Free Web NovelEarly morning, within the Bamboo Scroll Illusion.
The golden light of the lieyang bronze orb penetrated the clouds and mist, scattering over the continuous black mountains and rivers, dispelling the thick fog that had lingered all night. Clear dewdrops slowly slid down from the branches of the black vegetation, like a light rain falling, outlining several rainbows among the dense forest.
The morning in the Bamboo Scroll Illusion is very cold, the climate like late autumn, but Gu Qianqian possessed the astonishing will cultivated by years of odd jobs and life. As soon as dawn broke, she didn't hesitate to get out of bed.
She always had the habit of finishing today's tasks today. Last night, she took on a processing job from Lu Yibei, bought the materials, and planned to start refining potions today.
Gu Qianqian's Alchemy workshop was set up deep in the mountains.
It was called an Alchemy workshop, but compared to the large-scale Alchemy workshops under organizations like the Night Watch or the Eclipse Society, it was pitifully simple, just a small wooden house built against the mountain.
Even the Alchemy tools inside were modified from old furniture salvaged from the second-hand furniture market.
The second-hand exhaust fan squeaked when it turned, and the refrigerator's cooling effect wasn't very good, requiring a solidifying Spell to assist.
The Alchemy pot was a modified pressure cooker liner, the dowsing rod was a part removed from a bicycle, and instruments used wholesale beer bottles or glass jars.
Grinding equipment was not needed; her astonishingly strong hands could substitute. Heating devices were also unnecessary; heating with a Spell was sufficient.
If one were to make a comparison, the Night Watch's Alchemy workshop was a Michelin three-star restaurant, while Gu Qianqian's Alchemy workshop was a private takeaway fly restaurant without even a storefront.
However, a fly restaurant only signifies unhygienic and unhealthy conditions; it doesn't mean it can't produce good flavors.
It was in such a simple environment that she managed to refine intermediate and advanced Alchemy products like the lieyang bronze orb, and with an extremely high success rate.
After arriving at the Alchemy workshop, Gu Qianqian took out the medicinal herbs she had bought at the Ghost Market pharmacy last night and carefully ground them with her hands.
After all the medicinal herbs were ground into particles of appropriate size according to Lu Yibei's formula, she set up the pressure cooker liner for Alchemy, activated her Spiritual Energy to cast a Spell, and began heating.
While the pressure cooker liner was heating up, she collected dew, wrapped the medicinal herbs in gauze, slowly filtered out the juice, and collected it in a small bowl for later use.
Meanwhile, the system poked its half-human, half-fish head out from behind her, gazing at the flame under the pressure cooker liner.
A moment later, the system called out softly, "Gu Qianqian, it's ready, hurry up!"
"Okay, okay!" Gu Qianqian responded, immediately picking up the fire copper block, which served as the base ingredient, and pouring it into the pressure cooker liner. Once the fire copper block was completely melted, she picked up the dowsing rod, injected Spiritual Energy, and guided the molten fire copper to outline a string of strange-shaped incantations.
As the last stroke of the incantation fell, the molten fire copper in the pressure cooker liner instantly turned from yellow to red.
Seeing this, Gu Qianqian calmly and orderly added different materials into the pressure cooker liner.
As the last ingredient was added, the liquid in the pressure cooker liner gradually thickened. Just as the liquid was about to solidify, Gu Qianqian grabbed the huo shan jing (volcanic crystal) from the table, her Spiritual Energy surging within her body, and clapped her hands together forcefully.
"Bang—!"
Accompanied by a sonic boom, the hard huo shan jing (volcanic crystal) was ground into salt-sized powder under her terrifying crushing force.
The huo shan jing (volcanic crystal) powder scattered into the pressure cooker. In an instant, countless streams of light emerged from within, magnificent and dazzling, like fireworks.
"Bang—!"
Amidst a low explosion, all the flames seemed to disappear out of thin air, extinguishing instantly.
The liquid in the pressure cooker rose into the air, outlining a complex shape, then suddenly contracted, turning into a mass of golden-red liquid, slowly descending.
Gu Qianqian, who had prepared in advance, held a cleaned glass jar from a canned yellow peach, reached out, and caught the Blazing Fire potion without spilling a single drop.
Looking at the finished potion in the glass jar, the system couldn't help but exclaim, "It's done! It actually succeeded on the first try! Gu Qianqian is awesome!"
"Hurry up, prepare to refine poison! Let's refine the Nine Feather Thousand Leaf Gu! Give him a generous dose, preferably enough to make him die on the spot after eating it!" freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
"Hmm..." Gu Qianqian pouted, "system, I think putting poison in all of them might not be a good idea?"
"What?" The system was taken aback, "Gu Qianqian, you weren't bought off by just two pig trotters and want to speak up for Disaster, were you?"
"No, no way!" A hint of panic flashed in Gu Qianqian's eyes, "I, I just think that if all of them are poisoned, it might be discovered!"
"..." The system pondered for a few seconds, "Gu Qianqian, you have a point!"
"From what I know about Disaster, she's very cunning! Every time she obtains or refines a new potion, she finds someone to taste it for her first, and only takes it herself after confirming there are no issues."
"So, let's do this! Out of the eight potions to be delivered, we'll add a delayed-effect Gu poison to three of them, so it won't be so easy to detect."
Hearing the system say this, Gu Qianqian readily agreed, "Okay!"
For the sake of the pig trotters, I've only put poison in three of them!
After all, he is a factor in destroying the world, and I can't just do nothing and let him off, right?
Gu Qianqian thought to herself, then turned to prepare for the refinement of the second potion.
————
Three mornings later.
Jiang Li, who had only slept for just over two hours, arrived early at the Huacheng Folk Culture Research Administration, her face looking a bit tired.
Besides collecting information on Happiness Community every day, she also had to maintain her practice of thirteen rounds of Mahjong, which was quite a heavy load even for her.
After handing over the night shift duties with Bai Kai, she had just sat down in her office when she welcomed her first visitor of the day.
An Qing still looked as charming as ever, a slight smile on her lips, as she gently placed a thick stack of documents on Jiang Li's desk.
"Everything you asked me to help investigate is here."
As she spoke, she sorted and arranged the copies of tedious documents such as contracts and property information in front of Jiang Li.
"I took a look, and the results are exactly the same as the previous investigations. From the purchase of land and development of Happiness Community, to the completion of the first phase of six buildings, and now the end of the third phase of sales, there have been no problems, not even minor incidents like labor disputes."
"Also..."
"These are the records of accidental deaths of residents over forty years old in Happiness Community in the past year. The causes of death are bizarre and varied. The most peculiar one is someone who was killed by a fan falling from the ceiling, which sliced off half their head. I always thought this kind of death only happened in the imaginations of elementary and middle school students."
"There's also a part with my personal autopsy records. My only discovery is that even though these people had just turned forty not long ago, their organs were significantly more aged than their actual age, but it was all natural aging; there were no residual Spiritual Energy fluctuations."
Jiang Li picked up the documents on the desk and began to read through them. An Qing waited quietly for her to finish. For a time, the only sound in the office was the rustling of pages.
A moment later, An Qing clapped her hands, drawing Jiang Li's attention.
"Speaking of which, why did you suddenly decide to investigate Happiness Community again? Wouldn't it be enough for us to continue spreading negative comments about Happiness Community online?"
Yes, the number one online hater of Happiness Community was a member of a certain Special Operations Team under the Hua City Si Ye Hui.
Although the Night Watch hadn't currently found any problems with Happiness Community, they still hoped to reduce its occupancy rate through some underhanded means.
"Lu Yibei accepted the task of investigating Happiness Community," Jiang Li explained briefly.
"That's good, I didn't expect that kid could be useful right away," An Qing nodded, pouting slightly, "Du Sixian is useless; it will probably take another two months before she can handle simple tasks."
As she spoke, she stretched, turned, and walked towards the door, "Alright, if there's nothing else, I'll be going now!"
"Okay."
Jiang Li nodded slightly, watched An Qing leave, then turned to look out the window at the small garden in the morning sun.
What has Lu Yibei been doing these past two days?
The thought popped into her mind, and she immediately took out her phone and called A Hua.
After waiting a few seconds for the call to connect, Jiang Li asked, "A Hua, the day before yesterday I asked you to keep an eye on Lu Yibei's movements for the past two days. How is the situation?"
"He..." A Hua paused, her tone a little resentful, "I don't think he's preparing for this investigation into Happiness Community at all."
"Every day, besides reviewing for his final exams at the library in the morning, he's either drinking tea at the Old Tea House on Peony Street, watching Old man playing chess on the street, or watching the sunset-red elderly 秧歌隊 (Yangge team) practice in the central park."
"I feel like he's almost integrated into the Hua City elderly community. Before long, he'll be making his debut as the C-position in the Yangge team."
Jiang Li, "..."
What exactly is Lu Yibei doing?
Damn it, I actually expected him to take the Night Watch's work a little more seriously and prepare properly!
"Oh, right, yesterday he also group-bought an experience pass for the Dafeng Art Center and went there to watch Misses dancing, singing, and playing instruments."
"Finally... he also went on three blind dates..."
"Blind dates?" Jiang Li asked, puzzled, "Isn't he only nineteen? Why is he in such a hurry?"
Moreover, after his urban legend transformation, isn't he a woman? Wouldn't going on blind dates be harming people? Could it be that he's trying to conceal his identity this way?
It's probably better to arrest her as soon as this matter is over, right? Jiang Li thought.
"I don't know, maybe boys his age are too energetic and relatively thirsty?"
"..." Jiang Li pondered for a moment and nodded, "Okay, I understand. Let's leave it at that for now?"
After hanging up the phone, Jiang Li looked at the documents on the table and sighed silently.
Although Lu Yibei was very unreliable, these documents should be enough. She hadn't expected her to investigate anything anyway, just wanted to observe her attitude towards investigating urban legend incidents.
As for the result of the observation...
It's hard to describe in a single word.
A moment later, Jiang Li withdrew her thoughts, took out her phone, logged into the account specifically used to lurk in the Monster Story Chat Group, and sent a message to Lu Yibei.
Genius Mahjong Girl: "When should we meet tomorrow? 【Heart gesture emoji】"
Ten minutes later.
Wang Bu Liu Xing: "Sorry, I was watching a Miss dance just now and didn't see your message. See you tomorrow afternoon?"
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Genius Mahjong Girl: "Okay, see you tomorrow afternoon! 【Heart gesture emoji】"
Wang Bu Liu Xing: "Never mind, let's meet tomorrow night instead. I have something going on tomorrow afternoon too! 【Squirtle wearing sunglasses emoji】"
Jiang Li, "..."
Is Lu Yibei's attitude getting more and more inflated recently?
"Then tonight." Jiang Li had just typed the words and hadn't had time to send them when she received another message from Lu Yibei.
Wang Bu Liu Xing: "Let's discuss, can we postpone it to the day after tomorrow? Didn't you tell me to prepare properly? I'm not ready yet!"
Staring at the phone screen, Jiang Li's mouth twitched for a moment, her pink fist slightly clenched, and she took a deep breath.
Genius Mahjong Girl: "What do you think? 【Smiling face emoji】"
Wang Bu Liu Xing: "Got it, see you tomorrow night! 【Hamster begging for mercy emoji】"
Seeing that Jiang Li had learned to use new emojis without a teacher, Lu Yibei felt a sense of unease and sent this reply.
----
By the time Lu Yibei finally settled the housing contract for Happiness Community, the sky had completely darkened.
Putting away the contract, Lu Yibei felt a sharp pain in her chest and couldn't help but spit fiercely, "Tsk! The rent for this broken community is really damn expensive!"
The various rumors and gossip about Happiness Community online clearly did not reduce the occupancy rate; everyone still flocked there.
Lu Yibei asked the real estate agent to search for three full days before finally finding a landlord willing to rent.
That's right, during these three days, she certainly wasn't trying to integrate into the Hua City Elderly Group. She was about to go to the location where the urban legend incident occurred. Still enjoying life? Isn't that courting death?
In Lu Yibei's opinion, the Night Watch had investigated Happiness Community so many times without finding any problems, which meant that she also couldn't find any useful information through conventional means.
Since the right path was blocked, she could only take the crooked path!
For example, infiltrating the Hua City Elderly Group.
Lu Yibei, who had frequented tea houses on Peony Street since childhood, knew very well that those elderly people in their seventies, eighties, and even nineties had witnessed almost the entire process of Hua City developing from a small border town into a modern metropolis.
If there was anyone in Hua City, besides the Night Watch, who knew the various urban legend and legends of this city best, it must be those elderly people.
Of course, these elderly people were also difficult to deal with. They had strange temperaments and chatted aimlessly, never getting to the point. This was probably also why the Night Watch didn't start their investigation from this direction.
However, who was Lu Yibei? She was the Hua City Trash Talk King!
She wasn't afraid of others being long-winded with her; she was only afraid of others finding her long-winded.
After three days of verbal battles with the group of old men, Lu Yibei successfully compiled some information about Happiness Community that the Night Watch didn't have.
The only headache was that while chatting with the Sunset Red Yangko Team, she was targeted by two Grandmas. In three days, they had already introduced her to over twenty potential blind dates.
In this world now, beautiful appearances are a dime a dozen, while bizarre souls are strange and colorful. She was truly scared. Some people even brought urban legend with them on blind dates.
A large string of urban legend floated behind that woman, all of them Ghost Infants with unformed bodies, scaring Lu Yibei so much that she confessed right there.
----
When Lu Yibei arrived at that rather old street in Hua City's East District, the night market had just opened not long ago, and the street was bustling. Waves of fragrance drifted from the stalls selling various snacks.
She searched on the street for quite a while before finding Gu Qianqian, who was squatting on the roadside selling fried rice, toys, handicrafts... her business scope was quite extensive.
She quietly waited nearby for a moment, and only after Gu Qianqian finished her busy period did she step forward.
"Boss, please give me one Blazing Fire to go."
"Huh? Oh, wait a moment!"
Gu Qianqian heard the voice and looked up, slightly stunned when she saw that the person was Lu Yibei. Only then did she bend down and rummage through her cart for the potions packaged in glass bottles.
Lu Yibei took the potion from Gu Qianqian's hand, looked at the roughly packaged glass bottle with a bit of lard stuck on the surface, frowned, and silently walked away, quickly disappearing from sight.
Seeing her leave, Gu Qianqian was just about to breathe a sigh of relief [N O V E L I G H T] and continue selling fried rice when she turned around and saw Lu Yibei sitting on the road behind her, holding a copper coin in one hand and a glass bottle in the other.
"Ah! You, why haven't you left yet?" Gu Qianqian, who had a guilty conscience, was startled and cried out.
Lu Yibei raised her head and said expressionlessly, "I did leave just now, but halfway there, I suddenly felt that your potion might have a problem, so I came back."
"Is, is there a problem?" Gu Qianqian said weakly.
"Yes, of course there is!" Lu Yibei said with certainty, picking up a bottle of potion and shaking it in front of Gu Qianqian. "Look, this bottle of yours looks like it's been used by someone. Of course, I'd be worried about hygiene issues!"
Gu Qianqian, "..."
system, "..."
When they were packaging the potions, they had considered many possibilities for Lu Yibei refusing to accept them, but they had never considered that she would actually refuse because of hygiene issues.
"I was thinking, test it here. If there's really a problem, it'll be easier to return it, right?" Lu Yibei mumbled.
"Oh right, let me confirm, this stuff doesn't have any hygiene production certificate or anything like that, does it?"
"No, no..."
"Uh, then I'll just test it myself." Lu Yibei said.
"Then, how are you planning to test it?"
Gu Qianqian was someone who was very bad at lying. Her voice trembled slightly as she spoke, and her big eyes stared intently at Lu Yibei, not daring to even breathe heavily.
"Like this!"
As Lu Yibei spoke, she picked up a copper coin, silently thought to herself that heads meant the potion had a problem and tails meant it didn't, and then tossed the copper coin towards the sky.
Seeing Lu Yibei's action, the system immediately panicked and exclaimed in Gu Qianqian's mind, "Oh no, Gu Qianqian, she's testing if the potion is poisonous through divination!"
"Huh? Huh—!"
Gu Qianqian was stunned for a moment. Before she could ask the system for a solution, she heard a soft sound next to her ear, and her body jolted as if she had been electrocuted.
"Clap—!"
Lu Yibei caught the copper coin steadily with both hands, took a look, and it was tails.
She nodded with satisfaction, then secretly glanced at Gu Qianqian's sweating forehead and panicked eyes, and picked up the second bottle of potion.
"Sys, system, what should we do now?"
"..."
"system?"
system, "..."
The next host must be a rich one!
Because the host is too poor, it indirectly leads to mission failure, which is too messed up! the system thought.
Lu Yibei didn't actually distrust Gu Qianqian that much; she had only planned to randomly pick one bottle to verify.
But after seeing Gu Qianqian's guilty expression when she turned back, she became even more worried about the potion having hygiene issues.
If there are no hygiene issues, why are you panicking?
"Clap—!"
The copper coin was tossed up, caught, tails, the second bottle was fine.
"Clap—!"
The copper coin was tossed up, caught, tails, the third bottle was fine.
Lu Yibei tossed the copper coin three times, taking less than a minute, but Gu Qianqian felt it was a long and torturous minute.
Just as she was nervously wondering if Lu Yibei would test all eight bottles, which would expose her poisoning, she put away the copper coin and stood up.
"It seems there's no problem." She said, reaching into the small box holding the glass bottles and fumbling for a while, then randomly grabbed a bottle of potion and put it into Gu Qianqian's hand.
"I'm very satisfied with this transaction. This one is for you! I'll be leaving now. Looking forward to our next collaboration!"
Gu Qianqian watched Lu Yibei walk away, and after repeatedly confirming that she wouldn't come back, she said with a trembling voice, "system? Are you reconnected?"
"Yes."
"Let's not do this kind of sneaky stuff next time, it's too scary."
"Seconded." the system echoed.
If Disaster had tested a few more bottles, we might have been finished here today. the system thought.
"system, what should we do with this bottle of potion?"
"Of course, throw it away!"
"I can't bear to, it's so expensive." Gu Qianqian said, frowning.
"Aren't you afraid this is the poisonous one?"
"How about I try a small sip first?"
system, "..."
