Chapter 588: Fang Ji’s Strange Ability

After the taxi driver flatly refused Lu Yibei’s offer to pay the fare with a haunting story, she reluctantly paid the exorbitant fee.

Getting out of the car and standing at the entrance of Sleepless Street, a thought stirred in Lu Yibei’s mind, and she re-established her connection with the Paper Cicada Immortal. Having confirmed with the PL girl that Zhang Huainan could be trusted, she felt it was about time to tell him the information about the unknown haunting she had accidentally glimpsed during the targeted soul-summoning.

However, just as she was about to direct the Paper Cicada Immortal into action, Shem strode swiftly through the crowd under the memorial archway at the nearby street entrance and came to stand before her.

He had already been waiting there for quite some time.

“Holy So—…”

“Outside, just call me Gu Qianqian.” Seeing Shem cupping his hands together, about to fall to one knee, Lu Yibei hastily cut him off.

Hearing this, Shem nodded with instant understanding, a meaningful smile flickering across his face.

I understand! The Holy Son wants to conceal her identity to avoid complications, right?

Thinking this, Shem glanced left and right, then leaned closer to Lu Yibei and lowered his voice. “Miss Qianqian, we’ve found Fang Ji.”

“Found him that quickly?” Lu Yibei asked, surprised. “How did you find him?”

“Well…” Recalling the process of finding Fang Ji, Shem’s expression turned subtle. He seemed to want to speak but stopped himself several times before finally explaining, “Answering the Holy… uh, Miss Qianqian, actually, finding him wasn’t so difficult.”

“After he left the hotel, he was spreading misfortune everywhere he went. Salih and I simply followed the stench of misfortune and quickly locked onto his position.”

Spreading misfortune? Lu Yibei recalled the series of utterly tragic accidents Fang Ji had encountered at Xuanwu Terrace, and her brow furrowed slightly. “Spreading misfortune?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I was about to tell you!” Shem nodded. “He seems to possess a bizarre ability to siphon others’ Miracle Seeds. As long as someone is within about a hundred meters of him, their Miracle Seed will silently divide, and a small portion will gather upon him.”

The Miracle Seeds Shem spoke of were the Miracle Order’s term for luck. According to their doctrine, everyone carried a Miracle Seed, and if one truly believed in miracles, the seed would one day take root and bloom into a Flower of Miracles.

“Salih and I even detected a fragrance on him similar to that of a blooming Flower of Miracles! Truly, a scent any unsuspecting Order member would be unable to distinguish.”

As an elder of the Miracle Order, Shem was extremely sensitive to changes within Miracle Seeds.

Fang Ji would only absorb a very small portion of the Miracle Seed from any single individual. Previously, in less crowded places, Shem hadn’t noticed the abnormality in him. But when he found Fang Ji on the crowded streets of Sleepless Street, he immediately detected the anomaly.

Miracle Seed? It took Lu Yibei over ten seconds to process Shem’s words before realizing he was likely referring to something akin to luck or fortune.

“Mm, well done. What else?”

She looked at Shem and nodded, her expressionless, collected demeanor making her unfathomable.

Hearing Shem’s account, she suddenly understood how he and Salih had located Fang Ji so quickly.

If Fang Ji truly possessed the uncanny ability to devour others’ fortune for his own use, as Shem described, then due to this ability, people with inherently poor luck would befall misfortune after their fortune was siphoned.

Anyone within a hundred-meter radius of her would constantly suffer accidents. Following the trail of these incidents, it would indeed be very easy to track her position.

Seeing Lu Yibei deep in thought and silent, Shem continued, “Besides that, after my observation, I discovered that beyond passively siphoning others’ Miracle Seeds, when he makes direct eye contact with someone, he outright plunders all of their Miracle Seed!”

As he spoke, Shem recalled them tailing Fang Ji, witnessing Fang Ji interacting with people and making eye contact; afterwards, those individuals immediately suffered terrible misfortune. He shuddered inwardly.

“You must have known about this bizarre ability all along when you assigned me and Salih to watch him, right? To be honest, this ability is truly terrifying. He’s practically the Miracle Order’s bane, our nemesis!” Shem declared indignantly.

After listening, Lu Yibei frowned slightly, nodded, and fell into private contemplation.

Stealing all of someone’s fortune with a glance? Does that mean… when Miss Fang looked into my eyes back then, she was absorbing my luck?

But… I clearly felt incredibly good when she absorbed it! And no bad luck followed…

Granted, I’m usually very unlucky, but surely I couldn’t have zero good fortune, could I?

But that aside… could it be that Miss Fang herself is unaware of this ability?

Collecting her thoughts, Lu Yibei looked at Shem and asked calmly, “Mm, I understand. So where is she now?”

“Salih is tailing him from a distance!” Shem paused mid-sentence, a troubled look crossing his face before continuing, “After we discovered his uncanny ability, neither of us dared to get too close anymore.”

“Buzz— Buzz—!”

As Shem was speaking, his phone suddenly vibrated several times. Taking it out to glance, it was a call from Salih.

After he answered the call and listened for a moment, his brow gradually furrowed tightly.

Seeing this, Lu Yibei inquired, “What is it? Has the situation changed?”

Shem looked at Lu Yibei, covered the phone’s microphone with one hand, nodded, and said with grave seriousness, “Miss Qianqian, Salih reports that while he was tailing the fellow, he saw a man in black stop him and take him away!”

“A man in black? Could it be…” Lu Yibei murmured, suddenly thinking of the man in black who had tried to peddle that “wondrous item” to her at Moyue Pifeng. Her heart clenched, and she urgently asked, “Is Salih still tailing her? He hasn’t lost them, has he?”

“No, he hasn’t.” Shem confirmed.

“Good!” Lu Yibei nodded. “Lead the way. Let’s go take a look!”

“Yes!” Shem acknowledged with a cupped-hand salute, then immediately began leading the way towards Fang Ji’s last known location while confirming the specifics with Salih over the phone.

Lu Yibei followed behind Shem, striding forward, her gaze hardening.

I was just wondering where to find a way into the Esoteric Society! And now, to think they’d deliver themselves right to my door?

Well, this might be perfect. I’ll use Miss Fang to test their true strength first!

With her strange ability, Miss Fang should be safe for the time being. Who knows, she might even deliver a grand “gift” to the Esoteric Society, draining those members dry!

I’ll just observe from the sidelines for now. If things go south, I’ll immediately step in and take Miss Fang away!

But, before that…

Lost in thought, Lu Yibei secretly glanced at Shem’s back ahead of her, then discreetly took out her phone, opened a certain Penguin social app, and sent a message to “A Little Hamster”…