by N. Heller
"Amazing," she said slowly in a composed voice. "You got all the books in such a short time."
Lin Sanjiu's group did not say anything. A few figures dropped from the second floor of the west wing and landed not far from them.
"This is the current situation. We need the books and you need your member back.
"You should have thought about that… Let's make a deal."
Lin Sanjiu held her breath and exchanged a quick glance with Silvan reflexively.
The decisive fight in the library would begin now.
Chapter 271 - Too Many Physical Fights And One Almost Forgets This Ability
"Bang!"
A bright fireball was shot into the center of the library. It stopped mid-air. The light from it instantly tore through part of the darkness. The library was now partially lit. After confirming that the ball of light hanging from the ceiling had stabilized, the leader who looked like a mushroom gave Lin Sanjiu a dry laugh, "Right now, this is the only help we can provide."
Reno instantly made a scoffing snort.
According to the South Wing team's request, each of them had to move at least 500 meters from their current position. They demanded that only one person approached Siri's work desk to hand over the target books to them. The South Wing team would only release Rena after they got and verified the books. In the south wing woman's words: "Since we all have long-distance attacks, it is always better to have a little assurance."
They did not know if it was part of the south wing woman's plan, but once the woman laid out her demands—much like how Silvan described with slight contempt—the west wing team, who had already agreed to work with Lin Sanjiu's team, suddenly became overly cautious.
"We don't care which of you get the books," said rapidly the leader from the west wing, in his horrible sounding voice. "Though we agreed to attack those duoluozhongs in the south wing together with the condition that we got their lives… Now, you have a hostage with them. Rescuing that hostage is not within what we agreed upon."
In other words, the West Wing team seemed like they would only step in to help after Lin Sanjiu's team resolved the hostage situation and were able to attack the duoluozhongs from the south wing.
Silvan winked at Reno, showing an "I mentioned it before, they're really annoying" face.
As they didn't place much hope on the team from the west wing, Lin Sanjiu wasn't that bothered by it. She eyed the West Wing team for a second and said mildly, "Since you guys are not willing to help, you better curb yourselves. If you try to attack us before we get our member back, don't blame us for being hostile."
Apparently, the leader from the west wing did not have a proper gauge of Lin Sanjiu's combat capabilities, so he had a slight look of despise on his face. However, Silvan was standing on her side, so he could only harumph and said nothing more.
Lin Sanjiu also stopped talking. She held four books in her arms and said to the man and the teenage boy behind her, "I'll go."
"Be careful," Silvan flashed a smile at her from behind his ballistic eyewear. His teeth were dazzlingly white. On the other hand, Reno nodded his head, looking slightly nervous.
Lin Sanjiu quickly covered the distance between her starting position and Siri's work desk. Under the poor lighting, Lin Sanjiu stopped and looked up.
"I've arrived. The books are here!" she shouted out. Her crisp voice resonated through the walls of the library. Then, she suddenly raised her voice and yelled, "Get down here!"
There was total silence for half a second.
"Oh, you're one hot-tempered lady."
The woman from the south wing laughed. Different from before, her voice suddenly became very airy, as if it was coming from all directions. No one could tell where it came from and her position. After she said that, the atmosphere in the library changed in an instant.
It was somewhat indescribable. Even though the intensity of light from the light source did not change, it was as if someone had adjusted some sort of light filter, creating a stronger sense of eeriness in the library. This discomforting atmosphere slowly spread. Something that had been hiding beneath the facade of normalcy was about to tear through this "reality". At that instant, everyone almost couldn't believe their eyes.
A grayish thing slowly peeked out from the corner of the ceiling and crawled down the wall like a gecko. The eyes of a person in an oil painting hanging on a wall suddenly moved. Next, that person jumped out of the picture frame, leaving only an empty landscape painting behind. A face suddenly emerged from a wall. It glided across the surface of the walls and floor and finally reached Siri's work desk.
Very quickly, nine different types of duoluozhong surrounded Lin Sanjiu, trapping her in the middle. Lin Sanjiu held the books and did not move. She took a look at each of them.
"Where's my team member?" Lin Sanjiu did not see Rena, neither did the female leader of the south wing reveal herself. Lin Sanjiu shouted, "Come out! At least, you need to let me confirm that she is alive and well!"
After a moment of hesitation, the south wing woman laughed and agreed, "Okay."
A slim figure slowly walked out from the seemingly impenetrable darkness engulfing the second floor of the south wing. As the spirit in the toilet had described, the person who appeared was dressed in a Changpao and was wearing a hooded cape which concealed the person's appearance fully. If it wasn't for her height and her narrower shoulders, it was almost impossible to tell her gender.
Rena's arms were bound, so the teenage girl simply followed the woman down the stairs. When they reached the middle of the stairs, the south wing woman stopped and chuckled, "We'll stop here."
Lin Sanjiu looked up at them.
From where she was standing, she was about 400 meters from the stairs. If there were no obstructions, she could cover that distance in the blink of an eye. However, she was now surrounded by nine duoluozhongs with indeterminate strength.
"Put the books on the desk," the south wing woman requested, eyeing the work. "Step aside and let my people check those books."
The strange woman with some part of her skin still undeveloped appeared to sigh. Then, she stacked the four books on the work desk. The duoluozhong standing beside her had a very strange form which seemed to be constantly changing. It roughly checked through all four books, and then it placed the book in its hand—if that could be considered a hand—next to the four books.
Siri appeared to be totally unconcerned about the situation in front of her. She only reacted when the five books were placed directly in front of her. As if following a command, she reached out for the books and started checking them. As she announced the results of her verification one after another, Rena bent over abruptly, as if she couldn't accept their massive failure.
While the woman, wrapped in her cape, straightened her back, her gaze swept through the library over and over again. The other posthumans did not move from their spot. Even the tall, muscular man did not show any signs of acting up.
"How to Render… No, this book isn't right." Siri monotonous voice paused suddenly. Subsequently, she added, "Out of the five books, one of them isn't the target book. The current verification process had been canceled, the event continues."
"What—" The woman in the hooded cape blurted out.
In that split second, everyone stirred. The south wing woman reached behind, trying to grab Rena with her clawed hands. However, she was stunned when she saw a few pieces of paper in front of Rena, who was still bending over.
There were many words on the pieces of paper, and they seemed to be torn pages from a book. When the woman noticed a card in the teenage girl's hand, the card had already changed into a few more book pages.
"Hehe, my apologies." As Rena's let out a faint gleeful snicker, flashes of bright white light appeared without warning before the woman in the cape.
Chapter 272 - King Vs. King
Q: "Siri, I am back. I still have a few last questions."
A: "Go ahead."
Q: "If one ou
t of the five books that a group has gathered is incorrect, what would happen when they verify the books with you?"
A: "All five target books must be collected and presented together. Otherwise, the verification will fail and the event will continue."
Q: "Okay, in that case, would the four correct and verified target books be attributed to that particular team?"
A: "No, that would not count. Once the verification process is canceled, it means that the status quo remains, namely, none of the books are verified.
Q: "I see… There is still one most important question."
A: "..."
Q: "Is there any way to know the content of a book without activating its effect?"
A: "Yes."
—
The moment all the nine duoluozhongs attacked at once, the color from everything around them suddenly faded. Everything became white and warped. A sharp gust of wind brushed past her back, and Lin Sanjiu didn't even know where it came from. Even though she couldn't really see what it was, she felt a creepy, uneasy sensation crawling up the skin of her legs.
When Siri took the "How to Render" book and before she laid eyes on it, Lin Sanjiu already took a deep breath and activated her ability in her mind. At the same time, the sweat-covered card which Rena had been holding changed into thin pieces of book pages. At that moment, the spirit duoluozhongs around Lin Sanjiu still hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. Lin Sanjiu shot a glance at the person standing at the stairs and then back at Siri.
When Siri saw the book, her mouth opened, preparing to say something... Lin Sanjiu had already smashed her fist violently at the constantly morphing duoluozhong. At the same time, Siri announced that the verification process had been canceled. As Lin Sanjiu had prepared herself for the situation beforehand, her attack threw the thing a few meters away from her. Lin Sanjiu turned back and swept her arms across the four books on the table. With a white light, the fours books were converted subsequently into her cards and she snatched them.
Lin Sanjiu didn't even care to look at the book in Siri's hand. Even though that book was very similar to the book that Silvan had with him, one of the words within the long title was different. That was more than enough to trick a duoluozhong.
Once Lin Sanjiu had the cards in her hand, she suddenly leaped up before she even had the time to look down. Following which, a black shadow swept past the spot where her ankles were at just moments before. Meanwhile, flashes of white light suddenly erupted from the stairs. Amidst the white light, two figures rushed toward the stairs; they were Reno and Silvan.
The critical part of their plan was for Rena to switch from being "hostage" to a "ticking time bomb". Considering the white light from the stairs, one of the few book pages have been activated. But, no one knew how the effect of a passage of that romance novel would affect the woman in the hooded cape.
"Fate had inadvertently led me to meet him. Many years later, on a winter day, I couldn't help smiling while reminiscing about the past. Those years of young love were too bright. They were so bright that, in contrast, the rest of my life became dull and colorless."
"From those words, it should at least have a blinding effect, right?" As this uncertain thought surfaced in Lin Sanjiu's mind, she suddenly couldn't move. She had been stopped forcefully. Behind her, black hair poured down from the ceiling, blocking the light. When the strands of hairs were about to touch Lin Sanjiu's shoulders, she fell to the ground and rolled away.
Boom! The explosion sound was very weird. For a moment, it was so loud that it sounded like it could destroy the world, then it became very soft as if just a passing breeze. This weird sound was accompanied by whirring shockwaves which started appearing. Coincidentally, one of the shockwaves brushed past Lin Sanjiu back and hit the long black hair hanging in the air. The hair was cut to bits and suddenly something made an indistinct scream.
Shortly after, a teenage girl's sharp voice rang out, "No! It's useless!"
Lin Sanjiu felt her heart tighten.
This time, that incredibly powerful attack was also from the pages in Rena's hand. The attack was very powerful probably because the passage described the intense emotions that an artist from the Romantic period felt when he was first sent to a battlefield. The attack was not only very powerful, but it had a wide area of effect. A few of the spirits who were unprepared for the attack instantly turned to smoke once they got hit by a shockwave from the attack. Though the West Wing team was quite far from the epicenter of the attack, they were flung far away despite trying to use all sorts of means to defend themselves.
Yet, such an attack was totally useless against that woman?
From Lin Sanjiu's view, she could see a few figures approaching her. The person leading the group was Reno. As he ran, he hurled his pages of almanac behind. He was quickly followed by a tall figure, Silvan. Lin Sanjiu could see that he was carrying a smaller person on his shoulders, it was Rena.
She dusted her Changpao and her sleeves rolled off her hands slightly. That was the first time Lin Sanjiu saw that woman's hand. It was a fair, dainty hand which certainly looked very human.
"I have to admire your bravery."
When Reno stopped beside Lin Sanjiu, panting, the woman in the hooded cape also started to speak slowly. She acted as if the chaos around her had nothing to do with her. She even laughed faintly for a second. Her voice echoed, "Handing me those books obediently was really your best choice."
"Rena lost some lives," Silvan whispered, and that immediately drew Lin Sanjiu's attention away from the woman. "So, the west wing team needs to come back."
The previous shockwaves killed a few duoluozhongs and the remaining duoluozhongs were stopped by the members from the west wing. For now, working with Lin Sanjiu's group seemed safer than with that scheming woman in the hooded cape.
Lin Sanjiu threw a quick glance at Rena, who had temporarily lost her ability to fight. Lin Sanjiu nodded at Silvan to thank him for looking after the siblings before she smiled at Reno, "You guys take care of Rena. Wait for me."
Rena was stunned, "You're going alone?"
The woman in a hooded cape suddenly moved. In a blink of an eye, she had already approached them. Lin Sanjiu didn't have the time to answer. She leaped up and took the woman head-on. The two women collided strongly in mid-air. The impact was so strong that it created a thunderous boom.
"I think she will come back very quickly," Silvan crossed his arms and smiled at Reno.
Chapter 273 - The Woman And The Mirror
After the two people collided in mid-air, they quickly split apart. When they landed on the ground, the two people made two shocking remarks respectively:
"You're not alive—"
"You are alive!"
In that instant, it was as if they had their roles reversed. The woman who was the leader of the spirits was ironically a human made of flesh and blood. Compared to Lin Sanjiu, she was a true, genuine human. When the two collided, Lin Sanjiu felt the body warmth radiating from under the woman's hooded cape.
However, that was not what shocked Lin Sanjiu the most.
Lin Sanjiu, with her higher consciousness body, was no longer that smoke-like brain she was in the start. Her body had been condensed and strengthened to an extreme level. She had rushed toward that woman with a few tonnes of impact force. Even her regular punch was sufficient to cause significant damage because her fists were as hard as a diamond. However, the woman seemed unfazed, like she could not feel anything at all.
Lin Sanjiu, instead, was hurt from the recoil of the impact. This was the first time Lin Sanjiu felt any recoil from her attack since her body was completed.
"I didn't expect that," the south wing woman said softly. "What are you? You don't seem like a duoluozhong. Um, but you don't seem like a creation from someone's ability either."
Lin Sanjiu's face stiffened and she didn't say a word. Her opponent was still hidden by her dark, black cape. Other than a fleeting glimpse of her hand, the woman had not even revealed
a strand of hair.
Without making any unnecessary remarks, Lin Sanjiu rushed forward without warning. This time, she fully utilized the advantages she had fighting with her higher consciousness body. Her body was like a sturdy fortress yet could also be as lithe as smoke. When her fist was about to hit the caped woman's face, Lin Sanjiu's arms suddenly twisted in an angle that was impossible for a normal human, and she aimed her fist at the woman's abdomen. Just as before, she used an overwhelming amount of strength.
However, Lin Sanjiu was shocked that her unpredictable manner of attack was useless against the woman. The caped woman did not even bother to dodge and just allowed Lin Sanjiu's fist to sink deep into her abdomen.
Nobody with a normal body made of flesh and bones could receive this sort of blow unscathed. Lin Sanjiu was confident that if she landed this punch on Puppeteer, Hei Zeji or Silvan, it would definitely cause some harm. Unfortunately, the sensation she felt from her fist wasn't quite right—
Lin Sanjiu was very sure she hit her target as she felt the woman's soft abdomen through her fist. She could clearly even feel the movement of the woman's organs from the impact point. Lin Sanjiu was puzzled by the woman's nonchalance but, the next second, she felt a vicious blow hit her own stomach.
The strength of that attack was almost as powerful as her own punch. Lin Sanjiu was immediately flung into mid-air. She had never received such a powerful blow before. If there were blood running through her higher consciousness body, she would definitely be spitting blood now. Even with a body as strong as a diamond, she felt her abdomen muscles quiver from the impact.
Lin Sanjiu somersaulted in mid-air and stopped the backward momentum. Lin Sanjiu held her stomach as she landed back on the ground. Her expression turned grim.