◎Zhong Yao, Get It Together!◎
In a daze, Zhong Yao felt her entire body grow light, as if her soul were leaving her body like in the movies. She sensed herself slowly detaching.
The process wasn’t fast, in fact, it was somewhat anxious. Looking down, she saw that half of her body was already floating in midair, while the other half was still embedded in her physical form, soon to follow.
Suddenly, a tremendous force grabbed her hand, seemingly trying to accelerate her separation from her body.
Following the pull, she looked at her right hand and saw a dog-shaped black mist baring sharp white teeth, biting her wrist and dragging her outward.
“What the—!”
Her heart leapt to her throat. She flailed her hands, trying to escape, but the black dog clamped down relentlessly.
As she gradually detached, Zhong Yao inexplicably felt weaker, her strength to resist dwindling. Meanwhile, the black dog grew larger and more imposing.
Just when she thought she was done for, a panicked voice rang in her ear:
【You idiot! Draw the talisman!】
It was like a sudden jolt of clarity. Her hand moved instinctively, and a rune formed in midair in an instant. Without the confinement of the turmeric paper, the rune became like a wild horse, completely uncontrolled.
Zhong Yao watched as the rune stretched out its “limbs,” then transformed into an even larger wolf. Faint runes shimmered across its body, glinting gold, adding a sense of grandeur to its presence.
The wolf let out a howl, ground its paws, and with a powerful push of its hind legs, shot forward like an arrow. As it approached the black dog, it opened its jaws and swallowed it whole in a few bites.
Once it confirmed the black dog was entirely consumed, the golden wolf let out a satisfied belch.
It licked its paws, and unintentionally, its gaze met Zhong Yao’s.
At this moment, Zhong Yao’s legs below the knees were still inside her body, the rest had flown out uncontrollably. She wiggled her toes, trying to slow the process of being pulled out.
The golden wolf stared at her for a long moment, then, realizing it had been summoned by her, calmly approached and pressed its massive paws down, pushing her back in.
Under the weight of the giant paws, Zhong Yao felt herself sink. When she opened her eyes, she was back in that familiar place, a vast, white, void-like expanse.
Dou Dou stood with hands on its hips: 【Are you stupid? You’ve practiced talismans for so many days, and when a Dream Pacha appeared in your dream, you had zero resistance!】
Zhong Yao was still confused. “Wait… that fierce-looking dog just now was a Dream Pacha?”
Pacha is the collective term for all evil spirits that directly take human lives, a Dream Pacha kills its target through dreams.
【Who cares what it is! You almost died just now, you know that?!】 Dou Dou, furious, jumped up and kicked her ankle, then, not satisfied, stomped several more times.
It had been fine staying inside the phone, but suddenly it sensed a Dream Pacha attacking, scaring it so badly that it felt like half its soul had fled. It struggled in every way just to transmit its voice into the environment the Dream Pacha had woven.
After all that effort to save her, she was still worried about what the thing actually was.
Zhong Yao saw it struggling to climb up her pant leg and, with some difficulty, decided to sit down, putting Dou Dou on her lap. The terror that had almost killed her moments ago had faded, and she was now eagerly discussing with Dou Dou: “So that’s what a Pacha looks like.”
The last time she saved Meng Yu, she had only seen a paw at the door at first, then watched Xing Chu scatter talismans everywhere in a daze. Before she could even react, the battle was over. She had no sense of participation at all.
This was the first time she had seen the true form of a Pacha. She had to admit, turning an otherwise gentle and obedient dog into that grotesque, man-eating monstrosity, Pacha’s sense of aesthetics was truly horrific.
【Not entirely. Their appearance depends entirely on their mood.】 Dou Dou looked at Zhong Yao’s nonchalant expression and, frustrated at her carelessness, scolded: 【That talisman is designed specifically to restrain Luck Rogues, but it also damages other evil spirits to some extent. Next time you face danger, can you at least snap out of it? Don’t just stand there like an idiot!】
Although Si Ning Qing was practically the nemesis of all evil spirits and Zhong Yao rarely faced real danger with her around, Dou Dou had overlooked a few spirits with extraordinary hidden abilities, like the Dream Pacha, that could even evade Si Ning Qing’s observation.
If Zhong Yao hadn’t been lucky this time, encountering a weaker one, she would have been killed outright.
Dou Dou rested its chin on its paws and sighed gloomily.
Raising a kid was already hard, raising one like Zhong Yao, a foolish little thing, made it practically a hellish task.
Zhong Yao touched her nose, belatedly realizing just how close to death she had been: “I’ll be careful next time. It’s not like it’s my first time, I’ll get the hang of it. If another evil spirit shows up, just watch me beat it until it’s crawling on the ground looking for its mama!”
Dou Dou gave her a look that said everything words couldn’t convey, if evil spirits were that easy to handle, life would be simple.
【Stop joking around. When you have time, go through Introduction to Talismans again and learn some more life-saving techniques.】 It admonished her patiently.
Zhong Yao nodded with a smile, then was flung out by Dou Dou back into reality.
She drew back her bed curtain and was surprised to find it was already the next day, she had slept for that long.
In disbelief, Zhong Yao got out of bed. Si Ning Qing and Chen Xiang had already tidied up and were preparing to leave.
“Ah Xiang, are you going to the hospital now?”
Chen Xiang nodded. Zhong Yao hurriedly said, “Wait for me a moment, I need to wash up first.”
Si Ning Qing frowned, observing Zhong Yao, sensing that something was off. She came closer and asked quietly, “Did you encounter any danger?”
Zhong Yao spit out the toothpaste foam, looking a little dazed, then remembered the peril she had faced in her sleep: “I… I encountered a Dream Pacha.”
After speaking, she realized that Si Ning Qing might not know what a Pacha was, so she explained further: “A Pacha is a low-level evil spirit, and I’ve already dealt with it.”
Zhong Yao’s expression remained calm, she didn’t mention that she had nearly lost her life. Instead, she casually complained to Si Ning Qing about how ugly that big black dog had been.
Si Ning Qing, on the other hand, scowled. It was normal that she hadn’t sensed the Dream Pacha if it hadn’t deliberately revealed its presence, but that didn’t stop her from feeling a twinge of guilt.
She calculated the time: the necklace and bracelet would be finished soon, and once that was done, situations like this wouldn’t happen again. Any evil spirit that came looking would be completely destroyed.
Zhong Yao quickly gathered her things, packed up the Wudu wine, and the three of them headed to the hospital together.
“After you went to sleep, I didn’t pay much attention. By the time I checked again, three hours had already passed, and I found that the talisman was gone.”
Better to believe it exists than not, Chen Xiang now truly began to believe that this small talisman could actually remove Chen Zhu Jing’s bad luck.
At the hospital, Jiao Jia Yi was still sitting nearby, keeping watch. Chen Zhu Jing was half-sitting on the bed, both of them staring intently at their phones, fingers flying across the screens so quickly that they didn’t even notice when Chen Xiang arrived.
Chen Xiang, however, didn’t get angry at all. Smiling, she fetched chairs for Zhong Yao and Si Ning Qing so they could sit down first.
Zhong Yao found her calm expression a little strange, this wasn’t typical of her! In the past, if she saw Chen Zhu Jing not properly resting or studying, wouldn’t she have lost her temper already?
Chen Xiang noticed Zhong Yao’s puzzlement and gave a sly, mischievous smile, quietly explaining: “Auntie gave me his living expenses, so now he can play all he wants. Once the data runs out, he’ll be begging me to top up his phone balance. I don’t believe he won’t start behaving properly then.”
It’s worth noting that the hospital had no Wi-Fi. With his current strategy, he would soon be completely out of options.
“Doesn’t he have an account on that one video platform? He could earn quite a bit of pocket money from views, right?”
Chen Xiang explained: “Over the past couple of days, his followers have been dropping steadily, almost every hour someone unfollows. I guess there aren’t many left now.”
She shrugged, feeling a mix of concern and a hint of schadenfreude.
Zhong Yao furrowed her brow slightly and murmured to herself, “Could it be that under the influence of the Luck Rogue, even existing things gradually disappear?”
Si Ning Qing spoke softly: “Not disappear, just transfer.”
Zhong Yao looked at her, and a thought suddenly flashed through her mind, but before she could grasp that fleeting insight, Chen Zhu Jing suddenly blurted out a curse: “Damn, sis, when did you get here? Not a sound at all!”
Chen Xiang’s lips curved into a gentle smile. “I just got here. You keep playing, being in the hospital is kind of boring anyway.”
Chen Zhu Jing felt a chill run down his back. He quickly tossed his phone aside and explained, “I already scheduled my online exam with the professors. It’s tomorrow, so you don’t need to worry about me having to retake it next semester.”
“Is that so…? How’s your review going?”
Chen Zhu Jing glanced at Chen Xiang’s smiling face and admitted honestly, “I… haven’t started yet.”
“Then why aren’t you reviewing immediately?!” Chen Xiang’s face instantly darkened, her low-pressure aura spreading through most of the hospital room. Chen Zhu Jing’s hand trembled as he hurriedly pulled out his books.
Even Jiao Jia Yi and Zhong Yao and Si Ning Qing, sitting nearby, were startled and froze, not daring to speak.
Zhong Yao thought to herself: Didn’t she just say to let him play and not lose her temper?
After the room fell silent for a while, Zhong Yao remembered the Wudu wine still at her feet. She opened the lid, only to find the talisman paper inside had completely disappeared, and the wine that had once filled the bowl was now just half full.
She handed it over: “I heard this is good for recovering from fractures. Just drink it like water.”
Chen Zhu Jing didn’t suspect a thing and downed the bowl in one gulp.
His eyes lit up. “What’s this? Actually pretty good. Thanks, Zhong Yao [1]姐 (jiě) – older sister; also used for an older female jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1668878_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1668878_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });Jie.”
Seeing him so calm, Zhong Yao finally relaxed, she had been worried that the talisman hadn’t fully dissolved and might get stuck in his throat.
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