Chapter 6: I Seem to Have Seen Them Somewhere
When Bai Kai received Luxianbei’s call, he was in a courtyard with quite a bit of history on the outskirts of Huacheng.
This old house, rich in age, had changed ownership several times over the past hundred years.
At first, it belonged to a local squire, then to a military officer, later to a local production team, and ten years ago it was bought and transformed into a guesthouse. Three years ago…
The squire returned!
The urban legend of the squire was sealed by Bai Kai himself, so if anything happened, it was naturally his responsibility.
Earlier this evening, he received a call from a member of the Special Action Team responsible for patrolling the old house. Upon rushing over, he discovered that three urban legends inside the house had been completely killed.
Three corpses were dumped in the garden’s dry pond, and the core of the urban legends was missing. The only thing left at the scene that could be considered a clue was a few black necromantic worms infested with maggots.
However, before Bai Kai could study the origins of those worms in detail, they self-destructed as if they sensed something, vanishing into a wisp of blue smoke in an instant.
That wasn’t a problem for Bai Kai, as he didn’t think much of it.
After all, it was not unusual for urban legends to hunt each other down, just like cats eat fish and dogs eat meat, it was instinctive. This sort of thing played out almost every night in different corners of various cities.
The premise was that it was just a simple hunt.
If, within a short time, urban legends or spiritual ability users were hunted down using the same methods, then the hidden truth behind it would be intriguing.
Generally speaking, from the end of one moonless night to the start of the next, there is about a month during which an urban legend only needs to conduct one hunt to meet their spirit energy replenishment needs.
Overconsumption of the core of an urban legend is not necessarily a good thing; with the growth of power, the erosion of will represented by the core follows suit.
Therefore, to avoid losing themselves and descending into madness, most urban legends would lie low for a long time after consuming the core of another urban legend.
The frequent occurrence of multiple hunts using the same methodology in a short timeframe could represent many possible situations.
Whether it was a particular urban legend indulging in unrestrained consumption or someone deliberately collecting cores for some sordid purpose, it all indicated a threat.
The hunting scene described by Luxianbei in the phone call was strikingly similar to what Bai Kai had seen in the old house, leading to some unfavorable speculations. Thus, he had to rush over to see for himself.
“……”
I hope what I’m thinking doesn’t come true.
Bai Kai thought to himself, confirming the address Luxianbei sent once again, then he maximized the power of spirit patterns.
With a whoosh, it sounded like a sword being drawn, followed by a burst of silver light.
In an instant, he seemed to transform into a silver meteor, dashing across the city beneath the night sky.
————
Five minutes later.
Bai Kai navigated through half the city and successfully arrived at the location Luxianbei shared through information exchange. Just as he stopped at the alley’s entrance and peered ahead, his expression slightly changed.
Ahead, in the dark alley, a corpse lay face down, with a strong smell of bl**d mixing with the stench of refuse wafting in, while Luxianbei was nowhere to be found.
Only a tattered electric scooter remained parked by the roadside, marked with a pair of glaring bloody handprints.
Xiao Bei wouldn’t have… Bai Kai’s heart tightened.
If there were indeed malicious actors hunting urban legends and spiritual ability users on a large scale, and Luxianbei just happened to be caught in their sights, then Luxianbei’s situation would likely be quite dangerous.
Worry and panic clouded Bai Kai’s thoughts; he took a few quick steps forward, bracing himself against the electric scooter’s handle and calling out in a trembling voice, “Xiao Bei! My Xiao Bei! Where are you…”
“Ta! A red apricot breaks through the wall!”
Bai Kai heard the secret code unique to him, Luxianbei, and Lu Ming, and instinctively responded, “The neighbor Wang Er didn’t pick it! Xiao Bei, where are you?”
As he spoke, he searched the direction of the voice, finally locking his gaze on a sturdy, leafy banyan tree not far away.
However, he still couldn’t spot Luxianbei’s figure.
It wasn’t until he extended his spiritual awareness that he found Luxianbei’s location, then his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
He saw Luxianbei pressed tightly against the trunk of the banyan tree like a fall cicada, unmoving, even his coat had taken on a color similar to that of the leaves!
Have I overthought this? Bai Kai shook his head with a bitter smile. Truly, my Xiao Bei is always adept at self-preservation.
Seeing Bai Kai arrive, Luxianbei nimbly climbed down from the tree, and his coat squirmed back to its normal state.
Approaching Bai Kai, Luxianbei looked him up and down anxiously, saying, “Water Brother, what time is it? You still have the mood to laugh! Go take a look over there, what on earth is going on?”
“Aren’t we supposed to be on a safe patrol route? How could there be a m*rder? This is terrifying!”
Bai Kai had just been concerned about Luxianbei’s safety and hadn’t had time to examine the corpse in the alley. Hearing Luxianbei’s words brought him back to reality, and he stepped into the alley.
Luxianbei shrank behind a utility pole, watching Bai Kai approach the corpse. He crouched down, extending his hand to check the man’s breath and pulse, then slowly extended his spiritual awareness to probe into the man’s condition, his expression growing serious.
The man’s injuries were severe: long, deep wounds on the left chest, side, and armpit. Such injuries would likely lead to d*ath from internal bleeding or bl**d loss if inflicted on a regular person.
However, such injuries were not fatal for a spiritual ability user; the true danger lay in the internal wounds caused by the black necromantic worms.
Bai Kai carefully examined the situation with his spiritual awareness and found the man’s skull appeared to be infested with worms, filled with numerous tiny holes, most of the organic material had been drained, and the entire brain had become a tattered mass.
The means were exceedingly cruel!
If it could be confirmed that this man’s d*ath and the urban legend hunt in the suburban old house were perpetrated by the same person or urban legend, it could essentially be classified as a malevolent hunting incident.
“How is it?” Luxianbei asked weakly.
“Can’t tell the specifics,” Bai Kai said. “Just like what I saw over there, the necromantic worms used in the attack have completely disappeared. We can only call people to take it back for An Qing to conduct an autopsy and see if any valuable information can be found.”
“So I won’t have anything to do with this anymore?” Luxianbei asked.
This matter could involve a very dangerous person or urban legend, and Bai Kai didn’t want Luxianbei to be too deeply involved, so after a moment’s reflection, he told a small lie.
“That’s indeed the case. These are just two similar emergency incidents, and it doesn’t necessarily indicate a significant problem. Xiao Bei, don’t overthink it and head back to rest.”
Luxianbei furrowed his brow at this, “But Water Brother…”
“You don’t have to worry about me; I’m an experienced operative. I can handle the situation here by myself,” Bai Kai waved his hand.
Who’s worried about you? Luxianbei glanced at the electric scooter parked in the alley, his expression flat, “I meant to say, with my scooter in this condition, can I still ride it?”
It was hard-earned to finally join the ranks of the car owners, only to encounter such a situation, and the scooter had now turned unlucky, which made Luxianbei feel quite down.
Even though that electric scooter was slow, barely faster than a jog, it was still a scooter he had gotten for free!
He was a bit reluctant to part with it.
“…” Bai Kai remained silent, looking between the electric scooter and Luxianbei, then smiled indulgently, “Tomorrow, I’ll help you get a new electric scooter. If the logistics department won’t approve it, I’ll pay out of my own pocket. Now, hurry back!”
“Okay!” Luxianbei responded reluctantly, glancing back at his electric scooter three times before leaving the scene.
————
In a sealed basement, someone pushed the door open.
Miss Rabbit, wrapped in bandages, gripped a crowbar tightly, struggling to rise. Her scarlet eyes fixed intently ahead, and once she confirmed that the newcomer was her partner, she relaxed a bit but still didn’t lower her weapon.
People from the Solar Eclipse Society couldn’t be trusted; in her current state, she could be tied up by Shuo E at any moment and taken away, turned into a little rabbit needed for some crazy experiment.
“What’s going on?” Miss Rabbit asked.
“Found it! This guy should be the one who attacked you,” Shuo E replied.
As he spoke, he pulled out a mobile phone from his pocket and handed it to Miss Rabbit.
The phone screen displayed a video, which, upon tapping the play button, revealed surveillance footage from an old mall’s back alley.
That old mall was where Miss Rabbit “worked”; on nights without operations, she would dance there to earn some extra cash and look for potential hunting targets.
That back alley was often the route these unseen ladies would take after work.
It was during a night like this that she was attacked while passing through the back alley of the mall.
The two attackers were too fast, wearing masks that obscured their faces. All they said to Miss Rabbit was, “Submit or d*e, choose one!”
Miss Rabbit was immediately displeased. What urban legend was she? She pursued freedom!
Her previous master, Mu Se, had dominated half of Huacheng, and if she didn’t submit to Mu Se, there was no way she would submit to two unknown thugs.
Facing such a situation, without a second thought, she defiantly threw out a “Get lost!” and continued walking forward.
And then…
Then came an inhumane beating.
It was brutal; the surveillance camera was right there, witnessing it all—bl**d sprayed over three meters, and her head was nearly knocked sideways.
Had it not been for certain traits brought on by “the cunning rabbit has three burrows,” granting her extraordinary vitality compared to regular urban legends—almost as if she had two lives—she would have long been dead.
In the silent basement, Miss Rabbit simmered with anger for a long time, then began watching the surveillance video that Shuo E brought.
From the moment she left through the back door of the old mall, to the sudden appearance of the two shadowy figures, then being outmaneuvered during her counterattack, culminating in her escape… finally, she couldn’t help but drag the progress bar back.
The defeat was too terrible, embarrassing!
As the timeline swiftly advanced, the surveillance footage finally captured the faces of the two attackers.
One was an extremely old man, his face sagging and covered in brown spots, with black, treacherous eyes.
Miss Rabbit hit pause, freezing the frame to observe that urban legend closely, her expression shifting slightly.
“How could it be this guy? d*mn it, why did he attack me out of the blue?”
Shuo E looked at Miss Rabbit, puzzled. “Do you know him? Is there a grudge?”
“I’ve heard of him,” Miss Rabbit replied. “He was an old b*stard who scammed people at the largest intersection leading to University City in the city center. Once, after crossing paths with a reckless driver, he got hit and dragged for several dozen meters, turning into mush. They said the coroner nearly vomited during the autopsy.”
“Not long after that, he became an urban legend and often turned into various forms to suddenly appear at the intersection, causing accidents. He was killed by the No. 2 operative from the Huacheng Siye Society two years ago and recently revived.”
After a pause, Miss Rabbit suddenly seemed to recall something and added, “Oh yeah, on the day he revived, he triggered a massive traffic accident. I was nearby and even went to watch…”
“What were you doing nearby?”
“Handing out flyers…” Miss Rabbit gritted her teeth, recalling the image of the little thief who had stolen her witch’s egg.
If she hadn’t gone to watch the commotion that day, losing time handing out flyers, she likely wouldn’t have encountered that little thief. If she hadn’t encountered that little thief, her witch’s egg wouldn’t have been stolen, and she might now be standing at the pinnacle of the Huacheng urban legend pyramid!
So really, watching the excitement was the original sin!
“What about the other guy? Do you recognize him?” Shuo E pointed at the other urban legend on the screen.
That was an urban legend enveloped in black robes, wearing a golden eagle beak mask, with religious patterns like lotus flowers, flying fish, and auspicious clouds etched onto it.
“Don’t know him; I’ve never heard of such an urban legend existing in Huacheng…” Miss Rabbit shook her head, her tone serious. “But he is strong.”
She recalled the ordeal in the back alley of the old mall; the injuries that could have been fatal to ordinary urban legends were almost all inflicted by that unknown urban legend.
Hearing this, Shuo E stared at the two urban legends on the phone screen for a long time, his expression troubled. “Considering the things they said, if they don’t have a grudge against you, could they be hunting urban legends?”
Miss Rabbit pondered for a moment, grasping Shuo E’s implication, and asked back, “Doesn’t that seem to conflict with our operations?”
“Yeah!” Shuo E nodded, agreeing with her assessment. “This complicates things; the Elders’ Council didn’t write on the sticky note how to deal with situations like this! How do we resolve it?”
Resolve? Miss Rabbit froze for a moment. You don’t mean to confront them, do you?
If you want to go, don’t drag me along!
Wait…
Miss Rabbit’s eyes suddenly narrowed, as if a thought crossed her mind. She discreetly scanned Shuo E, taking in his fair, handsome exterior, the way his shirt strained against his slightly bulging chest, and his strong waist, before she couldn’t help but lick her lips, revealing two sharp tiger teeth.
To be honest, she had been craving his physique for a long time; she just hadn’t had the chance to act.
If he really wanted to do something reckless, Miss Rabbit wouldn’t mind giving him a stab in the back and then comfortingly accepting his premium spirit pattern power.
————
That night, at the Huacheng River Crossing Bridge, inside the third bridge hole from the left.
“OMG! This necromantic poison has killed witch breeds before!”
“What are you waiting for? We only have fifty portions in total today, and it’s first come, first served. Hurry up and get on the bus, buy it, buy it, buy it!”
After the words fell, Gu Qiqi looked at the jumping order notifications on her phone and couldn’t help but smile, calculating how many pig trotters she could buy with today’s earnings.
One times seven is seven, three times seven is twenty-one, four times seven is twenty-eight, seven times seven… seven times seven…
Then.
Her brain kind of short-circuited.
After the last order was placed, Gu Qiqi closed the “Doomsday Live Broadcast” software recommended by the Urban Legends Chat Group and flopped back onto her second-hand sofa, looking up at the bridge hole above her and sighed, “System, I feel like my dream is about to come true.”
“What dream? To buy a pig farm that only sells pork, not pig trotters?” the system replied irritably.
It was genuinely a bit frustrated with Gu Qiqi. Clearly, when it had bound to her and assessed her talent, it concluded she was extraordinary.
However, after spending these years with her, it found out it was wrong.
Gu Qiqi could host in the parlor, cook in the kitchen, outrun delivery guys, haul steel bars at construction sites, help the cafeteria deliver vegetables, and she thrived in that cursed space developing agriculture. She even perfectly mastered the lost alchemical recipes of the Great Serpent God.
Recently, due to concerns about potential revenge from Luxianbei, she had taken to doing merchandise live broadcasts aimed at urban legends and spiritual ability users, which had been quite profitable.
One could say she was capable of anything, but was absolutely last place in fighting calamities. Her talent was utterly wasted!
If I had her talent, I would have long… Forget it, it’s not worth mentioning! the system thought.
As the system pondered, it suddenly sensed something and hurriedly said to Gu Qiqi, “Oh no, Gu Qiqi, the audience is too enthusiastic and wants you to return. What do we do? But we don’t have anything left to sell!”
Well, while the system found Gu Qiqi’s current antics rather unsatisfactory, the money still needed to be made!
“No stock? Uh… let me think!” Gu Qiqi mused for a few seconds, then her eyes brightened. “Got it! I know what to sell!”
As she spoke, she got up and walked toward the power vault of the river crossing bridge. A moment later, she returned, dragging a completely wrapped black-robed urban legend behind her.
“Bang—!”
Gu Qiqi threw the two urban legends onto the ground and said earnestly, “Let’s sell these!”
Shocked! Gu Qiqi, when did you start dealing in human trafficking? The system felt that Gu Qiqi had refreshed its understanding of her today.
But…
“Where did you get these two urban legends?”
“Right before the broadcast, when you went to the Bamboo Slips Illusion to move goods! They jumped out from a dark corner trying to ambush me, and I knocked them both down with a single hit each.”
“This…” the system paused, eyeing the two urban legends with their heads swollen and filled with pleading and terrified expressions. Suddenly, something flashed in its mind.
I seem to have seen them somewhere… the system thought.
