Chapter 18: The Chosen Path

Tao Fangyi had originally thought he would lose some points on this mission, but the team leader told him that being discovered by Li Yao didn’t affect his final score.

Tao Fangyi was very surprised. He’d thought Li Yao might have some hidden identity, but the team leader told him Li Yao was just an ordinary kid.

【The grading for your last few missions will be much more lenient. Of course, the final few missions will also be more difficult.】

【So that’s why I was able to collect fragments of my past body during this mission?】 Tao Fangyi asked.

【I’m not entirely clear on that. The troubles each person faces at the end are different; there’s no fixed template. It’s related to your past karma.】 the team leader explained.

“Karma?” Wang couldn’t frown, but the confusion in his tone was overflowing. “How does this seem like something the Heavenly Dao controls? Isn’t the Special Administration just a non-human management department?”

“The Department Head of the Nineteenth Level is the Heavenly Dao,” Tao Fangyi said, looking at Wang.

Wang: …

“What did you say?” Wang thought he had misheard.

“The Nineteenth Level only has a Deputy Department Head, no Department Head. Or rather, our Department Head is the Heavenly Dao,” Tao Fangyi explained.

The Nineteenth Level was considered a semi-independent department. Their connection with the Underworld ran deep, which was how they knew the destinations of executed criminals.

Their direct superior was the Heavenly Dao, or rather, the rules themselves.

“Doesn’t that mean joining the Nineteenth Level allows you to directly connect with the Heavenly Dao? That’s basically cheating!” Wang was shocked. How many people knew about this? If entering the Nineteenth Level meant directly establishing a connection with the Heavenly Dao, which cultivator would be willing to go to other departments?

“First of all, the Heavenly Dao is omnipresent. Every word, every action, the flow of time itself—all of it is the Heavenly Dao,” Tao Fangyi corrected Wang. “Secondly, the requirements to enter the Nineteenth Level are extremely high.”

Entering the Nineteenth Level required completely abandoning one’s past. Their history, their appearance, their body—all had to be given up.

Early on, Tao Fangyi had even forgotten who he was. Later, he gradually reclaimed his memories. The return of his memories also proved that the Heavenly Dao was slowly acknowledging him as a Warden Reserve.

Many Wardens had sensitive identities. Looking back hundreds or thousands of years, they were the arrogant geniuses or villains who caused major trouble, or simply antagonists in their own stories.

Wang pondered for a moment, then he realized an earth-shattering truth. “So the strongest overall combat force in the entire Special Administration isn’t the Combat Department at all, but the Nineteenth Level?!” It took real strength to be a villain.

Tao Fangyi nodded.

Wang crouched down, hugging his head.

After a moment of mental turmoil, he stood back up and moved closer. “Open up your Nineteenth Level internal chat channel, let me see?”

“You might get scared,” Tao Fangyi gave a gentle warning.

“Now I’m actually a little interested.” Wang was very curious about the Nineteenth Level’s inexplicable aura, but unfortunately, he could never find any information related to it.

Tao Fangyi opened the internal channel of the Nineteenth Level, then looked up to carefully observe Wang’s state.

Wang only had a mouth, so Tao Fangyi could only judge if Wang was startled by the curve of his lips.

Wang had also prepared himself to be startled. The moment Tao Fangyi opened it, a sense of fear did indeed make Wang’s scalp tingle. This fear was like a cliché jumpscare, but after being frightened once, there was no follow-up.

“How is it?” Tao Fangyi asked him.

“It was nothing much,” Wang touched his own chest.

“Are you just being brave?” Tao Fangyi was surprised.

“It’s a little uncomfortable, but it’s really fine.” Wang felt a bit dizzy after looking for too long.

But more than that, the messages the Nineteenth Level people were posting in the internal channel caught Wang’s attention even more.

【Is this crape myrtle sapling I bought not quite right? I’ve been planting it for months.】

【To the person above, I’m a tree demon. What you bought isn’t a crape myrtle at all; it’s a plum tree.】

【I had someone act as a middleman to pass messages for an online relationship. Now the other party knows I’m from the Nineteenth Level and isn’t replying. What do I do?】

【Don’t do that kind of thing; you’ll get publicly shamed.】

【I planted a whole yard of sunflowers, eh. Look, everyone.】

After that came messages asking about sunflower varieties and planting methods.

Upon seeing that message, Tao Fangyi’s eyes lit up, and he joined in, asking how big the person’s yard was.

“Isn’t this your work group chat?” Wang was puzzled. “Why is everyone talking about personal matters?”

“This is the big group. Basically no one talks about work stuff,” Tao Fangyi said as he clicked a link the person posted in the group and bought sunflower seeds from an online store.

“The shop owner is probably going to have nightmares tonight.” Too many Wardens from the Nineteenth Level were coming to buy seeds; the boss was bound to be affected somewhat.

“A group of powerhouses discussing growing flowers and plants… Wait!” Wang spotted another highlight in Tao Fangyi’s shopping cart. “What’s this? An aluminum alloy snap-together house? Don’t you have a home to live in?”

“I do. I just wanted to see how this is assembled, but they can’t deliver to my door.” Tao Fangyi’s residence was in another space.

Wang scrolled down further. Tao Fangyi’s shopping cart had everything, from electronic devices to antiques, calligraphy, and paintings.

Tao Fangyi’s hobbies were quite extensive.

“They’re all this expensive?” Wang asked.

“It’s alright,” Tao Fangyi didn’t find it expensive.

“Well, yeah. You’ve lived a long time, built up a solid foundation,” Wang nodded.

“I didn’t save much private wealth before. My salary can support my hobbies,” Tao Fangyi said.

“Salary? What’s your monthly salary at the Nineteenth Level?”

Tao Fangyi and the others generally used points within the Special Administration. He’d never paid attention to the growth of his salary.

Tao Fangyi opened the banking app for the card where he received his salary right in front of Wang.

Then Wang was completely devastated.

Tao Fangyi’s salary was three times his own.

And Tao Fangyi was clearly just a Reserve too!

“Are you okay?” Tao Fangyi noticed Wang’s mouth was twitching now. “Could it be you were affected after all?”

He was definitely affected—affected by Tao Fangyi’s salary.

But thinking about it carefully, the Nineteenth Level had always been ostracized by the other departments. Working at the Nineteenth Level was indeed quite tough.

Even as a Reserve, they could be erased by the child at any moment if they weren’t careful. A higher salary was only normal.

Wang silently crouched in the corner, curling himself into a ball, shutting down completely.

“Are you very sad?” Tao Fangyi asked him again.

“Sad? Why would I be sad?” It was just discovering that his salary couldn’t compare to other Reserves. What was there to be sad about?

Come to think of it, he was over a hundred years old now. He’d briefly achieved Permanent Employment before, and now he’d been knocked back down to re-train.

Did any of this even have meaning?

What exactly was the point of this repeated struggling? After struggling for so long, his salary wasn’t even half of someone else’s.

Of course, he’d never cared about such worldly things before.

No one had ever told him back then that a Nineteenth Level Reserve could get so many worldly things.

And their combat strength was even greater than the Combat Department’s. So what exactly had he been pursuing all this time?

“Tao Fangyi.” Wang tilted his head up at a forty-five-degree angle to stare at the ceiling.

“I’m here,” Tao Fangyi responded seriously.

“What is the meaning of living?” Wang asked, sounding somewhat dejected.

“Do you want to fight?” Tao Fangyi asked.

Wang: …

Wang stood up instantly. “Let’s go!!”

A moment later.

Wang lay flat on the ground, the corners of his mouth curved up in a satisfied smile, his face flushed, looking very content.

Still couldn’t win.

“You really are powerful.” Wang clutched Tao Fangyi’s body, rubbing his face against it.

“Do you still think living is meaningless?” Tao Fangyi asked him.

“Living is just too interesting, hehe.” Wang had a new goal for the time being: he was going to defeat Tao Fangyi.

Just as the two were in this intimate contact, the sound of a key turning rang out.

“Back already?” Tao Fangyi was a bit surprised. “Shouldn’t she be in class right now?”

Wang clicked his tongue, released Tao Fangyi, and craned out to look, displeased.

“It’s Li Yao,” Wang said. “No one else.”

Tao Fangyi let out a sigh of relief.

“But Li Yao’s state doesn’t seem right,” Wang saw Li Yao’s face was flushed red and her steps were a little unsteady. “Seems like she has a cold.”

“There’s a ghostly aura,” Tao Fangyi said.

“There is?” Wang was puzzled.

“Yes, very faint. It’s not the scent of a Fierce Ghost.” Without any shielding, Tao Fangyi’s perception was still quite sharp.

Wang waved at Li Yao. Li Yao nodded. “I have a fever. I’m taking sick leave to come home.”

“I need to go sleep in my bed for a while.” After drinking her medicine, Li Yao went back to her room.

Tao Fangyi and Wang followed.

Up close, Wang finally caught the scent of a ghost.

“Why do I feel like she has a dead aura on her?” Wang asked.

“The ghost clinging to her seems to be her father,” Tao Fangyi said.

“What do you mean? Her father wants to kill her?!” Wang was astonished. “Why would her father come here? Shouldn’t her father be in the Underworld?”

“Her father’s rationality has already dissipated now. As for why her father came here,” Tao Fangyi took a deep breath, then sighed heavily. “It’s probably because her pain was conveyed to her father with absolute accuracy.”

“The Yin realm and the Yang realm do not communicate with each other.” Emotions from the living world couldn’t possibly be transmitted to the Yin realm with such accuracy, even affecting a ghost about to undergo Reincarnation in the Underworld.

Tao Fangyi pulled out his eyeball. “But with this thing, her emotions were conveyed through it.”

Wang: “… What do we do now?”

“Let nature take its course,” Tao Fangyi put his eyeball away. “It depends on her own choice.”

“You’re not going to interfere?” Wang was somewhat surprised.

“This time, my body was merely a medium,” Tao Fangyi spread his hands. “What wants to harm her isn’t an external Fierce Ghost, but herself.”

In this situation, whether she chose to walk out of it could only depend on her.

“What kind of talk is that? Her father’s ghost isn’t clear-headed right now.” Wang felt Li Yao was in extreme danger right now.

“That’s why if she feels fear, it means she’s chosen to live,” Tao Fangyi had absolutely no intention of intervening. “If, upon seeing her father, she is overjoyed and follows him away…”

“Even if we drive away her father’s ghost this time, we can’t save her,” Tao Fangyi crossed his two round hands in front of his chest. “We might leave, but there will always be a next time.”

“You can save a life, but you can’t save a heart.”