There was only one week left until the national college entrance examinations.
The college entrance exams in this world were not written tests; instead, candidates were sent directly into Secret Realms, or Ghost Domains, to put it another way.
The current world recognized two kinds of Specters: one was formed by being tainted with anomalous aura, while the other was transformed from human beings. Because it was inconvenient to distinguish between them, both were collectively referred to as Specters.
The Secret Realms entered were entirely random. Of course, how could the authorities let you die in an entrance exam?
Usually, the higher-ups would issue a one-time-use spiritual artifact, such as a Talisman or something similar.
The moment it detected that you were about to die, the Talisman would teleport you right back, and medical personnel would be dispatched immediately to treat you.
This college entrance exam was not a unified national test; every school had access to a different Secret Realm.
However, schools could swap Secret Realms with one another for the examinations.
Inside the Secret Realm, you could contract a Specter as a companion—whether it was just a single body part or an entire Specter, as long as it provided combat assistance, it counted as extra points for the exam.
There would be a psychological test in three days, and attendance was mandatory; missing it meant forfeiting participation in the college entrance exams.
A Specter had tracked Lu Yun all the way to his home and caused an incident, leaving him with a week-long absence.
The head teacher had said that as long as he showed up for the psychological test, whether he could take the entrance exam afterwards depended entirely on him, but his name had already been registered anyway.
You could say it was up to human effort now, while the rest was up to fate.
"Time to collect the rent." Holding his ledger, Lu Yun walked over to the neighboring door and knocked gently.
No one answered for quite a while.
The old lady living here was a bit hard of hearing and couldn't hear clearly; Lu Yun had to knock a few more times before she would notice.
After three knocks, the elderly woman finally opened the door.
"Oh my, if it isn't the little landlord, come on in and sit down." The old lady led Lu Yun inside.
Just as Lu Yun was about to bring up the rent, he caught sight of something sitting beneath the Buddhist statue the old lady worshiped.
Lu Yun looked closer and was so startled he nearly wanted to run away.
Why on earth was there a Cthulhu statue?
Curious, Lu Yun asked the old lady, "Granny, who gave you this statue?"
After pondering for quite a moment, the old lady replied, "Little landlord, are you asking about the statue down below?"
"Yes, Granny," Lu Yun answered.
"Oh, this thing? My grandson brought it back for me. He said he knew I’d spent all these years worshiping Buddha and chanting scriptures, so he went out of his way to ask some ocean-researcher friends of his to procure this foreign bodhisattva for me all the way from Antarctica."
The old lady was rather hard of hearing, so she always asked people to repeat themselves.
At that moment, Lu Yun could actually hear the Cthulhu statue muttering and whispering something.
"Granny, how long have you been worshiping this?" Lu Yun asked.
"Ah, I've been worshiping it for three years," the old lady said.
Lu Yun fell silent.
It took him a good while to process it. Turned out the old lady was hard of hearing, so no matter what kind of Old One whispers the Cthulhu statue uttered, she couldn't hear a thing.
"Sigh, in the middle of the night I always hear someone mumbling and chattering about something, but as soon as old me wakes up, I forget it all. The dreams I have I can't remember by morning either; getting old, simply useless..."
He collected a token amount of rent and noted it down in the ledger.
The rent was transferred directly.
The old lady's family members were all members of scientific research expeditions and constantly traveled abroad, while the old lady didn't want to move too far from home. Hence, they rented this room for her in the small town and kept her from having to do hard labor in the fields.
Lu Yun still felt a dull ache in his head, and it wasn't until he slept until the afternoon that he felt somewhat better.
He opened up a website and looked up information regarding Spirit Masters.
The highest rank for a Spirit Master currently was Tier 7, and the way to break through was simply to accumulate enough spiritual power within one's body for a natural breakthrough.
This sort of thing also depended heavily on talent.
Some people graduated from Spirit Controlling University after four years and were still barely at Tier 2. Take Lu Yun's older brother, Xiao Chun, for instance—he could only return to this remote little town to serve as the captain of the Anomalous Incident Response Squad.
The graduation requirement for Spirit Controlling University was Tier 2. If a student failed to reach Tier 2 before graduation, they could only leave without a diploma or wait until they reached Tier 2 to return to school and reissue their graduation certificate.
Lu Yun's thoughts were in complete disarray. He looked up the combat methods of this world: using Specters to assist in combat, utilizing Specter possession to boost fighting prowess, or replacing one's own body parts with a Specter's physical components, such as eyes, ears, arms, and the like.
Three days passed in a flash, and Lu Yun had to head to school for the psychological test.
He navigated to the school based on his memories and found his classroom.
"Report!" Lu Yun's voice rang out loud and clear.
The head teacher, who was in the middle of a lecture, jumped in fright.
"Scared me. Back on your feet and full of energy already? Looks like you're recovering well. Come on in and take a seat," the head teacher said.
Lu Yun's appearance drew the gaze of everyone in the classroom.
"Did you hear? A Soul-Devouring Specter came after Lu Yun a few days ago, and it almost sucked his soul right out," a gossip-loving girl whispered to her close friend.
"I know, it was terrifying. I have no idea how Lu Yun managed to survive," her friend replied.
The previous owner of this body had been extremely reclusive and friendless in class.
As a result, some delinquent students in the classroom frequently bullied him, making him run errands to the convenience store without even giving him travel money.
They insisted on calling it doing good deeds to help others.
If this were the current Lu Yun, he would definitely tell them where to shove it.
Yet, Lu Yun was actually built quite strongly. If it weren't for the previous owner's strict promise to his elder sister not to stir up trouble and to remain honest and obedient, just see if the former owner wouldn't have beaten these punks until their faces looked like smashed pigs.
In the corner, a fat man stared at Lu Yun with an extremely malicious gaze.
Lu Yun's Killing Intent Perception triggered, marking this fat man with a red symbol.
His heartbeat began to accelerate... He actually felt an urge to kill this fat man!
Lu Yun glanced sideways at the fat man. His name seemed to be Zhu Shouwei or something—part of the Zhu family. Not really a grand clan, just a family that ran a company and had a bit of disposable cash.
"Why does he harbor killing intent toward me?"
That matter traced back to a few days ago, beginning when Sister Lin chopped that Soul-Devouring Specter to pieces with a few strikes.
That Soul-Devouring Specter was actually raised by the Zhu family!
In secret, the Zhu family maintained ties with an extremist organization, and that organization provided them with methods to raise Specters, allowing them to tame low-level Soul-Devouring Specters!
Having acquired his very own Soul-Devouring Specter, Zhu Shouwei was itching to test it out on someone.
So he thought of the most neglected classmate in the class with the lowest presence—Lu Yun.
So, did Zhu Shouwei succeed? Without a doubt, Zhu Shouwei succeeded in killing the original owner, but Lu Yun ended up occupying this body.
In a way, Lu Yun should even thank him for this "rebirth grace."
However, Lu Yun had no idea about any of that right now.
He only noticed that Zhu Shouwei seemed to hold killing intent toward him. Since you were the one who started with malicious intentions, you couldn't blame him for what happened next.
Up on the platform, the head teacher was still going over various precautions concerning the Secret Realm entrance exams.