Chapter 421: Did I Come at the Wrong Time?

Lu Yibei stared at her phone in silence for a long time, pondering for quite a while, but still couldn’t come up with a proper solution to the current problem.

The train station, the antique street, and the abandoned distillery-these three locations were in different directions across Tang City, with at least ten kilometers between each pair.

At her speed, it would take at least ten minutes to get from one place to another; there was simply no way she could appear at two different places at the same time in half an hour.

In this situation, only someone like Shui-Ge, a psychic who could break the sound barrier with extreme speed, could manage effective time management, right?

Besides, in my current state, I can’t go see Jiang Li either! Lu Yibei thought.

Mao Sanyou, who was nearby, noticed Lu Yibei’s changing expressions after she checked her phone-sometimes silent, sometimes sighing-and curiously asked, “What’s wrong? Ran into some trouble?”

Lu Yibei looked at Mao Sanyou, pondered for two seconds, and said, “Suppose-just suppose! Suppose two people ask to meet you at the same time. One is your considerate fiancée-to-be who sends you cosplay photos, and the other is a female best friend who’s about to kick the bucket. Which would you choose?”

Mao Sanyou gave Lu Yibei a strange look, rolled his eyes, and said, “Is that even a choice? Of course, I’d choose death! You might as well ask me: if my mom and my wife fell into the water at the same time, who would I save first?”

“So, if your mom and your wife fell into the water at the same time, who would you save first?”

Mao Sanyou thought for a moment, then said seriously, “Generally speaking, my mom is a crocodile.”

Lu Yibei, “…”

Seeing this, Mao Sanyou patted Lu Yibei’s shoulder and said earnestly, “Sis, let me be honest. Even though you’re a witch type, it’s still wrong to flirt everywhere. Even a haunting or psychic with the power of the Headless Horseman wouldn’t dare mess around like this!”

“Anyway, take care of yourself! Since I’m awake now, I won’t stick around while you agonize. I should get to my own business. After I gather some intel in Taoyuan, I still need to help Old Xu start up the city barrier!”

Although the process of infusing psychic energy to shift Tang City’s barrier from defense to offense only requires one person, once the transformation is complete, starting the city barrier still needs all Tang City operators to participate.

Without the special talisman needed for activation, this is a necessary step for almost every city barrier. It’s also to prevent any operator’s Spirit Pattern from going out of control, driving them mad, and using the city barrier to create a terror incident while not in their right mind.

As Mao Sanyou got up to leave, Lu Yibei suddenly remembered something, raised her eyebrows, and asked, “By the way, one more thing-when will the city barrier be activated?”

Mao Sanyou paused slightly, turned to look at Lu Yibei, and said, “Exactly two in the morning. That’s about eight hours from now. I’ve already told my aunt about the timing.”

Two in the morning… Lu Yibei repeated the time in her mind, quietly memorizing the number.

–

The high-speed train from Jinmen’s Nankai to Tang City sped along the tracks toward Tang City.

Above, the sky was piled with dark clouds; below, the silent outskirts. The train darted through the night like a leopard charging full speed at its prey.

The journey from Jinmen to Tang City was nearly four hundred kilometers; the high-speed train took an hour and twenty minutes, and about halfway through, it entered the territory governed by Gou Meng.

After sending a message to Lu Yibei, Jiang Li switched contacts during the wait and carefully read the information sent by a certain “anonymous operator.”

Although she had already received the materials compiled by Li Xuan several hours ago, she considered those documents to be time-sensitive.

A few hours ago, neither Li Xuan nor the operators posting on The Midnight Watchers Society’s internal forum had actually investigated Tang City or Taoyuan in person. They only made reasonable guesses based on the movements of illegal psychic organizations and intelligence from informants.

But now, as time passed, more and more operators from The Midnight Watchers Society arrived in Tang City. After conducting field investigations, the intelligence they sent back became much more detailed and reliable.

After skimming through Li Xuan’s materials, Jiang Li focused on the latest few pieces of information. There wasn’t much-just a few long-distance infrared photos and some brief written descriptions.

The infrared photos were taken near Magpie Bridge Mountain, showing the interior of Taoyuan. In the pictures, it was clear that deep within Taoyuan, there was a massive high-temperature heat source. Judging by its shape, it looked somewhat like a strangely shaped bird.

Moreover, the posture of the giant bird in the photos changed from image to image, meaning it wasn’t a dead thing-it had already awakened and was lurking deep in Taoyuan, ready to move.

Jiang Li glanced at the attached internal investigation from The Midnight Watchers Society about the entanglement of Fuyang and Gou Meng’s powers, and muttered to herself, “Fuyang… Could this be a large-scale haunting incident triggered by a power struggle?”

Because mythological legends are usually passed down through long periods of time and easily influenced by local culture and belief as they spread to different regions, errors and changes often occur in the legends. Among all types of hauntings, the powers of the mythical type are the most prone to disputes.

Sometimes, powers pointing to the same haunting can even give rise to several different hauntings.

For example, even though Mao Sanyou carries the power of the Bennu bird, somewhere else in the world, a haunting possessing the power of Ra, Sun God might also appear. As the core entities of both hauntings are gradually completed, it’s inevitable that a life-or-death confrontation will occur.

In fact, throughout history, The Midnight Watchers Society has already handled no fewer than five catastrophe-class haunting incidents triggered by power disputes. As for their method of handling, of course, it’s to keep things fair-hunt down all the hauntings that caused the dispute.

Jiang Li continued scrolling up through the information, and after seeing several passages, she furrowed her brows slightly.

Some of the information obtained through The Midnight Watchers Society’s informants came from illegal psychic energy organizations, proving from multiple angles that Gou Meng was about to fall, and that many forces were gathering in Taoyuan, preparing to seize her and Fuyang’s “inheritance.” The other part…

“A member of The Midnight Watchers Society, lurking within Gou Meng’s faction, unwilling to reveal their name?”

On one hand, helping Gou Meng counterattack Taoyuan; on the other, passing information to The Midnight Watchers Society without revealing their identity-trying not to offend either side…

Could this person be Lu Yibei?

Double agent stuff really is his style.

Thinking of Lu Yibei, Jiang Li, who was immersed in her research, suddenly realized that more than ten minutes had passed, yet she still hadn’t received a reply from Lu Yibei.

Did something unexpected happen?

Or was he simply in a situation where it was inconvenient to reply?

If that’s the case, I’d better go find him myself. If things are urgent, I can provide him with necessary support.

Jiang Li rested her chin in her hand, pondering for a moment, her gaze quietly drifting toward the small suitcase on the luggage rack.

She always liked to be prepared. She had already anticipated that after arriving in Tang City, she might not be able to reach Lu Yibei.

So before setting out, she made a special trip to Lu Yibei’s home, took the cover from the Bai Xiaohua pillow on his bed, and requested a Thousand Night Owl from the equipment department.

Jiang Li had long witnessed how Lu Yibei hugged that pillow to sleep every day. It was impossible for there not to be residual psychic energy fluctuations from him on it.

So, as long as she let the Thousand Night Owl track the residual psychic energy fluctuations on the pillow cover, it would be easy to locate Lu Yibei.

Not only did it have Lu Yibei’s residual psychic energy fluctuations, but according to Jiang Li’s occasional observations, when Lu Yibei slept hugging the pillow, there would sometimes be very strong psychic energy fluctuations.

Who knows what strange, indescribable dreams he was having.

As for why Jiang Li would observe Lu Yibei sleeping…

Is that really important?

–

Fifteen minutes later, near the exit of Tang City train station.

Jiang Li, moving along with the sparse flow of people, dragged her small suitcase, turned left into the restroom beside the station exit, waited a moment, then entered one of the stalls. She took out the pillow cover, Thousand Night Owl, Face-Changing mask, and a set of clothes in the “Meow Meow-chan” style from her suitcase.

That’s right-she had considered the possibility that when she arrived in Tang City, Lu Yibei might be in a haunting transformation state and unable to meet her.

So, five minutes later.

A young woman wearing a dark blue belted mid-length trench coat and ultra-short shorts, stepping in deep brown Chelsea boots, walked out of the restroom.

With each step, her golden wavy hair gently swayed, and paired with her wheat-colored skin, her whole aura was clean and sharp yet carried a touch of wildcat-like allure, drawing frequent glances from passersby.

Leaving the train station, the crowd thinned out. Under the dim yellow streetlights, with light snow drifting down the roadside, Jiang Li slowly pulled the Thousand Night Owl from her jacket pocket and infused it with psychic energy.

As a faint glow flowed across its paper-like surface, the Thousand Night Owl spread its wings, circled Jiang Li a few times, then hovered in front of her, its beak trembling slightly, pointing forward.

Jiang Li’s gaze sharpened slightly. Following the direction indicated by the Thousand Night Owl, she strode quickly ahead.

Lu Yibei hesitated for quite a while before finally deciding to go to Chunfeng Residence to meet Gou Meng first.

Although, Meow Meow-chan is number one in the world!

But now, time was running out. Before the city barrier activated at exactly 2 a.m., she had to sneak into Taoyuan with Gou Meng’s Centaur team a few hours in advance to have enough time to operate.

Besides, in her current state, it wasn’t convenient to meet Jiang Li; she hadn’t figured out the most appropriate way to meet her yet.

Lastly, she admitted she was holding onto a bit of wishful thinking. After all, Jiang Li hadn’t been able to contact her for such a long time, so reaching out a bit later shouldn’t cause any major problems.

……

In the depths of winter, after nightfall, there were almost no pedestrians left on the roads of Tang City, and the passing vehicles were pitifully few. A large truck sped along the highway toward Taohua Road, sometimes tracing an S-shaped path on the road, sometimes making a lightning drift.

Lu Yibei had a pretty accurate understanding of her own driving skills. Although she didn’t have a license and had failed the test several times, and even had some psychological trauma left from that car accident.

But in the end, she managed to drive the truck loaded with Paper Cicada Immortal out of the abandoned distillery without incident, traversed nearly ten kilometers, and arrived in front of the antique street.

And she was lucky enough not to hit anything, thus avoiding detonating those Paper Cicada Immortal stuffed with Alchemical Bombs, and didn’t turn the truck into a nuclear explosion vehicle.

After getting out of the truck, Lu Yibei walked straight ahead along the old street paved with bluestone, reached the end, slipped into an alley, twisted and turned for a while, and stopped in front of a small building surrounded by greenery and full of ancient charm.

She looked up at the peach wood plaque hanging in front of the building, confirmed that the three big characters “Chunfeng Residence” were written on it, then stepped forward and gently knocked on the brass ring on the door.

“Dang dang dang-dang dang dang-!”

After a few soft knocks, the courtyard returned to silence, with no response.

“That’s strange… not here yet?”

Lu Yibei muttered, took out her phone to check the time. There were still two minutes left until the half hour she had agreed on with Gou Meng.

Should she wait a bit longer? Maybe she’d be here soon… Lu Yibei grumbled inwardly, walked over to the stone pier by the door and sat down, pulling out a spicy strip from her pocket.

Just as she was about to put the spicy strip in her mouth, a fair and slender hand reached out in front of her.

“Give me one too.”

“Okay.”

Lu Yibei instinctively handed the spicy strip to that hand, but after the other person took it, she just played with it and didn’t put it in her mouth.

When Lu Yibei came back to her senses and looked up, she saw that familiar yet unfamiliar face and her eyes widened instantly.

“What the-! You, what are you doing here?”

“Hmm? Let me think.”

The tan-skinned beauty pondered for a moment, then said seriously, “Probably because I heard something big happened in Tang City, and I couldn’t reach a certain heartless someone, so I got a bit worried and came to check?”

Noticing the barely concealed panic in Lu Yibei’s eyes, Jiang Li added, “Why do I feel like I showed up at the wrong time? You don’t seem very happy to see me?”

“N-no, that’s not it.” Lu Yibei stammered, hurriedly stood up, grabbed Jiang Li’s hand, and tried to lead her out of the alley.

“This isn’t the place to talk. Let’s go somewhere else.”

Gou Meng would be here any minute.

One was a full-fledged operator of The Midnight Watchers Society with an overflowing sense of justice, the other was a thousand-year-old haunting who’d probably committed countless crimes-if the two of them ran into each other.

That would be even more catastrophic than a comet hitting the earth, strong acid meeting strong alkali, or pouring ice water into a pot of boiling oil… several times worse!

Lu Yibei thought to herself, and just then, a light flutter of wings sounded overhead. A glossy-feathered magpie descended from the sky, landed lightly on her shoulder, and then, accompanied by a flash of emerald green light, the magpie transformed into a face-hugging bug.

“Hurry, let me crawl into your clothes and warm up. Flying all the way here nearly froze me to death…”

Gou Meng was still talking when she suddenly noticed the blonde beauty behind Lu Yibei, paused for a moment, then crawled up to Lu Yibei’s ear and whispered, “What’s going on? Did I come at a bad time?”

Lu Yibei, “……”

Jiang Li gazed at the little girl with big eyes peeking out from Lu Yibei’s shoulder, raised her chin provocatively, and said calmly, “No, you came at just the right time.”

Lu Yibei, “???”

The snow falling from the sky had somehow gotten heavier, the cold wind blurring her vision.

In a daze, Lu Yibei seemed to sense a bright red “Danger” character slowly appearing above her head, then gradually twisting into a “Death” character.