Chapter 519: Chapter 519: Casting a Spell Together
Xia Libing picked up the angry Little Fatty Girl, placed her on a nearby chair, then gently wiped her nose with a tissue and helped her into her jacket.
Still furious, Liu Shiling stood on the chair, stretching her neck to look out the window. She watcher the white-dressed Alice on the top of a small building in the distance, gazing up at the sky, following her sightline, looking for the entity that had injured Jinshanshan so badly.
Xia Libing quickly examined Jinshanshan’s state, then asked Xiao Pingguo if she could determine what it was that had attacked Jinshanshan through the sensory connection she shared with it.
However, Xiao Pingguo, having just been woken from sleep, wasn’t able to glean much information from her connection with Jinshanshan. All she could determine was that it was a bird and it could go invisible.
But for Xia Libing, these two pieces of information were enough for her to make a possible guess as to what injured Jinshanshan.
The night Xia Tianhuo was kidnapped in Burma and called for help, Xiang Kun encountered two “mutations” in Wushu Mountain who could go invisible and were fighting each other. One of them was confirmed to be Mr. Liang, and the other was likely the “mutated big bird” that swallowed the “mutated ant”.
The big bird had no chance against Mr. Liang, turned into an egg to save its life – a form of rebirth – then quickly hatched into some kind of form suitable for digging, and escaped underground.
From a bird’s point of view, the distance from Wushu Mountain to Chongyun Mountain isn’t far. The “mutated big bird” that burrowed from underground, underwent metamorphosis, and reverted to being a bird, could indeed have ended up here. Creatures with the two traits “bird” and “invisibility” are not many, it couldn’t be just a coincidence.
Xia Libing quickly made a decision. They needed to kill, capture, or drive off that bird because Jinshanshan was in a critical condition that required immediate treatment. There was little room for strategic pondering.
As for how to accomplish this task, it wouldn’t just be up to her and Alice, they’d also need the help of Xiao Pingguo and Little Fatty Girl, or rather the need to engage the “Super Sensory Item System” and utilize the advantages of Chongyun Village.
However, in order to formulate a plan, several problems needed to be addressed:
1. Both Little Fatty Girl and Xiao Pingguo couldn’t be exposed, facing the “mutated big bird” was too dangerous. But if they didn’t directly observe it, Little Fatty Girl wouldn’t be able to accurately use her abilities;
2. They needed to fully mobilize Chongyun Village’s “Super-connected Objects” to maximize home-field advantage, but only Alice could communicate with all of Chongyun Village’s “Super-connected Objects”. While she could use them in a stable manner, she lacked explosive power;
3. The person who can employ the “Super Sensory Item System” with the most explosive power was Little Fatty Girl, but she had only established a strong connection with her five coins and an A4 paper and had no direct contact with other “Super-connected Objects” in Chongyun Village. The previous manipulation of magnetic fields, and guiding paper airplanes by wind, was achieved by influencing other “Super-connected Objects” through her five coins;
4. Despite it being late at night and most of the village residents having gone to bed, if there was too much commotion, there was still the chance that any insomniac villagers could witness something unusual. But any action they took would almost certainly create some noise.
These thoughts quickly flashed through Xia Libing’s mind, and then she immediately came up with a plan.
“Xiao Pingguo, listen to my commands for a bit. Establish a connection with Alice, and then use your minion wood carving to sense Little Lingdang’s emotions. Imagine her emotions as an eight-armed, eight-eyed monster. Try to project those same emotions onto Alice as you did when you remote-controlled the eight-armed, eight-eyed monster. Right now, Little Lingdang’s emotions should be…” Xia Libing glanced at Little Fatty Girl and said: “Anger, fury.”
Liu Shiling, who just put on the hood of her jacket and was tightening the strings, nodded vigorously, her eyes wide in affirmation that she was indeed angry.
The five coins floating around her even trembled a little, as if nodding in agreement.
Xiao Pingguo, still worried and upset over Jinshanshan’s injury, found what Xia Libing said a little confusing, but her trust in Xia Libing had her nodding in agreement anyway.
Then, Xia Libing turned to the Little Fatty Girl and said, “Little Lingdang, the one who hurt Jinshanshan is a bird. It’s still in the sky, but it can turn invisible, so we can’t see it. I need you to stay angry, then close your eyes and use your ‘magic’ to help Alice. Can you do that?”
The Little Fatty Girl was even more confused than Xiao Pingguo. She had no idea how to use her ‘magic’ to help Alice. All she knew was that the one who hurt Jinshanshan was an invisible bird that was still in the sky. She needed to stay angry and close her eyes.
But just like Xiao Pingguo, the Little Fatty Girl trusted Sister Kaojichi without question. She tightened the hood strings of her coat and nodded, declaring, “Howl!”
Xia Libing stood by the window, looking at Alice who had co-manifested in the distance. The latter naturally felt her gaze and turned back to look at her.
Then, Xia Libing turned to Xiao Pingguo who was already holding the Minion woodcarving in the bedroom. She said, “Xiao Pingguo, you can start now. Little Lingdang, close your eyes.”
A few seconds later, the five super-connected coins hovering around Liu Shiling flew out of the open window and soared into the sky.
Xia Libing stood by the window with her hands outstretched in front of her. Soon, fog appeared between her hands. It then spread out of the window. Fog began to appear everywhere in Chongyun Village and spread in all directions.
…
Not only did the power go out suddenly in Chongyun Village, but the weather also changed drastically. The wind started blowing and clouds gathered, shrouding everything in darkness. It was so dark that one couldn’t see their hand in front of their face.
Liu Gaoshang was lying in a temporary barracks on the construction site, playing with his phone while resting. His brother, Liu Zhengyi, was on guard duty at night, and he would take over in the morning. He could take his break at 3 pm and make arrangements to go out and play in the city.
He was currently chatting with an assistant he met at a recently opened hair salon in the city’s pedestrian street on WeChat. Just as their conversation was getting exciting, the entire construction site experienced a power outage, and his phone lost its signal.
What’s more outrageous was that after he fiddled with it a few times, his phone froze and then went black!
Liu Gaoshang was so annoyed that he almost threw his new phone out. But then he thought about how it’s only been two weeks since he bought it, so he held back and didn’t throw it.
He got up and left the room, walked to the construction site, and found that the entire site was pitch-black. The entire Chongyun Village and even the surrounding mountains and wilderness were also shrouded in darkness. He couldn’t make out anything.
The blowing wind gave him an indescribable prickly sensation. Liu Gaoshang looked at his bare arm. Although he couldn’t see clearly in the darkness, he could clearly feel that his hair was standing on end.
Something felt odd?
Just as Liu Gaoshang was slightly confused, fog suddenly spread around him, further reducing his visibility.
Then, lightning surged in the sky and the roar of thunder filled the air. The sound vibrated the air, producing a great sense of oppression. It was as if he was standing next to a large subwoofer in a dance hall. His ears were buzzing, and he subconsciously wanted to crouch down.
“Bro! Are you there, Bro?” Liu Gaoshang shouted into the construction site twice. When he received no response, he felt a little uneasy and decided to retreat back into the barracks.
Just as he was retreating back towards the door, several bolts of lightning illuminated the sky above Chongyun Village. Taking advantage of the fleeting light, Liu Gaoshang seemed to see something rising straight into the sky.
What was that?!
Surrounded by fog, it was impossible to make out what that thing was – he even began to doubt whether he had seen correctly.
The sky was already dark and the fog started to thicken, practically reaching the point where you couldn’t see your hand if you held it out in front of your face. Liu Gaoshang wasted no further time and went straight into the workshop.
After a while, Liu Zhengyi and several workers, all equipped with flashlights, also went into the workshop.
Even though they couldn’t use their mobile phones due to some problems, the flashlights and other emergency lighting equipment still worked. However, the brightness had considerably dimmed as if there was a filter over the light.
Upon entering the workshop, the flashlight in Liu Zhengyi’s hand extinguished with no reaction no matter how many times he flicked it on and off.
The workers gathered to discuss the strange weather, and Liu Gaoshang moved close to his brother and whispered, “Bro, do you remember those two escaped convicts who were struck to death? With this weird weather tonight… do you think there could be more convicts coming to our village?”
Liu Zhengyi glared at his brother but quickly realized that his brother wouldn’t be able to see his irritated expression in the fog. He swiftly slapped the back of Gaoshang’s head and whispered, “Don’t talk nonsense.”
However, inside, he also had some vague suspicions.
…
Even though Chu Xiuwen had traversed the path to Chongyun Village countless times, the sudden plunge into darkness in their surroundings and the foreboding signs of an upcoming storm made him instinctively slow down the speed of the car. Both he and Xia Tianhuo, who was beside him, strained their necks to observe the sky.
“What’s going on with this weather? The forecast didn’t mention anything about a storm,” Chu Xiuwen murmured.
Xia Tianhuo took out his phone intending to check the real-time weather situation on an app, only to discover that there was no signal. This was indeed strange.
Suddenly, thunder and lightning echoed across the sky and dark clouds rolled in, forming a stark contrast to when they were having their late-night snack and leaving the town area. It truly felt like two different worlds.
Out of nowhere, Xia Tianhuo was reminded of when he was kidnapped, being blindfolded and kept in the cabin of a ship. The sounds he had heard before the kidnappers outside fell into chaos – thunder, waves, wind – were different from the sounds now, but he couldn’t help but relate the two experiences.
“It seems like it’s getting foggy?” Chu Xiuwen frowned.
The closer the car got to Chongyun Village, the thicker the fog became.
Suddenly, lightning illuminated the sky above Chongyun Village. Chu Xiuwen stepped on the brakes involuntarily, then turned to Xia Tianhuo, “Did you see that?”
He wasn’t referring to the flash of lightning, but the vague object that had shot up towards the sky the moment the light illuminated the area.
“I saw it… but what was that?” Xia Tianhuo murmured.
He wanted to dial Old Xia’s number but remembered there was no signal on his mobile phone. He looked down and saw that his phone’s screen had gone completely black.
Not only that, the headlights of their car started to dim as well.
Chu Xiuwen didn’t dare to continue driving forward because he could hardly see the road. He had no choice but to park the car on the side of the road and wait for the fog to lessen before proceeding.
…
Several minutes before.
Chongyun Village before it was encompassed by dense fog.
Standing on the rooftop of an uninhabited three-story building, Alice gazed at the five coins floating in the air, her face lighting up with a bright, even somewhat arrogant smile.
“Little Bell, we are going to fight the monster together,” Alice murmured to herself. As the fog began to cover every corner of Chongyun village, numerous tiny pieces of gravel began to float and were seemingly being drawn towards the five coins.
At first, the process was slow, but it began to accelerate quickly. In no time, the five coins were hidden amidst a ball of gravel.
In the dense fog and in the middle of the pitch-black night where the moon and stars were obscured, normal vision was terrible. However, Alice did not need to see to know what was happening. She had awareness of everything in and around Chongyun village, including the low sky. She knew exactly where the strange giant bird, which was severely injured by the golden light, was.
In the midst of thunder and lightning, the ball of gravel gathering around the five super-connected coins began to change shape, extending out several thin strips.
This shape was completely out of Alice’s control and was being formed by the Little Fatty Girl who had control over the five coins. But soon, Alice knew what it was – it was the Little Fatty Girl’s “Barbie Warrior”.
Next, the control of the “Barbie Warrior” would be handed over to Alice!
The strange bird in the sky was in a state of invisibility. As it was wondering what the disappearing and teleporting tiny white human was, the weather suddenly changed drastically. The winds blew fiercely, the thunder roared, the fog spread, and the five floating metallic coins intensified their alertness. These things could actually fly! Even though its intelligence was much higher than ordinary birds, it still couldn’t understand.
The small village inhabited by humans, which was previously a place that it could freely explore, was quickly marked as a danger zone. It decided to retreat immediately, not caring about what the tiny pale human below was up to, and planned to run first.
Of course, due to the fog, it did not notice that the five coins had been wrapped by a large pile of gravel gathered from all around, and that they had changed into a peculiar shape.
Just then, there was a loud crack of lightning overhead, and the fog below was “peeled” apart on all sides as a dark figure shot up from below, charging straight at it as if its invisibility was completely ignored.
In this instant, the strange bird got the shock of its life. Not only was the creature with several pairs of arms that suddenly shot out from below unanticipated, but the lightning overhead and the sensation throughout the surrounding air also reminded it of the terrifying humanoid creature that virtually reduced it to ashes with its control of lightning on Zi Huan Mountain.
It practically expended all its strength, flapping its wings to fly, trying to increase its altitude to dodge the attack.
However, the dark creature seemed to be drawn to it like a magnet, matching its speed. It was a game of chase.
In the blink of an eye, the bird found one of its wings seized by a gate hand of gravel.