Chapter 2: One Step to Success [4K]
Staring at the crystal jar, after a period of contemplation, Luxianbei gave up on thinking.
To truly understand the meaning of an article, the best way is never to analyze or speculate according to reading comprehension techniques, but to ask the original author directly.
If you want to know why there is a jar of yellow sand from Jade Gate Desert at Water Brother’s home, wouldn’t it just be better to ask him directly?
“Where—are—!”
Taking out his phone, he dialed Bai Kai’s number. Just as the ringtone rang twice, a sweet female voice came from the other end.
Luxianbei lowered his phone slightly and frowned at the screen.
It wasn’t surprising to hear a sweet female voice when calling Bai Kai, but hearing, “The number you dialed is temporarily unavailable” was a bit strange.
A few days ago, Bai Kai had gone to Li Xuan to clear a falsehood; theoretically, he should be in a state of employment, and unless there are special circumstances, he should maintain smooth contact as much as possible.
After a few seconds of silence, Luxianbei took out the Gray Owl Badge from his jacket pocket, infused it with spirit energy, and attempted to contact Bai Kai again, but still no one answered.
As a result, his confusion deepened, along with a slight sense of grievance.
This was the feeling of those neglected by their parents, like little children lacking care.
And the jar of yellow sand in front of him made him vaguely uneasy.
“Forget it, rather than overthinking, I might as well go to the Zhao office and check the internal network,” Luxianbei muttered to himself.
According to regulations, active Siye Society operatives without special tasks must update their itinerary every three days to prevent unexpected situations like spirit pattern malfunctions.
Luxianbei also reported, with the usual content: “Staying home and playing games, everything is normal.”
So even if the call didn’t go through and the Gray Owl Badge remained unresponsive, as long as Bai Kai was in employment status, his recent itinerary information should be accessible on the Siye Society internal network.
Finding Bai Kai’s itinerary information would likely reveal his current location.
Longxi, Dunhuang City Airport.
Although it was midsummer and the windy season had long since passed, today the wind and sand in Dunhuang City were unusually severe. Many flights that were supposed to arrive on time had been delayed or rerouted to land in nearby cities, except for CA 716, which had taken off from M Country with a layover in Kyoto.
When CA 716 reached the skies above Dunhuang City, the wind and sand that had been blowing for over ten hours briefly paused. The thick clouds piled up in the sky even opened a gap, letting the bright sunlight pour down onto the Earth.
Even with many years of flying experience, the captain of CA 716 couldn’t help but joke with the co-pilot after a smooth landing, “We are really lucky today; managing to land safely in this weather is nothing short of a miracle!”
Shortly after CA 716 landed, the wind and sand in Dunhuang City quickly picked up again.
Once outside the airport’s operational range, strong winds battered the streets, causing glass windows to creak ominously, and everything in sight was coated in a layer of dark yellow, resembling an old, faded photograph.
At the bus stop by the airport exit, a tall and slender teenager stood quietly on the roadside waiting. He wore a windproof mask and sunglasses, virtually obscuring his entire face; however, even so, the faint outline revealed that he was a rather handsome young man.
Handsome to the point of being somewhat androgynous, at a quick glance, one might even mistake him for a beautiful girl.
After waiting for a moment, a faint sound of tires rolling over the gravel road came from the end of the street. Following the sound, an older black Jeep Wrangler drove along the road and stopped in front of the teenager.
“Mr. Fang, please get in,” said a middle-aged man with distinct facial features and a thick beard as he rolled down the driver’s window.
Fang Ji removed his sunglasses, sized up the middle-aged man’s appearance, and smiled, “Elder Xiem, long time no see! I didn’t expect you to come personally to pick me up.”
As he spoke, he opened the car door and sat in the passenger seat.
The SUV slowly started and drove down the road. The window closed again, isolating the howling wind outside, leaving only the faint sound of gravel scraping against the glass.
The car fell into silence, and only then did Xiem say, “Lord Left Apostle, why didn’t you notify anyone in advance about coming? If anything went wrong…”
“Hey, I went out alone, didn’t tell anyone. If anything goes wrong, that would be a miracle in itself, right?” Fang Ji responded with a bright smile.
After a pause, he changed the subject, “By the way, Elder Xiem, the other elders responsible for transporting the Sacred Relic have arrived, right?”
“They’ve all arrived. The last one, Elder Ke’Re, responsible for transporting the brain, arrived the day before yesterday evening. Now we just need the Holy Son to arrive so we can start the ceremony.”
As Xiem spoke, he hesitated for a moment and asked, “May I boldly ask, Lord Left Apostle, do you know when the Holy Son will arrive?”
Luxianbei? Fang Ji tilted his head slightly, a deep smile appearing at the corner of his mouth, “Probably in a week!”
Although given his personality, he wouldn’t come to Jade Gate Desert recklessly, but when a series of small miracles accumulate into a grand one, nothing is impossible. Fang Ji supplemented in his mind.
“That’s great!” Xiem exclaimed excitedly, slapping the steering wheel, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the Holy Son; I really miss her and can’t wait to see her create miracles!”
“Yeah, it’s soon, soon,” Fang Ji ambiguously responded, turning his head to rest his chin on one hand, gazing out the window.
He watched as the SUV drove through the city, headed towards the suburbs, ultimately toward the vast expanse covered by endless yellow sand.
Luxianbei, I hope you won’t blame me; I had no choice but to put in some effort regarding your beloved.
If I don’t do this, you surely wouldn’t hand over your finger bones obediently, would you?
I’m just asking you to help deliver something, not with any malice. I still consider you a friend, Fang Ji thought, raising his eyes to look out the window, as if his gaze pierced through the endless yellow sand to reach Huacheng, a thousand miles away.
In the afternoon.
At the Huacheng Folk Culture Research Management Bureau, Room 8, Luxianbei stared silently at the computer screen.
From the itinerary information queried on the internal network, it seemed Bai Kai’s recent updates were quite normal, even a bit lackluster.
“June 7th, hanging out.”
“June 20th, bar-hopping.”
“June 23rd, I can’t keep falling like this anymore! For Xiao Yuan’er, I need to do something serious!”
“June 26th, bar-hopping.”
“True to form!” After browsing through Bai Kai’s recent itinerary information, Luxianbei couldn’t help but facepalmed, “Bar-hopping to the point where people lose contact; with nearly ten thousand operatives in the entire Siye Society, only you could pull off such a thing!”
After realizing Bai Kai was probably bar-hopping to the point of losing contact, Luxianbei completely gave up on the idea of finding him in the short term.
Similar incidents hadn’t been unheard of in the past, at least while his father was still alive; he had often heard Bai Kai’s tales of drunken nights that ended with him waking up a thousand miles away.
Luxianbei originally thought that after reuniting with Xing Yuan, Bai Kai would wash his hands of those worldly pleasures, but it seemed he just couldn’t forget that vibrant world.
“However, if it’s like this…” Luxianbei furrowed his brows in thought.
Then I might have to temporarily borrow that portion of human fireworks from Turtle Girl, right?
She has been waiting for so long anyway.
But integrating Ling Tai Purification and God Realm Prototype was a bit urgent, Luxianbei thought.
Not long ago, when the first lost item and letters were returned to him without a clear owner, before he could get used to it, Proxy Player Sister appeared in front of him and took away that portion of human fireworks.
It was hard to acquire a treasure, one that he created himself, only for Proxy Player Sister to take it away without explanation, like a new toy being snatched by an older sister.
How could he tolerate that? He could not!
He immediately clung to Proxy Player Sister’s thigh!
If it weren’t for Proxy Player Sister explaining to him those two secrets about cooking human fireworks, enhancing the tolerance for adverse reactions when integrating God Realm Prototype, and that human fireworks could purge the side effects of God Realm Prototype, in an extreme fit of anger, he might have broken Proxy Player Sister’s thigh right then and there.
Really, it wasn’t bragging. With Proxy Player Sister’s pale and delicate thighs, he could easily twist them off with just half his strength.
It was only because Proxy Player Sister provided useful information that he let her off the hook.
Otherwise…
“Eh? Wait, an internal network email?”
Just as Luxianbei fantasized about violently assaulting Proxy Player Sister, he suddenly noticed the red dot on the envelope icon indicating an internal network email at the bottom left of the interface.
“When was this sent? It wouldn’t be another positive energy promotional booklet, would it?”
Mumbling to himself, he clicked on the email, and the moment he saw the sender, his face turned pale.
The email was sent by Jiang Li, with the sending date being three days ago.
Before even reading the contents of the email, Luxianbei already knew he was “doomed.” The nature of such things was as severe as missing dozens of girlfriend calls while playing a game.
Then, after quickly scanning through the email contents, his face grew even darker.
[Dear Agent Luxianbei:
Hello, I have recently completed the spirit pattern advancement and the subsequent basic review process. I am planning to conduct a practical review soon and require an examiner to accompany me throughout the process. I hereby invite you to serve as examiner for this review.
If you are interested, please confirm and reply.
Invitation from: Huacheng Siye Society Jiang Li.]
The practical review is a necessary process for every operative going to the Siye Society headquarters to complete the spirit pattern advancement. During this process, there will be an examiner accompanying the audited operative throughout, handling at least one urban legend event with spirit energy fluctuations exceeding level B.
Operatives advancing their spirit patterns at Siye Society headquarters must start with at least B+ energy fluctuation levels, as once the spirit patterns go out of control, it can become quite dangerous, so the reviews must be extremely rigorous.
Although the headquarters has many instruments and dummy figures to test spirit pattern stability, instruments and dummies are ultimately different from facing urban legend events directly.
Watching a horror movie is not the same as personally experiencing a supernatural event, is it?
If the audit process post-spirit pattern advancement is likened to a driving test, then the practical review is akin to the road test part for obtaining a driver’s license.
However, Jiang Li inviting Luxianbei as her examiner slightly changed the nature of things.
Although it was a relatively formal invitation, spending a month together was bound to lead to some wonderful things.
I’m doomed; I missed this email, so my superior must be angry, right?
This is way more serious than missing calls while gaming; it’s on the level of missing a girlfriend’s invitation to watch a movie and standing her up.
But it’s only been three days. Maybe it’s not too late to remedy? Even if headquarters has assigned another examiner to her, it still takes time for the approval to come down!
With this thought, Luxianbei’s eyes rolled around, and he took out his phone to call Xing Yuan.
Then he heard some bad news.
“Ha, a man! Thinking of someone else at a time like this? Why didn’t you do this earlier? How could such matters wait for you to dilly-dally? Giving her a day to choose an examiner already means I pulled strings for you; this is technically irregular, you know?”
“In short, Elder Jiang’s examiner was approved yesterday morning. She probably went to Shancheng that afternoon and is now likely already with that examiner, flying together. Give it up, silly boy; you’ve lost your chance!”
After hearing Xing Yuan’s words, Luxianbei’s fists clenched immediately, gritting his teeth as he asked, “Who? Who is that blonde guy? I, pure love warrior Bei, will k*ll him today!”
Hearing someone was spending a month alone with the girl he liked, could he tolerate that?
“Blonde.” On the other end of the line, Xing Yuan paused for a moment before bursting into laughter, “Hahaha, what are you thinking all day?”
“Don’t worry! Although that examiner is indeed blonde, she’s a genuine girl and is also Jiang Li’s close friend; she won’t run off with your beloved!”
“What, what beloved…” Luxianbei muttered, his face reddening.
Listening to Xing Yuan’s laughter, he could almost imagine her winking and smiling playfully.
“However, why didn’t I hear the superiors mention she has a close friend in Shancheng?” Luxianbei asked again.
I know her waist size and how many moles are on her back; how could I not know she has a close friend?
“She’s the dormmate from when she first joined the Siye Society and trained together; they haven’t seen each other for several years. You can’t be jealous over this, can you?” Xing Yuan teased.
There was a tone in her voice that felt like a shipper going wild over gossip.
“I’m not! I haven’t! Don’t make wild claims!” Luxianbei hurriedly denied, quickly hanging up the phone, “Let’s leave it at that for now. Goodbye, Godmother!”
In front of someone like Xing Yuan, he was only left with being teased; he felt he couldn’t continue chatting with her.
After putting down the phone, Luxianbei stared at the email on the computer screen, furrowing his brow, deep in thought.
Unexpectedly, the location of the leader’s practical review was actually in Shancheng. Maybe I can go there?
Didn’t Miss Rabbit mention that one of the Solar Eclipse Society bases has two locations in Shancheng?
I had been struggling with how to choose among so many Solar Eclipse bases. Now, it’s settled. I can apologize and blend into the Solar Eclipse Society, and just like that, Luxianbei thought.
As for Water Brother’s relic, I’ll talk about it later!
Where in the world can there be two laws?
How can a godfather be more important than a wife?
