The Stealing Begins

Time turned back to a few moments earlier.

Lin Qiye lay in the rubble, completely drained of strength.

Although he had used his blade to deflect some of the hammer's force, he had to admit that Rose was a strength-type fighter, just like Sister Hongying.

Why was every girl he met, apart from Sister Xiaonan, a strength-type fighter?

Either way, Lin Qiye couldn't get up at all now.

His fight with Wang Mian had consumed a great deal of his mental power, but with the boost from Starry Night Dancer and Wang Mian's forbidden weapon sealed, Lin Qiye felt confident he could break Wang Mian's mask.

But the other four members had suddenly rushed him at once, catching him off guard. Taking one blow from the hammer was already his limit.

These guys had no martial virtue at all!

He couldn't accept it, couldn't accept it!

Why did they have to target him?

Amid those intense emotions, an option appeared in Lin Qiye's mind.

I can't do it, but someone else can! Since this is just an exercise, it's perfectly reasonable to let Brother Meng out to get a little revenge for me, right?

You're the ones who abandoned martial virtue first, so don't blame me for using cheats!

"Brother Meng, can we talk about something?" Lin Qiye concentrated and spoke directly to Zhou Meng in his mind.

"Quick, point the camera at Lin Qiye getting up from the rubble! Zoom in!" Yuan Gang sat bolt upright in the basement.

Sure enough, his gamble had paid off!

If nothing unexpected had happened, that last blow should have left Lin Qiye completely unable to stand.

Now that he could still get up, it most likely meant that his second personality, Zhou Meng, had come out! And this second personality's realm should be at least above the Boundless Realm, quite possibly the Klein Realm!

Sure enough, although he wore Lin Qiye's face, this Lin Qiye's expression no longer held the determination, seriousness and tension from before, nor the pain of having been attacked.

A barely perceptible smile hung on his face, but his expression was more playful and teasing.

The members of the Masked Squad stood ready, on high alert. They had arranged their formation, and the five of them approached from different directions, firmly surrounding "Lin Qiye."

"May I ask who you are, Your Excellency?" Wang Mian chose his words carefully.

He had long since sensed that although the person before him was in Lin Qiye's body, he definitely wasn't Lin Qiye himself.

"Me? My name's Zhou Meng. You can also call me Brother Meng. That's what Qiye calls me, anyway," Zhou Meng said with a smile.

He made no further move, merely walking out of the rubble and onto the open ground.

"Where's Lin Qiye?" Tianping asked from the side.

"Qiye? He went to rest. You guys wore him out just now, so he asked me to come out and help him with something."

"Oh, right. Who was it that swung the hammer just now?" Zhou Meng's eyes suddenly turned sly.

"Rose! Watch out!" Wang Mian shouted, his eyes wide.

The members of the Masked Squad understood at once. Vast amounts of mental power surged forth as they unleashed their respective abilities at Zhou Meng.

Rose had naturally heard Zhou Meng's words too. The hammer in her hands instantly grew, becoming taller than the dormitory building that had just collapsed, and she swung it forcefully at Zhou Meng.

But the moment the hammer grew, before she could swing it, Rose felt her hands go empty. Her arms had the force of the swing behind them, but no weapon. The motion merely sent her stumbling forward.

Huh? Where's my hammer?!

She instantly looked toward Zhou Meng, only to see him holding an enormous hammer and examining it closely.

"Oh! So this is the hammer! Let me try it too!"

Before he had even finished speaking, Zhou Meng swung the hammer in a full circle around himself.

Everyone in the Masked Squad had to leap back urgently to get out of Zhou Meng's attack range.

But Rose was so stunned that she reacted a moment too slowly, and Zhou Meng's hammer struck her squarely.

She flew backward like a bullet and crashed into a building 200 meters away.

The only thing Rose could think about before she passed out was why her hammer was in his hands.

In a single exchange, the Masked Squad had lost one member, going from five people to four.

"Hold on to your weapons! We don't know what his ability is yet, but it could very well be some kind of conceptual ability!" Wang Mian immediately made his assessment.

Rose's hammer hadn't flown from her hands into Zhou Meng's just now. It had appeared in his hands out of thin air.

He could therefore conclude that Zhou Meng's ability wasn't anything like a magnetic field that attracted objects, but some kind of difficult-to-counter conceptual skill. He guessed it might target the concept of weapons itself.

"Wrong guess. Try again!" Zhou Meng turned his head and fixed his eyes on Tianping, who was controlling gravity in midair.

Tianping had actually been trying to restrain Zhou Meng's movements with gravity all along, but Zhou Meng moved as usual, as though gravity had no effect on him.

Never mind being forced to his knees—there wasn't even a sign of his knees or neck bending.

If he had released his realm from the very beginning, none of those recruits could possibly have stood and spoken to him. Every last one of them would have had to lie obediently on the ground! He was clearly only in the Cup Realm, yet switching personalities could raise his realm too? Wasn't that a little too far outside the norm?

Seeing that Zhou Meng wasn't reacting at all, Tianping prepared to increase the force again, fully releasing the gravity and force fields he could control.

But then Zhou Meng beckoned to him, and Tianping fell from the sky like a kite with its string cut.

"You like pressing people into the ground so much? Then lie there for a while!" Zhou Meng pressed one hand downward.

Tianping suddenly felt a powerful force pressing against his back, but unlike the kind felt while driving, this one pushed from above instead of behind! A tremendous gravitational force pressed him firmly downward, and Tianping was pushed into the ground like a lump of dough, completely unable to get back up.

"Now!" Moon Ghost, who had long since circled behind Zhou Meng, seized the opportunity and slashed forward with all his strength.

He had calculated the angle, force and timing of this strike long ago. He had only been waiting for Zhou Meng to attack someone else so he could emerge from a blind spot and deliver a fatal blow.

His Sea Realm strength had been restored, and night had now fallen. Moon Ghost could merge completely into his surroundings and couldn't possibly be discovered, so he believed his strike was certain to hit.

But just before he struck, Zhou Meng, who had been facing forward, suddenly whipped his head around and grinned at Moon Ghost.

Although Moon Ghost was somewhat surprised, his long training meant he wouldn't be thrown off by such a minor incident. His drawn shortsword didn't hesitate in the slightest.

But the next moment, Moon Ghost suddenly discovered that Zhou Meng had vanished into the air before his eyes.

Where is he? Where did he go? Can he turn invisible too?

His strike having missed, Moon Ghost was about to turn back into moonlight and disperse, but he found that his body seemed frozen. He simply couldn't dissolve and disperse into moonlight!

The next second, someone gently tapped his right shoulder from behind.

"Friend, are you looking for me?"