Chapter 460
No matter how many times Qing Jiuliu jabbed the mermaid or hassled it, the Special Item would only sing that strange song when he held it .
"Quit it," Lin Sanjiu quickly stopped Qing Jiuliu when her vision went blurry . "I guess the whistling is from the mall," Lin Sanjiu said as she turned back and looked at the ruins behind them .
"You're not planning to go back to investigate that sound, right?" Qing Jiuliu stuffed the mermaid back into his pocket . "Typically, horror movies start that way . "
"My life is already a horror movie," Lin Sanjiu replied mildly . She surveyed the ruins again before she looked away . "But I need to do something more important now . I don't have the time to investigate… Let's go . "
Qing Jiuliu followed her lethargically .
It was almost as if that whistle was just figment of their imagination . As they walked further and further away, they did not hear that whistling sound again .
The two of them walked silently for some time . Qing Jiuliu was so bored that he yawned widely a few times . Even after finishing half his cigarette, he didn't feel any less lethargic . "Hey, Strongman Lin!" Qing Jiuliu yelled at the silent woman walking in front of him after he wiped a tear of boredom from the corner of his eye .
The person under the black cloth was clearly jerked a little as if someone had suddenly interrupted her thoughts . "What?" Lin Sanjiu responded glumly .
"Ever since I met you, I've already fulfilled the walking quota I've accumulated over the past years," Qing Jiuliu complained before he approached her dragging his feet . "I have a suggestion . You can go and look for your companion and I can go over to that hotel to rest . How 'bout that? It is rundown and covered with graffiti but I think it was a five-star hotel . "
Lin Sanjiu sighed . "Wait," Lin Sanjiu said to Mrs . Manas in her mind . "No, if Irezumi finds out that we are not together, it might become troublesome," she turned to him and said firmly .
"You've deprived me of an opportunity to die while lying on a comfortable bed . " Qing Jiuliu clicked his tongue wistfully before he took the last breath of his cigarette .
"You're welcome," Lin Sanjiu replied and threw a new stick of cigarette to him . "Don't bother me right now . I need some time to plan what we should do next . "
"Oh . "
After she heard his short affirmation, Lin Sanjiu sighed before she continued her conversation with Mrs . Manas . "He will keep himself occupied for a while with that stick of cigarette . What were you saying before? My [School of Higher Consciousness] has leveled up?"
"It is almost as if you're taking care of a pet . " Mrs . Manas laughed softly before she answered gently, "That's right . Fighting is the best way to grow . Your higher consciousness works that way too… After fighting with Nüwa, your higher consciousness is now much stronger . Your [School of Higher Consciousness] has finally reached the middle school level . "
"Middle school…" Lin Sanjiu remarked insecurely . "Does that mean that I gained a new ability based on my higher consciousness?"
"Yes and no," Mrs . Manas hesitated before answering . "This time, I wouldn't call it an ability you developed but rather, you've unlocked…"
Before Mrs . Manas could finish her sentence, a series of loud rumbling sounds rang out from a distance . It sounded like a building had collapsed . Startled, Lin Sanjiu quickly withdrew from her mindscape . Next, she only heard Qing Jiuliu wailing as he pointed to the building in a distance .
Lin Sanjiu looked up and saw the five-star hotel . Like a crumbling pile of toy blocks, the building broke from the middle and crumbled from the top . The impact of the destruction caused the ground to shake . Lin Sanjiu and Qing Jiuliu ran and hid at the corner of a street while they stuck their heads out to observe the building . The loud rumbling sounds continued for more than ten minutes as the building collapsed . The ground shook for one last time before the sound finally stopped .
Qing Jiuliu took a step out from their hiding spot and Lin Sanjiu immediately grabbed him back .
"There's someone there," she whispered by his ears . "It is obvious that the hotel didn't collapse on its own . "
"What sort of person hates beds?" Qing Jiuliu lamented with a sigh . He didn't try to go out again and instead hid with Lin Sanjiu in the darkness .
No matter who that culprit was, he or she was definitely a very cautious person . Even though the two of them waited for some time, they did not notice any commotion . Apart from the occasional breeze and the sound of rustling leaves in the night, their surrounding seemed tranquil . There didn't seem to be anyone near them .
"Did the person leave in another direction?"
Although they had no idea why anyone would destroy a hotel building for no apparent reason, that act seemed irrelevant to them . After some consideration and waiting for a little more than ten minutes, Lin Sanjiu walked in the direction of the hotel, bringing Qing Jiuliu along with her .
It was impossible to tell the original structure of the collapsed hotel building . It was now just a large pile of useless rubble . The pile of rubble spanned across half the road, swallowing the pavements and knocking down several roadside trees . Lin Sanjiu knew that she probably couldn't rely on Qing Jiuliu to notice anything unusual . She told him to wait around while she jumped over the rumble and started checking the surroundings carefully . However, she didn't find anything amiss . She didn't find any evidence of a recent fight or even a single fresh dead body .
"It's none of your business why someone wanted to destroy this building," Mrs . Manas suddenly spoke when Lin Sanjiu walked away from the rubble . Her voice sounded a little icy . "What's important now is that you get a better grasp of your [School of Higher Consciousness] . I'll continue explaining . You've to pay attention—"
Mrs . Manas was interrupted again . It was almost as if someone was trying to stop her from talking to Lin Sanjiu properly . She had been interrupted by another loud noise of another structure collapsing . Even though the noise was much softer this time, Lin Sanjiu heard an "Ah!" amidst the sounds of colliding bricks and concrete . That was Qing Jiuliu!
Lin Sanjiu's heart skipped a beat . She couldn't concentrate on what Mrs . Manas had to say and immediately sprinted to where Qing Jiuliu was standing . When she stopped abruptly in front of him, she was surprised to see the latter sitting on the ground . He was perfectly fine and had just exhaled a mouthful of cigarette smoke .
"What's the matter?" Lin Sanjiu asked . She was still a little worried as she looked around .
"That," Qing Jiuliu pointed at a spot in front of them using his cigarette . "Do you see that slab of concrete? Move it aside—be careful . Don't touch that thing beneath it . "
"What's beneath it?"
Lin Sanjiu hesitated for a moment before she lifted the heavy slab of concrete with some effort and threw it aside . The piece of concrete hit the ground violently and revealed the gap behind it . Lin Sanjiu peeked through the gap and looked at Qing Jiuliu .
The latter walked over with a serious expression . He reached down and touched the item below before he nodded his head .
"This is one of the most expensive luxury bedding brands in the world . I didn't expect to see it in this world too," Qing Jiuliu said with satisfaction as he spat another mouthful of cigarette smoke . He gestured for LIn Sanjiu to converted the bed into her card, "Though the building has collapsed, this bed is still intact . I sure am lucky . "
Crash! Crash! Lin Sanjiu glared at him as she immediately took out a few bottles of good wine and smashed them against the rubble . As the bottles of wine were smashed into smithereens, Qing Jiuliu felt as though his heart was breaking like those bottles . It hurt him so much to see those bottles of alcohol go to waste that the corner of his lips even started twitching . "What are you doing!" he yelled at Lin Sanjiu to stop her .
"Do you have any sense of danger? Or any sense where you are right now?" Lin Sanjiu couldn't help yelling back at him .
"If you were drunk, you wouldn't sense those things too!" Qing Jiuliu retorted . When he noticed another bottle of wine in that woman's hand after she moved her hand slightly, he immediately relented, "Hey, other than that, I discovered something else . I'm not lying!"
"What?"
"Look," Qing Jiuliu pointed to the slab of concrete that Lin Sanjiu had thrown aside . "There are words on that piece of wall . "
As Lin Sanjiu's full attention was on the gap under the concrete slab, she didn't notice the words before . She turned around and eyed Qing Jiuliu before she kicked off the broken bricks and a thick layer of dust on it . Amidst the cloud of dust she stirred up, she squinted her eyes . Under the moonlight, she finally spotted the few faded words belonging to the last half of a sentence .
"—sular Officer West . "
Those were the only four words on the wall as the other half of the sentence had been destroyed . Lin Sanjiu stared blankly at the four words for some time before she slowly frowned .
"Sular Officer?" After Qing Jiuliu took a sip of alcohol, he sat on the ground floppily like a person without a single bone in his body . "Um, could this be a message about a consular officer? West? Is there a consular officer in the west?"
"Are you also looking for a consular officer?" Lin Sanjiu asked casually when she noticed that he had the same thoughts . Based on Qing Jiuliu's lackadaisical personality, drifting randomly through the worlds seemed more like his modus operandi .
"I used a visa in my first three worlds . I even got a 6-month prior visa . " Qing Jiuliu answered nonchalantly, "But I never received any visas after I stopped shaving . "
In other words, the consular officers who gave him his visas were most likely women .
Lin Sanjiu heard Mrs . Manas chuckling quietly in her head . For some reason, Lin Sanjiu felt a little awkward . She grabbed Qing Jiuliu's collar roughly and pulled him up . "If that's the case, let's head west and find that consular officer!"
Generally speaking, only a consular officer would leave such a message . Lin Sanjiu did not have any intention to get a visa immediately . After all, Irezumi was an unpredictable factor, so doing that could possibly expose her identity . However, Ji Shanqing probably didn't know that she became a candidate so he would be expecting her to find a consular officer to get a visa . If he was looking for her, Lin Sanjiu knew he would not waste this opportunity . Following this track of thought, she could probably find Ji Shanqing nearby if they found the consular officer in the message . Even if they didn't find him, other posthumans would usually congregate near a consular officer . That would also be a chance for her to look for more clues about Ji Shanqing's whereabouts .
Thinking about the possibility that she would find her grand prize soon, Lin Sanjiu felt a new burst of motivation and set off immediately .
"Bed . The bed—" Qing Jiuliu muttered, disgruntled .
Lin Sanjiu heaved a heavy sigh . In the end, she walked back, reached for the bed and converted it into a card .
For some reason, Mrs . Manas laughed again and asked, "You like him a lot?"
"I prefer a dog," Lin Sanjiu scoffed inwardly . Then, she leaped up to a higher spot among the rubble .
Lin Sanjiu looked into the distance standing from a vantage point and spotted the site where the second noise came from . The section of a freeway wall had been destroyed . Just like the hotel, the wall crumbled from the center of its structure and it left a pile of broken bricks on the ground . From the looks of it, that was probably caused by the same person . If they headed west, Lin Sanjiu and Qing Jiuliu would also walk past that section of the wall .
When they stopped at the wall, Lin Sanjiu noticed something peculiar . This time, she didn't even need Mrs . Manas to point it out .
"Look, there are words here," she kicked away a few bricks and gestured to get Qing Jiuliu's attention . "Officer West . The handwriting is the same . "
"This means that someone is destroying that consular's officer's messages on purpose . " Qing Jiuliu commented indifferently, "This sure is interesting . I think I need that bed now . "
Lin Sanjiu had the exact cure for Qing Jiuliu's apathetic attitude . She took out a bottle of wine and he immediately showed her a better attitude .
"It's strange . Why would someone be so adamant about destroying a consular officer's message?" Lin Sanjiu searched through the broken bricks and found another 'lake' within the message but she couldn't make out any other words . After that, both of them continued westward .
"Even if others don't get their visas, they might not get a visa either . Why would someone intentionally sabotage others for no reason? " Qing Jiuliu mumbled as he held a cigarette in his mouth and tried a few times to light it with his lighter .
"Sabotaging others for no reason?" Lin Sanjiu was startled by her own thoughts and stopped immediately . The last time she heard someone saying something similar was at Harry's Farm .
"Hehe . "
Almost as if to prove her right, a sudden chuckle rang out in the dark . It came from further down the road . Even with Lin Sanjiu's enhanced senses, she didn't notice anyone hiding in that direction . Both of them took a few steps backward and looked around but they didn't see anyone .
"Look up, I'm here . " A gentle female voice that sounded familiar called out to them cheerfully .
A blurry object the size of a soccer ball floated in mid-air hidden under the shade of a tree . After some rustling sounds, that object bobbed a few times before it moved to the end of a branch and showed itself under the moonlight . Qing Jiuliu gasped when he saw that sight . His cigarette fell from his mouth .
Lin Sanjiu's face darkened . At that moment, she understood why she didn't notice that person .
Even if she activated her hypersensory state, it would probably be difficult for her to spot an unmoving human head .
No, to be accurate, it was ¾ of a human head .
"Hey, you!" Sunny looked as if someone had sliced off part of her face with a diagonal cut . Despite that, they could still see that she was smiling . Without giving Lin Sanjiu a single glance, the girl pouted her lips at Qing Jiuliu and asked him sweetly, "You look a little familiar . Have I seen you somewhere before?"
"Ah!" Qing Jiuliu reacted as if he had never imagined that a floating human head would ask him a question . "You have probably seen my photos," he replied in a slight daze .
"Oh—I know!" Sunny bounced, excited . "That's right! You are an actor . That woman was holding a poster even when she died . Wow, I didn't think that you would look so much better in real life . Hey, you in that cloak . "
Lin Sanjiu stuck her chin at that girl coldly . Her current disguise must be very successful because Sunny didn't realize who she was .
"You can leave now . Leave the actor with me . "
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