Old Friend

Yingling Special Affairs Bureau Reception Desk.

Wu Ci bent his index finger and tapped the metal tabletop with his knuckles. "Hello, excuse me, I have an appointment with the Heroic Spirit to appraise Wu Ci this morning."

The receptionist who had been typing away at her keyboard with her head down quickly raised her head as if frightened, "Ah, OK... OK!"

"Wu Ci, is that you? The evaluation room is ready. Please follow the robot."

"Thank you very much." Wu Ci raised his eyebrows and gave her a polite smile through the mask. He nodded and left with the robot that immediately came forward to lead the way.

The dazed receptionist paused, then immediately lowered her head and continued typing:

[Receptionist No. 2: I saw the real person of the Chu Ci psychic master we just discussed... I just walked from the reception desk to the evaluation room.]

[Courtesy No. 50: How is it? Does it look real?]

[Courtesy No. 42: Since we have come here for testing, it is very likely to be true!]

[Evaluator No. 8: Generally speaking, it is real, but Chuci, the heroic spirit, is not necessarily true. Some experts suspect that he is not in the pool of the Qian Dynasty, or that he is too high-standard and therefore did not become a heroic spirit. What if this is a fake?]

[Evaluator No. 19: I think so too.]

[Security guard 6: +1]

[Secretary No. 27: +1]

Seeing that the rest of the comments had all been re-read with +1, the receptionist clapped her hands on the keyboard and continued typing swiftly:

[Receptionist No. 2: I looked at his face and combined it with the portrait of Chu Ci that was previously circulated on the Internet…Although he was wearing a mask and the upper half of his face was covered by his hair, but! What a great face, it really overlaps with him. Such a high degree of fit…Is it possible? Is it true?]

[Evaluator No. 19:? ]

[Security Guard No. 6:?]

[Courtesy No. 50: So… the one in front can’t be summoned, is it because he is too ugly?]

[Evaluator No. 8: It’s possible, but I don’t believe it. I’ll be in charge of the evaluation later. I need to see what he looks like.]

[Courtesy Receptionist No. 1: Probably not. I just received news that his file was reported and it alarmed the director, who personally arranged for a specialist to come here as an assessor. The higher-ups are planning to ask our reception team to stand guard and pick him up.]

Wu Ci, who was preparing for the test, had no idea that even the director of the Special Management Bureau was alarmed and there was even a specialist who was going to come and evaluate him in person.

He was sitting in the assessment room waiting for the assessor.

The evaluation room is very spacious, about the size of eight football fields, with various strange testing instruments placed in different areas.

“Knock, knock, knock…”

There was a knock on the door.

"Please come in." Wu Ci put down the black tea that the robot had made for him and stood up from the sofa.

The hostess in a blue cheongsam opened the door, then closed it after a young man came in.

The young man's long hair was tied up with a lotus crown. He wore a green Taoist robe that gave off an air of immortality. He held a metal array plate in one hand and a handful of copper coins in the other. His eyes were bound with a snow-white bandage.

Why does the vision look so familiar? Wu Ci narrowed his eyes... I feel that this young man is a bit like Tianjizi...

However, if you look closely at the hem of the young man's Taoist robe, when he walks, you can vaguely see that he has electronic handcuffs with the Sky Group logo on his ankles.

Just as Wu Ci had this thought, the next second, golden particles appeared beside the young man in Taoist robes, forming Tianjizi, who was also wearing the same Taoist robes and had his eyes covered with white silk.

These two people who seemed to have a high degree of compatibility asked almost simultaneously and urgently:

"Where's Chuci?"

"Where is Fellow Daoist Chu?"

Wu Ci choked on the spot.

How come Tianjizi came to find me as soon as he became a Heroic Spirit? He was so efficient. Did he bring the Spirit Master with him?

He was really afraid that Tianjizi would bring Tianzun over again and glare at him to death!

Wu Ci helplessly controlled the golden spirit of "Chu Ci" to reassemble in the air.

An elegant young man in a scholar's green robe, with a dragon-cutting sword at his waist and a fighting hat appeared along with the golden particles.

After regrouping, he lifted his hat and looked a little confused. Then he smiled as usual and said, "Is it Fellow Daoist Tianji?"

"Chu, Fellow Daoist Chu? Is that you?"

Although he knew clearly that it was indeed an old acquaintance, Tianjizi still felt a little confused and unreal after hearing the familiar voice. He took two steps forward following the sound and reached out to touch Chu Ci.

Chu Ci did not hide, but tilted his head, slightly bent over and moved closer, chuckled, grabbed his hand and put it on his face, letting him touch it, "Daoyou Tianji, we parted so suddenly that year, I didn't expect that we would meet again so soon..."

The loose hair covering the eyes and eyebrows, the trembling eyelashes, the high nose bridge, the gentle and soft personality like "Chu Ci", and the lips raised as usual.

"Not happy... It's been 400 years..." Tianjizi felt the outline of his facial features from his fingertips, and searched through his memory to find the familiar outlines of the past. He whispered, "Since 20 years ago, Xiaodao has been summoned as a heroic spirit sixteen times."

He narrated like a child who was sharing what he saw and heard at school with his long-lost parents or friends, "Xiao Dao also became friends with them... but they were not like us back then, they were too fragile... some of the necromancers died in battle, some of them consumed too much spiritual power and died prematurely, some of them died because they paid the price of killing more enemies on the battlefield, and some of them were assassinated because others wanted to obtain Xiao Dao as a heroic spirit.

But every time I lost my spiritual master and was sent back to the long river of time, I would come out when I felt called. I look forward to seeing you next time..."

Listening to his words, Wu Ci narrowed his eyes.

Having made friends with so many spiritualists in the past 20 years, will Tianjizi still treat him as the one he trusts the most and be fooled into doing whatever he is told to do?

That won't work. I have to trick the stupid puppy again to consolidate the touching plastic friendship between their close friends.

Wu Ci immediately began to use "Chu Ci" to perform his specialty - sitting and discussing.

"Really?"

Chu Ci sighed softly at Tianjizi's somewhat aggrieved speech, without further explanation, but stretched out a hand to pat the young Taoist on the back, giving his old friend a belated hug, "Sorry, I came down late."

Tianjizi frowned, feeling depressed by his words that put the blame on himself again, "It's not your fault... You are in the initialization state now and have no memory of what happened later, but your spiritualist should have told you... You took on the evil spirit and blood energy for the hungry people and the Tianmie Army. After the uprising broke into Shangjing City, the evil spirit exploded, and you lost your mind and became an evil demon.

I was unable to share this with you... Your transformation into a heroic spirit is already a miracle, so how can I blame you for leaving so hastily?"

Chu Ci laughed and interrupted him easily, changing the topic to a more relaxed direction, "I have temporarily lost my memory of what happened afterwards, I wonder if I said anything to you later?"

"What?"

"That's what I said... Without a formal farewell, it means that we are only separated for a short period of time. The duration of the separation is uncertain, but you can believe that those who are separated will eventually meet again."

It was clearly a consolation, but he smiled and added, "This is a lie, but at this moment, Fellow Daoist Tianji, you can just take it as the truth."

Chu Ci blinked, and his gentle and calm smile seemed a bit cunning, like an elder teasing a child. "After all, it's come true now, isn't it?"

Yes... Tianjizi thought:

By becoming Heroic Spirits, they will no longer have a "brief separation" of "indeterminate length".

The heroic spirits are immortal. Even if the spiritualist dies, they can return to the long river of history and wait for a new summons. Fellow Daoist Chu will never die again.

The two heroes reunited as old friends. Wu Ci was concentrating on manipulating Chu Ci. After another sleepless night, his original body was too lazy to give up the mental control and appeared to be in a daze.

Suddenly, he felt his shoulder being poked secretly. Turning back, he found that it was the spiritualist who was dressed the same as Tianjizi.

The young man whose face is highly similar to Tianjizi is still in the transition stage from adolescence to youth, and is about the same age as Wuci.

“…Who are you?”

"I am your assessor this time, and I am considered a direct subordinate of Director Zhen Shanhe... You should also be enrolled in Dark Star University. If nothing goes wrong, we will be classmates in the same year and class. You can just call me Ke."

Zhen Shanhe, whom I had heard the police mention in the interrogation room before, is the director of the Special Management Bureau.

Wu Ci also looked up the encyclopedia entry last night. This director is not only the director of the Special Management Bureau of Heroic Spirits who works in the government, but also the legal heir of the Sky Group. He also saw the news in the newspaper in the waiting room today that Zhen Shanhe has officially become the chairman of the Sky Group.

Judging from the fragmentary words and entries of deeds from the police, Zhen Shanhe should not be a simple character.

And this classmate, Fu Ke, was a direct subordinate of Zhen Shanhe before he even entered school... Has he been a spiritualist for a long time? Or... is he a second-generation spiritualist?

He immediately started to greet her, "So it's Officer Pei Ke. You've become a direct subordinate of Director Zhen Shanhe of the Special Management Bureau before you even started school. You're really promising at a young age!"

"Don't mention it. Let's not talk about this for now. Don't call me commander... We are all classmates..." Pei Ke looked a little embarrassed. He leaned close to Wu Ci's ear and asked shyly, "Student Wu, how did you summon Chu Ci?"

"Direct summons? Is that weird?"

“So easy!? Why can’t I summon it?” Fu Ke exclaimed in surprise, then felt it was impolite, so she lowered her voice, “I don’t know if it’s because the compatibility is not enough, or if he didn’t become a Heroic Spirit after he was possessed by the devil, or if his consciousness fell into a deep sleep after he became a Heroic Spirit.

I lost all my fortune and still couldn’t get any money out… I also borrowed a loan from the Sky Group based on the ability assessment of the Heroic Spirit Tianjizi and the results of the Spirit Master Level Assessment, and I was about to be captured and forced to mine…

Anyway, the director thought I was useful, so he put me under him to do things that he couldn't do nor let other departments handle, and slowly paid me back..."

Li Ke lifted the hem of her Taoist robe to reveal the electronic handcuffs locked around her ankles, and added in a low voice full of resentment, "Look, you still control me all the time, otherwise who would be willing to do such an offensive thing?

This job is not easy. I have to get off work every day and things are always going on. I feel like I am half dead and hanging on every day. I am hated by everyone. All the high-ranking officials want to assassinate me. All my salary has been used to pay back debts..."

"Student Pi Ke." Wu Ci interrupted him.

"Excuse me, is your online name 'I predict that you will have a bloody disaster today'? The one who lost his family property and a mine for drawing Chuci, owed a loan, and was arrested and forced to work after his failed attempt to jump off a building?"

The expression on Ke's face suddenly became indescribable. He covered his face in pain, "Don't be like this, really, don't be like this... You really don't understand, I just have a high degree of compatibility with Tianjizi, and was also drugged by Chu Ci, so I lost control of my high... If you mention my embarrassing things again, I will die in front of you..."

“And then the soul is caught and continues to work?” Wu Ci smiled maliciously.