Chapter 38: Soul Hunters

by cnwebnovels

While replicating the parasitic-host capsule, I found something I hadn’t expected.

It was the receiver—the mechanism through which a parasitic host received a Soul Hunter. It was also the foundation module. Soul Hunters used this to teleport their consciousness directly into a parasitic host’s brain.

It might also be a controller. I didn’t yet know whether it was a universal model or purpose-built for a specific host. If purpose-built, it wouldn’t be much use to me.

That explained why Zhu Zhaojie had stopped being controlled the moment the Wisdom Capsule was removed.

Then a thought landed cold in my chest: I had copied this structure. Could a Soul Hunter use its consciousness to possess and seize control of my brain?

I shivered before I could stop myself.

Gu Kunling noticed and asked what was wrong. I told her exactly what I’d felt.

She thought it over. “It shouldn’t be that easy. Zhu Zhaojie was one of the Sweepers’ people—under dual control. Meaning the Sweepers’ software was completely open to elite people. You’re different. You replicated the function. Your brain should have authority over this structure, which means you can shut it off whenever you want.”

“That’s true,” I said. “It’s part of me now. My consciousness has full control over whether it’s on or off.”

“Good. After you leave, don’t activate it—not yet. In time, you can try switching it on carefully and see what happens. If anything feels wrong, shut it down immediately. This might be another way to detect and deal with Soul Hunters.”

I nodded.

She was right. As long as I controlled the switch, there was nothing to fear.

Then I thought of the green jade token, and I wondered whether Gu Kunling might let me have it.

“Sister Kunling,” I said, “what use is that green jade token to you?”

Gu Kunling reached inside her jacket and brought it out. It was identical to mine.

She smiled. “I knew you had your eye on it. Take it. The resistance used our token for identity verification. On its own it has no other effect—but I’ve heard that joining multiple tokens together produces something extraordinary. This one, once joined with another, is said to open a path to the Elite World. Don’t try it now, whatever you do. With your current abilities, going there would be a death sentence.”

I took the token. “If I take it, what will you do when you need it?”

“We used to rely on it to verify each other’s identities. But after all these years, we know each other too well for that. We have other ways now.”

I turned the token over in my hands. “Sister Kunling—I have a feeling there should be six of these tokens in total, arranged to form a circle. And each joining has its own effect. So what would happen if all six were joined?”

Gu Kunling looked at me. “Now you’re asking something even I don’t know. I haven’t even seen two tokens joined. Six would be extraordinarily difficult to bring together. But if it were ever done—” she paused— “I think something miraculous would happen.”

By the time I left the office, the sky had nearly darkened.

On my way home, I sensed someone following me. I couldn’t see who.

I ducked into a public restroom by the roadside, went in as though using it, and immediately activated the invisibility membrane.

This was the first time I’d used it. I was more nervous than I’d expected.

Walking out, I nearly collided with someone coming in from the other direction. I twisted out of the way just in time.

I took up a position outside a small food stall at the street corner and watched. I needed to know who was following me.

The street was busy. No one stood out.

I didn’t dare use same-frequency sensing—if it triggered co-frequency oscillation, things could get complicated fast.

While I was still weighing my options, a mist-shaped figure slipped past me.

An invisible person.

Almost certainly a Soul Hunter. The Sweepers had no invisibility membrane. Gu Kunling had said theirs was reverse-engineered from the elite people’s version—which meant every elite person could use it.

I began to follow.

With penetrating-wave ability, invisible people weren’t truly invisible to me. I could see his mist-shaped outline moving through the crowd.

Could he see me?

Hard to know. I kept my distance and watched for any sign of reaction.

He moved fast, with the kind of ease that spoke of serious training—and he was heading straight for my apartment.

I tailed him all the way to my front door. He never once looked back.

He couldn’t see me. He didn’t have my penetrating-wave ability.

But if none of them could see one another either, how did they coordinate? Consciousness interconnection, maybe. I recalled Gu Qiutang mentioning that elite people could interconnect consciousness information.

The invisible figure appeared to be using same-frequency sensing to scan my apartment from outside the door. I immediately shielded the micro-electrical waves in my brain and stood there right behind him, not moving.

Shielding those waves was an ability I’d gained when I replicated the Qiankun Department supercore’s information transmission functions. The Qiankun Department tracked individuals by detecting the micro-electrical waves the human body constantly emits. If the supercore could turn that detection on, it could also turn it off. It was the most basic capability of the Information Department.

The figure scanned for a while, apparently found no one inside, and turned to go downstairs.

I followed.

At the corner outside the building, I found a second invisible figure waiting.

Two of them, then. Both here tonight to deal with me.

After meeting up, they seemed to confer—or perhaps contact someone elsewhere. Then they turned and moved quickly toward Lanqi Garden.

I stayed on them, all the way into the Gu Building.

An alarm began sounding from the upper floors. It was past working hours, but plenty of people were still at their desks; they streamed out at the sound of it.

I kept my eyes on the two invisible figures as they entered the building.

Then, suddenly—a compressed mass of mist came rushing down the stairwell. My two figures moved forward to receive them.

I couldn’t count how many had come down. More than one, certainly. Including the two I’d been following, there were at least four.

The group moved out of the building toward a black business van parked at the curb. Two Sweepers sat inside—I could sense them.

Once everyone was in, the engine turned over.

I was about to grab hold and follow when a scream cut through the air from somewhere above me—Gu Qiutang’s office. My sensing pinpointed it exactly.

I turned and flew up the stairs.

Gu Qiutang’s secretary was screaming when I got there. Security guards were already running over. The office door hung wide open.

Inside: blood on the floor, furniture overturned, the room in clear disorder—signs of a struggle.

I slipped into the secret room. The secret room had already been wrecked, and its door was open too.

Only then did it hit me—that mass of mist-shaped figures descending the stairs had probably been carrying Gu Qiutang. If I had been home, the two following me would have done the same to me.

Were the Soul Hunters trying to take us all in a single sweep?

I left the office, dropped the invisibility membrane, and let myself be visible again. Then I went downstairs, found someone from Kunyue Company, and called Gu Kunling.

She picked up. That was enough—she was safe.

Knowing what the Sweepers could detect, I said nothing over the phone. Just that I was coming now. Then I had someone from Kunyue Company drive me to her.

Gu Kunling had already sensed trouble. She was in the secret room when I arrived.

I went straight in and told her everything—what I’d followed, what I’d seen.

Gu Qiutang had been taken.

And we had no idea where.

I regretted not staying with the van. Even if I couldn’t have saved him, at least I would have known where they’d taken him.

Gu Kunling didn’t dwell on it. Every one of them had always known this day would come, she said. Every one of them had long since been mentally prepared to die.

Hearing it, I felt a profound respect for the resistance settle over me.

Without a doubt, they were people with firm faith.

Then I remembered—Gu Qiutang had been the one who got me out of the Sweeper base. That meant the resistance had real reach. I asked Gu Kunling whether we could use those same channels to get him back.

She told me the truth. Getting me out hadn’t been a demonstration of their strength. It had been a single phone call from my grandmother.

My grandmother?

She was that powerful?

“Then call her now,” I said. “She’ll find a way.”

Gu Kunling shook her head. “It’s not possible. You’re a special case—the Sweepers don’t really dare touch you. My father is different. He’s an ordinary person. Your grandmother can’t help him.”

I couldn’t make sense of it.

Was my position somehow above Gu Qiutang’s? Why could Grandma save me but not him?

I couldn’t work it out.

But I still had the Soul Hunter List in my memory. I knew every name on it. Keeping watch on those people seemed like the only thread we had.

Gu Kunling thought so too. She immediately sent people to track their movements.

The word came back quickly: none of them were where they should be.

This operation had their mark on it.

I recalled Zhu Zhaojie telling me that this area was the Fifth District. Did that mean only a handful of Soul Hunters operated here?

“The elite people don’t actually live here,” Gu Kunling said. “Soul Hunters are wolves they release—there aren’t many of them in any one place. Eliminating them wouldn’t change anything. The elite people would just send more. That’s why when we obtained the Soul Hunter List, it wasn’t to go after them. It was so every core member of the resistance could memorize those names and give them a wide berth.”

“Then keep people on them,” I said. “Track where they go.”

“We already have people watching. But their skills aren’t a match for a Soul Hunter. The moment one goes invisible, the tail loses them.”

That explained the invisibility tonight. It served two purposes at once—made the operation cleaner, kept them anonymous.

“Don’t go home tonight,” Gu Kunling said. “You’ve been marked. Stay here—it’s safer. And if news comes in, I can reach you quickly.”

There wasn’t much else to do.