093 Did the Plan Succeed?

I held Han Xue back from making a reckless move because I was waiting for the exact moment when the psychic specter came close enough. To draw it in, I was willing to expose my own opening, even if it meant letting it seize control of me, so long as Han Xue could unleash the long-prepared strike.

I had never studied Han Xue’s ability in detail, and I would not dare make a careless judgment. But at such close range, I believed that even if it did not kill the thing outright, it would cripple it badly.

So I gave Han Xue one order: pour out every last ounce of power and blast the specter away. Yes, as long as we could force it to the designated spot, the simplest and most direct method was to hurl it there.

Han Xue did not fail us. She poured all the strength she had gathered into the psychic specter. The moment that blow landed, every piece of armor on her body vanished in an instant, and she herself went limp and collapsed.

The specter opened its psychic field to block the attack, but my light barrage arrived right after, leaving it no time to form any effective defense.

The instant Han Xue’s blow struck, the control was severed. The three around me seemed to awaken from a dream and hurriedly cut off their own attacks. Seeing the control broken, the psychic specter immediately unleashed its mental power, trying to seize control of them again.

But Han Xue’s spell-bound strike was itself a convergence of immense psychic force. The specter had no spare capacity to dominate them, and could only be driven, step by step, out of the Forbidden Grove by Han Xue’s relentless will.

“Do it now!” I shouted, and the three of them finally returned to normal.

When they faced the psychic specter again, fear flickered across their faces, but even more than fear there was hatred.

A joker card slipped from Zheng Wei’s hand and sank into the ground. Beneath the psychic specter, the shadows of its schemes erupted into countless black spikes.

The specter seemed to have anticipated the attack long ago and sprang into the air at once to evade it. But that only gave Su Mu and Zhang Yisheng their chance. Zhang Yisheng swept up the handful of surgical blades beside me and launched a furious storm of attacks at the psychic specter.

One had to know that Zhang Yisheng’s strikes basically ignored defense. With his sharpness ability, almost no defense in the world could withstand him.

The psychic specter took the full force of Zhang Yisheng’s assault, and its black body was actually cut by the flying blades, spilling black blood.

“Could this really work?”

It seemed Zhang Yisheng and the others had been controlled before they could even act. Otherwise, with their skill, escaping would not have been a problem.

The psychic specter struggled with all its might against Han Xue’s immense psychic pressure. Though Han Xue was already lying on the ground, her head remained raised high, her eyes locked fiercely on the specter, as if to say she would never faint until she had blasted it away.

Under the combined pressure of Zheng Wei’s shadow ghost pinning it below and Zhang Yisheng sealing off the surrounding area, the psychic specter was driven farther and farther from us.

I looked at Han Xue’s face, which was growing paler by the second. We had to end this quickly.

“Su Mu!” I called.

When Su Mu heard me, he gave a strained smile. Zhang Yisheng and Zheng Wei still did not truly understand how terrifying the psychic specter was; the only one among them who had seen its power was Su Mu.

Su Mu was afraid, but at this point, if he still would not act, then he would truly be a coward. His ancient-tree power activated, and the withered grasses around us once again blossomed with killing intent, surging toward the psychic specter suspended in the air in another overwhelming wave of attacks.

Taking advantage of the moment when the specter was forced off the ground, Han Xue squeezed out the last of her psychic energy and shouted hoarsely, “Get out!”

At last the psychic specter could no longer endure that immense force. It was blasted away, and the place where it fell was naturally the one we had agreed upon.

After finishing all this, Han Xue smiled, closed her eyes, and drifted into a deep sleep.

I tightened my grip on her hand and gently brushed her cheek.

“Don’t worry. Leave the rest to us.”

“Lin Zijian.” Zhang Yisheng came over with a surgical blade in hand. Although the four of us had just driven off the psychic specter together, it seemed Zhang Yisheng and Zheng Wei still had no idea what had happened.

“You were controlled.” Those simple words were enough to explain everything.

Zhang Yisheng and Zheng Wei were both smart men, and they immediately understood what I meant. Zhang Yisheng’s expression was full of disbelief. It seemed he could not accept that someone as formidable as he was could be controlled, and without even realizing it himself.

After all, his ability was to break through defenses. In direct combat, such a power had very few rivals.

Being manipulated by another dealt a heavy blow to Zhang Yisheng’s proud self-respect. Whether as the top student of the medical college or as the one he believed to be the strongest contractor, his pride had always rested on that glory. If that honor were stained by another, he would never accept it.

A murderous light flashed in Zhang Yisheng’s eyes, but I gave him no warmth in return. Instead, I picked up Han Xue and prepared to find her somewhere safe.

Zhang Yisheng looked into Su Mu’s eyes and asked, “Is what he said true?”

Toward this close comrade, Zhang Yisheng had always had something of a headache. Su Mu’s ability was both strong and weak, depending on how one looked at it.

If not for the fact that Su Mu awakened such powerful life force, Zhang Yisheng would have long since abandoned this so-called close ally. But some surface courtesy still had to be maintained.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yisheng’s gaze toward Su Mu softened noticeably. He even added, “My good brother, my brother Mu.”

Su Mu shivered all over.

He knew perfectly well that Zhang Yisheng only used him, and yet even so, Su Mu had never left his side. Whatever Zhang Yisheng did, he supported him.

For Su Mu, Zhang Yisheng had changed his life.

Perhaps Zhang Yisheng had forgotten, because there were too many people like Su Mu.

But to Su Mu, Zhang Yisheng was the benefactor of his life.

It had been a rainy night. Su Mu, a country boy from a small village, was naturally unwelcome at D University. A talentless student with poor grades and no family backing had no place holding his head high there.

Because of some academic matter, he had once again been reduced to the sole laborer assigned to clean the plantation. By then Su Mu was long used to it.

He worked the shovel over and over, cutting away the weeds and giving the medicinal herbs in the plantation a better chance to survive.

Perhaps because Su Mu had always kept his head down, people liked to take him for a soft target. That day was no different.

A few men in fine clothes surrounded him at once. Su Mu did not resist, because resistance would only bring more fists. If he endured it, he could at least buy a little peace.

But this time was different. They bound him up, as if planning something big, and meant to throw him into the Forbidden Grove.

At the time, Su Mu knew the legends of the Forbidden Grove and struggled desperately. Everyone who entered that place went in with a nine-in-ten chance of dying. This was no joke.

Yet in the end, a single man’s strength was limited. Su Mu was carried all the way to the edge of the grove. Just as he thought he was about to be thrown inside, a lazy voice sounded behind the group.

“Who are you people? Don’t you know you’re blocking my way?”

A white coat, a haughty tone, and the academy uniform on his body revealed his identity: a top student from the medical college.

The spoiled children of the agricultural college assumed he was easy to bully, and were about to argue back. But Zhang Yisheng had already flattened them with his fists and feet.

Though throughout the entire encounter Zhang Yisheng had not looked at Su Mu even once, in his mind he had only been clearing away the trash in his path and loosening his muscles.

But to Su Mu, this was nothing less than saving his life.

After stretching his limbs, Zhang Yisheng seemed to remember something and dashed off toward the medical college laboratory building.

Su Mu was left standing there, stunned, only to discover that his misfortune had turned into fortune. After that incident, no one from the agricultural college ever bullied him again, and whether directly or indirectly, Zhang Yisheng had a hand in it.

The medical college also spread rumors that Zhang Yisheng had once saved some fool from the agricultural college, but Zhang Yisheng never cared about such gossip. The only people he cared about were those who stood on the same level as he did.

There was no denying that this incident changed Su Mu’s entire life.

Zhang Yisheng, whether you walk the path of righteousness or darkness in the future, I will follow you.

“What’s wrong with you, my good brother?” Zhang Yisheng’s voice finally dragged Su Mu back from his memories, though it was noticeably colder this time. Zhang Yisheng’s patience was limited.

Su Mu bowed his head obediently.

Though Zhang Yisheng was puzzled, he believed Su Mu would not lie to him, and could only accept the truth.

After I settled Han Xue in place, I told Su Mu to stay behind and look after the sleeping girl. Then I called Zheng Wei and Zhang Yisheng to come with me and reunite with Lin Wan and the others, to see whether those ox-headed and horse-faced monsters could actually defeat the psychic specter.

Zhang Yisheng and Zheng Wei naturally wanted to see just what kind of creature it was that could control the two of them.

The three of us moved swiftly through the woods, and before long we reached the appointed place. But there was no sign of the battle I had hoped to see between Ox-Head and Horse-Face.

On the battlefield there was only the psychic specter, along with Midnight and Charcoal Head, both of whom had gone completely red-eyed. When they saw me appear, they let out shrill, raspy laughter, and a chill rose sharply behind me as well.

I realized that Zhang Yisheng and Zheng Wei behind me had been controlled again.

Had the baiting plan failed? Why had Ox-Head and Horse-Face not been drawn here?

I had no time to think further. The attacks of the four powerful beings were already surging toward me.