Chapter 32 The Death of the Guardian Spirit Who Shares Life and Death
Hearing Liang Jun ask her this, Gu Keke blinked, then stretched out her finger and poked the top of her head.
“I live right above this pharmacy,” she said, leaning on her cane. “I was right behind you, but I never expected that when I woke up, I would be lying in front of my own house.”
Gu Keke's account was largely the same as Liang Xuan's.
But Liang Jun was still not entirely at ease.
"What is the room number of Luo Chuange's dormitory?"
Why are you asking this?
Gu Keke was visibly taken aback, but she still gave the answer with some confusion, "Number 501."
"There are several marks on the gold lock in their dormitory room."
"Two lines—you doubt me?"
Gu Keke laughed out loud, "Alright, alright, it's not a problem to be wary."
Seeing that the other party had answered all the questions correctly, Liang Jun finally felt completely relieved.
She walked back to Gu Keke's side, saying, "I never thought it would be such a coincidence that we live so close to each other."
Gu Keke smiled back at her, "I didn't really want to go out. I was just about to go to sleep when I found blood all over the floor. That's when I realized the wound was much more serious than it was in the dungeon. I remembered there was a pharmacy downstairs, so I quickly came out."
Since she wasn't very mobile, Liang Jun also bought some essential medicines for her and put them in the medicine basket by the door.
The greeting "Welcome!" rang out again from the front door.
Liang Jun and Gu Keke walked out of the pharmacy one after the other, and two wisps of mist slipped outside the door during the opening of the door.
There were few pedestrians on the road, and almost no living creatures could be encountered.
"Where are you going next?" Gu Keke asked, leaning on her cane and turning to look at Liang Xuan.
"Maybe I'm going home," she said, not having any particular idea yet. She pointed to the dilapidated van and said, "I drove here."
The black and white mist was protecting Liang Jun on both sides, making them too conspicuous. Gu Keke's gaze was involuntarily drawn to them.
She was a little scared. "Your guardian spirit won't attack me, will it...?"
"Won't."
Liang Xun was amused for no reason. "They are all very nice people. You don't need to be afraid. Just relax."
Hearing Liang Xun's assurance, Gu Keke nodded twice, then pointed behind her.
"Would you like to come over to my place? It's lunchtime now, I'll cook you a meal!"
She has mastered the skills of using the cane, saying, "You have to trust the cooking skills of mukbang streamers."
Coincidentally, Liang Jun was also a little hungry, so she didn't refuse Gu Keke and followed her into the residential building.
She was said to live upstairs from the pharmacy, but she actually lived in a tenement building behind the pharmacy.
It's clear that quite a few people used to live here.
Clotheslines hung in the passageway, and some residents parked their bicycles in front of their doors. Liang Jun imagined that if everyone lived here, it would be quite a lively scene.
But now there are hardly any survivors left.
At least along the way that Gu Keke led her, Liang Yun didn't encounter any other residents.
"arrive."
Gu Keke pushed open a small door located in the middle of the second floor. "Come in, this is my home."
She deliberately left the door open for Zhu Shengqing and Zhu Bieming, afraid that if she wasn't careful, she might accidentally separate the fog into two when she closed the door.
However, they burrowed in very quickly, so Gu Keke didn't need to worry at all.
After Liang Jun entered the room, she briefly looked around. Gu Keke told her to sit wherever she liked, so she sat on a small stool.
The room is very small, probably only half or a third the size of my own rented apartment.
But though the sparrow is small, it has all the vital organs.
There was a soft mattress in the bedroom, a dust cover for the TV was placed on the clothes rack, and a few picture frames were scattered on the desk.
The kitchen is the most fully functional part of the whole house. It has all the necessary cabinets and a refrigerator, and Gu Keke even installed a small sink separately.
What would you like to eat?
Seeing Liang Jun enter the kitchen, Gu Keke bent down to rummage through the ingredients in the refrigerator. "Do you have any dietary restrictions?"
Liang Jun shook her head. "I can eat anything."
During her time at the orphanage, Liang Jun ate everything; it was precisely because she never picked at her food that she developed recurring stomach problems.
"Then I'll make something simple..."
Gu Keke picked out a bag of raw meat from the freezer. "Chicken leg rice bowl, how about that?"
Liang Jun did not refuse; her gaze fell on Gu Keke's slightly trembling legs.
"How about I help you?" She couldn't bear it and wanted to take the ingredients from Gu Keke's hands. "You're injured like this, it would be too immoral of me to let you cook."
"It's nothing."
Gu Keke waved her hand, put the plastic bag containing the chicken legs into the sink, and started watering it to thaw.
"You saved my life so many times in the dungeon. I'd be willing to cook for you every day, let alone just one meal."
She wore a pure cotton dress so that the clothes wouldn't rub against her wound.
Gu Keke pointed to her legs, "Look, they're all bandaged up now, so you don't have to worry about me! Back when I scalded my legs with boiling water, I was still preparing ingredients for the next day's live stream—this little injury is nothing!"
Seeing that Liang Xun was still struggling, Gu Keke pushed her out of the kitchen without saying a word.
"Oh, right," she added before closing the door, "go ask your guardian spirit if it wants some too, then I'll make a few more servings."
After saying that, Gu Keke slammed the door shut.
Upon hearing the other party mention guardian spirits, Liang Jun suddenly realized that she hadn't seen the two of them much since she entered the room.
Liang Xun walked around the small living room but didn't see the two wisps of mist. Then she peeked into Gu Keke's bedroom.
Directly beneath the dust cover, two wisps of black and white mist nestled together.
Like a black and white ball of fluff that popped out of the floor, it stayed quietly in place, without moving.
"You two really know how to pick a spot, coming into someone's bedroom..."
Liang Jun carried a stool into the bedroom and sat down in front of them.
Although the other party did not transform into human form, Liang Jun could still sense their listless appearance.
He seemed to have lost all his strength and couldn't even sense Liang Xun's approach.
"Can you still speak normally?" Liang Jun asked softly.
The black mist trembled slightly. "Okay."
Liang Jun said in a deep voice, "I think you need to tell me what caused you to look like this."
Seeing that they remained unmoved, Liang Jun sighed.
"You said you were going to protect me, but now you can't even control your own situation. I don't even know what exactly happened. How can I trust you?"
Hearing Liang Xuan's confident words, the white mist shrank back, her voice barely audible.
"Brother, you tell me."
The black mist expanded slightly, but it remained confined to Liang Jun's feet.
“Every time we pull you back from the brink of death, it’s not without reason,” Zhu Shengqing’s voice sang. “We need to overdraw our own spiritual power—the greater the force we need to fight, the greater the spiritual power we will consume.”
"During the tutorial, we helped you control a monster NPC. But it was very simple and required almost no spiritual power from us, so after we finished dealing with it, we were still able to communicate with you normally and even transform into human form."
“But just now, we actually pushed aside a speeding, out-of-control car.” Zhu Shengqing paused for a moment, then took a breath. “That’s like it crashed directly into us, and we need to use our spiritual power to repair the damage.”
Hearing this, Liang Xun's worry deepened.
"Then you..."
"Don't worry about us. We're just a little listless because we've used up a lot of spiritual energy," Zhu Shengqing said with a smile. "We'll recover in a while."
Liang Jun gradually calmed down.
She roughly understood; it seemed to be no different from skill cooldowns in a game.
As if reading Liang Xun's mind, Zhu Bieming, who had been silent until now, chimed in, "The more spiritual energy we consume, the longer it will take us to recover. I estimate that the next time we appear..."
Zhu Bieming thought about it seriously for a while, "You may have already entered the second instance."
"So long?" Liang Jun asked, somewhat surprised.
The rest period is a full fourteen days—meaning they need at least fourteen days to recover their spiritual power.
Zhu Bieming's tone wasn't as high as before, "So you must take extra care of yourself. In the days when we can't be there, you must protect yourself."
“If the host dies,” he paused, “that also means the guardian spirit dies.”
Liang Jun's heart skipped a beat, and she was instantly overwhelmed with mixed feelings.
They were actually in a relationship of sharing life and death—
She had never thought of it before.
"Liang Jun, dinner is ready—"
Just as she was about to say something more, Gu Keke's voice came from the kitchen.
Liang Jun quickly got up, and before leaving, she didn't forget to give a final instruction.
"You all recover well, and I'll be back soon."
In the kitchen, Gu Keke was carrying two steaming plates of rice with toppings.
The white rice was completely soaked in the broth, as if every bite would burst with fresh juice; broccoli and carrot slices were arranged around the plate, their colors extremely tempting; on top of the rice was chicken that had been cut and stewed until tender, and the bones had been removed beforehand.
"It smells so good!"
Liang Jun exclaimed from the bottom of her heart, "It smells so good! It looks delicious!"
Gu Keke smiled shyly, "You should try it, I don't know if it suits your taste."
Liang Jun took the two plates of rice bowls and followed Gu Keke back into the bedroom.
Gu Keke pulled a folding dining table from behind the clothes rack and, with Liang Xuan's help, propped it up in the center of the bedroom.
"Huh?" She looked around as if searching for something. "Where's your guardian spirit?"
Liang Jun looked toward the dustproof cloth, only to find that the two wisps of mist had long since disappeared.
“They probably left first,” Liang Jun thought, recalling how they also left without saying goodbye during the beginner level. “They were quite exhausted today, so they went to rest.”
Gu Keke nodded as if she understood, and then sat down at one side of the dining table.
Liang Jun took the utensils handed to her and first ate a big mouthful of rice mixed with meat and vegetables.
The aroma lingered on her lips and teeth, instantly soothing Liang Yan's famished state.
Seeing how content she was, Gu Keke asked softly, "Liang Jun, can I ask you something?"
"Ask away." Liang Jun took another big bite.
Do you know Luo Chuange's whereabouts?
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Author's note: I have exams in the next two days, so updates might be less frequent.
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