I can rewind time to prevent death

Yan Junze calculated the time and decided it was about when Zhang Xiaomo had mentioned that the manufacturing master's new project was due to end, so he gave Xiaomo a call.

Zhang Xiaomo immediately confirmed it, and soon called Yan Junze back, saying that the magnetic knife master's research and development was indeed drawing to a close, probably sometime this week.

After hanging up, Yan Junze found Professor Di Zhiwen and told him that he was willing to join him on the trip to Huaying District, so he could take the opportunity to seek the master's assistance in completing the Black Spirit Umbrella concept.

Zhang Xiaomo sent him the master's contact information, and to avoid being turned away, she also sweet-talked her teacher who raised her, asking the teacher in the Huaying District to give the master a heads-up and ask for a favor on her behalf.

Once everything was settled, Yan Junze was ready to depart with Professor Di Zhiwen.

He packed some clothes and prepared the final design blueprints of the Black Spirit Umbrella, which now made up a thick stack, detailing the structure of each component.

To ensure perfection, Yan Junze had already dismantled seven umbrellas, studying their structure and adding his own modification ideas.

This time, he decided not to bring Xiang Er and Ku Zai with him, and since he was going out with Professor Di Zhiwen, it wasn't convenient to take them along.

On the day he left Tianmeng District for Huaying District, Yan Junze called Zhang Xiaomo and found out that Xiaomo was no longer in Tianmeng City but had gone on another business trip to a very remote and impoverished area of Tianmeng.

There, two households had died suddenly overnight in horrific circumstances, an incident that had been classified as a Level C event.

Yan Junze suspected that at least a Semi-Sculpting Spirit was responsible for this strangeness, with Zhang Xiaomo and Zhang Di heading there and joining forces with three-star Exorcists already in that area.

Yan Junze urged Zhang Xiaomo to stay safe, then headed to the airport with Professor Di and boarded the plane.

Looking at the current trend, while the frequency of the strange occurrences did not seem to be rising, Yan Junze knew it was because the Exorcists were intensifying their suppression efforts.

If the Exorcists were to relax their grip even slightly, certain areas might see the numbers of the strange escalate in geometric proportions, eventually becoming uncontrollable similar to what happened in Zhen City of the Luoxia District.

Such a level of suppression meant that being an Exorcist was becoming increasingly difficult, with great work pressure and the risk to their lives growing ever greater.

The fact that Zhang Xiaomo was often away on trips showed that incidents involving the strange were actually on the rise.

Furthermore, Yan Junze noticed that the strength of these strange beings was gradually increasing. Previously, it had been rare for a Semi-Sculpting Spirit or higher-level strangeness to appear in one city, but now the number of Level C events identified by Exorcists was also growing, an inarguable fact.

It was said that Huaying District had the least number of strange occurrences, as it was the district in Great Capital with the most Exorcists. They also had the strictest surveillance and control, to the point where some people had never even seen any strange occurrence firsthand.

"Have you ever been to the center of Great Capital before?" Sitting on the plane, Professor Di Zhiwen asked Yan Junze.

Yan Junze shook his head, "No, I haven't."

Di Zhiwen smiled and said, "Many people yearn for life in Great Capital, thinking it's safe there, without any disturbances from the strange, but I don't like it."

"Why not?" Yan Junze wondered.

"To be free of any strangeness, you have to pay an equal price," Di Zhiwen said slowly. "Take the residential compound where my teacher, Professor Wei of Huaying University, lives, for example. Everyone entering has to be scanned by a Spirit Detector, and every corner of the compound is fitted with Spirit Detectors, performing nonstop Spirit Exploration 24 hours a day. Just the radiation from that ensures that these people will not have a comfortable life."

Pausing, he continued, "Not only that, even walking on the streets of Huaying District, you might encounter an Exorcist and a Safety Official together inspecting you. Do you think it's a regular check? It's not. The Safety Official is in charge of verifying your ancestry going back eighteen generations through your identity information, while the Exorcist performs a Spirit Exploration check on you."

Yan Junze frowned, "What does the Exorcist check for?"

Di Zhiwen explained, "They check to see if you are possessed by a strange being, if there's anything abnormal with your body. They carry Spirit Detectors, brain signal detectors, and they'll even draw your blood on the spot or take a sample of your skin for testing."

Yan Junze was speechless; that was incredibly strict.

But he understood why they would perform blood tests or skin sample testing. For example, Xiang Er, in her current condition, would be exposed immediately by those two types of tests and would not be able to hide.

This was a test designed specifically for Corpse Spirits, like Cheng Jingting's White-haired Corpse or some Corpse Spirits that looked like ordinary people on the surface. If they brazenly walked the streets and were discovered upon testing, there would be an immediate alert to a large number of Exorcists and Safety Officials, who would swiftly have them controlled or eradicated on the spot.

This meant that within the entire Huaying District, not only common strange beings but also Corpse Spirits would have nowhere to hide.

Yan Junze could imagine that if a Spirit Bridge were to appear in Huaying District, the entire district would mobilize all its Exorcists, striving to remove the Spirit Bridge as quickly and efficiently as possible—not like in Tianmeng, where it took several months to deal with one.

Moreover, the number of ordinary people harmed by the Spirit Bridge would probably be reduced to the minimum.

It was no wonder that the heart of Great Capital was such a tightly controlled core area; Yan Junze inwardly marveled.