Once they were ready, Jiang Jianxin was the first to open the driver’s side door.
Sure enough, several guns at the entrance instantly pointed at her.
Jiang Jianxin glanced at the open area in front of the supermarket.
There were no bloodstains, only the bodies of contamination monsters.
This proved that the people inside wouldn’t suddenly open the doors and start shooting at anyone who walked from the outside to the entrance.
She glanced behind her.
Lin Xin’an had also gotten out from the passenger side.
He was holding his pocket watch in one hand and running the other through his rain-soaked hair.
Jiang Jianxin was speechless.
Sword in hand, she swaggered toward the supermarket’s glass doors with Lin Xin’an.
As expected, no bullets flew their way.
When they reached the entrance, Jiang Jianxin took the lead as usual and opened the door.
CRACK—
The moment the door was pulled open, amidst the WHOOSH of wind and rain, several guns were pressed to her forehead.
“Don’t move!”
A burly man at the door shouted.
Jiang Jianxin remained unfazed.
Recalling the contents of the diary, she silently chanted:
“Tang Guang, Sword Qi Protection.”
The Tang Guang Sword lit up, and a flowing white Air Shield formed around her.
Lin Xin’an, who entered behind her, simply shook his pocket watch.
The guns pointed at him slowly turned, uncontrollably, to aim at their own wielders.
The burly men froze, seemingly having never encountered anyone with such an ability.
During the stalemate, Jiang Jianxin leaned in and peered inside.
A large open space had been cleared behind the supermarket’s checkout counters.
To the left, a dozen raggedly dressed men were gathered, gnawing on bread.
To the right sat a scrawny man with a sleazy face but stylish clothes.
He was surrounded by a crowd of good-looking women in revealing outfits.
The most favored among these women was clearly one in a pink dress.
Her attire was noticeably prettier, and she was nestled in the man’s arms, though her eyes were looking elsewhere.
Following her gaze, one would find a young man in a blue and white hospital gown sitting in an inconspicuous spot against the wall.
His slightly overgrown short hair obscured his eyes.
He was cradling a large, silver-white blade, his expression cold and indifferent.
The commotion caused by Jiang Jianxin and Lin Xin’an had drawn the attention of nearly everyone in the room.
The scrawny man on the right bellowed:
“Who’s there!”
This group was positioned in a way that blocked the path into the supermarket.
Jiang Jianxin glanced at the shelves, which were fully stocked with supplies.
“We’re here for supplies.
This supermarket has four floors.
Please move aside so we can go upstairs and get what we need.”
The scrawny man didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, the woman in pink next to him whispered something in his ear.
After listening, the man shoved her away and yelled to the burly men at the door:
“If you can’t control them, just shoot!”
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!—
A series of gunshots rang out, all aimed at Jiang Jianxin, but they were blocked by the white Air Shield and clattered to the ground.
As for the guns aimed at Lin Xin’an, no one dared to pull the trigger.
They found they had no control over their own hands; the barrels remained steadily pointed at their own foreheads.
But Lin Xin’an just smiled faintly and said in a low voice:
“Fire.”
BANG—THUD—
A few more shots rang out, and several burly men collapsed into pools of blood.
The remaining guards at the door dropped their guns as if they were scalding hot, trembling in fear that a second later, their own barrels would turn on them uncontrollably.
Jiang Jianxin glanced at him, suddenly understanding what the forum reviews meant when they said Lin Xin’an’s Mind Reading Technique was “not simple.”
‘This man…
he seems to be able to use instantaneous, compulsory Spiritual Control?’
This realization instantly raised two more questions in Jiang Jianxin’s mind:
‘Then why hasn’t he ever tried to control me?’
‘After all, I can’t even resist his Mind Reading, can I?’
Jiang Jianxin felt like she had discovered a key point, and a vague guess immediately surfaced in her thoughts.
—’Perhaps this man knows more about me than I imagined.
It’s not that he doesn’t want to control me, but that he knows I *can’t* be controlled this way.’
‘That’s why he chose to stick close to me instead of just pulling out his pocket watch at the beginning.
That would have exposed his ability without getting him any results.’
Having thought all this, Jiang Jianxin glanced at Lin Xin’an.
With his Mind Reading, he of course knew what was on her mind.
But he just grinned as if his scheme had succeeded, patting her on the shoulder as a reminder:
“Don’t start infighting when we’re facing a major enemy.
You still need me to drop Gold Coins, Jiang Jianqiong.”
His words dispelled all of Jiang Jianxin’s suspicions.
She had forgotten that Lin Xin’an had a double insurance policy.
So, Jiang Jianxin took a deep breath, stepped in front of Lin Xin’an, and directed her anger toward the scrawny man.
“Seeing as you’ve done this, it looks like you’re not interested in talking.
Let’s step out and settle this with a fight.”
The scrawny man sneered, shot to his feet, and hurled a fist-sized ball of fire at them.
This time, there was no need for the Air Shield.
Jiang Jianxin cleaved it apart with a single strike of her sword.
She sneered,
“Is that all you’ve got?”
A wary expression appeared on the scrawny man’s face.
He glanced at the woman in pink.
The woman scrambled up from the floor, pointed at Jiang Jianxin, and shrieked:
“Kill that woman for me!”
The moment she finished speaking, the dozen or so men on the left, who had been woodenly gnawing on bread, all stood up in unison.
Their eyes were lifeless, clearly under some form of Spiritual Control.
WHOOSH—
BANG—
In an instant, all kinds of superpower attacks flew toward them.
Jiang Jianxin dodged an attack of earth spikes, split a wooden vine with her sword, kicked a speed-related Talent User who had flashed over to the ground, and finally elbowed another Talent User who was lunging with a knife in the face.
In the end, more than a dozen people were left lying strewn about on the ground.
Only Jiang Jianxin and Lin Xin’an were still standing.
“Nothing special,” she said slowly, sheathing her sword.
Seeing how formidable Jiang Jianxin was, the scantily clad women shrieked.
The scrawny man roared in uncontrollable rage,
“Shut up!”
Seeing that his thugs were no match for this woman, the scrawny man’s expression changed in a flash.
He gave a fawning laugh, revealing a set of yellowed teeth.
“Ma’am, please, take anything you want from the supermarket.”
Jiang Jianxin glanced at the women in their revealing clothes.
They were hiding behind the scrawny man, showing off pale flesh.
She could see red marks and various other suggestive traces on their bodies.
Seeing her staring blankly, Lin Xin’an asked:
“What’s wrong?
Do you feel sorry for them?
Want to save them?”
Jiang Jianxin shook her head.
She saw the women shrinking back behind the scrawny man, their eyes filled with a deep fear of her, as if she were some kind of monster.
“No.
It looks to me like they’re here voluntarily.
No need to meddle in other people’s business.”
Lin Xin’an looked at Jiang Jianxin’s indifferent expression, then at the superpower users lying haphazardly on the floor.
“That man doesn’t look like a good person.
Seems like he wants to use that woman’s Spiritual Control ability to build a puppet army.”
Jiang Jianxin shot him a look.
He replied with a smug expression,
“You may be cold and ruthless, but I like to meddle.
Survivors are already scarce; if someone like him gets powerful, he’ll wreak havoc on the entire region.”
Jiang Jianxin hesitated.
It seemed like the good doctor wanted to make a move.
—’But with his Combat Power, he probably couldn’t even withstand a single fireball.’
Just as she was about to say something, she saw Lin Xin’an walk over to the fallen superpower users and shake his pocket watch.
Unlike the silent Spiritual Control from before, this time the pocket watch made an audible TICK-TOCK sound.
The Talent Users who had been beaten to the ground began to sit up, swaying.
The lifelessness in their eyes gradually faded, replaced by clarity.
Lin Xin’an grabbed Jiang Jianxin’s arm and said,
“Let’s go.
Meddling’s over.”
Jiang Jianxin’s eyes widened.
She never expected Lin Xin’an to use such a malicious yet clever trick.
In the distance, the scrawny man and the women watched warily as the Talent Users suddenly regained their senses.
Meanwhile, Jiang Jianxin followed Lin Xin’an upstairs.
As they passed the man in the blue and white hospital gown, Lin Xin’an gave him a fleeting, indifferent glance.