Chapter 584: The Limitations of Crafty Artifact
"Crafty Artifact...?" Tiantian looked up at Zheng Yingxiong. "Is that my ability?"
"Yes." Zheng Yingxiong nodded. "But I can only sniff out the name; I have no way of knowing the specific ability. To activate it, you'll have to see what you've experienced in reality."
"My... experiences?" Tiantian was taken aback. "I see... no wonder these parts..."
"Sis..." The young man in front of her stepped forward and said to Tiantian, "Time is a bit tight, I might have to take my leave first..."
Tiantian blinked, then snapped back to reality. "Can you not call me 'sis'?"
"Huh?" The young man was stunned. "I'm eighteen this year, just a freshman... and you?"
"I..." Tiantian's expression was a bit awkward. "I'm twenty-one."
"So... a junior?" the young man pressed.
"I..." Tiantian's eyes darted slightly. "Never mind, you guys go ahead. Just give me a map. I'm not too comfortable, I'll walk there on my own."
"Alright... alright."
The young man picked up a discarded wooden board from the ground and roughly sketched a route on it.
Zheng Yingxiong also picked up his strange "sword" from the ground, but his condition was still not good; he was staggering even as he walked.
Seeing this, the young man pulled a bundle of portable outdoor rope from Old Fang's corpse, tied it around Zheng Yingxiong's waist, then fastened it to himself before mounting the bicycle again.
"Sis, leave this kid to me. No problem." The young man wiped the sweat from his face and said, "By the way, what's your name? I'm Cheng Aoyu."
"Zhang... Tiantian." Tiantian said. "Just call me Tiantian."
"Alright, Sister Tiantian. Let's meet at the base later. Don't worry, the base should only have me there; it's very safe."
The young hero sitting in the back also waved his hand. "Goodbye, big sister."
As Tiantian watched the two slowly disappear into the distance, her expression began to waver.
"...Crafty Artifact?" Tiantian muttered to herself. "Electronic products...?"
Steeling herself, Tiantian immediately walked into the building nearby. She remembered it was an abandoned small restaurant. After searching, she indeed found an old LCD TV buried under the rubble.
The TV was shattered beyond recognition, and a piece of the screen was missing. Looking closely, it was actually in the shape of a sword.
Tiantian picked up a rusty nail from the ground, skillfully pried open the back casing of the TV, and examined the internal structure.
The circuit board and wires of the TV had all disappeared—as if someone had taken them to make something.
"Gears..." Tiantian suddenly thought of something. "Where did the gears come from?"
She kept rummaging through the rubble and eventually found a large, collapsed standing clock in the corner.
Tiantian first examined the clock's structure, then expertly opened the cabinet door of the floor clock, poked her head in to look up. Sure enough, the pendulum had stopped, and the gears were gone.
"Is Crafty Artifact..." Tiantian seemed to have an epiphany, but she felt this ability was absurd to the extreme.
She had heard from Yun Yao that so-called "Echoes" mostly granted supernatural abilities, but her own ability was simply too ridiculous...
"A TV and a clock..." Tiantian pressed her forehead, feeling her brain suddenly clogged. "Because I'm more familiar with these two things... so I can freely use these parts...?"
This so-called "Crafty Artifact" seemed far too limited to Tiantian. What if what she needed to make wasn't a standing clock or a TV? If danger struck and there was no clock or TV nearby, would her ability still work?
"What am I supposed to do...?"
Tiantian really wanted to do something for Yun Yao, but Yun Yao's ability, "Mighty Fortune," only required hearing a name to know something's incredibly powerful existence. But what about "Crafty Artifact"?
"Crafty objects..."
No matter how impressive the name sounded, since the "Echo" needed to be triggered by the subconscious, Tiantian could only make things she understood.
Her education was limited. Before entering her current industry, she had only worked on two assembly lines. How could she know the structure of other precision items?
In that light, the so-called "Crafty Artifact" could at most use discarded parts to piece together a short sword, or use other parts to repair a bicycle...?
"How ridiculous..."
Tiantian decisively stood up, brushed the dust off her hands, and her face showed disappointment.
Rather than saying she had gained a transcendent ability, it would be better if she never knew her ability was "Crafty Artifact." At least then she could still hold some hope for the future.
She calmed her mind, picked up the map Cheng Aoyu had given her, studied it, then observed the sky. It was around two or three in the afternoon. If she set off now, she should be able to find the base he mentioned before dark.
Since staying here wasn't safe, she could only embark on the journey alone.
...
Qi Xia sat in Xu Liunian's car, staring out the window in silence. At this moment, all the black lines were slowly retracting toward the sky. It seemed that "Heavenly Steed's Instant" was truly over.
"Qi Xia... where to next?" Xu Liunian asked.
"Turn right up ahead."
Xu Liunian turned the steering wheel with a grim expression and asked quietly, "Are you planning to follow the map Azure Dragon drew to find those 'Zodiacs'?"
Qi Xia said nothing, just gazing blankly out the window.
"But we don't know what the other side's intentions are... Shouldn't you make thorough preparations before going?"
Hearing this, Qi Xia turned back and carefully looked into Xu Liunian's eyes. "I can see you mean well, but you probably don't know what I'm thinking. So just drive. I have my own plans for what comes next."
Qi Xia's words effectively shut Xu Liunian up. She could only drive the car, following Qi Xia's directions continuously.
Half an hour later, Qi Xia directed Xu Liunian to a five- or six-story building.
Outside the building stood a tall, white-furred Earth Tiger.
When the Earth Tiger saw a taxi driving toward him from afar, he was momentarily confused. When he saw Qi Xia slowly open the door and step out from the passenger seat, the look in his eyes became even more complicated.
This guy had been running from the sky-filling black lines just a short while ago, and now, in no time at all, he had come back in a car?
The Earth Tiger racked his brains but couldn't figure out what was going on. His mouth hung open, and he seemed to want to say something several times but held back.
After a long pause, the Earth Tiger finally squeezed out a sentence: "As expected of you..."