Are You Afraid?

The night seemed to boil.

Gu Jianlin swung the chair, knocking the dagger from his opponent's hand with pinpoint accuracy!

In that instant, he got a clear look at his enemy.

An utterly ordinary-looking man!

Joker!

"How did you find me?"

Joker rubbed his aching wrist, blood staining the corner of his mouth. "And how did you dare come looking for me?"

His first strike had failed, and he actually began backing away step by step, keeping a safe distance.

At the end of the corridor lay an unconscious girl. She even had a katana in her hand. If nothing unexpected had happened, she was an investigator affiliated with the Ether Association.

She'd just been knocked out, but at least she was still alive.

Listening to the girl's Life Rhythm grow fainter, Gu Jianlin said expressionlessly:

"As long as something exists, it leaves traces. It doesn't matter if you use a Mythic Armament or some other supernatural ability. You might be able to evade supernatural methods of detection, but you can't erase the traces you've left in this world. At least, whatever you're using can't do that."

Joker stopped backing away. A puzzled look crossed his ordinary face. "Even so, the Ether Association and the Tribunal have used plenty of conventional methods to search for me. So many experts and detectives on special task forces couldn't find me. How did you manage it?"

"They couldn't do it. That doesn't mean I can't," Gu Jianlin said coolly.

An impeccable answer.

"Impressive. Everyone around you has been saying you've gone crazy lately, but I knew you hadn't."

Joker gave him a thumbs-up and sneered. "You inherited your father's talent. How wonderful. After your father died, I kept wondering how I'd get my revenge. Good thing you're here. I'll make your death excruciating."

Gu Jianlin smiled silently.

Just as he'd expected, these people had been watching him for a long time.

Joker licked his lips and asked, "So how did you dare come right up to me?"

"There's something I want to ask you."

Gu Jianlin lifted his eyes and spoke softly. "Besides... there's nothing about you worth being afraid of."

The light above them flickered, a faint glow flashing across the ceiling.

In the next instant, Joker's face loomed in the shadows, sinister and strange. The corners of his mouth slowly curled upward.

It stretched almost to his ears.

"You should be afraid, actually. Even if you've probably awakened by now, the Ether Association must have told you how dangerous I am. Let me guess: you're counting on the Association?"

He scoffed. "Do you really think the Ether Association wants to help you? Don't you know what you are? If they valued you, they wouldn't use you to lure me out. You're Gu Ci'an's son—the son of a Fallen. In a world beneath the sun, you'll always bear that disgrace."

"So what?"

Gu Jianlin's eyes were unfathomable. "A man who's about to die doesn't need to worry about the living."

"I didn't expect you to be so arrogant. But as a newcomer, you ought to do your homework."

Joker held up one finger and smiled. "Everyone knows that villains die from talking too much, but the Magician Path is an exception. For a Magician, every glance, every gesture, every word is part of the battle. After today, you and your family will pay a terrible price for your foolishness."

He continued, "You're nothing but bait. And as bait, you foolishly took the hook."

"Are you finished talking?" Gu Jianlin said expressionlessly.

Joker looked at him with pity and sighed softly. "You really don't know what's good for you."

For an instant, Gu Jianlin's world went dark. Whispering filled his ears, as if someone were confiding in him. He felt himself floating among the clouds, his whole body tingling, his limbs growing heavy as sleep crept over him.

Hypnosis!

Yes, the battle had begun with the very first sentence.

Joker had talked so much because he'd been using his words, gestures, and even the changes in his gaze to plant psychological suggestions. His ultimate goal was to use Hypnosis. It was a Magician's way of fighting.

"Sleep. Have a good rest. You're exhausted..."

Joker smiled. His voice was strange and profound, like a dark lullaby. "Just like your dead father, sleep forever and never wake up again."

At those words, an ancient, awe-inspiring Black Kirin seemed to stir in the depths of Gu Jianlin's consciousness!

Its golden slit pupils burned fiercely!

Joker froze for a moment, as if he'd sensed something ominous.

"Shut your mouth."

Gu Jianlin sprang into action, grabbed a bowl of half-finished noodles beside him, and slammed it into Joker's head!

Noodles and broth smeared across Joker's face and dripped down.

Joker roared angrily and tore the metal bowl off his head.

Gu Jianlin had already drawn the Desert Eagle from his waist. He cocked it, aimed, and pulled the trigger with practiced ease!

He'd practiced this move thousands of times the night before.

Bang, bang, bang!

The three muffled shots rang out. Alchemical silencing had reduced the sound from the muzzle to something like a basketball bouncing.

But all three bullets missed.

At the sound of the Desert Eagle being cocked, Joker's first reaction had been to duck and roll. Only after rolling three times did he burst into a cloud of smoke and vanish from the spot.

Teleportation.

No—that shouldn't have been Teleportation. It was a charged leap!

The skill required a windup!

Gu Jianlin had no idea where he'd gone.

A normal person who lost sight of their target in such dim surroundings would have panicked.

Gu Jianlin remained unusually calm. Without even turning his head, he twisted sideways and raised his hand like lightning, pulling the trigger.

Bang! A bullet's kinetic force knocked away the dagger thrusting toward his back.

He twisted his waist again, adjusted his aim, and pulled the trigger.

Two more merciless shots!

The muzzle flash flickered and vanished.

A hoarse, suppressed groan rang through the darkness.

Blood splattered across the floor.

Joker clutched his bleeding shoulder, his face full of disbelief.

He seemed unable to understand what had just happened.

He was a second-tier Magician, yet his Hypnosis had failed against a rookie at the zero tier!

And that young man had somehow predicted where he would appear and already turned his gun toward him.

That was how he'd seized the fleeting opportunity to knock away Joker's dagger.

Frightened, Joker used Teleportation again, trying to change positions and switch tactics.

To his surprise, he was shot almost as soon as he moved.

What unsettled him most was that the boy hadn't used a supernatural ability at all!

"Confused?" Gu Jianlin said coldly. "Then why don't you guess why I talked to you for so long?"

Joker froze.

The answer was simple.

Gu Jianlin had kept him talking to build a complete profile of his personality.

The more complete the profile, the better he understood him.

And the better he could control his mind.

Every gesture. Every expression.

Even the slightest shift in his gaze, the rhythm and pace of his breathing.

All of it could reveal what he was thinking.

Even in the silence, Joker's Life Rhythm had been as harsh and grating as a fingernail scraping across a blackboard. The noise was so obvious that it was impossible to ignore.

Gu Jianlin analyzed all that information to predict Joker's movements in advance.

He'd achieved something almost like foreknowledge!

"I told you that you shouldn't have revealed so much to me."

Gu Jianlin tightened his grip on the Desert Eagle, feeling his hand go numb. "You're pretty tough. You must have hurt yourself before and gotten used to pain. And you've trained in mixed martial arts for a while—probably with the Ether Association, right? You're better than me in those two areas. But the longer we fight, the more I'll learn about you."

Joker clutched his bleeding left shoulder. His face twisted, his eyes chillingly cold.

"Six tomorrow evening? I'm afraid I can't wait that long."

Gu Jianlin held the pistol in his left hand and lifted a chair with his right. He advanced expressionlessly.

"Your Hypnosis doesn't work on me. What else have you got?"

The young man's gaze was cold, as though he were looking at a corpse. "What about your Mythic Armament? Aren't you going to use it? From here on, I'll guess every move you make. Want to try?"

Baiting him.

He was a Fallen, so Gu Jianlin had to provoke him.

Ideally, he'd end up like Li Changzhi.

Lose his reason and become an idiot.

Joker's face, still smeared with noodle soup, twisted as he rolled his shoulders and limbs. His joints crackled. He sneered, "And you really think that a mere personality profile can make up for the gap in our supernatural abilities?"

He pulled a playing card from his pocket. Its sharp edge gleamed with a cold light.

"You'll pay for your foolishness."

"Then let's keep going."

Gu Jianlin picked up a chair in each hand.

Giving his enemy no chance to catch his breath, the young man charged with both chairs raised.

He swung them down!

A deafening crash rang out as both chairs shattered on the floor.

Joker used Teleportation, vanishing into a cloud of smoke to dodge.

To the left!

But Gu Jianlin had already seen through his intentions. Gripping the broken half of a chair leg, he swung it to the left!

In an instant, a chilling glint sliced through the air like a blade, making Joker's heart clench.

With a sharp whistle, a playing card as hard as a knife spun toward him. It sliced through the chair leg in Gu Jianlin's hand as easily as it would tofu, then skimmed perilously close to his cheek.

It finally buried itself straight into the wall behind him.

Card Blade!

A second-tier Magician was already highly practiced at turning paper into blades.

If Gu Jianlin hadn't predicted the attack, he would have been cut across the throat in that instant.

"Profiling isn't omnipotent, either."

Joker's labored breathing came from a dark corner, his voice full of hateful menace. "This is only the beginning. It's going to hurt a lot more from here on."

He talked tough, but the fight had been far too frustrating.

He knew perfectly well that his opponent was just a rookie kid, yet ordinary Hypnosis had no effect on him.

That had taken away more than half the Magician Path's abilities.

And when it came to fighting, the kid refused to play by the rules.

Using his profile to predict Joker's moves, he just grabbed a chair and smashed away like a street thug, with no technique at all.

Joker prowled through the darkness, sneering. "What do you think will happen to your family once I'm done with you?"

Magicians always had to talk during a fight, because that was how they planted psychological suggestions.

Once their opponent's mind showed a crack, they could use Hypnosis.

Gu Jianlin had already looked into how Magicians used their abilities. He charged again, chair in hand. "At least I have a family. You're an orphan."

A devastating strike!

Joker laughed in fury, his expression grotesquely twisted. He looked like a crazed puppet possessed by a vengeful spirit.

A scarlet glow burst from his eyes. Hypnosis!

Gu Jianlin felt the world spin again. Playing cards whirled before his eyes, and sleepiness washed over him.

He realized something was wrong. The playing cards from earlier had also planted psychological suggestions!

Combined with Joker's voice, they had triggered Hypnosis again!

This Hypnosis was unlike the previous one. Gu Jianlin felt as though he'd fallen into a dream. He was back on the highway he feared more than anything, watching a huge truck roar through the storm and charge at him.

It seemed ready to smash his life to pieces.

At the crucial moment, someone turned around and held him tightly in his arms.

"Old Gu..."

Gu Jianlin's mind went hazy. He stared blankly at that familiar face.

"Don't be afraid."

The man comforted him by the ear. "Just go to sleep. You'll be fine."

Gu Jianlin seemed to be soothed by that gentle voice. He stood motionless, giving up his resistance.

"That's right. Just go to sleep. Death isn't scary. This is only a nightmare."

Joker spoke as if he were coaxing a child to sleep, but the smile on his face was warped with venom. He approached step by step.

When he used Hypnosis, he couldn't use Teleportation or Card Blade at the same time.

So he could only inch closer, then kill Gu Jianlin with one strike.

Joker had suspected that the boy might have a strong will, which was why ordinary Hypnosis hadn't worked.

But he refused to give up. He had to try again.

This time, he used Hypnosis with all his strength, attacking the boy's greatest nightmare to break his will!

Just as he'd expected, it worked extremely well.

Gu Jianlin had given up resisting.

Joker approached the motionless boy and drew a dagger with his right hand.

In that instant, Gu Jianlin suddenly looked up, his eyes seeming to surge with the might of the primordial age!

He sprang into action. The broken chair leg, bristling with sharp wooden splinters, pierced the air with a shrill whistle!

Crack! Blood sprayed into the air.

Joker staggered backward, the broken chair leg buried in his lower abdomen about two centimeters deep.

Whether from pain or fury, his face twisted into a hideous grimace, as if the demon inside him were about to burst out.

Amid his hoarse roars, only one meaning came through.

You little shit!

"Sorry, but my dad would never talk to me like that!"

Angry, blood-red veins spread across Gu Jianlin's eyes. He grabbed two more chairs and brought them crashing down!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

The barrage of blows knocked Joker flat on the ground. He covered his head with both hands, then burst into a cloud of smoke again.

When he reappeared, he had landed beside the window. A silver-white chain had somehow appeared around his wrist, stretching into the darkness and hovering in midair, circling him.

There it was—the Mythic Armament!