Chapter 27: The Spirit Energy Fluctuation of the Witch Species
On the grassy area in front of the Tangcheng Museum, under the bronze sculpture of flying birds and auspicious clouds, Mao Sanyou leaned against the stone base of the sculpture, gazing at the sky, surrounded by cigarette butts scattered all around.
His mood was very complicated at this moment.
On one hand, he trusted the investigation results of Lao Xu, an experienced operative who has been working in Tangcheng for over a decade.
On the other hand, he was skeptical about the recent chaos in Tangcheng being caused by Jumeng being attacked by an unknown force, going on a rampage, losing control of her spirit energy, and subsequently falling into depravity.
“Shasa—Shasa—!”
Just as Mao Sanyou was deep in thought, a series of footsteps crunching on the grass approached. Upon turning around, he saw Shang Nanxing gracefully walking over, sitting down beside him and wiggling two fingers at him.
“Can I have one too?”
Seeing this, Mao Sanyou picked up the cigarette box by his feet, pulled out a cigarette, and handed it to Shang Nanxing, helping her light it. He watched her puff out clouds of smoke and opened his mouth, about to say something, but Shang Nanxing beat him to it.
“After this, the three of us might well go our separate ways. I’ve had a question I’ve been wanting to ask you. I’m afraid if I don’t ask it now, I might not have the chance later,” Shang Nanxing said.
Mao Sanyou was momentarily taken aback and replied with a smirk, “You’re not secretly in love with me, are you, Big Sister?”
“You’re thinking too much,” Shang Nanxing shot him a glance, then said calmly, “I want to know, why do you keep staying in Tangcheng? I’ve always been curious about this.”
“I’m here to repay a kindness, Lao Xu is here for faith, so what about you?”
From Mao Sanyou’s background, he came from an ordinary family and revealed his latent spirit ability after the nights grew long. He was discovered during an urban legend attack by some operative, recruited into the Siye Society, learned spirit patterns, became a prospective operative, and ultimately assigned to Huacheng.
His background was nothing special, and his abilities were not outstanding; he just seemed like the vast majority of ordinary Siye Society operatives.
However…
He had chosen to stay in Tangcheng, which was quite perplexing.
“Don’t you know me? Of course, it’s to slack off!” Mao Sanyou answered with a laugh.
“To slack off, huh…” Shang Nanxing murmured, taking a deep drag of her cigarette and slowly exhaling a puff of white smoke toward the lightly snowing sky.
It should not just be that simple, right? What was the real reason he stayed here? Shang Nanxing pondered.
————
After hunting down the first jar of pickles, Lu Yibei and Jumeng returned to the Tangcheng Four Seasons Hotel, planning to continue their work the next day.
A seemingly powerless young man and an innocent-looking little girl wandering through a perilous city at midnight certainly attracted too much attention.
Instead of aimlessly searching for artifacts that sealed urban legends in the city, it would be better to accompany Professor Ma to the laboratory tomorrow.
The research project team had recently made good progress in retrieving artifacts and had collected many suspected artifacts awaiting identification. If luck was on their side, Jumeng might effortlessly acquire several cores of urban legend entities tomorrow.
————
After sending Jumeng back to the room that Professor Ma arranged for her, and setting up Zhipianxian around her and his own room, Lu Yibei returned to his own room, lay on the bed, emptied his mind, and slipped into a dream.
“Ancestor, what kitchen utensils are forged from the Ling Tai Purification?”
Upon spotting Qing Ji’s figure on the dilapidated, desolate rooftop, Lu Yibei cut straight to the point with his question.
Even though he had an overwhelming urge to laugh when Jumeng recounted her experience of being stabbed by the kitchen utensils for the second time—his facial muscles had nearly gone out of control—he ultimately understood the intention behind her fragmented words.
Jumeng suspected that the group who attacked her wielded a fruit kn*fe re-forged from fragments of Ling Tai Purification.
Qing Ji turned around, his face filled with surprise, “Do you have a clue?”
Upon hearing that the evidence of his love story with Lu Yanzhi had gone missing, he had once been so furious he wanted Lu Yibei to summon his useless descendants, Lu Yuebo, Lu Bayi, and Lu Ming, for a good scolding and to clarify the whereabouts of the fragments of Ling Tai Purification.
Meanwhile, Lu Yibei was worried about exposing his identity and tactfully refused Qing Ji’s request.
Moreover, his great-grandfather would definitely pass the blame to his grandfather, the grandfather would pass it to his father, and the father would surely pass it to her.
Wouldn’t the one suffering in the end be her?
Bringing his thoughts back, Lu Yibei nodded at Qing Ji, “Yeah, I recently got news that someone is using a remarkably powerful fruit kn*fe, and I suspect it could be a fragment of Ling Tai Purification, which is why I’m asking.”
“Hmm…” Qing Ji pondered for a moment and replied, “A literary and martial kn*fe, a mulberry kn*fe, a decorative kn*fe, and a dining kn*fe used for cutting fruits and cooked meat—perhaps that’s what you mean by fruit kn*fe.”
Could it really be a fragment of Ling Tai Purification? Lu Yibei thought to himself as he pressed on, “Ancestor, what else is there?”
“A ruler.”
A ruler? Does that count as a kitchen utensil? Lu Yibei was momentarily stunned, tilting his head in confusion, “Ancestor, what is the ruler used for?”
He had been hanging around his father’s kitchen since he was young and had watched his father cook a variety of dishes.
While Western dishes might use such a measuring device, Chinese dishes often relied on intuition and experience. The same dish could have a hundred different tastes when cooked by a hundred different people, with fifty tasting quite good without needing a ruler, let alone a measuring stick.
“……” Qing Ji looked at Lu Yibei, fell silent for a few seconds, and expressionlessly pointed to his own nose, “That’s what your great-grandmother used to discipline me and my son, Yuebo.”
After a brief pause, he sighed heavily with a hint of melancholy, “Ah! I’ve roamed the world for over a decade, drinking with the Tian Shan fairy, bathing with Miaojiang Guji, and sleeping with the pure Yang senior sister; in the end, I can’t believe I fell into the hands of a little chef…”
Lu Yibei, “……” He didn’t expect that not only did the ancestor have a rich life experience, but he also had such a colorful love life. No wonder great-grandmother had prepared a ruler especially.
As Lu Yibei was inwardly concocting images of his great-grandmother teaching Qing Ji a lesson with a ruler, Qing Ji’s voice suddenly cut in, “By the way, Daughter-in-law, isn’t it about time for you to start practicing?”
Lu Yibei, “??? ”
Before Lu Yibei could gather his wits, Qing Ji launched a surprise attack.
A brilliant light erupted from the palm of his hand, accompanied by a gust of wind, striking fiercely toward Lu Yibei.
Terrifying power, unimaginable speed, and incredible technique converged in this attack, unleashing a huge sound in an instant.
Thus, amidst the deafening noise, the Hundred-Armed Giant Power simulated by spirit energy erupted within Lu Yibei’s limbs, shattering bones and making a cracking sound.
She exploded, the upper half of her body flew out, still dragging a portion of her insides, akin to a dark and torturous kite…
“Daughter-in-law, don’t be afraid; you’ll be able to control it when you’re dying. I’ve died countless times trying to learn to control this power! Hahaha!”
Before losing consciousness, Lu Yibei heard Qing Ji say this to her.
What Qing Ji said was not false; before he successfully simulated the operation of the Hundred-Armed Giant Power, he had at least blown himself up over a hundred times.
……
Five minutes later.
Lu Yibei opened her eyes again, her gaze blankly fixed on the ink-dyed sky. She wiped the cold sweat off her forehead and lay there like a corpse, unmoving.
“Shasa—Shasa—!”
Hearing the footsteps, she caught a glimpse of Qing Ji approaching her; a fleeting glimmer of darkness crossed her eyes as she unhesitatingly released the suppression of spirit energy on the Hundred-Armed Giant Power.
Then…
As Qing Ji eagerly stepped forward, ready to start a new round of torment, Lu Yibei’s body suddenly erupted as if hit by a corpse explosion technique, “Boom!” A sound echoed out.
The high-frequency crisp echoes of the air shook and the roaring thunder converged, indistinguishable from one another, the shockwave burst forth, shooting outwards in all directions, transforming into a fierce whirlwind.
It was like dozens of shells exploding in front of her; Qing Ji was momentarily blinded, collapsing to the ground.
With the “wounded enemy a thousand but self-damage thirty thousand” approach, Lu Yibei’s head was swept up by the shockwave, soaring into the sky, watching as the rooftop was tinted red; the airflow surged like a tsunami, splattering bone and bl**d, and brilliant light, a line of poetry flashed through her mind.
“East Wind” at night lets a thousand trees bloom. The stars fall like rain…
————
At 5:57 AM.
Lu Yibei bid farewell to Qing Ji, leaving the dream and awakening on the hotel bed. She stared blankly at the dark ceiling for a moment and, feeling the stickiness of sweat drying on her body, furrowed her brow slightly and got up to walk toward the bathroom.
“Creak—!”
With the gentle sound of the faucet being twisted, soon hot water began to flow over Lu Yibei’s skin, creating a hazy steam in the bathroom.
Standing under the hot water, Lu Yibei closed her eyes, carefully recalling the times she was successfully ambushed by her ancestor or when they self-destructed together, the fluctuations of her spirit energy, and the operation of the Hundred-Armed Giant Power, while simultaneously reflecting on Qing Ji’s earlier words.
“Don’t learn from me, or rather, don’t blindly imitate me; it’s useless,” Qing Ji had warned when he noticed Lu Yibei simulating his spirit energy to present the Hundred-Armed Giant Power.
“Think carefully; when you were learning the ‘Taihe Gentleman Sword Illustration’ from me, aside from the foundation I laid for you, what did I teach you about swordsmanship?”
Very little; most of it was discovered by myself, especially the techniques for survival and movement… Lu Yibei thought.
Although Qing Ji’s swordsmanship was exquisite, in the process of memorizing his movements, Lu Yibei always felt a sense of incongruity and discomfort, instinctively adjusting to a state that felt most comfortable to her to practice.
“Every person’s arm length, stride length, height, weight, and even spirit energy fluctuations have subtle differences. Others’ experiences are ultimately their own; they can serve as references but should not be copied verbatim.”
“What you need to solve now is the trouble within your body. If you can’t find a way to control it through your own exploration, even if you temporarily grasp it, you’ll unknowingly lay a hidden danger.”
My own method…
But what’s unique about my spirit energy fluctuations? Lu Yibei wondered.
She wanted to shout, “Ancestor, I’ve realized!”
And then return to the dream to properly honor him.
But reality slapped her hard and reminded her, “You troublesome creature, what have you realized!”
Though she had become familiar with the characteristics of the spirit energy fluctuations of the mythological species after one complete restoration, and even developed various applications for her innate abilities, right now the core of the urban legend entity of the witch species was silent, and she suddenly realized she knew very little about the spirit energy fluctuations of the witch species.
Without mastering the characteristics of the witch species’ spirit energy fluctuations, she couldn’t yet simulate the operation of the Hundred-Armed Giant Power using this spirit energy, thereby safely bringing it out of her body.
As she pondered, Lu Yibei’s consciousness suddenly became hazy, that feeling reminiscent of her earlier dream by the Lotus Seed Lake, where she vaguely envisioned the “little girl selling alchemical bombs.”
She dreamt that the most beautiful little princess residing in the sea was permitted to rise to the surface to see the world on her fifteenth birthday.
As soon as she arrived at the surface, the little mermaid saw a young and handsome man falling from a ship into the stormy sea, barely clinging to life. She leapt in to save the prince’s life, but since she did not belong to the land, she had to leave.
Since then, the young man’s face often appeared in the little mermaid’s mind, and she would sneak to the surface, following the fleet, peering at the young man standing on deck watching the horizon, feeling that she had fallen in love with him.
Finally, she made up her mind to run to the terrible sea witch to exchange her most precious beautiful voice for a potion to become human.
The night before she took the potion, the little mermaid surfaced once more to sneak a look at the young man.
The young man discovered the little mermaid, excitedly saying, “It’s you?”
He recognized me? The little mermaid was flustered and shyly nodded her head.
Then she was…
Captured by the young man named Zheng He, and turned into “three ways to eat a fish.”
Of all people to fall in love with, why him, the infamous eunuch? Lu Yibei inwardly criticized while in a daze.
————
In a surge of bone-chilling cold, Lu Yibei suddenly woke up, abruptly opening her eyes to find that the hot water from the shower had somehow frozen into ice.
At the moment her eyes opened, a sharp icicle scraped her nose as it plummeted, flying past her abdomen and, well, a certain area, crashing onto the bathroom floor and shattering into ice shards.
Opportunities should not be missed; once lost, they cannot return.
Startled, Lu Yibei took a sudden leap back, staring at the icicles that hung from the showerhead, drawing in a cold breath.
“cr*p—! That was close!”
What was that? What just happened? Is this the characteristic of the witch species’ spirit energy fluctuations?
But was it meant to benefit someone, or ruin their childhood, or something else entirely?
This might require further research to know… Lu Yibei thought, as her thoughts began to darken, contemplating suitable experimental targets.
For instance… Catching two readers to test it out?
“Ha, how cheesy; I’m not the protagonist in a novel, where would I find readers?” Lu Yibei internally ridiculed the strange idea that popped into her head, then fixed her target on Jumeng’s “pickles” before they were devoured by Stinky Sister. Let me experiment on them first; it shouldn’t be a problem, right? Lu Yibei thought.
