Chapter 77

Yuan Lan’s hand casually waved, and dense puppet threads attacked from all directions.

The translucent threads, heavily layered, took on a light white color, like a large spiderweb, covering Bai Xuechao from all directions.

Perhaps Bai Xuechao’s performance truly impressed Yuan Lan, or perhaps Yuan Lan was indeed trying to be as gentle as he had just said, but his attack wasn’t as murderous as before; it was clear his goal was to capture Bai Xuechao alive.

More water gushed out of nowhere in the game room, washing over the stone tiles on the floor like a raging river, pushing the sofa chair Bai Xuechao was sitting on away, making it drift around the room.

At the same time, several high-pressure water streams emerged from the surface of the water, shooting directly at Yuan Lan.

Several puppet threads instantly appeared in the air. As the high-pressure water streams shot towards him, Yuan Lan leaped backward, lightly stepping on a puppet thread behind him, dodging two streams of water.

The puppet thread curved under Yuan Lan’s weight, but the soft yet resilient thread did not break. He continued his movements, stepping on this puppet thread and leaping again, dodging the continuous high-pressure water shooting at him, jumping towards a higher puppet thread not far away. In just a few moves, he jumped to the highest puppet thread, dodging all the water streams.

Xiao 6 bit his handkerchief: “Damn it, he really showed off!”

The surging water flowed beneath Yuan Lan’s feet, creating an incessant rushing sound.

“You really do know who I am,” Yuan Lan said, half-crouching steadily on an extremely thin puppet thread, looking down at Bai Xuechao from above.

Bai Xuechao raised his blood-red eyes to look at Yuan Lan, still seated on the sofa chair with one hand propping his head. Despite looking up, his calm and relaxed expression and posture gave one the feeling of being looked down upon, his aura in no way inferior to Yuan Lan’s.

Yuan Lan said with a smile, “I didn’t say I was from the Apocalypse Society when I introduced myself, nor did I mention my status in the Apocalypse Society, yet you weren’t surprised at all by my invitation.”

At this point, he asked, seemingly puzzled, “Has information about me leaked to this extent?”

He was once again taking the opportunity to test the sensitivity of the Dark Organization’s intelligence department. This seemingly mentally unstable guy was actually full of schemes.

“I merely don’t show my emotions much,” Bai Xuechao said, enduring his body, which felt even more uncomfortable after using his special ability, his face showing a calm expression. “I also didn’t expect to meet the leader of the Apocalypse Society here.”

As he spoke, several high-pressure water streams continuously and rapidly shot towards Yuan Lan, one after another, leaving no room for him to breathe.

Yuan Lan pushed off with his legs, leaping into the air, jumping back and forth on the suspended puppet threads to dodge the high-pressure water streams, moving so fast that only his afterimages could be seen in the air. The black trench coat draped over his shoulders fluttered and spread with his movements, occasionally making a rustling sound, like a black flag waving in the wind.

Just as the front part of one of Yuan Lan’s feet stepped onto a puppet thread again, a high-pressure water stream also reached his foot, piercing through his sole!

Bai Xuechao had anticipated his landing spot!

The high-pressure water stream, like a water blade, pierced through Yuan Lan’s sole and then cut along it, severing his toes along with the tip of his leather shoe. Blood instantly flowed out, falling into the water below.

The puppet thread beneath Yuan Lan’s feet, perhaps affected by his injury, was also finally severed.

His body fell downwards, and just as he was about to be decapitated by another approaching high-pressure water stream, he was suddenly yanked to the side, dodging the attack. It turned out to be a puppet thread that he had somehow controlled to wrap around his arm, pulling him away in the nick of time.

“Haha… hahahaha!” Yuan Lan sat on a puppet thread.

The half-severed sole of his foot dripped blood continuously, pitter-pattering into the water below, spreading a faint red. Yet, he laughed maniacally as if unaware of the pain.

“You really are too interesting! Much more interesting than A-Qing, hahahaha!” Yuan Lan laughed, clutching his stomach.

A-Qing? Lin Changqing of the Apocalypse Society?

Bai Xuechao struck while the iron was hot, controlling a high-pressure water stream to shoot diagonally towards Yuan Lan’s mouth, which was open from laughter, intending to return the favor with a brain-piercing attack.

Yuan Lan was still laughing, but his body, like a controlled marionette, was pulled high by several puppet threads wrapped around his torso and arms, dodging Bai Xuechao’s high-pressure water attack.

At the same time, countless more puppet threads tightly enveloped the foot whose sole had been severed. A few seconds later, when the puppet threads dispersed and vanished, his sole had already recovered as good as new, and his intact toes emerged from the tip-severed leather shoe.

—Yuan Lan had absorbed the life force of one of his “puppets” to heal himself.

Bai Xuechao thus confirmed that Yuan Lan absorbed the life force of the puppets he controlled for healing, without needing the puppets to be in his vicinity. Inferring from this, his ability to swap positions with puppets was probably the same; he could swap with a puppet regardless of the distance between them.

This makes things difficult. Who knew how many puppets Yuan Lan had?

An ability that combined offense, defense, healing, and escape like this, probably only the truly grown male lead, Zhou Chenhao, could deal with it.

After all, the male lead had nullification special ability; no matter how powerful an ability was, it disappeared in his hands.

Yuan Lan stepped on a thin puppet thread, pushing off with his foot and launching himself towards Bai Xuechao like a cannonball.

Bai Xuechao continued to gather high-pressure water streams and shot them towards Yuan Lan, but at the same time as the water streams shot out, he himself, due to his weak body, found it difficult to bear the side effects of his special ability, and his head throbbed painfully.

He couldn’t help but furrow his brows, pressing the hand that was supporting his head against his temples.

On the other side, dense puppet threads wove into a shield, blocking Bai Xuechao’s high-pressure water stream. At first, that puppet thread shield was somewhat concave due to the powerful impact of the water stream, nearly breaking into a large hole, but as more and more puppet threads were woven into it, the water stream was thoroughly blocked.

Yuan Lan thus broke through the high-pressure water attack.

Bai Xuechao was sitting sideways so he could rest his elbow on the backrest of the sofa chair.

Yuan Lan landed on the armrest of the sofa chair behind Bai Xuechao. He bent down, his large hand grasping Bai Xuechao’s slender nape. Bai Xuechao, meanwhile, was suffering from a severe headache and had no strength in his body, unable to react in time to avoid the hand reaching out from behind him.

He then heard Yuan Lan ask with a smile, “Do you like small islands floating in the sky?”

A puppet thread flew out from the spot where Bai Xuechao and Yuan Lan’s skin met.

The puppet thread burrowed into the skin on Bai Xuechao’s neck!

Bai Xuechao only felt as if his neck had been lightly pricked by an extremely fine needle. Immediately, the painful headache he felt rapidly lessened until it disappeared, but his mind also became muddled, as if a thick membrane separated it from his thoughts. For a moment, he was even bewildered, unable to recall what he was supposed to do.

“What happened?” he thought, extremely sluggishly.

“Oh, he was controlled by Yuan Lan’s implanted puppet thread…”

“Controlled!”

When he realized he was controlled by Yuan Lan’s puppetry special ability, Bai Xuechao’s brain cleared for an instant, but with that clarity came an intense headache.

His consciousness instinctively recoiled from the intense pain that assailed him, his thoughts returned to chaos, and the severe pain receded once more.

Bai Xuechao thought vaguely, “Yuan Lan’s puppet threads can also relieve pain after implantation?”

“Eh?” Yuan Lan’s hand moved from Bai Xuechao’s neck to his throat, lifting his chin high. He himself bent his head from behind to meet Bai Xuechao’s gaze, asking with interest, “You just broke free from the control, though only for an instant, but you actually did it!”

Bai Xuechao looked at him with hazy eyes: “Mm…”

He slowly thought that if he wanted to, he could break free again.

But he wanted to use Yuan Lan’s special ability to first relieve the pain.

Yuan Lan waited a few seconds, and after confirming that Bai Xuechao hadn’t broken free from control like before, he said with a smile, “Now you can introduce yourself, can’t you? What’s your name?”

“Bai Xuechao…” Bai Xuechao said subconsciously.

Xiao 6 thought Bai Xuechao was truly controlled by Yuan Lan and anxiously shouted, “Host, wake up, hold on! Ji Chuanze will be back soon!!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep