This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 402 1859

Chapter 402: Chapter 402 1859

"When we return, it’ll still be the same time, so nothing of yours will be delayed, as long as you can come back alive," Xu Jing said.

Chen Ke nodded, not saying anything more.

"Everything is ready, Miss Xu," Mr. Pu exclaimed, running out from behind the counter.

Xu Jing nodded and led Chen Ke deeper into the antique shop, stopping in front of a large mirror. Mr. Pu lifted the silk cloth covering the mirror, casting their reflections into it.

The mirror was about as tall as a person and barely fit both Chen Ke and Xu Jing. It appeared plain, just an ordinary household mirror.

There was no pop-up information in Chen Ke’s field of vision, no special features of the mirror were evident, much like the ever-changing inkstone, which left him puzzled.

Xu Jing hooked her arm through Chen Ke’s, the two standing close together in an intimate gesture.

"Don’t get any funny ideas, Chen Ke," Xu Jing cautioned.

"My universe already has one star," replied Chen Ke.

"Stand properly, look into the mirror, look closely," Xu Jing instructed again.

Holding an umbrella in his left hand and Xu Jing’s hand with his right, Chen Ke looked at their reflections in the mirror, not feeling any change in the surroundings.

There was no dizziness, nor any light-screen effects like when traveling through time and space. What exactly was the Foundation’s method for time travel?

Just as he was considering this, he suddenly noticed a change in the reflection in the mirror.

Their figures remained the same, but the background was no longer the antique shop but another... antique shop.

Chen Ke couldn’t help but look around; Mr. Pu was gone, and they were in a strange environment.

White light poured through a small window into the room, the wooden floor creaking underfoot, surrounded by wooden crates and some unnamable equipment.

The mirror stood alone in a corner of the room, the coarse cloth that had covered it now lying beside it.

Xu Jing seemed to know her way around. She released Chen Ke’s arm and walked towards the staircase. Chen Ke quickly followed, carefully descending the wooden stairs.

After reaching the ground floor, a middle-aged, red-haired, portly man stood behind the counter and greeted Xu Jing with a very standard British accent.

"Miss Xu, hello, your companions are at the usual place," said the portly man, casting a wary look at Chen Ke.

"Tell the owls I’ve brought the person," Xu Jing instructed.

The portly man replied and turned to walk to the back room; a cooing sound followed.

"At the door, Chen Ke, do not bring out your gun, mobile phone, or any other 21st-century devices, understand?" Xu Jing reminded once more.

"I’ll try to restrain myself," Chen Ke said, spreading his hands.

Xu Jing pushed open the wooden door with her left hand, and a gust of cold air rushed into the room. Chen Ke felt a chill and tightened his coat around himself.

Blinded by the bright daylight, he stepped out of the porch and saw the gloomy sky, his nose moistened by a continuous light drizzle, the air filled with the scent of moist earth mixed with the foul smell of burning coal.

"Giddy-up! Giddy-up!"

Two coachmen cracked their whips, driving a green four-wheeled cart pulled by three horses across the muddy street in front of Chen Ke.

He looked back and realized he had walked out of an antique shop.

"Keep up, we have a bit of a walk," Xu Jing said, striding onto the street first.

Judging by the light, Chen Ke guessed it was morning here, and there weren’t many people.

A newsboy shouted at the street corner, "Headlines! Headlines!" Two plump women wielding long poles were knocking on windows between floors, continuously shouting, "Sir, it’s time to wake up."

"What are they doing?" Chen Ke curiously asked.

"That’s a job from the 18th and 19th centuries, specifically to wake people up in the morning," Xu Jing explained.

They continued along a small path beside the street, the sky drizzling with misty rain. The two didn’t use an umbrella, and Xu Jing pulled a hat out of nowhere and put it on.

Although Chen Ke and Xu Jing were dressed in period-appropriate attire, people from the Fei Huang Republic were still rare on the streets of 19th-century Langdon.

Moreover, while hairstyles of the current Fei Huang Republic era still featured traditional braids, theirs were styled in the 21st-century Western fashion, which drew curious glances from passers-by...

"Now can you tell me what are we supposed to be doing here?" Chen Ke suddenly asked.

"Our people have discovered Chen Ke... another Chen Ke, appeared in Langdon in 1859," Xu Jing replied.

"I thought he was in Opportunity City...?" Chen Ke was surprised.

"He was there before, but then he left. Although we don’t yet know what he intends to do in the year 1859, the agents from the foundation stationed here should already have some intelligence," Xu Jing explained.

"I thought the foundation only sent agents like you to jump around through time," Chen Ke remarked.

"They are not people from objective reality; they are volunteers deployed by us in subjective reality," Xu Jing stated.

Chen Ke understood—these were basically temp workers, weren’t they?

The two walked on in silence for a long stretch and arrived at a small café at a street corner; the café was two stories tall but quite cramped, with only three long tables on the first floor.

A sign hung above the café’s door, beautifully carved with the words "Sunshine Cafe."

Starting from the 16th century, men in Langdon loved to spend time in cafes, a behavior akin to early 21st-century internet surfing and forum hopping.

Drinking coffee was not the objective; chatting with café friends was what mattered. They gathered in cafes to exchange ideas and debated all night, which was a common form of entertainment for most men of that era.

They lounged in cafes all day, discovering it as if it were a new world and, just as people today grip their smartphones to scroll through short videos and post comments, they felt too addicted to leave even in the early morning.

After the 17th and 18th centuries, cafes had become a massive industry in Langdon, forming an inter-city network where professionals spontaneously organized meetings to discuss with their peers.

The two entered the café and since it was still early, there were no customers yet. The barista behind the bar was cleaning cups, a large pot of coffee was brewing on the fireplace, and the rich aroma of the coffee wafted through the air.

A small boy sat on a chair eating bread; Chen Ke didn’t know if the boy was the café owner’s son or a child laborer working there.

Child labor was not uncommon in 19th-century Langdon.

"Miss Xu? They’re waiting for you upstairs," the barista pointed upstairs.

"Make sure no one follows us up," Xu Jing instructed.

"Of course," the barista nodded while also glancing at Chen Ke.

"Is this... the one you mentioned?" the barista asked as they moved upstairs.

"Don’t ask questions you shouldn’t," Xu Jing warned.

Chen Ke followed Xu Jing upstairs where six individuals were already seated, dressed evidently as working-class or proletariat from their attire.

"Miss Xu," they stood up as soon as they saw Xu Jing ascend the stairs and removed their caps from their heads.

"I thought you would gather a bunch of gentlemen in top hats..." Chen Ke commented.

Given Xu Jing’s approach back in 2009, even if there was no Administration Bureau like organization in 1859, she would likely have found a way to connect with the higher echelons of that era.

"This subjective reality hasn’t fully accessed the Transcendent; we don’t want to recklessly interfere, so we can’t display the foundation’s power to this world," Xu Jing said helplessly.

"Miss Xu, is this the man you were talking about?" a man dressed as a coachman inquired.

"Yes, that’s him. Gentlemen, please sit down, and then tell me what you have discovered over the past few months," Xu Jing sat at a table and pulled Chen Ke beside her.

Chen Ke closed a nearby window, only then remembering he wasn’t actually bothered by the cold—24 years of living as an ordinary person had ingrained such habits.

"He’s here in Langdon, and he seems to be close with people at the academy, looking for something," the coachman shared.

"The academy? Any clues what he’s looking for?" Xu Jing frowned, and Chen Ke, confused, wasn’t sure what jibber-jabber they were on about.

"We don’t know... it’s hard to explain, he mentioned something about ’the wings of an angel’ but we don’t know what that means," a particularly burly man across the table added.

"Whatever he’s looking for, it must be something dangerous..." Xu Jing said.