Chapter 15: Old Faces Leave, New Ones Stay (Please follow!)

Jiang Lu didn't sacrifice his body for nothing.

He had indeed mastered quite a few secrets related to the Spirit Realm.

So facing the trio's strangeness, he was more than capable of handling it.

"Anyway, the thing is like this, the key to this Spirit Realm seems to be about charisma, in other words, like enhancing favorability," he said. "Only people with high charisma can do it, and it's very difficult to operate. It's unlikely that ordinary people can do it, and even I had to put in some effort."

Jiang Lu concealed the part about striking a deal with the messenger, only revealing the investigation results about favorability.

This news was undoubtedly despairing for the other three.

"Is there no other way but to achieve redemption?" murmured Liu Dao.

Ghostface Fox, in his disappointment, still had some doubts, "Logically speaking, there shouldn't be such a setting in the Spirit Realm. There's no precedent for this."

"What do you mean?" asked Jiang Lu, as a newcomer on his second entry into the Spirit Realm, he was very interested in this empirical insight.

"Almost every Spirit Realm, the key to conquering it lies within the Spirit Realm itself. You could say different attributes trigger different events or have different effects in the face of the same situation, but for attributes to decide whether you can conquer it..."

Ghostface Fox paused for a moment and shook his head: "At least I've never heard of such a case. If that's really the setting, it would be akin to a dimensionality reduction assault, and Exorcists entering the Spirit Realm would be destined to fail.

If that were the case, then it's essentially no different from a scripted death situation. But you're not subject to this condition, and that's what I find odd."

"So..." Jiang Lu straightened up slightly, "are you saying there's a breakthrough we haven't discovered?"

"Yes," nodded Ghostface Fox. "Although there's also the possibility that redemption is entirely irrelevant, we can almost ignore that possibility."

The group fell into deep thought.

"How about you guys?" Although Jiang Lu could guess the outcome, he still asked.

"Not good, Liu Dao and I are the same as yesterday. Heavy Cannon's situation is even more serious—he was ambushed by a prisoner," sighed Ghostface Fox.

"Ambushed?" Jiang Lu turned to Heavy Cannon, "Did you also draw a black person?"

"No... it's worse."

"Who was it, then?"

"The one with the white headband."

"Oh, no wonder... ambushing is a custom over there. You're lucky he didn't hug you and self-detonate," he said.

Heavy Cannon didn't have the mood for jokes at the moment, only expressing his lingering fear, "If it wasn't for my tough physique, the moment he pounced on me, I might have been knocked unconscious."

"Attacking an overseer, that's not a well-behaved prisoner," Jiang Lu shook his head, "Did you plant a bomb on him?"

"I didn't do that..."

"That's a pity..."

"Anyway," Heavy Cannon's eyes were full of concern, "I feel like he came specifically to kill me. His intent to kill was very strong, and I don't know what will happen tomorrow, considering today already turned out like this, with a drop of 50 on the first day. You two be extra careful tomorrow, and if you have any combat-related skills, best prepare them in advance."

Ghostface Fox and Liu Dao nodded gravely.

Jiang Lu was quietly observing Heavy Cannon.

He remembered that Heavy Cannon said he was good with guns, so for a gunman, his sense of killing intent should not be mistaken.

He suddenly felt a tinge of suspicion. Was the prisoner's attempt to kill the overseer really just because of low favorability?

"You guys should rest well then, I'll go and try," Jiang Lu suddenly got up and said.

"Just don't create yesterday's situation again," Ghostface Fox said with some difficulty, "Now... we can only rely on you to find a turnaround."

"Don't worry, I know my limits, don't question—just believe for now!"

Jiang Lu smiled confidently, although the three of them felt his smile was a bit unsettling.

But at this point, other than trusting Jiang Lu, they had no other choice.

This was also the reason for Ghostface Fox's discomfort. Although he hadn't been unfamiliar with failure, whether successful in overcoming or the opposite, he had never been so passively reliant on someone else for his fate.

He could admit his own inadequacies, but this situation of being clueless was tormenting him to near madness.

"With his favorability so high, if he's serious it should be fine..."

Heavy Cannon didn't know if he was deceiving Ghostface Fox and Liu Dao or himself.

Liu Dao seemed quite resigned, leaning back with his hands behind his head, "Whether there's a problem or not, we have no choice."

"Ugh..." Heavy Cannon rubbed his face in discomfort, "What kind of situation is this? How can charisma actually be useful? Damn it!"

...

Jiang Lu once again arrived at the entrance of the prison valley.

But he didn't head straight into the archive room; instead, he approached the fleshy mountain of skulls.

"Master, you busy?"

Jiang Lu greeted with a grin and smoothly offered a lit cigarette.

"It's you... not busy." The flesh mountain took a deep drag, "I've been thinking about it all day, this taste is truly authentic."

"Strong enough, huh? I rolled it myself." Jiang Lu said, beaming with pride.

"Ah... you're always good to me. Your companions this morning didn't pay me any mind when they entered."

"Maybe they're just awed by you, considering how burly you are, it's normal for them to be scared."

Jiang Lu casually dismissed, then suddenly shifted the topic:

"Master, I've got something to ask."

"What is it?" The flesh mountain, completely won over by Jiang Lu's hand-rolled cigarette, answered generously: "I'll tell you everything I know."

"It's nothing too serious." Jiang Lu leaned on the window of the stone cabin, poking half his body in, and whispered, "I remember when we arrived yesterday, didn't you ask 'You're the new supervisors, right?' I remembered correctly, right?"

"Mm, that's right."

Jiang Lu raised an eyebrow: "So, I want to ask you, have you seen our predecessors?"

"Seen them."

"And where are they now?"

A look of confusion appeared on the foremost skull of the flesh mountain, as if recalling something.

Jiang Lu did not hurry him, patiently waiting instead.

Finally, the flesh mountain seemed to remember something: "I... can't quite recall, it feels like they were inside."

"Inside?" Jiang Lu's interest was piqued, and he pressed on: "You mean they went in and didn't come out?"

"It's been too long, I've forgotten," the flesh mountain shook its head.

"Hmm, no matter, that's sufficient." Seeing that the flesh mountain had smoked nearly the entire cigarette, Jiang Lu pulled out another one: "Want more?"

"Yes!"

After lighting another cigarette for the flesh mountain, he quickly walked towards the archive room.

He now had some theories he was eager to confirm.

The parrot outside was still repeating the same phrase:

"Lost souls... redemption... lost souls... redemption..."

Jiang Lu paused to give the bird a few more glances, his face showing a hint of intrigue.

But in the end, he ignored it and entered the archive room as planned.

He had intended to compare the records according to the annotated numbers and dates on the files, but he accidentally discovered records about the archives themselves in an unmarked shelf of files.

"This saves me the trouble of searching one by one." Jiang Lu breathed a sigh of relief; while it wasn't a huge surprise, this kind of small delight that saved him time was still enough to brighten his spirits.

He took out the record files from the shelf, blew off the dust, and laid them out on the ground.

At first glance, the files were unorganized, making the contents appear jumbled compared to the neatly categorized and labeled shelves with prisoners' sins. However, he wasn't there to look for prisoners' sins.

All he wanted to see were the records of when prisoners' files were entered and destroyed.

Jiang Lu focused intently on the latest records.

[July 31; 17:56] [Prisoner No. 09991 incarcerated]

[July 31; 17:57] [Prisoner No. 07832 enters Heaven]

[August 1; 9:28] [Prisoner No. 09992 incarcerated]

[August 1; 9:29] [Prisoner No. 02307 enters Heaven]

...

[August 8; 15:37] [Prisoner No. 09996 incarcerated]

[August 8; 15:37] [Prisoner No. 00172 enters Heaven]

"Almost every time..."

Jiang Lu flipped forward a bit more, then stroking his chin, he chuckled:

"Every time a new prisoner is incarcerated, an old one enters Heaven? Isn't that too coincidental? How interesting."