Episode 163

In the evening, Su Jin’s phone rang. He sat up immediately when he saw who was calling, because it was Ye Yun. He picked up the call without thinking.

“Hello…my dear cousin!” Ye Yun’s voice could be heard on the other end of the line and she sounded as unserious as ever.

“You terrible girl! Where in the world have you been?” asked Su Jin angrily. She had gone missing for a few months now. Thankfully, her parents were overseas during this time. Otherwise, they would have been worried sick.

“Tch, don’t worry, I’m perfectly fine! Have you come into contact with some children recently?” she asked.

“The kids in the suburban area of S City, right? I’m already at Cloud Mountain. Where are you?”

“Oh, you’re already there? Great! Can you help me with something? Help me to buy a train ticket headed for Q Province and place it beneath the large stone plaque at the entrance to the mountain. You can go back after that,” she said with a deliberately flippant tone.

Su Jin frowned. What was going on? She was definitely in danger, otherwise she wouldn’t tell him to just leave after helping her to buy a ticket out of here and not even want to meet him.

“Alright then. I’ll get the ticket ready by 8am tomorrow morning.” Su Jin agreed without asking any questions.

He could hear her breathe a sigh of relief. She then claimed to be busy with something else and hung up, but it was obvious that she was still in danger during this phone call.

Su Jin went to buy the ticket, then waited till the next morning to go to the entrance of the mountain. He placed it beneath the stone plaque like she had requested, then pretended to look for her in the vicinity, then left with a disappointed expression on his face.

“Mai, I’ll be counting on you to help me keep a lookout,” Su Jin said to Kano Mai over the phone. He had already discussed with her the night before and decided that she would help to watch the area for him.

“Don’t worry! You’ve got this place covered with your psychokinesis and you’ve got me looking out for her from afar. As long as Miss Ye appears, I’m sure we won’t lose her,” Kano Mai consoled him.

Su Jin nodded. He had attached a little psychokinesis on the ticket, so once Ye Yun retrieved it, he would be able to trace her whereabouts.

A few minutes later, Su Jin’s phone rang again. It was Kano Mai, so he picked it up quickly. “Jin, someone’s taken the ticket and she’s running up the mountain!”

Kano Mai was at an excellent vantage point and had an almost completely unobstructed view of the mountain. But what shocked Su Jin was how he had not detected anything even though he had been checking that bit of psychokinesis constantly. It was impossible for that ticket to be moved without him realizing it.

“Is that an ability to block psychokinesis, or an ability to block off Spirit Power?” Su Jin frowned. Thankfully, he had also stationed Kano Mai there instead of relying solely on his Spirit Power. He immediately ran to the mountain and got Kano Mai to direct him.

Su Jin moved very quickly and didn’t have to worry about anybody noticing him because the local authorities had sealed the mountain off temporarily after the avalanche.

“Jin, jump down from the peak ahead. That’s all the guidance I can give you because I can’t see anymore. Sorry!” There was another tall peak after that drop that blocked Kano Mai’s view, so she lost sight of Ye Yun and was really apologetic about it.

“It’s alright, thanks so much for guiding me all the way here!” Su Jin thanked her, then dashed up the peak like a rocket before jumping down again without even pausing for a moment.

Thankfully, the snow on the mountain was fairly deep. Unless Ye Yun could fly, she would definitely leave some tracks behind, so he could still sort of follow her trail.

In no time, Su Jin discovered some tracks at the bottom of the peak. But he quickly started frowning, because it was obvious that there were way more footprints than what just one or two people would leave behind.

He squatted down to take a look and noticed that the size of the footprints were different, which meant it wasn’t the same person pacing the area. In other words, a large group of owners had just dashed across this area. As for why he was sure these people were owners, it was because ordinary humans would have required a lot of specialized equipment or machinery to get to this part of the mountain. Besides, the authorities had sealed the mountain off and nobody was allowed to come in either.

After confirming the directions in which the footprints went, Su Jin continued to follow the trail of prints in the snow.

Meanwhile, Ye Yun was also running like crazy. Her speed was no slower than Su Jin’s and she was being chased by more than ten equally quick owners.

“Ye Yun, I’d advise you to stop running right now. You know what we want. As long as you hand it over, we will not hurt you. If you keep running like this, you’d end up collapsing first.” The people running after Ye Yun were clearly not locals, but the one speaking to her spoke very fluent Mandarin. If one only listened to his voice and did not see what he looked like, you would think he was a local.

But Ye Yun continued running at the same speed, as if she hadn’t heard him at all. The man who spoke to her earlier frowned at her reaction. She was very fast and she had more stamina than he and his group had. He claimed that Ye Yun would collapse first, but he was actually afraid that his group would collapse first.

Just then, a small ear stud on the man’s ear suddenly flickered. A smile spread across his face as he snickered. “It’s finally all set up? I’m going to see where else you can run to, Ye Yun!”

Ye Yun could sense something amiss as well. A mountain pass was right in front of her, but her instinct told her that danger lay beyond that pass. She suddenly stopped and turned to run in a different reaction, which caught her chasers completely off guard.

The one leading the chase had already received news that his companions had already laid a trap beyond that mountain pass, but to his surprise, Ye Yun suddenly switched directions.

“Get her! Don’t let her get away!” he yelled as he retrieved two double-bladed swords from his Handbook. The others also retrieved weapons from their Handbooks, some even retrieving heavy artillery.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The guns were fired toward Ye Yun first, but she suddenly turned into a cloud of green smoke and disappeared.

“What was that? Spirit Power? Or a skill?” All of them were shocked. They didn’t know much about Ye Yun, never mind what her trump card was. What they knew was that she was someone who survived a few dozen Challenges, so she definitely had Spirit Power.

Ye Yun reappeared the same way she disappeared, making her appearance right in front of an owner holding a rifle. She appeared with an ax in hand and chopped his head off before he could even react.

She wasn’t worried about the owners with hot weapons, but the ones with cold weapons, because those were the ones who could be very difficult to deal with. However, it was too difficult to fight those with cold weapons while others were shooting at her from afar, so she decided to get rid of the owners who were easier to deal with first.

She kept disappearing and reappearing like a ghost, turning into a cloud of smoke if she were attacked and popping up again elsewhere to make her next attack.

In less than half a minute, all the owners with hot weapons were dead. But Ye Yun was very pale as well, because using this ability repeatedly like this consumed a lot of energy. Each time she used it, she became more tired.

Just then, the owners who had been waiting for her beyond the mountain pass came over as well. Owners were running toward her from both sides and there were at least 30 of them in total.

“Why won’t these idiots go away?” Ye Yun furrowed her brows. Three of these owners were veterans and she had already fought them several times. The rest were ordinary owners.

She was very annoyed that the organization that went around robbing owners had sent three veterans after her. Veterans formed a minority of all Handbook owners and each one was very powerful. The organization really overestimated her abilities.

“Ye Yun, stop trying to fight us. As long as you’re willing to hand over the item you have and join us, I’m sure someone of your caliber will be able to gain more benefits,” an owner clothed in a cloak tried to persuade Ye Yun in a very earnest voice.

“Benefits? After I got to know that asshole, all I got in return were the deaths of my team mates! We used to be a Level A team, but I’m the only one who’s still alive! Then again, I was the one who wanted him to join the team, so this is the retribution I get for having such poor judgment!” Ye Yun knit her brows together even more tightly and she had a sorrowful look in her eyes.

The man in cloak sighed and said, “And why do you insist on going down the path that leads to death? The leader has said before that he likes you very much, but from what I understand of his personality, if you continue rebelling like this, even if he likes you, he will kill you without hesitation once he captures you!”

“That does sound like something he’d do. But if I were afraid to die, I wouldn’t have resisted until now.” Ye Yun refused to surrender.

The man in cloak suddenly pulled his hood down to reveal a handsome face. Ye Yun was stunned for a second before she hit the roof.

“Alex?! It’s YOU?! Now it all makes sense! That’s why you backed out of the team then! That’s why that fellow knows exactly which universe I’m in! So it’s because of YOU! Everything makes sense now!” Ye Yun was furious, but she was also terribly disappointed.

“I’d advise you to surrender, Ye Yun. You’re the only team mate I have left from back then and…I don’t want to lose another,” said Alex with a sigh.

Ye Yun looked up again and yelled back, “That’s not up to you! I’m not going to surrender and I’m not going to let you guys catch me that easily either! I’m not going down without a fight!”

“It’s 30 versus one, including three veterans. There’s no way you’re going to win,” Alex continued to persuade her with his words, even though he already had a sword in his hands. He was clearly prepared for a fight as well.

“30 versus one sure sounds like you’re bullying her! 30 versus two sounds like a more reasonable ratio, don’t you think?” Su Jin suddenly appeared from among the thick snow.