Chapter 416: Might as Well Not Want It!

Looking at the whole bucket of disaster water, the owner of Little Ming classmate’s funeral supplies shop couldn’t help but twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Unlike Fat Master, who was already used to such things, this owner’s young heart was truly frightened.

It was a standard water dispenser bucket, with a capacity of 5 gallons, which is about 19 liters.

Although he recognized that the girl in front of him was a witch type haunting, and it wasn’t unusual for a witch type haunting to trade disaster water, he’d only ever seen it traded by the gram before. To bring out a whole bucket at once-he’d never seen that.

This entire bucket of disaster water was enough to cover the price difference for making the Paper Cicada Immortal, and there would even be some left over. But…

This stuff has a price but no market-hardly anyone buys it!

If he took it in, who knows when he’d be able to cash it out and make his money back. The owner was a bit troubled.

Seeing that the owner hadn’t spoken for a long time, Lu Yibei said expressionlessly, “Boss, why aren’t you saying anything? You’re not thinking of backing out, are you?”

“Wouldn’t dare, wouldn’t dare,” the owner replied repeatedly, a hint of panic flashing across his face.

In his mind, under normal circumstances, a witch type haunting would produce less than fifty milliliters of disaster water a year. Even if this Miss Wang haunting’s core entity was a bit special, it probably wouldn’t exceed a hundred milliliters.

Yet now, what was in front of him was nearly nineteen liters of disaster water.

Such an astonishing amount-either this Miss Wang wasn’t as harmless as she appeared and was actually a killer who even harmed her own kind, or she’d existed for a very long time and had accumulated all this disaster water bit by bit herself.

Either way, it proved her formidable strength, making people unwilling to offend her lightly.

Thinking of this, the owner weighed his options and finally gritted his teeth and made the deal with Lu Yibei. “Then let’s do as Miss Wang says! Please wait here a moment, I’ll go get a container…”

As he spoke, the owner was about to turn away, when Lu Yibei called out softly, “Wait! There’s another issue.”

The owner paused, forcing a smile. “Please, go ahead.”

Lu Yibei propped her chin with one hand, thought for a moment, and said seriously, “As far as I know, the price of this bucket of disaster water should far exceed the price difference I need to make up. You’re not planning to just take it all, are you?”

It’s not my first time selling this stuff-trying to take advantage of me? No way! Lu Yibei thought.

Looking at Lu Yibei’s cold, emotionless face, the owner broke out in a sweat and asked weakly, “So what do you mean?”

In this remote, haunted place, if this witch type wanted to kill him, he’d have no way to resist.

Lu Yibei frowned, glanced at the large truck parked not far away, and pointed, “Leave the truck, okay? With so many paper people, I need something to carry them, don’t I?”

Hearing this, the owner breathed a sigh of relief, the weight in his heart just about to settle, when Lu Yibei casually added, “Leave the driver’s license too, okay? I don’t have one, and it’d be inconvenient to drive without it.”

Although the metal box she got from Black Peony was much bigger than the guitar case and came with a solidified spell formation to reduce weight, it still couldn’t fit a thousand Paper Cicada Immortals and over four hundred kilograms of Alchemy residue!

Besides, if something unexpected happened and she needed to use the Paper Cicada Immortals, she couldn’t just have them fly over, right?

Letting a huge flock of paper people fly through the sky-what kind of underworld operation is that? It’d scare the kids. Lu Yibei thought.

The owner, “…”

No driver’s license and planning to drive a five-ton truck on the road-this is basically indiscriminate murder, isn’t it?

Where did Master Mao find such an outlaw!

–

A moment later, watching the owner of Little Ming classmate’s funeral supplies shop carefully carrying the bucket of disaster water away, Lu Yibei happily climbed into the driver’s seat of the big truck, silently giving Ms. Rabbit a thumbs up in her heart for her friendly sponsorship.

If she hadn’t been chopped twice by Ms. Rabbit, Lu Yibei wouldn’t have produced so much disaster water recently.

“If I could find a chance to catch Ms. Rabbit and lock her up, and have her chop me a little whenever she’s bored, wouldn’t I be rich?” Lu Yibei muttered to herself.

“I wonder if flooding the market with disaster water will cause disaster water inflation.”

As she spoke, she took out her phone and sent a message to Gou Meng.

Lu Yibei: “Have you decided where you want to go play?”

Lu Yibei: “Got a big truck-want to go for a ride?”

However, after waiting in the truck for more than ten minutes, she still didn’t get a reply from Gou Meng. Growing impatient, she found Gou Meng’s number and dialed, only to hear the message that the other party’s phone was turned off…

Hua City, Amber Mansion.

Jiang Li saw that the message she sent to Lu Yibei had been marked as “read,” but there was no reply. She curled her lips knowingly. This message, combined with her earlier failed attempt to contact the Tang City Midnight Watchers Society, made her even more certain that something serious had happened in Tang City.

She put down her phone. Taking advantage of the gap while waiting for replies from the various city Midnight Watchers Societies, she walked to the bedroom’s walk-in closet, changed out of her pajamas, and put on clothes. By the time she returned to her desk, several replies from the informants had already appeared on her phone.

Without exception, all operators and reserve operators related to them had lost contact.

After confirming the situation with each operator, Jiang Li immediately began drafting a report to inform her superiors.

–

One minute after Jiang Li sent the completed report, it passed a preliminary review and was uploaded to the Jinguan City Midnight Watchers Society Information Center.

Following regulations, the on-duty staff at the information center made three copies of the report: two were sent to the Southwest Region Inspector’s Office and the Shengjing Midnight Watchers Society headquarters, respectively, and one was sent to the Archives Management Center for record.

Three minutes later, a piercing phone ring sounded in Xing Yuan’s office.

“Is that so? Mm, I understand.” After listening to the call, Xing Yuan’s expression grew grave. She pondered for two seconds, then called out lightly toward the secretary’s office just across the wall, “Golden Horn, Silver Horn, we’ve got a big job!”

“Golden Horn, go contact your informants and gather intelligence about the recent situation around Tang City. Sort out any useful information.”

“Silver Horn, hurry up and start the procedures. Mobilize any operators without current assignments and get ready to head to Tang City for support…”

She paused, then added, “Wait, Silver Horn, the danger level for this mission is quite high. If their psychic energy fluctuation level hasn’t reached Class B, tell them not to make up the numbers. B- isn’t good enough either!”

“Understood, My Lord Inspector. I’ll get on it right away.” Silver Horn responded and hurried out of the office.

Five minutes later, Golden Horn had finished a preliminary review of the past week’s intelligence and reached a conclusion.

Recently, a large number of illegal psychic ability organizations had indeed gathered around Tang City. What exactly they were plotting still required further investigation.

“What’s there to investigate? Do you really expect those guys to do good deeds? Help old ladies cross the street, assist impoverished areas in getting rich, or sponsor mountain kids to go to college?”

Xing Yuan said to Golden Horn with a serious expression, then bent down to take a seal from her desk drawer and tossed it over. “Take this. Go find Silver Horn and have him follow the procedures for a Crimson Owl signal.”

“This…” Golden Horn caught the seal with both hands, stunned. He looked at Xing Yuan with a frown and said, “Boss, isn’t this against the rules? I…”

“What do you mean, you?” Xing Yuan interrupted. “If you don’t say anything, Silver Horn doesn’t say anything, who else will know I gave you the seal? Go, now!”

“By the way, that girl Jiang Li suggested in her report not to take a plane to Tang City, to avoid being intercepted and causing unnecessary losses. Have Silver Horn add that in too.”

“Also, for this operation, Bai Kai from the Hua City Midnight Watchers Society is strictly forbidden from participating.”

“Huh?” Golden Horn was taken aback, his expression growing a bit complicated. He probed, “Boss, isn’t this a bit…”

“You mean to say I’m giving him special treatment?” Xing Yuan shot Golden Horn a cold glance. “To tell you the truth, I really am giving him special treatment.”

“Let me ask you, this matter involves Lu Yibei, who is related to him. Based on your assessment of his personality, if he goes to the scene, will he act recklessly?”

“Uh…” Golden Horn hesitated, then nodded. “Understood, ma’am.”

With Bai Kai’s personality and his relationship with Lu Yibei, if something really happened to Lu Yibei, once Bai Kai arrived in Tang City, he’d probably immediately turn into a high-powered troublemaker, sword in hand, charging straight at those illegal psychic ability organizations for a life-and-death battle. The key was, with his Spirit Pattern traits, no one could stop him.

By then, not only might he end up in the hands of those illegal organizations, but he’d also alert the enemy and affect the actions of other operators.

So…

What he wants to do, who he wants to kill, once the operation is set up and the roundup begins, I’ll help him settle it then. Xing Yuan thought.

Twenty minutes later, the emergency deployment request from the Southwest Region Midnight Watchers Society operators was approved by headquarters, and the operation permit was issued.

After Xing Yuan uploaded the Crimson Owl signal to the Midnight Watchers Society intranet, she immediately sent Golden Horn, Silver Horn, and three Jinguan City Midnight Watchers Society operators whose vacations had been canceled, to prepare for the operation. They would depart for Tang City in thirty minutes.

Once Golden Horn and Silver Horn had left the office, Xing Yuan, who had been busy for a while, leaned back in her chair, rubbed her slightly aching brow, and glanced at the seal Golden Horn had just returned. As if suddenly remembering something, a trace of melancholy appeared between her brows.

If I’d had this little thing in my hand back then, would I not have had to leave Xiao Bai? Xing Yuan wondered, a helpless, bitter smile appearing on her face.

–

Tang City, in a small room of a vacation homestay five kilometers from the Taoyuan tourist attraction.

A joyride in a big truck? What on earth is going on in Lu Yibei’s head?

Gou Meng finished reading the message from Lu Yibei, closed her phone with a look of disdain, put it away, then turned around with a serious expression to look at Shang Nanxing beside her and asked, “Little pudding, are they all here?”

Shang Nanxing shot Gou Meng a sideways glare and drawled, “Call me that name again and I’ll stab you in the back later.”

“Hey now, didn’t you used to love that name?” Gou Meng spread her hands. “You could barely talk, but you already knew how to stand in front of my statue and shout, ‘Pudding, I want pudding,’ didn’t you?”

“You have no idea how hard it was for me to find you a pudding back then!”

Shang Nanxing’s cheeks flushed at Gou Meng’s words. She pressed her forehead and said, “Let’s just go out already, okay? Don’t keep everyone waiting.”

As she spoke, Shang Nanxing stepped forward and pushed open the door of the small room.

Creak-

With the soft sound of the hinges turning, the door slowly opened, revealing a small meeting room that could hold about twenty people. At this moment, the room was already packed, with many more standing against the walls-at a glance, there were over forty people.

They were all psychics and hauntings who had made it to Tang City to support Gou Meng.

Gou Meng’s gaze swept over them one by one. She scratched the back of her head and gave an awkward laugh. “Everyone’s here? Sorry to keep you waiting. Let’s get down to business, shall we?”

As she spoke, her bashful look was just like a grade-schooler giving her first speech on stage.

She hadn’t expected that just by having Grandpa Turtle send out a call for help, so many people would come-some of them even knowing they might be ambushed on the way.

Facing these psychics and hauntings, Gou Meng suddenly felt a bit embarrassed, her cheeks flushing slightly.

In fact, when she had helped these people and hauntings in the past, she’d never thought she’d need their help in return one day.

By the way, only that fool Lu Yibei would think it was a scam message, delete her call for help, and even block her number! Gou Meng thought.

–

A few days earlier, at the Arrow Tower ancient street in Tang City.

Liu Seer, who had rushed from the airport, paused in front of a small pawnshop at the street corner. After exchanging a few teasing words with his old friend Stall Master Tan, the smile on Stall Master Tan’s face didn’t fade, but his gaze quietly drifted across the street, landing on a man holding a white porcelain saucer.

After settling Liu Seer in, he immediately informed Gou Meng that Liu Seer had been followed.

“…That’s how it is, ma’am. I don’t think that person was brought here on purpose by Liu; it’s just that Liu’s psychic sense is too weak and he didn’t notice he was being tailed,” Stall Master Tan said respectfully.

Upon hearing this, Grandpa Turtle’s face darkened as he looked at Gou Meng. “Patron, it seems this place isn’t safe anymore. I’m afraid we can’t stay. Let’s leave at once, shall we?”

“…”

Gou Meng was silent for a long time before she looked up at Grandpa Turtle and said solemnly, “I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here.”

At her words, Grandpa Turtle hurriedly said, “But Patron, the one following Liu Seer could lead those who attacked Taoyuan here. If you get hurt again, you might not be able to suppress that tree. Then how will we fight our way back to Taoyuan and clear out those rats?”

“It’s just an injury. As long as I don’t die, it’s fine,” Gou Meng said indifferently. As soon as she finished, her wounds flared up, her blood surging, and she was wracked by a violent cough.

Cough, cough, cough. “As for that tree, if I can’t suppress it, then I won’t. If we can’t fight our way back, then we just won’t go back for now. Aren’t they trying to use those pickle jars to force The Midnight Watchers Society of Tang City to activate the city barrier?”

“If we can’t stop them, then let’s play along and let them succeed. In a bit, go tell little pudding that if I’m attacked again by those people in the next couple of days and it causes a stir, she should secretly encourage that Xu fellow to activate the barrier.”

“Patron, you mean…” Grandpa Turtle seemed to understand Gou Meng’s plan. He froze for a moment, then exclaimed, “But if you do that, aside from the extremely high risk, even if you succeed, your power will…”

A narrow escape, destruction before rebirth… In a way, Liu Seer’s fortune-telling was pretty accurate.

“Power?” Gou Meng glanced at Grandpa Turtle and said solemnly, word by word, “That kind of power, already rotten to the core, is better off gone!”

With that, seeing Grandpa Turtle stubbornly standing in front of her, unmoving, Gou Meng frowned, then stood up from her chair, patted Grandpa Turtle on the shoulder, and smiled.

“Don’t worry, I won’t die. Just do as I say. I thought it over just now-rather than dragging out a half-life for decades or years, I’d rather take a chance, so I can spend more time with everyone.”

“Patron…” Grandpa Turtle’s heart warmed. He looked up at Gou Meng, his nose tingling.

“Moved, aren’t you? Since I’m working so hard, how about double the New Year’s money this year?” Gou Meng smiled.

“…”

Grandpa Turtle was silent for a few seconds, then said seriously, “Keep dreaming.”

“You! I’m going to cry, you know?”

“Go ahead and cry.”

Gou Meng, “…”