Versatile Mage

Mo Fan quickened his pace to catch up to Jiang Shaoxu, yet he was still preoccupied by his thoughts about Miyata.

The girl was like a ghost, yet she was not actually a ghost. Mo Fan was confused about why he could see the girl when Jiang Shaoxu could not?

“Such a boring man,” Jiang Shaoxu rolled her eyes at Mo Fan and led the way. Either way, she was disappointed in Mo Fan’s petty trick.

She did not think it was bad for a man to flirt and take advantage of a woman since she was such a gorgeous beauty, yet the trick Mo Fan used was too lowly…

As a matter of fact, Jiang Shaoxu was quite scared of supernatural stuff. Otherwise, she would not ask Mo Fan to keep her company. She found it hard to accept even though she knew Mo Fan was joking!

“Alright, my bad, guess I’ll be going back to the temple. My mind is full of question marks now,” Mo Fan did not want to waste his time further when he realized that the girl was actually mad.

“Don’t go, we’ll come back as soon as I buy the stuff I want,” Jiang Shaoxu glared at him.

“Seriously, being so smug when asking for a favor? Do I look like someone that boring? I really meant it when I said there’s someone there…”

——

The atmosphere turned lively as they arrived in the city. The truth was, Mo Fan had never gotten used to staying in quiet places. He felt like he was abandoned by the world, like an old man spending their last years living alone on a mountain. He preferred to stay in big cities, with concrete walls and huge glass panels, luxurious cars, trams, youthful girls, mature girls…

Xixiong City was extremely clean, with lots of Japanese-style streets, paths, houses, parks and old trees scattered across the place, places where one could easily spend their entire afternoon enjoying the scenery…

They came to a busy street. Jiang Shaoxu was here to buy some skincare products and snacks. She did not buy anything special.

They saw a small izakaya on their way back, located at the intersection of two fairly quiet streets. The place was decorated with some lanterns, and a menu written in Japanese. There was a little hill behind it.

“Come, let’s have some drinks,” Jiang Shaoxu totally lost control of herself when she saw the izakaya. She immediately dragged Mo Fan over.

The owner of the business smiled when he saw the gorgeous lady, revealing his yellow teeth as he said something in Japanese.

Mo Fan looked at the owner as he spoke. Even though he could not understand a single word, Mo Fan never understood why the Japanese had to open their mouths so wide, just like the Koreans, when they were talking. -Can’t they close their mouths after finishing their sentences? Must they really keep their mouths open and expose their teeth?-

Jiang Shaoxu chatted with the owner for a while, before the man gave her two bottles of sake. One warm, one chilled, to guarantee the taste of the sake.

Mo Fan had never tried it before. He almost poured the sake into a glass of ice water. Jiang Shaoxu smilingly tapped on his shoulder.

“So it’s your first time in Japan,” the owner spoke in a different language. It seemed like he was very aware of Mo Fan’s presence.

“Yeah,” Mo Fan nodded and pointed at the barbecue rack to order some aromatic squid.

“Where are you staying at now?” asked the owner.

“In that temple,” Mo Fan pointed at the dimly lighted temple on the mountain.

The owner’s eyes widened and he stopped cooking the squid.

“You…you’re staying there? The Yanming Temple?” the owner’s voice turned strange all of a sudden.

“Yeah,” Mo Fan realized something from the owner’s expression. He was also bothered by lots of questions, thus he quickly asked, ‘Is there something strange about the temple?”

“Oh, oh, nothing, but I suggest you not to stay in the temple. It’s not a good place. It was once a good temple, but not anymore,” said the owner.

She blinked like a kitten and said with a soothing voice, “Tell us more about it, we just arrived here…” Jiang Shaoxu was now intrigued too.

The owner was indeed an old pervert. Even though he looked reluctant to spill the beans, he could not control his mouth at all. He lowered his voice and said, “Someone lost their soul there!”

“Lost their soul?” Mo Fan opened his eyes wide.

“In the past, the Yanming Temple was known for blessing people’s marriages. Even the young folk from other cities would come here just to pray in the temple. However, there was a young man who went to the temple and fainted for no reason. He never woke up since then, none of the Healing Spells worked… some old folks said that he had lost his soul, his body had turned into an empty shell,” said the owner.

Mo Fan’s jaw dropped.

Jiang Shaoxu completely treated it as a story. She always enjoyed listening to the gossip from the owners of izakayas in Japan.

“A piece of advice, just pretend you didn’t see anything even if you do if you really want to stay in the temple…” the owner lowered his voice further.

“What if we don’t?” asked Mo Fan. Somehow, Mo Fan believed in the owner’s words.

“That’s going to bring you nothing but trouble, you’ll lose your soul!” said the owner.

“Hehehe, I know how to steal someone’s soul too, check this out…muacks,” Jiang Shaoxu gave a passerby a fly kiss and blinked her eyes.

The passerby was a little drunk, and he staggered after getting teased by Jiang Shaoxu.

Jiang Shaoxu giggled when she saw the man trying to recover clumsily, showing her vixenish temperament.

“There’s nothing I can do if you don’t trust me.” The owner was too lazy to argue further.

Mo Fan wanted to listen more, yet the owner was reluctant to say any further. Even the squid was tasteless in his mouth…

—

After supper, the two went back to the stairs leading up to the temple. Mo Fan kept looking around him, worried that Miyata would show up again.

“Do you really believe the story? Stop being silly, you’re an adult now,” Jiang Shaoxu started laughing at Mo Fan.

“You didn’t want to believe me and the owner, just keep believing yourself then…” said Mo Fan indifferently.

Miyata did not appear. Mo Fan and Jiang Shaoxu went back to their room. The light was still on.

The people in the temple did not rely on electricity for lighting in order to save money. They normally used oil lamps. It was rather antique, yet when Mo Fan and Jiang Shaoxu came back, the electric lamp was still lit up. They could see blurry shadows moving back and forth inside the room.

“Did you find him?” asked Ai Jiangtu.

“No, he really went missing,” said Jiang Yu.

Mo Fan and Jiang Shaoxu went into the room as they were talking. The others immediately looked at them as if they had just seen a ghost.

“Who’s missing?” asked Mo Fan immediately.

“You two, we spent a long time looking for you. We thought you two were missing. Where did you go, we were almost worried to death,” said Jiang Yu.

“We went down the mountain to buy some stuff… by the way, is something wrong? Why is everyone so tense?” asked Jiang Shaoxu when she realized that something was not right.

The room fell silent, and no one answered her question.

Mo Fan looked around him and realized that someone was missing from the team.

Taking a second look, he immediately shivered in fear!

Zhao Manyan was missing!