58: Chapter 58: Encountering the Space Node Again 58: Chapter 58: Encountering the Space Node Again “Someone came to inquire about me?”
Zhang Xiaoman was slightly startled and then gently nodded his head.
It wasn’t too surprising that someone had come here looking for him.
After all, Master Liu had been a master for so many years, and it wasn’t too hard to roughly find out where he set up his stall.
The question now was, who exactly were the people looking for him?
“Hmm… do you know who they were?
And why do you say they were looking for me?”
Zhang Xiaoman cautiously voiced his doubts.
However, no sooner had he finished speaking than he began to regret it, wondering if it was any use to ask such detailed questions to a girl who was blind.
Unexpectedly, Lin Sisi didn’t seem as puzzled as he thought, instead she chuckled and said:
They should be two old Taoists, from their accent it seems they are not locals, possibly from the vicinity of Qionghua City.
As for why I’m sure they were looking for you, that’s because I heard a young lady in my direction say, ‘I saw Master Pei set up his stall here a couple days ago…'”
Zhang Xiaoman’s eyes widened in disbelief:
You can even tell their identities just by listening?”
Lin Sisi smiled slightly and said:
“It’s not as exaggerated as you imagine.
It’s just that when you can’t see with your eyes, if you listen with your ears, you can hear a lot of things you usually wouldn’t catch.”
She held onto Zhang Xiaoman’s sleeve, following him step by step into an alleyway, saying playfully:
“Just like when we entered this alley just now, I heard at the street corner there was a child playing pesticide, he must have been playing Li Bai; and three meters behind us, an auntie riding an electric scooter stopped to pick up the vegetables that fell on the ground; on the electric pole to the left, two pigeons landed and cooed twice…”
Zhang Xiaoman couldn’t help but widen his eyes when he heard this.
“You’re too amazing, it almost feels like you’ve got a superpower…”
Lin Sisi simply laughed softly and said:
“Actually, it’s not that difficult to achieve, it’s just that people sometimes rely too much on their eyes, so they easily overlook what their ears hear.”
Zhang Xiaoman nodded in sudden realization.
It turned out that although this young girl couldn’t see, her view of the world was not necessarily any blurrier than anyone else’s.
“Ah, right, did those two people later ask you anything about me?”
He suddenly remembered the earlier topic of conversation.
“They did ask; they wanted to know if there was a Master with the surname Pei around here.”
“What about after that?
What did you tell them?”
Lin Sisi said with an innocent face:
“I told them I didn’t know any Master Pei, and that I had never heard of him…”
Zhang Xiaoman let out a breath of relief.
If what this girl said was true, then things were just as he had previously speculated.
The information had only spread within their small circle and hadn’t reached society at large or the government.
But that was to be expected.
To others, these masters were no more than old charlatans.
And the mystical topics they talked about were even less likely to be believed.
After chatting idly with the girl for a bit, the two of them soon reached their destination.
After seeing her home, Zhang Xiaoman didn’t stay for long.
He said a few more words and then turned around to leave.
During the conversation, the little girl expressed joyfully that she was really happy to have someone to chat with and hoped that they could play together next time.
Despite his many years as a bachelor, he knew how to reply to that.
They immediately exchanged phone numbers, so they could contact each other in the future.
After leaving Lin Sisi’s house, Zhang Xiaoman checked the time, nearly an hour had passed.
He did not delay any further and soon hailed a ride-share car to the northern woods of the city.
The small grove was the same as a few days ago, lush and dense, with locust trees blooming like snow, their fragrance refreshing.
If there were fewer cicada choruses and more quietude, it would be quite the scenic spot.
However, Zhang Xiaoman was in no mood to appreciate the scenery.
He had already arrived at the previously marked spot, and by now, he was fully geared up.
He donned a bullet-proof vest reinforced with steel rods, held a water gun in one hand, and a thermal imager in the other.
Now, every few steps he took, he would carefully observe multiple times with his naked eye and the thermal imager to guard against any lurking Bone-eating Demon.
It took him over ten minutes to merely walk another hundred or so meters.
Wrapped tightly all over, he was already drenched in sweat in such an environment.
But now wasn’t the time to care about that.
He cautiously continued to push through the small forest, as survival was his top priority.
There was no one else to help him here, he could only rely on himself.
He slowly made his way forward for another twenty minutes.
Zhang Xiaoman was starting to doubt whether any weird entities still existed here, fearing his idea about absorbing the Space Node might come to nothing.
Just as he hesitated whether to give up, a flash of purple light suddenly appeared at the edge of his field of view, instantly capturing his attention.
The light was familiar to him, identical to what he’d seen on Lake Island in the residential area before.
Zhang Xiaoman instantly perked up, his already tired spirit electrified.
From his current position, he could faintly sense the energy fluctuations in the nearby environment, but he didn’t dare confirm it until he saw it with his own eyes.
“Hold steady, need to hold steady!”
He forced himself to suppress the urge to run straight over, constantly reminding himself to stay calm, especially at critical moments .
After thoroughly scanning the vicinity with the thermal imager and not finding any trace of the Bone-eating Demon, Zhang Xiaoman cautiously moved a short distance closer.
This time, he got a clear view of the source of the purple light; it was indeed the kind of Space Node he’d seen before!
Unexpectedly, after so many days, he had once again stumbled upon this valuable item representative of a large number of points.
However, beyond the Space Node, Zhang Xiaoman noted many other things in that spot.
There were about seven or eight semi-transparent insects, each roughly the size of two adult fists.
At the moment, they were aimlessly wriggling around a tombstone, their speed not very fast, seemingly as harmless as silkworm babies.
But Zhang Xiaoman knew that these creatures couldn’t possibly be as cute as silkworm babies; their semi-transparency was a clear indication of their true nature.
Cryptic beings from an unknown domain!
“Could these be the Parasitic Spirits?”
Zhang Xiaoman muttered to himself in puzzlement.
He was currently hiding behind a large tree, stealthily peeking out at these creatures.