Chapter Thirteen: The First Deal?

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Lu Mingfei was a man of action.

He had no complaints about the harsh conditions. Bracing himself against the howling gale kicked up by the speeding sports car and the torrential rain pouring from the sky, he adjusted himself into a comfortable position, then ran a hand across his forehead and sank into a tranquil darkness.

After a brief moment of peace, Lu Mingfei awoke again.

“Why am I still here?”

The boy before him propped up his temple with one finger, looking helpless.

“Lu Mingfei, you really don’t have much time left.”

Ever since Lu Mingfei had awakened, the child had been speaking in riddles. Lu Mingfei had to endure his splitting headache while trying to decipher what the boy meant. It was exhausting.

“Just tell me what you want. Be clearer.”

The boy seemed to realize that time was running short. He stopped speaking in riddles and gave him a concise explanation.

“You and this woman have wandered into a place where you were never meant to enter. There are things here that you have no chance of resisting in your current state. Without outside assistance, you are certain to die.”

Lu Mingfei calmly wiped the rain from his face.

“Oh. So you’re saying you’ll help me?”

The boy smiled and shook his head.

“No. I merely wish to make a trade with you. Give me one-quarter of your ‘life,’ and I will give you enough power to escape this crisis.”

Lu Mingfei rubbed his chin.

“I can’t even be sure whether I’m actually in danger. You want me to trade away a quarter of my life for some unknown power?”

“Things were indeed not supposed to be like this, but you…”

Before the boy could finish, Lu Mingfei said,

“Fine. I’ll trade. Let me have some fun and see just how powerful this strength of yours is.”

Lu Mingfei could not judge the situation at all, but he had always been good at looking on the bright side.

First of all, one-quarter of a lifetime was not much.

In that former, dark universe, those twisted divine beings who dealt in bargains could, at best, be turned into something neither human nor ghost; at worst, they could drag entire worlds into ruin. Lu Mingfei was one of those traders himself, and among them, he belonged to the most unfortunate category.

Compared with them, the terms offered by the being before him, appearing in the form of a child, could hardly have been more generous.

Secondly, even if all of this was merely a scheme devised by the being before him, it did not matter. The boy had just had ample opportunity to take Lu Mingfei’s life, yet he had not done so. That was the foundation of trust.

The little boy did not ask why Lu Mingfei had agreed so readily. He merely curled up the corner of his mouth, extended his left hand, and raised it.

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The meaning was obvious: seal the oath with a high five.

Without hesitation, Lu Mingfei raised his right hand. His large, sharply knuckled palm struck the boy’s small hand with a crisp crack.

A voice came from Lu Mingfei, from the boy, or perhaps from the world itself.

“Trade complete.”

The next moment, the boy vanished, and the person in the driver’s seat became the dazzling red-haired girl.

Her expression was grave, tinged with terror. The veins in her neck stood out, and even on this frigid, rainy night, Lu Mingfei could feel the heat rising from her body.

The torrential rain soaked her long red hair and white camisole. She had tied her hair into a neat high ponytail with a hair tie decorated by a silver four-leaf clover. Lu Mingfei could clearly see the striking black of her underwear.

This brave and dependable girl had reached her limit.

“Huff… huff…”

Nono had of course sensed that something was wrong. The white radiance ahead was like a beacon beneath the eaves of a travel lodge glimpsed by a night traveler lost in the fog, compelling one to quicken one’s pace. Once there, all unease would surely fall away.

That sense of sacred peace made Nono, a perceptive profiler, intensely restless. She knew that whatever lay ahead would not be a god come to save them. It could only be something even more dangerous, even more lethal.

Yet behind her was a horde of dead servants with numb faces, muttering their longing for the living.

“Thirsty… blood…”

“That boy… excellent bloodline…”

“Flesh…”

“…”

Those dead servants could even keep pace with the speeding Ferrari. Even the weakest among them probably possessed an A-rank bloodline, and Nono could not have dealt with a single one of them.

She was like prey pursued by hunting hounds, forced helplessly toward the abyss of death.

But none of the dangers mattered anymore, because Lu Mingfei opened his eyes.

It was like awakening after a long sleep, and also like being reborn after death.

He already knew that everything the boy had said was true.

He had never felt so good. The world had become extraordinarily clear in his eyes. Every grain, every scale, every feather stood out in perfect detail. He could distinguish the shape of every strand of rain and hear each howl of the wind.

The tinnitus and dizziness caused by his diminished mental faculties vanished without a trace. Never had he felt such joy, such serenity. The entire world seemed to lie within his grasp, and even the flow of time appeared to have slowed.

Lu Mingfei rose to his feet atop the speeding sports car. His imitation bargain running shoes pressed into the expensive leather seat, while the shrieking wind sent his clothes snapping wildly. He opened his arms and welcomed the voice of the entire world carried on the gale.

Nono, her mind stretched taut with tension, finally noticed Lu Mingfei’s suicidal-looking posture. She roared,

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“Lu Mingfei! What the hell are you doing? Get down!”

Lu Mingfei ignored her. The searing white radiance was already close, and he knew that it was the enemy the boy had said he could never withstand.

For Lu Mingfei’s sake, Nono had no choice but to gradually reduce their speed. The dead servants behind them pounced in pursuit at once.

“Hey.”

Lu Mingfei casually swept his right hand through the air. The dead servants chasing him seemed to be struck by invisible blades of wind and instantly burst apart.

Nono’s eyes widened as she stared at the unbelievable scene before her.

The white radiance in the distance suddenly surged forward. Within it…

Within the white light stood a colossal horse as massive as a mountain, clad in heavy armor adorned with metallic inlay. Crystal-like brilliance flowed across its white coat. Its eight powerful legs crossed and struck the ground, and it charged forward with the oppressive force of a collapsing mountain.

A huge black shadow sat upon its back. Heavy armor of dark gold covered its entire body, and the rain scattered across it like a veil of dim radiance.

In its hand, it carried a long, curved spear, its shaft following an arc like the trail of a meteor across the sky. Beneath its iron mask, a single golden eye shone like a lighthouse amid storm-tossed waves, illuminating everything around it.

Odin, chief god of the Aesir in Norse mythology!

At that instant, heaven and earth almost came to a standstill. Even the falling rain and the splashes thrown up from the ground froze motionless.

He alone remained capable of movement. He burst through the rain suspended in the air, and Gungnir, wrapped in a dim golden radiance, carved an arc of light through the storm, pointing straight at the frail young man standing alone amid the wind and rain.

At that moment, the boy abruptly raised his head.

Heaven and earth began to flow once more. The rain broke free of its invisible restraints and gathered into strange, frenzied characters.

The raging wind joined in, like an unseen spirit haunting the world, howling as it chanted an obscure incantation:

“Those seized by demons may explain strange happenings, uncanny phenomena, or the omens of dreams, and such a person lives in constant dread. In time, he may perish as wood, perish as metal, perish as rope, or perish in a well.

“Those who behold the celestial officials may enter into their arts, study and master them, or come to regard the universe as the divine principle within themselves. They do not say that the gods dwell within them; they speak only of the Way within them.

“Only the sage can make the divine divine without becoming subject to the divine. He commands all things and holds their pivotal mechanism. He can gather them and disperse them, control them and direct them. Each day he responds to the myriad things, while his heart remains utterly still.”

The dark clouds overhead churned and twisted, astonishingly taking the shape of two human hands as they formed a mystic seal.

Talisman! Incantation! Seal!

The Demon-Seizing and Ghost-Binding Talisman!

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