CHAPTER 260: CHAPTER 260: THERE’S NO TURNING BACK NOW

EDITOR: DRAGON BOAT TRANSLATION

"Hmm, go to Fat Brother BBQ and get a dozen beef skewers and a dozen lamb skewers, nothing spicy. Then go to Sheng Kee and buy a pound and a half of Little Long shrimp. Remember to tell the lady boss to snip off the shrimp heads. It *has* to be the lady boss—she remembered my face from when I used to eat there with the Tactical Bureau. Just show your face; she’ll definitely ensure the Little Long shrimp are spotlessly cleaned for you..."

"Then head to the COCO Milk Tea shop on Longkou East Road and buy a cup of pudding milk tea. That shop is open 24 hours. Then hurry back here, got it?"

The clone nodded. Ren Suo let him go out, then turned off the living room lights and pretended he wasn’t home.

It was only in the past couple of days that he’d suddenly realized he didn’t need to go out himself at all.

He just needed to create the illusion that ’Ren Suo would go out in the early hours.’ In reality, during this process, Ren Suo wouldn’t interact with any acquaintances; he would just be playing on his phone if he were actually on the road.

So he sent his clone out for a stroll and to conveniently buy some late-night snacks. The time saved could be better used for Cultivation or sleep.

Ren Suo settled down and continued his Cultivation.

According to the data stream, he was now at 93% of the first turn, very close to the second turn.

But in reality, his Cultivation efficiency had plummeted these past few days. If he didn’t trigger the Goddess Jade Pendant, he might not even achieve a 1% increase after half a day of Cultivation. This was completely inconsistent with the 3% or 4% daily increase he used to achieve.

Moreover, the feeling of Exhaustion during Cultivation became clearer. The sensation after circulating his Qi for a complete cycle changed from the refreshing feeling of ’scrubbing all the old grime off his body’ to a sour, painful feeling, as if ’scrubbing off the old grime also tore away a layer of skin.’

He guessed that his internal Qi Cyclone was now full. Previously, his internal Qi Cyclone was like a two-lane road with few vehicles, so his Cultivation speed was fast. But now, the Qi Cyclone was bustling like a traffic jam; there was no room for newly absorbed Spiritual Energy. This new energy acted like a road roller, forcibly expanding his two-lane Qi Cyclone into a four-lane one. That’s why the Cultivation process was so slow and even a bit painful.

When the Goddess Jade Pendant calmed down, Ren Suo also stopped his Cultivation. He faintly sensed that when the Goddess Jade Pendant was triggered, the Qi Cyclone expanded more efficiently, like a chemical reaction catalyzed by an enzyme. Therefore, he couldn’t be bothered to spend extra time slowly forcing its expansion.

This was a minor drawback of the data stream: it could accurately recognize the current status but couldn’t precisely predict the future. It was like a 100-point exam paper. Ren Suo could quickly improve on the first 90 points, but when he reached the questions for the final 10 points, he found their difficulty was entirely different from the previous 90.

When the clone returned with the late-night snacks, Ren Suo checked the time. Seeing it still had a few minutes left, he had the clone make its Clothing disappear before it vanished itself.

So, the Mysterious Country’s tactical system would detect the existence of the Ghost Stall by the fifth day... Ren Suo mused.

Although the tactical system’s response speed was faster than expected, it didn’t significantly impact Ren Suo’s plan. Even if he bumped into someone from the Tactical Bureau, he had a good explanation—he was always a night owl, after all.

But progressing from Yellow Hair on the first day to having key cities under surveillance by night on the fifth day—this speed sufficiently demonstrated the Tactical Bureau’s focus on Supernatural Forces.

Should I start warming things up a bit? Ren Suo wondered. He checked the internal network and found related discussions already underway:

Guessing the Members of the Immortal Palace

This discussion had started after the ’Opening the Spirit Treasury’ video was uploaded, which was after the Handsome Monkey King’s appearance in New York. These types of discussions weren’t limited to the internal network; other forums had similar threads, mostly along these lines:

’With the Handsome Monkey King around, isn’t it also normal to have an Inheritor of The Grand Supreme Elderly Lord? Besides, The Grand Supreme Elderly Lord’s previous incarnation, Li Dan, was a real historical figure, you know.’

’There must be a Zhuge Kongming, with a feather fan and a silk scarf, so full of immortal charm.’

’Maybe it’s not just Easterners. The Truth Seeker isn’t from the East either. Perhaps Merlin and King Arthur are around too?’

’We already have the Nine-Tailed Fox, so the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon can’t be far behind, right?’

...Yes, this post was just a frivolous thread with little reference value.

So Ren Suo first posted in other threads, pretending to ’casually’ come across this thread, and replied:

"The Truth Seeker himself isn’t known for his martial or intellectual prowess, but rather for his great perseverance and dedication in Seeking the Path. Therefore, I think that not all members of the Immortal Palace are necessarily extraordinary in combat power, strategy, or destruction. There should be some who are experts in daily life aspects like clothing, food, shelter, transportation, or proficient in arts like playing the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting, right? For example, Godly Escort Dai Zong, Go Saint Huang Longshi, and the Peach Garden painter Zhang Fei..."

This answer was also quite superficial; after all, gaining even a few Research Points would be a win.

While having his late-night snack, Ren Suo started his sixth day of Ghost Walking—this time in Mexico City.

True to its ranking as the fifth city for Concealment Concentration, this was the first time he’d had to do so little thinking while Ghost Walking. A good half of the customers were True Demons, their numbers perfectly surpassing what Peacock had experienced in Mumbai.

There were occasional Half-Demons, whom Ren Suo also dealt with directly by ’feeding them crap,’ as these customers were far too unruly.

"There’s no turning back now," said the middle-aged gunman who had killed nine people. It was clear he desperately wanted to shoot the female shop owner. However, under the great Law of the game, he still had to first finish the plate of egg-fried rice before him. Eating it made him feel as though his son had taken a taxi and left on the very day he was born, his wife had divorced him and taken all their property, and even his dog had been caught by people from the Mysterious Country to be made into soup.

"There’s no turning back now," said the handsome, middle-aged man who was cheating on nine partners. He was the first customer to show naked Desire for the female shop owner, so Ren Suo served him a dose of "Fear" + "Love" + "Celebration." He then seemed to fall into a holiday illusion, muttering, "Why have all nine of you come at once?" Unable to move, he was directly beaten senseless by the female shop owner.

"There’s no turning back now." This young man with an afro, a spy who served as a ’public toilet’ for nine gangs, recounted his life story, which also stunningly lacked a single keyword. He had conned Ren Suo out of 2 Merit Points spent on Holy Water. So, Ren Suo hung him up and gave him a good beating, making him understand the principle that ’traitors who walk this path will eventually pay their dues.’

This sixth day of Ghost Walking took Ren Suo over a dozen hours.

Mexico City wasn’t very challenging, but most of the supplies obtained from the previous five days were used up. There were too many fights, and the female shop owner’s Health Points had dropped too much, necessitating the use of healing items.

Moreover, the boss of Mexico City was a major drug lord. His Attack Power aside, he had a lot of Health Points and even possessed a Skill: taking drugs, which regenerated half his health each time, dragging the fight into a war of attrition.

Ren Suo fought the boss once, had all his supplies consumed, and was miserably worn down to defeat.

Learning from this painful experience, he reloaded his save. During his second attempt, he focused on maintaining high Health Points in the fights leading up to the boss. This way, he wouldn’t need to waste a turn on healing during the boss battle. Ignoring his own rapidly plummeting Health Points, he fought desperately and managed to take down the boss first, even while on the brink of death himself.

The day had been both exhilarating and immensely frustrating, he reflected. He was also getting quite sleepy—he hadn’t properly slept in two or three days.

So, upon arriving at Dong Chengling’s home, he sat down and closed his eyes to rest for a while. It was only when dinner was ready that he noticed Gu Yueyan sitting nearby.

"Huh? I thought you’d stay home until the semester started before coming back," Ren Suo greeted her. As he spoke, his eyelids drooped—it seemed he had truly exhausted even a cat’s ration of sleep.

"What, you’re not happy to see me?" Gu Yueyan raised her eyebrows slightly. "Are you afraid I’ll disrupt your quality time with Teacher Dong?"

"Yeah."

As he spoke, Ren Suo even wobbled his head, as if nodding in agreement.

Gu Yueyan was at a loss for words and, without saying anything, proactively went into the kitchen to help Dong Chengling.

When the three of them sat down, Dong Chengling asked the same question as Ren Suo, "Xiao Yan, why didn’t you stay home until school started before coming back? Don’t you want to spend more time with your family?"

Gu Yueyan, naturally, gave a different reason. "There’s no one at home, so I came over," she said lightly.

Dong Chengling asked, "I remember your brother is also a Tactical Cultivator. Are your parents very busy?"

"My father and his wife went on a trip."

Ren Suo, who was drinking fish soup, finally sobered up a bit at this remark. It was mainly because ’father’ was followed by ’his wife’ and not ’mother,’ a detail that made the gossip-lover in Ren Suo sense a story worthy of a prime-time family drama.

However, Dong Chengling wasn’t a fool and didn’t press further, instead looking thoughtfully at Gu Yueyan.

"Then, has your roommate come back?"

"No, Xiaoyu also went home a few days ago," Gu Yueyan said with a smile. "That way, I can have the dorm’s best spot for Cultivation all to myself and strive to advance to the second turn before school starts!"

At that moment, Ren Suo suddenly reached out and rubbed Gu Yueyan’s head. She froze, too slow to react, and only after Ren Suo withdrew his hand did she protest angrily, "What are you doing?!"

"Hmm, you won’t be able to advance within a month," Ren Suo said calmly.

"How do you know that?!" Gu Yueyan retorted while fixing her hair, clearly irritated.

"If you absolutely must know, I made the judgment based on your three sizes, age, appearance, and the body wash and hair growth products you’ve used..."

"You’re the one who uses hair growth products!"

Dong Chengling interrupted their quarrel and, looking at Gu Yueyan, suggested, "In that case, how about you stay at my place for these few days?"

"Huh?"

"Didn’t I say before? You can think of me as your older sister," Dong Chengling said, gently patting Gu Yueyan’s head. "It must be boring for you to stay in the dorm alone, right? Before your roommate comes back, why don’t you come live with me, your big sister?"

As she spoke, Dong Chengling smiled again. "But I’m also a very boring person; I don’t know if you’d mind..."

"I don’t mind!" Gu Yueyan immediately replied. "But I’m afraid of bothering you too much."

"As long as you’re willing, it’s no bother at all," Dong Chengling said.

Gu Yueyan bit her lip and, quickly and secretly glancing at the drowsy Ren Suo, nodded. "Then... thank you, Teacher."

Dong Chengling smiled. "Then move in tomorrow. I’ll clean the guest room tonight. Here, try this braised pork with vine stems; it’s a new recipe I learned..."

After dinner, Ren Suo said, "I’ll wash the dishes tonight. It’ll be your turn tomorrow at noon, okay?"

"Hmm." Gu Yueyan didn’t say much and was the first to leave.

After Ren Suo finished washing the dishes, he left Dong Chengling’s home and ran into Gu Yueyan downstairs again.

It felt like this place had become their secret meeting spot.

"I’m very sleepy tonight, so I can’t be your on-call healer," Ren Suo said first, yawning convincingly.

"It’s not about that." Gu Yueyan handed him a notebook, which Ren Suo took and saw was a photo album.

"I processed all the photos from our trip to Fragrance City. They’re all in here," Gu Yueyan said. "I thought you should have a copy."

"Oh, thanks," Ren Suo said, looking through them. They were indeed photos of him and Gu Yueyan enjoying their time in Fragrance City. "I rarely have physical photos of myself. You took some really good shots; I’m in every single one..."

Suddenly, Gu Yueyan snatched the album from him, pulled out the last page, and then returned the rest to him. Ren Suo was puzzled. "What’s wrong?"

"I realized one of the photos I took looks bad, so I decided not to give that one to you."

Without looking back, Gu Yueyan left.

Scratching his head, Ren Suo hurried home with the photo album. He swiftly washed up, and before going to sleep, he glanced through the album again.

Hmm, these are really well taken, he thought. If I photoshop Gu Yueyan out, I could send them home as recent photos of myself.

As he flipped through, Ren Suo noticed there was writing on the back of the photos.

It was foreign text he didn’t recognize, quite lengthy. There was some behind every photo, and each was in a different language, but there was no English or Chinese.

Ren Suo recognized one as Arabic and, on a whim, looked up the Arabic translation for ’I love you.’

Upon comparison, they were totally different.

Tch, isn’t it said that incomprehensible foreign writing usually turns out to be a confession? Ren Suo mused. Although he wasn’t handsome, he certainly liked to dream.

The next second, an overwhelming wave of sleepiness hit him. Ren Suo couldn’t fight it any longer; he stuffed the photo album into the bookshelf and collapsed onto his bed, falling asleep instantly.

Meanwhile, Gu Yueyan looked at the photo in her hand. It was of her and Ren Suo boating—the shot that, through the camera effect, appeared to be their most intimate moment.

Flipping it over, there was a line written in a delicate font:

’I can no longer turn back.’