Hui Tian Ch94

Chapter 94

Who can claim the moon as their own? I can.

Yang Xiaodao stood up suddenly, but was held down by Shen Zhuo.

“What do you want to do?” he asked calmly.

“Kill the brat, take Supervisor Shen away; don’t waste time,” Shunsuke Noda said coldly, clearly uninterested in Su Jiqiao. Glancing at his watch, he added, “Mr. Rong is still waiting for us.”

As he walked towards Yang Xiaodao, he drew a dagger from his waist. The sharp clang of the blade echoed through the dark cave, its cold light flickering. Yang Xiaodao’s pupils shrank, and like a wounded wolf, he prepared to resist, raising his foot to meet the attack—

“Are you so afraid that this child will complain to Bai Sheng when he goes back?” Shen Zhuo suddenly said.

Shunsuke Noda stopped in his tracks.

“…What did you say?”

“Did I say something wrong?” Shen Zhuo stared into Shunsuke Noda’s dark eyes, his voice clear and mocking. “An underage child is not worth being afraid of, yet you’ve been committed to eradicating the root of the problem since the beginning. Why? Because you’re afraid that leaving him alive will lead to Bai Sheng’s revenge. You dare not provoke a strong man who can crush you with one finger, right?”

“…” Shunsuke Noda’s first reaction was disbelief, followed by a burst of furious laughter. “Do you think I can’t see through your provocation?!”

“Then go ahead and kill him.” Shen Zhuo stepped aside, revealing Yang Xiaodao behind him, and made a gesture of invitation. “Kill him in front of me. Prove to me that you aren’t scared of Bai Sheng.”

The air in the cave seemed to freeze, and the dagger in Shunsuke Noda’s hand reflected the cold provocation in Shen Zhuo’s eyes.

“Go ahead.” Shen Zhuo’s voice was even gentle, “Don’t be a coward.”

In the dead silence, only Shunsuke Noda’s heavy breathing could be heard. After what felt like centuries, with a loud metallic sound, he thrust the dagger back into its scabbard.

“Bai Sheng is just lucky.” Shunsuke Noda grabbed Shen Zhuo’s jaw and said through gritted teeth, “One day I will kill him. Just wait and see if you don’t believe me!”

Shen Zhuo pried Shunsuke Noda’s fingers off his jaw, inch by inch, and said calmly, “I look forward to that day.”

Shunsuke Noda’s anger was on the verge of exploding, but he could only grit his teeth and endure it. He turned around, snatched the refrigerated suitcase containing the serum from Su Jiqiao, and barked, “Let’s go!”

He waved his hand and tore open a dark space tunnel. Su Jiqiao suddenly came to his senses and said, “Ah? It’s not safe to leave like this. My professor doesn’t seem like someone who will behave. Don’t you need my special ability to act first?”

—Su Jiqiao’s Fatal Strike.

Shunsuke Noda impatiently replied, “Why are you in such a hurry? Didn’t Mr. Rong tell you to do it in front of him?”

Psychic powers are somewhat mysterious to outsiders. Shunsuke Noda’s move was to prevent Su Jiqiao from acting behind Rong Qi’s back. Su Jiqiao wasn’t angry; he simply shrugged.

“Okay, then let’s use a harmless supernatural power to knock down the kid who will definitely not behave himself.”

He turned to Yang Xiaodao, his voice already hypnotic as he spoke:

“I’ll take you somewhere else to hang out first, okay?”

—It was exactly what he had said to an ordinary student passing by when he first displayed his daydream ability in front of Shen Zhuo five years ago, word for word.

Yang Xiaodao still wanted to resist, but under the power of the daydream, he had no room to fight back, and his mind became dazed and scattered in an instant.

Plop! The boy collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Shunsuke Noda turned and started to walk into the space tunnel, but he noticed Su Jiqiao smiling at him. Su Jiqiao’s expression remained unchanged, except for a flash of cruelty in his eyes:

“The same to you.”

In an instant, even Shen Zhuo’s expression changed.

He actually attacked his own ally!

Noda Shunsuke’s pupils constricted. As Daydream was activated, he turned around, slashing a bolt of lightning towards Su Jiqiao. However, the latter, having anticipated this, moved even faster. With a squelch of blood and flesh, Su Jiqiao’s four fingers stabbed into Noda Shunsuke’s back and then viciously pulled out!

“…I always knew… you were a venomous snake…”

Noda Shunsuke only managed to utter these words before his consciousness was seized by Daydream, and his body, driven by inertia, fell backward, crashing into the space tunnel.

The void rift instantly closed, taking Noda Shunsuke with it and disappearing from the cave.

In an instant, the situation drastically changed. Only Shen Zhuo and Su Jiqiao remained standing on the open ground. Su Jiqiao casually flicked the blood off his fingertips, nonchalantly saying, “I told you, troublesome people are not a big problem.”

Countless thoughts flashed through Shen Zhuo’s mind in an instant as he reached out to check Yang Xiaodao’s breathing. Su Jiqiao laughed, “Ah, don’t worry, it’s just a harmless daydream. He’ll wake up on his own in a few hours…” He shook his head with a sigh, “Even knowing it’s a provocation, it’s hard not to fall for it, isn’t it, Professor?”

Shen Zhuo’s voice was deep and steady, “What exactly are you plotting?”

“Professor, you don’t really think I would truly follow Rong Qi’s orders, do you?” Su Jiqiao raised his eyebrows teasingly and said, “Although the deal back then was that once I evolved to S-class, I would immediately use Fatal Strike to bring you before him, but… if that were the case, many things would be out of my control. I’ve spent so much effort to stand before you again; how could I easily let go of this opportunity?”

He looked at Shen Zhuo with burning eyes, seemingly expecting the questions, “What deal did you make with Rong Qi?” and “What exactly is your Fatal Strike?”

But unexpectedly, Shen Zhuo did not follow his lead at all. His eyes, like cold pools, showed no ripples. “What, you won’t miss any chance to reminisce with me?”

“…You and I don’t seem to have many pleasant old memories to talk about, Professor,” Su Jiqiao blinked in surprise.

“Then what do you want to talk about, Qiao Jianqing?”

Upon hearing this name, Su Jiqiao couldn’t help but be stunned.

Shen Zhuo threw out this card without hesitation, not even changing his tone, “You’ve hated me so much since we met at the research institute back then. Now that I think about it, it should be Qiao Jianqing’s death that left a deep psychological shadow on you. Am I right?”

Shen Zhuo rarely showed such a strong posture, quickly seizing the initiative in the conversation. Even knowing he was just trying to buy time, Su Jiqiao couldn’t help but pause for several seconds.

Then he laughed in an absurd way, shaking his head repeatedly.

“No, no, Professor… Although I’m very surprised you could find out so much, I don’t hate you, really. That biological father didn’t leave me with any psychological shadow.”

——He really is an illegitimate child.

Shen Zhuo’s gaze slightly tightened.

“He did cause a significant psychological shadow for my biological mother,” Su Jiqiao said lightly, “She harbored resentment until her death, feeling that Qiao Jianqing cared more about the ‘vessel’ project than about me, and never got over it.”

The biological mother he mentioned was certainly not the guardian recorded in the files. This person should have been raised by a relative of his biological mother.

After all, in those days, having a child out of wedlock couldn’t leave any trace of the biological mother in the records.

But Shen Zhuo didn’t want to give a psychic any chance for sentimentality. He directly skipped over the irrelevant details of Su Jiqiao’s childhood and straightforwardly said, “There’s one thing I don’t understand.”

Su Jiqiao generously gestured for him to ask.

Shen Zhuo stared at him, “Who told you that Qiao Jianqing stored the vessel in Quanshan County Health Center?”

“Oh, no one; I found out myself.”

Su Jiqiao, facing Shen Zhuo’s cold and suspicious gaze, spread his hands with a smile, “To be honest, at first, I was just curious about that so-called HRG project—you understand, Professor, that natural curiosity buried in one’s bloodline. You are Shen Ruzhen’s son; I know you must have it too.”

“……”

“So after getting into the research institute, I deliberately collected information in that area, wanting to know what HRG was trying to research back then and what the so-called ‘vessel’ project was all about. I have no deep emotional connection to my biological father, so naturally, I wouldn’t resent anyone because of him. In fact, at first, I was full of curiosity about you.”

“But Professor, from the first meeting, you firmly rejected my request to join the lab.” Su Jiqiao shook his head regretfully, “You didn’t seem to see me as a peer at all, preferring to mingle with those low-IQ idiots… You were always with them.”

“——Senior Shen, I’ve heard about you for a long time…” “Senior Shen, I admired you greatly during my undergraduate years and specially printed all your works, hoping to have the opportunity to learn from you…”

That summer, in the research institute’s office, the eighteen-year-old Su Jiqiao, with the dazzling aura of a prodigy, subtly expressed his goodwill to the young Professor Shen, only to be ruthlessly rejected.

“No need to apply. I don’t take students, and it’s not suitable for your direction.”

Shen Zhuo got up and walked towards the laboratory without looking back. The doors of HRG were resolutely closed before Su Jiqiao, leaving only the cold and shadowy silhouettes.

“Did you know, Professor? For a long time, your loathing even made me question and doubt myself and the world. I desperately wanted your approval, dreamed of reshaping my self-perception based on you, not understanding why I just couldn’t catch your eye.”

Su Jiqiao sighed with emotion, saying, “For a while, I even suspected that you had discovered my connection to Qiao Jianqing and that’s why you were so wary of me…”

“No,” Shen Zhuo said coldly, “My dislike for you is just because of you.”

Su Jiqiao paused, then raised his eyebrows after a long while, “Ah, I thought so too.”

His tone was actually very strange, with a subtle oddness that even sounded like a kind of excitement.

“…” Shen Zhuo stared at him intently, but his face revealed nothing. After a moment, he said, “I’m not interested in your convoluted emotional journey. Answer my question. How did you know Qiao Jianqing stored the vessel at Quanshan County Health Center?”

“Oh, that.” Su Jiqiao nonchalantly replied, “During the time you left the research institute before the first global evolution, I returned to my hometown a few times, came across my mother’s old notes and belongings, and gradually began to understand Qiao Jianqing’s experiences and relationships before his death. It wasn’t until several years later that I stumbled upon that nearly abandoned township health center…”

“You’re lying.”

Su Jiqiao abruptly looked up at Shen Zhuo.

The cave was dimly lit, and Shen Zhuo’s half face was shrouded in shadow, the other half stark white and clear: “Qiao Jianqing handed the container to his friend the night before the accident. He didn’t know he would die the next day and couldn’t have suddenly decided to say goodbye to your mother and leave any information. So she at most knew about the existence of the ‘vessel’ project but would never know that the vessel was still alive. Twenty years later, even if you wanted to learn about Qiao Jianqing’s life and relationships, you had no reason to suddenly suspect Quanshan County Health Center, because the Wang Tiejun father and son who ran the health center back then had nothing to do with you.”

“…”

“Don’t play word games with me, Su Jiqiao,” Shen Zhuo said coldly. “All your investigations into Qiao Jianqing’s whereabouts before his death had a purpose. Someone must have told you that the container was still alive, prompting you to specifically dig up Quanshan County Health Center from the old files.”

Su Jiqiao remained silent, his eyes flickering.

“It was the spiritual entity 001, wasn’t it?” Shen Zhuo’s voice, covered in frost, pierced the air.

“The so-called deal between you and Rong Qi was that you would help him retrieve the lost vessel, and he would help you evolve into an S-class. Am I right?”

Sunlight streamed through the cracks in the mountain rocks, cutting the light and shadow into sharp angles.

Su Jiqiao just stood quietly in the backlit area near the cave entrance, then let out a short and strange laugh.

“Your ruthless acuity really makes one’s heart… race, Professor,” he said with a light smile.

Su Jiqiao took a step forward, and Shen Zhuo retreated in response, but his foot was soon obstructed.

Behind him was the cold, hard mountain wall; there was no way out.

“After the first global evolution, my mental powers significantly increased, and I quickly identified that abnormal shadow among the crowd, the extraterrestrial spiritual entity 001. But what surprised me was that it was actually at—”

Su Jiqiao suddenly paused.

He didn’t explain what had surprised him at that moment; he just looked at Shen Zhuo with that peculiar expression and smiled.

“So, after the first generation of HRG researchers, I was probably the first person on Earth to come into contact with the spiritual entity 001. It told me that the ‘vessel’ might not have been destroyed. It needed that body with infinite regeneration capabilities, and I urgently wanted to evolve into an S-class.”

“We formed a cooperative relationship because our interests were deeply bound together. Do you know why?”

Su Jiqiao stopped, standing just inches away from Shen Zhuo.

With the back of his head pressed against the rocky wall, Shen Zhuo slightly tilted his head up, his eyes cold under his lashes: “I’m not interested in knowing. You both disgust me.”

Su Jiqiao’s attractive thin lips curled slightly, his smile deepening:

“No matter, I’ll tell you. It’s because of my Fatal Strike.”

“——Because with a heart as cold as yours, it’s impossible to gain your complete submission without using a psychic power.”

Shen Zhuo turned his head, pressing against the wall; his delicate brows furrowed as Su Jiqiao’s cold fingers brushed his cheek.

“Professor,” Su Jiqiao leaned closer, his eyes surprisingly tender in the dim light, “You are so sharp, so perceptive. Can you guess what my Fatal Strike is?”

“Can you guess what I want to do now,” Shen Zhuo’s voice came almost through gritted teeth, word by word, “You make me want to puke!”

As soon as the words fell, he forcefully swatted away Su Jiqiao’s hand. The sound was especially loud in the cave, and simultaneously, he struck at Su Jiqiao’s throat like an arrow sliding to the side!

Shen Zhuo’s combat skills were never for show; they were extremely efficient and fierce, especially exceptional in joint locks. But the space was too cramped. At such a close distance, he couldn’t match Su Jiqiao, who had evolved into an S-level. In an instant, Su Jiqiao leaned back to dodge, blocked the path, grabbed Shen Zhuo’s arm, and twisted it. Crack!

With a clear sound of bones breaking, Shen Zhuo’s left arm dislocated, and his elbow joint was instantly locked!

With a thud, Shen Zhuo’s back hit the ground. Su Jiqiao grabbed his left hand, pressing him heavily against the rugged mountain rocks, causing him to lose his balance and fall. The pain shot through his nerves like an electric current, striking his brain.

“Even though your eyes never saw me, it doesn’t matter, Professor.” Su Jiqiao twisted Shen Zhuo’s dislocated forearm, his eyes a mix of tenderness, joy, and distortion, looking down at Shen Zhuo’s pupils from above: “From now on, your eyes will only see me.”

Panting echoed in the narrow space, Shen Zhuo gritted out a few words: “You lunatic…”

Su Jiqiao ignored him. Their forced proximity made their foreheads almost touch. A brilliant red strand, like a snake’s tongue, swirled around his fingers, gently brushing Shen Zhuo’s nose like a lover.

That was his most lethal Fatal Strike.

If there were a third person to witness this, it would be a bizarre and eerily beautiful scene: Shen Zhuo’s cheeks were soaked in cold sweat, pale like white porcelain, his eyes contrastingly dark, and his brows furrowed from pain and disgust. Su Jiqiao seemed oblivious, his stunningly handsome face flickering with a pathological obsession.

“——Who can claim the moon as their own?”

His smiling lips pressed against Shen Zhuo’s ear, whispering softly:

“I can.”

The brilliant red strand entered Shen Zhuo’s brow.

S-class ability: Reverse Love-Hate.

Psychic control type, cannot affect groups, only individual targets. This ability can completely reverse the love and hate feelings of the subject towards the practitioner. The more intense the disgust and repulsion, the stronger the effect of the reversed love and submission, and the higher the degree of control the practitioner has over the subject.

This ability can be used on both evolutionists and ordinary people. Unless voluntarily revoked by the practitioner, it is indefinitely effective and cannot be undone.

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