Chapter Twenty-Five: The Dendritic Smoke Bomb

True to her word, Xu Si gripped her collar and bolted with lightning speed.

Nan Xian’s face turned crimson, her eyes darting around as she struggled to find a place to rest her gaze.

"Little Fierce Ghost, I know you’re in a rush, but don't panic!"

Her whispered mumble concealed lips trembling with excitement, the words feeling as though they were scalding her tongue. Wave after wave of heat surged, and the swirling, misty vapor clung to Xu Si, refusing to let go. Unable to see the path ahead, yet keenly aware of the many dark, hollow muzzles pointed directly at her, Xu Si felt a cold sweat break out.

"It’s not that I’m in a rush anymore..."

"Why?"

Nan Xian was struck with alarm. *Could it be? Is the Little Fierce Ghost this fickle?* Just as she was about to demand an answer, a shout came from across the way.

"Attention, those on the opposite side! You are now surrounded! Drop the smoke bombs in your hands immediately! Drop the smoke bombs!"

The booming voice echoed throughout the entirety of Wall South Street. Nan Xian silently looked at herself. "The smoke bomb he’s talking about... wouldn't happen to be me, would it?"

"What else could it be?" Xu Si looked back at the tree still billowing smoke. "Wait, just how big is your true form?"

"About as vast as the firmament, I suppose," Nan Xian answered earnestly.

But this was no time to discuss her size. She had completely lost control of her heartbeat, and her branches and leaves were breathing heavily. She had begun to consume a massive amount of oxygen; if they stayed any longer, the people nearby would likely suffocate from the lack of air! Considering the gravity of the situation, Nan Xian furrowed her brows slightly and wrapped an arm around Xu Si’s waist.

"Forgive me, Little Fierce Ghost!"

With that, in broad daylight, she lifted Xu Si into the air and took flight!

"Ah!" After a brief moment of weightlessness, Xu Si turned from passive to active, wrapping her arms tightly around Nan Xian’s waist.

"My Divine Lord, hold on tight! If we fall, we’ll both be finished!"

"Understood!" Nan Xian nodded heavily.

She pulled the girl in her arms even closer. The proximity of their two beating hearts actually helped Nan Xian calm down slightly. The oxygen from the surroundings began to return to the earth, and the people on the ground, who had been dizzy from the lack of air, pointed weakly toward the sky.

"Ugh, Boss, look, Ultraman!"

"What Ultraman? That’s our local deity!"

"Hehe, a deity... I managed to take a picture of the deity. She’s so beautiful..."

Li Xu, who had been the first in the corridor to regain his senses, dragged the ‘intermediary’ with one hand and hoisted Liu Zi on his shoulder with the other, stumbling as he walked out. What he saw was everyone acting as if they were poisoned, wearing dazed smiles and looking up to worship devoutly—

*Huh? What’s in the sky?* Li Xu looked up, but saw nothing.

His legs, which had been quickly heading toward the main group, faltered, and he felt a surge of panic. "No way? Did the zombie virus leak out this early?"

"Ah! There goes my end-of-month promotion and raise! You damn zombies, I’ll fight you to the death!"

Li Xu cast aside his burdens, grabbed a broom left behind by a sanitation worker, and charged into the crowd, screaming, until he found the familiar face—his boss!

"Aaaaaah! Die, you zombie!"

The broom descended from above, striking the boss squarely on the forehead.

"Ah! Li Xu, what are you doing?" The fifty-year-old boss clutched his toupee helplessly, glaring at Li Xu with eyes blazing with fury. "You—"

Seeing that his boss hadn't turned into a zombie, Li Xu’s heart jumped into his throat. His brain short-circuited for a split second, and he simply rolled his eyes and played the rogue.

"Ah, Boss, I’ve fainted!"

"Hey, you brat." The boss sighed, helping Li Xu up. "Alright, stop acting. Fall in. You aren't hurt, are you?"

"I’m fine, just Liu Zi got slashed in the thigh twice."

Li Xu straightened up immediately and began reporting the situation earnestly as medical staff rushed to the scene to attend to the wounded.

Once everyone’s brains gradually returned to normal as the oxygen supply stabilized, they began to pull out their phones, staring at the image of Xu Si soaring into the sky.

"She looks a bit familiar!"

"Psh, everyone looks familiar to you when they're a beauty."

"No, I mean *really* familiar." The young officer who always went on missions with Li Xu held his phone, pondering it from every angle, until he finally decided to ask Li Xu if he had any impression of her.

At that moment, Li Xu was being reprimanded in the office. His boss threw a phone right in front of him. "Explain yourself! Where did you meet such a person? Flying into the sky in broad daylight—what kind of decorum is that?"

"Do you have any idea how much money the authorities have spent and how many experts they've hired just to suppress this news?"

"Huh? What good does hiring experts do?" Li Xu glanced at it and knew immediately that this mess was another one of Xu Si’s doing; after all, that bewitching face was hardly ordinary.

"To explain it using scientific methods, of course!" his boss said, exasperated.

As for scientific methods, just how scientific were they?

Having flown all the way home, Nan Xian reflexively pressed Xu Si onto the soft sofa. As her breathing grew heavy, Xu Si felt a twinge of pain in her lower back. While their lips were pressed together, she distracted herself by pulling a foreign object from her waist.

"Little Fierce Ghost~" came a sigh.

Xu Si’s hand trembled as she accidentally pressed something on the device, and a noisy broadcast instantly filled the living room.

"...at 10:20 this morning, an incident involving a 'daytime ascension of a deity' occurred on Wall South Street. According to descriptions from witnesses at the scene, when the deity ascended, not only did a thick fog appear, but everyone present experienced dizziness due to oxygen deprivation."

"The following is footage provided by an informed source. Now, let’s hear what the experts have to say about this 'daytime ascension' incident."

The camera feed cut to a video so blurry that the human faces were unrecognizable, followed by an energetic old expert wearing glasses appearing on screen. His voice, stiff to the point of absurdity, interrupted the romantic atmosphere in the room.

Both the human and the deity wore expressions of being caught in the act, looking guiltily at the television. Upon seeing it, Xu Si breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, this video is even blurrier than my old mobile phone."

"So, why did they hire this old man?" Nan Xian sat up, pretending to be nonchalant, and squeezed in closer to Xu Si. "Besides, judging by his physiognomy, he doesn't seem very well-educated..."

"This... perhaps he's some kind of successor?" Xu Si was uncertain.

The two were focused intently on the television when the old expert inside began spewing nonsense.

"Greetings to the audience friends in front of your televisions. Good afternoon. This incident was actually not a 'daytime ascension' at all, but rather a series of coincidences."

"The so-called oxygen deprivation was because our security personnel were conducting an exercise and used dry ice to create fog, which caused people to feel a bit dizzy in the head."

"As for the object that flew into the sky, it was actually a balloon. Yes, you heard that right—a balloon. And we have already recovered this balloon."

After the old expert finished speaking, he looked proudly toward his side, where Li Xu immediately straightened up and presented a printed photo of a humanoid balloon.

"Look, audience friends, it was just this sort of thing. With the fog and the lack of oxygen, our brain’s imagery also had a certain degree of deception..."

The old expert kept rambling. Outside the TV, Xu Si, upon seeing the humanoid balloon of herself, broke into a twisted smile. She pulled out her phone, intending to set a time to secretly do away with Li Xu.

However, when she opened her phone, she saw Li Xu had pitifully sent over thirty thousand yuan, along with three 'bye-bye' stickers.

Xu Si accepted the red envelope, curled her lips in satisfaction, and typed a message.

"Actually, I'm not that unreasonable. My, you really are too polite."

The reply came back in a second: "I'll allow you to refund it."

"What? Did you have a dream during the day?"

After sending the final message, Xu Si looked up at Nan Xian, who was visibly unhappy.

"Are you angry?"

"No." Nan Xian continued to look away, her jawline taut.

"Oh, good, as long as you're not angry."

Xu Si replied casually, her eyes filled with smiles. Seeing that the Little Fierce Ghost truly believed her, Nan Xian could no longer hold back. She turned to look at Xu Si.

"Little Fierce Ghost!"

"Yes?"

Xu Si smiled, her eyes curving like crescent moons. Before Nan Xian could react, she leaned forward and pressed her red lips against her.

In a soft, melodic whisper, she said, "Be good. Continue."