Chapter 39: Fighting: Way to Return Home

Xu Xiye: “You’re here to help me?”

“Yes,” Xie Lincheng said. “You helped me, and I want to help you too.”

Xu Xiye glanced at his blood-soaked sleeve. “It’s nothing, just a little cut.”

Xie Lincheng shook his head. He found it hard to articulate his feelings. No one else could understand.

This wasn’t simply about helping or being saved.

For the past two years, the contaminated zones Xie Lincheng had entered were all B-Class or higher. Even if he had never successfully eliminated a Pollution Source, he was still capable of escaping the Inner World safely.

He was a name in the Security Administration Bureau. People might tease him about his Proposal Maniac reputation, but they would never deny his ability. Communicating freely with anomalies and discussing marriage was, after all, no simple feat.

Who knew if those anomalies would turn hostile from one second to the next? Identity Protection alone wasn’t a guarantee of safety.

Still, many people said that while he was impressive, that was his limit—because he was not a Special Ability User.

Xie Lincheng didn’t believe ability users were inherently superior to non-ability users. Yet, undeniably, he wanted to be one.

He wanted to be special, to be one of the chosen.

Those who frequent Contaminated Zones aren’t always prepared to die, but they’ve certainly imagined their own death scene in an idle moment.

Xie Lincheng had imagined his.

Dying alone in the darkness, quietly, without much noise.

It was acceptable. He wasn’t that afraid of death.

But dying without ever fulfilling his lifelong wish, and proving those naysayers right with their “impressive but limited” judgment—that would ultimately be a regret and a suffocating frustration.

However, after tonight, things would be different.

Those things would no longer haunt him.

What Xie Lincheng didn’t say was that his spirit was still very active, yet his heart was deeply at peace.

It felt like a solitary boat adrift on a boundless sea had suddenly been tethered.

But if he said he wanted to help Xu Xiye only because of that, it wouldn’t be entirely true.

It was nothing special. He just wanted to help this little anomaly who was clearly so powerful, yet focused so earnestly and honestly on his work.

He was a Field Agent from the Security Administration Bureau’s Operations Division. Dealing with contaminated zones was his job. Low-level contamination was still contamination. He could finish his work and help him at the same time. Why not?

It was as if a weight had been instantly lifted from Xie Lincheng. He felt light. The smile on his face was still that of a playboy, but it felt inexplicably more sincere. “So, how about it? Want me to be your assistant?”

He didn’t care about the Bureau’s attitude towards the Inner World or anomalies. Xie Lincheng’s own attitude was simple: he got close to those he liked, and didn’t differentiate between human and anomaly for those he disliked.

Truly speaking, as long as you followed an anomaly’s logic, they were much simpler than humans.

Xu Xiye was seriously considering it.

Xie Lincheng wasn’t wrong. The Outsiders were easily infected and had terrible luck. Both times he found Pollution Sources, there were Outsiders present, but…

Xu Xiye hesitated. “Do you want me to pay you a salary?”

Xie Lincheng paused, then laughed. “Of course not. I said it’s just helping out.”

Xu Xiye no longer hesitated. The sharp tips of the tentacles extending from the edge of the black blob trembled happily. “Okay, you can come be my assistant. You’re really a good person.”

Although Outsiders had many annoying flaws, they also had many merits.

Xie Lincheng: “Then it’s settled. I’ll contact you in a few days.”

Xu Xiye: “Mm-hmm.”

The human and the black blob walked towards the door. At the entrance, they met Wen Danning, who was coming with Su Qing.

“How is it?” Wen Danning asked Xie Lincheng.

Xie Lincheng: “No saving him.”

Wen Danning glanced into the room, assuming Zhuo Heng had been left inside. “By the way, Zhou Cao…”

Xie Lincheng: “I asked. Same thing. Don’t bother.”

Wen Danning frowned slightly. “Then let’s go.”

She took the lead, Su Qing following her. Xie Lincheng and Xu Xiye brought up the rear.

Just then, the building trembled slightly. Wen Danning stopped. She had no intention of going back down to search for anyone.

The death of the Pollution Source and the collapse of the Contaminated Zone meant the collapse of its rules. Once the rules collapsed, their Identity Protection also vanished.

They wouldn’t be treated as people, only as livestock—delicious, tempting livestock at that.

“Lou Hao?” she called out, signaling their departure.

“Got it.” Lou Hao’s position had been carefully chosen. Just a few steps away was a Door he could open.

He checked Li Sha’s condition. After confirming she was alright, he got up, placed a hand on He Sui’s shoulder, and pulled him towards that door, conveniently using him as a crutch.

He Sui withdrew his gaze and was about to follow Lou Hao when he abruptly stopped.

Xu Xiye: “!”

Xu Xiye spotted Blue Eyes. The instant he confirmed his identity, with almost no hesitation, countless Psychic Threads spread towards He Sui.

He was going to use that new trick, forcefully taking control of the Blue Eyes that had come running over.

This method was truly perfect.

He surged forward excitedly, tentacles waving in the air—slender, twisted, like countless living things sprawling across the vast space. But this sight was not visible to everyone.

Su Qing, Li Sha, and Lou Hao, who was in a critical state, couldn’t detect Xu Xiye’s presence at all.

Wen Danning knew Xu Xiye was here, but she couldn’t pinpoint his location.

Xie Lincheng, with his active and highly sensitive Spiritual Power, could talk to Xu Xiye with almost no trouble.

Yet at this moment, as Xu Xiye merged himself with the night, even Xie Lincheng didn’t know where to look.

He knew Xu Xiye was there, but he could no longer lock onto him.

Only He Sui—only he could clearly see the tentacles surging everywhere in the space and the churning blackness.

An indescribable fear and pressure spread through the air. Everyone’s Sanity Value began dropping rapidly.

“Go!” Wen Danning didn’t understand what had triggered this sudden change, but the only thing they could do was leave.

She pulled Su Qing quickly through a Door, taking the dumbstruck Xie Lincheng with her.

At the same moment, Lou Hao and Li Sha also swiftly departed.

He Sui could have left, but he didn’t.

The menacing, flailing tentacles did not attack him. They even avoided people and everything else in the villa.

He had been on guard against the tentacles, but he also noticed the abnormality in his body. Before he could understand what it was, his instincts kicked in.

The Psychic Threads were all severed. Yet in the next second, an even stronger sense of crisis pressed down on him, as if a dense, invisible net was shrouding him.

Spiritual Power.

He Sui finally realized this was an attack on the mental plane.

Ability users typically used Spiritual Power only as a reserve energy to fuel their special abilities. Using raw energy directly in a clash, rather than converting it into an ability, put He Sui in a very passive position.

This would quickly drain him dry.

But He Sui felt no panic. The amount of energy was never his limiting factor. Within the Inner World, he could continuously convert it.

He Sui moved his fingers. The black energy in the air began surging towards him. The bracelet on his wrist continuously sent alerts of his dropping Sanity Value.

His gaze swept upwards. The silver-blue color of his eyes deepened.

Xu Xiye saw this. Already frustrated by his inability to establish control, he was immediately distracted.

The moment his focus wavered, silver lightning wrapped around his tentacles and rapidly climbed over his entire body.

A stinging, numbing sensation exploded. Xu Xiye’s flailing tentacles froze abruptly, then trembled involuntarily.

Damn it.

Blue Eyes was electrocuting him again.

Xu Xiye stopped caring about control. He hastily absorbed the energy on his body, and at the same moment, lashed out with his tentacles at He Sui.

“Why are you hitting me again?” Xu Xiye asked, even as he tried to bind the man.

Hearing this, He Sui was furious and almost laughed. He wasn’t the one who started this.

He had gone to great effort, braving the rainstorm to get here. His mood wasn’t good to begin with. Being inexplicably attacked and then blamed for it?

He didn’t reply, nor did he hold back. Lightning poured out of him as if it cost no Spiritual Power at all.

The villa’s tremors intensified. Bang, bang! Things kept falling, shattering. The other anomalies sensed the commotion and rushed back one by one. The moment they saw the fight, everyone’s demeanor changed.

The boyfriend, the girlfriend, the boss, the landlady, the director, the assistant director, and the rest of the production team—they surrounded He Sui in an encirclement.

Gloomy, vicious. Ready to pounce the moment they found an opening.

He Sui felt he had incredibly bad luck again. He believed he truly needed his fortune read.

The anomalies surrounding him attacked, only to convulse and fall to the ground moments later.

But like monsters that knew no fear or pain, they immediately attacked again.

Xu Xiye was displeased. Displeased that Blue Eyes just randomly hit people, and displeased that others were hitting his Blue Eyes.

This intent was broadcast outward. The encircling group, as if receiving a signal, stopped in their tracks.

Boom.

A villa wall collapsed. Xu Xiye finally managed to bind He Sui’s hands and feet.

The tentacles climbed up He Sui’s body like snakes, tightening bit by bit. Whoosh! He Sui was pulled into the air. Xu Xiye compressed himself and plastered himself to his chest. Even so, He Sui didn’t stop attacking.

The human and the black blob were almost submerged by silver light. Electric currents ran wild across the ground, accelerating the villa’s collapse.

The instant Xu Xiye brought the man outside, the villa collapsed completely.

“Ah! The equipment! Quick, move our stuff out!”

“Move, move, move!”

“Got it! Got it!”

Xu Xiye heard the director’s frantic shouts. That was the fruit of two days of filming. He wanted to help, but he couldn’t get away.

“Stop electrocuting me,” he said. “So full.”

I can’t eat anymore.

The villa was down. Outside was barren, with no suitable place to land. Not wanting to float in the air, Xu Xiye had to place He Sui on the road outside, lying on top of him.

He Sui: “?”

A vein throbbed on his forehead. The rain had stopped, the water had receded, and the road surface looked fairly clean. But how could a road ever be truly clean?

Stop?

Not a chance.

He Sui was immune to his own Lightning System energy. The energy he released was far more than the simple “electrocuting” Xu Xiye described, but that was all it amounted to on this creature.

Water Element Energy was mobilized simultaneously. This wasn’t his specialty. He had to act with extreme care and subtlety at close range to avoid hurting himself.

However—

Thwack.

A tentacle smacked He Sui’s leg. “Why won’t you listen?”

He Sui: “…”

He Sui was utterly irritated. He suppressed his temper. “What happens when you eat too much?”

“I don’t want to move. I want to sleep. And I’ll get fat.”

Fine. At least he knew how to handle this little monster now. He had enough energy to feed him till he slept.

He Sui considered trying physical methods if the energy-based ones failed, but his two hands and two feet were no match for the opponent’s countless tentacles. Even a physical attack needed the element of surprise.

“I can stop. On the condition that you let me go. I don’t want to lie on the ground.”

“I don’t want to lie on the ground either.”

He Sui gritted his teeth, his temples pulsing.

So you’re using me as a mat, is that it?

“Hurry up. If you want to fall asleep right here, keep me tied up. Once you’re asleep, I’ll tear your hands off, then toss you into the wasteland over there.”

Xu Xiye: “!”

He had truly discovered that his Blue Eyes had a terrible temper. Mean, aggressive, and now threatening.

He Sui sensed his hesitation. “Your brain seems pretty clear. You should be able to figure that if I stand up, you can still lie on me, right?”

“I can.”

He Sui’s legs were released. He stood up. The back of his clothes were soaked. Even mobilizing water energy, he couldn’t get them completely dry.

Tsk.

His straightforward irritability made a flash of electricity flicker through those silver-blue eyes. Xu Xiye saw it, his own eyes widening. He couldn’t help but lean in closer.

He Sui: “…Can you get away from my face?”

The black blob in front of him was almost pressed against his face. Cool, with a sensation like mist or water occasionally transmitted through the skin. If the thing in front of him was just a ball, He Sui would have buried his face in it.

It was a pity the other party wasn’t.

Xu Xiye had no choice but to move back a bit.

Such a real pity he couldn’t just pluck the eyes out and play with them.

He Sui turned his face away and let out a deep breath. “Let’s talk. I can see you don’t want to kill me. Instead, it seems like you like me quite a bit?”

That last sentence was pure conjecture. Why else would the black blob always like sticking to him?

“Mm-hmm, I like you very much.”

He Sui was stunned. His heart inexplicably skipped a beat.

Damn it. He was actually shaken by that sentence. What kind of ‘like’ was an anomaly’s ‘like’?

But the words were so direct, so sincere, without a shred of falsehood.

Xu Xiye: “I don’t want to kill you. You’re the one who always hits people.”

“Heh, be clear. You started it this time.”

Xu Xiye felt a bit guilty. “I didn’t want to hit you.”

“No difference.”

“Before, you started it. You also threw me out the window twice.”

“You were climbing my window.”

“The hotel didn’t post a ‘No Climbing’ sign.”

“…” He Sui. “Let’s not talk about the past for now. Tell me, what do you want? I can’t let you cling to me like this forever.”

Indeed, he couldn’t cling forever. Xu Xiye’s goal was still very clear. “I want to put you at my home.”

“What?”

“All my things are kept at home.”

He Sui almost sneered. So this was an anomaly’s ‘like’—calling him his ‘thing’?

“Firstly, I am not your thing.”

“Then how can you be? You can’t escape.”

Silver light flashed in He Sui’s eyes. He struggled his hands, and the tentacles binding him immediately tightened. “Let go first. My car is buried. I need to dig it out.”

Swoosh. A tentacle extended out, rolling a mud-caked black SUV before them. “Is it this one?”

He Sui: “…”

He Sui: “I need to check if it’s damaged.”

Xu Xiye wasn’t so agreeable this time. He didn’t move.

He Sui: “Didn’t you say I can’t escape? What are you afraid of?”

That had been his domineering, intimidating line. But Blue Eyes was truly good at running, capable of going somewhere beyond his reach.

He Sui: “People are coming out. Are you sure you want to keep lying on me like this?”

That truly wouldn’t look right. After a moment’s thought, Xu Xiye finally let go, but left a single tentacle wrapped around his wrist.

He Sui walked to the car door and pulled it open. Xu Xiye followed him. After hesitating a long moment, he voiced the doubt in his heart: “Do you think I’m overbearing?”

“Overbearing? If you’re not overbearing, who is?” He had never seen anything so domineering and troublesome.

Xu Xiye was even more puzzled. He’d used forceful means, been overbearing… why did Blue Eyes always reject him?

Ultimately, it wasn’t enough.

The car door opened, and mud and sand sprinkled down from the roof. He Sui’s irritation flared again. He had to leave, to shower, to change his clothes.

He Sui bent down and sat in the car. Xu Xiye followed him in. However, the next second, the person beside him vanished.

Xu Xiye: “?”

He looked at his tentacle, now missing a section. The entire black blob froze in shock.

Where did he go?

Some foreign land?

Xu Xiye dazedly regenerated his tentacle. He saw the director and his group walking this way. There wasn’t a single Outsider among them.

“Little Xu, you’re here. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Where are those Outsiders?”

“No idea. Didn’t see a single one. Crushed to death, probably. How did the whole villa collapse for no reason?”

Hmph. It must have been Blue Eyes’ doing. He’d heard of a person’s belongings dissolving after death, but never of houses collapsing.

He’d only eaten the energy that hit him. The energy that hit the house, he hadn’t eaten. Of course it collapsed.

The Outsiders weren’t crushed to death either, but had gone back. This was their way of returning home.

Xu Xiye suddenly thought of his disciple, Little Wang.

Damn that Little Wang. He’d thought he was dead.

He had even lamented for him.

Xu Xiye’s little noggin was spinning, filled with question marks.

The thing he understood least: Blue Eyes was a local. Why would he go to a foreign land?

Just as he was pondering this, the director suddenly said to him, “Little Xu, do you want to invest in our drama? Guaranteed money-maker!”

He said this last part very quietly, as if afraid others might hear.

Xu Xiye immediately grew vigilant. He didn’t trust that such a show could become a hit.

Xu Xiye firmly rejected the director.

The director sighed, looking deeply regretful, and even tried to persuade him.

“Director, it’s almost dawn. Don’t you all hate being in the sun?”

“Oh, well, it’s okay. Alright, we’ll be going then.”

“Mm-hmm.” As the director and the others left, Xu Xiye breathed a sigh of relief.

Don’t even think about tricking him out of his money.