Chapter 53: I Seem to Have Arrived at the Wrong Time?
Luxianbei stared at her phone in silence for a long time, pondering for quite a while but unable to come up with a proper solution to her current problem.
The train station, Antique Street, and the abandoned winery, the three locations are in different directions of Tangcheng, with a distance of nearly ten kilometers between each pair.
At her speed, it would take at least about ten minutes to get from one location to another, making it impossible to appear in two different places at the same time half an hour later.
In this case, perhaps only Water Brother, a Spirit Ability User with extreme speed capable of breaking the sound barrier, would be able to manage time effectively, right?
Moreover, in my current state, I can’t even go meet Jiang Li! Luxianbei thought.
Mao Sanyou, who was nearby, noticed Luxianbei looking at her phone. His complexion changed several times, sometimes silent, sometimes sighing. He curiously asked, “What’s wrong? Are you facing some trouble?”
Luxianbei glanced at Mao Sanyou and, after a two-second pause, said, “If— and I emphasize ‘if’— two people wanted to meet you at the same time, one is your caring fiancée who sends you COS photos, and the other is your life-threatening good female friend, who would you choose?”
Mao Sanyou looked at Luxianbei with a strange expression, rolling his eyes and saying, “Isn’t it obvious? I’d choose d*ath! You might as well ask me which one I’d save first if my mom and my wife fell into the water at the same time!”
“Then if your mom and your wife fell into the water at the same time, who would you save first?”
Mao Sanyou pondered for a bit and replied seriously, “In general, my mom is an alligator.”
Luxianbei, “…”
Seeing this, Mao Sanyou patted Luxianbei’s shoulder and said earnestly, “Big sister, to be honest, although you’re a Witch species, it’s wrong to mess around everywhere. Even a headless horseman or a Spirit Ability User wouldn’t dare act recklessly like that!”
“Anyway, take care of yourself! Since I’m awake now, I won’t stick around to get you all tangled up. I’ve got my own business to attend to. After investigating the inside of Peach Source, I still need to head to Old Xu’s place to assist in activating the city barrier!”
Though the process for infusing Spirit Energy in the city barrier of Tangcheng from defense to offense only requires one person to operate, after the transformation is complete, activating the city barrier still requires the participation of all operatives in Tangcheng.
Without the special talismans needed for activation, this is nearly a necessary step for all city barrier activations, also to prevent any operative’s Spirit Patterns from going out of control and causing terror incidents while in a confused state.
When Mao Sanyou stood up to leave, Luxianbei suddenly recalled something and raised her eyebrows, asking, “By the way, how long until the city barrier is activated?”
Mao Sanyou slightly paused in his steps, turned to look at Luxianbei, and shrugged, “Exactly at two o’clock in the morning. It’s about eight hours from now. I’ve already informed Auntie about this time.”
Two o’clock in the morning… Luxianbei mentally repeated and secretly remembered this number.
————
The high-speed train from Jinmen South to Tangcheng sped swiftly along the tracks.
Above was a sky filled with dark clouds, below was the silent, remote city area, where the train darted through the night like a cheetah charging toward its prey.
The total distance from Jinmen to Tangcheng is nearly four hundred kilometers, with a travel time of one hour and twenty minutes. When the train had almost covered half of this distance, it had already entered the territory ruled by Jumeng.
After Jiang Li sent a message to Luxianbei, she took the opportunity to switch contacts and seriously read the information sent by a certain “anonymous operative.”
Though she had already received the information compiled by Li Xuan several hours earlier, she viewed that data as having a certain timeliness.
A few hours ago, neither Li Xuan nor the operatives posting on the Siye Society intranet forum had conducted real investigations into the situations in Tangcheng and Peach Source; they only made reasonable speculations based on the movements of illegal spirit ability organizations and intelligence from informants.
Now, as time passed, more and more operatives from the Siye Society had arrived in Tangcheng, and the information relayed after their field investigations became more detailed and reliable.
After glancing quickly at the materials provided by Li Xuan, Jiang Li’s attention fell on the latest messages, which contained only a few infrared images taken from a distance and several brief text descriptions.
The infrared images were shot near Magpie Bridge Mountain, showing internal images of Peach Source. It was apparent in the photos that deep within Peach Source, there was a massive high-temperature heat source resembling an oddly-shaped bird.
Additionally, in several images, the posture of the enormous bird had changed, indicating that it was not an inanimate object but had awakened, lying dormant deep within Peach Source and ready to act.
Jiang Li glanced at the supplementary information attached below the images regarding the entanglement of Qunyang and Jumeng’s powers, murmuring, “Qunyang… could this be a large-scale urban legend event triggered by a power dispute?”
Since mythological legends often circulate for a long time and easily get influenced by local cultures and beliefs after spreading to different regions, leading to errors and changes in the legends, the powers of mythological species are the most prone to disputes among all types of urban legends.
Sometimes, powers pointing to the same urban legend could even give rise to several legends.
Just like the case of Mao Sanyou possessing the power of the Bennu bird, there could also be a legend with the power of the sun god Ra appearing somewhere else in the world. As the core of both legendary entities continued to complete, a life-and-d*ath conflict would inevitably emerge.
In fact, historically, the Siye Society has handled no less than five cataclysm-grade urban legends triggered by power disputes, and the resolution method is, of course, to treat all involved legends fairly and hunt them all down.
Jiang Li continued scrolling through the messages, and a frown crossed her brow when she saw some of the text content.
The information gathered through informants of the Siye Society included some from illegal spirit ability organization channels, proving from multiple perspectives that Jumeng was about to fall, and that several forces were gathering towards Peach Source, ready to plunder her and Qunyang’s “inheritance.” Another part…
“A member of the Siye Society lurking within Jumeng’s forces, unwilling to reveal their identity?”
Helping Jumeng counterattack Peach Source on one hand, while transmitting information to the Siye Society under the condition of anonymity, ensuring no sides are offended…
Could this person possibly be Luxianbei?
Being a double agent is indeed his style.
Thinking of Luxianbei, Jiang Li suddenly realized that more than ten minutes had passed, but she still had not received a reply from Luxianbei.
Has something gone wrong?
Or is she in a situation where she can’t reply conveniently?
In that case, I might as well go look for her myself. If the situation is urgent, I can offer her the necessary support.
Jiang Li pondered with her chin resting on her hand, her gaze silently drifting towards the small suitcase on the luggage rack.
She always liked to be prepared for contingencies and had anticipated that upon arriving in Tangcheng, there might be times when she couldn’t reach Luxianbei.
So, before setting off, she made a special trip to Luxianbei’s home to take the pillowcase of the Bai Xiaohua pillow from her bed and obtained a Qianye Cang Owl from the equipment department.
Having seen how Luxianbei hugged the pillow to sleep every day, Jiang Li knew for a fact that there was no way that there weren’t any residual spirit energy fluctuations from Luxianbei on it.
Thus, as long as she had the Qianye Cang Owl track the residual spirit energy fluctuations on the pillowcase, she could easily trace Luxianbei’s location.
Not only did it have Luxianbei’s residual spirit energy fluctuations, but according to Jiang Li’s occasional observations, when Luxianbei hugged the pillow to sleep, there were often strong spirit energy fluctuations coming from her as well.
Who knows what strange, indescribable dreams she had?
As for why Jiang Li was observing Luxianbei while sleeping…
Does it matter?
————
Fifteen minutes later, at Tangcheng train station, near the exit.
As Jiang Li walked alongside the sparse crowd, dragging her small suitcase, she turned left and entered the restroom beside the exit. After waiting for a moment, she entered one of the stalls and took out the pillowcase, Qianye Cang Owl, Zhuyan mask, and a set of clothes matching the “Miaomiao Sauce” style from the small suitcase.
That’s right, when arriving in Tangcheng, if Luxianbei might be in a state of urban legend and inconvenient to meet, she had considered that possibility.
So, five minutes later.
A girl dressed in a dark blue, waist-bound mid-length coat and ultra-short shorts, wearing deep brown Chelsea boots walked out of the restroom.
As she walked, her golden, wavy hair swayed gently, and with her tanned skin, her whole demeanor radiated a clean yet slightly alluring charm like a little wild cat, attracting the attention of passersby.
Leaving the train station where the crowd gradually thinned, on the snowy street under the warm glow of streetlights, Jiang Li slowly took out the Qianye Cang Owl from her jacket pocket and infused it with spirit energy.
As a faint glow flickered across its seemingly paper-like surface, the Qianye Cang Owl flapped its wings, circling around Jiang Li a few times before hovering in front of her, its beak lightly trembling, pointing ahead.
Jiang Li narrowed her eyes slightly and walked quickly in the direction pointed by the Qianye Cang Owl.
————
Luxianbei had struggled for quite a while, ultimately deciding to go to Chunfeng Residence to meet Jumeng first.
Even though, Miaomiao Sauce is the best in the world!
However, time was running short. Before the city barrier was activated at two o’clock in the morning, she needed to sneak Jumeng’s team into Peach Source several hours in advance to have enough time to operate.
Moreover, her current appearance wasn’t convenient for meeting Jiang Li. She hadn’t yet figured out the best way to meet her.
Lastly, she admitted she harbored a bit of luck. However, since Jiang Li had been unable to contact her for such a long time, it probably wouldn’t cause any major problems to contact her a little later.
…
In deep winter, after nightfall, the roads of Tangcheng nearly had no pedestrians, and the passing vehicles were extremely sparse. A large truck galloped down the road to Taohua Road, sometimes swerving in an S-shape, and at times executing a lightning drift.
Luxianbei’s self-awareness of her driving skills was quite accurate; although she didn’t have a driver’s license and had failed the driving test several times, even leaving a psychological shadow due to a car accident.
But in the end, she managed to drive the fully loaded truck of Zhipianxian out of the abandoned winery, covering nearly ten kilometers and arriving in front of Antique Street without crashing into anything that could trigger the alchemical explosives hidden in the Zhipianxian, preventing the truck from becoming a nuclear explosion vehicle.
After getting out of the car, Luxianbei walked along the old street paved with bluestone until she reached the end, then turned into an alley, winding around a bit, stopping in front of a small building surrounded by greenery and rich in ancient charm.
She looked up at the wooden plaque hanging in front of the building, confirming that it read “Chunfeng Residence,” before stepping forward and lightly knocking the bronze ring on the door.
“Ding ding ding—ding ding ding—!”
After several light sounds, the small courtyard fell silent again, with no one responding.
“Strange… not here yet?”
Luxianbei muttered, pulling out her phone to check the time; there were still two minutes until her agreed meeting time with Jumeng.
Should I wait a little longer? She thought, she might be arriving soon… Luxianbei thought to herself, walking over to sit on a stone stump by the door, taking out a spicy strip from her pocket.
Just as she was about to put the spicy strip in her mouth, a fair, slender hand stretched out in front of her.
“Give me one too.”
“Sure.”
Luxianbei subconsciously handed the spicy strip over, but after receiving it, the other party merely toyed with it and didn’t put it in their mouth.
When Luxianbei regained her senses and looked up, her eyes widened at the familiar yet strange face.
“What the hell! You, what are you doing here?”
“Hmm? Let me think.”
The tanned-skinned beauty pondered for a moment and replied seriously, “Probably because I heard about a big incident happening in Tangcheng and couldn’t reach some heartless guy, so I came to check on things?”
Noticing the unmistakable panic in Luxianbei’s eyes, Jiang Li added, “Why do I feel like I arrived at the wrong time? It seems you’re not too welcome here?”
“N-no, that’s not it,” Luxianbei stammered, quickly getting up and grasping Jiang Li’s hand, pulling her towards the alley.
“This isn’t a place for conversation; let’s find somewhere else to talk slowly.”
Jumeng is about to arrive.
One of them is a full-fledged operative from the Siye Society brimming with a sense of justice, and the other is a millennia-old legend who probably engaged in countless illegal activities. If they were to run into each other…
That would definitely be worse than a comet colliding with Earth, strong acids meeting strong bases, or pouring ice water into a boiling oil pot… it would be many times more disastrous!
Luxianbei thought stealthily, and just then, the soft sound of fluttering wings came from above. A glossy magpie descended from the sky and gently landed on her shoulder, followed by a flash of emerald light, transforming into a “face-hugging bug.”
“Quick, let me burrow into your clothes to warm up. I nearly froze to d*ath flying over here…”
Jumeng said, then suddenly noticed the blonde beauty behind Luxianbei, froze for a moment, and then whispered in Luxianbei’s ear, “What’s going on? I seem to have arrived at the wrong time?”
Luxianbei, “…”
Jiang Li stared at the little girl with big eyes peeking out from Luxianbei’s shoulder, raising her chin provocatively, calmly saying, “No, you arrived just in time.”
Luxianbei, “???“
The falling snow was getting heavier without anyone noticing, swirling along with the cold wind to dazzle their eyes.
In a daze, Luxianbei seemed to feel a bright red “danger” word slowly appearing above her head, then gradually twisting into a “d*ath” word.
