Chapter 97: Sudden Attack

The next day.

After finishing her four classes for the day, Qiao Suisui wanted to go to the library to return her books before heading to the school gate to find Ka'er.

As soon as she stepped into the library, she immediately felt the shift from noisy to deathly quiet. Qiao Suisui had been inside for ten minutes and hadn't seen a single person.

She was a bit puzzled; although the library wasn't usually crowded, it shouldn't have been this empty.

The librarian on duty wasn't at their desk either, so she had no choice but to leave a note with her student ID number and return the books to their original places from memory.

She was paying attention to the classification labels on the rows of bookshelves and didn't notice a black shadow suddenly flash between the tall shelves.

"Click—"

The sound of the heavy door locking echoed through the empty library.

Qiao Suisui turned her head and saw that the door, which had been wide open, had been closed by someone.

She furrowed her brows, realizing something was wrong.

"Is anyone there?"

She ran over to try and pull the door, only to find it had been locked from the outside.

Qiao Suisui backed against the door, her nerves immediately tightening.

"Who's inside?"

"Come out."

In an instant, a pool of black liquid began to slowly seep in from the end of the rows of bookshelves. The black liquid emitted a pungent, asphalt-like odor; it was viscous and writhing, making a gelatinous rubbing sound as it spread like ocean waves, filling half the library floor.

Sweat broke out on Qiao Suisui's forehead. She tossed a book over to test it and discovered that the black liquid consumed the book; the book's shape gradually dissolved under the coverage of the black liquid and then vanished.

"What on earth is this..."

It was exactly like the Bone-Melting Liquid from Wei Xiaobao in *The Deer and the Cauldron*.

While running to a corner, she used her light brain to call Anubis, but there was no response; he was still in closed-door training at this hour. She then called Li Yi, only to find the line was busy.

By now, the black liquid had gradually occupied three-quarters of the library's area, and Qiao Suisui was burning with anxiety.

"There's only this choice left..."

She called Ka'er, and he answered almost instantly.

"Class over?"

"Ka'er, I'm trapped in the lib... hurry..."

Qiao Suisui's voice was intermittent over the light brain, and the signal was cut off after just one sentence. She looked down at her light brain and discovered that the signal, which had been full, was now completely blocked by artificial means.

This was a premeditated, planned incident targeting her.

Facing such a situation, Qiao Suisui forced herself to calm down. She first used a chair to climb onto a table, then climbed from the table to the top of a bookshelf, nearly slipping and falling in the process.

The black liquid was still pressing in, and it seemed to be controlled by someone; after Qiao Suisui climbed to a high place, the black liquid, which had previously only flowed on the ground, began to swallow upward along the bookshelves.

This couldn't go on; it was too passive.

Qiao Suisui knelt on top of the bookshelf, releasing her mental power as far as she could. She had recently learned many theories on how to control mental power, and now she had to put them into practice.

She turned her senses to the maximum, and a golden-purple mental power spread out like lightning, extending to the entire library, not even sparing the corners. Cold sweat began to bead on her forehead, and the system kept sending alerts—

【Host, excessive use of mental power during pregnancy is not advisable; it may cause a miscarriage.】

【Please stop immediately, please stop immediately.】

Qiao Suisui ignored the system's voice and continued to drive her mental power. Suddenly, she snapped her eyes open, her pupils shrinking sharply; she was determined. "Found you!"

Without a second's hesitation, she released a Fire Control Technique directly toward the blind spot at a 45-degree angle of the bookcase. A long tongue of fire burned along the black liquid, and in the blink of an eye, it struck the person hiding in the shadows.

A muffled grunt followed, and she saw that person move quickly, a dark blue hem of clothing flashing by.

Even if it was only for an instant, she had captured it.

It was him?

The person who had peeked at her on the day of the test.

He had to die.

In a microsecond, a decision was born.

Qiao Suisui knelt on one knee on the top of the bookshelf and took tear gas and a protective suit from her storage grid. With one hand, she pressed the protective mask onto her face, and with the other, she threw tear gas in several directions. Tear gas, which usually only appeared in the military department, was something ordinary beastmen could never obtain, but she threw it around as if it were worthless.

The enemy was in the dark and she was in the light; not caring where the person was hiding, she simply and brutally smashed the canisters in several directions. In an instant, the entire library was plunged into a cloud of smoke.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough..."

Qiao Suisui's ears twitched, and she instantly identified the opponent's position.

"Found you, you cunning 'rat'."

She pulled a weapon resembling a small rocket launcher from her storage grid, shouldered it, aimed at a spot, and with a 'Boom'—

She blasted a hole directly through the library!

The entire building shook with it!

The massive sound caused students throughout the Interstellar Strategic Academy to look toward the source of the noise, where smoke and dust were billowing.

The tremors slowly subsided, and an arm could be seen buried under the ruins and stones. The person was still wearing a dark blue school uniform and was now unconscious.

Meanwhile, on top of one of the bookshelves opposite, slender fingers were gripping the flat surface tightly.

Qiao Suisui was gripping the top of the bookshelf with her right hand for dear life, while her left hand tucked the nano-cannon back into her storage grid. She then climbed onto the top of the bookshelf, her feet constantly searching for a place to support herself.

She had lost her balance during the tremor, and since the top of the bookshelf was narrow to begin with, it was fortunate she had reacted quickly.

She supported herself on the top surface with her elbows and looked down. Her mask fell off, dropping into the black liquid, where it gradually dissolved. The black liquid was like magma, bubbling and making sizzling sounds.

Qiao Suisui knew she couldn't hold on for long with her current physical strength; she had to climb back to the top of the bookshelf. But whether it was a consequence of overusing her mental power, she felt a cramping pain in her abdomen and her whole body went limp, relying only on a single breath to keep herself from falling.

After a stalemate, in this desperate situation, the buried person moved.

A man crawled out from the pit, shook his head, half his face covered in blood, his body covered in dust. He glared angrily at Qiao Suisui's position, spat out blood, and wiped his face with his hand.

"Damn, what a lunatic."

Ximeng hadn't intended to kill her; he had just wanted to probe her strength after seeing her test results. His talent was illusion, capable of creating countless scenes to make people drunk on dreams or miserable to the point of death. But who the hell could have guessed this kid was so fierce, daring to blow up the library? She was even crazier than him!

Ximeng didn't know that Qiao Suisui always believed in a one-hit-kill strategy when facing danger, because she understood her own strength and knew that if she couldn't take the enemy down in one go under limited conditions, she was handing her chance at survival to someone else. Moreover, Ximeng was highly likely to have learned her secret.

He should be thankful he happened to be under a load-bearing beam when he moved; otherwise, he would have truly lost his life. To a certain extent, Qiao Suisui's strategy was successful; it was just that the guy was too lucky.

"Hey, kid, are you sick? Come down here and fight me one-on-one!"

Even if Ximeng had set the trap today, he was just a student in an ivory tower, and since he hadn't really intended to cause a major incident, he hadn't reacted in time to the fact that Qiao Suisui truly wanted his life. As he was cursing and walking toward the bookshelf where she was, suddenly, another 'Boom'—a massive sound, this time the sound of shattering glass.

The newcomer kicked through the entire floor-to-ceiling window, broke in, swung on a rope from outside, and performed a clean roll. The rifle in his hand aimed directly at Ximeng. The entire process took only 5 seconds, showing he was well-trained.

Ximeng first discovered in terror that his forehead was being targeted by an infrared beam, then looked across. The man was wearing a black Federal Military Combat Uniform, had short red hair, was chewing on something, and his extremely superior brows and eyes were full of coldness.

Ka'er said: "Who the hell were you yelling at just now?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 98 =====