Chapter 55: Recklessness After Deep Thought Isn’t Recklessness
At Heart Square, the white doves that usually hopped about were circling in the sky, a few perching on lampposts and treetops.
Their territory had been taken.
Ice formed a high platform—an S-rank ability user putting their power to trivial use, crafting a stage.
The ice sculpture was beautiful and intricate, the entire platform seemingly carried on the back of an ice phoenix, its tail feathers curling up to shield the rear.
Yue Qing stood atop the platform, exuding the hypocritical, haughty air of a noble.
With a wave of his hand, several ice chairs appeared before the platform.
Soon, someone took the central seat—a man with purple-reddish hair, wearing an expensive white collared cape.
His hand rested on his shoulder, a red gem pinned to his cuff.
Seated on the platform, his purple eyes looked down at the growing crowd of commoners, as if counting lambs to be slaughtered.
This was the scene Li Li and An Heyu encountered upon arrival.
As a noble, An Heyu ascended the platform, taking a seat at the far corner as if merely observing.
Li Li stood behind him.
Her gaze subtly swept over the gathering commoners below.
She didn’t believe these nobles were allowing commoners to stay just to watch a show.
Li Li recalled the words An Heyu had spoken to her before she came here.
They were still at the An residence then, and An Heyu had told her about the follow-up handling of that person.
That person was named Qu Ran, a cousin invited by Yue Qing.
Because they shared the same interests, they often appeared together.
But they hunted separately, not interfering with each other.
At this point, An Heyu let out a sigh of relief.
This way, the news of Qu Ran’s death could be concealed for a while.
Li Li, gazing at the ornate chandelier above, said, “How arrogant.”
“Those words don’t seem very convincing coming from you,” An Heyu remarked.
Li Li nonchalantly withdrew her gaze. “It seems you have a big misunderstanding about me.”
The recollection ended there.
Li Li closed her eyes, then quickly opened them again.
She was waiting, and also preparing.
Yue Qing hadn’t explained to An Heyu what they were going to do.
He leisurely walked atop his ability, followed closely by Yue Fu and Rao Yue.
But as he passed by, he said, “This time, we’ll definitely make Heige appear and capture his true body.”
“You’ve already lost,” he said to An Heyu.
The Yue clan and the An clan had a verbal agreement: whichever clan captured Heige first would gain the position of branch leader of Four-Way City.
But it seemed only Yue Qing took it seriously.
An Heyu’s goal wasn’t that.
In response, An Heyu arrogantly tilted his head slightly, his golden eyes coldly shifting forward, not looking at him. “Don’t get played again, chasing in circles without even touching his sleeve.”
Those words reminded Yue Qing of the last time he’d bled heavily and asked An Heyu for help to find Heige’s true body, only to fail.
He furrowed his brow briefly, then relaxed it, as if certain of victory, and left with a cryptic smile.
Throughout, Li Li stared straight ahead, like an ice sculpture on a high platform. Cold and unapproachable.
She didn’t draw Yue Qing’s attention, or rather, Yue Qing wouldn’t care about a low-rank commoner.
Hundred Faces was messing around with An Huyu, so this time, their bait wasn’t Hundred Faces, Li Li thought.
What could be the bait that would definitely make Heige appear?
The sun moved overhead, slowly climbing to its zenith.
More and more commoners gathered in front of the high platform to watch the spectacle.
When Li Li looked over, she seemed to spot a familiar brown head.
Beside it were a black one and a red one.
Yiming and the others had come to join the commotion.
Just as Li Li noticed the main group arriving, a man with purple-reddish hair seated at the very front of the platform stood up.
His name was Qu Yan, the second-in-command of the Qu clan nobility, the highest-ranking ability user below the clan head.
Qu Yan brushed the gem on his sleeve, slowly smoothing it out, then cleared his throat.
“I’m waiting for someone,” he said.
Qu Yan stepped out from behind the ice bench, circling to the very front of the platform.
“Heige, I’ve heard you have a fine face, and I happen to lack one piece to complete my collection,” he said. “But I don’t have much time, so I’ll give you three minutes.”
“One minute, one kill.” He turned back, and Yue Qing timely waved his hand.
The ice sculpture’s tail wings unfurled, revealing six people, their lower legs encased in ice, hanging upside down.
The clamor from below immediately grew louder.
Clearly, those people were all commoners, and among them was a familiar face.
Li Li glanced into the crowd, and sure enough, Yiming wore a shocked and nervous expression.
Yu Xiao, the flipping fish, had been captured and hung upside down last time, and now he debuted upside down again, dangling miserably with the other five.
Unlike the terror of the other five, he even looked bewildered.
As if spotting Yiming below, he cheerfully nodded, like he was greeting him.
Completely at ease, not acting at all.
Li Li took a closer look.
These six people shared one trait: their eyes were red.
Did Yue Qing have red-eye PTSD? she couldn’t help but think.
But she still didn’t plan to step forward now, as she didn’t believe this was their so-called trump card.
She felt they had a backup plan.
Still, she owed Yu Xiao a favor from last time.
If Yu Xiao was truly in life-or-death danger, she would step up.
For now, she’d stall. She thought.
Hang in there, flipping fish!
As Qu Yan counted down, he walked closer to the back.
When he reached ten, he headed straight for Yu Xiao.
“Your eye color is quite nice. I almost don’t want to kill you now.” Qu Yan’s fingers neared Yu Xiao’s round red eyes, causing him to shut them involuntarily, and then his fingers brushed over the eyelids.
A red blood thread shot up from behind him, its sharp tip glinting in the sunlight, aimed at Yu Xiao’s neck.
At the same moment, a figure emerged seven hundred meters away.
But Yu Xiao seemed oblivious to the situation, blankly saying, “Then don’t kill me now.”
Li Li noticed Yiming below, about to rush forward, only to be held back by An Huyu and Tang, one on each side.
She warily observed the situation while activating her ability.
A drop of blood trickled from Yu Xiao’s neck; the blood thread had pierced his skin.
Yet Yu Xiao still gazed blankly at Qu Yan, showing no negative reaction.
Like a blank sheet of paper, unaware of the cruel act being done.
Qu Yan was amused.
He lowered his head and chuckled, then said, “You make a good point.”
The blood thread that had pierced the skin retracted, and he turned around.
Li Li remained on guard.
“Anyway, Heige won’t care about your lives,” Qu Yan said, pacing to the front of the platform.
“As a remnant of the Former Ability Guild, he doesn’t plan to save you. He hasn’t shown up yet, so it seems he’s not some upright hero.”
“How about this, then?” Qu Yan reached into his cloak and pulled something out.
“The head of a Prophet—worth showing up for?” he mocked, looking at the chaotic commoners below.
That was a small nutrient tank, and inside it was a skull.
The head of an important figure from the Former Ability Guild, the Prophet?
Qu Yan, meanwhile, smiled with absolute confidence: “Your spiritual leader, his skull thrown down from here, trampled by thousands—can you remain unmoved by this?”
The commoners didn’t understand what a Prophet was, whispering among themselves to ask who this was.
Behind Yue Qing, Rao Yue showed a fleeting moment of surprise before quickly concealing it, but the veins bulging on her clenched fists betrayed her.
Li Li’s face showed no change, but her heart surged with towering waves.
He actually brought out his collection?! What conditions did Yue Qing offer to convince this man to bring the Prophet’s skull?
If there truly was a person like Heige in this world, this was indeed a bargaining chip he couldn’t refuse.
Not to mention, she had added a detail to Heige’s character: he was once raised by the Prophet.
To be trampled by thousands—this was a heart-wrenching insult to the Prophet, who had dedicated his life to fighting for the commoners’ rights!
She glanced up and saw An Heyu gently turning his head, his gaze practically screaming, You can’t act impulsively!
He looked slightly nervous, but Li Li knew his inner tension was a million times greater than what showed on the surface.
Because he knew what the Prophet meant to ‘Heige.’
The bond of being raised, the grace of being saved—this was almost the sole source of warmth ‘Heige’ felt, the only light in ‘his’ early life.
This could truly drive ‘Heige’ mad.
But Li Li, with her icy expression, responded with a few unspoken words: I won’t act impulsively.
She felt her message got through, as An Heyu turned back with visible relief.
But she hadn’t finished what she wanted to say.
Of course she wouldn’t act impulsively—her actions were always calculated.
So what she was about to do next was absolutely not reckless but the result of careful consideration.
She had already planned to step forward; she just wanted to see the source of their confidence.
This wasn’t impulsiveness.
The Qu clan’s ability was related to blood, and she deduced they could track her true body through blood sensing.
But the Qu clan noble from before was too low in rank, so she predicted the noble before her now could likely do far more.
She needed to test it.
From the beginning until now, she had always moved forward, forward.
She feared death, yet danced with it.
Everything was for the sake of living better.
...
“It’s Yu Xiao!” Yiming saw the person hanging upside down on the high platform. “How did he get caught again?”
He took a few steps forward, but before long, someone grabbed his arm.
“What are you doing?” An Huyu looked even more nervous than him. “Going to save the person up there?”
Having lived in the Floating City, he knew many noble secrets and deeply understood how terrifying these people were.
He said, “Do you know who that is? Qu Yan!
“He’s a lowlife lunatic! He once killed a third of the commoners in his territory just to create a blood path to the Floating City for his wing-horse carriage to pass through! You have no chance against him!”
“But that’s my friend!” Yiming pointed at Yu Xiao, who was being cornered by Qu Yan on the platform.
“No way! If you go, I’ll—I’ll cry right here!” An Huyu said, tears already glistening in his eyes.
Yiming: “Are you made of water or what?!”
But at the same time, Tang also grabbed Yiming.
“I don’t agree either,” the black-haired girl said calmly, her voice soft but resolute. “Things haven’t reached the worst point yet.”
“Are you telling me to wait for Heige? To see if he’ll show up to save him?” Yiming shook his head. “Why would he show up? He’s not a good person either!”
He said this, but Yiming knew the gap between himself and those on the platform.
Three high-rank ability users—completely beyond his reach.
He knew he had no way to rescue Yu Xiao from under the noses of three high-rankers.
Could he only hope that the man who treated them as amusement would step in? Was there really no other way? He gritted his teeth.
But would he really do it? That was Heige—why would he show up for the sake of a weakling’s life?
“Good afternoon.”
A low, hoarse voice seemed to surge from all directions, echoing across the square, startling a flock of white doves that flapped their wings and fled.
Yiming jerked his head up, and nearly everyone in the square, whether on or below the platform, did the same.
A man with a silver-edged mask, black trench coat, black hair, and crimson eyes stepped out from the shadows of the trees beside the square, walking through the air.
The smile on his lips was no different from before.
“I heard someone here wants to offer their skull to me. Who is it?”
He actually came!