Vol 1 Chapter 5.1 (1/2)

Chapter 5: House Keeper Part 1—A Deadly Invitation—translated by Raylight (proofread by Trespa.s.serby & elisa; C/E edited by lucathia)

Doot doot doot—

As the call cut off, Lu Yang stared at the phone and frowned, realizing that something was amiss. He had already been trapped here for a long time. If it weren’t for the fact that he was carrying a plastic bag with breakfast and a can of milk tea inside, he would have died just from thirst!

The other person seemed to have no intent to face off against him, and instead had merely trapped him in this place, making him unable to act.

This was a small crossroad within the alleyways, its location extremely close to the university he was studying at. He was accustomed to taking this route to school, and this place happened to be a small back street. There simply weren’t many people pa.s.sing by, especially at nine o’clock in the morning, when those working would have already started work and those going to cla.s.s might not come through here.

Therefore, it was definitely the best possible place to put a “barrier dimension.”

This also happened to be his Achilles heel. In a fight, he had the confidence that he would be able to cut down most of his opponents with Slay, but as to this kind of method that used a “barrier dimension” to trap him, he simply had no way to deal with it. After all, the framework of the barrier dimension was perfect, and the perpetrator behind the scenes refused to appear. Therefore, he could only wait for the opponent to lose the strength to continue maintaining the barrier dimension.

Lu Yang was simply not an expert at seeing through truths and lies. If Jiang Ziya were here—No! He mustn’t drag ordinary people into this.

That was the first thing that he had learned, and it must always be adhered to.

However, could Jiang Ziya still be considered an ordinary person?

In the past, he had merely had an abnormal left eye but wasn’t involved in anything else. Lu Yang was fairly certain of this, for he had investigated him before.

When they had first entered high school, Jiang Ziya hadn’t immediately caught his attention. He had kept a low profile and was quiet. Other than his outstanding grades, there simply wasn’t anything attention-grabbing about him. As for Lu Yang, he had already started socializing with the other cla.s.smates since day one.

He had not noticed him until a few illusionary familiars had appeared in the cla.s.sroom. Normally, Lu Yang would pay no heed to those low-level illusionary familiars. Simply put, there were too many to do anything about them. They were like c.o.c.kroaches; although annoying, no one was bothered enough to wipe all of them off the face of the earth.

Jiang Ziya could see those illusionary familiars.

Although he had tried his best to hide that fact, having stuck thoroughly to his motto of “turning a blind eye” to them, he could not help but expose himself on occasion. Whenever those things appeared, he would sometimes unconsciously shoot a glance at them, discovering their presence even faster than Lu Yang.

Lu Yang’s first thought was that he had encountered another pract.i.tioner of the path. Therefore, he had intentionally approached him in the hopes of finding out his background. In the end though, he realized that Jiang Ziya wasn’t a pract.i.tioner at all. He merely had a strange left eye.

After the investigation, the two of them had somehow become close.

Jiang Ziya never pried into Lu Yang’s background, but he did like to talk about himself, especially because Lu Yang never questioned the things Jiang Ziya saw.

After seeing all sorts of strange things, Jiang Ziya had first suspected himself to be mentally ill. However, when he had gone for a checkup, even the doctors claimed that he was feigning sickness when they heard about his situation and found out that he was a student.

As a result, Jiang Ziya could only try his best to pretend he could not see them.

For the first time in his life, Lu Yang had thought someone to be in a worse situation than him when it came to not being able to voice any troubles. At least, he had his family who knew about these matters, but Jiang Ziya never uttered a single word for the sake of not worrying his sister.

The relations.h.i.+p between the two people of completely opposite personalities was very good, and this puzzled all of their cla.s.smates. What they did not know was that Jiang Ziya and Lu Yang were very similar. They could see the same things, just that one pretended not to see them, while the other would go and meet those annoying things at night—

“Come out, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d! How long are you planning to trap me here?”

Lu Yang was completely enraged. It wasn’t as simple as walking the same crossroad nine times—he had walked the entire day! But he still couldn’t find the weak point, and he was vexed by his own unfamiliarity with “barrier dimensions.”

However, he really had no talent in the area of “barrier dimensions.” Looking at the pages full of theories of their structures and the way to break them, he felt that he understood each word by itself, but once they all combined to form a sentence, it became a language that he could not understand. He would much rather go and spar with Slay for twenty-four hours, and then lay on the floor exhausted.

But as expected, those who don’t study hard will receive retribution.

Lu Yang felt a little frustrated at that, just a little bit. Maintaining a barrier dimension wasn’t a simple task, and though this barrier wasn’t large like the ridiculous dimension with the falling ash from before, it had persisted for an entire day already. The other party should not be able to hold it any longer. Moreover, they most likely had little combat strength, so that was why they could only trap him in this barrier dimension.

Lu Yang silently prayed for Ziya to understand that no harm would come to him and hence not to come over.

After taking another two steps, he exited the alley—at least, logically, he should have exited the alley. Instead, he entered the alley again. Lu Yang decided he might as well sit down and save some energy. After all, the only thing he had to eat for the entire day was breakfast.

This was a small alley, and both of the walls were made of bricks, uncommon in the city. Many trees poked out from behind the brick walls, changing as the seasons went by, so Lu Yang enjoyed walking along this path even though the length of his journey was increased.

Fifty meters ahead was a small crossroad, and turning right would lead to the university. Throughout the whole day, he had turned left, right, walked straight ahead, and walked backwards. He had even climbed the walls several times, but each time, he would return to the alleyway without being able to find a single weak spot.

There was something that Lu Yang was even more suspicious of. For each time he pa.s.sed through, it would be a different season. The temperature wouldn’t change much, but the trees on both sides would change continuously through the four seasons. This ought to be a weak point, but he was still unable to figure out what to do next.

“I’ll wait it out with you!” Lu Yang said through gritted teeth. He was merely a little hungry and thirsty, but since the other had to maintain the barrier dimension, he must be in worse shape than him.

Ah Yang…

Lu Yang raised his head. He seemed to have heard Jiang Ziya’s voice—d.a.m.n it, he still came after all.

He stood up and shouted, “Ziya, where are you?”

“Next to you.”

Lu Yang walked over to the wall. He had already jumped over the surrounding walls more than twenty times in hopes of finding the exit, but he believed that Jiang Ziya’s eyes were more useful than his judgment.

“Are you okay?” He asked, feeling a little worried.

“Of course I’m okay. Aren’t you the one who’s not okay?”

Hearing that answer, Lu Yang heaved a sigh of relief. He started to feel that perhaps Jiang Ziya’s arrival was a good thing. At least, he would be able to return home for dinner earlier. He was both hungry and thirsty, and though he could put up with it due to the training he had since he was young, it would of course be best if he didn’t have to do so.

“How did you find me?”

“I went about searching for you by following the path you use to go to school…”

As Lu Yang walked, he listened to Jiang Ziya’s reply and followed the source of his voice. In the end, he arrived at a wall, and his voice sounded close, so it ought to be the right place.

Lu Yang praised, “I didn’t know you were this smart. Sigh, that’s not right either. You have always received good grades.”

A familiar face popped out from behind the wall. Other than Jiang Ziya, who else could it be? He smiled and reached a hand out to grab hold of Lu Yang.

Lu Yang found it hilarious. With Jiang Ziya’s arm strength, it might even be easier for him to climb up the wall by himself. However, he still grabbed onto his good friend’s hand and joked, “You better not toss me off the wall on purpose—”

He abruptly stopped mid-sentence, realizing that Jiang Ziya’s hands were so icy, they didn’t seem like the hands of a human.

Lu Yang wanted to pull away, but it was too late. The other person had already grabbed hold of his wrist, and no matter how he struggled, he was unable to break free.

Jiang Ziya’s smile grew wider and wider. The corners of his mouth split apart and went past a human’s limits, finally extending to the ears. The mouth was slightly open, and the entire face looked as though it was torn in two, with sharp teeth filling the gap.

The hand grabbing hold of Lu Yang became even st.u.r.dier and did not seem like a human’s hand made out of flesh and skin. It was tough and icy and secured Lu Yang’s hand like a handcuff.

“s.h.i.+T!”

d.a.m.n, he had been tricked.

After maintaining the barrier dimension the whole day, for the other person to set an illusionary familiar trap… If this was done by one person, then that person must be toying with him out of extreme boredom.

Lu Yang knew that he had miscalculated. It wasn’t him—but them!

“Slay! Cut down this hand!”

Lu Yang shouted angrily, but nothing happened. Slay did not appear at all.

“It’s too late, big brother!” The voice that rang out was no longer Jiang Ziya’s but a soft, child-like voice. The illusion’s eyes narrowed as it smiled and grinned with its tattered mouth. It happily said, “You have already agreed! So come in and play with me!”

Lu Yang looked up at the other and knew that he had satisfied the conditions—grabbing its hand and agreeing to its invitation…

House Keeper was in the middle of clearing the potato chip packets that covered the floor when there came a series of anxious and violent knocks on the door. This time, he did not go and retrieve the seal. For someone to come at this late time, it was mostly likely not the postman. Furthermore, he had already guessed as to who was at the door.

The only other person who would visit this place, in addition to the postman, would be the neighbor across the hall.