Chapter 417: Someone Wants to Be His Dad

In the small meeting room of the vacation homestay.

After briefing the psychics and hauntings who had come to support, Gou Meng bowed deeply to them.

She would feign weakness to mislead the enemy, temporarily hide within Tang City’s complex urban architecture, take the opportunity to recover from injuries, and at the same time wait for more reinforcements to arrive in Tang City.

When there was about half a day left before the city barrier was activated, she would fight her way back, doing her best to strike at the intruders inside Taoyuan, preventing them from spreading news of the counterattack, replenishing enough combat strength, and thereby reducing the threat after the city barrier was activated.

This was the plan Gou Meng had come up with from the start, but what she hadn’t expected was the appearance of two unpredictable factors: Mao Sanyou and Lu Yibei.

The presence of Mao Sanyou gave her confidence to raise the probability of success by ten percent.

But Lu Yibei…

With that guy’s current combat ability and Gou Meng’s understanding of her, who knows what kind of trouble she might stir up. It’s best not to let her join the operation.

Thinking this, Gou Meng gently rubbed her brow and turned off her phone.

“Everyone, if there are no issues, let’s begin the operation after nightfall. At that time, Grandpa Turtle and everyone in Taoyuan will meet up with you.”

“Understood!” everyone replied in unison.

–

Pain.

In a daze, Bai Kai felt a sharp pain at the back of his head, as if someone…

No! He really had been struck hard on the back of the head, and with a spell formation, no less.

A few minutes ago, after hearing from Ah-Hua that Lu Yibei was in trouble, he hadn’t even had time for a final moment with last night’s female companion before rushing to Amber Mansion. The moment he entered, someone hit him from behind with a [Strike Spell Forty-Two: Thunder Blossom], instantly paralyzing his brain.

“Ugh, damn it, what’s that cripple up to, why sneak attack me?”

Muttering to himself, Bai Kai slowly opened his eyes, instinctively wanting to raise his hand to check his injuries, but suddenly felt a tight binding sensation all over his body.

He froze for a moment, looked down, and was startled to find himself leaning against a marble pillar, sitting on the stone steps, his body covered densely with deep gray three-fingered palms, looking like clusters of barnacles growing on a reef.

As soon as he struggled, golden light seeped out from the gaps between the palms, absorbing his psychic energy and growing wildly.

This was a sealing spell formation, Stele Stone Three Fingers.

“……”

Bai Kai was silent for a while, recalling how his permissions had been locked when he applied to support Tang City’s Crimson Owl signal, and finally realized what was going on, frowning.

“Damn! Cripple, are you there? Are you or aren’t you? Let me go right now, or you’ll regret it!”

“I’m telling you, I’ve long suspected you have a crush on our pesky little sister Beibei. You’d better come let me go immediately, or I won’t approve of you two being together!”

Bai Kai shouted a couple of times, his voice triggering the activation spell formation Jiang Li had secretly left above his head. With a faint hum and a sound like glass shattering, a slip of paper floated down and landed right in front of him.

[You stay in Hua City, I’ll bring Lu Yibei back.]

Rolling his eyes, Bai Kai said, “You’ll bring her back? Easy to say, but what if you can’t?”

As if in response, the slip of paper immediately flipped over as soon as he finished speaking.

[If I can’t bring her back, I’ll die with her. PS: Li Xuan recently bought a new car, plenty of horsepower, perfect for a road trip.]

“Pfft-!”

Seeing Jiang Li’s note on the back, Bai Kai couldn’t help but laugh, “Finding a way to break the rules and even coming up with an excuse for someone else to do bad things, that’s something.”

From Hua City to Tang City, it’s over two thousand kilometers. Even Bai Kai would run out of psychic energy if he tried to rush all the way, but with a good car to help, it’s a different story.

So, half a day later, Li Xuan stared at the sticky note Bai Kai had left on his desk, his mind instantly filled with crude curses.

[Nice new car, let me borrow it for a spin, taking a new girl I’ve got my eye on, going for a road trip.

Bai Kai.]

“Crash!”

Li Xuan grabbed the sticky note, crushed it into a ball, and threw it into the trash. After several deep breaths to suppress his anger, he silently took out his phone and sent Bai Kai a message.

Li Xuan: “I bet your road trip is going to pass through Tang City, right? I’m warning you, first, you must bring my car back, and second, help look after my junior Fu Xinyi.”

As someone who browses the internal network a dozen times a day to keep up with all the latest gossip in The Midnight Watchers Society, Li Xuan had naturally seen Tang City’s Crimson Owl signal and knew his junior, who was highly regarded by their sect, was also on the rescue list.

But…

Jiang Li was gone, Bai Kai had slipped away, Gu Liuxi had ghosted, mushroom girl was a shut-in who wouldn’t leave home unless Hua City was destroyed, and if he left too, Hua City would only have An Qing as effective combat strength. If something happened in Hua City, who would be responsible?

–

Relying on her extensive experience of repeatedly failing the second part of the driving test, Lu Yibei drove the big truck around the brewery’s open lot a few times, feeling she could barely manage on the road, and finally parked by the roadside.

Jumping out of the truck, she took out her phone and glanced at it. Seeing that Gou Meng still hadn’t replied, she frowned.

“Something’s off! No reply to messages, phone not turned off, what’s that pesky little sister up to?” Lu Yibei muttered at her phone screen.

“Could it be that in the last moments of her haunting career, she wants to find a quiet place with no one around, watch her life flash before her eyes, and reminisce?”

If you really think about it, that pesky little sister has been a haunting for over five thousand three hundred years, she must have experienced a ton. Would her life-flashing-before-her-eyes take longer than others?

If so, would that delay the arrival of death?

Lu Yibei was lost in thought when her phone suddenly vibrated-it was Professor Ma calling.

“Hello, Professor? What’s up?”

“Hm? That voice? You’re having an episode again!?” Professor Ma said in surprise, a hint of excitement in his voice.

Lu Yibei, “……”

What are you so excited about? Is me having an episode really something to get excited about?

“That’s right, Professor, I’m having an episode again.”

“This…” Professor Ma paused, then continued, “In that case, forget it. The way you look right now, I’m afraid it’s not convenient for you to show up in front of everyone.”

At the end, he cursed fiercely, “Hmph, Hou Jun that old scoundrel, I’ll never share the same sky with him!”

Lu Yibei could hear the anger in Professor Ma’s words, as if he wanted to swallow Professor Hou alive, and quietly asked, “Professor, what did Professor Hou do to make you so mad?”

“That old bastard actually sent photos of me and Young Friend Liu together to your shimu(teacher’s wife), saying I was using work as an excuse to mess around with women.” Professor Ma gritted his teeth, “Last night your shimu wouldn’t even answer my video call!”

This Professor Hou is really… Lu Yibei’s eye twitched slightly as she silently complained. That being said, she really wasn’t suited to appear in front of Professor Ma and the rest of the project research group right now.

First Gou Meng, then a Calamity-switching every two days. The charge of Professor Ma’s messy relationships with men and women would probably be pinned on him for sure.

Pulling herself together, Lu Yibei steered the conversation back on track and pressed, “By the way, Professor, what was so urgent that you needed to find me?”

“Oh, it’s like this,” Professor Ma said. “Your senior brother Mao Sanyou-the one who picked us up at the airport last time, remember him?”

“I remember. What happened to him?”

“Something happened to him, just now,” Professor Ma said seriously.

“Earlier, just like the past two days, he was alone in the empty classroom next to the conference room, re-examining those eliminated suspected fakes. Not long after he went in, there was a sudden scream. By the time we rushed over, we saw him collapsed on the ground, blood streaming from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.”

“Everyone scrambled to get him to the hospital, and after the examination, we found that although there were no external injuries, his internal organs had suffered extensive high-temperature burns.”

“Seeing his condition, I immediately thought of the student who was attacked by a haunting in the literature building a few days ago. I threw a copper coin, and sure enough, it was related to occultism, so I wanted you to come take a look. But right now, everyone’s still gathered near the old building and hasn’t dispersed. Since you’re not well, it might not be convenient for you to act.”

Lu Yibei, “…”

My dear professor, he’s a psychic himself-anything involving him is definitely related to occult forces!

Even if you threw a copper coin a hundred times, you’d get the same result.

But…

Lu Yibei frowned slightly and asked, “By the way, Professor, which hospital is Mao Sanyou in now? If I can’t go to Tang City University, I can go to the hospital first.”

“Oh, right, that’s fine. You should go check on him first. He’s in the intensive care unit at Tang City University Affiliated Hospital.”

“……”

After hanging up, Lu Yibei stared at her phone with a complicated expression, lost in thought.

Last night, after sending Gou Meng back to Chunfeng Residence, she had contacted Mao Sanyou and confirmed that when he fought off those assassins during the day, he hadn’t been injured at all. He even wanted to invite her out for a drink.

According to Professor Ma, the project research group had seen a lively Mao Sanyou this morning, which further proved he hadn’t been hurt.

He was able to deal with those assassins alone, so he must be quite capable. There was no reason he would be harmed by those dying pickles sealed in the relics.

And such extensive internal organ burns…

“So, did something else suddenly happen to him this morning?” Lu Yibei muttered. “Could it be retaliation from the companions of those guys from yesterday?”

“Forget it, I’d better go to the hospital first.”

No matter what, Mao Sanyou’s sudden injury was definitely related to Gou Meng. Since she couldn’t reach Gou Meng, maybe she could start with him and find some clues, Lu Yibei thought.

–

The sky was gloomy, as if sensing something was about to happen. Dark clouds silently gathered above, letting snow fall.

Tang City University Affiliated Hospital, intensive care unit.

The corridor, filled with the faint scent of disinfectant, echoed with the monotonous beeping of machines.

Inside the ward, Mao Sanyou lay unconscious on the hospital bed, his body covered in tubes.

He slept restlessly, as if trapped in a terrifying nightmare. His eyelids trembled constantly, and beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

“……”

Vivid, exaggerated images flowed through his mind, a constant hissing and buzzing in his ears. His resistance was futile; he was like an anchorless boat, slowly being drawn into a swirling, shapeless Dream.

In that bizarre hallucination, Mao Sanyou vaguely saw himself once again stepping into that mysterious yet familiar enormous cavern.

The space inside the cave was twisted and strange, pitch black, with narrow, winding passages that seemed never meant for humans. The gray-black paths were slick and impassable, and the jagged stone walls on either side were covered with decaying, moldy-smelling bird nests.

Mao Sanyou wandered endlessly through the repetitive scenery, unable to see the starting point behind or the end ahead, as if trapped in a giant maze.

In this despairing darkness, he suddenly sensed the presence of some low-voiced, screeching creatures. They fluttered their wings, stirring up waves of heat in the tunnels, circling around him, crowding in close.

As the howling song drifted through the darkness, he suddenly “saw” paintings on the stone walls.

It wasn’t with his eyes, but with some other organ he couldn’t identify.

The murals were absurd and twisted, the paint still wet, oozing an indescribable stench, like the bodily fluids of some creature.

Suddenly, a brilliant golden light flared ahead in the passage, as if to illuminate the entire world.

In that soul-stirring light, Mao Sanyou saw a terrifying sight he would never forget for the rest of his life.

He saw his father-his father who had passed away many years ago.

But not in the gentle form he remembered, but as a corpse, a rotting corpse.

The colossal corpse of Fuyang, as massive as a building, stood at the end of the “maze,” thoroughly decayed, its lifeless, putrid black blood seeping out bit by bit, soaking the pitch-black feathers and dripping down the drooping wings into the abyss.

Yet it was still alive, radiating astonishing heat and a dazzling golden light that inspired awe.

Suddenly, the corpse opened its eyes-those twisted, malicious, inhuman pupils stared fixedly at Mao Sanyou, as if to pierce through him, revealing a sinister smile.

–

“Quick! Emergency, emergency! The ICU patient’s heart has stopped!”

A shrill cry rang out in the corridor, pulling Lu Yibei’s consciousness back from Mao Sanyou’s Dream. She activated her psychic energy, quietly withdrawing the pale tendrils generated by borrowing Meng’s lnnate skill, her expression grave.

Just now, while trying to probe Mao Sanyou’s Dream, she discovered two shocking things.

First, Mao Sanyou was actually the offspring of the haunting called Fuyang, which possessed the Golden Crow power.

Second, his father had already died, but for some unknown reason, had suddenly come back to life.

Simply put, someone wanted to be his father!

But what did this have to do with her pesky little sister? As Lu Yibei pondered, a familiar figure flashed at the end of the corridor in her peripheral vision.

Looking closely, she saw it was the visiting professor who had come to Tang City on the same flight as her-Hu Yue…