Free Web NovelLu Yibei followed the small path indicated by the old woman, which wound through the old village houses like the tentacles of some kind of monster, full of forks and narrow alleys.
Faintly, sad music, similar to what is often heard in a mourning hall but whose name he couldn't recall, drifted over, the sound intermittent, as if the signal was being interfered with.
The black ash of just-burned paper money still carried a few sparks, but the person who burned it was nowhere to be seen, either having left or hidden inside those dilapidated old houses.
Looking around, the small alleys, surrounded by dirty yellow mud walls or broken concrete walls, twisted and turned, extending far into the distance, leading to who knew where.
Someone with a strong curiosity might very well toss the old woman's instructions aside, duck into an alley, knock on a door, ask questions left and right, and then stir up a whole mess of trouble.
I'm different. Even if there were several drop-dead gorgeous strippers in the alley, I wouldn't be interested. Lu Yibei thought, shrugging, and continued walking forward.
----
Ten minutes later, Lu Yibei found the South Suburb Slaughterhouse, located in the wilderness at the foot of the mountain.
The walls of the South Suburb Slaughterhouse were very high. Looking over the walls, he could only see the faded and peeling blue tin roof of the breeding sheds.
On the way here, Lu Yibei had briefly checked information about the South Suburb Slaughterhouse in the taxi. This place was not just a slaughterhouse for pigs; it also had breeding projects, and they were quite successful.
According to Hua City local news reports from a few years ago, the South Suburb Slaughterhouse seemed to have some special breeding methods. Until the year before it closed due to the urban legend incident, it was still the annual winner of the 'Hua City Pig King'.
Looking at the cluster of buildings from a distance, Lu Yibei frowned slightly and took out his phone to check the time.
14:24, it was just past two in the afternoon, and there were no dark clouds in the sky, yet the light had inexplicably dimmed.
Strangely, only the area near the South Suburb Slaughterhouse was shrouded in gloom, while further away, the afternoon sun was still bright.
For a 'famous place' like this, which even the Night Watch could only seal, if there weren't some scientifically inexplicable phenomena, it wouldn't live up to its reputation... Lu Yibei gently shook his head and followed the terrain downwards, soon arriving at the high walls of the South Suburb Slaughterhouse.
Only when he got closer did he realize how high the walls of the South Suburb Slaughterhouse were, approaching four meters. Standing at the base of the wall, he couldn't see anything inside.
Upon closer inspection, he also noticed that the wall structure showed a division at a height of over two meters. The lower part was significantly darker in color than the upper part and showed more weathering and damage.
It seemed the upper part was added later to increase the height.
It must have been to prevent outsiders from stealing their pig farming techniques, Lu Yibei thought.
When he searched for news about the South Suburb Slaughterhouse in the taxi, one article that left a deep impression on him was from four years ago. A competitor of the South Suburb Slaughterhouse had sent people here to steal techniques, and it had resulted in a death.
As for how the death occurred, there was no follow-up report in the news. It seemed they were trying hard to conceal something, and the murder case was left unresolved.
Lu Yibei briefly observed this ghostly place where he would be spending the night, then took out his tools and began working.
There were only five locations at the South Suburb Slaughterhouse that required reinforcement and maintenance of the seal. The task would be complete simply by finding those five locations and replacing the aging seal stakes.
Just as Jiang Li had said, this task required no direct contact with urban legend and had no difficulty.
At least, that's how it appeared on the surface.
Following the seal structure diagram provided by the Night Watch, Lu Yibei quickly found a locked manhole cover surrounded by withered yellow weeds.
He took out the key, unlocked it, pried open the cover, and climbed down the ladder into the four or five-meter deep cellar. A foul stench of animal waste hit him head-on.
Immediately after, dazzling silver light illuminated the surroundings, and then, as the baogang cang owl badge on Lu Yibei's chest gently vibrated and emitted a buzzing sound, the cellar returned to darkness.
It seemed that entering here without wearing the Night Watch badge might immediately result in an attack... Heh, it really felt like tomb raiding.
He had once discussed with Ju Meng how, as a Li Gong University student of ancient Chinese, he could combine knowledge from science/engineering and humanities/history to find a suitable profession.
And Ju Meng's answer was - tomb raiding.
Thinking of Ju Meng's dead-fish-like yet annoyingly cute appearance, Lu Yibei smiled inwardly, collected himself, covered his nose and mouth with one hand, and looked around with the light of his flashlight.
In the dim five-meter square cellar, the smooth stone walls were engraved with incomprehensible Spells. In the depths of the cellar, stood a dark-colored mound of earth.
He withdrew his gaze, fumbled in his jacket pocket for a moment, and took out a twin-flowered lily with a black iron color. Holding it up with one hand, he swung it around, and soon one lily turned light blue while the other turned light yellow.
He put the lily away, returning it to his jacket pocket. From another pocket, Lu Yibei pulled out a small notebook with a red cover and a silver death omen barn owl imprint. He compared the colors on the notebook's color chart and began to write down his findings.
【Spiritual Energy Fluctuation Level: D-~D+
Calamity Reaction: ≤0.01%
Normal.】
After completing the data survey, he put away the small notebook, held the flashlight in his mouth, held the 《Operation Manual》 in one hand, and took out a peach wood hammer from his backpack with the other. He walked to the mound in the depths of the cellar and carefully pulled the short seal stakes out of the ground.
The moment he pulled out the short stakes, a strange sensation washed over him. He felt like he was being watched by something.
There seemed to be a pair of eyes in the dark shadows of the cellar.
Those eyes were neither bright nor murky, devoid of emotion, not like human eyes, and somewhat lacking in spirit, because they were open day and night, never closing, only occasionally blinking slowly.
This strange feeling made Lu Yibei very uncomfortable. He frowned, turned around, and suppressing the unpleasant feeling in his heart, quickly pulled out all the short stakes buried in the mound in two or three movements. Then he took off the new short stakes tucked into his waist, aimed them at the holes, and raised the peach wood hammer.
“Duang—Duang—Duang—!”
After his body was modified by the Ifrit Spirit Mark, Lu Yibei's strength far exceeded that of an ordinary person. He hammered the three short stakes into the mound with ease, one strike each.
A faint light flashed at the end of the short stakes, and there seemed to be a buzzing sound in the air.
Seeing this, Lu Yibei nodded slightly. According to the description in the 《Operation Manual》, the seal was now reinforced.
However, as he bent down to tidy up the aging seal stakes on the ground, he noticed that the gaze that had been watching him in the dark had disappeared at some point.
He climbed out of the cellar, put the manhole cover back on, and locked it. Only then did Lu Yibei have a chance to examine the aging short stakes carefully.
The silver short stakes, engraved with Spells, were covered with tiny nicks and stained with mottled black rust, as if they had been corroded by something.
----
Lu Yibei's work at the South Suburb Slaughterhouse went smoothly. He finished reinforcing and surveying four seal locations in less than an hour.
However, when he arrived at the last seal location, something he didn't want to see happened.
There was an accident...
The manhole cover had been broken by someone, shattered into several pieces and scattered in the weeds. A strong stench wafted from the dark hole of the cellar.
Lu Yibei stared at the opening expressionlessly for a moment, then raised his hand and unleashed a Red Flame Flash.
As he silently recited the Spell in his heart and aimed both hands at the well opening, crimson flames rapidly shot up from his fingertips. Following that, the flames expanded rapidly at a visible speed, growing bigger and bigger, bigger and bigger, bigger and...
Holy cow! What the heck is this? What's going on? I just wanted to cast a small skill to scout ahead, how did I accidentally trigger a big move? What should I do now?
Under normal circumstances, the firelight produced by Red Flame Flash was only palm-sized.
But in the instant Lu Yibei was surprised and stunned, the fireball at his fingertips had already expanded to cover the entire well opening, and then, with a 'Whoosh!', it shot out.
The Red Flame Flash, amplified twenty or thirty times and carrying violent energy, exploded in the cellar with a 'Boom!', and the ground shook as if there had been a small earthquake.
“......”
His ears ringing, Lu Yibei, whose face was smoked black by the black smoke rising from the cellar, fell back onto the ground. He stared blankly at the well opening for a few seconds before swallowing hard and, dragging his body which was slightly tired after a large consumption of Spiritual Energy, he climbed down into the cellar.
Such a large fireball exploded inside; even if a urban legend was hiding in there, it should be half-dead.
Is this Spell amplification?
I'm loving it!
Lu Yibei chuckled secretly, momentarily forgetting that his Spell amplification had a lower limit of 0.01 times.
----
Black smoke still filled the cellar. Lu Yibei held up his flashlight and looked around, finding that the surrounding stone walls were only blackened but not damaged. Only then did he walk towards the mound in the depths of the cellar.
Before reaching the mound, he noticed that two of the three seal short stakes that should have been there had been pulled out, and the only remaining one had been corroded black.
He frowned and took out the twin-flowered lily from his jacket pocket. Almost instantly, the colors of the two lilies changed to deep blue and orange-yellow, respectively.
It seemed the Spiritual Energy leakage was quite serious!
However, this situation was still within a relatively safe range.
Lu Yibei grumbled inwardly, took out his small notebook, and began to write.
【Spiritual Energy Fluctuation Level: C-~C+
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Calamity Reaction: ≤0.02%
Unstable.】
“Cough cough—!”
After finishing the record, Lu Yibei coughed twice, bent down, and was about to pull out the remaining short stake. Just then, he felt the presence of those strange eyes again.
They stared at his every move and thought without blinking.
It was like they were hidden in a place inaccessible to humans, the feeling was a bit like the stars in the sky, but the stars were suspended in the distant night sky, while those eyes were suspended behind him.
Let it look if it wants to, it's not like I'll lose a piece of meat by being looked at.
Besides, with a handsome man like me, there are plenty of people on the street who stare at me, who do you think you are?!
As if to embolden himself, he muttered a few words in his heart. Lu Yibei gripped the short stake, pulled it out with force, and then took out the last three brand new short stakes, stuffed them into the hole, and then raised the peach wood hammer with both hands and smashed it down hard.
“Puff—!”
With one hammer blow, the expected sound did not come. Instead, there was a muffled sound of flesh and blood being pierced.
The feel was soft, as if there was a ball of flesh and blood hidden inside the mound.
Borrowing the light from the flashlight, Lu Yibei saw dark red blood seeping out from the gaps between the stake he hammered down and the ground. A rotten bloody smell instantly rushed into his nostrils.
Immediately after, the mound began to squirm, and fine soil debris rolled around, as if some creature was about to break out of the ground.
Seeing this, Lu Yibei was stunned for a moment, his gaze turned cold, and he raised the peach wood hammer and fiercely hammered the remaining two short stakes into the soil.
“Puff—puff—!”
With two soft sounds, the foul-smelling blood splashed all over him, and the mound trembled twice before falling silent.
————
A moment later, in front of the South Suburb Slaughterhouse gate.
While wiping the foul-smelling blood off his body, Lu Yibei called Jiang Li.
“Beep—beep—!”
After a few busy tones, he heard that cold, yet inexplicably pleasant voice.
“Hello? Lu Yibei? Is your mission over?”
“It’s done. Such a simple mission is nothing to me, isn’t it?” Lu Yibei said.
Speaking of this, he paused, hesitated for a moment, and finally decided to temporarily conceal the fact that the seal had been damaged.
He still had to stay here all night tonight! To be safe, he would definitely have to come back after becoming urban legend-like.
But if he reported the damage to the seal here now, the Night Watch might come over at any time.
What if, when he and those four unlucky people he had never met were being assessed here, the Night Watch people came over and caught them red-handed, how would he explain it?
He couldn't possibly say that he came to this ghostly place to play mahjong in the middle of the night, could he? And there would be one more person! Lu Yibei thought.
Seeing that Lu Yibei had been silent for a long time, Jiang Li on the other end of the phone asked, “Lu Yibei? Did you encounter something?”
“Uh... no, no, I was just thinking if there would be a bonus for completing this mission, and if the bonus is quite a lot, how many times should I reasonably top up.” freeωebnovēl.c૦m
“...” Jiang Li was silent for a few seconds, and said lightly, “If there's nothing, come back early?”
After saying that, she hung up the phone.
Lu Yibei put away his phone and turned to look at the South Suburb Slaughterhouse gate again. He felt that there was something behind the door, blinking darkly, and as soon as he looked over, it quickly fled.
————
The South Suburb area was originally far from the city center, and coupled with the horrifying stories of the South Suburb Slaughterhouse, it became even more difficult to get a car nearby in the afternoon.
Just as Lu Yibei was standing by the roadside waiting for the Didi driver to arrive from afar, he met a strange man.
The man wore a dark fisherman's hat pulled low, covering half of his face. He was dressed in black clothes and pants, and the zipper of his Coat was mostly open, vaguely revealing thick gauze wrapped around his shoulder, with some blood seeping through.
He was carrying a large backpack on one shoulder, which was stuffed full.
When the man met Lu Yibei on the roadside, he acted as if he didn't see him at all. He glanced around and then hurried towards the South Suburb Slaughterhouse.
Lu Yibei initially didn't pay much attention to the suspicious man, until he withdrew his gaze from the man and was about to lower his head to continue playing with his phone, his eyes felt slightly warm, and a strange thought flashed through his mind.
【He is secretly watching you.】
Have I become more handsome recently? Why does everyone like to peek at me... Lu Yibei was stunned for a moment, then turned his head back abruptly, and his gaze met the man's scrutinizing look.
Their eyes briefly met. A flicker of panic and surprise crossed the man's pale face. His body trembled slightly, and he nervously looked away, jogging into the dilapidated village houses and disappearing from sight.
Lu Yibei, “...”
Is he going to the South Suburb Slaughterhouse?
Could he be one of the people who will be assessed together tonight?
Why is he coming so early?
Lu Yibei thought in confusion. Before he could figure out why, a family car stopped beside him. The driver rolled down the window and called out, “You are 【White Little Flower My Wife】, right?”
Lu Yibei, “...”
Although he was reluctant to admit it, he still nodded and got in the car.
I'll change my ID sooner or later! Sitting in the car, Lu Yibei thought secretly.
... freёwebnovel.com
In the evening, at Amber House.
The cold-tempered girl sat in a wheelchair, facing the huge floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the sunset on the horizon slowly sinking below the horizon. The blood-colored oblique light fell, also plating her long hair with a layer of red.
Not long after, the sound of a door opening came from behind the girl. The Little Maid A Hua walked to her side, holding a rectangular brass box.
“Miss, I have brought your new prosthetic limb. Fat Er Ye from the Ghost Market said that wearing this Alchemy prosthetic limb, the difference from a normal person will not be visible.”
“Okay.” Jiang Li nodded, turned the wheelchair to face A ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) Hua, and smiled gently, “What else? Didn't you say you met a Miss selling Zhu Yan Gai (Rosy Cheeks Change) Spell Solidification Mask when you went there last time? Did you buy it this time?”
“I did buy it, but Miss...” A Hua scratched her cheek with a puzzled look, “Is it really necessary to disguise yourself?”
Jiang Li gently shook her head and smiled faintly, “There are five people being assessed in that Monster Story Chat Group this time!”
“Think about it a little, people who dare to participate in this kind of assessment more or less have some skills, and there are quite a few Psychic in Hua City who know me.”
“A Hua, a Night Watch officer, actually ran to participate in activities suspected of being a urban legend organization. If she is recognized, it will definitely cause a lot of trouble.”
“I understand, Miss.” A Hua nodded, opened the brass box, and took out the mask from inside.
Seeing the poor quality, slightly deformed plastic mask of Guang Tou Qiang in A Hua's hand, Jiang Li's mouth twitched imperceptibly.
It was the first time she had seen someone solidify a Spell on such a strange thing.
Jiang Li took the mask from A Hua's hand, put it on her face, unlocked her phone, opened the browser, typed in 'girl', clicked on 'image search', then randomly clicked on a picture, looked at it repeatedly, imprinted the appearance of the girl in the picture in her mind, and then injected Spiritual Energy into the mask.
The moment the Spiritual Energy was injected, the plastic mask suddenly seemed to melt, sticking tightly to Jiang Li's face, and then quickly squirmed, deformed, and extended... In just a few breaths, her appearance changed into a slightly rascally black-skinned, blonde-haired beautiful girl.
She looked into the mirror A Hua was holding up and nodded with satisfaction, “It looks like the quality is not bad, I just don't know how many times it can be used.”
As she spoke, she looked up at A Hua, grinned, and showed a “harmonious” smile.
A Hua instantly recalled the childhood trauma of being robbed and bullied by delinquent girls when she was young. Her body trembled slightly, and she came back to her senses, pouting, “Miss, what are you doing! You're smiling so terribly.”
Jiang Li tilted her head and said in confusion, “Terrible? For this disguise, I have clearly been practicing a polite smile with Li Xuan for a long time, haven't I?”
“You were just practicing?”
“Yes.” Jiang Li nodded seriously.
A Hua, “...”
This... I thought you were continuously threatening him because of Lu Yibei.
