Volume 1, Chapter 144: The Ghost is in Trouble Again

Michelle returned to her room, and the paper figurine that had been following her quietly slipped away through a crack in the window, suddenly bursting into flames mid-air and burning to ashes.

"President, so what are the rude demands of the spiritual masters from the Mi Country?" Early the next morning, Chi Xingwan stormed into the high tower and dug Xu Hengyang out of his bed.

Xu Hengyang yawned and said, "They want to establish a liaison office in China, but I didn't agree."

"What liaison office? The associations of various countries have always minded their own business," Chi Xingwan sneered. "They are obviously trying to infiltrate us under this pretext."

Xu Hengyang replied, "Besides this, they also want to take advantage of their proximity to seize our resources. Who can blame us for having a vast and resource-rich country?"

Chi Xingwan completely agreed. "However, they must have other ulterior motives behind the scenes."

She told Xu Hengyang what she had eavesdropped on the previous night, startling the sleepiness right out of him. "What did you say? You sneaked into the Mi Country people's hotel?"

"No," Chi Xingwan said. "I sent a paper figurine inside."

"And it didn't trigger the barrier?"

The first thing spiritual master representatives from any country did upon arriving at their hotel was to set up barriers on their respective floors, not only to guard against the Chinese Spiritual Masters Association, but also against associations from other countries.

Although these barriers were not unbreakable and one might manage to sneak in by taking a risk, no one ever did so because the stakes were too high. The consequences would be severe if even the slightest trace of evidence was discovered.

Xu Hengyang was also a Super-Class A spiritual master, but he wouldn't have dared to sneak into the Mi Country spiritual masters' hotel to eavesdrop.

He gave Chi Xingwan a deep look, his heart surging with emotions.

When Chi Xingwan had her level tested in the high tower back then, her numerical rating was lower than his. However, after actually meeting her, Xu Hengyang found that he couldn't see through her, and he had wondered at the time if the young girl in front of him might be concealing her true strength.

He just hadn't expected Chi Xingwan to be strong to this extent. Not only that, but she even had connections with the underworld ghost messengers.

That had been the case during the skinny cat incident, where the ghost messengers "happened" to appear right after they finished interrogating the skinny cat, and the Dong Xuezhi incident once again proved this point.

"The future will eventually be handed over to you young people. Xingwan, our Chinese Spiritual Masters Association will have to rely on you to lead it to even greater heights in the future," Xu Hengyang suddenly mused.

Chi Xingwan tensed up and looked at him warily. "President, what are you doing? Are you planning to retire right now?"

"Don't be nervous, I was just being sentimental. Before Luming is fully capable of carrying the burden, these old bones of mine can still hold out a bit longer."

"Then don't make jokes like that, it's terrifying."

Xu Hengyang coughed. "Alright, let's get back to business. I will keep an eye on the Mi Country's spiritual masters and see what tricks they are trying to play."

Having delivered the message, Chi Xingwan decided to shirk her duties.

She had been very busy lately. Tonight, she was going to watch Xiao Rui's debut match. Xiao Rui had specifically called and admonished her repeatedly last night that if she stood him up, he would annoy her to death.

Arriving at the entrance of Everlasting Night Street, Chi Xingwan happened to run into Michelle, whose spirit looked rather poor.

"What's wrong? Didn't you sleep well last night?" Chi Xingwan asked knowingly.

Michelle made no mention of yesterday's conversation. "I didn't sleep very well, but it doesn't matter. By the way, Consultant Chi, will you be taking on any missions recently?"

Chi Xingwan shook her head. "I actually don't take on missions very often. I have some personal matters to attend to lately."

"I see." Michelle looked slightly disappointed; she had wanted to participate in more missions in China.

An idea struck Chi Xingwan, and she said, "Our association in China generally advises everyone not to take on missions consecutively, but to take a break in between."

Michelle smiled sheepishly. "Actually, our association in Mi Country suggests the same thing. Doing consecutive missions makes it very easy to get injured and disturbs one's inner peace."

"So, you should take a rest too."

"I know," Michelle said. She didn't know when she would have to leave China, and she was very reluctant to part with this place, so she wanted to leave behind more memories here.

Moreover, she had a bad premonition deep down. She didn't know what Mr. Smith and Ms. Daisy were hiding, but she knew this matter might make them and the Chinese Spiritual Masters Association complete enemies.

When that time came, she might lose her newly made friends in China.

Chi Xingwan put her arm around Michelle's shoulder. "I'm going to watch my family kid's esports match tonight. Would you like to come along?"

"Huh?" The topic shifted so fast that Michelle had trouble keeping up.

Chi Xingwan said, "It's fine if you don't want to go."

"No, I want to go," Michelle quickly said. "Actually, I play video games too."

Mostly because she had no friends in the association, and those people looked down on her, so she would play games to vent when she was bored. In the game, no one knew who anyone was; as long as your skills were strong, you would be pursued and admired.

"I wouldn't have guessed," Chi Xingwan said. "Alright then, I'll see if Fangfei is free, and the three of us can go together."

Chu Fangfei was naturally free, and by evening, she went to pick up Michelle and arrived at the match venue.

There were even more spectators this time than at the previous All-Star match. At the same time, because it was a regular match, there was a bit more gunpowder in the stands. Cheers resounded throughout the entire venue, with fans supporting different teams competing to see who could be louder—the sentiment being that the home team might lose, but the fans' momentum must not.

Chu Fangfei walked into the private box with Michelle, leaning against the railing to look at the audience seats below. "It's so lively."

Just like Chi Xingwan, she knew nothing about esports, but she was full of enthusiasm.

Not long after, Chi Xingwan, Xiao Yue, and the others also arrived. They introduced themselves to one another. With Chen Qifan and Chu Fangfei being the two social butterflies, even though they weren't familiar with each other, the atmosphere in the box quickly warmed up.

Soon, the players of both teams took the stage. Zhang Shaodan provided commentary from the side: "The opponents aren't strong in this match, and Holy Light's win rate is very high. Probably because of that, Xiao Rui managed to snag a spot in the starting lineup."

"I'm not saying his skills are lacking; he's quite strong. It's just that since it's his first time playing, a weaker opponent makes things a bit safer," she added.

Best of five games, and the match began. Unsurprisingly, Holy Light won all the first three games to conclude the match. Chi Xingwan couldn't understand the match, so she kept looking at her phone.

She was reading the evaluations of Xiao Rui on the forum. Most of them were positive; Holy Light's fans were very satisfied with the newcomer, and fans of other teams had already started analyzing him before the match even ended.

Everything seemed to be just as Zhang Shaodan had said—Xiao Rui was indeed quite strong—so Chi Xingwan finally felt relieved.

As soon as the match ended, Chi Xingwan received a message from Xiao Rui saying that he was on his way over.

Chi Xingwan was somewhat surprised, as she had assumed Xiao Rui would contact Xiao Yue first. When things are abnormal, one always feels a sense of impending trouble.

Sure enough, the first thing Xiao Rui said when he entered the door was, "Sister, save me, the phantom is acting up again!"