Chapter 408: This Tree Must Be Felled

In the early hours, the antique street of Tang City was already asleep, with only Chunfeng Residence brightly lit inside.

Liu Seer sat upright in the main hall, one hand holding an ancient bronze compass, the other forming a seal, his eyes fixed on the needle of the compass as he muttered under his breath.

“Supreme Star of the Platform, ever-changing and unceasing. Drive away evil, bind spirits, protect life and body. Wisdom clear and pure, mind calm and peaceful…”

Earlier at Tang City University, he had witnessed that twisted half-human, half-bird haunting kill two psychics. After returning to Chunfeng Residence and finding Gou Meng absent, he guarded the empty house, terrified, fearing that monster would come to Chunfeng Residence.

So scared!

“Flap flap-!”

The sudden sound of wings beating jolted Liu Seer’s taut nerves. Uneasy, he followed the sound, only to see a dark shadow flash swiftly across the courtyard.

At this, Liu Seer’s heart tightened, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. He couldn’t even recite the exorcism incantation, and could only hold up the compass, nervously saying, “Monsters and ghosts, go away! Monsters and ghosts, go away…”

The next moment, the window of the main hall creaked open, and a magpie slipped through the gap, landing steadily. In a flash of light, it revealed a petite figure.

“Who are you calling monsters and ghosts?”

“So-it’s Lady Gou Meng…” Liu Seer forced a weak smile. “Have you finished your business?”

“Mm.” Gou Meng replied, walking straight to the grand master’s chair and sitting down. She looked at Liu Seer, her voice cool, “How about your side? What’s the situation with that guy?”

Questioned by Gou Meng, Liu Seer’s mind flashed back to the image of that twisted monster, his body trembling slightly. He hurriedly recounted what he had seen, gesturing as he spoke.

“Lady Gou Meng, in my humble opinion, that guy is clearly no good-he mustn’t be trusted!”

Gou Meng, “…”

Tsk, judging a haunting by its appearance to decide if it’s friend or foe is not the way!

But…

Gou Meng mulled over Liu Seer’s description of the haunting he’d seen, frowning.

Three legs, black feathers, bone tail…

These features weren’t unique to Fuyang, but for such a sensitive time, the appearance of a haunting with all three traits made it hard not to associate it with Fuyang.

If my guess is right, Mao Sanyou’s creature probably has a deep connection with Fuyang!

Why did he suddenly show up at a time like this-what’s his game?

Gou Meng grumbled inwardly, then got up and said to Liu Seer, “If there’s nothing else, you should go rest.”

With that, she turned and headed toward the attic bedroom.

Watching her leave, Liu Seer seemed to remember something and asked with concern, “Lady Gou Meng, did you gain anything when you went with Ma-Ge and Young Friend Lu to search for those artifacts sealing hauntings?”

At this, Gou Meng paused, turned back, and said, “It’s just so-so. This kind of thing takes time, can’t be rushed.”

“…”

Takes time?

Wasn’t it said that in three days, the Tang City barrier would activate?

Saying “takes time” at a moment like this-how is that different from slow suicide?

Liu Seer scratched the back of his head, his face full of confusion.

Gou Meng had just reached the attic stairs when she paused, glancing through the gaps in the stairs at Liu Seer, and sighed silently.

–

In the depths of winter at midnight, all was silent. Beneath the leaden sky, the canyon before Taoyuan stretched vast and desolate.

“Whoosh-!”

The wind howled.

A figure swept in from afar, like a bird in flight, spreading its wings and gliding close to the pine and cypress crowns between the mountains.

Wherever it passed, the treetops swayed gently, scattering a flurry of white.

Soon, the figure crossed the canyon, silently slipping into the heart of Taoyuan, deep into the giant cavern where the Fusang divine tree stood.

In the depths of the cave, before a dark pool, the withered, tightly entwined branches of the giant tree had somehow been inscribed with dense incantations.

The incantations glowed faintly gold, swirling with the wind around the giant tree, pulsing rhythmically like living things.

Rotten vines hung down from the giant tree, each bearing egg-shaped chambers below, endlessly siphoning the psychic energy of those trapped within.

Hungry and greedy.

From afar, a faint breeze broke the silence.

Shang Nanxing landed before the giant tree, holding her breath and focusing her psychic sense to carefully scan the surroundings. After confirming there was no ambush, she looked up at the egg-shaped chambers hanging from the tree and called softly, “Grandpa Turtle? Grandpa Turtle, where are you?”

With her call, the rotten vines rustled, and one of the egg-shaped chambers began to glow. Amid sticky sounds, a crack opened, and an aged, furrowed face struggled to emerge from within.

“Hoo-hoo-!”

Grandpa Turtle took a few deep breaths, slowly opened his eyes and looked at Shang Nanxing, giving a meaningful smile. “You’re here? How are things going?”

“Everything’s going smoothly. Old Xu has already finished the preparations. The city barrier just needs to accumulate psychic energy for another two or three days before it can be activated. If I go help, it might be even faster,” Shang Nanxing said.

Hearing this, Grandpa Turtle nodded thoughtfully.

“And you?” Shang Nanxing looked up and glanced around at the giant tree, pressing further, “How are things on your end?”

“Hmph, hmph!” Grandpa Turtle snorted coldly. “Everything’s going smoothly here too. That idiot Crow Slave hasn’t noticed anything unusual at all.”

Every time he thought about it, Crow Slave really believed he’d found some rare secret method to resurrect his master, coming every day, praying step by step, meticulously drawing Spirit Patterns. Grandpa Turtle couldn’t help but want to laugh.

He wondered what Crow Slave would feel when he realized all his efforts were just making a wedding dress for someone else.

“At this point, even if he notices, it doesn’t matter…” Shang Nanxing curled her lips, then changed the subject. “By the way, what’s the chance of success this time?”

“At least eighty percent,” Grandpa Turtle said honestly, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes as he spoke.

“Eighty percent?” Shang Nanxing nodded, murmuring, “That’s good, that’s good…”

As she spoke, she looked up at the decayed, twisted twin giant tree, narrowed her eyes and stared for a long time, finally whispering, “It’s been too long. This tree… really should have been cut down long ago.”

–

Four Seasons Hotel, Tang City, Room 7017.

“Pesky little sister, you really went all out…” Lu Yibei muttered to herself, her gaze a bit dazed.

After Gou Meng left, she couldn’t hold on any longer, her body went limp and collapsed onto the bed. She carefully withdrew some of the psychic energy suppressing the Hundred-Armed Giant’s power to digest the Moon Shadow Fire Ms. Rabbit had left in her body.

Although, thanks to the special properties of the witch type haunting’s core entity power, and Fu Xinyi’s meticulous care, the wound on her back had almost healed, the Moon Shadow Fire hadn’t been completely eliminated. It still lurked beneath the wound, ready to tear open her flesh at any moment.

In fact, the Moon Shadow Fire’s physical destruction was far less than the Hundred-Armed Giant’s power, but the pain it brought was just as intense.

The difference between the two was like acute myocardial infarction and chronic gingivitis-one could kill instantly, the other wouldn’t kill, but would bring long-lasting, continuous, minor pain.

As the witch type’s psychic energy slowly eroded the Moon Shadow Fire inside her, extracting the psychic energy and turning the impurities into disaster water to expel from her body, waves of strange tingling that made even her hair tremble kept teasing Lu Yibei’s nerves. After more than half an hour, she finally recovered.

After suppressing the Moon Shadow Fire in her body a bit, Lu Yibei hurriedly got up to find a teacup, trying to collect as much of the scattered disaster water as possible.

This treasure was worth about as much as gold per gram-unless you had a few mines at home, who could afford to waste it?

Ever since Lu Yibei started completing the haunting’s core entity, every material she needed was either outrageously expensive or simply unavailable, and almost all the funds to buy them had to come from selling disaster water. The extra had to go into making Alchemical Bombs, so life was tight.

Every time she waited for disaster water to be produced, it felt like those days before a corporate worker’s payday or a kid’s allowance-waiting with desperate anticipation.

A dozen minutes later, after collecting the scattered disaster water, Lu Yibei looked at the shallow pool in the teacup and frowned. “Why is there so little? It’s not nearly enough!”

If she wasn’t worried about being hacked to death by Ms. Rabbit, and if she wasn’t afraid of the pain, she would have wanted to go find Ms. Rabbit and ask her to give her another dozen or so good chops.

Putting the teacup with the disaster water on the table, Lu Yibei returned to the bed, lay down in boredom, stared at the ceiling with a slightly focused gaze, and fell into deep thought.

Judging from the strength pesky little sister showed just now and her reaction after I questioned her, she’s definitely hiding something from me about the assassination.

Why would she hide it? If she was strong enough, she should have controlled the situation in Tang City in time and prevented The Midnight Watchers Society from activating the city barrier, right?

And when she was searching for the artifact sealing the haunting, she was dragging her feet, as if her mind wasn’t on the task at all. It almost felt like she couldn’t wait to get blasted by the city barrier.

“There’s something fishy about this. I have to figure out what pesky little sister is really planning,” Lu Yibei muttered.

Otherwise, how could I help her? Lu Yibei added silently in her heart.

Although now the Ally Mark between Lu Yibei and Gou Meng had already been destroyed by that devastating punch from the Hundred-Armed Giant.

But a mark is a mark, and a contract is a contract. Even without the mark, she still wholeheartedly acknowledged the contract with Gou Meng.

If Gou Meng truly needed help, even if she didn’t say it, Lu Yibei would quietly help her.

Of course, the premise was that it wouldn’t threaten her own safety…

What’s more, this was no longer just her own business. Among those who tried to assassinate her was Suolang Baima, and perhaps even more of the culprits who attacked her father. No matter what, she couldn’t let them go! Lu Yibei thought fiercely, a trace of gloom flickering in her eyes.

“But in this godforsaken place, Tang City, I don’t know anyone or anything. I wouldn’t even know where to start investigating… I’ll go check out Mao Sanyou tomorrow. For now, I can only ask in the haunting chat group.”

The Void and its familiars, as hauntings born from internet legends, could receive massive amounts of information from all sorts of channels every day. If she wanted to investigate something, they were the best pawns!

With that in mind, Lu Yibei got up, ready to leave Room 7017 and return to her own room. Just then, her gaze swept past the full-length mirror in the corner, and she paused, frowning.

Her reflection stared back at her-completely naked, with only her torso and private parts wrapped in bandages. Her alluring curves were on full display, with an added hint of a different kind of charm.

Damn, this is so perverted! What’s up with that Fu Xinyi?

How did she make me look like this? She did it on purpose, didn’t she?

This is basically streaking-how am I supposed to go out like this?

Thinking this, Lu Yibei used the familiar mark to summon the jacket.

No response.

“…”

Damn it, where did the jacket run off to?

And at a time like this…

If she’d known, she wouldn’t have let it take the valuables back to the room first.

Grumbling, her gaze slowly shifted to the Qipao Gou Meng had taken off at the foot of the bed, and she fell into thought.

–

In the end, Lu Yibei couldn’t bring herself to swallow her shame and put on Gou Meng’s Qipao.

If that pesky little sister found out, she’d never be able to shake off the label of pervert for the rest of her life.

When Lu Yibei climbed back into her own room from the balcony wrapped in a quilt, the first thing she saw was a girl on the chair, wrapped up by the jacket like some kind of alien mummy.

Seeing this, Lu Yibei froze for a moment, then immediately sensed the jacket’s guilt through the familiar mark for not being able to respond to her summons in time, as well as its excitement at having caught a “thief.”

Sorry, Lady Witch, but I did a good job guarding the house! Aren’t I awesome?

.(๑･∀･๑).

“A thief? Where did a thief come from?” Lu Yibei looked at the girl tied to the chair and frowned. “Unwrap her face so I can see.”

At her words, the jacket rustled and squirmed, unwrapping the fabric from Fu Xinyi’s face and revealing her features.

“Hiss-!”

Seeing the obvious bump on her head and the streak of crimson running down her forehead, Lu Yibei was stunned. She couldn’t help but suck in a breath, and cautiously leaned in to check Fu Xinyi’s breathing. Only after confirming she was still alive did she breathe a little easier.

“Look at what you did to her! It’s a miracle she survived-she must have a high physical resistance stat!”

At this, the jacket rubbed against Lu Yibei coquettishly.

I didn’t know! She was sneaking around!

~( ´-︵-` )~

“Hey-!” Lu Yibei sighed, half annoyed and half doting as she ruffled the jacket. “When she wakes up, don’t move around. I’ll handle it.”

Looking at Fu Xinyi, she felt the same helplessness and guilt as when a pet cat accidentally bites someone.

But you couldn’t really expect a jacket to communicate and confirm someone’s identity before taking action, could you?

Not to mention whether it could learn Mandarin-even if it could, just imagining a jacket talking was pretty creepy.

Forget it, at least no one died, and Fu Xinyi didn’t get a chance to rummage around and discover my identity. It’s barely acceptable.

Thinking this, Lu Yibei walked over and channeled a faint trace of psychic energy through her fingertip, pressing it to Fu Xinyi’s brow.

“Mmmph~!”

With a muffled moan, Fu Xinyi woke up. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Lu Yibei leaning in and saying, “You’re awake? You’ve now been transformed into an artificial Magical Girl. Hurry and go fulfill your mission to save the world!”

“?!!”

Fu Xinyi’s pupils contracted, her eyes widened, and then a wave of intense dizziness hit her, making her retch uncontrollably.

Lu Yibei, “…”

This…

Looks like she’s pretty badly hurt? I don’t know any healing spell formations! I’d better take her to the hospital first.