Wang Jian didn't take the bus home today.
He chose to walk.
He wanted some quiet time to sort through everything he'd learned today.
While watching his teacher demonstrate the Yellow-Black Fist earlier, he'd felt like he'd grasped something.
The more he thought about it now, the more he sensed there was some subtlety hidden in the technique that he hadn't yet understood.
His chest even began to itch with anticipation, and he felt a pleasant sense of being on the verge of a breakthrough.
This was what it felt like to be on the cusp of mastering the basics.
Without realizing it, he changed his footwork. Each step landed firmly, like an Earth Stance.
His foot ground against the pavement, matching the opening stance of the Yellow-Black Fist.
As he planted each step, a faint current of energy sank into the earth.
The qi and blood throughout his body also began to circulate slowly, and his mind grew completely calm.
"My teacher thinks so highly of me. I absolutely can't let him down!"
Wang Jian clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking.
Night was almost upon him, yet his eyes shone with startling brightness.
The streets were empty after dark, not a soul in sight.
Only the streetlights cast their cold circles of light.
But Wang Jian couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
He walked this route every day. Why did it feel different tonight?
"Strange. Where are all the aunties who usually dance in the square around this time?"
Wang Jian glanced around, but didn't spot anything unusual.
He relaxed a little and just wanted to hurry home.
As he walked, a chill shot up his spine without warning!
It felt as though he'd fallen into an ice cave, cold from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet.
It was as if invisible hands had reached out from the air, icy and bone-chilling, and clamped down hard on his head.
Those hands forced him to turn around, making him face the pitch-black alley entrance.
Then his body stopped obeying him.
Like a puppet pulled by strings, he was controlled by that bone-deep chill, his body stiff as he shuffled, one halting step at a time, toward Willow Shade Lane.
The dark mouth of the alley seemed like a monster waiting quietly for him to walk right in.
"Damn it! Why can't I move at all?!"
Wang Jian was both shocked and terrified.
He'd only been walking slowly because he was mulling over the fist technique. How had he actually run into something this sinister?!
He forced himself to calm down, frantically recalling what the authorities had taught him.
The Spirit Race!
These things specialized in mental attacks. They were the nightmare of low-ranking martial artists and ordinary people!
Once dragged into their illusions, you were basically dead!
The will to survive screamed wildly in his mind.
"Come out!"
"Cowardly beast, hiding in the shadows!"
Wang Jian roared with all his might, hoping to provoke the thing so he could see what it was and find a way to survive.
Laughter drifted through the air.
It was faint and almost inaudible, yet it made his scalp tingle.
The chill around him instantly grew heavier.
Even the last of his strength to shout was taken from him.
All he could do was watch helplessly as he drew closer and closer to the black alley entrance.
Now he could see it more clearly.
The entire alley was deathly silent, as if sealed off from the outside world by an invisible membrane.
He remembered that several homes in the alley had still had their lights on at dusk.
Now all those lights were out. There wasn't a trace of life to be felt.
He also remembered how the owner of the little shop by the alley entrance used to sit in his reclining chair, fanning himself in the evening. Whenever he saw Wang Jian, he'd smile and greet him.
But now, in the faint moonlight, Wang Jian saw a horrifying sight he would never forget for the rest of his life.
The walls on both sides of the alley were covered with people!
Men and women, old and young, hung there in dense rows like strings of dried meat, nooses made of invisible rope cinched around their necks.
Everyone's eyes were wide open, their faces filled with the terror and unwillingness they'd felt before dying.
The shopkeeper was among them.
There was no trace of a smile left on his face, only the ashen pallor and despair of a corpse.
A gust of sinister wind swept through, making the hanging "corpses" sway gently.
It was as if they were silently welcoming their newest arrival.
Wang Jian could no longer tell whether this was an illusion or real.
At the sight of this hellish scene, his pupils shrank to pinpoints.
Boundless rage abruptly eclipsed his fear, erupting in his chest like a volcano!
His heart pounded like mad. Thump! Thump! Thump!
His blood surged and roared through his veins!
"Beast!"
"I'll kill you!!"
His hoarse, furious roar actually broke through the mental restraints!
His extreme fury ignited the martial will deep within him.
His special constitution, "Mystic Rock Bone," seemed to be activated by that will as well.
A nearly imperceptible, earthy-yellow glow rose over his body.
The glow gave him firm support, allowing him to barely resist the ubiquitous, sinister pressure on a mental level!
But that was all it could do.
His struggle was like that of a tiny insect caught in a spiderweb: fierce, but incapable of changing the outcome.
The Spirit Race's mental power was far stronger than he'd imagined.
Just as his will was about to be completely Devoured and he was on the verge of falling into endless darkness...
An invisible, intangible mental shock, sharp to the extreme, appeared!
Like the first ray of light cutting through the night, it suddenly pierced into the mental domain controlled by the Spirit Race.
Then it struck the Spirit Race's consciousness controlling him with perfect precision!
Chen Yan, hidden in the shadows, had made his move!
The Spirit Race hadn't been prepared at all. It let out a shrill mental screech that pierced the ears.
Its control over Wang Jian loosened at once.
It clearly hadn't expected a third party to dare interfere—and to attack it with a method so similar to its own!
Seeing that it wouldn't be able to Devour Wang Jian's stubborn will anytime soon, the Spirit Race immediately turned its attention elsewhere.
A vast, chilling wave of mental power surged like floodwaters breaching a dam, slamming toward the strand of divine sense Chen Yan had extended!
Chen Yan's divine sense shook violently.
The sensation from the mental clash startled him, too.
This Spirit Race was far stronger than the one he'd encountered earlier in the family housing compound!
Wang Jian felt a buzz in his head, then suddenly everything cleared.
The suffocating illusions and the feeling of being controlled receded rapidly, like the tide.
He gasped for breath. When he looked around, cold sweat had soaked his back.
The street he stood on was still the same street.
But it was silent, the streetlights dim, and every household had its doors and windows shut.
This place had become a dead zone!
"Which expert has come to my aid?"
"I'm Wang Jian, your junior, and I'm deeply grateful! What should I do?"
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