It was much like what she’d seen at home that day: a bloated corpse outside the window.
Its swollen, rotting face was dotted with bluish corpse spots.
The moment this grotesque figure appeared, both police officers gagged.
Jiang Jianxin, sitting in the back seat, was completely unfazed.
‘Hilarious.
A monster was using her shoulder as a pillow just yesterday, and even that didn’t scare her.’
The monster knocked on the car window three times.
When no one answered, it was about to break through, but Lin Xin’an struck first.
He shattered the window with his bare fist and smashed the monster to the ground.
“CRASH—”
With the window gone, the torrential rain outside poured in.
Lin Xin’an kicked open the car door and yelled to the others inside:
“Go, now!”
Facing imminent disaster, the officer in the passenger seat and the one beside Jiang Jianxin seemed to be snapped out of a trance.
They both scrambled to open their doors and staggered outside.
But they hadn’t taken more than a few steps before monsters set upon them, tearing and biting.
Aside from Lin Xin’an’s thunderous punch, everyone else’s struggles and blows were like trying to tickle the monsters.
Soon, both men disappeared into the horde of monsters, leaving only their terrified screams echoing in the air.
When the monsters dispersed, all that was left of them was a bloody pulp.
Lin Xin’an gritted his teeth, watching the scene unfold.
The torrential rain soaked his hair and clothes.
His white lab coat clung tightly to the brown vest beneath it, and his hair stuck to his forehead in wet strands.
The ID badge on his chest swung back and forth, emitting a faint glimmer in the violent storm.
Lin Xin’an looked toward the young woman in the car.
She was dressed in a black-and-white prison uniform, her wrists bound by rose-gold handcuffs.
This plain-looking young woman had a pair of exceptionally dark, calm eyes, as if nothing in the world could make a ripple on their surface.
In the distance, more monsters surged forward.
They were treating the area like a slaughterhouse, indiscriminately devouring pedestrians and vehicles on the road.
Jiang Jianxin sat helplessly in the car.
She saw Lin Xin’an outside, his eyes rimmed with red as he stared at her and yelled:
“I know you’re a superpower user!
Please…
do something!”
Jiang Jianxin: “?”
She looked in astonishment at the psychologist, who was clearly on the verge of snapping, traumatized by the slaughterhouse scene before them.
“How do you know…
wait, that’s not right.
I’m really not a superpower user, I’m just a normal person!”
Perhaps she’d gotten too caught up in that childhood diary of hers.
Jiang Jianxin had subconsciously asked how he knew before realizing her mistake and quickly changing her tune.
Lin Xin’an pointed to himself and spoke, enunciating every word.
“Your sword is real.
You are a superpower user.
As for how I know…
my superpower is Mind Reading.”
Jiang Jianxin suddenly recalled the list the officer had shown her yesterday, and a name she had briefly glimpsed:
[Lin Xin’an, Bright Camp, Sequence Name: All-Knowing, No.
6, Superpower: Mind Reading Technique, Affiliation: Madhouse Physician Department]
A monster in the distance had already spotted Jiang Jianxin and Lin Xin’an among the people and was now shambling toward them.
Jiang Jianxin glanced at Lin Xin’an and saw that his left hand—the one he’d just punched with—was hanging limply at an unnatural angle.
Blood was dripping rapidly from his sleeve.
‘So that’s it.
No wonder he didn’t lift a finger when the others were being eaten, and now he’s yelling for me to do something.’
‘Turns out the only person here who could actually punch a monster is now out of commission.’
But Jiang Jianxin had no idea what her superpower was.
Besides, her hands were cuffed, making it difficult to move.
In her haste, she tried to reach for the Little Paper Sword she kept on her person, but she couldn’t find it.
The monster drew closer.
Seeing that she still wasn’t making a move, Lin Xin’an didn’t abandon her.
Instead, he leaped in front of the car, intending to shield her with his own body.
Jiang Jianxin was stunned.
She stammered,
“What…
what are you doing?”
Lin Xin’an said in a low voice,
“I don’t know why you’re holding back…
but my own abilities aren’t for attacking, and I’ve already used up my only means of self-defense.
There are too many of these corrupted monsters.
We can’t outrun them, so I might as well buy you some time.
Maybe then the others will have a chance.”
If Jiang Jianxin were a real superpower user, she might have been so moved that she would have acted right then and there.
But she was just a normal person.
Hearing his words, she tensed up and yelled frantically,
“Just run!
I’m not a superpower user!
Buying me time is useless!”
Lin Xin’an didn’t answer, merely continuing to stand silently in front of her.
More and more monsters surged forward until the intersection and the streets beyond had completely transformed into a sea of horrors.
A foul stench and the smell of blood mingled together, ultimately drowned out by the metallic scent of the rain.
“SQUELCH…”
The corrupted monsters finally swarmed to the front of Jiang Jianxin’s car.
Their bloated bodies reeked, and she could see maggots writhing beneath the surface of their skin, just like zombies from an apocalyptic blockbuster.
“ROAR—”
She saw one of the bloated monsters open its cavernous, bloody maw to devour the man in front of her.
At that moment, a massive shadow fell over them.
Amidst the shifting light and shadows, words from her childhood diary began to echo slowly in her mind:
[I have forgotten a memory…]
[At age four, I entered the Sword Sect…]
[At age eleven, I became a Sword Master…]
[My personal sword is named “Tang Guang.”]
[…Tanglight Sword.]
“Cross the seas and slay the great whale!”
“VMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM—”
An incredibly sharp sword-screech rang out from the sky.
Invisible shockwaves of energy rippled outward in circles, like the sharpest blade in all creation.
They annihilated all the corrupted monsters within a ten-li radius, utterly unstoppable and overwhelming all in their path.
A chilling wave of Sword Qi swept through.
In its wake, the corruption dissipated, and the world became pure and clear.
It was like a divine miracle.
The heavy rain continued to fall.
All one could see were the invisible shockwaves still expanding in the distance, and the girl sitting stupefied in the car.
She was still wearing her black-and-white prison uniform, the handcuffs still perfectly intact on her wrists.
She hadn’t moved an inch.
Floating beside her was a three-foot, silver-gray sword.
The blade was thin and sharp, the hilt black and somewhat short.
On it, the two golden words “Tang Guang” shimmered brightly.
A moment ago, it was this very sword that had delivered that earth-shattering blow.
“VMMMMMM—”
The bustling intersection fell deathly silent.
Survivors struggled out from among the piles of bodies, staring blankly at the monster corpses that had been abruptly sliced apart.
Lin Xin’an, still standing guard in front of Jiang Jianxin, turned his head in astonishment to look at this utterly unremarkable young woman.
‘Sure, he had Mind Reading, but all he’d confirmed was that she was a powerful superpower user…
He never expected her to be *this* badass.’
‘His original plan was for Jiang Jianxin to take out one or two of the monsters in their way, then he’d grab her and they’d make a run for it.’
‘But in the end…
she killed every single monster in the area?
All of them?’
Jiang Jianxin looked at her own hands, then at the sword.
Then, her gaze met Lin Xin’an’s in mutual confusion.
She watched as the Doctor’s formerly gloomy, squinted eyes went wide, becoming clear and utterly stupefied.
A stampede of thoughts was currently rampaging through her mind, and she didn’t even know what to be sarcastic about first.
After all, who could have guessed that the childhood diary she’d found while cleaning up—the one she thought was just full of cringey, middle-school delusions—would turn out to be completely true?
‘Wait, does this mean…
I really *was* a Sword Master when I was a kid?’