Five days had passed.
Lian Qiguang still hadn’t seen Xiahou Shaoxuan.
Aside from coming out at mealtimes to let Yuan Ling feed him, he spent all of his time cultivating inside his space.
After using his abilities that day, he had returned to his room, entered the space, and drunk water diluted to one percent from the lake.
He had hoped it would replenish the energy he had expended and perhaps allow him to advance another rank.
Instead, after drinking it, the only effects were restoring his abilities and eliminating his fatigue.
Nothing else happened.
Thinking the concentration wasn’t high enough, he tried water diluted to ten percent.
It was still useless.
It replenished his stamina and recovered his exhausted abilities, but it no longer produced the explosive breakthroughs it had the first time.
Lian Qiguang finally understood.
The lake water’s miraculous effect apparently only worked the first time.
If I’d known…
I would’ve just drunk the undiluted lake water.
Now even the only truly useful thing inside his space had become practically worthless.
Already irritated, and with Xiahou Shaoxuan no longer by his side, he had no desire to go outside.
So he remained cooped up in his room day after day.
Night had already fallen.
Lian Qiguang tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.
Finally, he sat up.
After staring silently out the quiet window for a long time, he got dressed and left the room.
Walking alone through the deserted base, he tilted his head back and gazed expressionlessly at the crimson moon hanging overhead.
He had no idea that the instant he stepped out of Xiahou Shaoxuan’s residence, he had already come under surveillance.
Inside the monitoring room…
The soldiers who had been bored nearly to the point of falling asleep instantly became energized.
Eyes wide open.
Ears practically standing straight up.
Every one of them stared intently at Lian Qiguang’s image on the holographic display.
Looking up at the blood-red moon, Lian Qiguang’s thoughts drifted.
He unconsciously recalled everything that had happened recently.
And…
Qiu Limo.
Whenever he was around that man, Lian Qiguang always felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
It made him deeply uncomfortable.
It felt as though they had met somewhere before.
He had never seriously thought about it before.
But now that he considered it carefully…
Every time something happened to him…
Qiu Limo always appeared with uncanny timing.
As though…
He had been watching him all along.
Ever since Qiu Limo appeared, one bad thing after another had followed.
Everything seemed carefully orchestrated.
It had all started with that painting.
Ever since seeing it in the memorial museum…
The painting had been stolen.
Then every incident afterward had unfolded one after another.
A painting that everyone believed to be merely a fake…
Who would go to such lengths to steal it?
And even if no one could determine whether it was authentic…
How had no one detected the fluctuations of supernatural energy within it?
Moreover…
That painting should never have existed anymore.
So why…
…
Wait.
Lian Qiguang suddenly froze.
His pupils widened.
A growing sense of unease and shock welled up inside him.
The theft of the painting…
There was no doubt Qiu Limo had been involved.
But Qiu Limo’s supernatural energy…
He had always found it strangely familiar.
Now…
He finally remembered.
The stolen painting.
Qiu Limo’s energy signature.
The invisibility ability he had long suspected.
A blocked train of thought suddenly opened.
Everything else connected one piece after another.
The truth slowly surfaced.
Was it… him?
Lian Qiguang weakly dropped to one knee.
Supporting himself with both hands against the ground, he pressed his lips tightly together.
Beneath the shadows, enormous waves churned within his eyes.
No.
It can’t be.
I know him too well.
It can’t be Qiu Limo.
But then…
Who is it?
Closing his eyes, Lian Qiguang replayed everything that had happened since the moment he first opened his eyes in this world.
Countless fragments of memory flashed rapidly through his mind.
He sifted through each one carefully.
The effort stabbed at his head with unbearable pain.
His face turned pale.
Cold sweat soaked his forehead.
Yet he ignored it all.
He searched only for the details he might have overlooked.
Suddenly—
His eyes snapped open.
He remembered the file Xiahou Shaoxuan had once given him about Qiu Limo.
Qiu Limo had been born in District Five.
His parents had died in a riot while he was still very young.
Later, a man had appeared and taken him away.
That man was a bounty hunter.
He always worked alone.
Never had companions.
Never had friends.
Rumor claimed that during one hunt, a mutant had scarred his face.
From then on, he always concealed himself beneath a cloak, never revealing his appearance.
A cloak…
Never showing his face…
Lian Qiguang immediately remembered the strange man who had attacked him in the training zone.
Was that… Qiu Limo’s adoptive father?
Invisibility.
Corrosion.
That familiar supernatural energy…
If his guess was correct…
Everything finally made sense.
Including the stolen painting.
But…
Was it really him?
If it truly was…
Then why had he attacked him?
Looks like…
The next time we meet…
I’ll have to find a way to test him.
“Sister-in-law!”
A noisy rush of footsteps approached.
Lian Qiguang looked up to see Yuan Ling running toward him with several others.
“Sister-in-law!”
Yuan Ling hurried over, forgetting all concerns about propriety as he grabbed Lian Qiguang’s arm to help him up.
His face was full of anxiety.
“What happened?”
Earlier, when he’d spotted Lian Qiguang on the surveillance feed, he’d actually been delighted.
Ever since that day at the training grounds, Lian Qiguang had locked himself inside his room.
Apart from delivering meals every day, Yuan Ling hadn’t even been able to see him.
He had been worried the young man would eventually make himself sick from isolation.
But then…
Without warning…
Lian Qiguang’s expression had changed dramatically before collapsing to the ground.
Yuan Ling’s heart had nearly stopped.
If anything happened to Lian Qiguang…
Even dying wouldn’t be enough to atone for it.
“I’m fine.”
Lian Qiguang withdrew his hand and quietly shook his head.
“Sister-in-law, let’s go to the medical center anyway.”
Yuan Ling was still worried.
“No need.”
Lian Qiguang refused calmly before turning around and retracing his steps.
“You all head back first.”
Yuan Ling instructed the others before quickly catching up.
“I’ll walk you back, Sister-in-law.”
Walking behind him, Yuan Ling found the silence increasingly unbearable.
“Sister-in-law…”
“Are you…”
“…still angry with them?”
“…”
Lian Qiguang remained silent.
Taking his silence as confirmation, Yuan Ling hurried to explain.
“They’re all straightforward people.”
“They’ve never really had much tact.”
“After you left that day…”
“Xuanlang beat them all pretty badly.”
“They looked down on me.”
After a long silence, Lian Qiguang finally spoke.
Yuan Ling blinked.
“Huh?”
“The way they looked at me.”
“I hated it.”
It was exactly the same look…
As those espers had given him back then…
When he first awakened his powers.
When he first joined a mutant extermination mission.
“Sister-in-law…”
Yuan Ling scratched his head awkwardly.
“They just don’t know how capable you really are.”
“And…”
“They’ve followed the boss for many years.”
“They’ve fought through countless battlefields.”
“They’ve survived one bloody fight after another.”
“So…”
“So…”
Unable to think of anything else to say, Yuan Ling coughed awkwardly and changed the subject.
“Sister-in-law…”
“If you’re bored…”
“How about tomorrow I take you to Fallen Star’s trading market?”
“…Trading market?”
Lian Qiguang paused and looked back at him.
“Yeah.”
“It’s basically a marketplace.”
“There are all kinds of people there.”
“And lots of strange and interesting things.”
After thinking for a moment, Lian Qiguang asked quietly,
“What time?”
“Huh?”
Yuan Ling froze.
Then he realized…
Lian Qiguang had agreed.
His face immediately lit up.
“Whenever you want! I’m free.”
“…Eight tomorrow morning.”
“Deal!”
“I definitely won’t be late!”
By the time they finished talking, they had already returned to Xiahou Shaoxuan’s residence.
“Sister-in-law.”
“You should head upstairs.”
“…”
Just before reaching the door, Lian Qiguang stopped.
Still facing away from Yuan Ling, he remained silent for a long moment.
Then, in a calm voice, he said,
“When my hands were already stained with blood…”
“…you people didn’t even know what pain was.”
“…”
Yuan Ling stood frozen.
Watching Lian Qiguang’s retreating back…
He couldn’t recover for a very long time.
Why…
In that brief instant…
From this youth—someone who could barely be called an adult—
Had he sensed such overwhelming sorrow…
And such ancient weariness?