Chapter 407: Suspicion

Hand over Lu Yibei, or die?

It’s the middle of the night-where am I supposed to find Lu Yibei for you?

Lu Yibei thought, looking at Gou Meng with a blank expression. “Then you might as well just kill me.”

“As you wish…” Gou Meng’s cold voice came through.

Some people just have to taste a bit of suffering before they’re willing to tell the truth-no tears until they see the coffin.

Gou Meng thought, her red lips moving silently as she began to chant a spell formation.

Clear Wind Guard, Pact of Stone, Four Spirits of Spring… Seventeen or eighteen sealing and enhancement spell formations lit up almost simultaneously behind Gou Meng, rippling outwards, spreading and merging into the four walls.

After several psychic sense probes, she had a decent grasp of the strength of the lying witch type in front of her. If she wanted to make her suffer, she’d at least need to use means equivalent to the precision spell formation standards of The Midnight Watchers Society.

However, precision spell formations were powerful, and the Four Seasons Hotel in Tang City couldn’t withstand that kind of force. Only by setting up the “execution ground” in advance could she ensure that innocent people wouldn’t be affected.

Now, after Gou Meng personally reinforced the hotel room with seventeen or eighteen spell formations, to put it bluntly, it could easily withstand a whole football team of psychics unleashing precision spell formations at each other.

Next came the moment for torture. Although I’ve never liked doing such cruel things, who told this person to be so dishonest? Gou Meng thought.

Something’s wrong, very wrong!

Lu Yibei didn’t know what Gou Meng had done in the past second or two, but she just felt that it looked impressive and extremely off.

“Wait, are you really going to kill me? I was just saying, why are you taking it so seriously?”

“This is a luxury hotel, the facilities are expensive. If you break something, the compensation alone could buy you ten premium loot boxes-don’t be impulsive!”

“That’s why I reinforced everything with spell formations in advance…” Gou Meng said calmly.

Lu Yibei, “……”

Gou Meng stared at Lu Yibei coldly, raising her psychic energy fluctuation as she softly chanted, “Taihao commands the qi, Gou Mang begins the work. Azure Dragon, green banner, all things revive…”

As her words fell, the suddenly restless psychic energy surged from within her, racing through the cramped hotel room. The air itself was tainted by that terrifying power, glowing with a verdant green light.

The bloody, murky stench that had filled the room from Lu Yibei’s splattered blood was instantly swept away, replaced by a surging, vigorous vitality.

But unlike ordinary vitality, this one carried a sense of severity, competition, and devouring-silently proclaiming nature’s cruel law: survival of the fittest, the strong prey on the weak!

In a daze, Lu Yibei seemed to see visions: shrubs devouring wild grass, giant trees stealing nutrients from shrubs, and the giant trees themselves being drained by parasitic plants.

[A big cabbage is growing strong.] A strange premonition flashed through Lu Yibei’s mind.

“……”

What the hell? A tree grows strong-how is that dangerous? Lu Yibei wondered in confusion.

Then…

With a “bang!”, the Kangshuai Bo braised beef noodle on the table suddenly exploded. The vegetable packet inside miraculously came back to life, sprouting huge cabbages and carrots all over the floor.

Those cabbages and carrots seemed to have gained sentience, wriggling on the ground, shrieking, and spreading dense, hair-like roots.

Lu Yibei, “???”

What kind of trick is this? Why do I feel like I don’t get it at all?

At that moment, more premonitions suddenly flooded her mind.

[A boxwood tree is growing strong.]

[A rubber tree is growing strong.]

[A walnut tree…]

All the wooden items in the room began to tremble violently. Amid the booming sounds of branches stretching, walnut, boxwood, ash, and other woods seemed to come back to life.

From the bed corners, the wardrobe, from all directions, they surged forth, radiating terrifying vitality, writhing and twisting, lunging at Lu Yibei like monstrous hands, gripping her tightly, crushing her, her bones cracking loudly.

Those tree trunks contained intense psychic energy fluctuation, thick as pillars, incredibly hard.

As the giant trees grew rapidly, the room’s space, oxygen, and psychic energy were quickly squeezed out.

All the vegetation seemed to turn into greedy, savage beasts at that moment, their branches growing wildly, mercilessly devouring the room’s space, oxygen, psychic energy, and anything else that could fuel their growth.

Caught in the middle, it was like sinking into the deep sea-the terrifying pressure and suffocating sensation made Lu Yibei dizzy and her vision go black.

She cursed inwardly and shouted at the top of her lungs.

“When you sleep, you sometimes drool, and you often choke on your own drool…”

The booming continued, the entire room nearly filled with thick tree trunks, leaving only a small space where Gou Meng stood.

With such a talent for growing trees, why not go into forestry, serve the country, make a name for yourself? What’s the point of hiding here as a haunting? Lu Yibei thought angrily.

“When you order takeaway, you always leave a note: [It’s my birthday today, can I get an extra egg?] After more than a month, you’ve scammed over fifty eggs…”

“When you want to GHS, but don’t know how and are too embarrassed to say it, you sneakily message me during class: [I want to test an antivirus app, can you give me a risky website?] I caught you on the spot…”

Under the brutal strangling of the thick tree trunks, Lu Yibei struggled desperately, her face flushed red, her shouts breaking into a shrill pitch.

“Ao-! If you don’t stop, I’ll spill everything you say in your sleep! If someone else hears, don’t blame me when you suffer social death!”

As the words fell, for a moment, Lu Yibei felt as if she were hallucinating.

Unbelievable.

The world seemed to fall into sudden silence, time frozen in place.

“Snap-!”

A finger snap rang out abruptly in the stillness, and that deadly pressure instantly dissipated. Roaring sounds erupted from all directions as the giant trees crumbled inch by inch, turning to fragments, scattering into dust, vanishing into nothingness.

“You, are you really Lu Yibei?” Gou Meng’s voice, full of confusion and probing, reached Lu Yibei’s ears.

“Cough, cough, cough-!” Lu Yibei collapsed onto the bed, one hand clutching her chest as she coughed violently, the other waving at Gou Meng to wait a moment. Then she breathed deeply through both mouth and nose, filling her lungs with air like a drowning person just rescued from the water.

After witnessing Gou Meng’s casual attack, Lu Yibei was deeply grateful that Gou Meng hadn’t harbored any murderous intent toward her back then, and that she hadn’t fought her to the end. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have survived past episode three before dying on the spot.

After a long while, having finally caught her breath, Lu Yibei looked at Gou Meng and said in a low voice, “In this world full of lies, has language been hijacked for so long in communication that we’ve gotten used to its existence, to the point that…”

“Speak human language,” Gou Meng interrupted coldly.

“Cough! Fine… So, when you left, besides those games I gave you, you also swiped a copy of ‘The Legend of the Fox Immortal of Qingqiu Mountain’ from me, didn’t you?”

If it weren’t for Jiang… my Meow Meow-chan sneaking into the apartment and sleeping on my bed, making me sense something fishy and search the place thoroughly, I probably wouldn’t have even realized the game cartridge was missing.

That crappy game could disappear even when hidden in the most obscure corner. If it wasn’t messed with by the little Haunting at home, it must’ve been swiped by my pesky little sister.

I’d already asked the little Haunting at home; each one sold the others out, desperate to clear their names. They hadn’t touched the game cartridge, so it could only have been my pesky little sister who took it.

Seeing Gou Meng not answer, her gaze flickering, Lu Yibei pressed on, “Did you get stuck in chapter eight, unable to get out of the maze no matter what?”

“Do you know why?”

“Why?” Gou Meng asked blankly.

She really had swiped that game, and she really had played it. Though the art was outdated and the story shoddy, since she’d started, not being able to finish and see the ending was like being interrupted halfway through a big dump-agonizing.

Ugh, what a sin, she thought. She’d used a toilet metaphor again without realizing it.

“Hmph!” Lu Yibei snorted coldly. “Because it’s a pirated game, and it’s locked. Bet you didn’t expect that?”

“Damn! You actually bought a pirated copy, are you even human?” Gou Meng looked at her with utter contempt and indignation.

She’d finally found the root of her sleepless nights, and she wanted nothing more than to give Lu Yibei another beating to vent her anger.

“I didn’t buy it! How could I possibly buy a pirated copy!” Lu Yibei raised her voice in protest.

“That game was a gift from a girl who once had a crush on me. I actually liked her too, but who would’ve thought she’d give me a pirated game for my birthday-and not just any pirated game, but one that’s bugged and can’t be cleared. Absolutely unacceptable!”

“Cough, cough, cough! After that, I never spoke to her again. When I moved, I just tossed the cartridge in a corner, never thought my pesky little sister would swipe it…”

Gou Meng, “…”

–

After Lu Yibei half-truthfully recounted how she gained her witch type ability, Gou Meng had been sizing her up for nearly half an hour.

She didn’t say a word, just paced back and forth with her hands behind her back like an old person deep in thought, occasionally stopping to look at her with burning eyes, wanting to speak but hesitating, hesitating but wanting to speak.

As a haunting born from a plant through belief and worship, Gou Meng wasn’t really human and had little sense of gender. Compared to shock, her stronger urge was to study what kind of existence Lu Yibei, a “psychic and haunting symbiote,” really was.

“……”

No wonder she’d sensed a growing aura of misfortune on her before-so she had this hidden identity. Unimaginable.

In that case, the sudden appearance of her charm ability made sense too. It wasn’t some Spirit Pattern mutation at all, but the innate skill of a witch type haunting.

This situation was unexpected, but also reasonable. Nothing to be shocked about. I’ve lived so long, what haven’t I seen?

Uh, though in all my 5,300 years, this really is a first…

For someone like her, if she were to pair up, should it be with a man or a woman? Or maybe, it’s just impossible for her to pair up at all?

Gou Meng mused, glancing sideways at the girl before her-from the silver-white hair cascading over the bed, to the delicate, seductive face, to the snowy peaks wrapped in bandages, down to the nearly perfect waist and legs…

Finally, her gaze landed on Lu Yibei’s hips, half-hidden under the quilt. A crude saying flashed through her mind-“If your butt’s wider than your shoulders, you’re better than a living immortal.” She couldn’t help but show a playful smile.

Gou Meng’s unabashed stare made Lu Yibei feel inexplicably embarrassed, her cheeks flushing as she unconsciously shrank back, stammering, “You, what are you doing? Don’t look at me like that. I already told you, I didn’t want to end up like this, it’s not some weird fetish.”

She couldn’t shake the feeling that Gou Meng was plotting something dangerous. After all, even the way Gou Meng looked at her was off-like a pervert, or like a child discovering a new toy and itching to try out every possible way to play with it.

“I understand, I really do. You don’t want to now, but you’ll get used to it over time. By then, who knows, you might even start to enjoy it!” Gou Meng laughed.

Displaying one’s beauty to the world and causing chaos as a result is the instinct of a witch type. Otherwise, why would beauties be called disaster water?

After a while, under the subtle influence of the psychic energy from the witch type… by then, you’ll only be able to put up a front verbally, but your body won’t be able to resist anymore. Ehehe, how interesting!

Uh, I’m definitely not hoping to see my friend get ‘socially destroyed.’ I’m just purely curious about this form of existence that’s both a haunting and a psychic, yet relatively independent.

Really!

Silently resenting, Gou Meng suddenly seemed to think of something, her eyes lighting up as she pressed further, “Hey, by the way, can you perform that thing?”

Seeing the mischievous smile on Gou Meng’s face, Lu Yibei froze for a moment, instantly becoming wary. “Which one? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Gou Meng waved her hand. “That thing, you know, basking in the sunlight, turning back with a whimper! Don’t worry, it’s just for me to see, I won’t tell anyone else.”

“Of course not!” Lu Yibei refused without hesitation. “That’s private, you know? For example, would you casually show someone your chest?”

“Hmm?” Gou Meng frowned slightly, her gaze slowly dropping to her chest. Then she curled her lips, gently unfastened two buttons of her Qipao, and as the fabric slipped down a bit, a tempting curve of snowy white appeared in the gap at her collar. “You want to see? Then I’ll let you see!”

Hearing this, Lu Yibei was startled, hurriedly covering her eyes with both hands. “Pervert, what are you doing? Stop it, I’m not that kind of person.”

Seeing this, Gou Meng’s smile grew even wider. “Don’t be shy! We’re all girls here, isn’t it normal to take a look at each other?”

“Come on, don’t you want me to love you, care for you, give you my life?”

Gou Meng spoke softly, her nightingale-like voice lingering, her words like invisible hooks, captivating the soul.

“Hey, I’m asking, aren’t you curious? Don’t you want to know what your big sister is wearing under this Qipao? Really not going to take a look? I’ve already taken it off!”

Lu Yibei, “…”

So, who the hell is the real witch type here?

Lu Yibei thought viciously, spreading her fingers into a thin gap, and then she saw the Qipao that had been taken off, neatly folded and placed right in front of her.

Hiss-! She really took it off? But…

Where is she?

Lu Yibei wondered in confusion, slowly lowering her hands. Just then, a glossy-feathered magpie silently landed on her shoulder, pressed close to her ear, and whispered, “You really wanted to see, huh? Tsk, shameless!”

Lu Yibei, “…”

Ah, so the real pervert was me all along?

–

Lu Yibei chased that wretched magpie for over ten minutes before collapsing weakly onto the bed.

Watching Gou Meng circling under the ceiling, chirping noisily, flapping her wings like fists and performing a whole set of military boxing provocatively, Lu Yibei rolled her eyes and said weakly, “I think we need to talk.”

After the commotion that followed the misunderstanding, the wound on her back was pulled and torn, sending a wave of intense pain through her. Only then did she come to her senses, suddenly realizing that although Gou Meng claimed to be seriously injured too, her behavior just now was nothing like someone who was hurt.

“There’s something I want to confirm with you. Were you really injured after the assassination? From what I saw just now, it didn’t seem like it.” Lu Yibei said seriously. “Are you hiding something from me?”

Suddenly questioned by Lu Yibei, Gou Meng, who was circling in midair, had a fleeting trace of panic in her little mung bean eyes, so subtle it was almost unnoticeable. Even the rhythm of her wingbeats faltered, and she couldn’t keep flying, slowly landing on the desk in the room.

“When have I ever lied to you?” Gou Meng defended herself. “I just thought you were in danger, so I forced myself to use psychic energy to return to peak condition and tried to save you, didn’t I?”

“See, now that the burst buff is over, such a big beauty like me has shrunk down to just a bird. Can’t you stop being so suspicious and show a little gratitude?”

Lu Yibei, “…”

Am I really just being paranoid?

But…

Over the past two days, while helping Gou Meng search for artifacts sealed with hauntings, she always felt something was off. After what just happened, she finally realized that during the search, Gou Meng had been especially unenthusiastic.

One moment she was tired and needed a break, the next she was distracted by something novel, then she wanted to go to the aquarium, or eat at Haidi Lao… all sorts of random things, just like a hyperactive kid, making things difficult.

It felt like she was deliberately stalling for time, not in any hurry to devour the hauntings in the artifacts to restore her strength.

But why would she do that?

Could it be that she wants the Tang City barrier to activate?

No, no, if that happened, she’d be seriously injured and gain nothing from it. There’s no reason for her to do that!

Lu Yibei couldn’t figure it out and wanted to confirm with Gou Meng again. However, when she looked for Gou Meng’s magpie form, she realized that at some point, she had already flown away and disappeared, leaving only a note to inform Lu Yibei of her whereabouts.

On the note was written: [I suddenly remembered I need to find an old friend. Heading out first. See you later at Chunfeng Residence.]

After reading the note in her hand, Lu Yibei slowly clenched it, her heart full of doubts.