Chapter 92 Mental Attack

Ruan Ning, the three people, and the dog returned to the apartment building. After providing Lin Yan and Zhou Min with enough water for washing up, Ruan Ning took Da Huo back to her own apartment.

After washing up and having a hearty meal, Ruan Ning began to think about how to deal with Shen Yao.

She can no longer passively wait for the enemy to make the first move and then retaliate. Although she has successfully retaliated every time, constantly being on the defensive makes her seem easy to bully.

Perhaps she could try using her mental power to deal with Shen Yao.

In the dead of night, the Dawn Base was completely silent.

Inside Ruan Ning's apartment, the curtains were drawn tightly, and only the dim light of a table lamp illuminated the room.

She sat cross-legged in the center of the floor, with Da Huo lying quietly beside her, its neck hairs slightly raised. It could feel a cold and penetrating pressure emanating from its master—the invisible pressure unique to the full concentration of mental abilities.

Ruan Ning slowly closed her eyes, immersing all her consciousness into her own mental world.

As a dual-ability user of water and mental powers, her mental strength is not only powerful, but also combines the "penetrating and transformative" nature of water with the "precise and sharp" nature of the mind. Physical methods are too limited within the base to deal with Chen Yao, while her intangible, elusive, and difficult-to-track mental attacks are currently her most concealed and deadliest weapon.

Previously, she used suggestive and guiding hypnosis on Lin Jiaojiao, like weaving a gentle net with mental power to induce the other party to self-collapse. But this time, her goal was to completely and violently destroy—to destroy Shen Yao's core consciousness as a "person".

This is far more dangerous and complex than hypnosis, requiring a higher level of control, and also carries the risk of being instinctively devoured by the other party's remaining mental energy, as well as enormous consumption of one's own energy.

She first mobilized her vast spiritual power, but not aimlessly. Instead, she built a solid and hidden spiritual barrier centered on herself, isolating herself from the outside world and preventing energy fluctuations from leaking out or being detected by any other similar perceivers during the attack.

Then, she began "searching" for targets.

Her main consciousness was highly concentrated, transforming into an extremely refined spiritual spike with edges gleaming with a cold, eerie blue light, like the sharpest ice cone.

These "spiky" points were not physical objects, yet they contained a terrifying power capable of tearing apart consciousness and freezing thought. She carefully manipulated this aggressive mental energy, "extending" it towards Shen Yao's secluded residence.

Distance brought resistance and exhaustion, but her third-tier mental ability supported this precise long-range strike. She could "feel" her mental power traversing the streets and buildings of the base, finally "touching" the small building where the target was located, and quickly locking onto a mental point of light that emitted the same frequency as the imprint in her memory and carried an aura that she loathed—Shen Yao.

Shen Yao was in a light sleep, his mental energy in a relatively relaxed but still instinctively defensive state. As a non-psychic ability user, his mental defense was more like a rough but thick "energy armor," existing based on his own ability level, mainly to prevent energy impacts and rough mental interference, but against Ruan Ning's highly concentrated, top-level mental penetration with a strong corrosive and destructive will, the protective effect was greatly reduced.

Ruan Ning did not hesitate.

She manipulated the mental energy spike, which, like mercury spilling onto the ground, first penetrated. Utilizing the "omnipresent" nature of mental energy, she carefully searched for even the slightest "crack" or "weak point" in Shen Yao's rough mental defense caused by emotional fluctuations.

This process requires extreme patience and precise control, and fine beads of sweat began to appear on her forehead.

Found it!

Within Shen Yao's mental defenses, in the area where his "arrogance" and "calculation" were most intense, there existed a subtle, almost imperceptible, "instability." Ruan Ning's mental energy spikes instantly accelerated and focused, concentrating all destructive energy into a single point, like a high-speed rotating drill, piercing deeply!

"Well--!"

Even from a great distance, Ruan Ning seemed to "hear" a short, muffled impact and shattering sound from the spiritual realm. A gap had been forcibly torn open Chen Yao's instinctive mental defenses!

Next came the invasion and destruction.

After Ruan Ning's mental spikes broke through the defense, they immediately broke into smaller pieces, like deadly neurotoxins or countless cold needles, spreading, piercing, freezing, and tearing along the "veins" of Shen Yao's consciousness—those mental connections that carry memories, logic, emotions, and self-awareness!

Her attack focused on destroying his ability to think rationally, disrupting his balance of emotional control, severing the accurate connection between his perception and reality, and dismantling his unified cognition as "Chen Yao".

It's like using the most violent methods to burn out and mess up the core circuit board of a precision instrument, making it unable to function properly and only able to output chaotic noise and incorrect signals.

This process occurs extremely quickly on a mental level, but in Ruan Ning's perception, it seems to be prolonged.

She could "see" Shen Yao's originally orderly cluster of consciousness, which, after being invaded by her mental power, violently trembled and twisted like a lake surface tossed with a boulder. Then, its internal structure began to collapse, the light quickly dimmed and dissipated, becoming fragmented. Countless chaotic fragments of thought, out-of-control emotional currents, and broken memory images collided and annihilated disorderly within it...

"ah--!!"

A shrill, distorted scream, completely inhuman, faintly pierced through the spatial distance and Ruan Ning's own mental barrier, reaching her ears with extreme weakness. Perhaps it was a real sound, or perhaps it was a feedback from a mental shock. Then it abruptly stopped, turning into a series of intermittent, hoarse, meaningless gasps and chaotic babbling, like a broken bellows.

Ruan Ning knew that the attack had worked.

She swiftly and decisively withdrew all her mental energy, like the receding tide, leaving no trace. The withdrawal process also required control, ensuring that no residual mental threads or energy signatures pointed back at her.

When the last trace of aggressive mental energy returned to her body, Ruan Ning suddenly opened her eyes, her face as pale as paper, her body swayed, and she could barely sit up.

A sharp, stabbing pain and intense dizziness shot through her brain—a typical backlash from excessive mental exertion and such precise, violent manipulation. A sweet taste rose in her throat, and she forced herself to swallow the surging blood.

Da Huo anxiously approached and licked the back of her hand with his warm tongue.

She leaned against the wall, breathing heavily, and closed her eyes to regulate her breathing for nearly ten minutes before she could barely suppress the intense mental exhaustion and discomfort.

It was a success.

Shen Yao's mental core should have been violently destroyed by her. Even if he doesn't die, he will never again be the treacherous, cunning, and threatening young master of the Shen family. More likely, he will become a confused, irrational, and even incapable-of-taking madman.

There were no external injuries, no residual energy, and no witnesses.

This is like the most complete "accident"—a mental breakdown? An old injury recurring? Who can say for sure? In the apocalypse, it is not uncommon for people with superpowers to have problems.

Ruan Ning wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, her eyes cold and weary.

An imminent threat has been resolved.

However, the enormous drain on her mental energy also left her weak in a short period of time.

She needs rest and recovery.

And tomorrow, when the news of Shen Yao's "incident" spreads, what kind of waves will it stir up in the base?

She touched Da Huo's worried head and whispered, "It's alright now, at least for the time being."

Then, she struggled to her feet and slowly walked to the bed. Tonight, she needed a deep sleep to repair her damaged spirit. As for what would happen next, she would deal with it as it came.