The system was convinced that it knew the Witch like the back of its hand, but urban legends are inherently unpredictable, and never would it expect the Witch to craft such an exquisite trap for them!
‘Spells belonging to Jumang. I was right all along,’ the system breathed. ‘The Witch hunted the goddess down and consumed all of her knowledge.’
As for why it chose a comparatively weaker charm, the system knew why—cost issues. Among all the charms, this was the easiest to obtain the raw materials for, and to the system’s knowledge, Lu Yibei was as poor as Gu Qianqian.
The little savings her father left behind for her were not enough at all.
Metal strengthens the body; spices sublimate the soul; cores replenish psychic energy; all of these cost money in some form.
When the materials soon leave the human psyche, the costs of obtaining them rise exponentially.
The system thought of how hard it raised Gu Qianqian and thought that it had all gone to waste: ‘The charms must have reacted to our psychic energies by now, and soon we will be blown up into shreds.’
The system emptied its mind and allowed the ensuing dazzling emerald light to envelop both itself and Gu Qianqian; it was disgustingly warm, disgustingly comforting, and disgustingly powerful enough to eradicate it.
It’s over.
Like spring rain over her body.
When she was enveloped by the dazzling light, Gu Qianqian was shocked to find that she was fine; if anything, she felt comfortable and warm.
Beyond the emerald light, she saw a young man walking towards her. Although he held no emotion in his face, she could sense a smile.
“Who are you?”
“Hush!” the boy gestured in a magnetic voice. “Shut up and kiss me!”
He walked up to her, kissed her forehead, and undid her raincoat as he hugged her body close.
As she closed her eyes, everything dissipated like a shattered mirror, like a distant spring dream that would never bear fruit. In that dazzling light, she felt weak and powerless.
‘What the fuck, Jumeng? That hag was cutting corners!’
Watching the charred charms, Yibei realised that when Jumeng was manufacturing the charms, she used her own magic to ease her own workload!
Otherwise, how could it explain the scene before her?
Yibei had seen the charm at work before—a shimmering blue light, like a flash bomb—but these charms…
Like a strong acid and a strong base meeting like a lump of ice thrown into a frying pan, like an Internet policeman entering and governing a chat room…
Dozens of charms detonated, and the emerald light was like a dazzling train of fog, colliding with the figure on the path.
Even from a respectable distance, she could feel her body vibrate, and her eyes were filled with an emerald light—so pure, so brilliant, like witnessing the warmth of spring and the blooming of the Earth—like life itself before it vanished into thick, murky smoke.
When her eyes got used to the blinding light, she saw the murky smoke and cried; this meant that whoever was walking down the path was still alive.
She thought of rushing forward to finish the business with her kitchen knife, but suddenly, a soft chime could be heard beyond the smoke, followed by golden lines of words shooting into the sky, outlining a familiar figure beyond the smoke…
Despite the large robe covering her petite figure, it was difficult to hide how curvy the goddess was.
The golden words orbited around Jumeng’s illusory figure, and she held a banner in her hand, which read [MADE IN THE GARDEN OF PEACHES] in big, bold characters.
‘Are you kidding me? Why are you putting yourself in such a serious situation? And who is this ad even for?’
The smoke soon started to clear as the chimes faded away, and Gu Qianqian could be seen, with scraps of her remaining clothing falling to the ground as she panted heavily, staring at Lu Yibei with strange eyes.
Gu Qianqian is a powerful psychic, but she is also human, so the charms would not affect her as hard as they did her system.
However, she could feel her internal organs rearranged from the explosion, and her psychic energy was exhausted from healing herself from the damage.
Seeing Gu Qianqian in a half-kneel position before her, her mouth was agape: ‘What the hell is she doing here in the middle of the night?’
Curiosity got the best of her, and she wanted to ask Gu Qianqian what she was doing on campus.
After the smoke dissipated, Lu Yibei’s attention was focused on the dying Gu Qianqian, not noticing the strange things that were scattered on the ground.
A dark, red liquid flows into the box of bamboo scrolls.
Her eyes started to ache without reason. Forcing herself to look at the source of the pain, she could see that the air around the box of bamboo scrolls was rippling, outlining an illusory vortex.
The rain, fog, and everything else were sucked into the vortex as it started to devour the residual psychic energy; beyond the illusory vortex, one could vaguely see the grey world beyond the dark mountains, decorated with scarlet lanterns that scattered on its mounds; the darkness was endless, with countless caves like labyrinths.
Bloodied chains gripped the headless girl; Lu Yibei was like a monkey in a storm, clinging onto a tree trunk for her life, but Gu Qianqian had nothing, and she was sucked into the vortex.
Beyond the vortex, she could see a terrifying black snake that caused her bodily temperature to rise rapidly; her coat had already fled the scene. The snake coiled around Gu Qianqian’s body and swallowed her in a single gulp.
In an instant, the vortex was dispelled, and the surrounding streets were quiet again as the rain continued to pour overhead.
Lu Yibei was left sprawled on the ground, staring at the bamboo scrolls, before coming back to reality as the raindrops no longer evaporated before they could even touch her.
“Did… did I kill her?”
She breathed out.
‘S-she could’ve told me that she wanted the bamboo scrolls. She could’ve told me! I would be happy to get rid of it, but…’
She was probably dead. All she could do was erect a gravestone for her and do a burial without a body.
The guilt was eating at her heart. Gu Qianqian was just a teenage girl; she needed to find a way to save her.
‘But how?’
As she was deep in thought, the manhole cover in the pathway suddenly bounced off, and two figures flew out of the manhole and landed firmly before her.
It was a seductive girl with a pair of rabbit ears, dressed in interesting clothes, and a man in a dark blue suit with a fair face but dead eyes.
The two shot a playful smile towards her, and she couldn’t help but feel an ominous premonition brewing in her heart.
The system was convinced that it knew the Witch like the back of its hand, but urban legends are inherently unpredictable, and never would it expect the Witch to craft such an exquisite trap for them!
‘Spells belonging to Jumang. I was right all along,’ the system breathed. ‘The Witch hunted the goddess down and consumed all of her knowledge.’
As for why it chose a comparatively weaker charm, the system knew why—cost issues. Among all the charms, this was the easiest to obtain the raw materials for, and to the system’s knowledge, Lu Yibei was as poor as Gu Qianqian.
The little savings her father left behind for her were not enough at all.
Metal strengthens the body; spices sublimate the soul; cores replenish psychic energy; all of these cost money in some form.
When the materials soon leave the human psyche, the costs of obtaining them rise exponentially.
The system thought of how hard it raised Gu Qianqian and thought that it had all gone to waste: ‘The charms must have reacted to our psychic energies by now, and soon we will be blown up into shreds.’
The system emptied its mind and allowed the ensuing dazzling emerald light to envelop both itself and Gu Qianqian; it was disgustingly warm, disgustingly comforting, and disgustingly powerful enough to eradicate it.
It’s over.
Like spring rain over her body.
When she was enveloped by the dazzling light, Gu Qianqian was shocked to find that she was fine; if anything, she felt comfortable and warm.
Beyond the emerald light, she saw a young man walking towards her. Although he held no emotion in his face, she could sense a smile.
“Who are you?”
“Hush!” the boy gestured in a magnetic voice. “Shut up and kiss me!”
He walked up to her, kissed her forehead, and undid her raincoat as he hugged her body close.
As she closed her eyes, everything dissipated like a shattered mirror, like a distant spring dream that would never bear fruit. In that dazzling light, she felt weak and powerless.
‘What the fuck, Jumeng? That hag was cutting corners!’
Watching the charred charms, Yibei realised that when Jumeng was manufacturing the charms, she used her own magic to ease her own workload!
Otherwise, how could it explain the scene before her?
Yibei had seen the charm at work before—a shimmering blue light, like a flash bomb—but these charms…
Like a strong acid and a strong base meeting like a lump of ice thrown into a frying pan, like an Internet policeman entering and governing a chat room…
Dozens of charms detonated, and the emerald light was like a dazzling train of fog, colliding with the figure on the path.
Even from a respectable distance, she could feel her body vibrate, and her eyes were filled with an emerald light—so pure, so brilliant, like witnessing the warmth of spring and the blooming of the Earth—like life itself before it vanished into thick, murky smoke.
When her eyes got used to the blinding light, she saw the murky smoke and cried; this meant that whoever was walking down the path was still alive.
She thought of rushing forward to finish the business with her kitchen knife, but suddenly, a soft chime could be heard beyond the smoke, followed by golden lines of words shooting into the sky, outlining a familiar figure beyond the smoke…
Despite the large robe covering her petite figure, it was difficult to hide how curvy the goddess was.
The golden words orbited around Jumeng’s illusory figure, and she held a banner in her hand, which read [MADE IN THE GARDEN OF PEACHES] in big, bold characters.
‘Are you kidding me? Why are you putting yourself in such a serious situation? And who is this ad even for?’
The smoke soon started to clear as the chimes faded away, and Gu Qianqian could be seen, with scraps of her remaining clothing falling to the ground as she panted heavily, staring at Lu Yibei with strange eyes.
Gu Qianqian is a powerful psychic, but she is also human, so the charms would not affect her as hard as they did her system.
However, she could feel her internal organs rearranged from the explosion, and her psychic energy was exhausted from healing herself from the damage.
Seeing Gu Qianqian in a half-kneel position before her, her mouth was agape: ‘What the hell is she doing here in the middle of the night?’
Curiosity got the best of her, and she wanted to ask Gu Qianqian what she was doing on campus.
After the smoke dissipated, Lu Yibei’s attention was focused on the dying Gu Qianqian, not noticing the strange things that were scattered on the ground.
A dark, red liquid flows into the box of bamboo scrolls.
Her eyes started to ache without reason. Forcing herself to look at the source of the pain, she could see that the air around the box of bamboo scrolls was rippling, outlining an illusory vortex.
The rain, fog, and everything else were sucked into the vortex as it started to devour the residual psychic energy; beyond the illusory vortex, one could vaguely see the grey world beyond the dark mountains, decorated with scarlet lanterns that scattered on its mounds; the darkness was endless, with countless caves like labyrinths.
Bloodied chains gripped the headless girl; Lu Yibei was like a monkey in a storm, clinging onto a tree trunk for her life, but Gu Qianqian had nothing, and she was sucked into the vortex.
Beyond the vortex, she could see a terrifying black snake that caused her bodily temperature to rise rapidly; her coat had already fled the scene. The snake coiled around Gu Qianqian’s body and swallowed her in a single gulp.
In an instant, the vortex was dispelled, and the surrounding streets were quiet again as the rain continued to pour overhead.
Lu Yibei was left sprawled on the ground, staring at the bamboo scrolls, before coming back to reality as the raindrops no longer evaporated before they could even touch her.
“Did… did I kill her?”
She breathed out.
‘S-she could’ve told me that she wanted the bamboo scrolls. She could’ve told me! I would be happy to get rid of it, but…’
She was probably dead. All she could do was erect a gravestone for her and do a burial without a body.
The guilt was eating at her heart. Gu Qianqian was just a teenage girl; she needed to find a way to save her.
‘But how?’
As she was deep in thought, the manhole cover in the pathway suddenly bounced off, and two figures flew out of the manhole and landed firmly before her.
It was a seductive girl with a pair of rabbit ears, dressed in interesting clothes, and a man in a dark blue suit with a fair face but dead eyes.
The two shot a playful smile towards her, and she couldn’t help but feel an ominous premonition brewing in her heart.
