Chapter 413: Scared Away

Actually, Lu Shu did not intend to provoke Coral. If anything was to blame, it was the fact that he had never been pursued by any girls before.

Back in those days, Lu Shu was only a frail boy whose brain was full of making money. It was his own problem that no girl liked him, a loser who went to class in cheap T shirts every day.

Besides, relationships were never his priorities in so many years. He had only been focusing on earning a living, and how to make more money to get Lu Xiaoyu a better life. As a result, he was not ready to embrace his current affluence.

To tell the truth, he was genuinely happy for his encounter with Coral. The girl was frank and honest, and did not give up her passion for him even when knowing him as a mere Class E.

She was beautiful too. In Lu Shu’s imagination, Lu Xiaoyu might only be prettier than Coral by a slight bit after she grew up. To him, that was considered very attractive.

However, Coral belonged to Northern Europe and she was a member of the Deities. Unable to see a future together, Lu Shu subconsciously refused to entertain the romantic idea.

It was really not the time to think about those kinds of things, he thought to himself seriously.

But Coral did not seem to get upset either. After a pause of two seconds, her face lit up. “Lu Shu, I guess I am trying too hard. Whether you believe it or not, I never believed in love at first sight until I met you. I am certain about my feelings for you, not for your capabilities, nor your appearance. But when I saw you, it felt like I finally caught a glimpse of the land after traversing the seas of peril for a lifetime.”

“Slow down, please. You are speaking too fast…” in fact, Lu Shu was still practicing his English listening and he had difficulty catching up with Coral’s rapid speech…

“From Coral Johnson’s distress, +188..”

“… maybe my feelings are not reciprocated yet, or maybe I myself am not ready for it. It is my first time to fall for someone, and I am worried that I may not be good enough. But I will not give up. Can I have your number, please?” Coral continued her sentence despite Lu Shu’s disruptive interruption. In fact, she was one of the few who could stay calm under Lu Shu’s verbal attack. A commendable feat indeed.

“I don’t have a phone,” Lu Shu lowered his voice.

“How about your address? I can write you letters,” Coral pressed on.

“Nor a house.”

“I need to mail you the check as a form of gratitude,” Coral said.

“Bungalow No. 7, Xingshu Road 4, Luocheng, Yuzhou…”

Coral, “…”

There were no distress points this time, because Coral was happy for figuring out how to get along with Lu Shu in such a short time…

“How about your number?” A smile glinted on the corner of her lips. “I need it to mail you the package.”

“158385…” Lu Shu gazed at the rolling dark clouds in the sky with distress across his face. Finally the day had come when one of his greatest weaknesses was exposed.

“How old are you?” Coral asked.

Lu Shu raised his brows. “There’s no need to know that to mail me things!”

“Fine!” Coral typed down his address and number in her phone and insisted, “But I will know it sooner or later!”

It was Lu Shu’s first time to meet a girl so direct. Moreover, her understanding nature and pure intentions caught Lu Shu off guard.

However, the long distance between them would eventually wash off her feelings, wouldn’t it? But Lu Shu thought that it was something worth remembering. Regardless of the future, it was a beautiful memory at the moment.

Clasping her hands behind her, Coral walked towards Evan’s camp site, her wavy hair swaying behind her back like silky tassels. “Remember to reply to my letters…”

Suddenly, Coral sensed something was wrong, and she turned to see Lu Shu had disappeared into nowhere. Looking vacantly at the opaque sky, sadness crossed her heart. “He got scared away!”

After her return, Evan’s team was already gone. Just when disappointment crept in, Evan’s head appeared from behind a rock, “Why? Couldn’t find him?”

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Coral was stunned. Soon, other people walked out from behind the stones. Surprisingly all of them were hiding here.

Shaking her head, Coral announced proudly, “Lu Shu killed them all.”

She could not explain the swelling sense of pride, but the emotion was real.

Evan and his people exchanged startled stares. No one questioned Coral, as Li Yixiao’s appearance had shed more mysterious light on Lu Shu. But they were still caught in shock by the knowledge that Lu Shu could actually kill six experts in one go.

Evan felt his inflamed ego dampened. Truly, he still had a long way to go.

“Emily, come here. I want to have a word with you…”

Emily, “…”

…

Lu Shu smacked his lips as notifications of new distress points were sent in continuously. He left not only to avoid Coral, but the team as well. He would certainly become the target if Evan happened to unite with experts from the Phoenix Society.

They might not be interested in individual Practitioners, but many organizations took joy in hunting down Heavenly Network members. Besides, no one would know if he was killed in the remains.

Now, he had two katanas and two tantos. It was a common misconception among those who watched anti-Japanese TV series that tantos were solely used for seppuku*. In fact, traditionally tantos were used by medieval Japanese warriors in close combat or fights in a confined environment.

*Seppuku: a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment.

And there were a number of ways to perform seppuku, including one horizontal cuts, three horizontal cuts and jumonji giri, meaning “cross-shaped cut”. The latter two were less common than the first…

Many people might ask, wasn’t it excruciatingly painful to cut one’s belly open? How could Japanese warriors withstand that?!

Actually, the reality was not so. Since the Edo Era, seppuku had become more of a symbolic ceremony.

At first, people were brave enough to cut themselves. In the moment of agony, they would be beheaded by the kaishakunin, also known as the man who assisted the death…

No matter how much force the person applied, the first cut would be at most five to ten centimeters deep due to the thick adipose tissues at one’s belly. Then, the horizontal cut would be around twelve to twenty centimeters in length. After the completion of the two steps, the person would have lost about 200 mL of blood, equivalent to the amount donated one-off at a blood donation drive. Even if the person applied another strike to complete the cross, he would not bleed to death at once.

According to the record, the man who survived the longest after performing seppuku was Takayama Hikokurou. In 1793, he cut his abdomen at 2pm but only swallowed his last breath at 9am the next day after a whole nineteen hours.

Thus, people collapsing to death at once after seppuku as depicted on the screens was pure nonsense…

What purpose did seppuku serve? When a warrior was about to be defeated or captured, he would want to die an honorable death. Hence, he made the message clear to his opponents: I am not afraid of death! Do you hear me?!

However, they may still remain conscious for a while afterwards. Therefore in practice, such a serious ritual might result in people whining, fainting, rolling on the floor, crying their eyes out and other ridiculous endings. You would never know what might happen!

Thus, later on, the tanto was replaced with a fan or a wooden sword. Once the seppuku performer reached out for it and put it on his belly as a necessary step of the ceremony, kashakunin’s sword would immediately chop off his head.

Then, the ritual would end in perfection.

Judging from its history, one could tell Japanese warriors’ fixation on seppuku. They would carry it out no matter what.

As he walked, Lu Shu fed to his divine water all the weapons he had gathered from the Collection of Gods. Having the water increase in size at a visible rate, the consumption of gargoyles could surely be done more effectively later.

Speaking of which, he was reminded of Li Yixiao…

That man had cleared all the gargoyles in the entire region…

…

At the other side of the remains, Anthony was sealing up a gargoyle stone under Lu Xiaoyu’s control. But suddenly, she changed her mind. Instantly the stone collapsed inwards and crushed the gargoyle inside with its a tight grip.

Lu Xiaoyu raised her gaze to the sky in bewilderment. “Why… do I have this sudden urge to kill.”