Courtyard House: Time Traveler Not Yet a Ghost

One by one, slightly dim but structurally sound strands of soul light, like infants born from a mother's womb, painstakingly separated from the main soul, carrying a faint glow like countless fireflies fluttering around him. Ten, twenty, fifty… With each separation, the light of the main soul dimmed a little, and the beads of sweat on He Damin's forehead increased accordingly. By the eightieth strand, the light of the main soul had dimmed by more than forty percent, like a candle flickering in the wind, threatening to go out at any moment. The separation speed also slowed significantly, and the output of soul power became extremely difficult; each separation felt like exhausting the last bit of strength.

Fine beads of sweat glistened on He Damin's forehead, like morning dew, quickly condensing into a thin layer of frost in the cold air, only to be replaced by fresh sweat. He clenched his teeth, his gums aching from the excessive force, even tasting slightly of blood. He was relentlessly squeezing every last drop of potential from his very soul, challenging what seemed like an insurmountable limit.

Eighty-five...ninety...ninety-five...ninety-nine...one hundred!

Finally, when the hundredth ray of soul light trembled and separated from the main soul, hovering in mid-air, quivering slightly, as fragile and bewildered as a newborn beast, the main soul's light had dimmed by nearly half, like a moon obscured by dark clouds, radiating a weak aura. Waves of intense weakness crashed against his consciousness like a tide, almost causing him to faint. Splitting into a hundred clones at once, even with his current soul strength far exceeding that of ordinary people, was an immense burden, an act bordering on self-harm.

But he didn't pause, nor could he. His main soul, like a highly efficient command center, transmitted clear yet complex instructions to the hundred newly formed, still-naive soul avatars, more detailed and comprehensive than ever before:

Target list:

The North China Area Army Headquarters consisted of: the Chief of the Operations Section and core staff officers of the General Staff; the analysts with real power in the Intelligence Section; the technical backbone of the Communications Section responsible for encryption and decryption; the cipher clerks in the Confidential Office who had access to core secrets; and the senior adjutants around the Commander who had access to first-hand information.

The Beiping Special Service Agency (directly under Matsui Takuro): the captains of the special higher authorities' action teams that carry out assassinations and arrests; the heads of the intelligence analysis groups responsible for summarizing and analyzing intelligence; the heads of the archives who manage countless secrets; and the heads of surveillance outposts scattered throughout the city.

The Tianjin Garrison Command and its intelligence system: modeled after Beiping, comprehensively covering key command and intelligence nodes without leaving any blind spots.

Key cities in North China such as Baoding, Shijiazhuang, and Zhangjiakou: core combat and intelligence personnel of Japanese army brigade and above command; heads of local intelligence agencies and their confidants.

The puppet regime system included: the confidential secretary to the chairman of the "North China Political Affairs Committee"; high-ranking officers in the police department who wielded real power; and key personnel in charge of taxation, finance, and other economic lifelines.

Economic and logistical lifeline: Managers of Japanese banks such as the Yokohama Specie Bank and the Bank of Korea in North China; administrators of treasuries; heads of large conglomerates such as Mitsui and Mitsubishi in North China; supervisors of railway and port dispatching who controlled the transportation of supplies; and heads of large warehouses storing massive amounts of military supplies.

Cultural and intelligence infiltration points: editors-in-chief of major Japanese-language newspapers and radio station directors who acted as mouthpieces for the Japanese army; and heads of overseas Chinese associations and shrines that served as intelligence relay stations.

Parasitic strategy: Prioritize "middle-level" personnel who are cautious, hold key positions, have access to core information but are not conspicuous, and are relatively safe. Resolutely avoid targets who may be secretly protected by powerful figures or possess exceptionally strong mental fortitude and high vigilance; do not take unnecessary risks.

Action Mode: Deeply lurking, like the quietest shadow. It never actively interferes with the host's behavior, existing only as a passive "information receiver." Every day at midnight, when Yin energy is at its peak, Yang energy at its weakest, people are most tired, and their spirits are most relaxed, it can briefly activate its clone. Using its [Memory Reading] ability, it selectively and precisely extracts all valuable information the host encountered, heard, and processed that day, including unwritten thoughts, accidentally glimpsed document fragments, and snippets of conversation overheard—nothing is overlooked. It pays particular attention to any clues related to highly sensitive topics such as "Kawashima Yoshiko," "supernatural events," "abnormal investigations," "major military deployments," "supply transfers," "high-level personnel changes," and "action plans targeting anti-Japanese forces."

Intelligence Classification and Transmission: Received intelligence must be categorized and organized. Military deployments, espionage operations, economic plunder, personnel intelligence, clues related to Yoshiko Kawashima… each is clearly grouped and organized. Every three days, within a fixed time window, a concentrated and efficient transmission takes place through the invisible soul connection between the main soul and the clone.

Self-destruct mechanism: Once any clone senses that the host is being examined by special means, that it is at risk of exposure, or that the host suddenly dies and loses its usefulness, it must immediately and without hesitation activate the self-destruct program to completely annihilate all traces of its existence and leave no clues that may point to itself, thus ensuring the safety of the main soul.

One instruction after another, like a gentle stream or a surging tide, flowed precisely into the core consciousness of the hundred clones. They trembled slightly, their light flickering, indicating that they had fully received and deeply understood these instructions.

"Go, my eyes, my ears." He Damin's main soul waved his hand gently, with a hint of weariness, but more so a cold expectation, his voice ethereal and distant.

In an instant, those hundred pale golden beams of soul light, like arrows released from a bow or fireflies scattering in all directions, silently pierced through rooftops and walls, shooting towards the city of Beiping under the deep night, and further towards Tianjin, Baoding, Shijiazhuang… towards every key node of Japanese-occupied rule in North China. Like the finest spores, they would drift on the wind, silently infiltrating their targets, seeking the most suitable host, silently embedding themselves into the nerve endings, blood vessel walls, and even cell nuclei of the enemy's massive body, becoming the most insidious part of the enemy's being.

He Damin's main soul, dragging its weary body, slowly returned to its physical form. Its face was ashen, devoid of color, its lips cracked and dry, and its breath noticeably weaker, as if it had just recovered from a serious illness. He immediately took out a small jade bottle from his robes and poured out several crystals containing pure soul power—precious items formed from the feedback and condensation of the Soul Refining Banner. He put the soul power crystals into his mouth, and a cool, warm energy instantly dissolved, flowing down his throat and into his body, nourishing his damaged soul essence. At the same time, he once again circulated the incantation of the *Tai Chi Harmony Technique*, guiding the pure energy to flow slowly within his body, harmonizing his qi and blood, and gently nourishing his soul essence, which had become somewhat fragile due to excessive fragmentation.

He knew that in the next few days, he needed absolute rest, minimizing any unnecessary use of his soul power, so that his soul could recover to its peak condition as quickly as possible. But he was also aware that an invisible "net," with a hundred soul avatars as nodes and covering the entire core of Japanese and puppet intelligence in North China, had already quietly been set in motion under his will. This net would become his sharpest weapon and his strongest shield.

Time, like sand slipping through fingers, slowly flowed away in the increasingly biting autumn winds of Beiping. The calendar pages turned, the ink gradually blurred, and several months passed in the blink of an eye, as the seasons mercilessly ushered in the desolate winter.

For the past few months, the situation in North China has outwardly remained one of "stability" and "stalemate" under the Japanese army's iron heel. Large-scale military operations seem to have temporarily ceased, but behind the scenes, a profound and subtle change is taking place. This change is not manifested on the smoke-filled battlefields, but rather permeates every corner of the silent intelligence war, occurring in the daily lives of every target inhabited by a soul clone, in every secret conversation, every transfer of classified documents, and every beeping sound of a late-night radio broadcast. He Damin, like a patient hunter, has laid a net, quietly waiting for his prey to appear, waiting for the harvest season. And those enemies lurking in the shadows remain completely unaware of this, continuing to follow their established paths, step by step, towards the center of the invisible giant net that has long been prepared for them.