The Chase and the Revelation

Given Mo Linyu’s assertion that the reincarnation of an otherworldly soul was drawing near, they simply decided to stay put.

Li Yue, too, vigilantly scanned every tourist and pedestrian around them. Though the crowd was sparse, simultaneously keeping track of everyone still presented a considerable challenge.

“Are you sensing anything?” Li Yue pressed.

“No change, still approaching.”

Mo Linyu remained with her eyes closed, clutching her chest. The intensifying agony of her wound was clearly etched in the deepening furrow of her brow.

Amidst the crowd, a figure in a black hoodie bumped into Mo Linyu’s shoulder. The person was slender, their loose clothing further obscuring their physique, making it difficult to discern their gender.

Mo Linyu initially paid it no mind, but in the next instant, her expression shifted dramatically.

“Wait! My phone!”

Her newly purchased tri-fold phone had vanished from her bag.

Li Yue reacted swiftly, instantly realizing what had transpired.

“Hey! Stop!”

She spun around, shouting at the figure. Upon hearing the cry, the hooded person dropped all pretense, taking off at a sprint towards the depths of the pedestrian street.

“Damn it, thief! Get back here!”

Li Yue gave chase immediately, with Mo Linyu hurrying to follow.

While locating the otherworldly soul was undoubtedly important, there was no way they could allow her newly bought phone to be stolen like this.

The thief weaved deftly through the crowd, their broad hood obscuring their face, revealing only a wisp of dark blue hair trailing from its edge.

“A female?”

Li Yue first muttered, then roared, “Stop right there!”

Mo Linyu tried to keep pace with Li Yue, but having just ridden a bicycle, and with the persistent ache in her chest, she clearly couldn’t sustain such strenuous activity. Each pounding stride caused the burden on her chest to jolt violently, even straining her ligaments painfully.

“It seems I’ll have to find another route.”

Mo Linyu cradled her arms beneath her chest, her pace gradually slowing. After glancing left and right, she decisively ducked into a roadside shop.

Li Yue, however, possessed far superior stamina, yet for the moment, she couldn’t quite catch the nimble thief. The latter suddenly made a sharp turn, darting into a side alley.

It was a very narrow alley, with few shops lining its sides, but Li Yue followed without hesitation.

Sweat streamed down her neck, dampening her T-shirt, and her glistening thighs highlighted the contours of her muscles.

“You won’t get away, you little brat!”

Li Yue’s shouts echoed through the narrow alley.

Even in the alley, some people conducted business, setting up stalls to sell snacks meant for eating on the go. Though trade was slow, the temperature was anything but cold; boilers and grills made the alley ‘boiling hot’ (TL Note: A Chinese idiom describing a lively and bustling atmosphere, often accompanied by heat).

Li Yue couldn’t help but grumble, “It’s so hot! Why are you setting up stalls in the middle of the day?!”

These stalls were nothing short of obstacles on a racetrack for Li Yue, whereas the thief ahead navigated them with practiced ease. She deftly wove through, even casually overturning a charcoal grill selling skewers as she passed.

Amidst the stall owner’s screams, Li Yue executed a graceful hurdle over the grill, beads of sweat from her legs sizzling into white smoke upon the hot coals.

At the same time, the enticing aroma of the skewers made her stomach rumble.

Evidently, this thief was a local.

Unable to keep up with the pair, Mo Linyu took a detour, attempting to follow them via a relatively wider, parallel main street.

Unbeknownst to her, the thief had already turned into an even narrower alley, with Li Yue close behind. This alley was crammed with miscellaneous items, serving as the back entrance for many shops.

The thief nimbly scaled one obstacle after another, but Li Yue bulldozed through them with brute force. Her sheer momentum alone startled the thief, who repeatedly glanced back in alarm.

‘Tsk, I’ve run into a formidable opponent.’

However, stopping was not an option. She twisted and turned through the alley, leading Li Yue on a chase. She knew the area intimately, whereas Li Yue was unfamiliar with the surroundings; a mere two consecutive turns, and Li Yue would be thwarted.

Though this was her plan, Li Yue remained relentlessly close, as if she could anticipate the thief’s route. She even kept up with sudden sharp turns, rendering the thief’s usually foolproof escape methods useless, and her pace grew increasingly frantic.

In truth, Li Yue could indeed foresee the thief’s route.

[Turn left ahead to shake her off.]

This was written in the dialogue box above the thief’s back. Actions wouldn’t betray thoughts, so Li Yue only needed to prepare for the turn to keep pace.

[Tsk, why is that woman still here?]

The content of her inner thoughts grew increasingly panicked, and her escape route became far less planned.

Each time she believed she had shaken off her pursuer, she would turn only to find that golden-haired fiend still hot on her heels, her expression utterly menacing. The fiend even brandished a golden baseball bat, drawing it from a bag on her back.

‘How does she even have a weapon?!’

[Damn it! Damn it all! What is wrong with this person?!]

Although Li Yue was drenched in sweat from running, the expression on her face grew increasingly ‘benevolent’ (TL Note: A playful term, often used ironically, to describe someone’s smile or demeanor becoming excessively wide or intense, hinting at mischievous or even intimidating delight) as the distance between them closed, her grin stretching almost to her earlobes.

Just as the thief was about to burst forth from the alley, a figure suddenly darted out from the side, effectively blocking her path. Unable to brake in time, the thief crashed headfirst into the other person’s ‘airbag’.

“Oh? Looks like I’ve cornered you.”

Mo Linyu triumphantly embraced the thief, locking her tightly in her arms, then looked up at Li Yue, who was still running behind.

Li Yue, propping her hands on her knees, gasped out two breaths and asked, “How—how did you get ahead of us?”

“With my radar,” Mo Linyu replied succinctly.

Seeing that the thief was about to be suffocated by Mo Linyu, Li Yue stepped forward, grabbed the thief’s collar from behind, and ‘rescued’ her from Mo Linyu’s embrace.

She stated sternly, “Come on! You’re going to the police station with me!”

“Let me go!”

The panicking thief struggled fiercely, revealing a head of short, dark blue hair—dyed.

Her features were somewhat youthful, and combined with her short stature, she appeared to be merely junior high age?

“Wait, we can’t send her to the police station.”

Mo Linyu, however, stopped Li Yue, still slightly breathless as she explained, “Didn’t you understand what I just said? I got ahead of you using my radar.”

As she spoke, she placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her ‘big radar’.

“…Are you saying you weren’t tracking me?”

Li Yue raised an eyebrow, gazing at Mo Linyu’s heaving chest, as the dialogue box above provided an affirmative answer.

[Perhaps this is what the Goddess spoke of, the way otherworldly souls are drawn to each other…]

[She, like me, is also the reincarnation of an otherworldly soul.]

Given the sensitive nature of the information, coupled with her exhaustion from running, Mo Linyu simply communicated with Li Yue via telepathy.

‘Hey, after all this searching, the first one we finally find turns out to be a thief?’

Just then, the thief raised both hands, squatted down, and astonishingly, pulled off her hooded sweatshirt. She then abruptly shoved Mo Linyu to the ground and sprinted out of the alley onto the main street.

Li Yue tossed the hoodie to Mo Linyu, then immediately gave chase, only to watch as the thief slipped into a taxi and sped away.

“What the heck?!”

Mo Linyu finally stood up, rubbing her backside.

“You let her get away?”

Li Yue stomped her foot in frustration, even kicking a roadside trash can.

“Don’t be so agitated; it’s fine.”

Mo Linyu patted Li Yue’s shoulder and added, “At least, we know what she looks like, and…”

She retrieved her tri-fold phone from the black hoodie.