Chapter 186: The Condition is to Date Me, Big Sister
In the ruins outside the small Zoroastrian-style temple at the center of Yumen Pass.
Bai Kai stood between the crumbling walls, staring blankly at the sky, finally opening his mouth to express his wish.
Looking at the wishes of the members of the Miracle Cult around him, one after another, he hesitated for a long time before making a choice among the many wishes.
If possible, he wanted to go back to when he was nineteen.
Back then, he was just a little junior brother from the Yumen Sands Sea Branch, protected by everyone. Although he was often teased by Lu Ming, whenever there was real danger, Lu Ming would always help him resolve it. With no heavy burdens on his shoulders, he never had to worry about tomorrow…
That year he met a girl. Although she looked fierce, she was actually very gentle. She would prepare hot meals for him when he returned to the rental apartment after work, would steal kisses from him while he was sleeping, and would snuggle against him like a little kitten, fast asleep in his arms…
Although everything is fine now, it always feels like something is missing compared to that year when he was nineteen.
They say that memories are like an old beauty, and time adds layers of whitening and skin-smoothing filters to this beauty.
“Wishes? I don’t have any wishes. I’m quite satisfied with my current situation! Even if I have some wish, it’s not something you can fulfill.”
Just as Bai Kai was about to voice his wish, a calm, condescending voice suddenly rang in his ears.
Hearing it, he immediately snapped out of that vivid illusion, as if he could reach out and grab it.
Bai Kai, “…… As expected of you!”
It was only at this moment that he genuinely felt a bit of admiration for the General.
He was really too arrogant, believing he could accomplish anything.
And this arrogance not only made him particularly annoying but also bestowed upon him an unimaginable resilient mindset.
As a descendant of the Lantern Keeper, it seemed he inherited his ancestors’ will, indeed resembling the Lantern Keeper’s motto that states “Fearless of demons and ghosts, worship no deities.”
Thus, even “God’s” gifts were beneath his contempt.
Perhaps it was this resilient mindset that allowed him to endure the corruption brought about by the ninety-seven portraits of famous generals.
As the saying goes, “When the birds are gone, the good bow is hidden; when the cunning rabbit dies, the running dog is cooked.”
Famous warriors throughout history rarely had good endings. The power of corruption carried by the spirit patterns composed of their portraits was immensely strong. Bai Kai, having only created thirty-six portraits of scholars and swordsmen—despite also possessing hybrid spirit patterns—was acutely aware of this.
That was definitely a terrifying power capable of turning ninety-nine percent of spiritual ability users into urban legends within seconds!
Seeing Bai Kai look over at him, the General curled his lip and said, “Oh? I thought you’d be bewitched by that ghostly thing and make a wish!”
“If that were the case, I would have to leave you and withdraw first, as that thing is coming!”
Bai Kai looked in the direction the General pointed. Before his eyes could catch any changes, his spiritual awareness was the first to be triggered.
A wave of spirit energy fluctuations that caused uncontrollable heart palpitations intruded into his spiritual awareness range.
In his daze, he felt an illusion of a thousand armies approaching this way.
As that wave of spirit energy drew closer, it suffocated the sky like a rising tide, pushing in from the horizon.
Following that, two formless waves of spirit energy suddenly collided together, drawing a fine, dazzling white line that shimmered at the point of impact.
Silently, it made one’s heart leap and hair stand on end.
Thus, the sky was divided into light and darkness, clearly defined.
“Boom—Boom—Boom—!”
The heavy sound of footsteps, like war drums, echoed from afar, the ground trembling, revealing a tall figure clad in pitch-black armor, holding a twisted spear, walking towards them along the wide avenue that traverses the entire Yumen Pass from a pile of ruins.
The visitor was none other than the Shaman Queen, who had caused massive bloodshed within the Yumen Pass over the past day, with bloodstains on her spear that had yet to dry.
Upon seeing the Shaman Queen, Bai Kai’s expression changed slightly, and he instinctively placed his hand on the longsword at his waist.
Although only a single shadow appeared in his line of sight, solitary and alone, he felt a stronger sense of pressure as if an army of thousands was advancing.
As if that single silhouette represented a well-trained army.
And this army did nothing but advance, but their mere presence was enough to convey that “they” were there for revenge.
The flames of hatred burst forth like crimson, aggressive light from the seams of that broken black armor, spreading out in wisps, coalescing into a cloak several meters long behind her, flapping like banners, the bright light stinging the eyes painfully, hard to look at.
Drawing closer, those who got too close to that silhouette, intoxicated by the sudden joy of realizing their dreams, would be instantly swallowed by the scorching storm of spiritual energy it unleashed, their bones crying out in agony, spirit patterns going out of control, their bodies collapsing and turning to dust.
Seeing this, the General glanced at Bai Kai, who was still standing frozen in place, shook his head helplessly, then grabbed him by the collar and quickly dragged him back.
The Shaman Queen was clearly headed for the First Generation Miracle Saint. Even if he considered himself as powerful as the Shaman Queen, there was no need for him to foolishly intervene before those two could fight to a draw.
A sudden gust whipped through, slapping Bai Kai’s face, snapping him back to reality as he turned to the General, pointing in the direction of the Shaman Queen, saying, “Is this reasonable? That guy who just died was at least an A-Class spiritual ability user, and he was eliminated in seconds?”
“Seeing him, I feel like I’m a fake calamity!”
The General looked down, rolled his eyes at Bai Kai, bluntly stating, “You were always a fake calamity.”
Bai Kai, “……”
“Moreover…” as if considering Bai Kai’s mood, the General was silent for a few seconds before he added, “I can sense that guy’s authority is related to war…”
“In the face of war, no matter how strong an individual’s power is, it’s insignificant, which is why it can deal overwhelming damage to spiritual ability users and urban legends under calamities.”
“Now that you mention it, I suddenly feel much better.” Bai Kai nodded, “So what should we do now? The situation seems to be taking a turn.”
“Right now…” The General opened his mouth to say something to Bai Kai, but before he could, his expression changed abruptly, turning a shade of pale.
He sensed war.
It seemed the war that would destroy everything was about to arrive.
The surrounding space shook as if it had been struck by some terrifying unseen behemoth.
A horrifying wave of spirit energy instantly swept across more than half of Yumen Pass, triggering countless illusions before his eyes.
Clashing weapons, raging flames, mountains of corpses…
In the next moment, a thunderous roar erupted from behind, piercing the eardrums.
The Shaman Queen, having traversed more than half of Yumen Pass, finally reached the center of the city gates, throwing that bl**d-stained spear towards her intended target.
The pitch-black spear shot into the sky like a black dragon, aimed at the golden figure resembling a deity above, sending chilling waves of spirit energy that ignited crimson flames.
Anger was burning!
The flames in mid-air dragged thousands of meters of scarlet trails, like a vengeful staircase leading to the sky.
The dark spear collided with the golden figure.
In an instant, a deafening boom reverberated, overpowering all other sounds, and the whole of Yumen Pass seemed to fall into a deathly silence.
The surging spirit energy whipped up violent gusts, spreading outwards in all directions…
————
Elsewhere, in a café about three kilometers from the Siye Association Headquarters.
Accompanied by the soothing music of the café, under the soft light, a handsome, youthful boy with a touch of naivety sat shoulder to shoulder with a woman of exquisite makeup, exuding a hint of intellectual charm. The scene was somewhat subtle, drawing the attention of passersby outside the floor-to-ceiling glass windows.
It gave off an inexplicable feeling, as if a pretty older sister had spent money to hire a young boy to accompany her on a date.
On the table before them, a roughly ten-inch tablet screen played live footage from inside Yumen Pass.
The Wordless Book stared intently at the screen for a moment, even though she usually maintained a calm and indifferent demeanor, she couldn’t help but twitch her mouth.
The live footage provided by the Void was not exactly of poor quality; rather, it was almost non-existent.
From the beginning until now, all the footage summarized to a little black figure appearing from the left side of the screen, annihilating various “little monsters” all the way to the center of the screen, approaching the area of the golden figure, casually tinting half of the screen with a cold color, then shooting out a black line, attacking the golden figure.
Ridiculous!
If she hadn’t known in advance that this was live footage from Yumen Pass and sensed that something was happening there, she might have thought it was a pixelated game from the nineties.
“……”
In silence, the Wordless Book turned to look at the boy, their eyes meeting at one point, only then did she realize he had been secretly observing her.
That gaze was akin to the greedy look a little girl had for the cake on their table.
This guy…
He really wants to devour me, doesn’t he? thought the Wordless Book.
She had already noticed that her power resonated highly with the power of the Void. Upon first meeting the Void, she had even felt a slight impulse to devour it.
If it were the Void, which was inherently much weaker than her, being able to devour her power and merge it with its own would definitely lead to a qualitative increase in strength.
Gathering her composure, the Wordless Book pointed at the screen and said to the Void, “Can’t it be clearer?”
Upon hearing this, the Void wore a bitter expression and shrugged helplessly, saying, “Sister, aren’t you making things difficult for me? While the plan of invading the Yumen Pass by using the energy interchange caused by the mutual repulsion between the god realms is indeed effective, that’s a complete large-scale god realm, and I only have a defective product.”
“Having this level of footage is already quite good… And this is the result I achieved after failing more than two hundred times!”
“……” The Wordless Book nodded thoughtfully. “I see.”
After saying this, she stood up and walked towards the café exit.
Seeing this, the Void froze for a moment and shouted after the Wordless Book’s back, “Hey! Sister, where are you going?”
Hearing the voice, the Wordless Book paused slightly, turned sideways, and said expressionlessly, “Going back.”
She had already seen what she wanted to see, and there was no need to remain here. There were still many tasks awaiting her in Observation Room No. 2.
From the footage obtained from the Void, it was clear that the Night Erosion in Yumen Pass had stopped spreading, and the intensity of the Night Erosion had paused, which indeed correlated greatly with the attack of the urban legend that was suspected to be the Shaman Queen.
Moreover, the mutual collision and cancellation of the two different spirit energies might have caused the halt in the rise of Night Erosion intensity.
However, the Wordless Book deduced that neither of these two points were the main reasons.
The degree of Night Erosion, to a certain extent, reflects the level of corruption and decline. Unless the corruption was eliminated, it would be impossible to reduce it. Whether it was the influence of the power of Document No. 0037-2 or the cancellation caused by the spirit energy collisions, it could not cause the Night Erosion intensity to decrease.
This indicated that at this moment within Yumen Pass, there was still some special factor whose impact was monumental enough to eliminate part of the corruption.
“……”
If the key factor could be found and catalyzed to unleash its greater energy, perhaps it could prevent Yumen Pass from completely spiraling out of control.
At such a time, if only she could contact the General or Huaiyuan Jun inside Yumen Pass, that would be great, but alas… As she thought about this, the Wordless Book raised a hand to rub her slightly throbbing temple.
The General was one thing; after all, his entry into Yumen Pass was a personal decision. Although he had filed a report with the Siye Association in advance, he hadn’t left any effective contact information. But Huaiyuan Jun was a real headache for her.
She had clearly reserved a special item for contacting Huaiyuan Jun, but she didn’t know whether the item was lost or if Huaiyuan Jun simply didn’t take her words to heart. In any case, they were completely uncontactable now.
Not being able to reach Huaiyuan Jun for help in finding the key factor to prevent Yumen Pass from losing control was secondary. After all, Huaiyuan Jun wasn’t proficient in this kind of task, and there were other methods to consider.
The important thing was that if she couldn’t contact her, there would be no way to remind her to eat the “energy bar.”
After all, that was the “book” meant to enrage Huaiyuan Jun, containing various information that could irritate her. It was the key item that would turn her from a counterfeit calamity into Yumen Pass’s strongest combat power in a short time.
Yes, the energy bar in Huaiyuan Jun’s bag was a specially made “book.”
Just like an e-book is also a book.
The essence of reading is to acquire knowledge and information; the medium carrying it does not significantly matter whether it’s an e-book or an energy bar.
But now…
It might have been lost along with the communication equipment.
So troublesome, thought the Wordless Book.
“Sister, don’t go! Don’t go!” At that moment, as the Wordless Book felt troubled about Huaiyuan Jun, the Void’s voice suddenly rang out.
“Although I can’t make the video clearer, I might try to contact someone you know in Yumen Pass!”
Based on the romantic history with the urban legend and the Peach Source lady that the Void had investigated at great expense, spending more time together was key to warming up their relationship.
Now that he had finally managed to invite the Wordless Book out, even if it wasn’t truly a date, this rare opportunity; would he let her leave?
After hearing the Void’s words, the Wordless Book’s body stiffened slightly, turning to look at the Void, she said mildly, “Detail it out.”
The Void rubbed its nose with its index finger and grinned, “Hehe, it’s actually quite simple. Just locate your acquaintances, and then slightly adjust the signal transmission mode. After all, transmitting voice signals is much easier than video signals.”
“Conditions.”
“Hmm?” The Void tilted its head, looking at the Wordless Book with confusion, as if it hadn’t understood what she was saying.
“What are the conditions for helping me?” the Wordless Book asked.
In her eyes, it was clear that it must want some benefit in return.
Asking the Void for small favors might yield it for free, but invading the god realm of Yumen was a massive drain on the Void, so it couldn’t possibly help unconditionally.
Just like the last time when the virtual currency god sparked an urban legend incident, the condition the Void proposed was for her to help introduce the God of Wealth and act as a guarantor for him to join the campaign.
Seeing the Wordless Book’s detached demeanor, a flash of disappointment crossed the Void’s face, but then it seemed to remember something and smiled, revealing two pointed tiger teeth.
“Oh right, conditions! Of course, there are conditions. Let me think… The condition is that after you succeed, you have to go on a date with me, limited to one day!”
Upon hearing this, the Wordless Book frowned.
A date?
To observe closely, attempt to find a weakness, and then seize the opportunity to devour?
Heh, what a delusional thought!
Thinking of this, the Wordless Book nodded. “Fine.”
But letting a clone accompany him for a day wouldn’t affect her work, so it seemed okay?
The Void jumped up excitedly and cheered, “Great! It’s settled then!”
The Wordless Book shot him a sidelong glance, coldly reminding, “After you succeed…”
“Right, right, after you succeed! It’s too early to be excited now.” The Void laughed, scratching its rear head.
“Do you know who to contact?” the Wordless Book asked.
“Yes, I do!” The Void replied repeatedly, “Huaiyuan Jun or Nanling Yaohua. They’re both your acquaintances, right?”
“Mm.” The Wordless Book nodded slightly. “Go ahead.”
Though she knew the General was also in Yumen Pass, since the Void appeared to fear the General and intentionally didn’t mention him, she wouldn’t force the Void to engage with the General.
After all, that guy had an unpredictable temper; he might crush the Void in an instant.
“Got it! I’ll head back first. After I complete the task, I’ll contact you again!” the Void stated.
After saying this, it grabbed the tablet and hurried out of the café.
Although converting video signals into voice signals was easy, attempting to locate a specific target among so many urban legends within Yumen Pass was no small feat; it would inevitably require a significant use of power.
One urban legend managing to hide in a café less than three kilometers from the Siye Association Headquarters was already stretching it; launching power again would be excessive and would definitely lead to punishment.
Watching the Void’s figure vanish into the bustling street, the Wordless Book furrowed her brows slightly.
She always felt that something was off, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
Finally, she shook her head, stretched lazily, and walked briskly toward the massive ancient building hiding the Siye Association Headquarters.
Time to get to work…
She wondered how the [Black Emperor] and the others were faring in their negotiations. If the talks fell through, it could lead to a host of chaotic matters.
In any case, there was much to be busy with next.
