Chapter 46
In the early winter night, the chill was already penetrating to the bone.
A University is not a very bustling place, and there are only a few scattered figures on the roadside.
Yu Miaomiao stood under the streetlight, her hands tucked into her pockets to keep warm, occasionally taking out her phone to check the location of her ride-hailing car.
It's indeed difficult to hail a taxi in the middle of the night, but she added 500 yuan to the original price, and a driver accepted the order in three seconds. The speed was lightning fast, as if she was afraid the order would be canceled before it even arrived.
The backpack was heavy, but it didn't contain a computer; instead, it held a bunch of magical artifacts.
After closing the elevator door, she went back to her home and brought all the Buddhist artifacts she had accumulated over the years.
Their origins are complicated: some she bought herself, some were gifts from Hu Li, some were gifts from Wang Shuo, and some she won in a small competition organized by the Monster Department.
With all sorts of uses, Yu Miaomiao brought them along regardless of whether they were useful or not.
She stared absently at the intersection, her mind replaying Jiang Chengyi's expression before the elevator doors closed.
She always felt that she saw sadness in it.
Did I... say something too harsh?
If that's not the case, she doesn't know how to stop Jiang Cheng from following her.
After all, what she was about to do was too dangerous for Jiang Chengyi.
Bai Muyun and his gang are ruthless and vicious, capable of trafficking young children.
If they don't encounter other monsters, it's fine. But if they do, a few random spells could easily kill a fragile human like Jiang Chengyi.
After all, although the demons of today are generally not very powerful, they are only comparable to the great demons of ancient times who could summon wind and rain and move mountains and seas.
Compared to humans, it's more than enough.
Yu Miaomiao is, after all, a half-demon. Her physical strength and recovery ability are much stronger than those of humans. She is also immune to some spells and can even squeeze out some demonic power.
Overall, there is definitely no danger to life.
She exhaled, and the cold air condensed into white mist, and her heart gradually calmed down.
Never mind, no matter what Jiang Chengyi thinks or whether he hates her, this is the best thing for him.
Just then, a black car silently stopped in front of her.
We've arrived so quickly! I just saw that it was still five kilometers away.
She wanted to go around to the front to see the license plate, but just as she reached the passenger side, the door suddenly opened, and a hand reached out and pulled her into the car.
The car door slammed shut and clicked shut.
Yu Miaomiao was stunned for a moment by this sudden encounter. When she came to her senses, she was already sitting upright in the passenger seat.
A person was on top of her, reaching over her to pull out the passenger seatbelt.
Yu Miaomiao couldn't see the man's face, but the faint aura emanating from him already revealed his identity.
"Jiang, Cheng, Yi"
She was both annoyed and helpless. "Didn't I tell you not to follow me?"
Jiang Chengyi was fastening Yu Miaomiao's seatbelt, seemingly oblivious to what was happening.
After fastening his seatbelt, he took his phone out of Yu Miaomiao's pocket, tapped a few times, and tossed it to her.
Then I returned to my seat and started the vehicle.
Yu Miaomiao caught the phone and raised her voice: "Don't pretend you can't hear me!"
Jiang Cheng kept his eyes fixed on the road, a barely perceptible smile flashing across his lips.
"Don't talk while driving."
Yu Miaomiao was even angrier.
When I checked my phone again, the ride-hailing order had been cancelled.
Late at night, there weren't many cars on the road. Jiang Cheng drove extremely fast, almost at the speed limit, using every trick in the book to change lanes and overtake other vehicles.
University A is right next to Jiangxia District. At Jiang Chengyi's speed, it only took about twenty minutes to enter Jiangxia District.
"Give me navigation."
Jiang Chengyi extended his left hand.
Now that things have come to this, Yu Miaomiao can no longer say anything to ask Jiang Chengyi to go back.
Helpless, she pulled up the map and handed the phone to Jiang Chengyi.
At the same time, he earnestly warned him: "If we really encounter Bai Muyun or find any clues, we will call Captain Liu. You must not act impulsively!"
"Also, don't act alone. You must stay close to me."
...
"By the way, if you encounter someone as strange as Bai Muyun and Wu An, like those with multicolored hair and multicolored eyes, don't get close!"
She racked her brains and told Jiang Chengyi about every possible danger she could think of.
Upon closer inspection, the other party was driving and seemed oblivious to what was happening.
Yu Miaomiao wished she could grab Jiang Chengyi by the ear and speak into the room.
But the car was speeding along, and doing that would be too dangerous.
Her voice lowered, but carried an unusual worry and urgency, "Do you know how dangerous they are? The kind of danger you can't even imagine!"
The vehicle suddenly stopped, and Yu Miaomiao lurched forward, but was stopped by the seatbelt.
Looking up, I realized we were already near the tollbooth.
She quickly picked up her phone, zoomed in on the map, and compared the distance between her location and the location she was looking for.
"rest assured."
Jiang Chengyi's voice rang out.
Yu Miaomiao turned her head and saw that the other person had been looking at her at some point, with their phoenix eyes slightly lowered. She didn't know how long they had been looking at her, but their eyes were full of focus and seriousness.
"I've remembered everything you said."
Yu Miaomiao paused in her swiping motion and awkwardly turned her head away.
He muttered, "Good that you remembered."
She continued to focus her attention on the phone's location tracking and realized something was wrong.
The red dot for location tracking hasn't moved in the past half hour, and the heart rate reading on it has remained at 155.
Logically speaking, heart rate can never remain constant at a fixed value.
She guessed, "They probably threw the collar away half an hour ago."
"If we can find the collar, we might be able to determine the direction they left in."
Without further ado, the two got out of the car and began searching near the tollbooth.
On the map, the location and the toll station overlap, but in reality, due to insufficient accuracy, the area within tens of meters around the toll station needs to be searched.
The two searched slowly along the national highway. Fortunately, there weren't many cars on the road late at night, so there was no danger.
Twenty minutes later, Yu Miaomiao and Jiang Cheng met up, neither of them looking too good.
They split up and searched all the roads near the toll station that were open to traffic, but found no clues.
So he simply climbed over the railing, and using the toll station as the center, he shone a flashlight and carefully inspected every inch of the ground that was not covered by asphalt and cement.
Yu Miaomiao bent over, carefully examining the ground, her eyes emitting a faint green glow.
At the same time, she was also doing her best to activate the scarce demonic power within her body, hoping to sense Xiaobai's presence.
From the green belt to the muddy ground overgrown with weeds, and then to the thicket covered with shrubs.
When she emerged from a patch of two-meter-high bushes, her down jacket was torn, her scarf was undone, and her hair was tangled with grass and twigs.
Then look at Jiang Chengyi, who emerged from the other side; his appearance is equally impressive.
"Did you find it?"
Even though she knew the chances were slim, Yu Miaomiao couldn't help but ask.
Jiang Cheng shook his head, giving the expected answer.
Yu Miaomiao's heart sank.
He suddenly stepped forward, raised his hand, and gently touched her left cheek.
"What's wrong?" Yu Miaomiao asked.
“Here, I’m injured.” Jiang Cheng frowned.
She turned on her camera and, by the light of a distant streetlamp, discovered a bloody mark on her left cheek that had appeared out of nowhere.
The wound, about three or four centimeters long, stretched from the corner of the eye to the side of the nose. It was quite deep, and beads of blood kept oozing out.
She didn't feel a thing despite the deep wound.
"I probably got scratched by accident just now."
She reached out to touch it, and a belated stinging pain came.
She hissed softly.
Don't touch it.
Jiang Cheng grasped her wrist. "It will be infected."
Then he pulled her towards the car.
"Let's treat the wound first."
He rummaged through the glove box and found cotton balls, hydrogen peroxide, and saline solution.
The two went to the back seat, the roof light came on, and Yu Miaomiao obediently tilted her head back, exposing her wound.
Jiang Cheng knelt on the chair, looking down at her, his left hand holding her chin in place.
She said softly, "I'll clean the wound with hydrogen peroxide. It'll hurt a little, but please bear with it."
Yu Miaomiao hummed in agreement, feeling that Jiang Cheng's behavior of coaxing the child was making a mountain out of a molehill.
Even when the hydrogen peroxide was actually poured onto the wound, she still gritted her teeth in pain.
Nobody told her it would hurt this much!
He noticed that Yu Miaomiao's breathing had suddenly become rapid, so he sped up the disinfection process and then rinsed her with saline solution.
Even at this point, a considerable amount of blood was still seeping from the wound, flowing down mixed with saline solution.
It took Jiang Cheng a lot of effort to stop the bleeding.
A few minutes later, the process was completed.
Yu Miaomiao was finally able to lower her head and see a drop of dark red liquid on the seat.
It should be blood that just flowed out.
She wiped the drop of blood with her finger, and suddenly felt a sharp, needle-like pain in her finger.
Upon closer inspection, she discovered a shallow scar on her fingertip, where blood had irritated the wound.
She didn't pay attention and hurried to get off the bus, saying, "There's still a small area we haven't found yet, let's go quickly."
As soon as she stepped out of the car, she was stunned, and an expression of disbelief appeared on her face.
"What's wrong?"
Jiang Cheng turned around and looked at Yu Miaomiao, who had suddenly frozen.
Yu Miaomiao had no time to respond, focusing only on circulating her demonic power.
She could actually sense Xiaobai's presence.
The car had been parked there for an hour, and she had searched the surrounding area thoroughly, but there were no clues.
However, just as I got off the bus, my senses suddenly returned.
Extremely faint, intermittent, like a gossamer thread drifting in a gale, about to be completely swept away at any moment.
Yet she did sense it, and it was so clear to her.
It was as if the other end of the gossamer thread was firmly held in her hand.
"I found the collar!"
There was no time to think about why.
She grabbed Jiang Chengyi and ran towards the direction where she sensed something.
They ran 800 meters without stopping and entered the vicinity of a nearby village, surrounded by large tracts of farmland.
The tollbooth had become a glittering dot in the distance.
The two people stood on a narrow dirt path in the fields, barely wide enough for one person.
Jiang Cheng looked around at the flat and wide rice paddies. "The collar is here?"
“Yes.” Yu Miaomiao supported herself on her knees, panting. After a while, she pointed to the field on the left, “It’s right here.”
After saying that, she took off her backpack, turned around, and jumped into the field from the path.
The mud in the paddy field was soft and sticky, almost reaching her thighs.
Jiang Chengyi was about to jump down as well, but she stopped him.
"Don't come down. The rice paddy is so big, you don't know the exact location."
She parted the rice paddies and walked towards the center of the field.
With each step, you have to pull your leg out with force.
After several times, her pants were completely soaked, and the dampness was still slowly creeping up.
The paddy fields were icy cold in winter. She clenched her teeth, her whole body trembling, forcing herself not to stop.
Because the distance was so close, the perceived location became incredibly erratic.
She would walk a few meters, then stop to feel the direction, adjust her course, and sometimes even turn back.
After more than ten minutes, the collar was finally located.
It was too dark and the water was too deep, so she had to use the most basic method to search.
She bent down and groped her way through the mud inch by inch with her hands.
When you encounter a hard object, you must carefully feel it.
No, no, no, no...
Finally, she touched a ring-shaped object.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a collar.
Yu Miaomiao breathed a sigh of relief and wanted to walk back, but her legs were already frozen stiff and numb.
She swayed and fell into the field.
Just as I was struggling to get up, I heard a crisp sound of water breaking.
She looked up and saw Jiang Chengyi had already stepped into the rice paddy and was striding towards her.
For Yu Miaomiao, the water, which was almost thigh-deep, only reached his calves.
In the blink of an eye, Jiang Chengyi was beside her.
Before Yu Miaomiao could react, he pulled her up by the knees.
His body suddenly became suspended in mid-air, and muddy water dripped down, soaking Jiang Cheng.
Originally, only half of Jiang Cheng's lower leg was wet, but now his whole body was covered in wet mud, and even his face was splashed with water droplets.
But he didn't care at all. He adjusted the angle of his arms around Yu Miaomiao and walked towards the path.
As soon as they reached the path, Yu Miaomiao struggled to get down.
But Jiang Chengyi did not let go.
"Are you sure you can stand up after I put you down?"
Yu Miaomiao stopped moving.
Although she had left the paddy field, she was almost completely soaked, and her wet clothes made her shiver with cold as the wind blew.
Not to mention the legs, which are still numb.
Being stubborn now is not a good choice.
"Where do you want to go? I'll carry you there."
"Let me take a look at the collar first."
Yu Miaomiao tried to ignore her strange physical condition and focused her attention on the collar.
The collar was placed in a transparent, sealed bag.
Yu Miaomiao opened the sealed bag, and a strong and clear scent of Xiaobai wafted out.
She put the collar back into the sealed bag, and her breath instantly stopped.
She stared in surprise at the seemingly ordinary sealed bag.
I never expected it to have such a strange ability. No wonder I couldn't sense Xiaobai's presence.
She took out the collar again; the strong scent emanating from it proved that it had been taken from Xiaobai not long ago.
Her deduction was correct!
The nameplate in the center of the collar was gone. Only an empty clasp remained.
The positioning device is hidden inside the nameplate.
She murmured, "No wonder the location showed up at the tollbooth."
She tried to deduce the general direction of things.
When Bai Muyun arrived at the toll station, he did not take the highway, but instead chose to pass through the village.
On the way, she repeatedly looked at the map and learned that this small village called Shuangyang Village had a network of roads and very little surveillance.
Before leaving, he removed the nameplate from the collar and threw it near the tollbooth to mislead people.
This made everyone think he had gotten on the highway.
To prevent the collar from being carelessly disposed of and leaking its aura, it was sealed in a bag that could isolate demonic power before being discarded.
Everything was flawless.
If Yu Miaomiao hadn't sensed the collar's aura...
She looked at the collar, wondering why she could sense its scent through the sealed bag.
Suddenly, her gaze sharpened, fixing on a dark patch above.
This is a few days ago, when Xiaobai was teething and was biting around in discomfort. She accidentally cut her finger, and the blood dripped onto her collar.
Her gaze shifted to the fresh wound on her hand.
It seems... that she only became aware of it after the exposed wound came into contact with blood.
Could it be that... the reason she was able to sense it was because Xiaobai's aura was combined with her own?
Yes.
For demons, every inch of their skin, fur, and flesh contains demonic power and is extremely precious.
Perhaps for this reason, monsters are extremely sensitive to their own flesh and blood.
"So that's how it is."
Yu Miaomiao gripped the collar tightly. She hadn't expected that a chance encounter would help her find Xiaobai's whereabouts.
With the collar in place, things became much easier.
She instructed Jiang Chengyi, "There's a cell phone in the side pocket of my backpack, take it out for me."
Jiang Cheng found it and handed it to Yu Miaomiao.
She operated it for a while, and the screen of the "phone" lit up, displaying the four letters MOYG, which was not the brand of any mobile phone on the market.
The screen flickered and a line of text appeared.
Please place an item containing the target's scent into the sensor slot.
Yu Miaomiao plucked a small piece of leather from the collar, opened a shallow slot on the "phone," and put the leather inside.
The screen displays the message "[Analyzing]".
A moment later, a map appeared, with a bright yellow line running from their location to the village ahead.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
This instrument can only detect odors exceeding a certain concentration, so the collar appears to meet the standard.
Jiang Chengyi also looked at the instructions on the screen, "We've found Xiaobai's location. Should we call Captain Liu?"
"I won't say for now," Yu Miaomiao refused without even thinking.
Seeing Jiang Cheng raise an eyebrow at her, she remembered what she had just warned him.
"If you find any clues, tell Captain Liu. Don't act rashly..."
She calmly retorted to her own words from two hours earlier, "The clues are still unclear, and they may not believe it."
"I'll tell them after I find Bai Muyun."
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