Chapter 649: Promise and Descendants (Double Number)
The train was like a long dragon weaving through mountains and fields, traveling thousands of miles before finally stopping at an inconspicuous city. White cherry blossoms scattered petals around the station.
“Welcome to Tottori Prefecture.”
As the train doors opened, a sparse crowd slowly disembarked. Amidst the flow of people, a pair of figures, one large and one small, appeared before the station sign.
Su Jiu glanced at the station sign. She had originally planned to ride the train all the way and then take a plane. Since Ibaraki said she had business here, she decided to wait.
“Where do you want to go? You can’t expect me to wander around aimlessly, can you?”
Still dressed as a shrine maiden, Su Jiu patted her gourd and walked away, her gaze sweeping over the cherry blossom petals caught by the wind.
She felt a bit surprised. It seemed that the cherry blossoms in this place were particularly dense and prone to falling, very different from ordinary ornamental cherry blossoms.
“Find a shop called ‘Huo Laotou’. The things we need are there.”
A faint voice came from inside the gourd. Ibaraki’s condition seemed to be worsening, and the playful tone was gone from her voice.
“Huo Laotou?”
Hearing the name, Su Jiu felt like she had seen it somewhere before, but couldn’t recall any specific details. She then swept her gaze over the small shops selling food and drinks near the station, casually bought something for E Huo, and then asked the shop owner for directions:
“Shop owner, have you heard of a shop called ‘Huo Laotou’?”
The small shop owner shook his head repeatedly, smiling helplessly as he said, “I’ve been doing business here for five or six years, and this is the first time I’ve heard of a shop named ‘Huo Laotou’. Around here, there are mostly shops selling cherry-flavored sake and cherry pastries. There are no hot pot-like names.”
“Alright, thank you.”
Seeing that the shop owner didn’t know, Su Jiu had no choice but to follow the crowd out of the station. Following the directions on the map, she headed towards the Adventurer’s Guild, saying to Ibaraki along the way:
“You heard what I just said, right? If there’s a shop called Huo Laotou, it would only be selling hot pot. What exactly do you want to buy?”
Ibaraki fell silent for a rare moment. After a long pause, she seemed to squeeze out a sentence from between her teeth: “It’s definitely there. He said he would be open until the day I get out of prison…”
Listening to the words from the gourd, Su Jiu shook her head slightly and tried to persuade her: “Can’t you buy that thing anywhere else?”
She still couldn’t figure out what that thing was.
“I can’t buy it. If I want to open that…”
Ibaraki’s voice gradually came out, with a hint of stubbornness, as if she was certain that only the items from Huo Laotou’s would be useful.
Soon, Su Jiu arrived at the local Adventurer’s Guild with E Huo. From a distance, it looked very different from the one in Fukuoka. This Adventurer’s Guild had the feel of something set up in a small village.
As she pushed open the large door, a “ding ling…” sound echoed. Su Jiu looked at the interior, where lazy adventurers were drinking. The LCD screen, which should have been displaying quests, was playing a melodramatic cherry blossom drama, exuding a sense of lethargy.
As if sensing their arrival, a staff member inside yawned and casually glanced at Su Jiu and the other. He waved his hand:
“Please leave. All the cherry-picking missions are filled. Only monster hunting missions are left.”
Su Jiu’s mouth twitched. She quickly took out her Adventurer Medal and explained her purpose: “We are looking for a shop called ‘Huo Laotou’. We thought we could inquire here, so we came to ask.”
“What Huo Laotou, Bing Laotou…”
The staff member waved his hand impatiently. As his gaze fell on the Adventurer Medal Su Jiu handed over, his throat suddenly went dry.
He swallowed and looked back at Su Jiu’s face, forcing an awkward smile. He asked, “Lord Adventurer King, can you provide more information about this shop? If possible, please tell us what kind of shop it is.”
“I don’t know.”
Su Jiu rolled her eyes. If she had known, she wouldn’t have come here to ask. Ibaraki was also as good as dead, not saying a word since just now.
“This…”
The staff member’s face twitched slightly. He really wanted to curse, but he held back, looking at Su Jiu’s medal.
“Isn’t the name ‘Huo Laotou’ quite similar to that hundred-year-old shop ‘Bing Laotou’ that’s recruiting people? Why not go ask there?”
As the staff member was about to ask for more useful information, an adventurer lying on the table drinking suddenly spoke up.
Thanks to the suggestion, Su Jiu quickly realized that she seemed to have seen this name on her phone before, no wonder it felt familiar…
At this moment, Ibaraki, who had been feigning death, said in a very small voice: “Let’s go take a look.”
Su Jiu gave him a glance and thanked the staff member. She then used her map to navigate to the hundred-year-old shop and slowly strolled over, pulling E Huo’s small hand.
Finally, the two appeared on a walking street with various exquisite pastries. E Huo’s eyes were shining with golden light, and that ‘golden light’ was a metaphor. Her vertical pupils glowed as if she were wearing colored contact lenses and a flashlight.
“Turn off your eye effects, or I won’t buy you anything to eat.”
Su Jiu hurriedly grabbed E Huo and patted her on the back of her head. After her eyes returned to normal, she let go and handed her a small stack of money.
“Mama is so nice.”
Taking the small pile of money, E Huo was like a hungry wolf encountering a lamb. She bought whatever she saw, and if she couldn’t carry it, she chose to eat it first.
Putting E Huo aside for a moment, Su Jiu continued to look further back with the gourd. She found that the shops that followed were all traditional ones and had become quite deserted. Those who came to buy things were mostly elderly people.
Following the markers on the app, she walked until the very end of the street, where she saw a rather large shop. The pedestrians in front of that shop were ceaseless.
“Bing Laotou…”
Su Jiu looked at the old-fashioned cherry blossom sign with the words “Bing Laotou” written on it and stopped. She patted the gourd and said softly, “This should be the place, right?”
This was an old shop that sold cherry pastries. The shop assistant was a young girl, about eleven or twelve years old, who seemed to be looking after the shop for her family.
Su Jiu felt that Ibaraki might just want to visit an old friend and was tricking her into believing there was something here that could activate the formation.
“Mm…”
Looking at the name of the shop “Bing Laotou” in front of her, Ibaraki suddenly leaped out of the gourd and then reappeared. Her gaze fixed on the girl selling cherry pastries. “After I finish buying my things, we’ll leave and go to Kobe.”
Hearing this, Su Jiu teased, “Do you have money?”
“Of course.”
Ibaraki smiled. Her figure seemed to have become much more solid and taller. Then she walked alone towards the shop in the sunlight. In the sunlight, her shadow was clearly visible.
As she queued, Ibaraki looked at the shop and finally her gaze fell on the little girl. She was stunned for a moment, then a strange smile appeared on her face.
Su Jiu didn’t wait long before Ibaraki returned empty-handed. She waved to Su Jiu and quietly said, “Let’s go, we should go to Kobe.”
“I forgot to tell you, I actually knew the tomb of that Daimyo in Osaka. To be precise, it wasn’t a Daimyo’s tomb, but a trap. There were no treasures inside, only countless alchemy formations.”
“When that fake tomb was built, it was made widely known, probably only to fool you descendants.”
After saying that, he nimbly slipped back into the gourd, looking guilt-free.
Hearing this, Su Jiu felt a chill run down her spine. She felt a chill on her back. If she hadn’t brought him to Tottori Prefecture, would he have played dumb and continued to fool her…
She realized that none of these “old things” that had lived for hundreds of years were simple. At the very least, their planning and actions always left a backup.
…
In front of the Bing Laotou shop, crowds continued to gather. As it approached noon, a black car stopped beside the shop. A man with a large beard emerged from the car, followed by two young men.
“Grandpa! (Sheng) (& Ming Er Wo San Ba Ba San Grandpa is recruiting good people and is back!”
Without thinking, the latter walked towards the shop and laughed heartily. He suddenly saw the little girl playing with several shiny magic crystals and was startled. He pointed at the magic crystals and asked, “Xiao Liang, who gave these to you?”
“An uncle who couldn’t afford the money. He bought a box of cherry pastries and said these marbles were a form of payment.”
Blinking, a fiery glow flashed in the little girl’s eyes, but it quickly disappeared. She herself didn’t notice the change in color.
“Grandpa used to say that my grandfather said we should make cherry pastries for a lifetime. When Grandpa gets disciples in the future, I won’t have to…”
…
That night.
“You were already weak, and now you’ve been exposed to sunlight. What exactly do you want to do in Kobe?”
Sensing that Ibaraki’s aura was becoming weaker, Su Jiu didn’t choose to rest but instead flew towards Kobe.
“Of course, it’s to survive. As long as we reach Kobe, we can go our separate ways.”
Like an injured cat, Ibaraki hid in the gourd. Her body was terrifyingly transparent, looking as if she was about to die.
Su Jiu pouted, unsure of this old man’s intentions, but she still reminded him: “Kobe is not like Fukuoka. If you’re exposed, you’re very likely to be chased by many strong individuals.”
“Heh heh, as a Ghost King, would I be afraid of those strong individuals? I can defeat them with a flick of my hand.”
With a faint smile, Ibaraki seemed to have regained her full vigor. After a moment of silence, she slowly spoke again, as if to herself:
“It won’t be that difficult…”
Su Jiu glanced at her and stopped speaking. She increased her speed. In the dark night, she was like a swift meteor streaking across the sky, bright for a moment before fading into darkness.
She continued to open her phone to search for the special features of the city named Kobe. This time, Su Jiu had learned her lesson and looked at the trending searches:
[Top 1 Kobe Museum (Ancient Monsters)]
[Top 2 Legend of Ruins (Ancient Battlefield)]
[Top 3 Ancient Monster Corpse Suspected of Blood Extraction – Research Institute]
