The next morning, Kevin rose early, still barely light. He ran into Vivian, who looked sleepless, and Y'zaks, who had also risen early. The first thing the three of them said was, "See how Lily (the big dog) is doing!"
Lily had been out of danger the previous night after knocking herself unconscious with a slap. It seemed she wouldn't go berserk while unconscious, so Kevin and Vivian worked together to get the werewolf girl back to her room. Now, after a night, Kevin figured she'd awakened by then, so he and Vivian pushed open Lily's door. The scene they saw startled him:
Lily was still in her werewolf form, awake. She was crouched on the bed in a wolf-like posture, her tail held straight up. Lily's back was to the door, so he couldn't see her expression, but Kevin could clearly sense an unsettling, oppressive aura slowly releasing from her. It felt like facing a wild beast... The furniture in the room looked intact; Lily must have just woken up and hadn't had time to cause any damage.
Vivian took a step forward, and almost instantly, Lily's ears perked up in alert. A deep growl erupted from her throat, and the next second, Kevin's vision blurred. Lily's figure darted through the room like a flash of silver lightning. She dashed along the walls and roof in a half-circle, then circled around Vivian and pounced with her claws bared!
"Lily!" Kevin barely had time to exclaim in alarm before Vivian had already disintegrated into a swarm of bats and soared into the air. The werewolf girl pounced on nothing but empty air. Confused, she paused, her head lowered, sniffing the floor. Kevin noticed the other person seemed only hostile toward Vivian and had no intention of attacking him, so he bravely took two steps forward. "Lily... can you hear me?"
"Hoo-hiss..." A muffled sound emanated from Lily's throat, but she obediently raised her head and smiled when she saw Kevin. "Landlord, eat... dinner..."
Kevin: "..." Is it even necessary to resuscitate this good-for-nothing?!
Lily seemed to recognize someone familiar, but Kevin observed her more closely and saw that her eyes were drooping. The whites and pupils of her golden eyes were barely discernible. Her breathing was erratic, and her facial expression shifted as she spoke, clearly indicating a state of mental distress.
Seeing this, Kevin couldn't help but slap himself on the forehead. He probably shouldn't have waited that night. Lily's condition was deteriorating so rapidly. He should have taken the risk of sending her to Raven!
Vivian reconstructed herself into a human form in the living room and carefully circled back from behind Kevin, keeping a distance of more than five meters from Lily. "Big dog, are you still going to bite me?"
"No... biting," Lily crouched on the ground, scratching her face with her paw. Her words were labored, but her coherence remained clear. "My vision is just a little... blurry. I wasn't quite... clear when I first woke up, but I'm much better now. Landlord, can you take me... to the doctor?"
"Let's go, let's go now." Kevin, seeing how Lily struggled to speak, felt a strange pang of heartache. He stepped forward to help the werewolf girl up. "Just try to stay awake. I'll take care of the rest."
"Landlord, don't help... me," Lily quickly shook Kevin's hand off. "You'll be thrown out... Look, you're out!"
Kevin climbed up from behind the sofa and looked at Lily's dazed state with a look of frustration. "Can you tuck your ears and tail in? You can't get on the bus like this!" "You still want her to take the bus?" Vivian exclaimed, jumping up and down. "She's in this state, and you dare let her go out into public? A sneeze from her could easily kill someone!"
"So what should we do?" Kevin spread his hands. "If I'd known her condition was getting worse, I should have sent her there last night under cover of darkness. Now the sun's out, and she hasn't improved at all!"
"Don't panic, I'm preparing the portal," Y'zaks' voice suddenly boomed from the side. "I went to that bastard last night and already set the calibration. The portal will be ready in a few minutes."
Kevin let out a long breath. "Huh! I almost forgot demons are skilled at teleportation. I didn't expect you could actually open a portal in this unfamiliar place?"
Y'zaks' voice tinged with pride. "The spatial parameters of this world are different from mine. We had some trouble establishing the connection, but I have a solid foundation. I can just substitute the formulas. By the way, do you have any more soy sauce?" "Soy sauce?" Kevin had been amazed when he heard the demon open a portal in his living room. He thought he finally had a respectable anomalous tenant. The demon portal sounded so impressive. But then, he couldn't help himself. He quickly scurried around to Y'zaks's side, only to find him squatting on the ground, drawing symbols. He had already created a large circle, two or three meters in diameter, on the floor in the middle of the living room. Next to him was a small basin filled with a small amount of dark liquid, which reeked of soy sauce...
"Is this even possible?!"
"Why not? With enough practice, even plain water can be used to create a formation. Everything in the world has a magical capacity. I know a formidable mage who, facing a siege of 20,000 orcs, calmly urinated and created a Hellfire Ward, holding out until reinforcements arrived. But that old hypocrite later denied it, insisting he'd sworn a blood oath in a desperate situation... Ugh, is there any more soy sauce?" Kevin: "...Yes! Plenty of soy sauce! Damn, why am I being so pretentious now? I just know I'll never be anything classy! Vivian, go get the soy sauce..."
After using up another whole bag of soy sauce, Y'zaks finally finished drawing the teleportation array. And you know what? Even without considering the material, it looked incredibly realistic. Complex and bizarre demonic runes were arranged in a triple ring across the array. Lines of obscure spells swam in the center of the runes like living creatures. When Y'zaks channeled his power into the runes, the entire pattern began to glow a foul red-green light. This thing actually worked!
The only downside was that once it was operational, the whole living room was filled with the aroma of soy sauce.
Kevin kept thinking, "Is this even magic?" But at this point, you had to use even the most non-magical things. Lily's mental state was deteriorating at a noticeable rate. She had hunkered down on the ground, silent, her posture and movements increasingly resembling a wolf operating on instinct (though a bit like a dog, too). Kevin even saw her uncontrollably nibble under the dining table's legs. If the wood hadn't been so unpalatable, Yzaks would have lost another table in the few minutes he'd been drawing the formation. Yzaks stood up and pointed at the teleportation circle he had just drawn. "Everyone, stand in the center of this circle. I'll activate the teleportation. It only works once, so it's best to go together."
Kevin instinctively asked, "Is it because the soy sauce can only store a limited amount of mana?"
"No," Yzaks shook his head, pointing at "Roll" squatting on the sofa next to him. "Judging from its eyes, it'll come over to lick the soy sauce as soon as we leave, destroying the integrity of the rune..."
Kevin quickly jumped into the circle. "Alright, alright, let's go! If you keep talking, I'm afraid I'll never be able to look straight at another mythological work in my lifetime."
Thankfully, the teleportation circle Yzaks had drawn with soy sauce worked properly, and the group was successfully transported to their destination.
The area around Wangba Tuozi always seemed deserted. Even in broad daylight, few cars would be seen passing by. Furthermore, Yzaks's portal opening was camouflaged, so the group's sudden emergence from nowhere didn't cause any trouble. Kevin, dazed, clung to a telephone pole, stifling bouts of retching. "Speaking of which...speaking of which, that teleportation array is truly unreliable. Why am I so dizzy?"
Yzaks smiled innocently, "Demon things are always like this: crude and simple, but also very durable. Just get used to it."
Lily was still crouched on the ground in her wolf-like posture, her head lowered and swaying slightly. Kevin gingerly touched her shoulder. "Lily, are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Lily raised her head. Kevin's reflection was no longer visible in her completely cloudy eyes, but she remained sane. "Where's that big house floating in the sky you mentioned?"
Kevin smiled confidently and found the iconic traditional Chinese medicine advertisement on a nearby telephone pole. "Down below, it's time to witness a miracle!"