The moment those words were spoken, Lin Xin’an’s Mind Reading Technique had already transmitted all the information to him.
With his life on the line, he raised his hands with unprecedented speed, looked at Jiang Jianxin calmly, and said with sincerity:
“Don’t kill me.
I can drop Gold Coins for you.”
He then turned to the blind youth and said with a gentle smile:
“You’ve been Blind Sister’s enforcer for so long.
Even if you’ve broken free from her Spiritual Control, she still holds your account, doesn’t she?”
“How much money do you have on you right now?”
As if struck a sore spot, the blind youth pressed his lips together.
He turned to Jiang Jianxin and said softly, full of guilt:
“I’m sorry.
I don’t have any money.”
The young man’s long eyelashes trembled slightly, his vacant eyes wide.
Jiang Jianxin thought he looked like a stray kitten, making her want to reach out and pat his head.
She cleared her throat and said:
“It’s fine.
I don’t have any money either.
We can just use Lin Xin’an’s money together.”
Lin Xin’an: “…?”
He was so infuriated that he almost wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t manage it.
It was true he had designs on Jiang Jianxin, with a meticulously crafted plan to boot.
But for such a foolproof plan to devolve into this was completely beyond his expectations.
Just as the young man had said, while his skill tree was maxed out, his strengths were too specialized.
The moment he encountered a counter, it was a total collapse.
This was the key reason why, as a powerful Sequence #6 of the All-Knowing Sequence, he only ranked eighth on the public overall combat power charts.
Lin Xin’an looked at Jiang Jianxin impassively, beginning to size her up as a true, intellectually equal rival.
It was just like how Jiang Jianxin had cautiously wondered how much of her mind his Mind Reading could access, and how many secrets she had inadvertently revealed.
Lin Xin’an, in turn, was wondering just how many of his future moves the top-tier, Sequence #1 foreseer had seen through from ten years in the past.
Just as most people said, he wasn’t as simple as he appeared.
In fact, he had always held a trump card—one that could control Jiang Jianxin and even make other powers extremely wary.
But just as he began to lay the groundwork for his grand scheme, this foreseer had sent a helper in the nick of time, not only outmaneuvering the Madhouse but also counter-playing him.
‘Setting aside my plan, which is now a complete mess, the real question is: did the Sequence #1 of the Foreknowledge Sequence see through my trump card?’
While Lin Xin’an was racking his brain and nursing a headache, Jiang Jianxin was also clutching her head, feeling overwhelmed.
Because the young man had begun to narrate his story with the Great Sage, Jiang Jianxin.
“…At age eight, my ability to control the Dark Night was discovered.
I was later tested as Mage Sequence, #268, of the War Camp.”
“My parents were originally members of the Madhouse’s Doctor Department, and my life was happy.
But then a revolution took place within the Madhouse…
My parents were executed, and I became a prisoner.
I went from being a Doctor to a patient, and was forcibly placed under Spiritual Control by the Blind Master.”
The young man began by slowly recounting his childhood.
“For a long time, from when I was eight to ten, my memory is a complete blank.
I would occasionally regain consciousness, but I was helpless to change my situation.”
“Then, one night when I was twelve, I regained my sense of self.
I wanted to try and save myself again, so I ran desperately for the outside,” the young man said.
“But it was no use.
The Spiritual Control was constantly eroding my consciousness.
I couldn’t even make it outside before I collapsed on the ground.”
He slowly turned to Jiang Jianxin and said:
“Just when I had lost all hope, I met you.”
“My real name is Shen Ye, but after my parents died, everyone just called me ‘Black King.’ No one ever used my name again.
But the first time we met, you called me by my real name and recounted my entire past and all my experiences.”
Jiang Jianxin, while trying to calculate what grade a twelve-year-old would be in, said awkwardly:
“How old was I back then?”
“You looked a little younger than me.”
‘This is utterly ridiculous,’ Jiang Jianxin thought.
‘According to the other Sword Master’s Diary, at that age I was still struggling on the path of the Sword Dao.
So why would I have been at the Madhouse?’
But she didn’t interrupt, asking instead:
“And then?
What did I do?”
“You didn’t do anything.
My moment of lucidity was too brief.
I lost consciousness again before I could say anything more.”
The young man—or rather, Shen Ye—said slowly:
“But from that day forward, my moments of clarity became more frequent, and I would often run into you in secluded places.”
“I was worried you’d be discovered by the people from the Madhouse, but you told me you were Sequence #1 of the Foreknowledge Sequence.
You said no one in the entire Madhouse had spiritual power strong enough to detect you.”
At this point, Lin Xin’an interjected:
“That’s true.
The Bright Camp puts a lot of stock in sequence numbers.
The lower the number, the stronger the spiritual power.
A mature Sequence #1 could remain completely undetected.”
Jiang Jianxin shot him a look.
“You’re really getting into this, aren’t you.”
Lin Xin’an let out an “oh” and said teasingly:
“One person, two childhoods.
That’s a rarity even in the Superpower World.
If I couldn’t use Mind Reading, who would believe you if you told them?
You should cherish a confidant like me.”
Jiang Jianxin ignored him and listened as Shen Ye continued his story.
“After that, we met many more times…
If I became lucid at night, you would sneak me out, and we’d find fun places to go.”
“This continued until our last meeting.
You said you had something important to do and that you wouldn’t be able to see me for the next ten years.”
Shen Ye pressed his lips together, the memory clearly still painful for him.
“I was devastated, but you kept comforting me.
You asked if I wanted to leave the Madhouse, to be truly free, and to follow you one day.”
“I said yes, so you gave me your spiritual imprint.
You told me to stay in the Madhouse for ten years and absorb everything of value from it, after which the imprint would activate on its own.”
“At that time, all malicious spiritual contamination and links from anyone below Sequence #1 would be severed.
Then, I could come and find you—the you who has lost her memories—and protect you.”
Shen Ye paused, then added:
“Now, ten years have passed.
I found you thanks to the spiritual imprint, but after being controlled by the Blind Master for so long…
my eyes can no longer see.”
After listening to this second version of her childhood, Jiang Jianxin’s mind was a complete jumble.
She wanted to ask something, but couldn’t formulate a single question.
‘The first Sword Master’s Diary said she was a Sword Master as a child.
The second, blue diary was still a mystery, but from what others were saying, it must be the diary of a foreseer.’
‘Two childhoods, happening at the same time.’
‘…So was she a Sword Master or a foreseer?’
Jiang Jianxin couldn’t make sense of it.
She also realized that hearing about her other childhood from someone else didn’t help her recall any of the abilities that came with it.
‘Once Sequence #1 of the Bright Camp’s Foreknowledge Sequence…’
‘…Now, she was struggling just to see through Lin Xin’an.’
Jiang Jianxin frowned.
[Red Moon Night, April Fool’s Day]
This was the code she had to crack.
It was the path that the foreseer Jiang Jianxin had laid out for her ten years ago.