Chapter 59: Opportunist (First Update)
“Alright,” Yue Fu replied carelessly, descending the staircase.
Passing Rao Yue, who was half-kneeling at the base of the stairs, he approached An Huyu. “Be good, and I won’t hurt you, little weakling.”
Buds sprouted from the ground in front of the vines, like a beast baring its fangs at An Huyu.
An Huyu, as if holding back a torrent of words, his face streaked with tears, glared at Yue Fu with a fierce expression for the first time. “My brother is the strongest!”
He was a weakling—he admitted it.
An Huyu was just a little weakling, and he knew it.
But he couldn’t tolerate Yue Fu’s flippant tone belittling his brother!
In that moment, he couldn’t suppress the emotions he’d long buried.
“You can’t hurt him!” In his heart, his brother was forever the strongest.
When their family was turned upside down overnight, their parents vanished in a sea of flames, and all familiar kin and past honors were consumed by fire.
When he was lost, having nearly lost everything and not knowing what to do, it was his brother who took charge of the An clan’s affairs, propping up the collapsing giant in mere days.
It was his brother who, amidst the wolves shedding decorum and coveting their family’s assets with greedy faces, preserved their honor.
It was his brother who, with formidable strength, repelled those well-dressed demons and ghosts.
As if he would never fall, always standing before him, using his immense power to hold up the sky for him.
“Yue Qing, you’re just a commoner who rose by betraying your old master! What right do you have to be compared to my brother?!” he shouted angrily.
In An Huyu’s mind, his brother would always, under the orange candlelight of the Reunion Festival, turn his head and give him a gentle smile.
He didn’t dislike his brother at all—he just hated his own useless self.
Yue Qing’s initially disdainful expression froze.
Vines surged from the ground, twisting and wrapping tightly around An Huyu.
“Cry slowly,” Yue Fu raised a hand, and the vines lifted, pulling An Huyu’s feet off the ground.
Yue Fu didn’t care what An Huyu said, but Yue Qing did.
His noble status, earned through struggle, was what he cared about most.
But that wasn’t reason enough for Yue Qing to bicker with a non-ability user like An Huyu.
Yet at that moment.
“He’s got a point.”
It was Rao Yue’s voice.
In an unnoticed corner, Rao Yue briefly showed a startled expression—she hadn’t spoken!
But she quickly reacted, lowering her head and mouthing words to the ground.
As if she had indeed said it.
“The An clan is an old-blood noble family. If we kill their subordinates, An Heyu might turn against us,” Rao Yue’s voice continued in the narrow, empty space. “If this causes damage to the Yue clan, it’s not worth it.”
“Clan leader, let them go.”
Yue Fu blinked, looking at the still half-kneeling Rao Yue, his face full of surprise.
He didn’t think this was something Rao Yue would say, but before he could question it—
Yue Qing laughed.
The man didn’t scrutinize Rao Yue’s anomaly but was thoroughly enraged by his subordinate’s overt advice, which was covertly belittling.
“Hahahaha…”
This was the barrier he could never cross—compared to the old-blood noble An Heyu, he was just a commoner, even now summoned like a servant by Qu Yan, a mere upstart!
“To our disadvantage? Cause us damage?” The subordinate’s provocation fully ignited the pride buried deep within him.
He stepped downward, taking the first step, then the second, onto the staircase leading to the narrow space.
“Is that something to fear?” he said. “A fallen noble who can barely protect himself—is that worth the fear of the new noble, the Yue clan?!”
He sneered at An Huyu’s wide-eyed expression. “But you’re right. Why should I return An Heyu’s brother unharmed?”
“Why not send him a corpse?” He wanted to prove his strength to his subordinates. “Let him see what he’s capable of!”
Ice spread beneath his feet, intent on freezing the three young boys and girls below into statues!
He held nothing back.
The S-rank ability surged forward almost instantly.
Yiming stepped forward, attempting to shield them by metallizing his arms against the ice.
But it was futile, just like that day at the Qing Tong stronghold.
His arms would only freeze and rot.
The ice, accompanied by a frosty wind, climbed across his face, forming frost.
It was ice that even Tang’s healing couldn’t melt.
The vines withered and died in the snow and ice, and Yue Fu and Rao Yue were similarly engulfed in the bitter cold.
Tang gritted her teeth, desperately using her ability, but it was no use.
An Huyu’s tears froze into ice.
That moment felt like an eternity.
Standing on the staircase, the blue-haired man backlit by the outside glow resembled the figure from that day at Qing Tong, and in Yiming’s eyes, it was as if everything was repeating.
An unstoppable enemy, his own powerlessness, and his inability to protect Tang or An Huyu, who was in danger because he’d helped him.
The cold seemed to invade his limbs, nearly freezing his burning blood.
This time, no one would stand before him, facing away, blocking the enemy’s ice prisms for him.
The frigid ice crept over his body, and he suddenly recalled that day.
An ice prism had grazed the slender youth’s brow, leaving a red mark at the corner of his eye.
The youth, turning his face and speaking cold words, his dark pupils not meeting Yiming’s gaze, seemed to look into endless loneliness.
And then he saved them, protected them.
“Brother…”
Frost sealed half his face.
As if in a dream, when his vision was nearly overtaken by white, he thought he saw a blue glimmer.
Swaying, a blue pendant.
In an instant, it was as if the past replayed.
“Boom!”
The ground trembled, and Yue Qing, standing on the staircase, whipped his head around.
The light from the outside behind him vanished.
Darkness engulfed his vision, and within it, countless silver-white long blades appeared from above, their surfaces interlocking as they plunged into the ground, separating them from Yue Qing.
Just like that day when someone suddenly appeared before Yiming, blocking an unavoidable bullet.
The blades transformed into a wall, halting the ability user’s ice while completely isolating the staircase from them.
Just like that day when he and Tang, outside Qing Tong, saw the bronze wall that had shielded them.
The ground continued to shake, dust falling from the ceiling, sprinkling onto the still-unmelted ice.
Voices spoke around him, as if someone was calling his name.
But he seemed unable to hear them.
The blue pendant.
He seemed to see that familiar face again, those dark pupils, and the near-drowning loneliness in their depths.
Yiming’s frozen body still gazed forward, into the pitch-black, at the wall that had just appeared.
Is it you? He opened his mouth, his throat letting out a hoarse sound.
“Did you protect me again?”
He heard his own weak voice, like a drenched puppy, pitifully calling for the master who had left him behind.
“Brother?”
This time, could he stay?
He didn’t want to run.
…
Yue Qing, an S-rank ability user, far surpassed Li Li’s own B-rank.
But she came.
The darkness crafted by her illusions enveloped Yue Qing on the staircase, and Li Li hid herself within it.
Boundless shadows, a confined space.
Yue Qing trembled, his face pale, sweat dripping from his forehead.
He looked around frantically, forgetting even his own ability.
Li Li considered herself an opportunist.
The moment she saw this perfect terrain, a plan had formed in her mind.
An Huyu’s outburst added fuel to the fire, and then she used the voice of Rao Yue, the Former Ability Guild’s traitor, to fan the flames, luring Yue Qing onto the staircase.
Then she sealed him in a narrow box.
Because Yue Qing had claustrophobia.
That was why, during his first meeting with Heige, he’d proactively destroyed the villa to move to an open space.
That was why he avoided enclosed areas and initially refused to enter this basement.
That was why he resisted, why he brought Yue Fu along even when coming himself.
The information she’d gotten from Yue Shan now proved perfectly useful.
She didn’t need to do much—just apply pressure in the darkness and let Yue Qing collapse on his own.
Yue Qing stumbled back, tripped by the steps, and fell down the staircase, crashing hard into the wall.
“Let me out, let me out!”
Gone was his earlier polished demeanor.
His deep blue hair clung to his head with sweat, his mouth and limbs trembling.
The impact seemed to finally jolt him into clarity, and he lashed out with his ability.
Ice spread in the cramped space, but it couldn’t harm Li Li, hidden in the darkness.
Just as Li Li prepared to intensify the pressure—
[Update target detected as achieved.]
[Opening channel for you…]
Li Li: ???? Now?!
For the first time, she wanted to rip open the system and see what was stuffed in its head!
In that split second of distraction, the S-rank ability’s ice spread to her right foot.
The chill surged upward from below.
[Welcome back to reality.]
The scene before her eyes changed instantly.
…
“Damn it!” She slammed the table in frustration, startling her roommate behind her, who jumped in her chair.
“Li, Lili!” Her roommate cautiously turned around. “Who got you so mad?”
Li Li took a deep breath, glanced at the PPT on her laptop, and said, “It’s tomorrow’s exam.”
Right, she had an exam tomorrow.
She’d spent less than a day in the manga world, but the thrilling experiences and the frustration of being pulled back by the system at the critical moment dissipated the instant she saw the math formulas.
Here’s a joke: she had an exam tomorrow.
“I heard about it too,” her roommate said, relieved, turning back to comfort her. “That teacher’s got some serious issues, springing an exam on us last minute.”
Li Li took a few more deep breaths, one hand rubbing her forehead, the other reaching for the water cup on her desk.
She was so angry she felt parched.
She needed some cold water to calm down, then she’d dive back into the PPT and her workbook.
After all, the exam was during the morning class, leaving little time after waking up. She’d have to pull an all-nighter.
When she brought the cup to her lips, she shook it and realized it was empty.
Sighing, she propped her forehead-hand on the desk, preparing to stand and fetch water from the dorm hallway’s dispenser.
Just as she put weight on her right foot to stand—
“Crash!”
The cup slipped from her hand, shattering into glass fragments on the floor.