Yue Shi took a taxi back to Happiness Apartments. After paying the fare, he stepped out and headed toward the entrance.
Old Man Qin, the security guard, gave him a friendly smile, which Yue Shi returned with a nod. The scene was perfectly natural and ordinary.
But the moment Yue Shi stepped into the building, he suddenly felt a burning gaze fixed on his back.
Perhaps a transcendent’s heightened constitution also came with sharpened intuition and a sixth sense, making them particularly sensitive to being watched.
Moreover, this feeling of being stared at had appeared briefly once before, during his afternoon nap.
Yue Shi stopped in his tracks and whipped his head around. He caught Old Man Qin staring at him with a bizarre expression—the guard looked like a highly realistic non-human creature. Greed and desire flickered in the depths of his eyes, and his entire body exuded an inexplicable, eerie aura.
Seemingly caught off guard by Yue Shi’s sudden turn, Old Man Qin froze for a split second before immediately reverting to his kind, genial self, as if the previous image had been nothing more than an illusion.
Yue Shi’s eyes flickered as he recalled how Niu Xiaohui had looked the day before; it had been exactly like this.
The shadow cast on the ground trembled and writhed as several small crows hopped out, heading straight for the nearby surveillance cameras from their blind spots.
Yue Shi walked toward Old Man Qin. Ignoring the man’s puzzled look, he went straight for the jugular:
“I can tell at a glance—you’re not human!”
The cold, hypnotic quality of his voice caused Old Man Qin’s face to stiffen. Yue Shi continued, “I don’t know how you’re masquerading as a human or how you managed to evade the detectors, but I’ve seen through your identity!”
“How did you find out?” Old Man Qin blurted out, but he quickly clamped his mouth shut, vaguely sensing that something was wrong with his state of mind.
Under normal circumstances, he should have reacted with shock and denial, playing the part of a poor, wrongly accused old man. Even if the truth were shoved in his face, he should have at least put up a struggle instead of admitting it so readily.
Yue Shi didn’t give him time to process. “You’ve left too many openings. Think about it yourself later. Right now, I have a few questions, and I expect the truth.”
“Openings?” Old Man Qin didn’t realize Yue Shi was merely bluffing. Instead, he fell into a pit of self-doubt, genuinely scrutinizing himself to see where he had slipped up.
“Are you able to create clones or puppets using hearts? This body isn’t your true self, is it?” Yue Shi asked.
“Correct.” Old Man Qin nodded instinctively, but his expression quickly shifted. He stated with certainty, “You possess a supernatural power that interferes with the mind!”
Yue Shi remained expressionless. He had indeed been using Raven's Secret Whispers. He hadn't been certain what Old Man Qin was, but since the question involved “hearts” and the guard had admitted to it, it was now practically confirmed: this was the Heart Thief.
“How did you evade the supernatural detector? Where is your main body?” Yue Shi pressed.
Old Man Qin covered his mouth tightly and remained silent, his eyes burning as he stared at Yue Shi. After a moment, he countered with a question of his own: “I’m becoming more and more interested in you. Just how many abilities do you have?”
“What does that have to do with you?” A predatory light gleamed in Yue Shi’s eyes. “For the record, you and I have no personal grudge, yet you’ve attacked me and placed me under surveillance for no reason. You even attacked another transcendent last night.”
“If I’m not mistaken, you’re hunting transcendents to harvest their hearts!”
Old Man Qin kept his eyelids lowered, refusing to speak, but Yue Shi pushed further: “Silence is a confession. Let me take another guess as to why you need those hearts...”
His voice was laced with threads of a demonic quality, and his handsome face radiated an intense pressure.
Old Man Qin fell into a sudden daze. “The purpose is... I want to seize the abilities of transcendents.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Old Man Qin realized he had been tricked again. He could no longer maintain his facade of calm.
Yue Shi was also somewhat shocked. The creature actually had such a capability?!
“No wonder you targeted me.”
“Heh heh...” Old Man Qin let out an exaggerated laugh. “It’s your own fault for being careless. Why choose to live in such a remote, high-crime area? You’re a newcomer, an outsider with no social ties or relationships—the perfect prey!”
“Oh?” Yue Shi’s expression turned mocking. “Do you still think I’m the prey?”
Old Man Qin let out a long sigh. “I didn’t expect to be exposed like this. What a waste of an identity. But don’t get cocky. I might not be able to beat you for now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t deal with you in other ways. Human schemes and wisdom... truly fascinating!”
“And how do you plan to deal with me?” Yue Shi’s fingers transformed into sharp, wicked talons, ready to strike.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Like a performer changing masks, Old Man Qin’s face instantly shifted into an expression of sheer terror. He strained his neck and screamed at the top of his lungs:
“Help! Murder!”
Right then, the wail of sirens approached from the distance. Old Man Qin shot Yue Shi a provocative look before his head lolled to the side and he collapsed. He stopped breathing instantly, his face contorted in a gruesome grimace as if he had been frightened to death.
Watching the police cars pull up to the apartment entrance, Yue Shi realized what had happened. This old bastard had actually secretly called the police. The reason he had talked so much—even under the influence of Raven's Secret Whispers—was to stall for time and set up this frame-job.
Several officers stepped out of the cars, led by Officer Liu, whom Yue Shi had met a few times before. His face was stern and rigid, and he looked at Yue Shi with unconcealed disgust as he barked an order:
“Don’t move!”
“We received a report that a transcendent is abusing his powers to murder innocent civilians. You’re coming with us!”
Yue Shi remained calm. “I’m an employee of the Tulip Security Company. There’s been a misunderstanding. The deceased is a suspect in the Heart Thief case...”
As he spoke, he reached for his phone to call Zhou Zhiheng for help. However, before he could finish his sentence—
BANG!
Officer Liu drew his weapon without hesitation. A gunshot rang out, and a bullet struck the ground right by Yue Shi’s feet. If it had been a few centimeters closer, his leg would have been shattered.
“I said don’t move! If you move again, I’ll shoot to kill!”
“You are suspected of violating the Transcendent Public Order Management Regulations. Any action you take will be viewed as violent resistance. We have the right to arrest, imprison, interrogate, or even execute you on the spot!”
Officer Liu’s voice was cold, and a slight smirk touched his lips. His eyes shimmered with an unreadable emotion, laced with a distinct, inexplicable malice.
Yue Shi’s expression darkened instantly. Interrogation, imprisonment, execution... every word stomped repeatedly on his sensitive nerves. Memories of being caged in a laboratory boiled and surged in his mind, nearly shattering his reason in an instant. His mask of benevolence began to crack, inch by inch.
Rate on N.U.
