Abundant Martial Arts Virtue

Atop the walls of the palace complex, there stood one skeleton after another, each clad in black and wielding various weapons, their eye sockets flickering with a dark ghost fire, gazing towards the coast.

A skeleton in tattered armor walked to the center of the wall and raised its bone knife, pointing in the direction of the coastline.

Its voice was hoarse and stiff, as if it hadn't spoken in a long time:

"Humans, in thirty days, our world will overlap with yours."

"Unless—"

"You exterminate all the professionals."

"In that case, our worlds cannot merge, as you are far too inferior."

The skeleton's voice echoed over the sea, booming like the engine of an airplane.

The live television broadcast faithfully recorded this scene.

The bustling Rainbow Street quieted down suddenly amid the noise.

Many people were watching this scene—

through screens in shops, on their mobile phones, and shared by friends.

The world eerily fell into a brief silence.

Everyone realized something.

Mirages do not produce sounds.

If it were a mirage, what place was it reflecting?

What kind of city would have such towering majestic castles and so many skeletons?

—What kind of place would have such a terrifying scene?

The next second.

The television screen suddenly switched to the studio.

The female host, pale-faced, managed a hesitant smile and said, "Everyone, the front signal has been interrupted, which is believed to be a prank from certain groups dissatisfied with mainstream society."

"That concludes our news broadcast, and we'll see you tomorrow."

The program ended hurriedly.

Wu Xiaode was lost in thought.

Ever since the continuous earthquakes began, the world seemed to have started changing.

He shook his head, internally scoffing at himself.

Why overthink?

Whether he could survive the next seven days was still in question; why worry about these things?

He quickened his pace, swiftly leaving the crowded street and turned into a small alley, walking straight to the end, then switched several more pathways, walking further and further to the side, finally reaching a demolition area.

Boom—

Lightning flashed across the sky.

The clouds were thickly gathered.

The world was growing increasingly dark.

Wu Xiaode slipped into an abandoned school building just before the rain began to fall.

He climbed up to the third floor and randomly picked a classroom, pushing the door to enter.

Most of the chairs and desks had been removed, leaving only a few broken chairs and a crooked table.

On the blackboard was written a math question:

"How do you prove that 0.999... equals 1?"

Wu Xiaode glanced at it, picked up a piece of chalk, and casually finished the answer.

As he wrote, he thought about everything that had happened today and the strategies he could adopt to deal with them.

Outside the room, the rain drizzled steadily.

The entire world seemed to merge into the darkness.

The chalk in Wu Xiaode's hand tapped against the blackboard, making an increasingly dense ting-ting, dong-dong sound.

After a while.

The ting-dong sound abruptly stopped.

"Sister Lan... I know you don't want me to fight."

"But we have nothing left to lose; I hope you won't blame me for what I'm about to do."

He whispered.

On the blackboard, the proof was complete.

Along with Wu Xiaode's thoughts, the Book of the Dead trembled slightly, emitting a misty fog that obscured everything around it.

A wall plastered with various notes quietly appeared in front of Wu Xiaode.

The Wish Wall!

Wu Xiaode looked towards the wall, and at its center, there was a blank note.

An insight flashed through his mind, showing him what he needed to do.

—After all, the Book of the Dead was his own ability.

The blank note quietly flew over, landing in his hand.

"Please help me find a woman named Xia Huilan, she is my neighbor."

"As for payment."

"I can offer three units of Soul Power."

—Poor as he was, the only thing he could afford was Soul Power.

Fortunately, after the Soul Power was spent, he only needed to rest to slowly recover it, or else he really had nothing to offer.

In any case, he hoped that someone would agree to help.

As Wu Xiaode thought, the note quietly filled with lines of text.

Wu Xiaode read it over and, finding no problems, stuck the note back on the Wish Wall.

He waited a few moments.

A breeze blew through the mist.

The note was swept away by the wind, quickly disappearing from the wall.

The next second.

All the fog had dispersed, and the entire Wall of Wishes had also vanished from in front of Wu Xiaode.

He found himself back in the abandoned classroom.

The Book of the Dead displayed a line of ice crystal small characters:

"The request has been accepted."

"Please wait."

Wu Xiaode heaved a sigh of relief.

The request was accepted. He hoped everything would go smoothly so he could quickly find Xia Huilan.

He checked his phone.

It was ten o'clock at night.

After midnight, when it turned to the second day, he could accept another request from the Wall of Wishes to increase his Soul Power limit.

—It would be best to find Xia Huilan before midnight!

As Wu Xiaode was silently thinking, he suddenly heard a noise.

He turned his head toward the window.

On the railing outside the window, a crow was perched.

The crow was covered in feathers as black as night, but a faint white light radiated around it. Its eyes, cunning, were quietly observing Wu Xiaode.

Could this be—

Wu Xiaode was somewhat unsure, staring blankly at the crow outside the window.

The crow's eyes flashed with helplessness. It shook its body in the rain, then flew up again, tapping on the glass with its sharp beak.

It really was it!

Wu Xiaode hastily opened the window.

The crow flew in and lightly landed on the tilted desk.

"Are you looking for someone?" it spoke in human language.

Wu Xiaode widened his eyes and said to the crow, "I never knew that crows could talk."

"Idiot, I'm not just any crow, I am the Crow Spirit," the crow said contemptuously.

Wu Xiaode came to his senses.

Indeed, his Book of the Dead could harness the power of the Dead and Heroic Spirits.

How could an ordinary crow accept his request?

This crow must certainly be a spirit.

"You should have seen the request, I want to find a woman named Xia Huilan," Wu Xiaode said.

"That's simple, but let's first talk about the profits, as your measly three points of Soul Power are hardly enough for me to consume," said the crow.

"What profits?" Wu Xiaode asked.

"Your body is enveloped in the black aura of death and the blood light of slaughter. I guess your path ahead won't be easy. If you engage in battle after this, I want to draw Soul Power from those you kill. Do you have any objections to that?" the crow asked.

Can it really be done like that?

Wu Xiaode was somewhat surprised and said, "That's fine, but we'll have to split the harvest evenly."

"Split evenly! Are you joking? Only our crow clan's spirits can directly extract the Soul Power of the deceased. It's hard work. A seven-to-three split in my favor makes more sense!" the crow said.

"You know I have little Soul Power. If I run out during battle, I won't be able to act anymore, and your request might not be completed," Wu Xiaode said.

The crow hesitated.

"Sixty-forty in your favor, for our first cooperation, let's both make a concession," Wu Xiaode said.

"If you really manage to secure some extra income, then a sixty-forty split it is," the crow compromised.

"Good, can you take me to find Xia Huilan?" Wu Xiaode asked.

"Come on, let's go find her together."

The crow landed on Wu Xiaode's shoulder and suddenly disappeared.

Astonished, Wu Xiaode was about to speak when he suddenly found he had lost control of his body.

"Why do you spirits always need to control someone else's body," he couldn't help but protest internally.

"We cannot directly affect reality, only by descending into your body can we partake in the affairs of this world," the Crow Spirit explained.

That was exactly what the Book of the Dead had said.

"Alright, before we act, I want to ask how I should address you," Wu Xiaode asked.

"My type is my name," the Crow Spirit said.

"Crow?" Wu Xiaode asked.

"No, I am Ya, you can call me Little Ya, and when there are other birds around, please call me Brother Ya," the Crow Spirit said.

"…Pleased to meet you, I'm Wu Xiaode."

"Pleased to meet you, now we need to find a way to complete the request."

Wu Xiaode moved his body and in a sharp and strange tone said, "First, let's fly to her workplace to see if there are any clues."

He walked to the windowsill, lightly jumped onto it, and leaped outward.

"This is the third floor!" Wu Xiaode promptly reminded.

"Don't underestimate me, I can fly," Ya scoffed in response.

Wu Xiaode was seen floating midair, a pair of black wings unfolding behind him.

With a strong flap—

Thud!

A muffled sound.

Wu Xiaode fell down, landing in a puddle on the ground, taking quite a while to recover his senses.

Although his body was controlled by the spirit, the various sensations had not been blocked.

Luckily, his body's strength was five times that of an ordinary human, and with the feather cushioning, he wasn't too badly hurt, but it was incredibly painful.

"Aren't you... able to fly?" Wu Xiaode gritted his teeth and asked.

"This is also my first time possessing someone, after all, people with your type of awakened Undead Series abilities are rare—don't worry, there won't be a problem next time," the crow responded.

Wu Xiaode's body got up, shook off, and suddenly transformed into a completely black crow and shot up into the sky.

In the bleak cold rain.

A black bird pierced through the thick lead clouds in the sky, its destination unknown.