Gan glanced at Xu Le. His gaze was not particularly penetrating, yet it seemed capable of seeing through people's thoughts.
He nodded slightly.
"If there's nothing else, I'll be on my way."
"W-wait."
As Gan was about to leave, Xu Le finally spoke up. Doing so was actually risky.
Lighthouse was a city-state with an invisible class hierarchy. The Upper City and the Lower City were naturally divided by class, while Warlocks and ordinary people formed another divide.
Asking a Warlock a question out of the blue was more than just impolite.
If you encountered someone with a nasty disposition, you could even get killed, and no one would hold them accountable.
Xu Le dared to speak to Gan mainly because Gan had shown him sufficient friendliness during both of their encounters.
This might be an opportunity for him.
"Oh? Is there something else?" Gan turned around.
Xu Le stopped hesitating, took the Disaster Warlock Ascension manual out of his coat, and offered it to Gan.
"Mr. Gan, if you have the time, I'd appreciate your guidance."
"Guidance? Under certain circumstances, a Warlock's guidance can be very expensive."
"..." Xu Le lowered his head. He had no money, but he wasn't about to say so. Anyone could play dead!
"All right, I take it you're short on funds?"
Gan teased Xu Le, then opened the booklet and leafed through it rather casually.
"A Disaster Warlock ascension manual, huh? I didn't expect you to get your hands on something like this."
"Is it real?" Xu Le felt both incredulous and pleasantly surprised.
"If by real you mean the ascension method, then yes, it is. But the sacrifice path isn't an easy one to follow."
Xu Le was a practical man. He wasn't about to play coy at a time like this.
Besides, asking questions without embarrassment was a traditional virtue of scholars back in China.
"What... does the sacrifice path mean?"
"There are three paths you can choose from to ascend as a Warlock: the faith path, the ritual path, and the sacrifice path. Explaining them in detail would get rather complicated. But you can get an idea from their literal meanings."
Xu Le appeared calm, but excitement stirred inside him. So there really were other paths!
Take their names literally.
Faith meant believing in some sort of god?
Xu Le immediately thought of the Golden Toad, who claimed to be an ancient deity. Could there be a connection?
As for rituals, he had seen plenty on television.
Wasn't that just performing rites? Some guy from his previous life who kept appearing on music shows did that all the time.
Finally, there was the sacrificial method, the one recorded in his manual.
Was this so-called ascension through self-immolation a process of sacrificing himself?
Xu Le had never seen the requirements for the other two methods, but given the difficulty of the sacrificial method, he didn't dare try it lightly.
"Mr. Gan, are the other two methods a little easier than the sacrificial method?"
Xu Le was hungry to learn about the ascension methods.
Too much hinged on this: his future safety, Old Zhou's dying wish, and whether his future status would place him high above others or leave him no better than an ant.
This time, however, Gan did not give him a definite answer.
He merely raised his wrist to check his watch, then pushed up his black-framed glasses.
"Student Xu Le, as I said before, a Warlock's guidance is very expensive. I've already received all the goodwill I need today. Saying any more would be unfair to me. Still, the answer has actually already been recorded along your path to knowledge. Do a good deed each day, avert a calamity each month. May the Red Moon watch over you."
With that, Gan tucked the ascension manual into Xu Le's pocket, turned around, and walked away.
Xu Le remained where he was, looking bewildered, with plenty of questions.
"All the goodwill he needs... Is goodwill some kind of resource for him? Something he gains? If it's something he gains, then that line about doing a good deed each day and averting a calamity each month probably isn't just a catchphrase! And what did he mean about the answer being recorded along my path to knowledge?"
Xu Le thought it over, but he simply couldn't arrive at a definite answer.
"Forget it. I'll head to school first."
Just as he was about to leave, Xu Le suddenly remembered the black cat. He turned toward the suspension bridge, only to find that the cat had vanished.
"That black cat..."
Thinking of the black cat again, Xu Le could no longer tell whether his luck was good or bad.
After walking for a while longer, Xu Le finally reached the entrance to Lighthouse University.
With his student ID, he entered the campus without any trouble.
It was already past five in the afternoon.
Xu Le clenched his fists and looked up at the sky.
He shouldn't have been able to see the moon at this hour, but as he stared at the sky, that intense sensation hadn't weakened in the slightest.
The Red Moon appeared brazenly beside the sun.
Its unnerving red hue could even blot out the sun's radiance.
[The Red Moon Calamity will descend in 6 hours and 36 minutes.]
Xu Le calmed himself and let his vision return to normal, then breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm back at school. Why am I still overthinking things?"
Grrr! His stomach thundered.
"Ugh, I really want something to eat!"
From the moment he had gotten up that morning until now, Xu Le hadn't eaten a single bite. He was starving.
But money was something he genuinely didn't have!
And as for ways to make money... if he really knew how to do that, he wouldn't have spent years as a failed writer.
Xu Le spotted another student returning to campus beside him. A sudden idea struck him, and he spoke.
"Hey, your brow looks dark. Within three days, you'll suffer a bloody disaster!"
Li Mo's mouth twitched. If he hadn't been even skinnier than Xu Le, he probably would have already gone over and punched him.
"What do you mean?"
"Only by doing a good deed each day can you avert a calamity each month. I feel like fate brought us together. How about this? For one dollar, I'll tell your fortune and ward off misfortune and evil. What do you say?"
"One dollar? Even robbery wouldn't make money as fast as you. Get lost. Don't hold me up on my way back to the dorm, you lunatic."
Li Mo had no intention of engaging with Xu Le any further. He simply took him for a lunatic.
Xu Le didn't mind, either. He was already used to this sort of thing.
Making money with nothing but talk...
Up ahead, Li Mo had barely taken a few steps with his luggage when Xu Le suddenly felt his vision grow dizzy and hot.
Then Li Mo suddenly tripped over the suitcase at his feet, effectively tripping himself.
He slammed headfirst into a stone bollard in front of him, and blood poured out without stopping.
The few people who had overheard Xu Le and Li Mo's conversation were stunned.
Actually, it wasn't just them. Li Mo and Xu Le himself were stunned, too.
"Holy shit, did that really just happen?"
Xu Le was at a loss. He felt that he should go over and help Li Mo up.
But remembering what he had just done, he felt it would be somewhat awkward to walk straight over.
So he turned toward a few other students nearby.
"Hey, you..."
"Dude, don't curse me!" The girl Xu Le was looking at panicked.
"Uh, well..."
Before you continue