Chapter 18 Practiced for Fifteen Days?

Practiced for fifteen days? Learned just a little? Was this a joke?

Just now, that strike… it almost cleaved the river water at Jiangtan in two!

Qu Shui’s lips twitched. Because her main body's shadow had been struck by an arrow earlier, her eyes were still bleeding, and the image of “Little Gu Doctor” in her eyes had become very blurry.

But she could sense… that he was also very weak.

“You probably… don’t have any strength left now, do you?” Qu Shui smiled softly and said, “That strike was indeed powerful. I’m no match for you.”

As she spoke.

In the dark kiln, a dried-up skeleton twitched slightly.

No one could see… In the darkness, a withered, dilapidated shadow silently spread out. That shadow was even more fragile, broken, and haggard than before. If it were to appear in the light, one would find that this shadow was as thin as a withered tree, its main body no longer complete. So, after struggling to break free from the wooden frame, it slowly, slowly crawled towards Gu Shen's direction.

This wisp of shadow was very weak.

But, it was still a wisp of shadow.

“Little Gu Doctor… I didn’t lie to you. I really did encounter that strange man. He was holding a strange stone sculpture,” Qu Shui said slowly, “Ever since that day… I’ve had trouble sleeping… until I went to your clinic.”

Gu Shen frowned.

So that was it… Qu Shui's initial mental exhaustion wasn't really an act.

Sister Xiao Xin’s pocket watch could alleviate insomnia to some extent, but it couldn't completely cure it.

Out of an esper’s intuition… she had targeted him. At that time, the Blazing Fire hadn't fully awakened yet, and he only felt that his power was being spied on, without noticing Qu Shui's existence.

After a moment of silence.

Gu Shen repeated his initial question once again: “How many people did you kill at Jiangtan?”

“…” Qu Shui smiled, “Does it matter?”

She tilted her head and murmured, “You have that flame, and that ruler. We are existences beyond order. The rules should be made by us… right?”

Seeing that Gu Shen didn't answer.

“We all have desires, we all have cravings. I just like collecting shadows. You must have similar fetishes… To satisfy one’s own little wish, what’s the problem with making this world take a little step back?”

Once again, there was no reply.

Qu Shui gently smiled and asked, “In that case, do those people’s lives still matter? This is just a game…”

“You shouldn’t be like this.”

Gu Shen spoke, interrupting Qu Shui's voice.

The girl looked a little stunned.

In the next moment, her face suddenly twisted in pain, to the point of being almost ferocious.

Gu Shen suddenly took a step back and stomped hard on the darkness, twisting his toes as if extinguishing a cigarette!

From the shadows, a hoarse, painful roar came.

Immediately afterward, a ball of Blazing Fire flashed from between Gu Shen's eyebrows, illuminating a fragile, withered shadow on the ground. The shadow was so broken that it only had a breath of life left. It had just emerged from the ground, preparing to raise its hands to bind Gu Shen, when its movements were discovered.

“I said… don’t move.”

Gu Shen stared at Qu Shui expressionlessly and said, “Regarding your bullshit theory just now… I can’t understand it, and I don’t want to understand it.”

The Ruler of Truth had emptied his thoughts.

After delivering that strike, his mind was filled with buzzing sounds. He hadn't heard what Qu Shui was saying at all. He only heard a few scattered words when his thoughts were stable. Just like determining that something is shit doesn't require tasting it, sometimes determining that a sentence is bullshit doesn't require hearing it all. Hearing a few words is enough.

All of his mental strength was being used by Gu Shen to capture the anomalies around him.

She probably didn’t know… what a "mental-type esper" was.

From the moment that broken, weak shadow separated from Qu Shui’s father’s skeleton, Gu Shen had captured it. He was struggling to digest the backlash from the Ruler of Truth, while quietly waiting for the arrival of that broken shadow.

How laughable and ironic.

Because of the various abuses she suffered in life, the power of this shadow was the weakest. Qu Shui didn't even expect this shadow to be of any use in the battle just now… Compared to the shadows of the young adults hanging on the wall, this should have been her most cherished collection, the imprisoned, nailed-down, and unable-to-struggle "beloved."

She hadn't felt a trace of sadness at the shattering of those previous shadows.

But this shadow was different.

This shadow… seemed to have a close connection to her main body.

He felt pain, and she would also feel pain.

Feeling the struggle beneath his feet, Gu Shen looked at Qu Shui with a somewhat complicated gaze.

Was there an innocent, struggling soul hidden within this fragile shadow?

It could be extinguished with a gust of wind.

It could be crushed with a stomp of the toe.

“No, no, no… I was wrong… I was wrong, Doctor Gu!”

After the shadow was stepped on, the girl's expression suddenly changed. She abandoned all resistance, letting the silver scissors fall to the ground with a clang. Screaming, she knelt on the ground. Her bloodshot eyes couldn't see, so she groped around like a headless fly.

After not being able to feel anything, the girl discarded all her dignity and kowtowed forcefully on the ground.

“I know I was wrong… I know I was wrong…”

Gu Shen silently took a step back.

He released his foot, letting that painful shadow escape.

With a “whoosh.”

Qu Shui, with her face covered in blood, hugged her father’s dilapidated and withered weak shadow tightly. She sat slumped on the ground, her cheeks a mixture of blood and tears.

The shadow on her body also emerged, embracing it.

【“When confronting a Lost Control, there must be no trace of pity. You must use all your strength.”】

At this moment, Gu Shen recalled Mr. Shu’s teachings in his mind.

A Lost Control refers to someone who has a serious error in their esper cultivation… Their mind is no longer under their own control. Before this, they may have been kind and good people, but after this, they will lose their subjective consciousness, and their esper instinct will replace their main body's spirit.

As fellow espers, it is easy to be moved by compassion.

Especially mental-type Lost Controls… simply out of esper instinct, they can manipulate people's hearts between their palms.

Therefore, when the Tribunal carries out missions, one point must be remembered.

No matter what the consideration… when facing a Lost Control, be sure to firmly execute them. Never waver!

Once Lost Control occurs, it cannot be reversed. This is an iron rule!

The "esper origin" of these people will undergo uncontrollable distortion, just like what Senior Luo said… They can no longer be considered living people.

The broken shadow being held in Qu Shui’s arms couldn't resist the summons of the supernatural ability, but that dark face struggled to turn little by little, and finally slowly looked at Gu Shen, trying to make a wail-like sob.

“…”

Gu Shen didn’t understand, but through profiling, he could probably sense some emotions.

“Then let me… send you to liberation.”

Gu Shen softly chanted in his heart.

The silver longsword gently pierced through.

Qu Shui fell down.

The embracing shadows slowly fell into the pool of blood, dissolving and disintegrating bit by bit, becoming black in the night.