Chapter 25: The Genius of Dachunyang Palace
“Jumeng…?”
Through the soul summoning technique, Fu Xinyi received a response from the formless urban legend that condensed from Li Ziqi’s resentment. She was stunned for a moment, about to activate her spirit energy to cast a spell and further inquire about the specifics of his d*ath.
Just then, an abrupt change occurred—the long-lasting candles made of whale oil mixed with dragon’s breath suddenly went out.
“Crack—crack—crack—!”
In the darkness, a series of crisp sounds echoed.
Fu Xinyi turned abruptly, only to see the ceramic bowl shattered into several pieces, with clear water spilling all over the ground.
There’s spirit energy fluctuation interfering with my soul summoning technique! Fu Xinyi was astonished; just as that thought flashed through her mind, she felt a terrifying wave of spirit energy crashing in like a tide.
A cold, eerie spirit energy fluctuation gathered in the laboratory, like an icy river from the underworld flowing through the void. She could faintly hear a piercing shriek in her ears, as suffocating negative emotions intertwined with a tremor from the depths of her soul to form a painful vortex.
Caught in this terrifying whirlpool, Fu Xinyi’s complexion went pale, and her eyes were filled with an unshakeable fear.
The shadows in the corner danced wildly, drawing closer to her, like a massive hand about to squeeze her into a puddle of bl**d.
“Chirp—!”
In a moment of illusion, she thought she heard the call of a bird.
Proud and mournful, it stirred a sense of loneliness and fear from deep within the listener’s heart.
Accompanied by that cry, Fu Xinyi felt her consciousness drifting away, like being thrown into a vast, uninhabited space, gradually fading into silence.
“Dingling—dingling—!”
The copper bell on the table shook violently, producing ripples tinged with faint golden light.
The sound of the bell reached Fu Xinyi’s ears, and her gaze, which was gradually becoming vacant, suddenly regained clarity. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the encroaching shadow at her feet and was startled, instinctively jumping back.
In the next moment, a fierce wind and a black shadow fell from the sky, surging and bursting forth in her line of sight like a flowing stream of light.
Without a moment’s hesitation, she raised her hand to brush her bag, and ten sheets of talisman paper appeared between her fingers. Then, with a lift of her jade hand, the talismans erupted with dazzling brilliance.
Flying Thunder Talisman, Spirit Sword Seal, True Fire Shape Spell, Changing Oath Thunder Chapter…
Using her spirit energy to guide them, Fu Xinyi shot forth a barrage of talismans, which were hard to come by for ordinary spirit ability users, as if they cost nothing, charging at the shadow like a storm.
“Boom—!”
Thunder erupted where the talismans collided with the shadow, igniting several bursts of flame, but accompanied by a few strands of black feathers that fell and dissipated, the shadow merely slowed its approach, seemingly unhurt.
The talismans from Fu Xinyi’s sect, while not as powerful as the forbidden spells of the Siye Society, at least matched the precision of most sophisticated spells. For those lesser urban legends, they would have been enough to k*ll several times over.
However, after the flames cleared, she observed in horror that the explosions caused by the talismans could not inflict substantial harm on the shadow.
This is bad, I can’t win, I need to run!
Making a swift judgment, Fu Xinyi quickly pulled out a handful of talismans from her bag and, without hesitation, threw them forward. Using the cover of the explosive flames, she retreated to the window in a few quick steps, leaped, and glided into the night, soon disappearing from sight.
————
Half an hour later.
At Tangcheng University, on the library rooftop.
After lying low for a long while, Fu Xinyi finally emerged from her hiding place. The shadow that appeared alongside the terrifying spirit energy had truly frightened her.
In her panic, she had thrown away a small portion of the talismans her master and senior sister had given her for protection before leaving. Looking back, her heart ached, but fortunately, the shadow seemed to have no intent to exterminate her and had quieted down after not pursuing her far.
She stood at the edge of the rooftop, gazing in the direction of the Literature Building, her willow eyebrows slightly knitted, lost in thought.
Didn’t Master say that Jumeng, the king of urban legends in Peach Source, is considered a benevolent being among all urban legends and wouldn’t easily harm others?
Why did she suddenly attack Li Ziqi?
Moreover, how did Li Ziqi know the name Jumeng? Fu Xinyi pondered.
Generally speaking, the more precise and detailed the information about the soul summoning target, the higher the success rate of the summoning ritual.
Thus, to successfully cast the soul summoning technique, Fu Xinyi had already investigated Li Ziqi’s background in detail before infiltrating the laboratory, even down to the exact hour of his birth.
According to his background information, there were no spirit ability users in his family nor any residents from Peach Source, so logically, he shouldn’t know the name “Jumeng.”
Yet that formless urban legend specifically mentioned Jumeng’s name, which was perplexing.
The formless urban legends summoned through the soul summoning technique would not lie under the control of the ritual’s power.
This meant that Li Ziqi’s d*ath was indeed related to Jumeng, and even if it wasn’t a direct connection, there was some form of indirect relation.
And also…
Fu Xinyi recalled the terrifying shadow that suddenly appeared just as she was about to continue questioning Li Ziqi about his cause of d*ath, and slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.
Black feathers, the cry of birds, and frightening spirit energy fluctuations… these characteristics matched the description of Jumeng on the wanted list.
The only thing Fu Xinyi couldn’t figure out was why Jumeng would target an ordinary person. Logically, if she wanted to replenish her spirit energy, hunting urban legends or spirit ability users would be much more efficient.
This matter probably has a lot of intricacies…
While deep in thought, Fu Xinyi took out her phone and tried to send a few distress messages.
As expected, all the messages had a bright red indicator at the end—【Message Failed】.
“If only I were as capable as Senior Sister, I could use the shadow spirit to return and report.”
Thinking of her distant cousin and senior sister, Fu Xinyi couldn’t help but sigh in frustration.
“Ugh, this is so annoying! Didn’t Senior Sister say this was just a run-of-the-mill task, with no danger involved? How did it escalate to a cataclysm grade urban legend? Is she trying to get me into trouble again?”
In a certain sense, Fu Xinyi had been “tricked” by her senior sister Huasang since she was a child.
However, from another perspective, Huasang wasn’t necessarily playing her.
What she did was simply funnel all the fame, honor, and benefits that should belong to her into Fu Xinyi, which, euphemistically, could be called a disinterest in fame and fortune, or bluntly put, a refusal to strive, pure laziness.
In the twelve years since Fu Xinyi had begun her training on the mountain, Huasang had secretly “stuffed” her into becoming a rare genius in a hundred years at Dachunyang Palace, showered with affection from the elders of the sect.
However, to wear the crown, one must bear its weight.
Twelve years! Exactly twelve years! Do you know how Fu Xinyi got through it?
Before joining the Siye Society and becoming a trainee operative, she had spent nearly ten years with sleep time not exceeding three hours each day.
During those ten years, she didn’t collapse on the mountain, largely thanks to her resilience and the unparalleled health cultivation methods of Dachunyang Palace.
Sometimes, when she couldn’t hold on any longer and wanted to confide in her elders, she was always greeted with laughter.
Her genius persona had already taken deep root in people’s hearts, and any explanation would be deemed mere modesty, followed by an encouraging statement, “Keep it up! I believe in you!”
After all, everyone could see Fu Xinyi’s efforts; no one at Dachunyang Palace believed that Huasang, who spent her days fishing for turtles in the small pond behind the mountain, could achieve such astonishing feats.
……
“Fishing for turtles can break the century-old record of the fastest resonance of Taihe Gentleman Sword energy? You must be joking!”
“Fishing for turtles can single-handedly k*ll the urban legend that infiltrated Dachunyang Palace? Do you want to join me for turtle fishing tomorrow?”
“I won’t go! Training at the Siye Society Headquarters and attending lectures is way more fun than turtle fishing!”
“Don’t ask! Just say it was all Fu Xinyi’s doing; it has nothing to do with me, Huasang!”
……
In a daze, memories of Huasang’s past words made Fu Xinyi shed tears of grievance.
I shouldn’t have let vanity play a role and swapped spirit energy potential test results with my senior sister during my initial training. That one swap changed my entire life… Fu Xinyi thought.
————
At 8:47 PM.
Outside, the snow continued to fall. This light snow had been intermittently falling for almost a month, since winter began, as if spring would never arrive in this city.
The rain also persisted. This mysterious storm had covered this small town for nearly a week, and the weather bureau had no explanation.
Ever since the nights became longer, most patrons of the Wanshou Road Haidilao Store in Tangcheng tended to settle their bills before 8 PM and the store would close early. However, today, the lights were still on.
There was only one cashier, one dozing waiter, and two customers—a teenager and a little girl of six or seven years old.
The two were enjoying an extremely spicy beef oil hotpot, leisurely eating since 6 PM when the sky had just completely darkened, adding several rounds of ingredients in between.
The dozing waiter was actually pretending to sleep; she had been secretly observing the teenager and the little girl, grumbling to herself about how they could eat so much and had begun to suspect encountering an urban legend.
But they say urban legends eat people, and she had never seen one that disdained hotpot.
The legendary urban legends should be quite terrifying; how could they look so good?
Moreover, from their conversations, it was evident they were a pair of poor siblings relying on each other. The brother seemed to have spent a lot to treat his sister to a big meal, as she likely had never eaten hotpot before.
The waiter, lost in her thoughts for a while, silently sighed, praying for them to finish up and leave soon.
……
Jumeng dipped a piece of tripe into her mouth, chewing while angrily looking at Luxianbei, muttering, “Why don’t you give it a try! How would you know if you don’t?”
Four days was too short; she wanted Luxianbei to split up and try to persuade the three members of the Siye Society in Tangcheng to delay activating the city barrier.
“Just tell them it was Qunyang who did it, and it has nothing to do with me. As long as I’m still alive, he won’t be able to stir up much trouble.”
“I already know what the result will be without going!” Luxianbei replied, glancing at Jumeng, “They’re all main operatives; why would they listen to me, a trainee operative?”
“Why don’t you just go tell them?”
“Uh… I’m not going!” Jumeng shook her little head like a rattle drum, “What if they take the opportunity to capture me?”
“Then I won’t go either.” Luxianbei pouted, “What if they treat me as a spy for the Siye Society?”
Jumeng put down her chopsticks, wiped her greasy little mouth, and muttered, “Aren’t you a spy? Don’t forget, you’re my ally!”
Luxianbei leaned closer, took her small hand, and wiped the red oil stuck to it with a paper towel. “I am a spy, but I don’t want to be found out! I still want to hang around for a few more years to collect a salary.”
“So what do we do then?”
“Aren’t you the one who said the Siye Society underestimated your power? Even if the city barrier is activated, a single attack on Peach Source wouldn’t be able to k*ll you?” Luxianbei replied impatiently.
“If it comes to that, let them fire a shot! I think you look a lot like a good cannon!”
Maybe it was because he enjoyed acting too much in the afternoon; Luxianbei felt that Jumeng had become more Child-like, always whining and muttering, it was so annoying!
“Not dying is one thing, but getting hurt is another. Can you bear to see me half-alive, like a wildflower by the roadside, subjected to wanton trampling and ab*se?”
“I could bear it, and would even want to participate!” Luxianbei said seriously.
“Stop it like this, or I’m going to cry!”
“……”
Recalling the scene in front of the clothing wholesale market earlier, Luxianbei remained silent for a few seconds and brought the conversation back on track.
“First, systematically collect cultural relics to help you regain your strength. Secondly, as you said, try to contact your people to assist you in fighting back, and then…”
Then figure out their true purpose in spreading the relics that contained the urban legends. Luxianbei silently added in his mind.
Before this, he had already warned Jumeng several times to be careful of those guys’ ulterior motives, but Jumeng insisted that they were merely trying to frame her to put her at odds with the Siye Society. As long as the members of the Siye Society in Tangcheng realized that, it would be fine.
To this end, she even devised a series of plans to ensure her name would be remembered when doing “good deeds,” which primarily involved loudly announcing her title while rescuing victims from those pickled hands so they would remember.
When the operatives of the Siye Society investigated the urban legend incidents and heard the testimonies of the parties involved, their hearts would naturally waver, thereby delaying the activation of the city barrier.
However…
Luxianbei felt that all of this was merely their one-sided speculation; there must be something they had not considered. Being cautious, after daring speculation, they should also seek verification.
The only conclusion he could draw was that they likely wanted Jumeng’s entity to suffer a shot for unclear true purposes.
While lost in thought, Luxianbei returned to reality, only to find Jumeng staring at him with wide eyes, as if expecting something.
“What are you doing?”
“And then? What comes next? Hurry up and say!”
“……” Luxianbei pondered for a few seconds, shook his head, “Nothing more.”
Nothing more? Then what were you hinting at? Why the prolonged pause… Jumeng fell silent.
Seeing that the other side remained silent for a long time, Luxianbei’s mood instantly brightened.
When the piece of the pie is only enjoyed in small amounts, it can be delightful, but if always enjoyed, it brings on weariness!
