While they waited, Ximen Ka said he had something to take care of and would be back soon. Di Qinglong naturally refused to let him leave so easily and immediately asked what it was.
Ximen Ka pointed toward a foot-bathing parlor beside the pirated bookstore and said he had toenail fungus, so he was going over to have it treated. Since they were waiting anyway, Di Qinglong could come along if he was interested, and so on.
To make himself more believable, Ximen Ka even put his foot on a chair and began taking off his shoe... In the end, Di Qinglong waved him away with a look of disgust.
In fact, they had already been waiting longer than the half hour Curly Ah Xing had mentioned... It was a full hour later that Curly Ah Xing finally crawled out of the basement, raising his head with an exhausted look.
As it happened, Ximen Ka returned looking refreshed, carrying several bottles of energy drinks of different strengths.
Di Qinglong had a feeling that Ximen Ka's hands had touched something dirty, so he did not accept one. Looking rather impatient, he asked directly, "What did you find?"
Ximen Ka also turned his attention toward him.
Under the dim yellow light, A Xing slumped weakly in his chair and said, "This spell seems to have been illegally modified. Although its main framework uses the Ghost Art of the Nether River, it contains fillers from at least three other schools. You won't find them among the officially registered spell seals. I don't know how much time the person who created this talisman spent on it, but that guy is definitely a genius. If I'm not mistaken, this talisman paper you gave me, Ximen, is only one of them, right?"
Ximen Ka asked impassively,