Chapter 59: Clue of the Gamble
Lu Yibei felt that he might have a bit of a masochistic tendency.
Rarely had he the chance to steal half a day’s leisure, yet he felt somewhat uneasy.
It wasn’t that he truly had any special feelings for Jumeng.
It was just that not long ago, his home had gained a “person” who was always making noise, and now suddenly it was quiet again, much like when his eyes had just regained light after returning home.
Staying alone at home, with nothing to do, Lu Yibei decided to study the gains from his journey to find the ancient sword.
He emptied the contents of his guitar bag onto the living room floor, sorted through them, and then realized that he had actually stolen more than a dozen spirit energy items from Li Tanghan’s collection room.
Each of those spirit energy items looked terrible and had poor utility; after trying them out, they didn’t reach the level of effectiveness Li Tanghan’s assistant had boasted about.
According to the evaluation standards of spirit energy items found in “The Book of Siye,” they were all subpar grade D spirit energy items.
The only thing that was somewhat useful was half a pack of classic packaged Wei Long spicy strips.
It could satisfy cravings, but only just that.
Every half hour, refreshing one spicy strip until the pack was back to half-full, brutally crushed Lu Yibei’s dreams of becoming rich by selling spicy strips.
“Anything casually given away really has no good stuff in it!”
Looting a second-hand furniture recycling station and still expecting to receive treasures was no different from dreaming.
If only those spirit energy items could be used to enhance and strengthen one another like those trashy pay-to-play mobile games, Lu Yibei thought.
He had tried feeding these spirit energy items to the Ming King statue, just like when he had offered things to the statue before, even burning two sticks of incense, but the Ming King statue showed no response at all.
He didn’t know if it was because his method of opening them was incorrect, or if those spirit energy items were simply too inferior for its taste.
As for Ling Tai Purification.
Qing Ji would occasionally make noises from within, so before nightfall turned into strange tales, Lu Yibei dared not take out the “Two-in-One Classic Collection Power-Up Version Ancestral Kitchen kn*fe.”
After counting the spirit energy items, Lu Yibei found a woven bag, stuffed those spirit energy items into it like potatoes, and tossed it into a corner of the room. Only then did he start studying his most valuable gain from last night—”Taihe Gentleman Sword Illustration” and the correct use of his affiliated entity.
During the time he had spent with Jumeng, Lu Yibei often heard her talk about how wonderful her affiliated entity from the Peach Source was. Coupled with Du Sixian appearing in his dreams from time to time, practicing spell formulas in a buggy scene.
At one point, Lu Yibei nearly believed that the significance of the strange tales’ affiliated entities truly matched the definition in the “Modern Chinese Dictionary” as “household, relatives, also refers to spouses.”
But it turns out he had overthought it.
According to the “Affiliated Entity User’s Guide” provided by the mysterious girl, it was definitely a sinkhole.
Aside from transferring consciousness for information storage, there were also memory sharing, spirit energy sharing, short-term ability sharing, and even life sharing and body snatching methods that could greatly enhance both parties’ strengths.
However…
Although this sharing was mutual, where the strange tale could borrow from the affiliated entity, the control over when and how to use that power belonged to the strange tale.
Affiliated entities were practically just tools.
If they encountered a malicious owner, they would definitely be tricked until nothing remained.
Fortunately, I’m not that malicious, and Du Sixian doesn’t need to worry about me scheming to harm her; I’ll just treat her as a moving hard drive and data processor. Lu Yibei thought.
Having learned the proper method of using affiliated entities, Lu Yibei already thought of a reasonable plan for the unique utilization of the affiliated entity.
He just needed to try it out more officially, going through waves of beta testing, internal testing, and technical testing.
After all, he had to ensure that his plan wouldn’t cause any harm to Du Sixian.
Thinking of this, Lu Yibei let out a sinister laugh, “Sister Sixian, next time you come into my dream, be prepared to face the storm!”
After researching the use of affiliated entities, Lu Yibei changed into sportswear, slipped on a pair of sneakers, stepped out of the house, and headed alone to the rooftop.
He planned to attempt practicing what he had learned from “Taihe Gentleman Sword Illustration.”
On the rooftop of Building Three, Phase Three of Jingyi Apartment Complex.
Amidst the warm sunlight and cool autumn wind, Lu Yibei stood with his feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, eyes closed, and his mind repeatedly recalled the movements demonstrated by Qing Ji.
After a long while, he suddenly opened one eye, his gaze sharp as lightning, and pushed off with his feet.
“Bang——!”
With a dull thud as air cracked, the soles of his sneakers deformed, and beneath the torn pant legs, muscles like rippling waves manifested, transmitting pure and intricate force to his feet.
In an instant, he jumped from the center of the rooftop to the edge railing.
The next moment.
“Hiss—Ah—! It hurts, it hurts!”
He cried out in pain, clutching his calf as he fell to the ground.
It was as if he had fast-forwarded from the confident state of a truly sedentary person jogging for the first time to injuring a muscle after just a minute of running.
What the ancestor said is true! Normal people really can’t bear this.
Although he hadn’t turned into a strange tale, this was already a body enhanced by spirit energy, and it hurt this much, as if his legs were about to twist into a pretzel.
It seems I can only wait until I turn into a strange tale before trying again; if it really doesn’t work, I’ll just teach Du Sixian so she can practice before I share with her. Lu Yibei thought.
He had watched Qing Ji demonstrate the Tai Chi Chaos over ten times, and he had even memorized the spirit patterns description “Taiji Hunyuan.”
However, while the swordsmanship was good, he had no clue where to start with the palm techniques.
First off, there was a very serious issue.
He wasn’t a gentleman; he was fundamentally at odds with the swordsmanship.
However, Lu Yibei wasn’t worried about not being able to practice the swordsmanship for the time being; he wasn’t too interested anyway, as there were other things he could learn.
Such as the accompanying movement techniques of the swordsmanship and the special methods that produced winds and clouds around him using spirit energy for defense.
Both of these, Lu Yibei found quite interesting, especially the former.
He had noticed during the first watch of Qing Ji’s demonstration that his movement trajectory in mid-air was very special.
In the whistling winds, the explosive force hidden within Qing Ji’s limbs erupted, and Lu Yibei heard a series of cracking sounds.
However, what puzzled Lu Yibei was that Qing Ji did not show any signs of his body being covered by spirit patterns.
Among the visuals of spirit ability users fighting he had gleaned from the Great Serpent God’s knowledge, achieving similar effects typically involved full-body coverage by spirit patterns.
In other words, this might be the first time the Great Serpent God “saw” someone rely solely on pure muscle power assisted by intricate spirit energy usage to reach a nearly miraculous level of spirit patterns effects.
Humans have over 600 muscles in their bodies.
If he could apply Qing Ji’s abilities to each critical muscle and arrange them according to situational needs, he could execute various strategies: attack, evade, probe, defend, and strong breakthroughs, etc.
However, even if it appeared to be footwork, it actually involved coordinating an entire muscle group and dozens of different spirit energy applications; learning it wouldn’t be simple.
According to Qing Ji, when he was learning from his masters, he would almost get a ligament strain once a day and a muscle tear every three days.
Lu Yibei wasn’t like the adolescent Qing Ji, who followed every instruction from his masters without question, but rather he was timid and afraid of pain; he was merely scratching the surface after watching Qing Ji demonstrate a few times.
Some rudiments of defense, evasion, and defensive techniques.
It seemed as if he had an extraordinary talent in learning survival skills.
If this keeps developing, am I going to end up as a bl**d cow character?
The type that gets the most hits while wearing the last armor.
With a cold sweat running down his face, Lu Yibei sat up, gritting his teeth and rubbing his calf that felt as if it had been pulled, anxiously thinking.
Soon, he concluded the hasty beginning and likewise hasty ending of his maneuvering practice, nestling in a corner of the rooftop, sipping on a chilled sugary drink, and starting to study the last piece of his gains from last night.
That chip made of fine materials, with its peculiar shape.
As the wind brushed against Lu Yibei’s temple, sweat evaporated in the cool air, but the chip between his fingers felt even colder.
In Z Country, except for certain special administrative regions, the existence of casinos is illegal; even if there are underground casinos, their scale wouldn’t be very large.
Those kinds of black casinos, which cannot stand the light of day, certainly wouldn’t waste human resources to custom-make chips with distinctive shapes and recognizability.
Moreover, the chip marked with the number “10” is typically the smallest denomination you can exchange in a casino.
Even among many top-tier casinos, the small denomination chips are made of resin materials.
After searching online for chip styles from casinos around the world, Lu Yibei found that none had chips similar to this one.
“Then the only clue left is the pattern on the back?” Lu Yibei propped his chin with one hand, examining the design on the back of the chip, muttering to himself.
It was a heptagram shape with finely engraved lines that were difficult to see clearly to the n*ked eye; the six points of the star bore dense chaotic lines, an aesthetic of confusion and strange beauty, while one point stood blank.
“The heptagram…”
Lu Yibei muttered quietly, picking up his phone to search for information about the heptagram.
After briefly reviewing some online information, he furrowed his brows.
There are various opinions regarding the “heptagram.” Some say that those who draw a perfect heptagram may see Archangel Michael, others say they see Lucifer, the demon lord of Hell, and some claim to have witnessed the Tree of Life in Heaven, the golden city beneath the sea, and even some who say they have seen the end times.
“What angels, demons, golden cities… Aren’t they all just strange tales?”
“That guy Qin Dalin must be out of his mind, gambling with strange tales must have more tricks than online gambling! How could he possibly win?” Lu Yibei murmured.
The deeper he delved into the world of strange tales and spirit ability users, the more he felt his disbelief in the existence of gods and demons amplified.
Of course, disbelief aside, he still had to fear the things that should be feared…
“These things feel ominous. If I had known, I wouldn’t have picked them up randomly. Should I…”
Lu Yibei thought of Mr. Rabbit, the culprit of his tragic encounters over the past few months, and upon seeing the chip in his hand, suddenly felt an urge to slap himself.
“No, no, tossing or burning Mr. Rabbit’s advertising flyers could bring them back, but this thing, compared to a flyer, is clearly made with effort and cost, it should be harder to just throw away.”
“Still, I should send it to the Siye Society to handle.”
Reporting this sort of thing was too familiar to him.
Saying this, Lu Yibei took a photo of the chip with his phone and sent it to Jiang Li’s official account.
Lu Yibei: “Boss, I found a little trinket while wandering around school today; it has weak spirit energy fluctuations. Should I send it to you for a look? [image][image]”
After a pause, he added another message.
Lu Yibei: “You should be in the office, right?”
————
Lu Yibei hadn’t returned to Happy Neighborhood yet, while Jiang Li sat alone on a bench near the main road of the neighborhood, observing the passing residents, trying to find clues about the unusual happenings in this area.
The weather was beautiful today, the sun was bright, and the sky was very blue; on such a day, even enemies would temporarily set aside their hatred.
The residents coming and going were as friendly as usual, offering warm greetings when they met on the road; couples walking together looked very loving, and mothers holding children looked very warm. Even the office workers heading home alone looked confident about life.
If only this scene wasn’t produced under the influence of strange tales, Jiang Li thought.
She had experienced agonizing pain that felt like hell, but she didn’t hate this world. On the contrary, one of her favorite things was to see others happy.
Just as she reveled in this false and fleeting happiness, her phone suddenly vibrated gently. Taking out her phone to check, it was a message from Lu Yibei.
What’s this guy suddenly messaging me from this number?
Has the act of playing Wang Buliu grown old, and is he looking for a change of pace?
Jiang Li grumbled in her mind, opening the message to take a look, her expression changing dramatically, her slender palms tightening, the joints turning pale from the force.
The world before her suddenly took on a bloody hue, and her heart raced uncontrollably.
After a long time, she slowly relaxed her grip and sent a reply to Lu Yibei.
Jiang Li: “I’m not there. Wait for me at the water bar near your home, alright? See you in half an hour.”
After replying to the message, Jiang Li put away her phone and walked ominously toward the exit of Happy Neighborhood, emitting a terrifying aura that even the residents passing by didn’t dare to greet her.
After searching for so long, the clue to the gamble finally appeared…
(Today’s update is slightly short, but just a little bit less!)
