Chapter 40: Clouds of Doubt
Either hand over Luxianbei, or d*e?
Where am I supposed to find Luxianbei at this hour of the night?
Luxianbei thought, expressionless, and looked at Jumeng, saying, “Then you might as well k*ll me.”
“As you wish…” Jumeng’s cold voice came through.
Some people only speak the truth after tasting some bitterness.
Jumeng thought, her ruby lips silently moving as she began to chant a spell.
The Wind Guardian, Rock Agreement, Four Divine Guardians of Spring… Seventeen or eighteen types of seal and enhancement spells lit up almost simultaneously behind Jumeng, then ripples spread out, merging into the walls.
Through several spiritual perception inquiries, she understood a certain amount about the strength of this lying witch in front of her. If she wanted her to suffer, at least a precision spell of power comparable to the Siye Society’s judgment standards was required.
However, the power of precision spells was substantial, and the structural integrity of the Tangcheng Four Seasons Hotel couldn’t withstand it. Therefore, only by setting up a “execution ground” in advance could she ensure that innocent people wouldn’t be affected.
After Jumeng personally enhanced the hotel room with seventeen or eighteen spells, it could undoubtedly withstand a precision spell duel from a football team’s worth of spirit ability users.
Next, it was time for severe torture. Although I usually don’t like doing such cruel things, what could she do if this guy wasn’t being honest? Jumeng thought.
Something felt off, very off!
Although Luxianbei didn’t know what Jumeng had done in the past one or two seconds, she felt like something looked very wrong and overly DIO.
“Wait, are you really going to k*ll me? I just said that casually, why are you so serious?”
“This is an interstellar hotel, the facilities are very expensive. If you break something, the compensation would at least be enough for ten orders of GHS. Don’t be impulsive!”
“So, I’ve reinforced all the facilities in advance with spells…” Jumeng replied casually.
Luxianbei, “…”
Jumeng looked sharply at Luxianbei, self-absorbedly heightening her spirit energy fluctuations, softly chanting, “Taihao Yuqi, Jumang Zhaogong. Canglong Qingqi, all living things revived…”
As her voice fell, the suddenly agitated spirit energy surged from her body, rushing through the small hotel room at high speed. The air became tainted by that terrifying power, glowing with emerald fluorescence.
In the hotel room, the bloody and murky aura from Luxianbei’s bl**d that had splattered everywhere was instantly dispelled, replaced by a vast and vigorous life force.
This life force was different from a vibrant vitality; it contained a chilling, aggressive, and all-consuming aura, silently narrating the cruel laws of nature—survival of the fittest and the strong preying on the weak!
In a daze, Luxianbei seemed to see bushes devouring wild grass, giant trees robbing shrubberies of their nutrients, and the phantoms of those giant trees being drained by parasitic plants flashing before her eyes.
【A large cabbage, growing robustly】 A strange predictive thought flickered through Luxianbei’s mind.
“What the heck? A tree is growing robustly, what’s the danger?” Luxianbei thought in confusion.
Then…
With a loud “bang!” the Kang Shuaibo braised beef noodles on the table suddenly exploded, and the vegetable packet inside miraculously revived, growing enormous cabbages and carrots all over the ground.
Those cabbages and carrots seemed like they had come to life, writhing on the ground, letting out sharp shrieks, their roots spreading out densely like hair.
Luxianbei, “???”
What is going on here? Why am I confused?
At that moment, more predictive thoughts began to flood her mind.
【A boxwood tree, growing robustly】
【A rubber tree, growing robustly】
【A walnut tree…】
All the wooden objects in the room began to tremble violently, accompanied by the sound of branches stretching. Different types of wood such as walnut, boxwood, and white ash seemed to suddenly come back to life.
From the corners of the bed, from the wardrobe, from every direction, they surged forward, emitting a terrifying vitality, writhing and rushing towards Luxianbei like a terrifying giant hand, gripping her tightly, crushing her, her bones cracking.
Those tree trunks contained intense spirit energy fluctuations, thick as pillars, exceptionally hard.
As those giant trees grew rapidly, the room’s space, oxygen, and spirit energy were quickly compressed.
All the vegetation seemed to transform into greedy, brutal beasts at that moment, mercilessly compressing the room’s space, oxygen, spirit energy, and everything that could fuel their growth.
Deep within, it was like falling into the depths of the sea, the overwhelming pressure and intense feeling of suffocation made Luxianbei feel dizzy and her vision darken.
She silently called out in her heart that this was bad, and suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs.
“When you sleep, you occasionally drool and often choke on it…”
The roaring continued, and the entire room was nearly filled with robust tree trunks, leaving only a small space where Jumeng stood.
If you can grow trees so well, why not plant trees for the country’s sake and become known? What’s the point of staying here as an urban legend? Luxianbei thought angrily.
“When you order takeout, you always note, ‘It’s my birthday today; can I get an extra egg?’ Over the course of a month, you’ve scammed over fifty eggs…”
“You want GHS, but you don’t know how to go about it and feel embarrassed to say it outright, so while I was in class, you sneakily texted me saying, ‘I want to test an anti-virus app; can you provide a risky website?’ I caught you red-handed…”
Under the brutal grip of the tree trunks, Luxianbei struggled hard, her face flushed, her calls breaking into a shout.
“Ahhh! If you don’t stop, I’m going to tell people what you say in your sleep!? If others hear it, don’t blame me for your social d*ath!”
As soon as those words fell, for a moment, Luxianbei felt she had hallucinated.
Incredibly.
The world suddenly seemed to fall silent as if time had stopped.
“Pop—!”
A snap of fingers suddenly sounded amidst the silence, the deadly pressure collapsed abruptly, the roaring noise came from all directions, the giant trees crumbled inch by inch into fragments, vanishing into thin air.
“Are you really Luxianbei?” Jumeng’s voice was filled with confusion and probing.
“Cough, cough, cough—!” Luxianbei collapsed onto the bed, one hand clutching her chest while she coughed violently, the other gesturing to Jumeng to wait a moment, then she breathed deeply, trying to fill her lungs with air as if she had just been pulled from the depths of the water.
After witnessing Jumeng’s casual attack, Luxianbei was very glad that she hadn’t harbored any killing intent towards her at the start, nor did she pursue her stubbornly; otherwise, she would have died within three episodes.
After a long while, regaining her composure, Luxianbei looked at Jumeng and said in a deep voice, “In this world full of lies, have we allowed language to be hijacked for too long during communication? Have we become so accustomed to its presence that…”
“Speak plainly,” Jumeng interrupted coldly.
“Cough, cough! Alright… then to speak plainly, when you left, aside from the games I gifted you, you also borrowed ‘Legend of the Fox Fairy of Qingqiu Mountain’ from me, right?”
If it weren’t for Jiang… my Miaomiao Sauce sneaking into my apartment to sleep in my bed, I wouldn’t have noticed anything wrong and would have searched the house thoroughly, otherwise, I wouldn’t even have known the game card went missing.
That d*mn game could disappear even when hidden in the corners; if it wasn’t the little urban legends at home causing trouble, it must have been the Stinky Sister who took it.
The little urban legends at home had already inquired, selling one and making sure to clarify that they hadn’t touched the game card, so it must have been the Stinky Sister who took it.
Seeing Jumeng didn’t respond, her eyes flickering a bit, Luxianbei continued to press, “Did you get stuck at Chapter Eight because you couldn’t get out of the maze?”
“Do you know why?”
“Why?” Jumeng was in a daze.
That game indeed was what she had taken and she did play it, although the graphics were outdated, and the story was poorly crafted, having not cleared it to see the ending felt like being interrupted mid-task, deeply unsatisfying.
Uh, guilt upon guilt, I slipped another toilet metaphor. Jumeng thought.
“Hmph!” Luxianbei snorted, “Because it was a pirated game, it was locked. Didn’t expect that, did you?”
“d*mn! You actually bought a pirated version? Are you even human?” Jumeng retorted with disdain, indignation bubbling forth.
Finally, she found the source of the evil that had kept her awake for several nights. She felt like using the same trick again to give Luxianbei another beating to vent her anger.
“I didn’t buy it! How could I buy a pirated version?” Luxianbei raised her voice in protest.
“That game was given to me by a girl who had a crush on me. I actually had some good feelings toward her, who knew she would send me a pirated game on my birthday, and what’s worse, it was a broken one that couldn’t be cleared. Totally intolerable!”
“Cough, cough, cough! After that, I never contacted her again, and when I moved, I casually tossed the game card in the corner of the room, not expecting it to get taken by you, the Stinky Sister…”
Jumeng, “…”
————
After Luxianbei half-truthfully finished explaining how she gained the witch’s seed ability, Jumeng had been scrutinizing her for nearly half an hour.
She didn’t say a word, just pacing back and forth with her hands clasped behind her back like a burdened elder, stopping now and then with piercing eyes, seemingly wanting to speak yet holding back.
As a being born from a plant due to belief worship, Jumeng, unlike humans, had a weak awareness of gender. Compared to shock, her stronger desire was to investigate what kind of existence the “spiritual ability user and urban legend symbiosis” Luxianbei was.
“…”
No wonder she had felt an ever-growing curse from Luxianbei; it turned out she had such an identity, which was simply unimaginable.
That suddenly appearing seductive ability of hers also made sense; it was not a transformation of spirit patterns but rather the inherent skill of a witch’s seed urban legend.
This situation was somewhat unexpected, yet reasonable; nothing to be surprised about. I’ve lived this long, and what haven’t I seen?
Uh, though I haven’t really seen something like this for five thousand three hundred years…
If such an existence were to have a partner, should it be a male or female? Or perhaps it couldn’t successfully pair at all?
Jumeng pondered, sneaking glances at the girl in front of her, from her flowing silver hair cascading over the bed, to her elegantly delicate face, to the voluptuous curves wrapped in bandages, all the way down to her nearly perfect waist and legs…
Finally, her gaze landed on Luxianbei’s rear, half-hidden beneath the blanket, and a crude phrase suddenly flashed through her mind—【b*tt bigger than shoulders, a match for living deities】 A playful smile unconsciously crept up her lips.
The unmasked gaze of Jumeng made Luxianbei feel inexplicably ashamed, her cheeks heating up, instinctively pulling back, stammering, “W-What do you want? Don’t look at me so sneakily! I already told you, I didn’t choose to become like this; it’s not some special f*tish.”
She kept feeling that Jumeng was plotting something fatal, after all, Jumeng’s gaze at her had turned abnormal, resembling that of a lovesick fool, as if a child had discovered a new toy and couldn’t wait to unlock all its features.
“I understand, I understand. You may not want it now, but you’ll get used to it over time. At that point, who knows, you might actually enjoy it!” Jumeng said with a smile.
To flaunt one’s beauty to the world and create chaos is the witch’s seed instinct; otherwise, why would they be called femme fatales?
Over time, being subtly eroded by the witch’s seed spirit energy… eventually, you could only stubbornly deny it; your body would probably refuse to comply. Hehehe, how interesting!
Uh, I absolutely do not want to see my friend’s social demise; I’m just purely curious about this type of urban legend and spiritual ability user hybrid, which is relatively independent in their existence.
Really!
Musing this, Jumeng seemed to suddenly remember something, her eyes brightened as she asked, “Hey, can you perform that?”
Seeing the mischievous smile on Jumeng’s face, Luxianbei froze for a moment and immediately became alert, “Which one? I don’t understand what you are talking about.”
Jumeng waved her hand, “That one, you know, bathing in sunlight and turning back! Don’t worry, just a peek, only I will know; I absolutely won’t tell anyone.”
“Absolutely not!” Luxianbei rejected without hesitation. “That’s private, do you understand? For example, would you casually show people your chest?”
“Hmm?” Jumeng frowned slightly, her gaze slowly descending, glancing at her own chest, then curling her lips into a smile as she lightly unbuttoned two buttons of her qipao. As her clothing slipped slightly downwards, a delightful curve of white flesh suddenly peeked through the opening, “You want to see? Then here you go!”
Hearing this, Luxianbei was startled, hurriedly covering her eyes with both hands, “You beast! What are you doing? Stop it! I’m not like that!”
Seeing this, the smile on Jumeng’s face widened, “Don’t be shy! We’re both girls; it should be normal to take a look at each other, right?”
“Come on, don’t you want your sister to love you, care for you, and give her life for you?”
Jumeng spoke softly, her nightingale-like voice entwined with her words, sounding like hooks emerging from thin air, captivating the heart.
“Hey, tell me, are you not curious about what your sister is wearing beneath this qipao? Don’t you want to take a look? I’ve already taken it off!”
Luxianbei, “…”
So, who the heck is the witch’s seed here?
Luxianbei thought bitterly, her fingers slowly opening a tiny gap, and then she saw the qipao neatly folded and placed in front of her.
Hiss—! She really undressed? But…
Where is she?
Luxianbei pondered in confusion and slowly lowered her hands, and at that moment, a shiny-feathered magpie quietly landed on her shoulder and whispered in her ear, “You really want to see? Tsk, shameless!”
Luxianbei, “…”
Ah, so I’m the LSP?
————
Luxianbei chased the annoying magpie for over ten minutes before collapsing onto the bed.
Watching Jumeng circling under the ceiling, chirping and making a ruckus, provocatively performing military-style punches, Luxianbei rolled her eyes, feeling weak, “I think we need to talk.”
After the uproar that followed the misunderstanding was resolved, the pulling and tearing of her back injury brought a sharp pain, and she suddenly realized that Jumeng also claimed to be seriously injured, yet her earlier behavior absolutely didn’t resemble someone who was hurt.
“I want to confirm something with you. Did you really get hurt after being attacked? The way you acted earlier seemed uninjured,” Luxianbei said seriously, “Are you hiding something from me?”
Suddenly asked by Luxianbei, Jumeng, who was circling in midair, showed a trace of panic in her small green bean-like eyes; even the rhythm of her wing flapping got disrupted, and she gradually landed on the desk in the room.
“When have I ever lied to you?” Jumeng defended, “I thought you were in danger, and I forced my spirit energy to recover to peak condition to save you, right?”
“Look, now that the effect of that buff has worn off, I’m such a big beauty, yet I’ve shrunk down to just a bird. Can’t you express just a little gratitude instead of being so suspicious?”
Luxianbei, “…”
Could it really be that I’m being paranoid?
But…
From the past two days of helping Jumeng search for artifacts sealing urban legends, something always felt off. After experiencing what just happened, she finally recalled how Jumeng had been particularly unenthusiastic during the artifact searches.
At one moment, she needed a break; at another, she wanted to look at something novel; then she started shouting about going to the aquarium for hot pot… A plethora of random tasks, resembling a hyperactive child, left her feeling unsettled.
It felt as though she was stalling for time, completely unconcerned about devouring the urban legends within the artifacts, so she could restore her strength.
But what was her purpose in doing this?
Did she want to activate the Tangcheng barrier?
No, no, in that case, it would only injure her without any benefit; there was no reason for her to do that!
Luxianbei couldn’t make sense of it, wanting to continue confirming with Jumeng, but as her gaze sought out Jumeng, who had transformed into a magpie, she found that petite figure had already flown away, leaving behind a note informing Luxianbei of her whereabouts.
The note read: 【I suddenly remembered I needed to find an old friend, stepping out first. See you back at Chunfeng Residence.】
After reading the note in her hand, Luxianbei slowly clenched her fist, her heart filled with doubts.
