Chapter 49: The Pursuit Begins

Lu Mingfei scanned the brightly lit Amundsen Hall, but there was no sign of Nono anywhere.

Of course, if she had simply been hidden away, how could it possibly have escaped the notice of dozens of half-bloods whose sensory abilities far surpassed those of ordinary people?

This bizarre intruder truly possessed the technique of "psychological invisibility."

This was troublesome.

Fortunately, the area illuminated by the radiance of the jade-colored entity was restricted to the grand hall of Amundsen Hall, which helped Lu Mingfei narrow it down to a relatively small zone.

With his divination techniques failing him, Lu Mingfei had no better options at the moment. He bent down and began to grope blindly across the floor.

Psychological invisibility was, after all, only a form of concealment; this spell itself would gradually weaken over time. Moreover, with Lu Mingfei actively searching after establishing this conscious awareness, after about a quarter of an hour, his hand brushed against an unremarkable spot on the floor and suddenly encountered a smooth, soft texture.

Lu Mingfei reached out toward this soft spot, grabbed it, and pulled. A flash of vibrant red finally came into view.

A sudden sense of realization washed over him.

In fact, Nono had been lying right there the whole time, but for some reason, whenever Lu Mingfei looked from a distance, he perceived it as nothing more than a normal carpet. Just moments ago, someone had even tripped over her and stumbled, yet still failed to discover her location.

Nono’s eyes were tightly closed, and she was still breathing. Lu Mingfei patted her collagen-rich face, but she showed no reaction.

To have survived an attack by something suspected to be a mythological creature without dying—that was somewhat peculiar.

Lu Mingfei thought for a moment. Her deep sleep was, in all likelihood, also a type of spell, so he decided against waking her up physically with a heavy slap to the face. Instead, he drew a small bottle containing the Elixir Wine from his breast pocket.

He carefully rubbed his index finger twice against the cap of the Elixir Wine bottle, gathering a trace of pale green residue, and slowly extended it toward Nono’s lips.

Passing her rosy lips and white, pearly teeth, Lu Mingfei brushed his elixir-coated index finger across Nono’s tongue. Nono instinctively knitted her brows, and a faint sucking sensation traveled from his finger straight to Lu Mingfei’s brain.

If not for the fact that a dangerous entity of unknown strength and unknown motives was still carrying out its dark scheme nearby, this moment might have felt quite tender and romantic.

Right now, however, Lu Mingfei simply picked up a cup of plain water he hadn't finished earlier from the dining table and made Nono swallow another gulp to ensure the minute trace of Elixir Wine was fully ingested.

The effect was instantaneous. Nono’s pretty eyes suddenly flew wide open, and her entire body bounced up from the floor, her red hair tossing as she surged with boundless energy, cursing incoherently:

"Damn, damn, damn, damn! What on earth is this thing?! Are you trying to kill me?!"

Lu Mingfei half-squatted, tucked his medicinal wine back into his pocket, and asked with neither warmth nor coolness:

"As long as you can still talk, you're fine. Snap out of it, don't lose face; the situation is critical right now, tell me what you saw before you passed out."

Anxiety and irritability were harmful to efficiency and of no benefit whatsoever, and passing those emotions on to others was even more pointless.

Therefore, even though every second that passed might push the situation deeper into a more dangerous abyss, Lu Mingfei still appeared unhurried.

"Do you have any concept of human rights at all? Just how many times concentrated mint did you feed me? I seriously felt like the top of my skull was about to be blown off!"

Nono puffed out her pink, tender tongue and fanned herself with her hand. Her tongue was numbed by that piercing wave of coolness as she complained incoherently.

Then, she rubbed her face and turned slightly more serious:

"It was Jide Yagi. She attacked me. Just as I stepped into Amundsen Hall and activated my profiling as you instructed, I suddenly discovered that she and Ye Sheng were standing right by the entrance, and they—"

Lu Mingfei tossed the Bugatti Veyron keys to Nono, cutting her off:

"They're weird, right? Time is pressing, let's talk as we walk. You know where your boyfriend's Bugatti Veyron is parked, right? Lead the way."

Nono the profiler, even without using her abilities, was a shrine maiden who could see straight into human hearts. She rolled her eyes with a graceful flair and said:

"And you still have the nerve to complain? You hang out with my best friend Su Su all day long and I haven't said a word about it, have I?"

Although Lu Mingfei deliberately acted relaxed, the little shrine maiden could still read the tension beneath his surface. She simply slipped off her ten-centimeter Mary Jane heels, threw them onto the ground, and pressed her purple-stockinged feet directly against the white marble floor tiles of Amundsen Hall:

"That car is in the underground garage. Let's walk faster."

With that, she headed off in the direction opposite the main entrance of Amundsen Hall. Lu Mingfei followed closely behind her, asking detailed questions and refusing to let a single clue slip by:

"Tell me more about the process of how you were attacked, and are the 'oddities' in Jide Yagi and Ye Sheng consistent?"

Nono swayed her slender waist as she walked, pondering for a moment before speaking:

"Not entirely the same, but the changes they underwent were actually very subtle. Even people who know them well would find it hard to notice.

Ye Sheng has lost weight, and his attire seemed to be deliberately concealing something on his chest. In the past, he almost always left the top two buttons of his shirt unbuttoned; now, not only are they all buttoned up, but he's also wearing a thick inner lining underneath.

As for Yagi, her changes compared to normal people aren't significant, except..."

"Except?"

Nono hesitated slightly, twisting her smooth, lustrous long red hair around her finger:

"I have a vague feeling, just a feeling...

Yagi seemed to carry a trace of that exact same scent you had when you made me pass out the first time we met."

Since it was Jide Yagi who had used the Immortal Sand Soul-Returning Talisman, the person who truly had a problem must be Ye Sheng.

Lu Mingfei touched the paper talisman hidden in his pocket, changed the subject, and asked:

"The two of them didn't just kill you outright. Do you have any analysis for that?"

Nono rolled her eyes:

"Big brother, are you mocking me? I was taken down the very first second I saw them, how much profiling could I possibly manage?"

"Last question: are there any public roads on campus? If so, where are they located?"

"You mean the ring road around the mountain? Although Cassell College is called a hilltop campus, it's not actually at the peak; it's halfway up the mountain, and there's a mountain-encircling road passing right in front of the gates."

Lu Mingfei didn't say anything further. He pulled out a coin, tossed it casually into the air, and caught it in his palm.

Nono asked with curiosity:

"What are you doing?"

"Checking whether we should head up the mountain or down..."

Nono knew Lu Mingfei had some miraculous methods, but she still found herself driving herself slightly crazy by these antics:

"Crap! Can you be a little more reliable?! Can you describe the scenario in detail? I can help you deduce it."

"No need, the result is up the mountain. Let's go."

"..."

By this time, they had descended from the grand hall into the underground parking garage. It wasn't overly large, and the limited parking spaces were filled with a striking array of cool luxury cars.

The Bugatti Veyron started up via remote control. Nono pressed the button on the car key from afar; the headlights flashed, and the heavy roar of the engine sounded like a dragon's cry.

Tearing away the waterproof cover, the silver-gray sports car was exposed under the lights. With the Bugatti's hardtop convertible opened, she bounded into the passenger seat like a crazed rabbit, her fair legs crossed as she adjusted herself into a comfortable posture:

"You drive. From this point on, my profiling can only be used when I'm in a state of extreme concentration."

Lu Mingfei fell silent for a brief moment:

"You don't mind that I don't have a driver's license, do you?"