After walking for some time, the two finally arrived at a quiet private room on the second floor of the Fragrant Pavilion Restaurant.
The moment they sat down, Lin Qingyu snatched the menu straight from the attendant's hands.
Her eyes sparkled as she flipped through the pages with barely contained excitement.
"We'll take the roasted lotus duck, crystal shrimp dumplings, a bowl of phoenix ginseng soup, braised river carp—and wait, add the honey-glazed pork too!"
The words spilled out of her mouth in a rapid stream.
The attendant hurriedly scribbled on his order slip, his brush struggling to keep pace.
"Miss… please slow down!" he pleaded helplessly. "I can barely keep up!"
Across the table, Li Shen simply leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
While Lin Qingyu enthusiastically ordered dish after dish, he had already retreated into his own thoughts.
Specifically, he was contemplating improvements to a talisman formula.
The Spirit-Sealing Talisman.
If the spiritual energy flow could be stabilized along the third inscription line, the talisman's destructive power against wandering spirits might increase significantly.
The problem was maintaining a consistent spiritual circuit without causing the ink to destabilize during activation.
As for what Lin Qingyu was ordering—
Li Shen didn't care in the slightest.
After all, she was the one paying.
And from past experience, Lin Qingyu had a terrifying ability to finish every single dish she ordered.
Not a scrap would go to waste.
---
Soon the dishes began arriving.
One after another, attendants placed steaming plates onto the table.
The air quickly filled with a rich blend of aromas—sweet honey glaze, fragrant herbs, sizzling oil, and the earthy scent of medicinal soup.
Before long, the table was completely covered with food.
"Finally!" Lin Qingyu cheered.
She scooped herself a large bowl of rice and immediately began eating with unstoppable enthusiasm.
Compared to her carefree appetite, Li Shen's table manners were almost painfully refined.
First, he wiped his hands with a cloth.
Then he lifted the porcelain bowl and calmly drank a few sips of the ginseng soup, savoring its warm medicinal fragrance as it spread through his body.
Only after that did he begin to eat.
For Li Shen, two things in life were sacred.
Cultivation.
And food.
Both deserved patience and respect.
Across from him, Lin Qingyu devoured her meal like a storm sweeping across farmland.
Plates emptied with alarming speed.
Yet somehow, she still looked completely composed.
---
By the time they finished, the table was spotless.
Not even a grain of rice remained.
Lin Qingyu leaned back comfortably in her chair and waved the restaurant owner over.
"How much?"
The owner approached with a wide smile and respectfully presented the bill.
"Five taels of silver."
Lin Qingyu barely glanced at it before casually tossing the silver onto the table.
"Keep it."
The owner's smile widened even further.
"Thank you, honored guest!"
He bowed repeatedly, nearly bending in half.
Meanwhile, Li Shen quietly calculated the number in his mind.
Five taels.
That was nearly three months of his salary as a junior registrar of the Spirit Warden Bureau.
His expression remained calm, but internally he came to a simple conclusion.
Places like this should be visited sparingly.
Unless someone else was paying.
---
Night had already deepened by the time they left the restaurant.
The lively streets had quieted.
Lanterns swayed gently in the cool night breeze, their warm light flickering across the stone road.
Only a few groups of pedestrians remained, hurrying home before the city gates closed.
Lin Qingyu turned toward Li Shen.
"So what now?"
"I'll head back to the bureau," Li Shen replied calmly. "There should be missions posted tonight."
She groaned.
"You only ever think about missions and merit points."
Li Shen smiled faintly.
"Well… someone has to keep up with the famous Inspector Lin Qingyu."
She blinked in surprise.
Then a proud grin spread across her face.
"That's right!" she said, puffing out her chest slightly. "If you want to become a hero like me, you'd better work harder."
Li Shen nodded solemnly.
Internally, however, a very different thought crossed his mind.
Easy to appease.
---
Promotion season was approaching within the Spirit Warden Bureau.
As a result, competition among the officers had grown increasingly fierce.
One particular candidate had caught Li Shen's attention.
A man named Ma Qian.
He was older, far more experienced, and possessed stronger cultivation.
More importantly, Ma Qian came from a respected provincial family.
Compared to him, Li Shen had very little advantage.
Aside from his unusually rapid cultivation speed.
Which meant one thing.
He needed to accumulate as many merit points as possible before the final selection.
---
Meanwhile, in another district of Riverfall County, Ma Qian stood before a shabby fortune-telling stall.
His appearance looked miserable.
Dark circles hung beneath his eyes, and his hair seemed slightly thinner than before.
"Master… could you check my career prospects?" he asked anxiously, placing several copper coins on the table.
The fortune teller stroked his tangled beard and studied him lazily.
"How shall we divine it?" the old man asked. "Palm reading? Character divination? Or hexagrams?"
"Characters."
Ma Qian quickly grabbed a brush and wrote a single word on a sheet of paper.
Horse.
The fortune teller stared at the character in silence for a long moment.
"Does it mean success?" Ma Qian asked nervously.
The old man slowly shook his head.
"The character contains the radical for 'sun.'"
He tapped the paper gently.
"But the sun has already set tonight."
"No sun… no success."
Ma Qian's expression froze.
Unwilling to accept that answer, he hurriedly wrote another character.
Qian.
The fortune teller examined it again.
"This character contains the radical for metal," he said thoughtfully. "A sign of wealth and advancement."
Ma Qian's eyes immediately brightened.
But the fortune teller continued.
"However…"
He pointed to another component within the character.
"This part represents 'lack.'"
He sighed lightly.
"Together, it suggests wealth that never arrives."
Ma Qian nearly collapsed on the spot.
Recently, his anxiety had become unbearable.
He was already thirty-five years old.
Still unmarried.
Still a low-ranking official.
Still far from the promotion he desperately wanted.
Worst of all—
His competitor was terrifying.
A young man who had cultivated for less than a year yet was already close to breaking through to the Second Realm.
Just thinking about it made Ma Qian feel painfully old.
He let out a deep sigh.
Then raised a hand and touched his thinning hair with quiet despair.
---
At the same time, Li Shen returned to the Spirit Warden Bureau.
The night hall was quiet.
Only a few lamps burned near the mission board, casting long shadows across the floor.
Li Shen walked over and began scanning the posted tasks.
Soon, one particular mission caught his attention.
Mission Reward: 40 Merit Points
Description:
A strange disturbance has been reported at Riverfall County Academy.
Witnesses claim to hear students reciting lessons late at night despite the building being empty.
Li Shen raised an eyebrow slightly.
The academy had been rebuilt after a devastating spirit attack nearly a decade ago.
During that incident, many teachers and students had died.
Since then, rumors of lingering hauntings had occasionally circulated through the county.
Tonight's report seemed to confirm them.
Without hesitation, Li Shen accepted the mission.
Before leaving, he casually tossed three copper coins onto a nearby table and performed a simple hexagram reading.
The result appeared quickly.
Heaven above Heaven.
An extremely auspicious sign.
Li Shen's lips curved into a faint smile.
Looks like fortune favored him tonight.
---
As he stepped toward the bureau gate, an older officer looked up from his paperwork.
"Be careful out there," the man said.
"If the situation turns dangerous, retreat immediately."
Li Shen nodded.
"I understand."
Moments later, he stepped out into the silent night.
The moon hung high above Riverfall County.
Its pale light stretched across rooftops and empty streets.
In the distance, the dark silhouette of the academy loomed like a sleeping beast.
And somewhere within its silent halls—
Echoed the eerie sound of ghostly students reciting their lessons.
Li Shen walked forward calmly.
Another spirit awaited judgment.
And tonight—
He would be the one delivering it.
---