Chapter 864: Making Contact

Faced with the opportunity to live in Exodus, a great place to stay, Bohemia unexpectedly declined, saying, "I won"t go!"

"...Ah?" Lin Sanjiu was taken aback.

"What "ah"? You"re not trustworthy. Maybe you"re plotting to rob or harm me."

It was strange. The hesitation and uncertainty she had just felt about whether or not to let Bohemia go had vanished instantly. In its place was a sense of unwillingness. "What wealth do you have for me to plot? Are you suffering from persecution delusion?" Lin Sanjiu sneered, feeling that her tone now sounded somewhat like Puppeteer.

"Do I need delusions? I"ve been persecuted by you several times already!" Bohemia"s brow furrowed as she mentioned this, as if she were about to burst with anger. But after the anger subsided a bit, her brown eyes flickered with a cautiousness and a hint of seeking a.s.surance. "Can I trust you even a little? Besides, what good place do you have?"

"I won"t harm you. This time, I"m making it up to you. I see how miserable you are."

"I see how miserable your mother is."

Lin Sanjiu now just wanted to fight her. "Aren"t we supposed to enter the Astral Plane together? My place is safe, and it"s a perfect hiding spot. Will you go or not?"

"No."

In that case, she had to bring out her trump card.

"...It"s been a long time since you last took a bath, hasn"t it?"

Bohemia froze visibly, as if someone had pressed the pause b.u.t.ton. She almost leaned down to smell herself but suddenly snapped back to reality, her face turning red. She stuttered, "St-stop talking nonsense!"

...It seemed to be effective.

"I have a bathtub at my place, and there"s bath salts and milk." Bath salts were just a deception; using table salt would fool her. "Besides, the main point is that our bodies will be protected when we enter the Astral Plane."

Bohemia fell silent for a moment, as if someone had sewn her mouth shut. If Lin Sanjiu had to wait for her to say "Okay, let"s go," she might just drop dead on the spot. Instead, she lifted her leg and started walking, taking a few steps before turning back and asking, "How do we get out?"

...This woman was indeed hesitating and following behind.

"Keep going forward," Bohemia said with a serious expression. "The entrance to the Orange Orchard is a one-way entry. There"s an exit ahead. Be prepared with money."

"Why do we need money?" Lin Sanjiu asked.

"You can enter the entrance freely, but you have to pay a management fee to leave," Bohemia explained. "Even the Orange Orchard needs someone to manage it."

"What is there to manage?"

"You"re so ignorant," Bohemia finally regained her composure and sneered. "For example, let"s say a piece of information can be viewed three times, and three people each come out with a piece of information worth three viewings. In that case, the information that can be viewed three times becomes nine times. If no one manages it, the area of the Orange Orchard will keep growing."

Lin Sanjiu hadn"t considered this aspect. "Are all the Twelve Worlds managed by those twelve organizations?"

"Yes. Each realm can have only one organization partic.i.p.ating in the joint management, and there are many smaller factions under each organization." Bohemia seemed pleased that the topic had s.h.i.+fted and said with a hint of pride, "I grew up in the Winter Snow Country."

"I"ve never heard of it."

"You really are ignorant!"

Lin Sanjiu had always been interested in the management system and operation of the Twelve Worlds, as well as how the posthumans lived in them. However, she had neither the time nor the energy to learn about it. Bohemia, being a child born in one of the Twelve Worlds, provided her with some missing information. As they walked and talked, they soon arrived at the exit of the Orange Orchard. The dense forest ahead gradually became spa.r.s.e, with scattered shops and houses forming a small but lively village. They stopped at the exit and looked around, but Lin Sanjiu didn"t see any fee collectors.

"Huh?" Bohemia widened her eyes, and her long eyelashes flickered a few times. "I remember that person was sitting here. How come they"re gone?"

They looked around but found nothing except a few round oranges. Since there was no one collecting fees, they decided not to pay either. Lin Sanjiu found a check-in point in the town and checked in. After that, the two of them left the village and entered a vast wilderness where the terrain gradually rose. By the time it was evening, they found themselves deep in the mountains, unable to hear any human voices.

The deep mountains at night were like an endless sea, with waves of cold air stronger than ever. The shadows cast by the dense forest were so dark that nothing could be seen. Just as Lin Sanjiu was about to take out her Ability Polis.h.i.+ng Agent to illuminate the surroundings, Bohemia pulled out something, and the darkness around them was instantly dispelled. Bohemia looked up and saw several luminous "fish" slowly swimming in the darkness, illuminating the path ahead as they walked.

In the soft light cast by the swimming fish, Bohemia finally regained some of her gracefulness from when they first met.

"This is a great place for murder and dumping bodies," she said, but as soon as she opened her mouth, that charm disappeared. "How could your home be here? Are you lying to me?"

Lin Sanjiu ignored her. If she responded to everything Bohemia said, she would have been exhausted long ago.

"How much farther is it?"

"We"re almost there."

"You said we were almost there thirty minutes ago."

"We"re really almost there."

After a while, Bohemia brought up a new topic, "Didn"t you say you would contact that guy Si-... S-somebody to enter the Astral Plane together with us?"

"I"ll try to contact him when I get back."

"Try? Can"t you definitely reach him?"

"I can, I can."

"Then contact him now," Bohemia learned from her past experience and stopped walking. "There"s no need to wait until we get home."

Lin Sanjiu felt a headache coming. She had hurriedly parted ways with Silvan and hadn"t left any contact information. She had planned to settle down first and then inquire about his whereabouts through the Mokugyo Encyclopedic Forum. But now, where could she find him all of a sudden?

But Bohemia refused to give in this time. She wouldn"t move forward unless she saw Lin Sanjiu contacting Silvan. It was as if she wanted to verify the truthfulness of everything Lin Sanjiu had said. Her stubbornness was infuriating. "Why aren"t you doing anything? You must be lying to me, aren"t you?"

There was no choice but to continue deceiving her for now.

Lin Sanjiu activated a card and released a 【Hey, Sis?】 message, unlocking its card form. This special item took the appearance of a standard communicator, leaving no room for misunderstanding about its function. She held the communicator in her hand and shook it in front of Bohemia, saying, "See this? I can contact him using this. Wait for me to return and sit down, and I"ll carefully explain to him—"

Before she could finish her sentence, a long ringing sound echoed in the night sky.

For a moment, Lin Sanjiu thought she might have accidentally pressed the call b.u.t.ton or something. However, half a second later, she finally realized that it was the communicator in her hand ringing.

"What"s going on? Is it that Silvan person?" Bohemia immediately approached, "Answer it! Why is your face turning pale—"

Lin Sanjiu reached out and covered her mouth, stopping her from completing the second half of her sentence, turning it into a m.u.f.fled "Mmm" sound.

Amidst Bohemia"s struggles and attempts to scratch her, Lin Sanjiu was already in a state of panic from the ringing of the communicator. She didn"t have the time to pay attention to her and quickly took out the controller. She raised her hand and canceled the surrounding projection disguise—the dense and oppressive old forest instantly distorted and disappeared into the ground, leaving behind a thin mist in the barren mountains.

Staring at the circular shadow on the mountaintop in the distance, Bohemia stood frozen in place with her mouth agape.

"Do you see that white circular ring?" Lin Sanjiu lifted her chin and hastily gestured towards the distance, "You go ahead, and I"ll catch up with you later."

"What about you?"

The communicator rang again, and the blue light dots rhythmically flickered in the night. As soon as she took out the communicator, she immediately received a call from Ji Shanqing. Does that mean he had been trying to contact her during this time?

"I"ll answer this call and then come over!" Lin Sanjiu"s voice lost its pleasantness as she thought about possibly missing the Grand Prize if she responded late. She felt both anxious and nervous, with a slight layer of sweat forming in her palms. It"s truly incomprehensible how they were once so close, yet now even a simple conversation made her feel so fl.u.s.tered.

Being shouted at by her, Bohemia"s face instantly crumbled. She mumbled, "I don"t care about you," turned around, and left. As soon as her footsteps disappeared, Lin Sanjiu turned and leaped onto a nearby tree branch. She sat on the branch, took a deep breath, and pressed the answer b.u.t.ton.

In the silent and chilly air of the late night, a faint breeze floated around her. There was not a single sound in the communicator, as if the person on the other end was in disbelief.

Does she dare to believe that the communication is finally connected? She must speak, she must have a conversation with him this time—Lin Sanjiu gathered her courage and asked softly, her voice hoa.r.s.e, "Is it the Grand Prize?"

After a few seconds, she heard that melodic voice again.

"...Sis?"

Lin Sanjiu tightly hugged the communicator, bending her waist.

"It"s me," she said in a somewhat fl.u.s.tered manner, tears welling up inexplicably in the corners of her eyes. "It"s me. Are you—are you okay? Are you safe?"

"I"m fine, I"m doing well."

Lin Sanjiu wiped her eyes and took a long, deep breath. She couldn"t help but smile, even though Ji Shanqing couldn"t possibly see it. "It"s good that you"re fine... I tried contacting you last time, but there was no answer, so I thought the battle on your side wasn"t going well."

Ji Shanqing paused for a moment and then said, "Maybe I didn"t hear it!"

Is that so... Well, that"s good.

Silence lingered for another two or three seconds. Then, from the speaker, came Ji Shanqing"s familiar voice, "Where are you now, Sis?"

Lin Sanjiu slowly straightened her body, looking at the communicator in her arms. After staring at it for a few seconds, she hesitated a bit and asked, "Do you want to know my exact location right now?"

"Um... Yes, the specific location."

Lin Sanjiu paused. She listened to her own voice and couldn"t believe that she asked the question again, "...Is it the Grand Prize?"