Chapter 35: Infant Spirit

 Chapter 35: Infant Spirit 71

The baby was about fifty centimeters tall, its body not entirely lifelike. It had sparse fetal hair on its head, chubby cheeks, and short, plump hands and feet that looked incredibly adorable. It hung on Jiang Yu's calf like a koala, tilting its little head and closing its eyes as if it were sleeping.

"Is what Aunt said true? Does their hospital really have ghosts, and this is indeed an infant spirit?" Zhang Yuanqing's mouth gradually opened wide in astonishment, completely subverting his understanding of things.

"What are you staring at!" Aunt saw her nephew looking at her with ill intentions and quickly gave him a glare.

She pulled a chair and slumped onto the backrest, acting cute, and said, "Mom, I'm so tired. Can you help me serve the food?"

"You don't have arms and legs yourself," Grandma retorted, but still got up and went into the kitchen.

"Oh, the black sheep of the family is back," Aunt greeted her elder brother while holding a piece of roast duck in her hand.

"Just stay single for a few more years, and you'll become the black sheep of the family too. Then, the two of us can join forces and resist the wicked witch together," Uncle said playfully.

At this moment, Grandma came out with a bowl of rice. Aunt immediately showed a docile look, hugged Grandma's arm, and rested her head on her mother's shoulder. "You are the black sheep of the family, I'm the virgin chosen by our mother, specifically here to suppress trash like you."

Aunt used this move to win the favor of both grandparents and gained their exclusive love.

"Well, I can form a pair with Yuanjun too. He's about to become the black sheep of the family, right, wife?" Uncle said.

His wife rolled her eyes at him.

"Huh?" Aunt chewed on the roast duck for a few bites and said suspiciously, "Mom, did you forget to add salt? This duck has no taste."

"We bought this from outside," Grandma said unkindly.

Aunt furrowed her brows lightly, took a breath, and called out, "Why can't I smell anything? The food is not fragrant at all."

Concerned, Grandma asked, "Are you coming down with a cold?"

At this time, Zhang Yuanqing noticed the infant spirit hanging on Aunt's calf. Its small button-like nose twitched, and then, it opened its pitch-black eyes. Seeing the unfamiliar environment, its small face appeared dazed, seemingly not understanding why it was here.

Seeing this scene, Zhang Yuanqing's heart grew increasingly serious. This wasn't an ordinary spirit; normal spirits didn't have consciousness; they wouldn't think but acted purely on instinct.

The infant spirit didn't stay bewildered for long. Following its instincts, it twitched its small nose and climbed up Aunt's body until it reached her shoulder.

Then, it saw the table full of delicious dishes.

Zhang Yuanqing's gaze followed the infant spirit, witnessing how its crawling speed suddenly increased. It shivered along Aunt's arm, shakily crawling onto the table.

It lay on the dining table, extending its short and chubby little hand, attempting to grab a piece of roast duck, but it couldn't reach anything.

After countless attempts, it seemed to realize that it couldn't touch the delicacies. Frustrated, it started wailing loudly.

Zhang Yuanqing's ears were immediately filled with the illusion of crying, a loud and noisy cry. This damn child, crying so loudly... Zhang Yuanqing activated his Yin Qi, condensing it in his palm, and grabbed the infant spirit, effectively silencing it.

"You all go ahead and eat. I'll go to the restroom," he said.

He lifted the infant spirit by its nape, carrying it into the restroom, resembling how one would carry a small puppy.

A voice came from behind, "Huh, my nose suddenly cleared, and the roast duck smells delicious now."

.........

In front of the washbasin, Zhang Yuanqing held the dead child with one hand, watching as it extended its tiny pink tongue and licked his palm, where the Yin Qi was condensed. For a spirit, the Yin Qi of the Night Roaming God was like a great tonic.

"It will follow Aunt home. It's probably because Aunt has my aura on her. For spirits, that has a fatal attraction..." he thought.

However, what puzzled Zhang Yuanqing was that the spirit of an infant was weak in spiritual power, and after dying, the spirit would quickly dissipate. It could last for a few days at most, or just a few hours. Yet, the rumors of ghosts haunting Aunt's hospital seemed to have been going on for some time. This didn't make sense.

Not understanding, he decided to search for information. Zhang Yuanqing reached for his phone and logged into the official forum of the Five Elements Union.

#Shocking News! The Judge of the Mysterious Eyes is suspected to have died. In the future, there may be uncontrollable Fallen Ones, personnel everywhere should be on high alert.#

#Shocking News! The She Ling Tunnel was actually conquered, and the identity of the conqueror is mysterious.#

Zhang Yuanqing briefly skipped past the two top posts since the official organization would surely make the case of the Judge of the Mysterious Eyes public due to the upcoming events involving Fallen Ones. Instead, he focused on the news of him conquering the She Ling Tunnel, which had already spread on the official forum of the Five Elements Union. The ID "Yuanshi Tianzun" had been known to the official spiritual realm practitioners for the first time.

Using the search function of the forum, Zhang Yuanqing inputted "special spirits" as the keywords. Soon, he found a post that provided knowledge about special spirits.

"Spirits are the condensed spiritual power left by intelligent beings after death. Due to losing most of their consciousness, spirits appear in a sluggish state, acting on instinct or obsession.

"Once any living being dies, their spirits will continuously dissipate. Ordinary people's spirits can last for a maximum of seven days, while the spirits of spiritual realm practitioners can stay longer, depending on the strength of their spiritual power.

"However, there are exceptions to everything. As far as I know, high-level Night Roaming Gods and illusionists can make their spirits persist in the world even after the destruction of their physical bodies, relying on special means."

Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help but look at the infant spirit, thinking that this little guy clearly didn't possess the ability to persist in the world for long; it couldn't be a high-level spiritual realm practitioner.

He continued reading the post:

"Above is the information about normal spirits. Now, let's talk about abnormal spirits, commonly known as artificially refined spirits. The most famous method is the Night Roaming God's Ghost Control Technique, but other professions also have similar means.

"Through refining, spirits have a chance to gain special abilities and can be treated as precious items or pets. In the Night Roaming God's jargon, such spirits are called spirit servants.

"However, it's essential to note that spirits also have different aptitudes. Not all spirits can be refined into spirit servants. Spirits with the aptitude for becoming spirit servants are extremely rare, and now let's talk about the refining methods...

"Lastly, I want to remind everyone that it is allowed to refine spirits for evil professions, but enslaving ordinary people's spirits is against the rules."

"Post author: Yuan Ting."

Spending two hundred bucks was well worth it... After reading the post, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help but sigh sincerely. This post revealed a lot of information to him.

Firstly: After the Night Roaming God's level increases, they can raise ghosts and refine corpses. During encounters with spiritual realm practitioners, they can switch between tricky assassin-style and tricky summoner-style tactics.

Secondly: This dead child is a highly precious spirit servant. He had struck gold.

Having already gained special abilities, it was indeed a genuine spirit servant and not just a special spirit.

Thirdly: There is a problem with the hospital where Aunt works.

"Just now, when Aunt suddenly lost her sense of taste and smell, it must have been this little guy's doing. So its ability is to steal others' sense of smell and taste? Well, I'll have to verify it later. If I can cultivate this little fellow, it might be equivalent to possessing a valuable item," Zhang Yuanqing mused.

While he felt delighted, he couldn't help but have some worries. There should be a spiritual realm practitioner hidden in Aunt's hospital. Now that it followed Aunt home, the one who refined it into a spirit servant would certainly not let such a precious servant go missing.

There would likely be trouble ahead, and it might even endanger Aunt. Whether the opponent was an official or a wild spiritual realm practitioner, refining a spirit servant using an ordinary person's spirit was against the rules.

This matter wouldn't end well.

"Tomorrow, I'll report this matter to the squad leader and find a reasonable way to use the resources around me..." Once he figured it out, he felt much more relaxed, observing the infant spirit lying on his palm and forearm.

Sensing his gaze, the little fellow opened its large button-like eyes and made a pleasing sound, "Abba, Abba..."

Seeing that Zhang Yuanqing was ignoring it, the infant spirit continued licking the Yin Qi.

Its intelligence was higher than that of an ordinary baby, but it still couldn't communicate normally. Zhang Yuanqing pinched the back of the infant spirit's neck and turned it over, saying, "Come on, let me see if you're a little cutie or a little troublemaker."

"From now on, I'll call you Little Cutie."

Zhang Yuanqing carried the infant spirit out of the restroom as the family dinner was nearing its end. He returned to his seat, nonchalantly hanging the infant spirit around his uncle's neck, pretending as if nothing had happened while continuing to eat.

It was a perfect opportunity to test the abilities of the infant spirit using the "black sheep of the family."

His uncle, busy flossing his teeth, was completely unaware of the dead child hanging around his neck.

"Uncle, why don't you have some soup?" Zhang Yuanqing offered, and he served his uncle a bowl.

He wanted to see if his uncle would lose his sense of taste and smell like Aunt did.

His uncle touched his round belly and shook his head, saying, "No, I won't drink it unless you have jianbing guozi."

Saying that, he made a self-created rap gesture, and just as Zhang Yuanqing thought he would hear familiar lyrics, his uncle suddenly bit down on his thumb, making a sound like, "Abba, Abba, Abba..."

At the same time, the infant spirit sitting on his uncle's neck made a sound that only Zhang Yuanqing could hear, "Yo yo, check it out, give me a set of jianbing guozi."

"Poof~" Zhang Yuanqing and Jiang Yuyu, in perfect sync, spewed the chicken soup they were drinking from their mouths.

Grandpa, Grandma, aunt, and cousin all wore expressions of unfortunate sympathy and a touch of resentment.

.......