Chapter 301: Only I know (Part 2/2)
Translator: Strivon
The viewing platform had been quite a lively place—a complete mess with all the tourists. This was caused by the devil ray breaking through the Heavenly Ocean Lake. Some of them had left. Some police had arrived. And there were some who had stayed because they wanted to watch the fun.
But when Luo Nan returned back up to the viewing platform, all sounds in the area were completely gone. There were a few dozen people collapsed everywhere; they were unconscious.
No need to be puzzled. The person who did all this was Luo Nan himself.
According to what Luo Nan learned during his lessons, the site must be evacuated before ability users clash. Multiple variables would make the situation complex, causing additional trouble. Of course, there were those who would deliberately cause chaos for their own benefit. However, Luo Nan believed that he wouldn’t be able to harden his heart during crucial moments and do things decisively.
Luo Nan didn’t forget that he was facing a ‘Puppeteer’. This person could remotely control intelligent life forms. As soon as they fight, any clear-headed person would likely become his shield.
Luo Nan considered himself a rookie when it came to facing an enemy in battle, so he had to execute the teachings his seniors imparted to him with meticulousness.
However, an experience ‘senior’ had truly been stunned by his series of actions and their results.
“How did you do it!? Just how!? How!? Hahaha!” Zhang Yingying smacked her steering wheel in her excitement. The sharp vibrations of the horn could even be heard by Luo Nan on the other side of the call.
Zhang Yingying had held back a belly full of words during Luo Nan and Black Beetle’s confrontation and exchange. She wanted to curse at Black Beetle, but also wanted to calm and warn Luo Nan. However, she knew fully well that Luo Nan was facing a situation in a completely vulnerable position. Any little unexpectedness during a crucial moment of life or death might lead to catastrophe.
She could only suppress her concerns and resist opening her mouth with great difficulty. It was so much that she began worrying about Xue Lei. She didn’t want to cause something bad to happen through good intentions and agitate Luo Nan’s foe.
This internal conflict was more torturous than fighting a powerful enemy in person. This lasted until the situation settled, and Zhang Yingying couldn’t hold it back any longer. She took her belly full of air and exploded it forth.
Zhang Yingying’s shock and surprise spurred on Xue Lei, who was hard at work going up the stairs. He took a few deep panting breaths and commended Luo Nan, “Beautifully done, Nanster! Leave the rest to me. I’ll be there soon….”
Luo Nan laughed as he wandered around the edge of the viewing platform. “We have plenty of time. Take a breather. Don’t get knocked down as soon as you get here.”
Xue Lei panted. “Relax. There aren’t any problems.”
Xue Lei was worried that he was adversely influencing Luo Nan just now. He rushed desperately up the stairs and nearly choked on his breathing. Though he had ‘obtained his sign’, his body still felt strained.
Of course, the fact that Luo Nan was alright was better than anything. Xue Lei’s mood relaxed, and it didn’t take long for him to adjust his state.
“Yo yo yo, Luo! I’m asking you!” Zhang Yingying excitement and complaints didn’t lessen a bit. She smacked the steering wheel of her car, causing the horn to blare to the heavens. “Hurry up and tell me! How did you toy with that bug into being this miserable? That guy is a genuine megalomaniac, but he’s no fool.”
Luo Nan was able to feel the pure joy that brimmed from the bottom of Zhang Yingying’s heart. It must be said that Black Beetle could be considered an old acquaintance of hers. However, Zhang Yingying stood firmly by Luo Nan’s side in this moment. Her stance was clear, never wavering at all. Luo Nan rather enjoyed this feeling of approval.
He thought for a bit before giving a serious reply, “I put on a proper attitude and utilized my advantages to kill in a single blow. Unfortunately, there’s still problems with my interference ability. I can only buy a bit of time.”
“Kill in a single blow…. Certainly, Crag Burst must have taught you this. Am I right?”
“Yes,” Luo Nan admitted.
It was strange, now that he thought about it. In the course of the past few days, He Yueyin, Bamboo Pole, and Papercut were all inclined toward technical and intellectual fields, the rarely touched upon strategies for facing enemies. When it was Crag Burst’s turn to teach, Crag Burst had a stomach full of energy from being one of the last teachers; his section had been pushed back in the teaching schedule due to the issue with Luo Nan’s interference ability. The few instances they got together were all long sessions. The topic always revolved around actual combat, and this gave Luo Nan a bit of practical experience.
Crag Burst had told him that the most important thing in facing a foe in combat was to have the right attitude. Whether the attitude was calm or a hot-blooded one, one must find an attitude that best fitted one’s self. It might not be the most effective or the most thorough, but it was the most stable. It could withstand much more variables.
In short, this attitude was a sort of irrevocable conviction. It could only be built atop the biggest and most irreplaceable advantages leading to victory. In extreme terms, people who possessed this mindset would think the following:
The enemy could defeat me, but the enemy would never be able to defeat me in my area of expertise!
Luo Nan followed this principle and first verified his field of dominance.
“Yo, you’re quite the bold fool. Crag Burst and you aren’t the same type at all, okay?”
Zhang Yingying had a deep understanding of Crag Burst’s temperament, so she found what Luo Nan said very hard to believe. Luo Nan, you’re a formulaic type. Can your small physique withstand playing with warriors in mortal conviction? Plus…
“What about your advantages? Mental senses and attacks, are they useful at all?”
“Why are my advantages limited to just these?” Luo Nan felt a bit helpless. In the case of factors in victory and defeat, regardless of it being Zhang Yingying or Black Beetle, everyone had their minds set on his superiorities being his sensing distance and mental attacks.
But Luo Nan never believed this was so.
The world had powerful people in large numbers. There were certainly people stronger, probably very much stronger, than Luo Nan in regard to his mental sensing ability in terms of precision and range, no matter how outstanding it was. This was certainly also the case with the intensity of the mental attack power of the fierce siege hammer attack he relied on the Human-Faced Arachnid for. This sort of externally circulating advantage would be directly broken through by someone sooner or later.
His superiority could only be established upon an irreplaceable element unique only to him.
“You still have hidden cards?” Zhang Yingying gave off a hint of skepticism. She felt she had quite an understanding of Luo Nan, so she couldn’t think of the card Luo Nan had played to be able to toy with Black Beetle to the point that Black Beetle wished he was dead. “I heard you learned some skills from Xue Lei’s teacher. Thinking about it, this teacher must be quite out of the ordinary to be able to produce a disciple like Xue Lei. But in just a days…. Hey, Xue Lei, kid. What sort of quick tricks did your master teach?”
Xue Lei had already caught his breath while Luo Nan and Zhang Yingying were talking. His breathing calmed quite a bit, and he answered, “It’s the heart lantern of the eyes orifice. It’s not a technique that can be quickly learned. Techniques regarding the eyes can only… oh god!”
Zhang Yingying also realized something at practically the same time. She was unable to hold back from asking Luo Nan the details of his mysterious victory. She spoke with a pressing tone, “Black Beetle said that the veins of your eyes burst. You didn’t use a forbidden technique, did you? Are you okay?”
“I’m alright.” Luo Nan used his knuckles to lightly rub the corners of his eyes. He could still feel pain in his eyes, and they still flowed with blood, but these were all a bit less than before.
The more Luo Nan downplayed his situation, the less Zhang Yingying dared to watch idly. She smacked her car’s horn once more. Her excitement and elation was nearly exhausted. All that was left were anxiety and worry. “Ignorant children will be ignorant children. Your eyes! You think you can go blind in a place like this!? Hey, didn’t your teacher warn you when he was teaching you?”
Xue Lei spoke unhappily, “The heart lantern of the eyes orifice is like grinding with water. It is a gradual method. There are no forbidden techniques with it.”
Xue Lei had already ran up to the 140th floor. He could see Luo Nan at the limits of his vision, and he waved at him. The last two floors had to be climbed. He would make it there a step earlier than the two enemies.
It could be said that Luo Nan had erected himself into an invincible position.
Luo Nan was quite clear about his own situation. His eyes were a bit injured due to forcefully integrating the heart lantern of the eyes orifice with his mental senses. He had exceeded his limits. Right now, it was best to close his eyes and rest.
But he didn’t want things to end like this.
Luo Nan used the protective glass at the edge of the viewing platform as support, and he automatically cast his vision far off in the distance. The color of the sky was becoming darker and darker, and the main body of Cloud City Water Village, the large activity area, and Acumen College further away were all lit with lights, drawing out areas upon areas of blurry shadows and outlines.
The scene bore some resemblance to the star river scene manifested by Luo Nan’s mental senses. The only difference was where the blurry chaos lay within the star river scene. Most of it were interferences formed from ability users’ powers, while the blurriness before his eyes was simply due to the limits of light with vision.
Before today, Luo Nan had tried several times to disperse the turbid clouds and dark mist within the star river scene. Though he was grasping the details of the life sketches with greater precision, he was never able to achieve this.
But it happened just now when he faced Black Beetle. Luo Nan succeeded in piercing a beam of light into the deepest depths of Black Beetle’s body and soul structure and drawing a Life Sketch of the greatest clarity. He gained lucidity on all the weak points of the living being who was Black Beetle. Only in this way was Luo Nan able to seize the initiative and play with Black Beetle like the other man was in the palm of his hands.
That beam of light originated from the heart lantern of the eyes orifice, at least partially.
The heart lantern of the eyes orifice was not the cornerstone Luo Nan had erected his conviction upon, but this magical technique imparted to him by Gym Master Xiu had undoubtedly played a vital role.
Daily, the technique both accumulated water and drew water. It cut a spiritual orifice in the human body, activating Luo Nan’s soul strength. And during times of practical application, it floated high above to illuminate below. It projected a prediction of the trajectories of movement on the material plane. It complemented Luo Nan’s mental senses.
Observing the material to retrieve the environment. If one perspective was unclear, then Luo Nan could switch to a different perspective. More often than not, this led to near discoveries. The two referred to each other, and more could be seen than the sum of the two alone.
If he used his mental senses independently, or if he purely used the heart lantern of the eyes orifice, none of this would be able to reach the mystical effect of a wind passing through the gap and light illuminating the earth below.
But when the two were combined, the heart lantern of the eyes orifice swept away the turbid clouds and dark mist on the star river scene produced by Luo Nan’s mental senses. The information on the mental and material planes coupled. They intersected and positioned to form a strand of wind, a beam of subtle light, that completely penetrated through to the truth underneath the thick exterior of chaos.
Yes. Coupling.
Borrowing this principle truly delighted him in both body and mind.
Luo Nan closed his eyes slightly. They spun and he opened them again. The light of his psychic mind could completely illuminate the life structure of ability users. He should be able to illuminate the void of a mere dusky sky.
In this moment, Luo Nan cleansed himself with a new method of clairvoyance. He observed the empty space, and he gazed into the distance to the border of the world with the outline of the jungle. The sky, which was turning all the more darker, couldn’t hinder him.
Homologous information on the material plane and material plane linked up. They refined each other and burst forth with a marvelous spiritual light. The light was cast into the water reservoir of the heart lantern of the eyes orifice, then the light passed through the eyes, through the void, and through the jumbled outlines of the jungle to illuminate the target from above.
Within the wilted jungle stripped of leaves, the lake’s surface appeared like a small mirror. At one side of the lake was Gear.
That small building carried a bit the color of rust. A river weaved between the trees and flowed past one side of the building. The river made a turn at the ends of Luo Nan’s vision to extend off into the distance. It was like the scouring of time over the course of many years.
When time moves, everything moves.
Looking down from the high building, the river was moving, the jungle was moving, and the earth was moving. Gear was there, and it slowly rotated in a unique rhythm that possessed neither beginning nor end.
