Chapter 29 (continued)

His crimson pupils were as deep as ancient wells, without the slightest ripple. It seemed nothing could stir Qi Yue's emotions.

Yet it was precisely that look that gave Chu Yun the strong impression that Qi Yue had a past full of stories.

When she saw the rain run down Qi Yue's upturned chin and over his slender neck, Chu Yun couldn't help swallowing.

"So someone really can look restrained and sexy at the same time..."

[This scene is obviously cold and somber, with a touch of sadness, but it's got my heart racing. Forgive me, fam, for I have sinned.]

[Can someone tell me why Big Boss Qi is looking up at the sky in the rain? I don't quite get it.]

[Why else? After Brother Qi arrived on Katebis Island and arranged a place for Beixing to stay, he walked around the island alone, looking cold and gloomy without saying a word. That shows this isn't his first time here. And the Aberrants on the island that need to be "cleaned up" right now were all once living, breathing people. He has ties to this place and knows they were once test subjects, yet he has no choice but to act against them. Looking up at the sky at a time like this and letting the rain wash over him—that's compassion!!!]

Chu Yun thought the bullet comment's analysis was well reasoned, and it made her even more certain of her guess that Qi Yue had some unknown connection to the YR Research Institute. She nodded to herself and read on.

Chu Yun had thought that, in his "compassionate" state, Qi Yue might be unable to bring himself to attack the Aberrants and could get hurt as a result.

She couldn't help growing worried.

But as it turned out, her concern was well placed, though she needn't bother next time.

Because Qi Yue didn't need it at all.

Every frame that followed was filled with cold-blooded brutality and gore.

Through his own actions, Qi Yue perfectly demonstrated that a compassionate heart did nothing to slow the draw of his blade.

Standing atop the boulder, the man faced the Aberrants closing in from all sides on that rainy night alone, ruthless and decisive in slaughter.

Without a doubt, it was a one-sided massacre. The third-level Aberrants that the other Class F students hoped to avoid if possible... no, even while they were still capable of moving, they never had a chance to get close to Qi Yue.

Every single one... yes, every single one of them failed to so much as touch the hem of Qi Yue's clothes. Under the control of his Esper Ability, which was similar to Beixing's but more powerful, they melted uncontrollably before they could attack, then burst apart, turning into puddles of foul-smelling minced flesh and blood before him.

The Aberrants' blood splattered across Qi Yue's face, making him look all the more terrifying: a face as fine as jade, yet acting like an asura.

Even Zhou Ziyao, one of the main cast, who accidentally stumbled into this effortless, one-sided slaughter, would have ended up just like those Aberrants if Qi Yue hadn't stopped him coldly.

In this installment, Qi Yue had shown the audience exactly what the ultimate aesthetic of violence looked like.

When daylight finally broke, the other Class F esper students were all breathing sighs of relief, glad that the grueling night was finally over. But where Qi Yue was concerned, they as viewers were certain that, if the Aberrants still had minds of their own, they would have been the ones celebrating, not Qi Yue.

By the end of the first night, it was no exaggeration to say that the area spreading out from the boulder where Qi Yue stood was a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

"Yeah... even if he feels compassion, if Brother Qi has ties to the YR Research Institute, then no one knows better than him that what they are now can never again be the living, breathing people they once were..."

Whether it was to stop them from spreading beyond Katebis Island and threatening the survival of the Old Humans, or for the sake of the other esper students now on the island,

they all had to die.

Chu Yun believed no one understood that better than Qi Yue, who was compassionate one moment and slaughtered coldly the next.

The manga's depiction of Qi Yue's one-sided slaughter throughout the night had the bullet comments going wild over him again, so densely packed that Chu Yun could barely see.

[Is this the legendary instant kill?! He's so cool he's broken through the atmosphere!]

[What terrifying strength! Today our King of BKings has reached a whole new level of cool!!!]

[Being able to act decisively and ruthlessly despite feeling compassion, wiping everything out in an instant, makes it even more thrilling, doesn't it?!]

[Aaah, even so, I still want to throw my head back and shout: it's Qi "King of BKings" Yue, we're really saved!]

[Now that I've read this installment, I finally know how merciful Big Boss Qi was to Atas earlier (starry eyes). Come on in, darlings, let's ship them a little @Atas]

[I can smell the blood through the screen. Zhou Ziyao, who accidentally wandered in, was as pale as a ghost and so terrified he thought Brother Qi was going to kill him. That's basically me up there.]

[Qi Yue himself, the one who created that terrifying slaughter scene, didn't show the slightest change in expression until dawn. What does that mean? It means scenes like this are nothing to him. He's been through so many of them that he's already numb! Hiss... why does it feel like the more I analyze it, the more likely Qi Yue is to be a villain?]

[Let's have a serious discussion: Brother Qi told little A-Yao from the main cast, "This isn't a place you should have come to." He let A-Yao go, but doesn't that also suggest they were never on the same side?]

[Please don't let them be enemies. Big Boss Qi's heaven-defying combat power is terrifying, and he has two Esper Abilities. I don't want our Zhaozhao to get hurt again.]

[The way A-Yao backed away as he fled was so heartbreaking, sob. It reminded me of the miserable past he and the others had before Old Man Li brought them back to the Seventh Hunter Academy, when they were wandering from place to place and getting beaten and cursed at by other espers all day.]

[Even if they aren't enemies, they won't be friends. After all, when Old Man Li introduced Lu Zhaobei to our Brother Qi, Brother Qi rejected his offer of friendship.]

[I support our King of BKings being magnificent all on his own!]

[+11111, our Big Boss Qi needs no tricks. He's just a pure, hard-core cool lone wolf!]

[Of course! Our Brother Qi looks good from every angle! You could use a screenshot of any single frame as a screensaver. Damn it, why do I only have one phone?]

[To be honest, I've set them on my tablet, computer, phone, and spare phone!]

After the second season began updating, Chu Yun had gradually become a Qi Yue-only fan. Her eyes skimmed quickly over the bullet comments discussing whether Qi Yue and the main cast were friends or enemies, then settled on the comments praising him, which she liked one after another.

Every scene in which Qi Yue appeared was extraordinarily effective, and the slaughter scenes were drawn with breathtaking intensity, bringing his decisiveness in killing to life. After excitedly liking the comments, Chu Yun immediately turned them off for the moment and took full-screen screenshots. For the next week, she would have to rely on a different screenshot each day as spiritual sustenance.

After setting today's screensaver, Chu Yun's excitement subsided, and she opened the rest of the manga again.

In the manga, Qi Yue, radiating a cold, murderous aura, strode steadily through the mountain of corpses and sea of blood. At last, he stopped in front of some teeth smeared with blood and black grime. His crimson eyes lowered slightly as he looked expressionlessly at a small white rolled-up object spat out onto the ground. Then Qi Yue bent down, picked up the roll with his long, black-gloved fingers, their joints clearly defined, and slowly unfolded it...

There, the scene cut off abruptly. She flipped forward, but there was nothing more.

Chu Yun: "?!"

Chu Yun questioned her life. "That's it? But... would it kill you to give us a little more?!" Although she completely understood how the author felt, eager to share it with the audience as soon as it was drawn, couldn't they at least finish it first?! Gnashing her teeth in frustration, Chu Yun opened the bullet comments.

[Am I the only one curious where the author studied the art of cutting a manga off? Don't worry (smile), I don't mean anything by it. I'm just preparing some explosives (strikethrough) to give your school as a gift (shy).]

[So? What happens next?! (shaking wildly)]

[Who understands how it feels to have it "end so abruptly"? I'll keep this short: author, you'd better sleep with one eye open tonight, taking turns with the other (devil face).]

[I take back what I said earlier about forgiving the author for the short update (serious face), and warmly raise my 49-meter saber.]

[Aaah, unfold it! Come on, unfold it! Damn it, what's written on that note that I, a distinguished VIP, am not allowed to see?!]

Seeing that the bullet commenters were as frustrated as she was, Chu Yun, who had been left hanging on the hook, immediately felt much better.

The manga world.

36°3'45'' 50°17'22''

I should have given it to him long ago. Every time I secretly took it out and touched it, I regretted it. Will I still have a chance to give it to him?

There were only those two lines on the small, unfolded strip of paper.

The first line was written neatly, with confident strokes, and gave a set of precise coordinates. Qi Yue was familiar with the location, on the border between Area F and Area E. He had passed by it yesterday. It had collapsed into ruins, and because it was one of the places where third-level Aberrants appeared, no one was stationed there. There were no pauses in the strokes of the first line. The zero in 50° had been written carelessly, with only two-thirds of the circle formed: the pen had gone down and flicked back up without completing it. Qi Yue guessed that the person had written the coordinates so many times that it had become a habit.

The numbers of the coordinates had been crossed out with two crooked horizontal lines. The strokes had clearly been pressed down hard, showing that the person who crossed out the line above had been emotionally unstable at the time.

The line below was crooked, written lightly and messily. It looked as though it had been hurriedly written with uncontrollably trembling fingers.

And the strokes matched those of the lines crossing out the writing above.

Clearly, two people had written on this note. The person who wrote the coordinates had used slow, natural strokes with a habitual degree of pressure, and the writing took up a relatively large portion of the paper. That person was probably the "owner" of the note.

And the person who had written the line below was probably...

Qi Yue shifted part of his lowered gaze from the note to the several white human teeth on the ground, streaked with black and red.