The blackout curtains in the study were drawn halfway. Afternoon light streamed through the uncovered side, falling precisely across the fingers resting on Lu Shiyan’s armrest.
Jiang Nuan’s gaze involuntarily settled on the web of his thumb.
The bite mark was still there.
She had bitten him a few days ago.
With Lu Shiyan’s ability and his body’s recovery speed, such a minor wound should have disappeared without a trace by now.
…Could he have deliberately left it there??
Jiang Nuan shifted her gaze away from the bite mark, pretending she hadn’t seen a thing.
Lu Shiyan leaned back on the sofa with his eyes closed, his brow faintly furrowed.
He looked as though he still hadn’t recovered from the battle, displaying such obvious exhaustion only rarely.
Jiang Nuan gauged the distance from the doorway and chose the single-seater sofa farthest from him, sitting down.
Their argument by the bay window that day was still vivid in her mind.
She had seen the expression on his face when he froze—seen it clearly. It had almost looked vulnerable.
But seeing it didn’t make the anger in her chest subside.
He had set the rules. He had built the cage. So why was he the one wearing the wounded expression?
Damn it.
This man was the biggest bug of all.
Jiang Nuan shoved those jumbled thoughts aside and forced herself to concentrate. He had summoned her despite being so exhausted, which probably meant there was something important to discuss.
If he only wanted to continue what they had started that day, he could have waited until he had rested.
Lu Shiyan remained there with his eyes closed, silent for nearly half a minute.
For a moment, Jiang Nuan suspected that he had fallen asleep.
She was debating whether to clear her throat when Lu Shiyan spoke.
“The Scavengers were caught completely off guard this time.” Lu Shiyan opened his eyes, with no intention of making small talk. “Their main forces have been wiped out.”
Jiang Nuan straightened slightly.
“The only problem is…” Lu Shiyan turned his head. “The Scavenger leader got away.”
“…Got away?” Jiang Nuan raised her eyebrows. “From you?”
There was no skepticism in her voice, only genuine surprise.
She knew all too well how terrifying Lu Shiyan’s spatial ability was. Within the range of his power, practically no one could escape.
Lu Shiyan nodded and rubbed his brow.
“He used a mental ability to disguise his face, so I never saw his true appearance.” The fingers resting on the armrest tightened. “Throughout the battle, he gave me a sense of familiarity.”
“Perhaps you’ve dealt with him before in this restricted zone?”
The first person to pop into her mind was Commander Gao. But then she remembered that he was still enjoying prison food in the command center’s jail.
No. Not him.
Lu Shiyan shook his head. “During the more than a year I’ve spent in this restricted zone, I’ve kept track of every ability user worth noting. He wasn’t any of them.”
“There’s something else.” He continued, “He had studied us. He was very familiar with the rhythm of our combat.”
Jiang Nuan nodded. “When they used Qi Sui as bait for their first ambush, their entire lineup was specifically tailored to counter us. It wouldn’t be surprising if someone who had studied us was directing things from behind the scenes.”
“What is surprising is that you failed to catch him.”
Lu Shiyan nodded. “The Scavenger leader possesses both time-based and mental abilities, and both are above S-rank.”
An individual with two abilities above S-rank.
Jiang Nuan quickly calculated the odds in her head. If this person fought Lu Shiyan head-on, it really wasn’t certain who would be the first to fall.
Lu Shiyan continued. When the other man fled, spatial-jump fluctuations appeared in the surrounding area.
Lu Shiyan had already planted a spatial coordinate on him for tracking and pursued him almost immediately.
Less than three seconds had passed between them. Yet once Lu Shiyan reached the target location, the man had vanished completely, as though he had never existed in this restricted-zone world.
“The Scavenger leader… is he someone from the original world?” Jiang Nuan’s voice rose slightly.
“Most likely,” Lu Shiyan said heavily.
“If that’s the case, then a lot of things make sense.” She said, “The Scavengers’ pursuit of us has always been abnormally targeted. It doesn’t seem like they’re simply eliminating outsiders. It’s more as if they’re deliberately targeting the Zero Squad.”
“If their leader is someone from the original world,” she continued faster, “then our grudge with him wasn’t formed in the restricted zone. He brought it in with him!”
She stopped after saying that, as several clues suddenly surfaced in her mind.
That rainy day, the members of the Apocalypse Society had lured her out, but they had specifically ordered that she be brought back alive.
The Scavengers had done the same.
They had shown no mercy to the other members of the Zero Squad, yet had gone easy on her.
The two organizations had treated her in strikingly similar ways.
And the Apocalypse Society was also researching the restricted zone. It made perfect sense that they would be able to control the aberrant energy monsters within it.
“The Apocalypse Society,” she said.
Yet after saying it, she felt even more uneasy.
The Apocalypse Society. In theory, the chain of logic held together. But she still felt as though something was missing.
Lu Shiyan didn’t look surprised. He nodded. “That was my first judgment as well.”
“But there are several points that don’t add up.” Lu Shiyan glanced at her before continuing. “The first is that the composition of his abilities is inherently unreasonable.”
“Both mental and time-based abilities above S-rank,” he said. “As far as I know, no such person exists in the original world.”
Jiang Nuan frowned.
She had indeed thought of that problem just now. Two abilities above S-rank, both of them among the most difficult types to deal with.
If such a person really existed, why had there never been even the slightest rumor about him?
“The list of high-level mental ability users is very short,” Lu Shiyan said blandly. “Aside from Shen Wu and me in the Zero Squad, the Apocalypse Society has one, and the Federation has one.”
He paused.
“There’s also Bai Siyuan.”
Jiang Nuan’s body went slightly rigid.
She thought of the memories her brother had sealed—memories she was now almost certain existed. They were also the reason she had begun to suspect that even the starting point of her life was false, leaving her with an ever-present sense of panic, as though she were suspended in midair.
But then she remembered how gentle and sincere Bai Siyuan had been toward her in the dreams formed by those memories.
“Bai Siyuan and you…” She carefully considered her wording. “You two shouldn’t have reached the point of fighting to the death, should you?”
Lu Shiyan closed his eyes for a moment. “That may not be the case.”
A chill ran down Jiang Nuan’s back.
What did he know?
Was there something he knew that she didn’t?
Lu Shiyan continued. “There’s another point that doesn’t add up. Time-based abilities are extremely rare to begin with…”
His gaze shifted slightly, as if he had thought of someone.
“I’ve never heard of anyone capable of wielding a time-based ability at that level—someone who could hold his own in a direct confrontation and forcibly create an opening to escape right under our noses.”
“In our world,” he added.
Jiang Nuan naturally understood what he meant by adding those words.
After all, she had indeed encountered a time-based ability user of that caliber in this restricted zone.
Lu Shiyan briefly described what had happened during the battle.
That ability was where they had suffered their setback. The Scavenger leader had used time reversal to repair the wound Ye Que had blasted through him. He had then used time deceleration to interfere with Lu Shiyan’s spatial ability, buying himself those few seconds of opportunity.
In other words, Lu Shiyan and the others had already eliminated the Scavengers’ combat forces and forced their leader into a desperate corner. He had escaped only by relying on that final use of his time-based ability.
Without that ability, he absolutely would never have made it out.
Jiang Nuan began to doubt her theory that the man belonged to the Apocalypse Society.
After all, if he really were a member of the Apocalypse Society, it was unlikely that he would keep an ability of this level hidden. The organization’s strength would have risen by an entire tier long ago.
“Then there are only two possibilities.” She raised her head. “One is that he’s been concealing his time-based ability all along and has never revealed it before. But that’s highly unlikely. In the world we used to live in, where death could come at any moment, there was no reason to hide such a lifesaving trump card for so long.”
Lu Shiyan nodded slightly, signaling for her to continue.
“The other possibility is that he only acquired this ability recently.” The more Jiang Nuan thought about it, the clearer her line of reasoning became. “Whether he awakened it or gained it through some other stroke of luck, the point is that it’s a new addition.”
Lu Shiyan leaned back into the sofa, his gaze never leaving her face.
“So, once we leave the restricted zone, we only need to investigate the high-level psychic ability users we already know,” Jiang Nuan said. “The scope will be smaller, and we’ll be able to move faster.”
Lu Shiyan looked at her and nodded, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly.
“In any case…” His tone softened as he leaned back against the sofa again. “The Scavengers have been dealt a heavy blow this time. They won’t be able to make any major moves for now. With the outsiders drawn into this restricted zone no longer having to face pursuit from one of the factions, all we need to do next is crack the core of the restricted zone as quickly as possible.”
Jiang Nuan nodded.
That reminded her of something.
She told Lu Shiyan about encountering Lu Zhaoming and Lin Zhou during the Ice Lake mission, and about being invited to the Lighthouse team’s celebration party, where she was allowed to bring someone with her.
“We’ve always been missing an opportunity to enter the Lighthouse base,” Jiang Nuan said. “The clues about the snake-patterned tree are there. The celebration party is an official invitation, so we won’t need to sneak in or arouse suspicion.”
“As expected of a tactical analyst,” Lu Shiyan said. “Your thinking is always clear.”
Jiang Nuan had the distinct feeling that there was a hidden meaning behind his words, but she decided it was time to leave the room.
“If there’s nothing else, Captain, I’ll be going now.”
“Wait.” Lu Shiyan’s voice sounded from behind her.
