Chapter 38: Mental Threads

“Have you already been to Fuguang City? Satisfied with it?” Jiang Ye smiled on his face, clearly having long known the situation inside the base, as well as Bai Chen Zhu’s plans.

That naturally could not have been satisfactory, or else the young man outside the tent just now would not have said that Bai Chen Zhu wanted to take him and leave the base together.

This was a good opportunity. Jiang Ye thought, then changed his wording. “So what are your thoughts now? Still willing to adventure with me? Or do you want to continue finding a base to settle down in? But can you be sure the next base will let you live more comfortably and freely?”

“Jiang Ye, aren’t you being too conceited?” Bai Chen Zhu, who had listened quietly, turned back to look at him. His pair of black eyes were as deep as an abyss, carrying a faint rejection. “I can find a more comfortable place to live in seclusion. I don’t need to enter another base, or wander around with someone like you.”

Better not to provoke his rebellious side. Jiang Ye saw his expression and inwardly cried out that it was bad.

“Everyone has flaws.” Jiang Ye cleared his throat. “Getting back to the point, although you have many paths to choose from, out of all those options, one stands out as particularly good.”

Jiang Ye’s lips curved upward, full of forward momentum. He spread his hands in a hugging gesture. “No one understands your background better than I do, or your thoughts. If you don’t know where to go for now, you’re always welcome here~”

Bai Chen Zhu already had his own ideas in mind. He lowered his gaze to the ground and did not relent. “We’ll talk about it later.”

Jiang Ye was unwilling to part ways just like this. He took two steps forward, striving hard. “Bai Chen Zhu, last time it was my fault. I guarantee that from now on, I’ll tell you everything and not hide anything from you. Just keep me company a bit longer, okay?”

“What a big man, still acting spoiled.” Bai Chen Zhu raised his hand and pressed it against the man’s forehead, pushing him away without question.

But Jiang Ye came back on his own.

Until their calves touched, with no distance left between them, Jiang Ye pushed his luck further and grabbed his arm. “No choice. Since you won’t agree, I have no option but to thicken my skin.”

Bai Chen Zhu withdrew his hand and hugged his arms, watching his performance indifferently. “Enough with the clowning around.”

“You really won’t come?” Jiang Ye pinched his arm.

“Talk if you want to talk. Keep your hands to yourself.” Bai Chen Zhu slapped away his paw, his gaze falling on the red jacket.

It was impressive that in this apocalyptic world, he didn’t know where Jiang Ye had dug up such an eyesore of a garment. “First, explain your clothes. On purpose, right?”

Jiang Ye laughed and sat back down, tacitly agreeing.

“What’s your plan?” Bai Chen Zhu asked.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Ye was truly frank. He slowly took off the bright red jacket and set it aside, then looked at Bai Chen Zhu bare-chested. “Use Chen Hao to draw away the Zombie King. We’ll sneak into the Zombie King’s lair to find something. There’s a Fragment I want there… This is intel I got from Tang Jie last time.”

“You really have a way.” Bai Chen Zhu even wanted to sigh on Chen Hao’s behalf.

Chen Hao’s mission was to scout the anomalies in the mountains. Jiang Ye knew this matter was related to the Fragment but had steered the focus to the Zombie King with just a few words. Chen Hao probably fully believed it and was definitely going after the Zombie King based on Jiang Ye’s information right now.

In that case, though Jiang Ye had not lied to him, he had not told the whole story either. He just happened to need a target to lure away the Zombie King, and Chen Hao had delivered himself right to the door.

Jiang Ye rummaged in his backpack for clothes.

“Wait.” Bai Chen Zhu looked at him suspiciously. “The patrol said there were anomalies in the mountains, suspected to be the Zombie King appearing or something. This intel is so precise. You didn’t spread it deliberately, did you?”

“As expected of the man I’ve set my sights on. You’re so smart.” Jiang Ye nodded proudly. “We humans share blessings and hardships, of course. Good fortune together, difficulties together.”

Was he praising himself or someone else? Bai Chen Zhu didn’t know what expression to make for a moment.

He considered himself inarticulate and unskilled at socializing. Every time he saw Jiang Ye’s enigmatic maneuvers, he felt admiration.

And precisely because of that, when Jiang Ye turned his schemes on him, Bai Chen Zhu’s anger burned especially fiercely— I thought we were on the same side, but you’re using the same tricks you use on others on me.

“This Zombie King, though strictly speaking it hasn’t reached the ‘King’ level yet, is even more powerful than Tang Jie’s dad from last time.” Jiang Ye stared at him carefully. “If you’re scared, you can head down the mountain now. I won’t stop you.”

Bai Chen Zhu was still very curious about the Zombie King deep down. He had planned to go take a look anyway and slip away if it was too dangerous.

Hearing this now stirred ripples in his heart, but his face showed no change. “You really won’t stop me? With me here, finding the Fragment would be much faster for you.”

Jiang Ye shook his head. “Are you leaving?”

Bai Chen Zhu stared fixedly at him. “Jiang Ye, you’re testing me.”

Jiang Ye neither confirmed nor denied it. After being seen through, he admitted openly, “I hope you stay.”

“But I don’t trust you,” Bai Chen Zhu scoffed. He had been biding his time for the best offer all along, so it was only natural for him to say this. “I don’t trust you. What to do? Even if we stick together later, I won’t feel comfortable. Better to just go our separate ways.”

Jiang Ye understood instantly upon hearing this.

If Bai Chen Zhu was determined to leave, he wouldn’t have spent so long going back and forth with him like this. He smiled, confirming his guess: Talking this much was all for this one sentence.

Knowing there was still room to maneuver, Jiang Ye perked up. “So what are your thoughts? Tell me?”

“Lately, I’ve researched a new use for mental power.”

Jiang Ye was astonished. How long had it been since Bai Chen Zhu learned about and started using mental power? Full count, not even a month.

Unaware of his thoughts, Bai Chen Zhu raised his hand and touched the slightly cool air in front of him. It was invisible to others—his floating mental threads.

“What is mental power? I can’t grasp the profound stuff, so I understand it superficially as something like will or soul. Apart from mutants, pretty much anything with a brain has mental power, so I think where mental power is, that’s our brain domain. More precisely, I call it the mental sea.”

Jiang Ye listened quietly, shifting to sit with one leg propped up against his backpack.

“I used to think it was something continuous that couldn’t leave the body, until I discovered a new use.” Bai Chen Zhu used one mental thread to sever another. The fallen mental thread bunched together like a thin cloud, landing in his right palm.

Of course, in Jiang Ye’s eyes, Bai Chen Zhu’s palm had been empty from start to finish.

Bai Chen Zhu extended his right palm forward. “It can leave the body.”

Jiang Ye didn’t understand. He reached out and poked Bai Chen Zhu’s palm, feeling only a ring of cool mist around his finger. It felt strangely comfortable. “Giving it to me?”

“Yeah, a gift for you.” Bai Chen Zhu raised his brow at the man before him. His phoenix eyes resembled the androgynous immortals in ancient paintings, but his lower face had distinct contours that left no doubt about his gender, adding only a touch of handsome charm and vibrant spirit.

“If I say I want to send it into your mental sea, so that from now on I can glimpse your thoughts and know your location? Only then would I dare to trust you. Are you willing?” Bai Chen Zhu stated his demand, a faint smile hidden in his brows and eyes.

It sounded like doing something nefarious, but coming from him, it was as casual as ‘I want to come over to your place to hang out.’

Jiang Ye stared at his face, rubbing his fingertip. He almost didn’t have the heart to burst his bubble.

“You do have talent. But sorry, I’ve seen this method ten years from now. It doesn’t have all those functions you mentioned. At most, it’s like a locator.”

With the lie exposed, Bai Chen Zhu wasn’t nervous. It had just been a test anyway; exposure was fine.

He boldly made the demand. “Then do you dare let me install a locator? If you pull this trick again later, I’ll lead zombies over to bite you to death.”

No amount of lip service beat actually installing something solid.

Bai Chen Zhu believed he had the ability to make zombies chase Jiang Ye. As long as he knew Jiang Ye’s location, no matter how strong Jiang Ye was, he couldn’t withstand a war of attrition.

Mental power, attraction, control…

A flash of white light crossed his mind, then was interrupted by Jiang Ye’s words.

Propping his chin, Jiang Ye thought it over. “I’ve never had anyone plant one of these in me before.”

“You’re choosing to refuse?” Bai Chen Zhu’s eyes dimmed slightly. If even this demand Jiang Ye wouldn’t agree to, then everything he’d said earlier was nonsense.

He wasn’t surprised by this outcome.

Bai Chen Zhu withdrew his hand, intending to leave directly and head down the mountain.

Jiang Ye grabbed Bai Chen Zhu’s dangling right wrist. His unruly brows and eyes curved in a half-smile. “I didn’t say that.”

He sighed. “You’re really sly. You knew I couldn’t refuse something like this.”

“You’re framing me.” Bai Chen Zhu looked at him.

Jiang Ye let go, closed his eyes, and exhaled, adopting a posture of lowering his guard. “Go ahead, do as you like.”

As I like? Bai Chen Zhu’s expression relaxed a bit.

He held his small bundle of mental threads and dangled it by Jiang Ye’s head, unsure how to proceed—he’d only experimented on zombies before, never on a living person. The mental threads that used to drift in on their own were now playing dead in his hand.

Bai Chen Zhu stood there pondering, then pinched the dead mental power in his palm.

Jiang Ye had sighed who knew how many times today. He never imagined there’d be a day he’d personally teach someone how to install a ‘locator’ on himself.

Jiang Ye poked his palm. “A living person’s mind has defenses. It won’t go in on its own. You have to send your mental power in, then you can leave it behind.”

Then the one he’d cut earlier was useless? Bai Chen Zhu paused, then simply dumped it all onto Jiang Ye’s forehead, giving Jiang Ye a head full of coolness as he struggled not to laugh.

—

Bai Chen Zhu sat cross-legged across from him, eyes closed, sensing his mental threads.

He poured all his mental power—everything, without reservation—onto the man before him. With his ‘gaze,’ he seemed to become part of it, clumsily surging into another person’s brain domain.

Everything was normal so far. As long as he left the mental thread in Jiang Ye’s mental sea, it would all be easy.

But practice was far more complex than imagined.

The mental power surged into the mind but gathered into a small hazy light shadow. Bai Chen Zhu felt himself pierce through a thin membrane.

Then, like a falling meteor, he was smacked onto the ground with a splat, sprawling in utter embarrassment.

By rights, mental threads had no sense of pain.

Yet Bai Chen Zhu truly felt the pain. He clutched his waist and got up, only to see another apocalyptic scene, stunning him for a moment.

Was this Jiang Ye’s mental sea?

His mental sea was just an ordinary vast space, with mental threads surging like waves. He’d whimsically adorned it with white clouds.

Blue skies, white clouds, vast sea—exquisitely beautiful. Anyone who saw it would praise the wonders of nature.

He’d thought everyone’s mental sea was this simple and beautiful.

But Jiang Ye’s wasn’t. Here, he witnessed a chaotic, ruined ‘apocalypse’ more fitting to human imagination.

It was a tumult of black and red.

Sun, moon, and stars all shattered into fragments, crashing down like fireballs, igniting raging infernos that burned ruined buildings and scorched the earth to cinders.

Everything was so quiet, save for the rumbling of fireballs hitting the ground and the crackling of flames devouring all.

The scorching fire warped the air, heat waves assaulting him.

Bai Chen Zhu clutched his lower back and took two steps on the ground, then quickly retreated. The next second, a fireball smashed down, the pit’s edge narrowly missing his toes.

Good thing the fire here wasn’t real fire. Bai Chen Zhu felt some lingering fear. He thought he’d stumbled into something extraordinary. Looking around, the place was so vast he couldn’t see the boundaries.

But this couldn’t scare him off, and maybe Jiang Ye had deliberately made his mental sea like this to frighten him. Bai Chen Zhu pondered how to leave his mental thread behind.

He walked a few steps nearby. No matter how far, he saw only this doomsday scene, so he gave up looking for a ‘safe’ spot.

How about I share some of my blue skies and white clouds? Bai Chen Zhu squatted down and touched the scorched earth, thinking long and hard about what to leave.

Fireballs here, dry and scorching heat.

Fireballs fell at any time. Staying still would get you smashed into the dirt.

He cupped his palms, cool mist gathering within. The mental threads in his palm condensed into solid form.

Bai Chen Zhu gently opened his palm. Countless thumb-sized ice butterflies flew out, multiplying into a small galaxy that fluttered upward into the broken sky, bringing a wave of coolness.

After flying out, another fireball smashed down. The swarm of butterflies quickly scattered, and the Silver River instantly turned into countless light spots, their lustrous hues sprinkling everywhere.

It was like a pattering drizzle. Bai Chen Zhu felt that the temperature here was no longer so unbearable.

—

Both opened their eyes, suddenly feeling as if everything had been a dream.

Back in reality, there were no fireballs, no ruins, no ice butterflies—only the two of them gazing at each other.

Jiang Ye rubbed his throbbing forehead, crying and laughing helplessly. “God, I only asked you to release a small thing, not so many! Did you dump all your mental power into me? Don’t you feel uncomfortable yourself?”

Bai Chen Zhu belatedly realized that his mental power did seem a bit depleted, but his Mental Sea was like an endless river. As long as he had enough time, it would recover.

“I think it’s fine.” Bai Chen Zhu reservedly changed the subject. “Don’t you like it?”

Jiang Ye’s expression turned indescribable. “Should I like it? I thought it was just a locator, but you stuffed a whole swarm into me!”

He gestured with his hand to show the size of Bai Chen Zhu’s ‘whole swarm’.

“I didn’t force you.” Bai Chen Zhu saw him deflated and felt particularly pleased.

He lifted the tent flap and stretched lazily in the sunlight. “Alright, I’ll temporarily agree to act together this time. Once it’s done, I want to hitch a ride with you.”

What did ‘this time’ mean? Jiang Ye belatedly realized he had been played.