Kisaragi's Long-Strange Collection Notes

The painter spoke confidently, but inwardly he was already feeling uneasy.

be cheated.

He knew in his heart that this time he would probably have a hard time leaving alive.

He wasn't afraid of the wind chimes; as a member of the Mad Church, he feared no one in a one-on-one situation.

What made him uneasy was that the wind chime revealed his code name.

How could a teacher at a school possibly know him?

There is only one possibility: from the very beginning, all the personnel involved in the arrest knew his information.

Like associations, churches also have peripheral members.

In particular, churches like the Fog Church, which cannot be brought into the open, have recruited many ordinary people in various cities.

Those on the periphery of the Mist Church could receive mass messages from the Sixiang City Hall and the Sun and Moon Church. These two groups, despite clearly knowing all the Mist Church members who had entered the city, deliberately acted as if they lacked sufficient information and needed to piece it together from various sources.

This led the [painter] to believe that he was absolutely safe and that no one knew about him.

"How cunning and ruthless of you to use students as bait. How much better are you than our Fog Church?" [The Painter] sneered.

"Let's skip the verbal sparring. Are you going to surrender immediately, or do you want to be crippled first?"

"Oh? With such a tone, then let me experience the teaching staff of Sixiang City."

[The painter] says the harshest things, but does the most cowardly things.

He activated his ability and vanished into thin air.

[Body Painter], short for [Body Painter].

This kind of profession also exists among ordinary people. They paint on their own bodies while being naked, aiming to showcase the beauty of their bodies while also covering their private parts. It is both painting art and performance art.

When associated with [mystery], it becomes a kind of optical invisibility ability similar to that of a chameleon.

The [painted artist] didn't really disappear; he just fooled the audience.

"Hmph, fight? There's no way I'm going. You guys keep looking."

In the pairing of [Painter] and [Chef], [Chef] is the one in charge of the fighting, while [Painter] is the assistant who gathers intelligence and steals materials.

Just as he swaggered past the wind chimes, preparing to leave.

A triangular bayonet pierced his lung.

Fresh blood immediately gushed from his mouth.

On the tilted head of the wind chime, eight eyes on its forehead and cheeks were all looking at him.

"Remember me well, I am [Hundred-Eyed] Wind Chime, invisible to the naked eye, and have no effect on me."

The painter, coughing up blood, was still laughing: "You think I'm the only one on this mission? How many students can you protect?"

"I'm in my class, and others are in other classes too. The entire power of Sixiang City is watching you. Are you worried we don't have enough manpower?"

"Haha, hahaha, amazing, then I'm relieved." The blood foam that the [painter] spat out began to contain fragments of internal organs.

"Bluster." Fengling pulled out a triangular military dagger and stabbed twice more.

Even the students know that they can't relax during battle, so how could their instructor, Fengling, forget that?

"Clang!", "Clang!", "Clang!"

The church bells rang out in unison with the city's sirens.

The painter smiled at the wind chimes: "Thank you for your cooperation."

Feng Ling's face turned ashen.

Mengmeng asked timidly, "Sister Fengling, what's wrong?"

"What a deceitful Church of the Mist! We've been tricked. All the city's manpower has been deployed to protect the students, leaving the city's defenses weak."

"Shall we head back?"

"It's too late. Today is [no tomorrow]. The city gates are locked, there is no sunlight or moonlight, and there is no view on the way back to the city. It is also full of fog and strange things."

The painter, unable to support himself, collapsed to the ground.

The instant he fell to the ground, his eyes, which should have been incredibly weak, suddenly snapped open.

"The cicada sheds its shell."

The [Painter] has disappeared again.

This time it's truly vanished; even the wind chimes can't be found.

"hateful!"

It's not that Fengling was careless, but there are countless mysterious abilities. As long as you want to capture someone alive, there's always the possibility that they'll escape by unleashing their powers, and no one can stop them.

In a small grove of trees.

The nose twitched slightly: "There's a smell of blood."

She took a few steps and went straight into a clump of grass.

He lifted a blood-covered man out with one hand.

This was a man they didn't recognize; he wasn't actually wearing clothes, and the fake clothes he wore were painted on with paint.

Chen Meimei, Qinghua, and Bobo came forward to watch.

Chen Meimei poked the man's face with a twig to wake him up.

"Are you a student at the school? I'm the instructor of Class 5. I came here to secretly protect the students, but I encountered an exceptionally powerful monster and almost lost my life."

The extremely weak [painter] could barely open his eyes and could only make out Chen Meimei. He immediately fabricated an identity for her.

Chen Meimei: "I'm from Class 5."

Qinghua and Bobo are a bit strange; they know that Chen Meimei is in Class 3.

[Painter]: ......

It was a bit difficult to handle; being exposed on the spot was somewhat embarrassing.

"I'm from Class 5, Grade 5. I was temporarily transferred here."

Chen Meimei: "I know everyone in the school. The teacher of Class 5, Grade 5 is a woman."

The [painter] paused for two seconds: "You're still a student, right? How did you recognize me?"

Chen Meimei shook her head: "I don't know you, but I know who caused your wound. Everyone in the graduating class knows that triangular bayonet."

The terror of Fengling's infirmary was 50% due to the eyes all over her body, 25% due to her habit of using students as subjects for experiments, and the final 25% due to the triangular bayonet.

Lying on the bed in the infirmary, whenever bloodletting is involved, the triangular bayonet will inevitably come into play.

That thing is extremely efficient at drawing blood, but whether it can stop the bleeding or not depends entirely on the individual's luck.

"Have mercy on me, and I'll give you everything I have."

Chen Meimei nodded: "How much time do you have?"

"I have 3000 years."

"3000 years!" Chen Meimei jumped up. "How do you have so many?"

"I personally only have 200 years left; the other 2800 years are for the church's operating expenses."

"So, you're from the Church of the Mist?"

"Yes." The [painter] was very straightforward, answering whatever was asked.

The reason why the Church of the Mist cannot grow large is that its members are not only insane, but also completely disloyal.

"Are you [the chef's] partner?"

"Yes."

"Besides the two of you, how many other members of the Mist Church have come to Sixiang City?"

"There are 8 more people. Originally, there were 10 people who came."

"What are you planning to do?"

"Destroy the Four Symbols Seal of Sixiang City."

"What is that?"

This question is too basic; even the [painter] is a bit confused. What kind of quality do graduating students have that they don't even know this?

"Whoosh~"

Because he answered too slowly, he was immediately stabbed by Qinghua.

The painter was unable to move and could not see the blue and white porcelain behind him.

He didn't know who was behind him, but his body told him that the knife that stabbed him was a "familiar knife"—it was his old partner's [chef's] kitchen knife.

Even the usually arrogant chef has fallen into the hands of this group; if he doesn't behave, he's asking for death.

"Each of the 100 cities has a core. Some are items, some are array eyes, and some are city guardian beasts. Sixiang City's core is the Four Symbols Seal."

"What would happen if it were destroyed?"

"The city will temporarily lose the blessing of the sun and moon, and become just like the wilderness."

"temporary?"

"Yes, it can be restored after the repair."

"Is repairing it difficult?"

"If no one stands in the way, it's not difficult for a city."

"So you went through all that trouble just to cause temporary damage?"

The painter paused slightly, but dared not linger for long, lest he be stabbed again: "In peacetime, the damage is indeed minimal, but now it is the entirely new Eighth Era."

Are we bringing up the New Age again?

Chen Meimei became interested: "How so?"

"Maintaining the security of the city's core is the most basic responsibility of city managers."

If even the core area cannot be protected, it indicates that the city's capabilities, strength, and control over the city are limited.

When a new race rises, it needs to conquer its own cities, and naturally it will pick on the weakest.

If you were them, what kind of city would you choose?

Chen Meimei said expressionlessly, "It's a city that can't even protect its own core."

"That's right. Even in peacetime, every time a problem arises in the city's core, it basically represents a reshuffling of power."

This is a time of great strife, and Sixiang City will be the first target. Regardless of whether the new race can conquer Sixiang City, the casualties in the war between the two races will be enormous.

Everything that needs to be known has been known; Chen Meimei is no longer a problem.

"Qinghua, keep an eye on him. After today, he will have a precious 3000 years."

If it weren't for the fact that the watch payment function wasn't restricted during [No Tomorrow], Chen Meimei wouldn't want to wait even a second longer.

Just as Chen Meimei was about to get up and leave.

A seductive voice rang out repeatedly: "He lied to you."