Book 4 Chapter 7 – Neighbor

　　'Money makes the world go round.' Li Yiming realized this when the troublesome procedures and formalities of owners.h.i.+p transfer were settled in less than three days after adding an extra one thousand yuan to the agent fee. After hiring a housekeeping company to tidy up his apartment, Li Yiming finally moved in on the fourth day with a newly-bought double-sized bed.

　　Two days have pa.s.sed since then. During those two days, the only thing Li Yiming has focused on doing one thing, and one thing only; he sat in the study and stared at the walls with a bowl of cup noodles.

　　‘It's here… It's half an hour later than last night.’ Li Yiming put the bowl down on the floor and approached the wall, carefully placing one hand on it.

　　'As expected, any business that has to do with Mr.Kong is no simple matter. Things are becoming more troublesome…' Bai Ze's sounded a little nervous.

　　'What do you think I'll find beyond this wall?' Li Yiming asked as he slowly slid his hand across the wall, feeling every inch of it.

　　'Regardless of what you'll find, I still suggest that you avoid it and move away from it. I have a terrible feeling about this,' Bai Ze said.

　　‘Hey, do you think it's a sage? When they create a Boundary, they split reality, right?' Li Yiming recalled Li Huaibei's boundary.

　　'Bulls.h.i.+t. You think a sage can just create a Boundary without drawing any attention from Heaven's Laws? Look outside the window, if it wasn't because I can't see the people down the in the streets, I wouldn't even have noticed anything. Also, haven't you noticed? The barrier, or whatever it is, prevents you from seeing other living beings beyond it. Do you know what this means?'

　　'This means that it's barely big enough to cover the whole study, and the reason why I can even enter inside is because I'm a bug in the system.' Li Yiming answered with a grave voice; he had the same concerns as Bai Ze.

　　'Yiming, this… this isn't a boundary. Try and remember this feeling. This is a secret domain.' Bai Ze voice trembled as she explains the situation to Li Yiming.

　　'What kind of secret domain starts and ends seemingly on a whim and only covers two rooms? My study and the room beyond this wall…'

　　‘I want to go over and take a look. Get to know my neighbor a bit.’ Li Yiming said with a look of curiosity.

　　'Did you not hear a single word of I just said? This is a secret domain and most likely, a man-made one. Do you know what it means to create a secret domain? It means that your neighbor might very well be able to bend Heaven's Laws!' Bai Ze's roared in frustration. After two days worth of observations, Bai Ze was almost certain that the person responsible for this, unlike Li Yiming, was not only beyond Heaven's Laws, but was also powerful enough to bend them to his or her will. This knowledge unsettled Bai Ze, and it brought out the instinctive bear for Heaven's Laws that her mythical blood commanded in her.

　　‘Mr. Kong isn't someone who would do pointless things. If he wanted to harm me, he could have just done it himself, no need for such a roundabout way. Aren't you curious at all?‘ Li Yiming replied calmly.

　　'Our mission is only to locate a person. That's all we need to do!' Bai Ze roared in anger as she was frustrated with Li Yiming's decision to court death and tempt fate.

　　"I have a feeling that the person we're looking for is just beyond this wall." Li Yiming rubbed his sore neck and began to walk toward the door.

　　* * *

　　Inside the bas.e.m.e.nt of one of the villas at the heart of Hangzhou laid a naked man on a uniquely designed stone platform. The man's eyes were shut, but his tightly knitted brows suggested that he was experiencing an unspeakable pain in his sleep. A mysterious, golden glyph shone and dimmed on his skin, and, as it did so, the veins on the man's body throbbed visibly and faint pulses of light ran beneath his skin. If Li Yiming was there, he would have recognized the man instantly: it was Guo Xiang.