Lin Sanjiu bit her lower lip as she listened to the gurgling sounds in her ears. She was using her utmost effort to stop herself from speaking. Considering everything, she was now very clear what had just happened.
After Qing Jiuliu secretly jabbed Lin Sanjiu a few times, he finally realized the gravity of the situation. "Which of your candidates have been kidnapped by someone?" he asked urgently.
"Who else?" Irezumi showed a glum expression which made his face look even longer. "Other than you two idiots, I only have a stupider fool. He looks even more like a gigolo than you."
"More than a... I'll talk to you about that later," Qing Jiuliu felt insulted in a roundabout way and quickly changed the subject. "If he wasn't a consular officer, how did he pretend to be one? If he is unable to issue a visa, wouldn't that expose him?"
"Who knows what that fool was thinking?" Irezumi frowned. He appeared rather confused by that as well. "I don't know how to maintain that facade for so long…"
Lin Sanjiu heaved a long sigh inwardly.
Irezumi might not be aware but Lin Sanjiu had an inkling about it. If one person in the whole universe could pretend to be a consular officer, the one that could pull it off would be Ji Shanqing.
"What do you plan to do now?" Qing Jiuliu asked. His eyes were bright and attentive now and no one would even suspect that he had been drinking. "As an arbiter, don't you need to look for him?"
"Well," Irezumi blinked his pair of yellow serpentine eyes, "if he dies, his name would be struck off the candidates list. No questions asked. However, at this moment, he isn't dead and the trial is not over. He is technically still active in the trial. Based on the rules, arbiters can go along with a candidate's plans but we cannot rescue them from any danger. The only thing I can do now is to check his current position and see whether he manages to escape. Sigh. I guess I have to find more candidates. This matter doesn't concern you so why are you so worried about him?"
After explaining so much to them, Irezumi suddenly realized that point.
Irezumi had probably decided to give up on Ji Shanqing. Watching him, Lin Sanjiu had to bite her tongue to stop herself from speaking.
When they met that woman, she was not using any abilities. Lin Sanjiu did not feel a powerful aura from the woman, unlike Hei Zeji and Puppeteer. The woman was so graceful and elegant, it was as if God had personally crafted every single inch of her with great care. However, she had a coldness about her. It was that same coldness that made Lin Sanjiu convinced that the woman would be far scarier than Puppeteer, Santa Claus, and others if she turned hostile.
"How long can Ji Shanqing keep his identity a secret as a hostage of such a person?"
If she didn't need to know what Irezumi was planning next, Lin Sanjiu would not even choose to stand there dumbly, listening to that man. Now that she knew that he wasn't going to be of any help, she did not want to waste any more time. She tugged Qing Jiuliu's sleeve lightly and wanted to set off immediately—
"If you plan to just drive back and search for him, you'll just be looking for a needle in a haystack." Mrs. Manas spoke unexpectedly before Qing Jiuliu turned back to look at Lin Sanjiu.
She spoke to Lin Sanjiu in a slow and calm tone, "You need to depend on this serpentine-eyed arbiter. You can only find your friend through that tracking device of his."
"But I have to go out and search for him myself precisely because he refuses to do anything!
"With regards to that, I have a suggestion."
"What suggestion?" Lin Sanjiu asked anxiously.
"He can't do anything now because the trial is still ongoing. As an arbiter, he can't take the initiative to help his candidate, right?" Mrs. Manas seemed to have noticed Lin Sanjiu's anxiety, so her voice became gentler. "In other words, all you have to do is to end this trial, isn't it?"
"End—" Lin Sanjiu muttered.
"If you hand over the corpse you have, this trial would end with Qing Jiuliu and you being the successful candidates. A candidate would only lose his candidacy after he fails three trials. Your little friend had only failed one trial so he will still be a candidate," Mrs. Manas's voice sounded a little amused when she noticed Lin Sanjiu's sudden excitement after she said that. "As an arbiter, Irezumi would have to inform his candidates about the next trial. So, he would have to inform them face-to-face no matter where they are.
"If that's the case, Irezumi will have no choice but to look for Ji Shanqing!" Lin Sanjiu picked herself up quickly. Her previous gloom-and-doom reaction almost disappeared completely. "Yes, when Irezumi makes the announcement for the next trial, I will follow him and I'll definitely find my grand prize!"
Mrs. Manas chuckled and did not say anything… because at that moment Qing Jiuliu had lost his patience after waiting meaningless for some time. He jabbed Lin Sanjiu, "Brother Lin? Are you daydreaming?"
Lin Sanjiu nodded. She couldn't tell if he understood what she meant. She raised her hand and a card flew out from under the black cloth she was wearing. When it was about to land on the floor in front of Irezumi, the outline of a corpse suddenly fell on the floor, appearing out of nowhere with a snapping sound.
It had only been one day but the corpse had already turned greenish and her pale lips were like a dead fish. The rigid corpse fell to the floor and her arms splayed outward in an awkward manner as they were joined properly to the body. However, other than the ones who created it, it was almost impossible to notice that tiny detail.
Irezumi looked at his two candidates, slightly puzzled. Then, he looked at the corpse in front of him and his eyes immediately widened, "Huh? Is this the target?"
"Why did you suddenly bring that out?" Qing Jiuliu turned to Lin Sanjiu and grumbled softly. "We only worked out some parts of that story—"
"Is this really the target?" Irezumi interrupted Qing Jiuliu's frustrated ramblings. Both of them fell silent instantly. They watched as Irezumi crouched beside the female corpse. His face was full of disbelief, "Both of you completed the trial? Let me check…"
Lin Sanjiu and Qing Jiuliu couldn't help feeling a bit nervous when Irezumi started to examine the corpse. They secretly gulped.
To hide the sewing stitches on the corpse's body, they intentionally put on many layers of clothes for it. They tore off some material from the clothes for the spots that did not show any stitches. They did that to try to make the corpse look as natural as possible. However, that was an assembled corpse after all, and they were afraid that they might be exposed by something they might not have even noticed.
It was very hard for them to tell from Irezumi's yellow eyes what he was currently thinking.
He looked up expressionlessly and stared at the two of them. He took a second look at the corpse below him. The atmosphere froze around them. After quite some time, he suddenly reached into his pocket and started digging, "Wait for me. I forgot what were the criterions to check for verification."
Lin Sanjiu's heart was in her mouth.
"Yes, her height is about 1.8m," Irezumi held a crumpled paper in his hand. Every now and then, he would look at the paper and then at the corpse. "Bandages, checked. Hair length around collarbones, checked…"
Lin Sanjiu trimmed Queenie's hair based on her own hair length.
"Her physical characteristics match the information I have," Irezumi folded and stored the paper. "Next, I will ask you some questions. First question, what is her name?" Irezumi asked with a serious tone.
Qing Jiuliu shot a glance at the person in black standing beside him and answered, "Lin Sanjiu."
"Correct," Irezumi gave Qing Jiuliu a thumbs up almost as if he was starting to be a little excited about the situation. "The branch she destroyed, which world did it belong to?"
Qing Jiuliu's mouth moved a little but he couldn't hold himself back, "You told us that information. It is in Red Nautilus."
"Huh?" Irezumi was stunned, "Ah, yes. I said that… Okay, we go on to the next question. What is the name of the branch she destroyed?"
"Slaves Training Camp."
"You got that right too! You really can't judge a book by its cover…" Irezumi mulled. "Now, for the last question. If you can answer this, it will be considered as a successful trial for both of you."
Lin Sanjiu's heart thumped quickly. Her mind started whirring. If Irezumi asked a question that Qing Jiuliu could not answer, how could she pass a message to him secretly?
"After the woman destroyed Slaves Training Camp, she brought away some slaves that a customer had ordered. For the final question, how many slaves did she bring away?"
How many slaves did she bring away? For a moment, Lin Sanjiu was lost in her thoughts when she heard those words.
Lin Sanjiu recalled the memory of Reno and Rena parting with her at Red Nautilus. As they walked away from her, their figures grew smaller and smaller. The teenage girl lowered her head as she held her brother. Rena's shoulders shook as she sobbed soundlessly. It was as if both of them knew that they would never see Lin Sanjiu again. Clearly, those two children had known beforehand that they would leave and not see Lin Sanjiu again.
Why did she only notice this now?
"Two," Qing Jiuliu answered, standing beside her. His voice snapped her out of her reverie.
"Correct!" Irezumi shouted as he slapped his thigh. He heaved a long sigh and fell into a chair lazily. Ignoring any sense of propriety, he propped his chin with the back of the chair.
"Haha! I didn't expect both of you to really be capable of this," Irezumi seemed even more emotional than his two candidates. His yellowish eyes glimmered. "Finally, my candidates won! Ha ha ha! The fool with that long fringe can't gloat over it now."
Apparently, everyone was a fool to Irezumi. When he turned around to search for something in his backpack, Lin Sanjiu quickly pointed at Irezumi and hinted at Qing Jiuliu with her eyes.
"Excuse me, Arbiter Irezumi?" Qing Jiuliu called him hesitantly. "We are level two candidates now, right? What is the next trial about?"
"Level two? You're too early for that. We've just settled this," Irezumi dug a black box from his backpack without turning his head. It looked like a mini suitcase. "There are a few trials for each level. Once all the trials have been completed, the candidates who did not meet the failing criterion would proceed to the next level."
As he spoke, he opened the mini suitcase. There was a screen on one side of the inner case, and a few crude buttons on the other side. It did not look like a Special Item but more like a modern tech relic from before the apocalypse.
Click. Irezumi extended an antenna from the side of the device. He ignored the candidates because his screen had flickered on with a fuzzy image. After Irezumi hit the mini suitcase a few times, the screen image became clearer. The device made some white noise before it finally showed Number 46 on the screen.
Lin Sanjiu was shocked. She immediately lowered her head and covered most of her face with her black cloth.
When Number 46 saw Irezumi's complacent expression, he suddenly looked weary. He shook his hand and stopped the latter from speaking, "You don't have to say anything. Let me see that corpse."
Irezumi gaped at him. His initial excitement disappeared with a trace. He hesitated for a moment but finally, he lifted the mini suitcase and pointed the screen toward the female corpse.
While the black-white image on the screen went fuzzy every now and then, Number 46 stared at the corpse. He slowly started to frown.
"Interesting," he said quietly before looking up at the blurred figures of Irezumi and his two candidates. "Did you ask them the questions? Are their answers right?"
"Their answers were all correct," Irezumi replied happily. "Don't worry. That's definitely the target."
Lin Sanjiu's heart pounded so hard that Qing Jiuliu couldn't resist shooting a glance at her.
"Oh… I'm not worried," Number 46 laughed lightheartedly. His gaze stopped for a few seconds on the person in the black cloak, "Since you have verified, that must be it. Congratulations. Your two candidates can proceed to the next trial. Oh, by the way, don't you have another candidate? Where's he?"
The moment Number 46 said that, Irezumi's triumphant expression froze. He looked back glumly at Number 46 and told him about the situation. When he said that he would look for him later, Lin Sanjiu was surprised. However, before she could rejoice over it, Number 46 interrupted.
"You don't have to do that," Number 46 said mildly. "Judging from what you said, I can guess who kidnapped him. You can just assume that the candidate is dead."
Irezumi did not react immediately.
"Once someone end up in her hands, they will be sent to something like another world. No one would ever find the person again."
Lin Sanjiu bit her lower lip as she listened to the gurgling sounds in her ears. She was using her utmost effort to stop herself from speaking. Considering everything, she was now very clear what had just happened.
After Qing Jiuliu secretly jabbed Lin Sanjiu a few times, he finally realized the gravity of the situation. "Which of your candidates have been kidnapped by someone?" he asked urgently.
"Who else?" Irezumi showed a glum expression which made his face look even longer. "Other than you two idiots, I only have a stupider fool. He looks even more like a gigolo than you."
"More than a... I'll talk to you about that later," Qing Jiuliu felt insulted in a roundabout way and quickly changed the subject. "If he wasn't a consular officer, how did he pretend to be one? If he is unable to issue a visa, wouldn't that expose him?"
"Who knows what that fool was thinking?" Irezumi frowned. He appeared rather confused by that as well. "I don't know how to maintain that facade for so long…"
Lin Sanjiu heaved a long sigh inwardly.
Irezumi might not be aware but Lin Sanjiu had an inkling about it. If one person in the whole universe could pretend to be a consular officer, the one that could pull it off would be Ji Shanqing.
"What do you plan to do now?" Qing Jiuliu asked. His eyes were bright and attentive now and no one would even suspect that he had been drinking. "As an arbiter, don't you need to look for him?"
"Well," Irezumi blinked his pair of yellow serpentine eyes, "if he dies, his name would be struck off the candidates list. No questions asked. However, at this moment, he isn't dead and the trial is not over. He is technically still active in the trial. Based on the rules, arbiters can go along with a candidate's plans but we cannot rescue them from any danger. The only thing I can do now is to check his current position and see whether he manages to escape. Sigh. I guess I have to find more candidates. This matter doesn't concern you so why are you so worried about him?"
After explaining so much to them, Irezumi suddenly realized that point.
Irezumi had probably decided to give up on Ji Shanqing. Watching him, Lin Sanjiu had to bite her tongue to stop herself from speaking.
When they met that woman, she was not using any abilities. Lin Sanjiu did not feel a powerful aura from the woman, unlike Hei Zeji and Puppeteer. The woman was so graceful and elegant, it was as if God had personally crafted every single inch of her with great care. However, she had a coldness about her. It was that same coldness that made Lin Sanjiu convinced that the woman would be far scarier than Puppeteer, Santa Claus, and others if she turned hostile.
"How long can Ji Shanqing keep his identity a secret as a hostage of such a person?"
If she didn't need to know what Irezumi was planning next, Lin Sanjiu would not even choose to stand there dumbly, listening to that man. Now that she knew that he wasn't going to be of any help, she did not want to waste any more time. She tugged Qing Jiuliu's sleeve lightly and wanted to set off immediately—
"If you plan to just drive back and search for him, you'll just be looking for a needle in a haystack." Mrs. Manas spoke unexpectedly before Qing Jiuliu turned back to look at Lin Sanjiu.
She spoke to Lin Sanjiu in a slow and calm tone, "You need to depend on this serpentine-eyed arbiter. You can only find your friend through that tracking device of his."
"But I have to go out and search for him myself precisely because he refuses to do anything!
"With regards to that, I have a suggestion."
"What suggestion?" Lin Sanjiu asked anxiously.
"He can't do anything now because the trial is still ongoing. As an arbiter, he can't take the initiative to help his candidate, right?" Mrs. Manas seemed to have noticed Lin Sanjiu's anxiety, so her voice became gentler. "In other words, all you have to do is to end this trial, isn't it?"
"End—" Lin Sanjiu muttered.
"If you hand over the corpse you have, this trial would end with Qing Jiuliu and you being the successful candidates. A candidate would only lose his candidacy after he fails three trials. Your little friend had only failed one trial so he will still be a candidate," Mrs. Manas's voice sounded a little amused when she noticed Lin Sanjiu's sudden excitement after she said that. "As an arbiter, Irezumi would have to inform his candidates about the next trial. So, he would have to inform them face-to-face no matter where they are.
"If that's the case, Irezumi will have no choice but to look for Ji Shanqing!" Lin Sanjiu picked herself up quickly. Her previous gloom-and-doom reaction almost disappeared completely. "Yes, when Irezumi makes the announcement for the next trial, I will follow him and I'll definitely find my grand prize!"
Mrs. Manas chuckled and did not say anything… because at that moment Qing Jiuliu had lost his patience after waiting meaningless for some time. He jabbed Lin Sanjiu, "Brother Lin? Are you daydreaming?"
Lin Sanjiu nodded. She couldn't tell if he understood what she meant. She raised her hand and a card flew out from under the black cloth she was wearing. When it was about to land on the floor in front of Irezumi, the outline of a corpse suddenly fell on the floor, appearing out of nowhere with a snapping sound.
It had only been one day but the corpse had already turned greenish and her pale lips were like a dead fish. The rigid corpse fell to the floor and her arms splayed outward in an awkward manner as they were joined properly to the body. However, other than the ones who created it, it was almost impossible to notice that tiny detail.
Irezumi looked at his two candidates, slightly puzzled. Then, he looked at the corpse in front of him and his eyes immediately widened, "Huh? Is this the target?"
"Why did you suddenly bring that out?" Qing Jiuliu turned to Lin Sanjiu and grumbled softly. "We only worked out some parts of that story—"
"Is this really the target?" Irezumi interrupted Qing Jiuliu's frustrated ramblings. Both of them fell silent instantly. They watched as Irezumi crouched beside the female corpse. His face was full of disbelief, "Both of you completed the trial? Let me check…"
Lin Sanjiu and Qing Jiuliu couldn't help feeling a bit nervous when Irezumi started to examine the corpse. They secretly gulped.
To hide the sewing stitches on the corpse's body, they intentionally put on many layers of clothes for it. They tore off some material from the clothes for the spots that did not show any stitches. They did that to try to make the corpse look as natural as possible. However, that was an assembled corpse after all, and they were afraid that they might be exposed by something they might not have even noticed.
It was very hard for them to tell from Irezumi's yellow eyes what he was currently thinking.
He looked up expressionlessly and stared at the two of them. He took a second look at the corpse below him. The atmosphere froze around them. After quite some time, he suddenly reached into his pocket and started digging, "Wait for me. I forgot what were the criterions to check for verification."
Lin Sanjiu's heart was in her mouth.
"Yes, her height is about 1.8m," Irezumi held a crumpled paper in his hand. Every now and then, he would look at the paper and then at the corpse. "Bandages, checked. Hair length around collarbones, checked…"
Lin Sanjiu trimmed Queenie's hair based on her own hair length.
"Her physical characteristics match the information I have," Irezumi folded and stored the paper. "Next, I will ask you some questions. First question, what is her name?" Irezumi asked with a serious tone.
Qing Jiuliu shot a glance at the person in black standing beside him and answered, "Lin Sanjiu."
"Correct," Irezumi gave Qing Jiuliu a thumbs up almost as if he was starting to be a little excited about the situation. "The branch she destroyed, which world did it belong to?"
Qing Jiuliu's mouth moved a little but he couldn't hold himself back, "You told us that information. It is in Red Nautilus."
"Huh?" Irezumi was stunned, "Ah, yes. I said that… Okay, we go on to the next question. What is the name of the branch she destroyed?"
"Slaves Training Camp."
"You got that right too! You really can't judge a book by its cover…" Irezumi mulled. "Now, for the last question. If you can answer this, it will be considered as a successful trial for both of you."
Lin Sanjiu's heart thumped quickly. Her mind started whirring. If Irezumi asked a question that Qing Jiuliu could not answer, how could she pass a message to him secretly?
"After the woman destroyed Slaves Training Camp, she brought away some slaves that a customer had ordered. For the final question, how many slaves did she bring away?"
How many slaves did she bring away? For a moment, Lin Sanjiu was lost in her thoughts when she heard those words.
Lin Sanjiu recalled the memory of Reno and Rena parting with her at Red Nautilus. As they walked away from her, their figures grew smaller and smaller. The teenage girl lowered her head as she held her brother. Rena's shoulders shook as she sobbed soundlessly. It was as if both of them knew that they would never see Lin Sanjiu again. Clearly, those two children had known beforehand that they would leave and not see Lin Sanjiu again.
Why did she only notice this now?
"Two," Qing Jiuliu answered, standing beside her. His voice snapped her out of her reverie.
"Correct!" Irezumi shouted as he slapped his thigh. He heaved a long sigh and fell into a chair lazily. Ignoring any sense of propriety, he propped his chin with the back of the chair.
"Haha! I didn't expect both of you to really be capable of this," Irezumi seemed even more emotional than his two candidates. His yellowish eyes glimmered. "Finally, my candidates won! Ha ha ha! The fool with that long fringe can't gloat over it now."
Apparently, everyone was a fool to Irezumi. When he turned around to search for something in his backpack, Lin Sanjiu quickly pointed at Irezumi and hinted at Qing Jiuliu with her eyes.
"Excuse me, Arbiter Irezumi?" Qing Jiuliu called him hesitantly. "We are level two candidates now, right? What is the next trial about?"
"Level two? You're too early for that. We've just settled this," Irezumi dug a black box from his backpack without turning his head. It looked like a mini suitcase. "There are a few trials for each level. Once all the trials have been completed, the candidates who did not meet the failing criterion would proceed to the next level."
As he spoke, he opened the mini suitcase. There was a screen on one side of the inner case, and a few crude buttons on the other side. It did not look like a Special Item but more like a modern tech relic from before the apocalypse.
Click. Irezumi extended an antenna from the side of the device. He ignored the candidates because his screen had flickered on with a fuzzy image. After Irezumi hit the mini suitcase a few times, the screen image became clearer. The device made some white noise before it finally showed Number 46 on the screen.
Lin Sanjiu was shocked. She immediately lowered her head and covered most of her face with her black cloth.
When Number 46 saw Irezumi's complacent expression, he suddenly looked weary. He shook his hand and stopped the latter from speaking, "You don't have to say anything. Let me see that corpse."
Irezumi gaped at him. His initial excitement disappeared with a trace. He hesitated for a moment but finally, he lifted the mini suitcase and pointed the screen toward the female corpse.
While the black-white image on the screen went fuzzy every now and then, Number 46 stared at the corpse. He slowly started to frown.
"Interesting," he said quietly before looking up at the blurred figures of Irezumi and his two candidates. "Did you ask them the questions? Are their answers right?"
"Their answers were all correct," Irezumi replied happily. "Don't worry. That's definitely the target."
Lin Sanjiu's heart pounded so hard that Qing Jiuliu couldn't resist shooting a glance at her.
"Oh… I'm not worried," Number 46 laughed lightheartedly. His gaze stopped for a few seconds on the person in the black cloak, "Since you have verified, that must be it. Congratulations. Your two candidates can proceed to the next trial. Oh, by the way, don't you have another candidate? Where's he?"
The moment Number 46 said that, Irezumi's triumphant expression froze. He looked back glumly at Number 46 and told him about the situation. When he said that he would look for him later, Lin Sanjiu was surprised. However, before she could rejoice over it, Number 46 interrupted.
"You don't have to do that," Number 46 said mildly. "Judging from what you said, I can guess who kidnapped him. You can just assume that the candidate is dead."
Irezumi did not react immediately.
"Once someone end up in her hands, they will be sent to something like another world. No one would ever find the person again."
