He found Sister Lin in the Killer column. Surprisingly, she was already unlocked, whereas all the other Killers were locked by The Entity, requiring either Dark Gold Cells or Iridescent Shards.
His Dark Gold Cells numbered only one, which meant that sacrificing a Specter yielded one Dark Gold Cell.
As for how to obtain Iridescent Shards, he had no idea, so he opened the Archive, which contained a series of tasks.
Task Branch 1: Kill a Specter with your own hands (1/1) (Incomplete)
Task Branch 2: Sacrifice three Specters to The Entity (1/3) (Incomplete)
Task Branch 1 was uncompleted, while Task Branch 2 was one-third complete.
It seemed that even if someone else killed them, he could still sacrifice them to The Entity; that made things much easier.
A bright light shone from behind him, and the surrounding black mist began to dissipate.
The voice of The Entity lingered in his mind: "I am going back to sleep. The black mist will tell you everything..."
A diamond-shaped icon suddenly appeared on his interface, and a skill manifested on the magic interface:
Killing Intent Perception I: Targets within 50/100/150/? meters who harbor killing intent toward you will trigger your Killer Instinct.
The so-called Killer Instinct meant that a red marker would appear on the target to alert and pinpoint their location for him.
The black mist completely dissipated, and a series of footsteps and bright light appeared around Lu Yun.
"Lu Yun? What are you doing out here in the middle of the night? Didn't Sister say you went home?" Xiao Chun asked when he saw Lu Yun.
"I wanted to go straight home, too. If I hadn't been entangled by a Soul-Devouring Specter, I would've been home ages ago," Lu Yun said, looking like he was about to cry.
"What? You ran into a Soul-Devouring Specter?" Xiao Chun stepped forward, grabbed his upper arm, and asked urgently.
"Yeah. Good thing an expert happened to walk by and casually chopped it to pieces, otherwise I'd only be coming back to see you and Sister as a Specter," Lu Yun said, pretending to wipe away tears.
Xiao Chun comforted him, "What are you crying for like a man? Do you remember what that expert looked like?"
Lu Yun shook his head.
Xiao Chun sighed and said, "You can't even remember what your savior looked like, you..."
At that moment, the vice-captain stepped in to smooth things over.
"Captain, he just cheated death. Cut him some slack."
Only then did Xiao Chun realize he had lost his composure.
"Sorry, Xiao Lu, I was just..." Before Xiao Chun could finish, Lu Yun interrupted him.
"I'm fine, bro. Let's go home," Lu Yun said.
The vice-captain took care of the remaining cleanup, and Xiao Chun brought Lu Yun home.
In truth, the Xiao siblings were blood-related, while their relationship with Lu Yun was that of cousins.
However, both sets of parents had been Spirit Masters, and all of them had perished in a massive Specter invasion event.
The authorities had provided a substantial stipend and assigned each of them an apartment.
Even so, they all lived in Xiao Qian's apartment, as she was the owner, while the apartments belonging to Lu Yun and Xiao Chun were rented out.
The older sister possessed no Spirit Master talent, so she attended a regular medical college and became a Nurse, occasionally serving as a doctor.
The hospital director was a comrade-in-arms of their parents, which meant Xiao Qian could essentially do as she pleased at Sacred Heart Hospital (Fifth People's Hospital).
On the way back, both of them said to each other simultaneously, "Don't say a word to Sister about what happened tonight."
After saying this, the two fell silent.
Actually, for Xiao Chun to become a Spirit Master was already against his sister's wishes.
Now, Lu Yun was becoming one as well, and neither of them wanted to make Xiao Qian worry about such matters.
Because the principle of an elder sister acting like a mother was already an unspoken consensus between the brothers.
Therefore, the original Lu Yun had always been very sensible.
"Remember to call Sister and let her know you're safe. Sister has to work the night shift today." Xiao Chun grabbed a bottle of fat-boy happy water from the fridge for Lu Yun, then washed up and returned to his own room.
Lu Yun lay on the couch for a long time before recovering enough to call his sister: "Hey, Sister, I'm home."
"Good thing you're home. Luckily you ran fast, Grandpa Wang in the bed next to yours just had his condition worsen," Xiao Qian said in a low voice.
"Huh? What happened, Sister? I remember he was doing fine before I left," Lu Yun said.
"I have no idea. The old man suddenly developed cognitive impairment, pissing as he walked and soaking half the hallway. The patrolling nurse tracked down the old man's family and publicized anti-wandering and anti-fall measures, then troubled a male nurse to wipe the floor dry, though she had to treat him to a meal. After a while, seeing that the patient had already fallen asleep, she closed the room and returned. But a little later, when she went to do her rounds again, the old man refused to sleep in the middle of the night, defecated everywhere, and started playing with it himself. When she discovered it, she immediately tried to stop him, but communication failed and she got it smeared all over her face."
Lu Yun drew a sharp breath, contributing his own modest part to global warming.
"Hiss, that is terrifying, but I still can't help saying—that's really being up shit creek..." Lu Yun said.
"She's already been given time off—three days of vacation—to go home and collect herself. Grandpa Wang's family even gave her compensation, probably upwards of ten thousand. That's all for now, get some rest early. Bye." With that, Xiao Qian hung up the phone.
After hanging up, Lu Yun resumed studying The Entity's magic interface.
He clicked on Spirit Master Mountain Creek Lin's Bloodweb and discovered he could provide her with Bloodpoints to help her level up. One thousand Bloodpoints per level, and Lu Yun clicked her all the way to level fifty in one go.
Then, two thousand Bloodpoints for a Prestige rank, and he prestiged her immediately.
He continued clicking. Prestige 1 still cost one thousand Bloodpoints per level. After leveling her up to Prestige 1 Level 50, it once again required twenty thousand Bloodpoints to increase her Prestige rank.
Ultimately, Sister Lin's level settled at Prestige 3 Level 40.
The Bloodweb stated that The Entity had awakened, Sister Lin was willing to provide her power for his use, and he could now use Yama's Blessing.
At the same time, a pair of omamori and a wind chime appeared in his hand.
Warding Omamori (Very Rare): A powerful charm that protects your hard work from the affliction of bad luck.
(Materials sought by Mountain Creek Lin in the black mist, crafted with her own hands as a pair of omamori to thank you for your devotion to her.)
Wind Chime (Very Rare): A warm summer breeze gently blows through the small bell hanging from the balcony ceiling.
(You might hear the sound of Sister Lin walking in the Spirit Realm from it—only you can hear it!)
"I can use her power?" Lu Yun thought to himself. The space around him froze, and then he arrived in a dim, gray world where everything around him was completely still.
He saw Sister Lin standing beside him, looking at him with a strange expression... as if she were looking at a fool.
Three seconds later, Lu Yun felt a wave of weakness and was expelled from the Spirit Realm.
"Is only being able to stay in the Spirit Realm for three seconds my limit right now?" Lu Yun was not discouraged. Three seconds was fine; anyway, as his strength grew in the future, the duration would increase.
With that thought, he hung the wind chime on the balcony ceiling, and a series of wind chime tones drifted into his ears.
This chiming sound... why did it make him feel so sleepy?
Lu Yun drifted off to sleep just like that.
In the Spirit Realm, Sister Lin walked back and forth in his room, the wind chime chiming softly with her footsteps.
Jingle, jingle~