Chapter 253: Chapter 250 [Little Cookie]
Chapter Two Hundred Fifty [...Little Biscuit]
Sun Keke stared blankly for a good while before she recognized Wu Daodao.
You couldn’t blame CC for her face-blindness. The truth was, Wu Daodao had spruced himself up considerably before coming this time. Not only was he looking very presentable, but he had also trimmed the distinctive tuft of hair on the black mole at the end of his eyebrow.
But even if she hadn’t recognized him at first glance, seeing the man before her dressed in black and white, wearing a black armband, and stuffing a white envelope into her hand...
And then hearing his words.
CC finally recognized him.
Then... School belle Sun erupted!
Mourning for a living person?
Sun Keke’s eyebrows shot up. The sorrowful expression on her pretty face instantly transformed into immense anger. Her eyes widened as she stared at the man, about to berate him.
"What’s going on?"
From outside the door, a clear, cold voice suddenly sounded from behind Wu Daodao.
Lu Xixi had returned at some point, silently, and was now standing behind Wu Daodao!
Empress Lu frowned as she looked at the two at the door.
Sun Keke immediately answered, "This man..."
She pointed at Wu Daodao. "Is Chen Nuo’s Senior Brother!"
Lu Xixi nodded, as if about to greet him.
Then came the second half of Sun Keke’s sentence!
"He said he came to handle Chen Nuo’s... funeral arrangements!"
Wu Daodao: "..."
Lu Xixi: "..."
Lu Xixi’s eyes narrowed rapidly!
Wu Daodao instantly felt a chill run down his spine!
A thought suddenly flashed through his mind... Killing intent...
CRAP! AHHH!!!
His body was suddenly lifted by a force, and Wu Daodao watched himself fly out, then fall onto the stairs, tumbling head over heels!
He rolled directly from the fifth floor to the fourth without stopping, his body spun, and then he continued rolling from the fourth floor towards the third!
Wu Daodao, bruised, his nose swollen, and his forehead bleeding, finally stopped on the landing before the third floor.
He looked up to see a pair of men’s slippers right in front of him.
Looking further up, he saw a pair of legs, black summer athletic shorts... a round-necked t-shirt...
And then, that familiar face.
Hmm, though the expression was a bit dazed and blank.
"...Are you alright?"
"...You’re not dead?"
The two blurted out simultaneously, and then both fell silent: "..."
Wu Daodao shot up from the ground with a start!
Ignoring the pain racking his body, he grimaced at Chen Nuo, then suddenly, as if he’d gone mad, reached out to pinch Chen Nuo’s face!
His hands grasped the flesh of Chen Nuo’s cheeks, kneading it vigorously, then tugging forcefully.
"CRAP! Are you human or a ghost?! Impossible! Absolutely impossible!!!!"
Chen Nuo was dumbfounded by the man’s frantic actions and, for a moment, didn’t react.
Meanwhile, the long-legged young woman who had been following Chen Nuo up the stairs couldn’t stand it anymore!
Li Yingwan glared, shouted a sharp curse, and smacked Wu Daodao squarely on the forehead. She then quickly pulled Wu Daodao’s hands away, forcefully yanked Chen Nuo behind her, and glared at Wu Daodao, her protective instincts fully flared.
Like a mother hen protecting her chick.
"￥#...*&...(*&#￥...%*"
Watching the young woman spew out a stream of Goryeo words in a single breath, a torrent of curses and shouts.
Wu Daodao instinctively felt that, although he couldn’t understand a single word, it definitely wasn’t anything good!
「A few minutes later」
Sitting in the living room of Chen Nuo’s home, Senior Brother Wu Daodao blinked as he looked at the three women before him.
Chen Nuo had gone into an inner room.
Wu Daodao still couldn’t resist craning his neck to peek towards the inner room from time to time.
He muttered, "It’s impossible... How could I have miscalculated... According to his fate, he’s no longer in this world."
Lu Xixi squinted at Wu Daodao. The Empress found this man stranger and stranger the more she looked at him.
She had already probed him with her spiritual power.
Lu Xixi made her first assessment. This fellow... is very peculiar. Wu Daodao’s spiritual power was somewhat stronger than an average person’s, but... in terms of magnitude, it wasn’t strong enough to constitute a qualitative change. To put it another way, generally, this level of spiritual power could, at best, ensure a person slept well, was usually energetic and alert, and had a slightly better memory than an ordinary person... Yes, the level of ’being in great shape and enjoying every meal.’ But nothing more than that. It didn’t reach the level of an Ability User.
However... although Wu Daodao’s spiritual power wasn’t that strong, Lu Xixi still felt there was something very strange about it! His Consciousness Space was clearly much denser and more solid than that of an ordinary person! And...
Lu Xixi’s mind stirred.
When her Spiritual Force Tentacles probed inside, Wu Daodao’s eyelid had twitched almost imperceptibly! Yet, he showed no surprise on his face, appearing just as dazed and foolish as before. But Lu Xixi distinctly sensed it: within this man’s Consciousness Space, his spiritual power—pitifully weak compared to a Controller like herself—seemed remarkably subdued, quiescent... flowing and rotating slowly, in an orderly fashion. Just like... yes, just like when enemy soldiers entered a village, and every household shut its doors, leaving the streets deserted! He can sense me probing him!
Lu Xixi came to a conclusion.
"Before we speak, let me first apologize for what happened just now," Lu Xixi said in a gentle tone. "Let’s not dwell on the misunderstanding. Regarding status, Sun Keke mentioned you are Chen Nuo’s Senior Brother. So, I apologize for my earlier offense."
"Not at all, not at all!" Wu Daodao immediately forced a smile.
Good heavens! She didn’t say a word, didn’t even lay a finger on me. Just one glare sent me flying... This woman is probably an even more terrifying bringer of disaster than Chen Nuo! My judgment must be right!
He quickly and politely stood up, cupped his fists, and made a standard taijitu gesture.
"I am Wu Dao, head of the Qingyun Sect, known in the Jianghu by the Daoist name ’Wu Daozi’! And you are?"
"Lu Xixi. As for a nickname..." The woman hesitated for a moment. "Others call me the Star Sky Empress."
"Ah, yes, forgive my ignorance." Wu Daodao didn’t seem to pay much attention to the name Star Sky Empress, as if he’d never heard it.
Lu Xixi nodded, glancing with some curiosity at the taijitu gesture he made with his cupped fists.
"So... you told Sun Keke earlier that you came for Chen Nuo’s funeral arrangements? I’m very curious. I won’t ask for now why you thought he was dead, given he’s perfectly fine. What I want to know is... Chen Nuo did indeed run into some trouble recently and almost died. But how did *you* know about it? You even came all this way saying you were here for his funeral! So how did you know this in advance?"
By the time Lu Xixi finished speaking, her tone had turned cold.
"And don’t try to say it was a joke! Even if you are fellow disciples, his Senior Brother, this isn’t the kind of joke one makes lightly. Besides, look at your attire—dressed in black and white. You even had the armband and white envelope ready! That’s clearly no joke, is it?"
Wu Daodao’s expression changed!
Damn it, I’ve been exposed...
For Empress Lu, it was easy to spot the problem: This man could predict that Chen Nuo would have an accident, even die! Lu Xixi herself didn’t possess such an ability! The Underground World wasn’t without Ability Users who had ’foreknowledge.’ The so-called Prophets, various forms of divination, and the like. But most of those were often vague, and the information obtained was usually unclear. In fact, most Prophets and diviners appeared neither fully human nor ghostly. Though they seemed mystical, Lu Xixi had never encountered any with truly impressive skills. And this Senior Brother before her had immediately captured Lu Xixi’s attention!
Furthermore... Thinking about it more deeply, if this man could foresee Chen Nuo’s problem... then perhaps he also had a way to solve it?
"Let’s be frank," Lu Xixi sighed. "Chen Nuo has indeed encountered some strange problems. Problems I currently have no way to solve. Mr. Wu, if you can identify the issue, I’d like to ask you to take a closer look at him. If you could..."
Wu Daodao sighed. "Understood. I... I’ll try."
「In fact」
Earlier that morning, Lu Xixi, Chen Nuo, and the long-legged young woman had gone to the hospital. They had returned after Chen Nuo underwent a thorough checkup, which had put Lu Xixi in a slightly better mood.
At least, they had done an MRI at the hospital, and an expert was immediately called to interpret the images.
The department head, who had worked in radiology for twenty years, stated confidently, "There are absolutely no signs of central nervous system lymphoma! There’s no organic lesion."
After saying this, the department head picked up his teacup and left.
If it weren’t for their status as influential foreign clients, he probably would have shown his displeasure on the spot. He had been told a consultation was needed for a serious illness, which was why he had immediately dropped his work to help interpret the scans! And the result? Everything was completely normal! What a waste of his time!
That morning, apart from some blood test results that would take a day, all other imaging examinations were reviewed by specialists on site, with conclusions drawn immediately.
What relieved Lu Xixi was that all the reports were stamped at the bottom with the same conclusion: "No notable anomalies found."
So... the ’central nervous system lymphoma’ Chen Nuo said he was diagnosed with last year... was it a misdiagnosis??
She had asked Chen Nuo about it on the way.
But last year, when he had his checkup (for him, the memory was from just last month), scans had also been taken. However, he had thrown those scans away. None were kept. So now there was no way to compare. But the scans taken today were perfectly clear!
It could only be considered a misdiagnosis then.
Therefore, Lu Xixi’s mood had lightened somewhat by the time they returned.
Otherwise... If Chen Nuo really had been dying, and someone showed up to mourn a living person? And even expected to attend a funeral banquet! The Empress would have had *him* become the guest of honor at his *own* funeral banquet within minutes!
Wu Daodao, who had narrowly escaped a great calamity, was currently sitting in Chen Nuo’s bedroom, frowning as he carefully scrutinized Chen Nuo.
The Senior Brother, of course, had no idea he had just taken a stroll past the gates of hell and back. He’d nearly been the one for whom a funeral banquet was prepared!
Chen Nuo felt uneasy all over. His mind was still a complete muddle.
This morning, two unfamiliar women in his home had dragged him to the hospital for a checkup. After a flurry of activity, he was told: he wasn’t sick! The cancer he thought would surely kill him was supposedly a misdiagnosis. All of this for Chen Nuo... well, he didn’t even know how to react anymore. Should he be happy? Or sad? He genuinely couldn’t figure it out.
Yes, that was just his nature: repressed and aggrieved.
Such a temperament might indeed make others uncomfortable—but upon reflection, it was also inevitable.
A teenager whose parents divorced when he was young; his father disappeared, his mother remarried, and then his own mother even ended up in prison... His only relative was his grandmother, who passed away two years ago, leaving him utterly alone, with nothing to pin his hopes on and no one to rely on. No family, no friends, no solace, no support... For a seventeen-year-old boy like that, what kind of endearing personality could one expect him to develop?
No cancer means I probably don’t have to die...
This news didn’t bring Chen Nuo much joy.
Given his life experiences over the past few years—merely being alive hadn’t exactly brought him much happiness.
And then an even bigger question arose.
If it wasn’t brain cancer, and the amnesia and personality changes weren’t due to cancer... then how did I lose memories of more than half a year?
As Chen Nuo sat there, Wu Daodao circled him several times, sizing him up from top to bottom.
Chen Nuo even felt that this unfamiliar man’s gaze... was like the way those women at the market meticulously inspect produce before buying. He looked like he wanted to pinch me to test how tender my flesh was.
After a while, Wu Daodao’s brow furrowed, and an idea suddenly struck him!
He took out a small yellow silk pouch from his breast pocket, opened it carefully, and revealed a tiny pinch of fine powder inside.
"This will hurt a bit. Brace yourself," Wu Daodao said in a low voice.
"Huh?" Chen Nuo looked up.
Wu Daodao had already slammed his fist into Chen Nuo’s nose!
The young man instantly grunted in pain and tumbled off the bed, clutching his nose with both hands. "You... why did you hit me..."
But Wu Daodao swiftly hauled him up from the floor!
Without a word of explanation, he forcibly pried Chen Nuo’s hands away, then, using his left thumbnail, quickly flicked it across the corner of Chen Nuo’s eye...
A tiny trace of moisture remained on his nail.
It was a minuscule teardrop the young man had shed from the pain of the punch!
Wu Daodao quickly backed away, walked to the window, and SWISH, pulled open the curtains. He then carefully dripped the tear from his thumbnail onto that tiny pinch of powder...
He moved closer to the sunlight and examined it intently for several moments.
When he turned back, Wu Daodao stared at Chen Nuo, who was still clutching his nose...
The Senior Brother’s face looked as if he’d seen a ghost!
He glanced at Lu Xixi, who was standing in the bedroom doorway.
"Let’s talk outside!"
「Back in the living room」
Wu Daodao sat upright, subconsciously extending two fingers to twirl the tuft of hair at the end of his eyebrow, appearing deep in thought.
Lu Xixi’s expression was grave, as if facing a formidable enemy, as she sat opposite Wu Daodao.
Sun Keke and Li Yingwan, not understanding what was happening, also sat there silently, waiting.
After a long pause, Wu Daodao sighed. His expression was strange—a mix of the absurd and the incredulous, and an even fainter, underlying... emotion that seemed like dread.
"...This is big trouble!"
"What trouble?" Lu Xixi raised an eyebrow, her expression filled with a dangerous aura.
"Very big trouble," Wu Daodao said with a wry smile.
"No matter how big the trouble, if you can provide a solution, I will definitely find a way to achieve it!" Lu Xixi declared without hesitation.
Wu Daodao furrowed his brow and stated his conclusion.
"The person isn’t right."
Seeing Lu Xixi and the other two young women looking bewildered, Wu Daodao elaborated.
"The body is still Chen Nuo’s... but the person inside has changed!"
Lu Xixi’s face grew solemn. "Senior Brother Wu, please be clearer."
"It means... the physical body still belongs to Junior Brother Chen Nuo! But the soul within this body no longer belongs to the Junior Brother Chen Nuo I once knew!"
Wu Daodao gritted his teeth. "I’m afraid something has occupied my Junior Brother’s physical body! Yes... it’s Body Seizing!"
As he spoke, Wu Daodao shook the yellow silk pouch in his hand.
"These powdered remains inside... they’re from a lock of hair I took from my Junior Brother when I first knew him. I used a secret technique of our sect to link his fate to this hair. A few days ago, the hair spontaneously combusted, so I knew something terrible had happened to my Junior Brother! That’s why I rushed over, thinking... well, that’s what led to the misunderstanding earlier."
"Continue," Lu Xixi said softly.
"Yes, although the hair burned, these powdered remains are still linked to my Junior Brother’s fate! That’s why I punched him just now, to get a teardrop. As they say, the eyes are the windows to the soul! A person’s tears can reflect something of their fate. I used the tear from the one inside and the ashes of my Junior Brother’s hair... Well, to put it simply, the two are incompatible! The one in your room—his fate is completely different from my Junior Brother’s fate! So his tear and the ashes of my Junior Brother’s hair simply won’t merge! That’s why I’m saying, the one inside, the physical body is still my original Junior Brother’s! But the soul... I’m afraid it’s been swapped out!"
Hearing this, Lu Xixi shot to her feet!
The Star Sky Empress’s face was filled with a murderous aura!!!
"You mean... some little demon or evil entity! It took advantage of my husband being unconscious to seize his physical body! And then... performed Body Seizing on my husband?!!"
Empress Lu’s eyes glinted with a chilling light!
"Exactly what kind of little demon is it? I’ll destroy it!!!!!!!!"
"Don’t!!"
Wu Daodao hurriedly stopped the Empress!
He felt that if he didn’t intervene, this Star Sky Empress would charge into the inner room and instantly grind the bones and scatter the ashes of the "Chen Nuo" inside!
"The soul isn’t my Junior Brother’s! But the body is! I don’t even know if my Junior Brother’s soul is still around! If you destroy his physical body, and then we find a way to return his soul... my Junior Brother won’t be able to live again!"
Lu Xixi glared at Wu Daodao through gritted teeth. "Then do you have a solution? Since you can see the problem... can you bring back the real Chen Nuo’s soul? Oh, you’re not talking about some... soul-calling ritual, like those Riverside Sorcerers describe, are you?"
「It must be said」
The Eldest Senior Brother did have some real skills.
Well... although his deductive process was a complete mess, he had miraculously hit the nail on the head and guessed the answer!
Body Seizing was real!
However, it wasn’t some little demon that had taken over Chen Nuo’s body.
It was Chen Yanluo, who had died in 2021, who had seized the body of the ordinary young man, Chen Nuo!
And he had possessed it for more than half a year!
At this moment, the original owner had merely temporarily returned.
"This Eldest Senior Brother really knows a thing or two," Chen Yanluo sighed softly.
He sat cross-legged in this expanse of void-like chaos, listening intently to the sounds from the outside world...
Slowly, Chen Nuo stood up.
His figure in this chaotic void was like a projection, his body appearing semi-transparent. As he rose and moved slightly, his form flickered a few times, as if the projection signal were poor, before slowly stabilizing again.
Chen Nuo sighed, a troubled expression on his face.
Before... he could only sit cross-legged, not daring to move an inch! Because... here, he had discovered that even the slightest movement, every tiny action, caused his energy to drain away! Chen Nuo understood clearly that his current so-called form was actually a mass of spiritual power, akin to an energy body! To make an analogy, it was truly like a soul! And he couldn’t move! Any tiny action would consume a bit of his energy! Moreover, in this place, Chen Nuo found that for every bit of energy he consumed... it was gone for good! It couldn’t be recovered, couldn’t be replenished! If he were to expend it recklessly... he feared that once his energy was depleted, his very soul would dissipate!
But I can’t just sit here doing nothing!
Chen Nuo got up and, with movements as slow and careful as possible, began to walk.
Then, within the chaos, after taking a few steps, he felt an increasingly intense, invisible pressure from his surroundings!
The energy drain increased!
Chen Nuo didn’t dare to walk any further. He stopped, frowned in thought...
Took a deep breath...
Chen Xiaoguo suddenly roared at the top of his lungs.
"IS ANYONE THERE!!!
HELP!!!
HOW THE HECK DO I GET OUT OF THIS DAMN PLACE!?!?!?
MOTHERFUDGER, YOU LITTLE BISCUIT!!!!!!!!!
"AH!"
Sun Keke, sitting on the sofa, suddenly cried out, startling Li Yingwan beside her.
Lu Xixi also turned to look at Sun Keke and frowned. "What’s wrong?"
Sun Keke had a strange expression as she shook her head. "N-nothing... I think I just zoned out. I thought I suddenly heard Chen Nuo’s voice."
"Chen Nuo’s voice?"
"Yeah... he was shouting something about... a little biscuit."