# 485
Chapter 485 – Spiritual Medium Field
Long lashes trembled; in utter silence, the ghostly girl floating above the floor opened her eyes.
Her gaze wandered for a moment. Catching sight of the figures around her, she sprang up, fury and vigilance etched across her delicate face.
“Relax, Jiang Er,” Lin Qiye said gently, seeing how startled she was. “We’re not with the Believers. We’re Night Watch.”
He took his Coat of Arms from his pocket and set it on the floor.
He knew Jiang Er had no physical form and couldn’t pick the emblem up, so he simply laid it down for her to examine.
Jiang Er frowned. After a brief hesitation she stepped forward, crouched, and studied the insignia.
“You really don’t need to be so tense,” Lin Qiye added. “If we were Believers, you’d never have opened your eyes. Even if you’re just a magnetic field, we’d find a way to erase you.”
When she saw the name engraved beneath the Coat of Arms, she froze.
She lifted her head, met Lin Qiye’s eyes, and soundlessly shaped words with her lips.
Fssshhh…
In the corner, the old television whose cable had snapped flickered back to life, static crackling through the air.
“Fssshhh… You’re Lin Qiye?”
As the snowstorm of white noise receded, the girl’s voice came through the speakers, warped by worn hardware yet unmistakably surprised.
Only then did Lin Qiye realize: Jiang Er was only a magnetic field now—no vocal cords, no way to speak. She had to borrow nearby electronics to talk.
“You’ve heard of me?” he asked.
“At training camp. Three years ago you topped the new recruits, broke all those records—rumor said you were a prodigy who outshone Mask Squad’s captain Wang Mian.”
Lin Qiye, Baili Pangpang, and Cao Yuan exchanged glances, startled.
“Which class were you?” Baili Pangpang asked.
“Last year’s,” Jiang Er replied. “I graduated top of my class too.”
“You only joined Night Watch last year?” Cao Yuan said, surprised. “Then you’re our junior.”
“Night Watch doesn’t do ‘juniors,’ just ‘newer recruits,’” Baili Pangpang corrected with a grin. “Can’t believe it’s been three years since we graduated—now we’re the seniors. Feels kinda nice.
Hey, little Jiang Er, while you were at camp did you ever hear about a famous senior hanging around Lin Qiye—name of Baili… uh, Baili Tuming?”
Jiang Er pondered. “Legend says the dual-god agent Lin Qiye had two close buddies: a landlord’s dim-witted son and a lecher who covets other men’s wives… which one are you?”
Baili Pangpang: …
Cao Yuan: …
“Let’s get back to business,” Lin Qiye coughed, sparing them further embarrassment. “Jiang Er, what happened here?”
She turned toward the trashed room; her eyes dimmed.
“Ten-odd days ago. No ‘mystery’ cases that day. We were in the office playing deduction games, as usual…
Then a man walked in leading a dog.”
She pointed at the frosted-glass door.
“He came in, distressed, and talked to us.
Said he was a construction worker. His good buddy had died—fallen from a height because the foreman cut costs with shoddy scaffolding. He wanted us to gather evidence and get justice.”
“Sounds normal,” Cao Yuan muttered.
“We thought so too—until we noticed something off,” Jiang Er continued. “Though he wore worn work-clothes and muddy shoes, his hands were too clean—no calluses, skin pale, not weather-beaten at all.
And when he entered, the mud on his soles left fresh prints. The dirt was new, like he’d just jogged over from a site. But the crew he mentioned worked west of the city—over an hour away by subway. In that time the mud would’ve dried; it couldn’t leave tracks.
Meaning, he’d deliberately stomped through a nearby patch of mud before coming…”
“Detectives indeed,” Baili Pangpang sighed. “So? Was he a Believer?”
Jiang Er shook her head. “The dog was.”
“…”
“We’re all deduction buffs; nearly everyone sensed something wrong, but we didn’t think ‘Believers.’
After we exposed his lies, he sighed, unclipped the leash…
The dog swelled into a colossal, terrifying beast—looked a bit like an earth-dragon, aura definitely Klein-level.
When it roared, it felt like some force ripped our psyche from our bodies; our Forbidden Ruins stalled. Then it charged and—”
Jiang Er fell silent; static hissed from the TV again.
Everyone could guess the rest.
A heavy silence settled.
After a long moment Lin Qiye asked quietly, “How did you learn the dog was a Believer?”
“When it tore my body apart, I thought I was dead… but my consciousness woke in the dark. That’s when I understood my Forbidden Ruins’ true power…”
She swept a hand across the floor; her fingers passed through the wood like air, then slipped back intact.
“Spiritual Medium Field: not just manipulating magnetism, but converting my mind and spirit into a magnetic field. Even if my body dies, as long as the brain region that governs psychic power hasn’t rotted away, my consciousness survives as a field.
After reviving, I overheard the man and the dog.
The man called the dog… First Seat.”