Chapter 18

After everything that she had been through tonight, getting murdered, entering the trial space, and finally escaping from a near-death experience, Song Qingxiao would have had trouble falling asleep. That problem seemed to have solved itself since she fainted.

However, it was not a proper restful sleep. Everything that happened in the test space became a nightmare. Song Qingxiao constantly ‘saw’ those nine cards, and she was filled with anxiety that when the next card flipped, she would see her own face. She dreamt that she killed number six and the doctor once again.

The doctor’s face looked extremely malevolent as he glared at her with bloodshot eyes. He looked as if he were about to snap her neck and end her life.

“Ah!”

Song Qingxiao reached for her neck as she opened her eyes. She panted heavily. It took her a while after she woke up to realize that she was back in the real world. When she got home last night, her wet clothes clung to her body tightly. The weight of the wet clothes sticking to her skin made her feel like it was really difficult to breathe.

The smell of her sweat mixed in with the rainwater and blood on her body made her think of the suffocating scent of blood in that space each time that she breathed in. She took off her jacket without hesitation and tossed it to one side as she wiped off the sweat on her face.

She still clutched onto that dagger that she had used to kill. As soon as she realized that, her hand shivered subconsciously, and she dropped the dagger. It fell to the floor with a loud clatter. Song Qingxiao hyperventilated as she recalled something…

When she escaped from the test space, she seemed to have received a prize. She used the credits in exchange for a mysterious gift and received the ‘Nine-Word Secret Order’. It was a shame that she lost consciousness soon after that. Hence, she could not be sure if that truly happened or if it was just a figment of her imagination.

As soon as she thought about it, the secret of the nine-word order appeared in her consciousness. The nine-word secret order must have been incomplete because Song Qingxiao read it carefully and found that what she knew was only a small portion of the ‘Arrival’ word art.

Carrying out the secret order required mental force and energy to achieve the purpose of the attack. Song Qingxiao had never seen that type of attack technique before. She had never heard about it before either.

In that era in the Empire, people had a better grasp and understanding of martial arts. It included various attack techniques like punching, kicking, and other body strengthening exercises. Hence, Song Qingxiao had never heard of word arts such as the nine-word secret order.

Based on what little she knew, the nine-word secret order did not possess any ability to harm or kill. She was a little disappointed. However, since she had made her choice, there was no point in crying over spilled milk.

Perhaps it was because she had experienced too many highs-and-lows last night, but Song Qingxiao’s emotions were in an extremely tense condition. She followed the nine-word secret order instructions and could faintly sense the presence of psychic energy in her consciousness. She attempted to awaken that psychic energy.

However, her attempts did not succeed. She attempted it many times in succession and finally formed a handprint. Unfortunately, her attempts had left her feeling extremely tired mentally. Her hunger had also reached unbearable levels.

The sky had begun to grow brighter. Song Qingxiao stopped practicing and got up to get cleaned up, as well as to fill her stomach with food. Her mother lay slumped in the corner of the house. She was as drunk as a skunk as she lay unconscious amid a messy pile. She had no idea that her own daughter had narrowly escaped death.

It was almost time for work. Song Qingxiao dragged her mother to bed and prepared some food and water for her before leaving for work. She was still traumatized from her experience in the alley from last night, so she took a longer route to get to the security guard headquarters. She was slightly late for work by the time she arrived.

There were a couple of strongly built female guards in the changing room. All conversation stopped as soon as Song Qingxiao entered the room, and everyone’s eyes turned to land on her.

“Are you new?”

It seemed as though everyone in the team had heard about the new person who was as weak as a baby. Everyone seemed to be gleefully anticipating a good show when the new person ran from the job crying in terror and fright.

Song Qingxiao hung her head and softly replied, “Yes.”

She was not wearing her uniform, and she looked extremely weak among all the strongly-built female guards. Her long fringe hung over her face, covering nearly half of her face. Her appearance made the female guards look at her with contempt. Her voice was a little hoarse. One of the women snorted. Her tone carried a sense of disdain and scorn.

“I don’t understand why the people-in-charge hired a piece of useless trash like you. You’re dragging down our standards.”

As soon as the lady finished speaking, all the other guards started to laugh. She joined in the laughter as she reached out to push Song Qingxiao. Before she could continue, she saw Song Qingxiao lift her head to look at her indifferently.

The lady saw the strangulation marks on Song Qingxiao’s neck. The skin around the marks was broken, and it had turned purple. It was an extremely gruesome sight. It was no wonder why Song Qingxiao did not sound entirely normal when she spoke earlier.

The new person was severely injured, but she did not make a sound. The guard lady who had pushed Song Qingxiao gulped subconsciously. The sight of Song Qingxiao’s neck seemed to make her own neck feel vaguely sore.

The way Song Qingxiao looked at her made her feel perturbed. Her keen perception came from many years of experience. Hence, she swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue and lowered her voice to say, “Please step out of the way. I’m going to head out.”

Song Qingxiao took a deep breath and hung her head as she stepped out of the way to allow the lady to step out. The rest of the people around her did not seem to notice anything wrong. The time it took Song Qingxiao to raise her head took a fraction of a second, and she was blocked by the other guard lady. Hence, no one noticed anything strange about her.

The rest of them filed out of the changing room. Song Qingxiao leaned heavily against the lockers when she heard the pitter-patter of footsteps outside. The voice of a female guard rang out.

“Have you heard any news about Gao Linlin’s case?”

As soon as she heard the name, Song Qingxiao instantly froze. Her entire body stiffened. She did not know if it was a coincidence or not, but when the card of the girl who died first in the test space flipped over, the name written on the corner was Gao Linlin.

“She has been missing for three days now. According to the reports, it might be connected with the City Hall. Old An is in charge of this case now.”

Song Qingxiao gritted her teeth tightly. She resisted the urge to chase after her to eavesdrop. She focused on calming herself down. She had initially planned to find her locker and get changed in preparation for work. However, she discovered that her locker had already been opened by someone, and the locks had been changed. Her other uniform in the locker had been tossed to a corner among the lockers.

She was the only one left in the locker room. Song Qingxiao changed into her uniform and took the opportunity to take out the dagger in her bag. She held it in her palm and swung it around a few times. The dagger had caused her death, but she had also killed with it.

The dagger’s design was different compared to other ordinary daggers. It was about fifteen centimeters long. The back and the handle of the dagger was curved like a crescent moon. It felt pretty heavy in hand.

The blade was extremely sharp, and the cutting edge of the dagger was very long. The blade itself was quite thick. Song Qingxiao scrutinized it, flipping it over and over before she noticed a special leaf-like design on the back of the handle.

The unique design of the dagger was unlike any other dagger that she had seen before. Combined with the unusual pattern on the handle, it should be enough information for Song Qingxiao to investigate and find out who her killer was.

She could still remember the scent of her attacker, the curve of his fingers as he raised the dagger, and also the tune that he hummed after he killed her. She remembered the shape of his retreating figure.

Song Qingxiao narrowed her eyes. She did not know who she may have offended to bring it upon herself, or perhaps it was a spur-of-the-moment decision by her attacker. No matter what, since she was entangled in such a mess, she needed to be more careful.

She sighed helplessly and hid her dagger in her sleeve. When she left the changing room, she bumped into the person that Team Leader An had sent to get her.

Team Leader An was the person-in-charge of the team of guards in the west zone of the city where she worked. He was a strong, burly man in his forties. He wore an irritable expression as soon as Song Qingxiao walked in. He was standing and having a conversation with someone over the phone. He did not spare a glance to look at her when she walked in, completely ignoring her.

“We have been severely short on staff in the West District for a really long time now…”

His voice rang clearly, and his expression was extremely fierce. It seemed like he was requesting for more staff from the higher-ups.

Song Qingxiao stood in front of an office desk and noticed the cup that Team Leader An had placed on the table. Team Leader An was completely engrossed in his conversation with the other person on the phone.

Song Qingxiao made a seal with her hands silently and carefully tried to channel her psychic energy. The water in the glass began to ripple slightly under the pressure exerted by her psychic energy.

Team Leader An felt like something was not quite right. He subconsciously stopped mid-conversation and turned around. The office was quiet and peaceful, and Song Qingxiao stood there with her eyes shut. It was as if the strange feeling was merely something he imagined.

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