Lune caught sight of the ragged creature in the street below him, trudging alongside the road in search of prey to feast on. This undead wasn't that different from the one he met on the first day he arrived in the mortal realm, that one he found deep in the outskirts in the middle of the night.
For more than one undead to appear around the same area was something worth to be suspicious of, but it wasn't enough to get Lune to start investigating just yet. Perhaps if another one were to come around, it would be enough evidence that there must be something or someone behind their creation nearby.
The lone undead stumbled under the streetlight, illuminating itself in the dark sky. It was a good thing no one was around at the time, otherwise, they'd find themselves relentlessly chased down by a blood-lusting monster.
Lune stood up on the rooftop. Since being alone, his mortal clothes had been transformed back to the long robes he preferred, and the flowy dark red, white, and black silk material casting a greater shadow upon the undead from where he was located.
The undead stopped turning and turning as its smaller figure was engulfed by Lune's shadow and it grunted in confusion before spinning around to blink up at the godly being looking down on itself. Even while lacking a fully developed thinking system, the cold pressure it suddenly felt weigh down on itself was insanely nerve-racking, and it trembled, petrified.
"The underworld is where you belong...safe travels," Lune said. He raised his arm, a blinding beam of silver light circling above his palm. And before the undead could think about running, the gleaming silver luminescence shot from his hand and pierced the creature straight through its wrinkled head, dark blood spurting from the shriveled, open, flesh.
A few seconds later, the broken corpse dissipated, confirming its transition from the mortal realm to the underworld, where it belonged.
Another simple job was done, and Lune turned to leave, but not before sensing the blinking camera that pointed straight at the ground right where the obliterated corpse of the undead lay just moments earlier.
How inconvenient...
Lune extended his arm behind him in the direction of the camera and closed his hand into a tight fist, quickly followed by the crush of metal and glass of the security camera that constricted and fell from the side of the building onto the cement sidewalk.
Did the device capture it all?
"Did you hear that?"
A man's voice echoed around the corner of the empty street, and the tap of multiple footsteps indicated the presence of many.
That voice...sounded familiar.
A group of officers appeared at the intersection at the end of the street, four men and one female.
"I don't see anything here, Captain," the female officer stated, her hand hovering open the weapon at her belt. A gun, was it? Lune recalled. "Are you sure you heard it right?"
"Stop," the captain ordered.
The little group stopped in their tracks and watched as their captain pointed at the shattered camera on the side of the street, detached from the little hook that it originally hung from. "Search the area," he instructed, drawing his gun.
The captain's subordinates did as they were told and spread out around the perimeter, only the shorter boy stayed behind the captain holding three different devices in his hands at the same time. "Did you find anything strange, techie?" the elder man asked.
"No, Cap," he muttered, scratching his head in confusion. "Something's not letting me into the system."
The captain turned to face in sheer surprise, not sure what to make of the news. He scratched the top of his graying head, sucking in a breath through his teeth. "Maybe I'm thinking too much?" he wondered aloud.
"Mandie!" he called for the female officer who was standing at the other end of the street. "Anything?"
"No," Mandie answered, shaking her head.
The old man sighed, running his hand through his dark hair in perplexity. "Alright, we'll let this off and get someone to fix the camera..."
"Hello."
The little boy with the technology in his hands let out a frightening shout and ran into his captain in a panicked frenzy, who then spun around, gun raised at the person who somehow came up behind them undetected.
Lune flashed his usual close-lipped smile at the middle-aged man as he took a closer look at who he was pointing his weapon at, his robes changed back to the white jeans and brown hoodie he was wearing earlier in the day. "May I help you?"
"It's you!" the captain exclaimed, partly with relief. He lowered his weapon and signaled for the others to do the same. "What are you doing here?"
Mandie stepped forward, her eyes narrowed. "Aren't you the guy from earlier today?" she asked.
Earlier today? "Have we met before?" Lune questioned.
The captain pocketed his gun let a friendly smile. "Ah, yes...and no at the same time," he answered. "Let me introduce myself. I am Captain Wang Mingde of Capital X Police Department and these four are part of my team. We were there with Mister Yue at the casino shooting, but we didn't get to say hello to you."
Well, what a coincidence that they have met again. "Nice to meet you," Lune mildly replied. "I hope all of you are still well?"
Wang Mingde let out a hearty chuckle. "Yes, thankfully none of us were hurt!" he firmly reassured. "Today was a bit scary, but we pulled through, right? There were quite a few unexpected surprises along the way..."
He wiggled his eyebrows knowingly at Lune, hinting at him the fascinating exploit they witnessed Lune pull off towards the end of the fight, only to clear his throat in awkwardness when he realized the cloth around his eyes meant he couldn't see his face due to blindness.
"Ahem, eh, uh, young man...I just wanted to say, you hold impressive skills and seem pretty capable," he remarked enthusiastically. "I'm curious, did you receive training somewhere? I'm close with some of the martial arts masters in the capital, perhaps you come from one of their studios?"
Here they are again, words that Lune was not familiar with, yet they still sparked his interest. Were these 'martial arts masters' cultivators in the mortal world? He made a mental note to look into it one day when he was free.
"I apologize for disappointing you," Lune answered politely, "but I do not belong to any 'studio', nor am I familiar with any of these 'masters'."
"Oh. That's perfectly fine, I was only curious, hahaha..."
The captain's voice trailed off, and he darted his eyes back and forth skeptically, regaining the serious look on his face. He turned to Lune, his voice lowered to almost a whisper.
"Say, young man, you were wandering here, yes?" he asked, shooting a glance behind his shoulder.
Lune went along with a smile and nodded.
"Good. Did you hear anything strange or feel anything strange earlier? I don't know why, but something felt a bit off."
Of course, in the presence of an immortal's power, what one would feel varied on their position. Since the five were nearby when Lune released his attack on the undead, it wasn't too much of an anomaly that they had felt something unnatural.
But Lune wasn't going to explain all of that. The knowledge of the existence of other worlds and beings...would be left for all humans to find out as a whole, one day.
"Ah, I did hear a crash earlier, but I did not think too much of it. You have heard it as well?"
Captain Wang let out a sigh, reaching to scratch his head once again. It really seemed that he was overreacting a little. It was just a camera after all, and he could just get someone to fix it in no time when they returned to the police department.
"Well, it seems I got worried over nothing," he said to Lune. "Nice seeing you, young man. My team and I have to get back to the department now, feel free to stop by to say hello!"
"Of course."
"Good night, then!"
Wang Mingde left with his team, and Lune remained standing at the end of the street as if he were watching them go.
Once he was sure they were gone and that the surroundings were void of additional undead creatures, he tapped on his right shoulder. "You can come out now," he said.
A small tweet sounded as Bulu's visible form rematerialized at its preferred spot on Lune's shoulder, and the little spirit chirped happily as the immortal reached to stroke its smooth beak.
"I do not understand you," Lune suddenly brought up, and Bulu glanced up at him curiously as if it were confused. "You insist on following me. Do you not want to go back to your realm and regain your true form?"
Bulu squawked in what sounded like protest, flapping its wings wildly.
"What do you mean, you do not know how to go back?"
.
.
Early the next cloudy day, Lune stepped into KoTech headquarters, otherwise known as Channing's tower, through the automatic sliding doors at the entrance. Since he was expected, this was actually the first time Lune entered a building through the main doors without having to slip in from the rooftop or an open window, as he had done so for the past month.
But it did feel fairly nice to be welcomed...
The moment he was inside the main reception, he could feel the many hundreds of clusters of qi floating above him, hastily moving along with the humans' bustling footsteps. The movement was nonstop, even in the several layers below him. Just how busy were these mortals?
But most importantly, the question was...where is Channing?
People and workers passed by him, shooting him mystified glances as he stood there unmoving, contemplating whether he should wait there in the lobby or move up into the higher parts of the building to find him.
By that time, some of the employees have started to notice him, and they whispered to each other, wondering if anyone knew who the tall blind man wearing the long, navy-blue coat and white pants was.
In the end, the short lady receptionist with the shoulder-length brown hair was the one to step out from behind the counter, and she straightened her black dress suit as she made her way to the unfamiliar guest.
"Good morning, sir!" she greeted cheerfully. "Is there something I can help you with today?" Since Lune was so tall and the top of her head barely reached his shoulders, she had to tilt her head all the way back to see his face.
"Huh? Ah no, I am alright," Lune said. "I am only waiting for someone."
The receptionist lightened up. "Oh! You must be looking for one of our workers, right? Hold on, sir, I'll be back in a moment."
Before Lune could protest, the lady was gone, and a few moments later, she came rushing back with a tablet in her hands.
She tapped on the screen of her device a few times and looked up at him once more. "Who are you looking for? I can help you notify them!"
Hearing how eager she was, Lune gave in and let her be. "I am waiting for Channing, though I think he will show up in a bit."
"Channing?" the young woman repeated, looking up at him in confusion. "I don't think we have a Channing in our- oh..." Her jaw dropped and she covered her mouth with her hand in shock the moment she realized who he was talking about.
"Ch- Channing Yue? You mean President Yue?" she stammered, trying to recollect her professional composure.
"Yes, Channing," Lune confirmed with a smile, oblivious.
"O- Oh," she said, still in a daze. "Um, the president is not in yet. You can take a seat here while you wait... May I have your name, sir?" This man was going to meet up with the president, and the receptionist quickly assumed that he was someone important; not knowing his name would do her no good for her job.
But the thing was, she had never seen this man in her life before, and she was a hundred percent sure that the president of the company was not someone to be late to a scheduled meeting.
This man wasn't bluffing, was he? she thought a bit skeptically.
Yet before Lune could respond to her, there was a loud commotion at the entrance that interrupted their conversation.
"Aye, aye! Where's the receptionist?" a gruff voice said obnoxiously. "Do I have to sign in here or what? DAMN, this place is huge, hahaha!"
Eyes turned to stare at the three men that strode through the main doors, holding up a very strong aura of self-importance in their brand-new gray suits. The one in the center had his hands shoved in the pockets of his suit jacket, and he blew a couple of breaths from his mouth to shift a loose strand of his gelled-back dark hair away from his eyes.
"Where do I go?" he asked loudly.
"Ah, who is that?" Lune heard the lady receptionist that was helping him mumbled nervously under her breath.
Suddenly, a fierce-looking manager appeared from behind the counters and she cleared her throat before she walked to greet the new guests, her tall heels clicking sharply against the smooth, tiled flooring. She greeted the man coolly before getting straight to the point.
"Have you an appointment, sirs?" she asked, clasping her hands together with a clap.
"Eh?"
The man scratched the stubble on his chin thoughtfully, squinting his eyes up at the ceiling. "I do!" he said slowly at first. "With the assistant guy! He gave me his card and everything."
The manager immediately held out her hand, the slick black curls of her hair bouncing at her shoulders. "The card?"
The man in the gray suit snorted and rolled his eyes greatly. "Aw, come on! Don't be ridiculous, lady!" he complained. "I told you the assistant gave me his card and arranged a meeting for us. Why else would I be here then?"
Again, the manager shot him a steely look, unbudging. "Which assistant? You must give me at least one piece of evidence before I can let you go in."
And as the man opened his mouth to retort, she cut him off before he even had the chance to start. It was as if she already knew what the man was up to beforehand. "This is KoTech HQ, you have to follow our company's regulations if you wish to proceed. If you refuse to leave after failing to comply, I will have security escort you out."
Clearly, this strict female manager wasn't as easy to deal with as the unknown man had expected, and he scowled in irritation, unhappy that things weren't going his way.
"Tsk."