√ Make sure everyone stops fiting and become good friends! `(@"V^@)/`
√ Solve all the hard problems and worries! (Become an all-powerfull person!)
√ Make evryone around me hapy because of me!
Bai Zhou looked down at the notebook, then at Fang Xiaoxia, who was being soothed by the radiance flowing from its pages, his eyes lowering slightly.
*Helping another fallen child, are you, Class Monitor Fang?*
Yet Bai Zhou's heart soon grew heavy again.
Both he and the witch had noticed that, with the passage of time, the glow streaming from the notebook seemed to be dimming.
Because so little time had elapsed, the weakening was nearly imperceptible. Neither Bai Zhou nor the Gem Witch was ordinary, however, and their sharp powers of observation confirmed that this fading was undeniably real.
From this, they could deduce that in another hour or two, the radiance would no longer be able to sustain Fang Xiaoxia's stability. When that happened, the soul-summoning crisis would once again confront Bai Zhou.
"What should we do?" The Gem Witch looked toward Bai Zhou.
She didn't understand Fang Xiaoxia's condition, yet toward Bai Zhou—who had produced this mysterious notebook—she felt an inexplicable measure of trust. This mysterious wanted criminal who always managed to uncover classified intel, and who always pulled out mysterious items and extraordinary weapons—
The Gem Witch felt he might still have a way.
If Major Luo, who secretly wove a sky-covering web behind the scenes in Tinghai, was the tumor and source of disaster for this city...
Then this man was the nemesis destiny had chosen for him.
"..." Bai Zhou pondered in silence.
*Why are you looking at me? How would I know what to do?*
While he was indeed the current owner of the notebook, all he had ever done was draw a big red flower inside it. He had no idea what special connection existed between the notebook and Fang Xiaoxia.
He didn't even know why the notebook had reacted just now.
*Hum!*
At that moment, the notebook transmitted a distinct yearning to Bai Zhou.
This craving even stirred a faint resonance from the Yuanmeng school uniform, which was currently digesting and transforming inside the Trojan Horse.
"It yearns to be..."
Bai Zhou froze for a beat.
"Completed?"
As if struck by sudden inspiration, Bai Zhou understood the notebook's "plea."
The kaleidoscopic radiance was not infinite. The reason it was gradually waning was that the notebook was in an incomplete state.
The notebook's incompleteness was something Bai Zhou had known for a long time.
The notebook left behind by Fang Xiaoyan, and the school uniform left behind by the Exam King.
One black, one white; one brimmed with negative emotions, while the other lingered with positive feelings. Together, they formed a paired set capable of projecting the indistinct phantom of a school. That school resembled Yuanmeng Middle School, but the projection was so faint it was barely visible, incapable of truly manifesting.
This was because the black and white were unbalanced. The school uniform was complete while the notebook was not; the disparity in power between the two prevented the "set bonus" from truly taking form.
At first, Bai Zhou had speculated that the phantom might be a three-dimensional map of Yuanmeng Middle School within the Reflected Ruin Realm, or perhaps linked to certain secrets of that Ruin Realm school.
Yet even after Bai Zhou entered the Reflected Ruin Realm and cleared Yuanmeng Middle School, he hadn't discovered any further anomalies with the notebook.
On the contrary, the school uniform left by the Exam King had feasted ravenously, reaping immense spoils and evolving to an incredible degree. Even now, it was still suffering from indigestion, slowly completing its transformation.
Until today.
Bai Zhou finally saw hope for completing the notebook.
If the notebook could be completed, it would block the broadcast's influence over Fang Xiaoxia.
Perhaps it could even...
Unleash the set bonus and fully materialize that hazy phantom!
What was it, exactly, and what special effects did it possess?
Bai Zhou couldn't help but look forward to finding out.
However...
How was he supposed to complete it, and where?
*Hum!*
Above the notebook, a misty phantom drifted into view.
A pink room, Paul Frank bedsheets, and action figures and dolls visible in every corner...
The moment the image appeared, an intense yearning pulsed from the notebook.
"What is this?" The Gem Witch looked on in bewilderment, wondering whose bedroom this young girl's quarters belonged to and why Bai Zhou's mysterious little item was projecting it. *That's criminally suspicious! You, you actually have tastes like this?!*
Looking at the projection radiating from the notebook, Bai Zhou raised a brow.
"Is this... Fang Xiaoxia's bedroom?"
Bai Zhou turned around, exchanging a bewildered glance with the Gem Witch.
"In any case, this notebook is far too conspicuous."
When Fang Xiaoxia hazily opened her eyes, that was the first sentence to reach her ears.
Right now, she felt only a swollen, throbbing ache in her brain, dazed and disoriented.
"Notebook... what notebook?"
Raising her head, the girl looked around in confusion, but found nothing out of the ordinary.
She vaguely heard a low hum above her, yet looking up revealed only the pitch-black umbrella canopy Bai Zhou held aloft, with the muffled patter of raindrops striking above it.
Holding the umbrella, Bai Zhou tapped lightly on Fang Xiaoxia's crown a few times with one hand, concluding the final step of the ritual.
The rite was finished.
Bai Zhou retracted his hand with crisp, practiced elegance.
Glancing askance, Bai Zhou saw the notebook suspended above Fang Xiaoxia's head—invisible to others—steadily radiating brilliant light that poured continuously around her.
Walking down the street with such a notebook hovering overhead was far too conspicuous, like a walking multicolor light bulb, so Bai Zhou had performed a concealment ritual to hide it from view.
However, the practiced ease with which Bai Zhou conducted the ritual had not escaped the Gem Witch's eyes, drawing a gasp of admiration:
"I didn't expect you to know rituals too! Is there anything you can't do? Do you know magic runes?"
Though it was a casual question, her eyes flickered. For some reason, she was reminded once again of an unforgettable acquaintance.
A young master of magic runes who still owed her eight yuan and twenty-seven cents to this day.
The very man she had been yearning to find.
*Sigh, where on earth is he hiding? Will I ever see him again...?*
Soon, however, her train of thought was derailed by Bai Zhou's offhand reply:
"To be honest, for the longest time, I thought every Extraordinary knew a few rituals to get by."
The Gem Witch: "?"
*Are you even speaking human?!*
Yet Bai Zhou said this with complete sincerity, as if speaking from the bottom of his heart.
As if, in his understanding, Extraordinaries in this world were omnipotent decathletes across the board.
Capable of picking locks and breaking into houses just as easily as hypnotizing people with a wave of a hand, wielding blades to cut down foes while also setting up ritual seals, and preferably knowing a bit of magic runes on the side.
What a magnificent world of mystery, where everyone was a dragon among men.
In reality, the world of mystery was clearly nothing like that.
People couldn't simply allocate stat points to master skills like game characters, nor could they grind proficiency to level up their craft. For many, certain disciplines were like advanced calculus—if you didn't get it, you simply didn't get it.
Just as nobody was simultaneously a master programmer and a brilliant philosopher, an expert machine mechanic as well as a painter and writer—except for a rare few prodigies, everyone's talents leaned in specific directions, and everyone's energy was limited.
And just like in the mundane world, what influenced people's achievements and development besides talent was something even more crucial:
Learning resources.
This was especially true for an "aristocratic profession" like ritualist.
Learning rituals required not only an affinity for them, but also systematic legacy and guidance.
Even a Titled Extraordinary might only know six secret techniques, repeating them back and forth without a single extra trick.
Let alone ritualists.
Rituals were never something an Extraordinary could stumble upon by trial and error. The endlessly versatile rituals Bai Zhou cast might seem like micro-rituals or small-scale rituals at best, but they were the closely guarded secrets and signature crafts of ritualists.
The Gem Witch wanted to roast him, but she could genuinely see that his musings were earnest, as if he simply lacked the common sense of "bottom-tier Extraordinaries."
After a long silence that nearly caused her internal injuries from holding it in, the Gem Witch huffed:
"I feel like if you transmigrated to the Middle Ages, you'd be the kind of person to say, 'Why don't they just eat cake?'"
The witch sneered sarcastically:
"'Why do ordinary villagers worry about wolves carrying them off? Surely everyone has a knight in full plate armor beside them.'"
As she spoke, she glared daggers at Bai Zhou.
Bai Zhou blinked twice and added in clarification: "I did say that was my past understanding... I've only recently realized the issue. Actually, blame my teacher for this. That was how my teacher taught me back then. She said that if I couldn't even master these basics, she'd chop my head off with a blade, since there was no brain inside it anyway."
The Gem Witch: "?"
Well, that explained it.
His esteemed teacher was barely human either—no wonder she had produced a freak like him, who knew everything under the sun yet lacked basic grassroots common sense.
"If I ever get the chance, I'd really love to meet your teacher," the Gem Witch remarked with an odd, smiling expression. "To admire the grace of such a grand figure."
"..." Miss Crow, who had been strolling leisurely through the rain all this while, wore an awkward expression.
She soon regained her impassive face, holding her head high without uttering a word.
She merely picked up her pace slightly, leaving Bai Zhou behind.
"D-Did something happen?" Fang Xiaoxia's timid voice piped up.
The lingering ache deep inside her brain wouldn't dissipate, like someone who had suffered a prolonged high fever and still felt a throbbing headache even after the fever broke. But the girl didn't have time to dwell on the pain; she couldn't remember what had happened, only that she had lost her memory for a period of time. Compared to her own agony and bizarre condition, her first concern was:
"Did I... cause trouble for you guys?"
Fang Xiaoxia felt uneasy.
She didn't know what had happened, but feared she had done something that troubled Bai Zhou.
Just like a polar bear cub fearing it was becoming a burden to its mother, only to be abandoned in the vast, snowy expanse.
"Of course not," the Gem Witch said, turning back with an odd expression. "Everything is heading in a good direction. Don't worry, you have us."
The girl's timid voice instinctively caused the Gem Witch's tone to soften remarkably—so soft that Bai Zhou found it unfamiliar.
Bai Zhou agreed with the witch, however.
It couldn't be called trouble. After all, before finding Fang Xiaoxia, the complications Bai Zhou had anticipated were far more perilous than anything they had encountered so far; he had long prepared for the worst.
What was more, through Fang Xiaoxia's physical anomaly, he had found a way to complete the notebook and perfect the set.
It was like digging deep into filthy muck, only to uncover a hidden, ornate treasure chest.
"Right now, we're preparing to take you home for a visit," Bai Zhou reminded her. "However, everything will be done in absolute secrecy."
"G-Go home?" Fang Xiaoxia froze, her eyes widening suddenly. "Is that okay? Is it really not a problem?"
She looked pleasantly surprised, but that surprise was soon eclipsed by nervousness and unease:
"It's fine. If time is tight, I can just follow you. We don't need to go home..."
That was a lie.
How could she not want to go home?
When people ran into terrible, incomprehensible situations, their first instinct was usually to run home—to return to the shelter of their parents, to seek refuge in that warm haven away from it all.
Fang Xiaoxia was especially prone to this.
At the very least, before embarking on a grand escape, she ought to say a proper goodbye to her parents.
They were still waiting for her at home; if she stayed out all night like this, how worried would they be?
Yet the girl was also afraid that her selfishness would bring trouble to Bai Zhou, so she could only bury this extravagant wish deep in her heart, obediently following Bai Zhou as they fled through the rainy night.
Moreover, with all these inexplicable troubles suddenly piling onto her, and with her ordinary self suddenly targeted by so many strange figures as if she were a hot commodity... she worried that going home would implicate her parents and make them targets for bad people too.
Out of these complex thoughts, Fang Xiaoxia had deliberately tried to forget that wish.
Until Bai Zhou brought it up on his own accord.
Bai Zhou gave Fang Xiaoxia a deep look. He understood her thoughts well, but did not dwell on them, merely saying, "There is a necessity for us to go to your home right now."
"Furthermore..." Bai Zhou paused slightly, his eyes lowering. "Certain things might be different from what you imagine. You need to be mentally prepared."
Perhaps during this trip home, Fang Xiaoxia would see many things differently.
The Major had already sprung his trap, so the neighbors who had been surveilling Fang Xiaoxia all along would naturally have mobilized as well.
At this moment, those neighboring apartments were likely long deserted.
Darkness under the lamp—the most dangerous place was often the safest. Hardly anyone would expect Bai Zhou to dare bring Fang Xiaoxia "home" at a time like this, when even the soul-summoning had yet to succeed.
This was an important consideration behind Bai Zhou's boldness in visiting Fang Xiaoxia's house.
Yet Bai Zhou's underlying meaning went beyond that.
The most critical point was still...
Fang Xiaoxia's parents, whom she held so dear in her heart.
Having listened to Fang Xiaoxia's descriptions while in the form of a black cat, Bai Zhou had harbored doubts about them before.
Why did Fang Xiaoxia's parents tightly bind the girl in the name of love, dictating her life choices without compromise—whether schooling or moving—yet neglected her daily necessities and well-being in the name of freedom?
Why did such irresponsible parents constantly pay lip service to love while taking almost no practical action?
It was as if they were merely fulfilling parental duties symbolically, playing a role-playing game called "parents."
Bickering every single day, yet never parting.
They would argue incessantly over financial hardships, yet had never sold the house left to Fang Xiaoxia by her grandparents—as if it were true love. Yet when away on business trips, they couldn't care less about whether Fang Xiaoxia had food to eat, never even leaving behind a word of concern—as if they didn't love her at all.
Loving yet unloving, utterly bizarre.
Bai Zhou had thought he simply didn't understand the bond between parents and children; after all, he was completely ignorant in that regard.
But now... a faint answer was emerging for everything.
The observation report for the [Caged Bird Project] was extraordinarily detailed, demonstrating guidance and familiarity with Fang Xiaoxia far beyond normal imagination. The Major had spread a dragnet that tightly ensnared Fang Xiaoxia, this caged bird, and was completely confident she couldn't escape. From neighbors to classmates, and even to her homeroom teacher...
Then what "observers" could be closer to Fang Xiaoxia than her "parents"?
Would Major Luo's plan leave those two positions vacant?
Thinking up to this point, Bai Zhou felt a chill run down his spine.
The answer was already clear.
Fang Xiaoxia's parents were suspicious!
Hugely suspicious!
As long as one controlled Fang Xiaoxia's parents, one controlled Fang Xiaoxia's life.
This was the lowest-cost form of control.
That was why Fang Xiaoxia's parents always told her:
"We love you. Home is the safest place. The outside world is full of danger, and people's hearts out there are far too complicated."
The safest place truly was at home, but the most dangerous place was precisely this cage called "home."
"We must conceal ourselves thoroughly," Bai Zhou told Fang Xiaoxia. "We cannot alert anyone. Without my permission, you must not speak under any circumstances."
"It is going home, yes, but you will likely have to treat this as an intense dungeon crawl."
Bai Zhou looked solemnly at Fang Xiaoxia as he issued the warning, though his voice carried a touch of apology:
"If necessary, I will take certain measures... Otherwise, I cannot guarantee your safety!"
Hearing this, Fang Xiaoxia hurried to nod earnestly, raising both hands crosswise to cover her mouth tightly.
Although she didn't know what Bai Zhou was planning to do...
Being able to quietly take even one glance at home was enough to satisfy her.
Fang Xiaoxia was touched, thinking Bai Zhou was braving immense danger just to give her a chance to see home one last time.
*I absolutely cannot let everyone fall into danger on my account!* the girl resolved in her heart.
Everything proceeded silently.
The roaring downpour provided natural cover for their movements.
Soon, the trio arrived at a familiar street.
At this street corner, under the dim yellow streetlights, a certain young girl had once been attacked by a black bear.
Unfortunately for the bear, it had crossed paths with a passing Logger Vick, and fought with all its might only to suffer an inevitable defeat.
"Stay on guard!"
Although he had already deduced as much, Bai Zhou still cautiously chose to investigate the surroundings.
First, the Gem Witch scouted ahead with care.
Sure enough, just as expected, the nearby neighbors' homes were completely deserted.
They had probably all gone out searching for Fang Xiaoxia, never imagining that Fang Xiaoxia would return right here.
Yet Bai Zhou remained uneasy. Naturally cautious and thoroughly experienced in anti-ambush tactics, this wanted criminal insisted on scouting once more before he could rest easy.
"Stay right here. Don't wander off. Wait for me to return."
Bai Zhou left the two of them with this instruction.
Then, under Fang Xiaoxia's flabbergasted gaze—
In the pouring rain, Bai Zhou calmly closed the black umbrella and silently turned around.
Then, Bai Zhou vanished.
Above the splashing puddles, right where Bai Zhou had disappeared—
An elegantly poised black cat appeared in his place.
Fang Xiaoxia's eyes snapped wide. "??"
Chapter 188