Chapter 98: The Mysterious Woman

Chapter 98: The Mysterious Woman

After bidding farewell to the lottery store, Xia Zheng had not walked far before a faint smile curved his lips. It seemed he had been followed.

It was hardly surprising. Staking a million at the outset placed him in a league of his own. Naturally, those harboring ill intentions would soon appear.

Two men were trailing him, both in their thirties or forties, neither ability users—though they were hardly ordinary.

Noticing this, Xia Zheng deliberately chose a quieter stretch of road and slipped into a narrow alley. Almost immediately, a figure blocked his path ahead, while another loomed behind him, sealing off retreat. The classic setup.

“Boy, you look delicate and soft,” the man ahead said, emerging slowly from the shadows. A shaft of light fell across his face, revealing a face set in perpetual cruelty—clearly a hardened criminal.

Xia Zheng shook his head. “I have no habit of lending money to strangers.”

The man behind him sneered. “Heh heh. Still got some backbone left? Later I’ll give you a new face to admire, then we’ll see how much of it remains.” He produced a knife.

Xia Zheng remained unmoved, waiting for the two assailants to draw near. He was about to strike and teach them a lesson when a gentle rebuke rang out.

“Scoundrels! In broad daylight you dare to commit robbery here and have sullied Blue City’s reputation.”

The woman sounded furious, though her ire seemed less for the villains’ violence than for the way their actions blackened Blue City’s name.

The two men froze, then turned with knives drawn toward the slender figure ahead. A woman’s silhouette, tall and graceful, probably half a head shorter than Xia Zheng, who now stood well over 180 cm.

“Arrogant fools today,” the woman said coolly. “Stinking woman, you seek death!”

With that, the man in front lunged forward, lithe and swift, every movement clearly honed. Not a street thug, but a practiced fighter.

Xia Zheng did not know the woman’s strength, yet he felt no alarm. Even at this moment she showed no trace of panic.

A shadow-like strike.

Before he could see how she moved, the charging villain flew backward, slamming into the ground and unable to rise. His abdomen had been kicked; his back arched like a boiled shrimp, and he vomited. A foul stench filled the air. Xia Zheng retreated at once, channeling his spirit power to whip up a wind that dispersed the odor.

The woman at the alley’s mouth let out an “Eh?” before another assailant stepped in front of her—one wielding a knife and what looked like a grenade.

“Careful!” Xia Zheng warned, instantly parting a strand of his consciousness to form an energy shield that dropped onto the villain’s head.

The woman hummed in acknowledgment. Then she unleashed a power Xia Zheng found both surprising and strangely familiar—a semi-transparent white air fist that sent the oncoming man flying.

The grenade had already been thrown. It detonated, but Xia Zheng’s shield caught the blast and held.

Then he felt something amiss. After a few seconds the explosion wave began to tear at his barrier. His spiritual defense could not contain this seemingly ordinary bomb. The very air around him trembled with the sound.

He was about to replenish his spiritual energy and mend the shield when his movements proved a fraction too slow. The woman had already created her own semi-transparent white energy shield, which met and overpowered his.

Inside Xia Zheng’s barrier the explosion continued. His shield finally shattered, yet the moment it touched the woman’s shield it behaved like pebbles striking steel—unshakable. The sound itself was sealed away, as though a mute button had been pressed.

The second villain collapsed unconscious. The first struggled to his feet until Xia Zheng stepped on his shoulder and drove him back to the ground. He would regret his actions too late. Offending two ability users, and not ordinary ones at that.

A search revealed another grenade. Xia Zheng felt a strange, familiar yet deeply repulsive substance inside it.

“Prohibited magic stone,” the woman’s voice came, then she walked forward with elegant steps.

The first thing that caught the eye were her long legs clad in white stockings, paired with high-top canvas shoes in white and blue. Her blue-black skirt and beige knit sweater hugged a figure whose chest, though not large, was nonetheless perfectly proportioned.

Short chestnut hair framed a youthful face. Her true age was impossible to guess—perhaps younger than he?

“Prohibited magic stone is meant for protection and prisons, not as a weapon,” Xia Zheng said, impressed by her knowledge. Since they were both mind users, he asked with patience.

The woman bound the two men with strands of spiritual energy, then dialed the local garrison forces—clearly not police. From her tone she spoke to a superior, though the conversation remained vague. She instructed that the men be taken away for questioning about the bomb’s origin, which contained forbidden magic stone.

She invited Xia Zheng to leave. Moments later military personnel arrived to handle the two.

Outside the alley, the world had returned to calm. Xia Zheng and the woman had used their powers to reduce the explosion’s devastation to a minimum.

As they walked she wove her spiritual sense into a soft beam that entered his ear, like the hum of headphones.

“Prohibited magic stone can do more than protect and imprison,” she continued. “It can be refined into weapons, capable of targeting ability users—and even… vampires.” The revelation altered Xia Zheng’s understanding of the stone. No wonder every forbidden magic stone mine was worth more than a pure gold vein. Gold had few uses, while forbidden magic stone served both commerce and war. Its market was limitless and perpetually undersupplied.

She then said, “You are the mind-user genius President He spoke of—Xia Zheng?”

“Eh? Are you from the Association too? Do you know me?”

The woman paused, then laughed softly. “Few people call me ‘sister.’ You are one of the few. Though you tried to disguise yourself, I saw through it at once. By the way, you’re supposed to be training for the upcoming group tournament. Why come out for a stroll?”

“Wait…” Xia Zheng raised a hand to stop her. “I don’t know who you are yet. Aren’t you my senior? You look younger than I…”

The girl beamed. She led him into a quiet restaurant, ordered, and they sat in a private room. “I am Ying Ying, Vice President of the Mind-User Association and Major General of the Military.”

It was hard to believe this woman who seemed scarcely twenty could hold such a high rank. Xia Zheng was taken aback.

Yet once she revealed her true age—twenty-six—he understood. During her years of external training she had consumed a spiritual fruit that greatly slowed aging. That fruit was an unparalleled treasure; there would never be another.