Chapter 34: It Miraculously Pierced Through Your Chest
Under the night sky, half-finished buildings stood silently, like gigantic skeletons forgotten by the world. The dark, profound spaces between the floors served as nests for insects dwelling within the bones.
In the deepest part of one such half-finished building, the underground parking lot was empty and desolate.
Spirit energy fluctuations stirred a gentle breeze, whirling in the darkness, lifting dust to form tiny vortices, accompanied by a tune from “LOSTRIVERS,” wandering through the vast space like a dancing ghostly shadow.
In a corner of the underground parking lot, faint candlelight flickered.
Two dim candles cast a yellow light on the delicate features of a girl before an incense table.
The girl wore a tattered robe resembling that of a medieval evil witch, adorned with a brightly colored and grotesquely shaped ghost mask. Her powdery white hair flowed loosely behind her, gently swaying in the breeze, with the shadows on the ground stretching long, extending backward until swallowed by darkness.
From a distance, it resembled a cultist performing some sacrificial ritual.
The previous interrogation of Solang Pema was fresh in her mind.
As an ordinary person, Hu Chuan was at most a low-level spirit ability user, and the lingering spirit from the relic couldn’t be too strong. It was highly likely that before Luxianbei could extract any information, he would succumb to the interrogation, fracturing and dissipating.
So this time, Luxianbei slightly changed her strategy, deciding to abandon violent interrogation in favor of a more compassionate approach.
The eerie, netherworldly music, the decor of the underworld, and the dilapidated underground parking lot, all cloaked in darkness, would certainly make Hu Chuan, now a ghost, feel a sense of homecoming, lowering his guard.
With this, she would only need to exert a little charm to gain his trust, making him shy, to extract…
Wait, have I really turned into this kind of seductive character now?
No, let’s start over!
I just need to use a little method to gain his trust, making him open his heart and become a friend with whom I can talk freely.
Thinking this, Luxianbei lifted a necklace she found in the time capsule before her, closed her eyes, expanded her spirit energy fluctuations to envelop the entire incense table, and began to chant.
“Young days of thanks, bright days are here; Spring vibes arise, all things rush forth. Underworld cloaks the journey, the soul has no escape. Soul, return! No distant roam. Soul, come back! No east, no west, no south, no north…”
As the incantation was recited, mist emanated from the necklace, flowing like water, carrying Luxianbei’s voice and intent into the void.
In a daze, Luxianbei felt countless eyes fixating on her, with strange whispers echoing in her ears.
The “onlookers” are here again.
She ignored those gazes and waited quietly, like a fisherman casting bait, awaiting the response of Hu Chuan’s lingering spirit.
Time passed second by second.
Five minutes later, Luxianbei stopped chanting and opened her eyes.
Unlike the time she successfully summoned Solang Pema, she felt none of the subtle vibrations of intent; Hu Chuan’s lingering spirit gave her no response, leaving her no opportunity for promises.
It felt as if this “fishing pond” had no fish at all, or as if “the user you called is not in service.”
“…”
How could this be?
Did I recite the incantation wrong?
Or is it that the lingering spirit of an ordinary person is inherently more difficult to summon than that of a high-level spirit ability user?
Luxianbei cursed inwardly as she approached the ancient, dilapidated incense table, carefully checking if the materials and items required for the summoning spell were complete. She repeatedly recalled the incantation Qing Ji taught her, confirming it was correct before once again casting the summoning spell.
Lighting candles, offering incense, reciting blessings… repeating this process several times, she stopped, staring at the flickering candlelight before the incense table, lost in thought.
Something isn’t right!
Even if an ordinary person’s lingering spirit is harder to summon than that of a high-level spirit ability user, after so many attempts, there should at least be some faint reaction.
There must be some factor affecting the spell, causing the summoning to fail.
Luxianbei picked up the gold necklace, examining it intently, frowning.
After more than twenty practical exercises with Solang Pema, Luxianbei had become quite proficient with the summoning spell.
According to Qing Ji, by the time he had attempted the summoning for the twentieth time, his technique was already at an impressive level.
Luxianbei believed that while her talent might not match that of her ancestor, after practicing so many times, she had achieved at least a modest level of success, and the spell casting process should not have gone awry.
As for the gold necklace used as a summoning medium, she had confirmed repeatedly with the Decapitated Senior that Hu Chuan had definitely touched it more than once, and when he gifted it to the senior, he even personally put it on her.
Fat Second Grandpa was a competent businessman, with his own principles; while he often played little tricks during transactions to gain more profit, he never sold counterfeit goods, meaning the materials were fine.
Thus, the only potential cause of failure during the spell-casting process could be insufficient spirit energy input.
However…
After ruling out these influencing factors, a bold guess began to take shape in Luxianbei’s mind.
Could it be… that Hu Chuan is not dead at all?
The d*ath recorded in school documents might have been a fake d*ath he staged, fearing retribution from the senior or for some other undisclosed reason.
“If this is the case…” Luxianbei murmured, “Then I can only seek help from those sages who never show their true faces to investigate the movements of the living; I’m not skilled in that.”
Yes, the silly netizens from the Urban Legends Chat Group.
“However, before that, it’s better to try increasing the spirit energy input while performing the spell.”
Luxianbei muttered to herself, quietly taking out the Blessing God Copper Coin from her coat pocket and tossing it into the air.
The next spell amplifying ratio, greater than one is positive, less than one is negative.
She mentally recited, predicting the front and back, and reached out to catch the descending coin.
Backside? Amplifying ratio less than one.
Luxianbei shook her head, casually performing a red flame flash and then dispersing it, quickly tossing the coin again.
When she summoned Solang Pema earlier, she hadn’t considered the amplification ratio of the spell and the strength of the spirit energy input; after all, she had succeeded each time from the beginning to the end.
Now, considering that the failure to summon Hu Chuan might be due to insufficient spirit energy input during the spell casting, she had to choose an appropriate timing.
The summoning spell, unlike combat spells, which are used in fights, could still work to some extent even with an amplification ratio lower than one.
For summoning spells like this one, casting it with a very low amplification ratio while increasing spirit energy input could yield much greater results.
After throwing the copper coin repeatedly and resetting the amplification ratio several times, Luxianbei finally got the desired ratio, a trace of yearning flashing in her eyes.
d*mn! How come I never realized the amplification of spells could be so tricky before?
It felt like the shifty, greedy mechanics of a money-sucking gacha game; the more you want, the less you get!
The little brother needs to be properly trained; if I could make it obedient and yield whatever amplification I desired, that would be the best!
Luxianbei thought, picking up the necklace again, striding to the incense table, and casting the summoning spell once more.
Having already divined through the Blessing God Copper Coin, the amplification ratio being greater than five meant that if she still couldn’t summon Hu Chuan’s lingering spirit this time, it would indicate that the guy is faking his d*ath!
“Young days of thanks, bright days are here…”
Accompanied by the chant, Luxianbei clearly felt the spirit energy within her rapidly depleting, escalating, like a beast driven by insatiable desire, intent on draining her dry.
d*mn, why is the spirit energy consumption so intense this time?
The amplification ratio seems a bit too high; I should have divined the upper limit earlier.
“… No distant roam. Soul, come back! No east, no west, no south, no north…”
As the spell recitation was completed, the gold necklace in Luxianbei’s hand suddenly trembled lightly, emitting a faint yet noticeable hum. The next moment, a brilliant, dazzling silver mist erupted from the necklace, like a mushroom cloud from a fierce explosion, spreading out like an umbrella, nearly engulfing the entire underground parking lot.
The silver mist surged and roiled, stirring a powerful spirit energy storm, howling through the space, coloring everything in a silver hue, leaving only blurred outlines.
The entire underground parking lot trembled, creating a deep rumble, like the low roar of a giant beast, and with the roar, bits of concrete debris began to fall from the ceiling.
On the ground, various junk pieces Luxianbei had spilled from the God Realm Prototype trembled, clattering, and occasionally, faint human shapes appeared among the debris, rushing forward as if they were chicks waiting to be fed in a nest.
Upon closer inspection, those figures were mostly the lucky individuals who had perished in the chaos at Peach Source.
d*mn! This feels like it has amplified by forty or fifty times!
What strange things are being summoned, causing a ruckus?
Luxianbei thought heavily, as she gently flipped her hand, revealing the Ling Tai Purification and several alchemical dirty bombs. Just then, a clamor erupted in her ears.
It was as if suddenly a thousand unseen beings appeared in the long-abandoned underground parking lot, either cheering loudly, screaming in shock, or cursing furiously… a cacophony of extreme emotions overwhelmed her.
If the whispers she heard when casting the summoning spell earlier were like crowds gathered around a traffic accident, then this felt like the World Cup qualifiers where a national soccer team with a population of fewer than 100,000 sent the Chinese national team home with a score of 0-5.
Thousands of unseen eyes gazed at Luxianbei, brewing a sense of unease.
She had seen this kind of gaze before, outside Dream Come True Entertainment City on that golden plain, when the wolf pack pursuing her looked at her with similar eyes.
Oh no… this seems to have turned bad.
Having cast the summoning spell so many times before without issue, how come this was happening now?
As Luxianbei deftly shifted the blame to Ifrit and fiddled with her clothes pocket, something within suddenly quivered, letting out a crisp, pleasant sound.
“Dingling…”
It was the string of bells that Xiao Hua had dropped?
But why did it suddenly ring?
Luxianbei looked down, her expression puzzled as she glanced at the place where the bells were resting on her chest, frowning. Previously when Water Brother had suddenly appeared at the Old House, she had been too busy preparing the summoning spell to remember she had picked up such a trinket today.
The next moment, as if warning Luxianbei of something, the bells in her arms shook violently, ringing loudly.
“Dingling—Dingling—!”
At the moment the ringing sounded, a premonitory thought flashed through Luxianbei’s mind.
【It miraculously pierced through your chest.】
Sensing danger, Luxianbei’s pupils constricted, and she immediately changed her steps, rotating her body to dodge.
No back-entry!
The next moment, a shriek erupted.
Something suddenly shot out from the pile of debris scattered on the ground, resembling a small cannonball, skimming past Luxianbei’s chest with a “sizzle,” leaving a white mark on her coat and crashing into the stone pillar behind her.
“Boom——!”
Accompanied by a huge noise, like a bomb exploding in the concrete pillar, the pillar instantly shattered into pieces.
The shattered bricks and concrete scattered on the ground, instantly transforming into gold, landing with a clatter, as if turning into chunks of gold.
Luxianbei, “……” What’s going on? Turning stone into gold?
After breaching a pillar, that beam of golden light didn’t stop, crashing through several more pillars in less than a second, before suddenly twisting and flying straight toward Luxianbei.
That object enveloped in blinding golden light, moving faster than lightning, spinning at high speed, generating intense spirit energy fluctuations, impossible to discern what it was—only a vague slender outline remained.
Flying sword? Short kn*fe? Alchemical armor-piercing projectile?
d*mn, I really summoned something strange!
That little brother better not be trying to mess with me right now!
While Luxianbei silently cursed in her heart, she quickly executed her movement technique, her figure accelerating suddenly, dodging agilely like a swift swallow flying low, evading the pursuit of that golden light.
She could sense beneath that golden light was something with an impressive spirit energy fluctuation exceeding A-grade, exuding a dangerously ominous aura.
It felt eerily similar to the sensation of facing the Big Boss’s spirit energy.
This is bad!
Having just performed a summoning spell amplified by forty to fifty times, she was currently in a state of spirit energy depletion. Recklessly trying to knock it down before figuring out what that thing was would not be wise; she needed to evade and find a plan once she understood its nature.
Thus, the summoning rituals in stories always end up attracting inexplicable things, it’s not without reason!
【It miraculously pierced through your chest.】, 【It pierced through your chest from the left side.】, 【It pierced through your chest from the right side diagonal back.】, 【It pierced through your chest from behind.】…
The noise of the golden light smashing through the building continued, relentless, like a legendary flying sword that must draw bl**d once unsheathed, relentlessly pursuing Luxianbei.
Preemptive thoughts raced through Luxianbei’s mind, the bells in her arms ringing loudly.
As she twisted and turned, she tried to use alchemical dirty bombs, spells, and Ling Tai Purification to confront it directly, but the result was always that the golden light managed to evade her attacks in a strangely circumstantial manner.
It was as if it had activated a dodging skill script, its movements absurd!
Time ticked by.
That beam of golden light was getting closer, nearly managing to inch closer after each attack. Upon realizing this, Luxianbei felt the pressure increase exponentially, beads of cold sweat forming on her forehead.
【It pierced through your chest from the front.】
Ugh, why do you have to keep targeting my chest?!
As a premonitory thought flashed through her mind, Luxianbei couldn’t help but scold as she suddenly darted to the left.
Yet before her toes even touched the ground, that golden light made a quick ninety-degree turn, flying directly toward her landing spot.
Seeing this, Luxianbei quickly lowered her body, rolling out in a somewhat awkward manner just as the golden stones rained down from above her head.
How, how could this be?
That thing actually…
Predicted my prediction?!
Luxianbei’s pupils dilated, just then a premonitory thought surged into her mind.
【It miraculously pierced through your chest.】
Luxianbei, “？？？”
What is this? What do you mean miraculously? Is this some kind of lock-on hang-up?
