After that failure back at H-City, Shuhang could only curse at his bad luck and head back to Jiangnan. Once he finally got back to his workshop, Shuhang ruminated on the reason for his failure to find and meet up with Sixteen and Seven. Despite having went ahead of schedule, scouting the area for the most likely Thunder Tribulation site, and various other plans... He still failed!

 

Too strange... now that I thought about it. Even with all the extra time I've invested, I still was unable to find those 2 Su Clan members. It's almost as if... there were some mysterious forces keeping me away from finding them. Those delinquents I met for example... there is no way I would simply *bump* into them just like that. Even if I were at my most careless moment, that shame-inducing Mystic Code had way too many functions to have allowed something like that from happening.

One of those said functions was the ability to, within a certain radius from my self, make people unconsciously steer away from ... no matter what it is they were doing it at the moment! Again, if that... thing wasn't such a great Mystic Code, I would have long since erased it from existence.

Not to mention the fact that I was completely alert at that time as I didn't want to miss even the tiniest of details. Details which gives me clues to the Su Clan's location. And yet.... I somehow STILL *bumped* into those damn delinquents. Without being aware of their presence even!

 

Whether or not it was a third party or some random divine intervention, Shuhang still cursed at his own Luck while wondering whether or not it was at the abysmal E-Rank... 

 

Sigh, no matter. Rather than b****ing about my failure, I should actually start getting ready for tomorrow. Damn, it's going to be another sleepless night isn't it...?

 

With that last thought, Shuhang started to call up all of the gang leaders available within Jiangnan and gave them certain instructions. They were of course the victims of Shuhang's previous... *Hypnotizing* rampage. Shuhang's instruction was simply for them to bring him as many avian and rodent type animals to a certain warehouse as soon as possible. Dead or alive doesn't matter! They just need to be on the smaller side. 

Needless to say, Jiangnan City was strangely devoid of any kinds of animal that day save for the pets that were smart enough to stay indoors. A few hours passed after his phone calls and now... Shuhang found himself staring at rows upon rows of caged/bagged animals. Both live and dead ones intermixed with each other.

 

F***! Maybe I should have gave them a number. There's at least over a hundred here!, thought Shuhang as he regretted giving out vague instructions earlier. Letting out a sigh, Shuhang placed his palm on a wall as his Magic Circuits flared to life. Suddenly, a pre-made bounded field flared to life, preventing all sounds from escaping while he worked. The bounded also the people warding function as Shuhang didn't want to be interrupted as he worked.

What kind of work that required so many animals no matter dead or alive? Of course, it's to manufacture as many Familiars as possible! It is also possible to create familiars using inanimate objects as well. An example would be Illyasviel von Einsbern creating familiars using strands of her  own hair. Shuhang just decides to use animals as mediums as it was a lot easier.

Not wanting even the most remote and minuscule chance of repeating his previous mistake, Shuhang had thought up of the idea of using familiars to greatly expand his scouting range. Once again cringing at the absurd number of animals, Shuhang went towards the carcasses first then silently worked on his little project throughout all of the night.

.

.

.

Next morning on Luo Xin Street.

 

Now dead tired from literally working all night long, Shuhang was now sitting on a bench as he was going through the chat log on his phone. At the same time, he was stuffing food into mouth like a hungry ghost and in the process, made people give him strange looks. He hadn't notice it of course as he was too focused on his phone. To be more precise, he was focused on reading the Nine Provinces (1) Chat logs. One of which...

 

[Butterfly Island's Soft Feather: I've asked many but they don't seem to know anything about a Ghost Lamp Temple......    ],

,

,

And the latest message from Soft Feather which was sent just now...

 

[Butterfly Island's Soft Feather: I've successfully arrived at Luo Xin Street area...................... ]

 

 

About time you got here, thought Shuhang as he shoved the last bit of food into his mouth and closed his eyes. Then with a mental command, Shuhang linked his sight with the nearest bird familiar in the area. Not too soon, images of the Luo Xin Street in aerial views streamed into his mind. At the same time, Shuhang also received many different images of *females pulling along a big luggage* from his other ground familiars spread throughout the area.

Shuhang frowned when seeing the images as he couldn't actually figure out which of them were Soft Feather. He definitely did NOT have the mythical and unfathomable power of other fanfiction protagonists to instantly recognize fictional characters based on text descriptions alone. Heck, even if there were pictures, it's impossible for 2D images to translate that well into the real world.

 

Those damn fanfic authors and their MCs... how the f*** do they do it? Huh... is this the REAL reason why I couldn't find Seven and Sixteen? I might not have recognized who they are even if I actually walked pass them!

 

While internally musing, Shuhang suddenly flinched at what he saw through his bird familiar. It was the image of a young man seated on a tree branch whilst lazily leaning on it. The startling part was that the young was actually meeting eye-to-eye with his bird familiar!

 

It must just be my imagination... right? WAIT! I think I know who he is... the lazy Senior Soft Feather's old man sent to guard his daughter! He must have noticed something was wrong with my familiar, hence his current observation...

 

Shuhang can feel cold sweat on his back at the thought. Without hesitation, Shuhang released his direct connection with the bird familiar and commanded it to fly out of the Luo Xin Street area, and just to be safe, straight out of Jiangnan itself. A second later, Shuhang opened his eyes and slowly stood up from the bench he was sitting on. Slowly and as naturally as possible of course so as to not give any possible connection from the familiar to himself.

With the cultivation level of Soft Feather's senior, Shuhang doesn't doubt at all that all of Luo Xin Street area is within the purview of his spiritual sense. It had to be like that as he was acting as a bodyguard after all.

 

Can't believe I forgot about that guy's existence! Did not sleeping the whole night fried my brain or something?, thought Shuhang as he stretched his body a little before walking off in a random direction, and ready to come up with other methods of...*integrating* with the chat group.

Although he didn't want to give up after working so hard, Shuhang had to at this point. Shuhang wasn't sure he would be able to survive if that Senior of Soft Feather's viewed his actions as hostile, even if he's not, after all. He's still too weak and fragile at the moment... At the same time, Shuhang fished out his cell phone and once again began scrolling through any messages he might have missed as it is a habit by now.

Not a moment too soon either as there was immediately a new message sent by Soft Feather containing a voice message. As if guided by Fate itself, Shuhang's finger moved to click on the play icon before his thought could even catch up. Then...

 

Senior North River, have you found any information on Ghost Lamp temple? I've asked a lot of shopkeepers in Luo Xin street area, but no one knew about Ghost Lamp temple. Please reply after receiving this message.

 

The melodic voice a young woman played from his phone's speaker. The sound was pretty loud as well since he wanted to re-enact even a tiny bit of the *original* Shuhang and Soft Feather's meeting. Sigh, this voice message... there's no point since I haven't seen the person herself, thought Shuhang bitterly as he looked up from his cell phone. 

When he did however, Shuhang came to an immediate stop as he was stunned at what he saw. In front of him was a long legged, fairy-like beauty with a giant suit case behind her. Her little finger still holding onto the *send* button on her phone, stunned look, and gaping mouth ruined her beauty a little though...

 

[Shuhang: Well, this is awkward... Butterfly Island's Soft Feather? ]

 

To Shuhang's sudden question, the beauty in front of him unconsciously nodded to answer. Shuhang heaved a big sigh internally though not showing it at all on the outside, aside from the almost imperceptible twitching of the corner of his mouth.

 

Seriously... Seven and Sixteen whom I've tried so hard to find yet was unable. And now... Soft Feather whom I've just given up on finding, not even a minute ago at that, just brazenly walked right in front of me! I need to have some words with *Fate* one of these days. I promise I won't beat her to death then!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[[A\N: Not much development here aside from showing some more of Shuhang's ability and of his mystic code. The chapter became a bit longer than normal some how though... Weird. I'll try to write another chapter tomorrow. No promises though... Should I even write a chap at all? This one was almost 2 chapters by itself after all...]]