Chapter 168
Chapter 168
On a street somewhere in the Central Region, a figure flashed past like lightning.
Qin Lan stopped to catch his breath, lingering fear written across his face.
A black mask covered most of his face, and he wore a hooded sweatshirt, looking like a minor celebrity trying to evade the paparazzi.
It had been terrifying.
He had personally witnessed Pink Mood spread. He had watched those people enter a state of “arriving again and again,” inflicting an enormous shock upon his small and innocent mind.
Although their bodies would suffer no lasting effects, the unlucky passersby and students would probably lose at least one perfectly clean pair of pants.
Unable to bear the guilt, Qin Lan converted his remaining few hundred Bureau points into supply coins and transferred them to Professor Xu. It was some small compensation for his uneasy conscience.
“What possible purpose did creating that stuff serve?” Qin Lan muttered. “Whoever researched it had to possess at least a touch of antisocial personality disorder.”
[Really?]
[That only proves you’re still a child at heart.]
Yin Manqing mocked him.
[Imagine cultivating your Curse Core to Tier Three or Tier Four, only for psychological problems to gradually poison your relationship with your partner.]
[You lie beside them every night, yet the person sharing your pillow inspires no interest in you.]
[And most medicines on the market cannot overcome the curse energy flowing through your body.]
[Then you would understand what a magnificent invention Pink Mood truly is.]
Qin Lan considered this, then asked seriously, “Sister Yin, you know an awful lot about it. Have you used it yourself?”
[One day, I swear I’m going to kill you, you little bastard…]
Hearing Yin Manqing curse, Qin Lan muttered, “If you don’t want to answer, just don’t. Why so fierce…?”
“How much farther is it? I feel like I’ve been running forever… Can we really not take the subway?”
[You can try, if you want to get caught.]
[If my guess is correct, your identity has probably been added to the United Government’s search database by now.]
[The moment you appear in any public facility, they can surround you within five minutes.]
Qin Lan helplessly pulled his mask higher. “I became a fugitive for no reason…”
[For no reason?]
[You looked awfully happy while hiding nearby and watching those United Government agents ‘arrive’ over and over.]
Yin Manqing sneered.
[You violently resisted arrest, yet you’re still pretending to be an innocent little flower?]
Qin Lan curled his lip. “Tch. You laughed too… Besides, I accidentally dropped an item I didn’t recognize. How does that count as violently resisting arrest?”
[Is that so? Save your explanation for the United Government’s interrogators.]
[Once they use the Great Memory Restoration Technique, you’ll confess every bad thing you did in elementary school…]
[No matter how tough you are, they can still grab your hand and press your fingerprint onto a confession.]
“Hey, hey, hey!” Qin Lan cried in alarm. “Stop insinuating things!”
“We live under the rule of law. Things like that don’t happen…”
“I know absolutely nothing about statements like, ‘I have reviewed the transcript above and confirm it matches my testimony.’ Stop corrupting an innocent flower of the nation, would you?”
To prevent more dangerous remarks from spilling out of Yin Manqing’s mouth, Qin Lan cut his break short. He pulled down his hood and resumed running.
As he ran, he lamented,
“I really am like a sewer rat. I can only hide underground and scurry through places that never see daylight. The moment I show my face, someone will stomp me dead.”
“The truly absurd part is that this feels familiar. What a fucked-up life…”
The last time Qin Lan had suffered such humiliation was when the Qian Group hired someone to silence him.
He sighed miserably.
He was genuinely unwilling to accept this.
If he were merely facing a powerful enemy, he would still have confidence in fighting back…
But this enemy was too strong. So strong that he had no power to resist. The moment they caught him, death would be his only possible fate.
Ironically, the Fallen Zone was safer for him.
Man-eating anomalies felt far friendlier than agents of the United Government.
“That way of thinking is dangerous.”
“Young comrade, you must have faith in the United Government.”
A faint laugh sounded.
The voice was quiet, even gentle, like an elder teasing a disobedient junior.
But the moment it appeared, an invisible hand seemed to close around the street’s throat.
The distant murmur of traffic vanished. So did the rustle of leaves overhead.
Qin Lan stopped dead.
His soles scraped more than thirty feet across the concrete, releasing a piercing shriek.
Qin Lan did not dare move a muscle.
Sweat seeped from beneath his hood, ran down his cheek, hung from his chin for half a second, then fell to the ground.
Drip.
Qin Lan heard the droplet land with perfect clarity–because everything around him was too quiet.
He could even hear blood surging through his own veins.
His gaze remained locked on the man ahead.
The man wore a black uniform, simple in design yet exquisitely made.
It bore no emblem or insignia, not even a single unnecessary crease.
Qin Lan recognized that uniform.
He often saw people wearing it in news footage–figures so powerful that cameras sometimes did not dare point directly at them.
The man wore glasses. Their silver frames gleamed faintly in the sunlight.
The eyes behind the lenses were smiling as they rested on Qin Lan.
The smile was neither friendly nor mocking. It held the leisurely, careless pleasure of a cat toying with a mouse.
“Children are ignorant. A little mischief is understandable.”
“But after causing such an enormous commotion, isn’t it rather rude to simply walk away?”
His voice was unhurried, every word perfectly clear.
Qin Lan narrowed his eyes.
His consciousness shook violently, repelling an invisible force.
The force had arrived soundlessly and without warning. If Qin Lan had not learned how to sense mental frequency beforehand, he might never have noticed it.
His mental power instinctively condensed.
The two forces collided upon an unseen plane, producing a faint hum.
“You Mind Reading bastards are fucking disgusting.”
“Could you give someone a warning before digging through their thoughts? How is this any different from walking up and yanking down my pants?”
Qin Lan spoke irritably, his expression darkening.
His words were hard, but sweat had already soaked his back.
The man opposite him looked intrigued. “You people?”
“So you’ve already met her?”
[Qin Lan!!!]
[Run! You’re no match for him!]
Yin Manqing’s shrill warning echoed through Qin Lan’s mind.
Qin Lan remained motionless.
Not because he did not want to run, but because he could not.
He could clearly feel something invisible sealing the space around him.
It was like an enormous hand hanging in midair, its five fingers slowly curling. It had not touched him, yet the certainty that it could close at any moment was enough to suffocate him.
“You think I don’t know that?”
“I can tell how terrifyingly strong he is just from the way he’s standing…”
Qin Lan tugged bitterly at the corner of his mouth, but failed to force out a smile.
He already possessed immense mental power and had secretly learned a few tricks from Yin Manqing. Admittedly, he had not learned much, but he could at least claim a superficial understanding of the mental domain.
That was precisely why he could perceive the man’s strength.
Qin Lan was a lamb that had wandered into a tiger’s den.
The other man’s gaze contained nothing but an appraisal of prey, entirely devoid of any other emotion.
No hostility. No killing intent. Only indifference.
“I heard quite a lot about you on my way here.”
“Qin Lan, isn’t it? Your performance at the Nine Academies Tournament was remarkably impressive.”
The man spoke politely and offered a friendly smile.
But beneath that friendliness lay the condescension of someone looking down from high above.
“I know you’re very confident in your mental power…”
The man tilted his head slightly. Light flashed across his lenses, perfectly concealing his eyes.
“Unfortunately, your advantage is meaningless before me.”
The next second–
Qin Lan saw no movement. No raised hand, no preparatory motion. Even the man’s breathing rhythm remained unchanged.
Mental pressure as overwhelming as a collapsing mountain came thundering toward him, like ten thousand cavalry charging at once!
For that instant, Qin Lan felt as though he stood beneath a waterfall.
No. That was not accurate enough.
An entire mountain had collapsed, and it was collapsing upon him alone.
Pressure surged from every direction, leaving no gap or blind spot.
His knees released a faint creak beneath the unbearable burden.
The concrete under his feet seemed to sink slightly… No, it had not.
Qin Lan realized that the ground was not sinking. His legs were bending.
He was like a nail being hammered inch by inch into the earth.
“Mental force interfering with matter…”
“Like a palm pressing into sand and leaving a clear handprint…”
At that moment, Qin Lan finally understood what the mysterious voice hidden inside his mind had meant.
Was this the level reached by becoming even stronger?