Chapter Ninety-Nine: Ultimate Rubbings
Although I haven't received enough monthly votes yet, An Hei 've decided to add an extra chapter. I'm so grateful for your monthly votes! Compared to the established authors, newcomers need monthly votes even more!
The antique wooden tables and chairs, the calligraphy and paintings by scholars and literati, and the quiet conversations of the elderly people around as they sip tea all contribute to the pleasant atmosphere of this teahouse.
If one has nothing to do, hiding here to enjoy tea and chat is a great pleasure in life, but Li Wei clearly doesn't have such leisure and refined tastes at the moment.
He needed to win Xu Ziyi's favor in the shortest amount of time. However, this seemed to be easier than he had imagined.
Xu Ziyi truly lives up to his reputation as the number one intelligence expert in the martial arts world. He even knew about my recent assistance to Ximen Feng Xu Ziyi capturing a notorious bandit.
It's unimaginable how he got the information.
Li Wei had already chatted happily with Xu Ziyi for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, and by catering to Xu's interests, he had quickly gleaned some useful information from him.
For example, the Heluo Hero just left the city to wipe out a group of thugs operating around Luoyang City. Also, Ximen Feng seems to be troubled lately by the lack of a suitable weapon.
"Brother Xu, may I borrow your 'Wulin Encyclopedia' for a look? I'm quite interested in the interesting stories about people in the martial world."
Li Wei chuckled sheepishly.
"Uh, okay. But you can only look at it for a little while!" Xu Ziyi carefully handed the thick book to Li Wei.
Just then, a commotion arose from the teahouse, and then a man dressed as a waiter entered, wiping the sweat from his brow, and asked, "Which one of you is Xu Ziyi, Young Master Xu?"
"I am Xu Ziyi!" Xu Ziyi said, looking at the waiter with some curiosity.
"Your goods are outside. Please come with me to sign for them."
That waiter was a servant at the post station in Luoyang City, someone Li Wei had bribed for over ten taels of silver. His aim was to find a way to lure Xu Ziyi out.
Sure enough, without any suspicion, Xu Ziyi got up to leave, but then, as if remembering something, turned back to Li Wei and said, "Brother Li, wait a moment, Ziyi will be back soon!"
Seeing Xu Ziyi leave with the shop assistant, Li Wei hurriedly summoned the Yellow Paper, opened the Wulin Encyclopedia, and quickly began to copy it on the Yellow Paper, reading ten lines at a glance.
A Wulin Encyclopedia contains tens of thousands of words. Copying it all down wouldn't be a quick task; Xu Ziyi would be back in a few minutes. Therefore, Li Wei didn't have much time left.
At this moment, his hand holding the pen could only be seen as fleeting afterimages, the pen tip often writing hundreds of words as it passed.
Such a record is terrifying, because because he was sitting in the corner, the elderly men in the teahouse who were only chatting and drinking tea did not notice him at all. Li Wei's move was truly undetectable.
The time it takes to drink a cup of tea is roughly equivalent to a few minutes. Xu Ziyi returned looking dejected, only to find Li Wei sitting at the table, looking exactly the same as when he left, with the Wulin Encyclopedia neatly placed beside him.
"Brother Xu is back?" Li Wei took a sip of tea and chuckled, as if he were waiting for the other party to return so they could continue their conversation.
"I'm sorry, Ziyi has some things to take care of, so I'll have to take my leave now. Brother Li Wei, you are exceptionally talented and certainly not an ordinary person. You will surely achieve great things in the future. In that case, Ziyi will be busy again, busy recording Brother Li's chivalrous deeds, haha."
Li Wei chuckled awkwardly, thinking to himself, "I knew you'd say that."
The two parted ways, all of which was part of Li Wei's plan. The goods given to Xu Ziyi were the ones he had anonymously sent, and now Xu Ziyi was certainly going to pick them up. Although it had taken all this trouble, Li Wei's gains were still considerable.
It records 80% of the contents of the Wulin Encyclopedia, which will serve as the basis for his future plans and strategies.
Now that we have a "copy" of the Wulin Encyclopedia, the next step is to meet... that... mysterious An Hei.
Li Wei asked the teahouse owner for a private room, sat down, and after confirming that no one was around, he took out the metal pendant and, imitating the muscular man's method from the previous night, opened the lid.
Inside, it was indeed a sophisticated instrument; a red light was flashing, seemingly searching for a signal. A few minutes later, the red light suddenly turned green, and then a voice came from inside the instrument.
"Who are you?"
Li Wei was stunned. "An Hei, this is too much! I haven't even said anything and I'm already being suspected. Now, I probably can't pretend to be Blood Wolf anymore. But how did An Hei know that the person who contacted him wasn't Blood Wolf himself?"
Is there some kind of secret code between them?
On the other end of the communication device, there was only the sound of even breathing; clearly, the other party was waiting for a response.
Li Wei understood that he didn't know what he had done wrong, but in any case, the other party had seen through him. Since that was the case, there was no need to pretend anymore.
"Who I am is not important; what matters is who you are?"
Xu An remained silent again.
After a few minutes, a voice came through again. "When Blood Wolf mentioned you yesterday, I knew you'd find the Shadow Communicator sooner or later. You're a very powerful Reincarnator. First, let me introduce myself. My name is An Hei, an idiot who wants to save the world. So, what is your purpose in speaking to me?"
Amazing!
Li Wei really wanted to stand up
People gave a thumbs-up to someone who called himself "An Hei," who had deduced his identity based on his description and some clues from yesterday. Although the identity itself wasn't particularly valuable, An Hei was undoubtedly a very clever person.
You can't use stupid methods when dealing with smart people.
"I'm just wondering, who exactly are you? Where are you now? And what technology are you using to communicate with me through this device? I believe you should know what kind of place I am right now!"
Li Wei chose to ask directly, as this was the most direct and thorough approach.
"I'm sorry, I can't answer that question. I can only say that the instrument you're holding is a masterpiece. As for where you are, I know that perfectly well. So, how is Blood Wolf?"
His tone An Hei and devoid of any emotion, like the sound of a tape recorder playing a recording.
"He's fine. I stole this communicator."
"Just as I thought!"
For a moment, Li Wei didn't know what to ask next. He had only gotten his hands on the communicator out of curiosity, but now that he actually had it, he realized that the person on the other end was someone he couldn't see clearly at all. It seemed that the only option was to directly ask "Blood Wolf."
The real world.
A place that resembled a laboratory, a young man dressed in a T-shirt, sat in a room filled with black mist.
There were no lights in the room, and in his hand he held the same communicator as Li Wei. At that moment, the thick black fog in the room seemed to make him very uncomfortable, so he had no choice but to leave the room.
At the same time, the indicator light on Li Wei's communicator turned from green back to red, meaning that the communication had been interrupted. "Hello, hello?" Li Wei called out a few times, then put the communicator away, somewhat puzzled.
Why did the other party suddenly hang up? He thought that guy called An Hei would bring up something interesting. Now, Li Wei really didn't know what to do next.
After thinking it over, he decided to go to the Heavenly Sword Sect first. One of his plans was to master swordsmanship to the highest level during the Legend of Wulin, which was why he chose to join the Heavenly Sword Sect.
As for that "An Hei," it seems to have nothing to do with my mission, so I'll just let them be. Maybe one day I'll figure out their purpose before I make a move.
So, Li Wei asked passersby for directions to the Heavenly Sword Sect. After purchasing some gifts with a large amount of gold and silver from his storage space, he headed in the direction of the Heavenly Sword Sect.
It was still the real world. The young man in the T-shirt sat wearily in a chair, fiddling with a coin in his hand.
Beside him, an elderly doctor, well past sixty, sighed and said, "An Hei, you can't risk entering that black mist anymore. Although the communicator can only communicate with agents outside the world within the black mist, the corrosive effect of the mist has already..."
"It's alright!" The young man, whom the old man called An Hei, laughed, his expression mischievous, which made the old man's eyes well up with tears.
Perhaps, only when he smiles do we realize that this little guy is just a 18-year-old child. But this "child" shoulders a burden that his peers wouldn't even dare to imagine.
Even if he obtained the top-tier codename "An Hei," even if he were a genius with three degrees of Doctor achievement and a doctorate, that burden would still be too heavy for him.
"Old Xu, tell me, what kind of place is it exactly?" An Hei, who was spinning three coins on his finger at the same time, suddenly spoke up.
"I don't know. Didn't you deduce that the invitations wouldn't be given to the elderly, children, or people with terminal illnesses? At my age, I probably won't even have the chance to go." Old Xu sat down next to the boy in the An Hei, staring at him. He could see that the boy's eyes were dark circles from staying up all night.
"Although we didn't have the chance to go, there's no doubt that it's a real battlefield, a place where only the fittest survive. The survival rate of our infiltrators is less than one in ten, and as far as I know, the situation is similar in other countries!" An Hei stared at the floor, lost in thought.
"I now know that the black mist that suddenly appeared all over the world comes from... that... The countdown mystery has also been solved. The only question is... how to stop all of this? If my reasoning is correct, the key lies with those reincarnators!"
"Qing is the only reincarnator who might know how to break the black mist, but unfortunately, he's missing now. Perhaps he's already entered the mission world. It would be great if we could contact him." However, there's something strange. Aren't the Initial Trial missions for newcomers supposed to be interrupted midway? Why did Blood Wolf tell me that he can't quit halfway through? And why did he become a master-servant relationship with that mysterious veteran?
"Furthermore, if reincarnators can seize another reincarnator's identification number by killing them, then in this world, the identification number wouldn't be the sole basis for determining identity. Some people could use it to change their identity. Could the missing 'Qing' also be an example?" To find out what happens next, please log in to [website name - likely a Chinese website].