Chapter 387: Twisted Bookkeeper (1/2)
The snowy mountain seemed as if it got further away from them the more that they walked. The group kept walking, but it looked as if they would never reach their destination.
”The cold is intolerable,” the monk Lin Zhao grumbled. ”The bookkeeper always made it a hustle to find him.”
”Have you tried looking for him before?”
”No, but I met others who have,” Lin Zhao explained. ”They always said that the bookkeeper was a devotee to his craft, so it took special care to make sure no one finds it and disturb it.”
”Such a bothersome spirit,” Hana shook her head, and Arthur agreed with her.
”I think we've entered some sort of loop,” Arthur looked at the trail. ”The mountain keeps getting further away. If the bookkeeper truly took it as its residence, then some sort of mechanism to ward off visitors is at play.”
”Even if that was true, what can we do about it?” Lin Zhao looked around. ”The bookkeeper is one of the few officials of the Spirits Realm. If it didn't want to be found, there's little we can do.”
”That little is all we need,” Arthur raised his hand, and his chains multiplied. ”Let's try something,” his chains began expanding in a circle around them. Arthur's spiritual energy infused into them, deterring the snow away.
Suddenly, their view began shaking. A crack appeared in front of the group as if they were looking at the world through a glass. The glass broke down, and they were at the base of the snow mountain.
”That was easier than I thought,”
”Easier, huh?” Lin Zhao seemed to be baffled by the event. ”You pull off something like this and call it easy?”
”Mister is weird,” the little girl agreed.
Arthur ignored them and resumed walking toward the summit of the mountain. As they began going up, the snow grew thicker until it reached their knees.
”Mister, can you hear that?” Hana suddenly craned her neck upward and closed her eyes. However, Arthur was confused as he heard nothing but the snowstorm. He could feel the existence of spirits in the mountain, but there was no sound.
”I can hear nothing,” the monk was the same.
”What can you hear?” Arthur asked the young girl as he stopped moving. She didn't answer right away and kept her eyes closed.
”A scream,”
Hana muttered, and the earth began to shake as soon as she said that. Arthur looked up the mountain and could see the snow roll down toward them like a tsunami. A giant white monster emerged from within the snow that looked like a yeti, striking toward a smaller seeker.
”Come!”
The seeker shouted as he slashed with his sword, creating a deep gush in the snow mountain. The snow kept rolling toward them, and Arthur decided they needed to flee. He might survive this, but the others would not.
”To the trees!”
There were giant trees at the mountain base, and the group jumped to hide on top of them. The snow arrived, and so did the two fighters, passing and ignoring the group.
As he used his chains to deflect the collateral damage of the battle, Arthur noticed another figure running behind the yeti spirit and the seeker.
'Is that a cloak on a bicycle?' Arthur was confused at what he was seeing. Flying across the sky was a cloak with no one beneath it riding a bicycle. The bicycle rolled on an invisible path midair, avoiding the battle and the snow.
”MARVELOUS! HEROIC!”
A shout came from within the cloak as it jotted down something in its book. The inked brush danced around the pages as if recording what was going on.
”I guess we found the bookkeeper,” the monk muttered, but the identity of this spirit was obvious to Arthur.
”Hey there!” Arthur shouted from above the trees. ”Can we have a chat?” He said toward the cloak, who only glanced at him before turning back to record the battle.
”Not used to being ignored?” Lin Zhao snickered to himself as he saw Arthur's speechlessness. ”The bookkeeper is eccentric, so get used to it. We should follow after it before we lose it.”
And so, the game of cat and mouse began.