Cyber Ghosts

Chapter 158 Long Fei in Trouble, Soul Coins for Fight
Hao Ning took a closer glance and found that the card was a small piece of leaf coated by paper . Inside the paper was a piece of bamboo leaf, not in commonplace jade green, but in a caramel-like yellow gradually intensifying from top to bottom. Hao Ning originally presumed it a result of the artistic process, but he noticed some nuances when scrutinizing it. The rest of the green part was actually turning yellow in a visibly fast speed when observed attentively.

“Oh no!” Xiao Hong screamed, “Long Fei’s in trouble!”

While saying that, Xiao Hong reached for a tip in the air and a drift of warm vapor strolled towards the cup on the table. The rest of the tea made from bamboo leaves of black bamboo grove evaporated and surmounted, then became a lovely tiny cloud in the air. Xiao Hong pulled out the pack of bamboo tea, picked three leaves and rubbed them with his hands. The tea suddenly turned into green powder. At the moment, the tiny cloud even started a loosely light rain in the meeting room. The raindrops didn’t fell to the ground. It stopped in the air instead. Then as more raindrops accumulated in the air, a transparent water ball was shaped.

Xiao Hong made another tip. The green powder flew into the suspended water ball. After a while, the powder and the water combined to be a tea water ball in jade green and spun swiftly in the air.

“Bullshit…” Hao Ning, though sensible of the beauty of Xiao Hong’s stunt-like magic, felt puzzled, “Xiao Hong, you need to exert your power even when making a tea soup?”

Hao Ning’s words did make some sense. The tea soup in Japan was basically produced by milling the tea to powder and melting it with water. Then guests were supposed to drain it. Certainly, the method originated in China. It was later picked up by Japanese and followed until today. Hao Ning personally didn’t appreciate such a method which was as if drinking water once used for pot washing. He just didn’t figure it out that why Xiao Hong made a tea soup in that way.

“Stop nonsense!” Liu Shuai, who knew about Hao Ning’s lack of mythological knowledge, pursued by flattering in case Hao Ning lost face in front of Nezha, “Xiao Hong made rootless water using his master skill. Brilliant! He’s able to exert such skill which transforms water to rootless ones in a narrow space like this. That’s quite rare. He couldn’t have achieved this without a thorough grasp of vapor control.”

“Exactly!” However, Xiao Hong wasn’t following Liu Shuai’s flattering. He acted and gazed at the green leaf which was turning yellow gradually, seeming urgent, “It was taught by Uncle Sun. He once saved several kings’ lives with rootless water in the world of the Journey to the West.

Hao Ning remembered at his explanation. There were such plots in Journey to the West. Monkey King made the medicine and let kings have it with rootless water. The so-called rootless water was actually raindrops which hadn’t fallen to the ground. It was called rootless water amid heaven and earth as well. Monkey King couldn’t initiate rain. He might have only taught Xiao Hong about the conception of rootless water. But Xiao Hong was born with gift in spell and magic, so he definitely knew how to obtain such water. Hao Ning just couldn’t see what Xiao Hong did this for and why he affirmed that Long Fei was in trouble. At that thought, he couldn’t help but ask, “How do you know Long Fei’s tangled with trouble?”

“When Long Fei was cutting bamboos in the mountain ‒” Xiao Hong, seeing Hao Ning’s confused face, explained, “Brother Zhang once made a bamboo leaf connected with his life using the bamboos he got. If he fell into any misfortune, the leaf was doomed to be destroyed first. In case we can’t make it save him, as long as we keep the leaf alive, Long Fei’s soul will be conserved! Now I only knew that Long Fei’s in trouble, but do not know where he is. So, I can only save his soul first by this!”

After that, the green ball spun faster and faster but got smaller and smaller. Eventually, it ended up with a ball of pinkie tip’s size rather than a volleyball-like sphere at the beginning. Xiao Hong, seeing it almost done, swung his two fingers and the ball fell into the bamboo leaf within the paper. At the moment, the caramel-like leaf with only a speck of green remaining suddenly revived as if having taken a philter. Jade green was going up little by little and the yellow receded to only half of the leaf. The green was being more and more vigorous, overwhelming enough to expel the yellow out of the leaf.

“Shoo ‒” Xiao Hong wiped his sweat as if having experienced a tough struggle. Then one thing occurred to his mind and he asked Liu Shuai seriously, “By the way, where’s Long Fei? Why is he not with you?”

“Em?” Hao Ning somehow decoded the underlying meaning of the question. Xiao Hong didn’t ask “why he wasn’t with you two” but “why not with you” to Liu Shuai instead. He saw the nuance between the two. Did Xiao Hong figure that Long Fei was supposed to be with Liu Shuai?

“He?” Liu Shuai, who wasn’t as fussy as Liu Shuai in terms of words, didn’t perceive the difference, “He went to Qingbei University in Pingjing for some stuff…”

“What did he go there for?” Xiao Hong suddenly began to roar. He beat the table and rose up, “Is he mad? He left you here and went to blend in the stuff of another city? Who does he think he is? Dragon King of the East Sea? If he’s so capable, why doesn’t he go to heaven directly? He doesn’t even know how much he weighs! With such bloody insignificant tricks, how dare he wander around? I’ll wait for him the little dragon back, peel his skin and strip his tendons!”

Watching that Xiao Hong got irritated for no reason, how dared Liu Shuai and the others to respond? Hao Ning, though not afraid of Xiao Hong, felt guilty for not stopping Long Fei, and didn’t find his words either.

“Are you going to strip dragon’s tendons?” Nezha, not conscious of what was going on, seemed in the desire to help at the sight of Xiao Hong’s angry face. He said in an excited expression, “If you want to strip dragon’s tendons, my experience can help.”

“Stop getting it worse…” Hao Ning peered at the two childish gods. One was Hong Hai’er who once set fire to Monkey King, while the other was Nezha who stripped the dragon’s tendon by hand. They gained success at a young age so impulsive behaviors were inevitable. He could do nothing but persuade out of kindness, “Xiao Hong was speaking nonsense in temper. He got along well with the dragon and he was saving him just now…”

“No!” Xiao Hong stared at the leaf in a changed face before he spared the time to respond to Hao Ning’s words, “What is it? How can he hurt Long Fei so badly? Even if the rootless water I refine with Innate Spiritual Fire accompanied by bamboo leaves from black bamboo groves can’t deal with him?”

Hao Ning turned to the leaf, only to find the yellow was sprawling again. The green which had occupied more than half of the area then was subjected to a sequence of failure. It seemed out of strength. Hao Ning pursued in a flurry, “Xiao Hong, come to use more leaves! Don’t be frugal in an emergency.”

“Three strikes and you’re out…” Xiao Hong shook his head and sighed, “Even more of it can’t help.”

“Then what to do?” Hao Ning said hastily, “It seems that he’s in great danger! What to do?” Saying that, he peered at Zhou Yuan, “Or you and I circle escape to save him? Long Fei should have his mobile with him. You can trace him, right?” After that, he took out his mobile looking through for Long Fei’s contact.

Before Zhou Yuan uttered any words, Xiao Hong picked up instantly, “No way! The creature which is able to push three black bamboo leaves so hard must possess tremendous power. I’m not positive about my success. If we go there baldly, with such a few of us ‒” He glanced at everyone and shook his head, “We’ll probably get trapped, too. To say the least, we’re not there to kill our enemies but to save our comrades. Even if we’re able to triumph over our opponents, if they’ve got some methods to delay for several minutes, Long Fei would lose his life.”

Hao Ning was clear that Xiao Hong was the most powerful one among them. Liu Shuai wasn’t a competitive one even before he had lost his power. Zhou Yuan could achieve nothing but upgrade his outlook aside from delusive magic. Nezha would be of help if he’d got his full power, while for then he couldn’t even use the Nine Dragons Shield of Divine Fire at ease with his own strength. Surely, they couldn’t count on him. As for himself… Ah, no mention, no tears.

“So…” Nezha, who didn’t get any approval when he said to help Xiao Hong strip the dragon’s tendon, asked tentatively in face of everyone’s muteness, “How about trying with soul coin materials?”

“Em?” Something occurred to Hao Ning and he nodded in favor, “Good. Why not? Based on such effectiveness of Divine Fire Column of Nine Dragons.”

“But I’ve never tried, with black bamboo leaves…” Xiao Hong was somewhat hesitant but made up his mind seeing the whole leaf being about to turn yellow, “Let’s do it!”

He tipped the tiny bottle at his words. Some materials of soul coins went out of the bottle and dripped into the tea on the leaf.

The tea began to shake turbulently at a crackle. In no time it was about to levitate carrying the paper. Xiao Hong got stunned and was intended to hold back the paper. While the paper revolved in the air and disappeared all of a sudden. The twist went too fast, which left Xiao Hong and the others staring at Nezha in silence.

“Nezha,” Hao Ning peered dully at Nezha who was in a similar muddle, “Where did you bring Long Fei’s leaf?”

“Eh…” Nezha didn’t expect such an outcome, either, “Nowhere. I did not move. It was he who exerted the material just now!” He pointed at Xiao Hong at the end of his words and waved his hands nervously to stress that he wasn’t involved at all, “Whatever, I can only take the blame for my suggestion, but not for execution!”

“Xiao Hong?” Hao Ning was looking at Xiao Hong, who broke out in a cold sweat. He was about to help, while for then, the tool for help had disappeared.

“Maybe we had too much of it? No extreme will hold long?” Liu Shuai speculated. Nezha had consumed only a little just now, while Xiao Hong, who was urgent to save Long Fei, used a lot as if they’d been free.

“No. I’ve never heard of that it would come to reverse when we use too much.” Nezha shook his head.

The virtual reality cracked abruptly during their conversation, and the paper-coated leaf flew out of the rip, accompanied by thick vapor which was glowing subtly golden light. Xiao Hong was frightened to a shiver at the sight of the golden light, “Piss it! How it appears? Who borrowed South Sea Water Essence?”

“South Sea Water Essence?” It sounded familiar to Hao Ning. Then he recalled from Xiao Hong’s countenance that it was what Zhang Chi Hang borrowed with Clear Glass Bottle when subduing Xiao Hong. It was known for the golden gleam.

“Maybe it is a result of excessive material of soul coins…” Liu Shuai saw the almost fully golden drops facilitating the green on the leaf to surmount swiftly with the caramel-like yellow regressing to a small corner. It was far faster than when Xiao Hong cast his spell just now.

“It should be.” Nezha seemed hilarious, too, “Brother Hao Ning, your material is literally miraculous with such an unimaginable purity, which accounts for the upgrading power of rootless water and black bamboo leaves, furthermore, the divine effectiveness.”

“That makes sense.” Xiao Hong, gazing at the paper, got excited and rubbed his palm, “Rootless water is definitely attractive to water essence. S City, located nearby the South Sea, has got affluent vapor. It’s reasonable to break through the air and went above the sea to absorb the water essence. But why’s the yellow on the leaf so persistent that it can’t be eliminated?”

All of a sudden, the leaf shook with a bang. The yellow spot disappeared, but the whole vein of the leaf got messed up. “No!” Xiao Hong shouted, “Long Fei must have used his inherent spirit to destroy some arrays of the rival. Though the spirit remains now, it should be extremely weak!”

Saying that, Xiao Hong’s mobile rang. Xiao Hong’s face changed when seeing the caller. He said nothing after picking up the phone. After several words from that side, Xiao Hong’s expression got worse and worse. Hanging up the phone, Xiao Hong said to Zhou Yuan agitatedly, “Hurry! Turn the area spanning thirty kilometers around here all into a sea!”