Chapter 186: Lu Mingfei

Tressi's brows were long and straight, and her pair of azure eyes were sharp and bright.

She wore a white shirt similar to a suit jacket on top, the three buttons below the collar left undone, her falling jet-black curly hair covering the key spots, lending a hazy, suggestive air.

"I've digested it." Lu Mingfei nodded, his cheeks faintly flushed as he shifted his gaze to the clean floor.

"Hmph." Tressi gave a light snort, half-mocking, half-taunting, and the smile at the corner of her lips grew brighter as she looked at Lu Mingfei: "Sit down, don't stand."

Lu Mingfei looked around but could find nowhere else to sit—only a large bed covered with a thick velvet blanket.

"Sit right there."

Lu Mingfei's body stiffened; he sat down somewhat nervously, feeling ill at ease all over.

"Captain, if you have something to say, just say it."

Tressi sized him up from head to toe, closed the book in her hand, and asked: "Have you ever been in love?"

"I have." Lu Mingfei even added: "I have a very pretty girlfriend."

To avoid some unnecessary awkwardness, Lu Mingfei deliberately emphasized that his girlfriend was a present-tense affair.

"Oh~ what kind of girl is she, and where is she?" Tressi asked with great interest: "You have a lover and still come out to adventure—aren't you afraid she'll be heartbroken?"

"Don't lie in front of me—I can tell whether what you're saying is true."

Lu Mingfei didn't quite understand how the conversation had suddenly turned into checking his household register and making small talk. After some deliberation, he said: "She has red hair, usually looks gentle and frail, but when certain things come up her temper gets very stubborn."

"She's in another world."

Tressi stood up, swayed her hips as she walked toward Lu Mingfei. She was somewhat surprised—she hadn't expected the man before her to be such a devoted lover. "I too once had a red-haired girl with a very stubborn temper, and in the end she left me too."

"We're really alike, it seems fate guided you to meet me."

She hooked Lu Mingfei's chin with her index finger, a sense of fellow-suffering-with-the-afflicted spreading in her heart.

Lu Mingfei's eyes went wide—why had things suddenly turned into this? Wait—what!?

"Captain… you still like girls?"

"Mm, I've always liked girls."

One had to admit, the customs out on the sea were truly bold—this captain ate both men and women.

'I have to find a way to slip away. I can't let down Hui Liyi.'

Just as Lu Mingfei was mapping out escape routes in his head, Tressi withdrew her finger, sat down beside him, and said casually:

"Once you step onto this path there's no turning back. When I was little I envied my mother's power—both my father and I admired it."

"Mother also selflessly shared this power with me and my father."

She put extra weight on the word "selflessly."

"My mother was quite satisfied with this power, heh-heh, but I didn't like it much. Mother never told me the price of gaining power."

Tressi's fingers twitched slightly; a desk drawer slid open by itself, and a bottle of purple potion floated up into her hand.

She was like a gentle big sister—grabbing Lu Mingfei's wrist, she lifted his palm and placed the potion into his hand.

"But in these uncertain times, some unimportant prices are acceptable."

"Isn't that so?"

Lu Mingfei looked at the potion in his hand, somewhat surprised: "This is?"

"A potion for advancement. As a senior of the same Pathway and Sequence, I'm willing to lead you to glimpse the deeper Beyond." Tressi said, half-laughing, half-not:

"Take it. I've prepared a room for you."

Night.

Lu Mingfei had not returned to the Fourth Crew, which left John Ploto, the Fourth Boatswain, and the other crew members feeling glum.

Quite a few stood on the deck, gazing longingly at the flagship, their eyes bloodshot.

"I finally fell in love once, and you let me lose so completely!"

The pirates who couldn't hold out any longer began drowning their sorrows in drink.

"Why couldn't it be me! What's so good about that pretty-boy!" A scar-faced pirate, like a heartbroken big boy, sobbed as he wiped his tears: "I'd rather the captain still loved that red-haired woman from before, wuuuuh—"

All manner of complaints rose up. Although John Ploto also looked as though he'd swallowed a bushel of lemons, he said nothing. On the contrary, he was taking small, careful steps along the wall, edging toward the door.

Slam—

The big door was pushed open at once, the one in the lead being the Second Boatswain.

"John Ploto! You bastard!!!"

John Ploto's face went green, and he immediately tried to use his Beyond ability to escape.

"Teleportation is forbidden here!"

A voice rang out, like a judge's final verdict.

"Jonas!"

It was his own deputy, Jonas!

Jonas, clutching a wine bottle, tilted his head back as though he'd lost all purpose in life: "You're the one who picked that kid up, aren't you? Huh~? Boatswain."

Old John sighed—the floor was going to be a tough one to mop tonight.

Lu Mingfei didn't know what was happening on the Fourth Crew, and even if he did he wouldn't care, because he was clean as a whistle.

At this moment he was staying in a quiet room on the ship, with only a single bed, laid with white pillows and a white blanket.

Drinking the potion to advance was just like before—ugh.

Better to be cautious.

"Looks like I'm about to fall into a brief slumber…"

To be honest, Tressi's attitude toward him was a bit too good. He was waiting for his other self to come back and keep watch, so that even if he fell into slumber from the potion, he could safely get through any crisis.

Lu Mingfei didn't think his charm was so great as to make Tressi fall for him at first sight—otherwise back in high school he wouldn't have spent three years secretly crushing on Chen Wenwen without daring to confess.

"You're back?"

"I made a trip to Banxi Island."

"Did you find anything?"

"Some pretty interesting stuff, hmm. You're about to take the magic potion?"

Lu Mingfei swirled the liquid in the bottle and asked, "Is this stuff legit?"

"With your current constitution, just drink it." Old Lu's tone was calm as he asked, "The captain gave that to you?"

"How did you know?"

"Heh, uh, um—" Old Lu let out a chuckle, then hesitated for a moment. "Drink it, it should be fine."

"Oh right, I brought you back a gift. I'll give it to you after you finish drinking."

"So mysterious..." Lu Mingfei pulled out the cork and downed the purple liquid inside in one gulp.

Could tonight's dream have a little bit of a gorgeous adventure?

What he didn't see was a transparent phantom curling its lips into a grin that stretched all the way to its ears.

The Dao Fruit was temporarily suppressed, and at the same time, the black giant dragon's claw on the Dao Fruit loosened, and streams of light merged into her body.

Lu Mingfei lay on the bed, pulled the blanket over himself, and quickly fell into a deep sleep. He felt like he hadn't been this sleepy in a long time.

Slowly, Lu Mingfei sank into slumber.

"Lu Mingfei. Lu Mingfei."

Who's calling me?

Lu Mingfei groggily woke from his dream, sleepily rubbed his eyes, and felt a slight pain in his head.

"Lu Mingfei."

He looked to the right and saw a girl wearing the uniform of Shilan Middle School.

Chen Wenwen?

Chen Wenwen leaned her head over with concern. "No fever?"

Lu Mingfei's eyes went wide. Is today's dream on the Chen Wenwen route?!

"Oh right, there's a new milk tea shop over there. My treat, let's go together?" Chen Wenwen suggested.

On the school campus after class, students occasionally glanced over and then looked away. The evening breeze blew through, and the shade of the trees overhead rustled.

"Go?"

"Let's go." A soft, delicate voice sounded, and Lu Mingfei was immediately startled.

Whose voice was that?!

"I knew you liked this one, hee-hee." Chen Wenwen laughed, interlocked her fingers with his, and led Lu Mingfei by the hand toward the front.

My hand... why does it look so pale? Are these slender arms really mine? Lu Mingfei, viewing things from a first-person perspective, was full of doubt.

At the school gate were several glass display windows showing the photos of top-scorers from Shilan Middle School over the years. Lu Mingfei, following his dream-self's first instinct, looked into the transparent glass window — there was Chu Zihang's photo alongside those of other top-scorers.

The slightly reflective glass window mirrored the silhouettes of two people holding hands.

They were two people wearing British-style little Sui Xifu jackets, with loose white wool sweaters inside, paired with black long socks and square-toed leather shoes along with red plaid short skirts.

Unlike the quiet, literary-girl-style Chen Wenwen, the other girl had black hair reaching her back, long lashes and big dark eyes, was a little on the thin side, with crystalline Bai Xi skin and a slender, willowy figure — a different kind of delicate-beauty style.

I'm Lu Mingfei, not Lu Mingfei-nü! Wake up!!!

Lu Mingfei wanted to wake up. He had forgotten that useless dragon's bottom line was infuriatingly low!

I don't want to experience this kind of dream! Switch it, change the channel!

Miraculously, for the first time the TV channel could be actively switched. The figure of Chen Wenwen leading him by the hand gradually faded from view, along with the campus.

"Will you sign a contract?"

From within the broken ruins, a deep, resonant male voice rang out.

Lu Mingfei found himself lying amid a stretch of ruins, gasping for breath in great gulps. A steel rebar had pierced through his abdomen, and the noon sunlight filtered through the gaps in the rubble.

"I shall make a contract with you."

Lu Mingfei breathed a sigh of relief. Looks like this is the encounter-route. Is he about to summon a gender-bent blonde King Arthur?

"The important mission of the magical girl is entrusted to you!"

Like a Sailor Moon transformation, after a burst of light-pollution special effects, a black-haired, golden-eyed magical girl made a dazzling entrance, and her magic wand helpfully summoned a mirror.

Stop it! Change the channel! I'm not Lu Mingfei-nü!

"You are the other me in this world." The black-haired girl gently stroked the version of herself with the bird's-nest hair, as if she had found a kindred spirit.

Blech! Cut it!

"Sister."

Cut!

Nightmare, an absolute nightmare — this whole night was a nightmare.

When Lu Mingfei woke from the covers, sweat had already soaked through the sheets and pillow. He let out a breath — he'd clearly slept a whole night, yet felt utterly exhausted.

The morning sun shone through the glass window into this cabin, falling on the black oak table, with dust drifting idly in the beam of light.

The sound of waves, the creaking of the deck, the footsteps of crew members moving about.

The power of the Golden Core Stage had somehow been suppressed? His head was dizzy and aching, and all kinds of information were flooding into his brain.

It was just like listening to Chubby Tiger's all-night concert after a hangover.

Fortunately, this feeling was gradually fading, and his spiritual sense was slowly coming back under control.

'Is there a possibility...'

Lu Mingfei pressed a hand to his head and rubbed his temple.

'That the reason that guy can't restart One's Own World...'

He put on his shoes and headed toward the washroom.

"It's because he spent all his time on this kind of boring thing."

Lu Mingfei pulled open the bathroom door and stretched lazily.

"Why is my hair a bit long?" Lu Mingfei muttered to himself. He suddenly widened his eyes — not because of the hair, but because of the voice coming from his mouth.

This voice... he seemed to have heard it many times last night.

There was a mirror on the right, but at this moment he didn't dare turn his head; his eyes stared forward in terror.

"I get it now. Hahahaha."

"Gulp..."

"This is that thing, that thing, Inception, right? Hahahaha..."

"The me right now is the me inside Inception."

"Mm, right."

A pleasant girl's voice kept coming out from his own throat, passing through the cochlea and bone conduction into his brain.

Knock knock knock — the bathroom's wooden door was rapped on.

"This is bad~~." His male voice rang out from outside the bathroom, "I just got hold of some bad news!"

The translucent, phantom-like Old Lu poked a head in.

"That old sixth, Captain Bo Lan, gave us fake news~~"

"The Assassin pathway Sequence 7 is called Witch."

"Oh dear oh dear!" Old Lu frowned, shaking his head in pain: "Looks like it's already ta—ken! ef—fect! ye!"

"That wretched Miss Kelaien, this is too—oo—much!!!" Peking opera intonation to close.

He turned transparent and vanished.

Lu Mingfei felt his blood freeze at this moment, his hands and feet ice-cold, his teeth chattering.

It took a full dozen-plus seconds; her body trembling, she used every ounce of strength to turn her stiff neck.

In the mirror, a black-haired, black-eyed girl wore her hair loose, a face with a touch of baby fat, a slender and elongated figure, well-proportioned flesh and bone, skin crystalline and Bai Xi.

Even with her hair covering her, it could not conceal that flawless face.

Watching Lu Mingfei stared at the glass mirror in silence for a long while; a towering fury seemed to surge out from her chest, and her eyes turned gold, adding a different kind of beauty to the girl in the mirror.

"Miss Kelaien."

"Killing you a thousand times wouldn't be enough!!!"

The girl bit down on silver teeth, and within her sweet voice were forged words of ice.

"Not just you. And also—" she looked toward the bathroom wall, her spiritual perception sensing Old Lu, who was taking a black evening gown out of a box.

"You bunch of insects!!!"

Miss Kelaien's intuition suddenly flashed a warning; he dove into the historical gap at the first instant, hiding behind Su Lin, who was lying on a rocking chair.

At the same time, the historical projection outside walked between Su Lin's Light God avatar and Zhongli, ready to swap positions at any moment.

Su Lin and Zhongli glanced at him oddly.

Only after two seconds, when that premonition vanished, did Miss Kelaien switch back out from the historical gap.

'How could there be such a feeling?!' He himself found it strange.

With Mr. Fool's left and right guardians by his side and still feeling this way — it'd take an Outer God invasion to be about right.

Could someone be plotting against him? Zaratul? Amon? Adam? The Mother Tree of Desire? The Fallen Mother Goddess?

Mm.

Too many people wanting to plot against him.

"What do you think — could that leader of the Twilight organization have already sensed you, or perhaps discovered some clue?" Miss Kelaien said, rubbing his chin:

"It's also possible He's already drawing up a new plan."

"We can't rule out that possibility." Zhongli thought for a moment, then analyzed: "His pathway has many bizarre aspects."

"What abilities a Writer actually has, we don't know."

"Right now we can only catch a glimpse through the tiger's spots based on the descriptions in the book."

Su Lin nodded — after all, it was an ancient one, the primordial Sun God who had established the Rose Redemption back in the distant Second Epoch.

"Perhaps we've already encountered Him." Su Lin casually tossed out a line: "He might have just walked past you, or be your butler."

Writing stories into reality, controlling the collective subconscious ocean of living beings, mastering and manufacturing 'coincidence,' turning chance wonders into echoes of the mind — making them appear whenever He wishes.

He could even write out a character, let that character live, not even knowing they were created.

This character could marry, could bear offspring, have their own joys and sorrows.

This is a Writer.

The closest Beyonder pathway to the former Pillar 'God.'

No need to do anything — just imagine, and one can create.

Honestly, if Adam were currently a Sequence 0 Visionary, even with a divine spark Su Lin wouldn't want to tangle with that fellow.

He could even imagine into existence additional Uniquenesses, becoming a brief Old One.

Troublesome.

"Writing the fates of all beings — this is a Writer." Zhongli sighed with feeling. "What do you plan to do about that War Angel?"

"I can sense He's right there in Backlund; He should be searching for traces of you."

"Haven't decided yet — Su Lin, what's wrong?" Miss Kelaien turned his head back, only to see Su Lin with his head lowered, looking at the street's paving stones, lost in thought.

Su Lin deliberated for a moment, then shook his head: "No, it's nothing."

Hopefully he was overthinking it.

Writer.

————————

A stone plaza floating in the void, with pitch-black stone pillars rising all around, holding up a grand, enormous cathedral.

Every pitch-black pillar, every arch, every vaulted ceiling inside this cathedral was inlaid with piles of white bones from different races, crammed together densely and chaotically, clustering around a cross over a hundred meters tall.

Those white bones fixed their hollow eyes on the slightly diminutive target at the center of the hall, as if conducting a judgment; the scene showed not a trace of eeriness, but was instead filled with a sense of sanctity.

On the cathedral's walls, windows, and great doors, transparent, distorted faces emerged, as if countless souls had been sealed within.

Before the cross, rows of black chairs with backrests were arranged, and in the very first row sat a figure wearing an unusually plain white robe, with pale-gold whiskers covering the lower half of his face, and eyes as clear as a child's.

His expression was warm and composed, and a silver cross pendant hung down over his chest.

"The breath of light, the power of secrecy." His words broke the silence within the divine kingdom.

Adam gazed at the hundred-meter-tall cross rising before him, and slowly closed his eyes.

End of chapter.