Chapter 334: Borrowing an Ability Doesn't Count as Stealing
At 1 AM, He Jiaqing entered Xiao Zhenggong's villa. There were more than a dozen bodyguards on the first floor, yet not a single one noticed He Jiaqing. He first went to the second floor, which guest rooms and a study. After making a round, he found nothing.
He Jiaqing then went up to the third floor. There were two bedrooms there. He searched them but still did not find what he was looking for.
Something that valuable would never be left on the first floor. Where else could it be? The basement?
He Jiaqing entered the basement. The first basement level contained a wine cellar and a home theater. The item was not there.
There's the second basement level.
The second basement level housed a garage and a boiler room. As he passed the boiler room, He Jiaqing froze in his tracks.
There's a hidden room. It's between the boiler room and the garage.
He Jiaqing felt along the wall for a moment and found a brick. The brick was very unusual. He brushed his fingertips over it, feeling its distinctive texture. That told him there was a special mechanism hidden inside the brick.
There's a hidden door right here. This mechanism isn't hard to figure out, but could there be a trap here?
That item was right behind the door. Even though it was sealed, He Jiaqing could still sense its power.
It's probably dangerous to enter so recklessly. But for the famous general Zhao Xiaowan, it's worth taking the risk!
He Jiaqing rubbed the brick for a moment and quickly figured out the mechanism. The hidden door opened slowly, revealing a tightly wrapped spear standing in the middle of the hidden room.
He Jiaqing approached the spear cautiously. He had heard of Zhao Xiaowan's methods, and the slightest carelessness could leave him seriously injured.
The spear suddenly spoke. "Desolate is Ziyun's dwelling. Who comes a word seeking?"
He Jiaqing broke out in a cold sweat.
It's normal for her to speak, but I didn't expect her to recite poetry.
Nevertheless, that was not strange at all. Zhao Xiaowan was not only a general but a woman of many talents.
"Do not worry. I mean no harm," He Jiaqing replied.
According to the information he had gathered, Zhao Xiaowan had become deaf and blind after turning into a spear. He Jiaqing knew she could not hear him, yet he still spoke softly to reassure her.
He was not doing it to reassure Zhao Xiaowan. Instead, he was reminding himself that he could not show even the slightest trace of malice. Against the Luminary of Wanderlust Cultivation, even the faintest hint of malice could prove fatal.
The spear spoke again, her mighty aura growing more intense. "Yesterday, we met and shared a cup of wine. Today, my tongue commands ten thousand mighty troops. The earth has no cracks, the heavens offer no road. Who are you, and who am I?"
He Jiaqing took half a step back, but it was not simply because of her aura. He discovered there was a powerful seal around the spear.
The seal would not be easy to break. He Jiaqing had originally intended to take the spear away from the villa, but seeing the seal, he decided to change his approach.
"I will only borrow a bit of your power, just a bit. I only want to borrow Raising a Gale on Level Ground. I will not touch any of your other abilities. Of course, if you are willing to lend me A Parting Across Ten Thousand Miles as well, I would be very grateful. Your power will weaken a little, but what is borrowed will be returned. Your power will be restored in time."
He Jiaqing touched the spear, and the mighty aura intensified again. However, he managed to obtain the abilities.
With no time to test them, He Jiaqing immediately pulled his hand back and turned to leave, only to see more than a dozen bodyguards rushing into the basement.
That brick really did have another hidden mechanism. Now that the bodyguards have arrived, Xiao Zhenggong will definitely return as well.
He Jiaqing could not linger there. He had no desire to fight the bodyguards. He flickered in the light, then he vanished in the blink of an eye.
By the time the bodyguards realized what had happened, He Jiaqing was already outside the villa.
He thought he could make a clean escape, but Xiao Zhenggong appeared out of nowhere and charged straight over, launching a kick at him.
He came back that quickly?
He Jiaqing dodged the kick, and Xiao Zhenggong's shoe flew off his foot. He Jiaqing dodged the shoe as well. It struck the steps, shattering the marble.
The shoelace flew out from the shoe on its own and lashed He Jiaqing's back like a whip. That one hurt. He Jiaqing staggered from the blow, then he disappeared into the night.
Xiao Zhenggong chased him for a few steps, but he could not catch up. He then turned and rushed down to the basement.
Fortunately, the spear is still here.
Xiao Zhenggong looked at his bodyguards and snapped, "Useless trash!"
The bodyguards did not dare speak. It was not because Xiao Zhenggong frightened them; it was the spear that they feared.
Its terrifyingly mighty aura swept over them like an army of ten thousand horses charging head-on. They were so frightened that they could not even open their mouths.
Xiao Zhenggong looked at the spear, but he did not dare approach it recklessly either.
The spear has to be moved.
I finally got into the archive room. Yet, I had only read two pages before this damned thief ruined everything tonight.
Who exactly was that damned thief? Once I catch him, I'll tear him to pieces.
***
As He Jiaqing ran down the road, he felt that his speed was no faster than before.
Did I borrow the wrong ability? That can't be right. I borrowed basic abilities, and Wanderlust Cultivators only had two basic abilities: Raising a Gale on Level Ground and Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Calamity.
Yet, when Xiao Zhenggong suddenly appeared earlier, He Jiaqing had not sensed it in advance.
That proved he had not borrowed Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Calamity. Now, it seemed he had not borrowed Raising a Gale on Level Ground either.
What's going on?
***
Chengyun Road, Yuezhou City.
Qin Minghui arrived at Ruirong Textile Factory. The factory had been abandoned for years, and weeds grew wildly around its walls.
The parents of the two children were crying their hearts out at the entrance, desperately trying to rush into the factory. However, the police held them back at the gate.
Qin Minghui showed his ID and asked about the situation.
The two children were still inside the factory grounds, and no one knew whether they were alive or dead. The surrounding roads had already been sealed off, but no one was certain whether the unidentified creature inside would come out.
According to the witness, the unidentified creature was a snake. It was taller than a person, even while lying on the ground, and it had two huge fangs larger than cleavers.
Cleavers?
Qin Minghui pictured a cleaver and felt that it did not quite resemble a snake's fang.
The witness was a beggar who had originally planned to sleep in the textile factory for the night. Then two children came in and started playing around in the factory, and the two parties even got into an argument. During the argument, the giant snake appeared. The beggar fled at once, but the two children were slower and were dragged into the factory building by the snake.
Based on that description, the chances of the two children still being alive were very low.
A police officer asked Qin Minghui, "Should we send in search and rescue personnel?"
Qin Minghui shook his head. "Anyone who is not a specialist should not go near an anomaly creature."
One police officer asked, "Are you a specialist?"
The police officer who had checked Qin Minghui's ID said, "He is a trainee."
The other police officer then advised, "I suggest you wait for your captain to arrive."
Captain Chen Changrui was not in Yuezhou and was currently rushing back. As for the other team members, the nearest ones were still more than twenty minutes away by car.
Boom!
A burst of green smoke rose from the factory building. It looked as if it was about to collapse.
The collapse itself was not the problem. What everyone feared most was the dark-energy anomaly, the giant snake, charging out.
Qin Minghui said, "Everyone, prepare to evacuate. I will go in and check the situation first."
The police officer tried to stop him. "I will say it again. It is best to wait for your captain, or at least wait for a full-fledged team member."
"I am an investigator of the Dark Star Bureau. This is my duty, so please cooperate."
Qin Minghui crossed the police line with his gun in hand and carefully made his way toward the factory building. When he reached the entrance, he did not rush inside. Instead, he took the external stairs up to the second floor.
The door panel on the second floor had been removed, so he could enter from there without having the sound of opening a door.
In factories like this, the first floor usually reached all the way to the roof of the building, while the second floor was usually a platform for operating special equipment. From the second floor, one could clearly see the situation on the first floor.
These were all things Qin Minghui had learned from case studies during his trainee period. Just as expected, the second floor was indeed a platform built around the equipment.
Standing on the platform, Qin Minghui saw a large, fleshy creature writhing beside a knitting machine on the first floor. It was wrapped in all kinds of colorful yarn that was nearly ripped to shreds.
Qin Minghui steadied his breathing and did his best to calm his racing pulse.
This was his first time seeing a dark-energy anomaly in person, and he was very nervous. The creature's size also far exceeded his understanding of living things.
Based on his visual estimate, Qin Minghui made a rough judgment. The creature was around six meters long and about two meters in diameter.
Despite having an elongated form, its proportions showed it was unlikely to be a snake. The creature was shorter in length and thicker in diameter than a snake would be at the same scale.
The dark-energy anomaly was mostly white, with a pattern of black spots all over. It even had a thin layer of hair.
The creature crawled onto another row of knitting machines.
This time, Qin Minghui was certain it was not a snake, for it had legs—short, thick legs. The legs were not high in number like a centipede's, but they were not small in number either; there were more than ten in total.
The creature turned around, and Qin Minghui saw its "face."
It did have a pair of what appeared to be large fangs, but they were not snake fangs or fangs at all. They were insect mandibles!
It was a silkworm. Aside from its enormous size, its other features were extremely similar to the silkworms Qin Minghui had seen as a child.
After observing it and comparing it to the cases he had studied, Qin Minghui made a preliminary assessment.
This type of anomaly was the larval stage of an insect. It had yet to show any human characteristics and acted on instinct. Under normal circumstances, it would be considered a relatively primitive anomaly.
Primitive anomalies were not very intelligent. Moreover, animals like silkworms had poor vision before turning into moths, so they should not have much combat ability.
Of course, this was only a preliminary assessment. Captain Chen had once said that in Puluo, there was a type of anomaly called a Madam Bagworm Moth. It also took the form of an insect larva, but it was not primitive. It was highly intelligent and extremely powerful, capable of easily wiping out a fully armed hundred-man squad.
Qin Minghui did not act recklessly. He had locked onto the creature's location, and that was already beyond what was required of him. All he needed to do now was quietly wait for support.
"Sob..."
Someone's crying!
Qin Minghui froze and looked toward the corner of the factory.
Something's moving there.
They were two bundles of yarn. At first, Qin Minghui had thought they were spools from the knitting machines. Then he listened carefully to the crying. It sounded like children.
The children are still alive! They are trapped inside the bundles of yarn!
Qin Minghui tightened his grip on his pistol. The situation had become complicated.
Why did the silkworm put the children inside bundles of yarn?
Qin Minghui recalled the habits of silkworms. These things are supposed to eat leaves, and they don't hunt with silk.
There are all kinds of threads wrapped around it... Could it be practicing how to make a cocoon?
Silkworms did not eat before cocooning. This was the most optimistic guess Qin Minghui could make as to why the children had been left alive. Of course, this was an anomaly, so he could not fully judge it using the behavior of ordinary silkworms.
Qin Minghui observed the anomaly for ten minutes. It just kept wrapping yarn around itself and did not seem to have any other intention.
Then Qin Minghui received a message on his phone. Some of his colleagues had arrived near the factory.
Just as Qin Minghui just breathed a sigh of relief, the giant silkworm suddenly wriggled toward the corner of the factory and lunged at the two children trapped in the yarn. It used three pairs of short, thick legs to grab the struggling children, raised the front half of its body, and opened its mandibles. Its posture was exactly the same as that of a silkworm eating mulberry leaves.
Qin Minghui did not hesitate at all. He raised his pistol, aimed at the silkworm, and fired ten shots in a row, emptying the magazine.
The Dark Star Bureau's pistol was specially designed for combatants. It was extremely powerful, and a combatant's control could effectively improve its accuracy.
All ten shots struck the silkworm in the head. It was clear that the silkworm was in a lot of pain, as if it had been flicked on the forehead ten times.
The silkworm released the children in its grasp and instinctively charged toward Qin Minghui instead.
The platform on the second floor collapsed from the impact. Qin Minghui was thrown into the air, the force slamming him into the roof. Then he fell back to the ground.
This was not something he could learn from textbooks or case studies, nor was it something he could practice on a training ground. It felt a little like riding a roller coaster, except he had no safety measures at all.
The moment he hit the ground, Qin Minghui felt as if all his organs had shifted out of place. His pistol had fallen far from him. He wanted to retrieve it, but he could not stand.
The giant silkworm wriggled toward him. Qin Minghui picked up an iron pipe from the ground and threw it at the silkworm.
As a combatant, he could throw the pipe accurately at the silkworm's head. But he had not yet advanced to the next level, so he lacked strength in that attack. The iron pipe failed to injure the silkworm.
The silkworm slid across the floor over to Qin Minghui, wrapped around him, and squeezed hard, causing his vision to blur.
Crack, crack.
His bones creaked under the pressure. Qin Minghui struggled to hold on with his combatant's innate abilities, but he reached his limit in the blink of an eye.
Then he heard the two children crying.
Qin Minghui struggled hard just to shout at them, "Run!"
The slightly older of the two children broke free of the yarn and tried to run, only to trip over the yarn again. The other child could only cry and did not even have the courage to stand.
The silkworm spread its short, thick legs toward Qin Minghui. Qin Minghui clawed at the silkworm with his fingernails. It was the only counterattack he could manage.
Bang! Bang!
Two gunshots rang out in quick succession. Then a thin figure rushed into the factory.
Lightbulb has arrived!
Lightbulb fired several shots at the silkworm. The enraged silkworm released Qin Minghui, whipped around, and wrapped around Lightbulb instead.
Slither!
Lightbulb slipped out from the silkworm's hold, changed magazines, and kept firing. The silkworm whipped around and tried to coil around him again, but Lightbulb broke free once more.
After more than ten minutes of fighting, Tangyuan rushed into the workshop with a fountain pen in hand. She came up beside the silkworm and flung out a large splash of ink. The ink turned into countless words.
Lightbulb shouted, "Run! Hurry!"
Before he finished speaking, the words, large and small alike, began attacking everyone present without distinguishing friend from foe.
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