17: Chapter 17 The Vanishing Bullet

"What a coincidence, we were just looking for you. Look, I found the Little White Wolf you lost."

Seemingly oblivious to the tense, sword-drawn atmosphere all around, the young girl walked up to Qian Mo in a carefree manner and handed Xing Yaoyan, whom she was holding, toward him.

Seeing Qian Mo's unpleasant expression, Xing Yaoyan sheepishly stretched out a paw to wave at him, offering an awkward smile.

"Yo! I didn't realize you brought a Spirit Beast to school today. I haven't heard you mention it before; did you buy it recently? Since you don't have any Superpower, you want to be a Beastmaster and rely on your Spirit Beast to fight? Trying to experience what it feels like to use spiritual energy, are you?"

Although Liu Yan was secretly a little fearful because Qian Mo had only spat out a small amount of blood after taking his full-strength strike head-on, the powerful aura of his own bodyguard—a Tier 1 Esper—gave him the confidence to mock him without fear.

"Xiao Meng, give me some Face and don't interfere in my business with Qian Mo..."

"Qian Mo, Qian Mo... So your name is Qian Mo! I was too hurried this morning, let me reintroduce myself. My name is Xiao Meng! Xiao as in 'desolate,' Meng as in 'dream.'"

Xiao Meng ignored Liu Yan's words and smiled at Qian Mo.

"Thank you. To clarify, it's the Qian Mo from 'a network of intersecting paths.'"

Qian Mo smiled gratefully at the young girl, but noticed she was muttering something to herself.

He could vaguely hear words like "Qian Mo" and "what does that mean."

Just as he reached out to take Xing Yaoyan.

"Eh~"

Suddenly, the young girl pulled her hand back.

"It took me a tremendous amount of effort to bring it to you safely. I had to drive away several Tier 3 Espers who wanted to abduct it, and I risked my life to get it here..."

"What reward do you want..." Qian Mo immediately understood what the young girl meant.

"Let me become your apprentice, and then you teach me those moves you used this morning."

"Fine, we'll talk after this is over."

"Wow! That's great! Little White, the method you taught me really works! Hahaha!"

Back in Qian Mo's sturdy embrace, Xing Yaoyan looked at the young girl's carefree attitude and felt speechless. She thought to herself: This excuse is just too ridiculous. Not to mention that this is a school and there are no people here trying to catch Spirit Beasts, and besides, do you really think Tier 3 Espers are just hanging around with nothing to do...

Where she couldn't see, Hu Wang was also awkwardly smiling bitterly. It was partly the social death of having his name called out in public, but more so the helplessness of seeing the worldly sophistication he had taught the young girl being performed in such an abstract way.

"You... chatting and laughing, do you think I don't exist?!"

"Young Master Liu, please calm down. Let's sit down and negotiate..." The balding Dean of Students hurried over to smooth things over.

"Shut up, old man. If it weren't for my father, would you even have such a good job? Turn off the surveillance cameras here. Today, I'm going to make this brat kneel down and kowtow."

Hearing Liu Yan's impolite words, the Dean of Students' smile stiffened slightly, but he still said with a fawning smile:

"Fine... Young Master Liu, please do as you wish."

He also felt sympathy for Qian Mo, a boy born without spiritual energy who still insisted on attending the Superpower high school. Although his combat test scores were not high, his written exam scores were basically full marks in every subject. What a pity...

One has to bow when under someone else's roof. I hope you can understand. Since you've been hurt this time, hurry up and drop out; don't keep walking further down this dark path. He thought this to himself and silently retreated to the side.

"Tch."

Qian Mo curled his lip. This guy still wanted to make him kneel? In his previous life, he would have already fed him a lead bullet. However, the System's task wasn't finished yet, and he couldn't use his spiritual energy directly.

That's right, just this afternoon, the System suddenly issued a Gold-tier task:

[Do not use spiritual energy before the National Superpower Awakening Ceremony]

Reward: Cultivation speed will be permanently increased by two times.

Besides, the fact that he had suddenly become stronger was already a bit abrupt. If he suddenly displayed a legendary-grade Superpower... he still had to be cautious and not expose his trump cards.

Always keeping a few tricks up one's sleeve was one of the traits of a top-tier assassin.

"I already let you land a full-strength punch just now, and I didn't fall. A person should be honest; this matter should be considered closed."

"Oh? When did I say that? Did you guys hear it?"

The bodyguard beside him and the Dean of Students on the side both shook their heads.

What left Xing Yaoyan speechless was that Xiao Meng, that little girl, actually shook her head along with them.

Hey! You aren't in cahoots with them, are you?!

"That's right, they didn't hear it either, so your so-called agreement was just your own wishful thinking. Hehe... Come on, if you kneel down, kowtow, and beg for mercy now, and drop out yourself, I might let you go. If you keep being stubborn..."

As Liu Yan's arrogant words fell, the bodyguard behind him instantly radiated the might of a Tier 1 Esper, the blue halo of spiritual energy appearing particularly striking in the twilight.

"Xiao Meng, please watch over Xiao Yan for me. Don't let her get caught in the crossfire."

"No problem."

"Thank you."

Qian Mo slowly stroked the fur on Xing Yaoyan's head with his hand, then handed her back to the young girl beside him.

No way, he actually wants to fight an Esper? So reckless!

The boy ignored Liu Yan's words and simply adopted a stance in place.

"Alright, alright, alright, Qian Mo, you've got guts!"

Liu Yan snapped his fingers and said coldly:

"Disable him."

The muscles on the bodyguard behind him instantly bulged, and the spiritual energy fluctuations on his body reached their Peak.

He suddenly vanished from where he stood, leaving behind only a depression with fine cracks, as well as tiny sparks from the circuits under the floor being compressed by the immense force. The next instant, the mountain-like figure appeared in front of Qian Mo, a fist the size of a sandbag already smashing fiercely toward his stomach.

If this hit landed solidly, a normal person would definitely have to stay in the hospital for a few months, and might even be permanently paralyzed.

He's really trying to beat my brother to death... Xing Yaoyan didn't notice that her Face had turned cold, and her eyes were faintly glowing with golden light.

Phew~ It's fortunate that the Superpower he awakened is related to strength.

Among everyone present, the calmest one was undoubtedly Qian Mo, who was at the center of the storm. In his previous life, he had already fought countless world-class wrestlers, boxers, and the like. Therefore, he had long since developed specialized muscle memory for dealing with opponents much stronger than himself.

It was the same old routine he used against Liu Yan: use a Bong Sao to deflect the force, follow up with a hand strike, and then use the momentum to deliver an elbow strike.

But this bodyguard was no amateur like Liu Yan. His reaction was fast; he actually managed to abruptly stop his attack and grabbed the boy's arm with a backhand.

"It's over!" Xing Yaoyan inwardly cried out in alarm.

Even as a martial arts layman, she knew that in a matchup with a large weight difference, once the weaker side was grabbed, it was basically game over.

But Qian Mo's expression didn't change. After taking the bodyguard's follow-up punch to his stomach, he actually used that immense force to spin around. A "crack" sound of the boy's arm dislocating could be heard in the environment, making everyone's teeth ache.

And the next moment, his knee used that force to strike heavily against the center of the bodyguard's Face, shattering his sunglasses.

The bodyguard, in pain, let go of the boy and staggered back a few steps, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Just as he rubbed his eyes and recovered, he saw the boy in front of him expressionlessly twisting his dislocated arm back into place with a 180-degree turn.

"You, you're an android, right..." Watching the boy's outrageous maneuver, the bodyguard stuttered. He began to wonder which organization dared to defy the Council and create such a terrifying thing.

"What are you standing there for? Don't be a coward! Did my father hire you just so you could slack off like this? Hurry up and finish him!" Liu Yan roared from the side, unaware that his own voice was already trembling.

Qian Mo is an android my ass. He had been beating him up for three years; didn't he know what kind of person he was? It was just that he didn't know what kind of illness this brat had caught, to have become so ruthless.

A sense of fear from everything being completely out of control swept over his entire body. His whole Face turned deathly pale, yet he kept putting pressure on his bodyguard, as if that could cover up the fear in his heart.

"Qian Mo... is he really this ruthless..."

Xing Yaoyan swallowed hard. He was so gentle with her; he had absolutely none of this crazy appearance right now.

She felt as if she had only truly gotten to know him today.

"Clap, clap, clap."

Xiao Meng clapped her hands with a smile.

"Master Qian Mo is so amazing. He—is under my protection."

Xing Yaoyan was startled and hurriedly looked up. After seeing the fox lazily dozing on the young girl's shoulder, she understood the gist of it:

This must have been something Hu Wang had agreed upon with the young girl beforehand, deliberately not showing their stance to test Qian Mo's depth, only offering help in the nick of time to win Qian Mo over.

As for why she only suspected it was Hu Wang's idea, wasn't that obvious...

"Xiao Meng, are you sure you want to make an enemy of my Liu family for the sake of this trash?"

"First off, you don't represent the Liu family. And also..."

The young girl suddenly froze in place, stuttering and unable to speak. Her cheeks flushed with two cute blushes because of this awkward scene.

Xing Yaoyan stared at the young girl's cute appearance and thought speechlessly: Beauty, you didn't forget your lines, did you...

Things were exactly as she had expected. She saw Hu Wang slightly cover his forehead, then secretly say something in Xiao Meng's ear, and only then did the young girl continue:

"...And I secretly recorded a video just now. If you dare to make another move, I'll post it online!"

Looking at the young girl's determined appearance, Liu Yan's Face turned blue and purple. Although he had always heard that the Young Miss of the Xiao family was as simple as a blank sheet of paper, he hadn't expected her to be so scheming.

Dammit, miscalculated!

"No response? That means you agree. Let's go, let's go, Master Qian Mo. Let's go to the hospital for treatment first, then go to my family's martial arts gym so you can teach me those moves of yours."

As she was speaking, Xiao Meng walked over and tried to pull Qian Mo away. Qian Mo also turned his head to nod gratefully at the young girl.

And at this very moment, Liu Yan, seizing the split second when everyone's attention was not on him, gritted his teeth, pulled a pulse gun from his spatial ring, raised his hand, and fired a shot in Qian Mo's direction.

"Young Master, don't..."

The bodyguard was instantly scared to a deathly pale complexion. If Liu Yan privately used such a regulated firearm and killed someone, and it was exposed, the Liu family would suffer heavy losses.

But how could a person's speed be faster than light? In the blink of an eye, the laser fired by the pulse gun had already shot into the center of Qian Mo's forehead...

No spray of blood exploded.

He was still conscious, and his body was completely unharmed.

Qian Mo only felt like he had just walked through the gates of hell, and his forehead ached with phantom pain.

While the others stared in shock at the bizarre scene before them.

The pulse gun's attack had vanished into the boy's forehead?!