Chen Ming saved all the information he’d pulled from the surveillance.

Then he started checking the loot he’d just gotten, the stuff he’d never had time to look at.

He filtered out the drugs and such; what really mattered was that Bone Longsword, and the three Glass Beads that carried Spiritual Energy Fluctuations.

The full name of the Bone Longsword was [Night Owl Tail-Blade Bone Bone Longsword (Low)]

Chen Ming specifically looked up this creature called "Night Owl."

It was a medium-sized carnivore, appearance like a cross between a leopard and a tiger, with a bone blade growing from its tail.

It lived on a Planet illuminated by only a single weak star, yet rich in subterranean life.

The Planet’s geological conditions were very special, its ecosystem extremely unique; underground there were enormous cavities extending to almost every part of the Planet, with countless giant pillars hundreds or even thousands of meters in diameter supporting the surface crust.

In this pitch-black underground world where only fluorescent plants provided a faint light, but life was incredibly abundant, the Night Owl was the apex predator.

And for a Spiritual Creature from a world this dark, its Spiritual Energy naturally evolved in that direction.

So it was a perfect fit for a Black Mist Spirit Ability User.

This guy really did have good luck.

Too bad his good days were over.

Chen Ming put away the sword, then turned his gaze to the three Glass Beads.

The two intact Glass Beads were called [Heart-Gathering Spirit Pearl (Black Mist)] and [Heart-Gathering Spirit Pearl (None)], exactly as Chen Ming had suspected—they were creations of that Psychic.

The damaged red-and-blue Glass Bead was called [Damaged Heart-Gathering Spirit Pearl (Entropy)].

He couldn’t see the exact effects, but just from the names, Chen Ming already had a few uncertain guesses.

But this kind of thing couldn’t be settled by guessing; better to ask a professional.

Chen Ming picked up his terminal and directly called his boss.

While the call was dialing, Chen Ming also confirmed his last piece of loot—the Black Mist Spirit Ability User himself.

The processing method for this piece of loot was simple: just find a way to get an Enlightenment Nerve and try extracting it.

This Black Mist Spiritual Energy was quite interesting.

Once he actually had an Enlightenment Nerve in hand, Chen Ming still had to consider whether to use it on himself or on the Black Mist Spirit Ability User.

The call connected quickly.

Chen Ming greeted him: "Long time no see, Boss."

Because it was a video call, Chen Ming noticed the Boss didn’t seem to be in the hardware store but somewhere else, and he was dressed in formal wear.

But the Boss didn’t look particularly busy; he even had time to greet Chen Ming: "Oh, it’s Ming. What’s up?"

"Here’s the situation: I just had a fight with a Psychic and took some stuff off him."

"Wait, aren’t you with the Fourteenth Legion?"

"I came out on a job and walked right into an ambush—should be a Psychic from Zuo Jing, and Hu Yi."

The Boss’s gaze flicked sideways for a moment, but he quickly looked back and said, "A Psychic from Zuo Jing? So how did it end?"

"It ended with me not even getting a look at Hu Yi’s face before he ran, but the other Psychic using Black Mist is in my hands now."

"I took a few things off him, but I can’t quite figure out what they do."

The Boss understood what Chen Ming meant and said, "You want to ask me, right? Put them up, let me see."

Chen Ming set the three Glass Beads on the table and said, "They all have Spiritual Energy Fluctuations."

The Boss stared at the Glass Beads for a while, his expression gradually turning serious. "I’ve never seen these before. They should be related to that Psychic’s ability."

"Have you ever seen the Psychic you caught actually use these things?"

"I haven’t seen anyone use them in practice, but the colors of these Glass Beads might correspond to other people’s Spiritual Energy."

"Correspond to other people’s Spiritual Energy?"

"Take this black one, for example—I feel it very likely corresponds to the Spiritual Energy of that Black Mist Spirit Ability User I caught. I’ve also got two recordings that should back this up."

"Send them to me."

"Okay."

Chen Ming immediately sent over one recording of the Black Mist Spirit Ability User using Spiritual Energy, one recording of him capturing the Black Mist Spirit Ability User, and one recording of the later Psychic who showed up using Black Mist Spiritual Energy.

The Boss finished watching quickly and said to Chen Ming, "I think you already have in mind..."

But before he finished the sentence, he suddenly cut himself off and said instead, "Hold on a second, something just came up on my end. Don’t hang up."

The Boss raised his head, muted the call, and flipped the terminal face-down on the table.

He turned to Hu Yi, who was sitting beside him and frantically gesturing, and asked, "What?"

After confirming Wu An had turned off the sound, Hu Yi pointed at the terminal and said, "I know what that is."

"I saw it the last time I was talking cooperation with someone."

"The time you came to block me?"

"Yeah."

Hu Yi thought back and said, "There was a Psychic from Zuo Jing, he was fiddling with Glass Beads just like those. I saw the black ones and the transparent ones in his hands, but that red-and-blue one, I really didn’t see."

"Did that guy look the same as the one in the recording?"

"No, completely different faces. But the physiology and movements were very similar. Either he got plastic surgery, or..."

Wu An finished the sentence for Hu Yi: "His Spiritual Energy lets him change his appearance."

"We still haven’t figured out the principle behind that Psychic’s ability, but at least we’ve got the general situation."

"That Psychic stole your Spiritual Energy and your face. That’s why ’you’ showed up over at the Fourteenth Legion."