Chapter 1: A Cultivator Among Us_1

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The Force of Pollution, level three!

Gazing at the detection result on the electronic display in front of him, Lin Yuan let out a dejected sigh and removed the detection equipment from his body.

A bitter smile spread across his face.

On the other side, the staff member responsible for the detection showed a kind smile and comforted Lin Yuan,

"Not bad, this value is very stable and always within controllable range. It's normal. If the next two checks don't reveal any problems, then you can basically be sure that you're not polluted. Good, next."

Lin Yuan nodded, wanting to ask more questions, but the long line of people behind him immediately surged forward, pushing him out of the queue.

And the staff had already started dealing with the next potential carrier of pollution, unable to continue talking to him.

Lin Yuan knew that his work for the day was done.

What followed was a return to his living quarters, waiting for tomorrow's check...

As for that comment about 'if the next two checks...', he didn't believe a single hair of it; they'd started saying the same thing on his second day here.

It's been over a month now, and they're still saying it.

"Isolated just after crossing over, who could be unluckier than me?"

Lin Yuan muttered to himself, walked over to the dining area, lined up for his meal, and prepared to finish eating and return to his isolation room to lie like a corpse.

He actually didn't object to the quarantine.

Given his current situation, quarantine might as well be a good thing.

He wasn't sure if it was a side effect of crossing over.

Lin Yuan inherited only the soul and body of the other person, but the memories were nowhere to be found, not even fragmented ones.

In a world with supernatural powers, a sudden loss of memory and a big change in personality could easily be mistaken for possession by a Foreign Demon...

Although, in a sense, saying that he was possessed wasn't entirely wrong.

Luckily, Lin Yuan was caught and quarantined shortly after crossing over. After more than a month of confinement, no one found his change in disposition strange.

And he had gradually come to understand some common knowledge of this world through the sparse conversations with the staff every day.

As Lin Yuan ate, he looked up at the far-off surroundings.

A quarantine zone the size of at least a dozen football fields, enclosed at the edges by massive opaque glass, forming a giant semi-circular structure tens of meters tall.

The glass also functioned as a virtual display screen, seamlessly playing scenic views of the beautiful outside world, blurring the lines between reality and illusion.

One day by the seaside basking in the sea breeze, the next atop a mountain gazing at the sunset, the day after on the boundless grasslands breathing fresh air.

If it weren't for the armed guards patrolling the perimeter, and the staff in white coats, it might really seem like a vacation to some.

But even the most beautiful scenery can become annoying after a while...

Especially when the remote control isn't in your own hands.

Lin Yuan bowed his head and kept eating.

At that moment...

On the outer edges of the virtual display screen...

A man stood with his arms crossed, peering through the virtual screen at the actions of the thousands of people within the quarantine zone.

While looking inward from outside, the screen was completely transparent, unlike its scenic projection from inside.

In this period, almost every day, there were people outside evaluating and analyzing the quarantine.

This man was today's observer.

He looked to be in his thirties, wearing a bulletproof vest and camouflage military uniform, with a beard and buzzcut, and particularly a long, narrow scar on his face that gave him an added air of ferocity.

The man looked down and flipped through the material in his hand, asking the person behind him,

"Have we found anything?"

The in-charge replied, "We can now be sure that the Cultivator who escaped is not in this quarantine zone."

"Don't be careless. When we acted, the Spirit-Detecting Instrument clearly detected two different Spiritual Charms, indicating that there were at least two Cultivators on the scene. One of these Charms has been matched with the Cultivator we killed, but we have yet to find any trace of the other one..."

"Captain Li, rest assured. While you were acting, we also responded immediately. We apprehended everyone and put them into quarantine, checking their internal Spiritual Energy Contamination Value daily, without seeing any sharp increases."

The in-charge hesitated a moment and then spoke in a lowered voice, "Moreover, we've applied for a Remnant Consciousness Whisper and released it at a low frequency throughout the quarantine zone."

The man snapped the document closed.

He turned his head to glance back, his complexion growing extremely ugly.

He said coldly, "Are you trying to cultivate a few more Cultivators to increase our workload?"

"There's no need for concern, Captain Li. We've made thorough preparations, but the fact is, after listening to the Remnant Consciousness Whisper, no one's Contamination Value has changed significantly!"

The person in charge said, "However, the contamination levels of five individuals have become extremely active in the days since, and we suspect that they may be Innate Spiritual Bodies who have heard fragments of the whispers... We've already urgently sent these five people to the Other Domain for closed observation, but we can affirm that they are not Cultivators!"

"So you're saying that even with our sudden strike, the other side was aware and escaped in advance?"

The man known as Captain Li's gaze tightened and he let out a slight sigh,

"Cunning indeed. Since we've even used the Remnant Consciousness Whisper to probe and it seems our target is truly not among these people. We'll conduct one more comprehensive check tomorrow and then release them. We need to free up enough manpower to pursue the Cultivator on the loose. We can't afford to waste more time here."

A touch of resolve appeared in his eyes as he firmly said, "We absolutely can't let any Cultivator slip through the net!"

With that, Captain Li turned to walk back, muttering curses under his breath, his face soured.

If the Cultivator wasn't hiding in this quarantine zone, then they must still be on the run outside.

This was the worst-case scenario.

It meant he'd have to resume the endless chase, day in and day out...

It was such a pain; ever since he got this job, his hair had gone from a side part to short hair, and now to a crew cut. If it kept falling out like this, he'd soon have to shave it all off.

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He still doesn't have a partner.

......

After having dinner, Lin Yuan was permitted a brief release.

As long as all his actions ensured that he remained within the view of the cameras, and he didn't escape to any blind spots, nothing else mattered.

The strict management gave Lin Yuan the false impression that he was undergoing some sort of rehabilitation.

But this was also his best chance to get some physical activity in his entire day, the little bit of anticipation he had.

After his release, he returned to his own quarters.

To call it a living space would be a stretch, it was merely a completely sealed little box.

Aside from a bed and a chamber pot, not even a basin was provided for washing hands.

Going to the toilet for a big one required an application, and supervision by someone accompanying him to the restroom...

Now that's what you call considerate service.

After returning, Lin Yuan carefully wrote down a 3 on the paper under his pillow, and then folded it neatly.

In this place, there was no distinction between day and night.

But it could be determined that there was a check once a day.

He used this method to record how many days he had been isolated.

Before that 3, there was a long series of densely packed numbers.

2, 3, 3, 3, 3...

A series of identical numbers.

Very stable.

Stability is good.

Lin Yuan had once seen with his own eyes a person whose Contamination Value was at the sixth level the day before, only to suddenly exceed the ninth level, jumping to 1.3 the next day, and then forcibly taken away.

Where they went was unknown, but a sudden rise in Contamination Value had only one possibility...

Even if he wasn't a Cultivator, he must have come into contact with the Immortal Cultivation Key Points and couldn't be unassociated with them.

One could imagine his fate.

That's right.

When Lin Yuan discovered that they were quarantined here because it was very likely that one of them was a Cultivator, he himself was utterly dumbfounded.

Cultivators in his imagination could transcend heaven and earth, grasp the clouds and chase the moon, overturn rivers and seas, and were omnipotent!

Furthermore, they had long lives, and although they could not outlive the heavens and the earth, they certainly lived far longer than ordinary mortals...

They were almost capable of anything.

Yet in this world, they were equated with a plague?

After chatting and gathering information from others during this time, he realized that his previous thoughts were not mistaken.

The Cultivators of this world were indeed that strong, unrivaled and incomparable.

The prerequisite is...

Without that horrible side effect.

You see, this world once had Cultivators.

But too many died, and then there were no more.

The exact reason is unknown, but it was known that the thriving Cultivation civilization, like the extinction of dinosaurs, was completely obliterated overnight.

The good news is they all died.

The bad news is... they didn't die thoroughly.

Cultivators may have perished, but those with great strengths cultivated Divine Sense, which, after leaving the body, merged with the Spiritual Energy of nature.

Even so, they could not escape that catastrophe. Although their consciousness survived, most were damaged, and these Divine Senses, integrated with Spiritual Energy, gradually became twisted, frenzied, reduced to Remnant Consciousness devoid of humanity.

The most innate desire of Remnant Consciousness is to have a body once again.

And those of their kind who were also Cultivators, became their best host bodies...

This is also why the Cultivator system has almost become universally despised to this day.

The Xuan Dynasty even established the Eradication Department specifically to prevent people from rashly engaging in Cultivation, so as not to be possessed by these Remnant Consciousnesses and consequently transformed into Foreign Demons.

Especially since Remnant Consciousness involves the possession of consciousness, many Cultivators are often possessed without realizing it. They gradually undergo changes in temperament over time, becoming someone else...

Yet they stubbornly believe they are still themselves!

This is also why Lin Yuan was relieved to be isolated at this moment.

Because there was a Cultivator among them.

And he suddenly lost his memory, forgot everything, and then underwent a huge change in temperament. Compared to convincing people that he had amnesia, it seemed more likely that they would think he had been possessed by a Remnant Consciousness, completely mutated into a Foreign Demon.

And here, where nobody knew him, he was provided with the chance to clear himself of suspicion!