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"Where is Shi Youchen's body?" the masked man asked again. This time he squatted down and looked at Yan Zhiyuan straight in the eye. The wide umbrella covered their heads. The rain was getting heavier. The raindrops hit the nylon cloth with a dull sound, like a helpless person crying for help to the outside world.

The masked man turned his hand holding the knife handle, and the blade cut half a circle in Yan Zhiyuan's flesh. The sticky movement and the sound of tearing and rubbing of clothes were isolated in the narrow space under a black umbrella.

Yan Zhiyuan's face didn't twist with the instinctive pain, only his eyes were etched with intense emotion. Familiar yet unfamiliar figures flashed through his mind, and the wails of pain and struggle lingered in his ears, knocking on the door of his reluctant memory.

The association's records don't describe the ability of mental invasion as being very powerful, and the group of people it attacks and affects is the most important factor.

According to most records, mental invasion incidents mostly occurred in places where ordinary people gathered, such as concerts, autograph sessions, or squares where the flow of people increased suddenly during certain festivals. There were occasional exceptions, like the mall murder case in District 10 a few months ago, which were mostly places where ordinary people frequently gathered.

The consequences are mostly ordinary people hurting others or causing group trauma under its influence.

Based on this database feedback, the "Mind Invasion" ability easily left the Association's psychics with the impression that they were bullying the weak and fearing the strong. The weak they bullied were naturally ordinary people with relatively weak resistance and combat abilities, while the strong, needless to say, were psychics with special abilities and special status.

After years of this situation, even Yan Zhiyuan had subtly formed the stereotype that "one cannot lose against a fugitive with this ability." And only now, amidst the intense mental shock, had he painfully and reluctantly admitted that a truly powerful "mind-invading" psychic would likely have little interest in torturing ordinary people, just as someone accustomed to delicacies and a life of luxury wouldn't be interested in greasy pancakes from a roadside stall.

Because they don't even need direct weapons, they can easily make those with abilities who seem unattainable to others kneel at their feet, and gradually suffer a mental breakdown while tasting the memories they least want to see the light of day over and over again.

Yan Zhiyuan searched for a foothold in the vast chasm between memory and reality, his eyes sometimes hazy and sometimes clear. He could feel the pain and numbness in his left shoulder gradually spreading to his neck, and he could also sense the mighty presence of the rain and river around him, but he could not see or perceive any information about the masked man before him.

His abilities were like dust in front of this person.

"Forget it. If you won't tell me, I'll go find him myself. Life or death? I'm sure he won't be as forgiving as you are under my command, Minister Yan." The masked man slung the umbrella handle over his shoulder and turned away without hesitation, walking towards the stairs leading down to the riverbank at the bridgehead. Before leaving, he left a message, "Remember to take your knife with you."

After the masked man disappeared in the rain, Yan Zhiyuan's head seemed to be released by an invisible giant hand. He greedily breathed in the damp and sticky air. The icy air filled his lungs and he began to cough violently.

08 wiped his face, and with force pulled out the short knife that was still stuck in Yan Zhiyuan's shoulder. He smiled and said, "Let me see which hand I should chop off first." He gestured with the tip of the knife a few times, and finally stopped in front of the hole in Yan Zhiyuan's left shoulder that was still oozing blood. "Why not just this one? It will save you some pain."

After saying this, the tip of the knife pierced the top of the first hole without mercy. 08 imitated the masked man's previous move and swished the knife twice, causing Yan Zhiyuan to groan in pain. "Oh, it hurts? Then I'll move faster."

Three cuts and six holes, he tortured Yan Zhiyuan with a ferocious look on his face, each blow was more brutal than the previous one, but when he pulled out the knife, he deliberately slowed down his movements, just to hear a longer cry of pain.

Yan Zhiyuan's face was pale at this time, and his lips had lost all blood. He was dazed and letting the heavy rain wash away the blood on his body. The puddles under their feet had turned light pink and were winding towards the road below.

At this rate, he'd probably die from blood loss before his left arm was chopped off. Yan Zhiyuan raised his chin slightly, squinting his eyes as he stared at the river in the distance. His pupils dilated sharply, then shrank back to their normal size. He then shifted his gaze to the right, glancing at 08, who was squatting in front of him. His breath was weak but firm as he spoke, "Do you know why no one has passed by in such a long time?"

08 was about to raise his hand to stab another knife, but when he heard these words, his first reaction was to step back. However, he immediately smiled disdainfully: "You can still joke at this time. It seems that Minister Yan doesn't care about his left hand." But even though he said this, he took the words to heart.

Not only that, from the time Shi Youchen and the car fell into the river, to the time Yan Zhiyuan appeared, and then to the time the masked man appeared and left, not only was there no pedestrians passing by this bridge, not even a single car was seen.

08 stood up suspiciously and looked around. After confirming that there was no one else besides himself and Yan Zhiyuan, he grabbed his completely wet black hair back twice and said, "Why, if someone was going to save you, why didn't you do anything just now?"

Yan Zhiyuan's throat was filled with the tang of blood and rust, so thick it made him feel like an old, dilapidated pipe. But he still managed a laugh: "For someone of your caliber, why would you bother anyone?" His right index and middle fingers remained pressed together, even as the knife pierced his shoulder.

At this moment, directly below the position of the two people on the bridge, on a small part of the river surface that was not directly absorbed by the rain, tiny whirlpools were surging. The center of each whirlpool was deep below the water level of the river, and when viewed from the side, they looked like inverted cones.

As Yan Zhiyuan moved his fingers, countless water arrows suddenly shot upwards from the center of the small whirlpools. That was the highest density attack form he could muster.

Water arrows roared out from the depths of the river at a speed that could not be captured by the naked eye, and soared into the air to attack the bottom of the bridge. Although they could not penetrate the bridge surface at once, as the previous water arrow scattered, more water arrows would follow to meet it.

It was just a hole less than three centimeters in diameter, a drop in the ocean compared to the huge bridge. However, in the end, water can wear away stone, and it can also penetrate flesh and blood.

The dagger in 08's hand fell to the ground and did not make much noise when it sank into the water, just as dozens of blood holes instantly appeared on its owner's body and he knelt silently in front of Yan Zhiyuan.

"I'm a person who holds grudges." Yan Zhiyuan's right hand finally loosened, and he could no longer suppress the urge to cough up blood. "An eye for an eye, have you learned that, illiterate?"

Even at this time he still did not forget to be sarcastic and mocking, the surface of 08's eyeballs was hideously covered with bloodshot.

He took every precaution: the rain from above, the water beneath his feet, the dark river in front and behind him. But he never imagined the most powerful attack would come from underground. His lungs, kidneys, liver, and other internal organs were pierced by the dense stream of water arrows shot from the ground. His breathing became disordered. Fortunately, the water was diluted by the bridge surface and did not reach his heart or brain. 08 was still conscious.

"The injury on your arm isn't serious enough, but you know the truth." 08 supported himself with his hands and took two steps forward on his knees. With his trembling left hand, he picked up the dagger lying in the water and held it in front of Yan Zhiyuan's face. "You bitch."

The knife failed to hit the spot he wanted to stab, because Yan Zhiyuan dodged it by turning his head to the left with the corner of his mouth, and even turned around and spat a mouthful of blood foam on 08's face.

The two men, who were equally injured and equally exhausted, fell face to face in the heavy rain. One leaned against a road pole facing the river, while the other knelt on the ground with his back to the river.

"Do you think you've won?" 08 smiled sinisterly. He pointed the tip of the knife at himself and used his last bit of strength to cut open the thin flesh covering his collarbone. He gritted his teeth, inserted the tip of the knife, and picked out a pendant.

A slightly faded black pendant.

"Madman," Yan Zhiyuan cursed silently. He watched as 08's hand, veins throbbing as he clutched the pendant, throbbing with fear. He truly didn't have the strength to stop him. "I'll return safe and sound, but you will die." 08 gripped the tip of the pendant tightly. He was taking a very risky step.

That was the first thing he planned to do after returning home, but he had to do it early in order to return to the maintenance bureau alive.

The rain suddenly slowed down. When the long, thin raindrops landed between Yan Zhiyuan's eyebrows, he finally sensed something. He faced 08 with peace of mind and closed his eyes. "Damn it, you're finally here."

Then he completely lost consciousness and fell into a deep coma, so he did not see with his own eyes how 08 fell in the rainy night.

At the end of the event, the wristband countdown read "02:27:11." With less than three hours remaining until the first full-association review of the 173rd year of the new calendar, some had completed a key plan, others had their original plans disrupted, some had risked their lives to achieve great success, and some had finally grasped a glimpse of their destiny.

Everything that happens this night will become a guiding star for the fate of all parties involved.

...

Shi Youchen did not open his eyes immediately after regaining consciousness because his intuition told him that there was someone nearby.

"Now that you're awake, get up." The person nearby said the same thing as Li Luo did at the beginning. It was the first sentence Shi Youchen heard in the huge District 8 Association base.

He slowly half-opened his eyes, adjusting to the cool, white light for a moment. The instrument's regular beeping continued, relentlessly repeating. "Go get me something." But it was clear that the person waiting for Shi Youchen to wake up couldn't be Li Luo, and certainly wouldn't address him with the same respectful address Li Luo did.

07 leaned against the bed with her back to him, not turning as she spoke. "The Ying family... Ying Yungui has a pendant. Go get it and place it in front of the boundary marker of the Snow Mountain area in the north square in three days."

Shi Youchen stared at the ceiling and found that he was much less afraid this time when facing 07. He wanted to take this opportunity to ask 07 something, but found that he couldn't make a sound and couldn't use sign language.

"I guess you want to ask why I can come to the association to find you again and again?" 07 actually took the initiative to speak, "If you want to know, go find the answer yourself." Shi Youchen seemed a little annoyed and turned his face to the other side, then saw the pouring rain outside the window, which was much heavier than before he and the driver fell into the river with the car.

When he turned around again, there was no one else in the treatment room.

In fact, he now has far more questions that he wants to know the answers to than what 07 just said.

Is Ah Xian a member of the Maintenance Bureau? If so, what is Lu Shen's relationship to him, and what is Lu Shen's relationship to the Maintenance Bureau? Why hasn't the energy you left in me been detected by the Association? Who was responsible for the Mo family incident? Why did Lu Ming erase my memories of the Mo family? What secrets are hidden behind these aristocratic families?

Also, does Ying Yungui know...