For a well-behaved girl, it is often a man who changes her.
After that pull on the cobblestone hill in a secluded part of campus, Jiang Yino suddenly felt as if she had completely opened her heart. Ji Yi’s words had undoubtedly influenced her. Previously holding a sense of reservation about romance, she began to emotionally surrender after Qin Fan’s domineering pull.
Just as Du Ruanqing had said, what girl could resist a god-like man like Qin Fan? Yino was a worldly person with her own emotions and desires. After her conversation with Ji Yi, she could no longer resist the most direct urges of her subconscious.
Just like that, their feelings for each other heated up rapidly.
For several days, Qin Fan hadn’t shown up to class. Jiang Yino, who had never missed a class, also started uncharacteristically skipping school to spend ti with Qin Fan, the two of them thick as thieves. Fortunately, Qin Fan was mindful of Jiang Yino’s studies. While they slacked off, it was only for the most trivial and dispensable courses.
「Nightfall.」
In the won’s dormitory complex, just before the dorm matron closed the gates, Jiang Yino rushed in, panting for breath.
Outside the complex, Qin Fan’s face, wreathed in a happy smile, was illuminated by the lights as he watched her walk back. He only turned to leave with a satisfied heart after she reached her dorm’s balcony and waved goodbye.
「Inside Dorm Room 306.」
When Jiang Yino walked in, she found Du Ruanqing and Ou Mingsi staring at her strangely. The silent atmosphere gave Jiang Yino the creeps.
"Hey! What’s with you two?" Jiang Yino asked, her voice a little unsteady.
"Yino, I lost a hundred-yuan bet because of you. Pay up!" As Jiang Yino’s voice broke the silence, Ou Mingsi pouted and held out her hand.
Pay up? What is this about? Yino was a bit confused. "What do you an? Pay for what?"
"I made a bet with Ruanqin that you’d spend the night out. The wager was a hundred yuan! You made lose, so you should pay back, right?" Ou Mingsi said cutely.
"Get out of here! You must have wanted to lose on purpose. How could I possibly spend the night out? You’ve got to be joking. Where would I even sleep?" Jiang Yino, not thinking too deeply, shot Ou Mingsi an exasperated glare.
"A hotel, of course!" Ou Mingsi declared bluntly.
Spend the night? A hotel?
Although a woman in love, especially at this age, can often seem to have an IQ of zero, when those two words were put together, how could Jiang Yino not understand the implication? She was instantly overco with embarrassnt.
Get a room at a hotel? To this day, she hadn’t even considered the possibility. At this stage, she was completely against such behavior. Even though her mindset wasn’t rigidly traditional, she wouldn’t throw herself out there so easily.
How long has it been? And we’re already supposed to be sleeping in the sa bed, getting intimate? Sorry, I’m not that kind of casual person. I can’t do it!
Although she and Qin Fan had been inseparable these past few days, he had only held her hand and maybe stolen a kiss. He had never once made a move on her. Otherwise, how could she feel so comfortable and close to him? Even though they had now established a relationship, for Jiang Yino, certain bottom lines had to be maintained. They had not yet reached the point of crossing that particular line.
"Are you two thinking too much? Can you stop being so crude? Do I look like that kind of casual person?" Jiang Yino said, shooting them an embarrassed look, knowing exactly what was on their minds.
"You’ve been leaving early and coming back late every single day, and things haven’t heated up to the point of spending the night together? Besides, when you’re with a man as exceptional as Qin Fan, you’ve never thought about getting intimate?" Ou Mingsi scooted closer, her curiosity piqued.
"Can you two stop thinking about such lewd things all the ti!" Jiang Yino chided.
As the girls’ banter died down, the night grew deeper. The dormitory area of Jinling University gradually fell silent. But the night sky seed exceptionally eerie. There was no wind and no light, just a suffocating stillness that seed to spread and blanket the entire world.
「On the Qiantang River.」
The waves that usually lapped the shore from ti to ti were gone. The entire surface of the river was terrifyingly calm, like a pool of dead water. This had never happened before.
"Hmm? What’s going on?"
In room 708 of n’s dormitory Building D at Jinling University, Qin Fan, who slept on the upper bunk, frowned and muttered to himself. He gazed through the aluminum door at the pitch-black darkness outside the balcony. This kind of oppressive sky gave him an ominous feeling. After all, on the Cangqiong Continent, he had seen similar things happen far too often. Whenever a creature mutated by the energy of heaven and earth was about to appear, the world would display so kind of abnormality. It was an on, a natural law!
At this thought, Qin Fan silently rolled over in his bunk and floated gently to the floor. He then walked noiselessly to the balcony. When he saw the bone-chilling darkness and felt the utterly still air, his brow furrowed even more deeply.
It was true that Earth and the Cangqiong Continent were two entirely different worlds, but their fundantal laws should be more or less the sa. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. This sudden, bizarre abnormality is definitely not normal!
At that very mont, as he pondered with a frown, a worried Lai Zhuge was looking up at the sky far away in Jiangzhou. Beside him, the Evil Spirit Zen Staff, though cleansed of its evil spirit by Qin Fan, now seed to tremble restlessly. This strange phenonon in the heavens was not limited to Jinling; it was the sa in Jiangzhou and all across the country.
"The southeast... what kind of demons and ghouls are about to enter the world this ti?"
As he muttered this to himself with a worried look, the phone in his pocket began to buzz urgently. Without a second thought, Lai Zhuge pulled it out and answered.
"Is this Lai Shenxiang? I’m from the Guardian Institute," a concise voice on the other end introduced.
"This is he," Lai Zhuge replied, his eyes widening in astonishnt. "The Guardian Institute? Why are you calling ?" Soone from the Guardian Institute is calling ? This is a first!
"There’s an anomaly in the Qiantang River. Several fishern have vanished without a trace from the calm river surface. The water police went in to investigate a few hours ago, but they haven’t resurfaced. They’re presud dead with little to no chance of survival. Upon learning of this, mbers of our Guardian Institute took action personally. Bizarrely, once our people entered that section of the river, the sa thing happened. They simply sank and disappeared without a reason from the placid surface. The situation has escalated beyond what conventional ans can resolve. Therefore, we would like to invite you to the scene. We hope your expertise in Magic might reveal so clues. We have also extended invitations to other prominent figures in the Magic community. I was wondering if you have ti to make the trip?"
The voice on the phone grew grave. The serious tone elevated the incident to an extrely sensitive level.
The Qiantang River? Isn’t that in Jiangsu and Zhejiang? And isn’t that region in the southeastern part of Huaxia? So, sothing really has happened!
His astonished expression turned serious. Without needing to think, Lai Zhuge asked directly, "When do I need to be there?"
"The sooner, the better. Ideally, right now, if it’s convenient for you. To avoid unnecessary public panic, we are forced to operate under the cover of night."
"Alright! I’m at ho. Send soone to pick up," Lai Zhuge said quickly, glancing at the deathly still, black sky. He knew that with the sky looking like this, he couldn’t afford to wait. Who knew what other calamities would occur if he delayed?
"Excellent. Please get ready, Lai Shenxiang. Our people will arrive on the rooftop of your residence in twenty minutes by helicopter."
"Understood. I’ll get ready now."
With that, Lai Zhuge ended the call. He then picked up the faintly trembling Evil Spirit Zen Staff and muttered to himself, "You feel it too, don’t you, old friend? You sense sothing abnormal in the air."
As if in response, the Zen Staff began to vibrate faster. This sight only deepened the worry on Lai Zhuge’s face. Wasting no more ti, his heart filled with urgency, he quickly began to prepare various tools that had been gathering dust for years. His intuition told him that this trip to the Qiantang River was, to put it nicely, not simple, and to put it bluntly, fraught with danger.
While Lai Zhuge swiftly gathered his equipnt, other masters of Magic across Huaxia were also making their own urgent preparations. A monster that even the Guardian Institute couldn’t handle—they all knew just how dangerous that was. After preparing their tools, so even sat down to write their last will and testant. They knew this could very well be a trial at the Ghost Gate.
「At the summit of Kunlun Mountain.」
The peak, usually whipped by howling winds, was so still tonight that not a single leaf stirred. The heavy air was thick with a suffocating, oppressive feeling.
RUSTLE, RUSTLE, RUSTLE...
The sound of footsteps suddenly stopped.
Qi Lian Demi Immortal, sitting cross-legged and unmoving on the cliff’s edge as he slept, twitched his ears. With his back to the newcor, he said softly, "I knew you would co. Must you always be so predictable?"
His voice was soft and low, but Qi Lian Demi Immortal knew the other person could hear him.
"Master!" Hua Xiaotian called out from a distance, his voice filled with embarrassnt.
"Not bad. You’ve broken through the shackles of the Transformation Realm and entered the Gang Realm," Qi Lian Demi Immortal said gravely, ignoring the embarrassnt in Hua Xiaotian’s tone. "It seems I underestimated that boy. I have calculated your fate. According to your Creation, you were ant to find the opportunity to break through your bottleneck at the age of sixty. I didn’t expect that boy’s appearance to advance your chance by several years."
"Master, I’m sorry. I haven’t had a chance to report to you about the situation in Japan since I returned. Orochi has been killed by Qin Fan. The Jingguo Society has been burned to the ground, and countless Ninjas and Onmyoji fell at the hands of Master Qin. I learned a great deal on that trip to Japan. I witnessed the power of Divine Ninjas and finally understood the Onmyoji who once terrorized the world," Hua Xiaotian said.
"Are you blaming for not telling you about Divine Ninjas and Onmyoji all these years?" Qi Lian Demi Immortal’s face was as motionless as a mask, his tone unchanged.
"No! Master, I know you had the best of intentions!" Hua Xiaotian said as he walked towards the figure seated on the cliff’s edge. "During the trip to Japan, if it weren’t for Master Qin, I’m afraid I would have died a hundred tis over. I know you didn’t tell because you didn’t want to put too much pressure on and affect my pursuit of the Martial Arts."
"Before you state your purpose for coming, first tell how many stars are hanging in the sky tonight," Qi Lian Demi Immortal said, pausing noncommittally before abruptly changing the subject.
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