Chapter 40: Coffin Gorge of the Witch Gorges, The Earth Immortal Goes Into Seclusion

Just as they walked into the airport departure hall, the broadcast announced that passengers for the flight to the Magic City could begin ticket checking and boarding.

Nono had just prepared to sit down when she heard the broadcast again and pulled her suitcase back toward the boarding gate.

There were no direct flights to the United States today, so she had to transfer through another international airport.

Originally, Professor Gurdian thought it would be more convenient to go through the capital, but Nono's hometown happened to be there, and she happened to be at odds with those people.

To avoid getting tangled up in troublesome people and matters, she decisively chose to make a detour.

"Based on my observations over the past few days, Lu Mingfei is essentially like a donkey. He looks easy to get along with, but actually he refuses to be led and only backs up when beaten. You can only go along with his wishes."

Nono parted ways with Professor Gurdian at the boarding gate, wanting to offer some valuable advice before leaving.

On second thought, however, if Professor Gurdian had been in charge the whole time, Lu Mingfei probably would have already signed the enrollment consent form, and the situation wouldn't have reached such a rigid stalemate.

So she merely patted Professor Gurdian's shoulder with a mature air: "I wish you all the best, goodbye, Professor."

"Mm, you have a safe trip too, take care of yourself."

Seeing Nono off, Professor Gurdian returned to sit beside Lu Mingfei.

"You care a lot about her." Lu Mingfei glanced at him. Just now, the little old man had looked like a statue gazing eagerly for a loved one's return.

He had once imagined that when his daughter went to kindergarten, he might also clutch the railing like this, watching her cry as the teacher led her into the classroom, while pulling his equally reluctant wife into his arms to comfort her softly.

"Nono lived abroad for a period of time in the past, and I was her guardian." Seeing that Lu Mingfei was willing to talk to him, Professor Gurdian was happy to share some interesting anecdotes about Nono, trying to improve their relationship.

Unfortunately, Lu Mingfei cared nothing about the childhood of that red-haired little madwoman; he was merely browsing the text on his phone and said casually:

"What about her family? Did they abandon her too?"

Gurdian felt the word "too" was used very subtly; it seemed that in Lu Mingfei's heart, he belonged to the category of being abandoned by his parents.

"Her mother died when she was young, and her father was busy with work. Coupled with the fact that he later took a new wife, he didn't have much time to look after her, which made her life at home rather unhappy."

Hearing this, Lu Mingfei raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself that the little witch hadn't been honest after all—weren't there still plenty of family members available for sacrifice?

If he had known earlier, he could have had a few more targets for attack yesterday.

"What, did those brothers and sisters of hers bully her?" He continued probing for information without changing his expression:

"A group of red-haired, red-eyed youths turning on each other sounds bizarre. Wouldn't that attract media scrambling to report it?"

"Not quite. Nono's eye and hair colors are actually quite rare." Gurdian was completely unaware that Lu Mingfei was pumping him for information, simply assuming he was curious:

"In her generation, she seems to be the only one with this dominant trait. At least, I've never seen any others."

Lu Mingfei's eyes remained fixed on his phone screen, but his thoughts had long wandered elsewhere: "Perhaps she has other brothers and sisters overseas.

Given how much she likes foreign countries, maybe other elders went abroad to marry and have children."

"I wouldn't know about that. Perhaps, seeing as they are a large family after all," Gurdian shook his head.

Back then, he had been teaching at Harvard, and upon coming to Cassel College, he was busy researching the truth of the world, so he didn't know much about Nono's family.

Later, when they reunited at Cassel College, she had never been willing to mention them.

Lu Mingfei nodded thoughtfully. Although this intelligence wasn't extremely useful, it was better than nothing.

If things really came to that in the future... perhaps it would provide another direction to search.

With this thought, the gaze he cast upon Gurdian suddenly became much more agreeable.

"By the way, when can I get in touch with Chu Zihang?"

"Uh, about that..." Hearing this, Gurdian's eyebrows drooped:

"He is currently participating in a very important physics competition. His advisor says the scores are neck-and-neck right now, and no external factors are allowed to distract him."

"It's fine, I understand. Academics come first."

Whoever said Gurdian was senile and muddle-headed? This little old man was thoroughly entertaining—he answered whatever was asked.

Given enough time, Lu Mingfei was confident he could trick Gurdian's bank card password out of him.

During the rest of the waiting time, Lu Mingfei chatted with Gurdian off and on, trying to extract more intelligence.

Yet the man was, after all, a professor who had taught at Harvard and private elite universities; he wasn't someone easily manipulated.

He picked and chose what could be said, firmly refused to say what couldn't, and occasionally turned around to ask Lu Mingfei a couple of questions.

"Why the sudden thought of going to Mountain City?"

"I had a somewhat creepy dream and dreamed of some strange things."

"What kind of things?" Gurdian suddenly grew a bit tense.

"Just... a poem, I suppose." Seeing his reaction, Lu Mingfei suddenly felt like making a joke.

After laughing it off, the two exchanged a few more words, and soon it was time for ticket checking and boarding.

The number of people flying to Mountain City was not large. Professor Gurdian didn't go to first class, choosing instead to squeeze into economy class with Lu Mingfei, clearly wanting to take the opportunity to deepen their understanding of each other.

However, as soon as Lu Mingfei stowed his backpack, he skillfully put on an eye mask, turned off his phone, and tossed out a sentence: "I get airsickness, do as you please," before pulling up the blanket to enter sleep mode.

Seeing this, Professor Gurdian followed suit. Coincidentally, he hadn't slept well the previous night either.

The plane slowly detached from the runway and soared into the clouds, looking somewhat like a roc rising on the wind to ascend ninety thousand li in a single day.

And there were quite a few people paying attention to this roc, among them the unfathomable principal of Cassel College.

Before boarding, Gurdian had visited the restroom, squatting over a toilet bowl to transmit all the information and guesses gathered from his conversation with Lu Mingfei back to the college.

Among these, the fact that Lu Mingfei had seemingly experienced spiritual vision in his dream and detected abnormal phenomena in Mountain City drew high-level attention from the college.

"In conversation, he personally admitted that he had a nightmare last night and saw a poem within it?"

The elderly man with impeccably combed hair quietly stared at the encrypted email, his expression growing heavier the more he read.

"Wuxia Coffin Mountain, Immortals in Hiding. Dragons Spitting Water, Ancient Tomb Relic Map.

Coffin Mountain, Earth Immortals, Dragons, Ancient Tombs...

A clever rabbit has three burrows. Could it be that the arrogant King of Bronze and Fire has prepared other tombs as well?"

The white-haired principal flipped open a map covered in various annotations, staring at Wuxia Gorge—which was not far from Kuimen—his brow tightly furrowed:

"Norma, have you found the origin of this poem?"

This was a matter of great importance; he had to ensure that Lu Mingfei hadn't simply picked up this poem from some internet forum or bulletin board.

"No corresponding origin has been found on the internet so far," Norma's voice emerged from the computer.

"The probability of this poem not being recorded on the network is 1.557%, the probability of Lu Mingfei fabricating it is 4.396%, the probability of it originating from his spiritual vision is 77.7%, other possibilities..."

Having finished listening to Norma's analysis, the principal removed his glasses, massaged the bridge of his nose, and said in a deep voice:

"Notify Professor Schneider and ask him to come to my office. Tell him we have an urgent matter to discuss."