The King of Black Fog

A figure flashed out, pressing their right arm on their left, while the left arm transformed into myriad vines that writhed and lashed out, ensnaring two nearby cars and hurling them towards Li Changzhou and the King Cobra.

Bang!

The King Cobra's tail, not particularly thick, swept through the air furiously, batting away the flying cars like a baseball.

Li Changzhou lightly tapped the ground with his toes, not only avoiding the cars thrown at him without slowing down but also using the momentum to propel himself into a second stage of acceleration.

"Boom!" With a thunderous noise, a car he kicked smashed to the ground.

At the same time, his speed was so fast it was almost like low-altitude flying, lunging towards the four without touching the ground.

The Black Death God, with his scythe on his shoulder, now held it aloft, ready to reap.

The figure with their left arm transformed into vines suddenly raised their right hand, and a huge lion's head emerged from their arm, struggling free.

"Roar!"

The sound wave was visible to the naked eye as it exploded.

All the glass in the underground parking lot shattered in concentric circles, and one car after another cried and wailed like babies.

With his 12-point constitution, such a soundwave couldn't affect Li Changzhou at all; it just made him slightly dizzy, and the King Cobra similarly ignored it.

The figure with vines and a lion's head on his hands looked at the two before him, man and snake, with a face filled with shock and panic, not anticipating that not only would his efforts fail to stop them, but they actually increased Li Changzhou's momentum.

Another figure stepped out from behind the first.

Crack!

An electric net stretched out suddenly, just barely keeping Li Changzhou and the King Cobra outside its five-meter radius.

Yang Qinglan's body shimmered with odd light.

"Ah!!" The person who had raised the electric net screamed in panic and fell to the ground, sitting down.

The electric net flickered uncertainly, on the verge of going out.

Yang Qinglan's eyes turned blue, and the other figure, about to come forward, fell backward.

What seemed slow was actually very fast; everything had happened in the blink of an eye from the moment Li Changzhou charged out.

The Black Death God held his scythe high, the King Cobra's neck flared, venom seeping from its fangs, and its body was about to shoot out like electricity.

"Hold your fire!" A familiar voice rang out.

"Boom!"

The car that had been struck flying by the King Cobra now crashed down with a boom, falling into a pile of cars like a person stumbling into a crowd.

"Wang Donghua?" Li Changzhou stopped in his tracks.

The Black Death God's scythe paused, and the King Cobra coiled its body like a spring storing energy, its vertical pupils reflecting the shadows of the four figures.

"What are you ambushing me for?" asked Li Changzhou.

"I thought you were here to besiege me," replied the fourth figure emerging, none other than Wang Donghua, who had been appearing as a drone in Prague.

"You know each other?" asked the third figure, thrown out by 'Attract and Repel', a short-haired woman.

Li Changzhou remembered her voice; she was the person who had changed Wang Donghua's brain in the video Xiao Yue played.

Today, she was not dressed as a doctor, but she still had the calmness of someone who handles scalpels, getting up from the ground without any emotional fluctuations.

"He's the 'King of Black Fog' I told you about, the player in Prague who got the 'Honey Jar World'," Wang Donghua explained.

"Don't talk nonsense, or I'll sue you for slander," Li Changzhou said with a smile, stepping forward.

The vine and lion people helped the sweating man who had controlled the electric net to his feet, looking at Li Changzhou with fear, as well as the two women who were slowly approaching.

The three of them, handsome men and beautiful women, wielded very harsh methods, dealing lethal blows with an oppressive feeling that was suffocating.

"If I die," Wang Donghua said, tapping his temple with the index finger of his left hand, "everything I know will spread all over the internet."

"I've been threatened enough lately," Li Changzhou spread his hands open as the Emerald Bee Sword slid into his palm, swelling with the wind, turning into a thin sword.

The King Cobra's tail furiously swept, bursting the fuel tank of a car, and flames blazed, creating a bonfire in the wide underground car park.

"I'm not threatening you, it's self-protection. I have no need to be your enemy," Wang Donghua's voice was calm.

"Just right; I also don't like killing. Leave your Identity Cards, and I'll let you leave," Li Changzhou flicked the Emerald Bee Sword with his finger, its blade quivering rapidly like the wings of a verdant bird, humming with vibration.

"We can cooperate," Wang Donghua said. "You're aware of my abilities. Let us go, and in the future, anything that can be done via the network, you can ask me."

"Isn't it the same if I have your Identity Card to make you help?" Li Qianxia asked, standing by Li Changzhou's side, with her right arm coiled around the Blood-colored Steel Spear like a snake.

Wang Donghua looked at Li Changzhou.

Li Changzhou understood; as long as he didn't want to be threatened, even having his Identity Card wouldn't compel him to do a thing.

Of course, they could kill him and take his Skill.

But...

Li Changzhou thought of Wang Donghua with a replaced brain, devoid of emotion, able to control a city's network, which clearly wasn't worth the trade.

That task had to be left to someone who deemed it worth doing, and that person was only Wang Donghua; it was his instinct.

"How do I trust you?" asked Li Changzhou.

Without a guarantee, he wasn't about to let such a troublesome enemy go.

"The Dancing House, the one who warned you about the Zombie Worms coming," Wang Donghua said.

Li Changzhou looked towards Li Qianxia, who shook her head; he then turned to Yang Qinglan.

Yang Qinglan whispered, "That incident did happen."

"Alright," Li Changzhou put away the Emerald Bee Sword, "pleased to cooperate."

"Pleased to cooperate, I've added you on WeChat, the chat content will be encrypted, you can find me for anything on it."

Li Changzhou took out his phone to check and, under 'W', there was indeed 'Wang Donghua.'

So convenient?

He recalled something and asked, "Brother Donghua, you said if you died, you would post everything you know online, but that wouldn't include... say, the browsing history on a friend's phone, would it?"

"You've reminded me, I'll add that in," Wang Donghua replied.

"...That will get you killed even faster," Li Changzhou said darkly, then asked, "What are you actually doing here in person?"

Ever since Yang Qinglan appeared, anything like phone browsing history had been impeccably clean for Li Changzhou.

One by one, cars started on their own, reversing into their spots – a scene filled with the beauty of intelligent automation.

As he did all this, Wang Donghua explained,

"I'm here to see the witch. I'm preparing to enter the Second Stage and will take the subway back. My abilities will be greatly limited, so I'm asking her if there's any solution. My friends here also want to ask about their personal matters."

Wang Donghua's abilities, when going back to the most recent twenty years were fine, but going any further back, they were practically useless.

This was the advantage of local terrain, just like how the Cardinal in red standing in the cathedral is so formidable that even Li Changzhou either has to make a preemptive move, or avoid clashing directly. But outside the cathedral, even a king cobra could squeeze him into a dough ball.

"The witch will do a divination for you?" Li Changzhou asked curiously.

"She doesn't care about white or black cards; she only cares about her Heavenly Mechanism," Wang Donghua blinked, "Someone's coming, so this is where we part ways. I've already turned off the cameras."

After saying that, he led his group away, efficient like a robot gone wrong.

"Brother, we should get going too," Li Qianxia tugged at Li Changzhou's sleeve.

If they were caught with all these cars, they probably would need to sell themselves to Yang Qinglan to pay off the debt.

Li Changzhou used "Honey Jar World" to collect the rented car and, along with her, quickly slipped away. They teleported to nearby and then conspicuously drove back.

The underground garage had already been sealed off.

They parked the car in front of the Sichuan Dan Dan Noodle store outside the neighborhood and proceeded on foot to find the witch.

The witch didn't look like one - just an ordinary middle-aged woman with a bit of a plump figure, folding beans.

"We..."

"Not perfect," the witch spoke up, snapping the beans with audible pops, pulling out strands of fiber.

The three exchanged glances. Was that it?

"Can I ask about my marriage prospects?" Li Qianxia suddenly leaned forward, helping to fold beans.

She was quick with her hands and feet, often folding beans for her grandma in the past, as well as pumpkin and sweet potato vines. She could also peel corn, peas, soybeans, and so on.

The witch glanced at her, looking at her just like any ordinary middle-aged woman would: "What are your standards for a partner?"

"Someone handsomer than my brother is enough," she said.

"I suggest you change your criteria," the witch withdrew her gaze.

Li Changzhou, struck by the comment, sat down to help fold beans, something he often did with his grandfather in his childhood, planting rice, cutting rice stalks, weeding, and applying pesticides.

Yang Qinglan watched with an amused glance.

"Auntie," Li Changzhou sweetly asked, "what about my marriage prospects?"

The auntie picked up a section of folded beans he had worked on, peeling off a fiber he had missed.

She examined Li Changzhou for a moment.

"My standards are..."

Before he could finish, the auntie gestured towards Yang Qinglan with a slight nod of her chin.

Yang Qinglan immediately crossed her arms, concentrating intently on studying the statue of Mazu on the altar.

"Auntie, how much is the charge?" Li Changzhou earnestly asked, as if ready to pay any amount.

"Auntie, please check for me again! I'll settle for someone as handsome as my brother, I don't need someone handsomer," Li Qianxia clutched the auntie's hand.

"You don't have marriage prospects," the witch said.

"Why not?!" Li Qianxia stopped folding beans altogether.

"You might have some if you leave your brother."

"Then forget it. Qing Lan won't pull the catheter for my brother; if he didn't have me, how miserable would his late years be? He'd definitely end up in adult diapers," she said.

For the first time, the witch showed human emotion – she couldn't help but give Li Qianxia another look, realizing that her lack of marriage prospects wasn't without reason (and she didn't stop folding beans during this process).

"Auntie, isn't it dangerous for you to live here alone? There was a fight in the underground garage just now," Li Qianxia asked curiously.

"Not scared. I know you were involved in the fight," the witch said.

"Not us!" Li Qianxia firmly denied.

"Wang Donghua is trustworthy. His doctor was involved in humanity's first head transplant. One of his other companions runs an orchard, with the Instinct of 'Grafting.' The last one used to be a high-altitude electrical worker." In the time it took to say all this, the witch deftly finished folding the last three beans, as swift as swift can be.

Yang Qinglan looked over, "Are you helping us?"

"I only help the future," the witch said.

She picked up the winnowing basket filled with folded beans and gave it a shake, "It's time for you to leave, and for me to leave too."

"Are you the 'you' from the future?" Li Changzhou blurted out.

The witch put down the basket, closed her eyes, and then suddenly her head lurched to the side, making bystanders instinctively want to support her for fear that she might lose consciousness and fall to the ground.

They waited a while, yet she didn't regain consciousness.

"Let's go," Yang Qinglan said.

Realizing she would no longer answer their questions, the siblings followed her out of the witch's home.

Li Changzhou followed at the back, gently closing the door behind them.

The moment the door shut, the witch's eyes opened. She slowly got up, knelt before the statue of Mazu, clasped her hands together, and trembled as if chilled to the bone.

The black mist that left with Li Changzhou passed halfway through the door, while the other half remained inside.

The figure made of black mist, indistinguishable from front to back, seemed to be looking at her.

The witch's shaking became more intense; the statue of Mazu, as if hit by an earthquake, jolted erratically.

"The witch really is gifted, and she doesn't charge at all, a sign of true skill!" Li Changzhou admired as he stepped into the elevator, and the black mist was promptly pulled away.

Mazu slowly steadied, and the witch seemed to recover from the chill.

When she stopped trembling, she opened her eyes, full of bewilderment, stood up, and looked confusedly at the folded beans.

"What's going on?" she asked, puzzled.

"Only the King of Black Fog will reign forever," she answered.

"Is that the person you've been talking about?!" she asked urgently, startled.

She received no reply.