Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Inside Mingjiang No. 7 Special School…
Night pressed down over the garbage area, where the silence was deathly still.
Everyone present looked as though they had seen a ghost. Their faces were filled with terror, shock, and disbelief.
“How is that possible? He stamped out A-402 with one foot…”
Chen Jun was completely dumbfounded.
Rain’s appearance here was shocking enough. Now someone even more terrifying had emerged?
Even the evolved Rain could only suppress A-402 with the Damp Drizzle. She couldn’t extinguish it completely.
Yet before this man, all it had taken was one casual step.
Just what kind of anomaly was he?
“Impossible…”
Zhao Xueru stared in utter shock, her mind blank.
How could Leng Qingyan’s boyfriend possibly be this powerful?
Zhao Xueru had tested him when she arrived. There hadn’t been the slightest anomaly reading on his body. He was an ordinary person.
But now it was obvious that wasn’t true.
The problem wasn’t that this man was too ordinary.
Their instruments simply couldn’t register him.
Just how powerful was Li Que?
On the other side, Qin Yuandong and Gu Xiaomeng were equally stunned.
“Wasn’t he just an ordinary teacher?”
Qin Yuandong whipped around to stare at Gu Xiaomeng.
The information she had given him was completely wrong. This was supposed to be an ordinary teacher?
Gu Xiaomeng began questioning her entire life.
She had dated Li Que for years, but he had never displayed any talent as an anomaly wielder.
In fact, she had broken up with him precisely because she saw no future at his side.
But only a few years had passed.
Li Que had become an anomaly wielder?
And one this powerful?
How was that possible?
Her thoughts churned like a raging sea. Complicated emotions overwhelmed her, but the words lodged in her throat and she couldn’t say a thing.
In truth, even Leng Qingyan, who already knew how strong Li Que was, had been shocked senseless.
She and Xu Changjiang had previously assumed Li Que was probably an A-class anomaly wielder.
But now…
Impossible.
A-class?
No A-class anomaly wielder could destroy A-402 so effortlessly.
Then there was the Damp Drizzle, which had appeared and vanished just as suddenly. Could it truly be connected to Li Que’s student, Lin Xiaoyu?
Could Lin Xiaoyu be…
The instant the thought formed, Leng Qingyan grew even more shaken.
If her guess was right…
Just how powerful was Li Que?
What kind of anomalous entity had he contained?
Countless possibilities raced through her mind.
Li Que, meanwhile, felt a little awkward.
It was nighttime, and it had just rained, so he couldn’t make out the subtle expressions on anyone’s face. He could only tell that the atmosphere was oppressively heavy.
Well, of course it was.
Senior officials had come to attend this major event, only for the school to nearly start a fire.
It was utterly humiliating-a full-blown public-safety incident.
At that moment, Lin Xiaoyu emerged from the women’s restroom. Li Que waved to her.
“Xiaoyu, come here.”
Lin Xiaoyu obediently walked over.
Perhaps her mood had not fully recovered. As she approached, everyone present inexplicably began to sink into despair again. Crushing pressure weighed on them until even breathing became difficult.
“Dean Leng, I’ll leave you to it.”
Li Que gave Leng Qingyan a brief greeting.
All he wanted was to teach. He had no desire to get involved with senior officials, so he would leave that to Leng Qingyan.
With that, he turned and left with Lin Xiaoyu.
As she followed him, Lin Xiaoyu glanced back at the Wraith-Mother of the Vengeful Infant. A complicated emotion seemed to flicker through her eyes.
…
Only after Li Que and Lin Xiaoyu had disappeared into the distance did the oppressive weight finally lift.
“Haaah…”
Everyone present inexplicably released a long breath.
“Who is he? Who in the world is he?!”
Zhao Xueru cried out. She whipped around and fixed Leng Qingyan with a glare.
“You’re actually working with Rain! You’re a member of the Anomaly Suppression Bureau. How could you do something like this?!”
She was on the verge of a complete breakdown, her voice trembling with uncontrolled rage.
Everyone else also stared at Leng Qingyan in shock, hoping to find an answer from her.
They might have dismissed the Damp Drizzle that appeared when Lin Xiaoyu first arrived as a coincidence. But when she returned from the restroom, the feelings she brought with her were enough to confirm one fact beyond all doubt.
Lin Xiaoyu was Rain.
That was terrifying.
Rain was an S-class anomaly. Whenever an anomaly like her appeared, she caused a large-scale disaster-potentially an incident that would draw national attention.
How could something so dangerous be hiding inside a school, much less living as a quiet, well-behaved student?
And who was the man teaching her? How could he control Rain’s emotions?
Question after question exploded like bombs in everyone’s mind.
After all, this was A-402. This was Rain.
Either one alone was enough to unleash chaos.
Yet before Li Que, A-402 was no more than a flame he could stamp out with one foot, while Rain was merely an obedient student.
It was absurd.
The scene had utterly surpassed anything they could imagine.
Leng Qingyan’s expression was complicated. She wished she could answer their questions.
The problem was that she didn’t know either.
“Zhao Xueru, you colluded with the Eclipse Organization. Qin Yuandong, your Qin family has allied itself with anomalies as well!”
Leng Qingyan drew a deep breath and declared solemnly, “You are all under arrest.”
As a member of the Anomaly Suppression Bureau, Leng Qingyan carried all manner of equipment for dealing with anomalies. Now she pulled out several pairs of handcuffs.
Zhao Xueru, Qin Yuandong, and the others paled. They came to their senses and tried to resist, only to discover that Rain’s suppression had been so severe that their anomalous entities still hadn’t recovered.
“Run!”
Zhao Xueru shouted and turned to flee, but how could she possibly outrun Leng Qingyan?
Scales from the Tear of the Charm Demon rapidly covered Leng Qingyan’s body. Moving with incredible speed, she seized Zhao Xueru by the shoulder, flipped her onto the ground, straddled her back, and snapped on the cuffs.
The handcuffs had been designed specifically for anomaly wielders. Once fastened, they would tighten continuously, causing enough pain to prevent the wearer from concentrating on controlling an anomalous entity.
Leng Qingyan moved swiftly and efficiently. Chen Jun, Qin Yuandong, and even Gu Xiaomeng were soon knocked down and restrained.
At that moment, her phone began to ring. She immediately answered it.
“Finally! I got through!”
It was Xu Changjiang. His voice was frantic. “What’s happening at Mingjiang No. 7 Special School? Rain appeared! Are you all right?!”
“Director, everything is under control,” Leng Qingyan replied. “Come over as soon as you can. The situation here is… complicated.”
After hanging up, she glanced at the Wraith-Mother holding her child nearby.
The mother and Vengeful Infant seemed to have broken free of everyone’s control. Both were quiet, their emotions remarkably stable, with no apparent aggression.
Together, they formed a genuine A-class anomaly. Leng Qingyan had no way to deal with them.
…
Meanwhile, at the Qin residence…
Qin Zhenye picked up his phone and quickly dialed a number.
“I’ve located Rain.”
As soon as the call connected, he hurriedly reported, “She probably appeared because of the Wraith-Mother of the Vengeful Infant. I’ll go there now and secretly control the mother and child so I can keep tracking her position. But you need to hurry!”
After ending the call, Qin Zhenye released a long breath. He looked toward Mingjiang No. 7 Special School, and a second pair of beastlike pupils appeared inside his eyes.
Now that Rain had emerged, the Anomaly Suppression Bureau personnel, Qin Yuandong, and Gu Xiaomeng were most likely all dead.
He could approach in secret, regain control of the Wraith-Mother, and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
He took out a piece of green jade mottled with corpse spots.
The jade was a binding token taken from the Wraith-Mother’s throat. It exerted an extremely powerful control over her.
“Once we capture Rain and obtain the Water God’s divine authority, I’ll finally be able to come back to life…”
Qin Zhenye’s voice suddenly sounded like that of an entirely different person.
Then he hurried toward Mingjiang No. 7 Special School.
…
“Is this Hidden Dragon?”
At the same time, on a suburban road outside Mingjiang City, the man in the front passenger seat nervously dialed a number.
“What happened?”
A deep male voice answered. “I told you not to contact me!”
Sun Cheng tugged his battered felt hat lower and said tensely, “Rain appeared. Purple Sparrow probably isn’t coming back…”
The other end fell silent for a moment.
“Keep watch and wait for my call.”
The call ended.
In the driver’s seat, Liu Ying frowned beneath his gray clothes.
“Damn it! Rain herself showed up, and they still want us to stay here? They don’t even treat us like people!”
Sun Cheng sighed.
“You and I aren’t really human anymore.”
He removed his battered felt hat. His scalp was covered in fleshy tumors, each one writhing like a living worm.
“If we can’t obtain the Water God’s divine authority, we’ll truly become anomalies…”
Sun Cheng shuddered.
…
At that moment, outside the girls’ dormitory at Mingjiang No. 7 Special School…
“What’s wrong, Xiaoyu? Did something upset you?”
Li Que had walked Lin Xiaoyu back, but she had seemed unhappy the entire way.
“Sir, I may have to leave school.”
Lin Xiaoyu suddenly looked up at him.
“Where are you going?” Li Que asked in surprise.
Her voice was subdued. “Something may have happened at home. I might have to go back and take a look.”
“And afterward… I may not be able to come back to school.”
Li Que froze. Something had happened to her family?
Come to think of it, he had never learned much about Lin Xiaoyu’s family background.
He immediately asked, “Where is your home?”
“Five Dragons Mountain.”
Complicated emotions flickered through Lin Xiaoyu’s eyes at the name-nostalgia, disappointment, and hatred.
“Do you know the place, Sir? It’s far away and very isolated.”
Five Dragons Mountain? Li Que vaguely remembered it as a remote mountain region.
So Lin Xiaoyu had come from deep in the mountains?
He sighed inwardly. Judging from her expression, her life there probably hadn’t been a happy one.
Her family circumstances might not have been good either.
But he wasn’t going to let Lin Xiaoyu abandon her education.
After thinking for a moment, he said, “How about I go with you when the time comes?”
It would be a good opportunity for a home visit. He could learn more about her family environment and help however he could.
Lin Xiaoyu raised her eyes to look at him.
“Don’t worry. As long as I’m there, we can solve any problem that comes up.”
Li Que’s voice was calm and firm.
Lin Xiaoyu looked at him, and her heart gradually settled.
The moon quietly slipped out from behind the clouds, filling the dark night with light.
…