Free Web NovelThe night Gu Wan Street was deserted. Under the dim streetlights, Lu Yibei walked slowly towards Chunfeng Residence with Ju Meng on her back.
Seeing that they were nearing the alley entrance of Chunfeng Residence, Ju Meng gently patted Lu Yibei's shoulder. "Lu Yibei, just drop me off here, okay? Put me down, or if Xiao Liu sees us later, he'll start gossiping again."
Why did that feel strangely like walking a female classmate home and being afraid of running into her dad? Lu Yibei muttered inwardly, put Ju Meng down on the ground, and nodded. "Go on!"
"En," Ju Meng replied, and ran towards the depths of the alley without looking back.
Seeing her small figure gradually swallowed by the alley's shadows, Lu Yibei seemed to suddenly remember something. She gently slapped her head and called out to Ju Meng's retreating back, "Wait a minute!"
Ju Meng stopped, turned around, tilted her head, and looked at Lu Yibei. She asked doubtfully, "What is it? Is there anything else?"
"..."
Are you about to die?
Lu Yibei hesitated several times before finally deciding not to ask that question, always feeling that saying it carried a deep implication of cursing someone to die quickly.
"Um... how about I stay here with you tonight?"
Ju Meng put her hands on her hips, frowned, and said disdainfully, "My house only has one bed."
"That's fine too. Anyway, we're both girls now, right? I don't mind." Lu Yibei said.
"..." Ju Meng sized up Lu Yibei, then looked down at herself, and narrowed her eyes. "Lu Yibei, do you have some strange fetish?"
"Before, when I was at your place, I wanted to squeeze onto the same bed with you, and you looked like you wanted to scatter a basket of caltrops on it. Now that you see I've changed into this appearance, you actually want to go home with me? Oh, right, you seem to really like White Little Flower, don't you?"
"I'm not, I didn't, don't talk nonsense!" Lu Yibei vehemently denied.
Can that be the same? Two-dimensional lolicon is a hobby, three-dimensional lolicon... just destroy it, quickly!
After pondering for a few seconds, Lu Yibei scratched the back of her head and said expressionlessly, "Never mind. Where do you want to go play tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow, huh..." Ju Meng thought seriously for a moment, then pouted. "We'll see when the time comes! I'll go back and think about it, and call you tomorrow morning when I've decided."
After a few seconds of silence, Lu Yibei nodded, waved at Ju Meng, signaling her to hurry home, then turned and walked towards the outside of Gu Wan Street. When she reached the street corner, she paused slightly, looked up at the snow-falling sky, and sighed silently.
Although night had fallen and everything was resting, she still had many things to do.
Having not seen her for a day, she needed to go to the hospital to check on Fu Xinyi's condition. Afterward, she also had to find Qingji in the dream realm to continue practicing controlling the Power of the Hundred-Armed Giant. If time allowed, she also wanted to practice the sword techniques and Spells she had learned before.
As the Tang City barrier was about to activate, accompanied by the bombardment of Taoyuan, she always felt that something terrible was about to happen. Before that, she had to be fully prepared.
Oh, right! If conditions allowed, she also needed to make a little more Paper Cicada Immortal!
Thinking of this, Lu Yibei took out her phone and sent a message to Mao Sanyou.
Lu Yibei: "Senior Brother, do you know where I can find workers who make paper figures?"
On the other side, Tang City, Baxian Ancient Street.
This street, located in the most secluded corner of Tang City's downtown, is Tang City's street for funeral supplies, mainly selling sacrificial items like incense, paper money, and wreaths during the day.
At night, because most people avoided these things, fearing they might encounter urban legend, there were no ordinary people walking on the entire Baxian Ancient Street, and it became a trading place for Spiritual Energy items.
At this moment, Mao Sanyou, ragged and covered in blood, stood in front of a funeral supplies store called Xiao Ming's classmate, preparing to sell the urban legend cores and a small amount of Spiritual Energy items he had harvested today. He received Lu Yibei's message and subconsciously looked at the lifelike paper figures in the corner of the store, furrowing his brow slightly.
Mao Sanyou: "Why are you buying that stuff?"
Lu Yibei: "For self-defense."
Mao Sanyou also knew about special Spells that could be cast using paper figures, and considering the upcoming turmoil in Tang City, he felt that Lu Yibei's reason of "self-defense" was reasonable enough, so he didn't ask further.
Mao Sanyou: "How many do you want? Do you have any specific requirements?"
Lu Yibei: "Not too many, but the materials and appearance have requirements. Here is the list 【Image】."
Mao Sanyou: "..."
Can't this Lu Yibei do something more normal?
A perfectly fine living person making paper figures in her own image, doesn't she think that's unlucky?
The boss of Xiao Ming's classmate was also a knowledgeable person. He glanced at the list image sent by Lu Yibei and immediately recognized what she wanted to make. He muttered, "Oh, it's Paper Cicada Immortal, huh? A technique from Da Chunyang Palace... and she's a disciple of a supposedly reputable sect, hehe!"
I didn't expect this Lu Yibei to be a disciple of Da Chunyang Palace... Mao Sanyou muttered inwardly, further dispelling his doubts about Lu Yibei's current actions.
What bad intentions could a Da Chunyang Palace disciple have?
Mao Sanyou had seen many Da Chunyang Palace disciples who joined the Night Watch. Each of them was bursting with a sense of justice, and getting them to do something shady was harder than killing them.
He glanced at the boss, ignoring his sarcastic remarks, and just casually asked, "Boss, can you make this thing here?"
"Of course I can! The method for making this Paper Cicada Immortal is very simple; the key is the secret technique to make them move! Moreover, even if you make them and know the secret technique, controlling them is another difficult hurdle. Without a year or two of effort, don't even think about it..."
"Alright, alright, you old man, stop talking," Mao Sanyou, unable to stand others showing off such things in front of him, couldn't help but interrupt. "I'm not interested in these things anyway. How about I push my friend's WeChat to you, and you can talk to her yourself?"
Saying that, he notified Lu Yibei and then handed the boss his phone screen showing Lu Yibei's account QR code.
The boss scanned the QR code and successfully added Lu Yibei's WeChat. He looked up and smiled at Mao Sanyou. "Master Mao San, this old man thanks you in advance for introducing me to business!"
Mao Sanyou shrugged and pushed the cloth bag containing the urban legend cores and Spiritual Energy items towards the boss. "Since that's the case, I won't haggle with you. Just take the commission you mentioned earlier and consign these things here."
Speaking of this, he suddenly seemed to remember something and added, "Oh, right, I saw the list my friend sent, and they're all cheap materials. Later, when the things are sold, just deduct the labor cost for making those paper figures from my share."
"Master Mao San, it's not that I'm saying this, but that Paper Cicada Immortal stuff isn't exactly expensive, but it's not cheap either!" the boss reminded him.
"It's fine. I've always been like this with friends. I don't care about this small amount of money at all!" Mao Sanyou waved his hand dismissively.
I'm rich now, so I don't have to set up stalls anymore. That's how generous I am!
"Alright, if anything happens later, just talk to her. I'm very busy lately with something important to do, so don't bother me."
It's questionable whether he could return unscathed from helping his aunt with something and collect the consignment income.
Taking out a portion of his income in advance to support his Night Watch colleague could be considered doing a good deed.
Besides, that kid Lu Yibei said she only needed a little bit. Even if a small paper figure cost a thousand or eight hundred, how much money could that possibly be? Mao Sanyou thought, pouted, and turned to leave the small store.
In the cold wind, the character "deep" on the funeral supplies store's light box flickered slightly. The boss watched Mao Sanyou's figure disappear at the street corner, gave a thumbs-up, and inwardly praised his generosity, then lowered his head and used his phone to relay his original words to Lu Yibei.
Xiao Ming: "That's the situation as I just explained, Master Lu, how many do you plan to make?"
Lu Yibei: "There's such a good thing? I don't need many, just make a thousand for now!"
Boss: "???"
----
The next morning, 9:03.
Hua City, Amber House.
Snow fell for a night, covering the garden of Amber House with a thick layer of snow. Early in the morning, the sky was still murky, with faint light floating on the horizon. A Hua changed into her cold-weather clothes, carried a shovel, and came to the garden to start shoveling snow.
At the end of the garden, in the building, long white window screens rose and fell in the breeze.
In the room, the sleeping Jiang Li heard the faint sound of the iron shovel hitting the ground outside the window. She frowned slightly, her eyelids with long lashes trembled gently, and soon she slowly woke up and sat up.
The clean white duvet slipped down, revealing her delicate shoulder. She lazily rubbed her eyes, gently pulled up the slipping strap of her pajamas, and then, like the first thing many people do after waking up nowadays, she picked up the phone from the bedside table.
Unlocking the screen, she glanced at her inbox and the chat history of a certain goose-branded social app. Jiang Li frowned. "Didn't reply all night..."
She muttered something, thought for a moment, then held her phone with both hands and began editing a message.
【Probationary Agent Lu Yibei, today is the third day. Please complete your work report before 6 PM today. Reply upon receipt.】
After editing the message, she stared at the phone screen in a daze for a second or two, but instead of clicking send, she gently tapped the 【Cancel】 option in the upper right corner. She then brought up her contacts and called Lu Yibei.
"Beep—beep—! Hello, the number you dialed is busy and cannot be answered temporarily..."
"..."
It only rang twice before hanging up?
Jiang Li was startled for a moment. She brought the phone in front of her and examined it for a few seconds. Her bright eyes shifted slightly, as if she had thought of something. She quickly got out of bed, skillfully put on her prosthetic limb, and limped to the desk in the bedroom. She turned on the computer, then grabbed a pen from the desk and tied up her long hair neatly.
The call only rang twice before hanging up, meaning Lu Yibei was either holding her phone and heard the call but it was inconvenient or impossible for her to answer.
First, rule out the possibility that Lu Yibei had another girl next to her and didn't want her or me to hear strange sounds and cause a misunderstanding. This is the most basic trust. Moreover, if that were the case, she wouldn't have gone over ten hours without replying to work messages.
Friendly Reminder: The Website is about to be revised, which may cause the loss of your reading progress. Please save your "book shelf" and "reading record" in time (screenshots are recommended). We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause!
If it's inconvenient or impossible to answer the phone, and also impossible to reply to messages, that means he's likely in some kind of trouble, or his phone isn't even with him. This is a dangerous sign.
While thinking, Jiang Li's fingers flew across the keyboard. She typed a string of special garbled code into a browser with a blue barn owl icon, hit the enter key, paused for a moment, craned her neck towards the window, and called out softly to A Hua who was busy in the garden.
"A Hua, when you come up later, brew me a pot of bitter tea and make breakfast simple!"
"Got it, Miss!"
Hearing A Hua's response, Jiang Li took a deep breath, briefly recalled the list of Night Watch agents and reserve agents who had also gone to Tang City to provide support with Lu Yibei, and then skillfully pulled up their file information one by one.
"Yue City, Wang Yichen... Mountain City, Zhou Zhengxiang... Jiang City, Fu Xinyi... Foshan, Ye Shihu..."
After briefly browsing the information of those agents and reserve agents, Jiang Li randomly selected one, picked up her phone, and dialed the number from the file.
"Hello, the number you dialed is currently switched off. Please try again later..."
"Hello, the number you dialed is currently switched off..."
"Hello..."
"..."
After making eight or nine calls in a row, reaching nearly half the number of agents and reserve agents who had gone to provide support, and all were switched off, Jiang Li finally put down her phone, her expression becoming solemn.
If only Lu Yibei was unreachable, whether there was an abnormal situation in Tang City would still be open to discussion.
But if all the agents and reserves who went to provide support were unreachable, then there was probably a big problem, Jiang Li thought.
Just then, the bedroom door was pushed open. A Hua brought the brewed bitter tea and steaming dumplings to Jiang Li.
Seeing her solemn expression, A Hua was about to ask what was wrong when she saw Jiang Li grab a dumpling, shove it into her mouth and hold it there, mumbling, "A Hua, help me book a plane ticket to Tang City..."
Mid-sentence, she thought of the unpredictable crisis that might be occurring in Tang City. If a plane were attacked by urban legend or Psychic, there would be no chance of survival. Jiang Li paused slightly and corrected herself, "Just help me book a high-speed rail ticket instead."
"Then notify Bai Kai and tell him to come find me. If he doesn't come, tell him Lu Yibei is dying."
"Huh?" A Hua was stunned for a moment, surprised, "Miss, what silly talk are you saying? Master, uh, that kid Lu Yibei, how could he be dying?"
"It's hard to explain right now, just do as I say," Jiang Li said.
"..." A Hua slightly parted her lips, then bowed slightly, "Understood, Miss, I'll go do it now."
A Hua left the room. Jiang Li picked up the bitter tea she had poured and took a sip, swallowed the dumpling in her mouth, and then threw herself back in front of the computer. Comparing the information of the unreachable agents and reserve agents, she began contacting the 'Harbingers' listed in their files.
Becoming a member of the Night Watch means potentially dying unexpectedly at any time. A Harbinger, besides being an emergency contact, is in a sense also the person who handles their affairs after something happens.
Just like Jiang Li was Lu Yibei's Harbinger. Bai Kai had bothered her about this for a long time before.
"Hello, hello? Is this Shi Datong from Yue City Night Watch?"
"Screech—Screech—!"
"..."
Listening to the harsh, metallic scraping sounds coming from the phone, Jiang Li held it slightly away from her ear, furrowed her brows, and waited for more than ten seconds before hearing a response.
"Hey, who is this?" a rough male voice on the other end said impatiently.
"Hello, this is Agent Five Jiang Li from Hua City Night Watch. The sound from your end just now..."
"Oh, a colleague from Hua City? I was just bitten on the neck by a ghoul and couldn't speak. You wouldn't believe how chaotic it's been here since that... uh, I can't remember the name, the urban legend ranked sixth on the wanted list stayed here for a while last year..."
Jiang Li nodded slightly, seemingly not at all surprised by a ghoul using its mouth to lock someone's throat.
Mid-sentence, the man on the other end suddenly roared at someone, "Stop talking nonsense! If the mountain is full of ghouls, then blow the mountain up, damn it! Why can't you blow it up? There are coal mines under that mountain! Listen to me, if I tell you to blow it up, you blow it up! I'll take responsibility if anything goes wrong!"
Ranked sixth on the wanted list, the Invasion Beast? The guy who can mimic the Powers of other urban legend? While the man was roaring, Jiang Li muttered to herself inwardly.
"Hello? Miss Jiang, are you still there? By the way, is there something you needed to contact me about suddenly?"
"Oh, I wanted to ask if your reserve agent, Wang Yichen, has contacted you recently?" Jiang Li said calmly, "Our reserve agent, Lu Yibei, went to Tang City to provide support and lost contact. I've tried contacting other supporting agents and reserve agents, including Wang Yichen, and the results were all the same."
"What? Wang Yichen lost contact?" The man on the other end cursed, "Damn it, Miss Jiang, please wait a moment. After I finish blowing up the mountain here, I'll have someone confirm the situation and give you a reply later."
"Okay," Jiang Li replied, "Then I'll trouble you. I'll go contact the Night Watch in other cities to inform them of the situation first."
Seemingly realizing the seriousness of the matter, the man on the other end said repeatedly, "Alright, alright. This is important, you go do what you need to do."
After hanging up the phone, Jiang Li immediately opened the file of the second agent, found the contact information of the Harbinger left in his file, and made the second call.
"Hello, hello, this is Agent Five Jiang Li from Hua City Night Watch..."
"..."
It took about half an hour for Jiang Li to contact the Harbingers of all the unreachable agents and reserve agents. She then put down her phone, waiting for their replies after they confirmed the situation.
During this waiting period, she rubbed her temples, picked up her phone again, and as if venting her frustration, sent a message to Lu Yibei.
Jiang Li: "Lu Yibei, can you do things without making people worry so much?"
————
On the other side.
Tang City, in an open space outside a long-abandoned winery near Gu Wan Street.
Lu Yibei felt her phone vibrate slightly in her jacket pocket. She took it out and glanced at it, a faint smile flashing across the corner of her mouth.
As expected of Miao Miao Jiang!
It seemed she had already figured it out. With her efficiency, she had probably already confirmed the situation with the Night Watch in various cities, and perhaps even reported it to her superiors and was preparing to take action?
This wave, oh this wave, is like having no phoenix wings for two to fly together, but a telepathic connection! Lu Yibei thought.
Although she didn't want to rely on something as mysterious as telepathy to gamble, the actual situation didn't allow for it, so she could only do this.
She had even tried using dashes and dots to send Morse code to Jiang Li to transmit the information here, but it still ended in failure.
Fortunately...
As Lu Yibei was thinking, the roar of an engine came from a distance. An old large truck with a tarp covering its cargo box slowly drove over, and then a middle-aged man with heavy dark circles jumped down from the truck.
The person who arrived was the owner of Xiao Ming's classmate's Funeral Supplies Store.
He looked Lu Yibei up and down, testing, "Are you...?"
"That's right, I'm here to receive the goods Lu Yibei ordered. Are the thousand paper figures ready? Are they made in the shape of little people with wings, as I instructed?" Lu Yibei said expressionlessly.
The owner gave a wry smile, "Don't worry, I made them exactly as you said. I found people from half the street to help, and worked all night to barely finish them. The Alchemy residue you wanted is also on the truck. Can you sign for it?"
"Thank you," Lu Yibei replied, taking the delivery slip the owner handed over and writing the name Wang Bu Liu Xing in a flourish. She then stepped forward and lifted the tarp on the large truck.
"Whoosh—!"
With a soft sound, the tarp slowly fell. Inside the cargo box of the large truck, paper figures were piled high. Their appearance was identical to the smaller Paper Cicada Immortals Lu Yibei had made before, looking charmingly naive. In addition, they had a pair of small, delicate wings on their backs.
This pair of wings was the result of Lu Yibei observing the performance of the Paper Cicada Immortals during the previous battle and carefully considering improvements to their flying ability.
Although this modification would significantly increase their cost, it wasn't her money being spent! fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
After examining them for a while, seeing that the owner hadn't started unloading yet, she slightly furrowed her brow, turned around, and asked doubtfully, "What's wrong? Is there something else?"
"Well, ha..." The owner gave a dry laugh, rubbing his hands, "Although Mao Sanyou helped prepay the labor costs, you later added an order for Alchemy residue..."
Such a large order not only used up all of Mao Sanyou's earnings from yesterday but also exceeded it by quite a bit. He had originally intended to contact Mao Sanyou to ask how to handle it.
However, Mao Sanyou had lost contact after leaving last night. If he couldn't collect the payment from this Miss Wang, he would lose money.
Seeing the owner stammering and rubbing his hands nervously, Lu Yibei was stunned for a moment. She came back to her senses and said expressionlessly, "I understand, you need the difference in price, right? Do you accept calamity water there?"
"We accept it, but..." The owner looked troubled.
How much calamity water could there be? It wouldn't be enough to cover the extra amount!
As he thought this, he saw Lu Yibei take out an entire water dispenser bottle of deep black liquid from the strangely shaped /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ metal box behind her.
The owner, "..."
