Chapter 147: Clues, Bird Feathers, and Opportunities |
After sending the message to Ghost Bell, Black Cocoon hurried all the way back toward the Guyimai Block.
Upon arriving at his front door, he used his restraining bands to hook onto the baseplate of the outdoor air conditioning unit, swung up to the outside of his second-floor room, and slipped through the open floor-to-ceiling window.
His feet landed softly on the floor. Hearing footsteps coming from upstairs, he raised his restraining bands and pressed them against the ceiling. Sending his senses permeating upward, he 'saw' Gu Zhuo'an walking out of the third-floor bathroom, wrapping a bath towel around his lower half before stepping into the bedroom.
"Dad came back really fast..."
Ji Minghuan muttered soundlessly and silently retracted his restraining bands.
In the last second, he had seen Gu Zhuo'an pick up the mobile phone on his bed. Thus, he pulled his own mobile phone from his trench coat pocket and waited quietly for a moment. Sure enough, Ghost Bell replied to the message.
[Ghost Bell: What intel do you have on Rainbow Wing?]
[Black Cocoon: There is no need to mention Fan Dongqing and his "Boat of Green Savagery"; everyone knows about him. Besides him... I can reveal the names and aliases of two other members to you.]
[Ghost Bell: Speak.]
[Ghost Bell: Find someone?]
[Black Cocoon: The mad Exorcist "Red Traffic Light". I wonder if Mr. Ghost Bell has heard of his name.]
Seeing that Ghost Bell did not reply for a long time, Ji Minghuan shifted his gaze away from the mobile phone screen and nonchalantly shed the restraining bands covering his entire body.
Then, he took off his trench coat and mask, casually using his restraining bands to stuff these items into a cardboard box. He sealed it with tape and slowly, very slowly, placed it back under his wardrobe, careful not to let his dad upstairs hear any noise.
Finally, using a restraining band to pull the floor-to-ceiling window shut, he summoned the quest panel and checked the progress of his main quest.
[Main Quest 2 (Phase 3): Help the super criminal "Ghost Bell" find clues regarding members of Rainbow Wing. (This member is the killer of "Su Ying")]
Ji Minghuan thought, 'Could I exploit a bug here? If I report the two names I know to my dad, and the quest marks as completed, then it would prove that one of them was the one who accidentally killed my mom.'
[Ghost Bell: I have heard of him. "Red Traffic Light" is quite famous among the Exorcists.]
[Black Cocoon: That is right. I am looking for him. If you find any clues about Red Traffic Light through any channels, please be sure to inform me...]
[Black Cocoon: Moreover, if you find Red Traffic Light, I hope you can help me apprehend him. That is my demand. You despise Superhumans who rely on their power to slaughter the innocent, do you not?]
[Ghost Bell: Understood.]
[Black Cocoon: I have one more question. Do you know the name "Salvation Society"?]
[Ghost Bell: Salvation Society?]
[Black Cocoon: Yes.]
[Ghost Bell: Never heard of it.]
[Black Cocoon: That is a good thing. Then let me give you a piece of advice: I hope you do not bring up this name when talking to others, or you will easily bring disaster upon yourself.]
[Ghost Bell: First of all, I am not interested in what the Salvation Society is in the slightest, let alone discussing them with anyone. Stop beating around the bush and tell me... the intel on Rainbow Wing. If I find out you are just playing games, I will kill you.]
[Black Cocoon: Member No. 12 of Rainbow Wing is named "Ajaya", hailing from India, and his alias is "Machine Spirit Bodhisattva". Their Member No. 10's alias is "Gothic Doll", a girl from the United Kingdom. That is all I can tell you for now.]
[Ghost Bell: What difference does that make from saying nothing at all?]
"Heh, it really is no different from saying nothing," Ji Minghuan said with a shrug.
His idea of exploiting a bug to complete the main quest had failed. Either the intel he provided was not detailed enough, or neither of these two people was Su Ying's killer.
[Black Cocoon: Makes perfect sense.]
[Black Cocoon: This is just a small taste. Once your good son joins Rainbow Wing, I will cooperate with him to extract more intel.]
[Ghost Bell: I will never allow him to join Rainbow Wing.]
[Black Cocoon: You cannot stop him, and he cannot stop you either.]
After sending this line, Ji Minghuan turned off his mobile phone and lay sprawled spread-eagle on his bed.
He stared blankly at the ceiling, his mind wandering as his thoughts ran wild.
'Next, I need to hurry and help Big Brother get into Rainbow Wing, then have him assist me in approaching and investigating this person named "Qi Yuanliuli". It has already been confirmed that this member of Rainbow Wing has a direct connection to the Salvation Society.'
'If she turns out to be the one who killed Gu Qiye's mother, things will be much easier. I can interrogate her directly, and maybe follow the vine to find out where the Salvation Society's base is located.'
Ji Minghuan opened the gear panel and brought up the development progress bars of the three worldviews, which he had not checked in a long time.
[Current worldview development progress for the "Superhuman" branch: 40% → 62% (↑22%) (Click here to receive 1 Division Point as a worldview development reward)]
[Current worldview development progress for the "Exorcist" branch: 60% → 68% (↑8%)]
[Current worldview development progress for the "Anecdote Envoy" branch: 30% → 60% (↑30%) (Click here to receive 1 Division Point as a worldview development reward)]
'I already claimed the reward for the Exorcists. So the development progress for the other two branches has met the standard as well, huh.' Thinking of this, Ji Minghuan raised his hand and tapped the two prompt boxes.
[Acquired 2 Division Points.]
He brought up the gear panel, flipped to the final page, and opened the [Split Game Character] option.
[Division progress incomplete. Cannot create a new game character at this time.]
[Currently holding 5 Division Points]
[Hint: The number of Division Points required to create a brand new game character is 16. (Once a total of 16 Division Points is collected, you may create your next "game character" in the real world)]
Ji Minghuan gazed at the numbers on the panel, pondering deeply.
'I still need eleven more Division Points to create Proxy Body No. 4. It feels pretty hopeless. In at most two months, I have to rescue my True Self from the Salvation Society. I wonder if I will have enough time to create Proxy Body No. 4 within these two months?'
'No... if I think about it this way, as long as I find an opportunity to rescue my True Self during our first mission outside the Salvation Society, there will be a lot less trouble to deal with.'
'Setting aside whether this is a trap laid by the Salvation Society for now, the real question is whether my current combat power is truly enough to break out... If I fail, wouldn't I just be sending Dad and the young miss to their graves?'
'"Red Traffic Light", huh... Should I really seize this opportunity, or play it safe and choose to give up?'
At this thought, Ji Minghuan took a deep breath and closed all the panels in his field of vision.
He shut his eyes, synchronizing his consciousness with his Proxy Body No. 3, Yagubalu.
In another corner of the world, inside the Whalegarden, within the Floating Castle.
The Proxy Body No. 3, the little shark, woke up inside the crystal ball. It opened its eyes and looked through the glass at Xize'er, who was lying on the bed.
Xize'er still looked depressed. He had both arms folded behind his head as a pillow, staring motionless at the ceiling in a daze.
A moment later, he suddenly called out the little shark's name in a low voice, "Yagubalu, Yagubalu..."
"What is it?" Yagubalu asked.
"I just went to the Anecdote Vault, and I secretly brought this back for you," Xize'er said as he sat up and leaned close to the crystal ball. He pulled two cards with colorless glowing patterns from his sleeve.
The names of the two cards were "Foraging Garbage Bag" and "Unextinguishable Speck of Light".
The function of the former was to summon a garbage bag that would eat trash on its own;
The function of the latter was to release a patch of light that would never go out, which could be held in the palm of one's hand as a light source.
Yagubalu took one look at them. Both of these cards were "Universal-grade" Anecdote Fragments, which meant they were the lowest tier of Anecdote Fragments. Still, it was better than having nothing to eat at all. Thus, it spoke up,
"I cannot eat them like that. Throw the Anecdote Fragments into the crystal ball."
Xize'er blanked for a moment. "Throw them into the crystal ball? Are you sure?"
Yagubalu nodded its shark head, blinking as it stared at Xize'er.
"Alright."
Xize'er hesitated for a moment before opening the hatch at the top of the crystal ball and dropping the two cards into the seawater.
The instant the two cards sank into the water, Yagubalu abruptly opened its jaws. Its mouth expanded to more than twice its size in the seawater, swallowing the two cards directly and gulping them down into its belly.
Immediately after, a prompt box with alternating dark blue colors slowly emerged in its pupils.
[Swallowed two "Universal-grade" Anecdote Fragments, triggering the effect of the exclusive cultivation system "Anomaly Gluttony". Your true physical size has increased by 1 meter.]
[Proxy Body No. 3 — Eternal Abyss Shark "Yagubalu" size change: 102 meters → 103 meters.]
Ji Minghuan thought, 'Two of the trashiest Anecdote Fragments can only increase my size by one meter? At this rate, the progress will be far too slow. I need to find a chance to eat something better. If all else fails, I'll just trick the Third Prince out of his "Christmas Sleigh" and eat that. It is completely useless to him anyway.'
Thinking of this, he looked up from within the crystal ball, only to see Xize'er pressing his face against the glass, observing the little shark with a look of pure curiosity.
"That's amazing! Yagubalu, you can actually eat Anecdote Fragments!" he exclaimed in awe.
"Right?" Yagubalu said. "And the more fragments I swallow, the sturdier I'll grow. Later on, I can even help you beat people up."
"But I thought the size of a Nobel Shark never grows?"
"I am a noble among sharks. I am entirely different from those low-intelligence Nobel Sharks."
"Alright." Xize'er curled the corners of his lips. "Then I will bring you some fragments every day from now on."
"Deal!" Yagubalu said. "If you can, feed me your Christmas Sleigh too!"
Xize'er stared blankly for a second. "I cannot do that. That is a Generation-tier Anomaly. Father King would be furious if he found out..."
"Alright, I was just kidding." Yagubalu puffed out its cheeks.
"Oh, right, Yagubalu. Li Qingping came to find me just now and gave me this." As Xize'er spoke, he pulled a reddish-brown bird feather from his pocket.
"What is that?"
"Li Qingping said it is a 'Phoenix feather'. He told me to keep the feather on me at all times and never show it to anyone, but to take it out if I am ever in danger."
"Good thing I, Shasha, am not human, then."
"Mm-hmm. Showing it to a shark doesn't count as breaking the promise."
"So, this feather is for the birds?" Yagubalu said, then quickly rephrased his words to avoid being a bad influence on the kid. "I'm not cursing... I mean, does the Phoenix feather have a use? Is the Phoenix useful?"
Xize'er thought about it. "'A miracle might just happen'... That is what Li Qingping told me."
Ji Minghuan pondered for a moment, figuring that what Li Qingping left for Xize'er must be an item for self-defense. Thus, he controlled Proxy Body No. 3 and spoke up, "Alright. In that case, keep this feather on you for the time being, and make absolutely sure not to tell anyone else about it besides me. Not even your butler. Do we have a deal?"
"I understand," Xize'er said with a smile, silently tucking the Phoenix feather back into his pajama pocket.
'It seems Li Qingping also left a contingency plan... In that case, the Third Prince's situation is much safer. Unless the First Prince and Second Prince are ruthless enough to mobilize the Royal Court Squad to assassinate Xize'er, I shouldn't have any problem keeping him alive in the short term.'
Thinking of this, Yagubalu glanced at the sky outside the window through the crystal ball. "Go to sleep, Xize'er. It's already dark."
"Goodnight, Yagubalu."
"Goodnight, Xize'er."
After the boy and the shark bid each other goodnight, Xize'er closed his eyes and soon fell asleep.
Yagubalu, however, quietly kept its eyes open in the darkness, staring fixedly at the bedroom door. A short while later, the door was silently and gently pushed open. A figure dressed in a butler's uniform walked in step by step, his features gradually exposed under the moonlight.
It was none other than Xize'er's butler—"Ikar".
'Sure enough... Butlers are either fiercely loyal hounds or treacherous backstabbers,' Yagubalu thought. 'Can't they all just take "Oda Takikage" as the industry standard?'