**Chapter 99 Activation! [4K]**
“Look! Look! A jade pendant that was once worn by the royal family of Dali Kingdom!”
“Clean and hygienic, delicious and inexpensive, a specialty pancake from Dawn City. Young man, would you like a serving?”
“Friend, are you here to watch a performance? Ethnic dance, the kind without clothes.”
As night begins to fall.
Today, like countless days before, the night market in Dawn City is bustling with people under the night sky. The lights, bright and dim, twist the shadows on the streets, while various sounds merge into a buzzing hum, like bees fluttering their wings.
Amidst the clamor, Huaxie Yu suddenly opens her eyes while sitting in front of a street stall at the alley’s entrance and stares blankly at the noisy night market street for a moment. She quickly comes to her senses, lowers her head, and carefully checks her backpack in her arms, letting out a long sigh of relief.
“Whoo—! Thankfully, thankfully. I didn’t expect to fall asleep in a place like this, and…”
She vaguely remembers having a very strange dream, but when she tries to recall the contents of that dream, her mind goes blank.
This situation makes her feel a bit uneasy.
“Could it be because I woke up to find myself sleeping in this ghostly place?” Huaxie Yu murmurs, tilting her head slightly.
As a native of Dawn City, she knows very well that while the night market isn’t as chaotic and dangerous as rumored, it certainly isn’t as safe as it looks.
A young girl, sleeping at the street side of the night market in Dawn City, losing her money would be the best outcome.
However,
“Heh, if there’s really a careless guy who wants to take advantage of me while I’m asleep, tonight’s incident will probably turn into quite the event.” Huaxie Yu mutters softly.
“If this works out, I could make a substantial profit and finally get some good rest. I’ve been really exhausted lately.”
She came to the night market to help sell raw jade.
Still, if luck is on her side and she encounters a few bold, low-level Spiritual Ability Users, she plans to carry out a big robbery at the jade shop.
After all, the owner of that jade shop has long had ulterior motives toward her. From what she knows, several other young girls had worked as sellers there before her, but they all went missing shortly after starting.
Huaxie Yu estimates that the owner may want to deal with her but hasn’t found the opportunity yet, which she doesn’t mind.
Doing business in Dawn City is like this; when one can’t eat black, everyone runs an honest operation. When there’s a chance to strike, they won’t hesitate.
In the early hours, deep in the dilapidated building of Fragrant Lady Cave.
After putting the children to sleep and carefully completing her daily skincare routine, Huaxie Yu lies on her bed, staring at the ceiling, lost in thought.
Her plan for today went surprisingly well.
Just after ten o’clock, after venting some violence on those three big men who were preparing to drag her into an alley, she successfully tricked them and robbed the jade shop.
Although there was a bit of an incident during the robbery when a white man shot the jade shop owner, she ended up only daring to accept cash for the stolen goods, receiving a smaller share of the profits.
But the result was good; the income from this job was enough for her to rest at home for three to five months.
However, because everything went too smoothly, she felt that something was off.
That feeling was like completing a game and then playing it again, knowing where the boss might appear, only to find that the boss was nowhere to be seen.
“Strange, why do I feel this way?”
As Huaxie Yu mumbles, her phone suddenly rings, interrupting her suspicious thoughts.
“Oh heavens, please grant me luck in cards.”
“Hello? Is this the one?”
After a few seconds of ringing, Huaxie Yu answers the phone, and a somewhat deep male voice comes through.
“Hello, is this Miss Huaxie Yu? I was referred by the Sun Gang. They’ve mentioned that you’re quite capable and want to do a business deal with you.”
“A deal? What kind of deal?” Huaxie Yu furrows her brows and asks.
The man falls silent for a moment. “It’s inconvenient to discuss over the phone. How about we meet in person? I’m right downstairs.”
Downstairs? Huaxie Yu’s heart skips a beat. She covers the microphone of her phone with one hand, gets up, and moves to the window, leaning against the wall. She lets one finger pull the curtain back slightly and looks downstairs, spotting the man under the dim streetlight in front of the small building.
He is a man in a complete black suit, smoking a cigar, wearing sunglasses, looking as if he stepped right out of an Italian mafia movie.
Such a guy shows up in Dawn City usually for one of two reasons—either he cannot be messed with, or he cannot be messed with.
Considering that the man is a well-known local tyrant in Fragrant Lady Cave and referred by the Sun Gang, he is likely a big shot.
But why would such a big shot need my help? Huaxie Yu wonders as she pulls the curtain back, stands in front of the window, and brings her phone back to her ear, softly saying, “I see you.”
Hearing this, the man below suddenly looks up and waves at Huaxie Yu, who is on the rooftop.
“Since that’s the case, how about we talk face-to-face?”
“Wait, wait! Don’t rush! Your sudden visit has thrown me off. Before we meet, can you briefly say what you want me to help with? I’m a bit…”
She knows very well that if she can’t do what the man calls a business deal, it might be better to refuse decisively.
Her small tricks and schemes hold no weight against such a big shot. It’s better to be upfront; typically, big shots don’t nitpick over such things with someone like her.
“In simple terms, I want you to go to a charity banquet tomorrow night and help me retrieve something. I’ve already discussed it with the people from the Sun Gang, and Miss Huaxie Yu is very good at this sort of thing, isn’t she?”
“Can I refuse? You see, those charity banquets usually have Spiritual Ability Users as security, and with my abilities, I can’t do much if I go.”
As Huaxie Yu speaks, she lowers her head nervously, rubbing her slightly swollen forehead. When she raises her head again, she finds that the man under the streetlamp has disappeared.
In the next moment, the man’s voice suddenly comes from behind her.
“I’m sorry, Miss Hu, but this deal may require your participation. The item I want is an ancient coin, and your spirit patterns have an exceptional capability for stealing coins.”
Huaxie Yu suddenly turns around, startled.
The man somehow appears in her room, sitting on her beloved small sofa.
“Although in the vast Dawn City, there are certainly other Spiritual Ability Users or urban legends willing to take this job, they charge too high, and their energy fluctuations are too prominent, drawing more attention. So considering all aspects, I’m afraid you are the most suitable choice in all of Dawn City.”
“When the operation occurs, I will have someone divert any Spiritual Ability Users or urban legends that could pose a threat to you. You only need to focus on retrieving the item and handing it over to the person who meets you.”
After listening, Huaxie Yu mutters softly, “So you found me to get it for cheap…”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Huaxie Yu shakes her head seriously. “Can I ask what the reward for this deal is?”
“After all, even if your people distract the guards, it’s still a dangerous task.”
“Want to know the reward in advance? Fair enough!” The man nods and offers a condition that is hard for Huaxie Yu to refuse.
A large sum of money, a bright future for the children, and the Sun Gang’s long-term effective provision of half the deposit in advance!
For a moment, Huaxie Yu even thinks she would agree to anything, even if it meant losing her life.
But…
Why do these conditions sound so familiar?
It’s as if she has heard them somewhere before.
Huaxie Yu ponders, glancing at the man on the sofa, she curls her lips and says, “The terms are good; I can agree, but before agreeing, can you take off your sunglasses and let me see?”
“Uh, I know this might be a bit presumptuous, but if I don’t even know the specific appearance of the person I’m trading with, it makes me somewhat uneasy.”
Upon hearing this, the man falls silent for a moment.
Just as Huaxie Yu is about to say, “It’s fine if you don’t show,” he suddenly takes off his sunglasses and smiles, “Miss Huaxie Yu’s request is very reasonable…”
As the sunglasses move aside, a pair of hollow, lifeless eyes, filled with fatigue and marked by deep dark circles, become visible to Huaxie Yu.
As if witnessing something extremely horrifying, her body shivers slightly, and an inexplicable sense of terror surges within her.
Huaxie Yu doesn’t understand why she feels such fear at the sight of the man’s eyes.
In Fragrant Lady Cave, the appearances of junkies and those who worship strange urban legends, having long-lived sleepless nights, are far more terrifying than this man; she’s seen enough of them to be unbothered.
Yet, her body and nerves instinctively reacted.
However, when the desire is great enough, it can conquer fear.
After several deep breaths, Huaxie Yu nods at the man, saying, “The conditions you’re offering are hard to refuse, so I’m willing to—”
“Bang—!”
Before Huaxie Yu could finish her sentence, the door to her room is suddenly pushed open from the outside.
A man in a gray jacket barges in, pointing at the man on the sofa, and yells at Huaxie Yu, “Huazhuang, don’t agree to him! Look closely at who he is!”
Seeing the sudden intrusion of the gray-clad person, the man on the sofa furrows his brows, sighing heavily, “He actually left this behind? This is troublesome.”
“What the heck, she’s not your biological daughter. Why waste so much spirit energy leaving something like this for her?”
Some say that when a person is immersed in a very vivid dream, if they sense something is off, they will awaken.
And now, with that gray-clad man’s disruption, Huaxie Yu is likely to wake up.
As the man on the sofa mutters to himself, Huaxie Yu casts a glance at him.
Her gaze lands on the man’s eyes again, and a strong chill suddenly rises on her back, shooting her feelings sky-high.
That sensation is like being thrown up into the sky after getting drunk and then plummeting into an icy abyss; a bone-deep chill spreads from her feet to her head.
In panic, she steps back, distancing herself from the man, her fists gradually clenching, and at that moment, a sudden sharp pain pierces her palm.
She freezes for a moment, slowly lifting her hand, and sees her palm covered in bright red, as if it has been cut by something sharp.
Why? There’s nothing in my palm; how could I suddenly bleed like this?
Huaxie Yu thinks in confusion as her brain suddenly feels like it’s been pierced by a sharp thorn, throbbing violently.
Immediately after, the fear lurking in her heart starts to surge; her chest feels tight, and her breath becomes labored.
That sensation is like being submerged underwater, squeezed by heavy currents from all sides.
At that moment, she steps back again and suddenly steps into thin air, her body plunging downwards.
Thus, the scene before her shatters rapidly, dimming quickly, while her ears are filled with frantic, shrill whispers that are both maddening and sharp.
Finally, with an unbearable, indescribable shattering sound, she wakes up from her slumber.
“Whoo—whoo—!”
Opening her eyes, Huaxie Yu sits up on the sofa at Luxianbei’s home, gasping for breath violently. The lingering phantom pains in her brain render her consciousness dazed, with beads of sweat dripping heavily from her forehead.
After adjusting her state slightly, recalling the strange dream she just had, she spasms as if electrified, then slowly raises her hand, seeing a metallic object left behind by MR.S in her palm.
At this moment, the dark golden metal object is covered in the bright red bl**d that flowed from her palm after being pierced, glowing with a weird aura under the faint light that comes from nowhere.
It feels as if it has been endowed with a certain eerie vitality.
Staring at the metallic object in her palm for a few seconds, a fierce look flashes across Huaxie Yu’s brow as she activates her spirit patterns, pouring spirit energy into the metallic object.
She can feel that the bizarre dream just now was caused by that terrifying man.
That man had appeared again, not knowing with what intent, and even Luxianbei, the operative of the Siye Association, wouldn’t be able to protect her.
Thus, she can only trust the item left by MR.S…
“Phut—!”
As the spirit energy flows into it, the metallic object emits a soft sound like gas escaping, and then its dark golden surface blooms open like a many-petaled lotus.
The bl**d plasma surges within, engulfing her.
In the next moment, darkness descends.
In the endless darkness, Huaxie Yu feels as if countless tentacles wrap around her body, slowly tightening, pulling, and crawling, gradually dragging her into the abyss until they find the terrifying man’s lingering presence.
An invisible passage is instantly established, and all the tentacles, like hounds sniffing bl**d, surge towards the man through the subtle connection between her and him!
