I will be stronger after the remake

Just as it was about to disappear into the crevice, a suction force suddenly descended upon it, forcibly pulling it out.

Xu Hao looked in the direction of the suction and saw Tang Ping shaking the Nine Sons Nether Bell at him. He was immediately shocked, frightened and angry.

"Beast! How dare you use my magic weapon against me, you..."

Tang Ping ignored the wailing of the defeated dog and urged Yu Shujiang, "What are you standing there for? Quickly transfer your spiritual power to me."

"Oh."

Psionicists cannot freely transfer their spiritual power to each other unless they possess the same type of spiritual essence; otherwise, an rejection reaction will occur, and the energy must be refined before it can be used normally.

However, Tang Ping used the "fox borrowing the tiger's might" technique, and since she already had Yu Shujiang's spiritual power within her, it was harmonized under the influence of spiritual energy and remained unaffected.

Using the Nine Sons Nether Bell to cast curses or formations requires consuming yin and yang spiritual energy, but restraining ghosts has no such requirement, only spiritual power is needed. Tang Ping keenly grasped this difference when recalling the information identified by the Three-Eyed Spiritual Radiance.

In fact, the Nine Sons Nether Bell is not very powerful in restraining ghosts. If it were in a good state of exhaustion, it would not be affected at all. But at this moment, it was in a state of severe weakness, and even its core was shattered. Despite its struggle, it could not break free and was gradually sucked in.

Xu Hao quickly begged for mercy: "Wait a minute, I admit defeat, I surrender. You can subdue me, leave mental control within me, and I'll be better off alive than..."

Tang Ping ignored everything, expressionlessly sucking the other party into the skull bell, and then began to refine it.

Chapter 111 Concealing the News

"Finally won! The third-level demon is so strong. Every time I thought it was doomed, it still had strength left. If Tang Ping hadn't used the opponent's magic weapon, it probably would have escaped in the end."

Ma Feiyan said with lingering fear.

Throughout the entire battle, she had the lowest level of involvement, constantly sweeping away the lesser demons on the periphery to avoid interfering with the main battlefield, while also protecting Director Hu. As a result, she was able to witness the entire process of eliminating the Void.

Yu Shujiang also said, "This place is too dangerous. Without any warning, a third-level demon suddenly appeared. I'm really afraid that we might run into one while walking on the road. If we don't have any experts to protect us, we won't be able to escape."

Hu Ze quickly reassured him, "It wasn't entirely without warning. This ghost king was clearly targeting Ma Yiming. Third-level demons aren't like cabbages in a field; they're rare. You can't just run into one whenever you want. Besides, our security department isn't responsible for the security of the Illusionary Realm. We only come here a few times a year. No matter how dangerous this place is, it's none of our business."

Ma Feiyan frowned and said, "Isn't it said that advancing from the first to the second stage is very safe? Why did my brother's advancement attract a third-stage monster?"

Hu Ze pondered, "This is indeed a bit strange. Generally speaking, even if you attract monsters, you'll only attract monsters that can advance your rank. That is, advancing to the second rank will attract second-rank monsters, and advancing to the third rank might attract third-rank monsters. If you could easily attract powerful monsters, who would dare to advance?"

Yu Shujiang said thoughtfully, "It sounds like the treatment of a male protagonist in a monster-fighting novel."

"What kind of treatment?" Ma Feiyan doesn't usually read online novels.

"It's the kind of classic monster-slaying and leveling-up novel where the male protagonist, due to his deep reserves, is invincible among his peers. When breaking through to a higher realm, he often encounters powerful obstacles, such as the tribulation of the Nascent Soul stage when he is in the Golden Core stage, or the test of the Mahayana stage when he is in the Nascent Soul stage."

“My brother doesn’t have that ability. He’s just an ordinary ghost soldier. He doesn’t even have a unique attribute. He’s invincible among his peers. He should be grateful if he’s not bullied.” Ma Feiyan said dismissively. “If it weren’t for Sister Yuan and Brother Tang Ping’s extraordinary strength, he would definitely have failed to advance today. It’s generally believed that a third-level great demon is stronger than a third-level spiritualist.”

Hu Ze echoed, "Because the great demons have more spiritual power and stronger vitality than the psychics, plus the advantage of territory, they are indeed stronger when there is no mutual restraint between them. However, there are too many variables in the battle between psychics, so it is not easy to draw a conclusion."

"Like this Xuhao, although Yuan Ji's tiger demon has a certain degree of restraint against ghosts and monsters, the restraint is not strong and is far inferior to the spiritual power of Taoists and ghost soldiers. However, judging from the battle just now, it was restrained at every turn and could not exert its true strength. Even its magic weapon was taken away. It must have felt very frustrated before it died."

Yu Shujiang said, "Speaking of magic treasures, this ghost king tampered with them and deliberately threw them to my brother, trying to lure him into a trap. However, my brother saw through it and had me use my spiritual energy to seize the magic treasure, thus eliminating the trap in advance."

Hu Ze clapped his hands and said, "Look, this is what I just said. There is no restraint relationship between immortal spirits and ghosts, but Yu Shujiang's spiritual energy played an important role in the battle. The battle between spiritual energy users is full of variables. It is not that whoever has higher spiritual power has a greater chance of winning. Unlike traditional monster-fighting and leveling-up web novels, as long as the right spiritual energy is used at the right time, ordinary people can also defeat experts who are above their level."

At this point, he suddenly remembered that his family had actually defeated a level 3 demon!

In the psionic world, the strength of a certain armed forces department is judged by whether they can independently eliminate a third-tier great demon. This indicator directly divides the armed forces departments into two categories. Departments without combat achievements often cannot hold their heads high when they encounter departments with combat achievements.

Hierarchical distinctions exist everywhere. If we break it down further, in the Armed Forces Department, which has no record of killing enemies, those who can independently defeat a level 3 Great Demon will look down on their colleagues who have not.

Continuing to break it down further, in the Armed Forces Department, which has no record of victories, departments without third-tier psionicists will look down on their colleagues who do possess third-tier psionicists.

The logic is simple: it's normal that our unit can't defeat the Great Demon because we don't have any third-tier psychic. But your unit has third-tier psychic, yet you still can't defeat the Great Demon. This shows that you are truly incompetent.

This hierarchy of contempt usually only applies to the Armed Forces Section, not the Public Security Section. People in the circle wouldn't include the Public Security Section in the comparison, as that would be too embarrassing.

Under Hu Ze's leadership, the Public Security Section of the Lin'an City Lingneng Management Bureau succeeded!

To independently eliminate a level 3 demon as a member of the Security Division and rise to the top of the hierarchy is likely unprecedented. At least Hu Ze has never heard of such a precedent. Once it gets out, it will be enough to shock the domestic spiritual energy community, making him the leader of the Security Division, famous and accomplished.

Now he is only worried about one thing: what if the organization doesn't believe the report if there is no video recording?

"We need sufficient evidence to prove it, preferably a presentable trophy... a Dao Seed!"

Hu Ze's eyes lit up. There was no more convincing evidence than the Dao Seed. He quickly found Tang Ping and asked, "Was the Ghost King killed?"

Tang Ping thought for a moment and replied, "Half of them were killed and are being refined."

Hu Ze quickly said, "Don't refine it! Leave the Dao Seed behind!"

Tang Ping slapped his forehead. He was used to being cautious and was afraid that Xu Huo might have left some life-saving tricks. He only thought about killing it as soon as possible and for a moment forgot about the Dao Seed. He quickly manipulated the magic weapon to release the part of Xu Huo that had not yet been refined.

It's said that half of it was killed, but in reality, half of its body was refined. Even if a ghost or monster has a strong vitality, it would be beyond dead under such circumstances.

Just to be on the safe side, Tang Ping still used the Three-Eyed Spiritual Radiance to examine it again. He didn't get any information and was completely relieved—the Three-Eyed Spiritual Radiance had already been verified to be ineffective on corpses.

Hu Ze quickly searched through the corpse. Anyway, the monster's corpse would gradually turn into spiritual energy and dissipate into the world, so it didn't matter whether it was dirty or not. This was one of the reasons why experts believed that the monster's body was composed of information flow.

"The Dao Seed, the Dao Seed, the Dao Seed has been found! One, two, three... seven! How come there are only seven!"

Generally, when a third-stage demon is killed, it will drop at least eight Dao Seeds. This is for demons without names or identities. If the demon has appeared in mythology, it is possible to drop twice as many. The greater the fame and the stronger the demon, the more Dao Seeds it will drop.

First-stage demons will not have Dao Seeds, while second-stage demons have Dao Seeds depending on their reputation. Unnamed demons have only one or two Dao Seeds, while named demons have four to eight.

For example, the toad-bee that was killed by Tang Ping and Ling Chong together had a name and appeared in "Journey to the West". However, it was the least famous of them all. It was positioned as the adopted son of the spider demon and was killed by the protagonist's group's opponents. It had no further details, so it only had four Dao seeds.

Tang Ping glanced at the Nine Sons Nether Bell in his hand and said, "Perhaps it has been refined."

In a sense, Dao seeds are also considered rare and precious materials, making them excellent for alchemy and weapon crafting.

Hu Ze looked helpless. If you eat it, you can try to induce vomiting, but if you give it to a magic weapon, you can't vomit it up... Wait, a magic weapon!

"This treasure is extraordinary, isn't it? Even Yuan Ji suffered a loss because of it, and Xu Hao even died because of it, unable to escape."

Ordinary monsters don't have magical artifacts; they're enough to prove a monster's identity as a third-tier monster.

Tang Ping thought for a moment and said solemnly, "I hope the director will pretend he has never seen this magic weapon and not report it."

"Why?" Hu Ze thought he was worried that the organization would confiscate the spoils of war, so he quickly explained, "Don't worry that the organization will take away the magic weapon. In cases like ours where we eliminate powerful monsters independently, there is no conflict over the distribution of benefits. We just need to apply to keep the magic weapon in the name of the unit, and the higher-ups will agree. The reason why it is stipulated that collective cooperation must hand over the spoils of war is not because the organization wants to take advantage, but to avoid privately fighting over the spoils of war and to allocate resources more reasonably."

Tang Ping understood what the other party meant. Just like the two Kun-type Dao Seeds obtained from killing the toad bees, the items themselves were very valuable, but they were useless to him. Even if he went to the black market to exchange them, he would most likely only get a pill to improve his spiritual power cultivation, and he couldn't even guarantee the pill's efficacy. If he was cheated, there was no one to reason with.

You can submit it to the organization, and the organization will distribute the Dao Seed to those awakened individuals who are most suitable for the Kun-type spiritual rank, and reward them with a pill. If there is a problem with the pill, you can also report it to the organization in time and request compensation.

In this process, the organization acts as an exchange platform to ensure the rational allocation of resources and the maximization of collective interests.

"I plan to use this magic weapon for something. Before the plan is implemented, I don't want its information to be leaked, otherwise it will have unknown effects on the plan," Tang Ping said frankly. "Director, please pretend you don't know about this. I secretly kept this as a trophy."

"Your suggestion is worse than just keeping the whole thing a secret. First of all, how can a leader shift the blame to a subordinate? The organization has psychics who demand the truth. If they discover something fishy, ​​they'll send people to investigate. Pretending not to know would be considered cleverness that only adds to the crime; it's impossible to hide it." Hu Ze waved his hand dismissively. "Is your plan really that important?"

Tang Ping nodded vigorously and said, "It's very important; it might be a matter of life and death."

Can you reveal the contents?

"For your sake, I think it's better if I don't know. Like I just said, pretending not to know is being presumptuous, while genuinely not knowing is more understandable."

Even a capable subordinate's opinion cannot be ignored by a leader. Hu Ze was about to reluctantly agree when a sudden inspiration struck him: "After your plan is implemented, can this matter be reported?"

Tang Ping was taken aback when she heard this: "It should be... possible, but my plan might be delayed for more than half a year."

"Half a year is fine. As long as we can report it, that's fine. If we were delayed in reporting due to certain matters, I think the organization will understand. It's not like we didn't report it."

Hu Ze laughed heartily, feeling much more relaxed. Although he pursued fame and power, he didn't necessarily have to rush into it. Besides, the Public Security Section had just made a contribution, and if he reported it now, the organization might give him other rewards on the grounds that it was "inconvenient to promote him continuously." From a long-term perspective, it would be more beneficial to slow down.

As for excuses, they are not difficult for an old hand like him. With a little effort, he can always come up with some reasonable, legal and compliant reasons.

"Have you two finished discussing it? If you have, come over here and heal my wounds right away."

At that moment, Yuan Ji's shouting could be heard.

When everyone went over to take a look, they found that Yuan Ji, who had deactivated his spiritual resonance state, was covered in injuries, and many of his skin even showed signs of rotting.

Yu Shujiang was startled and asked with concern, "Sister Yuan, what happened?"

"What else could it be? Of course, it's that treacherous old devil who secretly poisoned my hands and let it seep into my body with each fight. He's probably trying to buy time until the poison takes effect."

Yuan Ji snorted coldly and then asked Tang Ping, "Is Old Ghost dead?"

"already dead."

"That's too good for it, huh~"

The movement aggravated his injuries, and Yuan Ji couldn't help but gasp.

Tang Ping and Hu Ze joined forces to use healing magic, but both of them had exhausted a lot of their spiritual power in the battle and had very little left. They could only barely purify half of the poison. Yu Shujiang and Ma Feiyan had only learned healing magic for wounds and did not know how to remove poison.

"Why don't we go back first and find the armed forces department to help with the treatment?" Tang Ping suggested.

"Forget it. Didn't you plan to keep today's events a secret? Just keep it a secret to the end and don't let any clues slip out. I'll just bear with this minor injury and treat it when my spiritual energy recovers."

Her five senses are far more acute than those of ordinary people; she can hear other people talking from a great distance.

"Hey, are we going to hide it? Why?" Yu Shujiang was very puzzled.

Tang Ping could only say, "I have a very important plan. I can't tell you the specifics, but hiding what happened today is a prerequisite. The less information is leaked, the higher the success rate."

"Okay, I get it now."

"I'll keep my mouth shut."

Yu Shujiang and Ma Feiyan had no interest in fame or fortune, and since they felt they had contributed very little in today's battle, they agreed without hesitation.

Yuan Ji glanced at the rotting skin on his arm, then touched the wound on his face, and sighed, "Luckily I have spiritual magic, otherwise I would definitely be disfigured."

Since the other party was willing to endure the pain for their own plan, Tang Ping quickly flattered her, saying, "Senior Sister's charm is not just in her appearance. Beauty only accounts for a small part. Besides, which master doesn't have some injuries? Let's just consider it battle damage makeup. Why don't we give the wounds a domineering name, such as 'Rouge Cuts Water Flow' or 'Meteor Breaks Face Palm'? When we get back, let's try arranging cucumber slices into the Big Dipper formation."

Yuan Ji was amused: "I never expected you to be so good at praising people. You don't just rely on your looks to make a living. I rarely get to enjoy such treatment. Please say a few more words."

Tang Ping rummaged through his clothes and pulled out a band-aid, saying, "After you put this on, remember to say, 'How could you possibly harm my beauty?' I guarantee I can continue to sweep across the psychic world with my stunning good looks tomorrow."

Yu Shujiang looked surprised. "Brother, you're so good at praising people? I've never experienced that before!"

Yuan Ji stared at the band-aid for a while, then couldn't help but burst out laughing: "What were you thinking, carrying a band-aid around? What's the use of this? You don't need it for minor injuries, but do you expect it to save someone from a serious injury?"

It really can, provided that Yu Shujiang uses her spiritual energy to turn the bandage into a magical artifact, which will greatly enhance its hemostatic effect.

Bandages are actually better, but they are bulky and inconvenient to carry, unlike adhesive bandages which can be easily stuffed into a pocket.

At this moment, the surrounding ghostly energy suddenly surged, generating violent fluctuations in spiritual power.

Everyone immediately went on high alert and entered combat mode. After a brief sensing, they discovered that the source was Ma Yiming.

Ma Feiyan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I almost forgot, my brother's advancement to the second stage is the main event today."

As soon as he finished speaking, a ghost gate appeared out of thin air directly above Ma Yiming. After it slowly opened, countless streams of yin and yang spiritual energy poured down, causing Ma Yiming's aura to rise steadily and quickly break through a certain limit.

Yuan Ji commented, "Both of them are advancing to the next level, but his spiritual pressure is much stronger than any other Netherworld psychic I've ever seen. Is it just a difference in their physical constitution?"

As expected, after a while, Ma Yiming's breathing gradually stabilized.

He opened his eyes, stood up, and bowed solemnly to everyone: "Thank you so much for putting everyone in danger to protect me!"

Tang Ping patted the other person on the shoulder and said, "We're all brothers and sisters, saying things like that makes us sound distant."

Ma Feiyan asked curiously, "Brother, didn't you keep your eyes closed the whole time? How did you know what happened?"

Ma Yiming explained, "I am a spirit of the underworld, and I can have my soul leave my body. However, I am unable to move and cannot help much. I can only watch you fight desperately. Fortunately, everyone escaped unharmed."

Hu Ze asked, "Under normal circumstances, a psychic advancing to the second rank wouldn't attract a third-rank monster. And judging from their attitude, it seems they're targeting you. Do you know why?"

"I don't know what happened either, maybe I'm just unlucky," Ma Yiming said with a wry smile.

Since Xuhao was dead, no one thought Ma Yiming had any reason to hide it. They simply assumed that he was just unlucky and had attracted a great demon, or that there was some unknown connection between them.

Tang Ping heard the noise and realized that the other party was lying. She also understood why the other party was bowing so deeply. Besides gratitude, it probably also contained an apology.

Ma Yiming knew that he had caused the disaster and brought danger to everyone, but he was unable to explain for some reason, so he could only express his feelings by bowing.

Tang Ping activated the Three-Eyed Spiritual Radiance to confirm that Ma Yiming had advanced to the rank of "Ghost Messenger" and that his spiritual energy "re-cultivation through tribulation" was still intact. It was clearly not the right time to interrogate him, but he no longer intended to stand idly by.

He previously felt that it concerned his friend's privacy, and since the other party had not asked him for help, he didn't need to meddle. No one could guarantee that finding out the truth was the right thing to do, so pretending not to know might be a reasonable choice.

But if this leads to danger, that's another matter entirely.

He only advanced to the second level and already attracted a third-level demon. Who knows what kind of powerful demon god he will attract when he advances to the third level? He should face his inner thoughts and recover his cultivation as soon as possible.

Tang Ping knew the priorities and that such matters needed to be investigated secretly. Therefore, he remained calm, exchanged a few words with the others, and then returned to the mortal world together.

It was nearly midnight, and everyone was exhausted. Overwhelmed by drowsiness, they didn't waste any time and headed home to catch up on sleep.

Tang Ping and Yuan Ji were traveling together when they arrived at the dormitory building. Tang Ping suggested, "Why don't we let Feng Maimai treat you?"

After a moment's thought, Yuan Ji shook his head and said, "Let's forget it. It's not that I don't trust her, but your plan needs to be kept strictly confidential. The fewer people who know, the less risk there is. My injury isn't serious, so there's no need to add any more variables."

Since I insisted, Tang Ping had no choice but to accept the other party's good intentions.

Neither of them mentioned Ma Yiming, because due to his limited spiritual type, he did not possess healing spiritual arts, but he was skilled at nurturing the soul, and thus could not help Yuan Ji with his injuries.