**Chapter 74: Keep It Up, Gu Qiqi! [4K]**
The so-called Mr. S left behind a phone with a total of three video clips, each about five minutes long.
Huaxie Yu was frozen in place. After watching all three videos, she snapped back to reality after being in a daze for a long time. Her little face quickly lost all color, and her body trembled slightly.
Then, as if she had taken a heavy punch to the abdomen, she knelt down, her hands supporting her body, her torso arched into a curve, her mouth opening as she violently began to vomit.
“YUE—YUE——!”
She hadn’t eaten for almost a whole day and night, so she couldn’t throw up anything, but the images in the video made her stomach churn uncontrollably, forcing her stomach to spasm violently.
The content of those three videos wasn’t particularly disgusting compared to some filthy and dirty sights Huaxie Yu had witnessed in Dawn City; it was much better, even having a strange and twisted beauty.
However, what was presented in the videos was extremely bizarre and distorted—just looking at the images induced a strong sense of physiological discomfort. The principle was probably similar to hearing sharp objects scrape against a blackboard or seeing toenails stuck with toothpicks while kicking a wall.
Aside from that, the images contained incomplete and misshapen limbs, distorted outlines, dark and hazy light and shadows, huge mechanical devices, cold steel, a thick dark red viscous liquid that could be either machine oil or bl**d, and a carpet of flesh with eyes blooming like flowers.
Crying, shrieking, weak whimpering, and the sounds of desperate chewing formed a chilling symphony, off and on colliding with silence.
Everything seemed to defy humanity and common sense.
Those uncomfortable images and sounds brought an overwhelming sense of oppression and a rising fear, and before Huaxie Yu could regain her composure, her body reacted first.
Vomiting.
As if it had reached a point of extreme tension and repression.
After a long while, Huaxie Yu’s discomfort gradually dissipated. The intense spasms in her stomach, which felt like they would pull out her internal organs, drained her last bit of strength.
She limply slumped to the ground, tightly clutching the phone left by Mr. S.
b*stard, how dare you trick me?!
He looked like someone who couldn’t even tie a chicken, yet secretly had such dark thoughts! I must teach him a lesson!
Huaxie Yu thought, casting a sidelong glance at the phone in her hand, her gaze deepening.
She wasn’t sure if that Mr. S, who didn’t want to show himself and had knocked her out, was truly helping her for justice.
But she could tell that the dead corporate drone with a human face and a beastly heart appearing in the video was definitely no good. She must have been bewitched to have believed that b*stard’s lies and handed the children over to him.
How could such a person really care about the children?
If he didn’t send the children into that steel cage-like factory, she should thank the heavens for that! But—
Suddenly, Huaxie Yu furrowed her brows, realizing a very serious problem.
Although that man deserved to d*e, she really wanted to follow the directions in the phone and deal him a heavy blow.
But if he was killed, the children would still be under his control, and their situation might become even more dangerous. If she truly wanted to save the children, perhaps she should report this to the Siye Society?
Although she found the agents of the Siye Society annoying—most of them were inadequate, and they caused a lot of trouble—they at least had an official background.
With such a potentially harmful situation, they couldn’t just ignore it, right?
Huaxie Yu thought, hurriedly pulling out her phone and searching for Luxianbei’s name in the contact list. She stared at the phone number, hesitating for a few seconds before putting the phone back into her pocket.
Huaxie Yu wasn’t sure if Mr. S was still lurking nearby, secretly observing, nor did she know if he had a good relationship with the Siye Society.
If Mr. S was in a hostile camp with the Siye Society and was secretly watching, what would he do if he saw her contact Luxianbei?
Her intuition told her that the shadow that had knocked her out could easily take her life.
As night fell, near the swimming pool.
Miss Rabbit crossed her arms in front of her chest, perched atop a tree, watching Huaxie Yu’s silhouette gradually fade away on the winding path under the dim twilight, frowning.
“If you ask me, the Elders’ Council really should send someone else to execute this mission,” she said to Shuo E beside her. “It’s inconvenient for us to monitor Huazhuang; if she has other thoughts, things could get quite troublesome.”
They had already become “old friends” with the urban legends in Huacheng, and a careless slip could lead to them being implicated in a calamity.
“No choice,” Shuo E sighed silently. “Recently, the main forces either went to Yumen or had unfinished tasks. For now, only we can carry out the mission.”
“Speaking of Yumen,” Miss Rabbit turned to Shuo E, tilting her head, “if the things possibly hidden there are so important, why aren’t you going?”
From her perspective, Shuo E, as the most loyal subordinate of the Elders’ Council, shouldn’t be absent from such an important operation. “Because of you,” Shuo E said expressionlessly.
Miss Rabbit’s eyes lit up, but her expression quickly dimmed.
People always had to learn to grow; as long as they didn’t have high expectations, they wouldn’t be disappointed. Urban legends were the same.
I guess he’s going to say that he has to stay behind to monitor me for power optimization. But Miss Rabbit thought.
However, she waited for a long time and didn’t hear Shuo E speak.
Though he really thought that way, for some reason, he didn’t want to say it—
After leaving the swimming pool, Huaxie Yu walked for a while before returning to the main street, stopping by the roadside to hail a taxi.
As the car started and headed towards Mudan Street, she watched the ever-changing city nightscape outside the window. After waiting for a moment until she could no longer see the old sports venue of Huacheng, she reached into her pocket, fumbled around, found the advertising flyer left by Mr. S, and threw it out the window.
She watched the yellow-and-black flyer flutter away in the streetlights, taking a deep breath before taking out her phone again, locating Luxianbei’s number, and making a call.
“Beep—beep—beep—!”
The phone rang for a while, and just when Huaxie Yu thought Luxianbei’s phone was not around and the call would be disconnected for lack of an answer, a soft and sweet voice came from the other end.
“Hello? May I say in advance! If it’s a sales call for insurance, selling houses, or securities, I’ll be blunt with you.”
Huaxie Yu, “???”
What the heck? What’s going on? The person answering the phone sounds like a soft girl? “I—I’m Yu Jianqiu, may I ask if Luxianbei is there? I have something urgent to tell her.”
There was silence on the other end for a few seconds before responding, “Oh, oh! You’re looking for Brother Bei, right? That’s a real shame! He’s taking a shower right now; you should call back in two, no, three hours.”
Huaxie Yu, “”
Does she really think I don’t know anything? Who takes a shower for three hours?
Are you soaking mushrooms over there? No, soaking mushrooms wouldn’t take that long! Ugh! Where did this bimbo come from? I want to tear her mouth apart!—
—
On the side, Jumeng, hearing the conversation between Luxianbei and Yu Jianqiu, folded her arms in front of her chest, casting a sidelong glance at Luxianbei’s petite form, imagining what she looked like before becoming an urban legend, and shook her head.
Tsk, three hours?
Luxianbei looked at Jumeng, expressionless, “What? I don’t look like a long-lasting kind of player?”
“” Jumeng looked at her with a slightly contemptuous smile, clearly saying nothing yet implying a lot.
Just as Luxianbei was a bit annoyed by her smile, Jumeng added, “Dog thing, have you forgotten that I am the deity of management and reproduction?”
“I advise you to watch fewer close-range dual-action capture films. Those things are deceiving; normally, it wouldn’t last that long.”
Luxianbei, “” Not only did you study management and reproduction, but you also seem to have a part-time job at the car management office; otherwise, how could you have so many cars every day?
“By the way, why did that girl Yu call you?” Jumeng asked. “Why didn’t you ask clearly before hanging up?”
“How to ask?” Luxianbei curled her lips, “If it were you, calling your crush, and the one who answers is a different gender, asking you all kinds of questions, would you tell her?”
Jumeng thought seriously for a moment and shook her head. “Definitely not! Not only that, but I’ll also wish them a long-lasting union, with plenty of descendants.” Although her power was about that, and her words carried good intentions, why did it always seem a bit off to Luxianbei?
When blessings go overboard, they can be more terrifying than curses. Reflecting on this, she shrugged. “So isn’t that settled?”
“Moreover, if you want to know what her so-called urgent matter is, wouldn’t it make you feel like ants crawling all over your body difficult to bear, needing to meet in person? Why not just go and see for yourself?”
“It’s already night; I, the urban legend king of Huacheng, can’t find someone easily?” “Aren’t you going to Liao Zhai Tavern?” Jumeng asked doubtfully.
“Of course, I’ll leave it to Du Sixian to handle!” Luxianbei shrugged. “I’ll first go to the Liao Zhai Tavern, and later come back to ask her for the outcome.”
Jumeng, ”
That Miss Du must be unfortunate to have such a master.
As for me, I never make Yuan Ye do such trivial matters. Mainly because I can’t instruct Jumeng; it frustrates me.
Although all her followers and believers are top-notch in abilities and loyalty, their standards for procrastination are even better than first class.
I don’t know who they learned it from!
Just as Jumeng was darkly dissatisfied, Luxianbei had already completed communication with Du Sixian through the follower mark.
Seeing Luxianbei finish communicating with Du Sixian without any tension, Jumeng asked, “What happened? Did Miss Du brush you off too?”
“Not really; she’s not Yuan Ye.” Luxianbei shook her head. “She just told me that someone has already been inquiring about those spirit energy items.”
“You mean, I only asked someone to spread the news during the day, and someone is already inquiring at night? Isn’t that a bit too fast? Is it possible that people from Dachunyang Palace are fishing for law enforcement?”
Tsk! Jumeng spat. “Why worry so much? Once negotiations are almost settled, just have the buyer come out for a face-to-face meeting, and you’ll know!”
“If it really doesn’t work, I’ll accompany you. As long as it’s not that old monster from Dachunyang Palace coming in person, I can guarantee your safety!” Luxianbei, “” If that old man Zhang Hainan came himself, then it wouldn’t be a problem.
———
As night descended, the noisy city gradually quieted down, while in the Bamboo Slips Illusion, it became lively.
Among the rolling mountains, under the towering black giant trees, a recently opened large training ground was illuminated by the ghostly blue light of mushroom trees.
A group of villagers with varying degrees of deformity donned armor, riding on stout-winged pigs, charging “pig-style” on the training ground in an orderly fashion, changing formations and kicking up clouds of dust.
After a period of dietary improvements, the villagers in the Bamboo Slips Illusion were no longer the emaciated figures they once were; they had become much more robust. Coupled with those urban legend mounts, their momentum was impressive; the only problem was that their equipment was truly unbearable to look at.
Strictly speaking, the materials used for those armors were alchemical materials, but they didn’t qualify as spirit energy items, only cobbled together from vines, leather, and metal scraps.
The lion-like helmet atop Gu Qiqi’s head was even made from a broken alchemical cauldron.
At this moment, she sat upright at the edge of the training field, wearing the lion-like helmet, her knees crossed, a metal bat resting on her lap, staring unwaveringly at the flying pig knights charging in formation, her expression serious.
Even though she couldn’t understand the formations of the flying pig knights, her prestige alone allowed her to hold down the field simply by sitting there.
Just as the system had stated when assigning her tasks, as long as she sat at the edge of the training field and maintained an unsatisfied appearance, those guys would practice hard on their own.
After a moment, a rustling sound came from behind Gu Qiqi. She turned around and saw the figure of the system.
“System, you’re finally back! I can hardly hold on!” Gu Qiqi said. “By the way, didn’t you go to buy gear for everyone? Did you get them?”
“Still negotiating, still negotiating,” the system replied, and while speaking, it issued a task to Gu Qiqi. **[Epic Task: Alchemically produce five types of potions, five hundred each, totaling two thousand five hundred. Reward: 10,000 points, two hundred sets of spirit energy armor.]**
After a brief moment of silence, the system, worried that Gu Qiqi might not be interested in the task rewards, added some trivial bonus rewards.
**[And forty chances for lottery draws, with the current prize pool UP, including roasted pig trotters and McDonald’s children’s meal vouchers.]**
“Excuse me?” Gu Qiqi said in surprise, “Why so many as two thousand five hundred? Seven days isn’t enough to finish this!”
“How can you not complete it?” the system responded impatiently. “You know, by stealing three or four hours from the ten hours of sleep every day, and taking some from your daydreaming time, eat faster, wouldn’t that work?”
If it were as usual, with twenty of the twenty-four hours spent idly, it would indeed be impossible to finish! “But…” Gu Qiqi hesitated.
“Gu Qiqi, no more laziness!” the system said earnestly. “The calamity hasn’t shown signs in a long time; it must have entered a period of strength depletion. So now is an excellent opportunity for us to make a comeback!”
Although there are risks, as long as that batch of spirit energy item gear is secured, the flying pig knights can form a frightening combat power! the system thought confidently.
~ Keep it up, Gu Qiqi!
Gu Qiqi was silent for a few seconds, pouted, and reluctantly murmured, “Alright.”
