"Impossible! You...you are a ghost...why do you have a letter from the Demon Slayer Division?"
The old man surnamed Cha was first shocked, then he said in a deep voice, "Could it be that you, this evil ghost, killed Zhang Miaoji and stole the letter to deceive..."
"Alright, alright, don't get excited, old man."
Li Hai shook his head and instantly transformed back into a living person in front of the old man, leaving him utterly dumbfounded.
"You...how did you turn back into a human?!"
Clearly, this scene had confused him, and the old man began to babble, "I'm on the verge of death, so...so I must be hallucinating."
"No, this is not a hallucination."
Li Hai fabricated, "I am indeed human; I just possess a Bloodline Divine Power that allows me to temporarily transform into a ghost."
Immediately, he gave a rough, brief account of how he slaughtered evil ghosts in the Guo Family Fortress Evil Ground and how he unexpectedly met Zhang Miaoji and other details.
"Alright, I understand."
Due to his extreme weakness, the old man did not want to expend too much effort trying to discern the truth from falsehood in Li Hai's words. He merely gasped and asked, "In short, you are a human and not a ghost. Knowing that is enough."
With that, he gritted his teeth and laboriously pulled out a jade box from behind him, only half the size of a palm and affixed with strange talismans. He said intermittently:
"This is a Soul Binding Cocoon, a mystical artifact. An hour ago, I sealed the ghost that was causing trouble here inside this artifact."
After speaking, he handed the jade box to Li Hai and, with effort, also extended an old book.
"The shocking incident at the Niujiao Town outpost this time is by no means accidental. Someone must be maliciously pulling strings behind the scenes; otherwise, such a large Evil Ground could not have appeared out of thin air without any warning. However, I am now too weak to investigate this matter."
His face pale, he looked at Li Hai, "Take this Soul Binding Cocoon. To prevent any unforeseen circumstances, you should hide yourself for now and not show your face. The headquarters will send someone to investigate this place; they will arrive in a few days. At that time, you can hand it over to the Demon Slayer Commandant from the headquarters.
And this notebook is the roster of personnel for this Demon Slayer Division outpost. Find any blank page and carve your name onto it with your finger."
"Carve it with my finger? Okay."
Li Hai took the book and casually flipped through it, finding that its pages were surprisingly hard, neither metal nor jade. A normal person would likely not be able to carve a complete name with a carving knife, let alone with a finger.
However, this was a piece of cake for Li Hai, or rather, for any martial artist at the Qi Circulation level, this matter was as easy as turning over one's hand.
Thus, in the blink of an eye, Li Hai's name was carved by his finger onto one of the pages of this roster.
Strangely, after he carved his name, the roster immediately glowed, as if activated.
Seeing this, the dying old man spoke again:
"Congratulations, you have officially become a member of the Great Jing Demon Slayer Division. There's a device somewhere on this training ground; it should have already molded and printed your Commandant token. You can go find it yourself later."
After speaking a large amount of words in one breath, the old man, utterly exhausted, leaned back against the wall, muttering softly:
"Everything has been explained. You don't need to worry about me; I'm beyond saving. Hurry and leave. Turn into a ghost and leave here quickly. Let me...let me sleep for a little while longer."
With that, he closed his eyes and gradually lost his vitality.
Seeing this, Li Hai could only sigh and turn to leave.
But just then, the old man, as if experiencing a final burst of energy, suddenly opened his eyes and, full of spirit, sternly shouted at Li Hai:
"Young man, remember this firmly...in this world, there are no gods or immortal techniques, nor Buddhas or exalted saints. Only we, the Demon Slayer Commandants, sacrifice our lives to protect the myriad common people. From now on, you are the backbone of all living beings under heaven. Others may retreat, but you cannot; others may flee, but you cannot. If the sky is shrouded in darkness, then you...are the only sun!"
After roaring these words, the old man's vitality completely vanished, and he died on the spot.
"Until the very end, I didn't know if you were Master Cha."
After Li Hai sighed with complex emotions, he immediately transformed from human to ghost, his form illusory as he passed through various obstacles to reach outside the building.
Afterward, he did not immediately leave the place as per the old man's dying wish, but instead began to wander around this quiet and dark training ground.
"Since this is an organizational outpost, there should at least be a warehouse or something, right?"
Muttering to himself, Li Hai's eyes scanned around, trying to find anything of value.
Perhaps due to his wild intuition, he quickly discovered what might be the outpost's warehouse in a corner of this spacious training ground.
Inside this storeroom, several rows of large iron cabinets were neatly arranged.
Although most of these cabinets were crushed into scrap metal due to the collapse of most of the storeroom, and the items inside were also broken and deformed beyond recognition.
However, a few iron cabinets still survived, successfully preserving their contents.
Opening one of the iron cabinets, Li Hai found it neatly stacked with thousands, if not tens of thousands, of yellow talismans.
"Good stuff."
He nodded, raised his palm, and the words "hell" lit up, instantly storing the iron cabinet into the Guiyou Cave Heaven.
Then he opened the second iron cabinet, which contained various archives and documents. After casually flipping through them, Li Hai also threw them into the Cave Heaven.
The third iron cabinet contained stacks of folded black uniforms, which were the double-breasted leather battle suits previously worn by the Demon Slayer Commandants.
"Honestly, these clothes are quite good-looking."
With a thought, Li Hai also put this iron cabinet into the Cave Heaven.
The fourth iron cabinet contained pairs of black long boots that matched the Commandant uniforms.
Needless to say, since they were part of the same series, Li Hai naturally took the entire cabinet.
Then came the remaining fifth, sixth, and seventh iron cabinets.
They contained some silver notes of small and medium denominations, a considerable number of medicine bottles, seven or eight mystical artifacts of unknown function, and a pair of bamboo-jointed steel whips that glowed with a dark red light.
All of these were taken into his possession.
No, the pair of obviously extraordinary bamboo-jointed steel whips were hung on Li Hai's left and right sides of his waist.
In short, he enjoyed looting thoroughly.
At the same time, Li Hai also discovered that in the corner of this collapsed storeroom, there was precisely the token printing device that the old Demon Slayer Division member had mentioned earlier.
"So, the old man's original intention was to have me discover this storeroom and then take all the items?"
Thinking this, Li Hai walked over to the device and found that a still-warm token had already appeared in its tray.
He picked it up and saw that it read—
"【Name: Li Hai】"
"【Number: 3527】"
"【Title: Wood Rank Commandant】"