Volume 2, Chapter 58 (Chapter 96): No Contrast, No Harm

She came to the conclusion that the kitchen knife is a weapon used against urban legends, but…

“Why?”

Thinking of her father, she sighed. Then again, her father was never reliable in terms of his words.

‘Dad used to tell me that if he kissed my cheek, a girl would come along and kiss mine, but…’

‘I have never even held a girl’s hand before!’

It was probably a white lie meant to comfort her. To convince her that she is not someone unwanted.

However, this kitchen knife is special, but she thought that she shouldn’t rely on it too much.

After a moment of silence, Lu Yibei sorted out her thoughts.

‘This kitchen knife should be reserved for emergency situations. I can’t predict how powerful it is. It’s just like…’

‘It’s just like the force within my body.’

Chop. Chop. Chop.

Her family’s restaurant used to have a signature dish called the [Lion’s Head].

It was originally a Huaiyang dish, but her father had combined it with local tastes to make it spicy, and unexpectedly, it was well received.

Yibei used to help her father in the kitchen by handing him the meat used for this dish.

Chop! Chop!

Soon, half of the core was chopped into a paste. The apparitions couldn’t stand this ‘bloody’ scene and ran away back into the shadows.

“Hey! You’re cookin’ in the middle of the night? Keep it down!”

Hearing the yelling outside, Lu Yibei shrank her neck in shame.

She could understand the complaints of her neighbours.

A neighbour is something mystical; it knows when you’re about to sleep, and it will use that knowledge to make sure you will never be able to sleep by listening to heavy metal, becoming a drummer, or even an opera singer.

After wiping the kitchen knife clean, she picked up the chopping board and went to the coffee table.

The chopped cores weren’t very big, but they were just used for preliminary testing. She didn’t know how much energy the charm would absorb, and she didn’t want to waste her cores either.

She placed some of the cores into the mixture of mercury and water, and unexpectedly, something strange happened.

The mixture began to boil a deep purple.

In the blink of an eye, the boiling liquid ignited, and a crimson flame more than three metres high rose up. Silver flashes of light suddenly emerged and exploded in the living room, turning into a gorgeous and magnificent flow of colour and crackling like firecrackers during the New Year.

The sudden dazzling light and explosion startled her as she fell backwards, and in less than a minute, the entire living room was a mess.

‘Damn, I should’ve been more careful.’

Previously, when devouring the cores, it didn’t feel that powerful, but judging from the reaction from the mixture, it was very powerful.

She got up from the mess to look into the bowl, only to get startled once again by frantic yet undeniably angry knocks at her door.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“Oi! You’re cookin’ and setting off fireworks in your house? Come out! I know you’re awake!”

The person who knocked on the door was a man with arms bigger than Yibei herself, and he was accompanied by his menacing dog.

The dog bared its teeth, ready to bark at the unit’s owner at its master’s command.

However…

As soon as Yibei opened the door, the dog whimpered as it hid behind its master.

It is said that dogs can see things that ordinary humans cannot see, and this remains true. Behind that door was a cave of magic, and it was simply too scary for dogs to comprehend.

“Oi! You…” The man was prepared to bark but stopped upon seeing the little girl before him. Wasn’t this unit’s resident a striking young man?

Never mind that; surely a young, innocent, and petite girl had nothing to do with the sounds just now.

However, she was wearing a man’s coat, and comprehension seemed to rush into the man’s brain.

“Is there anything wrong?” Yibei asked.

“Ah, don’t mind me!” The man replied. “Just checkin’ up on ya.”

He couldn’t do anything to such a delicate and petite little girl, right?

He couldn’t help but curse the young man who lived in that unit. He couldn’t believe he was using this girl to quell his anger, and it was working.

“Checking up on me in the middle of the night?” she asked expressionlessly.

“I… I… I was bored!” The man stuttered, feeling an icy wind wash over him as he looked into the girl’s eyes.

He fled away, and his own dog was outrunning him.

Lu Yibei closed the door and leaned against the door panel as she breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Thank god he didn’t force his way inside my house.’

‘How do I explain this red mercury mixture on the floor and this stench? He might come up with a weird conclusion.’

‘I might have to mass produce these in the future, and doing it in a place like this is inconvenient.’

While thinking about it, Lu Yibei saw the blurry silhouette reflected in the window of the living room and subconsciously squeezed her face.

Having said that, she didn’t expect her face to take her out of danger so easily. Swallowing her pride is much better than not dying.

Lu Yibei stepped forward to examine the mess in her living room and couldn’t help frowning.

On the floor, the purple-red liquid refracted faint light, and its shape was between solid and liquid.

“The core restored the mercury sulphide back to its solid form. How?”

She thought of the ancient alchemists who used mercury sulphide and attempted to refine it. And once they swallowed it, they would die immediately.

After pondering for a while, she decided to try to make the charm with the purple, liquid-like crystal.

Dipping the brush into the purple liquid, she brushed along the charm.

The whole process lasted peacefully for about half an hour, and she quietly watched the emerald light once again beam from the charm, only for a prickling pain to pierce through her palms.

“Ack!” she exclaimed as she dropped the charm.

However, the charm was intact, and it dawned on her that she had successfully made her first charm!

Lu Yibei looked happily at the dozens of pieces of mahogany raw materials left on the table, and her eyes gradually deepened with raw focus. Soon, she devoted herself to making as many charms as she could.

That night, without knowing it, she made a total of sixty-eight charms.

After tidying up the rest of the materials, she stood up and stretched her arms, her gaze casually falling on the kitchen knife. As if remembering something, she brought the kitchen knife over to the statue of Acala, the Immovable, and pointed it towards the statue.

Turning over the statue to its base, she hesitated for a bit before carving its base with the knife. True enough, powder started to fall from the base.

She gulped and stared at the knife in her hands. With something this terrifying in her possession, wouldn’t it be much easier to carry this around compared to the heavy statue?