With a roll, Lin Sheng's elbow slammed into a wooden plank on the ground, making it crack sharply.
The plank shattered into pieces. A splinter also scraped a bloody gash into his elbow.
Normally, he might have cried out in pain, but now he didn't even have time to catch his breath.
Bam!!
Behind him, countless black threads, as thin as metal wires, smashed through the windows of the house and surged toward him in a dense mass.
As they spun and danced through the air, everything they touched was swiftly stained black, disintegrated, then turned into countless black specks that merged with the threads.
Lin Sheng ran for his life. His destination was none other than the nearest city gate of Black Feather City!
Behind him, the pursuing mass of black threads pounded the rubble scattered across the street, making muffled thuds.
Wherever the threads went, everything—stones and road alike—was instantly pulverized into black specks and absorbed.
After running for a while, Lin Sheng had just dashed into the gate passage when he glanced back. His scalp instantly prickled, and he threw himself forward into a rolling dive.
Bam!!
In an instant, a dense mass of black threads fell to the ground behind him, just in front of the gate passage.
Like strands of black hair, each thread was incredibly hard. They pierced deep into the ground, no one knew how far down.
If he hadn't rolled forward just then, he would definitely have been turned into a pincushion.
Lin Sheng scrambled to his feet and immediately sprinted out of Black Feather City.
Behind him, the mass of black threads circled and danced through the air like living things, but not a single one crossed into the gate passage.
Only after realizing they had no one left to chase did the threads slowly retract, rapidly burrowing back into the house they had emerged from.
In the blink of an eye, everything returned to stillness.
Lin Sheng dropped onto the middle of the road outside the city, drenched in sweat and panting like an ox.
He could feel his vision beginning to blur. The dream was about to end.
His exploration of Black Feather City had failed after all.
The seemingly dead and peaceful city was unimaginably dangerous beneath the surface.
"Next time, I'll have to find a good opportunity. I refuse to believe I can't do it." Lin Sheng gritted his teeth as he sat on the ground.
Black Feather City was vast, and there were gaps and breaches everywhere around it. The city walls were full of holes. He refused to believe he couldn't find a safer way in.
Even if he had to risk dying once, he would find Valen Temple and get the Limit Breaking Method from inside.
His vision blurred further, and everything before him quickly grew dark.
Beep beep beep, beep beep beep.
The alarm clock on the bedside table rang shrilly without stopping.
Lin Sheng opened his eyes and sat up in bed. He let out a quiet breath and pulled back the covers.
It was already bright outside. The alarm clock showed exactly nine o'clock.
"Though I failed, this is only the beginning. I can take my time."
He got out of bed, took off his pajamas, and changed into his clothes and jacket.
Then he stood before the mirror on his wardrobe and casually tidied his messy hair until it looked a little more presentable.
Finally, he took the long sword he had borrowed from the club out of the wardrobe, slung it over his back, and left the bedroom.
The sword was inside a black case that Xiayin had kindly provided. Its exterior was jet black, making it look like an ordinary instrument case.
As soon as Lin Sheng stepped out of his room, he heard someone speaking in the living room. It sounded like a girl reciting foreign-language vocabulary.
He paused, then walked into the living room to take a look.
A short-haired girl around fifteen or sixteen, wearing a white shirt and a red plaid skirt that reached her knees, sat on his sofa, studying her vocabulary. She had delicate, pretty features.
The morning light was bright, making the girl's skin look as white as snow. She looked fresh and lovely.
"Chenchen, you're up?" When the girl saw Lin Sheng enter the living room, she quickly stood and gave him a sweet smile.
"An Xi? When did you get here? Have you had breakfast?"
Lin Sheng was a little surprised.
The girl's name was An Xi, though her family called her Xiao Xi. She was his cousin, his aunt's daughter. Since they lived nearby, she occasionally came over to visit.
Of all his relatives, An Xi was probably the one he knew best. But perhaps because their personalities didn't quite match, they weren't especially close.
"I have. My family just made some chili sauce, and Mom asked me to bring some to Aunt and Uncle. But I forgot to bring my key when I left." An Xi smiled sheepishly as she explained.
"You're in your final year of middle school already. So diligent." Lin Sheng sighed and glanced at the textbook in her hands.
The thick textbook was about as long as a magazine. Its cover was worn, clearly from being read so often that it was almost falling apart.
"Chenchen, where are you going? Aunt and Uncle went to work, so they told me to eat with you later."
An Xi noticed the long black case on Lin Sheng's back. It looked like an instrument case, so she quickly asked him.
"I've got something to do. I'll be back soon. Just stay here and study." Lin Sheng couldn't explain that he was going to the club to practice swordsmanship.
He had advanced too quickly at the club, going straight to training as an instructor. There was no way to explain his level of swordsmanship without years of practice.
But his family knew better than anyone that he had never spent much time practicing swordsmanship.
So Lin Sheng decided to keep it to himself for now.
"Are you going out to have fun, Chenchen?" An Xi's eyes flickered. "Or are you going to an internet café?"
"..." Lin Sheng was speechless. "All right, enough questions. I'm leaving. Stay here and keep an eye on the place."
"Okay." An Xi nodded.
With the sword case on his back, Lin Sheng put on his shoes, grabbed his thermos and a towel, and leisurely left the apartment.
An Xi watched quietly as Lin Sheng closed the door, then listened to his footsteps echoing in the stairwell as he went downstairs.
Sitting back down on the sofa, she was about to continue studying her vocabulary.
Then she noticed the breakfast money her aunt had left on the living room table.
"Chenchen left without eating breakfast, and he didn't take the money." Without giving it much thought, she grabbed the money and hurried to the balcony, hoping to spot Lin Sheng outside and call him back.
Suddenly, she paused, her gaze falling on Lin Sheng at the entrance to the residential complex below.
At the gate, to her surprise, Lin Sheng was walking along when a young woman wearing sunglasses approached him. The two began talking.
The woman was fashionably dressed and had a great figure. Two tall, muscular men followed behind her.
After only a few words, the two of them boarded a bus together and quickly left.
An Xi looked away, curiosity flashing in her eyes.
As far as she knew, her cousin was an ordinary, unremarkable person. He had no particular strengths in personality, looks, or height.
The only thing she remembered was that he had fair skin. His grades were mediocre too—not especially good or bad—and he rarely stood out.
She had always thought of him as just an ordinary person, but now it seemed he had a social circle she knew nothing about.
The woman just now had a very alluring figure. She was wearing sunglasses, but from the parts of her face that were visible, she definitely wasn't ugly.
Her clothes were high-end too, something like hunting gear, and they accentuated her shapely figure.
Girls like her usually hung out with other stylish, handsome men and beautiful women. How had she ended up with her cousin?
An Xi had classmates like that, so she knew from experience that people with a big difference in looks rarely got along.
"Chenchen doesn't seem as honest as he usually acts." An Xi found herself growing a little curious about Lin Sheng.
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