“You mean...”
Chen Ren narrowed his eyes and quickly caught on.
“The Arsonist deliberately let Jiang Qi survive, or...”
An even more outrageous thought took shape in his mind.
“He came back from the dead?”
“Bullshit!”
Wang Huan slapped a hand on the table.
“I’d sooner believe they’re in cahoots!”
Shen Yun ignored his outburst and swept a finger through the air. The holographic screen rotated 180 degrees.
On the screen was a scene of someone waving while holding up a key.
“I’m more inclined to believe he came back from the dead.”
Shen Yun picked up the file and looked at Wang Huan.
“The file says he has severe vision problems and is withdrawn?”
“How far away had Yue Huai gone? I’d say he’s got the eyes of a hawk.”
Wang Huan’s breath caught. He stared at the screen, unable to say a word.
Shen Yun continued, speaking faster and faster.
“He struck up a conversation on the way there, and even dared to ask if my sister was an Ascendant!”
“After just a few words, he had the nerve to ask something like that! If he’s withdrawn, then there isn’t a living soul in this room!”
Shen Yun drank a glass of water and sat back in the darkness. Only then did his voice regain its composure.
“Apart from Mad Laughter, he has nothing in common with the person in the file.”
......
Meanwhile.
Above the deathly still Rust Lake, Jiang Qi slowly opened his eyes.
He sat cross-legged on the lake’s surface, as if on solid ground.
A new power was being born and flowing deep within his Spirit.
At last, it coalesced into a name both wild and mocking.
【Mad Laughter Controller】。
An instinctive understanding arose within Jiang Qi.
Tentatively, he let a trace of a smile escape the corner of his mouth.
“Heh.”
Before the sound had even faded!
Centered on him, the calm lake beneath his feet exploded with a ring of Azure ripples!
Where the ripples spread, the dense mist in the air parted.
“A mental shockwave carried by laughter...”
“It also has intermittent physical effects.”
Jiang Qi felt the calm of no longer being affected by Mad Laughter, along with a sense of control unlike anything he had ever experienced.
He closed his eyes.
All the chaotic memories of his past and present lives now lay clear and orderly in his mind.
Keeping a clear head for a long time, resisting and distorting Mental Attacks to a certain degree...
【Reversal】。
This was the most precious gift from this Ascension.
Turning a Curse into a blessing, turning weakness into Strength.
“Taking control of my strange illness—that’s each person’s unique Path of Ascension.”
At the same time, he discovered that he could release Mental Power through language.
But this ability needed a specific target to test it on.
【Mad Laughter】【Reversal】【Bewitchment】。
Just one Ascension, and three directions.
Jiang Qi slowly stood up.
He could feel a new power coursing beneath his flesh.
The water of Rust Lake could no longer corrode him at all.
The Azure Mist in his Left Eye was also a little denser than before.
As Jiang Qi recalled what had happened, he pondered.
“I’ve set foot on both Paths of Ascension at the same time.”
But his mind was completely blank about the part of his ability related to “Rust.”
Only Jiang Qi could sense a hidden connection between his Left Eye and Rust Lake.
“What exactly is the relationship between my Left Eye and Rust Lake?”
“And what is the ability of the second path?”
The Notebook that should have been lying on the writing desk floated silently in the depths of his Left Eye’s mental space. At a thought from Jiang Qi, it appeared in his hand.
......
Inspectorate office.
“What if the Arsonist deliberately let him live as part of a trap?”
Wang Huan still found it hard to believe. This theory was much easier to accept than coming back from the dead.
Blue light flashed in Chen Ren’s hand, and a miniature model of the Dormitory Building appeared again.
“He’s just an Ordinary Person who’s barely turned eighteen. There’s no need to send an Inspector to watch him; he wouldn’t attract anyone’s attention.”
“Besides...”
He looked at Shen Yun, who was mostly concealed in the darkness.
“To hide power like that from the Chief Inspector, he’d need the help of at least a Fifth Stage concealment item.”
“Not even the Fourth District, let alone Safe Zones with lower Numbered Ranks, could come up with more than a few of those.”
“A High-Tier Ascender would use such a precious item to sneak in just to set a trap for someone irrelevant?”
“What would he gain? It’d be pointless.”
Wang Huan felt as if his head had turned to mush.
“But Yue Huai clearly verified that what he said was true...”
Shen Yun cut him off.
“Being honest doesn’t mean never telling a lie. It means conveying all the necessary information.”
“Yue Huai has only reached the second stage. There are still loopholes in her ability that can be exploited.”
Shen Yun looked at the Gray Notebook on the holographic screen.
“After all, what Novelist are best at is selective truths and lies of omission.”
A High-Tier infiltrator, a Fifth-Tier concealment item.
A burned-down Orphanage, an unusual Notebook.
And Jiang Qi, who had come back from the dead.
Wang Huan gave up trying to think it through.
“Boss, just tell me what to do!”
“Nothing.”
“Huh?”
Wang Huan froze.
Chen Ren sighed and offered a hint.
“Old Wang, think about it. If he really did come back from the dead, how many parties know about it right now?”
“You, me, the Arsonist, and...”
Wang Huan counted on his fingers.
“Does Jiang Qi himself... know?”
“...Never mind.”
Chen Ren covered his eyes.
“We just need to keep a close watch on Jiang Qi.”
Shen Yun’s voice came from the darkness.
“The Arsonist will show up again sooner or later.”
Wang Huan nodded, only half understanding.
Just as he turned to leave, he suddenly smacked his forehead.
“Oh, right! Boss, I just remembered! Jiang Qi asked me something before he left.”
“He asked what color the fire at the scene was.”
Chen Ren’s eyes widened instantly.
“You’re only telling us now?”
Wang Huan scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.
“That kid had problems with both his eyes and his head, and then all that happened. I didn’t think much of it...”
Shen Yun didn’t get angry. He simply raised a hand to his brow.
“That’s a crucial question.”
He repeated it quietly.
“What color was the fire?”
Thinking Shen Yun was asking him, Wang Huan answered at once.
“Orange-red. But if it was an Ascendant from another fire path...”
He stopped halfway through, his voice cutting off.
Why had Jiang Qi asked about a color he should have seen himself?
Wang Huan suddenly realized!
“He saw fire of a different color!”
Chen Ren’s voice turned hoarse.
“Yue Huai’s ability can only verify declarative statements.”
“But Jiang Qi was asking you a question! There was no way to verify whether a question was true or false!”
“That kid...”
They all realized they had vastly underestimated the eighteen-year-old orphan from the very beginning.
“I’ll ask him myself.”
Shen Yun again gestured for them to leave.
Once the office door had closed, Chen Ren wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
“The boss was practically spitting in my face just now.”
“The Shen Family only has the two siblings left now, after all.”
Wang Huan sighed.
“When it comes to his sister, he’s more nervous than anyone.”
“True. And he’s also an Ascendant from a rare truth path. It’s only right to protect her as much as possible.”
“Though, as the Research Institute would put it, he’s a siscon.”
Chen Ren tossed out that remark and strode away.
Wang Huan followed behind, secretly thinking to himself:
I remembered the crucial question at just the right time. I’ve made a huge contribution!
......
Above Rust Lake.
A vortex slowly formed in the middle of the lake, with Jiang Qi standing at its center.
He felt a pulse of teleportation.
“Am I finally going back?”
He opened the Notebook. The original sentence on the first page had disappeared.
At that moment, Rust rapidly spread across the blank page in his hand, forming a line of text.
【Teleportation will fail】
“Wait!”
Jiang Qi tried to stop it, but it was too late.
An irresistible feeling of weightlessness swallowed him in an instant, more violently than before!
Before he left, two inconspicuous drops of Lake Water gently leapt up and sank into Jiang Qi’s Left Eye, departing with him.
During the teleportation, Jiang Qi felt a violent tremor!
With a powerful wrenching sensation, he was violently flung out of the passage!
Everything spun around him.
When he came to, he had crashed onto a desolate construction site.
He hadn’t made it back to the Inspectorate Dormitory.
The teleportation had truly deviated!
Teleportation from the Forbidden Zone could actually fail!
“The destination of Deviant Teleportation is completely random. Is this still the Fourth District?”
Jiang Qi rubbed his temples and immediately swept his gaze around, alert.
“Riiip—!”
At that moment, a hundred meters away, the empty air suddenly burst open!
Space split open like a curtain, torn apart to reveal a grotesque Rift.
A gigantic metal disc slowly squeezed through the Rift and hovered in midair.
A flickering screen on the disc gave off a faint electrical crackle.
An eye without pupils surveyed the land.
It instantly locked onto the tiny figure on the ground.
A human.
Six mechanical gun barrels extended from around it, gradually taking aim at Jiang Qi.
Fourth District Inspectorate.
Wang Huan had just lit a cigar and hadn’t even had a chance to sit down.
“Rift detected! World-Devouring Species invasion detected! Alert! Alert!”