Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 81 - 78 Private Interaction

Chapter 81: 78 Private Interaction

Divination was clearly still on guard for Lu Youxun’s possible recruitment of me.

In fact, if Lu Youxun really wanted to talk to me in private, she couldn’t have stopped it, this was probably more about her making a clear statement of her position.

Lu Youxun chuckled and raised her hand to signal surrender, "Alright, alright, I understand. You’ve made significant achievements this time, I’ll listen to you."

"What about Zhuang Cheng’s achievements?" asked Divination.

"Of course, I won’t only approve of Zhuang Cheng becoming an Outer Path Impermanence this time, but Luo Mountain will also give sufficient rewards afterward," Lu Youxun promised while removing the ring from her right middle finger that seemed to be woven out of wire.

She had previously rendered her right hand intangible through that ring to grab the monster’s heart, preventing it from refusing interrogation. If Luo Mountain were to reward me later, I would hope to receive a supernatural tool like this. Whether I could use it or not, just having one in my possession would make me happy for a whole day.

After saying our goodbyes, I left the sports park first. True to her word, Lu Youxun did not follow me out. Seeing that, other questions emerged in my mind.

At the beginning, she said that involving me in this incident was also a form of test. Although it seemed like she had "tested" the level of my power when trying to transmit information into my consciousness, it was hard for me to believe that she would just leave it at that. So, how was she planning to understand my actual battle performance without joining us at the front line?

Was it by using the sports park’s surveillance cameras? In fact, after picking up Mazao, I became quite sensitive to surveillance, and I had observed the sports park’s surveillance system.

Many people probably don’t think about it, but surveillance cameras need regular cleaning; otherwise, the lenses would become too blurry to use. This sports park was practically unmaintained, and whether the cameras were damaged, I didn’t know, but they definitely couldn’t function properly.

Perhaps Lu Youxun was planning to use Divination Skill to read the land’s memory. She was able to collect Mazao’s photo using this Spell. If she later read about my battle, the fact that I could use Elementalization would certainly be exposed.

Although I felt sorry for Divination’s painstaking efforts, I wasn’t concerned anymore about my Elementalization being exposed.

In the past, I listened to Divination and concealed my power in order to avoid excessive attention from Luo Mountain, which could risk exposing Mazao. But now, I had to rely on Divination and Lu Youxun’s help to search for Mazao, so the premise of hiding my power no longer existed.

So, let Lu Youxun find out if she wants to.

I found a corner where no passersby could see me, and then I used Flame Transmission. Out of some consideration, I still had set up "Fireflies" at home, thinking about whether Mazao might sneak back, so I could find her immediately. Now, it was also convenient for me to use Flame Transmission to return home at any time.

At home, I continued to use my Elementalized form, manipulating the "Fireflies" spread throughout Saltwater City to search for Mazao’s traces.

The strange creature had mentioned to us that Mazao had been seen in the new district, he even told me the specific place, which was behind a run-down vegetable market. That’s what I was now focusing my search on.

Regrettably, Mazao’s appearance there was last night’s incident, and she wouldn’t have stayed there all this time. As expected, after a long search, I still hadn’t found anything. However, just knowing this was a place she had been, where her footprints were, made me feel one step closer to her, and my heart was more settled compared to the past two clueless days.

After searching for a long time, and the clock had struck past midnight, I finally exited my Elementalized state and left home to walk outside the residential area. Walking helps to soften a tense spirit, a sort of mental massage. This was an insight I had gained these past two days.

I walked along the grassy banks by the river, the gentle flow of the river on my left, and the road on my right. Across the street, there were many shops, most of which were closed.

Though it was this time of night, a few shops were still open, such as barbecue places. They had a surprisingly high number of customers, too many to fit inside, so there were many plastic tables and chairs set up outside. People were eating skewers and chatting simultaneously. For a moment, it wasn’t clear whether the street was deserted or bustling, but it was indeed an ordinary scene.

Yet, strangely enough, from my perspective, having just experienced a magical battle, this ordinary, worldly scene seemed like a foreign landscape from another world.

What exactly is an adventure beyond reality? I couldn’t help but reevaluate my inner self once again.

Just then, a person approached from the opposite direction. He seemed to be walking along the river as well, and at first, I thought he was just a passerby. But when he came closer, I could clearly see his face.

And he saw me and said with a smile, "Haven’t gone home yet, Zhuang Cheng?"

"Lu Youxun, aren’t you investigating that head?" I asked.

"I’ve been investigating for a few hours, no substantial results so far. My brain is tired, so I’m taking a break," he said. "What about you?"

"Just out for a walk to clear my mind," I said.

"Meeting is destiny, why not have skewers together?" he gestured with his lips toward the barbecue restaurant across the street.

I really didn’t know whether it was fate or if he came prepared.

I felt he was probably trying to persuade me to join his faction. Although I was not very interested in political affairs, I still needed his divination investigation skills later on, so I had to keep him company for a while.

We ordered some skewers and drinks inside the barbecue restaurant and then sat down at the plastic tables and chairs in the corner outside.

The skewers and drinks were served one after another.

"First of all, congratulations. You’re no longer just an ordinary folk demon hunter; you are now officially recognized by the Luo Mountain authorities as an Outer Path Impermanence," Lu Youxun said with a smile, "The formal documents and identification will be sent to you in a couple of days, and the specific compensation will be settled then. For now, you can take this."

He took out the ring that I had been eyeing earlier, woven as if from iron wire, and placed it in front of me.

At first, I thought I wasn’t interested, but now I couldn’t help being attracted by the gift and asked with puzzlement, "What is this?"

"The Black Rope Heart-locking Ring. As long as you wear it on your finger, it will allow that hand to penetrate the opponent’s flesh and seize their heart," he explained the function of the ring, "During this time, the opponent cannot lie or remain silent. If they forcefully attempt to lie or stay quiet against the resistance, their heart will stop beating. Of course, the wearer of the ring can also choose to crush the opponent’s heart directly.

"Additionally, if the opponent’s mana is too strong, the effect of the Black Rope Heart-locking Ring will be nullified. Even if the opponent is willing to cooperate, the ring will be scrapped after use. This must be taken into account."

"What I mean is, why give this to me?" I asked, "This is your personal item, isn’t it? Are you giving it to me as a reward on behalf of Luo Mountain?"

"This is my personal token of thanks. I have always been tracking down clues of the Human Bureau and also participated in the investigation of the strange person partly because I suspected it was related to the Human Bureau," he said, "You were always interested in this ring before. Since you like it, I’m giving it to you."

Hearing this, I no longer hesitated and immediately accepted the Black Rope Heart-locking Ring, then asked, "You say you got involved in investigating this strange person to track down the Human Bureau, so why did you suggest that Zhu Shi and I should not capture the strange person alive? If you detest the Human Bureau so much, shouldn’t you be persuading us to try every means to capture a live one?"

He laughed at himself and did not directly answer my question, but instead said, "If I had known earlier that you were a powerful being who could even achieve elementalization, I certainly wouldn’t have thought that such a strange person could pose a threat to you, and maybe I would have persuaded you to capture him alive, as you said."

"So you knew about it after all," I wasn’t surprised that my elementalization had been exposed, "Is it because you used some sort of spell to read the earth’s memory in that sports park?"

"I wanted to, but I couldn’t even if I tried. What do you think Zhu Shi was doing there?" he laughed, "She foresaw that I might read the earth’s memory afterwards to probe your secrets, so she stayed there spending time creating divination interference setups.

"She was doing something beneficial for you, yet there was no need to keep it a secret from you. Maybe she felt it was embarrassing to take credit for it, such a clumsy girl who doesn’t know how to deal with people."

No wonder Zhu Shi stayed in the sports park; it turned out to be for my sake...

Since childhood, other than Changan, I rarely felt such attentive care from others, and for a moment, I didn’t know how to describe my feelings.

But since that was the case, how did Lu Youxun find out about my elementalization?

"Right, that head..." I remembered, "That strange person saw my elementalization. Did you divine this information from his head?"

"Not exactly. Zhu Shi also imbued the head with some counter-divination power. While it wouldn’t hinder my divination in other aspects, it specifically blocked me from divining the details of your combat with him," Lu Youxun shook his head.

"When did she do that?" I was surprised.

"It was while she was sealing the residual power inside the head," he said, "She’s awkward with people, but otherwise she’s airtight. Apart from what I’ve mentioned, she probably took several measures against my spells. If I had carelessly used a spell to spy on you, I would have certainly stumbled.

"Before, my use of the Spirit Communication Skill to temporarily revive that head might have been beyond her expectations, so she kept an eye on me the whole time. I don’t know if you noticed. If I had asked about the battle, she would have definitely obstructed me. Quite scary."

"So what kind of weird spell did you use to get around her tight defense?" I asked.

Lu Youxun glanced at me, then pulled out something dark from behind him and placed it on the table.

With intense curiosity, I took a closer look.

It was just an ordinary electronic telescope.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.