Chapter 55: Yaki Shide

Perhaps because her spine was shattered by Lu Mingfei's Bugatti Veyron Iai slash, Aki Saiga—transformed into a ghoul by the Cinnabar Sand Soul-Returning Elixir—could only use her hands to drag herself up the mountain peak, no matter how tenacious her life force was. The scraping sound originated precisely from this.

Nono’s sorrow stemmed precisely from the fact that she had anticipated her dear friend’s tragic state in advance.

Lu Mingfei glanced at the incense stick that had already burned down by a third, feeling a slight pang of regret over the wasted spellcasting material. However, the dominant emotion in his heart right now was the joy of the harvest.

"Hehehehehehe..."

His cheeks twitched uncontrollably until, finally, he failed to suppress his laughter.

When he was in the central control room, activating that mythological magic known as the Thread of Ariadne, was it really to summon a bunch of heterotypes just to give himself trouble?

Was it to play a high-speed game of life and death and experience the grandeur of the Azathoth Deity-Invoking Technique?

Of course not.

What he was after was that thread of possible hope to confront Nyarlathotep, the precious intelligence related to his "precognitive dreams"!

This intelligence might conceal a malicious and treacherous misdirection planted by Nyarlathotep, but it undoubtedly also contained a preemptive advantage that could be exploited in their next gamble!

Just how perilous was the gambling match against Nyarlathotep?

If he hadn't successfully communicated with the divine and summoned the relatively stable and friendly Jade Lama, he would never have seen through the psychological invisibility to find Nono, let alone discovered the location where the heterotypes were setting up their ritual.

If Lu Mingfei hadn't decisively rammed Aki Saiga and arrived at the scene the very first second, the Azathoth Deity-Invoking Technique might have begun unstoppably.

Given that Ye Sheng had been parasitized by an unknown entity and had completely lost his consciousness as a human being, Lu Mingfei's act of ramming Aki Saiga undoubtedly forced him into two high-stakes gambles once again.

If he rammed her with the car, all his previous efforts might have been reduced to nothing; being delayed could mean the monsters at the peak might summon a Great Old One they could not possibly handle.

If Aki Saiga died, all previous efforts would go down the drain. If she lived, he would acquire precious intelligence related to his "precognitive dreams."

He had succeeded.

No matter how perilous the gamble, no matter how minuscule the victory, the time had come for him to reap the fruits of his triumph.

"Ye Sheng, Ye Sheng..."

Aki Saiga continued to propel her shattered body forward, her parched throat emitting calls that left it unclear whether she still retained any consciousness.

After being transformed into a ghoul by the Cinnabar Sand Soul-Returning Elixir, one does not immediately lose the sensation of pain; for a very long period, their nerves, thoughts, and daily habits remain entirely identical to those of ordinary people.

Just what kind of great love, what kind of tenacious will, could allow the physically shattered Aki Saiga to traverse this arduous path and reach the mountain peak where her lover lay?

Lu Mingfei watched her still-trembling, crawling body, raised an eyebrow, and sighed:

"Tsk tsk tsk, how touching.

Nono, if I ended up looking like that deadbeat Ye Sheng, would you treat me the way Aki Saiga treats him?"

Nono's dark red hair, soaked by the rain, clung to her face and obscured her eyes, leaving only her beautifully curved, pristine chin and pale lips exposed.

Her voice lacked its usual whimsical, playful, and carefree quality as she coldly spat out three words:

"Go to hell."

"Ah, how heartless," Lu Mingfei shook his head with a sigh. "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even get to see them for the last time. You surely didn't think those two mediocrities could actually rely on their own abilities to escape the scenario of my 'precognitive dreams,' did you?"

He paid Nono no further heed and, with extreme caution, drew a single slip of paper from the stack in his trouser pocket.

The characters on the paper were a dark, reddish-brown, emanating a faint and sickening cyan-white sheen, just like...

Just like the pale, bluish tinge that surfaces on the face of the dead.

And the ten large characters on the yellow paper, though written in a cursive and flowing script, adhered to hidden rules, carrying an indescribable sense of majesty in every stroke:

By Imperial Order of Zhu Geng, Intercourse with the Supreme Lord.

*The Seven Secret Chapters of the Mysterious Sovereign*, The Flesh-Ganoderma Longevity Elixir, The Spirit-Manifestation Talisman.

Its primary function was to communicate and connect with ghouls, and with further development, it would grant the power of contact and control.

Lu Mingfei pinched the talisman paper between his fingers, glanced at Nono—who had labored hard and made great contributions during this operation—and asked out of humanitarian concern:

"Isn't she your friend? Do you want to come over and take a look together?"

Nono bit her lip and nodded.

She was neither ignorant nor foolish, nor was she ever someone who made unreasonable scenes.

As a person whose intuition pushed the limits of humanity, she was probably the first to realize the existence of that massive, terrifying shadow lurking beyond dragons and men.

Regardless of how indifferent and cold-blooded Lu Mingfei's actions might be, his behavior at least had not deviated from the "human" camp.

Because he was regarded as a toy by an extremely noble yet mischievous entity and thus forced into the human camp, Lu Mingfei—fearing a sneak attack from Aki Saiga—activated "Time Zero" well before approaching her.

Time began to accelerate.

Aki Saiga, whose movements were already extremely sluggish, was no different from a motionless statue in the accelerated time. Lu Mingfei trod a bizarre footwork, stepping alternately back and forth, his hands constantly shifting through mudras as he chanted under his breath:

"All ghosts before me, heed the talisman and obey the decree. The dual breaths of Yin and Yang, obey now and execute. Corpses possess Yin and Yang, harmonize the ghost spirits. Heed my words, may the divine soldiers act as swiftly as the law commands."

The exact moment he reached Aki Saiga's side was when Lu Mingfei finished the final syllable. With fluid grace, he pressed the yellow paper onto Aki Saiga's forehead.

"Decree."

Aki Saiga's body, which had still been crawling slowly, ground to a halt like a car that had run out of fuel.

To prevent Aki Saiga's riddled body from completely losing its functions, Lu Mingfei took out the remaining Cinnabar Sand and poured it all over her upper torso.

The pale blue powder melted like light snow into Aki Saiga's stiff body; visibly, her skin began to turn fair and soft, and she relaxed.

Lu Mingfei formed a hand seal:

"Rise."

With a daze in her eyes, Aki Saiga propped herself up with her hands and sat on the ground, struggling to get up, but her lower body remained completely unresponsive.

Delays breed trouble; Lu Mingfei cut straight to the point:

"What did you and Ye Sheng see inside the Bronze City?"

"Countless mechanisms, bronze serpent statues, skeletons, precious dragon-script materials, an intact bronze chest, and a heavily damaged bronze jar."

"Do you know what was inside the chest and the jar?"

"We couldn't open them, so Ye Sheng and I brought them back."

The school's confidentiality protocols were truly impressive; they had actually kept even him—the savior of the Three Gorges operation—in the dark.

Lu Mingfei raised an eyebrow and asked the final and most crucial question:

"Apart from the dragon, were there any other factors that drove you and Ye Sheng to escape from the Bronze City?"

Aki Saiga nodded:

"When we were trapped inside the Bronze City, Ye Sheng suddenly received a 'divine revelation' and led me away from the complex mechanisms there."

This was the efficacy of Lu Mingfei's spell.

"After bypassing the mechanisms, our oxygen ran out. Ye Sheng gave me his oxygen tank and used a massive amount of his own blood to activate the 'living spirit' guarding the bronze gate, letting me escape."

Behind him, a trace of sorrow surfaced on Nono's face, while Lu Mingfei remained expressionless, quietly awaiting the rest of the account.

"After I escaped the Bronze City, I was blocked by strange creatures and eventually ran out of oxygen as well, but somehow I was reborn."

"As for Ye Sheng, he didn't die, and he floated to the surface of the water before I did."