New important character makes his appearance! I personally love this character, though he definitely plays a conflicting role in this series (and I’m sure you’ll be able to tell why once you finish the chapter). Also, any of Fu Xing’s speech in bold is him attempting to use broken English lol.
Translated by: TaffyGirl13
Chapter 6: Shopping is the best remedy for relieving stress
Saturday, 8 PM, at the garden in front of the main bailey. Seven people were gathered.
“The number of people seems to be a bit more than estimated.” Brad glanced at the uninvited guests with slight annoyance.
After all, among the three people that had joined, two of them were darkbloods that did not go well with werewolves. While the contention between the races was not as obvious in the academy, some races would never deal with other races in private.
“Is it not okay?” Rachel asked back with a smile. Her black turtleneck sweater made her snow-white skin and fire-red hair even more eye-catching. “I was just thinking of going to the pharmacy and buying some things. You don’t mind us going together, do you?”
“Whatever.” Brad shifted his gaze over to the other unwelcome guest, his tone almost mocking as he said, “Sagveiss, I thought you preferred handling things alone.”
“It just so happens that there is a matter that needs to be dealt with,” Leon flatly replied, ignoring Brad’s ridicule.
Ever since being called out by Grod, Leon had complacently stayed in the academy for a while in order to deceive others’ eyes. The moment he had heard of a chance to go out, he’d immediately agreed to go along.
“I simply don’t want to stay in the school,” Flora automatically explained. Since they had first gathered, she had never moved her gaze away from Brad.
Brad furrowed his brows and snorted impatiently. “Forget it. Let’s go.”
The teleportation location was inside the Forbidden Tower. The third basement level’s entire space was cleared out. The marble floor was covered in runes, connecting together in all directions like spider webs crawling up the walls. They gathered in the centre of the floor where there was a thick, rectangular pillar. Upon closer look, this was actually a tiny compartment.
After Brad handed the request document to the manager, the manager placed a single droplet of water on every person’s hand. The ice-cold droplet glowed red the moment it made contact with skin, and a symbol similar to the school emblem materialised, though it vanished the next instant.
They walked in single file to the centre of the floor to enter the wooden compartment. Embedded inside the walls were three benches that could fit roughly eight people.
Once the door was closed, the space fell silent. About thirty seconds later, the door was re-opened.
The one to open the door was a middle-aged man dressed in rustic clothing. The scenery outside had also changed completely. Originally, it had been the wide-open, pure white basement. Now, it had changed into a crowded room, something like a storehouse.
“We’re here?” This was Fu Xing’s first time trying this type of function, so it was all novel to him.
“Yeah, bumpkin.” Flora glanced at Fu Xing in exasperation. “But this isn’t our target destination. Teleportation points usually aren’t directly set up in urban districts. We’ll have to take a car to the city centre.”
“I see.”
Their group had arrived at the connecting station located in Schwarzwald in what appeared on the outside to be a wooden guesthouse. There were other guests inside. The watchman was a dwarf that had transformed into a middle-aged man, who drove a small coach bus to bring them to the city centre.
This was Fu Xing’s first time going outside of campus. Despite feeling excited, he was full of worries too.
“Let’s go to King Road first; there’s a pretty good restaurant there,” Rachel suggested with a grin.
“If you come in September, you can take part in Germany’s second largest Beer Festival too!” Brad commented excitedly.
“If we have the time, we can walk around the Palace Square along the way.” Emerald patted his backpack. “There are many tourists there. Perhaps I can take the opportunity to clear out some goods.”
“You can get an infringement notice for illegal peddling,” Flora coldly retorted.
Everyone added in their own two cents and happily chatted, extremely excited about this trip outside. Only one person could not join in at all.
“Erm, excuse me.” Fu Xing grabbed a spare moment between the conversations to awkwardly speak up.
Everyone turned to look at him with dumbfounded expressions.
“I can’t understand what you guys are saying.”
After leaving Shalom, the effect of Babel Tower’s Stone had vanished. The exchanges in English, German, and French just now had just sounded like curses to Fu Xing’s ears.
Flora arched a brow in surprise and asked Fu Xing in Chinese, “You’re a jingguai-type, aren’t you?”
“So what?”
“Jingguai-type have the innate skill of being able to understand all languages.”
“Why?”
“Eh, it’s related to creation science of special animate beings. Jingguai-types are life forms that step over species boundaries, created through cultivation, similar to mutation. Animals don’t have languages, so they can adapt to all languages. If dogs from Taiwan came to Germany, they wouldn’t be affected by humans speaking German. Animals interpret meanings through tone and expression. This characteristic expands further during the change to a jingguai so that they can directly understand the meaning of any language. However, it’s limited to speech; text is not included within this skill.”
“Is that so.” No wonder Dad is always able to communicate with every person he meets no matter what country they’re from. “Why don’t I have it?”
“As if know! Why don’t you?” Flora asked back.
Fu Xing scratched his head in distress. “Um, my body has always been weird. Plus, I’ve been in human society for too long. The innate skill might not have been activated yet, like the transformation ability last time.”
Flora recalled the chaos that had resulted from just his transformation last time, and she nodded in understanding.
“Now what?” Rocort worriedly asked in English. “Should we go eat? Is Fu Xing broken?”
Flora gave a simple explanation of the situation.
“You really are troublesome!” Brad glanced at Fu Xing impatiently. “You seriously have so many problems.”
“Even if I can’t understand what you’re saying, I still know you’re insulting me!” Damn it!
“Want to try my medicine or charms?” A sharp glint flashed in Emerald’s eyes as he flatteringly offered advice.
Fu Xing immediately pushed an arm out to reject. “No need!”
He couldn’t understand Emerald’s words, but he recognised that greedy look. He hadn’t forgotten how messy Emerald’s medicines had been during the transformation incident last time!
“Trying to immediately resolve Fu Xing’s issue might be a bit difficult. Flora, we can only have you help translate,” Rachel chuckled helplessly.
“I know.” Flora glared at Fu Xing. “Troublemaker.”
“It’s not like I want this either…” Fu Xing murmured resentfully. He’d have to ask Youny for possible solutions when he went back later.
The lamps lit up the streets. Under the yellow light, the grey-stoned path looked like ribbons. The flat roads had traditional-styled buildings and modern skyscrapers mixed together, displaying an elegance that was completely different from Taiwan.
Along King Road were various stores in great numbers that covered clothing, food, lodging, and transport. Products were lined up against clean, glass windows. Walking along the street felt as if one was strolling through a giant museum about the local customs of Germany’s urban districts.
Fu Xing quickly scanned his surroundings as he walked. He rarely travelled internationally, so the scene before him contained endless novelties.
“There’s a traditional German restaurant that’s pretty good. We can go together later. If you want to drink beer, there are quite a few bars you can choose from at the end of the alley,” Rachel familiarly introduced the places around them.
“You come here often?” Brad politely asked.
“Yes.”
“This place is so pretty! Living here must be so pleasant!” Rocort chimed as his eyes locked onto the sweets vendor at the corner of the street.
“Yes, it did feel quite pleasant at the time.” Rachel gazed up at the sky. “Now it’s just a hateful past.”
Brad casually asked, “Are there any gift shops nearby?”
Rachel raised a brow. “What kind of gift shop? Accurately speaking, any item sold in these shops could become a gift. It depends on who you’re looking to give it to.”
“Ahem.” Brad lightly coughed as he somewhat haltingly replied, “Er, a relative…that counts as a friend, I guess. A girl, but we don’t share any kind of relationship.” He pretended to speak as calmly as usual, not at all realising the contradiction between the beginning and the end of his words.
Rachel chuckled as she got a general idea. “Oh, in that case, there’s a shop that’s very suitable. If you make a right turn on the third street over, it’ll be the first one there.”
“Um, yes, it’s just buying something for a relative,” Brad persistently repeated.
“I have a matter to handle,” Leon flatly stated.
“I need to pick some things up at the market,” Emerald commented afterwards.
“I want to go too,” Rocort added.
“Looks like everyone has objectives. In that case, let’s just act separately.” Rachel glanced at her watch. “Let’s gather in the Palace Square in two hours.”
“Got it.” Everyone responded, then dispersed.
Fu Xing looked around at his companions heading off in different directions. He grabbed his “translator” in panic and asked, “What’s going on now? Flora! Why did everyone leave?”
“Individual free time!” Flora shook Fu Xing’s hands off in annoyance.
“Oh. Then can I move together with you?”
Flora shot Fu Xing a look and reluctantly replied, “Just don’t get in my way.”
“Yes, yes!”
“Also,” Flora tossed her backpack at Fu Xing. “Help me carry this.”
“What’s this? It’s so heavy!”
“Lenses and foldable camera stands.”
Fu Xing placed the backpack on his back. “Flora, you really love taking photos, huh?”
“Mn.” Flora picked up the camera hanging around her neck to check the lens as she replied.
“What do you take photos of?” Fu Xing curiously went closer.
“People.”
“What kind of people?”
“Good-looking people.”
“Is that so.” Fu Xing nodded. “Oh! That person looks really pretty!”
Flora looked up to follow the direction Fu Xing was pointing at, only to see a girl that looked like a fashion model very gracefully walking down the street.
“Not interested. And has no photo-taking value.” She let out a heavy snort that seemed to carry some disdain. “Real high quality should be like that one!” As she spoke, she swiftly lifted her camera to aim it at the other end of the road to lock onto her target and rapidly press the shutter.
Fu Xing raised his head to spot a boorishly good-looking male in a T-shirt turning around the corner. “You like that type?”
“I like any that are attractive.”
Flora turned her head and quickly snapped a shot of a refined-looking male standing at the traffic light across from them. Though he was wearing a dress shirt and glasses, one could see the fit figure that faintly showed underneath the shirt.
“Flora, you really do like all kinds of styles…”
Flora started, then shot Fu Xing a glare. “Can you be more quiet!”
Fu Xing immediately shut his mouth and tactfully followed behind Flora to run about.
His vision seemed to blur as his senses were stimulated by the scenes of the different country, from the buildings and shops plus the people walking around, to the foreign language flooding his ears and the various smells.
When they passed by a small park, there was a street performer sitting on top of a short wall next to the flowerbeds playing an accordion. There were several people surrounding him. Fu Xing curiously watched for a moment, then when he glanced back, he discovered that Flora had already disappeared without a trace from where she had originally been walking in front of him.
He scanned his surroundings in panic.
There weren’t any kind customer service people here that would give him candy to eat and help him find his mommy over an intercom. The people walking along the brightly lit street were of a different ethnicity, using a completely foreign language.
Crap…now what?!
Calm down, calm down.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a black-haired back figure amongst the crowd at the corner of the road. The height was also similar to Flora’s. “Flora!” Fu Xing immediately chased after [the figure].
After running a while, the figure vanished from his line of sight, as if he had only seen a trick of the light that wasn’t Flora at all. What was worse was that he had deviated from the original path, so he no longer knew how to backtrack to his original location either.
Fu Xing blankly walked forwards, unconsciously following the flow of the people’s movement. Then, he caught sight of a small church by the road. The streetscape around it seemed a bit familiar, like the path he had previously been on. Thus, he quickly strode over and turned into the alley.
After walking for a few minutes, Fu Xing discovered that he had not gone the way he had thought at all. Moreover, as he walked, the lighting in the alley grew dimmer, and the number of pedestrians and shops decreased as well. By the time he snapped out of his daze, he discovered that he was the only person in the dark little alley.
Ugh, this isn’t a good sign…
This type of place felt like the prime location for crime.
In response to Fu Xing’s thought, when he spun around to go back the way he came, he was alarmed to find several youths standing on both sides of the path. Their unfriendly faces stared at him with ferocity and greed.
No way… “Erm, sorry, may I ask how to get to the Palace Square?” Fu Xing smiled, putting on a naïve and innocent act.
Calm down! The smile is a universal language! Maybe these guys have mean-looking faces but hold hearts of gold. And in actuality, their gentle and genuine hearts hidden inside their chests are currently wanting to help a stranger like me!
The youths slowly closed in on him, surrounding Fu Xing. The other party spat out a few sentences of German in a malicious tone.
Hm, looks like these people aren’t mean-looking faces with hearts of gold, but rather their outside reflects their inside…
“I-I don’t have money! No money! No no no!”
Ahhh! What should I do? What should I do?!
I’m a jingguai-type! But how should I attack a human? Using my special ability? Or a spell? Will it be a violation of rules? How do special animate beings usually deal with situations like this?
Argh! Who cares! I can only use the ultimate move that both humans and monsters use—run away!
Fu Xing then dryly chuckled as he shook his hands. “Ahem, drop dead, go to hell! Bye-bye!” With this, he spun around to flee.
Angry curses rang out as the other party flashed a knife and quickly chased after, grabbing onto Fu Xing’s backpack and yanking him backwards.
Fu Xing covered his head with both hands, an instinctive evasive action.
Ugh! He hadn’t fallen into the hands of fierce souls, but instead fell into the hands of humans! Seriously so humiliating!
Fu Xing gritted his teeth and prepared himself to take a blow. However, the anticipated pain did not occur. Instead, anguished cries came from behind him.
Had his companions come to save him?
He lowered his hands and looked backwards to see a lanky figure gripping the youth’s knife-holding hand before twisting it backwards.
“Don’t scare outsiders,” The black-clothed man stated with a smile.
The youth let out another few shouts as their comrades immediately came swarming over to brandish weapons at the man.
“What a disaster.” The man chuckled bitterly as he spun and knocked the person in his grip down. Then, like moving clouds and flowing water, he smoothly neutralised every attack, even throwing out heavy blows in return.
“Ah!”
Pained wails chorused from every direction. Seeing that they were at a disadvantage, the group hurriedly stood up while clutching their injuries to miserably stagger away from the scene.
Fu Xing stared at the man in worship – he was nearly to the point of prostrating himself in admiration! So cool!
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Very much!” Fu Xing walked up to the man and spoke in extreme gratitude, trying his best to express his thanks.
The man looked at him, a hand quickly grabbing onto Fu Xing’s shoulder with quite a large amount of force. He then scanned Fu Xing up and down for a moment, a slightly perplexed expression on his face.
“Er, is something the matter?”
Why are you looking at me like that! Ah! Don’t tell me that chasing away those muggers attracted a rapist instead?!
“Can…can I go go go?” Fu Xing asked as he trembled in fear.
The man pulled out a disk that appeared to be a pocket watch, the silver metal glinting brilliantly.
He peered at the surface of the watch with furrowed brows, then chuckled to himself and immediately loosened his grip to gently pat Fu Xing’s shoulder.
“Kid, did you wander off from your family?” The man asked in Chinese.
“Oh! Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Wow! Can speak Chinese too, so amazing! “Ah! No, I’m not a kid! I came to have fun with my friends, but we got separated!”
“Is that so?” The man smiled kindly as warm as the sunlight, making it hard to imagine that he was an expert that had just knocked down four people with his bare hands.
He glanced at the pocket watch in his hands once again, then back at Fu Xing. After seemingly confirming something, he stowed the watch away.
“May I ask you how to get to the Palace Square?” Fu Xing asked. Although it was not yet time, he figured he could go there first and take his time waiting.
“I’ll bring you out of the alley; it’ll be clearer if I point it out on the main street. It’s safer on large roads too.”
“Thank you!”
“Although the public security here isn’t bad, there are still some corners that aren’t very safe to be in at night.” The man smiled as he walked ahead to lead Fu Xing while casually chatting in Chinese. “Where are you from?”
“Taiwan, I came to study abroad.”
“How long have you been here?”
“A bit over half a year.”
“If that’s the case, then honestly speaking, you still need to improve your language [skills].”
“Ah, I know…” He had many areas to improve on… “What kind of job do you have? You have such strong skills!”
“Mn, it should count as being a security worker,” the man chuckled pensively.
“I see!” To be that formidable, he must protect someone very important!
After passing through several small alleys then turning around a few corners, they finally arrived onto the main street. Once they passed by the little church by the road, the man paused for a moment.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I just remembered something.”
“Oh?”
The man quietly muttered in German, “A beautiful nightmare.”
Fu Xing could not understand, but he did not ask about it.
A few minutes later, the Palace Square appeared in front of them.
“It’s right in front.” The man pointed at a place not far away. “Do you want me to bring you over?”
“Yes!” That’s exactly what I wanted!
A beeping suddenly rang. The man pulled out his cellphone, gave a few short words in reply, then stowed his phone away.
“Sorry, my companion is looking for me for something.” The man said with slight remorse, “I won’t be able to make the trip with you.”
“No, no, you’ve helped me so much already! I’m very grateful towards you!”
“Helping people is my responsibility,” the man proudly answered. “I must leave. If fate allows, we’ll meet again.”
“Mhm!” Fu Xing enthusiastically waved his hand. “Good-bye!”
Only after seeing the person’s figure vanish at the end of the road around the corner did Fu Xing realise with a start that he had forgotten to ask the other person’s name.
Should’ve asked for them to leave a method of contact…it’s so hard to come by such a good person…If special animate beings try to understand humans better and learn that there are also kind-hearted people, maybe they wouldn’t be that antagonistic and clash so much.
Fu Xing turned and followed the given directions to arrive before a fountain in the square. What surprised him was the fact that his companions were standing next to the fountain already, waiting for him impatiently.
“Where did you run off to!” Brad immediately knocked Fu Xing’s head. “You made everyone worried to death!”
“I can’t understand!” Fu Xing rubbed his head. “It’s not time yet, right?”
“How do you expect us to continue strolling around when you went missing?” Emerald huffed in rebuke.
“I called to let them know that you had wandered off,” Flora coldly stated. “You didn’t lose my things, did you?”
“It’s still here.” Fu Xing trembled as he showed the backpack to Flora. “Sorry, sorry, I accidentally got distracted earlier and got lost. Fortunately, a nice person helped me.”
“It’s fine as long as you’re back.” Rachel let out a light sigh. “In any case, Brad stirred up some trouble just now anyways, so we can only retreat now even though we were originally planning on exploring King Road for a bit.”
“It was those guys that provoked me first…” Brad retorted in annoyance. “Besides, I haven’t settled my account with you yet.”
Brad had followed Rachel’s instructions to arrive at her suggested location. But what had appeared in front of him was an extremely large specialty store for pet products.
“Oh, I haven’t come here in a while. There might have been some changes around here.” Rachel shrugged in feigned innocence. “Anyways, you bought what you wanted to buy, so it should count as a favour.”
There had been a handicraft shop two stores away from the pet shop. The boutique with pink decoration as its main point had been styled on the outside to look like a dreamy hut from a fairy tale. The interior décor and displays had given off a soft, warm, and adorable air, similar to a mini toy house. The customers inside had been mainly females.
Brad had stood outside in hesitation for a long time. Finally, he had taken a deep breath and entered the shop with gritted teeth.
Twenty minutes later, he had run out in panic as if escaping for his life with a bulging paper bag. Because he had come out in such a rush, he had ended up bumping into someone. Originally, this would’ve been a minor thing, but the other party had untactfully sneered at the dreamy gifts. In exchanged, the man had received two punches in the face.
Like this, a small commotion had broken out. As a result of avoiding people’s attentions in addition to Flora’s notification, their group had gathered at this spot early.
“We thought something happened to you.” Flora explained, “After all, western Europe is an area where White Triangle is quite active. It’s also why we can’t stay in this place anymore now that Brad stirred up trouble.”
“I see…” Knowing that he was not the only reason for the change in itinerary made him feel slightly more at ease. “Where do we go now then? Do we go back?”
“Let’s walk about the square first.” Flora put her camera away. “’Merchants go there sometimes. They’re a neutral party among special animate beings and don’t belong to any race. They often move around selling information and ‘genuine’ cursed products.”
Upon saying the word ‘genuine’, Flora eyed Emerald somewhat mockingly. Fortunately, Emerald could not understand Chinese – otherwise, he would have argued.
Because special animate beings had an extended lifespan and [amount of] experience compared to a typical human, they would often know several different languages. However, this could not compare to a jingguai-type that was naturally proficient in use of any language with no restrictions whatsoever.
The party leisurely strolled around Palace Square. Despite keeping low-profile, their outstanding looks still attracted much attention. Fu Xing and Flora automatically went to the very front of the group to maintain some distance between them. Their comparatively common appearances were quite a bit of help to avoid some undesired gazes.
“I was nearly mugged just now. But I bumped into a noble person that helped!” Fu Xing described to Flora his experiences while he had been lost.
“You can just use any random attack spell or ward to resolve that. But it should be really easy to escape or repel them with a special animate being’s physical ability.” Flora shook her head. “You really do suck…”
“It’s not like I’ve been mugged before!”
Flora suddenly stopped to look at a corner of the plaza.
Fu Xing followed her line of sight to see a small group of people gathered on some steps at the edge of the plaza. There was a person in the middle that had a pile of items displayed on the ground, clearly peddling goods.
Fu Xing’s first reaction was to turn his head to check if Emerald was in their group.
Close call, he’s still there. He had thought that guy really would’ve run over to set up a shop.
“It’s a merchant…” Flora quietly stated, a hint of unhappiness in her voice.
“Yeah!” Fu Xing stared at the crowd surrounding the peddler. “Their business is doing pretty well! So are those customers all special animate beings?”
“No. That’s an antique dealer, Sander. He’s an anomaly among the merchants. He only sells antiques, but only about half his goods are genuine. Plus, his sales targets aren’t just special animate beings, but humans as well.” Flora muttered in complaint, “Purely just acting to earn money, the exact carbon copy of a ‘certain someone’.”
Then, that ‘certain someone’ at the back of the group charged over to the antique dealer’s stand. The rest of the group exchanged looks with each other before slowly following after.
“Sander, long time no see!”
“Oooh! It’s Emerald!” Sander warmly replied while simultaneously not forgetting to reprimand a customer, “Don’t keep touching if you’re not going to buy. You’ll have to pay if you break it!”
The antique dealer Sander had the appearance of a man in his thirties. He had bronze skin and dark green eyes. His head was completely shaved and he wore a cloth cap on top. Although his entire body was covered with loose flax clothing, the soft cloth still outlined his sturdy figure.
“Flora, I’ve already said before that you need to pay to take photos,” Sander chuckled as he eyed Flora hiding at the very back. “Secretly taking photos with your cellphone is the same.”
Flora resentfully put her phone away.
“Don’t you dislike him?” Fu Xing was flabbergasted.
“I dislike his character, but I enjoy his body,” Flora answered matter-of-factly.
“Any new goods recently?” Rachel squatted down to inspect the merchandise. “Abe Haruaki’s writing brush? Queen Victoria’s undergarments? Your taste is still as horrible as always.”
“Does little Rachel want to buy it? After putting it on, your figure will turn amazing!” Sonder rubbed his chin as he surveyed Rachel. “Though it looks like you no longer need it.”
“Thank you.”
“Emerald, any new pointers these days?”
“Japanese beauty slimming products are very popular. In addition, ‘group buying’ has been a popular shopping method in certain regions.” Emerald frankly and confidently discussed his own business experience. “Also, because of certain reasons, evil-warding goods have been selling quite well, but I believe that will only be a short-term trend. It’s just a profit during a seized opportunity, not something mainstream. But mascots to pray for good fortune or wealth are not part of this restriction.”
“Oho, doesn’t sound bad. Nice going, Emerald.” Sander nodded in praise. “Brad, do you want to buy a ball? This one was used in Lassie Come Home.”
“Keep it for yourself,” Brad coldly snorted.
“Then, how about a flea-remover?” Sander smiled in reply. Immediately, his sharp eyes caught sight of a customer trying to pry a small box open. “Don’t touch that! It’s an un-openable secret treasure box. Legend says that it belonged to the last descendent of a Qing Dynasty novel. There’s a key inside that can open a secret treasure cave. If you break it, you wouldn’t be able to compensate for it even if you sold all your internal organs!” He fluidly switched languages to give a scolding.
“Ohhh! Sorry, sorry! Cough cough, cough!” The Asian middle-aged man hurriedly put the box down.
“If you have poor health, I recommend you buy this one.” Sander smoothly picked up a small, dark-brown stick. “This acupuncture massager has been maintained by great qi masters. As long as you press it against the acupoint diagram, it can cure any ailment with remarkable efficacy. And aside from curing illness,” Sander lowered his voice as if telling a secret, “It can also boost your ability in certain aspects per your needs.”
“Oooo! I’ll buy it! Cough cough!” The middle-aged man pulled out his wallet and happily paid.
“Thank you for your patronage.” Sander stowed the money away into a bag, then turned his head to discover Fu Xing currently surveying the stand with a perplexed expression. “This new young friend is Fu Xing, right? What are you interested in?”
Upon being called out, Fu Xing snapped out of his thoughts. “Oh, nothing. I was just a bit curious.”
“Mhm?”
“Your customers are very absorbed. I mean to say, Rachel and the others are beautiful, so they should’ve…” Should’ve at least glanced over at them? However, regardless of age or gender, everyone here was completely focused on the merchandise. No one paid any mind to the existence of Fu Xing’s group, as if they were just normal tourists.
Sander raised a brow in slight astonishment. “Not bad.” He smiled thinly. “Naturally, there’s a reason. Since I want to earn their money, I obviously have to first protect my own comrades. Too much attention will sometimes also attract trouble~”
Sander extended a finger to lightly knock a small incense burner next to him. The narrow opening of the burner was constantly emitting white, silk-like smoke. The wisps circled around the stand like a giant roof.
Fu Xing was struck by sudden realisation. It’s a ward…
Sander shifted his focus onto Leon.
“I’ve already heard about the Ludwigsburg incident.” He grinned meaningfully. “Nice job.”
Leon did not respond, silently staying in the back.
“In order to express my appreciation, I’ll give you something good.” Sander turned to pull out an aquarium from a water-proof bag. There was a single octopus resting inside. “Don’t underestimate it, it’s a brother of the prophet Paul!” He paused for a second. “Or sister.”
Fu Xing bent down to stare at the lazy creature and curiously asked, “How does it fit in such a small container?”
“There’s a mechanism inside. Otherwise this fat guy would take up half the space.”
“Does it also have a prophetic ability?”
Sander shrugged. “My guess is that it has great talent that takes much time to develop.”
Leon left without even turning to look back.
“Why don’t I give it to you then.” Sander picked up the aquarium and held it in front of Fu Xing. “It can count as a first-meeting present.”
“How is that acceptable? This is your merchandise! There’s no way I could accept it for no reason!”
Fu Xing hurriedly rejected, but Sander continued insisting on giving it.
“Just take it.” Flora huffed in annoyance, “He just couldn’t sell it off and doesn’t want to raise it, so he’s dumping it on you. And accumulating favour while he’s at it.”
“Flora, you say it so ruthlessly.” Sander sighed in feigned innocence. “But it is indeed the truth.”
“Er…” Shouldn’t you at least pretend until the end?
After lingering around for a while to chat for a bit and exchange some information, they returned home.
Fu Xing let out a helpless sigh as he sat in the car with the aquarium in his hands. He really did not want such an ugly pet…
I can just give it to Momiji when I get back. I remember hearing her talk about wanting to eat roasted octopus a while back.
Fu Xing stared at the ugly octopus inside and inwardly thought to himself: Go become a talented octopus in your next life.
Rewinding an hour back. King Road.
Two people stood next to the bustling street, quietly discussing something while eying the dreamy gift store.
“Sorry, I’m late.” After parting with Fu Xing, the black-clothed man had hurriedly rushed over to the location his comrade had mentioned.
“No problem, it’s already fine now, Fidel.”
“Was there something wrong?” The man called Fidel asked in slight concern.
“There was some conflict here earlier, seemingly involving Yin beasts.” A man wearing a black coat respectfully reported. “The detector showed some reaction.”
“They escaped,” Another comrade let out a bitter curse.
“Casualty status?”
“One human suffered minor injury, nothing major.”
Fidel nodded. “Still, caution is always first. The mistake in Ludwigsburg has already caused us to lose quite a few hands.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t caused by a Yin beast?”
“No, it was a human criminal gang.” Fidel sighed regretfully. “There was an error in the organization’s intelligence, leading to the forces being mistakenly commanded to break into the criminal gang’s territory and become…” Annihilated.
“How could there be an error?”
“The intelligence team thought the other party were jingguai that could change appearance, but that was not the case. It was simply someone in a disguise for the sake of a certain transaction.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. We later ended up chasing them down all the way to Taiwan. After a long inspection, the other party turned out to be a normal human from head to toe.”
Fidel powerlessly let out a long breath. “Since it was my own mistake, I cannot blame anyone.”
The man in the black coat indignantly exclaimed, “But those people were criminals! Why—”
“We exist for the sake of protecting humans.” Fidel’s face became stern. “And eliminate the unnecessary evil in this world.”
“Yessir…”
“Oh right, my detector seems to have some issues.” Fidel pulled out the silver pocket watch from his clothes and handed it to his companion. “The detector gave me incorrect information just now. Help me hand this over to the maintenance team for inspection.”
“Yessir.” The man took the pocket watch.
The embedded glass face was like a mirror, reflecting the various rays of light from the street.
It was not a watch, but more like a compass, pointing at the transparent, light-blue sphere in the centre.
The surface was covered with many complex runes. Framing the runes was a gigantic white triangle shape, and above it was a line of carved-out Latin letters—
World Sanctification Court.
The trip had used up quite a bit of stamina. On Sunday, Fu Xing slept until afternoon before lazily awaking. He sauntered over to the dining hall to eat a late lunch that doubled as afternoon tea, then brought the octopus over to Momiji.
Judging by Momiji and Taeharu’s elated expressions, that octopus would likely end up becoming a steaming roasted octopus tonight.
During his meal, Fu Xing had asked around for some updates. Last night, a rabbit spirit had suddenly fallen critically ill and had been sent to the medical centre.
However, the atmosphere of the campus did not seem to be as tense as before.
Based on the previous examples, all the victims had a unique characteristic: most were those that were weaker in ability or physical strength. In addition, many of them were jingguai. As a result, a rumour that “only weaklings attract the departed soul and get cursed” began to spread.
Consequently, the races with stronger spiritual power like elves and beastmen wore expressions of complete security.
And then, when Monday arrived, someone personally destroyed this rumour. Every student in the academy fell into fear once again.
Brad’s bodily functions had abruptly become feeble and he had been struggling to breathe. On Monday morning, he was sent to the medical centre.
~Taffy Translations~ 