Chapter 125: Next Door to Old Wang
Nanling Yaohua introduced himself, and Lu Yibei instinctively wanted to state his own name, but then it seemed he suddenly remembered something, squinting his eyes and swallowing back the words he was about to say.
Nanling Yaohua? Isn’t that the name of a traditional Chinese medicine? Who would actually be named that? Is there even a surname Nanling in Z Country?
Tch, I’m afraid I’ve run into a scammer! This kind of married woman really doesn’t match my fate!
When Lu Yibei thought back to the naive days when he was online chatting with a married sister named Xingcun Xiaozhong, thinking he was in love.
In the end, he was tricked into spending a fortune on twenty pounds of dubious Wuyi Dahongpao, and he almost got beaten to d*ath by his father, feeling a faint pain in his rear.
Seeing that Lu Yibei had been silent for a long time, as if wanting to remind him, Nanling Yaohua added, “By the way, I live on this street.”
Lu Yibei glanced at the girl next to him, cupped his hands in a serious manner, and said, “So it’s Miss Yaohua, my apologies. I am Wang Buliu, eighteen years old and unmarried! You can just call me Old Wang; I live right next door.”
Old Wang next door? Isn’t that the nemesis of married women!? Should I be afraid of you?
She didn’t even plan to tell me her real name; why should I tell her mine? Lu Yibei thought.
Wang Buliu? Isn’t that also a Chinese medicine… After hearing Lu Yibei’s self-introduction, Nanling Yaohua was stunned for a few seconds, then suddenly had an epiphany, thinking that the other party probably misunderstood and made up a name of traditional medicine as his own.
But what does it matter? I, Nanling Yaohua, am making friends with people, not with names!
Names are just codes; he can be called Wang Buliu or anything like Honghua Longdan, even if it’s Dogdan, Tiegen, or Ermazi, it doesn’t really matter.
Thinking this, Nanling Yaohua returned the gesture with a cupped hand, saying, “Good name, Brother Wang! However, I noticed your brow is dark; your luck hasn’t been too good recently, has it?”
Lu Yibei, “……” This sounds familiar! It’s a bit like the lines from the blind fortune teller at the entrance of Mudan Street! Is she about to start scamming? Sister, aren’t you a bit too anxious?
With such inexperienced skills, she’s out here conning; she must be a newbie? Lu Yibei thought.
At the moment Lu Yibei climbed up the tower, Nanling Yaohua had already noticed the extremely weak spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from him, a sensation similar to being entangled in an urban legend.
Now that she was closer, she could feel even more abnormalities on Lu Yibei.
“Or… is he being entangled by something strange?”
As she spoke, her gaze swept over Lu Yibei’s coat, and a meaningful smile appeared on her lips.
Originally clear as water, her eyes suddenly became sharp, and, under her exquisite manipulation, the terrifying spiritual energy fluctuations gathered into invisible large hands that gently brushed against Lu Yibei’s coat.
At the moment the hands of gathered spiritual energy touched the coat, a look of surprise flickered in Nanling Yaohua’s eyes. She didn’t expect that Lu Yibei’s coat would actually be an urban legend.
After all…
The spiritual energy fluctuations of the coat were too weak, so weak that she momentarily doubted it was a remnant of Lu Yibei’s energy after being entangled by an urban legend.
However, her unintentional move frightened Lu Yibei’s coat, and it suddenly floated up, “Whoosh,” and flew out far away.
Seeing this, Lu Yibei’s expression changed slightly; he took two or three steps to catch up with his coat, guarding it behind him, warily staring at Nanling Yaohua, “Wh-what are you doing?! Don’t you mess around!”
As he spoke, he made eye contact with Nanling Yaohua, feeling a tightness in his chest. That gaze was too frightening, like a sword drawn from its sheath, carrying an inexplicable forceful intensity and oppressive feeling.
It made Lu Yibei doubt that she would next shout some strange lines like “Great Might Tianlong” and attack him.
“Brother Wang misunderstood.” Nanling Yaohua was momentarily stunned; the cold sharpness in her eyes disappeared instantly, returning to its previous gentleness, “I did not intend to attack your little companion. If…”
“Wait, let me think about what my master said in the booklet.” Nanling Yaohua scratched the back of her head, then looked at Lu Yibei and nodded firmly.
“By the way, my master said that when people from the city encounter such situations, they usually say, if there’s any offense, you come and hit me!”
Lu Yibei, “……” What kind of terrible master is that? He probably wishes you dead sooner!
Seeing that Lu Yibei’s expression was a bit abnormal, Nanling Yaohua tilted her head and asked, “Is something wrong?”
“Not at all! It’s really good!” Lu Yibei said expressionlessly, “But I still want to remind you to be careful of your master.”
That person has a big issue; he might just want to play you to d*ath! Lu Yibei silently supplemented in his heart.
“Is that so? I think so too, so I didn’t completely trust what my master said.” Nanling Yaohua smiled, “Seeing your reaction, I should have struck that tip off the booklet.”
Not particularly foolish? Lu Yibei shrugged noncommittally.
“Speaking of which.” Nanling Yaohua shifted her tone, looking at the coat floating behind Lu Yibei, “Is that coat of yours… really okay?”
“It’s fine! In this day and age, which household doesn’t raise a couple of urban legends! For us city folks, every family raises urban legends like pets; it’d be embarrassing not to raise them.” Lu Yibei blurted out.
Every family raises urban legends? Nanling Yaohua smiled meaningfully; she didn’t believe what Lu Yibei said.
In the past few days, she had almost toured the central area of Huacheng, and the number of urban legends encountered had been quite few.
However, she did not plan to expose the boy in front of her. After all this time, she still hadn’t found Lu Yibei, and she felt it was time to use some external force.
But, since she was a child, Master Lu and her grandfather had told her to avoid contact with people from the Siye Society, so she didn’t plan to rely on their power.
Thus, when she had several encounters with Du Sixian before, despite feeling a familiar aura on her, she didn’t request help from her.
This Wang Buliu was different; people who raise little ghosts belong to the crooked path and couldn’t possibly join the Siye Society, likely just a spiritually aware free user.
And raising little ghosts, while it can be considered the most superficial use of spiritual energy among spiritual ability users, is among the lowest existences on the peerage chain of spiritual ability users.
However, after coming to Huacheng, aside from the members of the Siye Society, she hadn’t encountered many spiritual ability users; she couldn’t let Wang Buliu slip away.
“By the way, Brother Wang… eh, where did he go?” Nanling Yaohua pondered, opening her mouth, ready to say something to Lu Yibei, but to her surprise, she found he had vanished without a trace.
Feeling around with her spiritual energy, she realized that Lu Yibei had climbed down the tower and was quickly rushing out of Mudan Street.
“Brother Wang! You…”
Nanling Yaohua called out softly, just as Lu Yibei waved his hand and interrupted loudly.
“I suddenly remembered that I left the gas on at home, so I’m leaving now. Let’s meet again under the green hills and flowing waters! Bye-bye!”
After Lu Yibei shouted this, his expression darkened slightly.
d*mn it, how did I run into such a distressing matter on the tower? With all this back and forth, day is almost gone!
If I hadn’t discovered it early, when night fell, I would have started transforming into an urban legend, and I would definitely have been spotted by the Siye Society!
Even if I wasn’t discovered by the Siye Society, I couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t be beaten to d*ath by that married woman; she saw the problem on me at one glance and should be very strong, Lu Yibei thought.
Watching Lu Yibei’s departing figure, Nanling Yaohua had no intention of chasing after him.
According to Master Bai, when dealing with spiritual ability users from the outside, one should keep a little caution, leaving behind a mark or aura is very necessary.
So, just now when she had brushed her hands of gathered spiritual energy over Lu Yibei’s coat, she had left a trace of aura to track him down whenever she wanted.
“That’s fine; asking someone for help outright can feel somewhat abrupt, but…”
As long as she tracked his aura and observed him from time to time, waiting for a moment of danger to assist him, he would owe her a favor and would have a hard time rejecting it.
Anyway, looking at his face, he will most likely encounter some issues lately, Nanling Yaohua thought.
What if he resolves things by himself…
Then it would have to be like Master Lu said.
If you want someone to help you, make him owe you a favor. If there’s no opportunity, create one so he will owe you; as for how to create the opportunity…
Please refer to pages seventy-two to eighty-five of “The Guide to Traveling in the Jianghu for Xiaohua”— “Ten Common Ways to Disguise m*rder as an Accident.”
Nanling Yaohua had read that little booklet compiled by those two old hands countless times.
Although after leaving the desert, she had discovered many mistakes in the booklet on her way to Huacheng.
However, the content from pages seventy-two to eighty-five was still well written, and she felt it wouldn’t be difficult to operate.
…
On the way from the tower to Master Chang’s shop, Lu Yibei couldn’t shake the feeling that something was cold behind him, reminiscent of when Zhu Linglong had been watching him, making him unconsciously quicken his pace.
After picking up the modified playing card g*n from Master Chang, he didn’t linger, dropping off the cash he had prepared in advance, and hurried toward a remote corner of University City.
That place was a construction site halted due to urban legend incidents, and it was where he had been trying to survive the transformation into an urban legend lately.
That unsettling, chilling aura persisted until he entered the scope of University City, gradually dissipating, allowing him to boldly sneak into the still unfinished building, looking for a hidden corner, undressing completely and waiting for sunset.
Once the sky was completely dark, when Lu Yibei slipped out of the unfinished building again, he had already completed his transformation into an urban legend and changed into a magical girl outfit…
“d*mn! Who told you to turn into this? Even if you turned into a girl, I still want to wear it! Hurry up and change back!”
Lu Yibei yelled, and the jacket of the magical girl outfit felt aggrieved for a moment before it squirmed against his skin, and in the blink of an eye, a flash of light appeared, changing back to its original form…
No, wait, why are the knee socks and little shoes still there? This… actually works?! Lu Yibei thought. Running around with bare legs and feet is quite uncomfortable.
However…
“Can the knee socks be changed? I’m not used to them.”
After waiting a few seconds, the coat seemed to understand Lu Yibei’s intention, wriggling for a moment and replacing the knee socks with little white socks with lace trimmings.
Lu Yibei, “……” I don’t even have that style of socks at home! Where did it learn that? It couldn’t have stolen the neighbor’s clothes, could it?
“Change back…”
After speaking, Lu Yibei felt something was off.
Wait a minute; didn’t I forget to say no socks as an option?
As he thought about this and was about to let the coat remove the socks, he suddenly realized that during the process of the coat changing back from lace little white socks to knee-high black socks, it hadn’t had enough energy to eliminate the lace trimming, and thus…
It ended up as knee-high black socks with lace trimming.
Lu Yibei, “……” Why do I suddenly feel a bit hesitant to continue messing with this?
If it ends up turning into some lace-patterned net stockings, wouldn’t that be terrible?
Let’s just leave it for today? Wait for the coat to regain its energy and clear its head before proceeding.
…
When Lu Yibei arrived at the main path of Gate Four, night had completely fallen.
The sky didn’t know when it had gathered dark clouds, obscuring the moonlight.
On the concrete surface of the main path in Gate Four, a chilling atmosphere enveloped the area, with weeds growing to waist height on both sides, casting shadows.
The surroundings were quiet, without a sound at all, only the wind blowing through the tangled tree branches producing a kind of whimpering sound.
As the storm approached, she stood on this desolate road, waiting for a long time yet not seeing the appearance of the Decapitated Senior, an inexplicable sense of unease began to creep into her heart.
Deciding to set her guitar bag down on the ground, she took out the modified playing card g*n.
The playing card g*n could load a maximum of ten talismans at a time, so she loaded ten.
After securing the talismans, she took out the most convenient hidden carved kn*fe from the ancestral kitchen kn*fe set and concealed it in her wide sleeve.
Finally, she placed the Ming King Statue in an accessible position, which made her feel somewhat reassured.
After waiting a bit longer, her unease grew stronger, just as Lu Yibei was calculating whether the Decapitated Senior encountered something that delayed their meeting, ahead suddenly thick fog arose.
Then, a piercingly cold wind swept in and a bl**d-soaked figure, accompanied by a nauseating smell, rapidly pounced toward her.
Seeing this, Lu Yibei’s heart tensed, and he raised the playing card g*n in his hand to sh**t at the bloody figure, but at the moment he pulled the trigger, he saw that the bloody figure fell right in front of her, its head separating from its body and rolling away for a long distance.
Is it the Decapitated Senior? Lu Yibei frowned. What the hell is she trying to pull in such a state? It’s quite scary!
As she was thinking this, she suddenly heard a weak voice from the Decapitated Senior’s head next to her, and her mood instantly plummeted.
“Run, run fast…”
