"Mentally stable, fond of money, loyal to his friends. During our conversation, there were no signs of the Second Personality influencing the primary personality."
After dropping Xu Ye off at his destination, He Li opened her laptop in the sports car, rested it on her black-stockinged knees, and began writing her report.
"Lecherous, but timid."
"The subject occasionally glanced at my chest, but made no further advances. Even when I attempted to seduce him, he readily turned me down."
"So far, I have noticed nothing particularly unusual. During the FKC-067 Pollution Incident..."
Tap, tap, tap.
Her slender fingers tapped the keyboard. He Li lightly bit her lip, apparently considering whether she had missed anything.
Finally, she clicked send.
However, the recipient of the email was not Meng Chengfei.
"Hey, gorgeous, you've been sitting here for ages. Feeling lonely? Let me buy you a drink." Just then, a young man who looked like a street punk walked over, rested a hand on He Li's sports car, and winked at her.
"Get lost!"
"With a face like some freak disaster carved it, why are you out scaring people in broad daylight?"
"If you're that ugly, at least read a few more books!"
With that, she stepped on the accelerator and sped away.
The young man was left standing there in utter disarray, clutching his heart.
"Everyone will die."
"Whether they're nobles or commoners, Awakened or ordinary people."
"This world is heading toward its end."
He Li's words lingered in Xu Ye's ears, refusing to fade.
"That's terrifying. We'd better hurry up, get stronger, and travel back. Heavenly Dao Distortion actually can't be reversed? Isn't that just like cancer? Who knows how many places on this planet have been distorted?" Alice shuddered.
"It's over. This world is beyond saving. Xu Ye, all we can do is wait to croak."
"We'll just have to take it one step at a time." Xu Ye looked around. Sure enough, beneath the entrance to the apartment building sat a triangular black object no bigger than his palm.
This had to be the F-Class Forbidden Object [Shadow Horn] He Li had mentioned.
Apparently, this Taboo Object made ordinary people automatically overlook the area, preventing them from wandering inside.
As for the original residents, portions of their memories had been erased, and they had been relocated elsewhere.
Xu Ye had been assigned to live here because the power of an Awakened could resist the anomalies' influence and even slow the area's expansion considerably.
An area with 2% Heavenly Dao Distortion would probably take at least a century to spread across all of Night Spirit City. With human intervention, though, it would spread even more slowly.
Xu Ye walked inside as he thought.
Some things were not his concern right now.
The Dawn Blade's logistics staff had cleaned up a room on the second floor for him. It was cozily furnished, with flowers and plants, as well as a little white rabbit in a cage. Apparently, the pet had been provided specifically for the sake of an Awakened's mental health.
Xu Ye picked up the rabbit, stroked it a few times, and began surveying his surroundings.
"With 2% Heavenly Dao Distortion, this place doesn't seem any different from anywhere else. Only two anomalies have appeared."
He went into the bathroom, stood half a meter from the mirror, and looked at his reflection.
Soon, a pair of pale hands emerged and slowly reached for the neck of Xu Ye's reflection.
Alice and the rabbit stared at the mirror in horror.
Alice tried using [Soul-Seizing], but it had no effect whatsoever.
"What the hell is Heavenly Dao Distortion? Why can't my feline powers affect this place?" Every hair on Alice's body stood on end.
Xu Ye did not run away. Instead, he waited for those icy hands to close around his neck.
Once someone became an Awakened, they could break free of the Mirror Spirit's grip, but they still could not destroy it.
It was as though they belonged to two different worlds.
Yet the spirit could still affect him.
Why had Heavenly Dao Distortion appeared?
Could it have something to do with that secret incident a century ago?
Had I transmigrated into a world doomed to extinction?
Xu Ye had no way of knowing.
Perhaps even humanity's leaders had no solution.
"Hiss-"
Xu Ye shivered.
By now, the Mirror Spirit's face had emerged in the mirror. It was white, with only faint facial features, as though it wore a mask. Its surface was incredibly smooth.
The bathroom lights began to flicker.
The air turned gloomy. There was no wind, yet a low, mournful howling filled the room.
It was broad daylight, but the light here had dimmed.
The Mirror Spirit's barely visible mouth let out a strange, rasping cackle that made his skin crawl.
Alice said anxiously, "Xu Ye, hurry up and use your spiritual energy to break free! If you die, I'll have to die with you. These anomalies aren't something to mess around with!"
The hands tightened around Xu Ye's neck.
His throat was gradually being compressed.
Just as he was about to break free, an idea suddenly struck him. The tentacle on his right arm emerged, then curled toward his neck.
The tentacle seemed to wrap around something.
In the mirror, however, the tentacle was visibly wound tight around the Mirror Spirit's hands.
Xu Ye raised an eyebrow.
The Mirror Spirit froze.
It was a little awkward.
Alice's mouth fell open. "H-how is that possible? Why can your Sequence Talent affect the Mirror Spirit?"
Alice was dumbfounded.
But it seemed things were not over yet.
The next second, Xu Ye discovered that energy had begun flowing uncontrollably into his tentacle.
"It's absorbing the Mirror Spirit's energy!"
Xu Ye was astonished.
The Mirror Spirit remained stunned for a moment. When it noticed its hands beginning to shrivel and its skin wrinkling, it started struggling violently, trying to pull its hands back.
Yet Xu Ye's tentacle clung on like a lovesick man refusing to give up on his first girlfriend, with all the determination of someone declaring, "If you won't say yes, I'll pursue you until the end of time."
Only after the Mirror Spirit's hands had been drained until they resembled dead wood, and its face had caved in, leaving it looking haggard as though it had been milked dry for three days and nights, did the tentacle reluctantly release it.
The instant it was released, the Mirror Spirit vanished at lightning speed.
Xu Ye was speechless.
Bro, you're an anomaly!
Don't be such a coward.
Next, Xu Ye tried controlling the tentacle and discovered that the strength and speed of his attacks seemed to have increased considerably.
Previously, the tentacle could stretch to seven meters. Now, it could actually reach eight.
"What?!"
Xu Ye was deeply shaken.
"Alice, do you know what's going on?"
Alice crouched on the bathroom counter, rubbing the chin with a paw. "Even I don't know. There's something strange about that Sequence Talent of yours."
Then Alice lost it.
The cat's paws reached toward the sky, followed by a long howl.
"No! No! No!"
"I'm the protagonist! You're the supporting character! Oh, fate, why must you treat me this way? Heaven is unjust!"
Xu Ye clamped Alice's mouth shut with his hand.
You little drama queen.
However, as Xu Ye looked at the mirror, a sleazy grin suddenly spread across his face.
Although he did not know what had caused this, if his Sequence Talent could affect anomalies created by Heavenly Dao Distortion, and even absorb their energy...
"Heh heh heh."
Before you continue