Free Web NovelWhen Lu Yibei discovered that the person leading the group of tall men was Li Xuan, her subconscious reaction was to retreat, turn around, create distance, and then sprint away at a hundred meters.
But she was ultimately a step too slow and was stopped by Li Xuan.
"Didn't expect you to be here too?" Li Xuan said to Lu Yibei with a smile, but Lu Yibei always felt his smile was like a high-speed express train to Yun Kang Mental Hospital.
"Yes, yes!" Lu Yibei replied expressionlessly, responding in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Didn't Jiang Li tell me to always pay attention to unusual incidents around me? I was just about to go to the office with the Teacher, met you on the way, so of course I had to come over and take a look!" ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
What did I say? Don't watch the excitement, don't watch the excitement! Now look, got into trouble, didn't I?
Should have thought of it earlier, with something like this happening, how could the Night Watch not send someone? Lu Yibei thought.
As the saying goes, a clear conscience fears no ghost knocking on the door. Ever since Li Xuan knocked on her own door last time, Lu Yibei always felt that there was something off about Li Xuan, as if he had discovered some secret about her, making her feel uncomfortable all over.
Damn it, if he sees through something and arrests me, how should I notify Ju Meng to escape...
No, why would I have the thought of notifying her to escape? This whole thing is her fault. If I get caught, I'll definitely drag her down with me. Lu Yibei thought.
"Is that so?" Li Xuan smiled, "Then you are truly dedicated to your job!"
As he spoke, his deep eyes seemed to whisper to Lu Yibei, "I've already discovered your secret, you'd better be careful not to let me catch you."
"Of course!" Lu Yibei braced herself and continued to babble to Li Xuan, "Young people like me, who are brave, humorous, and full of a sense of justice, are truly rare nowadays."
That's too thick-skinned! Li Xuan's mouth twitched, and he raised his hand to heavily pat Lu Yibei's shoulder.
"You're right, but there's nothing for you here now, I will handle the rest."
Lu Yibei felt her shoulder blade was about to be broken by that bastard Li Xuan, and she gritted her teeth, squeezing words through them, "Yes, yes, I'm actually very scared of this kind of thing myself. Since you're here, I'll leave it to you. The Teacher and I have important matters to discuss, so I'll be going first."
After speaking, Lu Yibei turned around and quickly pulled the bewildered Professor Ma away from the place of trouble.
Li Xuan stood in place, narrowing his eyes, watching Lu Yibei's departing back, lost in thought.
How strange, why do you always appear wherever something happens? It's really hard for me not to be suspicious of you!
Although you spoke well, you'd better not let me catch your Fox tail! Li Xuan thought.
If it weren't for his apprehension about what might be hidden in Lu Yibei's home, and his worry about Bai Kai puncturing his tires again, he would definitely have Lu Yibei controlled and investigated thoroughly.
As Li Xuan was pondering, a tall man approached and whispered in his ear, "Li Gan Yuan (Officer Li), An Qing Gan Yuan's test results are out, it can basically be confirmed as a urban legend incident."
As he spoke, he handed the tablet in his hand to Li Xuan.
Due to the high degree of decomposition of He Ruo's body and the absence of obvious fatal injuries on the bones, An Qing temporarily only analyzed the black viscous liquid collected from the corpse.
The analysis results of the liquid were strange.
Its composition was only a mixture of body fluids and decomposed body organs, completely lacking bacteria that could cause soft tissue dissolution. Instead, it seemed to be the result of dissolution by corrosive chemical agents, yet no chemical agents were detected in the mixture. Combining these two points, An Qing ruled out human involvement.
However, what she found eerie was that after analyzing the Spell inspection, no residual Spiritual Energy fluctuations were found in the black viscous liquid either, meaning it couldn't be definitively concluded that it was the work of a urban legend.
"So, you've thrown the problem to me? That's really a headache!" Li Xuan said with a wry smile, rubbing his temples after reading An Qing's report.
...
Lu Yibei followed Professor Ma upstairs.
It wasn't until she sat down in the seminar room that Professor Ma couldn't suppress his curiosity and asked, "Do you know that police officer just now? Why do I feel like he was being fierce towards you?"
"Uh..." Lu Yibei paused, then said, "I know him, but not well. He's just a colleague of my godfather."
She paused for a moment, then added, "He always thinks I mess with occult stuff, that I'm not serious, and he has a prejudice against me."
Lu Yibei didn't want Professor Ma to have any strange ideas about her, nor could she expose the existence of the Night Watch, so she could only tell a small lie.
"Oh, I see." Professor Ma's face showed understanding, "Police officers who deal with various cases year-round either firmly believe in the mysterious, or they don't believe in ghosts or spirits at all. Your godfather's colleague is probably the latter."
After speaking, Professor Ma secretly added in his heart, unexpected that the plot of exorcists having conflicts with police, written in novels, can actually be encountered in reality. Indeed, art originates from life.
Seeing that Professor Ma was rationalizing the matter in a positive way, Lu Yibei didn't continue to explain, nodded, and brought the topic back to the main point, "Professor, shouldn't we look at that set of bamboo slips now?"
"Oh, right! The bamboo slips, look at my memory."
Professor Ma patted his head and smiled, then got up and walked towards the storage room. As usual, Lu Yibei didn't follow him in, just sat on the chair, waiting quietly.
He opened the anti-theft door of the storage room and walked in.
An unusual expression appeared on Professor Ma's aged face. His thick eyebrows twisted together, as if containing anger. His slightly cloudy eyes stared blankly at something unknown, lost in thought. His lips moved slightly, as if speaking, but not a sound was made.
This state lasted for a few seconds before he returned to normal, his face now filled with anxiety and unease.
"What was wrong with me just now?"
He muttered to himself, looking up at the rustic wooden box on the display shelf.
It lay there quietly, like a cage imprisoning a monstrous beast, on the metal display shelf. The black-brown surface, tinged with red, was illuminated by pale light, yet inexplicably, the surroundings felt shrouded in an elusive shadow.
Staring at it, the crazy thought of not wanting to give it to Lu Yibei, and even wanting to hide it, arose in Professor Ma' heart once again.
But the mysterious disappearance of his old friend and student Lu Xu, as well as the news of He Ruo's death this morning, filled him with fear. That fear was like a cold steel needle, piercing his nerves, restoring some of his rationality.
Perhaps I should toss a coin as usual? The thought suddenly occurred to Professor Ma the moment he was about to open the box.
In the past, whenever I encountered a difficult problem, I would hand over the right to choose to that coin. Why not do the same this time?
Thinking this, he reached into the breast pocket of his suit jacket, fumbled for the smooth and shiny coin, and with a "Ding!" sound, flicked it into the air.
Heads means give, tails means don't give. Professor Ma muttered to himself, his gaze following the trajectory of the coin. The moment it fell in front of him, he reached out and covered it with the back of his hand.
However, the moment his hand covered it, his expression froze, and the corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
He could clearly feel that the moment his palm covered it, the coin had wedged itself between his fingers, standing upright on the back of his hand...
...
Lu Yibei waited for a while in the seminar room.
When Professor Ma came out of the storage room again, he saw that Professor Ma was holding a rustic copper-inlaid wooden box in his arms.
While in the storage room, Professor Ma had tossed the coin three times consecutively and got the same result. This was no longer something that could be explained by a low-probability event, which made him feel vaguely uneasy.
Perhaps it was because of this unease that he finally made up his mind to hand the bamboo slips to Lu Yibei, only changing the method from directly taking out the bamboo slips to giving him the box as well.
Lu Yibei saw the wooden box in Professor Ma's arms and was slightly taken aback for a moment, muttering to herself, wasn't this the strange wooden box that young man had in his hands before?
So he came to see Professor Ma that day to give him the bamboo slips?
"Take a look?"
As Lu Yibei was thinking, Professor Ma placed the bamboo slips on the table, pushed them towards her, and then moved his chair aside, seemingly having some apprehension about the bamboo slips.
"Okay." Lu Yibei nodded, thinking that even if she couldn't find anything unusual this time, she would write down all the content on the bamboo slips and take them back for Ju Meng to translate, as she opened the wooden box.
A faint scent of camphor wood wafted out, and the roll of bamboo slips with a black and shiny surface appeared before her eyes.
The moment she saw the bamboo slips, Lu Yibei's eyes began to sting slightly, and the scene before her eyes also began to distort in waves.
Feeling the abnormal reaction in her eyes, similar to what happened before ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) seeing illusions in the past, Lu Yibei slightly furrowed her brow.
These bamboo slips are indeed problematic!
Alright then, let me see what secrets you're hiding!
It's just an illusion, isn't it? Looking at it won't kill anyone!
Lu Yibei inwardly cheered herself on a few times, took a deep breath, and reached out to pick up the bamboo slips.
The moment she held the bamboo slips in her hand, the scene before her eyes was already plunged into a distorted interplay of light and shadow. A strange power emanated from the bamboo slips, kneading and stretching the light in the air, sending out ripples and stirring up strange vortices, pulling at her consciousness.
She gritted her teeth and slowly unrolled the bamboo slips. As those strange, special characters were exposed, the scene before her eyes gradually became clear.
She steadied herself.
She saw a desolate village surrounded by mountains. Those dark mountains were like hairy giants, their forms hidden in the clouds, their unseen giant eyes looking down upon the land.
Rain fell continuously from the sky, the leaden clouds like mountains, blocking out all heavenly light, making it hard to breathe.
Lu Yibei stood on the muddy path, feeling the cold rain hitting her face. The pinkish-white strands of hair at her temples were soaked by the rain, sticking together and clinging to her cheeks.
She saw the village was dim and gloomy, with no one seeming to be behind the dark window frames and doorways. The entire village was shrouded in moisture, as if lost in another world.
This place...
Lu Yibei slightly furrowed her brow. She had thought she might see the soldiers who were like walking corpses on the journey to find the deity, or perhaps a chilling bloody sacrifice, but she never expected to see such a desolate village.
"Du yi——!"
Before Lu Yibei could think carefully, a sudden sharp, piercing suona sound came from the depths of the desolate village, interrupting her thoughts.
The mournful sound was like a lament from a distant time.
She stared expressionlessly in the direction of the sound. On the winding, narrow path, the heavy rain beat down on the mud. The thatched huts on either side were silent. Everything looked exactly the same as before.
But her intuition told her that something unseen had been added to that path, and those things were coming.
