Chapter 155: Chapter 155 – Chase
Was it like a strong wind?
Or was it like a warm glow of light?
What did it feel like when the Reiki Treasure erupted?
Li Dan was unable to explain that feeling he felt; it was not a feeling which could be described by the five senses. It was a storm generated from another dimension. Humans could only use their souls to feel the magnificent changes it brought to the world.
That was a feeling that could only be described through memories. As the one who was closest to the explosion when it occurred, Li Dan suddenly remembered a certain period in his memories.
It was during an ordinary and spa.r.s.e period in his life. When he was in senior high school, both of his parents died in a traffic accident. His father had been running a family business, and his relatives quickly turned against each other to gain more benefits.
At that time, he had to organize the funeral of his parents while having to endure the disgust he felt talking to his wicked and immoral relatives.
But that did not bother him as luck and misfortune were part and parcel of life. Li Dan was able to live happily and without worries prior to that, simply because someone else was paving the path forward for him.
Li Dan was not overwhelmed by those difficulties. He worked with his closer uncles to settle matters after his father’s death, and he did not give in in any way regarding the profits of the family business—it was what his father left behind for him, and while he could give it away, he could not let it be s.n.a.t.c.hed away from him!
The education he received when he was with his birth family was not bad, and he was not defeated by the continuous setbacks he faced; instead, the challenges urged him to “level up”. During that time, he was trained to be more mature in his thinking and more responsible and stable in his work. He had to manage his studies while dealing with trivial family matters at the same time.
However, during the night, Li Dan would also succ.u.mb to irresistible loneliness. He felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff and could not afford to take any wrong steps, or else he would fall into the deep abyss below.
Until he met her.
It was an ordinary school romance, but after graduating from university, they broke up as she was returning to her hometown to work. Nonetheless, during the years when he struggled to live, Li Dan developed great courage because of her. He no longer woke up in the middle of the night, no longer suffered sleepless nights or torturous nights of nightmares, and he no longer felt lonely.
That feeling was as if it would be alright even if he fell, for there was someone supporting him from behind.
And in the present moment, it felt exactly like that.
The whole world seemed to have become his support.
It was not a direct increase in his strength, but it made Li Dan feel like he could always receive help from the rest of the world.
It was like he was in a haunted house together with a group of people and not alone—the subjective factors like strength, courage, and calmness were elevated by changes in environmental energy.
Of course, Li Dan knew that any abilities he cast now would be much stronger than they were before. And in the future, the difficulty in learning new abilities would be further reduced, while his Practice speed would be increased.
A larger extent of Reiki energy had rejuvenated!
Red streaks of light in the sky exploded into countless red meteors that flew in all directions above the city of Tianjing. Li Dan and the rest of the team regained their senses from the aftermath of the explosion of Reiki energy, and then they saw a red meteor land on the edge of the barricade line.
The next moment, the afterimage of a small animal emerged from where the red meteor landed. In just three seconds, it ran through the barricade line and entered the city area.
A few short seconds later, a commotion erupted within the temporary research center, and an urgent command sounded in their ears:
“Chase and capture the pangolin!”
In an instant, all the personnel clad in the black vests gathered urgently, and the higher command of the Countermeasure Division quickly a.s.signed various tasks to search teams. A few minutes later, except for a small number of troops who remained in the temporary research base, the Pract.i.tioners, armed police and public security officers were dispatched out.
However, the 20 people in Gu Yuexuan’s team remained inside the restricted area and started their search from the place where the pangolin first appeared.
“Ren Throne is truly prescient,” Gu Yuexuan remarked. He said, “The other search teams have their baseline tasks, and it is impossible for them to return to Tianjing within such a short time. And in terms of search capabilities, a single Awakener is incomparable to our team as a whole.”
“What about Ren Throne?” Cheng Xiao asked.
“Well… we shouldn’t trouble the old man every time, and furthermore, he is not on the scene,” Gu Yuexuan said.
He turned to Li Dan and said, “Li Dan, we would need your help next.”
“Understood,” Li Dan said solemnly with a salute.
The location where the pangolin first appeared had already been cordoned off and other personnel clad in the black vests were using various tools to search for clues. Gu Yuexuan and his team went over and identified themselves, then dispersed the crowd.
“Li Xuefu!”
The tanned Li Xuefu exhaled softly, then his whole body instantly lost all its strength and dropped to the ground.
[Reiki Clone] was Li Xuefu’s Awakened Ability, which enabled him to create a clone of himself in the Reiki dimension. The clone would be projected into reality, but would not be affected by the laws of energy conservation, nor would it have any effect on reality. Its existence relied merely on the thinking and concentration of Li Xuefu, while at the same time, both of them shared senses and perceptions.
“All search team members, activate the tier 1 ability [Unity]!” Gu Yuexuan commanded loudly. Following which, he and Li Dan hooked arms with the other search team members, standing elbow to elbow to form an odd-looking circle.
Li Xuefu was also one of them with his arms hooked by a team member on either side of him, and he closed his eyes as he became part of the circle.
The next moment, all of their thoughts were linked together, and their individual senses were open to one another!
The tier 1 ability [Unity] was an ability of little to no practical use. It enabled Pract.i.tioners to open their thoughts and senses to each other, but they had to be in close contact with each other for the ability to take effect. It had almost no combat power.
At first, everyone thought that the ability was a romantic-type ability meant for couples. Even if teachers wanted to make use of the ability to impart knowledge to students, it could very easily turn the relations.h.i.+p romantic, or perhaps lead to a larger LGBT community.
However, because it was very easy to grasp the ability, the Countermeasure Division dug hard and managed to discover its true purpose, while proving that poverty was the best productive force—they had no choice but to do so as there were too few known abilities and even fewer Pract.i.tioners who could utilize the abilities.
Under the link of [Unity], the thoughts and senses of Pract.i.tioners followed that of Li Xuefu, who was in turn connected to his Reiki clone. In other words, the abilities which the individual Pract.i.tioners cast on themselves would be equally effective on the Reiki clone.
The biggest significance of the Reiki clone was that it would not collide into any physical objects, and its movement was almost instantaneous.
‘Let’s start’, Gu Yuexuan said in his mind.
[Disruption of Wind], Gu Yuexuan’s Awakened Ability. It was an attack ability, but after neglecting its attack effect, it was a powerful ability that allowed him to sense the flow of air and obtain information about surrounding objects.
[Nose from Heaven], Wen Junjie’s Awakened Ability. It acutely increased his sense of smell;
[Moments], Cheng Xiao’s Awakened Ability. It was a support spell that could make objects ‘straight’. When using revolvers and darts, they would be guaranteed to hit within a certain distance. When performing investigation searches, the ability could be a rangefinder.
[G.o.dsight, G.o.dhearing], Li Dan’s Awakened Ability. It acutely increased his sight and hearing, and temporarily granted him a 360° vision.
The other team members also possessed various search capabilities, but the small group formed by the five of them, including Gu Yuexuan, had one of the best search capabilities amongst all Countermeasure Divisions across the nation!
The pangolin had a very faint scent, but it lingered in the air when it moved…
The flow of air was disturbed, it went in this direction…
It left footprints on the watermark on the ground, creating water ripples…
The Reiki clone navigated through Tianjing City without leaving any traces behind, but very soon it stopped—they could no longer find any traces of the pangolin.
Although the Reiki clone empowered by the five men was indeed terrifying, but… that was also the most it could do.
The pangolins fled too quickly and hid too well, and that was the best they could do without much information known.
At that juncture, an unfamiliar voice sounded in their heads, “I’m here, recall the clues you guys found just now.”
The five of them were slightly stunned. Gu Yuexuan asked, “Is that Ren Throne?”
“Yes, today’s mission pa.s.scode is *****,” Ren replied.
The mission pa.s.scode was a five-digit pa.s.scode made of digits 0 to 9. It was changed every day and every time a command was made through the communication device, the mission pa.s.scode had to be said at the end of the command to prove the speaker’s ident.i.ty.
Although it was long known that there were third- and fourth-tier abilities which enabled the user to communicate with the target through the mind and without being in contact, it was the first time that Gu Yuexuan experienced it for himself! Moreover, Ren was several kilometers away!
“… In front, on the left,” Ren said.
The Reiki clone moved according to the command, and very soon Li Dan and the team discovered new clues.
How did he know? Was there a stronger search ability than ourselves?
The questions in their minds were quickly exposed through their interconnected thoughts, and they quickly got their answer.
Ren said, “I’m not on the scene, and no matter how powerful the search ability is, it cannot see so far out. I merely a.n.a.lyzed the intelligence you guys have gathered and made a logical deduction using [Super Brain], a fourth-tier ability.”
With the help of Ren Throne, Gu Yuexuan and his team quickly found the pangolin’s hiding spot. The other team members had already prepared a pen and paper to note down the details:
[643 meters away, 32° northwest, in the alley between Linhe Alley 156 and 159, the pangolin is directly underneath the window in the exact middle of the alley. The pangolin is currently in an invisible state, and the nearest Countermeasure Division personnel is on the main street 36 meters away!]