Chapter 52: Arrival

This short lunch finally ended in a tacit silence.

The four of them walked out of McDonald’s and returned to the old, yet vibrant, street.

The afternoon sun struggled to squeeze through the gaps in the thick clouds, but it lacked warmth, only tinging everything around them with an unreal yellowish hue.

Yin Xiran quickly called a car on her phone.

While they waited, no one mentioned the conversation in the store.

Chen Dongyang tried several times to lighten the mood, but seeing Jiang Yuxin’s cold, repulsive face and Yin Xiran’s expression, which had regained its composure but still held a certain distance, he wisely chose to keep quiet.

‘If only I could be smarter, or more powerful, it would be better,’ he thought.

The car arrived quickly.

The four of them boarded silently, and Yin Xiran announced the place name, “Wanglong Mountain.”

The driver, a talkative middle-aged man, seemed to want to liven up the strangely dull atmosphere in the car.

He kept finding topics to talk about throughout the ride, from today’s bizarre death news, to the abandoned observatory on Wanglong Mountain rumored to be haunted, to the recently popular concept of space elevators.

However, his enthusiasm was doomed to fail.

None of the four people, including Chen Dongyang in the passenger seat, were in the mood to respond.

Chen Dongyang and Yin Qingle only responded with the occasional “hmm” and “ah” out of politeness.

Yin Xiran pretended to sleep with her headphones on the entire time, and Jiang Yuxin, from the moment she got in the car, turned her head away from the window, as if she were the only one in the car.

Her eyes passed through the rapidly receding street scene, but her thoughts had already drifted far away.

‘In fact, I don’t care at all who the person hiding behind the scenes is.

Whether it was the music teacher named Zhao Haoyu or any other random person, it made no difference to me.

After all, they were still human.

As long as they were human, they had thoughts, emotions, and weaknesses.

As long as they were human, they could not escape my control.

To me, the so-called mastermind behind the scenes was not even a real opponent.’

From the beginning to the end, Jiang Yuxin never and would not take that kind of thing seriously.

The only one who could really attract her attention was that “angel.”

That soft-bodied creature covered with eyes was undoubtedly an “abnormality” and an “out-of-control” thing that Jiang Yuxin could never tolerate.

Its existence itself was a denial and a provocation to her ability.

At first, Jiang Yuxin thought it was because it had no “heart,” no “wisdom,” no “thinking” ability, that it was unaffected by her ability.

The shadow of the old teaching building was similar.

But after the trip to the library, when Chen Dongyang and Yin Xiran suggested that the shadow was a “vengeful spirit,” Jiang Yuxin realized something was wrong.

Logically, a being formed from the resentment of a dead human being is still essentially a combination of spirit and consciousness.

Logically, it should be within her control and should not be ineffective.

But the fact is, her mental power penetrated it, but she could not sense anything.

So she recalled yesterday again, on the rooftop of the unfinished building, when the monster called “Angel” descended, and when her mental power was once again ineffective against the monster, Jiang Yuxin finally connected all the clues together.

That shadow might really be a vengeful spirit, but it was not the real person.

It was just a shell, a pathetic carrier.

And that “angel” had been parasitic within it from the very beginning.

It was the “angel’s” presence that blocked her perception, like an invisible isolation field, completely nullifying her abilities.

This also explained why the vengeful spirit was ultimately persuaded by Chen Dongyang’s childish rhetoric.

Because when the core parasite, the “angel,” shed its old shell on the rooftop of the unfinished building and attempted to “emerge” into a new form, the pitiful vengeful spirit, imprisoned for over a decade, finally briefly regained its shattered consciousness, which was left with only instincts.

Not all monsters were special, only “angels” had the power of “invalidation.”

What Jiang Yuxin could not tolerate the most was this “invalidation” characteristic, which inevitably made her think of another person.

Chen Dongyang.

In this world, there were only two people whose powers, which she was so proud of, had been completely nullified.

Their special qualities couldn’t be said to be completely identical, but at least they were very similar.

‘This couldn’t be a coincidence.

There had to be some deeper connection between them, or rather, between that “angel” and Chen Dongyang, one I was unaware of.’

This thought, like an unquenchable flame, burned deep within Jiang Yuxin’s heart.

She desperately wanted to capture that “angel,” not to save the city, nor to prevent some disaster.

She simply wanted to bring it before her, dissecting it like a corpse, analyzing it thoroughly from the inside out, from the material to the conceptual, to figure out what it was, and what secrets lay between it and Chen Dongyang.

‘If I can’t catch it…’

A hint of cold murderous intent flashed in the depths of Jiang Yuxin’s eyes.

If she couldn’t catch it, then she could just wipe it out of this world.

She would never allow another “Chen Dongyang” who was not under her control to exist in this world.

The car drove west, out of the city, and slowly ascended the winding mountain road.

The scenery outside the window gradually became desolate, and the air became moist and cool.

Finally, the car stopped in front of a warning sign halfway up the mountain that read [Road ahead under repair, vehicles prohibited from passing.]

“Hey everyone, we can’t go up anymore,” the driver said, turning around.

“The road ahead has collapsed.

To get to the observatory on the top of the mountain, you have to climb up from the small path next to it.

But I have to warn you, it’s a spooky place.

Even the locals don’t dare go there at night.”

The four paid and got off the car.

Jiang Yuxin looked up and saw a stone path, almost completely covered in weeds and vines, winding its way into the dense, mist-shrouded forest ahead.

Atop the mountain, shrouded in mist, was the faint outline of a white dome.

Against the gloomy sky, it looked like a giant eye peering down upon the world.

“Let’s go.”

Without any hesitation, she took the lead and set foot on the unknown path leading to the top of the mountain.