Universe Infinite Canteen

Qiutong thought for a moment and said, "I guess I should go to the school first, mainly because registration at the regular schools has already ended, and if I don't go to Hou De, I'd have to stay home for another year, and then my dad would start arranging my marriage again."

"Fine."

The two continued walking along the street and came across four Shadow Demons, all of which were taken out by Ma Lu's Illumination Technique.

As they walked half a street further, they encountered an Air Wall and had to turn back to the bank. Ma Lu felt a bit tired, so he climbed to the top floor, found a spot with a wide view that was convenient for spotting enemies, and rested for a while, also taking the opportunity to recover the spiritual power consumed by casting spells.

He slept for about twenty minutes. When he woke up, he felt much less groggy in his head, stretched lazily, and asked Qiutong, who was on guard duty next to him, "Has the rescue arrived?"

"No," Qiutong shook her head, "I haven't seen anyone else."

Ma Lu did not know what had happened at the Talisman Master Association that caused the expected rescue to be delayed.

However, after his search and clearing during this time, the number of Shadow Demons in this area had significantly decreased, and they walked for a long time without encountering any.

Ma Lu decided to continue with the original plan and went to look for the Lord of the catastrophe belt.

He stood on the rooftop, overlooking the darkness below.

He had already explored quite a bit before, leaving only the southwestern direction unvisited, and the night seemed deeper there than in other directions.

If nothing unexpected happened, the Lord would probably be there.

Ma Lu then led Qiutong toward that direction, and they began to encounter Shadow Demons more frequently on the way.

To save spiritual power, Ma Lu started running, relying on his positioning to aggro and group the monsters.

At times, he worried Qiutong might not be able to keep up. Contrary to his expectations, aside from being a bit nervous at the sight of Shadow Demons, she did not slow him down.

She closely followed behind him, her little leather shoes clacking loudly, and despite running for so long, her breathing remained even, and she neither blushed nor panted.

By comparison, it was Ma Lu himself who was breathing more heavily.

During a break in the middle of their journey, he couldn`t help but say, "You have good stamina."

"Oh, my mom was a gymnast, and I've been practicing gymnastics with her since I was young. I even won a medal at the city sports meet."

"No wonder," Ma Lu realized.

While they were talking, something flashed past behind the window of a nearby clock shop.

Because Ma Lu had been paying attention to their surroundings, he quickly caught the movement.

His reaction was swift, and he immediately prepared to release the Light Illumination Technique, but the shadow did not emerge from the clock shop.

Growing impatient while waiting, Ma Lu, still using the Light Illumination Technique, charged into the clock shop. However, after looking around inside, he found nothing.

To make sure that thing hadn't been unintentionally taken out by him, Ma Lu had Qiutong check the ground, but they did not find the green stone either.

Could it have run away?

This was the first time Ma Lu had encountered a Shadow Demon that fled, and the creature had run away before he used the Light Illumination Technique.

It probably had experienced the power of the Light Illumination Technique before.

If this was true, then its intelligence level had to far exceed that of other Shadow Demons in the area, because according to Ma Lu's observations, those Shadow Demons basically lacked the ability to think and seemed to be acting like early artificial intelligence following programmed instructions.

In other words, the thing that had been lurking in the clock store was very likely the Lord of this catastrophe belt.

The good news was that since the thing had run away, it was afraid of the Light Illumination Technique, so Ma Lu still had a chance to eliminate it and leave the catastrophe belt with Qiutong.

The bad news was that since the thing could run, it would probably be difficult to confront it head-on like before.

To confirm his suspicion, Ma Lu even turned off the Light Illumination Technique and wandered around the area for a while, but he only attracted ordinary Shadow Demons.

And after he had cleaned up all the ordinary Shadow Demons, that elusive Shadow Demon had not shown itself again.

Well, it seemed that guy really had remembered his appearance, not just the spell.

Moreover, it moved very quickly and was more familiar with this area than both of them.

Catching it here was virtually impossible.

Realizing this, Ma Lu stopped wandering around pointlessly and stood thinking in place.

Since he couldn't catch up to it, he had to lure it out.

Ma Lu first tested with the green stones he had, stacking them in one place. Even after he had moved a street away and came back, not a single stone was missing.

Then, Ma Lu reluctantly shed some blood, because in many movies and TV shows, monsters were interested in human blood. Unfortunately, this too had no effect.

As Ma Lu was contemplating what else could serve as bait, Qiutong stepped forward on her own.

"Why don't I give it a try?"

"Hmm?"

"Last time, the Shadow Demons kept chasing Mr. Cao and me relentlessly. I think I might be able to lure it out, and I can run fast enough," Qiutong said boldly.

Because Principal Cao Jin Hua had died at the hands of those Shadow Demons, she was initially very afraid of them.

But later, as she followed behind Ma Lu, witnessing how easily he dealt with the Shadow Demons as if slicing through vegetables, she became less afraid.

More importantly, she had discovered she could also run faster than those shadows, which led her to volunteer as bait.

"You need to think this through," Ma Lu said. "The remaining Shadow Demon is probably the Lord of this place. It might have hidden abilities that the others don't, so being bait could be very dangerous. Actually, if we can't catch it, we can still wait for rescue."

"But it's been four hours now, and the rescue hasn't arrived yet. I don't know if it will come at all."

Qiutong hesitated for a moment, then decided to take her fate into her own hands.

"I want to try it. If I succeed, we'll be able to get out of here."

Ma Lu didn't have any objections, of course. He had already informed Qiutong of all the risks. From his own perspective, if there was a chance, he too wanted to try and take down the Lord.

After all, the previous minor monsters had yielded good loot, so the boss must also have some prized items. Additionally, both he and Qiutong felt it was better to rely on themselves than to wait for help.

The two then discussed the next battle plan, which wasn't complicated. It involved spreading out to lower the Lord's alertness. If Qiutong managed to attract it, she would turn and run towards Ma Lu.

Ma Lu would use the Light Illumination Technique to finish it off.

The key to the plan's success, besides luring the Lord, was for Qiutong to hold out until Ma Lu could reach her.