Spiritual Masters

Chapter 1: Bell Attacher

Chi Zheng has been following a person for more than half a month already.

Over the past ten or so years, he met many people, most were quite similar. Every time, it would always end in his disappointment. So much so that he had gotten used to it.

Even if the person wasn’t him, it would still be fine. Chi Zheng would immediately go find the next one.

Unlike what happened years ago, when he would stir up chaos every time he failed.

This time, it was the strongest he ever sensed.

However, Cen Tianhe, that idiot who tripped and got hurt, made him unable to show up on time.

Chi Zheng sat on the second-floor balcony window stool of the teaching building. He was studying the bird feeder that was hung on a wooden, Chinese-style window by the students. The birds that came for the food glanced at him in surprise and carefully avoided. On the school field nearby, several teachers saw this and were discussing why the birds today were approaching the feeder but didn’t dare to stay too close.

They couldn’t see Chi Zheng.

As long as he wanted, Chi Zheng could make himself unnoticeable by others.

Chi Zheng was a spiritual master.

Those who were extremely obsessed with something in their life would be transformed into “spirits” after death. Of these spirits, a very small portion that possessed powerful spiritual energy would be transformed into spiritual masters.

Spiritual masters were divided into red spirits and white spirits. The difference was in what their obsession was during their lifetime.

Both had the same goal of finding the “person” who caused their obsession and made them become spiritual masters. That “person” would be known as the “bell releaser”.

The difference was that red spirits’ obsession was to repay kindness, and white spirits’ was to take revenge.

Chi Zheng and his cheap uncle Cen Tianhe died in the same accident more than a decade ago. They both turned into spiritual masters, but unlike Cen Tianhe, he was a white spirit.

After becoming spiritual masters, as long as they completed their assigned tasks well and didn’t look for trouble, they would basically never die or age. Therefore, spiritual masters had a long time to resolve their obsession, either to repay or to revenge.

The task of a spiritual master was very simple: protect the living spirits and remove the evil spirits.

As the most powerful white spirit in hundreds of years, even if the assigned tasks tend to be quite difficult, they wouldn’t trouble Chi Zheng too much. The only thing that troubled him was that the person he was looking for already died many years ago. In the past ten years or so, Chi Zheng could only estimate based on the person’s age after reincarnation and trying to pick the needle out from the haystack.

From what he could tell, the person should be nineteen this year.

In the spacious university classroom behind Chi Zheng, on the seventh row, the ninth student from the window, Qian Tu, was his new target.

Correct age, correct date of birth, no parents… The person’s lonely and unfortunate fate was also a match.

Most importantly, this person’s thin spiritual energy gave Chi Zheng a familiar feeling at his first glance.

Too familiar.

However, Chi Zheng was much more mature now, as this wasn’t the first time he came across a situation like this. He had never shown himself in front of Qian Tu, and even after such a long time, he still hadn’t taken a clear look at Qian Tu.

Before confirming, Chi Zheng wouldn’t be involved with the person in any way.

Like what happened countless times, Chi Zheng was waiting for his cheap uncle Cen Tianhe to come and make a final confirmation.

If the spiritual master was looking for someone who reincarnated, an item from the person’s previous life would be needed to compare with the remaining spirit energy. The person Chi Zheng was looking for left only a blank notebook. With the incredible amount of grudge on him, Chi Zheng was afraid that he would contaminate the thin spiritual energy on the notebook and therefore had been entrusting it to Cen Tianhe, a red spirit, for safekeeping.

Half a month ago, Chi Zheng contacted Cen Tianhe, and Cen Tianhe should be able to come tonight.

The bell rang for the end of the class, Chi Zheng jumped down from the window and landed beside the building’s front door, waiting quietly for Qian Tu to come out.

The other students all gathered in small groups, and Qian Tu was always by himself.

After observing this person, Chi Zheng found him to have a good personality. He was cheerful, generous, and helpful.

He was good at basketball and baseball. In the last half a month, he never got in any conflicts with other students, and others were very kind to him as well.

But that was it.

In this half a month, Chi Zheng noticed that he had no close friends.

When school started a few days ago, someone confessed to him, but he didn’t accept.

Qian Tu didn’t live on campus. His house was nearby, so he walked back home every day.

Qian Tu had a bit of spiritual energy on him, so to prevent him from being eaten by some evil spirits, Chi Zheng had been closely following him recently.

Chi Zheng followed Qian Tu from a distance. He followed Qian Tu to the supermarket, watched him picking out the ingredients, checking out, and continuing back home.

Spirits and spiritual masters couldn’t enter houses with people living in them without exposing themselves. Chi Zheng gently jumped onto the roof of a house and sat down.

It was getting dark, and before long, the smell of cooking came out of the house.

This person cooked most of his meals himself, and from the smell, the food could probably be considered “barely edible”.

Qian Tu was obviously not good at cooking, but he rarely ordered take-out or ate outside.

Since the person went into his house, he was probably safe. Just as Chi Zheng wanted to leave for a bit, he sensed Cen Tianhe.

Half an hour later, Cen Tianhe hurried over and jumped onto the roof.

Although Cen Tianhe was his uncle, Cen Tianhe was only a few months older than him. The two were the same age, and after their deaths, they became spirit masters and maintained the same appearance. Both in their early twenties, Cen Tianhe looked somewhat similar to Chi Zheng, except Cen Tianhe was much purer and kinder. Even with a scar on the left side of his neck, his appearance still wouldn’t make people feel scared.

“Sorry, sorry, I met two evil spirits haunting a child… Quite difficult to get rid of…” Cen Tianhe looked tired from traveling but still had a warming smile on his face, “Without you there, it’s still such a hassle to deal with evil spirits. Took me a long time, and I even had to ask a local spiritual master for help…”

“Give me the notebook,” Chi Zheng interrupted Cen Tianhe, “I’m not here to listen to your story.”

Cen Tianhe subconsciously took a step back.

It was very dark, and the college town was quiet. Cen Tianhe closed his eyes for a second, and after a moment of silence, he said, “… He is very similar to that person.”

Chi Zheng said coldly, “Give it.”

“Why are you in such a rush?” Cen Tianhe forced a smile, “Chi Zheng… No matter what, I’m still your uncle. Even as a far relative, we’re still related… I want to ask you a few things, alright?”

Chi Zheng wasn’t in the mood to chat with Cen Tianhe about the past, and when Cen Tianhe said “relative”, his sense of resentment grew stronger. Chi Zheng looked at Cen Tianhe and asked, “Did you forget what happened last time when you called me nephew?”

Cen Tianhe touched the scar on his neck, tsk tsk.

Chi Zheng’s left hand slowly gathered a white light, “Cen Tianhe, you aren’t thinking that I’m begging you, right?”

As a red spirit that formed from repaying kindness, Cen Tianhe was no match against an angered white spirit. Chi Zheng didn’t get any closer to Cen Tianhe, but Cen Tianhe already felt that he was drowning, and his face which was already pale became even whiter. But knowing that they were still kins to each other, he said, “I want to remind you again, Chi Zheng… Spiritual masters, even white spirits, cannot kill a person. No matter how powerful, when a spiritual master kills a person, he would perish as well and forever be unable to reincarnate. So many white spirits already died by taking their revenge. You…”

Cen Tianhe and Chi Zheng didn’t know each other well during their lifetime. Cen Tianhe was confused about what must have made a carefree young master like Chi Zheng to hold such a strong grudge. For more than a decade as a white spirit, Chi Zheng continued his hatred even after the person died and reincarnated.

“When we were still alive, you were… quite nice to me. No matter what you believe, I still think you’re the way you were.” Cen Tianhe was struggling to even get his words out, “I’m just curious… What did your bell attacher do to you?”

Before he finished his sentence, the power that Chi Zheng was releasing increased again. Dozens of birds sleeping on a tree next to them were startled, flying as far away as they could as if a monster was behind them.

Feeling that he would collapse any moment, Cen Tianhe decided to sit down instead. He said, “Chi Zheng, do you still remember what I asked you ten years ago? What would you do when you found your bell attacher? You told me you will… will…”

Chi Zheng’s eyes turned white and his voice became cold. He must have repeated the answer tens of thousands of times in his mind.

“I’ll take his eyes, cut his tongue, break his bones, and remove his tendons.”

“I’ll lock him up in a place that only I can get to. He won’t be able to speak nor see and be forever severed of his freedom.”

Cen Tianhe’s teeth chattered from the pressure, “Then I’m going to ask you again. If you met him, will you still…”

“Yes,” answered Chi Zheng without even thinking about it.

Cen Tianhe could clearly sense the teenager in the house under his feet, “He’s barely an adult and doesn’t even know anything about his past! Also, even if you don’t kill him, it will still take your spiritual energy to torture him like this. You will lose control. You will…”

“Ha, he doesn’t know anything…” Chi Zheng repeated what Cen Tianhe said and laughed, “Cen Tianhe, then how much do you know?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know why you’re seeking such revenge.” Cen Tianhe looked at Chi Zheng, almost begging him, “I want to help you, as long as you can tell me…”

Chi Zheng’s hatred accumulated even stronger, and the white light that emitted from his body almost engulfed Cen Tianhe’s entire body.

“It was for a lover,” said Chi Zheng after a long time.

Cen Tianhe was speechless. As soon as the words came out, memories stormed into Chi Zheng’s mind, giving him an intense headache. Chi Zheng finally lost his patience, and after he made sure that Cen Tianhe couldn’t move anymore from his presence, he put a glove on his left hand that insulated spiritual energy and took a palm-sized notebook out from Cen Tianhe’s pocket.

Chi Zheng jumped down to the ground with the notebook.

He did this countless times already. Chi Zheng placed the notebook on the floor and took off his gloves. He placed two fingers of his left hand on the cover and his right palm on the ground.

Two glowing white lights extended from his hands and joined together after passing through the notebook. The light slowly stretched toward the house like a snake and disappeared behind the door.

In the silence, every second was like a century.

After a long time, nothing happened.

The spiritual energy on the ground quickly spread like vines, covering the entire house and yard. The white spiritual energy could be seen almost everywhere.

But nothing, no response.

It was the same as before.

Finding a reincarnated person was no different from trying to find a specific fish from the vast ocean.

Cen Tianhe, who was still trapped on the roof, sighed in relief. He stood up slowly and looked at the horrifying white light. Just as he wanted to tell Chi Zheng to stop wasting his energy, Cen Tianhe froze in place.

A faint, almost unnoticeable spiritual energy traveled along the glowing white path from inside the house.

The spiritual energy was very weak. It started gathering toward the middle, like a pair of “butterfly wings” fighting to approach the white glowing light.

The closer it got to the brightest center, the weaker the spiritual energy got. Finally, the “butterfly” jumped into Chi Zheng’s fingertips and disappeared.

This time, the spiritual energy mixed in perfectly with the spiritual energy on the notebook and became a whole.

The two were the exact same.

Chi Zheng’s fingers were trembling.

He looked up toward the house.