Above the Old Whale Flavors Food Street, a giant white dove carried a boy and girl through the dazzling neon signs, folded its wings, and rapidly descended, finally landing in a deserted alley.
Su Zimai put away her Celestial Driver in the alley, reverting to an ordinary high school girl.
She anxiously tied up her hair, ready to hurriedly leave the alley, then stopped and turned back to Ji Minghuan, saying, "Go ho by taxi first. You don’t have to wait for ."
"Alright, go on." Ji Minghuan shrugged, "I’ll wait outside for you to co ho, otherwise you might get whisked away by Ke Qirui again, and then Dad and Big Brother will take it out on ."
"Suit yourself then."
Su Zimai frowned, stuffed her hands into the pockets of her hoodie, and walked straight to a sizeable Xiang Cuisine Restaurant after leaving the alley.
Ji Minghuan leaned against the wall, stood in the alley, fiddling with his phone while extending his restraint belt from his coat sleeve.
With the restraint sensing fully activated, the noisy voices poured in like a tsunami. He observed Su Zimai’s back without any change in expression.
Su Zimai stopped at the entrance of the Xiang Cuisine Restaurant, and Ke Qirui soon ca out to et her. After exchanging a couple of words with Su Zimai, she curiously turned her head and glanced in the alley’s direction.
At this mont, Ji Minghuan intentionally turned his face to et her gaze, wondering if Ke Qirui would be willing to bring him along or planned to leave him outside.
Ke Qirui slightly raised her eyebrows and cast a glance at Ji Minghuan from under the brim of her hat. She then took out her phone from her trench coat pocket and sent him a ssage.
[Ke Qirui: Aren’t you going to join us for a al?]
[Gu Wenyu: Nah, I was just dragged out by my sister, and she ended up forgetting about her plan with you.]
[Ke Qirui: Alright then.]
Staring at the ssage on his phone, Ji Minghuan thought, "Although I really want Black Cocoon to stir things up to gain so presence among the Lake Hunting people, this will definitely make Ke Qirui suspicious, especially since she has doubted several tis before."
"Moreover... the people of Lake Hunting are no ordinary folks, not to ntion Zhou Jiuya’s eccentric temperant. If I’m recognized as Black Cocoon, it’ll most likely implicate my sister."
Reflecting on his conversation with Su Zimai on the dove’s back, Ji Minghuan also understood how serious Su Zimai was about climbing up the ranks in the Exorcist Realm, so he shrugged.
He thought, "Let’s just forget it for today, hang around outside, and try to take a look at the other three mbers of Lake Hunting besides Zhou Jiuya."
Just after Ji Minghuan had retracted his restraint belt, Ke Qirui ca straight through the crowd with Su Zimai and stopped at the edge of the alley.
"What’s going on? Weren’t you eting with so bigwigs for dinner?" Ji Minghuan looked up from his phone and turned his head to her.
"It’s just an ordinary dinner." Ke Qirui smiled, "We are only discussing so ordinary things. Since you’re here, join us, we can’t just leave Maimai’s brother outside."
Is this dinner really ordinary? Ji Minghuan wondered.
Su Zimai t Ji Minghuan’s eyes, the forr sighed, while the latter spread his hands helplessly.
"Don’t randomly speak later."
"Like soone crying on the rooftop just now?"
"Shut up!"
"Crybaby."
Finally, led by Ke Qirui, the two walked into the Xiang Cuisine Restaurant, went up to the second floor, passed through a row of slightly bowing waiters, and arrived at a private room bathed in orange light.
Upon entering, Ji Minghuan glanced sideways. He saw two unfamiliar figures sitting in the private room.
One was naturally Zhou Jiuya, wearing a Chinese tunic suit with slicked-back hair. He was leaning against the sofa back, taking a nap with his eyes closed, his brow relaxed, looking like he was sleeping soundly;
The other was a handso young man with a black braid and wearing a blue Republic-era gown and robe. His features were delicate and his eyes held a gleam as sharp as a sword.
The young man slightly smiled, fanned himself with a folding fan, and turned to Zhou Jiuya, "Zhou Jiuya, even your cousin has arrived, and you’re still sleeping?"
"Auction’s after-effects..." Zhou Jiuya replied without opening his eyes, "Weren’t her people not all here yet? Can’t I take a little rest?"
Ke Qirui took off her Rustic Hat and placed it on the coat rack, teasing, "Didn’t you say ’Lin Xingshi’ was coming too? It’s not just our side running late, you can’t exclude him from being late because he’s the leader of Lake Hunting."
"Lin Xingshi said sothing ca up last minute, so he probably won’t make it." The handso young man smiled.
Ke Qirui politely replied, "That’s a pity, but eting the famous Zhuge Hui is quite an honor."
"What’s the honor, this man ranks at the bottom of Lake Hunting." Zhou Jiuya yawned.
"No face-saving at all... Old Crow, I’m suddenly regretting accompanying you for dinner." Zhuge Hui said while opening his folding fan, then suddenly flapped it towards Zhou Jiuya’s face.
Zhou Jiuya didn’t even open his eyes, he simply extended two fingers to hold the fan, "My cousin pouting is one thing, but I won’t tolerate it from you, or I really might just cut you down."
"You two give the vibe of high school students." Ke Qirui jokingly said.
"So... the little sister and little brother you brought are?" Zhou Jiuya opened his eyes.
He slowly turned his head, his eyes with a faint golden hue swept over the room’s entrance.
Su Zimai and Ji Minghuan, like students punished to stand by their teacher, leaned against the room door, standing there motionless, the sibling duo trembling slightly.
Su Zimai’s nervousness was because it was her first ti seeing the people of Lake Hunting. What kind of people are Lake Hunting? The world’s most recognized powerful exorcist team, each mber backed by a deep-rooted, long-standing family of exorcists.
But Ji Minghuan was different.
He had seen with his own eyes the people of Lake Hunting unleash the power of a tiger. Previously, in Xia Pingzhou’s first-person viewpoint, the oppressive feeling given by Zhou Jiuya was like that of a fucking villainous big Boss Terminator — in the auction house, Li Qingping and Bai Tanlang were fighting as if the sky was collapsing, yet Zhou Jiuya didn’t even wake up, nor was he affected by their battle. From beginning to end, he sat there in one chair, unmoving.
In the end, he appeared and instantly killed two dragon-level mbers of the White Crow Travel Brigade, using it as a warning to others.
If not for his good luck, it might not have been Lan Duoduo who died in the auction house, but his number two body. After all, Zhou Jiuya tended to choose the weakest dragon-level mbers to make a move on, and Xia Pingzhou was among them.
Now, Zhou Jiuya beca one of his own overnight, chatting leisurely with others in front of him like it was a casual conversation. This sense of dissonance made Ji Minghuan quite uncomfortable.
He had to remind himself that he was Gu Wenyu, not Xia Pingzhou, afraid that while eating, a Bronze Pillar would suddenly smash down from above and leave him in darkness, sending his number one body to Hell to et Uncle Takayama and the port girl Lan Duoduo.
"This little girl is called Su Zimai."
Ke Qirui smiled slightly, introducing her while gently wrapping an arm around Su Zimai’s shoulder, then taking a pipe out of the pocket of her trench coat.
She put the pipe in her mouth and continued, "She just awakened as an Exorcist half a year ago, and now she has already advanced to the second tier. Even the president has nothing but praise for her, saying she is an unprecedented genius."
The corners of Su Zimai’s eyes twitched slightly. She felt that Ke Qirui’s words were like a ga scene where her teammate boasted to a group of the strongest kings, ’She climbed from Bronze to Silver in just half a month. Isn’t she impressive? Isn’t she talented? She’s practically a ga genius?’
She was so embarrassed she practically wanted to find a hole to bury her head in. In the end, she just lightly bumped Gu Wenyu with her shoulder.
Ji Minghuan rolled his eyes at her, thinking, why should I care if your leader tornts you?
"Impressive!" Zhuge Hui tapped the table with a folding fan, "Even our leader Lin Xingshi took almost a year to reach the second tier. This young girl must have an extraordinary future."
He paused and turned to Ji Minghuan, smiling as he asked, "And this one is?"
"Maimai’s brother, nad ’Gu Wenyu’." Saying this, Ke Qirui found a spot in the booth to sit down, resting her chin in her hand, "Gu Wenyu happened to be taking her shopping, so I invited him along."
"Oh... so does this little brother know about Exorcists?" Zhuge Hui asked.
Ji Minghuan nodded: "I know, though I’m just an ordinary person."
"That’s good, that’s good." Zhuge Hui said.
"What are you all standing around for? Find a place to sit." Ke Qirui turned to look at the siblings.
So Su Zimai sat next to Ke Qirui, and Ji Minghuan sat beside Su Zimai.
Their sitting posture was very well-behaved, with heads hanging down.
"What is Lake Hunting, are these people very powerful?" he whispered into Su Zimai’s ear.
"Very powerful." Su Zimai whispered back, "Lake Hunting is like the Rainbow Wings among the Mutants, the strongest organization among Exorcists, but they have only four people, whereas Rainbow Wings has twelve... In terms of Superpower User ratings, each person in Lake Hunting is of the Catastrophe level, or possibly even stronger."
"Who would win if Lake Hunting fought Rainbow Wings?" Ji Minghuan raised an eyebrow and continued to ask.
"Lake Hunting." Zhou Jiuya interjected coldly, then continued to rest with his eyes closed.
"Can you not eavesdrop on what the little brother and sister are saying? Where’s your etiquette?" Zhuge Hui asked.
"I just don’t understand why others hold Rainbow Wings in such high esteem." Zhou Jiuya said.
"Don’t say... I feel that we might not actually win against Rainbow Wings, especially that ’Urushibara Ryuri’, her abilities are very restraining to ." Zhuge Hui waved the fan.
"That’s because you’re too weak." Zhou Jiuya said, "Being at the bottom, nobody has any expectations for you."
Zhuge Hui was indifferent and chattered on, "Usually, it’s I who devises the strategies; otherwise, you three brutes wouldn’t have survived to this day. Wouldn’t you have t your end long ago? You all don’t think of the strategist as a real person, do you? What you’re doing is undermining my contributions."
While the two were conversing, Ji Minghuan, sitting opposite, was stunned, his mind repeatedly echoing the na of the Rainbow Wings mber Zhuge Hui ntioned.
"Urushibara... Ryuri?"
He muttered internally and suddenly recalled the report he heard at the Salvation Society that day.
.....
"Catastrophe-level Superpower User, code number 10059 — ’Urushibara Ryuri’ requests to et the ntor."
......
"Wait," Ji Minghuan’s heart tensed, "so you’re saying... among the twelve of Rainbow Wings, there is an infiltrator from the Salvation Society who is a Catastrophe-level Superpower User? The influence of the Salvation Society has already infiltrated Rainbow Wings?"
He thought for a mont: "Moreover... more importantly, why does this surna sound so familiar?"
At this mont, the na of the White Crow Travel Brigade’s leader flashed through Ji Minghuan’s mind:
——"Urushibara Osamu".
"The leader’s surna? Is there any connection between Urushibara Ryuri and Urushibara Osamu? Assuming they are related, does the leader also have connections to the Salvation Society?"
"But thinking from another perspective... if they are connected, wouldn’t that beco a clue to be used? The leader might not even know of the relationship between Urushibara Ryuri and the Salvation Society, or that Urushibara Ryuri is a mber of Rainbow Wings."
"When it cos ti for Black Cocoon to et Urushibara Osamu, let’s casually bring it up, and first see if the leader recognizes this ’Urushibara Ryuri’, then deduce whether the leader has a link to the Salvation Society..."
Thinking of this, Ji Minghuan slightly tugged at the corner of his lips, "If the truth is as I imagine, then after killing Jack the Ripper, I’ve gained another excellent trump card for saving my life."
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