Chapter 1300: Confronting Silvan
Chapter 1300: Confronting Silvan
Even though the current Ji Shanqing was just a fraction extracted from the massive data entity, he still possessed unexpected techniques and power. Since he had already made up his mind to kill, there was no need to hold back anymore. When he felt Silvan reaching out towards his back collar, Ji Shanqing tightly closed his eyes. In his mind, all the water components suddenly surged forward and vividly emerged from the background.
However, the hand didn't come down and abruptly recoiled in mid-air.
Nevertheless, though Silvan realized that something was wrong in the blink of an eye, he didn't realize that he couldn't escape this wrongness. Even though his hand had retreated, he couldn't avoid the sudden pain and gasped, leaping backward and exclaiming, "What did you do?"
"Don't worry," Ji Shanqing said and slowly regained some strength, allowing himself to slightly raise his head and look at Silvan. He spoke softly, "If I were you, I wouldn't open my mouth."
Silvan's expression became heavy and stern. This probably wasn't the first time he had been injured, but it might be the first time he didn't know how he got hurt. Because of the excruciating pain in his hand, his face had turned pale, and a few drops of sweat appeared on his forehead. He finally loosened the left hand that had been pressing against the back of his right hand.
A gory wound split open, and the torn flesh revealed the faint outline of muscles and bones underneath. This once smooth and beautiful right hand seemed like it would shatter into pieces like dried-up earth.
"You know my combat power isn't high," Ji Shanqing's face was cold, but his tone was calm. "I can't efficiently and cleanly kill someone, especially when that person's strength surpasses mine. So, to achieve my goal... the process can be somewhat dirty and ugly."
Silvan remained silent, glancing at his appalling hand, then back at Ji Shanqing. The latter's face was calm, and his bloodshot eyes were unsettling, like two deep, dug-out blood holes.
"The next target is your face," Ji Shanqing lightly reminded him, "which is also a fatal weak point, regardless of how good-looking it is."
Silvan suddenly stretched out his hand and grabbed it hard in the void in front of him - a spray of blood splattered from the back of his injured hand. After all, he was so powerful that even when facing an attack that he could not see or feel, he still pulled out a protective and intercepting light curtain for himself in time. At the same time, he twisted his body at an angle that was almost impossible for ordinary people and dodged the diagonal stab.
Immediately after, there was a restrained and low groan of pain.
Even though the direction he had just dodged to was on his left side, when he came to his senses, Silvan was somehow half-crouched on the ground near his right side, breathing slightly, and his left hand was covering the lower part of his left jaw. It wasn't the hand that got injured earlier, but blood was still oozing through his fingers.
Even Ji Shanqing couldn't help but admire this. Silvan's attack was something unavoidable because it wasn't something he launched from his own hand. To be precise, Silvan's attack originated from Silvan himself. Despite facing such unpreventable and unpredictable means, Silvan managed to minimize the damage. It was almost unimaginable. Ji Shanqing even had to think for a few seconds before asking, "Did you figure it out?"
Silvan slowly straightened his body, remaining upright despite his injury, as if wherever he stood was the pinnacle of the world. However, when he released his hand to speak, his voice carried a faint, almost indiscernible tremor, sounding hoarse as if shrouded in misty quicksand. The first words he spoke, even Ji Shanqing hadn't anticipated.
"So, this is where this scar came from."
Ji Shanqing raised an eyebrow slightly – this statement was utterly inexplicable, as if he had known all along that he would have a scar on his jaw but only understood its origin today. Was this man living life in reverse?
"It was water," Silvan continued, as if the previous sentence had slipped out absentmindedly. Now, fully aware, he smiled at Ji Shanqing, who was half-crouched on the ground. He only lifted one side of his mouth, while the other remained calm amidst the bloodstains. "You can manipulate water molecules, can't you?"
"To figure it out after only two attacks, you're indeed remarkable," Ji Shanqing said sincerely. With Silvan being attacked and injured, the power of the freezing effect from his Silver Moon was rapidly diminishing. Ji Shanqing tried moving his limbs and found that he could stand up again.
"You manipulated the water molecules in my body, causing them to rotate at high speed and generate heat. As a result, the high temperature burned my skin, leading to the cracks... So, no matter how carefully I protect myself externally, it's all useless," Silvan said slowly.
"I also don't understand how you managed to avoid it." Ji Shanqing evaded the question and simply said, "After all, how can one escape the water within their own body?"
"Wouldn't it be easier for you to just burn my heart to a crisp and save yourself the trouble?" Silvan continued the conversation, pointing at his chest and saying, "The reason you didn't do that is because you're waiting for the right conditions, or perhaps you can't do it? Let me guess... every time before you attack me, you take a moment to 'connect' with the water molecules inside me, right?"
Ji Shanqing rarely encountered an adversary with such evenly matched intellect— or maybe this man was exceptionally agile and cautious during combat, like his sister?
"The crucial point is how you connect," Silvan slowly lifted his right hand to his side. Suddenly, the surrounding air seemed to come alive, gently caressing his skin and wounds like water ripples, rapidly wrapping around his right hand. The same process occurred on his jaw, presumably one of his emergency healing methods. "Firstly, you can't just manipulate water molecules by thinking alone; otherwise, the moisture in the air would have obliterated my nasal passages and trachea. Secondly, you don't need to physically touch me..."
"Try again and think harder," Ji Shanqing smiled faintly, like a gentle breeze brushing against the abyss.
This time, Silvan didn't dodge. In fact, he didn't dodge at all. As a burst of blood splattered from his throat, he seemed surprised by the attack himself. He quickly covered his neck, staggering back two steps. The intense pain turned his face white, like a mask, and his blood looked shockingly red, and his eyes were as green as if they were about to ignite.
"Can't speak now?" Ji Shanqing remarked with a hint of regret. He had acted impulsively, attacking before fully connecting with enough water molecules. Otherwise, he could have easily severed Silvan's windpipe. He had been too hasty, and apart from the first attack, which he didn't want Silvan to touch him, the next two attacks aimed at crucial points hadn't brought the man to the brink of death.
Silvan slowly lowered his hand, a vivid crimson in his throat, as if vitality had escaped from within him, leaving him drained of color like snow.
"It's still early..." he spoke these few words with a hoarse and low voice, clearly struggling to form each word. "I found... you can see my skin, but you can't see beneath my clothes... nor can you see the air. Last time, I created half a visual illusion... you were a step off."
Ji Shanqing was startled for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure and smiled at Silvan. "So what?"
As he spoke, he stepped backward.
His speed and agility were far from Silvan's, but after losing the constraints of Silver Moon's power, as a Veda that had coded this particular space, he once again had control over it. In this foggy space between the real and fake villas, the speed and distance one could cover had nothing to do with physical strength.
By the time he had retreated step by step to the side of the real villa's main door, Silvan had indeed not caught up with him—couldn't catch up. The blond man stood far away in the rolling fog, seemingly only a dozen steps from the outside courtyard and the real main door, yet he couldn't cross over.
Because of his injured throat, his voice was so low that it was almost inaudible. "She's inside, isn't she?"
Ji Shanqing bit his lip tightly. It wasn't surprising that the other party had figured it out, but the overwhelming sense of injustice welled up within him, making it difficult to breathe. He truly didn't understand why this man, who had admitted that he didn't have romantic feelings for his sister and that his feelings for her couldn't compare to his own, insisted on appearing here at this moment, taking his sister away. Fate seemed like an unrelenting, towering wave, and he could only try to block it with feeble arms.
"Haven't you figured it out yet?" He stared intently, so that his tears wouldn't flow as he blinked. "You can't get close to me, can't touch me, but I can see you. Even if I can only scorch you bit by bit, you will still be burned alive..."
"Oh," Silvan murmured, still laughing softly. "I didn't want to, initially," he seemed to mutter to himself. "Come in."
Who was he inviting in?
Before Ji Shanqing could figure out the answer, the partially open false entrance was pushed open. He was startled and looked up to see Mr. Ito's wrinkled face. The man had an expressionless look, as if he were trapped in a deep dream. He stopped by the door, raised his arm, and swung it towards Silvan. Bones and joints crunched with a grating sound as his arm extended by twice its length, and even the fibers of his skin and muscles were pulled apart as if there was an irresistible force ahead, tearing his arm open while still bleeding.
Within the torn flesh and muscle, there was something white and elongated that flashed past the crimson.
Before Ji Shanqing could react, that hand grabbed Silvan's collar. As Mr. Ito's joints clicked back into place, exerting a pulling force, Silvan was dragged out along with him. Since this space centered around the trapped individual, the further someone ran in a certain direction, the more the center extended in the opposite direction. However, when someone remained stationary and was pulled out by external force, the extension of the space had no effect.
Did that man actually figure out the mechanism of this space? No, he probably just wanted to test this possibility, but unfortunately, he succeeded in trying it out.
Ji Shanqing reacted swiftly. As soon as he saw Silvan being dragged out of the door by Mr. Ito, he turned and rushed into the villa. The reason why he asked his sister to leave the dungeon after spending all the money was just to make her happy; after all, Bohemia had claimed to be on her way, and he had to give his sister hope, to let her know that he could find a way out and have a chance to see her. But now, he couldn't care about all that anymore— the likelihood of killing Silvan had suddenly dropped, and his sister had to leave this place immediately. He couldn't let her be found.
"What are you doing?" The therapist jumped up in surprise from beside the water cabin. "The treatment isn't complete yet—"
"Change the location!" Ji Shanqing shouted, reaching out to pull the water cabin's door. However, after several attempts, he realized that the water cabin showed no sign of opening. Thinking that Mr. Ito inexplicably tilted towards Silvan's side and that Silvan could come in from elsewhere at any moment, he felt as anxious as if he were being roasted over a fire. He yelled at the therapist, "Open the door!"
"No way," the therapist shrugged. "I already told you before we began that it can only be opened after the treatment is complete."
If that was the case, then he would take the water cabin with him.
Since becoming one of the Veda, he had never written so quickly before. When a flying vehicle enveloped him, the water cabin and the therapist, broke through the glass wall, flying rapidly towards the direction of the vast ocean, he seemed to see that blonde man standing next to the villa, looking up at the sky. Strangely, he was looking in another direction in the sky.