Chapter 35

The baby was about fifty centimeters tall, its body not quite real, with sparse fetal hair on its head, chubby cheeks, and short, plump limbs like lotus roots, making it look very cute.

It clung to Jiang Yuer's calf like a koala, tilting its little head, eyes closed, motionless, as if it were asleep.

Was Auntie telling the truth? Was the hospital really haunted, and was it really by a spirit baby? Zhang Yuanqing looked at the tiny spirit baby, his mouth slowly opening.

This completely overturned his understanding.

"What are you staring at!"

Auntie, seeing her nephew staring at her with ill intent, quickly glared at him.

She pulled out a chair, slumped onto it, and pouted, "Mom, I'm exhausted, help me serve the food."

"You don't have arms and legs?" Grandma said, but still got up and went into the kitchen as requested.

"Hey, family scoundrel, you're back."

Auntie, while picking up the roasted duck with her hand, greeted her older brother.

"If you stay single for a few more years, you'll become a family scoundrel too. Then we can team up to fight the wicked witch," Uncle said with a smirk.

At this moment, Grandma came out with a bowl of rice, and Auntie immediately put on a obedient act, hugging Grandma's arm and resting her head on her mother's shoulder, "You're the family scoundrel. I'm the virgin girl who suppresses scoundrels like you."

Auntie used this trick to win the favor of Grandpa and Grandma, earning their special affection.

"I can team up with Yuanjun too. He's almost a family scoundrel too, right, wife?" Uncle said.

Auntie-in-law gave him a dirty look.

"Hey?" Auntie chewed on the roasted duck a few times, suspiciously saying, "Mom, did you forget to add salt? The duck tastes bland."

"This was bought from outside," Grandma said irritably.

Auntie frowned, took a deep breath, and said, "Why can't I smell anything? The food isn't fragrant at all."

Grandma, hearing this, asked with concern, "Are you catching a cold?"

At this moment, Zhang Yuanqing saw the spirit baby hanging on Auntie's calf, its small nose twitching. Then, it opened its black button-like eyes, and upon seeing the unfamiliar environment, its face was filled with confusion, as if it didn't understand why it was there.

Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing felt increasingly heavy-hearted.

This was not an ordinary spirit. Ordinary spirits had no consciousness, could not think, and only acted on instinct.

The spirit baby didn't remain confused for long. It followed some instinct, twitching its small nose and crawling up Auntie's body to her shoulder.

Then, it saw the table full of delicious food.

Zhang Yuanqing's eyes followed the spirit baby, and he saw it speed up, crawling along Auntie's arm and trembling as it reached the table.

It lay on the table, stretching out its short, plump hands to try to grab a piece of roasted duck, but it couldn't.

After several attempts, it seemed to realize it couldn't reach the food and started to cry loudly and pitifully.

Zhang Yuanqing immediately heard the illusory cries, which were loud and noisy.

This brat, so noisy. Zhang Yuanqing summoned the power of the Night Walker, focusing it in his palm, and reached out to grab a piece of roasted duck, actually holding the spirit baby in his hand.

"You guys eat first, I'll go to the bathroom."

He held the spirit baby by the back of its neck, like a puppy, and went to the bathroom.

Auntie's voice came from behind, "Hey, my nose suddenly cleared, and the roasted duck smells good now."

In front of the sink, Zhang Yuanqing held the brat with one hand, watching it stick out its pink tongue and lick the power of the Night Walker in his palm.

The power of the Night Walker was a great tonic for spirits.

"It must be following Auntie home because it's attracted to the aura on her. This is fatal for a spirit," Zhang Yuanqing thought.

But what puzzled him was that a baby's spirit is weak and dissipates quickly after death, lasting at most a day or two, or just a few hours.

The rumors of the haunted hospital seemed to have been around for some time.

This didn't make sense.

When in doubt, look it up. Zhang Yuanqing took out his phone and logged into the official forum of the Five Elements Alliance.

# Shocking, the Ghost Eye Judge is suspected to have died, and there may be a period of rogue practitioners losing control. All personnel should be on alert.

# Shocking, the Spirit Tunnel has been conquered, and the identity of the conqueror is mysterious.

Zhang Yuanqing glanced over the two pinned posts, not paying much attention. The official organization would be on guard against rogue practitioners, so the incident with the Ghost Eye Judge would be made public.

However, the news of his conquering the Spirit Tunnel had already spread on the official forum of the Five Elements Alliance. The unfamiliar ID "Yuan Shitianzun" was now known to the official practitioners.

Zhang Yuanqing used the search function on the forum and typed in "special spirit."

Soon, he found a post explaining spirit knowledge.

"Spirits are formed from the residual mental energy of intelligent beings after death. Because they lose most of their consciousness, spirits appear dazed and act on instinct or obsession.

"Once any being dies, the spirit dissipates continuously. An ordinary person can last at most seven days, while a practitioner's spirit can stay in the human world longer, depending on the strength of their mental energy.

"But there are always exceptions. As far as I know, high-level Night Walkers and Illusionists can maintain their spirits in the world even after their physical bodies are destroyed through special means."

Reading this, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help but look at the spirit baby, thinking that this little guy clearly didn't have the ability to exist for long and couldn't be a high-level practitioner.

He continued reading the post:

"The above describes normal spirits. Next, I'll talk about abnormal spirits, so-called abnormal spirits."

The content suddenly stopped, and Zhang Yuanqing found that the latter part of the post was locked, requiring payment.

Is this the famous pay-for-knowledge? He grimaced and recharged 200 yuan to his "Yuan Shitianzun" account to complete the payment.

It's worth noting that in the past few days, the clerical staff had already set up a phone card and bank card for "Yuan Shitianzun," separating it from the identity of "Zhang Yuanqing."

"Abnormal spirits are spirits that have been artificially refined. The most famous is the Night Walker's ghost control technique. Of course, other professions have their own methods, which I won't elaborate on.

"Refined spirits have a chance to develop special abilities and can be considered valuable items or pets. In the jargon of Night Walkers, such spirits are called spirit servants.

"But note that spirits also have different qualities. Not all spirits can be refined into spirit servants. Those with the potential to become spirit servants are one in ten thousand. Next, I'll talk about the refinement methods.

"Finally, I want to remind you that refining spirits of evil professions is allowed, but enslaving the spirits of ordinary people is a violation of discipline."

"Poster: Yuan Ting."

The 200 yuan was well spent. After reading the post, Zhang Yuanqing sincerely sighed.

This post revealed a lot of information to him.

1. After reaching a higher level, Night Walkers can raise ghosts and refine corpses. In battles with practitioners, they can switch between stealthy assassin and summoner tactics.

2. This brat is a very precious spirit servant, a real find.

It has already developed special abilities, making it a genuine spirit servant, not just a special spirit.

3. There's something wrong with Auntie's hospital.

"Auntie suddenly lost her sense of taste and smell, which must be the work of the spirit. So its ability is to steal others' senses of taste and smell? I'll verify this later. If I can cultivate this little guy, it might be as valuable as an item."

Zhang Yuanqing felt both delighted and worried.

There must be a practitioner hiding in Auntie's hospital. Now that it's following Auntie home, the person who refined it won't let a precious spirit servant go missing.

There will be trouble, and it might even endanger Auntie.

Whether the person is from the official organization or a rogue practitioner, using the spirit of an ordinary person to refine a spirit servant is a violation of the rules.

This won't end well.

"I'll tell the squad leader about this tomorrow and use the resources around me reasonably."

After thinking this through, he felt much lighter and examined the spirit baby lying on his palm and forearm.

Noticing his gaze, the little guy opened its big, black button-like eyes and made a pleading sound, "Aba, aba."

Seeing that Zhang Yuanqing ignored it, it continued to lick the power of the Night Walker.

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

"From now on, you'll be called Little Troublemaker."

Zhang Yuanqing carried the spirit baby out of the bathroom, and the family dinner was almost over.

He returned to his seat, quietly hanging the spirit baby on Uncle's neck while eating as if nothing had happened.

He decided to use the family scoundrel to test the spirit baby's ability.

Uncle was flossing his teeth with a toothpick, completely unaware of the spirit baby riding on his neck.

"Uncle, how about a bowl of soup?"

Zhang Yuanqing saw that it was time and served Uncle some soup.

He wanted to see if Uncle would lose his sense of taste and smell like Auntie.

Uncle patted his round belly and shook his head, "No, no, unless you have a pancake roll."

As he made a gesture for his self-created rap, Zhang Yuanqing thought he would hear familiar lyrics, but Uncle suddenly sucked his thumb, "Aba, aba, aba."

At the same time, the spirit baby on Uncle's neck, which only Zhang Yuanqing could hear, said, "Yo, yo, check it out, a pancake roll, please."

"Spit!"

Zhang Yuanqing and Jiang Yuer, in perfect sync, spat out the chicken soup in their mouths.

Grandpa, Grandma, Auntie-in-law, and his cousin looked at them with a mix of pity and disappointment.

PS: To explain the character Li Dongze, when I was writing the beginning, I was reading "The Naming of the Night." When I wrote the character Li Dongze, I suddenly thought of the name, which felt familiar. Later, I took a break to read "The Naming of the Night" again and suddenly saw the familiar name, realizing I had unintentionally borrowed the name. By then, Li Dongze had already appeared for a long time, and changing it would be too much trouble. Since it's just a supporting character, I decided to keep it.