Looking into Lao Liao's resolute eyes, Ling Yun's heart stirred, and his liking for Lao Liao grew even stronger. He thought to himself, "This man is truly a man of integrity." To be polite or say "no need" at this moment would seem rather cold and hypocritical. He nodded and smiled, "Okay, Lao Liao, if I ever need your help in the future, I'll definitely come to you."
Old Liao nodded vigorously: "Without you, Jingjing and I would have died here. Our lives were given to us by you. You can take them back whenever you need them."
"Jingjing?" Ling Yun was taken aback and looked at the young delinquent. The name was quite elegant, completely unlike the young delinquent's crazy and arrogant personality.
The young punk girl pouted: "The young master gave me a name, saying it sounded nice and poetic, but I don't like it at all. But since he's the boss, I have to pretend to like it."
Ling Yun was speechless. This name was supposed to be poetic and pleasant-sounding? It was probably just as ordinary as his own name; you could find two or three people with that name on the street. He guessed that the boss behind them, the so-called young master, wasn't exactly talented either.
Old Liao rummaged through his clothes for a while, seemingly looking for something. After finding nothing, he finally said to the young woman, "Jingjing, do you have paper and a pen?"
“No, I don’t need to write.” The delinquent girl, Jingjing, shook her head and asked curiously, “What do you need paper and pen for?”
"I want to leave my contact information for the young man so that we can help him if he ever needs anything in the future," Lao Liao said.
Ling Yun thought that there would be no chance to meet again in the future, so why bother exchanging contact information? Just as he was about to decline, his mind suddenly changed: "Just tell me, Lao Liao, I can remember it."
Old Liao recited several long strings of numbers, repeating them several times for fear Ling Yun wouldn't remember. Little did he know that Ling Yun possessed permanent memory, able to recall everything he saw. The moment he first heard the numbers, they were firmly etched into his mind.
Lingyun's original intention was neither to have any further dealings with Lao Liao and Jingjing, these underworld figures. Their acquaintance was purely accidental. However, for some reason, before Lao Liao offered him his contact information, a very subtle hint suddenly surged into his clear mind. This hint, though extremely vague, seemed to imply that a cause for something happening at some point in the future was being projected into the present. It was difficult to describe this feeling, yet it compelled Lingyun to memorize Lao Liao's contact information.
Perhaps I'll really meet him again in the future, Ling Yun thought. This old Liao seems like a decent person, and although the young girl is a bit eccentric, she's not someone difficult to get along with.
“Let’s find a pen upstairs and write it down. It’s pitch black here, and we can’t see anything. By the way, young man, you saved our lives, and I still don’t know your name?” Jingjing said casually. [Website: www.WR]
“My name is Ling Yun,” Ling Yun said. “We’ll part ways here. You can go your own way. Don’t worry about me.”
"What?" The two were taken aback. "You're going to stay here?" Old Liao asked in surprise.
Ling Yun nodded: "Yes, you can leave now. I have other things to do."
The two exchanged a glance. Although somewhat surprised, they both knew that Ling Yun meant to see them out. Presumably, he had his own business to attend to and didn't need to tell them. The two of them tactfully refrained from asking any further questions.
Old Liao nodded: "Then we'll take our leave first. Brother Lingyun, you're a master, but if anything comes up in the future, please remember to call Old Liao."
Jingjing patted Lingyun's shoulder with a smile: "Brother Lingyun, there's nothing I can do to help you, but judging from your appearance, you're probably still a virgin. If you want to lose your virginity in the future, you can come to me. Even our young master praised my skills in bed..."
“Um… Brother Lingyun, you’re busy, we’ll be going now. Jingjing, don’t say these things to Brother Lingyun.” Old Liao immediately interrupted Jingjing, forcefully pulling her arm and dragging her directly below the hole. Jingjing struggled somewhat unwillingly: “What are you doing? I’m teaching Brother Lingyun how to be a decent human being… Waaah… Don’t cover my mouth!”
Ling Yun watched, both amused and exasperated, as the two men leaped one after another onto the wall above the tunnel. The vertical distance inside the pipe was about three meters. This height was naturally no challenge for the two agile and unscrupulous gangsters. After leaping onto the tunnel, they could climb up alternately by bracing their feet and hands against the four walls.
Although Jingjing speaks very rudely and has the unrestrained style of a typical delinquent girl, this rudeness can appear quite sincere and cute at certain times, which makes Lingyun's impression of her change.
After the two disappeared above the pipe, Ling Yun stood quietly for a moment, then his body sank and slowly disappeared into the soil below the pipe. In fact, he could have used earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of magic that allows one to move freely), but he couldn't display this extraordinary power because he needed to escape with the two of them. Now that Lao Liao and Jingjing had left, Ling Yun could naturally use his special abilities at will.
In fact, Ling Yun could find any exit in the pipeline at will. If there wasn't one, he could simply blast it open with a gun. The reason he got Lao Liao and Jingjing out of the pipeline as soon as possible was because he discovered something unusual a few kilometers ahead of the pipeline.
Chapter 143 Ghostly Aura
About five kilometers away from Ling Yun's location, there was an unusual energy fluctuation. Although the panoramic view couldn't reach there through the thick soil, his senses keenly detected the faint energy wave. This energy wave was icy, malevolent, and chilling. Ling Yun recognized it immediately; it was the aura emanating from the ghost.
The discovery of ghostly presence in this underground cavern greatly surprised Ling Yun, reminding him of the ghost that had appeared in an abandoned factory in the suburbs dozens of days earlier, along with its mysterious owner, the powerful superhuman.
Although it was only a fleeting glimpse, Ling Yun was deeply impressed. The ghost's master was a Caucasian with grey-blonde hair and blue eyes; it was the first time he had ever seen a foreign superhuman. It was also the first time he had faced a life-or-death situation. Fortunately, Gu Xiaorou arrived in time, striking the superhuman's back with a finger, forcing him to retreat with serious injuries. However, Gu Xiaorou also suffered internal injuries as a result, nearly losing her life. If Ling Yun hadn't acquired the Holy Healing Technique after entering the fifth stage of the simulation, the beautiful woman would likely have already perished.
Thinking of Gu Xiaorou, Ling Yun felt a surge of warmth in his heart and couldn't help but feel a pang of regret. He should have told her before he came out to find Lao Yao. He had initially thought finding Lao Yao would be easy, taking at most one night, and he could even return before the dormitory closed. However, things didn't go as planned. He hadn't expected that two thugs, Lao Liao and Jingjing, would suddenly appear and kill Lao Yao unexpectedly. They had also stumbled upon an arms deal between an army and foreign arms dealers, and as a result, they had been chased all the way here.
Looking up at the starry sky from the empty space, I roughly estimated it to be late at night, maybe even the early hours. I definitely can't go back to the dorm, and once again I've left school without permission, which violates the school's student regulations. Although no one might know I haven't returned all night, Xia Zhen and Gu Xiaorou might find out. Besides, to avoid trouble, I didn't take anything with me, and my phone is still in the dorm.
As Ling Yun swiftly traversed the earth, he used his senses to detect the fluctuations in the ghost's aura. He seemed to have a strong connection with ghosts; this was the third time he'd encountered one. The first two times, the ghost had possessed someone. The first time, it tried to possess Yang Yuqi, but for some reason failed, and afterwards, it had vanished without a trace. Ling Yun had always harbored suspicions about this, but without any clues, he couldn't investigate further. The matter was left unresolved.
The second time Ling Yun saw the ghost was when it possessed Young Master Fan. At that time, Ling Yun was far from being powerful. He was only slightly stronger than Young Master Fan after the ghost possessed him. It wasn't until the ghost's owner appeared that he realized the ghost was being controlled by someone. However, the ghost's owner disappeared without a trace after being ambushed by Gu Xiaorou.
Now that the ghost has reappeared, Ling Yun will not let this opportunity to investigate its secrets slip by. If it weren't for Gu Xiaorou, he would have already lost his life at the hands of the ghost's master. He is determined to settle this score. Ling Yun is no longer the same person he used to be, so he no longer needs to fear the ghost's power.
After a meal's time, Ling Yun suddenly felt the space in front of him disappear, and the chilling aura unique to ghosts rushed towards him, seemingly right next to him. After thinking for a moment, Ling Yun cast an invisibility spell on himself, and then silently slipped half of his body out of the wall.
Having seemingly exited the distinctive cylindrical and narrow space within the pipe, Ling Yun found himself in what appeared to be an ancient underground air-raid shelter. The space had opened up considerably, with a five-meter-high ceiling and ten-meter-wide side walls constructed of dilapidated blue bricks. Due to their age and the dampness of the underground environment, the bricks had turned a dark brown, and most surfaces were covered in lush, moist green moss, clearly indicating their antiquity. Since Ling Yun had been traveling underground, he didn't know if this air-raid shelter was connected to the underground passageway of the Never-Sleeping City Bar.
Suddenly, Ling Yun's body jolted as a vast underground plaza appeared in the panoramic view, hundreds of meters ahead. Surrounding the plaza were concentric circles of tiered stands, with over a dozen air-raid shelter exits of varying sizes unevenly distributed along the circular earthen walls of the stands. However, most of these exits were completely blocked by countless rubble, with only a few extra-large exits wide open—his own was one of them. Opposite the exit was a gentle slope ten meters wide leading to another, even larger air-raid shelter exit, where dozens of ragged, long-haired workers were carrying heavy wooden crates back and forth.
The square was the size of four football fields joined together. The ground was flat, clearly compacted by hand, and a thin layer of cement was laid on top to prevent moisture from seeping in and turning it into mud. In the center of the square, a small mountain of wooden crates was neatly stacked, and workers were still taking the crates down from the air-raid shelter at the end of the ramp and carrying them back to the center of the square.
The panoramic view quickly reached the air-raid shelter on the opposite side. A shiny black railway track meandered from the depths of the air-raid shelter to the front edge of the ramp. On the track was a huge mining car with a power engine. At least half of the wooden crates in the empty bin behind the mining car had not yet been removed.
The workers, like industrious ants, climbed the ladders on one side of the mine carts, then carried the wooden crates down the ladders on the other side. The entire process was orderly and silent; apart from the footsteps echoing across the square and the dull thuds of the crates being placed down, there was no other sound. Everyone seemed mute, their eyes fixed only on the crates being moved, and their movements were stiff, mechanical, and rigid, like robots that couldn't walk.
Occasionally, one or two workers would slip and fall off the ladder of the mine cart due to their clumsy movements, instantly turning into a bloody mess on the ground along with the cart. However, the other workers seemed not to see this, and many of them would simply lift the wooden boxes and step over the corpses, as if they did not care at all whether the body under their feet was that of their own kind.
Ling Yun sighed softly. The scene seemed familiar; the dazed workers looked so strange. But Ling Yun immediately recognized them as controlled corpse puppets, otherwise they wouldn't be moving so stiffly. Moreover, the panoramic view allowed him to see the goods loaded inside the wooden crates. Although he didn't recognize what the packaged black paste-like substances were, he could vaguely guess from the slightly sweet scent that they were drugs.
A chilling aura of energy suddenly swept across the panoramic view. Ling Yun adjusted his gaze slightly upwards, and a humanoid creature, clearly different from the other corpse puppets, stood up from the nose of the machine. Two deep yellow membrane wings, covered with countless tiny blood vessels, spread out from its back. Two sharp fangs emitted a sharp, cold light from its gaping maw, and the tips of its dark black claws glowed with an emerald green light.
Ling Yun was taken aback, but then gave a cold smile. This monster was an old acquaintance. It seemed the ghost favored Young Master Fan's body, even after being banished once, it still chose to return and possess him. Perhaps it felt good after successfully possessing him once and had become accustomed to it. He just didn't know when the ghost's master returned after being injured and escaping that day, but that didn't matter. As long as they captured this ghost, his master would be lured out.
However, it seems that Young Master Fan has also leveled up. At least in the last battle, the possessing ghost did not grow bat-like wings. Presumably, after not seeing him for many days, the ghost's energy has increased a lot.
Young Master Fan shook his ferocious head, his white eyes, devoid of any emotion, slowly scanning everything in the square. Compared to the other corpse puppets, although he was hideous in appearance, at least his movements and mannerisms were human.
Everything was normal when I woke up...
Suddenly, Young Master Fan's eyes froze. His gaze fixed on the exit of the air-raid shelter opposite. He had already scanned the area with his aura but found nothing. But now, something seemed off.
An ordinary-looking boy stood at the exit, giving it a knowing sneer, as if their roles had been reversed.
In the blink of an eye, Young Master Fan recognized the boy who had once deeply hurt him. All the anger from the past surged into the ghost's formless and intangible mind. Because he could only express the two simplest emotions, anger and slaughter, Young Master Fan lacked basic human thinking abilities. He couldn't understand why his master was so close, yet this boy acted so fearlessly.
The gaping maw suddenly opened, and as several drops of dark brown saliva fell onto the engine head, the entirely steel casing hissed, and several tiny corrosion holes appeared where the saliva had dripped. A visible vortex of sound formed within the open maw, swirling and surging towards Ling Yun with a whoosh.