Azure Dragon Halberd

At that moment, Li Yèlái had no idea about Yīnhuǒ's conversation with the higher-ups.

He had only just left the Black Prison. He had barely taken a few steps when someone grabbed his arm and pulled him into a small room.

It was Doll.

She was wearing a frog costume and looking at Li Yèlái with a dejected expression.

She had been a Handler stationed at the branch. When the Fantasy Band incident broke out, she had immediately led a team to support the scene.

But half an hour after she left, the Black Prison erupted into chaos.

By the time she had helped suppress the out-of-control crowds and hurried back, the riot at the Black Prison had already been quelled.

She felt terribly guilty. If she hadn't left the branch, perhaps she could have supported First Team right away. Then they wouldn't have suffered such heavy losses.

But First Team's teammates hadn't held it against her. Suppressing the Black Prison riot had been their duty.

How could they expect Doll, who had already gone to support the scene, to abandon all those civilians there?

Everyone had simply been doing their duty. The only one to blame was the enemy for being too cunning—not Doll or any other Handler.

Even so, Doll was still dejected. She held Li Yèlái by the arm with one hand and raised an advertising board with the other.

[I'm late. Are you okay? (_)]

She had clearly been startled by all the bandages covering Li Yèlái.

"I'm fine. They're all minor injuries. Actually, I should be thanking you." Li Yèlái thanked her softly. "If you hadn't given me your hair, my teammates and I wouldn't have been able to subdue the Mobius Ring Diagram."

Without Doll's hair, Shā Lì and the others would never have been able to take down the Mobius in time. The disaster would have been even more terrifying!

As Shā Lì and the others had said, Doll had been a great contributor.

Only after confirming that Li Yèlái's injuries were all superficial did Doll quietly let go of his arm. Then she raised the board again.

[I went to the Family Apartments. Xiao Yan is okay too, but she was still scared. (_)]

Li Yèlái nodded slightly. He had already gotten the answer from the Detective.

If Li Yúnyān, as a Threshold One, had heard the broadcast song, either she would have successfully become a psychic and joined the ranks of official Handlers, or she would have lost control and become a Suffering One.

The fact that she had only been frightened was already a blessing in disguise.

[Go spend some time with her. She doesn't know exactly what happened, but she was sharp enough to realize you were in danger. ()(._.`)]

"Mm." Li Yèlái nodded. Then, seeing how dejected Doll still looked, he hesitated before reaching out to pat her shoulder. "Thank you. The team is grateful to you. Otherwise, we would've suffered even greater losses."

[Mm. (;´⌒`)]

After saying goodbye to Doll, Li Yèlái went to check on Yáng Chén, who was still asleep in his hospital room.

Then he left the branch.

The sky was just beginning to lighten. Even though a whole night had passed, the streets were still in ruins.

Cars had been burned out along the roads, shops had been smashed and looted, and violent incidents had broken out in many places.

The once-prosperous streets now felt bleak and gloomy.

Who knew how long it would take for people's wounds to heal?

Li Yèlái sighed to himself. With no one on the streets, he and several colleagues used Sky Stepping to hurry back to the Family Apartments together.

The Family Apartments were just as desolate. Many of the colleagues who lived there would never be coming back.

When Li Yèlái opened the door to the Family Apartments, he saw Li Yúnyān watching the news on the sofa.

The television was reporting on the previous night's incident.

[The Fantasy Band carried out a terrorist attack, releasing hallucinogenic gas. This led to numerous violent incidents and stampedes. The number of casualties is currently being tallied.]

"Ugh." Li Yúnyān looked at Li Yèlái and sighed. "Whenever I see news like this, I get so anxious. You must be fighting desperately somewhere the public can't see."

Seeing the bandages beneath Li Yèlái's clothes, Li Yúnyān's eyes reddened.

"These are all superficial injuries." Li Yèlái hurried to reassure her as he closed the door.

Li Yúnyān fell silent. She quietly gazed at the photograph on the coffee table.

In it, a beautiful woman wore a gentle smile.

That was their mother. After she was gone, Li Yèlái and Li Yúnyān had been all each other had.

After a long while, Li Yúnyān spoke softly. "Big brother, let me become a psychic too."

Li Yèlái froze.

Li Yúnyān continued, "You know your original reason for joining the official ranks was to find a way to suppress my curse. But you have to face danger constantly, and having me drag you down makes you lose focus. Wouldn't it be better if I became a psychic too? I'd be able to protect myself, and I could help you as well."

Li Yèlái sighed inwardly. It was indeed one way to handle things.

Li Yúnyān was already a Threshold One. She was only one step away from becoming a psychic.

If she went through an intense emotional upheaval, she might become a psychic right away.

Of course, if things went wrong, she might become a Suffering One instead.

But the authorities had some safeguards for Threshold Ones. If they let the official authorities handle it, there shouldn't be too much risk.

Li Yèlái had considered this before. He had thought that after joining the official ranks, he would just coast along: take on assignments when they came up, keep working when they didn't, find a way to suppress the curse, and protect his little sister.

But things didn't seem to be going that way.

Especially after this incident, the entire giant city had been affected. It would be good for his little sister to have some strength of her own. Even if it wasn't combat power, simply having a Psychic Barrier would help.

After hesitating, Li Yèlái could only sigh. "All right. I'll ask my teammates to help. Don't try anything on your own."

Li Yúnyān nodded, then stepped closer to examine Li Yèlái's injuries. "We're blood siblings. If I become a psychic, will I have the Myriad Paths too, like you? Will I get the same abilities?"

Li Yèlái thought for a moment, then shook his head. "There's no way to know about paths. My colleagues Starfire and Shadowflow are twin siblings. One has the Zeroing Path, and the other has the Nether Path."

"I see. Then are their parents psychics?" Li Yúnyān asked.

Li Yèlái thought back. "Starfire said his father was a Threshold One, but never Awakened."

"So if a parent is a psychic or a Threshold One, their children are more likely to become psychics too?" Li Yúnyān pondered as she looked at the woman in the photograph. "Then for the two of us, does that mean Mom and Dad might have been psychics or Threshold Ones?"

"What good does it do to talk about that now?" Li Yèlái shook his head. "They're gone."

After their mother died of illness, Li Yèlái had thought of himself as having no parents.

As for the father who had left home, claiming he was going to make a fortune—

Li Yèlái had just assumed he'd died somewhere out there!

If he dared come back now and stand in front of Li Yèlái talking about making things up to them—

Li Yèlái would beat the shit out of him!

A man who had vanished after leaving a letter behind while his wife lay gravely ill in bed didn't deserve to be called a father.

Especially since, in the year before their mother died, she had already grown incredibly weak.

Yet she had used sign language to tell Li Yèlái that their father was on his way home. She could feel it.

In the end, she never saw that man again. She died with regret and longing.

Whenever Li Yèlái thought about it, he felt his anger rising.

His mother had been clever and beautiful.

He had heard she graduated from a prestigious university.

She must have had plenty of admirers when she was young.

His mother had been wonderful in every way—except for her eyesight. She had chosen that man.

Li Yèlái took several deep breaths before finally steadying his emotions.

He needed to recover properly now. He couldn't afford to get angry again.

There would be plenty to do next. Although no Forbidden Items had escaped from the Black Prison in the Eastern District, the Black Prison at the Northern City Branch hadn't been so lucky. Some Forbidden Items had escaped into the giant city.

On top of this incident, numerous wild psychics had appeared in the city. The authorities would be stepping up their operations considerably in the days ahead.

Li Yèlái had already asked the Antique Shop owner for a month off, and First Team had been pulled out of the Black Prison early to recover.

So Li Yèlái had a lot of free time. Aside from attending his colleagues' funerals, he spent his time either honing his abilities at the branch or checking the investigation's progress on the [Forum].

Since the major giant cities had all been struck by the attack, their Processing Departments were all pursuing the investigation with redoubled intensity.

They had reportedly dug up quite a few people who had once been in contact with Qin Zhi.

They had also learned the name "Ark."

Apparently, it was a mysterious organization that had remained hidden for a long time, and Qin Zhi was one of its members.

The Forum didn't say anything else. He probably needed higher clearance to find out more.

On the third day, Li Yèlái received his contribution reward for the incident.

The members of First Team generally agreed that Li Yèlái deserved the credit for the biggest contribution.

In particular, his actions had bought Shā Lì time to suppress the Mobius Ring Diagram, greatly reducing their losses.

Later, when he pursued the fleeing Zhelan army, he had also lured other Forbidden Items into the encirclement.

So this time, Li Yèlái had earned a hundred and fifty Merit Points in one go.

With the twenty-five points he already had, that brought him to a total of a hundred and seventy-five.

That was a fortune!

Before, Li Yèlái would have bought an Anti-spiritual power helmet immediately.

But Yáng Chén had secured him a trial helmet after waking up. It would arrive within half a month at most.

There was no rush now.

So Li Yèlái took his fortune to the branch's Equipment Department again.

He planned to have a new weapon made.

First was the Crimson Longsword. It was badly damaged. After splitting countless people and horses in two, the blade had been badly chipped, and even the hilt was damaged.

The Equipment Department's recommendation was that rather than repair it, they should reforge it into something more suitable.

Psychic Weapons were also divided into grades, from highest to lowest: A, B, C, and D. Apparently, there was also an S rank, but the branch didn't have any.

The various squad leaders all used A-rank weapons.

The Crimson Longsword was D-rank. Its ability was decent, but its other materials were rather poor.

The Equipment Department suggested extracting the mysterious substance from it and using higher-grade materials to forge a new weapon.

That would upgrade it to C-rank and make it much more durable, so it wouldn't break so quickly.

The only problem was the price: thirty Merit Points for the materials. If he supplied suitable materials himself, the cost would be lower.

It was pretty expensive. Li Yèlái had spent only twenty Merit Points to buy his apartment.

Was one weapon really worth more than a house?

Li Yèlái asked Cheese about it. Cheese said, "That price is normal. Generally, only third-awakening psychics can afford C-rank weapons. I've only just managed to get a C-rank weapon myself. If you get one, it'll last you a long time."

After hesitating for a while, Li Yèlái agreed to the reforging.

He paid thirty Merit Points.

As for the new weapon, after some thought, Li Yèlái chose a Qinglong Ji—in other words, a single-eared halberd.

Li Yèlái had actually liked long-handled blades quite a lot.

Just as Yáng Chén had said before, Li Yèlái had long arms and legs, and a slim waist. He was suited to wielding a blade.

And with Weakness Perception, Li Yèlái could cut both man and horse in two.

But after all, Li Yèlái had mastered Single-Handed Eighteen Thrusts and achieved a basic level of skill with the spear.

Moreover, both Xiang Yu and Huo Qubing had been masters of spear techniques.

If he kept using a long-handled blade, there were some techniques he wouldn't be able to use.

So, for the sake of value, Li Yèlái could only grit his teeth and give up the long-handled blade.

Of course, the Equipment Department also had a suggestion. If he really liked long-handled blades, he could just buy another Psychic Weapon! A C-rank one would only cost sixty contribution points!

Li Yèlái ignored them.

Instead, he continued choosing weapons. The Psychic Weapon was settled.

Now he had to replace the Jet Axe too.

He directly ordered a custom Heat-Melting Axe that he could swing with one hand and conceal easily.

Twenty Merit Points!

What a rip-off!

But after seeing the Heat-Melting Axe slice through a steel bar with ease, Li Yèlái had nothing left to say.

He dutifully paid the points.

Just as Li Yèlái was about to head back to the training grounds to practice, Yáng Chén sent him a message, asking him to come to the office.

Li Yèlái was a little puzzled. It seemed he was the only one who'd received an invitation.

Curious, Li Yèlái walked into Yáng Chén's office.

But he found several people inside. One was Yīnhuǒ, the captain of Second Team, and another was an old man he had never seen before.

The old man was so ancient that he sat curled up on the sofa, looking as if he might die at any moment.

Yet that old man made Li Yèlái feel as though he were staring into an abyss.

Yáng Chén sat in the main seat.

Ever since the incident had broken out, Yáng Chén had been in poor condition, his eyes filled with gloom.

His expression had only worsened after learning that Qin Zhi had escaped the giant city.

But today, he looked much better.

When Li Yèlái came in, he even managed a slight smile.

"Sit down."

Li Yèlái nodded and took a seat. But it was Yīnhuǒ who spoke first.

"Night General, you know about the Ark, right?"

"Of course." Li Yèlái nodded. "The Forum mentioned it. It was behind this incident."

"That's right. They're very mysterious. Although we've caught a big fish, we don't dare alert them rashly because we can't identify them." Yīnhuǒ replied, "The Ark is actually a gigantic warship drifting through the Void Realm. We can confirm that Qin Zhi was one of its passengers."

"A ship in the Void Realm?" Li Yèlái frowned. How were they supposed to attack something like that? It wasn't even in the physical world.

"As far as we know, the Ark's abilities are bizarre. Psychics with tickets can board it from anywhere. They can also trade through the Ark. Potions, Psychic Weapons—you name it. Passengers from all over the world meet and trade aboard the Ark. That's why the major giant cities haven't found any trace of them."

"Can we get a ticket?" Li Yèlái asked. "If we get one, can we infiltrate it?"

"In theory, it's very difficult to infiltrate, because only the captain can issue tickets, and he has his own standards for choosing who gets one," Yīnhuǒ replied. "Fortunately, some passengers don't want their identities exposed, so they often send their subordinates in as agents. They take the tickets aboard the Ark and handle the trading."

"And we've happened to get a ticket. The ticket holder's agent was a second-awakening psychic. We've arrested him too."

Li Yèlái's heart stirred. "A spy?"