"You’ve made enemies of them?" Zheng Yichen cleared the way.
Ahn Ke nodded, "So might consider themselves wronged by . Many research materials they were eyeing have been snatched away by , and others have been utterly outmatched by the outcos of my work, beaten miserably in so conflicts."
"So they want to kill you, instead of completely surpassing you technically?"
"Isn’t that how competition among peers goes? Very few have the ambition to win technically; a simpler way to prevail is to physically eliminate those who cannot compete."
Ah, Zheng Yichen was at a loss for words. Ahn Ke continued, "Last night at North Lake, I made so additional discoveries. In order to obtain those things, the Ahn family and other families fought both in writing and force. Due to lack of sleep, my mood was rather poor, and I ended up being quite brutal."
"Now it’s my turn to face the consequences."
"... Are there no more people in the Ahn family? How could they let you do this?" Zheng Yichen’s lips couldn’t help but twitch slightly. Given that Ahn Ke had been so capable, the Ahn family should, at the very least, provide her with ample protection, right?
"Coming here was my own suggestion. Didn’t I safely make it here?"
"You’re bringing trouble to ." Zheng Yichen was slightly annoyed.
Yet, Ahn Ke seed very calm, "Because there really isn’t any place safer than here. Where’s your bedroom? Just don’t wake up when I’m asleep."
Listening to Ahn Ke’s sowhat strange request, Zheng Yichen took her straight to the guest room. Ahn Ke was not very satisfied with the guest room but said nothing.
Her visit to Zheng Yichen was not to specifically attract trouble, but because last night’s events had made the relations among Hazy City’s major families a bit rigid.
A temporary stiffness, which could return to normal later if there were enough benefits. But for the ti being, it beca rigid because of the interests involved. Until the power in this matter was completely absorbed, this stiffness would not appear very flexible.
Last night, Zheng Yichen had shown strong combat capabilities, leading those families to investigate him further, and Zheng Yichen’s identity would not remain secret for long. The Ahn family was aware and had cooperative relations with many Dusk hunters, but those relations were not like the one with Zheng Yichen.
So of her research materials were provided by Dusk rcenaries, and their cooperation with the Ahn family involved high-priced acquisitions of materials from these Dusk rcenaries, who were also given products that the Ahn family did not sell to the public.
Therefore, this cooperation was very relaxed. If another family offered a higher price, those Dusk rcenaries would decisively abandon the Ahn family and switch to another.
Zheng Yichen’s case was different.
Her coming here also served as a public statent. Even if other families learned of Zheng Yichen’s identity as a Proxy Agent through Dusk rcenaries, they were already a step behind. Want to compete? The investnt then would be too substantial, and they might not be able to gain Zheng Yichen’s trust, as after all, trust is sothing that takes ti to build.
And now, their level of trust was not low, and in terms of ti, they had completely outrun the rest.
Beyond that, she was indeed being targeted.
Last night at North Lake, among the special things discovered, besides the floating ashes or sunken bone dust, there were also so unique ’crystals’. Ahn Ke temporarily referred to them as ’Essence of Life’—a product left behind after the Skeleton behemoth was destroyed.
After so testing, it was determined that particular substance wasn’t naturally occurring but rather a highly condensed product ford under the influence of external pressure. Its function, well, it could impact the lifeform level, change life forms, and so on. To Ahn Ke, it was practically the ’Philosopher’s Stone’ in the eyes of an alchemist.
Although Zheng Yichen’s blood was special, the withering property inherent in his blood prevented that special blood from being used more effectively.
The Essence of Life discovered at North Lake was different, though. She had always been attempting to study and enhance the lifeform level of organisms, but most of her research resulted in mutations of the subjects, which could hardly be considered an elevation of lifeform level. And changing life forms... that wasn’t a mutation.
Mutation implied that it was harmful, a malevolent change. A benign transformation was only possible through heteromorphism. After such a transformation, one would exist differently from ordinary humans, but being different didn’t an one was no longer human. However, mutants from excessive change were definitely not human anymore.
Change in life form included mutation, but what she sought was heteromorphism.
Due to the importance of the Essence of Life, Ahn Ke deployed so technologies she had never used before, even hallucinogens separated from Zheng Yichen’s blood, and successfully planted them on most of her competitors. This allowed the Ahn family to acquire a considerable amount of the Essence of Life. Initially, they could have taken most of it, but if they had taken the majority, or all of it...
The outco wouldn’t have been good, signaling a full-scale war. Even so, the portion of the Essence of Life that the Ahn family took left the other families feeling choked and even driven to Powerless Rage.
The part that was taken was definitely not going to be spat back out; the Ahn family wasn’t that weak. So, the others had no choice but to fight over the remaining half, which turned out to be a rather tragic scene...
After this incident, Ahn Ke ca under surveillance. So old rivals detected familiar traces from those who had been affected and ascertained that she was behind these events.
Of course, those people wouldn’t dare kill her openly, as such actions would lead to ostracization by the entire community. If you’re brazen enough to kill so blatantly, would you also dare to lay a hand on mbers of other families? Covert actions are fine if they don’t get dragged into the light, but it’s another matter once they beco public.
Given Zheng Yichen’s displayed combat prowess yesterday and his identity, Ahn Ke felt there was no place safer than here. Those people wouldn’t dare stir up too much trouble in this location, and it would save her a lot of hassle. Anywhere else, she would need to be accompanied by heavily ard personnel for protection, not just as a precaution but also against other hidden threats.
Dealing with it would be troubleso and ti-consuming.
She carelessly closed the door, and without even the thought of a shower, Ahn Ke imdiately collapsed on the bed in the guest room. She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, which Zheng Yichen found indescribable through observing her breathing and so other subtle changes. He could tell she was sleeping very deeply.
He was certain that not even setting off fireworks next to her ear would wake her up. Only very obvious movents would potentially disturb her sleep.
"Good morning, then." With the door secured, he had intended to go to sleep himself, but Ahn Ke’s antics forced him back outside for another couple of rounds near his ho. And sure enough, he spotted quite a few suspicious figures, so of whom were exceedingly skilled at hiding.
Zheng Yichen hadn’t noticed them, but thanks to his cheat-like thermal vision, he could easily detect those figures. The thermal vision ability, initially acquired from vampire creatures devoid of any special powers, had beco incredibly powerful after repeated enhancents.
These people were equipped with professional gear and so kind of special power to mask their presence, but Zheng Yichen’s thermal vision perceived more than ordinary heat radiation, as it included the ’radiation’ emitted by those special powers.
After circling his ho, Zheng Yichen returned inside and pulled out a piece of paper, on which he scribbled so markings. A large, irregular square represented his ho, and he drew squares for the nearby buildings. Inside these squares, Zheng Yichen used a red pen to draw many small circles.
He then placed the drawing, which resembled a child’s doodle, on his ho’s roof where it could flutter in the wind and be visible to others. Anyone who wasn’t a fool could infer from the drawing’s content that it was a hint or a kind of warning.
Half an hour later, after making another round around his ho, Zheng Yichen saw that the figures visible through his thermal vision had decreased by more than half.
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