Ch57 - You just have to do your best to protect yourself

Translator-Rhapsodite

Editor- PerpetualMreow, Proofreader-Ghostie 

The taxi slowed down and came to a stop beside the unfinished house’s construction site fence.

The driver kept an eye out and calculated that he’d need to place his car near the main road—near the traffic lights— to guarantee that his taxi was in the surveillance camera’s range.

Bei Quan didn’t embarrass the driver. After paying the agreed fare, he got out of the car with his suitcase and black umbrella and walked towards the entrance of the construction site.

It was ten minutes before the appointment. 

Bei Quan raised his umbrella as he approached the duty room.

He nonchalantly walked forward under the security guard’s gaze, and easily pulled open the previously locked iron gate, then entered the construction site.

The construction site had been closed for a long time and all important machines and building materials, as well as high-power lighting equipment, had been taken. Only at crucial locations, such as the gate, was there a row of bulbs strung with cables that served as a light source at night.

Bei Quan hadn’t been out alone for a long time since he accidentally picked up the stupid and righteous Wei Fuyuan.

He put his umbrella away and walked deep into the construction site through the temporarily placed asphalt pavement.

Bei Quan and his contact had scheduled a meeting near the southwest corner of the construction site.

There used to be a plank house there, where laborers would stay for a short time, but now there were only a few unremoved frames they might be able to use as a semblance of privacy.

It was unusually quiet in the area. 

Even the sounds of trucks moving at high speed outside were muffled by the high barrier.

“Very punctual.”

Bei Quan waved to the shadow.

In the calm worksite, his voice was especially audible. 

A person emerged from behind the plank house’s frame.

The other person, based on the silhouette, looked to be a tall and slim woman with a waist-length ponytail.

The lighting was really dim here. Bei Quan narrowed his eyes and got a closer look before laughing quietly.

“Ha, no wonder the master said that you can recognize it as long as you see it.” 

The woman in the backlight, regardless of height, shape, or look, resembled Zhu Ling. If the two stood next to each other, everyone would assume they were twins.

Bei Quan had no idea what this person’s body was, but based on their striking ability to resemble, he assumed she was also some type of instrument spirit.

Yes, Zhu Ling, the only female in their “Sāntúchuān” Broadcasting Co., Ltd., was actually a spiritual artifact made of a thousand-year-old cinnabar ink.

Because she was in the secret realm of Zhuling ever since she formed spiritual consciousness, and her body happened to be bright red cinnabar, she had taken this name. 

This time, Zhu Ling left the secret territory and followed Bei Quan to Fèng Xīngchéng city. In name, she was a layman for Bei Quan, but in fact, it was more appropriate to say she was on “surveillance” duty.

Bei Quan’s life lamp was currently in Zhu Ling’s hands.

Bei Quan’s constitution was different from that of ordinary people’s.

If his life lamp was extinguished, the three souls and seven souls would not be able to survive in the flesh. 

In other words, he would end up with a separation of body and soul, then his body would die, and his soul would have no place to return.

Bei Quan had always felt like a salted fish, with no ambitions or feelings of responsibility since he had arrived in Fèng Xīngchéng xing City more than a year ago. He was only eager to host the radio program and apprehend Hui Guis because of Zhu Ling. He was like a migratory worker with 996 as his blessing.

Thinking of this, Bei Quan couldn’t help feeling a little funny.

There must be a reason why his Shimen must have had to change the usual contact person. 

However, to be cautious, Bei Quan opened his eyes and distinguished the color of the opponent’s “Qi”.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Ktf ulgi klat atf qbcsajli kjr reggbecvfv ys j vffq bgjcuf tjib, ktlmt kjr fzjmais atf rjwf jr Ite Olcu’r.

Ktf ulgi vlvc’a jrx Dfl Hejc’r lvfcalas ogbw yfulcclcu ab fcv. Vtf pera tfiv bea tfg tjcv ab tlw.

“Qtfgf jgf atf ‘atlcur’?” 

Dfl Hejc bqfcfv tlr relamjrf jcv abbx bea atf Obra Xbv Djccfg.

The girl flipped her palm and a delicate white jade jar appeared in her hand.

Then she took the Lost God Banner and stuffed it into the jar.

The jade jar in the girl’s hand was obviously only the size of a palm, but the Lost God Banner, which was more than two meters wide, somehow completely disappeared into the jar. 

Bei Quan had seen this jar several times.

In the past few times, the collector used this magic tool every time he came to take over the Hui Guis from him.

The Hui Guis sealed in the Lost God Banner would be temporarily moved into the jar, brought back by the collector, and then handled by the Shimen.

“All right.” 

A moment later, the ponytail girl had finished emptying out the Lost God Banner and returned it to Bei Quan.

“Then, I will take ‘them’ away,” said the girl.

After that, she stopped talking and turned around to leave.

“Wait.” 

Unexpectedly, Bei Quan stretched out his hand at this moment and stopped her.

The girl raised her head, frowned, and looked puzzled.

Bei Quan smiled at her and turned sideways inadvertently, blocking the girl behind him.

“It seems that some ‘friends’ have come.” 

Bei Quan said this so lightly that it surprised the girl.

The girl with the ponytail subconsciously stepped back and hid in the shadow cast by Bei Quan and the plank house frame.

“What do you… mean?”

The girl looked around warily and placed the white jade jar back into her sea of knowledge. 

Bei Quan guessed right. The girl who looked like Zhu Ling was indeed also a spiritual artifact raised in the secret territory of Zhu Ling.

However, unlike Zhu Ling, she was likely born not very long ago. She had probably left the secret territory for the first time and came out alone to perform the secret task.

The incomplete buildings in this development zone were also the joint sites she selected.

Because it was her first job, the girl was very careful in order not to make a mistake. 

The handover process was very smooth. It was a pity Bei Quan noticed the unknown people when she thought she was about to successfully complete the task.

In the open space opposite the plank house area, many strange shadows began to appear one by one.

Those shadows, like bamboo shoots rising from the ground after a heavy rain, soared from the empty asphalt ground without warning. At first, they were just amorphous shadows, but they rapidly began to take shape, and finally formed the appearance of animals.

Bei Quan swiftly counted silently. 

There were thirty “animals” in front of them.

They were dog-like creatures but were clearly bigger than common large dogs. Each was two meters long. Their ears were upright, their abdomen was concave, their posture was vigorous, their tails were slowly swaying, and they slowly walked forward, step by step, silently.

It was a pack of wolves.

Or, more accurately, a servitude made of a group of wolves. 

Bei Quan knew this spell.

In a sense, these wolves were very similar to the Guan Hu Su Ying he had received from his Shimen.

The originally fierce creatures were forcibly suppressed with very cruel methods to make them into a spell that could be controlled by the caster.

Although they were also canines, wolves were more difficult to catch than foxes and dogs, and they were more fierce and disobedient. If the caster was not some powerful person of Taoism, they generally wouldn’t choose wolves as their servants, let alone such a large group of them. 

“What’s your name?”

Bei Quan asked the girl behind him.

The girl with the ponytail hesitated for a second and replied in a deep voice, “Chi Xiao.”

“OK.” 

Although Bei Quan was conversing with Chi Xiao, his eyes stared at the wolves in front of him.

“Chi Xiao, listen, their goal should be the Hui Guis in the jar.”

With that, Bei Quan gently smiled as he flicked his wrist, and summoned his innate magic weapon.

“I’ll deal with them. You just have to do your best to protect yourself.” 

———————————–

Nearly ten minutes later, the last “wolf” was captured by Bei Quan’s spell.

The golden-red blood brush shattered into pieces, disappearing without a trace.

Bei Quan sighed in relief and softly swallowed the fishy and rusty taste in his throat.

The abandoned building site seemed severely wrecked after the furious struggle. 

There were jarring markings, scrapes, sharp scratches, and splatters of blood all over the asphalt floor. The structure of the plank house area was destroyed beyond recognition—— it was as if the area had been hit by a cyclone.

Bei Quan turned back to look at Chi Xiao.

Just now, in his haste, he had thrown the girl into a corner very roughly. Until now, he had not had a chance to check on the other party’s injuries.

Now that the battle was over, Bei Quan walked over and carefully looked at her and found that Chi Xiao was actually badly hurt. 

One of the girl’s arms had been completely shattered.

Bei Quan assessed that her body was made of hard but fragile materials. When the severity of the wound worsened to the point that the soul was damaged, the wound would look like an artwork that had been smashed into pieces. Chi Xiao’s arm had been rendered into dust and a crack spread from the breaking point at the upper arm, spreading like a spider web up to the neck and half of her face

Bei Quan’s heart froze, and he felt that things were not looking good.

He quickly stretched out his hand to her, 

“How are you?”

Chi Xiao grabbed Bei Quan’s hand and, with weak strength and stood up with difficulty.

“It’s okay.”

She shook her head, “I will be fine.” 

Bei Quan let out a sigh of relief.

Indeed, as long as Chi Xiao could manage to return to the secret land of Zhuling, the situation would not be too bad.

Although Bei Quan didn’t know how to help her deal with the injury, he believed that there must be capable people who could understand these kinds of injuries in his Shimen’s.

“The wolves haven’t disappeared yet.” 

Bei Quan leaned over to Chi Xiao’s ear and whispered with a low voice

“I’ll escort you back to the secret place before I return to the company.”

Chi Xiao nodded silently.

After being attacked, she knew there must be something going on in the secret realm, but Chi Xiao didn’t have a clue about why she was targeted and who the other party was. 

But her injury did not allow her to delay.

Not to mention that she had a jar holding several Hui Guis in her arms.

“Go.”

Chi Xiao lowered her voice and said, 

“Cough… Well, I’ll hide in the back and go back to the secret realm now.”

Bei Quan nodded, helped Chi Xiao get up, and led her further into the worksite.

Bei Quan lifted his palm and put it on his heart at an angle the girl couldn’t see.

He felt like something was burning in his chest. 

The flame silently scorched him from the inside, as if trying to turn him into coke from the inside out.