Chapter 42: The Old Arcade

The river wind, carrying the whistle of a cargo ship, swept across the embankment.
Bai Ling’s canvas shoe kicked a pebble.

The pebble skipped across the water, heading for the neon lights on the opposite bank, startling a night heron into flapping its wings and flying across the shimmering water.

“Actually, Lu Qingyu is pretty nice,” the girl suddenly said.

She had suddenly wanted to take a walk with Xu Zhi, so the SUV he had driven had been left in the residential area where Lu Qingyu lived.

“She’s a very gentle person.”
Xu Zhi followed behind the girl with his hands behind his head, a foxtail grass in his mouth.
“But we’re not a good match.”

“Why not?”
The girl was puzzled.
Lu Qingyu’s personality was that of a perfect girlfriend, right? If she weren’t a girl now, she would want to pursue Lu Qingyu.

“Normally, demon slayers are imbued with spiritual energy, and they use spiritual energy to use incantations.”
The foxtail grass in Xu Zhi’s mouth swayed up and down in the evening wind, like a natural cat teaser.
“But I’m different.
Master said that I should never dream of awakening spiritual energy in this life.”

“My ancestors might have been cursed.
All spiritual energy will be transformed into baleful aura.”
Xu Zhi’s tone was as if he were talking about something completely unrelated.
“This baleful aura is more useful for slaying demons than spiritual energy.”

“My baleful aura is too strong.
Master helped me suppress some of it.
Even so, ordinary people can’t stand the remaining baleful aura.”

“Like Lu Qingyu?”
The girl jumped onto the curb and opened her arms, imitating walking on a tightrope, imagining that it was all lava below.

“Mmm, don’t look at her as a doctor in the Demon Suppression Division.
Actually, she’s not really a demon slayer.”
Xu Zhi suddenly reached out and held her swaying figure.
The scent of cedarwood on his body mixed with the river wind.
“It seems like God has given all her talent to Lu Qingtian.
That kid’s spiritual energy talent is very good.”

“What about me? Aren’t you worried that your baleful aura will affect me?”
The girl jumped off the curb with a huff, and the silver bell on her hairpin jingled with her stomp.

“You?”
Xu Zhi suddenly poked her behind the ear with the foxtail grass.
“You’re so strong.
This little bit of baleful aura might just make you want to eat more.”

“And the jade pendant I gave you can block baleful aura.”

“So it has this effect.”
The girl pulled out the jade pendant from her neck.
The smooth and lustrous mutton-fat jade flowed with a warm halo in the moonlight.

His words made the girl let out a sigh of relief.
She didn’t even know why she was relieved.

The colorful lights of the Ferris wheel on the opposite bank were reflected on the river surface, stretching the two’s shadows into jumping light spots.

“Hey! This shop is still open!”
The city’s neon lights swept across the two’s pupils.
The girl suddenly pointed to a shop at the corner of the street and said.

That was an arcade.
The two of them often came here to play when they were young.

“I wonder if the boss still remembers us…”

Xu Zhi suddenly grabbed the girl’s wrist, which was held out flat.
The sudden action made the girl’s eyes widen.

“Let’s go take a look!”

“Hey, hey! I fell into the lava!”

The neon sign cast a cyberpunk-style light spot on the glass window.
The tip of Bai Ling’s canvas shoe stopped in front of an old-fashioned arcade machine.

The furnishings here were still the same as six years ago.
Time didn’t seem to have left any trace in this shop.

The familiar boss was hiding behind the counter playing on his phone.
The voice of the comedian, Yoko Hikasa, flowed out of the phone’s speaker and climbed up the ears of the lucky cat on the counter.

“Boss?”
Xu Zhi knocked on the countertop.

“Xu kid, it’s been a long time.
What have you been busy with recently?”
The boss looked up and saw Xu Zhi and the girl beside him.
“Yo? You’ve made it.
You’re bringing a pretty girl on a date?”

“Boss! It’s me! Bai Ling! The one who used to kick your cash register with a whirlwind kick!”
Hearing this, the girl jumped up.
The hem of her clothes brushed against the “Resident Evil 2” promotional flyer.
The 1998 Raccoon City was tinged with a nostalgic yellow in the moonlight.

“Oh, oh! Bai Ling! I can’t even recognize you anymore.”
The boss clapped his hands, as if he remembered the little person who used to wear a white fish-scale-patterned coat.
“I remember you were only this tall back then, like a little boy, always following behind Xu Zhi.
A girl really changes in eighteen years.
You’ve become so beautiful.”

“I have a lot of games here now.
Pick whatever you want to play.
Couples get half-price today!”

As the curtain of the private room was lifted, a scene like a time capsule rushed towards them—the “Legend of Sword and Fairy” calendar on the wall was stuck in 2016, and the graffiti they had drawn with a marker was still on the beanbag sofa.
Among the overlapping sticky notes on the message wall, the one that said “Xu Zhi the big dummy was here” was still conspicuous.

That was what the girl had stuck up before.
The childish handwriting had faded a little after six years.

The former PS4 had now been replaced with a PS5, and the TV had also become a larger size.

“What have you been playing recently?”
Xu Zhi remembered the scene when he had fought side by side with the girl.
Many of the girl’s moves seemed to be imitating the moves of game characters.
Who knew how the girl had applied those imagined moves to actual combat.

Maybe this was talent?

“Xuan… ah no, I haven’t been playing games recently.”
The girl had just wanted to say “Xuanhuang Ji,” but she had stopped herself as soon as the words came out.
She stuck out her tongue.
“Master has been training me, so I don’t have time to play games.”

This was half-truth, half-lie.
Guan Qing had indeed been training her in various skills, but that was only last week.

The girl’s “recently” didn’t specify a time frame.
Strictly speaking, this wasn’t a lie, mmm!

“But aren’t you cosplaying from Xuanhuang Ji…”
Xu Zhi pinched his chin.
The outfit the girl was wearing now was a very popular costume for the Snake Demon Swordswoman.
Anyone who had played the game would be able to recognize it at a glance.

“I just saw that this was pretty! I haven’t played the game…”
The girl hurriedly waved her hands in denial.

This explanation was not without reason.
After all, this game had a lot of publicity.
Even if you didn’t play the game, you would occasionally see its promotions.

As for why she didn’t tell Xu Zhi that she was playing Xuanhuang Ji…

What a joke? Of course she couldn’t let him know!

If she let him know, he might come to play too.
If he came to play, he would meet netizens like Ye Yuan.
Those netizens not only knew that she had always used a male identity online, but also knew that she was a famous doujinshi artist in the circle…

She was a real girl in front of him.
If he found out about these things, what would happen?

“The latest two-player cooperative puzzle game!”
The boss suddenly poked his head in with a game box, winking as he knocked on the cover of the male and female protagonists embracing.
“Kissing at the save point can restore your health~”

“We’re not a couple…”
The girl was about to explain when the Taiko no Tatsujin machine in the corner suddenly started playing “Ren’ai Circulation,” and the drum surface’s fluorescence flashed crazily with the rhythm.

“Try it?”
Xu Zhi shook the disc box he had taken from the boss.
The heart on the cover flashed with a pink trajectory in the light.

“No!”

The girl suddenly flew over and pressed down on the disc.
Her sharkskin wide sleeves swept away a pile of “Dian Ruan” magazines.
The 2016 Li Xiaoyao on the cover smiled wryly, as if mocking her wildly beating heart at this moment—the sound of her heartbeat was so loud it could almost trigger a perfect combo in “Rhythm Heaven.”

The night sky of the demon market was forever frozen at the moment of the full moon.
Orange-yellow lantern light floated under the cyan-gray sky.

Guan Qing’s high heels tapped on the blue bricks, and the crisp sound startled the bronze wind chimes on the eaves into a sharp tremor.

Her tail feathers swept across the vermilion-painted corridor pillars, and the seventy-two wooden lanterns in the ancient building swayed at the same time.

“Boss!”
Several ancient demons standing in the hall immediately bowed and knelt on one knee when they saw Guan Qing enter.

“Get up.”
Guan Qing waved her pipe, and a few ancient demons were lifted up by a gentle breeze.
“How are the injured?”

“They’re seriously injured, but fortunately, they’re out of danger now.”
The black-clothed wolf demon’s hair fell forward.

Two hours ago, several ancient demons living in Lin’an had been attacked one after another.
The attacker’s identity was unknown.
According to the ancient demons who were still conscious, the attacker looked like a tramp.

“This subordinate will go and level the Demon Suppression Division…”
The wolf demon’s fangs bit his lower lip, and black blood snaked down the cracks in the marble floor.

“What are you thinking?”
The jade pipe knocked on the wolf demon’s forehead, and Guan Qing’s tail feathers swept across his knees.
“You think you can level the Demon Suppression Division? Besides—”

Guan Qing’s jade pipe lifted the injured person’s lapel, revealing several wounds that looked like they had been torn by sharp claws.
A familiar yet strange aura still lingered on them.

“Those fledglings from the Demon Suppression Division can’t raise this kind of insidious thing.”
The moment the pipe touched the injured person’s wound, a cyan wind swept past, and the blood instantly condensed into a scab.
“I haven’t seen this thing for a while…”

“You two, go and guard your young master.”
The hem of her moon-white cheongsam moved without any wind, and the seventy-two wooden lanterns suddenly burst into a cyan flame.
“The rest of you, dig this rat out for me.”

The talismans hanging from the beams ignited without fire.
When the last spark fell to the ground, the ancient building was already empty.