Chapter 472: Divine Revelation

“Anything else you want to say?”

Lu Yibei sat obediently and properly on the bench, shaking her head.

“No.”

She had already tried her best to get information out of Gu Xinian.

From “currently available public information,” she extended the topic to the daily lives of Truth-Seeking Fellowship members, from daily life to relationship status, from relationship status to “What did you eat this morning?” “Did you eat enough?”-she was just short of directly asking Gu Xinian for his ID number.

And along the way, she fully displayed the curiosity that a misguided, ignorant underage girl should have toward a mysterious cult group, without a single flaw.

But Gu Xinian was not Gu Qianqian; this guy was tight-lipped, always able to dodge the key points and brush her off with vague answers.

Other than discovering that this guy was a highly self-disciplined monster who could get up the moment his alarm rang, the only other piece of information Lu Yibei managed to get was that he seemed to have a sister complex.

Should I go back and kidnap Gu Qianqian, threaten him to tell me what I want to know?

Tsk, if I’d known Gu Qianqian was so important, I wouldn’t have let her get away!

Wait, is my way of doing things becoming more and more like those in my dream memories? Something’s wrong with me! Lu Yibei thought.

“Then I’m leaving, okay!?”

Lu Yibei waved her hand expressionlessly.

Seeing this, Gu Xinian was about to leave, when he suddenly noticed Lu Yibei’s look of wanting to speak but holding back, and his heart tightened.

“Don’t say anything. If you have any questions, ask next time!”

Lu Yibei opened her mouth, then dejectedly nodded.

“Whew-!”

As if granted amnesty, Gu Xinian let out a long sigh of relief, turned around, and quickly walked out of the reading room.

When Lu Yibei introduced herself, Gu Xinian didn’t really believe this girl had psychological problems. With her calm and harmless appearance, what problems could she have?

Now he believed it.

Dealing with her alone was more exhausting than dealing with dozens of Fellowship members. If Gu Xinian hadn’t been acting as the acting president for these years, helping Second Uncle handle all sorts of troublesome members, if it were anyone else dealing with her, they’d probably have fallen for it already.

Maybe, it’s because she’s good-looking that she’s survived until now?

Otherwise, she’d probably have been beaten to death long ago.

As Gu Xinian thought this, his left foot had just stepped out of the third-floor reading room when he heard a long sigh from behind.

“Sigh-!”

Gu Xinian, “……”

Who knows what’s going on with Second Uncle, urging him so urgently-he had to hurry back, absolutely couldn’t let her mess with him anymore.

“Sigh-!”

Gu Xinian’s right foot had just stepped out of the third-floor reading room when the sigh sounded again.

That sigh, tinged with helplessness and a bit of regret, sounded like hundreds of cat paws crawling into his body through his ears, batting his heart around like a ball of yarn.

“Damn it, if you have something to say, just say it! Stop being so passive-aggressive!”

Lu Yibei stared at Gu Xinian for two seconds, then her gaze drifted to the chair opposite her, and she said weakly, “You kept taking out your phone just now, kept taking it out, and then you left it on the chair and forgot to take it……”

Gu Xinian’s mouth twitched, and he rubbed his forehead. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“Hey! You’re the one who told me to save it for next time if I had something to say!” Lu Yibei looked innocent.

“……”

Damn it…

It was supposed to be Lu Yibei showing up today, so how did this girl end up here?

With a dark face, Gu Xinian turned back, picked up the phone from the chair, put it back in his pocket, and as he turned, he forcefully patted his sleeve as if to shake off all the bad luck.

“Puff-puff-!”

With a light sound, a thin layer of dust floated in the air.

Lu Yibei watched as the white dust danced in the sunlight like stirred-up motes, a look of disdain flashing in her eyes.

What the heck is falling off him?

Has he not washed his clothes for months? Are they falling apart? Or is it some indescribable powder meant for use on beautiful girls?

Scary, scary, better be careful!

Muttering to herself, she shrank her neck, slowly raised a palm, and covered her nose and mouth.

—

At dusk, the setting sun poured down from the sky, dyeing the city streets rose-colored.

On the third floor of Hua City Library, Lu Yibei was still sitting by the window, head down playing with her phone.

After waiting for a long time and confirming that there were no more Truth-Seeking Fellowship members secretly watching, she put away her phone, sat up straight, and began flipping through the <Hua City Urban and Rural Construction Gazetteer> on the table.

“Big idiot, if you won’t tell me, can’t I just find out myself?” Lu Yibei muttered in a voice only she could hear.

What is the Truth-Seeking Fellowship? A cult group! Can you believe the nonsense they say?

Teammates might even stab each other in the back, let alone a cult group with no connection at all.

Trusting them is less reliable than believing the <Love and Magic Girls> autumn limited UP pool really has a 5% drop rate!

Anyway, Lu Yibei felt that, if necessary, she was very capable of stabbing her teammates in the back. If she wasn’t even sure they were teammates yet, even better!

If the enemy is weak, suppress with firepower, grind them to dust; if the enemy is strong, use a club, poison them-whatever dirty tricks work.

Considering all this, Lu Yibei felt it was very necessary to investigate that abandoned factory from her dream.

Judging by Gu Xinian’s reaction, that place must be very important to the Truth-Seeking Fellowship.

If she could figure out the exact location of that abandoned factory, scout which nearby routes were good for escape, where would be best to fight back without getting surrounded… and so on, then if she ever ended up there and ran into some dangerous situation, she could still get away safely.

After all, in her dream memories, the scene of those blurry figures sending a little girl who looked like Gu Qianqian to the giant smokestack had left a very unfriendly impression on her.

She always felt like they wanted to send Gu Qianqian into the boiler room under the smokestack and make a dish called [Charcoal-Roasted Little Gu Qianqian].

And they wouldn’t even add scallions or salt-truly cruel methods.

At this thought, Lu Yibei suddenly found herself missing her Alchemical Bombs.

If she had a few Alchemical Bombs on her right now, after finding that abandoned factory, she could set them up in the chimney in advance. If anything went wrong, just a flick of her finger would instantly turn danger into the most brilliant fireworks on the horizon.

As she pondered, Lu Yibei quickly flipped the book to the table of contents.

She had been worrying earlier that, even with the help of illustrations and information, trying to pick out the factory that matched her dream from dozens of abandoned factories with huge chimneys would be a massive undertaking.

The Truth-Seeking Fellowship tearing out pages from the book had undoubtedly helped her narrow down the scope.

In an instant, it went from a complex analysis to a freebie-so heartwarming.

When Lu Yibei turned to the table of contents listing pages 336 to 343, she frowned.

Blacked out? Damn it, are you even human?!

Books are the ladder of human progress. Tearing them up so carelessly-don’t your consciences hurt?

I’m different. I’m a haunting, so I don’t have a conscience…

Thinking this, Lu Yibei prepared to tear out the table of contents to take home for careful study, but then, as if her conscience suddenly awoke, she pulled out her phone and took a complete photo of the table of contents.

We are above stooping to their level!

Lu Yibei indignantly punched the air with her little fist, sneaking a glance at the surveillance camera in the corner.

“That’s enough… Time to go back. I can find a list of abandoned factories in Hua City online. Just compare the lists, see which ones are missing, and check them one by one. Then I’ll find the abandoned factory from my dream.”

Muttering to herself, she put away her phone and quickly left the library.

—

A little after six in the evening, Lu Yibei pulled the curtains in her study after returning home.

She didn’t know if this would stop the Truth-Seeking Fellowship from spying on her, but at least it was some basic precaution.

She opened her laptop, typed “Hua City abandoned factories” into the search engine, tapped enter, and soon found a list of factories that had been demolished or relocated in the past fifteen years. Then she pulled out her phone…

Before she knew it, nearly an hour had been swallowed up by short videos and her phone.

Snapping back to reality, Lu Yibei looked at the time on her phone-19:07-and frowned. “Wait, what was I supposed to be doing? Oh, right, comparing the table of contents and the list.”

And then…

The short video app silently stole another half hour of her time.

“Bang-!”

Half an hour later, Lu Yibei slammed the table, her voice full of frustration. “Damn it! Lu Yibei, how could you fall so far? This can’t go on!”

“Eh, a Love and Magic Girls event notification… Oh right, I haven’t finished today’s daily quests.”

So, nearly two hours after getting home, she finally dragged herself to open her photo album, and began comparing the photos of the table of contents with the list of relocated factories.

Am I just slacking off and playing around? No!

I’m doing this to throw off suspicion! What if the Truth-Seeking Fellowship is still secretly watching me?

No one would be bored enough to just watch someone play on their phone for over two hours, right? Lu Yibei thought.

—

Time ticked by. Over two hours later, as the city outside gradually fell into silence, Lu Yibei finally finished her comparison.

Qianjin Ironworks, Xujiagou Brewery, Hongxing Aluminum Alloy Factory, Zhaojiatang Leather Factory, West City Lime Factory.

These abandoned factories were the ones mentioned on the missing pages of the Hua City Urban and Rural Construction Gazetteer. Considering the feature of having huge chimneys, she could rule out the brewery and the leather factory.

“That just leaves the ironworks, the aluminum alloy factory, and the lime factory… Which one should I check out first?” Lu Yibei muttered to herself.

Four choices. For someone like her, who could agonize over whether to buy the sweeter blue bottle or the fizzier red bottle of soda, or support a local brand, only to end up with a sugar-free Sprite because of indecision, this was truly a headache.

Just as she was stressing over which abandoned factory to visit first, a detail flashed through her mind.

The “dust” on Gu Xinian’s clothes!

Though it was just a thin layer of white powder, only visible drifting in the sunlight.

But what if it was lime dust?

Wouldn’t that mean he’d been somewhere with lime?

Lu Yibei mused, her gaze landing on the words “West City Lime Factory.”

Could it be this place?

Although the West City Lime Factory had been abandoned for nearly twenty years, according to information she found online, it hadn’t been demolished due to its remote location, and there might still be leftover lime inside. It made perfect sense for Gu Xinian to get some white powder on his clothes after visiting the West City Lime Factory.

“Then… I’ll go check it out?”

—

So, half an hour later.

After a simple dinner at a noodle shop near the faculty housing complex, Lu Yibei stood by the roadside and waved at an approaching taxi.

As she got in, she sneaked a glance at the driver, saw his weathered stubble and story-filled paunch, and nodded in satisfaction.

As expected of the “Law of Causality: Exclusive Driver Summoning Technique”-it’s you again!

Seeing the passenger silent for a long time after getting in, Zhang Shan couldn’t help but ask, “Miss, where to?”

“To the West City Lime Factory,” Lu Yibei replied expressionlessly.

“West City Lime…” Zhang Shan repeated softly, as if recalling something, his brows furrowing slightly. But he said nothing, just started the car and drove off.

Fifteen minutes later.

“Uncle, do you like listening to haunting stories?”

Zhang Shan glanced at Lu Yibei through the rearview mirror and said calmly, “Are you about to say you have a friend who told you that if you tell me a haunting story, you don’t have to pay the fare?”

“Uh…” Lu Yibei hesitated for two seconds, then said seriously, “Absolutely not. I don’t have friends who like to freeload!”

“I just think it’s too quiet. It’s a bit boring.”

That was the truth.

“Oh, is that so?” Zhang Shan nodded. “Go ahead, then.”

“Hmm, let me think…” Lu Yibei pondered for a moment, then began, “I’ll tell you the story of one-person hide-and-seek, okay?”

“It all started when a man tried a haunting game at home…”

As night deepened, at the West City lime factory.

The old factory building stood silent under the night, its broken windows pitch black, looking from afar like pairs of dull, lifeless eyes.

Underground, a small storeroom originally used for storing odds and ends was brightly lit by several high-wattage bulbs.

Gu Wei Bing, drenched in sweat and panting heavily, gripped a gleaming electric saw in his hand, staring intently at the windbreaker fixed on the workbench in front of him, his expression grave.

Earlier, he had shown this “deity’s gift” to the members of the Truth-Seeking Fellowship, claiming that he would soon decipher the “divine revelation” contained within, drawing cheers and excitement from the members.

But…

How was he supposed to decipher any “divine revelation” from this ragged piece of clothing!?

Granted, he firmly believed that he had indeed made a supernatural contact with a great being in his dreams, and upon waking, had received a gift from that great existence.

However, up to now, he still didn’t know what that great being wanted him to do.

The reason he boasted in front of the Truth-Seeking Fellowship members was because he had been doing so for nearly twenty years.

Only by doing this could he maintain an air of mystery, strengthen the members’ belief, and continuously receive sponsorship from elites of all walks of life.

Yes, it was materialistic, disgustingly so.

But he didn’t want to end up like his elder brother, ruining his own life for some illusory dream.

Some people can’t live without dreams, but some people just want to “live.”

Here, he could have whatever he wanted-why risk everything to live in a world full of unknowns?

Still, as the president of the Fellowship, he did respect the members’ dreams. If he truly mastered the way to the “real world,” he’d be happy to send those members off first, and help keep all they left behind in this false world.

Yet, reality always goes against one’s wishes.

He thought that this time, like before, he could simply display a miraculous item to the members and gain their worship and a staggering amount of wealth.

Today, however, after seeing this bizarre windbreaker, those Fellowship members seemed bewitched, and things quickly spiraled out of Gu Wei Bing’s control.

Several members who held the Fellowship’s financial lifelines even pressured him, declaring they would cut off funding until he deciphered the “divine revelation.”

This left Gu Wei Bing feeling powerless and annoyed.

So, not long after the gathering dispersed during the day, he came to this small storeroom to study the miraculous windbreaker he had acquired by chance.

But in the past few hours, he had gained nothing.

After repeated failed attempts, Gu Wei Bing threw the electric saw aside in frustration, his face dark as he muttered, “Damn it, can’t communicate, can’t wear it, can’t even cut it open with a saw…”

“What the hell am I supposed to do with this thing?”

Just as Gu Wei Bing was growing anxious and irritable, the light above his head flickered a few times, and the surroundings fell into utter silence.

In that silence, the faint rustling coming from the windbreaker became especially clear.

As the rustling sounded in the stillness, the first thing to change was his vision-first a blur, then a faint dark red halo appeared.

Next, the half-real, half-illusory dark red flesh attached to the windbreaker seemed to multiply madly in an instant, invading every corner of the small storeroom.

They clung to the walls, the ceiling, the tables and chairs… slowly writhing.

In an instant, he felt as if the entire storeroom had suddenly come alive, exuding a terrifying pressure that surged toward him.

Countless strange sounds drilled into his ears-wind, thunder, a woman’s soft laughter, a beast’s roar, melodious music, the shriek of blades.

Fear climbed into his heart, making his whole body tremble.

Gu Wei Bing was enveloped by the wall, as if it had turned into some bizarre cavity, his eyes rolling back, body convulsing uncontrollably.

At last, all sounds abruptly ceased.

Gu Wei Bing, nearly unconscious, had a quiet, blissful, and sweet smile appear on his face.

In that moment, his mind was filled only with the happiest, purest thoughts-like first love, a first achievement, or the first toy of childhood.

—

No one knew how much time had passed.

Gu Wei Bing emerged from that indescribably wonderful state, dazed for two seconds before hurriedly checking his own body.

“Whew-!” After confirming he was unharmed, he let out a long sigh of relief.

Just then, an irresistible thought flashed through his mind without warning-to spread those “creations of the deity” to the Fellowship members.

In that instant, he suddenly understood: this was the deity’s revelation!

Suddenly, the light flickered again, and with the alternating brightness and darkness, a faint sound like a pebble dropping came from the workbench.

Gu Wei Bing froze, following the direction of the sound, his gaze landing on a dark red crystal that had appeared on the workbench at some unknown time, his eyes growing deeper…