The Center of the World

The prison was silent. Everyone vaguely guessed that after this bald giant, Guo Huzhan, entered, he would clash with Li Shutong, so they all wanted to see what would happen.

At that moment, Guo Huzhan followed everyone's gazes and headed straight for Li Shutong.

In a booming voice, he said, "No need to beat around the bush. I came here for Forbidden Item ACE-005. Tell me where it's contained in the prison, and I'll take it and leave."

Li Shutong patted Big Cat, signaling it to go off on its own, before smiling gently. "You should be more polite to your elders. It'll save you from suffering."

Guo Huzhan said indifferently, "Give me Forbidden Item ACE-005, and naturally I'll be more polite to you."

Li Shutong asked curiously, "Since when did the Spades organization become interested in Forbidden Items? From your tone, I thought you'd joined the Tribunal of Taboos."

Guo Huzhan slowly walked to a spot five meters in front of Li Shutong and stopped. "If Spades wants to fight those colossal forces, we can't overlook any source of aid. Your Knight Organization and ours may take different paths, but our goals are the same. You should understand our situation."

Li Shutong smiled. "But why come for the Forbidden Item in Prison No. 18 first?"

"Rumors outside say that Chen Corporation made an agreement with you: as long as you could contain and suppress it, they would grant you absolute freedom within Prison No. 18. And a Forbidden Item personally contained and suppressed by Li Shutong must be exceptionally powerful," Guo Huzhan said.

"You misunderstand. I never made any deal with the Chen family," Li Shutong patiently explained. "Don't make reckless judgments based on hearsay."

Qing Chen listened silently. The last time he had seen the words Tribunal of Taboos had been in He Xiaoxiao's strategy video.

And this Tribunal of Taboos seemed to exist specifically for Forbidden Items.

He realized that the Forbidden Item Guo Huzhan spoke of was likely what he himself had come to find. Perhaps it was the trial mission he had received in the Shadow Struggle.

At that moment, Guo Huzhan took another step forward. "Where is ACE-005?"

Li Shutong shook his head. "I know, but I won't tell you."

"Why?" Guo Huzhan took another step. The tattoo-like totems on his body seemed to come alive, twisting wildly as their patterns shifted.

With a thud, everyone felt the ground tremble slightly beneath that step.

Li Shutong smiled. "No particular reason. I just happen to like ACE-005."

More than three thousand prisoners began to stir. They had been stifled in Prison No. 18 for too long, watched over by guards at all times. Invisible order bound them all like shackles, and now... chaos had finally returned.

Of the seventy-two Metal Storm turrets on the steel dome, thirty-six began spinning rapidly.

The prisoners cried out in alarm. In the past, a riot had to go on for at least half an hour, until the mechanical guards lost control, before the Metal Storms would activate.

But this time was different. They activated before the riot had even begun!

At that moment, aside from Li Shutong and Guo Huzhan at the center of the storm, only Qing Chen looked up at the steel dome without distraction.

No one noticed him take several steps back amid the chaos before turning and walking in another direction.

In an instant, Guo Huzhan lunged forward and threw a punch. His fist, like a bronze bell, shot toward Li Shutong's face with thunderous force.

At the same time, the Metal Storm barrels moved. Thirty-six cold machines erupted in muzzle flashes, unleashing indiscriminate suppressive fire upon every prisoner in Prison No. 18.

They were not metal bullets, but rubber rounds.

Those thirty-six Metal Storms existed purely for suppression. The other thirty-six were the true killing machines.

Rubber bullets poured down like rain, knocking prisoners off their feet.

Guo Huzhan's fist howled like thunder, and thunder and rain raged within Prison No. 18.

But in the next instant, that fist suddenly stopped. Li Shutong merely raised a hand before him with a smile, forcibly halting the roaring blow.

Li Shutong stood motionless before Guo Huzhan, as steady as a mountain.

He turned back, wanting to see whether Qing Chen was all right. After all, unlike them, the boy was merely an ordinary person.

But Li Shutong suddenly froze.

Because Qing Chen was sitting calmly two meters behind him at the dining table where Li Shutong usually sat, the place where he studied unfinished chess games every day.

Thirty-six Metal Storms were using rubber rounds to indiscriminately suppress the prison riot. Their trajectories crisscrossed densely, yet Qing Chen sat in a blind spot beyond every line of fire.

The only shooting blind spot in Prison No. 18.

Rain poured down.

Yet not a single drop fell upon the boy.

It was as though the boy himself were the center of the world.

The black rain from the steel dome gradually came to a stop.

Other than Qing Chen, Ye Wan, Guo Huzhan, Li Shutong, and Lin Xiaoxiao, every prisoner lay on the ground clutching his head in pain.

Everyone ached all over. Some had been slow to drop down and were beaten black and blue by the Metal Storms.

Compared to their miserable state, Qing Chen, seated safely at the dining table, possessed an almost otherworldly air.

For some reason, Li Shutong felt that although he had only known the boy for a few days, he liked him more the longer he looked at him.

Neither Qing Chen's temperament nor his abilities were things someone his age should possess.

Was this the Shadow the Qing family was about to choose?

When would his own side find such a successor?

With that thought, he pushed Guo Huzhan's fist away with his palm. The movement looked casual, yet Guo Huzhan was sent stumbling back five or six meters before barely steadying himself.

Guo Huzhan did not act rashly again. Instead, he sat cross-legged on the spot and adjusted his breathing.

From beginning to end, all he had managed in this battle was to make the white training uniform on Li Shutong's body sway a few times.

There had always been rumors that Li Shutong was a demigod of the current age, but he had risen to fame so long ago that young experts like Guo Huzhan had never seen him with their own eyes.

This time, the Spades organization had sent him to Prison No. 18 to seek Forbidden Item ACE-005 and, incidentally, assess how strong Li Shutong had become.

Now Guo Huzhan understood that the gap between himself and Li Shutong remained as vast as an abyss.

Li Shutong shifted his gaze away from Qing Chen, looked at Guo Huzhan, and smiled. "Still want to fight?"

The bald giant, whose totems had returned to calm, replied in a muffled voice, "No more, no more. What's the point of fighting when I can't win? Don't worry. Even if you don't tell me, I can still find Forbidden Item ACE-005."

Qing Chen found the bald man rather interesting.

Just moments ago, Guo Huzhan had seemed ready to fight to the death, yet now he had suddenly admitted defeat.

He was not as fierce as he looked. After the fight, he had instead become rather straightforward.

That was quite a drastic change in attitude.

But Guo Huzhan was thinking that since Li Shutong knew the Forbidden Item's location, he could simply follow him. What if Li Shutong let something slip someday?

"It's fine. Take your time looking," Li Shutong said, nodding indifferently.

He stopped paying attention to Guo Huzhan and walked over to sit across from Qing Chen at the dining table. "Did you calculate this position?"

Qing Chen shook his head. "My computational ability is much stronger than that of ordinary people, but for now, I still can't handle calculations for trajectories on this scale. I could only make a rough guess."

Li Shutong shook his head as well. "A rough guess wouldn't be enough for you to find this position so precisely."

"My brief calculations only narrowed it down to four areas. The place where you sat every day happened to be among those options, so there was no need to calculate the rest," Qing Chen said calmly.

Qing Chen had gambled by sitting here, but he had gambled correctly again.

He had always been good at multiple-choice questions based on probability and judgment.

The Naming of the Night had already reached ninth place in monthly votes. What surprised me was that I seemed to have become the biggest beneficiary after Qidian changed its rules... After new books became eligible for monthly votes, my new book reached ninth place at just fifty thousand words...

You guys are awesome!

Thank you, everyone. The promise remains the same: the moment we enter the top five, I'll immediately add three more chapters! I can't update explosively too much during the new-book period, but once it goes premium, I'll definitely go all out!

Thanks to reader 1383594256452726784 for the generous donation, and thanks to Zhuo Zi Who Loves Talking, Tino9494, and Lin Xuan for becoming Alliance Leaders of this book. Generous bosses, may your fortunes be as vast as the Eastern Sea and your lives as long as the Southern Mountains!