Chapter 889: Chapter 853: I Will Be Back!
returned to the apartment, and as soon as she opened her eyes, she saw the fortune-teller almost touching her face.
The fortune-teller was evidently startled by 007’s sudden return. She took a few steps back, still shaken, and looked at 007, who had appeared out of nowhere: "You guys came back early this time."
first glanced around; she was still standing at the apartment entrance, which was her location before entering the instance.
The others should have also returned to their respective positions before entering the instance; she just didn’t know if Gu Mian had come back.
"This morning, when I was divining for myself, I foresaw ’great misfortune approaching.’ I had to leave quickly from where I was to turn misfortune into fortune. I immediately ran outside; remember how I bumped into you while running? But as soon as I ran out and looked back, you were gone. After realizing you were missing, I understood that the great misfortune referred to a special instance coming;
"Now that the great misfortune has passed, I returned to the apartment to see how many people got pulled into the special instance. Gu Mian, Fatty, and Chu Changge weren’t in the room, neither were Liu Ruyan or Keke, but Xiao Qiao was;
"Xiao Qiao heard me say Gu Mian and the others might have been pulled into a special instance, so she went upstairs to check..."
replied: "I, Gu Mian, Keke, Fatty, and Xie Bi’an, five of us were pulled into the special instance. The capacity of that special instance is a maximum of five people, so it didn’t pull everyone in the building. Chu Changge and Liu Ruyan didn’t enter the special instance; they’re probably outside."
Just as 007 was speaking, they heard the sound of something falling from the direction of the stairs.
Then came a "gulu gulu" sound of something rolling down the stairs.
The fortune-teller also heard this sound, and the two of them looked toward the stairs, only to see a person rolling down.
"Xiao Qiao?" 007 recognized the person rolling down.
They saw Xiao Qiao roll down the stairs and then remain motionless on the ground.
"What happened?"
The two quickly went to the staircase and helped Xiao Qiao up. 007 called Xiao Qiao’s name twice, but she remained unresponsive, her eyes tightly shut. She then looked up at the top of the stairs, but the platform above was empty, with no one else there.
"Seems like she fainted." The fortune-teller touched the back of Xiao Qiao’s head: "No wound, she wasn’t knocked out."
007, aware of Xiao Qiao’s prowess, said: "An average person couldn’t knock her out anyway."
"Did she faint while coming downstairs?" the fortune-teller wondered.
Just as the two were puzzled about why Xiao Qiao fell down the stairs, they heard a series of hurried thumping sounds from above, as if someone was rushing down.
Soon, they saw Fatty rushing down the stairs in a frenzy.
Seeing 007, Keke, and the unconscious Xiao Qiao on the ground, Fatty was taken aback: "What happened to Miss Xiao Qiao?"
"She rolled down the stairs and seems to have fainted." 007 remembered Xiao Qiao fainting once not long ago, and that was because there was an issue in the Twilight Gods World. Xiao Qiao originally came from the Twilight Gods World, so the problem there affected her in the real world too.
This time...
She thought about the scene in the Jinche Room before leaving the instance; she also felt that the scene in the Jinche Room was somewhat similar to the Twilight Gods World and that there might be some connection between the two.
Something happened in the Jinche Room, and Xiao Qiao fainted, further proving there was a connection between the Jinche Room and the Twilight Gods World.
"Has Gu Mian returned?" 007 asked Fatty on the stairs, perhaps Gu Mian knew what happened in the Jinche Room.
Fatty remembered his purpose for coming down: "Is the doctor not down here either? After coming out of the instance, I returned to where I was before entering it, but couldn’t find the doctor, so I came down to see if he was here."
"He isn’t on the first floor." 007 shook her head.
At this moment, a door not far from the staircase opened from inside, and they looked in that direction to see it was Keke.
Keke looked surprised at the unconscious Xiao Qiao: "What happened to her?"
"She must have fainted on her own. By the way, have you seen Gu Mian?" 007 asked.
"No," Keke said curiously, "I was in my room when I entered the instance, and when I came back from the instance, I was back in my room. Gu Mian should be in his room, right?"
She then looked at Fatty, who had just come down from the stairs: "A few minutes before leaving the instance, I saw him with you. You seemed to be... burying him?"
Fatty spoke with concern: "Yes, it was the doctor’s request. He asked me to bury him. I was worried he might suffocate down there. Do you think the doctor could really have been buried alive by me?"
As he spoke, his face dropped, as if he was about to cry.
"Why did he want you to bury him?" Keke asked, puzzled.
Fatty shook his head like a rattle drum: "I don’t know either; the doctor didn’t tell me."
thought about the message Lu Yi brought: "Because of the message Lu Yi delivered."
"To grow like a ghost?" Fatty repeated the words the mysterious man in Paradise had given Lu Yi to pass on to Gu Mian, and then he slapped his forehead, "Oh, right, the ghost’s way of growing in this Fierce Ghost Exhibition instance was to be planted in the ground. Maybe that’s why the doctor wanted me to plant him in the ground to see if it worked. But who knows if it worked, anyway, the doctor is now missing..."
The fortune-teller involuntarily recalled the "rest in peace" result from divining for Gu Mian not long ago. When fortunetelling for others, the results were mostly accurate, but she never felt confident about divining for Gu Mian.
Though she divined "rest in peace" back then, she didn’t quite believe it either.
Unexpectedly, Gu Mian really rested in peace, in the literal sense.
But even if he was buried in the ground, it shouldn’t mean he’s dead.
"Wasn’t Xie Bi’an also with you in the instance? Why don’t we go check on Xie Bi’an; maybe Gu Mian linked up with him after coming out," the fortune-teller suggested.
Speaking of Xie Bi’an, 007 thought of how he looked under the cloak when Gu Mian took him down in the hall; he had suffered severe burns.
Just then, Xie Bi’an appeared on the stairs.
He came down from above and seemed to have overheard their conversation: "Haven’t seen him."
This was strange; where could Gu Mian have gone?
Gu Mian also wanted to ask, where would he go?
The feeling of being buried in the ground was peculiar. At the moment of being completely buried, he felt as if he had turned into a seed, as though roots were sprouting from his body and spreading into the surrounding soil. A strange sensation welled up in his heart, connecting him closely with the world through these roots.
He felt himself growing upward, like a seed sprouting in the earth.
The hole he and Fatty dug wasn’t deep; theoretically, it wouldn’t be long before he could break through the surface and see the light.
But despite a long wait, the light never came, and he continued his upward growth.
Although everything around was pitch black, he could hear secretive murmurs in the darkness.
He seemed to hear cheers, then prayers, and recitations from an unknown direction, which were monotonous, like boring clauses.
Gradually, the other sounds faded, becoming distant, while the cheerful shouting became clearer, as if he was drawing closer to their source.
Eventually, the cheers drowned out almost all the other sounds, leaving this one sound ringing in Gu Mian’s ears.
The sound was so loud that Gu Mian found the cheering noisy.
In the ruckus of cheers, Gu Mian suddenly noticed a glimmer up ahead, like a peanut-sized point of light. The closer he got, the clearer the cheering became.
Was the sound coming from there?
As Gu Mian drew nearer to the light, curious to examine the peanut-like point, it suddenly erupted with intense light, enveloping him.
Instantly, darkness transformed into blinding brightness, turning into a stark white expanse.
Gu Mian heard sounds emanating from this glaring periphery—the same cheering as before, along with the sounds of fireworks and the crackle of exploding fireworks in the sky.
Next, more voices grew louder, filled with clamoring conversations even from this luminous surround.
Gu Mian heard words like hero, warrior, hope, and similar phrases.
Initially, these voices were indistinct, as if separated from him by a barrier.
Eventually, the harsh brightness began to fade, revealing an unfamiliar setting outside, and the voices became clearer and more distinct.
At last, he understood the first sentence he heard upon arriving here.
"With Warrior Gu Mian here, we’re bound to defeat the evil Upper Class People!"
