Martial City, inside a seaside villa.

Secretariat Jiang of the municipal party committee paced around the front of the door. His forehead was gleaming with sweat. Two men dressed in Cathayan tunic suits stood behind him, emanating faint traces of Yin energy from their bodies.

It was now 10.00 p.m. Logically speaking, they should be hearing an endless repetition of the usual public broadcast announcements about supernatural events, and all homes should still be brightly lit at night. However, the residents along the entire row of seafront villas had long since moved out. Even the neighbourhoods in the vicinity were completely abandoned and dark at night.

What remained were the soft buzzing sounds of flickering street lamps. The roads were so dim that they may as well not be lit. Gentle sea breezes swept through the lands from time to time, eerie, cold and chilling.

“Secretariat Jiang, let’s return.” A plump man standing behind sighed softly, “You’ve already been waiting for six hours now. You haven’t even had your dinner. Mr Qin must be at a crucial juncture of his breakthrough. After all, we’re talking about breaching the ranks of an Infernal Judge…”

With that, he glanced at the dark villa with profound emotions, “If he succeeds, he would be a 19 years-old Infernal Judge. That’s practically unprecedented in the history of Cathay…”

“Can he succeed?” Secretariat Jiang raised his head, revealing his bloodshot eyes, “He promised to be done in four months, but it’s already been close to half a year! Do you think I’d be so anxious if our situation here weren’t...