Chapter 56: The Nightless Street
In a small park near the bus terminal of Shizhou City.
Finally sending away Huasang, who was like a plague god to Luxianbei, she closed her eyes and lay back on a park bench, letting out a long sigh as if she had been granted a reprieve.
“Hu—!”
Accompanied by the murky air spilling from her thin lips, she ruthlessly cleared all memories related to Luxianbei from her mind, as if deleting computer data.
“……”
Finally got rid of that guy; he was really tormenting. Just thinking about him consumed a lot of energy, like a continuous mental DEBUFF in human form.
Next, she had to find Big Brother, and who knows, she might have to confront unknown enemies temporarily. She needed to conserve more energy.
Speaking of which, there should be materials to make Thousand Night paper cranes over at the Nightless Street, right? That guy Fu Xinyi seemed to have bought quite a lot of things there before, Huasang thought.
Huasang finalized her next course of action and then decided…
To take a ten-minute nap first!
————
Luxianbei looked at her reflection in the mirror, brushing back her chestnut hair that fell over her forehead, adjusting her long red scarf, and nodded in satisfaction.
“Not bad, very good!”
“But how did this girl grow up after being left on the streets as a child? Did she survive on the milk that the wicked capitalists dumped in the sewer?” Luxianbei scoffed.
The girl in the mirror was small in stature, but her extravagant “pecs,” despite being hidden under a long trench coat, seemed to proclaim to the world that she was small only in height.
Under her trench coat, she wore a clean white T-shirt, her proportionate legs peeking out from beneath a pleated skirt, and she had on a slightly worn pair of boots.
Although it was impossible to replicate the metallic bat or Gu Qiqi’s impressive expressions, outsiders wouldn’t understand Gu Qiqi.
As someone dubbed as cunning, with chestnut hair that concealed murderous intent and held the title of the bloodthirsty witch that devoured urban legends, wasn’t her cold expression and icy gaze quite reasonable?
“Though I do feel a bit sorry for Gu Qiqi, after all, I’m kind of…” Luxianbei mumbled.
As she spoke halfway, she suddenly thought that since Gu Qiqi controlled the Great Serpent God’s bamboo slips, even with traces of earth veins and numerous urban legend eyes within Huacheng, it was impossible for her to track Gu Qiqi’s whereabouts, and she felt relieved.
“……”
At worst, she could help Gu Qiqi deal with those Spiritual Ability Users and urban legends that had followed her to Huacheng, and if things got tricky, she could always report them to the Siye Society.
After all, the ones being pursued were the “bloodthirsty witch.” If they happened to be counter-killed, that would be entirely reasonable, right? Luxianbei thought.
Thus, a bold plan to use Gu Qiqi as bait while conveniently helping the urban legends of Huacheng benefit materialized gradually in her mind.
Sorting out her thoughts, she headed toward the public restroom, preparing to investigate the nearby Nightless Street.
At that moment, her coat suddenly wriggled gently a few times and delivered a note to Luxianbei’s hand through the sleeve.
“What is this…”
Luxianbei looked at the note in her hand, frowning slightly, her mind flashing back to the moment on the bus when Salih had shoved a note into her hand, and she paused for a moment.
“Is this from those two guys earlier?”
After getting off the bus and focusing solely on following Huasang, she had almost forgotten all about it.
After all, she wasn’t some demon. They hadn’t come to bother her, so she had no reason to inexplicably go beat them up, right? Luxianbei thought, raising her hand and tossing the note to the ground. She then took a few steps back and retrieved Ling Tai Purification.
Those two looked like they had big problems; who knows if they had set some trap on the note?
Better to be cautious!
Holding Ling Tai Purification, Luxianbei carefully unraveled the rolled note, and the next moment, a faint spiritual energy fluctuation suddenly erupted. The sound of “puchi!” echoed as colorful sparks burst from the note, exploding in the air like fireworks.
Like an illusion, an unintelligible whisper echoed in the air.
Seeing this, Luxianbei quickly retreated a few more steps, putting some distance between herself and the note, crouching in a corner to wait for a moment until she confirmed no further spiritual energy fluctuations were coming from it before moving forward again.
Leaning down to look at the note, her face darkened, and she almost called the police on the spot.
[Miss Wang, we have been observing you for a long time. We have detected a tempting fragrance emanating from you, much like the accompanying flowers on a breast, leaving us enchanted and unable to extricate ourselves.
We have followed that fragrance here, wishing to invite you to a deserted place for a discussion. We hope you won’t be ungrateful!]
“d*mn… those two are indeed planning something disgusting for me, right?” Luxianbei murmured heavily to herself.
Just as she spoke, the note in her hand absorbed enough of the Miracle Flower’s fragrance, and the hidden imprint stamped with the spell formula gradually became apparent.
“This is… the Miracle Flower? Are they members of the Miracle Cult?”
Luxianbei instantly recognized the origins of the emblem.
Back when she was in the Peach Source, she had crossed paths with members of the Miracle Cult and had a vivid impression of them; the emblem on the paper was identical to the embroidery on the robes of those Miracle Cult members!
Luxianbei rested her chin in one hand, gazing at the emblem on the note, pondering for a moment before nodding. “If they’re members of the Miracle Cult, then their strange actions make sense.”
“Given that, I might as well ignore them. If they appear again, a quick alchemical dirty bomb should suffice.”
She had no intention of probing into what those two men really wanted.
After all, the behavior of the Miracle Cult members could never be judged by common sense; the moment you start thinking about why they did something, you have already lost.
Moreover, Luxianbei was at odds with the Miracle Cult, her life philosophies fundamentally mismatched.
————
In Shizhou City, at the Nightless Street, in a small alley behind a restaurant.
This was a remote and narrow alley, barely wide enough for a vehicle to pass through.
Behind the hustle and bustle always lay chaos and filth.
Although it was not less than two hundred meters from the noisy main street of the Nightless Street, it felt like two different worlds.
There was only one light illuminating the alley, casting a dim, warm glow that created large shadows; the unadorned concrete walls on either side were shrouded in grease year-round, accumulating a thick layer of black grime. Deep in the alley, several large garbage bins were scattered haphazardly, and trash had piled up into a small mountain.
Beneath that heap of garbage, a man slumped against the wall, sitting on the ground, staring up at the sky with blank, vacant eyes. His lips parted slightly as he silently gasped for breath.
The tattered white clothes on him were completely soaked in bl**d, exposing deep scars visible down to the bone at the torn areas, and in his hand, he held a broken fan, with only the ribs remaining, as shattered as his body.
The man was Wu Yutang; he was still alive, but he felt as if he had already died.
Although he had tried with all his might to escape, he could clearly feel that something—perhaps his soul, perhaps the meaning of life, or something else even more crucial—was forever left behind there.
As he gradually distanced himself from that windowless den of evil and escaped to this place, he no longer felt any desire to move forward.
Why run anymore?
Isn’t it better to stop? Everything has lost its meaning!
A broken clock continues moving forward, but will only keep getting it wrong. But if it stops, at least it will be right at least twice a day, right?
……
Wu Yutang sat there, his mind filled with negative thoughts. Occasionally, a restaurant employee would pass by him; even if they cast a glance in his direction, it would only linger briefly on the battered fan in his hand, completely ignoring his existence.
As if that fan were his true being, and now that fan was so broken that it mixed in with the trash, indistinguishable from one another.
Thus, even the meaning of Wu Yutang’s existence had disappeared.
After a while, a small delivery truck filled with fruits and vegetables drove into the alley, the wheels crunching lightly over the puddles, eventually stopping at the back door of the restaurant.
Wu Yutang apathetically glanced at the delivery truck and quickly averted his gaze, feeling no emotional response whatsoever.
“Bang!” The car door closed with a dull sound.
The driver of the delivery truck, mumbling angrily while holding a delivery slip, entered the restaurant through the back door, and the alley returned to silence.
Moments later, a rustling sound came from the delivery truck’s cargo box, and soon, a slender figure… a human, wearing a pumpkin on their head, climbed shakily out from among the pile of vegetables.
The posture was something Wu Yutang had seen before; it reminded him of when a zombie crawled out of a grave during a hunt for urban legends.
The person slowly climbed to the top of the vegetable pile, and suddenly, their body softened, tumbling down from a height of three or four meters with a heavy thud, rolling a few times and getting coated in mud, crashing into the wall next to Wu Yutang.
“Pa!” With a sound, the pumpkin cracked open, revealing the “girl’s” face, which was both beautifully delicate and tragically miserable.
“Help…” Fang Ji looked up at the bl**d-covered man next to her, froze for a moment, and perhaps startled, her body convulsed and she fainted on the spot.
Wu Yutang, “???”
At that moment, his heart, which had seemed like dead ash, even felt a faint stir, before it sank back into silence again…
————
Some say clues are like flowers on a high peak; the more actively they are sought, the more easily they are overlooked.
Luxianbei felt this description was very apt; clues were not only flowers on a high peak but also surrounded by a group of excellent pursuers, making it hard to approach.
The Nightless Street was bustling with activity, with every inch of land being valuable. Various storefronts were squeezing in, and on both sides of the street were diverse shops selling noodles, desserts, barbecues, and special snacks, dazzling the eyes.
“Ugh, this is terrible! How can anyone investigate in peace?!”
The difficulty of the investigation was no less than running at night past a street with midnight snacks without eating anything!
Ugh, I don’t usually eat this much! This must be the negative effect of impersonating Gu Qiqi! Luxianbei thought fiercely, turning around, expressionless as she softly called out.
“Boss, please pack me twenty skewers of lamb belly and two grilled buns to go. Thank you!”
(Today I’m a bit blocked… fewer updates.)
