Free Web Novel5:47 PM.
Zhenwu Mountain Scenic Area ticket office.
“Hah-aah—!”
The ticket seller Uncle who remained stretched, stood up, picked up the string of keys on the table, turned off the lights, and left the ticket station.
The sky had completely darkened. The last bus from Shizhou City had arrived and was parked in the scenic area's parking lot.
No more tourists would come here before dawn.
During the long night, he could invite a few brothers from the sightseeing cable car station and the security office for a drink, which would be quite pleasant.
“Da da— Da da—!”
Just as he stepped out of the ticket station, the ticket seller Uncle heard a rapid series of footsteps, as if someone was running over frantically.
Following the direction of the footsteps, he quickly saw a "girl" covered in dirt burst into view.
The "girl" stopped in front of the ticket seller Uncle, steadying herself by leaning against the wall, panting heavily, her meager chest rising and falling violently.
"She" seemed utterly exhausted, her cherry-colored small mouth open, unable to utter a complete sentence for a long while.
“I, I... Shizhou... bus... left... Lu...”
The ticket seller Uncle suppressed the urge to help the "girl" in front of him remove the tree branch caught in her hair, listened blankly for a while, and then his eyes lit up slightly. "Oh—! I understand, you mean the last bus, right?"
"It left early, it's been gone for almost ten minutes. If you want to go to Shizhou City, don't you have to walk to the small town five kilometers away to catch a bus?"
"But I personally suggest you stay at a guesthouse on the mountain tonight and catch the first bus at 8:30 tomorrow morning. After all, these five kilometers are all mountain roads, and there's hardly anyone on the road after dark, which isn't very safe."
Hearing this, Fang Ji was stunned, and his eyes dimmed.
At Hongyan Villa, he heard that Lu Yibei had just left not long ago and went to Shizhou City, and that the last bus from Zhenwu Mountain to Shizhou City would depart in over half an hour. He had originally thought it would be easy to catch up with Lu Yibei. In a sense, he did catch up.
The closest he was to Lu Yibei was about one hundred meters.
However, the most cruel aspect of reality is often when you see a glimmer of hope, only to be thrown into heavy and endless darkness.
Fang Ji had thought that closing the distance to about one hundred meters was a phased success, and that by getting a little closer and calling out Lu Yibei's name, he could make her stop.
He never expected that would be the final peak.
From then on, he encountered a series of unexpected events.
He was mistaken for a deceptive ex-girlfriend by passing Da Chunyang Palace disciples, leading to a entanglement. Although the misunderstanding was quickly resolved and the other party even wanted to treat him to a meal to apologize.
He was accidentally injured by the Zhenshan Divine Beast, which was venting its frustration after being snubbed by Lu Yibei and startled by Hua Sang. A water column shot onto the wall. Although he wasn't injured, he gained an enviable opportunity to pet the divine beast.
In front of the Xuanwu Slope sightseeing cable car ticket station, he accidentally stepped on two pieces of watermelon rind carelessly thrown by someone, sliding several meters directly into the green belt and rolling down a small hillside.
Although the small hillside wasn't steep and the summer vegetation was lush, preventing injury, he also unexpectedly picked up a gold necklace dropped by a tourist. However, by the time he climbed up the small hillside, the sightseeing cable car had already closed for the day...
Unable to take the cable car, he could only run frantically down the mountain path, hoping to catch the last bus before it departed.
Along the way, falling rocks, getting lost on side roads, encountering fierce dogs blocking his path... He stumbled and bumped, with scares but no serious danger, finally arriving at the bus station, but he was still ten minutes late after all.
It was as if an invisible barrier was erected around Lu Yibei, making that hundred-meter distance seem unattainable.
“Really... can't catch up?” Fang Ji muttered to himself.
Logically, after experiencing so many accidents, he should have given up tracking Lu Yibei long ago. But because of the presence of that familiar aura around Lu Yibei, there seemed to be a voice in his heart constantly urging him forward, forcing him to persevere.
In the silence, he reached into his pants pocket. The moment his fingertips touched the Paper Cicada Immortal, his body stiffened slightly. Then he took out the Paper Cicada Immortal and looked at it, frowning.
The Paper Cicada Immortal was damaged at some point. A small tear appeared in its round little belly, and the glass bottle inside also had cracks. A viscous liquid, like asphalt, seeped out, staining most of its small body black.
“Leaking? When did this happen... Why is there liquid inside the Paper Cicada Immortal?” Fang Ji was full of questions, muttering softly.
According to the information about the Paper Cicada Immortal that he suddenly "recalled," the Paper Cicada Immortal should just be a simple puppet, and there usually wouldn't be a container holding strange liquid inside its body.
“Beep beep—!”
The sound of a car horn rang out.
Following the sound, a military green Wrangler SUV stopped in front of the ticket station's main entrance.
The ticket seller Uncle seemed to be familiar with the middle-aged man driving. Hearing the horn, he waved and smiled, "Hey, Old He, where are you heading this late?"
"Going back to the city!" The middle-aged man leaned out and replied, "It's my daughter's birthday tomorrow, I'm going back early to prepare a surprise for her."
"Ha, you just spoil her!"
While chatting, the middle-aged man saw Fang Ji behind the ticket seller Uncle, raised an eyebrow, and pointed at Fang Ji. "Who is that Miss?"
The ticket seller Uncle was stunned for a moment, then noticed that Fang Ji hadn't left yet, and quickly explained, "This Miss, she said she was going to the city, but she missed the last bus..."
Halfway through, he suddenly remembered something and his eyes lit up. "Hey, that's right, Old He, aren't you going to the city too? Why don't you give this Miss a ride?"
Hearing this, Fang Ji was as excited as if he had heard that the "next physical education class would be held as normal," and quickly agreed, "Yes, yes, Uncle, I'm also going to the city, could I trouble you to give me a ride?"
"As long as... as long as we catch up to the bus ahead! I, I can pay you for the ride!"
"Yes, Old He, the last bus just left not long ago, maybe you can still catch up!" The ticket seller said.
The middle-aged man looked at the ticket seller, then at Fang Ji, a look of difficulty on his face. "Well, it's not that I don't want to help, but I'm a grown man, driving a Little Girl on a mountain road at night, what if something happens... I won't be able to explain it!"
"..." The ticket seller Uncle hesitated to speak.
Seeing this, Fang Ji quickly stepped forward two steps, his face red, and explained, "I... I'm a boy, it's okay!"
Middle-aged man, ticket seller, "???"
A boy?
Uh, how should I put it... If you look like that as a boy, you still need to protect yourself when you're out and about!
So, two minutes later, Fang Ji successfully hitched a ride and embarked on a journey with an uncertain future.
————
The night was deep. The sun had just set not long ago, and darkness impatiently swallowed the last ray of light in the mountains.
The bus heading to Shizhou City drove through the mountains. The lights inside were off, and the orange glow of the aisle lights outlined the silhouettes of the four passengers.
They seemed to be deliberately maintaining distance, sitting in different locations, using the dim light as cover, secretly observing each other, each with their own intentions.
The driver, fully focused on driving, had no idea that behind him, their Spiritual Sense and vision had long been tangled like a ball of yarn scratched by a cat. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
The air in the bus was strained like a sieve, filtering out the sound of the wind outside and the noise of the car engine, leaving only slow and heavy heartbeats.
Hua Sang sat sideways in the first-row seat by the door, her peripheral vision lingering on Saleh and Shem for two seconds before turning to the Miss in the last row, by the window on the left.
Recalling her previous experiences, she felt that the whole matter was a bit too bizarre.
She was certain that the figure she saw while falling in the waterfall cluster, who was naked from the waist up with his pants half off, was Lu Yibei.
But after that, she didn't see any trace of Lu Yibei, either in the waterfall cluster or around the small lake below the waterfall cluster.
Logically, both her Spirit Mark and Spirit Seal had a high affinity for water, and the Spiritual Energy fluctuations stirred up by the water flow were almost negligible to her Spiritual Sense detection.
Even if Lu Yibei had melted into the turbulent water flow, she would have been able to sense him.
But...
Lu Yibei's Spiritual Energy fluctuation aura had simply vanished into thin air, without a trace.
Hua Sang searched around the waterfall cluster for a while and finally found an unfamiliar Spiritual Energy fluctuation aura, following it all the way to the bus station. However, she only saw the Miss in the back row.
Lu Yibei couldn't possibly turn into a Miss as soon as he encountered water, could he?
He's not a character who ran out of an old manga... Hua Sang thought.
Had she not met those two men who had spoken with Lu Yibei, she would have planned to go back to Da Chunyang Palace and continue slacking off.
This time, Lu Yibei's magical disappearance in front of her made her even more interested in the secrets surrounding him.
Her mindset had quietly shifted from being too bothered to delve deeper unless the result was slapped in her face, to thinking that if it wasn't too much trouble, she could investigate a little.
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In addition, the faint pain in her heart also made her feel worried.
It felt like many sharp thorns had pierced her heart, and after the wound miraculously healed, the thorns had grown into her flesh and blood.
This feeling appeared suddenly after Lu Yibei disappeared. Hua Sang felt that there might be some subtle connection between these two things.
And now, those two men and the girl who appeared right after Lu Yibei disappeared were all on the bus. This could barely be considered a reconnected clue, so following them would be enough.
This falls within the category of not too much trouble, not too much trouble.
...
While Hua Sang was deep in thought, Saleh and Shem were talking in low voices, only audible to them.
"Elder, do you really think the Holy Child is related to that Miss in the back?" Saleh asked.
"Absolutely!" Shem said with certainty. "I followed the fragrance of the miracle flower all the way here. There's no way I could be wrong!"
"Even on her body, I smelled a fragrance that was even stronger than the Holy Child's..." Shem added in his heart.
If he wasn't absolutely certain that the Holy Child was male and had only disappeared, not perished, he would have thought that girl was the new Holy Child.
"Is it possible that the Miss is the Holy Child transformed?" Saleh tentatively asked. "Changing from head to toe, including gender and Spiritual Energy fluctuations, in a short period of time, could also be considered a miracle!"
"..." Shem pondered for a moment and nodded slightly. "You have a point. We need to find an opportunity to confirm it."
As he spoke, he glanced at the girl in the back row, then turned his gaze to Hua Sang, staring for a long time.
"The guy who was following the Holy Child is still here, so it's not convenient to approach that Miss for now. It seems we can only find an opportunity after we get off the bus," Shem said in a deep voice.
"Elder..." Saleh inquired, "After we get off the bus and approach that Miss, if we confirm that she is indeed closely related to the Holy Child, what should we do?"
Shem thought for a moment and said seriously, "First, contact the other Elders and inform them that we have found the Holy Child. Second, do whatever we need to do."
"Huh?" Saleh frowned, a look of confusion appearing in his deep-set eyes.
"Idiot, to put it simply, whatever the Holy Child tells us to do, we do!" Shem reprimanded in a low voice.
Hearing this, Saleh glanced at the girl in the back row and nodded thoughtfully.
In other words, if we confirm that Miss's identity, we just follow whatever she does, right?
...
The Miss in the front row and those two men are most likely two of the three groups of people who followed me before.
I didn't expect that after so much effort, I only managed to shake off one group.
And those flip-flops... I've definitely seen them somewhere recently!
Lu Yibei thought, her eyes hidden under the brim of her hat looking at the girl's back in front of the bus door. Memory fragments flashed before her eyes, finally settling on Hua Sang. Then, the figures of the two girls and Hua Sang gradually overlapped in her mind.
Hua Sang? Is she Hua Sang?! Lu Yibei was startled by the thought that flashed through her mind. She stared at the girl's back, lost in thought.
She had seen those Hello Kitty flip-flops on Hua Sang's feet, right at Huacheng Airport, when Hua Sang used her leg to lock the armed thug's arm.
Her eyes clearly captured the moment Hua Sang lifted her leg, her toes gripping to prevent the flip-flops from slipping off.
Although this small action is easily overlooked and usually forgotten after seeing it once, Lu Yibei's memory has always been excellent. Even if she overlooked it for a moment, after some recollection, she confirmed that she had seen it before.
Immediately after, she compared Hua Sang's figure with that of the girl in her mind and suddenly realized that the two were almost identical, from the contour of their chins to their height, shoulder width, and even the length of their hair.
Combining this information, she was about 70% sure that the girl was Hua Sang, but...
That's far from enough!
Is 70% certainty the same as having none?
After all, her Spiritual Sense did not detect any Spiritual Energy fluctuations in that girl.
Although in Hua City, Hua Sang, worried about the dispersion of the night erosion within her body, had also completely sealed her Spiritual Energy fluctuations within her body, making it impossible for others to detect.
But besides the Spiritual Energy fluctuations and those similar details, the girl's appearance was too different from Hua Sang's.
To use an analogy, it's like a dirty kitten covered in mud compared to a clean, fragrant, expression-level Ragdoll cat that has just been bathed and blow-dried.
Even if they are both cats, it's hard to equate them.
If it's finally confirmed that it is Hua Sang, Lu Yibei just wants to say that women are truly terrifying creatures.
As for how to confirm if she is Hua Sang...
Just try it and you'll know! Thinking of this, Lu Yibei's eyes narrowed slightly.
Although she was very certain that Hua Sang couldn't recognize her, whether it was as Lu Yibei or as Disaster, it was impossible!
After all, at this moment, she had not only completed her urban legend transformation but also slightly adjusted her appearance and figure. She had even used her Coat to simulate the aura of an unknown Psychic from the Tang City trip to conceal her Spiritual Energy fluctuations.
But not recognizing her is one thing; whether she will become suspicious through other details is another.
Now, what I need to do is confirm if she is Hua Sang while also helping her eliminate any doubts in her mind.
Of course, adding a little bit of cognitive misdirection during the ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ process of elimination isn't too much, is it?
Thinking of this, Lu Yibei's eyes narrowed slightly, recalling a skill she hadn't used in a long time.
Even if Hua Sang knew Lu Yibei and knew about Disaster, she would never know Yun Meng, who unfortunately died at Shihekou Middle School.
As long as she reads Yun Meng's memories and imitates the way she behaved in those memories, it's almost equivalent to becoming a completely different person from the inside out.
In this world, no one, except Miao Miao Jiang, who can communicate with me through eye contact, would possibly associate the girl in front of them with the name "Lu Yibei"!
Lu Yibei thought, stood up, took off her hood, and gracefully walked towards Hua Sang, sitting beside her. She said in a sweet voice, "Sister, I've been watching you from the back for a long time."
Hua Sang tilted her head and looked sideways at the girl beside her, cautiously saying, "Why are you looking at me?"
Lu Yibei raised her hand to cover her small mouth, hiding her inability to smile, and chuckled, "Hehe, of course, it's because Sister is so beautiful! Sister's skin is really good, I'm so envious. Can you tell me what brand you usually use for skincare?"
The first card to play when getting close to a girl - talk about cosmetics!
Damn! Where did this green tea come from? So annoying! Hua Sang grumbled in her heart and said coldly, "Oh, Magic Clean SPA."
Lu Yibei, "???"
What the heck is Magic Clean? It sounds somewhat familiar?
She searched through the vast array of cosmetics and various spa and beauty treatments in Yun Meng's memory, but she couldn't find any relevant information.
Seeing the girl in front of her Stunned (stunned), Hua Sang thoughtfully explained, "Magic Clean is a brand of steel wool."
Lu Yibei, "..."
What the heck is using steel wool for skincare!
No wonder it sounded familiar, I saw it in Old Dad's kitchen.
I was wondering why I felt so hot all over just now. I thought I got sunburned from staying in the sun on Xuanwu Slope in the afternoon! Lu Yibei thought.
Now she was at least 99% sure that the Miss in front of her was Hua Sang.
In this world, probably only a remarkable woman like Hua Sang, who can take an Alchemy bullet to the chest, can withstand a steel wool spa and become so fair and moisturized after the treatment.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something to Hua Sang, when suddenly, the bus braked sharply and stopped by the roadside.
Immediately after, she heard a familiar voice from outside the window.
"Master, wait! Wait!"
Fang Ji arrived as expected. Just as he said, all he had to do was catch up to the bus. The moment he caught up, the middle-aged man's off-road vehicle fortunately had its engine cylinder detach, blocking the bus's path.
Feeling the faint connection from the damaged Paper Cicada Immortal on Fang Ji, Lu Yibei's eyebrows furrowed.
Isn't this the Miss who was following Fu Xinyi before?
The Paper Cicada Immortal was actually picked up by her?
Well, well, everyone's here now, right?
