmaneuver professionals?
People said Trash City was controlled by the Main Brain, but in reality, it just managed things fairly according to an established framework of rules.
And rigid rules were easily exploited through loopholes.
The Shen Family, firmly entrenched in Trash City's main city with unfathomable assets, had naturally mastered the game long ago.
"Do you want revenge?" Li Ban asked 9899.
But 9899 shook her head without a second of hesitation.
"No. I don't have those kinds of thoughts. I just want to live in peace."
If she had possessed even a shred of ambition before, it was completely gone now.
Seeing her lack of vengeful desires, Li Ban wasn't in a hurry.
There were ways to handle things with revenge, and ways to handle things without it.
"Living in peace isn't easy either. Do you think that just because they said they'd let you off, they'll actually let you go?"
9899 paled. "Didn't you already buy me?"
"Don't mistake hypocrisy for sincerity." Li Ban shook his head.
Shen 19 had already been stripped of his inheritance rights. He had a decent job, yet he had simultaneously gotten hooked on games and drugs that bankrupted him. What did that imply?
It meant that certain people who did have inheritance rights had no intention of letting him live in peace.
When Li Ban first hid Shen 19 away, he had already noticed the man's abnormal mental state.
While he didn't know the exact science behind the withdrawal surgery, he figured it was akin to brainwashing.
One wrong move, and it could easily be fatal.
"If you still want to live, then leave Trash City. I can help block the Shen Family for now."
9899 bit her lip. "What do you need from me in return?"
She looked down at her own body, doubting that a young master of the Shen Family would lack for this kind of thing.
"How long have you been in Trash City?"
"I was born in the outer city. Later, I joined the mercenary corps and stayed in the main city for over a decade."
"Good. Then do you have a way to get your hands on a state-of-the-art, independently operating reader?"
Li Ban didn't hide his intentions this time.
First, he was running out of time. Second, he was currently operating under Shen 19's identity, so he wasn't worried about anyone seeing through his motives.
9899 hadn't expected a young master of the Shen Family to secretly desire an independent reader.
Could it be?
Having just witnessed the ruthless power of the upper-class commerce chambers, 9899's imagination immediately conjured scenarios of family succession wars.
She was just a small fry; she couldn't afford to get involved in that kind of conflict.
But, if Young Master 19 could help her leave Trash City and escape the Shen Family's surveillance, it might not be a risk she couldn't take.
"I... I know some channels in the outer city where I can get one. But it might take some time."
Li Ban leaned back against the sofa. The mecha automatically adjusted its center of gravity to avoid crushing it.
"Use your own name to secretly buy or steal an independent reader. You cannot use my name during the process, nor can you let anyone know I ordered it. However, I don't have much time, and I imagine you don't want to stay in the outer city for long either, right?"
"Then I'll—go contact them right now?"
"Wait a moment." Li Ban stood up abruptly and walked behind 9899, placing his mecha-clad arm against the back of her neck.
9899's shoulders flinched.
The brainstem, the spine, the major arteries—all were located in the back of the neck.
As a soldier, she was highly unaccustomed to being grabbed here.
Retracting one of the mecha's arms, Li Ban felt around the back of her neck with his fingers.
He soon brushed against the chip interface at the base of her skull.
As expected, anyone who has entered the main city has a chip in the back of their head, complete with an interface for the Main Brain to easily connect, Li Ban thought. His fingers gently peeled back the synthetic skin concealing the port.
9899 turned pale, having no idea what Li Ban was about to do.
But with him wearing the Smart Mecha, she stood absolutely no chance against him.
If she made a move, she would instantly be riddled with holes.
Just as 9899 swallowed her terror and froze in place, Li Ban's fingers made contact with the interface.
The next second, he activated "Command Tampering."
Afterward, Li Ban nonchalantly withdrew his hand.
He hadn't made many changes to her chip.
He had simply added a single command: if she breathed a word of his affairs to anyone, the chip would instantly self-destruct.
This was to ensure she didn't turn around and sell him out to the Shen Family to save her own skin.
"Go make contact. Come back here and report to me the moment you have news. Don't try anything stupid; I have plenty of ways to deal with you."
9899 touched the back of her head.
She didn't know what Li Ban had just done and couldn't feel anything unusual. She assumed he was simply using the gesture to intimidate her.
"Understood." 9899 turned and left Shen 19's house.
After she left, Li Ban went up to the bedroom on the second floor.
Inside this more private room, he spotted several pieces of mechanical equipment.
Surprisingly, there was even an Experimental Capsule among them.
However, the design of this capsule was different from the ones he had seen before—it was much flashier.
A few Storage Cards were scattered on the floor beside it.
The cards were covered in colorful stickers.
Li Ban picked one up and discovered it was a game Storage Card.
That meant this capsule was likely a network-connected gaming capsule.
He didn't touch it. Instead, keeping his Smart Mecha on, he sat in the corner of the room and closed his eyes.
He had originally planned to search Shen 19's room for useful items.
But halfway through his search, he felt someone calling him in the Wizard World, prompting him to quickly log out of the Shadow World.
Li Ban opened his eyes to see Shi Ming shaking his shoulder.
"What's wrong?"
Shi Ming pointed outside the car, speaking cautiously. "An old acquaintance of yours."
An old acquaintance?
Li Ban paused for a second before going stiff.
He pushed the car door open and saw Du An standing by the side of the road.
By this time, Lord Du had shed his official robes and changed into a white priest's robe.
He stood by the road with his eyes slightly narrowed, still the same quiet and composed figure as before.
But this Lord Du—Priest Du—could never have guessed that he had just met Li Ban a few days ago, and that the two of them had nearly come to blows inside a dangerous rift between worlds.