Chapter 136
Chapter 136
Dong Haoran’s question was interesting.
He hadn’t asked, “How do you know this person?”
He had asked, “Where did you learn this name?”
In other words…
Based on the information Dong Haoran had uncovered, the name “Yin Manqing” was itself a taboo.
Qin Lan’s heart lurched. He instantly realized he might have touched upon something deeply ominous.
“Is there a problem with that name?”
Instead of answering, Qin Lan returned the question.
Both his ability to see the uniform’s problem and his means of learning the name involved deeply private aspects of his power. He absolutely couldn’t reveal them so casually.
True, Qin Lan had summoned his opponents’ parents in public many times… Fine, that really was a monstrous thing to do.
But!
Anyone unfamiliar with the details would assume it was a simple mental illusion. They would never imagine it was a skill that extracted memories through “contact.”
An illusion and memory extraction were entirely different concepts.
One merely used mental power to induce the target to hallucinate. The other could reach into the target’s mind and pry into secrets buried deep within…
The gulf between them was obvious.
Faced with Qin Lan’s counterquestion, Dong Haoran fell silent for a moment, seemingly weighing the consequences.
After hesitating, he answered in a low voice. “Yin Manqing was once a four-star Anomaly Hunter who guarded a Safe Zone, just like Director Lu.”
“Moreover, her strength was considered the absolute limit–‘infinitely close to a five-star Anomaly Hunter.'”
Qin Lan was instantly shocked.
Ah, a five-star Anomaly Hunter. It looked like only one star more than four… Wait, why did that sentence sound like a line from some brainwashing song?
Back to the point. Though the difference appeared to be only one star, the distance between them couldn’t be measured with simple numbers.
If one had to describe it…
Imagine standing on one side of a cliff and peering through layer upon layer of fog toward the opposite bank, unable to see the path ahead.
Every four-star Anomaly Hunter was that person standing at the cliff.
Some had built half a bridge. Others had only pieced together a few planks.
Five-star Anomaly Hunters were the pioneers standing on the far bank behind the fog, their silhouettes not even visible.
The gap of a single star sounded small, but the divide between a four-star anomaly and a five-star anomaly was anything but.
Every five-star instance was known as an unsolvable instance. The anomalies within had already exceeded human comprehension.
The last time Qin Lan encountered a five-star instance, its anomaly was Death, an existence capable of combining all manner of objects into fatal accidents.
No matter who entered–even elite four-star Anomaly Hunters such as Han Chan and Luan Zimo–they needed cursed artifacts with resurrection effects to leave safely.
Even though Qin Lan had grown vastly stronger since then, he still found it difficult to touch the threshold of that level.
True, Qin Lan had also used his class ability to quietly dispose of some scum in Eastern Safe Zone 088… but he needed to lay the groundwork long in advance and consider every factor that might create an accident, one by one.
But Death?
The entire instance world lay under its control.
A car, a building, a cat or dog, even a blade of grass by the roadside–if it wished, anything could become part of a death.
Of course, Death’s level certainly exceeded five stars. Still, that alone demonstrated what kind of impossible monstrosities inhabited unsolvable instances.
Rules? Logic? None of those things continued to exist.
If one wanted to survive, luck was the only thing left to rely upon.
A five-star Anomaly Hunter, meanwhile, was someone who could kill such a terrifying existence in the truest sense.
Even killing the weakest five-star anomaly would be an astonishing feat, a magnificent achievement worthy of the history books.
Back then, Lu Xingshan had lost two companions equal to him in strength and sacrificed everything he possessed.
Not even a speck of ash remained, yet all he managed was to kill one peak four-star anomaly.
Against the mastermind behind it all, Shan Bai, hidden on the other side of the Abyss, he had only been able to seal it away for three years.
Such was the despair contained within a single star of difference.
“Infinitely close to a five-star Anomaly Hunter? In other words, Yin Manqing was even stronger than Lu Xingshan…”
Shock filled Qin Lan’s heart.
Infinitely close meant only one step away, perhaps even half a step.
One final push would have carried her into that unimaginable realm.
Just who was Yin Manqing?
“But that was more than ten years ago,” Dong Haoran continued after a pause.
“While she was attempting that final breakthrough, the Abyss happened to attack, and she unfortunately died.”
“Her body was also taken by an existence from the Abyss. Supposedly, it was turned into a new anomaly…”
“The incident’s impact was so terrible that the files were sealed afterward. If I hadn’t inherited Director Lu’s clearance, I probably couldn’t have accessed any of this.”
A bone-chilling cold instantly raced up Qin Lan’s back.
The corpse of an Anomaly Hunter infinitely close to five stars had been made into an anomaly?
“The Abyss again?”
Qin Lan tasted bitterness in his mouth.
As his strength increased, he gained access to more information, and the oppression weighing on his heart only grew heavier.
The Abyss.
No matter what the matter was, once it became connected to the Abyss, it evolved into a disaster that inspired utter despair.
[No.]
A soft murmur sounded beside Qin Lan’s ear, so faint it was nearly inaudible.
Every hair on Qin Lan’s body stood on end. He instantly released all his curse energy, flooding the entire room.
He hadn’t sensed when the speaker arrived beside him at all.
“Who’s there?!”
Qin Lan’s heart pounded like a war drum.
It hadn’t been an illusion. Someone truly had whispered in his ear!
[No. The Abyss didn’t do it…]
[It was them…]
The voice came again, even weaker this time.
Qin Lan froze as he finally realized where it came from–the combat uniform spread across his bed.
The relic that had once belonged to Yin Manqing.
“It isn’t a voice. It’s a mental fluctuation…” Qin Lan abruptly understood, and shock overwhelmed him.
The uniform was communicating with him through mental power!
Its sentences were brief and its signal almost too weak to detect, but it truly was speaking to Qin Lan!
“Could it be…” Qin Lan swallowed and stared at the uniform on the bed. “Are you… Yin Manqing?”
“Are you still alive?!”
The voice didn’t answer again. That tiny trace of scattered mental fluctuation also faded, as though nothing had ever happened.
“What happened? Is something wrong over there?”
Dong Haoran sounded confused. Through the communicator, he had only heard Qin Lan suddenly cry out. The rest hadn’t been clear.
Qin Lan swiftly calmed himself. He took a deep breath and steadied his emotions.
Then he spoke gravely.
“Brother Dong, can you tell me what Yin Manqing’s Talent was? Or what type of Anomaly Hunter she specialized in?”
After asking, Qin Lan held his breath and waited for the answer he had already guessed.
“Let me see…”
Dong Haoran hesitated, then answered, “According to the records, she was an Anomaly Hunter who specialized in mental power.”
“She was probably the strongest user of mental power among all the Anomaly Hunters in the Central Region.”
Qin Lan’s heart shook.
Just as he thought!