Chapter 404: Splitting Up

At dusk, in Hua City’s Four Seasons Hotel, inside a unique Hunan restaurant.

Gou Meng sat by the window, arms crossed over her chest, pouting as she looked outside, as if sulking about someone.

Today had really made her angry!

She’d followed Lu Yibei to the old building of the College of Liberal Arts at Tang City University. The hauntings sealed in the relics hadn’t devoured many, but that was fine. As long as she wasn’t caught by those thieves attacking Taoyuan, she wasn’t in a hurry. But being treated like a child was infuriating.

What was even more annoying was that after Lu Yibei went out with that girl who seemed to be an insider, he disappeared without a word. Seven or eight hours had passed, and who knew what he was doing.

I bet he doesn’t care about me at all!

Even though I’ve kept a lot from him about helping find the pickles jar, he can’t just leave me behind!

It’s not like I plan to harm him-the Ally Mark can prove it!

Thinking of the Ally Mark, Gou Meng’s gaze dimmed, and she sighed silently.

Luring the suspected insider away and then disappearing-really worrying.

If it weren’t for the Ally Mark on the back of her hand being perfectly intact, she’d have already unilaterally declared Lu Yibei dead and started preparing his funeral.

That’s right. As the only belief of all the people in Taoyuan, when in Taoyuan, Gou Meng not only presided over weddings and celebrations, but sometimes also handled funerals. She wasn’t just a master of ceremonies-she played the suona brilliantly, truly an all-rounder.

After ordering food, Professor Ma came back and saw Gou Meng’s sulky look. He chuckled, “Young Friend Liu, still thinking about Lu Yibei?”

“Hmph!” Gou Meng snorted through her delicate nose. “Not at all! I hope he dies out there!”

“Hey-!” Professor Ma waved his hand. “Kids shouldn’t say things like that.”

He paused, then studied Gou Meng’s expression and smiled. “Young Friend Liu, I know you like Lu Yibei. I can see it.”

“But you’re a child. You don’t understand adult feelings. Your kind of liking is different from love. Hmm, it’s a bit complicated to explain, but maybe your feeling could be called dependence.”

Love is a natural human trait. Children are people too. Professor Ma felt that he shouldn’t avoid this topic in front of them. Proper guidance helps them build a correct view of love.

Especially girls.

If you avoid the topic everywhere, letting them grow up like caged canaries or princesses in castles, they’re much more likely to be bullied in the future.

Gou Meng looked at Professor Ma expressionlessly. “……”

Exactly, he’s talking about you-always treating me like a child, which really annoys me.

I, a dignified 0.418 marriage god, and you’re telling me I don’t understand love?

Then were the 13,627 couples I successfully matched before just part of some human gene hybridization experiment? Gou Meng thought angrily.

“Sir, your dishes are all here.”

“Thank you.” Thanking the waiter who brought the food, Professor Ma looked at the still sulking Gou Meng and gently asked, “Young Friend Liu, will you eat?”

“I’ll eat!” Gou Meng replied fiercely.

With that, she grabbed her chopsticks and forcefully picked up a piece of camellia oil duck, stuffing it into her mouth, as if she had a blood feud with the carefully prepared dishes on the table.

One big bite to eat away the sadness-life is short, have another bowl.

Just as she was eating her third bowl, a familiar figure suddenly hurried past the window.

On the dusk-lit street, golden-red sunlight spilled over the snow by the roadside. Among the crowd hurrying home with heads down, Fu Xinyi’s figure flashed by.

Her striking blonde hair and tightly wrapped pure white puffer jacket were quite distinctive and unforgettable.

Watching Fu Xinyi’s figure gradually swallowed by the crowd, Gou Meng froze for a moment, falling into thought.

Wait, wasn’t she out with Lu Yibei?

Why is she walking alone on the street now?

And she looks anxious… No, I have to follow her and see what she’s up to!

With that thought, Gou Meng looked at Professor Ma and said in a childish voice, “Grandpa Ma, I need to go to the bathroom!”

“This…” Professor Ma’s hand holding the chopsticks stiffened, and he said awkwardly, “Do… do you want me to take you?”

Keep dreaming! Gou Meng grumbled inwardly, shaking her head. “No need, I can go by myself.”

With that, she climbed down from the slightly-too-high chair for children and skipped off toward the restroom.

Professor Ma watched the little figure leave, hesitated for a few seconds, then got up and followed, stopping quietly in the corridor outside the restroom to wait.

–

Taking advantage of her small size, Gou Meng climbed out the restaurant restroom window.

Steadying herself, she looked around, pulled a baseball cap from her jacket pocket, put it on, lowered the brim, slipped out of the alley, and jogged in the direction Fu Xinyi had just left, quickly spotting her.

Once she locked onto Fu Xinyi, Gou Meng slowed her pace a bit, concealed her psychic energy fluctuation, and kept a not-too-close, not-too-far distance behind her.

Fu Xinyi was already being very careful when she went out, but she could never have imagined she’d be tailed by an old monster with the soul of a few thousand years, disguised as a six- or seven-year-old.

So, five minutes later.

Gou Meng stood in front of Room 7017 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Tang City, looking at the “Do Not Disturb” sign hanging on the door, her mouth twitching uncontrollably.

Damn you, Lu Yibei. I was so worried about you, and you’re here having a tryst with someone?

This-this, and you still claim you have charm?

Maybe your charm totally failed and you got charmed instead!

Gou Meng thought angrily, rolling her eyes, and was about to leave when suddenly, a strange psychic energy fluctuation touched her psychic sense.

A sinister, twisted, barely perceptible psychic energy fluctuation flashed by so quickly that Gou Meng almost thought she was hallucinating.

If it were any other psychic or haunting, they might have overlooked this anomaly, but not Gou Meng.

Even now, though she was weak and her psychic level had dropped to around C-, her catastrophe-class haunting’s psychic sense remained completely unaffected.

Her psychic sense told her that behind this door was an annoying “little thing,” so there definitely was.

Thinking about how Lu Yibei had been with Fu Xinyi earlier, Gou Meng frowned, carefully approached the door, and pressed her small hand gently against it.

The moment both hands touched the door, Gou Meng sensed something unusual.

“A spell formation that blocks psychic energy fluctuations? Clear Wind Guard? Heh, interesting.”

As a wind-type sealing spell formation, Clear Wind Guard used an invisible wind field to isolate psychic energy. Its strength wasn’t exactly low, but what was interesting was that this spell formation had been comprehended by Taoyuan’s ancestors while venerating Gou Meng. In a way, she had created it herself.

Gou Meng inwardly mocked Fu Xinyi’s bad luck for running into her, while closing her eyes and skillfully blending her psychic sense into the sealing spell formation, using it as a medium and cover to spread her psychic sense into the room.

Her psychic sense passed through the wall and wooden door, probing into the room. Soon, like a freely wielded paintbrush, it vividly sketched out the psychic energy fluctuations in the room in Gou Meng’s mind.

What she discovered shocked her.

Inside the room was a mass of sinister crimson, psychic energy slowly spreading and corroding in all directions.

The entire room was suffused with a cold, slippery aura, as if it were filled with viscous blood at near-freezing temperatures, yet it also brimmed with a powerful vitality.

If the psychic energy fluctuation hadn’t been so faint, making it impossible for Gou Meng to gauge its strength, she would have suspected that the room was holding an evil god with a power related to blood.

Tang City was already chaotic enough-when did another big shot show up?

No wonder Lu Yibei’s charm ability failed. If he tried to use it on this haunting, he’d probably suffer a total defeat, hear a bone-chilling scream not of this world, see an unimaginable terrifying shadow, and go mad on the spot.

Thinking this, Gou Meng glanced down at the faintly visible emerald Ally Mark on the back of her hand, secretly relieved, and decided to wait and see.

The Ally Mark hadn’t shown any abnormalities, which meant Lu Yibei hadn’t been harmed yet, or the other party’s power could suppress hers. Either way, it wasn’t wise to rush into the room.

There was also that suspected insider in the room!

If she barged in now, a conflict would definitely break out, and then everyone in the hotel would suffer.

Besides, Xiao Ma was still waiting for me at the restaurant. If I’m gone too long, he’ll get anxious and stir up trouble.

Muttering to herself, Gou Meng activated her psychic energy, laying down a few nearly undetectable psychic threads at the entrance of room 7017, blending them seamlessly with Clear Wind Guard, then tiptoed away and headed toward the restaurant.

This way, she’d immediately know when Fu Xinyi entered or left the room. Later, after Professor Ma was distracted and Fu Xinyi was gone, she could come back and investigate.

Tsk, that bastard Lu Yibei, hasn’t helped at all-now I have to save him!

Honestly, boys need to learn to protect themselves out there. Look at Lu Yibei, following a girl to a hotel and now he’s in big trouble!

I even have to clean up his mess. Anyone who didn’t know better would think I owed him from a past life!

Gou Meng cursed him fiercely in her heart, then suddenly remembered a rumor Grandpa Turtle had told her: apparently, there was a beautiful female cultist online who flirted with many naive boys, lured them out, and when they thought they’d scored a romantic encounter, she brutally killed them and offered them as sacrifices…

At the time, she’d just laughed it off as a haunting circle anecdote. Who’d have thought that today, a similar plot would unfold right before her eyes.

–

After dinner, when Gou Meng took the initiative to say she wanted to go home, Teacher Ma didn’t hesitate to escort her back to Chunfeng Residence, handing her over face-to-face to Liu Seer before leaving, finally at ease.

Recovering the artifacts was urgent and the project research team still had a lot of work to do.

He knew his own nature well-once he got absorbed in work, he easily neglected other things.

Without Lu Yibei watching Gou Meng, a young girl wandering around a house full of pottery, bronzes, and even ancient weapons was dangerous. Professor Ma was uneasy.

Standing at the alley entrance in front of Chunfeng Residence, watching Professor Ma’s departing figure, Liu Seer frowned and muttered, “Lady Gou Meng, do you think he’ll be in danger going back to deal with those things?”

“There are hauntings locked up in there, after all!”

Gou Meng crossed her arms and shot Liu Seer a look. “Relax! I checked today. Out of hundreds of items, only two were pickle jars, and I ate them both.”

“That’s good. I actually get along with him pretty well. If there’s real danger, I’ll have to do a proper divination for him.”

Gou Meng, “…”

Please don’t! You know what your fortune-telling is like-don’t you have any self-awareness?

If you hadn’t done a reading before and said I’d survive a calamity and be reborn, would Stall Master Tan’s pawnshop have been blown up?

Gou Meng grumbled inwardly, shot Liu Seer a sidelong glance, and said seriously, “Xiao Liu, any plans tonight?”

Liu Seer thought for a moment, rubbed his bulging belly, and replied earnestly and aggrievedly, “Yes, I’m staying home to nurture the fetus…”

You really think you’re a mother now? Gou Meng’s mouth twitched, and she snapped, “Relax, it’s not a real child-just a ball of energy. If you disturb it, sure, it’ll hurt, but it won’t kill you. Can you help me with something tonight?”

“This…” Liu Seer hesitated, then nodded with a look of tragic resolve. “Just say the word! I’ll go through fire and water for you!”

Given Lady Gou Meng’s current situation, it’s not much better than certain death. Any task she assigns now probably means risking one’s life.

Maybe, this time, I really have to use that. Liu Seer thought.

His divination ability, when used on targets other than himself, isn’t limited to only predicting bad outcomes and not good ones, but due to the special nature of his Spirit Pattern, he can only divine for someone else once in his entire life.

He had originally planned to save it-if he hadn’t found his daughter before dying, he would use it to divine for her. Using it to repay Lady Gou Meng’s kindness seemed like a good choice too.

“Don’t be stupid, I’m not sending you to your death!” Gou Meng rolled her eyes, interrupting Liu Seer’s self-indulgent fantasy. “I just want you to secretly observe someone for me. If anything seems off, you can leave at any time.”

Hearing this, Liu Seer breathed a sigh of relief, a smile spreading across his old face. “Just say it, just say it!”

“……” Gou Meng pondered for a moment and said, “Earlier, some guy claimed he had a bunch of pickles jars and wanted to meet me tonight, acting all mysterious.”

“I’m not going. Only an idiot would go. But I am a bit curious about him. Tonight, you go in my place and see what he’s up to. Just watch from a distance, then tell me exactly what you saw.”

This should have been Lu Yibei’s job, but right now he can barely protect himself, and I still need to find a chance to save him.

We’ll have to split up-let Little Liu make the trip. Gou Meng thought.

Liu Seer, “……”

Only an idiot would go… Is Lady Gou Meng finding new ways to insult me?

–

11:07 PM, Tang City University, old College of Liberal Arts building.

Before the project research group borrowed the old building as a temporary site for artifact identification, it had been abandoned for a long time. The classrooms had long been sealed off, with only a few remaining offices and meeting rooms occasionally still in use.

Under the night sky, the old building was almost completely dark, with only one office lent to the project research group still lit.

The surrounding walls were hidden by withered, overgrown winter vegetation, making the place look especially desolate.

Beneath these desolate walls, the snow had been cleared to create an open space. A figure sat on a stone stool, shrouded in darkness, smoking one cigarette after another as if waiting for someone. The burning tip of the cigarette glowed like an eye in the darkness, blinking incessantly.

Mao Sanyou hadn’t really wanted to help Gou Meng. He came to Tang City only to quietly observe the city’s changes in accordance with his father’s last wishes, but now, he couldn’t just stand by.

A group of people bullying one girl-what kind of skill is that?

Though, to be fair, this girl could take on a whole group by herself…

That was exactly what puzzled Mao Sanyou. Logically, even with ambushes, dirty tricks, or using powers to counter her, defeating Gou Meng within an eight-hundred-li radius around Taoyuan was nearly impossible.

With her catastrophe-class haunting level, and the Ley Line Energy within an eight-hundred-li radius boosting her, her psychic energy fluctuation could reach unimaginable heights. She could easily beat down eight or ten Class A or Class B psychics or hauntings in that area.

Unless…

As Mao Sanyou pondered, a faint sound of footsteps suddenly reached his ears.

Although the newcomers were deliberately controlling their steps, in the quiet night before the old building, his ears still picked them up.

He spread out his psychic sense, and upon sensing two unknown B+ level psychic energy fluctuations, his expression darkened, and he activated his Spirit Pattern.

With a faint blue glow flowing beneath his skin, his body seemed weightless as he rose with the wind, drifting silently toward the source of the psychic energy fluctuations. He then quietly hid atop a large tree, casting his gaze toward the two psychics.

Never seen them before. There shouldn’t be anyone like this in Tang City. With psychic energy as an aid, Mao Sanyou saw the newcomers clearly and frowned.

If they aren’t psychics from Tang City, then they must be outsiders. If they’re outsiders… could they be sent by those who attacked Gou Meng?

They actually found this place? How did they track her here?

Mao Sanyou grumbled inwardly, his gaze growing colder. He leaped down silently, landing behind the two, and placed his hands on their shoulders, one on the left and one on the right.

“Excuse me, are you students of Tang City University? What are you doing at the old College of Liberal Arts building so late at night?”

He spoke with a grin, but deep in his dark eyes, a golden light slowly flashed, like the rising sun.

–

On the rooftop of the old Foreign Languages building, across the main road from the old College of Liberal Arts.

Liu Seer, assigned to tail Mao Sanyou, was shivering in a military coat, and after waiting so long, he was starting to doze off.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, two blood-curdling screams, almost like a hallucination, rang out at nearly the same time, merging into one and reaching his ears. He instantly snapped awake.

The screams were strange-clearly full of agony, yet as soon as they started, it was as if someone had forcefully shoved them back down their throats, cutting them off abruptly.

Liu Seer scrambled to the edge of the rooftop, using psychic energy to aid his vision, and looked toward the old College of Liberal Arts building. When he saw the terrifying scene in front of the building, his pupils contracted violently.