Chapter 517: Symptoms of Spirit Pattern Out of Control

Shocking! An office worker was brutally struck on the head by a thug on the way home from work–is it the distortion of human nature, or the collapse of morality?

Right in front of The Midnight Watchers Society’s gate, such a vicious attack–does the law even exist anymore?

The world is so cold, violent, and gloomy–how can anyone dare to have a third child?

As the sharp pain spread from the top of his head, a jumble of chaotic thoughts flashed through Lu Yibei’s mind.

Soon, as the headache grew more and more intense, Lu Yibei, who had collapsed to the ground, sensed something strange.

It seemed he hadn’t been hit by someone after all…

The pain, at first, felt like someone had struck his head with a hard object, but as it intensified, he could tell it wasn’t from an external blow, but rather rising slowly from within.

It was as if something inside him was pounding heavily against his skull.

The dizziness grew stronger and stronger, the scenery in his vision began to distort, ripples spreading out like stones stirring waves on the water’s surface, undulating before his eyes.

The moment before he completely lost consciousness, Lu Yibei saw Huá Sāng looking over at him, those lazy eyes seeming to say, “As expected, something happened,” or perhaps, “Just as I thought, this kid is really sick.”

???

Confusion rose in Lu Yibei’s heart. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something to Huá Sāng, but the scene before him grew blurrier and blurrier, until finally, like the lights going out, everything fell into darkness.

And so, in the dim, cramped alley before the gate of the Hua City Folk Culture Administration Bureau, a man and a woman lay quietly on the ground.

The night was deep, the alley filled with a sinister, eerie air. All around was deathly silence, only the wind sweeping fallen leaves and scraps of paper along the ground, making a soft “rustle, rustle” sound.

“Sigh, a good dog doesn’t block the way–what’s the point of lying in the middle of the road?”

After a long time, a weak sigh broke the silence.

Huá Sāng slowly crawled up from the ground, walked to Lu Yibei’s side, tilted her head and studied him for a moment, recalled how her fellow disciples who practiced Corpse Refining Art dragged corpses, then imitated them, propping Lu Yibei up and dragging him toward the roadside.

“Sha, sha… sha, sha…”

The faint sound of body scraping against the ground came intermittently.

Dragging Lu Yibei, Huá Sāng stopped to rest every half meter or so. From the center of the alley to the roadside, less than two meters, it took her a full twenty minutes.

Bang!

She dumped the limp-as-mud Lu Yibei by the roadside, leaned against the wall of the Hua City Folk Culture Administration Bureau, and slowly sat down. She looked utterly exhausted, her face pale, drenched in sweat, panting heavily.

She tilted her head back, staring blankly at the dense branches and leaves of the plane tree above. Only after a long while did she catch her breath and let out a long, heavy sigh.

Dragging corpses was truly exhausting work.

Huá Sāng grumbled inwardly, turned to look at Lu Yibei, half-closed her eyes, calmed her mind, and silently channeled her psychic energy. As a brilliant glow like morning clouds flashed across her eyes, a thin, misty haze rose in her vision.

Qi-sighting Art, activate!

Maintaining this state, as if watching the moon in water or flowers through mist, after a few breaths, she saw a crimson phantom slowly emerge behind Lu Yibei.

That phantom was a burly Giant, its whole body wrapped in flames and thick smoke, scimitar-like horns seemingly forged from lava. Its general form was exactly like the Eifrit described in the ancient texts.

However, unlike the records, this Eifrit’s mouth was black, its arms were black, its skin covered in cracks, as if it had suffered severe burns, the tissue carbonized.

Through the Qi-sighting Art, Huá Sāng gazed at Lu Yibei’s Spirit Pattern phantom, frowning slightly.

She didn’t know if it was her imagination, but she felt that the Eifrit’s expression wasn’t as ferocious and evil as described in the texts, but rather…

A bit aggrieved?

Almost as if it had been badly bullied.

……

Strange, I thought he fainted because his Spirit Pattern mutated and went out of control.

But looking at this, his Spirit Pattern seems normal?

Then why did he… Forget it, it’s none of my business, Huá Sāng thought.

Just dragging Lu Yibei to the roadside and checking whether his Spirit Pattern was out of control had already exceeded her daily exercise limit. If she meddled any further, she was afraid she’d die of exhaustion.

The kind of exhaustion that would kill her on the spot.

As Huá Sāng thought this, her gaze drifted unconsciously to her back, where, beneath her clothes, her own Spirit Pattern was inscribed.

Half an hour later.

There were strange dreams, but no bizarre illusions. After a brief fainting spell, Lu Yibei naturally woke up.

Opening his eyes, he saw the night sky filled with starlight. He was stunned for a moment, and after confirming that he was still in the alley outside the Hua City Folk Culture Administration Bureau, he frowned slightly.

This is odd!

According to the usual pattern, before waking up, he would either witness a brutal haunting attack incident, get a lecture from the Ancestors, or hear the PL girl start a long-winded speech with “You’re awake, now you’ve already XXX.”

Isn’t it a bit too uneventful this time? Lu Yibei thought.

Maybe it’s because, over the past half year, he had suffered too many persecutions. After fainting, waking up so peacefully like this actually felt a bit unfamiliar to him.

Could it be that, without realizing it, he had picked up some strange new habit?

Rubbing his still aching head, Lu Yibei sat up. Just as he steadied himself, he heard a series of ragged breaths coming from beside him. He looked over and his heart tightened instantly.

Damn! Miss, who are you?!

He saw, less than half a meter away, a young girl in tattered clothes sitting against the wall. Her messy long hair hung down, covering most of her face. The small part of her face visible through the strands was smudged with dust, dirty and pale.

Her delicate, slender lips were slightly parted, breathing heavily, making a sound like someone dying of lung disease, a “huff-cough” typical of someone on their deathbed.

“Cough… cough… cough…”

Staring at Hua Sang, for a moment, Lu Yibei even thought he had encountered a female ghost seeking revenge or some kind of haunting incident. But then he remembered this was Hua City territory–no haunting would dare attack the King of Hauntings in Hua City. He relaxed a little.

He steadied himself, looked the girl up and down, and only then, from the slender, pale calf sticking out of her torn pant leg, did he confirm that the girl before him was indeed Hua Sang.

“……”

Wait, wasn’t I the one who suddenly fainted just now?

Why does she look like she’s at death’s door?

Lu Yibei thought, and quietly used his psychic sense to check Hua Sang’s condition. He was slightly startled, then even more puzzled.

This girl, although she looked like she was about to die, from what his psychic sense detected, not only was her psychic energy fluctuation vast as a river, but her vitality was as robust as a strong bull.

A psychic like this, even if you cut her with a knife and drained two kilograms of blood, she should still be bouncing around alive and well.

“Miss, you…”

Hua Sang weakly raised a hand, blocking Lu Yibei’s mouth and interrupting him. She then slightly twisted her neck and gave him a look that said, “Don’t talk, let me be quiet, got it?”

Lu Yibei made an “OK” gesture at Hua Sang and nodded.

Most of the time, he did have a bit of gentlemanly demeanor.

He waited quietly for a while.

Seeing Hua Sang’s breathing gradually steady and her face regain some color, Lu Yibei figured she had “rested” enough and asked again, “Miss, if I may ask, before I fainted, I noticed the way you looked at me, as if you already knew I was going to pass out. Can you tell me why?”

He still cared a lot about why he fainted for no reason, and about that strange look Hua Sang gave him.

Hua Sang took a breath and reluctantly said, “Guessed.”

And guessed wrong… Hua Sang added silently in her heart.

“Guessed? How did you guess? Even if it was a guess, there must have been some basis, right?” Lu Yibei pressed.

“Your Spirit Pattern was acting strange.”

“Strange how?” Lu Yibei continued to ask.

That doesn’t make sense!

Hasn’t my Spirit Pattern always been suppressed by the two core entities of the hauntings, cowering in the corner like a useless little brother?

Why is this little brother suddenly acting up? What gave it the courage? Lu Yibei wondered.

“It mutated, but it’s nothing serious.”

Hearing this, Lu Yibei tensed up and hurriedly asked, “Huh? What do you mean by mutated but nothing serious? Is it a good mutation? Will I get stronger because of it?”

“No.”

“Then will I get weaker? Or will there be some weird symptoms? I’m not going to die, am I?”

No matter what, your body is your capital, it’s the most important thing, you can’t be careless.

Hua Sang opened her mouth, hesitated, “……” Why can’t this guy just be quiet for a moment?

I already told you it’s nothing serious, why do you keep asking? Meeting you, I must have had eight lifetimes of bad luck. Tonight I might just die of exhaustion right here.

Lu Yibei frowned, half speaking, half swallowing his words, “……” Why does this girl talk like squeezing toothpaste?

Why did she suddenly stop talking? Meeting you, my mental state is collapsing, tonight I might just die of anxiety right here.

They stared at each other in silence for a moment.

Upholding the principle of “helping people to the end,” Hua Sang suppressed her irritation, looked at Lu Yibei with a resentful gaze, and said unhurriedly, “Here’s the thing. First, when I met you this morning, I happened to notice your Spirit Pattern had mutated. I was curious, so I took a closer look.”

“Mm-hmm.” Lu Yibei nodded, signaling her to continue.

“Second, just now when you were walking and suddenly fainted, I suspected it was a mild loss of control of the Spirit Pattern, which is a common symptom of it corroding the nervous system.”

She knew all too well the symptoms of unstable or out-of-control Spirit Patterns.

“Combining these two points, I guessed your body might have a big problem, so, so, so…”

“So what?” Lu Yibei pressed anxiously.

However, before Lu Yibei could get the answer he wanted, he saw Hua Sang’s eyelids slowly droop, her head nodding sleepily, and then her body tilted and she collapsed to the ground with a “thud.”

Earlier, in order to complete the Headmaster’s assigned task, Hua Sang had overdrawn her psychic energy, causing even her long-stable Spirit Pattern to fluctuate, putting a heavy burden on her body.

Now, she had barely eaten all day, had overexerted herself, and had used the Qi-sighting Art to observe Lu Yibei’s Spirit Pattern multiple times in one day, which only made her already depleted energy reserves even worse.

So, she really couldn’t hold on any longer. Although she was far from dying, she truly needed to rest.

Seeing Hua Sang suddenly disconnect like that, a string of question marks popped up in Lu Yibei’s mind.

“Wait, miss, are you okay? Miss?”

If something’s wrong, at least finish your sentence before something happens, okay?

This is like a doctor holding a diagnosis, telling a patient, “From the test results, you may have late-stage cancer, but…” and then never finishing the sentence. Aren’t you afraid of getting punched for that?

In a daze, Hua Sang heard Lu Yibei calling her. She struggled to lift her eyelids, then reached out with a trembling hand and wrote a character on the ground.

She looked just like a character in a movie or TV show, desperately trying to write the murderer’s name before dying.

Lu Yibei tilted his head, tried to make out Hua Sang’s scrawled writing, and frowned, “Hungry? Oh, right, she asked me to buy her food earlier, but…”

But how many days must she have gone hungry to suddenly faint mid-sentence like this?

His own junior sister had nothing to eat, and Li Xuan didn’t even care?

Tch! What a jerk, not even human!

Lu Yibei thought indignantly, rummaged in his pocket, took out half a pack of spicy strips, and asked Hua Sang, “Miss, how about you eat some spicy strips to tide you over?”

Hearing this, Hua Sang struggled to lift her eyelids and glared fiercely at Lu Yibei, as if she couldn’t die in peace.

“Alright, you don’t seem to like spicy strips.” Lu Yibei shrugged, bit into a spicy strip, and got up to head toward the convenience store at the entrance of Mudan Street.

Night deepened.

After a moment of silence in the dim alley, footsteps sounded again.

Lu Yibei had freeloaded some jelly and yogurt from the convenience store, along with a handful of random snacks. He tore open the packaging and placed them in front of the sleeping Huá Sāng’s delicate nose, then waved his hand to fan the scent toward her nostrils.

However, Huá Sāng was not Gu Qianqian; the food temptation trick didn’t work so well.

Seeing that Huá Sāng didn’t wake up, Lu Yibei sighed silently, sat down beside her, and started eating spicy strips by himself, falling into deep thought.

Spirit Pattern mutation causing the fainting? Could it be because she was tainted by the Black Sun Fire Seed?

If that’s really the case, then it’s a death sentence. Anything that comes from the Eclipse Society can’t be good.

If it really doesn’t work out, maybe I should just find a way to erase the Spirit Pattern little bro. It’s useless anyway, and keeping it might even be a disaster.

Just as Lu Yibei was secretly debating whether to sabotage the Eifrit Spirit Pattern, a rustling sound interrupted his thoughts.

The sleeping Huá Sāng woke up, sat up, and without a word, picked up the food Lu Yibei had brought and began to eat slowly.

She held the jelly in both hands, nibbling in tiny bites, looking just like a chipmunk gnawing on a pine cone. Her messy hair hung down, obscuring her face, so only her rosy little mouth could be seen as she ate. Her lips were shaped like two willow leaves–quite pretty, actually.

But seriously, who eats jelly so slowly and carefully? I’ve really seen it all today, Lu Yibei thought to himself.

Maybe he was influenced by Huá Sāng’s unhurried, “let him do what he wants, a dead pig isn’t afraid of boiling water” attitude.

Lu Yibei also seemed to enter a sage-like state, simply watching quietly, waiting for her to finish eating.

A long while passed.

After Huá Sāng finished the jelly, yogurt, marshmallows, and other easy-to-eat snacks Lu Yibei had bought, she stopped eating.

She licked clean the last yogurt lid, tucked it neatly into the trash bag, then sat cross-legged and straightened her back. Recalling what she hadn’t finished saying earlier, she continued explaining to Lu Yibei.

“As I was saying, your sudden fainting looked like a mild Spirit Pattern out-of-control symptom, so I guessed there was something wrong with your Spirit Pattern. Later, I used the Qi-sighting Art to observe carefully and found that, aside from some mutation, your Spirit Pattern had no other abnormalities. So maybe I guessed wrong.”

Sometimes, Spirit Pattern mutation isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Some psychics can even use Spirit Pattern mutation to achieve advancement to a higher tier.

After a pause, Huá Sāng added, “But you can’t be careless. Spirit Pattern out-of-control is like cancer–hard to diagnose in the early stages, but once it breaks out, it’s very difficult to cure. I suggest you find a chance to have your Spirit Pattern thoroughly checked.”

“Also, even if the test results show nothing, but you still have similar abnormal reactions later, you can come to the Great Pure Palace to find me anytime. I have a good relationship with the Headmaster old man, and I can ask him for a small favor. When it comes to treating and diagnosing Spirit Pattern out-of-control, he’s really skilled.”

Huá Sāng was indeed a bit lazy by nature, but she was usually quite willing to help others–as long as it didn’t require too much effort on her part.

After listening to Huá Sāng, the doubts in Lu Yibei’s heart were finally resolved, but his mood grew heavier instead.

Although his Spirit Pattern had long been suppressed by the two major haunting core entities, making the chance of losing control low, what if it was precisely because of the long-term oppression that it became psychologically twisted and gradually “mutated”?

Better safe than sorry.

Anyway, to obtain the last fragment of the Pure Lotus Sword, I’ll have to go to the Great Pure Palace sooner or later. Now it’s just an extra side quest.

However, the last fragment can’t be snatched by force, and whether the Spirit Pattern is out of control is still uncertain. Both matters can’t be rushed, and since they involve the Great Pure Palace, it’s probably best to ask the Ancestors for advice first.

Thinking of this, Lu Yibei stood up, cupped his hands to Huá Sāng, and said, “Thank you, miss. It’s getting late, so I’ll take my leave now.”

“Mm-hmm, bye.” Huá Sāng nodded.

Lu Yibei cupped his hands to her again, turned, and rode off on his beloved little scooter, accelerating out of the alley.

Watching Lu Yibei’s departing figure, Huá Sāng quickly slipped back into her reclusive state, lying on the ground to recuperate.

Damn, I’ve spoken more today than I usually do in a whole month. I’m exhausted.

Still, when you take someone’s things, you owe them; when you eat someone’s food, you owe them even more. Tired or not, so be it!

At worst, tomorrow–uh, the day after? No, better rest until next weekend. Huá Sāng thought.