Chapter 58: No Pain Without Comparison
In the pitch-black room, Lu Yibei stared at the kitchen kn*fe on the coffee table for a long time, ultimately concluding that the possibility of her family’s heirloom kitchen kn*fe being a miraculous weapon was rather low.
“Ah—!”
She thought of her father again and couldn’t help but sigh sadly.
Although her father was a kind man, he was rarely reliable when he spoke, Lu Yibei thought.
Just like when he kept telling her as a child that he had arranged a childhood engagement for her with a very beautiful girl, assuring her that she needn’t worry about not being able to find a wife in the future. As a result, here she was now, and where was her wife?
d*mn it! She hadn’t even held a girl’s hand!
Thinking it over carefully, Lu Yibei felt that perhaps it was just her father’s kind-hearted lie to protect the young girl from realizing too early that she was someone nobody wanted.
So, maybe these kitchen knives could easily cut the core of an urban legend; perhaps there was something extraordinary about them, but she shouldn’t hold too high of expectations.
What if she really used them to cut an urban legend, and they turned out to be not as formidable as imagined and got counterattacked by the urban legend herself? That would make her look like a fool, wouldn’t it?
After a moment of silence, Lu Yibei cleared her thoughts.
In facing an urban legend, the heirloom kitchen kn*fe could be used as a trump card, but she couldn’t rely on it too heavily, just like…
The power within her body.
……
Bringing her thoughts back, Lu Yibei began chopping filling, the flavor of the urban legend core.
She was quite skilled at chopping filling.
Her family’s former restaurant had a signature dish—spicy lion’s head.
Lion’s head originated from Huaiyang cuisine, but Lu Yibei’s father adapted it according to local tastes, making it spicy. Surprisingly, it turned out quite well and was highly praised.
When Lu Yibei helped at the restaurant during her holidays, her father, overwhelmed with work, would have her prepare the meat filling used for the lion’s head.
“Clang—clang—clang—!”
With the wooden kn*fe in her left hand and a cleaver in her right, Lu Yibei skillfully chopped rhythmically on the cutting board, creating a series of dull sounds.
The various urban legends in the apartment couldn’t stand such a “bloody” scene; they quickly fled, dragging their droopy eyeballs behind them, not knowing to which corner they retreated to shiver in fear.
Half a piece of the urban legend core gradually transformed into meat paste under the glinting cold light. Just halfway through her work of chopping, her upstairs neighbor was not pleased.
“d*mn! Chopping meat filling so late at night, are you sick?!”
Hearing this, Lu Yibei shrank her neck, silently sticking out her tongue as she stopped.
She understood her neighbor’s complaints.
Neighbors, those peculiar creatures, always engaged in singing, drilling walls, and chopping meat filling just when you wanted to sleep. Lu Yibei had encountered this several times, and it was quite frustrating.
After wiping the kitchen kn*fe clean, Lu Yibei picked up a small mound of black paste from the cutting board and walked toward the coffee table.
The chopped urban legend core was only as big as a fingernail; although it was a bit small, this was only a preliminary attempt, and with more volume, it might go to waste.
Thinking about it, Lu Yibei opened her palm and sprinkled a bit of the urban legend core into the dissolved cinnabar, stirring it a couple of times with chopsticks, and then something unexpected happened.
The purplish-red liquid mixed with the urban legend core first bubbled a couple of times, and then, as if it boiled, it started to bubble violently, making “gurgle, gurgle” sounds.
In an instant, the boiling liquid ignited, shooting up a three-meter-high crimson flame, silver sparks suddenly appeared, exploding in mid-air, transforming into a brilliant array of colors, crackling like fireworks during the New Year.
The sudden dazzling light and explosion startled Lu Yibei, and like a frightened kitten, she hurriedly dodged, knocking over the unused cinnabar on the table, and her whole body shot upward, her head hitting the ceiling with a “thud!”
In less than a minute, the entire living room was in disarray.
Lu Yibei lay on the ground, looking up at the slightly cracked ceiling, and the first thought that emerged in her mind was to be thankful for the high-quality products from the construction team!
d*mn, this time was truly a blunder! She should have been more cautious.
When consuming the urban legend core, she hadn’t felt much strength at all; how could such a small amount have such great power?
As Lu Yibei pondered, preparing to get up and check the result of her reckless actions, the apartment door suddenly banged, accompanied by shouts from outside.
“Boom boom boom—boom boom boom—!”
“f*ck! Are you never going to stop? Not chopping filling anymore, now are you setting off fireworks?!”
“Are you banging on my ceiling? I only yelled at you a couple of times! Why’s your revenge so strong?”
“Open the door, come out! Aren’t you pretty tough? Why don’t you come out?!”
Lu Yibei, “……”
……
At the door was a muscular man with a head as thick as his brawny build, with two tattooed arms thicker than Lu Yibei’s thighs, resembling a Z-country version of Dwayne Johnson. Along with him was a fierce-looking German shepherd.
Both the man and his dog seemed aggressive; before Lu Yibei could open the door, the dog, which was nearly her size, was already baring its teeth, ready to bark as commanded by its owner.
However…
As soon as Lu Yibei opened the door, the large dog, as if immensely shocked, let out a high-pitched yelp, shrinking back behind its owner, trembling, whimpering.
They say dogs can see things that humans cannot, and in the eyes of the dog, the space behind that door was quite the monster’s den.
There were all sorts of strange shadows flitting about; it was too frightening for the dog!
“You, you, you…” The muscular man was also stunned upon seeing Lu Yibei. He vaguely remembered the delicate face living downstairs, the kind he could knock out with one punch.
But what was this beautiful girl in front of him? A internet celebrity? A star? Surely not a demon, right?
She was wearing a man’s coat; could it be that the earlier commotion was them engaging in some kind of games?
d*mn it! I’m not even jealous of that pretty boy!
“Excuse me…”
Lu Yibei opened her mouth, but before she could finish her sentence, the muscular man wore a sheepish smile while apologizing and stepped backward.
“It’s nothing, I just came to visit!” he chuckled awkwardly.
He was furious but realized he couldn’t possibly take his anger out on such a delicate girl, could he?
One punch, and he’d probably be begging her not to d*e. The muscular man thought, silently criticizing the delicate boy living below for letting a girl take the heat for him, what a scumbag!
“Coming to visit in the middle of the night?” Lu Yibei tilted her head, her pinkish-white hair flowing like a waterfall down her emotionless face, her eyes filled with endless indifference.
For some reason, looking at Lu Yibei’s beautiful yet cold face made the muscular man feel flustered, and he stuttered, “I… I… I’m done! I’ll come back tomorrow morning!”
He left as if fleeing, his dog running even faster than he did.
“Bang—!”
Lu Yibei closed the door and leaned against the door, letting out a sigh of relief, and she couldn’t help but silently reflect.
Luckily, she met someone who was courteous to women and didn’t force his way in.
Otherwise, had he seen the bright red cinnabar strewn all over the floor, the shiny kitchen kn*fe on the table, or smelled the faint odor of what resembled rotting flesh in the air, who knows what kind of scenario he might have concocted?
It was time to consider setting up some kind of secret base; doing things like making charms in densely populated areas was indeed quite inconvenient.
Lost in thought, Lu Yibei noticed the blurred outline reflected on the living room window and instinctively pinched her face.
Speaking of which, she hadn’t expected her face to have such an effect; maybe next time when faced with danger, she could leverage this advantage, even if it was quite shameful, it was certainly better than being dead!
……
The sudden flame blackened the ceiling, and the matter generated by the explosion of silver sparks scattered across the floor like a downpour.
Lu Yibei approached, squatting down to examine the situation closely, her brow furrowing.
On the floor, beads of purplish-red liquid refracted a faint light, their form lying somewhere between metal and liquid.
“How could this happen? The urban legend core has turned the cinnabar back into mercury?”
Lu Yibei muttered, recalling the ancient alchemists who used cinnabar to refine elixirs, excitedly swallowing mercury and then dying on the spot.
After contemplating for a moment, she decided to attempt making charms using the purplish-red liquid beads.
She fetched a brush and half-finished charm, dipping the tip into a little bit of the liquid bead, slowly outlining the incantation’s characters.
The entire process continued calmly for about half an hour before Lu Yibei paused, quietly watching as a flowing azure light surfaced on the charm, followed shortly by a sharp pain in her palm.
“Thud—!” The pain caused Lu Yibei to release her hold, and the peach wood charm fell to the ground with a light sound.
Lu Yibei froze for a moment, suddenly coming to her senses.
It worked on the urban legend! Did it work?! I successfully created the Initial Spring Breeze Charm.
She joyfully looked toward the several dozen pieces of peach wood materials left on the table, her gaze deepening, soon immersing herself back into the process of making charms until night fell.
That night, unbeknownst to her, she crafted a total of sixty-eight enhanced collectible Initial Spring Breeze Charms.
After cleaning up the remaining materials, she stood up to stretch her muscles, her gaze casually sweeping over the kitchen kn*fe, and then her eyes suddenly brightened as if she remembered something, taking the kn*fe toward the corner where the Ming King statue stood.
Turning the Ming King statue upside down to reveal its flat base, she hesitated for a few seconds, then gently scraped with the kn*fe, accompanied by a sound that made her teeth ache, as ancient bronze dust trickled down.
No pain, no gain.
The hardness was much higher than that of the Ming King statue; the heirloom kitchen kn*fe was terrifyingly formidable?! Lu Yibei thought. It seemed she wouldn’t have to carry around that large and heavy iron lump, the Ming King statue, everywhere; two kitchen knives would be much more convenient.
