Chapter 37: Split Up and Act
In the evening, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Huacheng, in a quaint Hunan cuisine restaurant.
Jumeng sat by the window, her arms crossed over her chest, pouting as she gazed outside, seemingly sulking over something.
Today has really infuriated her!
Following Luxianbei to the Old Building of the College of Arts and Literature at Tangcheng University, the urban legends sealed within the cultural relics didn’t swallow up many, which was fine. As long as she wasn’t caught by the thieves attacking Peach Source, she wouldn’t be too anxious. However, being treated like a child really irked her.
What was even more frustrating was that after Luxianbei left with that girl who seemed to be an insider, there had been no news for seven or eight hours—she had no idea what he was doing.
I bet he doesn’t even care about me!
Although she had concealed quite a bit from him while helping to look for the kimchi jar, he still shouldn’t just abandon her!
She didn’t intend to harm him; the ally’s mark could attest to that!
Thinking of the ally’s mark, Jumeng’s gaze dimmed a bit as she sighed silently.
Leading the suspected insider away and then losing contact was indeed quite worrisome.
If it weren’t for the intact ally’s mark on the back of her hand, she would have been ready to unilaterally announce that Luxianbei was dead and prepare him a funeral.
That’s right, as the only belief of the citizens of Peach Source, Jumeng not only officiated weddings during her time in Peach Source but sometimes also conducted funerals, where she would not only act as the host but also played the suona exceptionally well; she was quite versatile.
When Professor Ma returned after ordering, he saw Jumeng’s glum expression and said with a smile, “Liu Xiaoyou, still thinking about Luxianbei?”
“Hmph!” Jumeng huffed through her delicate nose, saying, “I hope he dies out there!”
“Eh——!” Professor Ma waved his hand and said, “You shouldn’t say such things as a young girl.”
Pausing, he observed Jumeng’s expression and said with a smile, “Liu Xiaoyou, I know you like Luxianbei; I can tell.”
“But you’re still a child and don’t understand adult feelings. Your kind of ‘like’ is different from love. Hmm, it’s more complicated to explain, and what you’re feeling might be called dependence.”
Love is a natural trait of humans, and since children are humans too, Professor Ma felt that this topic shouldn’t be avoided in front of them. Proper and correct guidance would help them establish a correct view of love.
Especially for girls.
If they’re always shielded, growing up like canaries in a cage or like princesses in a castle, they’ll have a high probability of being bullied in the future.
Jumeng looked at Professor Ma expressionlessly, “…”
Exactly, it’s you; you always treat me like a child, which makes me really unhappy.
I am a dignified 0.418 fate deity; do you think I don’t understand love?
All the 13,627 couples I successfully paired weren’t just experiments in human genetic hybridization, Jumeng thought indignantly.
“Sir, your meal is ready.”
“Thank you.” The waiter who brought the dishes said with gratitude. Professor Ma glanced at the still sullen Jumeng and gently asked, “Liu Xiaoyou, do you want to eat?”
“Eat!” Jumeng replied fiercely.
After saying that, she grabbed her chopsticks, forcefully picked up a piece of tea oil-duck, and sent it into her mouth, looking as though she had a bl**d feud with the well-crafted dishes on the table.
With a bite, she ate her sorrow away; life is short, so let’s have another bowl.
Just as she was on her third bowl, a familiar figure suddenly rushed past the window.
On the street at dusk, the golden-red sunlight spilled onto the snow by the roadside. Among the crowd of people hurrying home, Fu Xinyi’s figure flashed by.
Her eye-catching golden hair and tightly wrapped pure white bread suit had a distinct feature that made her memorable.
Watching Fu Xinyi gradually being swallowed by the crowd, Jumeng was momentarily stunned, lost in thought.
That girl, wasn’t she out with Luxianbei?
Why is she walking alone on the street now?
And she looked quite anxious… No, I need to follow her and see what she’s up to!
With that thought, Jumeng looked at Professor Ma, her voice sweet, “Grandpa Ma, I need to go to the bathroom!”
“Uh…” Professor Ma’s hand holding the chopsticks stiffened, awkwardly asking, “Do you want me to take you?”
As if! Jumeng scoffed inwardly, shaking her head, “No, I can go by myself.”
After saying that, she climbed down from the chair, which was a bit too high for children, and happily jogged towards the restroom.
Professor Ma watched the small figure leave, hesitated for a few seconds, then got up to follow, standing quietly in the hallway before the restroom.
————
Taking advantage of her petite frame, Jumeng climbed out of the restaurant restroom window.
Once she steadied herself, she looked around, pulled a baseball cap from her pocket, put it on, lowered the brim, and dashed out of the alley, following the direction Fu Xinyi had just left, jogging to catch up with her figure.
Once she locked her gaze on Fu Xinyi, Jumeng slightly slowed down, camouflaging her spirit energy fluctuations, keeping a distance that was neither too far nor too close behind her.
Fu Xinyi was already cautious when she came out to act, but she could never have imagined being tracked by a seemingly six or seven-year-old, yet having the soul of a few thousand years old trickster.
Five minutes later.
Jumeng stood in front of Room 7017 at the Four Seasons Hotel, staring at the “Do Not Disturb” sign hanging on the door, her mouth twitching uncontrollably.
b*stard Luxianbei, after all my worrying for you, you actually came here to indulge with someone else?
Can you still have the face to say you have charm?
You must have utterly failed at charm and ended up being reverse-charmed!
Jumeng thought angrily, rolling her eyes. Just as she was about to leave, an unusual spirit energy fluctuation suddenly triggered her spiritual sense.
A sinister, twisted, and hard-to-detect spirit energy fluctuation flashed by, so fast that Jumeng almost suspected it was an illusion.
In the case of another spirit ability user or an urban legend, they might easily overlook this anomaly, but Jumeng wouldn’t.
Even though her state was weak, and her spirit energy level had dropped to around C1, her cataclysm-grade urban legend spiritual sense would not be affected in the slightest.
Her spiritual sense told her that behind that door, something annoying—a “little thing”—was definitely hidden.
Remembering that Luxianbei had been together with Fu Xinyi before, Jumeng frowned and carefully approached the door, extending her small hand to lightly touch it.
As soon as her hands made contact with the door, Jumeng sensed something unusual.
“A spell formula that isolates spirit energy fluctuations? Qingfeng Guard? How interesting.”
As a wind system sealing spell, Qingfeng Guard isolates spirit energy with an invisible wind field. Although its strength wasn’t very low, what’s interesting is that this spell was realized by the ancestors of Peach Source when they gazed upon Jumeng; from a certain perspective, it could also be said that she had created it.
Jumeng chuckled at Fu Xinyi’s bad luck for encountering her, closed her eyes, and, using her skilled grasp of spiritual sense, subtly integrated her spiritual sense into the sealing spell, using the spell as a medium and cover to expand her spiritual sense into the room.
Through the walls and wooden door, her spiritual sense penetrated into the room, quickly painting a vivid picture of the spirit energy fluctuations inside the room like a freely splashing color brush in her mind.
To her shock, the room contained a perverse crimson mass that was slowly extending and corroding outward.
The entire room resonated with a cold, slippery vibe, feeling as though it were filled with viscous bl**d close to freezing point, yet somehow pregnant with a fierce vitality.
If it weren’t for the fact that the spirit energy fluctuation was very weak, making it difficult for Jumeng to determine her opponent’s strength, she would have suspected that there was an evil god related to power and bl**d hidden in that room.
Tangcheng was already chaotic enough; when did such a big shot show up?
No wonder Luxianbei’s charm ability failed; if he tried to use it against this kind of urban legend, he would probably fail spectacularly, hear non-human-like chilling screams, see absurd horrific shadows, and fall into madness right on the spot.
Jumeng thought, glancing down at the faintly visible emerald mark on the back of her hand, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief and decided to hold off for now.
The absence of any abnormalities in the ally’s mark indicated that Luxianbei hadn’t encountered misfortune, or that the opponent’s power could suppress hers. In either case, it wasn’t wise to rush into the room.
Not to mention there’s that suspected insider in there too!
Charging in now would definitely lead to conflict, and the people in the hotel would suffer because of it.
Besides, that little Ma is still waiting for me at the restaurant; it’s been too long, and he must be getting anxious and causing some ruckus.
Thinking that, Jumeng activated her spirit energy, setting up a few almost indistinguishable spirit energy threads at the entrance of Room 7017 that blended in with the Qingfeng Guard, then she tiptoed back a little, turning around to walk back to the Hunan cuisine restaurant.
This way, when Fu Xinyi comes in and out of the room, she would immediately notice. Later, when she had sent Professor Ma away and Fu Xinyi was also absent, it wouldn’t be too late for her to investigate further.
Tsk, d*mn Luxianbei, not helping at all, and I have to save him!
So boys need to learn to protect themselves outside too; look at Luxianbei, following that girl to book a room; he got into big trouble, didn’t he?
Now I have to clean up his mess; anyone unaware would think I owed him from my previous life!
Jumeng scolded silently in her heart when she suddenly recalled a rumor Yuan Ye had mentioned, about a beautiful cultist who flirted online and invited numerous unsuspecting young boys out, only to brutally m*rder them when they thought they were going to have a romantic encounter, offering them as sacrifices…
At that time, she had only taken that rumor as an amusing story in the urban legend circle, laughing it off. Who would have thought, today, a similar plot would unfold right before her eyes?
————
After dinner, when Jumeng proposed to go home, Professor Ma readily saw her back to Chunfeng Residence, handing her over to Liu Banxian in person before finally leaving with peace of mind.
Retrieving cultural relics was urgent and laborious; there was still much work to be done by the project research group.
He knew his own tendencies; once he got invested in work, he’d easily overlook other things.
Without Luxianbei keeping an eye on Jumeng, it was quite dangerous for a little girl to wander around in that room filled with pottery, bronze ware, and even ancient weapons, so Professor Ma was uneasy.
Standing at the alleyway in front of Chunfeng Residence, watching Professor Ma leave, Liu Banxian furrowed his brows and murmured, “My Lady Jumeng, do you think he’ll be in danger continuing to handle those things?”
“There are urban legends locked in there!”
Jumeng crossed her arms and shot Liu Banxian a glance, “Relax! I checked it out today; there are hundreds of items in there, and only two were kimchi jars, both of which I’ve eaten.”
“That’s good! I get along quite well with Brother Ma; if there’s really danger, I can help him check the divination.”
Jumeng, “…”
Don’t! What kind of fortune-telling are you going to draw? Don’t you have a little common sense?
If it weren’t for the fact that you had predicted that this time would be without danger, a rebirth from disaster, would the pawnshop of Tan Caizhu have been blown up?
Jumeng scoffed a few times in her heart, giving Liu Banxian a sidelong glance as she said seriously, “Little Liu, do you have any activities tonight?”
Liu Banxian pondered for a moment, rubbing his bulging belly, and said with a serious yet wronged expression, “Yes, at home… resting.”
Did you really think of yourself as a mother? Jumeng’s mouth twitched slightly, and she irritably said, “Relax, that’s not a real baby; it’s just a surge of energy! It hurts a bit when it moves, but it won’t k*ll you. How about you help me with something tonight?”
“This…” Liu Banxian hesitated for a moment, then nodded, looking solemn, “You command, and I will go through fire and water without hesitation!”
Given Jumeng’s current predicament, it was hardly better than being in a situation of certain d*ath, and every task she assigned would probably require risking lives.
Perhaps, this time I’ll really have to use that. Liu Banxian thought.
His divination ability could actually also read targets besides himself, but it was limited by the special nature of spirit patterns—he could only read for others once in his lifetime.
He had originally intended to save it for a final reading for his daughter if he hadn’t found her before he died, but repaying Jumeng’s kindness seemed to also be a reasonable choice.
“How thoughtless, I didn’t send you to your d*ath!” Jumeng rolled her eyes, interrupting Liu Banxian’s self-indulgent thoughts, “I just want you to observe a certain person for me discreetly. If things don’t seem right, you can withdraw at any time.”
Upon hearing this, Liu Banxian sighed in relief, his old face breaking into a smile, “As you say, as you say!”
“……” Jumeng pondered for a moment and said, “There’s a guy who said he has a lot of kimchi jars in his possession and wants to meet me tonight, acting all mysterious.”
“I won’t go, only a fool would go, but I’m a little curious about him, so tonight, you go over for me, see what he’s up to, just observe from a distance, and then tell me what you see.”
This task should originally have been assigned to Luxianbei, but now his own safety was at stake, and she had to find a chance to save him.
She could only split up actions, sending little Liu to run this errand. Jumeng thought.
Liu Banxian, “……”
A fool would go… Is my Lady Jumeng calling me names in disguise?
————
At 23:07, at the Old Building of the College of Arts and Literature at Tangcheng University.
Before the project research group borrowed the Old Building as a temporary site for identifying cultural relics, it had been abandoned for quite a while; the classrooms had long been closed, leaving only a few office and meeting rooms still occasionally in use.
Under the night sky, the Old Building was almost entirely dark, with only one of the offices lent to the project research group still illuminated.
The surrounding walls were obscured by the overgrown, withered yellow grass that had fallen in winter, creating an exceptionally desolate sight.
In this desolate enclosure, the snow had been cleared to create a patch of open space, where a figure sat on a stone bench, shrouded in darkness, smoking one cigarette after another, seemingly waiting for someone; the glowing tip of the cigarette flickered like a luminous eye in the dark.
Mao Sanyou originally didn’t want to help Jumeng, having come to Tangcheng only to observe the changes in the city quietly as per his father’s last wishes. However, now he couldn’t stand by any longer.
What kind of ability is it to bully a girl?
Although this girl could have fought back and beaten the whole group…
This was precisely what puzzled Mao Sanyou. Logically, even if they launched a sneak attack, employed dirty tricks, or even used spirit abilities to suppress, defeating Jumeng within a radius of 800 miles around Peach Source was nearly impossible.
With her cataclysm-grade urban legend ranking, bolstered by the earth’s energy within an 800-mile radius, her spirit energy fluctuations could reach an astonishing level, easily overwhelming eight or ten A-rank or B-rank spirit ability users or urban legends.
Unless…
Mao Sanyou was pondering when a faint sound of footsteps suddenly reached his ears.
Although the visitors were deliberately controlling their steps, in the quiet of the Old Building at night, his ears still caught the sound.
He extended his spiritual sense and, upon touching the two indistinct spirit energy fluctuations around B+, his expression darkened, and he immediately activated his spirit pattern.
As a faint green light flowed beneath his skin, his figure took on a weightless quality, rising with the wind, drifting towards the source of the spirit energy fluctuations before quietly perching atop a large tree, casting his gaze down at the two spirit ability users.
He hadn’t seen them before; there shouldn’t be such figures within Tangcheng’s territory. Using spirit energy assistance, he could see clearly who the visitors were, but Mao Sanyou’s brows furrowed.
If these two weren’t spirit ability users from Tangcheng, then they had to be outsiders. If they were outsiders… could they be the ones sent to attack Jumeng?
How did they find their way here? How did they track her down?
Mao Sanyou wondered, his expression growing increasingly grim as he leapt soundlessly to land behind the two and placed one hand on each of their shoulders.
“Excuse me, are you students of Tangcheng University? What brings you to the Old Building of the College of Arts and Literature so late?”
He said with a grin, and within his deep, dark eyes, a flicker of golden firelight slowly passed, like the sun rising.
