Wrathful Thunder (Part 3)

Liu Shiling brought the Egg Pie out of Green Mountain Village and headed down the mountain road.

Dark clouds rolled and gathered in the sky, obscuring most of the starlight and moonlight. However, the Little Chubby Girl was too caught up in her emotions to care about being afraid of the dark. She gripped the backpack straps with both hands, took big strides, and followed Egg Pie who was leading the way.

She didn't need to see the road clearly, nor did she need to see the Egg Pie clearly. She could vaguely feel that there was a thread connecting her to the Egg Pie, and she could clearly perceive its location and emotions, following closely behind.

The surrounding mountains and forests were filled with the howling of the wind, and the direction of the wind was very strange, as if it was gathering from the bottom to a certain point and then rising upwards.

However, there was no strong wind around the Little Chubby Girl as she walked, as if there was a field that isolated her from the surrounding influences.

All Liu Shiling could think about now was going down the mountain to find her mother, find out about her father's situation, and stay by her mother's side. She promised to be good and not cause her any trouble.

From a young age, her father was always away on business trips and didn't spend much time at home. But the Little Chubby Girl really liked her father because he treated her very well. Every time he came back from a business trip, he would bring her toys and treats. When he was at home, he wouldn't scold her or stop her from eating Ice Cream or snacks. Every time he took her out, he would take her to the amusement park or to eat something delicious.

But after what happened last September, she vaguely realized something, and since then, she and her mother have moved to Star City, and her father comes back less often and stays for shorter periods each time.

The Little Chubby Girl had a vague understanding that it was her father's fault, that he had done bad things that caused her mother to be bullied and scolded, and that they had to move.

So one day, when she saw her parents arguing on the balcony, she instinctively judged that her father was in the wrong and ran out to protect her mother—but that day she was scolded by her mother instead, and then she felt wronged and "ran away from home"—although she only went as far as the entrance of the community.

She never asked her parents these questions directly, never tried to figure out what had happened; she was afraid.

She harbored some resentment towards her father, and even became somewhat distant from him after arriving in Star City. But she knew very well that her father was her father. Even if she made mistakes temporarily or argued with her mother, he would eventually come back; she had a father.

But what if... Dad gets executed, and he's gone? What will she and Mom do then?

The thought of this made her nose sting; she felt wronged, angry, and scared all at once.

One moment she thought her cousin was lying to her, the next she wondered if her mother would leave her with her grandmother and never come back for her. Then she worried that her grandmother might also abandon her on the mountain, and that her aunt would kick her out, leaving her an unwanted child.

But she quickly remembered Alice's words, and she thought of the bald uncle, the Roast Chicken Wing Sister, the pretty sister, the fairy sister, and the Little Apple sister. They would definitely not dislike her, they would definitely help her find her mother, and they would definitely take her in.

So even now, she hasn't decided what to do after she goes down the mountain—whether to contact her grandmother first or something—she just has one strong desire: to find her mother.

She kept telling herself, "You are a 'magician,' Alice is always by your side to protect you, Egg Pie will follow you, and you can also find Uncle Baldy. Uncle Baldy is so powerful, he can definitely solve any problem!"

Then she regained some confidence, feeling that she wasn't like a dandelion being blown around by the wind, but rather like a big balloon being pulled by the bald uncle's string. As long as she turned around and shouted, the bald uncle would pull her back to the ground.

Just as Liu Shiling was descending the mountain and encouraging herself, the sound of a sputtering engine came from ahead, followed by a beam of light rising up the mountain road.

Led by Egg Pie, Liu Shiling stopped and moved to the side of the road, waiting for the cars below to pass first.

However, the three-wheeled motorcycle made a "Huh?" sound and stopped beside her. A somewhat hoarse male voice asked, "Whose child are you? What are you doing here? I don't think I've seen you before. Are you from Green Mountain Village?"

"I'm not from Green Mountain Village. My grandma brought me here to find my aunt. I'm going to town to find my grandma now." Liu Shiling squinted because the headlights of the tricycle were blinding her. She couldn't see what the person asking the question looked like, so she could only raise her hand to shield her eyes and answer subconsciously.

"Oh? Did you run away on your own? Do your parents know you're out? What's your grandmother's name? Let me take you to her," the hoarse male voice said gently.

Liu Shiling glanced at the Egg Pie that had returned to her feet, hesitated for a moment, and then said to the man, "Uncle, could you lend me your phone to make a call to my mother?"

"Oh, uncle didn't bring his phone. Uncle will take you to find your mother," the man said.

"Thank you, Uncle, but no need. I can go down the mountain by myself." Liu Shiling said, and led by Egg Pie, she continued to walk quickly down the mountain, her small steps becoming even faster.

She could sense that the "uncle" had a cell phone in his pocket, but he lied and said he didn't. Moreover, she sensed that the "uncle" from the Egg Pie was very hostile and wary, even more so than he had been towards the two children who had tried to pluck his whiskers.

So Liu Shiling's first reaction was to slip away first.

Unexpectedly, the man turned his tricycle around and sputtered after her, blocking the Little Chubby Girl's path with his motorcycle. He then smiled and said, "Sweetie, Uncle can't let you go down the mountain alone. It's quite a distance from here to town. What if something happens? I've heard there are tigers, bears, and some monsters in these mountains that eat children!"

As he spoke, the man got off the tricycle and walked towards Liu Shiling.

Egg Pie lunged forward, blocking the man's path, baring its sharp teeth and hissing, its fur standing on end, looking utterly ferocious.

The man paused for a moment, knowing full well that it was the cat that followed the Little Chubby Girl, but still kicked the Egg Pie away, cursing, "Go to hell! You damn dog, you're asking for it!"

His tone was fierce, completely devoid of the gentleness he had shown when speaking to the Little Chubby Girl.

"Egg Pie!" Liu Shiling was startled. Fortunately, she saw that after being kicked, Egg Pie tumbled in the air before landing steadily on the mountain road and continuing in its fighting stance, seemingly unharmed.

"Little girl, come with your uncle, your uncle will take you to find your mother!" Although he said this to help the Little Chubby Girl, Liu Shiling could vaguely see the man's somewhat ferocious expression and terrifying eyes in the light of the three-wheeled motorcycle.

After letting out a fierce roar, Egg Pie pounced again, displaying astonishing jumping power. It leaped up and slashed the face of the man, who appeared to be in his forties or fifties, with its claws.

The middle-aged man was clearly caught off guard by the cat's speed and jumping ability.

Liu Shiling received the signal from Egg Pie and instinctively turned to run up the mountain. But she only ran a few steps before realizing what was happening. She stopped, turned around, her eyebrows furrowed, and her eyes widened as she stared at the middle-aged man who had turned back, grabbed a wrench from the tricycle, and was cursing at Egg Pie. She shouted, "You're a bad guy!"

The middle-aged man paused for a moment, then waved the wrench to shoo the Egg Pie away and walked towards her with a smile, "I'm a good person, definitely a very good person!"

Liu Shiling suppressed her fear of turning and running away, flipped up the hood of her sweatshirt and put it on. Then she pulled on the drawstrings with both hands, but instinctively cried out "Ouch!" because she had pulled too hard and the front of the hood had covered her eyes. She quickly let go and pushed the hood up to reveal her eyes.

The middle-aged man with the wrench naturally didn't take the little chubby girl seriously, but after taking a few steps, he could vaguely see, by the light of the motorcycle behind him that hadn't turned off, that there seemed to be several things floating around the little girl who had pulled up her hoodie hood.

Moreover, as he approached the little girl, he suddenly felt a tingling sensation on his skin and scalp, and his body hair seemed to stand on end. Even his hair seemed to be affected, with a strange fluffy feeling, as if it were about to float upwards.

The little girl suddenly shouted at him, "Chocolate! Ice Cream! Sachima! Mung Bean Cake! Lemon Tea! He's a bad guy!"

Although the little girl's cries seemed childish and ridiculous, the middle-aged man unconsciously stopped in his tracks, a chill running down his spine. He noticed that floating around the little girl were five metallic objects that resembled Coin, forming an extremely eerie circle.

Moreover, the closer he got to the little girl, the more he felt like he was about to be electrocuted.

A thunderous roar resounded.

The middle-aged man subconsciously looked up. In the sky, thick clouds rolled and lightning spread out like a network. His hair stood on end, as if countless invisible threads were pulling at it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the fat orange cat that had been fighting him like a madman was now sitting obediently on the other side of the road, watching them from afar.

"He's a bad guy!" the Little Chubby Girl shouted again.

The middle-aged man suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right hand, which was holding the wrench. He instinctively threw the wrench away, and the headlights of the motorcycle behind him dimmed instantly.

"What the hell is going on...?"

Just as the middle-aged man was utterly astonished and abandoned his momentary evil thought, intending to return to his car and leave, a bright light flashed, followed by another deafening thunderclap in the distance.

The sound was extremely close, as if it were right next to him. The thunder was loud and crisp, and the middle-aged man was so frightened that he instinctively covered his head and squatted down.

Almost simultaneously with the explosion, a bolt of lightning struck from the sky, hitting a nearby earthen slope and creating a large crater.

The middle-aged man even saw worm-like arcs of electricity crawling out of the crater created by the lightning, then writhing and dissipating in all directions. This sight was so bizarre and shocking that he had never seen anything like it before.

In fact, even the Little Chubby Girl who was the "instigator" was startled. She shrank her neck, covered her ears, jumped to the side, stared wide-eyed at the big pit, and then at the middle-aged man.

At this point, when the middle-aged man saw that chubby, adorable little girl with the hood, he no longer found her cute, but rather frightening.

Suddenly, music drifted to my ears. "Let's all learn to meow, meow meow meow meow~~~"

He was stunned for a moment before he realized that it was his phone ringing, but that wasn't his phone's ringtone.

He instinctively took out his phone and found that it had automatically connected and switched to speakerphone mode. A female voice said, "Little Bell, turn around, squat down, close your eyes, and cover your ears."

Liu Shiling was stunned for a moment, then recognized the voice as Alice's. She then sensed something and looked down at the middle of the mountain path. There stood a little girl in a white princess dress, smiling at her. It was Alice!

Liu Shiling felt relieved and gave Alice a sweet smile. Then, as instructed, she turned around, squatted down, closed her eyes, and covered her ears.

Not only Liu Shiling, but the middle-aged man, after being surprised by the unfamiliar female voice coming from the phone, also saw the little girl in the white dress in the middle of the road.

The little girl was prettier and more delicate than the Little Chubby Girl, like a porcelain doll, but he only felt fear and terror, and his hands and feet were ice-cold.

He tried to turn around and leave, but suddenly found that the whole earth began to tremble violently. He couldn't even stand up and fell to the ground.

Then he saw that the girl in the white dress had disappeared, and the cement road in the middle of the mountain path where she had been standing began to crack rapidly, and a huge object was rising from the ground.

The frequent net-like lightning overhead illuminated the thick clouds, turning the entire sky a blood-red hue in the flashes of light. The blood-red clouds rolled downwards, seemingly about to press down on the ground.

The enormous object from underground finally broke through the surface and burst forth. It was a huge head, with dark skin covered in various patterns and grooves. Liquids resembling magma or blood flowed through these grooves, emitting black smoke.

There were several eyes on its head, each pupil of which was a pile of skulls stacked together. Red liquid slid down the corners of its eyes, dripping down along with the liquid in the grooves of its face. After splashing onto the ground, it turned into countless tiny red worms that crawled onto the middle-aged man's body.

The middle-aged man screamed in terror as he crawled backward, only to find that his tricycle had disappeared sometime earlier. When he looked back at where the Little Chubby Girl had been, all that remained was a blinding light that stung his eyes and brought tears to his eyes.

He could only crawl desperately, trying to get away from the huge monster that was still burrowing out of the ground, but the monster's mouth had already risen from the ground. When it opened, a long tongue stretched out from the foul-smelling mouth that seemed to emit countless screams, and wrapped around the middle-aged man.

Following Alice's instructions, Liu Shiling turned and squatted down, closing her eyes and covering her ears. She could only faintly hear the howling wind around her, but there was no wind blowing around her.

She wasn't worried that the middle-aged man would take the opportunity to attack her, because she trusted Alice. If Alice said that, then she could definitely protect her!

After an unknown amount of time, Liu Shiling felt something rubbing against her feet. She finally opened her eyes and saw that it was Egg Pie, looking up at her with its little face.

Liu Shiling got up and turned around, only to find that the middle-aged man had disappeared, except for the three-wheeled motorcycle with its headlights still on.

Liu Shiling let out a long breath, then lowered her hands from her ears and said to the cat at her feet, "Egg Pie, let's go!"

She felt much better now, as if a heavy weight had been lifted from her backpack, making her feel much lighter. She even couldn't help but hum a tune. "Let's learn to meow together, meow meow meow meow~~~"

Egg Pie wagged its tail a few times and followed, occasionally meowing along with the singing.

Sometime during the night, the thick clouds in the sky had dispersed, and the moonlight once again bathed the earth, making the mountain path visible.

Further away, in Azure Cloud Village on the mountain, power has also been restored.

The howling winds in the surrounding mountains and forests had ceased, and the branches and leaves swayed gently in the breeze.

Little Chubby Girl didn't know that by fully activating the environment created by the five "Super-Linked Object," she had enabled Xiang Kun's entire "Super-Sensing Item System" to do something that had never been done before.

Under normal circumstances, with only six Super-Linked Object around Xiang Kun not present, Alice wouldn't be able to "manifest" them all.

However, the special environment created by the Little Chubby Girl fully activating the "Super-Linked Object" connection of the five Coin, coupled with the positioning and transmission of the "Emotion-Infused Object" chopsticks, gave Alice the opportunity to "perform beyond her normal limits."

Alice then collaborated with Little Apple to remotely project the fear of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving." This was also achieved by relying on the "super field" created by the five Coin under the intense emotional fluctuations of the Little Chubby Girl, which created a knock-off version of the Chongyun Village main field in a short period of time.

Normally, emotional projection will affect everyone within its range, so the Little Chubby Girl is also within that range.

However, Little Apple's emotional projection method does not affect her. So when Little Apple is projecting her emotions, Alice uses the property that the five "Super-Linked Object" Coin are the projection source and defines the Little Chubby Girl surrounded by them as the source of the emotions, which is the original position of Little Apple if she were there. Therefore, she will not be affected by the emotional projection.

The Rage Thunder unintentionally created by the Little Chubby Girl directly helped Alice and Little Apple further master the remote deployment application of the "Super-Sensing Item System".

However, what even Alice, Little Apple, and Lao Xia didn't know was that this Little Chubby Girl's Rage Thunder caused Xiang Kun, who was in a deep sleep at the time, to have a faint connection with the real world for the first time in his sleep.