Chapter 135
Chapter 135
After finally resolving the trouble with Song Lingyan, Qin Lan threw himself into the thrilling, high-stakes activity of crushing weaklings.
Over the next two days, he creatively steamrolled these confident, energetic young people in every way imaginable.
He only stopped when everyone’s expression had turned dark and gloomy, as though they had lost all hope in life.
To Qin Lan, the experience was no different from a strapping college student entering a nursing home to challenge elderly men to mixed martial arts, or visiting a kindergarten to wrestle the children.
Qin Lan still wanted more.
Had Xu Minghu not called a halt, he probably would have continued savoring this wonderful smurfing experience.
After all, what kind of nonsense had Qin Lan been facing before this?
Unsolvable instances. Four-star anomalies. Existences from the far side of the Abyss.
Pull out any one of them and the pressure was enough to make someone’s head explode.
After repeatedly suffering setbacks, even Qin Lan occasionally felt a little depressed.
But everything was better now.
Only one phrase could describe his current condition: utterly refreshed.
“So I’m actually this strong…” Qin Lan mused. “Am I about to enter the invincible power-fantasy stage of the story?”
“Next comes the brainless plot where I become a CEO, marry a rich beauty, and reach the pinnacle of life?”
Obviously, that was impossible.
After finishing his smurfing game, young Qin Lan found himself with nothing to do and suddenly remembered the old combat uniform he had bought at that clothing store.
He hadn’t had time to study it since bringing it back. Now he finally had a free moment.
Tomorrow, everyone would depart for the Nine Academies Tournament, so Xu Minghu had granted them half a day off to adjust their condition.
That half-day was the perfect opportunity to discover what was going on with the uniform.
Qin Lan took the combat uniform from his bracelet, laid it neatly across the bed, and examined it from every angle. Nothing stood out.
From the outside, it looked like an entirely ordinary piece of clothing.
Aside from the “threads of death traces” visible only through his class ability, there was nothing abnormal about it.
“Maybe I should try curse energy?”
After a moment’s thought, Qin Lan cautiously separated a small amount of energy and brought it into contact with the uniform.
Nothing happened.
The combat uniform gave no response whatsoever to the curse energy. It appeared to be a completely lifeless object.
Qin Lan frowned.
“Could it require blood to recognize its owner?”
He scratched his head, then realized something seemed wrong. “That can’t be right. Isn’t that a trope from fantasy novels? It’s not some magical treasure…”
Still, in accordance with the principle that trying it couldn’t get anyone pregnant, Qin Lan dripped two drops of blood onto it.
Nothing happened.
Refusing to believe it, Qin Lan added several more drops.
Aside from making the uniform’s surface look dirtier, there was still no abnormality.
Now Qin Lan was genuinely growing anxious.
He knew this uniform had a problem–a serious problem–but couldn’t find an opening.
Then his eyes suddenly lit up.
“That’s right!”
“Now that the skill is unlocked, why don’t I try summoning its parents?”
Qin Lan acted immediately.
Without further hesitation, he poured in curse energy and activated the skill.
As two figures gradually began to form, Qin Lan suddenly sensed something wrong.
This skill had come from a four-star anomaly. Combined with his extremely high Spirit, it should have easily condensed the target’s “parents.”
Yet Qin Lan now found it extraordinarily difficult.
The memories extracted by the skill were incomplete.
It was just like when Qin Lan faced the Dean of Students.
He had successfully become an orphan before forming many memories of his parents, completing the standard protagonist template. Thus, he hadn’t been able to condense their figures.
Xue Chuan’s father, however, had taken shape with perfect ease.
Now Qin Lan concentrated carefully and increased his curse energy output. At last, he barely managed to condense one illusory figure.
Its sex was impossible to distinguish, its face impossible to see, and it might not even have been “human.”
Only the outline of four limbs and a torso could barely be made out. Where its head should have been was a tangled, chaotic mass of fog.
The figure trembled like a soap bubble on the verge of bursting, ready to disintegrate at the slightest disturbance.
Then a soft call sounded.
“Manqing…”
“…Yin…”
“Yin Manqing…”
The duplicate Qin Lan had struggled so hard to condense abruptly collapsed before him.
Qin Lan’s brows furrowed. He didn’t try to activate the skill again–or rather, he couldn’t.
The scattered, fragmentary memories extracted by the skill had been completely exhausted.
“Yin Manqing?”
Qin Lan repeated the name, vaguely guessing it belonged to someone.
Inspiration suddenly struck him.
“Right. I can ask someone to investigate.”
Finding a person from a name alone was like searching for a needle in a haystack to an ordinary person. In the Central Region, one could probably find a Qin Lan who pole-danced as a male escort,
and another Qin Lan who had undergone gender reassignment surgery and become a thirst-trap streamer.
For the Anomaly Hunter Bureau, however, it was child’s play.
The Bureau’s database was linked with the United Government. As long as someone had left any trace in the world, it could dig up every bad deed committed by eight generations of their ancestors.
Though… this might require calling in a small favor.
“Hello? Brother Dong? Busy?”
Qin Lan made the call and spoke with easy familiarity.
Dong Haoran’s voice on the other end sounded exhausted. “What do you think?”
“Assessing postwar losses, clearing residual curses, arranging compensation for the wounded, coordinating with the United Government… Even four extra arms might not be enough.”
“What do you need?”
As acting director, Dong Haoran was still only a three-star Anomaly Hunter, but his access level was extremely high–even higher than Qin Lan’s.
“Can you look someone up for me?”
Qin Lan paused. “They might be from ten or twenty years ago.”
“The name is Yin Manqing. She was probably an Anomaly Hunter from the Central Region.”
Dong Haoran sounded confused.
“An Anomaly Hunter from the Central Region? Someone from over a decade ago? Why are you asking… Fine. I’ll try.”
“Technically, this violates regulations. If anyone asks…”
Qin Lan chuckled. “I understand. It has nothing to do with you.”
“I happened to see the information on the wall of a public restroom. Pure coincidence.”
Dong Haoran grunted in acknowledgment, then ended the call.
The post-disaster reconstruction was clearly exhausting him.
Qin Lan remembered the man being quite cheerful. Then again, anyone who wasn’t cheerful could hardly put on a school uniform in middle age and shamelessly claim to have “just turned eighteen.”
“With Brother Dong helping, I should get a result pretty quickly, right?”
Qin Lan considered it silently.
To his surprise, Dong Haoran sent a communication request the very next second.
“That fast? He’s as efficient as a corporate legal team.” Qin Lan was astonished.
The moment he connected, Dong Haoran’s grave voice came through.
“Qin Lan.”
“Where did you hear that name?”