Chapter 405: Infiltration and Infiltration

Under the night sky, in front of the desolate old building of the College of Liberal Arts.

A strange figure stood silently in the dim light, tall and robust, covered in jet-black feathers.

It looked like the chick of some giant monstrous bird that had just broken out of its shell, its whole body covered in black feathers, soaked in slippery liquid that dripped to the ground with a viscous sound. Three thick human arms stretched out from beneath the messy, sparse feathers, each hand gripping a headless skull.

On its back, a pair of wings-almost nothing but flesh and blood, looking like underdeveloped organs-dragged along the ground, while several bald, fleshy long tails behind it slowly writhed.

The entire figure looked terrifying, twisted, and bizarre, as if the bodies of various animals had been grotesquely and discordantly pieced together into a monster.

A dreadful psychic energy fluctuation leaked from its body, spreading in all directions. The very space seemed to shatter, the rippling air reflecting a dizzying light.

In front of it lay two corpses-two charred, decaying, headless bodies.

Even from hundreds of meters away, Liu Seer could smell that pungent stench, a mix of burnt and rotten odors, like a breath rising from the abyss.

What the hell is that thing? A freak draped in wet bird feathers, or a monstrous bird with three human arms? Liu Seer thought in terror.

In his mind, all sorts of bird-related hauntings flashed by-from the flesh-eating Luoluo, to the ambiguous Guhuo Bird, to the feathered killers rumored in parts of America-but none matched the haunting he was seeing.

The only thing remotely similar was Thoth, the bird-headed, human-bodied god of magic in Egyptian mythology. But as a deity whose power represented judgment and wisdom, Thoth’s power should have been righteous and bright. Yet the thing standing before the old building of the College of Liberal Arts was ugly, like a twisted mass of filth.

Still, even if he couldn’t tell what kind of haunting it was, based on Liu Seer’s decades of experience in the world, it was definitely no benevolent being.

As he pondered, that bizarre-looking haunting suddenly turned its head and looked straight at him.

Their eyes met from afar, and Liu Seer’s pupils contracted violently.

A brilliant, dazzling light burst from those deep eyes, like the sun suddenly rising from the night.

Yet in those golden-red eyes, there was only coldness, no trace of mercy.

Looking into its eyes, Liu Seer inexplicably felt a surge of restlessness in his heart, as if he were walking under the scorching summer sun.

A burning pain came from every corner of his body, and large patches of burns appeared on his skin, as if scorched by the blazing sun.

Just as the pain tormented Liu Seer’s nerves, he looked again at that eerie figure, but could no longer find its trace.

Gone? Could it be…

Crap!

Liu Seer’s heart jolted. He spun around and looked behind him, then stared at the empty rooftop where the evening wind swept up snowflakes, his mouth twitching.

Seriously, reading too many novels and watching too many movies had made his nerves oversensitive.

In reality, how often does someone get killed just by looking back?

But even if it came to kill me, I wouldn’t be afraid. If I can’t beat it, can’t I at least take a beating?

Liu Seer mocked himself a few times, then waited in place for a moment. After confirming that the giant bird haunting really seemed to have left, he finally moved, rushing toward Chunfeng Residence on the antique street at top speed.

That thing just now looked like a ghost-what are the odds it actually had good intentions?

I have to hurry and report this to Lady Gou Meng! Liu Seer thought.

Just as he fled in panic, not far behind him, a pair of eyes watched his departing back from the darkness, let out a silent sigh, and quietly lit a cigarette.

“Looks like he’s been scared out of his wits… I’m afraid she won’t show up tonight.” Someone muttered in the darkness.

–

On the dilapidated, crumbling rooftop, Lu Yibei once again saw the swirling ball of light in Qing Ji’s hand.

And then…

She was sent flying again, soaring over the railing, gliding through the air, crashing into the ground, and then vomiting up a mouthful of blood with a “wah.”

Beneath the fair skin of her slender arms, something seemed to be struggling desperately, twisting flesh and blood into impossible shapes. Bones shattered with a crackling sound, and then, like firecrackers, both hands exploded into a cloud of blood with a “bang!”

Bright and blazing, making Qing Ji exclaim, “Auspicious!”

However…

Although Lu Yibei was seriously injured and her hands were almost completely ruined, this time, after forcibly drawing a trace of the Hundred-Armed Giant’s power out of her body and clashing with Qing Ji, she did not meet the expected death.

This was an excellent sign!

It meant that in the past ten days or so, after hundreds of cycles of attempts, setbacks, giving up, and trying again, she could finally exert a bit of control over that deadly power inside her.

Although her current level of control was still not enough to let her use the Hundred-Armed Giant’s power outside the Dream without harm, at least she no longer had to worry about exploding and dying at any moment.

The progress was small, but it was still progress!

As the saying goes, everything can be feminized.

If the power of the Hundred-Armed Giant were compared to a violent beauty, Lu Yibei had already succeeded in conquering twenty percent of her. Their relationship had improved from a situation where she could be beaten up at any moment to one where they could barely coexist peacefully.

Lu Yibei firmly believed that before long, she would have this “beauty” lying in her arms, whimpering!

At worst, she’d just be an old bachelor marrying a beautiful bride into the bridal chamber-go all out!

Seeing her injured and collapsed, Qing Ji stopped attacking, strolled over, and sat down against the wall beside her. “Granddaughter-in-law, have you encountered something outside these past two days?”

“It feels like… you’ve become more adept at controlling your own power…”

In the past few hours, when Qing Ji sparred with Lu Yibei, she could clearly sense that Lu Yibei’s understanding of her own psychic energy seemed deeper than before.

To make such progress in just over ten days, even with Lu Yibei’s astonishing memory, it was nothing short of miraculous-almost abnormal.

How could anyone in this world be more talented than me? She must have had some fortuitous encounter to reach this level. Qing Ji thought with certainty.

Due to excessive blood loss, Lu Yibei’s consciousness was already starting to blur. She struggled to lift her eyelids and said weakly and provocatively, “What? Jealous? Trade your life for it…”

Seeing another swirling orb of light appear in Qing Ji’s palm, Lu Yibei’s trash talk abruptly stopped. Then, in a feeble voice, she recounted her encounter with Ms. Rabbit, embellishing it a bit.

Encountering her husband’s mortal enemy, fighting for her life, and in a critical moment, gaining new insight into her own power… The whole process sounded just like a typical story plot, perfectly reasonable.

Moreover, Ms. Rabbit and “Lu Yibei” already had a deep blood feud, so there wasn’t a hint of a lie to be heard.

But…

“Nonsense! You think I haven’t been through something like this? When I was being hunted by my enemies, you didn’t even know where you were! When you’re really about to die, all you feel is fear and the urge to run.” Qing Ji said.

“Unless you’ve already…”

Halfway through the sentence, he finally noticed that Lu Yibei had stopped breathing. Her body gradually turned into black powder and disappeared before his eyes.

“…Unless you’re no longer human, or you’ve already lost all attachment to this world and no longer fear death.” Qing Ji murmured, looking at the spot where Lu Yibei had vanished.

If what my granddaughter-in-law said is true, then I really need to have a good talk with her.

Come to think of it, she is a woman of deep feelings and loyalty.

But still, just because my useless great-grandson died, she shouldn’t lose all hope of living! Qing Ji thought.

–

Once again dying in the Dream, Lu Yibei’s consciousness dissipated, then, as in the hundreds or thousands of times she’d been reborn in the Dream before, slowly began to recondense.

During this process, she once again had a strange dream, just like the previous bizarre dream about the “girl selling Alchemical Bombs.”

Once upon a time, there was a very cute little girl whom everyone liked, but her grandmother loved her most. One day, her grandmother gave her a hooded cloak made of velvet.

The little girl loved her grandmother’s gift and wore it every day, so everyone started calling her “Little Red Riding Hood.”

One day, Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother fell ill. Her mother prepared some fine food and told her to hurry and bring it to her grandmother before dark. Her grandmother was weak from illness, and eating these would help her recover…

…Little Red Riding Hood met the old wolf, who killed her grandmother and hid in bed, preparing to eat Little Red Riding Hood. This time, the story in the Dream was very normal; it seemed different from the previous two times.

What’s going on? Is there some hidden message in this proper Little Red Riding Hood story that I don’t know about? Lu Yibei wondered.

Just as she was puzzled, a passing hunter in the Dream killed the old wolf who was about to commit the crime and saved Little Red Riding Hood.

Then…

Just when Lu Yibei thought the story was coming to an end, she found that the Dream continued. After saving Little Red Riding Hood, the hunter took her home, and the next day sold her to a family thousands of kilometers away in the mountains as a child bride, making a hefty profit.

Thus, the sorrow of being forced to watch over the mountains shrouded Lu Yibei’s heart.

At the end of the Dream, in a cellar, a disheveled, misshapen woman held a child wrapped in a red velvet hooded cloak in her arms. Her cloudy eyes gazed at the faint light coming through the vent, and she murmured, “Once upon a time, there was a very cute little girl whom everyone liked…”

Lu Yibei, “…”

–

“Damn it! Bastard!”

With a low growl, Lu Yibei woke up on the dilapidated, crumbling rooftop. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Qing Ji sitting cross-legged opposite her, looking grim.

She froze for a moment, then hurriedly explained, “Ancestor, listen to me, I wasn’t cursing you just now, I was… uh, it’s a bit complicated to explain, actually…”

“That’s not important.” Qing Ji didn’t seem to care much about who Lu Yibei was cursing at. She rolled her eyes and interrupted, “I want to talk to you about death.”

“I just realized that this magical place, although it allows you to die and be reborn, and to master certain abilities more quickly through repeated brushes with life and death, this might not actually be a good thing.”

Lu Yibei was stunned for a moment and asked in confusion, “Ancestor, why do you say that?”

Could it be that Ancestor has sensed that there’s some kind of punishment mechanism after dying here?

Like, every time you die, you lose a piece of your memory-just like those classic online game novel settings, Lu Yibei thought.

“I mean, this might make you numb to death, but it will also accelerate the chances of you actually encountering fatal danger,” Qing Ji explained.

A person who does not fear death and repeatedly risks their life is like walking a tightrope on a cliff-one day, they’ll end up killing themselves.

“That’s it?” Lu Yibei waved her hand expressionlessly. “You really don’t need to worry. Every time I die here, every time I clearly experience the pain of near-death, it only deepens my fear of dying.”

“Rest assured, even if the whole world is going to die, I’ll definitely be among the last batch to survive by playing dead!”

The more she understood death, the more she feared it. Lu Yibei seemed to be heading toward another extreme.

Qing Ji, “…”

Although it doesn’t sound like something a true man would do…

But my granddaughter-in-law is a woman anyway, so this is just fine.

With this, I can train her ruthlessly without worrying about affecting her state of mind, Qing Ji thought.

Lu Yibei secretly observed the silent Qing Ji, feeling that there was something off about his expression.

A few minutes later, when Qing Ji manipulated a barrage of chaotic light spheres, several times more fierce and exquisite than before, and launched them fiercely at Lu Yibei, she suddenly understood.

“You old geezer! You were holding back? I… ah-!”

–

12:30 a.m., Tang City, Taohua Road.

“Ding ling-ding ling-!”

Accompanied by the gentle sound of wind chimes, someone exited Chunfeng Residence, carefully locked the door, and turned to walk out of the alley.

Under the night sky, fine snowflakes drifted slowly down from above.

Gou Meng’s small figure strolled through the snow toward the main street, as if she could be blown away by the raging night wind at any moment, evoking pity.

Then, familiar with every surveillance camera on the antique street, she reached a blind spot, tapped her toes lightly on the ground, and leapt up. With a flash of emerald light, she transformed into a glossy-feathered magpie and flew toward the Four Seasons Hotel in Tang City.

Just two minutes ago, the psychic energy thread she had set up in room 7017 was triggered. It seemed Fu Xinyi had finally left the room, and she finally had a chance to sneak in and investigate.

–

Since Lu Yibei fell asleep, Fu Xinyi had stayed by her side, only leaving briefly to buy more medicine and tools to further treat her wounds.

On one hand, Lu Yibei was her savior; on the other, she was a senior from her sect. Fu Xinyi felt she couldn’t be careless. Whether using medicinal herbs with spell formations to remove the lingering psychic energy fluctuation from the enemy in the wound, or stitching up the injury, she was especially cautious.

After treating Lu Yibei’s wound and quietly watching over her until her condition stabilized, Fu Xinyi finally relaxed a bit, reinforced the sealing spell formation in the room, and then left to look for her junior brother-Lu Yibei.

She had invited her junior brother to see a movie, and after such an accident, it was already quite late to be checking on his safety now.

When she left the room, it was already past midnight. She called Lu Yibei, but no one answered.

Fu Xinyi wasn’t worried, thinking her junior brother was just too frightened during the day to answer, or had already gone to sleep. So she simply climbed out the window in the seventh-floor corridor, used her agility to move along the wall, and slipped into Lu Yibei’s room-room 7022-on the other side of the corridor.

She just needed to check on her junior brother from the balcony for peace of mind. I definitely won’t do anything weird! Fu Xinyi thought.

However, as soon as she landed on the balcony of Lu Yibei’s room and looked inside through the glass, she found the room empty, with no sign of her adorable junior brother.

“Strange, where did he go?” Fu Xinyi propped her chin with one hand and muttered softly, “Did he move out in the middle of the night? But all his luggage is still here!”

As she spoke, she tiptoed forward like a thief, pushed open the balcony door, and slipped inside. Just then, a sudden whoosh came from behind, and a surge of psychic energy fluctuation erupted. Before she could turn around, she felt a violent blow to her head.

She staggered a few steps, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw a white down coat standing upright, holding a Broken Sword in its hand, and seemed to be…

Very angry? Fu Xinyi thought, and then her vision went black as she collapsed to the floor.

The coat haunting that suddenly ambushed her wasn’t actually very strong, with only about C+ level psychic energy fluctuation, but the Broken Sword in its hand was especially bizarre. Just a few fierce strikes from the blade sent powerful shockwaves that seemed to pass right through her skull and psychic energy defenses, shaking Fu Xinyi’s brain.

It would be hard to avoid a severe concussion.

Seeing Fu Xinyi collapse to the ground.

The next moment, the coat moved, pouncing over and transforming into a straitjacket, wrapping around the dazed Fu Xinyi, then morphing into a blindfold and mask, and with a “swish,” locking her eyes and mouth shut.

The thief has been caught, but when will Lady Witch come back? Jacket wondered.

(.-ˇ‸-.)

–

The sky was overcast, gray-black clouds rolling above like surging tides, churning up snowy white waves and scattering them down.

Strands of dazzling golden energy, invisible to the naked eye and even to most psychics or hauntings using their psychic sense, rose from the vast land like threads, soaring upward and converging into the body of a magpie.

Considering that besides Lu Yibei, there might be another formidable opponent in that room, Gou Meng drew upon the Ley Line Energy of Tang City.

If a real conflict broke out, she would just have to use her fists to show the other party who the real boss of this land was!

The magpie soared through the sky, its black wings slicing through the fine snowflakes falling from above. Beneath the darkened heavens, the city shrouded in darkness flickered with lights, like a reflection of the starry sky.

Gou Meng had seen such nightscapes many times before, yet she still found them beautiful. If she weren’t anxious to know Lu Yibei’s situation, she would probably have found a place-perhaps the top of the Tang City TV Tower-to sit, drink with the snow, and quietly admire the view.

From the antique street to the Four Seasons Hotel in Tang City, the few kilometers vanished in an instant.

Soon, Gou Meng landed on the balcony railing of room 7017 at the hotel. The balcony door was locked, the curtains tightly drawn, making it impossible to see inside.

She spread her psychic sense, using her previous connection with the Clear Wind Guard to probe the situation inside. After confirming that the source of the evil psychic energy fluctuation hadn’t noticed her arrival, she leapt lightly down from the railing.

With emerald light swirling around the magpie’s petite body and a few black feathers drifting down, a stunning woman landed silently on the balcony.

Tall and slender, with long hair tinged with a dark green sheen, she wore a peacock-green Qipao embroidered with peach blossoms, accented by a snowy white fur collar. The hem of her dress revealed perfect leg curves. Her alluring yet unpretentious figure stood quietly in the wind and snow, like a delicate peach blossom.

“Hiss-ha-!”

Gou Meng reached behind her to take the slender pipe from her waist, took a puff, and squinted as she slowly exhaled smoke toward the balcony door. As the white smoke drifted forward, the door lock trembled slightly. With a “click!”, a gap opened.

Seeing this, she gracefully stepped forward and pushed the door open to enter.

The next moment, a strange, alluring fragrance swept over her.

It was a scent both as sweet as blood and as rich as flowers, burrowing into her nose and instantly conjuring up some blood-stirring images in her mind.

A faint, seductive fragrance that made one think of a woman’s intoxicating allure.

Gou Meng felt a moment of dizziness, even sensing a slight physical reaction. She hurriedly activated her psychic energy to resist the bizarre power hidden in the scent.

Where did this seductive vixen come from, using an aphrodisiac as an air freshener?

If Lu Yibei was really inside, he was probably a lost cause by now-definitely tainted.

With his survival-above-all-else personality, if he was stuck with this kind of vixen, she wouldn’t even need to threaten or tempt him; he’d probably offer up his dignity and chastity on his own… just to stay alive, right?

As Gou Meng thought this, her eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, and she saw the girl lying on the bed.

The dimly lit bedroom was warm from the heater. The girl slept soundly among white cotton quilts, the covers kicked into disarray. Her slender arms and the curves of her waist, wrapped in bandages, were exposed, and behind her spread long, silvery hair.

Ignoring the terrible sleeping posture, the scene before her was definitely seductive. The girl slept deeply, her skin glowing like jade in the faint light from the window, her whole body exuding a bewitching aura. Perhaps it was the blood-stained bandages that gave her a touch of morbid beauty.

Amid the strange fragrance and the faint, evil psychic energy fluctuation seeping from the walls, she looked like a dying Venus sleeping in a flower of sin.

Gou Meng’s gaze swept over the girl’s chest, slightly deformed by the bandages. She rolled her eyes and couldn’t help but mutter under her breath, “Shameless!”

Then, as if remembering something, she leaned in and carefully examined the girl’s face, frowning.

This face… why does it look so familiar?

There was a strange sense of déjà vu…

Gou Meng frowned, playing with her pipe in one hand, pondering for a while, then suddenly widened her eyes.

Wait, wait!

She looked a lot like the enemy whose portrait she and Lin Yiqi had drawn from memory. Though she seemed more mature, they were both witch types-could they be the same person?

And Lu Yibei was from Hua City, and that witch type’s activity range was also around Hua City. Could they… Gou Meng wondered.

Just then, the girl on the bed let out a soft nasal sound, her eyelids trembling slightly. In the darkness, she slowly opened her eyes…

In the darkness, two pairs of beautiful eyes met in silence, and the atmosphere instantly turned strange.

Gou Meng, “…”

Lu Yibei, “???”