“Ah Lan, I want to ask you a question.” Before Luo Jian handed the jade pendant over to Feng YuLan, he seemed to notice something. His intuition was crazily accurate. Therefore, when Ah Lan looked at Luo Jian with that strange expression, Luo Jian began to understand what was wrong. He knew that the situation had begun to change and was developing in a direction he could not comprehend.
Feng YuLan did not answer and remained in his position, looking at Luo Jian. He seemed to be waiting for his question.
So Luo Jian asked, “Ah Lan, are we comrades?”
Feng YuLan paused momentarily. This question made him think of something. Then he revealed a smile: “Of course we are companions.”
Luo Jian paused and accepted Feng YuLan’s one-sided account without doubting him. He said with a smile, “This is what you promised.”
Then Luo Jian reached out and put half of the jade pendant into Feng YuLan’s palm.
A complicated expression stayed on Feng YuLan’s face throughout. After staring at the jade pendant in his hand for a while, he could not help but hesitate. Should he really do this? Had he made his decision too hastily? He had just decided to trust a kid who looked younger than ten years old. Although he already knew the true identity of the boy… it was just his deduction using the clues he had gathered to determine the identity of the other party. Was he really too hasty?
“You have no choice but to trust me.” The child seemed to see through Ah Lan’s thoughts and spoke quietly beside Feng YuLan: “As long as you naturally push the responsibility onto me and tell them that I’m controlling you, that will be the truth behind what occurs.”
The boy chuckled as he spoke. The handle of his umbrella was leaning against his shoulder. He floated in the air, and his little hand rested on Feng YuLan’s shoulder. Then, Luo Jian and the stalker found out something shocking. They ‘suddenly realized’ that a child appeared out of nowhere beside Feng YuLan!
Although they ‘suddenly realized’ it, they felt instead that it was as if they had not seen him. It was as if he had been here the whole time, but for certain reasons, others ignored him. Therefore, when the boy revealed himself voluntarily, it was like he was performing a magic trick on stage. Even the way he appeared felt magical.
But Luo Jian did not see the child’s face clearly since it seemed that the other party intentionally hid it. He turned and spun his bright red umbrella, and its edges covered most of his face. Luo Jian only saw the other party’s small chin, white and tender neck, and thin arms and legs floating beside Ah Lan as he placed a hand on his shoulder.
Then, the child righteously and even blatantly reached out and took the half of the jade pendant from Feng YuLan’s palm. Although his movements were not very fast, his actions felt too bold and unrestrained. For a while, even Feng YuLan did not respond before he found his hand was empty.
The boy seemed to be laughing. He deliberately lowered the pitch of his voice when laughing, but his voice still sounded soft and tender.
The stalker was the first to react. He subconsciously got up, stepped forward, and reached out to catch the little rascal who popped out from nowhere. However, the kid was surprisingly flexible. His body drifted back gently, avoiding the stalker’s hand that tried to grasp him. He retreated backward a long distance away and held the jade pendant he had just got in his hand, swaying it in front of Luo Jian and the others.
“Get him!” Luo Jian also reacted at this time, but he did not have much time to consider his actions. The first thought he had was just to get back the half of the jade pendant. Therefore, with a roar, he drew out his knife and lunged towards the boy.
When Luo Jian drew out his knife, he subconsciously ran through his mental technique, which made his weapon invisible. This was the skill he developed when fighting with Clown. The invisible blade would always cause people to lower their defenses so that he could effectively strike the enemy down.
But what surprised Luo Jian at that moment was that the little boy actually blocked his blade. The other party merely stretched out his tender-looking hand and clamped his blade with two fingers despite the blade being invisible.
The little boy’s umbrella was still spinning slowly, and its edges coincidentally covered most of his face. Even at such a close distance, Luo Jian still could not see what the child really looked like, but when he approached the child, Luo Jian felt his heart inexplicably palpitate.
A terrifying fear surged up in Luo Jian’s chest, and he suddenly found that he was very afraid of the boy. There was no reason and he also did not know why, but the fear started to spread wildly within Luo Jian’s chest.
“The current you&#k2026;&#k2026; I see, you were that weak?”
Luo Jian was so close to the boy that even if the other party had whispered, his words would have fallen into Luo Jian’s eardrums. Before he could understand the meaning of this sentence, the boy’s figure suddenly blurred, and he disappeared from the others’ view again.
After the boy disappeared, Luo Jian fell into a trance and pulled back his knife. His weapon almost looked the same as the stalker’s, but from the very beginning, Luo Jian had always felt that his weapon did not feel right to him and that the blade was too dull to kill anyone.
“I’m sorry that it was seized away. I take full responsibility for it.” Seeing that the boy disappeared, Feng YuLan was not sure whether he felt glad or relieved, but he still felt self-reproach and guilt, so he took the lead in admitting his mistake.
Luo Jian did not speak. He raised his head to look at Feng YuLan.
Because stalkers could not talk…… In fact, it was hard for Xing Yan to interfere with the interactions or actions between players, so as long as there was a third party when he was with Luo Jian, he would remain extremely silent to reduce his sense of existence, leaving space for Luo Jian and Feng YuLan.
Therefore, there was an unusual silence between Luo Jian and Ah Lan.
Luo Jian’s expression became slightly gloomy. It was an expression that Feng YuLan had never seen on him before. It even seemed to hint that he was examining him, Luo Jian’s best friend who he had always relied on and trusted.
Feng YuLan felt that his heart was trembling. He did not know whether he was right or wrong. He even began to wonder if he had been enchanted or deceived by the boy, causing him to be so bold that he almost betrayed his comrades. He had known that the boy was right beside him. As long as he had the intention to, even if he could not prevent the boy from taking the jade pendant, he could stop the boy from snatching it so quickly and delay him so that Luo Jian had time to take action.
But he did not. He did not do anything.
Why didn’t I act? Why didn’t I do anything? Feng YuLan asked himself, but in fact, his heart already had an answer. He saw through the identity of the boy. No…… it should be said that he saw through the boy’s soul.
Feng YuLan’s weapon caused him to hold extraordinary spiritual power, and that also had a direct impact on his soul. Ah Lan could easily feel others’ souls. Even if he could not completely feel through their soul, he was able to tell whether their soul was strong or weak, fake or real.
The soul reflected in Feng YuLan’s eyes was as if it was covered by a mysterious veil, separated by the hazy fog. Even so, he was able to sense part of the truth, even though the truth behind the veil made him muddle-headed and frightened.
“I’m sorry.” So because of his inaction, Feng YuLan had to apologize honestly.
“Ah Lan, I don’t know what you’re thinking.” Luo Jian shifted his line of sight and sighed, “But I always trust you. Don’t let me down.”
Feng YuLan clenched his fist, but he remained silent.
At the other side of the battlefield, Specter wiped the blood from his cheek. He could barely continue holding his weapon, so he sat down on the ground. In front of him, two stalkers laid on their backs with traces of scorching caused by explosions on their bodies.
Specter took a deep breath. He felt that the area surrounding his lungs was hurt. When he coughed, blood kept pouring out, but there was no one else around him. Duan Li had gone to chase the enemies, and he was very fast. Even if he was injured, he could still run around at an inhuman speed, but Specter could not. He needed to rest.
“I hope he’s able to catch up with them.” Specter took a deep breath and looked beside him at a figure that was about to disappear. It was the mirror reflection left behind by Feng YuLan to fool them, but they soon saw through it. Even so, neither of the two people caught up in the battle could care about Feng YuLan.
But Specter still felt puzzled. Why did Feng YuLan do this? Did he have any other purpose? Or was he still under the enemy’s control? If so, could there be something wrong at Luo Jian’s side? One should know that Feng YuLan had previously said that he had to find Luo Jian.
Thinking about it, Specter reluctantly got up and turned to walk in the direction of the huge tree. He had to go to Luo Jian, too.
Compared to Specter’s doubts and suspicions, Duan Li was really worried. Although he admonished himself again and again to keep calm and catch up with the fleeing enemies, all he wanted to do was to turn around to find Feng YuLan. He could feel Feng YuLan’s breath, and it seemed that he was with Luo Jian and others. However, Duan Li still felt a little uneasy. Something must have happened. He had to be quick!
Duan Li’s speed was really fast. He soon saw the enemies’ shadows in front of the huge tree. They seemed to be discussing how to climb the tree. The seriously injured woman was sitting by the roots of the tree with her vampire team captain, who turned his back to look in the direction of Duan Li, and Brawny stood beside him.
Anyway, since he was here, he might as well defeat all the enemies in one swoop.
When Duan Li saw the enemy, he came up with that idea, so he drew out his tang sword as he was thinking about it. However, he heard a familiar voice behind him.
“Duan Li!”
Duan Li turned back, surprised to find that Feng YuLan had come! Unsurprisingly, he was with Luo Jian and others! But come to think of it, it made sense because the god had been fighting the stalker close to the huge tree, so Luo Jian and company, who had always been with the stalker, would be relatively nearby. Therefore, they would have very quickly found the enemies, and without making a single stop, they rushed here.
“Are you all here?”
At this time, the enemies seemed to notice the arrival of Duan Li and the others, so they turned around and looked at them. The vampire team captain spoke in a soft voice with a red light glinting in his eyes.
“But you are too late.”
The vampire team captain said this shortly after seeing them. He stood up straight and moved to the side so that the woman behind him could be seen by everyone. At this time, the long-haired female strategist held a pen in her hand and wrote the last word on her simple-looking notebook.
This woman’s weapon was very scary. Everything she wrote would become true, even if she wrote that her enemies in front of her would die immediately. But this was only possible if she knew their names and ages and accurately recognized their faces.
Even so, this kind of power was extremely terrifying. The secret chamber had greatly shackled her abilities and given her restrictions, so her power could only be used once in each secret chamber. She was able to rewrite the fate of anything with the exception of using it to become victorious in team battles or escape the secret chamber immediately.
So at this moment, the critical crux of the chamber depended on how she rewrote fate.
The strategist could not directly write ‘let me escape from the secret chamber’ or ‘let my team win.’ She also could not write anything related to that because it would not work, even if she tactfully wrote it as ‘let me be the first to find the exit.’ The secret chamber forbade anyone from escaping the secret chamber in a manipulative manner.
Therefore, the woman had to write: ‘In this team battle, apart from death and failure, my team will always be a step faster than the enemies.’
The pen in the woman’s hand disappeared. She could not help but take a deep breath and sigh. This sentence seemed to work. No matter what happened next, they would be a step faster than the enemy. They would be faster than the enemy no matter whether it was obtaining clues, finding the key, finding the exit, or even leaving this place.
As if to confirm the woman’s thoughts, the boy suddenly appeared in plain sight of everyone like an unexpected guest. It was the boy with a red umbrella that Luo Jian and the others had seen before. He floated beside the woman and whispered something to her, and in response, the woman pulled something out.
Luo Jian’s eyes widened. He saw the other half of the jade pendant that was very familiar looking! However, this jade pendant was not the one that was snatched by the boy previously despite their patterns being very similar.
“We have to think of a way,” Luo Jian said.
“It’s better to go straight up and kill them all.” Duan Li was used to solving things in a rough and simple manner.
Feng YuLan was silent for a while and said, “They snatched the jade pendant. That thing is very important. I’m afraid it’s the key to activate the exit of this secret chamber.”
Duan Li said, “Kill them and take back the jade pendant.”
“But what if they put the jade pendant in a carry-on secret chamber? After that, they would simply not tell you the password of the chamber even if they died,” Feng YuLan retorted.
But Duan Li showed a ferocious smile: “It doesn’t matter. At that moment when they take out the jade pendant, I will unleash the fifth segment and resolve all of them in a few seconds.”
“Too hasty.” This time, even Luo Jian frowned: “We still don’t know the abilities of the captain, that tall Brawny, and the boy. If we rashly take action, we will lose the advantage of striking first.”
Duan Li did not speak but took out a new mask to put on. This time, it was a strange mask covered with various oil paints. After wearing the mask, he said, “You haven’t witnessed my abilities, so you don’t trust that I will be able to do it, right?”
Luo Jian frowned deeper. Indeed, he had yet to see Duan Li revealing his strongest ability. It was natural that he was not fully confident in his abilities, so he had concerns. However, just when he wanted to say something, the stalker beside him stretched out his hand, pressed it on Luo Jian’s shoulder, and shook his head while facing him.
Luo Jian had not yet seen Duan Li’s power, but Xing Yan had.
When team Ghost Shadow was in existence, he was almost the strongest fellow in the team besides the team captain. If he could not deal with these few people, it would be a waste of the years he spent muddling around.
T/N: Apologies for the late chapter post. I’ll post the chapter late tomorrow as well, because I’ll be heading to school for the entire day. I hope no one waited for the chapter update (if you did, I’m really sorry!).
Again, I’d like to emphasize that the chapters are posted at sporadic timings every day (please do not stay up to wait for chapters ^^)!