TL :eris81194
PR : Adrian Katastofi
“Who hasn’t come from a time of pure innocence and joy?”
Even someone as strong as Liu Sishan had some naive and adorable behaviors in her childhood.
She gently waved her hand, and the ice sword instantly melted into pure water, then dissipated into the air.
“Are you really… Sister Sisi?” Zhang Ping asked, looking at Liu Sishan.
Liu Sishan didn’t remove the ice mask from her face. She looked at Zhang Ping and said, “Second question: according to our investigation, your ability is Contract Gem, which was deemed useless because its activation conditions couldn’t be met. So, why have your actions been so abnormal lately?”
“Because I ate the Contract Gem,” Zhang Ping replied honestly.
This was a question he could answer, as even the evaluators didn’t know all the effects of the Contract Gems.
Liu Sishan was stunned and asked, “You swallowed the gem?”
“Yes, after consuming the Contract Gem, my body and mind are completely under my control. That’s how I discovered there were two mutated beasts hiding in the school. I began to wonder if Pearl City truly belonged to humans or to these mutated beasts, so I started investigating,” Zhang Ping nodded.
Liu Sishan remained silent.While Zhang Ping’s explanation seemed convincing, the organization’s investigation revealed that only one mutated beast lurked in the shadows of Pearl City Ability School.
They even hired assassins to probe further, but still couldn’t uncover any details about the opponent.
“You mean, you can accurately identify all the mutated beasts in the city?” Liu Sishan asked Zhang Ping seriously.
Zhang Ping was taken aback, opened his squinted eyes, and asked, “Don’t you already know what the mutated beasts in the city are?”
“Answer my question first.”
Liu Sishan avoided answering. She still couldn’t be sure if Zhang Ping was human or a mutated beast.
Some mutated beasts could create extremely sophisticated illusions where everything seemed real but was actually a product of the human mind.
If she were caught in such an ability now, any information she provided could be leaked to the enemy.
“According to my investigation, the city is currently infested with numerous mutated beasts. They are all Celestial Foxes. I suspect a tribe of them has invaded Pearl City. Their abilities generally include two to three powers, with species-specific abilities being cognitive distortion and reality inversion.”
Currently, there are two Celestial Foxes hidden in the school. Centered around the school, almost every street has over thirty Celestial Foxes. Most importantly, the patrol team has been completely taken over by the Celestial Foxes. There are no living humans left. Anyone who joins the patrol team gets eaten by the Celestial Foxes.” Zhang Ping realized Liu Sishan hadn’t fully believed him and, after some thought, decided to provide more information.
Liu Sishan’s eyes widened. She knew Pearl City was dangerous, hiding an unknown number of mutated beasts, but she hadn’t realized the situation was this dire.
If what Zhang Ping said was true, then Pearl City had essentially fallen into the hands of mutated beasts, turning the entire city into their hunting ground and all humans into their prey.
“I’ve noted down the identities of some of the Celestial Foxes. You can try to verify them, and that should prove I’m human, right?” Zhang Ping asked, looking at Liu Sishan.
Liu Sishan hesitated, then nodded after some thought, “Go ahead.”
“On Leye Street, the owner of Wanshang Breakfast Shop is a Celestial Fox. Also on Leye Street, the owner of Ji’an Furniture is a Celestial Fox. On Longzhu Street, the three blacksmiths at Long Spear Weapon Shop are all Celestial Foxes. You can investigate these first, and we can talk more after verification,” Zhang Ping said slowly.
After thinking for a moment, he added, “Honestly, I originally thought you knew the mutated beasts were Celestial Foxes, or at least knew their abilities.
But it seems you confirmed the presence of mutated beasts in Pearl City through other means without knowing the specifics. So if you’re going to verify, it’s best to find trustworthy people. I don’t know if there are any mutated beasts hidden within your team or organization.”
Liu Sishan, considering what Zhang Ping said, was unsure whether Celestial Foxes were hidden within their organization.
Cognitive distortion and reality inversion — just hearing the names gave an idea of their terrifying potential. The combination of these two abilities was especially dangerous.
After a moment of contemplation, Liu Sishan decided to contact the team leader.
She could no longer discern the truth of Zhang Ping’s words, and the information he provided was too crucial. If true, it would be vital intelligence.
“Stay here. I’ll be back soon,” she said, glancing at Zhang Ping.
Zhang Ping shrugged and, with his squinted eyes, looked at Liu Sishan, saying helplessly, “Do I look like I can move?”
Alright.
In fact, he could break free from the liquid adhesive suit’s restraint.
But considering it might cause misunderstandings, he allowed the strange liquid to envelop him. It wasn’t particularly uncomfortable.
Liu Sishan left the darkroom and took out a badge from her pocket.
The badge was slightly larger than a coin, with a blue pearl embedded in the center.
She gently pressed the pearl, and an old voice came from the badge, “Sisi, I already heard from Manni. Not only has your luck fire not gone out, but it has also grown stronger. Tell me, what good news do you have?”
“Captain, I don’t know if this counts as good news…” Liu Sishan sighed and then recounted the information provided by Zhang Ping.
On the other end of the badge, an old man with silver hair listened to Liu Sishan’s report and then looked up at the others.
The conference room had more than a dozen members, each frowning and pondering over the information Liu Sishan provided.
Although the information differed from their current investigations, many parts aligned perfectly.
“Celestial Foxes, has anyone heard of such mutated beasts?” the old man asked, tapping the table lightly.
A middle-aged man sitting to his right said, “I can confirm that no mutated beasts called Celestial Foxes have ever appeared around Pearl City. However, cognitive distortion and reality inversion abilities have been seen before. The Heart-Eating Phantom Fox has cognitive distortion, and the Perilous Parasite Fox has reality inversion. It’s possible these two could have interbred.”
“In that case, the information provided by Sisi’s little friend could be true,” the old man mused.
Then, a burly man sitting to the left of the old man spoke, “Since they provided accurate identities of the mutated beasts, let me verify it.”
“Jin Bo, don’t be impulsive,” said the middle-aged man on the right.
The old man smiled and said, “If Sisi’s little friend is a mutated beast, the information provided could be a trap. But it could also be bait to gain our trust. I think it’s worth the gamble. Sisi’s lucky fire doesn’t lie. Jin Bo, you lead the team to verify the information. If possible, bring back the Celestial Foxes’ corpses!”
“Yes, Captain!”
Jin Bo responded and left.
The middle-aged man, looking worried, asked, “Captain, isn’t this too risky?”
“Chen Ming, knowing the enemy’s magnitude without being aware of their presence is dangerous. We’ve lost several elite members recently and only discovered two mutated beasts without identifying the enemy. Now we finally have a chance to verify it. Hesitation is not our style,” the old man said solemnly.
He looked out the window, vaguely seeing Pearl City in the night, and sighed, “Now that the Pearl is tarnished, it’s our job to clean it. We must restore its shine. We can’t afford to be timid or hesitant.”
……….
Leye Street, Wanshang Breakfast Shop.
This breakfast shop was similar in structure to Soul of Iron, but only had two floors.
In the master bedroom on the second floor, a middle-aged fat man was sound asleep, snoring. Beside him lay a two-meter-tall fox, also sleeping. As it breathed in and out, the human skin on its forehead moved up and down.
At this moment, a door appeared on one side of the bedroom.
The instant the door appeared, the fox on the bed abruptly opened its eyes, but it was too late.
One punch!
The fox’s head exploded silently, and the fat man beside it remained undisturbed in his sleep.
Jin Bo lifted the fox’s corpse with one hand and quickly said, “Let’s go!”
Meanwhile, at Pearl Academy of Abilities, “Luo Shiyu” suddenly opened its eyes while resting. It swiftly left the dormitory and stared into the distance.
“Your Highness?” A Celestial Fox immediately appeared behind it.
“Luo Shiyu” said, “Yue Jiu is dead. Someone killed Yue Jiu.”
After speaking, it leaped into the air, reaching a height of a hundred meters, and scanned the surroundings. It suddenly sensed another Celestial Fox being killed.
Location locked!
In the next moment, it dived sharply, landing directly on Leye Street. However, it immediately frowned and looked around. The aura had disappeared again.
But soon, the aura reappeared!
The problem was that the aura appeared even farther away, and another Celestial Fox was dead!
“Roar!!!”
It gritted its teeth, its long ears standing upright, struggling to control its anger.
In the end, it couldn’t help but let out a roar, releasing a terrifying shockwave that spread out as a strong wind from its center.
The surrounding Celestial Foxes woke up one after another.
From all directions, numerous human skins fluttered in the wind.
At this moment, Jin Bo’s team had already left Pearl City with the corpses of two Celestial Foxes.
These two corpses remained in human form even after death while in Pearl City. Jin Bo hesitated for a second after killing the first Celestial Fox, but he ultimately decided to continue.
Better to be wrong than to miss it.
After they had left Pearl City for some distance, the corpses suddenly transformed into foxes, startling the team members carrying them. Upon discovering the change, the team members were filled with both surprise and doubt.
Jin Bo glanced back and instead revealed a ferocious smile, exuding a murderous aura, “This is good news. At least now we finally know who the enemy is!”
The Cleanup Team had determined that mutated beasts were hiding within Pearl City based on the overall fortune of the city.
They had sent elite members to investigate Pearl City, but not only had they failed to find results, only eight out of the twenty elite members could still be contacted.
The other twelve members had not only lost contact, but their flames of luck had also been extinguished, indicating that they were dead.
The Cleanup Team was an organization independent of the Pearl City system, established with a simple purpose: to serve as a trump card capable of turning the tide in times of catastrophe.
The elite members of the team mostly came from the Investigation Team and the Patrol Team, all of them once-renowned geniuses.
These geniuses had voluntarily faked their deaths or gone missing to cut ties with their pasts and protect Pearl City from behind the scenes.
Losing twelve members abruptly was a heartbreaking blow.
But they couldn’t find the enemy.
Everyone could only suppress their frustration.
But now.
They had finally found them!
