Chapter 48: Rejection Times Two
The bullets collided and then exploded in midair.
At the same time, several rifles appeared in front of the white-robed person, launching an attack toward the phantom’s direction.
It was as if there was no thought involved, just an instinctive offensive.
The gunfire illuminated the white mask on the white-robed person’s face.
The hood and mask completely concealed their features.
The voluminous white robe also hid their figure, making it impossible to determine even their height with the naked eye.
Yet Li Li seemed to see through this disguise to the person’s core.
There were differing opinions about Li Li’s ability from various sides.
Hua Yizhi from Jiao Huang did not know her true ability, only considering it powerful, possibly guessing it was related to illusions.
Momo and Youyou were from Tide.
Since they had returned to Tide, in Tide’s eyes, her rescue mission at Twinborn was for Yiming, not due to a personal grudge with Yue Shan.
If Momo and Youyou had informed Tide, they would at most think her ability was regression, along with the apparent possibility of illusions.
But in most people’s minds, illusions could not cause substantial harm, as they were merely hallucinations.
An Heyu knew Heige came from a laboratory, and he had read Yue Shan’s memories, so he knew Heige had “multiple abilities.”
But only one person believed Heige’s illusions could cause harm, and thus, only those related to that person knew this fact!
And her guessed target happened to be that person’s subordinate.
As the bullets passed through the phantom and pierced the wall again, the white-robed person waved a hand.
Attacks always hit the phantom, unable to catch the real body, forever toyed with by someone in the shadows like a dog on a leash.
Three failed attacks made the white-robed person increasingly irritable, from dodging the phantom to attacking upon hearing a sound, and finally, with the white-robed person at the center, rifles filled every direction.
The white-robed person chose indiscriminate attacks!
The rifles surrounded the white-robed person, enough to arm a small squad.
At the same time, bullets fired from the barrels, and the gunfire illuminated the entire box.
The white-robed person did not consider the building’s capacity, simply venting their powerful ability.
The walls collapsed under the relentless barrage of bullets.
Golden specks connected into lines, weaving through the dust.
“Boom!”
Suddenly, in the space between the white-robed person and the rifles, a massive ice wall rose abruptly.
The incandescent light flickered on abruptly, and the ice wall refracted the light like a dazzling, radiant gem.
But amid the roaring, a faint gasp came from beneath the white-robed person’s mask.
It was a female voice.
This was the first time the white-robed person revealed personal information.
Because the phantom Li Li chose was ice.
At the same time, a rifle appeared in the white-robed person’s hand, firing directly at the ground.
She used the force to leap onto the rifles still lingering in the air.
With a few jumps, she reached midair, while the illusion spread. When she looked down to confirm, the illusion covered the entire floor, frost creeping onto the walls.
The moment it was confirmed, a chilling air rushed in.
“You’re really no fun.” A low, magnetic voice rang out amid the chaos.
As if treating this struggle like a game, the tone carried a sigh of regret.
The illusion spread in all directions, frost encasing the cube, climbing along the ground above their heads.
It did not dissipate.
Either only the white-robed person was here, or only she was powerful enough, so no one outside could halt the illusion’s expansion.
Amid the crystalline illusion that nearly froze half the box, Li Li slowly pushed up her sunglasses.
Checkmate.
She said silently.
In an instant, massive ice prisms surged from the ground, overpowering the rifles in the air, snapping their barrels with crisp sounds, and lunging straight toward the white-robed person standing at the highest point.
The rifles were as fragile as glass before the ice, easily shattered.
And the white-robed person never doubted this outcome.
Someone had planted such an authority in her mind, making her believe the ice prisms could overpower her ability, without even considering whether the phantom’s replicated ability could achieve it.
She instinctively accepted this result.
“Then let’s end this boring test early.”
It was a voice that urged death.
The chill enveloped the entire box.
The ice leaped, rising to the white-robed person’s face, then surpassing her like a tidal wave, surging toward her with piercing ice spikes.
The white-robed person tilted her head back, her gaze fixed on the spikes approaching in an instant.
Her wrist flicked, the rifle aimed at the ice.
She suddenly fired, but she didn’t even check if the bullet broke through the ice prisms.
Instead, she used the recoil to fall backward, attempting to swiftly weave through the ice-forged spikes.
“Pfft.”
Her movements still stopped.
The wave-like ice cones finally descended before her, two palm-sized ice cones piercing through her abdomen.
The next moment, the tips crashed into the ground.
In the illusion, the frozen floor stirred up mist-like, jagged ice fragments, while the white-robed person’s white robe was stained red.
Lying on her back on the ice, the eyes beneath her mask seemed to witness the ice shards dancing in the air.
After the massive tremor, the white mask quivered slightly, then slid off her face, revealing the white-robed person’s true appearance.
A face Li Li had seen before.
Long boots stepped onto the ice.
The black-haired youth wearing sunglasses appeared from nowhere, unclear if he was a phantom.
The youth was mysterious, casual, and undeniably powerful.
In this paradise of illusions, the black-haired youth nonchalantly raised a hand.
The black fingerless gloves revealed slender fingers, snapping lightly in the air.
The illusion vanished.
The ice covering the floor disappeared, leaving only ice fragments refracting faint glimmers of light in the air.
The white-robed person fell from thirty centimeters above the ground, collapsing once more onto Twinborn’s original mechanical floor.
“Still alive?” Li Li asked.
She looked down at the person, the corners of her mouth curving into a faint arc.
“Thank you for holding back.” The white-robed person propped herself up with one hand, struggling to sit.
But she didn’t stop, continuing to support herself with both legs to stand, then kneeling on one knee before Li Li, one hand placed over her heart.
“Leader,” she said.
That face was one Li Li had seen at the Ability Guild, belonging to someone from the noble Yue clan’s faction.
Because she was from the Yue clan, she could have learned from Yue Qing that “Heige’s illusions can cause harm,” so she instinctively elevated the ice cones while suppressing herself.
Because her superior was an S-rank spell-type ice ability user, no one knew the terror of this ability better than she did.
An A-rank ability user, a commoner subordinate of the Yue clan who had appeared alongside Yue Qing’s cousin, Rao Yue.
Who would have thought she was part of Tide, formerly of the Ability Guild.
Li Li lightly raised an eyebrow: “Oh?”
Was this the hidden agent of Tide among the nobles that Hua Yizhi had mentioned?
At that moment, as her questioning tone sounded, amid the walls where the dust had yet to settle, white-robed figures stood behind the collapsed walls.
They had been waiting in the background for who knows how long, but their abilities were too weak to break Li Li’s illusion.
Now they stepped forward.
Then, in unison with Rao Yue, they knelt, surrounding the only person standing in a gesture of submission.
That person was Li Li.
And Li Li, accepting all this, suddenly felt the scene was familiar, as if on some day in Jiao Huang she had been cornered and called “Leader” in the same way.
Only, back then, it was led by the C-rank Hua Yizhi, while this time it was an A-rank.
It felt like her status was soaring. Li Li thought.
The smile on her lips remained unchanged, and she didn’t say anything.
But sometimes silence was a form of pressure.
“The test was my own initiative,” Rao Yue said, looking at the ground before her.
Her mask had fallen, and her moon-white long hair draped along her ears, the tips stained with the blood she had shed.
The penetrating wounds remained on her body, but her tone betrayed no trace of the pain she endured.
“I am Tide’s Four-Way agent, named Rao Yue, having joined Tide four years and six months ago,” she said. “I have never met the Prophet, nor had the chance to know how powerful his prophecies are. Thus, I’ve always had doubts about the prophecies, not fully believing them.”
Before her, the black-haired youth slipped both hands into the pockets of his blue jacket, tilting his head leisurely, as if listening.
“Most of Tide’s new blood share this attitude,” the double agent, bold enough to operate under an S-rank noble, said without reservation. “If the Prophet is truly so powerful, then why did the Former Ability Guild fail so thoroughly six years ago, nearly facing extinction?”
“Hah,” Li Li scoffed.
Rao Yue trembled slightly, still looking at the ground: “But you have shattered my prejudices with your strength.”
“I am willing to believe what the Prophet said because you are powerful enough,” Rao Yue concluded. “And we need you to lead us.”
Li Li looked at the white hood that had slid off her head, her lowered gaze carrying an indescribable emotion.
“But I refuse,” she said.
Whether “Heige” was the one in the prophecy or not, as long as she could overwhelmingly defeat Rao Yue, they would revere her as their leader.
These people only needed a leader, a symbol, regardless of who that leader was.
She casually turned around, feeling like she had come for nothing.
“I only came to warn you: what happened with Twinborn, don’t let there be a next time.”
Momo was fine; I appreciated her approach, but not everyone could use me.
As she spoke, she paused.
She turned her head, the crimson pupils behind her sunglasses meeting Rao Yue’s slightly panicked face as she looked up.
Then she suddenly smiled.
“Good girl.”
That smiling face seemed to say nothing, but Rao Yue suddenly trembled.
She hurriedly lowered her head, the crimson in her mind like an endless tide enveloping her, suffocating her.
She didn’t know how much time passed, but when she looked up again, there was no one in front of her.
Only the blood from her abdomen dripped onto the ground, one drop at a time.
“Plop.”
…
Midnight arrived.
[Opening the passage for you…]
[Welcome back to reality.]