Chapter 18: She Is Lies and Deception
“Huh?” The questioned boy showed a puzzled expression.
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The next second, ice prisms shot toward them from above at an angle, everything in their path seemingly draped in a snowy white veil.
The blue-haired man slightly raised his chin, and an airflow below zero degrees, wrapped in sharp winds, arrived in an instant.
Before Yiming could speak, he raised the metal slab he had already torn off to shield them.
“Clang!”
The ice prisms embedded deeply into the metal, the immense impact forcing Yiming, with Tang on his back, to retreat nearly a meter.
Before he could lower the metal, a chilling cold crept up along the metal, spreading to Yiming’s arm.
In an instant, he metallized the arm in contact, and the iron, along with the ice prisms, fell to the ground, his arm now coated in frost.
Tang, on his back, widened her eyes, tears welling up but holding back without a sound.
“Run!” Yiming clutched the upper part of his arm, his fingertips turning purplish-blue, stepping aside to let Li Li escape through the door he had just opened.
He had torn a door-sized hole in the iron wall, and sunlight, previously blocked by the towering bronze walls, streamed in from outside.
But at that moment, the black-haired youth in front turned his head, his dark pupils calmly looking at him: “You can’t escape like this.”
The black-robed figure ahead waved an arm, activating their ability.
The bronze iron wall behind them melted again, and with dust falling from the ceiling, it reformed into a new configuration.
The bronze walls enclosed them, like an inescapable cage.
The C-rank ability user had trapped them here.
In the dim light, coldness spread upward from the corners of the walls.
The three ice prisms, deeply embedded in the metal slab, suddenly leaped upward, joining three more prisms stabbing from above, all aimed at their position.
The sharp tips of the ice prisms, wrapped in piercing cold, grew larger in Yiming’s blue pupils.
His right hand, now numb, hung limply, unable to metallize in time to block the swift attack.
The next instant, a wave of warmth emanated from Tang behind him.
Mimicry-type ability, healing.
At the critical moment of life and death, Tang instinctively learned how to use the ability her father had passed down to her.
It was a C-rank ability capable of healing even severed limbs, a precious ability coveted by countless mimicry-type ability users!
Warmth spread from head to toe, and the bloodstains on Yiming’s slightly chubby cheeks vanished.
Yet his right hand remained limp, as if the warmth had been defeated by the cold. Even this powerful healing ability couldn’t thaw his frozen arm.
The blue-haired man’s ability was so formidable that even a C-rank healing ability couldn’t counter it!
And now, the cold from the ice prisms seemed to pierce their eyes!
At that fleeting moment, just before their corneas were pierced—
The ice prisms vanished.
Suddenly, along with the bone-chilling cold.
Yiming froze, stunned by the absence of the expected pain.
Then he instantly turned his head: “Li!”
The black-haired youth stood motionless in front of me, his dark pupils devoid of sorrow or joy, his gaunt cheeks pale from the biting cold.
The frigid wind lifted the black hair at his forehead, then let it gently fall.
Behind him, six ice prisms were deeply embedded in the bronze wall.
The black-haired youth raised his head, looking at the two ability users ahead who had never taken him seriously from the start.
Ability? What kind of ability could move the ice prisms in front of him? Wasn’t Li’s ability supposed to be concealment…?
Plunder?! The brown-haired boy’s blue eyes slowly widened.
Because of plunder, he had multiple abilities?!
“Healing ability?” The blue-haired man in front finally showed a different expression. “That’s a good thing.”
The C-rank ability user beside him said, “If you’re interested, of course, it’ll be handed over to the guild for processing.”
That tone—it was Qing Yu Chen.
They didn’t even glance at the child glaring at them with emerald-green eyes, like a startled young beast, easily deciding his fate.
Nor did they pay any attention to Yiming, who was protecting Tang.
After all, he was just a low-rank.
In their eyes, in the eyes of this world’s profiteers, he was merely an ability storage device, destined to be used sooner or later.
At that moment, Li spoke.
The cold-faced youth didn’t turn around.
His clear voice echoed between the walls trapped by Wen: “Your foster father told you to only do what you can, but I always like to do things I can’t.”
“I’m a natural bad kid, a rebellious punk,” Li said. “Little Corgi, you and I aren’t the same.”
“I don’t think so!” Yiming stared intently at the black-haired youth’s back, a trace of panic in his blue pupils. “I know you’re a good person.
You’re clearly gentle. I know you must have a reason for doing this…”
Yes, he always believed in Li.
He believed in the kindness Li showed at their first meeting, the gentleness hidden behind his joking words, the loneliness in Li’s voice when he spoke of the past, and the willingness of this brother to stand up for them.
But he heard the youth’s reply, its tone as cold as the chill on his arm, the icy sensation seeping into his bones.
“It’s all fake. I was just teasing you for fun.”
In a moment of daze, Yiming’s clear blue eyes fixed on Li.
With a maturity almost beyond his years, he said seriously, “Do you think I’d believe that?”
The ice prisms behind the black-haired youth trembled, frost spreading across the floor, thickening into a sheet of ice.
The cold seemed to envelop the entire hall, the pressure doubling as if standing on the highest peak.
Tang’s voice trembled as she said, “Big brother, don’t you want me anymore?”
“I promised Little Corgi, not you,” the black-haired youth said coldly.
The six ice prisms were firmly locked into the wall, but twelve identical prisms appeared beside the blue-haired man in front.
He looked in Li’s direction, giving only him his full attention.
The ice seemed to freeze the space itself.
As the cold deepened, the six prisms nailed to the wall began to tremble slightly, struggling to break free from the spatial suppression.
Li finally moved. He turned slightly, looking at Yiming and Tang on his back.
“You’re too much in the way,” he said.
The next second, the sound of rushing wind rang out.
Twelve ice prisms, like an impenetrable net, flashed from a distance to appear before them in an instant.
Yiming’s eyes widened. He saw eleven ice prisms halt in front of them.
But one sliced across the black-haired youth’s brow, leaving a vivid red mark that stretched to the corner of his eye.
That ever-cold face remained calm and serene.
The cold wind lifted the hem of his windbreaker, fluttering in the air. His black eyes moved, as if in a slow-motion scene from a movie.
He stopped. His black hair gently fell along his gaunt profile, those bottomless black pupils reflecting no sunlight.
Yet Yiming saw a trace of loneliness in them.
“You’ll find a family that suits you, but it’s not me.”
The youth’s voice seemed to reach his ears, soft, like an illusion, or perhaps just Yiming’s baseless speculation.
He wanted to tell the youth that wasn’t true.
Yiming heard the clinking of trembling ice prisms, saw the crystalline ice break free from its binds, their sharp tips aimed at them.
The blue-haired ability user stood calmly on the steps, ice crackling and growing beneath his feet.
The ceiling above seemed to vanish into darkness, endless and empty, with ice prisms descending from the void.
They reached him in an instant!
But as Yiming tried to resist or retort, he saw sunlight.
Together with Tang on his back.
They appeared behind the wall, outside the building, in an empty alley.
The cold spread ahead, but now they were bathed in today’s warm sunlight.
It was as if waking from a nightmare, as if warmth had driven away the cold.
But that was impossible. His right hand still had no feeling, still radiated cold.
The youth who liked to lie and tease him was no longer in sight.
The nightmare hadn’t ended.
“Go back!”
“We leave first!”
Two voices rang out at once.
Yiming’s one arm hung limp, the other tightly holding Tang on his back.
He gritted his teeth, turned, and ran wildly.
“Li wanted us to leave first. I’ll get you settled and come back for him!” He stumbled but ran with all his strength.
He was running, yet his heart and actions felt split into two souls.
One soul screamed: Go back! Don’t leave him alone!
Turn around!
“Shuang Buyan said to do what I can. Staying here would accomplish nothing and only burden Li,” he said hoarsely, trying to convince Tang and himself. “I know a C-rank ability user. If I pay, he’ll help. There’s still time!”
The dark clouds gradually covered the warm sunlight, enveloping everything in a gloomy grayness.
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Ice prisms arrived instantly.
After sending Yiming and Tang away, Li Li timed her disappearance from the spot, reappearing behind the two on the steps.
She bought two [Immunity Ability] items for Yiming and Tang to prevent them from being manipulated by Qing Yu Chen and walking back on the spot.
That would’ve been too awkward.
It might’ve been an illusion, but Li Li felt an unexpected sluggishness when using the [Illusion Space] item.
In the wake of this momentary shift, the blue-haired man swiftly turned his head.
“Now that’s more like it,” he said.
Suddenly, ice spikes, two people tall, jutted from the ground, hurtling toward Li Li at bullet-like speed.
The cold, sharp wind lifted Li Li’s black hair, revealing her forehead.
Just as the spikes were about to pierce her body, a chilling cold accompanied by that strange sluggishness enveloped her.
In an instant, Li Li reappeared in the hall, touching a cut on her hand and slowly curling her lips into a smile.
[Illusion Space] was being countered. She realized this.
There were still many usable items in the shop, and with over two thousand popularity points, she could easily buy more.
But how could that count as a life-or-death crisis?
She wanted to take a gamble, to bet her life on the table, just as she had done all along her journey.
Fear, dread, and terror—negative emotions screamed in her heart, urging her to flee.
The item was countered, and the enemy’s ice could freeze space.
What would happen if she got caught next time?
But precisely because she didn’t want to die, she refused to run now!
“What are you doing, Qing Yu Chen?” she said.
The cold chill spread from the wound at the corner of her eye.
Li Li narrowed her eyes slightly, the narrow red mark at the corner tilting upward.
She was smiling. She strolled through the almost sluggish space, narrowly sidestepping an ice prism.
“Sorry, Your Excellency. It’s just that if I don’t find someone to help, I’ll die,” Qing Yu Chen said.
His C-rank ability user appearance made his expression seem comical. “The only person that useless Tang could beg for help from is the former Ability Guild. Given our relationship, you coming here from the former Ability Guild means you never planned to let me live, right?”
“Naturally, I have to look out for myself,” Qing Yu Chen added.
The Ability Guild, a ‘low-rank ability user mutual aid guild’ controlled by nobles.
Its existence was a joke.
In contrast was the former Ability Guild, branded as an anti-empire organization, the predecessor before the Ability Guild fell under nobel control.
“So this one’s a member of the Ability Guild?” Li Li said, emphasizing ‘Ability Guild.’
She’d been framed, as expected.
“Four-Way City Ability Guild Branch Leader, Yue Lan,” the blue-haired man said, his eyes dripping with contempt. “A-rank.”
The cold intensified, as if the entire space had been transported to the peak of the highest mountain. Exhaled breath turned into tiny ice crystals.
Even the space itself was frozen.
“I know your ability—domain-type spatial manipulation,” the blue-haired man said with certainty.
“Too bad. My ability can freeze space. In front of me, domain-type ability users are like three-year-olds playing with rubber ducks.”
It seemed everything they knew about the abilities she used could be explained by space, and they were convinced of their assumptions.
But Li Li only thought—
Perfect.
Her Martin boots stepped on the ice, cracks spreading with crisp snapping sounds.
Her black trench coat outlined her slender waist and straight spine.
She raised her eyes, seemingly nonchalant, while beside her, several ice prisms nearly surrounded her, forming a giant hollow ice sphere around her body.
[Illusion Space] was completely frozen.
“Goodbye, remnant of the former guild,” the blue-haired man said, his tone commanding the situation. “Once I deal with you, I’ll go after that healing ability user.”
He already envisioned the blood blooming on the ice.
In an instant, the ice spikes descended, leaving only afterimages, faster than bullets!
In the frozen space, it seemed Li Li had nowhere to go!
Would she die in this manga world?
The black-haired youth’s bangs cast a shadow over her forehead, shrouding her dark pupils in darkness.
Nineteen years in the third dimension—those memories suddenly surged forth.
Here, she was false, deceptive, a illusory mask that never revealed her true self.
And now, she stood in—
A manga world, utterly false to her.
The ice clashed with a booming sound, but the person who should’ve been pierced had vanished without a trace.
Yue Lan lowered his hands, staring in near shock at the empty ruins of ice spikes ahead.
“How is that possible? The space was completely frozen!” he muttered.
And at that moment—
“Who told you I was domain-type?” a voice said, as if right beside his ear, carrying a carefree laugh.