It was time to expand the sanctum. Lin Sheng knew that the university had sent out all the elites. Few people guarding the campus now had been wounded by the cultists during the attack earlier. So the healing effects of the holy power should come in handy.
Upon thinking of this, Lin Sheng closed his eyes and began to meditate, treating the mental fatigue he suffered because of his death in the dream.
He could recover from this mental fatigue in less than two hours. But in the dream, the cooling period one whole day.
Lin Sheng did nothing but meditated on the Ashen Seal the whole night.
In the next following days, Lin Sheng visited the campus and workshops to check on the situation. His aim was looking ways to defeat the red-haired woman.
Something had been bugging him. The tons of explosives he rigged in the dream had failed to detonate. The reason was the freezing air surrounding the red-haired woman.
He had tried the chemical gas. But it was no good. He had even experimented with the high-power, dark-energy weapon. These modified firearms, unmatched in firepower by ordinary guns, were lethal against the transcendents. But the bullets could not get within two meters of the woman. She just sliced them into pieces.
Two days later, Lin Sheng launched a war of attrition. But only after a dozen rounds of fighting, the woman killed him. So he decided to go all out.
Ordinary weapons were not effective against the transcendents, let alone the extremely powerful ones. So Lin Sheng was aiming for the high-power, dark-energy weapon in the university’s arsenal.
Most modified dark-energy weapons were open for use to students. But the badass ones were off-limit to them. Even the professors needed permissions to use them. That was tricky. So he needed a plan.
A week later, Lin Sheng had gotten the intel he needed. He had transformed the land surroundings his mansion into holy earth. He used high-power spotlights to shine on the land. This was to drown out the glow of the holy soil to prevent it from catching unwanted attention.
When everything was ready, Lin Sheng was feeling a little exhausted. Tensions and getting killed for so many times had taken its toll. He needed time to ease his body and mind.
After feeding the three captives, Lin Sheng left them to the few red armored guards while he came out from the basement. He strolled around for a while before going to his regular noodle restaurant.
It was the place he would usually go to get his lunch fixed. And it had become a habit.
The restaurant was small. There were only six tables, all made of yellow wood. Each of the benches sat two. The wooden surfaces had developed cracks on them.
Menus were hung on the wall on both sides of the rectangular dining hall, complete with the price of each dish.
As usual, Lin Sheng sat down at the table by the doorway. “I’d like a bowl of hot and sour beef noodles, extra spicy and egg, please!”
“No problem.” The restaurant owner was a forty-year-old man. He wore a soft white round cap on his head and a spot-clean white apron with plastic gloves on his hands, looking like a good family man.
His wife and teenage daughter were helping out in the restaurant. Young and pretty, the teen was always in a light-blue uniform. Her little buttocks looked firm and round in the white jeans, and her legs left no gap in between when they were closed. It was a sight to behold.
It was no wonder male patrons could not help but keep staring at her. But the harassment never went physical. No one dared to do it in this bustling place. Instead, her beauty had become a blessing in disguise. The restaurant had become a popular dining spot in the city.
Only after acquainted with the owner that Lin Sheng learned of his woeful past. This was his second marriage. His ex-wife was deep in gambling debts with creditors visiting their home every day. They could no longer stand the pressure and moved to Miga.
As foreigners, they could not speak the local language very well. Less so the writings.
After struggling to catch up in her study, his daughter quit school. But it was more because of the bullies in the school, Lin Sheng learned. Otherwise, what parents would allow their children in their teens to work in the restaurant?
Lin Sheng pulled out a pair of chopsticks from the chopstick holder. This noodle of Xilin origin was the reason he kept coming back to the restaurant; he was getting his homesick fix. Not to mention that noodle was also his favorite food in his past life.
Soon, the girl held a huge brown bowl half the size of the table, came out from the back and served it on Lin Sheng’s table.
“Here you go. Extra large.”
Lin Sheng nodded. He poked the chopsticks into the hot and aromatic soup, picked up a bundle of noodle, coiled it up it around the chopsticks before delivering it into his mouth.
Few patrons were in the restaurant today. Lin Sheng was one of the three patrons.
It was not usual for Lin Sheng to study the other patrons in the restaurant. But today, one of them had caught his attention.
It was a long-haired girl, wearing a high school uniform, sitting alone in the corner. Her hair hung down loosely and her clothes were a little wet. She looked a sight. While everyone else ate with their head lowered, she sat still with the bowl in her hands as if she was looking at a mirror, studying her face.
“Taozi, Table 3. Quick.” The owner’s wife called out from the back. The daughter of the noodle restaurant owner was Taozi. She hurried back to the kitchen and came out with another bowl of noodle and served it to Table 3. After that, she walked past the long-haired high-school girl.
Taozi envied the girl; she wished she could go to school just like her. She saw the girl looked down at her bowl of noddle and heard her sobbing.
“There is nothing more comforting than eating a bowl of hot noodles when sad.” Taozi comforted her as she fished out a paper napkin from her pocket.
The girl suddenly grabbed her hand, clenching on so tightly that the veins on the back of her hand were half popping out.
Startled, Taozi could not help but shudder. But she quickly calmed down.
“It’s OK… Everything will be all right…” Taozi felt the girl’s hand was as cold as ice. The girl sobbed. It was soft at first and then grew more audible.
Taozi saw tears dripping into her bowl. She felt her and kept consoling the girl. But she felt something amiss.
The light in the restaurant became a tad dim, and the voices she had around her were gone. Her dad and mom would call her to serve orders, but now five minutes had passed, yet no one was calling her.
“I have work to do. Please enjoy the noodles. I’ll be back soon.” Taozi panicked.
She looked around her. The light at the kitchen window, from where she usually collected the ready noodles, had lost half its brightness. She remembered the bulb had just been changed recently.
Her mom, who usually sat at the cashier counter by the kitchen entrance, had disappeared. In her place was only a red chair that she usually sat on.
The noise was still in the kitchen. But somehow, she found the familiar clanking of the cooking wares a little scary.
Taozi glanced down at the high-school girl, face covered in her hair, sitting motionless at the table. But the hand holding her was getting tighter and the pain getting unbearable.
“Can you let me go? You’re hurting me!” Taozi whispered.
The high-school girl was still motionless and had stopped sobbing, just sitting there like a wax sculpture.
