Chapter 498 - The Wrath of the Collection of Gods

The encounter with Chiba was unexpected. But thinking about it, Lu Shu had gone home with Chiba before, which meant her house was near the dojo.

No, I can’t enter her house, Lu Shu thought. Both he and Yaeko were wanted by the Collection of Gods and he certainly did not want to get Chiba into trouble too.

Before Chiba opened the door, Lu Shu had run away with Yaeko. In fact, he had considered killing her, but could not bring himself to do it. Despite knowing her unfriendly intentions when she approached him, Lu Shu saw sincerity in her eyes in the past few days.

Human expressions were never as complicated as comprehension passages… But in the end Lu Shu chose to follow his gut feeling.

Besides, what he had exposed was nothing serious. First off, Lu Shu would recover his own identity after the completion of this mission. So it was not a big deal to let Yaeko know that he was Lu Shu.

Secondly, the divine water had long since been an open secret. As for the mask, however, the only two witnesses, the blood devil and the Puppet Master, who was still on the run. Thus, the knowledge of the Network’s possession of the mask could have spread through other means.

Therefore, he would be safe so long as his celestial map and two flying daggers were kept secret.

Well, it seemed like an appropriate excuse…

But before Lu Shu could run far, he heard Chiba shouting behind, “Kiriharakun! Where are you Kiriharakun!”

Was she try to call back the bloody spirits?! Resigned, Lu Shu ran back at once. “Don’t shout! You are attracting people here!”

Chiba pulled him into the house and said, “My parents are long-term workers in Okayama. So you don’t need to worry about that. What happened to Sakurai? Is she hurt?”

But Lu Shu refused to enter the house. He explained, “She’ll be fine if you stop shouting. We can’t go in because it may get you into trouble. Alright, stay here. I guess they are not going to fight here.”

“I’ll continue shouting if you don’t come in,” Chiba said stubbornly.

Then, Lu Shu hit a spot on her neck, knocking her unconscious. He did it properly so that the temporary hypoxia caused by disruption of blood flow in her carotid artery would not hurt her. Then, Lu Shu put Chiba back in her house, before he closed the door and left. The little girl was being willful at the wrong time!

At the current moment, the Collection of Gods’ forces were everywhere in the vicinity. Following Kitamura Hirono’s death and the many house-dismantling signs he had drawn, it would have been stranger had they not been looking for Lu Shu.

Thus, he could not afford to let Chiba give in to her personal feelings now. When the Collection of Gods found them, how could Chiba escape, even if Yaeko and himself could? Even if she could, what about her parents?

Putting his hatred against the Collection of Gods aside, Lu Shu’s conscience could not allow him to bring a little girl and her family into such suffering.

Lu Shu continued running, carrying Yaeko with him. But where could he go then?

At this moment, Chiba’s door was open again. She started shouting, “Kiriharakun! Kiriharak…”

Her mouth was covered by Lu Shu before she could finish the last syllable. Lu Shu was both shocked and confused.

How did she recover so fast? And my friend can you not be so stubborn?

Most importantly, now is not the right time for jokes! Lu Shu lowered his voice and asked softly, “How come you woke up so soon?”

After he lifted his hand from Chiba’s mouth, Chiba replied carefully, “Don’t hit me. There’s an attic upstairs and no one can discover it. I think I have… awoken to my powers just now when you hit me.”

By right, commoners can never wake up so soon after being hit on the carotid artery. But she was a Metahuman now… What the heck had happened?!

“???”

Don’t fool me. Why is your power awakening even smoother than mine?!

An indistinct feeling emerged from deep in his heart. Maybe her power had awakened due to her intense concern about Yousuke’s safety, together with her anxiety about her inability to offer any help…

Too impulsive…

“Come in. Quick!” Chiba pulled Lu Shu inside as she saw a group of people approaching in this direction.

Then, they heard someone giving orders outside loudly, “Seal the place. Lord Kitamura Hirono was murdered nearby. Search for clues!”

That was followed by a flurry of footsteps. Meanwhile, there was no sign of Oda and Kitamura’s fight ending. Lu Shu suspected that luck might not be on Oda’s side, because the other Class B master, Takashima Tairatsu, not a humanist, would eventually arrive to assist Kitamura. Oda’s demise was only a matter of time.

Chiba pulled Lu Shu upstairs, but soon tripped over herself and fell. This was because she had yet to get used to her new strength. Back then, Lu Shu had practiced his sword vigorously with Li Xianyi so as to accelerate the familiarity process with his power gained from the celestial map.

Therefore, Kirihara’s dojo had actually benefited him through accretion of his powers, which was vital to his rapid growth in strength.

Proficient mastery of one’s strength came from familiarity and Lu Shu knew it all too well.

For exactly the same reason, many Practitioners looked down on Metahumans, although in reality they had to work equally hard. Li Xianyi once said that many Metahumans were actively involved in cultivation too. Not to further their strength, but to fully master their powers and develop new ways to use them.

Take for example, Howard had gradually found the easy connection between his fire-type powers and the creation of blazing phoenixes through cultivation and practice. Otherwise, he would not have spent so much energy on summoning phoenixes.

Actually, power awakening takes a lot of learning too.

After Chiba had finally stumbled to the second floor, she pulled down a hidden door in the ceiling and moved a ladder over. Then, she said to Lu Shu, “The attic is up there. It’s very difficult to see it from below. Now, go and hide there first.”

Immediately afterwards, there were rapid knocks on the door. Chiba urged nervously, “Hurry up! I’m going down to let them in.”

Before she could finish her words, they heard a man’s voice outside, shouting impatiently, “We are going to break in if there is no one inside!”

Chiba shouted immediately, “Coming!”

Lu Shu frowned. It seemed that the Collection of Gods were really in a rage, what with all the consecutive murders of their key members. Not to mention Nogiwa Hakushun, whose Class B father was already dead anyway, Kitamura Kijitori was a man of high position in the organization. Who knew how many people he would vent his anger on following Hirono’s death?

Lu Shu calculated the sum of potential distress points. There were more than enough to fuel his sixth star, what about the seventh…