Chapter 79: I asked you to imitate, not to surpass!
Jumeng took less than twenty minutes to interpret the special written content that Professor Ma had struggled with for a long time.
At this moment, Luxianbei couldn’t help but sigh in her heart; indeed, human capabilities have their limits.
The elegant small seal script was transcribed onto more than half a page. After carefully reviewing the content, Jumeng let out a long sigh of relief.
Seeing her put down the sheet of paper, Luxianbei was about to reach for it, but noticed her pouting and rolling her eyes, saying, “The first half doesn’t contain anything useful. I didn’t write the second half.”
“Hmm?” Luxianbei tilted her head and looked at Jumeng, confused. “Why not write it?”
“Too many words, troublesome,” Jumeng said seriously.
Luxianbei, “……”
“You can just ask me what you want to know!” Jumeng pointed to a segment of text on the paper and said, “Come, look here.”
How do I know you won’t trick me? Luxianbei silently complained and still looked at the place Jumeng pointed to.
“This is the latest date mentioned; they indeed found the so-called deity in the so-called Mangshan, but I think that deity seems a bit off.”
“It says, ‘Many soldiers sensed the arrival of the deity but couldn’t describe Its appearance. I felt It too; It is formless and nameless, like a god guarding the celestial laws, and like a ghost wandering in the deep mountains.’”
Jumeng’s slender fingers continued sliding down to the last line, “Here it says, ‘We finally arrived at Mangshan. I’m not sure whether we found It or It found us, but I feel that we can’t go back.’”
Hearing this, Luxianbei frowned. Although the content translated by Jumeng was relatively bland, he vaguely sensed the anxiety and unease of the person who wrote the text.
Maybe that deity they encountered is the root cause of the series of urban legend events surrounding Professor Ma? Luxianbei thought.
While Luxianbei was deep in thought, Jumeng reached out and said, “After this, there are no useful contents left. I can’t guess what happened next. Didn’t you say you didn’t remember all the content from the bamboo slips?”
Listening to the discussion between Luxianbei and Jumeng, the various urban legends in the apartment huddled together in a corner, whispering.
“Revealing their own mysteries drives humans into madness, isn’t that a method some high-level urban legends use for hunting? Why do they say it’s a deity?”
“A deity is just a high-level urban legend, right? If you ask me, those ancient humans mostly died for nothing; who knows if they became followers or were eaten.”
“I don’t know what they are discussing this for. Are they preparing to hunt a deity? That’s too… well, whatever, let the immortals fight; we just need to watch.”
Luxianbei glanced at the urban legends in the corner, pondered for a few seconds, and quietly looked at Jumeng’s serious little face.
Noticing the same gaze from Luxianbei, Jumeng froze for a moment, then seemed to understand something. She crossed her arms and said indignantly, “Why are you looking at me like that? I’m different from those mixed-up petty spirits!”
“I am a proper deity who benefits one side, and I have always been willing to attract followers; I wouldn’t engage in those weird rituals to tempt mortals to become my believers.”
“Attract?” Luxianbei squinted his eyes, sizing up Jumeng.
“Hey!” Jumeng glared at Luxianbei and pouted, “Your focus is really strange! Forget it, I can’t be bothered to explain. When you get the chance to go to the Peach Source in the future, you’ll know how respected I am!”
Luxianbei stared at Jumeng for a few seconds, then reluctantly averted his gaze, expressionless. “Since we can’t tell anything, let’s just set it aside for now. I’ll remember some content when I go back to school tomorrow; we should have some new discoveries then.”
“By the way, are you still hungry? Do you want me to cook something for you?”
“No need, I can’t get used to human food,” Jumeng replied disdainfully, avoiding Luxianbei’s eyes.
“Then I’ll go rest first.” Luxianbei shrugged.
“Go ahead, go ahead!” Jumeng waved her hand as if she couldn’t wait for Luxianbei to leave.
“Mm.” Luxianbei responded, stretched, and went upstairs. Soon, the entire living room fell silent.
In the darkness, Jumeng sat cross-legged on the sofa, her big eyes darting left and right. Suddenly, she pulled out a duck neck from who knows where and started nibbling on it.
Before long, a faint sound of the girl’s silver bell-like laughter and the soft crunching of the duck neck echoed in the dark.
“Eh heh heh! EMMM… EMMM…”
Suddenly, Jumeng seemed to recall something, narrowed her eyes, looked at the urban legends huddled in the corner, and threatened in a low voice, “You are not allowed to tell him about me hiding snacks!”
“Got it, got it!” The urban legends responded as if granted a reprieve.
It’s just hiding a secret, we thought you were going to use us to get duck neck!
……
Luxianbei lay in bed, drowsily about to fall asleep when suddenly, he heard Du Sixian’s voice. He silently cursed that it was bad news but couldn’t resist the pull of sleep, causing his head to droop and fall asleep.
In a deep sleep, Luxianbei felt as if he had sunk into the deep sea, constantly sinking, and when the cold sensation reached his toes, he opened his eyes, and indeed saw that familiar rooftop.
Looking up, dark red mist lingered in the decayed and toppled city, and faintly, a disturbing whisper came from the corners of the city.
Amidst those whispers, Du Sixian’s voice was particularly clear, occasionally chanting a strange phrase, and at other times, shouting excitedly.
“Desolate wasteland, grass, bones, stir the winds of sparks, strike the spell thrice, red flame, flash!”
“Come on, this time I will definitely succeed!”
“Desolate wasteland, grass, bones…”
“Ah—!” Luxianbei sat cross-legged on the ground and sighed helplessly.
What was inevitable had come. She thought Du Sixian would be quiet for a few days but didn’t expect she wouldn’t give up so easily!
But now it seemed she was too naïve; Du Sixian would not let her off so easily.
“d*mn Du Sixian, I want to see what kind of trick you are trying to pull this time!”
Luxianbei thought as he got up and walked to the edge of the rooftop, tiptoeing and peeking out in the direction of Du Sixian’s voice.
When she first stood at the edge of the rooftop, all she could see was a vast expanse of mist and the outline of decaying buildings. However, at the moment when the thought “let me see where Du Sixian is” emerged in her mind, something strange happened.
Suddenly, her eyes felt a heat surge, stimulating her tear glands, causing tears to flow, and in an instant, the front became a mist of water. Then, the mist began to dissipate, everything became clear, and her vision pierced through the fog as if a cloud had lifted, crossing distant time and space, landing on a devastated street.
Luxianbei saw Du Sixian, saw her repeatedly obsessively chanting the spell, saw her fingertips glowing with faint light again and again.
……
“Desolate wasteland, grass, bones, stir the winds of sparks, strike the spell thrice, red flame, flash!”
This was the umpteenth time Du Sixian had chanted the spell, with fluid recitation and standard movements, so skilled it was heartbreaking.
At the moment her voice fell, she could feel the spirit energy gathering towards her fingertips, then with a light ‘whoosh,’ a crimson flame formed at her fingertips, quickly leaping to over half a meter high, swaying in the air for a few seconds before slowly dissipating.
She stared dumbfounded at the place where the flame had just been, her expression gradually transforming from confusion to surprise, and finally she couldn’t help but shout excitedly.
“I did it! I finally did it, I learned my first spell formula!”
As Du Sixian cheered for successfully learning her first spell formula, Luxianbei, who was secretly observing, was completely speechless and didn’t know where to start.
Luxianbei, “……”
What the hell is this? She’s practicing spell formulas in my dream? This is getting more and more excessive! Has she even considered the feelings of the person involved?
Everyone, let’s reason this out. Since she has done such an excessive thing to me, isn’t it reasonable and natural for me to steal a bit of her spell formula in return?
No, this isn’t stealing; this is called reciprocity! Internet cafes charge five dollars an hour; is it unreasonable for me to collect a bit of payment for her messing around in my dream?
Thinking this, as Du Sixian began to practice the spell formula again, Luxianbei focused his attention and almost perfectly synchronized his movements, whispering the incantation along with Du Sixian.
“Desolate wasteland, grass, bones…”
“Desolate wasteland, grass, bones…”
Halfway through reciting the spell, a moment of daze occurred in Luxianbei’s consciousness, and the words on his lips suddenly changed.
“…stir the winds of sparks, ignite the rhinoceros and illuminate, perceive the calamity, crimson brilliance!”
As Luxianbei’s words fell, the air around him suddenly shook violently, and the spirit energy quickly gathered at his fingertips, condensing into a point of red light.
After a brief silence, as that point of red light expanded, a deafening bang echoed above the decayed city.
“Boom——!”
Red flames bloomed from Luxianbei’s fingertips like a blooming rose, the terrifying heat swept through the air, and the smell of burning filled the atmosphere; evaporating mist surrounded him, looking like a ferocious fire dragon dancing amidst the dark mist, forcefully tearing a gap apart.
The fire light illuminated her cheeks a bright red, and in a dazed moment, it felt as if another soul resided beneath her shell, looking down upon Du Sixian with a mocking smile.
Quickly, the smile on her face faded, fatigue surged like a tide, and Luxianbei’s consciousness regained clarity, her facial expression stiffened like rock as she looked at the extraordinary scene ahead, completely bewildered.
What the heck? What just happened? What did I just do?
Noticing Du Sixian cast her gaze this way, Luxianbei hurriedly shrank her head and crouched down, hiding beneath the guardrail of the rooftop.
d*mn it, what is Luxianbei doing? I told you to imitate, but not to surpass!
What to do now? I don’t even know if Du Sixian saw me; she is a member of the Siye Society now.
If she saw me, I wonder if she would report me to her superiors?
Luxianbei was frantically thinking when Du Sixian looked up at the high-rise that seemed to stand in the clouds, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully…
