Chapter 14
Tea Connoisseur Bai Sheng
Bai Sheng’s first reaction was that the name Su Jiqiao was very familiar, and then he remembered.
In Shen Zhuo’s experimental accident three years ago, besides Fu Chen who died on the spot, there was another A-class evolutionist who was blasted into a state of severe brain injury and has been in a coma in the hospital ever since. That person was Su Jiqiao.
“Oh… my god,” Chen Miao stammered. “Three years ago, Fu-ge and Senior Su also came to this health center? Why?”
At the ward’s entrance, Fu Chen glanced at Su Jiqiao. “It’s not that serious, why would Shen Zhuo be angry?”
Su Jiqiao replied softly, “I don’t know, but I’ve always felt that Senior Shen doesn’t like me very much. I wonder if there’s something I’m not doing well enough?”
Su Jiqiao was probably the only person Bai Sheng had ever seen who could match Shen Zhuo in terms of appearance. But the difference was that Shen Zhuo was accustomed to being looked up to; his aura as a superior was simply too strong, and his cold, sharp beauty was intimidating. Su Jiqiao, on the other hand, had smiling eyes and slightly curly hair, with a gentle, watery temperament. Just from his appearance, he seemed extremely approachable, and even his speech had a lilting, smiling tone.
“But it’s understandable when you think about it. If it weren’t for the good fortune of evolving, most of us would never even have the right to speak a single word to someone like Senior Shen in our entire lives, let alone win his favor.”
“…” Bai Sheng stole a glance at Shen Zhuo’s icy face, then turned and whispered to Chen Miao, “Does your Senior Su always talk like this?”
Chen Miao was still reeling from the immense shock of why these two had come to visit ‘Mr. Rong’ at this health center three years ago. He stammered back, “Wh-what style?”
Bai Sheng was silent for two seconds, then said cryptically, “Overflowing with the fragrance of tea.”
“Fragrance of tea? What fragrance of tea?” Chen Miao was baffled. “Senior Su has a great temper. He’s warm-hearted, considerate, and understanding. He was super popular back at the research institute. What’s wrong?”
Bai Sheng understood.
Bai Sheng leaned close to the bewildered Chen Miao’s ear and whispered a soft insult, “If I were the one supervising your master’s thesis defense, I’d have to take blood pressure medication too…”
“Shen Zhuo’s attitude towards people basically doesn’t change based on whether they do well or not. In his eyes, the fate of most people in this world is decided at first glance. I suggest you stop trying.”
Fu Chen turned back to look at the emaciated figure on the hospital bed. After a moment of silence, he suddenly said, “But there’s one thing I’m still curious about.”
“What?”
Fu Chen said slowly, “I’m wondering, if Shen Zhuo were to meet this person in the future, what would his first reaction be… a slight liking, tolerable? Or would he cast him aside like a worn-out shoe, not bothering to pay him any mind?”
Su Jiqiao smiled, looking harmless, kind, and gentle, but before he could say anything, he was interrupted.
“Forget it, let’s go.” Fu Chen checked the time again and said, “Shen Zhuo is still waiting for us at the airport to leave for Qinghai tonight. I don’t want to keep Shen Zhuo waiting too long.”
It was like a sudden enlightenment. Bai Sheng realized something from Fu Chen’s words.
Three years ago, Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao came to Quanshan County Health Center just one day before the Qinghai explosion, which meant that Fu Chen died 24 hours after seeing Rong Qi!
But why?
Why would two high-ranking evolutionists come to see Rong Qi? What was their relationship with this person named Rong?
Su Jiqiao glanced sidelong at Fu Chen, half-joking, half-lamenting, “I’m so envious. Fu-ge is really devoted to Senior Shen.”
Fu Chen turned and walked out, replying calmly, “Isn’t it natural for the pursuing party to be very devoted?”
Su Jiqiao quickened his pace to catch up with him and said with a smile, “That’s why I said I’m envious. Oh, by the way…”
A place could only undergo one random time rewind, and the scene and scope were extremely limited. Seeing that the two were about to walk out of range, Shen Zhuo turned to the Witch Italdo, his usually calm tone now slightly changed. “Follow them, don’t lose them!”
The witch could not disobey his command, but before she could react, she looked down at her feet as if struck by electricity.
A vine had suddenly shot out from the ground, tightly coiling around her entire body from the ankle up.
Then, countless vines rose from the ground. One of them split open to reveal a person inside—it was Noda Yoko!
The scene from three years ago vanished in an instant, and the view returned to the charred, dilapidated ward. Yoko, moving like lightning, held the Witch Italdo hostage and retreated to a corner, sneering, “I didn’t expect you to have a time rewind trick up your sleeve.”
Chen Miao cried out, “Senior Sister!”
Yoko pressed a knife to the witch’s throat. “Why would a bug-level existence like you obey a lowly human?”
Before the Witch Italdo could retort, several ice arrows glinted coldly and shot towards Yoko, launched by the quick-reacting Chen Miao.
But in a flash, a dark spatial rift instantly appeared, silently swallowing the ice arrows.
Then the spatial rift rapidly extended towards Yoko. She was just about to escape with the witch!
It all happened too fast. The four supervisors outside didn’t even have time to rush in. In an instant, Shen Zhuo was about to move forward but was stopped by Bai Sheng’s hand. “What are you doing?”
“If the Witch Italdo escapes supervision, it will cause huge trouble. We can’t let her go!”
Bai Sheng took the bait as expected. “If she escapes, it’ll be a bit of trouble at most. If you die, humans will go to war with evolutionists in a minute. Get back!”
The moment he finished speaking, Shen Zhuo accommodatingly took half a step back and patted Bai Sheng’s shoulder. “You’re right. You should go instead.”
“…………” Bai Sheng was utterly shocked. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you! You planned all along to order me around like this without paying me a single cent, didn’t you!!”
Shen Zhuo calmly commanded, “Stop Noda Yoko for me too!”
Bai Sheng thought to himself, Zhang Wuji’s mother’s dying words are indeed true: the more beautiful the person, the more deceitful they are. But there was no time for self-reflection now. The spatial rift was dark and deep, its destination unknown. It was about to swallow both Yoko and the Witch Italdo. Bai Sheng moved so fast he seemed to disappear on the spot, reappearing in front of Yoko’s face. A long saber, burning with fierce flames, had appeared in his hand, and he chopped down at the tentacle-like vines—
But just then, a strange expression flashed across Yoko’s face.
At the same time, the spatial rift abruptly bypassed Yoko, brushed past Bai Sheng, and shot straight for the isolated Shen Zhuo.
A feint!
Bai Sheng’s expression changed in an instant. He turned and rushed towards Shen Zhuo, but it was too late.
Liu Sanji emerged halfway from the black hole, grabbed the unprepared Shen Zhuo, and yanked him in!
The next second, the space healed, and the rift vanished.
The last scene left in the ward was countless tentacles tightly wrapping around Shen Zhuo, rapidly pulling him into the darkness, while Liu Sanji gave Bai Sheng a smile of undisguised malice.
“—Senior!” Chen Miao’s cry of alarm finally landed.
With a whistling gust of wind, Bai Sheng pointed his saber at Yoko, the usual smiling expression gone from his face, replaced by a powerful, intimidating aura. “Give Shen Zhuo back.”
Yoko said mockingly, “Oh? And what are you going to do? Cut me down along with the hostage?”
Chen Miao was both shocked and furious. “Let Senior Sister Shui go!!”
“Ah, that’s right. The witch is immortal. You’ll only kill the female coroner she’s possessing,” Yoko said, raising an eyebrow mockingly at Bai Sheng. “What, are you scared? An S-class like you can’t possibly be afraid of killing someone, right?”
Witch Italdo narrowed her eyes dangerously, her dangling fingers rising and falling, as if hesitating.
“…I don’t care how you handle the hostage,” Bai Sheng said in a low voice after a long moment. “But Shen Zhuo is the only human among the ten Chief Supervisors. If he dies at the hands of an evolutionist, the precarious peace between humans and us will be shattered, and the consequences will be unimaginable.”
Bai Sheng raised the tip of his saber, pointing past the hostage at Yoko.
“Tell me where Shen Zhuo is, or I will make you die a very painful death, without a single complete bone left in your body.”
The room fell into a standoff. Everyone was frozen in place, not daring to move.
Yoko stared intently at Bai Sheng, her eyes narrowed to their limit.
She had heard of Bai Sheng long ago. Many people thought he was always smiling and joking, never serious, a cheerful and generous rich second-generation kid—but she knew that no S-class in this world had a good temper. The only difference was the extent to which they were willing to act.
This man named Bai Sheng was cold-hearted and meticulous, with a pathologically strong desire for control. Even among S-classes, he was a very tricky existence.
She loathed people like him. They clearly had the ability to lead evolutionists to greater heights, yet they ran off to mingle with lowly, ant-like humans.
“You can kill me?” Yoko sneered and suddenly stabbed the knife towards the witch’s right rib. “Then come and try!”
Chen Miao lunged forward. “Stop!”
At the same instant.
A clear flicker of ferocity crossed Bai Sheng’s brow. He threw the long saber aside and, with one hand, made a grasping motion in the air. The joints of his five fingers cracked audibly.
With this action, an invisible force bound Yoko. Before her dagger could plunge in, her entire arm twisted and deformed, turning into a pretzel with the sharp sound of shattering bones!
Clang! The dagger fell to the ground.
The intense pain blanked Yoko’s mind. She shuddered as if electrocuted and released the hostage. Before the witch could take the opportunity to retaliate, Bai Sheng grabbed her and pushed her back towards Chen Miao.
Then, a frenzy of vines erupted from around Yoko, but they couldn’t touch a single corner of Bai Sheng’s clothes. In the blink of an eye, his chilling figure loomed over Yoko from above, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her up. “—Where is Shen Zhuo?”
Yoko’s right arm was completely twisted into a spiral. Her whole body trembled, and she gritted her teeth, a slight smile playing on her lips. “Willing to be a dog for humans, you traitors…”
Bai Sheng lifted two fingers in the air. Crack!
Yoko’s left arm automatically twisted a full two rotations. Countless bone spurs pierced through her skin, and flesh and blood exploded at once!
“An adult body has 206 bones. You now have one hundred and fifty left. You can let me twist them one by one, slowly.”
Bai Sheng looked down, his gaze fixed on Yoko’s bloodshot eyes, his tone clear and cruel. “Tell me where Shen Zhuo is, and perhaps you’ll have time to leave behind a complete corpse.”
“…” Yoko, bathed in blood, stared at him, then suddenly laughed through gritted teeth. “Come on, try and see if you can really kill me. Just as the Neanderthals were replaced by Homo sapiens thirty million years ago, the humans of today are also destined for extinction. Those like you, willing to be dogs for humans—”
Bai Sheng’s expression showed neither joy nor anger. He tightened his five fingers.
The force of his grip was simply terrifying. Yoko’s words stopped abruptly, her neck bones automatically twisting to their limit!
The scene was as terrifying as a silent film. Her face turned from flushed red to a dark purple, her cervical vertebrae being bent inch by inch into the shape of a snake. A gruesome “gurgle” of her throat bones grinding together sounded, and it seemed her neck was about to snap completely.
At that very moment.
A spatial rift suddenly tore open above everyone’s heads, and Noda Shunsuke’s figure flashed into existence without a sound.
“…You’re finished,” Yoko squeezed out a few words, staring at Bai Sheng.
Bai Sheng suddenly sensed something. He was about to turn around, but it was already too late.
Snap! Noda Shunsuke snapped his fingers.
Black barriers rose from the ground, quickly forming rectangular prisms, like coffins standing on end, instantly trapping everyone inside!
“Fuck!” “What is this?” “What’s happening?”
Everyone was shocked. Bai Sheng reacted the fastest, slamming a palm heavily against the barrier. The veins on the back of his hand bulged, but the translucent black “coffin” didn’t budge an inch.
“Cough! Cough, cough…” Yoko fell to the ground and was helped up by her brother, who dragged her aside.
“Spatial confinement.” Shunsuke’s Chinese was obviously stiff and accented. His gaze swept over the people in the black coffins, then landed on Bai Sheng, undisguised mockery in his eyes. “Don’t waste your energy. You can’t open it from the inside.”
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang! Chen Miao raised his gun and fired without a second thought, but the black, translucent coffin lid showed no reaction. The bullets couldn’t even penetrate it!
“…You could endure your own sister’s suffering and only come out now. You’re a real man,” Bai Sheng said, narrowing his eyes. “What about that guy named Rong? He doesn’t dare to come himself? Is it because he’s a cripple or because he’s afraid to show his face?”
Noda Shunsuke laughed, a bloodthirsty light glinting in his eyes. “We don’t need Mr. Rong to deal with you personally… Do you remember what I said last time?”
He already had a rather fierce appearance, and this smile made him look even more arrogant and provocative. “The next time we meet will be the day you die.”
He abruptly clenched one hand into a fist, the tendons and bones on his knuckles standing out.
Bai Sheng’s heart suddenly sank. He saw that with Noda Shunsuke’s action, all the black coffins began to compress rapidly at the same time, about to crush everyone present into a meat paste in an instant—
Author’s Note:
Bai Sheng: Learned, learned.
One month later, in the Shenhai Supervision Office.
Bai Sheng: “Director Yue must have a lot of important work matters to discuss with Supervisor Shen. It’s all my fault for interrupting you by bringing food. It’s all my fault for caring too much about giegie’s1romanization of the Chinese word gege (哥哥), which literally means “older brother health…”
Shen Zhuo: “.”
Yue Yang: “…………”
(Su Jiqiao: X, I’ve met my match.)
I find Bai Shengs ability so interesting. I’ve never heard of someone having the ability to control bones of people.
my assumption is it has to do with “blood” instead of bones
While I think it’s telekinesis