Chapter 37: Summoning Dad
After handing over the unexpectedly obtained gold to Du Sixian for processing, Lu Xianbei returned to the Lu Family Manor.
Early in the morning, light rain began to fall in Huacheng. The raindrops fell from the sky, having been silent for a long time, hitting the branches and leaves of the pomegranate tree, creating a rustling sound that pierced through the tranquility of the old street shrouded in thin mist, adding a touch of cheerfulness.
This was likely the last spring rain in Huacheng.
Lu Xianbei carefully cleaned the dining room and kitchen, checking various cooking essentials such as kitchenware, exhaust fan, and gas stove, confirming that they were not damaged due to long inactivity, then went up to the attic.
Returning to the room where she had slept for many years, Lu Xianbei leaned against the bed.
The room was unlit, and the light from the street lamp outside cast an orange-yellow outline over everything inside, tinged with the essence of the rainy weather.
“Jingling…”
Facing the window, Lu Xianbei raised a string of ancient bronze bells, gazed for a moment, sighed silently, then put them away quietly.
She should have returned home by now, right?
She remembered her saying that she would come back for the wedding once she found her fiancé.
It seemed that she had likely found him…
“Dammit, staying at my home for so long without paying rent, are you taking advantage of familiarity?”
Lu Xianbei made a snarky remark, collected her thoughts, got off the bed, and sat at her writing desk. She turned on the lamp, and with a thought, took out the stick-shaped object from the God Realm Prototype, then took a few photos with her phone and opened a certain chat app to send a message to Online Old Man.
Wang Buliu: “Are you there? [Pink-haired little loli peeking around the corner]”
After sending the message, she did not receive an immediate reply as she usually did. She wondered what Online Old Man was busy with.
While waiting, she wrapped her hands with spirit energy and picked up the stick-shaped object, pondering.
What on earth is this thing? Referring to it as a stick-shaped object doesn’t seem quite right.
Earlier, when attacking, she was as lucky as a god of fortune, and it could even produce gold. Since its appearance resembles that of a stick, why not just call it…
“Buzz buzz, buzz buzz—!”
Just as Lu Xianbei was thinking, the phone on the desk suddenly vibrated, interrupting her train of thought. She picked it up and saw it was a message from Online Old Man.
Online Old Man: “I’m here, what’s up? [Blonde big sister in a swimsuit puffing her chest]”
Wang Buliu: “Guess what?”
Online Old Man: “…”
Wang Buliu: “Don’t you all love peeking into others’ lives? Don’t you know why I sought you out?”
Online Old Man: “Well… Our focus on various matters has its priorities! The outbreak of Nightfall Syndrome in Huacheng has grabbed our attention lately, but there are other things that need focus as well.”
Wang Buliu: “Other things? [Pink-haired loli puzzled face]”
Online Old Man: “You should know, being an insider in the Siye Society, that the Miracle Cult has been pretty active in various places recently, right?”
Upon seeing Online Old Man’s reply, Lu Xianbei frowned slightly.
Of course, she knew that the two brainwashed villains at the Huacheng airport were captured by her own hands.
She had initially planned to participate in the interrogation but was informed that the Siye Society had prohibited the torture of suspected spiritual ability users for some undisclosed reason four or five years ago.
Mental torture was also a no-go!
Yet, despite not being part of the interrogation, how come all her colleagues in the Huacheng Siye Society were so sure that she would torture suspects?
It was quite frustrating! Lu Xianbei didn’t understand what had led them to such a misunderstanding; she considered herself quite gentle at heart.
After pondering for a few seconds, Lu Xianbei typed a message asking, “Have you discovered anything in your focus on the Miracle Cult’s movements lately? PS: I know they’re apparently looking for something.”
Online Old Man: “While we don’t have any important intelligence at the moment, I don’t mind telling you, but you won’t leak this to the Siye Society, right? [Loli vigilant]”
Wang Buliu: “What do you think of me? Am I a double agent?”
Clearly, she was more like a multi-faceted being!
Online Old Man: “Just joking! It’s just that the Miracle Cult members are always hard to understand with normal logic. We’ve been keeping a close eye on them for several days, and we know just a bit more than you.”
Wang Buliu: “A bit more?”
Online Old Man: “Yes, we currently know that the Miracle Cult members have recently instigated a series of spiritual energy attack incidents to search for their Holy Son, who went missing shortly after entering Z Country.
As for why they triggered these spiritual energy incidents before their Holy Son went missing, that’s still unknown.”
After reading Online Old Man’s reply, Lu Xianbei glanced towards the stick-shaped object on the table, feeling slightly relieved.
Not long ago, after witnessing the strange abilities of the stick-shaped object, she had suspected a connection to the Miracle Cult, but it seemed that they didn’t have a strong link after all.
The Miracle Cult’s Holy Son couldn’t possibly be a stick, right?
Wang Buliu: “By the way, doesn’t your Urban Legends Chat Group have members from various factions? Is there no member of the Miracle Cult there? Why don’t you just ask them what they’ve been up to? @ him.”
Online Old Man: “I need to clarify this first. Ever since a member from the Solar Eclipse Society did a dirty deal with Zigu, resulting in several innocent deaths, there have been no Solar Eclipse Society members in the group.
Moreover, there used to be members from the Miracle Cult, but that guy was kicked out after reporting the group for being bombed. [Big sister bunny lamenting]”
Wang Buliu: “Someone can manage to report you successfully? How did that happen?”
After countless failed attempts to report the Urban Legends Chat Group, Lu Xianbei felt continually frustrated and had almost given up on such endeavors. Hearing that someone actually succeeded rekindled a spark of hope within her.
Now, I want to see what miraculous tricks the Miracle Cult has!
Online Old Man: “I’ll let you in on it; even if you know, you can’t mimic that guy’s method and succeed in reporting. His reason for reporting involved something lewd, and the detailed description was [Group owner’s non-crossdressing on Tree-Planting day].”
“…”
After a few moments of silence, Lu Xianbei quietly exited the private chat interface, entered the chat group, clicked the small exclamation point in the upper right corner, and submitted a report.
Report Reason: Fraud.
Detailed description: [April 30th National Transportation Reflection Day, group owner not driving.]
A few seconds later, she received a private message from Online Old Man.
Online Old Man: “Good job, you’re learning pretty fast! So how’s it going, did you fail to report? Save your effort, you’re not a member of the Miracle Cult, so you can’t create such miracles!”
Just wait! I’ll succeed in reporting one day… Lu Xianbei thought awkwardly, typing out a message to change the topic, “On a serious note, can you help me investigate three things? The reward isn’t an issue!”
Now that I have money, I can be this generous!
Online Old Man: “[Wife in a bathrobe wiping sweat] Uh… you tell me first? I need to hear your requests before I can decide whether to help, for free or charge.”
Wang Buliu: “First, help me investigate someone named Hu Chuan, male, 24 years old, originally from Huacheng, a former student majoring in metallurgy at Huacheng University.”
Online Old Man: “An ordinary person?”
Wang Buliu: “He might also be a low-level spiritual ability user. According to the school records, he reportedly died unexpectedly before graduation. After testing through some means, I suspect he faked his d*ath and want your help to confirm this.”
The principle of targeted spirit summoning relies on the residual thoughts left on the deceased’s relic, communicating with the spirit to create an unformed urban legend, thus achieving the purpose of summoning the soul. Simply put, it creates a vessel for the soul to attach before summoning it.
If the target indeed died, even if someone imprisoned his soul or interfered with the spell, during the step of utilizing the residual thoughts to create the unformed urban legend, there would normally be a faint perception.
As for the traditional meaning of “soul scattering”… unless someone can clear the residuals from all of the deceased’s belongings completely, as Lu Xianbei did when “exorcising” Solang Pema, or if a considerable period has passed since d*ath, causing the residual thoughts and spirit to dissipate.
This timeframe is generally over five years, within ten years. If Hu Chuan really died, his residual spirit should still be within the effective timeframe.
If someone has completely erased all remnants from Hu Chuan’s belongings, it raises more suspicion and deserves investigation.
Additionally, even though Lu Xianbei divined Hu Chuan’s d*ath with the Blessing God Copper Coin, the answer confirmed he was indeed dead. However, her divination method was so crude that when divining matters outside herself, as long as the level of spiritual energy reached a certain degree, it could interfere.
The same goes for Zhang Shuo, who Hu Chuan was previously associated with, and the Haze God, who had numerous connections with his degenerate brother Li Tanghan, both of whom not only possess high levels of spiritual energy fluctuation but had means exceeding that level to interfere with divination results.
Online Old Man: “This should be doable for free; I’ll look into it right away. I’ll have detailed information for you within an hour at best and three days at worst. What about the other two matters?”
Wang Buliu: “I want to investigate a certain pattern, possibly an emblem or totem’s origin. Just a moment, I’ll draw it for you.”
After finishing her message, Lu Xianbei took out paper and pencil, using the memory she hastily retained while being chased, sketched the pattern that the stick-shaped object emitted golden light from her, and raised it up to examine, satisfied with her work.
“Okay, not bad, exactly the same!”
She then took her phone and snapped a photo to send to Online Old Man.
Wang Buliu: “[Image][Image] This one.”
Online Old Man: “Is this… an octopus with dozens of legs? Or a twisted version of the flying divine spaghetti master? Where did you see this kind of spiritual pollution image? ‘Scream’.JPG”
Wang Buliu: “… This is a sun with wings.”
Is it really drawn that poorly?
d*mn it, it’s all the ancestor’s fault; there’s no artistic talent in the genes! Lu Xianbei thought.
Online Old Man: “… This matter, I think we should put it on hold for now. Let’s wait until you can find a better identification image; then we’ll assist in the investigation. What about the last matter?”
Wang Buliu: “Didn’t I once have a Great Sun Vairocana Statue?”
Online Old Man: “I know, it got accidentally damaged during the Dream Journey, right?”
Tsk! I really dislike your know-it-all attitude! Lu Xianbei internally grumbled and replied, “Yes… After the Great Sun Vairocana Statue was damaged, something fell out of it. That thing has been acting a bit strange recently, and I want to try to investigate its origins.”
Wang Buliu: “[Image][Image][Image] This is a photo I just took.”
Online Old Man: “Hiss, this thing looks like… you know what I mean?”
Wang Buliu: “Just tell me if you can investigate it! [Pink-haired loli black-faced]”
Online Old Man: “We can, but probably not for free, the reward will depend on the difficulty of the investigation. We can start looking into it first, and once there are results, we’ll let you know how much the reward will be; is that okay?”
Wang Buliu: “No problem.”
Online Old Man: “Pleasure to cooperate! Also, don’t try using the Miracle Cult’s reporting method, it won’t work!”
Reading Online Old Man’s message, Lu Xianbei’s finger stiffened as she moved towards the upper right corner, rolling her eyes, she put down her phone and looked at the stick-shaped object on the table.
Speaking of which, what was I planning to name it earlier?
Let me think…
“Right, it seems like I was going with Oujin…” Lu Xianbei started to speak but suddenly remembered something, her eye twitching, “Uh, or maybe Divine Gold… Forget it, I’ll just continue calling it the stick-shaped object.”
The word “stick” is quite peculiar, as it seems that adding any prefix to it results in a strange composite term.
————
5:07 AM.
After finishing her chat with Online Old Man, Lu Xianbei had been lying on the bed for nearly two hours.
She stared at the ceiling, her gaze shifting back and forth, as if she was hesitating over something.
A thought had been shouting from the corner of her heart, making it difficult for her to fall asleep.
At length, she seemed to finally have made up her mind. A glimmer of determination flashed in her eyes as she got up, walked into the adjacent room, and approached a cardboard box in the corner, tearing open the tape on top with force.
“Rrrrip!” The sound echoed in her ears, but it felt as if it tugged at something deep in her chest.
A small sword carved from wood.
An ugly scarf knitted in a manual class when Lu Xianbei was a child, which her dad would wear every winter.
A soccer ball inscribed with the name “Cristiano Ronaldo” in Chinese characters…
“Tsk, Dad really is ridiculous; even when deceiving children, he should consider practicality, right? How could Cristiano possibly sign in Chinese?” Lu Xianbei rolled her eyes, amusement glimmering in her eyes.
As she spoke, she carefully took out her father’s relics one by one from the box and placed them gently into the God Realm Prototype.
Even though she had already experienced failures in summoning Hu Chuan and being chased by the stick-shaped object twice tonight, she still wanted to try summoning Dad.
However, that would have to wait until dawn.
Otherwise, if she truly summoned Dad, how would she explain such an absurd thing as her son becoming a daughter?
This face looks just like Mrs. Wang Meili’s, and imagining how to spin a tale to Dad would be impossible…
