To be honest, this method may be shameless, but it’s incredibly effective.
When Lulutina announced she had the plague, the crowd instantly parted, leaving a noble passage fit for a presidential visit.
“Uncle, stinky tofu, two servings! Extra spicy, all toppings!”
Having successfully reached the stall, Lulutina achieved her goal~
She felt no shame at all; in fact, she even took the chance to grab two servings of shaved ice from the neighboring stall.
Bought and gone~
……
In the quiet art building.
A fox and a crow peeked out from the corner of a wall.
“Left corridor is clear.” Lulutina gestured.
Received. The right side is clear too.
“Over! Move!”
Move!
Lulutina led the way, carrying stinky tofu and shaved ice takeout.
Wu Xiaomi flicked her tail, tiptoeing closely behind.
Right next to them was the door to the piano room.
The two girls walked past the door, hearts pounding.
It felt as if a monster could burst out of the piano room at any moment.
Fortunately, the music hadn’t stopped.
They made it through!
“Hooray——”
Slamming the piano room door shut, the girls high-fived in celebration.
Such a sense of achievement! It was like they had just cleared a major strategy event.
Wu Xiaomi collapsed onto the floor, grinning foolishly.
An inexplicable happiness bubbled up inside her.
Clearly, there was no gain in wealth, fame, or power, nor any praise received, but after all that fooling around, she felt strangely happy.
“Feeling better now~”
Lulutina lay down beside Wu Xiaomi.
Hmm?
Was this on purpose?
“Your eyes are so swollen today, they almost look like a panda’s. Even a fool could tell you’re upset.”
“……”
“I know that feeling. When you’re sick, it’s like all the beautiful things lose their color. Hiding under the covers, you desperately hope someone will care about you for a moment. But when someone actually comes, you start to get restless and irritable… People are just contradictory like that.
At times like this, you just need to mess around a little, and the pain of illness will be forgotten~”
Are you really only twelve years old?
Kids these days mature way too fast, don’t they?
“Here! Get up, hurry, before the shaved ice melts. Take a bite of stinky tofu, then a bite of shaved ice… Well, as long as your teeth can handle it.”
~
……
Half an hour later, by the time Bai Xiaozhi came to check up on them, Wu Xiaomi and Lulutina were sprawled out in all directions, rubbing their bellies and dozing off.
The evidence of their crime— empty boxes— was casually tossed to the side, not hidden at all, while the air was still thick with the spicy, oily aroma of street food.
It was the very picture of “I’ve finished eating, what can you do about it?”
“……”
These two troublemakers.
Bai Xiaozhi pinched the bridge of her nose, lines of exasperation darkening her forehead.
“Tomorrow is the Lianyi Association, so get some rest early tonight,” she could only say.
“Mm~”
Wu Xiaomi stared at the ceiling.
Suddenly, she wasn’t afraid anymore.
No matter what happens tomorrow,
she could face it calmly, without fear.
……
“Something feels off.”
Inside the white mist barrier, Nanalia gripped her staff, eyes tightly shut.
A gentle breeze swirled around her, stirring milky-white tassels.
“The crack in the sealing is definitely here, but something isn’t right. I… can’t quite put it into words…”
“Can’t it be repaired?”
“It’s not that.”
Nanalia shook her head, taking a moment to find the right words:
“Let me put it this way— our world is above ground, the sealing of Manggu is below ground, and Manggu itself is like magma. Between us is the sealing, which is like the earth’s surface.
If the ground cracks, that means there’s a fissure in the sealing. At that point, I need to use Fengrao Lingyuan to shrink the opening and patch the gap.”
“So what’s the issue now?”
“Right now, I can sense the fissure. It’s very small, and it’s newly formed.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“The problem is— the ground here has become so thin! As thin as an eggshell! Even if I repair this fissure, if something nudges the outside, the eggshell will break, and the land nearby will… BOOM!”
Qiao Wanwan jumped in fright.
“But how could that be? You and I both know how sturdy the sealing of the Spirit of Abundance is.”
“Yes, to grind down the sealing to this thinness would require a massive ritual array.”
“Once wouldn’t be enough; it would have to be done over and over, day after day, to wear it down,” Qiao Wanwan added. “With all that commotion, there’s no way no one would notice, right?”
“Exactly… Wait!”
Nanalia suddenly remembered Bai Xiaozhi’s reasoning.
Although her own logic wasn’t the best, she followed Bai Xiaozhi’s train of thought.
“Every year, there’s one day— no matter what happens that day, no one opens the doors, no one asks questions!”
Nanalia and Qiao Wanwan spoke in unison.
“Mirror Night!”
Maybe the grinding had started long ago.
Or, perhaps, let’s be even bolder…
The appearance of Mirror Night was for this plan, laid out over centuries!
Everything, even the grievous injury to the Spirit of the Wilds, was all part of their scheme.
That mastermind had been operating in the shadows all along!
She might not be as powerful as the Spirit of the Wilds, but the Spirit of the Wilds’ weakness was Ah Fu.
Maybe she disguised herself as Ah Fu, maybe she used other tricks, and in the end forced the Spirit of the Wilds to end herself.
Once the Spirit of the Wilds fell, the surging Lingyuan was released, lost control, and was taken advantage of by the Black Hand.
Mirror Night was created by him! Not some disaster caused unconsciously by the Spirit of the Wilds!
“So, twelve years ago, your parents were lured into the Xuling Space not because the Black Hand was about to destroy the sealing…”
“Mm, in just twelve years, there’s no way the sealing could be ground down this much,” Nanalia nodded. “So why? Why did they do that twelve years ago…”
According to the original plan, they could have just kept grinding on Mirror Night without attracting the attention of the shamans.
After all, as long as the magma didn’t break through the surface, as long as the eggshell stayed intact, the shamans wouldn’t sense any evil leaking out.
“Yeah, so what did they do in these twelve years… What could only be accomplished by locking up Father and Mother?”
What was it that her younger self didn’t have, but her parents did?
“Lianyi Association! Professor status!”
Maybe it was the blessing from this set of Festival Attire— Nanalia didn’t want to disgrace the Spirit of Abundance, so even if her little head was steaming, she kept pushing herself to think.
Maybe she wasn’t stupid, just too lazy to think, letting her mind rust over. But now, driven by urgency, even her rusty thoughts started moving.
“I remember now! The Lianyi Association! In the past, my parents were Guest Professors of History at the Academy. Every time the school held the Lianyi Association, they had to attend and explain the culture and history of the Manggu Mountains!”
“The Lianyi Association? In the past twelve years, Xilin Academy has only held it once, right? I remember it was twelve years ago,” Qiao Wanwan recalled. “And that would be tomorrow, twelve years ago exactly.”
“Right, but do you remember, something big happened at the Lianyi Association twelve years ago!”
“I remember, you mean that Serial Murder Case? The killer was never found, and the motive was unclear.”
“Now we know the motive… It was a Ritual! A Ritual to trigger a High Sequence!”
Nanalia’s staff trembled uncontrollably, the bell at its tip jingling in agitation.
“The students who died all became sacrifices! And the reason they couldn’t let my parents be there was because they were familiar with Rituals and could reverse them!”
“Five students died that year, from five different regions and races, all geniuses…
But nothing happened back then… So, it must have been a Delayed Ritual!”
“Twelve years… could it be… Marduk!”
Qiao Wanwan thought of a Sequence.
A Ritual that uses flesh and blood as material, brewing and hatching, finally triggering a violent explosion.
Twelve years make a cycle, which is exactly how long it takes Marduk to orbit its star, and also when the Nerrifa World is most closely connected to Marduk.
And Marduk is the source of power for this Sequence.
“As long as they restart the Ritual this year, they can detonate the Ritual evil technique that’s been brewing for twelve years! Trigger Sequence 70-Apocalypse Pulse!”
……
“An explosion— they’re going to blow open the sealing!”
“At this Lianyi Association!”
Xiaomi is in danger!
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.