Chapter 49: Everyone’s Here, Right?
5:47 PM.
Zhenwu Mountain Scenic Area Ticket Office.
“Ha, hey—!”
The guard at the ticket booth stretched lazily, stood up, grabbed the set of keys on the table, turned off the lights, and left the ticket booth.
The sky had completely darkened, and the last bus from Shizhou City had arrived, parking in the scenic area’s parking lot.
No more visitors would come here until dawn.
During the long night, he planned to meet up with a few friends at the sightseeing cable car station and the security office to drink a little and have some fun.
“Tap-tap—tap-tap—!”
Just after leaving the ticket booth, the ticket seller heard a flurry of hurried footsteps, as if someone was running wildly toward him.
Following the direction of the footsteps, he soon saw a dusty “girl” burst into his sight.
The “girl” stopped in front of the ticket seller, leaned against the wall to steady herself, panting heavily, her frail chest rising and falling violently.
“She” seemed exhausted, her cherry blossom-colored lips parted, struggling to speak a complete sentence for a long time.
“I, I… Shizhou… bus… left… Lu…”
The ticket seller resisted the urge to help the “girl” by removing a twig stuck in her hair, staring blankly as he listened for a while, and then his eyes brightened slightly, “Oh—! I understand, you’re saying the last bus, right?”
“It left early, almost ten minutes ago. If you want to go to Shizhou City, you’ll have to walk to the town five kilometers away to catch a ride!”
“However, I personally suggest you stay overnight at the guesthouse on the mountain and come to ride the first bus at eight-thirty in the morning. After all, it’s all mountain roads for these five kilometers, and it’s quite unsafe with almost no one on the road after dark.”
Upon hearing this, Fang Ji was momentarily stunned, his eyes dimming.
When he was at Hongyan Retreat, he heard that Lu Xianbei had just left a short while ago to go to Shizhou City, and that the last bus from Zhenwu Mountain to Shizhou City wouldn’t leave for over half an hour. He thought it would be easy to catch up with Lu Xianbei, and in a sense, he indeed had.
At the closest, he was only about a hundred meters away from Lu Xianbei.
However, the cruel reality often throws heavy and endless shadows at the moment you see the brilliant hope.
Fang Ji initially thought that closing the distance to around a hundred meters was a form of success at this stage, believing that if he just got a bit closer and called out Lu Xianbei’s name, he could make her stop.
He never expected that it would be the peak moment.
Since then, he had encountered a series of unexpected events.
He was mistaken by a passing disciple of Dachunyang Palace as an ex-girlfriend scamming for money and affection. After some entanglement, the misunderstanding was quickly resolved, and the other party even wanted to invite him for dinner to apologize.
He faced neglect from Lu Xianbei and a fright from Huasang, and was accidentally injured by the town’s guardian beast venting alone, a jet of water shot against the wall. Although he wasn’t hurt, he did get an enviable opportunity to pet the mythical beast.
In front of the Zhenwu Ping sightseeing cable car ticket booth, he inadvertently stepped on two forgotten watermelon rinds, which sent him sliding several meters into the green area, tumbling down a small slope.
Though the slope wasn’t steep, and the summer grass was lush, he suffered no injuries and even stumbled upon a fallen gold necklace from a tourist, but by the time he climbed back up the small slope, the sightseeing cable car had already closed…
Unable to ride the cable car, he had no choice but to run down the mountain path in hopes of catching the last bus.
All the way down there were falling stones, wrong turns, fierce dogs blocking the path… with scrapes and bumps but no real danger. Finally, he arrived in front of the bus station, but he was still ten minutes late.
It was as if an invisible barrier stood beside Lu Xianbei, making that hundred-meter distance feel unattainable.
“Really… can’t catch up anymore?” Fang Ji murmured to himself.
Logically, after going through so many unexpected events, he should have given up on chasing Lu Xianbei long ago. Yet because of that familiar aura surrounding Lu Xianbei, it felt as if some voice in his heart was urging him forward, forcing him to persist.
In the silence, he reached into his pants pocket. The moment his fingertips brushed the paper cicada, his body stiffened slightly, quickly pulling it out for a glance, frowning.
The paper cicada was damaged somehow; a small tear had formed on its plump belly, and the glass vial inside had developed cracks, with a viscous, asphalt-like liquid oozing out, staining its small body dark.
“Is it leaking? When… why would there be liquid inside the paper cicada?” Fang Ji muttered, perplexed.
Based on what he suddenly “remembered” about the paper cicada, it was supposed to be a pure puppet, usually not containing any strange liquid in its body.
“Beep-beep—!”
A honking sound of a car rang out.
Looking towards the sound, a military green Wrangler parked in front of the ticket booth’s door.
The ticket seller seemed familiar with the middle-aged man driving the car and, upon hearing the honking, waved his hand with a smile, “Yo, Lao He, where are you headed off to this late at night?”
“Back to the city!” The middle-aged man leaned out slightly, responding, “My daughter’s birthday is tomorrow, I’m heading back early to prepare a surprise for her.”
“Ha, just spoil her more!”
As they exchanged pleasantries, the middle-aged man noticed Fang Ji behind the ticket seller, raising an eyebrow and pointing, “Who’s that girl?”
The ticket seller was taken aback for a moment, then noticed Fang Ji hadn’t left yet, quickly explaining, “This girl said she wanted to go to the city, but ended up missing the last bus…”
Halfway through, he suddenly remembered something, his face lighting up, “Hey, Lao He, you’re heading to the city too, right? Why not give this girl a ride along the way?”
At this, Fang Ji felt as excited as if he had just heard “the next physical education class is on schedule,” quickly chiming in, “Yes, yes, Uncle, I’m going to the city too, could I trouble you to take me with you?”
“As long as… as long as we catch up with the bus ahead, it’s fine! I can pay for the fare!”
“Yeah, Lao He, the last bus just left not long ago, maybe we can still catch up!” the ticket seller added.
The middle-aged man looked at the ticket seller and then at Fang Ji, hesitating, “Well, it’s not that I don’t want to help, but I’m just a big guy taking a girl through the mountains at night—what if something happens… I can’t explain that!”
“…” The ticket seller opened his mouth, hesitant.
Seeing this, Fang Ji hurriedly stepped forward, his face reddening, explained, “I… I’m a boy, it’s fine!”
Middle-aged man, ticket seller, “???”
A boy?
Uh, how to say it… a boy looking like that should still take care of himself when going out!
So, two minutes later, Fang Ji successfully hopped on the ride, embarking on an uncertain journey.
————
As night fell, the sun had just set, and darkness eagerly swallowed the last bit of light in the mountains.
The bus heading to Shizhou City drove through the mountains, lights off, the faint orange glow of the aisle lamps outlining four silhouettes of the passengers.
They seemed to be deliberately maintaining distance, sitting in different corners, using the dim light as cover to secretly observe one another, each harboring their own thoughts.
The driver, wholly focused on the road, had no idea that behind him, the spiritual senses and sight were already as tangled as a ball of yarn that a cat had clawed.
The air in the bus had tightened like a sieve, blocking out the sounds of the wind and the clamor of the engine, leaving behind only slow and heavy heartbeats.
Huasang sat sideways in the first-row seat near the door, her eyes glancing at Salih and Sheim for two seconds before shifting to the girl sitting next to the window in the last row.
Recalling previous events, she felt that everything had been rather bizarre.
She was certain that when she fell among the waterfall clusters, the figure she saw with an exposed torso, half his pants down, was indeed Lu Xianbei.
But after that, no matter if it was in the falls or around the small puddle below, she hadn’t seen a trace of Lu Xianbei again.
Logically, she had a strong affinity with both spirit patterns and spirit seals when it came to water, and the energy fluctuations from the agitated water should have been barely negligible for her spiritual perception.
Even if Lu Xianbei had merged into that rushing water, she would still be able to sense it.
However…
Lu Xianbei’s spiritual energy fluctuations had simply vanished without a trace.
Huasang searched around the waterfall clusters for a while, finally finding a foreign spiritual energy fluctuation that led her all the way to the bus station, only to see that girl sitting at the back.
Lu Xianbei couldn’t possibly have turned into a girl upon encountering water, could he?
He wasn’t a character from ancient comics… Huasang thought.
If it weren’t for encountering those two men who had previously conversed with Lu Xianbei, she would have planned to head back home to Dachunyang Palace to loaf around.
This time, Lu Xianbei had mysteriously vanished right before her eyes, increasing her curiosity about the secrets surrounding him.
Her mindset shifted from being too lazy to delve deeper into matters unless results were presented forcefully, to considering that if it wasn’t too troublesome, a slight investigation wouldn’t hurt.
Additionally, the faint pain in her heart made her feel worried.
It felt like many sharp thorns had pierced her heart, and after the injury miraculously healed, the thorns had seemingly grown into the flesh.
This sensation arose abruptly after Lu Xianbei’s disappearance, making Huasang think that perhaps the two incidents were subtly connected.
And now, those two men, along with the girl who had appeared immediately following Lu Xianbei’s disappearance, were both present on the bus, barely connecting the clues again—it was just follow them.
This fell into the category of not too troublesome—not too troublesome.
…
Just as Huasang mulled over this, Salih and Sheim exchanged hushed words that only they could hear.
“Elder, do you really think the Holy Son is connected to that girl at the back?” Salih asked.
“Without a doubt!” Sheim declared assuredly. “I followed the sweet scent of the Miracle Flower all the way here; I definitely won’t be wrong!”
In fact, I sensed an even more intense fragrance emanating from her than from the Holy Son… Sheim added silently in his thoughts.
Had he not been quite certain that the Holy Son was male and merely missing rather than deceased, he might have thought that girl was the new Holy Son.
“Then is it possible that the girl is the Holy Son in disguise?” Salih ventured. “With a complete change from head to toe, even gender and spiritual energy fluctuations, that counts as a miracle too!”
“…” Sheim pondered for a moment, then nodded slightly, “What you say makes sense, we need to find an opportunity to confirm.”
As he spoke, he glanced at the girl in the back row, then turned his gaze to Huasang, staring intently for a long time.
“That guy following the Holy Son is still around, it’s not convenient to approach that girl for now. Looks like we can only wait until after we get off the bus to find an opportunity,” Sheim said gravely.
“Elder…” Salih inquired, “After we get off, if we confirm the girl really has close ties with the Holy Son, what should we do?”
Sheim considered for a moment, replying seriously, “First, contact the other elders, inform them that we have found the Holy Son, and then carry on as we should.”
“Hm?” Salih furrowed his brow, a puzzled expression rising.
“You idiot, simply put, whatever the Holy Son tells us to do, we do!” Sheim reprimanded quietly.
At this, Salih glanced at the girl in the back row, nodding ponderously.
So, if we confirm her identity, whatever she does, we follow, right?
…
The girl in the front row and those two men were most likely two out of the three groups that had been following me earlier.
I didn’t expect to work so hard only to shake off one group.
And that pair of flip-flops… I definitely have seen them recently!
Lu Xianbei thought, his eyes hidden under the brim of his hat, looking at the back of the girl by the bus door, memory fragments flashing before his eyes, ultimately landing on Huasang, and then the figures of the two girls and Huasang gradually overlapped in his mind.
Huasang? She’s Huasang?! Lu Xianbei was startled by his own thought, staring blankly at the girl’s back.
Those HELLOKITTY flip-flops! He had seen them on Huasang’s feet at Huacheng airport when Huasang used her legs to lock that armed attacker’s arm.
He clearly captured the moment Huasang lifted her leg, her toes gripping to prevent the flip-flops from falling off.
Although this little action was easy to overlook and usually forgotten after seeing once, Lu Xianbei’s memory had always been excellent. Even if he might have overlooked it for a moment, after a round of recollection, he was still certain he had seen it.
Then, he compared Huasang’s and that girl’s figures in his mind and suddenly realized that from the contour of the chin to the height, shoulder width, and even the length of the hair, they were almost entirely identical.
Weighing all this information together, he felt about seventy percent certain that the girl was indeed Huasang, but…
That was still far from enough!
Seventy percent certainty was almost like having none at all, right?
After all, he had not sensed any spiritual energy fluctuations from that girl with his spiritual perception.
Although when in Huacheng, Huasang worried about the Night’s Corruption leaking, she had sealed all her spiritual energy fluctuations within herself to avoid detection.
However, besides the similarities in spiritual energy fluctuations and other details, the appearance of that girl was still too different from Huasang.
To put it metaphorically, it was like a dirty little cat covered in mud compared to a freshly bathed and dried, fragrant little plush toy.
Even if they were both cats, it was hard to equate them.
If he confirmed that this girl was indeed Huasang, Lu Xianbei only wanted to say that women were truly a terrifying species.
As for how to confirm whether she was Huasang…
I’ll just try it out and see! At this thought, Lu Xianbei’s gaze sharpened slightly.
Although he was very certain that Huasang would not recognize him, whether as Lu Xianbei or as Calamity, it was impossible!
After all, at this point, not only had she completed her incorporeal transformation, but she had also slightly altered her appearance and figure, even her spiritual energy fluctuations had been cloaked to mimic the aura of some unknown spiritual ability user from Tangcheng.
However, not recognizing him was one thing, but the possibility of her suspecting that he was someone else was another matter entirely.
Now, what I need to do is to confirm whether she is Huasang while helping her eliminate any doubts in her mind.
Of course, during the process of eliminating those doubts, adding a little cognitive misdirection wouldn’t be too much to ask, right?
With that thought, Lu Xianbei’s gaze sharpened slightly as he recalled a skill he hadn’t used in a long time.
Even if Huasang knew Lu Xianbei or recognized Calamity, she definitely could not recognize Yun Meng, who tragically perished at Shihekou Middle School.
As long as he could read Yun Meng’s memories and mimic her behavior from those memories, it would be almost equivalent to transforming from the inside out into someone entirely different.
In this world, aside from Miaomiao Sauce, who could communicate with him through eye contact, no one could associate the girl in front of him with the names “Lu Xianbei!”
Lu Xianbei thought, standing up, removing his hood, and walking over to Huasang, sitting by her side, sweetly saying, “Sister, I’ve been watching you from the back for a long time.”
Huasang tilted her head, glancing sideways at the girl next to her with vigilance, “What are you looking at me for?”
Lu Xianbei raised a hand to cover her little mouth, concealing her inability to smile, and laughed, “Hehe, of course because you’re beautiful, Sister! Your skin is truly nice; it makes me so envious. Can you tell me what brand of skincare you usually use?”
The opening card for getting closer to girls—discussing cosmetics!
d*mn! Where did this green tea come from? So annoying! Huasang thought inwardly, responding coldly, “Oh, Miao Jie SPA.”
Lu Xianbei, “???”
What the hell is Miao Jie? Sounds a bit familiar?
She searched through Yun Meng’s memories of the various cosmetics and beauty treatments but found nothing related.
Seeing that the girl in front of her had fallen silent, Huasang kindly explained, “Miao Jie is a brand of steel wool pads.”
Lu Xianbei, “…”
What the hell is using steel wool pads for skincare!
No wonder it sounds familiar; she must have seen it in her dad’s kitchen.
I was wondering why I felt so hot all over just now; I thought it was from staying in the sun at Xuanwu Ping for too long this afternoon! Lu Xianbei thought.
Now, she was at least ninety-nine percent certain that the girl in front of her was indeed Huasang.
In this world, perhaps only someone like Huasang, who could withstand alchemical bullets with her chest, could endure a steel wool pad SPA and come out looking so clean and moisturized afterward.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something to Huasang, but just then, the bus suddenly slammed to a halt, pulling over to the side of the road.
Following that, a familiar voice came from outside the window.
“Driver, wait! Wait!”
Fang Ji had arrived just in time, just as he had said, as long as they could catch up with the bus. At the moment they caught up, the middle-aged man’s SUV had miraculously broken down, blocking the bus ahead.
Feeling the faint connection from the damaged paper cicada in Fang Ji’s possession, Lu Xianbei furrowed his brows.
Isn’t that the girl who followed Fu Xinyi earlier?
She actually picked up the paper cicada?
Goodness, everyone has arrived, right?
