Chapter 41: A Two-Fer
“Hello? Is this Luxianbei?”
Luxianbei answered the phone and, before the other party could say more, he launched into a rapid-fire monologue.
“I’m not joining any religions, I don’t want insurance, I’m not interested in stocks, it’s true I used my card for high overseas spending, and I bought an elephant. Is there anything else?”
“What kind of nonsense is this?” Li Xuan replied, “It’s about time. We need to get going. I’ve booked your ticket; you can meet Huasang at the airport, and also…”
Luxianbei closed his eyes, listening to Li Xuan’s incessant chatter, responding perfunctorily with a few “uh-huhs” and “ohs.”
“Hmm? That tone of yours… sounds off?”
“Yeah, it’s off. I keep thinking about a French wet kiss, you know, the one with the tongue. I didn’t sleep well all night.”
There was silence on the other end for a few seconds, and then Li Xuan’s tone became serious, “d*mn it, Luxian, I warn you, don’t do anything strange to my junior sister…”
Before Li Xuan could finish, Luxianbei impatiently hung up the phone.
Tch, crazy!
Does he think I’m a Water Brother, someone who flirts with anyone who comes along?
Morning sunlight poured in through the gray sheer curtains, and Luxianbei rubbed his somewhat dry eyes, sat up, stared blankly for a few seconds, then turned to stash Wang Ying, who was on the bedside table, into the God Realm Prototype, and pulled out Zhipianxian before sluggishly heading into the bathroom to wash up.
After freshening up and dressing, he hurriedly grabbed the metal box that was packed full and rushed out the door.
After the last trip to Tangcheng, where he had trouble carrying alchemical bombs and Ling Tai Purification items onto the plane, he had gone to learn a spell formula that would help him evade security checks when he got back to Huacheng.
Some people could hide themselves in suitcases and smoothly get past security to reach their destinations; what did it matter if he took explosives and deadly weapons on a plane?
He stopped a taxi at the entrance of the residential complex, got in, told the driver the destination, and began to close his eyes to rest.
Having stayed up almost the whole night, secretly controlling Zhipianxian to attend classes at Huacheng University of Technology and squeezing out some mental energy to recall the details the Ancestor had entrusted him regarding Dachunyang Palace, he hardly had the energy to engage in small talk with the driver.
Unless he could split off a bunch of random subordinates like Spider-Man.
But the methods of Spiritual Ability Users and urban legends were also quite bizarre; who knows, that kind of ability might really exist?
Seeing Luxianbei like a piece of wood, unresponsive to whatever he said, the driver soon picked up on the cue and fell silent.
———
When Luxianbei saw Huasang at the airport, he was somewhat surprised.
Today, she wasn’t in a wheelchair but walked here!
“Congratulations, you’ve finally mastered the basic skill of upright walking! But, well, you really timed this skill poorly!”
“If you had your little car with you, we might have been able to take a special passage.”
As he spoke, Luxianbei turned to glance at the terminal entrance, shook his head, and sighed silently.
In early summer, Huacheng was starting to show signs of oppressive heat. Under the morning sunlight, the ground was steaming with damp heat, and coupled with the throngs of people reminiscent of the Spring Festival travel rush, just looking at it made one feel unbearably uncomfortable.
Since the nights had grown longer, the concept of peak hours for flights had emerged; the evening peak was mostly filled with budget-ticket-seeking daredevils, while the morning peak consisted mostly of those eager to travel long distances or cautious sages.
As a cautious sage, Luxianbei found it was the first time he felt that Li Xuan, this guy, was actually considerate, provided he didn’t appear in front of him for a direct interaction.
Through her messy hair, Huasang cast a resentful glance at Luxianbei, ignoring his ramblings, before dully saying three words.
“ID card.”
Saying this, she stretched out her hand towards him.
That hand was clean and fair, with long fingers, completely at odds with her rumpled and lazy appearance, as if the hand didn’t belong to her.
However…
It was still a bit worse than Miaomiao Sauce.
Wait, shouldn’t I have tried to hold her hand yesterday?
d*mn it, I forgot an important step!
Luxianbei thought to himself, then turned and extended his hand to Huasang, “Better hand me your ID card, then?”
“Your senior brother asked me to take care of you. This kind of thing shouldn’t be something you do, right?”
I was thinking of having you help me find out about the whereabouts of Ling Tai Purification! But I guess I’ll put that aside for now and just focus on getting close to her, Luxianbei added in his mind.
Huasang looked at Luxianbei, hesitated for a moment, then pulled out her ID card and placed it in his hand, following behind him into the terminal.
And then, she soon got herself an electric scooter.
“By the way, have you had breakfast? Do you want some water? Is your luggage heavy? Do you want me to help you carry it? Speaking of which, I’m quite familiar with Fu Xinyi from your Dachunyang Palace…”
Huasang, “…” This person talks too much, so annoying.
Thinking this, she silently put down her suitcase, pressed the power button, and rode her beloved little scooter deep into the terminal.
Yes, the wheelchair was gone, but she had exchanged it for a rideable electric suitcase.
Luxianbei, “…”
———
Moments later, Huasang finally experienced some relief.
She sat on a bench, watching Luxianbei walk toward the ticket counter, her gaze slowly lowering to the full bag of snacks, and she smiled a bit.
Not sure if it was because she was about to return to Dachunyang Palace or the eager energy that Luxianbei radiated, looking at these snacks reminded her of her junior sister, Fu Xinyi.
Strictly speaking, Fu Xinyi was also her distant relative.
Their grandfathers were cousins, but Huasang’s grandfather had passed away long ago, and the families had nearly lost contact over the years.
Three generations apart, Fu Xinyi, however, had a completely different life trajectory than Huasang.
Although Fu Xinyi hadn’t seen her father since she was very young, unlike Huasang, she had a privileged family background, loving relatives, and remarkable looks—things Huasang lacked.
Yet that person also had an excellent character and worked particularly hard.
Thus, when the two families reunited after many years, the young Huasang felt the disparity of life when she first met Fu Xinyi.
Sometimes when Huasang thought of that encounter, she would remember Mr. Lu Xun’s “Hometown,” with Fu Xinyi being like Xun Ge’er, while she felt like the hare in the melon field under the moonlight.
Under the moonlight, a flash of silver light flicked by, and a fork fell, transforming her into a tragic and absurd corpse.
Although her temperament matured earlier than her peers, preventing her psyche from twisting due to such disparity, at that time, she genuinely disliked Fu Xinyi.
Children’s disdain is always unfiltered.
Carrying that mindset, Huasang often “trapped” Fu Xinyi openly and covertly: when practicing spell formulas, if she accidentally burned the house, she would say it was Fu Xinyi’s fault; when practicing swordsmanship, and she cut down the statue of the founding master, she’d blame it on Fu Xinyi.
Even when sent down the mountain to train with her senior sister, if her senior sister got severely injured due to her slacking off, she would secretly heal her, taking Fu Xinyi’s name.
After all, Fu Xinyi was there that time; amidst the chaos, her senior sister wouldn’t know who was slacking off, and Fu Xinyi volunteered to heal her, thus solidifying her reputation for slacking.
Huasang did all of this just to keep Fu Xinyi as far away from her as possible, the farther, the better—on one hand, out of sight and out of mind, and on the other, concerned that an uncontrolled spirit pattern might hurt her.
But…
“That girl…” Huasang smiled again, shaking her head.
However, perhaps it was because she had been too well protected since childhood or that she might not be very bright, Fu Xinyi completely failed to perceive Huasang’s malice.
After learning about their familial relation, Fu Xinyi would cling to Huasang almost every day. Whenever her family came to visit, bringing delicious treats, she would always share a large portion with Huasang.
When Huasang refused, Fu Xinyi would sneak into her room at night and stuff them into her bed.
But…
Who puts ice cream into someone else’s bed? Not once! Huasang thought, as Luxianbei’s voice interrupted her reverie.
“Um… I have a question I’d like to ask you, if that’s okay? You might know about this more than others.”
Huasang slowly turned, looked at Luxianbei, and nodded.
“Is it that San Doumi Sect in Anshan, the Nanshan Temple in Xiurong City, and the Taihe Palace in Shiyan City—all these places, do the Taoists or monks there differ from the Masters from your Zhenwu Mountain’s Dachunyang Palace? Do they all have Spiritual Ability Users?” Luxianbei asked earnestly.
“Yes, they all do.” Huasang nodded.
She had heard her master mention the monks from Nanshan Temple and the Taoists from San Doumi, and she had seen the disciples from Taihe Palace at Dachunyang Palace.
Hearing this, Luxianbei’s heart suddenly lit up as he murmured, “So it’s like that…”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Luxianbei shook his head.
The route Hu Chuan took after leaving Huacheng, which seemed entirely aimless according to some online inquiry, had left Luxianbei puzzled for a time.
Just earlier, when exchanging for boarding passes and seeing the destination was Fangshan Airport, he planned to book a car in advance to leave the airport upon landing, searched for Fangshan Airport’s address, and then discovered that it was right in Shizhou.
Moreover, the city center of Shizhou was less than fifty kilometers from Dachunyang Palace!
Following this, after searching through the other cities, he found that they all had places similar to Dachunyang Palace, but he wasn’t quite sure whether those places also had Spiritual Ability Users like Dachunyang Palace, which led to his earlier question for Huasang.
If there were a few such sites, one could say it was coincidence. But with so many, there was surely a reason behind it.
Which meant Hu Chuan might be probing those sects? Or searching for people among those Spiritual Ability Users?
However, he was connected to the notorious Zhang Shuo and was an illegal immigrant himself—how could he dare do such a thing?
Such behavior resembled a wanted criminal trying to find a particular police officer by asking at various police stations—a bit too brazen.
With such enormous risks, what could his purpose be?
The last place Hu Chuan was seen was Shizhou City; could it be tied to Dachunyang Palace? Perhaps he found who he was looking for there?
A series of questions flooded Luxianbei’s mind, heightening his anticipation for this trip to Dachunyang Palace.
He might even catch Hu Chuan near Dachunyang Palace.
This wave is a two-for-one!
(Yesterday was overloaded, so I’m posting a little less today to brainstorm the upcoming plot. Honestly, I think this volume could be divided into two parts—upper part leaning towards daily life, planting seeds for the latter part, haha~)
Victoria Crown Go!
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Having a ‘bad day’—my arm hurts after the second vaccine, my car got scratched, and my writing got stuck… My mindset exploded, and my head’s a mess; I can’t write anything. Taking a day off; tomorrow, two updates. @@
