Chapter 570: My Lord Cannot Ferry Sheer Rotten B-Luck

“Da-da-da—!”

Footsteps came from behind. Huá Sāng stopped and turned to look, only to see the girl in the red-and-white color-blocked windbreaker catching up to her. Her brows drew together slightly as she asked, “Miss Wang, is something the matter?”

“Uh…” Lu Yibei hesitated for a moment, then said calmly, “Miss, are you going to look for Lu Yibei? Why don’t we go together? One more person means one more bit of strength, right?”

And I can keep an eye on you, so you don’t stab me in the back somewhere I can’t see… Lu Yibei added inwardly.

Huá Sāng: “…”

My shifu already told me I don’t need to keep watching her, and now she’s following me on her own. What kind of routine is this? Could she really not be Lu Yibei? Or is she the type who feels uncomfortable unless someone’s watching her? A masochist?

Thinking this, Huá Sāng curled her lip and said perfunctorily, “There’s no rush about finding Lu Yibei. I have other matters to attend to first, so I won’t be traveling with you. That’s that, then. I’ll be going now. Miss Wang, please do as you like.”

With that, she cupped her hands toward Lu Yibei, then turned and walked away.

Lu Yibei watched Huá Sāng’s departing back, narrowed her eyes slightly, and pondered for a few seconds. A flash of resolve passed through her gaze.

That line was so perfunctory I’d have to be a fool to believe you! You can never truly know another person’s heart. To be safe, I’ll only be able to relax after seeing it with my own eyes…

————

A moment later.

Lu Yibei followed behind Huá Sāng, jogging for a short stretch. When she saw that there were still roughly thirty meters between them, she slowed her steps and raised a hand to tug gently at the brim of her cap.

“Jacket, conceal my aura…”

As her words fell, the jacket squirmed faintly. A weak crimson sheen flowed over its surface, and it immediately switched its mimicked target from the unknown psychic who had died in Tang City to a certain Class D- psychic in Hua City’s special task force.

Within a few breaths, her psychic energy fluctuations plummeted to a level that was nearly imperceptible.

Lu Yibei looked left and right. Seeing no one around, she locked her gaze onto Huá Sāng up ahead. Her figure flickered several times and vanished from where she stood.

————

Huá Sāng was worried about her eldest senior brother’s safety and did not pay much attention to Miss Wang, who was suspected of being Lu Yibei. After turning around, she quickly headed into the depths of the bus terminal, passed through the station, emerged from the gate on the other side, and went straight toward the convenience store across the road. For the moment, she did not notice that someone was tailing her.

Behind her, Lu Yibei hid at a street corner, pressing herself against the wall and exposing only one eye as she sneakily observed in secret.

She went into the convenience store? Could that convenience store be one of Great Pure Palace’s contact points in Shizhou City?

To avoid drawing attention, The Midnight Watchers Society’s bases and contact points were always set up in all sorts of strange places. A convenience store was already a relatively normal location.

Lu Yibei had even heard An Qing complain before that when she went to attend a medical staff exchange meeting for The Midnight Watchers Society, she had found the contact point inside a KFC. When she exchanged code phrases with the operative disguised as a cashier, other customers nearly mistook it for some bizarre crossover event, making the scene extremely awkward for a while.

So, it wasn’t impossible for Shizhou City’s contact point to be set up in the convenience store beside the bus terminal! Lu Yibei thought.

But very quickly, she discovered that her guess had gone awry.

Through the convenience store’s floor-to-ceiling glass windows, she could vaguely see that after Huá Sāng entered, she went straight to the shelves, took a ballpoint pen, paid at the register, and soon left.

Throughout the entire process, she did not exchange a single word with any of the clerks inside the convenience store.

“…”

Could I have guessed wrong? Was she actually never planning to call someone over to catch me?

No, it’s not over yet!

From afar, Lu Yibei saw Huá Sāng look suspiciously left and right for a while, then quickly walk toward a deserted little park by the street. Her gaze sharpened, and she hurriedly followed.

————

Not long after Lu Yibei left, inside the bus terminal.

Shem looked at the empty station, turned to Salih, and asked, “That note you gave Miss Wang just now—did you write it according to what I told you?”

“…” Salih recalled it briefly, then said with certainty, “Yes. Not a single word off.”

“Good.” Shem nodded in satisfaction, patted Salih on the shoulder, and praised him, “Well done!”

With that note, plus the look I gave her, she should understand what I mean, Shem thought.

“Hehe!” Salih laughed and scratched the back of his head. Just as he turned slightly, his gaze swept over Fang Ji, who was standing by the roadside.

He stood there quietly, glancing left and right from time to time, a hint of anticipation in his eyes.

“Elder…” Salih called softly to Shem, raised a hand to point at Fang Ji, and a smile appeared on his face.

Shem looked in the direction he indicated and nodded.

Earlier on the bus, he had vaguely heard that Miss Wang say something to Fang Ji along the lines of “wait for me at the station entrance.”

Now that Fang Ji was still waiting, presumably that Miss Wang was still nearby as well. Waiting a little longer would do no harm!

————

Elsewhere, in a small city park about one kilometer from the bus terminal.

After entering the little park, the dense foliage of early summer blocked the light from the streetlamps, and everything before her suddenly dimmed.

After taking a moment to adjust to the darkness, Huá Sāng looked around and found a statue surrounded by vegetation. As she quickly walked toward it, she reached into the small pouch she kept close to her body and took out a specially made sheet of paper.

It was a sheet slightly larger than a palm, square, pure white, dotted with gold powder and embellished with a few fine golden lines. At first glance, it looked as though a cluster of plum blossoms had been outlined on it. Looking carefully, however, one would discover that the gold powder was actually made up of tiny incantations, and every incantation was connected by fine golden lines.

Logically speaking, under normal circumstances, even if disciples of Great Pure Palace had to descend the mountain to handle affairs, they would not carry the specially made paper required for the Thousand-Night Paper Crane.

But ever since Fu Xinyi had run into danger and lost contact in Tang City last time, Qingxiazi had developed PTSD and prepared a “big gift bag” for every disciple, stuffing it with some protective talismans and paper for the Thousand-Night Paper Crane.

That said, Huá Sāng normally did not have the habit of carrying the big gift bag.

That tiny pouch weighed a full 1,028 grams. Carrying it on her person meant that for every meter she walked, she had to consume an extra portion of energy. It was nothing but a burden.

In fact, if not for considerations of public decency and shame, Huá Sāng often did not even want to wear clothes. After all, clothes had weight too, and once they got dirty, they had to be washed.

But before she descended the mountain today, Qingxiazi had still disregarded Huá Sāng’s objections and forcefully stuffed the big gift bag into her hands, like a grandmother shoving food at you before you leave.

Who would have thought it would actually come in handy here?

Her tender white little hand held the paper. Huá Sāng pondered for a moment, vaguely recalled her eldest senior brother’s Four Pillars of Destiny, then took out the ballpoint pen she had just bought and wrote on the paper:

[Wu Yutang of Mian City, Jia-Shen year, Wu-Chen month, Yi-Mao day, Hai hour]

After she finished writing, she injected a little psychic energy, and a pale golden radiance immediately flowed over the paper.

Immediately afterward, as Huá Sāng let go, the paper suspended itself in midair and rustled as it folded itself. A paper crane took shape in the span of a breath. As Huá Sāng softly said, “Go,” the paper crane flapped its wings and flew toward the sky.

————

At the edge of the little park, roughly one hundred meters from Huá Sāng.

Lu Yibei hid within the crown of a broadleaf banyan, crouching on a thick branch and using the dense leaves to conceal her figure.

After waiting here for a while, she saw no movement from Huá Sāng in the depths of the park. The mosquitoes around her, meanwhile, could not draw blood and were so anxious that they kept buzzing, setting her nerves on edge.

Why is there no movement?

Lu Yibei scratched the back of her head and was just planning to watch for another two minutes before leaving for Sleepless Street when she suddenly saw a small paper crane fly past in front of her.

That is…

Lu Yibei froze for a moment. Various little gadgets of Great Pure Palace that Qing Ji had mentioned flashed through her mind, and her expression immediately changed.

Right, that thing seems to be the prototype of the Thousand Night Owl that the old ancestor mentioned? I remember it’s used to transmit information…

Damn it, that turtle girl really is trying to report me!

Lu Yibei thought viciously. She swept over the treetops to catch up with the paper crane, raised her hand, and struck with her sword, cutting the paper crane in two.

The paper was torn, the solidified spell formation upon it gradually collapsing. Accompanied by several flashes of electric arcs, the paper crane exploded into shreds with a soft crackling sound, fluttering down. Perhaps it was just an illusion, but Lu Yibei felt her swordsmanship today was exceptionally precise, as if she had an aimbot activated. One random slash had hit the tiny paper crane, no bigger than a palm. It felt surprisingly satisfying!

Deep within the small park, Huá Sāng was sprawled out on a park bench, resting with her eyes closed. She had spent nearly two hours on the bus today, confronted Lu Yibei, walked over a kilometer, and even used a bit of psychic energy to release a Thousand-Night Paper Crane. After so much hard work, I’m truly impressive! Before the Thousand-Night Paper Crane reached her senior brother, she deserved a good rest. However, just as she closed her eyes and rested for less than a minute, her connection with the Thousand-Night Paper Crane was abruptly cut off. Strange… 

Was it an accident, or was it intercepted? Should I try again? She glanced left and right, stealthily took another sheet of special paper from the small pouch she carried, and methodically wrote down her senior brother’s Four Pillars of Destiny, releasing a second Thousand-Night Paper Crane. She watched the paper crane fly into the distance, but two minutes later, the subtle connection between her and the crane vanished once more! 

“…” Something’s wrong, very wrong! Losing contact the first time could be an accident; after all, there were precedents of Thousand-Night Paper Cranes being hunted by birds of prey. But two consecutive losses were suspicious, giving me reason to suspect human interference! Could it be… I was targeted the moment I got off the bus? 

Huá Sāng pondered for a moment, then took out the last sheet of special paper. She wrote down Wu Yutang’s Four Pillars of Destiny and released the paper crane. Then, as the paper crane soared into the air, she kipped up, her eyes fixed on the crane. Concealing her aura, she followed it out of the small park. If I really am being targeted, then intercepting the paper cranes is likely an attempt to stop me from contacting my senior brother. 

Wouldn’t that mean, by following the paper crane and finding the person intercepting it, I could find whoever is plotting against my senior brother? Just as Huá Sāng was thinking this, a sudden whoosh of wind from above interrupted her thoughts. Looking up, she saw a figure suddenly burst from the dense tree canopy by the roadside, streaking across the sky. Under the moonlight, the silhouette, with its graceful curves, seemed to pause in mid-air for an instant, like a magical girl transforming, before briefly intersecting with the Thousand-Night Paper Crane in the sky. “Hasaki!” Rrrrip!

A flash of cold light glinted, accompanied by the sudden sound of tearing paper. Amidst a crackling, sputtering halo of electric arcs, the paper crane instantly exploded into shreds. Immediately after, the figure landed steadily, sheathed her blade with a clean flourish, and blew at a strand of hair that fell beside her cheek. Amidst the falling paper shreds, like drifting snow, she left behind a dashing profile. Then, by the moonlight, Huá Sāng finally got a clear look at the person’s side profile. She glanced again at the paper scraps scattered across the ground, and the corner of her eye twitched uncontrollably. 

“L…Miss Wang? What are you doing?” You think that was cool? Hearing Huá Sāng’s voice from behind, Lu Yibei froze for a moment, turned around, and faced Huá Sāng, who was standing there with her arms crossed, her eyes filled with thick confusion. 

In a daze, Lu Yibei seemed to see countless golden question marks flying from Huá Sāng’s eyes and nailing themselves onto her forehead. No way, you secretly reported me, and you have the nerve to question me? Lu Yibei rolled her eyes and said expressionlessly, “Miss, didn’t you say you weren’t in a hurry to find Lu Yibei anymore? 

What are you doing now?” As she spoke, she grimaced comically, also launching a string of golden question marks towards Huá Sāng’s forehead. Huá Sāng tilted her head slightly, dodging the incoming question marks with a nonchalant air, and said grumpily, “These paper cranes of mine were for contacting my senior brother.” 

“If you don’t believe me, look, his name and Four Pillars of Destiny are written on them…” “Speaking of which, you didn’t think I was using the paper cranes to track Lu Yibei, did you? I don’t even know his Four Pillars of Destiny, how could I track him?” 

She deliberately emphasized the name “Lu Yibei.” “…” Senior brother? The one who’s about to be silenced? That being said… it does seem plausible? Lu Yibei thought skeptically. She bent down, picked up the paper scraps from the ground, and examined them closely. 

Indeed, she found characters like “Wu Yu” and “Jia Shen.” In life, one inevitably experiences many moments of utter social mortification. At this moment, Lu Yibei felt an inexplicable sensation akin to the embarrassment of confessing feelings, having thought 

“she liked me,” only to be rejected. Holding the paper scraps, she looked back at Huá Sāng and instantly felt her cheeks flush. She mumbled awkwardly, “Uh, well, those paper cranes of yours… how about I compensate you?” 

“No need,” Huá Sāng rolled her eyes, waving her hand dismissively. “It’s not like they were anything valuable. The materials are easy to buy. 

I’ll just go buy a set and remake them later. You should just do whatever you were doing.” “I’m already exhausted today. If I keep tangling with you, I’m afraid I’ll drop dead before I even manage to contact my senior brother, really!” 

Besides, with that wily old man Zhang Huainan’s senior sister watching you, what trouble can you possibly cause? Huá Sāng added silently to herself. 

“…” I was wrong, I was really wrong. I should have just believed her from the start and properly gone to Sleepless Street to investigate the clues about Hu Chuan. If this gets out, won’t it turn into: ‘Calamity stalks Great Pure Palace beauty late at night, fiendishly slices her bird in two with a single sword stroke’?

Meanwhile, in front of the main bus terminal. Shem had watched Miss Wang leave almost half an hour ago. She had not returned, nor had she contacted them. He couldn’t help but feel impatient. Frowning deeply, he turned to Salih and asked, “Are you sure nothing was written incorrectly on that note?” “…” 

Salih pondered for a few seconds, then nodded solemnly. “Certain!” After a pause, he added, “I wrote very clearly on the note she was given. A mark that blooms upon contact with the fragrance of the Flower of Miracles was placed, and I left our contact information. If she truly is the Holy Son or someone close to the Holy Son, she would certainly contact us after seeing it.” “Besides, didn’t you also give her a meaningful glance? The meaning of that look was quite clear. She should have understood it, right?” 

“Mm…” Shem hummed softly in response, thought for a moment, then looked up towards Fang Ji not far away. “Forget it, I’ll go ask that guy. Perhaps he knows when Miss Wang will return.” Saying this, he started walking towards Fang Ji. 

But after only a few steps, he halted abruptly and quickly retreated. He smelled a “miasma of misfortune.” It was the complete opposite of the fragrance of the Flower of Miracles, a stench symbolizing disaster and calamity, causing an instinctive discomfort to the Flower of Miracles budding within him. It was hard to imagine how a person burdened with such thick, suffocating misfortune could survive to their teens or twenties. Seeing Shem walk only a few steps before retreating, Salih asked, puzzled, “Elder, why have you come back?” 

“Mm-mm…” Shem gestured with his chin towards the direction of Fang Ji and lowered his voice. “That guy is indeed a fake. He’s about to have a stroke of terrible bad luck.” No sooner had he spoken than the streetlight above Fang Ji’s head flickered several times. Accompanied by a grating screech of twisting metal and a shower of sparks, a section of the lamppost’s arm snapped clean off and plummeted straight towards the ground. 

“Watch out above!” Salih instinctively cried out, raising his hand and stepping forward, but Shem grabbed him and clamped a hand over his mouth. Hearing the shout, Fang Ji froze. Looking up, his pupils suddenly constricted, and he lunged forward on instinct. Immediately after, a deafening “Boom!” echoed from behind him. 

The lamppost arm crashed onto the ground, shards of glass mixed with gravel spraying everywhere, the hard metal twisted and deformed, embedding itself into the earth. The shaken Fang Ji scrambled up from the ground, but before he could steady himself, his figure was enveloped by a beam of intense light, and a piercing car horn tore through the air. A sports car was speeding towards him from the distance. “Bang——!”

A muffled thud rang out. A figure shot into the air, traced an arc overhead, and slammed dead-on into a road sign. With the faint sizzle of skin scraping against metal, he slowly slid down.

Just then, a small truck with its cargo bed piled high with vegetables happened to pass by. Fang Ji plunged headfirst into the mound of melons, fruits, and greens, his whole body disappearing inside. And then…

The little truck carried him away into the distance.

The entire sequence had the instant, kinetic feel of a real-life 3D pinball game. Only after the truck bearing the sign “Ever-Night Street Night-Market Stalls Express” vanished from sight together with Fang Ji did Shem finally remove the hand clamped over Salih’s mouth. He growled, “Look at what you’ve done. That kid’s probably lost half his life now.”

At the sound of his voice, Salih snapped out of his shock. His voice trembled, and for a long while he couldn’t string together a complete sentence. “Elder, this… this is…”

Shem shook his head and let out a silent sigh. “When someone is beset by misfortune, if others try to interfere, it’s very difficult to change the outcome. They may even be corroded by that misfortune and bring disaster down on themselves!”

“Just like what happened earlier. Thanks to your warning, that kid avoided the fate of being smashed by the lamp arm, but the misfortune didn’t end there. If you’d gone up to help him, you most likely would have been sent flying right along with him.”

“…” Salih fell silent for a few seconds, then asked in confusion, “Can’t even the Flower of Miracles create a miracle and save him?”

Shem shot Salih a sidelong glare and said with perfect solemnity, “Even my Lord cannot ferry sheer rotten B-luck!”