Chapter 610: Distress Signal

The snow had stopped. Leaden clouds piled atop one another, surging like a tsunami. Eerie crimson lightning raced through the gaps, staining the sky an indescribable shade of flame.

Beneath the heavens lay the crumbling ruins of a city. The shattered glass facade of a fallen skyscraper cut the reflected sky into fragments.

Two figures raced along the building’s outer wall, which leaned at roughly a forty-degree angle to the ground. Starting from opposite ends, one ran upward and the other downward as they rapidly closed in on each other.

Everywhere they passed, the already broken glass burst aside like waves split by the prow of a ship.

Fifty meters. Twenty. Five…

The instant the distance between them shrank to five meters, the roar of displaced air abruptly ceased. Both figures vanished without warning. When they reappeared, their blades were already colliding.

Metal shrieked against metal, sending a piercing, high-frequency ring through the air. The glass facade shattered further, spraying shards in every direction.

As countless fragments flew around them, both fighters retreated through the air and began chanting the same incantation almost simultaneously, their hands forming identical seals.

The only difference was that Qing Ji kept his eyes fixed on Lu Yibei, while Lu Yibei’s peripheral vision drifted toward her own reflection in the glass facade.

A breath later, they completed their spell formations almost in unison.

Once again, a bewitching, colorless flower blossomed in Qing Ji’s palm. He looked ahead at Lu Yibei’s empty hand, and an indulgent yet faintly mocking smile curled his lips.

“It’s over, my dear great-granddaughter. Losing focus in the middle of a fight is a grave mistake.”

As he spoke, Qing Ji walked toward Lu Yibei, who stood frozen in place as though turned to stone.

The main purpose of this sparring session had been to get revenge on Lu Yibei, while teaching her the Inverse-Form Evil Blossom Gu and Body Beyond the Body came second. But that did not mean he could skip killing her.

In Qing Ji’s view, Lu Yibei’s mastery of The Diagram of the Gentleman Sword of Taihe had only just reached a passable level. She still had enormous room for improvement.

Improvement required constant practice, and the fastest way to practice was to use her own body to feel the way force traveled through a blade as it pierced her flesh.

Reaching Lu Yibei, Qing Ji expertly thrust his sword toward one of her vital points.

The blade cut through the air with a shrill whistle.

Just then, Lu Yibei moved. As the sword slashed toward her, she suddenly twisted aside. A streak of silver swept past her body and sliced through empty air.

The instant she turned, her gaze met Qing Ji’s, and he clearly saw a crafty glint in her eyes.

Oh no, the girl tricked me! Qing Ji’s heart lurched, and his face went slightly pale.

The next moment, countless crimson motes of light appeared out of nowhere in the surrounding air. Packed densely together, they encircled Qing Ji from every direction.

Then…

As Lu Yibei flew backward, the motes grew brighter and brighter, blazing like molten rock. At last, they triggered a violent explosion, and crimson flames instantly swallowed Qing Ji.

And so, the score between Lu Yibei and Qing Ji finally reached 1–317.

————

As his consciousness drifted through the darkness, a gratified smile appeared on Qing Ji’s face.

“Heh. That girl never fails to surprise me!”

After Lu Yibei killed him, Qing Ji was briefly stunned. But once he carefully replayed every detail of their fight, he more or less understood how she had escaped the influence of the Inverse-Form Evil Blossom Gu.

In fact, he had realized about an hour earlier that Lu Yibei had gained a preliminary grasp of the Inverse-Form Evil Blossom Gu. However, without a Gu to serve as a medium, she had been unable to give the spell formation shape, lock onto a target, and complete the technique.

But Qing Ji remembered the faint pink light deep in her eyes when their gazes met, as well as the tiny motion she had made when she glanced aside while chanting the incantation.

“…”

She had used her reflection in the glass and made the enchantment ability in her eyes the medium through which she cast the spell formation on herself. That had allowed her to bypass the step of using a Gu as a medium to project the spell formation outward.

Afterward, she used the spell formation’s effect to adjust her own senses, thereby canceling the effect of my Inverse-Form Evil Blossom Gu?

If that’s true, then even the way she gradually maneuvered our fight onto that fallen skyscraper with the glass facade may have been deliberate…

And those exploding motes must have used the principles of Body Beyond the Body, Qing Ji thought.

She lacked the control over psychic energy required to perform Body Beyond the Body properly, so she had produced a vast number of small, easily controlled psychic energy spheres attached to her Innate skill, like someone blowing bubbles. All she needed to do afterward was guide the direction in which they drifted, and she could control the area of the explosion.

That was quite an ingenious application of the principles behind Body Beyond the Body!

“She really does have a bit of cleverness in her.” Qing Ji nodded thoughtfully.

Until now, he had always believed that aside from her exceptional memory, Lu Yibei’s talents in every other respect were mediocre—perhaps even worse than that brat Zhang Huainan’s.

After spending all this time with her, however, he suddenly realized today that while Lu Yibei might have little talent for doing things the proper way, she possessed a peculiar sort of genius.

She always seemed able to transform someone else’s ability into one of her own through some unconventional method.

She was the kind of person who, when God shut a window and locked the door for good measure, climbed out through the chimney instead.

“But… this is only the beginning!” Qing Ji’s gaze sharpened. “I won’t go easy on her from here on out!”

However…

When he awakened from the vortex of death and returned to the ruined rooftop, eager to continue training with Lu Yibei, he was surprised to find that she had vanished.

After searching for a while, he discovered a message she had left in one corner of the rooftop and finally learned that she had already departed.

【Ancestor, I felt some old man shocking me with electricity. I need to go see what’s happening before I get cooked. Farewell!

—Lu Yibei】

“An old man was shocking her?” Qing Ji frowned, his expression darkening. “Could it be that brat Zhang Huainan?”

————

“Lu Yibei.”

“Name?”

“Male.”

“Sex?”

“Nineteen.”

“…”

After having his questions answered in advance twice in a row, the doctor’s next word—”Age?”—lodged firmly in his throat. Unable to go up or down, it left him with the uncomfortable urge to vomit.

He studied the young man before him with a strange look, wanting to speak but stopping himself.

This was a patient who had shown no response whatsoever to electrical defibrillation, only to suddenly come back from the dead just as the doctors were preparing to give up on resuscitation.

“Doctor…”

“Y-yes?”

“How about I explain the rest myself?”

The doctor fell silent.

Good grief! Answering before I ask isn’t enough for you, so now you’re taking over the interview?

Why do I feel as though the two of us should switch places?

…

Lu Yibei had been working hard to “improve,” only to be inexplicably hauled to a hospital and shocked over and over. Naturally, he was depressed and wanted nothing more than to leave as soon as possible.

Still, this was the first time he had learned that whenever he met with Qing Ji, his vital signs fell to extremely low levels, putting him into a state resembling shock.

Perhaps this strange condition will come in handy someday, Lu Yibei thought.

When the doctor remained silent, Lu Yibei shrugged and began explaining on his own. “Actually, there’s nothing wrong with me. What happened just now was entirely because I developed Nocturnal Syndrome more than a year ago. Every now and then, I enter a state of apparent death.”

Lu Yibei was no longer the ignorant boy he had once been. He would not honestly tell a doctor everything about his condition. That would only bring trouble and strange looks.

The symptoms of Nocturnal Syndrome varied wildly from person to person, and modern medicine had no way to cure it.

Whenever something unusual happened to his body and he could not explain it, blaming Nocturnal Syndrome was guaranteed to work!

“There’s probably no cure for it anyway. Why don’t you just prescribe me some glucose so we can call it done?” Lu Yibei said. “Oh, and could you add some digestive tablets? I ate too much for a late-night snack yesterday and have a little indigestion.”

Ever since his depleted psychic energy had inexplicably recovered last night, his stomach had felt painfully bloated, as though he had eaten more than ten jin of sticky rice dumplings.

Who knew whether digestive tablets would help…

Pondering this in secret, Lu Yibei looked at the doctor and added, “By the way, I can use my medical insurance card here, right?”

Even if he was not a formal operator, the Midnight Watchers Society provided excellent benefits. He was paying into the five social insurances and housing fund, so why let them go to waste?

“…” The doctor stared expressionlessly at Lu Yibei, overwhelmed by complicated emotions.

Damn it, which one of us is the patient?

You’ve arranged everything yourself. What do you even need a doctor for?

————

A short while later, Lu Yibei, whom the doctor had chased out of the room, swaggered through the hospital entrance carrying a bag of chewable digestive tablets.

He stopped beside the road and watched the cars and pedestrians passing along the street, wondering whether he should return to the gaming cafe on Sleepless Street. He could find Qing Ji, familiarize himself with the skills he had just learned, and use up the rest of his prepaid computer time while he was at it.

He had topped up fifty yuan earlier!

I was only there for a little while. There’s no way I used it all. If I just abandon the balance, it’ll be a complete waste!

As Lu Yibei fumed inwardly, his gaze swept idly across the street. Then it snapped back and stopped on Huá Sāng, who was hurrying toward the hospital from across the road.

Huh? Why is she here?

————

Huá Sāng had rushed over after receiving a call from a fellow disciple of the Great Pure Palace who was on duty at the hospital. Over the phone, that disciple had told her that Lu Yibei was on his last legs and asked her to come quickly so they could decide how to handle his funeral arrangements.

When Huá Sāng reached the hospital and spotted Lu Yibei standing outside the entrance, waving at her from afar, she froze. For an instant, her face wore the expression of someone who had seen a ghost.

While she stood dumbfounded, Lu Yibei jogged across the road and stopped in front of her.

“Are you here to see a doctor? Were you injured? No, that doesn’t make sense. If you were injured, you’d return to the Great Pure Palace. Why come to a hospital? Is it some condition that would be inconvenient to examine at Qingnang Cottage? If necessary, I could take a look at you first.”

Perhaps because he had learned that Huá Sāng might also be his fiancée, a little more concern than usual unconsciously entered Lu Yibei’s voice.

Huá Sāng caught that unintentional concern. Warmth spread across her cheeks, and she instinctively turned her head away to avoid Lu Yibei’s gaze.

Wasn’t he supposed to be dying?

How could he still talk this much?

Then she remembered how Lu Yibei had continued chattering nonstop even when his psychic energy had nearly run dry the previous night, and understanding dawned.

This fellow’s mouth and body were probably controlled by two entirely separate systems that never interfered with each other.

If he agrees to help treat my Spirit Pattern after we negotiate, will I have to endure his endless chatter?

The thought filled Huá Sāng with profound exhaustion from the depths of her soul. She opened her mouth, preparing to explain why she had come.

Just then, the Death Owl Emblem she carried suddenly began to vibrate.

Lu Yibei watched Huá Sāng take the Death Owl Emblem from her trouser pocket. The moment she touched it, her face went pale. He frowned and asked softly, “Did something happen?”

“It’s a signal from the fellow disciples pursuing Hu Chuan,” Huá Sāng explained.

Lu Yibei tilted his head. “Did they catch him?”

Huá Sāng shook her head, her voice turning grave. “It’s a distress signal. They transmitted only one sentence before we lost contact with them. Something has probably happened to them…”

Lu Yibei fell silent.