Chapter Eight: No, You Are Too Ugly!
Watching the driver uncle flee as if for his life, the surroundings fell into silence after a few seconds.
The sky showed no stars or moon, the clouds were low, and the deserted streets were shrouded in a thin mist, resembling the ominous approach of a storm.
Lu Yibei shrugged her shoulders, adjusted her posture, and changed the way she held the Ming King statue into a more manageable position for swinging.
Walking on the empty night streets, she quietly felt the slight easing of her hunger and couldn’t help but ponder.
It seemed she wasn’t as hungry as she had been earlier; could it be that the story she fabricated scared the driver uncle? Lu Yibei thought.
But as her mind shifted, she felt something was off; things might not be as straightforward as they appeared.
If merely scaring someone with a story could replenish spirit energy, then the driver uncle—constantly telling those kinds of stories in his car or hosting midnight urban legend radio shows—would have had an overwhelming abundance of spirit energy by now, right?
Otherwise, the driver uncle’s appearance might have been an act, and he was actually incredibly powerful! However, that possibility seemed unlikely.
“Coat, do you know what’s going on here?”
The coat shook lightly twice. Immediately, she heard a whisper beside her ear, “Abba abba,” without understanding what it meant.
“Hey—!” Lu Yibei sighed, “Forget it, I knew it wouldn’t be useful to ask you!”
It seemed her only option was to wait until tomorrow when Jiang Li was in class to probe indirectly, but figuring out how to ask without being discovered by her was a test of acting skills.
Upon thinking of Jiang Li’s class, she suddenly felt a bit of anticipation.
The coat shook again, as if rebutting Lu Yibei’s words. She frowned slightly, rubbed the sleeve of the coat to calm it down, then focused her attention, scanning her surroundings for traces of urban legends while walking forward.
Before the night became too long, Lijiang Avenue was a popular choice for many to take walks or jog after meals, with wide streets adorned with healthy running tracks and bike lanes, alongside kapok trees and gardenias planted on both sides. Benches for resting were placed every two hundred meters.
However, all of this had become completely abandoned. The benches were covered in thick layers of dust, and occasional mysterious stains marked their surfaces. The running tracks were littered with yellowed leaves and wilted flowers.
Lu Yibei walked along Lijiang Avenue, and after not going far, she suddenly felt something was off, halting in her tracks.
The surrounding mist had thickened at some point, the pale hue wrapping around them like a thin veil, visibility dropping to less than five meters.
The streetlights cast an indistinct yellow glow through the dense fog, and the road ahead quickly vanished into the mist. Turning to look behind, the path she had come down was already out of sight.
The mist thickened more, and a chilling river breeze blew through, carrying hints of mud and the stench of dead fish, as an illusory bubble floated into the air.
In the next moment.
“Splash—!” A distant sound reminiscent of fish leaping from water reached her ears.
Lu Yibei froze for a moment and turned towards the source of the sound, only to see a group of palm-sized pale fish, as white as bones, flying out from the river surface at an angle, stirring up murky water and tracing arcs in the air.
The fish swam in the air, their bodies swaying and emitting a sound akin to bones scraping against each other, plunging downward sharply towards the ground.
What she expected to be a collision didn’t occur; as the group of strange fish touched the ground, it seemed as though the ground liquefied, sending rippling layers that swallowed their figures.
“Eh?”
Is that the urban legend I’m looking for? Lu Yibei’s gaze sharpened, her small pink hand gripping the Ming King statue firmly as she stepped forward.
As she approached the place where the strange fish had vanished, she slowed her pace, probing cautiously, then crouched down to observe.
Her fingertips brushed over the ground, feeling a hard, cold sensation, with no sign of damage, as if the strange fish had never existed at all.
Gone?
Lu Yibei frowned. Just then, a distant sound of rapid footsteps drew near, obscured by the fog, making it impossible to see who was coming.
The Siye Society? Or another urban legend? Better find a place to hide and see what happens.
Thinking this, Lu Yibei scanned her surroundings, spotting a dense thicket. She stepped forward, crouched down, and her small figure was completely concealed by the bushes.
“Help—! Someone save me!” A desperate scream echoed from the other side of the fog.
Lu Yibei sensed something eerie approaching through the unseen mist, and the next moment, her eyes burned and dried; instinctively, she blinked, and amidst the flickering light and shadows, the fog and bubbles vanished, revealing a clearer scene before her.
Then she witnessed a delivery guy being chased by an urban legend.
The urban legend pursuing the delivery guy had a humanoid form, its body flowing with a grayish-white, putrid, viscous liquid, and stripes like a tiger on its back.
Bones protruded from its abdomen, exposed flesh appearing like a grayed, cratered brain, as if it had shed its “shell.”
Its figure was bloated as though it had been soaked, and its gait was comically awkward yet discomforting; with every step it took, its limbs twisted in unnatural ways as if its bones had been shattered.
It chased after the delivery guy, sometimes diving into the liquefied ground, only to be propelled back up by a swarm of strange fish, splattering nasty remnants of dead fish everywhere.
Some say the unknown is the most terrifying thing, but Lu Yibei felt that knowing too much wasn’t necessarily good either!
Her mindset hadn’t shifted from human to urban legend; feeling fear and disgust in the face of an urban legend was inevitable.
When she discovered what her hunting target was like, she hesitated.
However, in her moment of indecision, the delivery guy was exhausted and fell backward onto the ground.
At the moment the delivery guy fell, those strange fish split and morphed into a pale arm, locking onto his body and slowly dragging him underground.
“Someone… save me…”
The delivery guy weakly emitted his last wail, and for Lu Yibei, her heart felt like it had been squeezed by an invisible hand, and her pupils involuntarily contracted.
I must save him!
In this situation, you are the only one who can save him!
Hurry! Move! It’s not like you to stand by and do nothing, Lu Yibei!
A voice in her heart screamed out.
After taking several deep breaths, she clenched her little fist, finally managing to prepare herself to face that horrifying figure, when a familiar face appeared.
Chestnut hair, red scarf, overly developed figure…
It was Gu Qiqi.
Watching Gu Qiqi swing a bat and break the ground, then pull the delivery guy out with one hand, Lu Yibei’s hard-earned courage instantly deflated.
Hiss—!
Isn’t this the girl I knocked out last time? Is her combat power that terrifying?!
Now that the delivery guy was saved, should I… just head back?
No, no, no, wait and see, maybe they’ll end up severely injuring each other, and I can… hehe!
As long as I don’t hurt anyone, it won’t be a problem to take a little opportunity amidst chaos, right?
Just as Lu Yibei made the decision to become an opportunistic lurker, Gu Qiqi was suddenly dragged underground by that ugly, disgusting urban legend.
Lu Yibei, “……”
Can you not?! Hey!
Reciting a bunch of lines like a main character from an inspirational anime, and then getting taken out in an instant?
If I rush out to save her, will it turn into a scene like Gourd Kids saving their grandpa?
After a brief contemplation, Lu Yibei suddenly realized that the ugly urban legend had broken through the ground and was approaching the unconscious delivery guy.
Seeing this, her heart dropped, and she silently exclaimed, “Not good,” since this meant that silly girl had indeed given herself away!
What am I going to do now? Is it only…
Thinking this, Lu Yibei’s gaze sharpened, and without much thought, she gritted her teeth, tensed all her muscles, hoisted the Ming King statue, and dashed out.
“Gagaga—!”
The ugly urban legend emitted eerie laughter from its throat, a murky voice mixing with the cries of a baby.
It slowly approached the unconscious delivery guy, its bloated, rotting body trembling, dropping more dead fish remnants.
It reached out, its swollen fingertips touching the delivery guy’s face, as if scrutinizing a delicious meal, its wide mouth filled with fish-like teeth slightly opened, viscous liquid dripping to the ground and immediately rising in smoke.
Defeating some unknown, dim-witted figure, it prepared to further enjoy its prey when an ominous premonition unexpectedly surged within it.
It was a primal sensing of danger akin to a beast’s instinct; the next moment, a domineering, fiery, and somewhat glorious spirit energy fluctuation suddenly enveloped it.
Under this spirit energy fluctuation, it could feel every part of its body trembling with fear.
This feeling—could it be a spirit ability user!
It was stunned, jolting back to see a dazzling golden light filling its vision, accompanied by a chant of Buddhist sutras; through the gold, it vaguely saw a cold-blooded face.
In the next moment, a violent explosion occurred at the source of that golden light.
“Bang—!”
A loud sound reverberated through the midnight streets.
A mini mushroom cloud burst forth at the point where the urban legend’s head met the Ming King statue, and the force of the explosion tilted its body, lifting its feet off the ground and sending it flying sideways.
Upon landing, its skull was still smoking.
Lu Yibei had no idea that the Ming King statue would explode.
The powerful shockwave hit her; the hood was blown off, her hair flew back, and her feet left the ground. Her petite body spun in the air two or three times before crashing down.
Fortunately, the coat quickly absorbed the air like a pufferfish, cushioning the fall, so she wasn’t left dazed.
Lu Yibei bounced on the ground twice, smashing a kapok tree before finally coming to a halt.
“Pfft—!”
The coat slowly deflated. Sitting up, she looked at the struggling, groaning urban legend, paused for a moment, then looked at the Ming King statue in her hands and scratched the back of her head.
Wait a minute? What’s going on? What happened?
You may not believe it, but it was the Ming King statue that made the first move!
It was trying to absorb me! Clearly, it wasn’t a proper Ming King statue!
When Lu Yibei smashed the Ming King statue at that urban legend, she distinctly felt a massive suction force emanating from it.
That suction was like an invisible vortex, and a warm current was pulled from her body, flowing down her arms into the Ming King statue, and then…
It exploded.
After regaining her composure, Lu Yibei stood up, gazing at the struggling urban legend in the distance, her eyes flashing icy determination as she slung the Ming King statue over her shoulder and walked forward.
Given her personality, there was no way she would let this perfect opportunity for a final blow slip by. Even if she hadn’t killed it in one hit, she would ensure it received a complimentary cremation service to ease her mind.
The urban legend, weakly managing to rise, looked up and met Lu Yibei’s face, which bore not a hint of emotional fluctuation above her delicate features.
“Witch, please spare my life! I am willing to become your follower!” the urban legend pleaded in panic.
Follower? What on earth is that? Sounds like some kind of subordinate? Lu Yibei paused, realizing that having a dog-head strategist by her side wouldn’t be too bad, considering her current ignorance about urban legends.
However…
“No, you are too ugly.”
“To be honest, when I first saw you, I was scared; seeing you chase the delivery guy made me hesitate about whether to come out to save him. Fortunately, after hitting you just now, it seems you’re not that strong; otherwise, I wouldn’t have dared to come and finish you off.”
“If I let you follow me, I’d be worried every day, and besides, you harm others; that’s not something to easily forgive!”
The urban legend, “???” How did she manage to say so much in an instant without taking a breath?
That’s not the point!
d*mn! If you’re going to k*ll me, just k*ll me; why talk such rubbish? Is this what humans do?
“Power of strength, move mountains and fill seas!”
Just as Lu Yibei raised the Ming King statue to strike the urban legend, a muffled girlish shout vaguely echoed from behind, followed by the ground shaking violently as if an earthquake had struck.
Thunderous breathing resonated beneath the ground.
The tremors erupted, with soil and waves surging outwards in all directions.
Lu Yibei was taken aback, turning around to see a massive phantom of an arm rising from the ground like a mountain, its iron-colored skin emanating terrifying power from every sinew.
The phantom flashed by.
In the next moment, the ground exploded, dirt and stones flying as a slender figure shot into the sky.
“Demon, come to me!”
Lu Yibei, “???”
Is that addressing me?
The urban legend, “…”
It is referring to me…
