Chapter 549: It Miraculously Pierced Through Your Chest

Under the night sky, rows of unfinished buildings stood in silence, like giant skeletons forgotten by the world. The pitch-black, deep spaces between the floors were nests for insects dwelling within the bones.

In the deepest part of one such unfinished building, the underground parking lot was empty and deserted.

Psychic energy fluctuations stirred a gentle breeze, swirling in the darkness, kicking up dust and forming tiny whirlwinds. Accompanied by a piece of music, “lost rivers,” they drifted through the vast space like dancing ghostly shadows.

In the corner of the underground parking lot, candlelight flickered faintly.

The dim yellow glow of two spirit candles illuminated the delicate face of the girl before the incense table.

She wore a tattered robe reminiscent of a medieval evil witch, a brightly colored, ferocious ghost mask, and her pink-white long hair was loosely draped down her back, swaying gently in the breeze. Her shadow stretched long on the ground, extending backward until it was swallowed by darkness.

From a distance, it looked just like a cultist performing some kind of sacrificial ritual.

The scene from interrogating Suolang Baima was still vivid in her mind.

Hu Chuan, as an ordinary person, was at most a low-tier psychic. The lingering soul on his relic couldn’t be too strong; it was likely that before Lu Yibei could ask anything, he would be unable to withstand the interrogation and shatter apart.

So, this time Lu Yibei slightly changed her strategy, deciding to abandon violent interrogation in favor of a more humane approach.

Music full of underworld vibes, the decor and costume of the netherworld, the ruined underground parking lot shrouded in darkness–these would surely make Hu Chuan, now a dead soul, feel at home and let down his guard.

This way, she only needed to use a little bit of her charm ability to gain his trust, make him shy, and extract…

Wait, have I already become this kind of manipulative green tea bitch persona?

No, start over!

She only needed to use a little trick to gain his trust, make him open his heart, and become a friend who shares everything.

Thinking this, Lu Yibei raised the necklace she found in the time capsule before her, closed her eyes, spread her psychic energy fluctuations to envelop the entire incense table, and began to chant.

“Youth fades, daylight shines, spring’s vigor surges, all things hasten. The nether descends, the soul cannot escape. Soul, return! Do not wander far. Soul, return! Neither east nor west, neither south nor north…”

As the incantation was recited, mist spread from the necklace, flowing like water, carrying Lu Yibei’s voice and will into the void.

In a daze, Lu Yibei felt countless eyes casting their gaze upon her, with strange whispers echoing in her ears.

Those “onlookers” had come again.

She ignored those gazes, quietly waiting, like a fisherman who had cast out bait, waiting for the big fish–Hu Chuan’s soul–to bite.

Time ticked by, second by second.

Five minutes later, Lu Yibei stopped chanting and opened her eyes.

She did not feel the subtle tremor of intent she had when she successfully summoned Suolang Baima last time; Hu Chuan’s lingering soul gave her no response at all, not even a chance to make a promise.

It was as if this “fish pond” had no fish at all, or like “the user you are calling is not in the service area.”

……

How could this be?

Did I recite the incantation wrong?

Or is it that the lingering soul of an ordinary person is inherently harder to summon than that of a high-tier psychic?

Lu Yibei grumbled inwardly, walked to the ancient, worn incense table, carefully checked whether all the materials and items needed for the directional summoning spell formation were complete, and seriously recalled the incantation Qing Ji had taught her several times. After confirming there was no mistake, she cast the directional summoning spell formation again.

Lighting candles to welcome the spirit, burning incense as an offering, toasting wine and chanting… After repeating this process several times, she stopped, gazing at the flickering candle flames on the incense table, lost in thought.

Something’s not right, very not right!

Even if the lingering soul of an ordinary person is harder to summon than that of a high-tier psychic, after so many attempts, there should at least be some faint reaction, even if not successful.

There must be some factor affecting the spell formation, causing the summoning to fail.

Lu Yibei picked up the gold necklace and examined it repeatedly, frowning.

After more than twenty practical exercises with Suolang Baima, Lu Yibei had become very proficient with the directional summoning spell formation.

According to Qing Ji, by his twentieth or so attempt at directional summoning, his technique was already at a masterful level.

Although Lu Yibei considered herself less talented than her Ancestors, after so much practice, she was at least somewhat accomplished; there was no way she could have made a mistake in the spell formation process.

As for the gold necklace used as the summoning medium, she had confirmed with the headless senior sister multiple times that Hu Chuan had definitely touched it more than once, and when he gave the necklace to senior sister, he had even put it on her himself.

Fat Master was a qualified merchant with his own principles. Although he often played little tricks in transactions to gain more profit, he never sold fake goods, so the materials were not the problem either.

So in the process of casting a spell formation, the only possible cause of failure is insufficient psychic energy input.

However…

After ruling out these factors, a bold guess gradually surfaced in Lu Yibei’s mind.

Is it possible… Hu Chuan didn’t actually die?

The death recorded in the school archives was just a fake, fabricated because he feared the senior sister’s entanglement and revenge, or perhaps for some other unspeakable reason.

“If that’s the case…” Lu Yibei murmured, “then I’ll have to ask those sages who never show their true faces for help. Investigating the movements of the living isn’t my forte.”

That’s right, the goofball netizens in the haunting chat group.

“But before that, I should try increasing the psychic energy input when casting the spell formation.”

Lu Yibei muttered to herself, silently took out a Fortune Deity Coin from her jacket pocket, and tossed it into the air.

For the next spell amplification, greater than one means heads, less than one means tails.

She silently recited this in her heart, predicted heads or tails, and reached out to catch the falling copper coin.

Tails? The amplification multiplier is less than one.

Lu Yibei shook her head, casually pinched a red flame flash, then dispersed it, and immediately tossed the copper coin again.

When she summoned Suolang Baima earlier, she hadn’t considered the spell amplification multiplier or the strength of psychic energy input at all. After all, from the first time to the last, she succeeded every time.

Now, considering the failure to summon Hu Chuan, it might be due to insufficient psychic energy input when casting the spell formation, so she had to pick a suitable moment.

A directional soul-summoning spell formation, this kind of ritual spell formation, isn’t like attack spells or defense spells used in combat. Even if the amplification multiplier is less than one, adapting on the fly can still have some effect.

But if a directional soul-summoning spell formation is cast when the amplification multiplier is very low, and the psychic energy input is increased at the same time, it’s likely to be a waste of effort.

After repeating the process of tossing the copper coin and resetting the amplification multiplier with red flame flash more than ten times, Lu Yibei finally got the multiplier she wanted, a trace of resentment flashing in her eyes.

Damn! Why didn’t I realize spell amplification was so infuriating before?

It’s just like the warehouse inspection mechanism in those shady in-game purchase gacha games–the more you want something, the less likely you are to get it!

Little buddy needs some proper discipline. If I could make it obey and give me whatever multiplier I want, that would be perfect.

Lu Yibei thought, picked up the necklace again, paced to the incense table, and cast the directional soul-summoning spell formation.

She had already divined with the Fortune Deity Coin; the amplification multiplier was greater than five. If she still couldn’t successfully summon Hu Chuan’s lingering soul this time, it meant that kid was faking his death!

“Youth fades, daylight shines…”

As she chanted the incantation, Lu Yibei clearly felt the psychic energy in her body draining rapidly, growing ever more intense, like a beast whose desires could never be satisfied, threatening to drain her dry.

Damn it, why is the psychic energy consumption so intense this time?

The amplification multiplier seems a bit too high; I should have divined the upper limit earlier.

“…Do not wander far. Soul, return! Neither east nor west, neither south nor north…”

When the spell formation chant ended, the gold necklace in Lu Yibei’s hand suddenly trembled lightly, emitting a faint buzzing sound. In the next moment, dazzling silver mist erupted from the necklace like a mushroom cloud from a violent explosion, spreading out like an umbrella and nearly covering the entire underground parking lot.

The silver mist surged and roiled, stirring up a powerful psychic energy storm, howling and racing, everything was coated in a layer of silver, leaving only blurry outlines.

The entire underground parking lot trembled, causing muffled rumbles, like the deep roar of a giant beast. Accompanied by that roar, bits of concrete debris fell from the ceiling.

On the ground, the various miscellaneous items Lu Yibei had poured out from the Divine Land prototype seemed to be activated by the silver mist, trembling lightly and clinking, with all sorts of human figures appearing and disappearing on those items, scrambling like fledglings in a nest waiting to be fed.

Looking closely, those figures were basically all the lucky ones who perished in the chaos of Taoyuan.

Holy crap! This must be amplified forty or fifty times!

Did I summon something weird and cause trouble?

Lu Yibei thought heavily, her small hand flipped, and the Pure Lotus Sword and several Alchemical Bombs appeared in her hand. Just then, a sudden clamor sounded in her ears.

It was as if, in an instant, thousands of invisible people appeared in this long-abandoned underground parking lot, some cheering loudly, some screaming in shock, some cursing… all sorts of voices filled with extreme emotions converged, making it impossible to focus.

If the whispers during the previous directional soul-summoning spell formation were like a crowd watching a car crash, now it was like the World Cup qualifiers, with the National Football Team being sent home 0:5 by a tiny country with a population of less than 100,000.

Thousands of unseen eyes stared at Lu Yibei, brewing an unsettling gaze.

She had seen that kind of gaze before, on the golden plains outside Dream Come True Entertainment City, when the wolf pack hunting her looked at her with the same eyes.

Ah, this… seems like things are going south.

She had cast the directional soul-calling spell formation so many times before, and nothing like this had ever happened, right?

Lu Yibei was about to skillfully pin the blame on the Eifrit Spirit Pattern when suddenly, something in her inner pocket trembled, emitting a crisp and pleasant sound.

“Ding-a-ling…”

Was it the wind chime Ah-Hua had left behind?

But why did it suddenly start ringing?

Lu Yibei looked down, her eyes puzzled as she glanced at the spot on her chest where she kept the wind chime, frowning. When Shui-Ge had suddenly appeared at the old mansion earlier, she had been busy preparing the directional soul-calling spell formation and had almost forgotten that she’d picked up this little trinket today.

The next moment, as if warning Lu Yibei of something, the wind chime in her arms suddenly shook violently, the ringing growing loud.

“Ding-a-ling–ding-a-ling–!”

At the instant the chime sounded, a premonition flashed through Lu Yibei’s mind.

[It pierces through your chest from behind]

Sensing danger, Lu Yibei’s pupils contracted slightly. She immediately shifted her steps, spinning her body and dodging sideways.

No backstabs allowed!

The next moment, a sharp screech erupted.

Something suddenly shot out from the pile of scattered debris on the ground, like a miniature cannonball, grazing past Lu Yibei’s chest, leaving a white mark on her jacket with a hiss, and smashed into the stone pillar behind her.

“Boom–!”

With a loud bang, as if a bomb had exploded inside the concrete-cast stone pillar, it burst apart instantly, shattering into pieces.

The broken bricks and concrete scattered to the ground, instantly turning golden, clattering as they fell, as if they had turned into pieces of gold.

Lu Yibei, “……” What the heck? Is this transmuting stone into gold?

After piercing through one stone pillar, the golden light didn’t stop. In less than a second, it smashed through several more pillars in succession before suddenly making a sharp turn, heading straight for Lu Yibei.

That thing was wrapped in a blinding golden light, as fast as lightning, spinning at high speed, stirring up cyclones of astonishing psychic energy fluctuation. Its exact form was unclear, only a vague, slender outline visible.

A flying sword? A dagger? An Alchemical Bomb?

Damn it, I really summoned some inexplicable thing!

Is this little guy taking the chance to mess with me?

While cursing inwardly, Lu Yibei quickly unleashed her movement technique, her figure accelerating sharply, dodging the pursuit of the golden light as nimbly and swiftly as a low-flying swallow.

She could feel that whatever was wrapped in that golden light possessed psychic energy fluctuation surpassing Class A, and faintly emanated a very dangerous aura.

It was almost like the feeling of facing the Big Boss’s psychic energy fluctuation head-on.

This is really bad!

She had just used a forty or fifty times amplified directional soul-calling spell formation and was now in a state of psychic energy deficit. Before figuring out what that thing was, rashly trying to shoot it down would not be wise. She could only maneuver for now, and wait until she understood what it was before making a move.

So, in stories, the summoning ritual always ends up calling some inexplicable thing–there’s a reason for that!

[It pierces through your chest from the left], [It pierces through your chest from the rear right], [It pierces through your chest from behind]…

The booming sounds of the golden light smashing through the building came one after another, just like the legendary flying sword that always draws blood once unsheathed, relentlessly pursuing Lu Yibei.

Premonitions flashed through Lu Yibei’s mind without pause, while the wind chime in her arms rang loudly.

Dodging back and forth, she tried Alchemical Bombs, spell formations, and even the Pure Lotus Sword to go head-to-head, but the result was always the same: the golden light would, by some bizarre twist, evade her attacks in an uncanny way.

It was like it had some kind of auto-dodge script running–its movement was absurd!

Time ticked by.

The golden light was getting closer and closer to her. After each attack, it managed to close the distance a bit more. Realizing this, she felt the pressure mounting, cold sweat beading on her forehead.

[It pierces through your chest from directly in front]

Tsk, why do you keep going for my chest?!

As the premonition flashed through her mind, Lu Yibei grumbled inwardly and darted sharply to the left.

But before her toes even touched the ground, the golden light suddenly made a ninety-degree sharp turn, heading straight for where she was about to land.

Seeing this, Lu Yibei ducked low the instant she landed, rolling out of the way in a rather awkward fashion as golden rubble poured down over her head.

Wh-what’s going on?

That damned thing actually…

Predicted my prediction?!

Lu Yibei’s pupils shook violently. Just then, another premonition flashed through her mind.

[It miraculously pierces through your chest]

Lu Yibei, “???”

What the hell? What do you mean, miraculously? Is this an aimbot or something?