Chapter 13: Yuan Xiao Xiao

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Yuan Xiaoxiao was Liu Lang’s senior at school, though she had no recollection of him.

“We went to the same high school. You even came back to give us a speech at the start of our senior year!”

Yuan Xiaoxiao narrowed her eyes slightly. “I remember now. Your name is Liu Langhe! You were the one who asked how to get into Tsinghua or Peking University without taking the entrance exam!”

Liu Lang flushed with embarrassment.

She then turned to Tu Ning. “Bai Yuanxiang, what are you doing here? And with my junior, no less... Wait, weren’t you missing?”

Tu Ning was still wearing the face she had “borrowed.” She gave a faint smile and linked her arm through Liu Lang’s. “I wasn’t missing. I just sneaked away for a few days to have fun with my boyfriend.”

“Wow, you two... You...” Yuan Xiaoxiao was adorably wide-eyed as she exaggerated her astonishment. “You’re still in your final year of high school, while Bai Yuanxiang, you’ve already started your internship, haven’t you? How did you two even meet when you live so far apart?”

“We met through a message in a bottle...” Since he had no idea what was going on, Liu Lang chose to play along with Tu Ning’s act.

Yuan Xiaoxiao gave him a mischievous smile. “I won’t tell anyone. Why are you two still here so late at night? I was up all night in the laboratory and came out for a stroll.”

“Could we take a look at your laboratory? I’ve always been curious about it,” Tu Ning asked, pretending to be shy.

Yuan Xiaoxiao readily agreed and led the way.

Liu Lang and Tu Ning exchanged a glance, both of them somewhat surprised.

It was probably the middle of the night. Staying overnight in a laboratory was barely plausible, but Yuan Xiaoxiao completely ignored the unconscious Liu Fei’er Liu Lang was carrying on his back.

As Yuan Xiaoxiao walked into the red-brick building, Tu Ning stopped Liu Lang. Thanks to her spatial ability, she could sense that stepping into the building would not lead anywhere else—it would take them into the strange space they had just visited.

“Why aren’t you coming in?” Yuan Xiaoxiao—the Ghost Bride—asked over her shoulder.

She wore khaki shorts and a white T-shirt. Only now did a phoenix crown emerge atop her head, while her face sank beneath a veil of shadows.

Seeing that Liu Lang and Tu Ning had not moved—in fact, had taken two steps back—she asked again, “What’s wrong?”

With every step she took, she seemed to transform further into the Ghost Bride.

A cool breeze brushed across his face. The gentle wind, blowing from somewhere unknown, roused Liu Fei’er.

She murmured and rubbed her eyes as she awoke. “Liu Lang... why aren’t you coming in?”

Tu Ning panicked and hastily retreated several yards, her expression guarded.

What Liu Lang was holding was no longer Liu Fei’er. It was the Ghost Bride!

When he looked at Yuan Xiaoxiao again, she had reverted to her original form and collapsed on the ground.

Suppressing his fear, Liu Lang lowered his trembling head and stared directly into the Ghost Bride’s face in his arms. “I won’t let you take Fei’er away again!”

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The strange spiritual energy within his body surged wildly, while the dagger spun frantically around him.

The red tomoe of his Sharingan turned blue, and the single tomoe became two.

“The Sharingan naturally contains spatial abilities once developed to a certain depth. After mutating, mine can now see through the Ghost Bride’s spatial powers!”

Blood trickled from the corners of his eyes, and blue flames erupted across the Ghost Bride’s body.

“Amaterasu! You really do possess the Susanoo bloodline! But the legends say Amaterasu’s flames are black. How did yours become blue?” Tu Ning asked in astonishment.

Perhaps because they were being driven by strange spiritual energy, the Amaterasu flames had turned blue.

The Ghost Bride broke free of Liu Fei’er and shot wildly through the air, trying to escape the Amaterasu flames. Instead, the fire only grew more intense!

“This is her domain. Although it looks as though we’re in the same space, she’s actually in another space overlapping this one. In theory, no attack should be able to reach her while she’s inside that other space...”

Tu Ning’s shock grew greater by the second.

“His Amaterasu flames can burn through space!”

Was this the power of the Susanoo bloodline, or did it come from Liu Lang himself?

The Ghost Bride left behind a transparent shell in midair, while her true body shed itself like a cicada escaping its husk and finally fled from the blue flames, vanishing to God knew where.

“A third spatial layer! She really is an elf favored by space itself... If only I could obtain her ability...” Tu Ning’s heart burned with desire. “Fortunately, she’s merely a mindless rule-bound ghost.”

The transparent shell in the air was burned to nothing, and something fell from it.

A signal transmitter!

Tu Ning froze for a second. Then her figure vanished, and when she reappeared, she had already teleported beside the transmitter.

Blue flames ignited once more around the signal transmitter. Deeply wary, Tu Ning had no choice but to stop.

The corners of Liu Lang’s mouth lifted slightly. “That belongs to us.”

Countless questions surged through his mind. The signal transmitter had clearly been hidden inside Fei’er’s body—so why had it appeared here?

This was a special talent of Liu Fei’er, the vampire. A tiny independent space existed within her body, capable of storing objects. It was nearly useless because of its limited size, but it was perfect for concealing a signal transmitter.

“You little freak, you deceived me so badly,” Tu Ning said bitterly. “The Susanoo bloodline truly is formidable. Even I wouldn’t dare touch your blue Amaterasu flames. But how long can you keep them burning, with your meager D-rank strength?”

Yuan Xiaoxiao regained consciousness and stared at the scene in confusion. “Who are you? Why are you in my laboratory?”

The moment she spoke, both Liu Lang and Tu Ning began to hear a faint, indistinct commotion.

“Officer, Xiaoxiao disappeared halfway through her experiment. The surveillance footage shows her vanishing all at once...”

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“Report! Twenty female students from Tsinghua University have gone missing. Yuan Xiaoxiao was the first case.”

“What was she researching? Space? Do you know whether she had made any unusual wishes recently?”

“Hey, am I imagining things, or is the Min Province signal transmitter right here beside us...?”

...

Tu Ning’s expression changed.

Could they still be inside the Ghost Bride’s domain? The voices they had just heard must have slipped in from the outside because the space had become unstable.

“This is bad. Three beings stronger than Hachishaku-sama have descended!”

The sky split apart, like an overturned glass bowl covered in irregular cracks.

Space shattered!

The enormous spatial turbulence made it impossible for anyone to control their own body.

The Ghost Bride appeared once more. Before the space completely collapsed, she seized Liu Lang, Tu Ning, and Liu Fei’er and flew into another space.

Liu Lang vaguely heard someone shouting, “It really is the Min Province signal transmitter!” and “The missing female students are all here!”

When he awoke again, they had returned to the bottom of the cliff.

The Ghost Bride returned to her bridal sedan. Her procession continued through the ravine until it disappeared from sight.

Tu Ning’s eyes and nose had vanished once more, leaving behind a pale, flawless oval face.

“Little freak, I’ve lost both my wife and my troops. So the signal transmitter was inside your little girlfriend all along. But now I can’t get my hands on it. What do you think I should do?”

Her voice was delicate and honeyed, yet it carried an overwhelming murderous intent.

Tu Ning revealed her true form as Kuchisake-onna: a two-meter-tall woman with arms dangling past her knees, her deathly white face bearing only a pair of red lips stretching from one ear to the other.

“You know, if I fail this mission, I’ll wish I were dead. But you actually possess the Susanoo bloodline. If I take you back, perhaps Hachishaku-sama can use you to restrain Ninja Hero...”

Somewhere in the countryside.

At a dilapidated village school.

She stood beside the school’s battered basketball hoop, whose wooden backboard had long since rotted black.

“The villagers say they see the Ghost Bride here every three days. We’ve waited here for three days already, and aside from the oppressive yin energy, there’s been nothing at all.”

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