Chapter 179.2 – Key (22)

◎ 500 years of imprisonment ◎

Xu Xing rolled backward, trying to evade, but he didn’t manage to completely dodge it. A sharp pain surged like an electric shock to his ankle. With a thud, he fell awkwardly to the ground.

His entire lower leg was frozen in place, and due to the freezing effect, he didn’t feel anything at first. Until a clear “crack” sound came, Xu Xing knew that his lower leg was broken.

Like a young lion resisting stubbornly despite numerous wounds, Xu Xing struggled to climb up. Without shouting or crying, his big eyes held tears. He knew it wasn’t the time to cry now, enduring the urge to drop golden beans. He just stared fiercely at the white-clad youth.

“Not bad, stronger than I was at your age. Give you another ten years, maybe you can reach S-level.”

“Unfortunately, not all children are fortunate enough to grow up,” the white-clad youth squatted in front of him, gripping Xu Xing’s chin. His words were venomous, like snake hisses. “You can only live until today.”

Sharp ice blades condensed into a massive pair of scissors, aiming at Xu Xing’s tender neck. It was about to fall when…

“Thinking of you, every day is sunny~ Casting warmth into my heart~”

At a critical moment, an ethereal voice rang out, and a golden sun rose in the area where the two were, growing increasingly hot. In an instant, it melted the scissor made of ice and snow. The scene of a sun rising in the dark night was already incredibly strange. With the glaring light becoming more and more dazzling, the white-clad youth sweated profusely and instinctively raised his hand to shield his eyes.

It was then that Fang Zhixu rushed over, scooped up Xu Xing, and ran away with him in his arms.

Xu Xing hugged his shoulders, unable to hold back his sobs. “I can’t beat him… I’m so useless…”

Fang Zhixu awkwardly patted Xu Xing’s head, and when he touched his dislocated leg, he quickly fixed it with a click.

…

“Xie Zuo… Xie Zuo… I’m here… I’m here…”

Someone was calling his name.

Across the distant space, Zhuang Qingyan met the gaze of a brown-haired, green-eyed woman holding a slowly swinging clock in her hand. In that instant of eye contact, ripples appeared in Zhuang Qingyan’s pupils, and his gaze couldn’t move away.

Gentle mental power, like a tiny brush, resonated in his mind.

The other party should be an S-level awakener of the mental ability. Ability: “Hypnosis.”

Zhuang Qingyan’s eyes were clear, and he smiled at her. The corner of his mouth was cold. In the next moment, the cold and merciless mental power entered her mind, crushing everything ruthlessly. No one noticed that two mental awakeners were engaged in a life-and-death battle. The brown-haired woman on the starship had her pupils shrink, gradually turning into a straight line, and she fell backward stiffly.

The clock in her hand hit the ground, stopping its ticking.

Zhuang Qingyan’s blood surged, suppressing the bloody air in his throat.

…

“Mr. Gu! Sophia is dead!”

The scene was transmitted back to a seemingly inconspicuous starship in the fleet. The shadow silently waved his hand, and the guards took away the body of the deceased hypnotist.

The communication interface sounded: “The Key has participated in the Genetic Optimization Plan. The registration information at that time was ‘unsuccessful.’ Now, it seems that he should be an early awakener.”

“Mental awakeners lack effective attack methods. They only gain the ability to deliver a fatal blow when condensing their abilities to a certain degree.”

Sophia, the deceased hypnotist, was an S5-level awakener in Utopia.

The fact that the Key was an awakener had already surprised them, but no one expected his level to be above S5.

“Mr. Gu, do you need me to take action…”

The shadow interrupted the person on the other end of the communication: “No, extracting memories from him will result in loss. I need complete information.”

“I want to clearly understand what the core secrets of the Fire Seed were back then.”

“Yes.”

“What about the storage hub of the Xie family?”

“Arrival in two minutes and fifteen seconds.” Every time the “Blood-Red Building Block” was activated, it required a ten-minute cooldown. After the next recombination, Xie Yinji would teleport the hub.

Two minutes later, the space twisted again, and more than a dozen starships appeared in the sky. Another secret communication connected.

“Mr. Gu, Xie Ping has made some moves behind the scenes. He wants to contact the Key privately.”

Mr. Gu’s voice was calm: “Let him be. Xie Ping doesn’t understand his nephew, and even less so his niece. Even if they have blood ties, the other party won’t surrender peacefully.”

…

Another recombination occurred, and five S-level awakeners descended from the sky, rushing towards Zhuang Qingyan. Their hair and eyes varied, but without exception, they were powerful attack-type awakeners, with levels ranging from S5 to S6.

In the dim light, half of Zhuang Qingyan’s face was shrouded in shadow, and a handsome smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

“Are you all international mercenaries? Let me guess, you received a commission from Utopia? Why are you meddling in the internal affairs of the New Asia Alliance? This mission is tough and unrewarding. Be careful, there might be no return, and the reward might be your life. Think about it carefully. If it were really easy, why wouldn’t the Alliance take it, and instead it falls to you?”

His words seemed to carry an inexplicable fascination. Those who heard them felt their minds confused, their thoughts swaying as if… there was a twisted logic?

Zhuang Qingyan observed the surrounding environment intently, preparing to find an opening to escape when his pupils suddenly contracted.

A metal cable pierced through the air, moving at an extremely fast speed with no escape possible.

At the critical moment, Lin Youyou applied a speed boost buff, and Zhuang Qingyan rolled in a distressed manner, his shirt stained with blood and stains. The fierce iron chain brushed past his ear, turning sharply and stabbing straight at him. Golden-rimmed glasses fell to the ground, shattered in the chaos, and Su Cha emerged from the shadows, blocking with a sword. His six-foot tall figure flew out like a cannonball, rolling dozens of meters away and crashing heavily to the ground.

The iron chain gradually condensed into a human shape, and a teenager wearing a vulture uniform appeared before everyone.

“Don’t be fooled; he’s just a smooth talker,” a voice warned.

The teenager’s eyes showed no emotion, his skin pale, and the emblem on his chest so dark it seemed to have absorbed much blood.

Zhuang Qingyan frowned deeply; he couldn’t sense the teenager’s awakened energy, and a chill climbed up his spine.

—This is an S7.

Fang Zhixu helped up the fallen Su Cha and quickly treated him.

“Kill the healer,” the teenager said coldly.

Surrounding awakeners woke up like from a dream, launching attacks without hesitation.

The short Xu Xing suddenly rushed over, desperately creating an ice wall to block the attacks. However, being only A1 level, even if he exerted all his strength, how could he withstand a group of S-level individuals? The ice wall shattered into debris in less than a second, and both Xu Xing and Fang Zhixu were sent flying.

The S-level ice-element awakener’s eyes erupted with cruel light. “Little brat, die.”

Swish—

A dark blue spear descended from above, piercing through the heart of the white-clad youth, pinning him in midair.

The fierce force dragged him for over ten meters, finally deeply embedding him into the soil.

The man looked in shock at his chest, gasping in pain. Before he could catch his breath, his breathing was cut off.

Dead.

The whole scene was shocking.

A slender figure appeared at the edge of the building blocks, with two huge spiritual weapons originally crossed on her back, one now missing.

She had already taken off her coat, drenched in sweat, her jet-black hair sticking to her fair neck, showing signs of exhaustion from a long journey.

It was Song Ke.

The building blocks had a sequence of movement, and Xie Yinquan couldn’t assemble all the blocks to the desired positions at once. He had exhausted all his efforts to minimize the time, but Song Ke’s pursuit speed far exceeded his imagination.

Awakeners on the scene stared at the panting S7 level in disbelief, involuntarily taking a step back.

Song Ke helped up Su Cha, Fang Zhixu, and Xu Xing, then turned her head and gave Zhuang Qingyan a seemingly indifferent glance.

Zhuang Qingyan: “You know…”

Song Ke raised her hand to interrupt him, “Hoo… hoo… I know.”

Zhuang Qingyan paused, shook his head with a smile, “When did you know?”

“Uh,” Song Ke tilted her head, “Well, that someone, Lu Xiaoyu, told me.”

Lu Xiaoyu, who finally arrived and saw the captain: “???”

The air seemed to freeze as Song Ke casually walked to the side of the ice-element awakener’s corpse, slowly pulling out the dark blue spear.

“1, 2, 3…” she even earnestly counted a circle, creating a more imposing scene than when she fought against Ye Zheng’s assassins.

The “Blood-Red Building Blocks” refresh time arrived, and another scene was pieced together, with a dozen or so awakeners jumping down.

Real Simon sat in one of the starships, eagerly watching Song Ke.

Because she wasn’t wearing a coat, the wound on her abdomen was clearly visible, with only a gruesome scar and no bleeding.

Strange lights flickered in Simon’s eyes as he muttered to himself, “I know, I know what her second ability is.”

Simon had conducted a thorough study on dual ability awakeners, including his subordinate Punk, and the diviner Veronica.

Dual abilities, one manifest and one hidden, would not be of the same type due to magnetic field relationships. If the manifest ability is an attacking type, then the hidden ability could only be support, control, or body enhancement.

Based on existing evidence, Song Ke couldn’t have awakened two powerful attack abilities. It was deduced that her hidden ability was the body enhancement ability “Body Healing.” This meant that their originally planned conventional methods couldn’t kill her!

However, Punk had almost killed Song Ke before, and Simon’s fingers spasmed with excitement.

The other person present at that time was Azure Phoenix. With strict military discipline, Azure Phoenix hadn’t disclosed the secret, meaning he was the only one here who knew how to kill Song Ke.

Simon’s hooked nose twitched rapidly, his legs shaking on the seat.

“Commander, do you want to contact Mr. Gu for communication?” the secretary beside him asked softly.

“No, wait for a while,” Simon subconsciously stopped her, “Wait for the best opportunity.”

Approaching quarter past six, the sky had turned completely dark, and a resonant synthesized voice echoed through the loudspeakers for everyone to hear:

“As per the approval of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office of the New Asia Alliance, the first-level wanted criminal Xie Zhuo, male, 28 years old, biological ID: NOC1100520, native of Beijun, born on September 15th, New Calendar year 19, is now under arrest.”

“Xie Zhuo, thirteen years ago, illicitly fled with classified information. With conclusive evidence, based on legal standards, you are charged with crimes against humanity, anti-social crimes, illegally exploiting state secrets for personal gain, with extremely heinous circumstances never seen before. You will be arrested and sentenced to 500 years of imprisonment.”

The sky was filled with black starships, and below was the abandoned city of Loak. This place was far from the mainland, remote and desolate, devoid of any signs of life.

Seven figures stood within the encirclement, destined for a confrontation with a vast difference in strength.

Song Ke regained her composure, wiped the blood off the long spear, and chuckled softly, “500 years, that’s a bit much.”

She turned her head, clear eyes looking at Zhuang Qingyan, with a small dimple forming on her cheek.

“There’s something I lied about.”

“Sorry.”

Zhuang Qingyan raised his gaze to meet hers, his handsome features deep and profound. His voice was husky, and facing Song Ke, he found it difficult to speak, “What is it?”

Song Ke didn’t answer immediately; she turned her head to stretch her shoulders, muttering continuously, “Blame you, I rarely lie, but because of you, I’ve been corrupted.”

A year ago, that night they returned from the U-Lab laboratory.

The two who hadn’t yet become close sat side by side at the end of the apartment bed, looking at the hazy night outside. Zhuang Qingyan asked her:

“If one day, the entire Alliance is after me, everyone wants me dead, what would you do?”

“…”

“Would you save me?”

“…”

“Hmm? Would you?”

At that time, Song Ke looked into his eyes and shook her head firmly:

“No.”

A year later, Song Ke slowly removed her isolation mask. The slight radiation stimulation caused her blood vessels to burn, and her awakened energy kept surging. The environment here faintly brought back a familiar feeling.

Her eyes glowed with a blue light. Song Ke no longer restrained herself. The terrifying pressure erupted like an explosion, magnificent and vast. The world changed its colors, the instruments inside hundreds of starships went haywire, lights flickered, and the awakeners paled.

“This is… S8?!”

For a while, terrified shouts echoed through the sky.