Chapter 273: Li Lei's Past

From the moment the Death God Phantom shattered the soul, the battle was already over.

The black dragon swallowed the dark blue shadow in one gulp, then coiled around Lin An's wrist and fell asleep yawning.

Wang Kun stood stiffly in place, his body maintaining a charging posture, motionless.

He feared that any movement would cause the suddenly rising black bear to crush his skull.

Damn it, everything was an act.

Every move of ours was nothing but a joke.

His eyes were filled with endless regret.

He had made correct choices before, but greed still made him choose the wrong path.

If given another chance, he would rather cut off his own hands than dare to move against Lin An.

The restaurant was silent; even the bubbling of the hot pot could not be heard.

In the short-lived battle, the restaurant lay in ruins.

Beneath Lin An's feet, Li Lei knelt on the ground, arms dangling, trembling all over from waves of intense pain.

Pain, fear, disbelief.

He could not believe that even a master as strong as his teacher could die in an instant.

Didn't the master say that no one below the third rank could rival him?

Could it be that Lin An is third rank—or even stronger!?

In his eyes, the master who seemed to know everything and be capable of anything died in such a laughable way.

Everything felt like a dream.

On Lin An's wrist, what he thought was a decorative bracelet turned out to be a living creature!

The dark golden vertical pupils, and the aura that burst forth at that moment, made him instinctively feel fear.

Like a creature at the bottom of the food chain facing the top predator, he could not imagine what kind of being wielded such pressure.

"Who... exactly are you!?"

"What... is it, then!?"

Li Lei let out a desperate, bitter laugh, unable to stop himself from asking the question weighing on his mind.

Zhang Tie snorted coldly, his eyes mocking:

"You damn well aren't that impressive, are you?"

"Child of Heaven? Protagonist?"

"Huh?"

Jeering and scolding, the black bear kicked Li Lei in the face, slamming him into the ground with a bang.

Even from their first meeting, the greed and contempt in that kid's eyes had already annoyed him.

He dared not talk back, nor dodge.

Li Lei lay blood‑soaked on the broken floor, his eyes fixed on Lin An, half filled with fear, half with unwillingness.

Fear, of what his fate would be.

Unwillingness, of refusing to believe what was happening.

Shouldn't I be the one whose wishes come true, the "Child of Heaven" who reigns above all?

Clearly Lin An had taken the Manchineel Flower, and clearly my talent had taken effect...

Why?

The way things unfolded was completely unlike what he had expected.

In his view, from the moment Lin An was poisoned...

This trash should have been kneeling on the ground, terrified, begging me for mercy.

And he should have been leisurely embracing Ice Sister, enjoying the fruits of victory under his master's praise.

Where exactly did things go wrong?

Shouldn't I be dreaming?

No one told him the answer.

Lin An couldn't be bothered to argue with him, and simply lifted him into the air with telekinesis, his voice icy and unquestionable:

"Who is your master?"

"Where does your talent come from? Where did you get the Manchineel Flower?"

If Li Lei weren't still hiding many secrets, he would have already set off fireworks right there, or had Mo Ling turn him into a flesh puppet—there'd be no need for Li Lei to keep asking foolish questions like a simpleton.

A sudden sound pulled Li Lei back from his delusion into reality.

Limbless, floating in midair he was like a puddle of mud; the waves of pain and Fan Bing's gaze nearly drove him to collapse.

Shame, humiliation.

He could sense Lin An's impatience and killing intent.

I don't want to die...!

Ice Sister... right! And Ice Sister! My beloved is still in Lin An's hands—if I die now, she'll surely be doomed too!

In his panic, he could not help but shout out in pain, his voice breaking:

"I'll talk! I'll talk!"

"But please let me go! Let Ice Sister go!"

"I really won't dare again! I truly won't dare again!"

"Just treat me like a fart..."

Before he could finish, Li Lei's eyes reflected the sight of Fan Bing, worried, walking up to Lin An's side.

Fan Bing held a white paper, subconsciously wanting to help Lin An wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth.

The worry in her eyes was something Li Lei had never seen before.

Even.

Li Lei looked at her with a deathly pale face, but she didn't even glance at him.

He spat out a mouthful of clotted blood, Li Lei's body shuddered twice, and he began to grin foolishly as if gone mad.

His master died miserably, his limbs were completely ruined, and even the goddess in his heart treated him like trash, not even giving him a glance.

Under a succession of blows, his reason was almost destroyed.

Xiong Hanzi looked at Li Lei, who was foolishly giggling in mid‑air, with a face of disbelief, shaking his head toward Lin An:

"Captain Lin..?"

"This kid seems to have gone mad..."

Lin An was speechless; in his perception, Li Lei's spirit had completely collapsed.

"Is the mind this fragile?"

"As an Awakened One, he can't even withstand this little blow..."

"Plop."

The telekinetic hold lifted, and Li Lei, who had been hovering in mid‑air, crashed to the ground, yet all he did was burst into foolish laughter:

"It's all fake! It's all fake! Sis Bing, I chopped off that kid's hand! Hehe..."

A chill rose in Wang Kun's heart, icy to the bone.

Li Lei had actually gone mad...

In everyone's eyes, Lin An was nothing short of a demon; the crowd shrank into the corners, afraid to speak.

He let out a quiet sigh, and Lin An slightly shook his head.

He had originally hoped to gain some clues from Li Lei, but it seemed he could only piece them together from others.

He glanced around the crowd and casually said:

"Tell me what you know; whoever gives the most information, I won't kill him."

The people exchanged glances, and after a moment the crowd became noisy.

"I'll speak! I know!"

"I know a bit too!"

Wang Kun took a strong step forward to Lin An's face, difficulty slapping his chest, his voice hoarse from exertion:

"Sir! You ask me! I know everything!"

Ten minutes later, Lin An tapped his fingertips on the table, piecing together the information from everyone's mouths.

Apart from the information about Li Lei's master, the rest was pieced together to about eighty or ninety percent accuracy.

Li Lei, male, 22 years old, unemployed vagrant.

According to Wang Kun, this guy is just a parasite living off his parents.

After the Apocalypse broke out, Wang Kun rescued the nearby Li Lei; at that time Li Lei was merely an ordinary person, while Wang Kun was an Awakened One.

While passing Wanda Plaza, Li Lei inexplicably became an Awakened One, and from then on a necklace appeared around his neck.

Wang Kun was curious about the origin of the necklace, including Li Lei's talent.

But after Li Lei became an Awakened One, he no longer feared Wang Kun; instead, he wanted to compete with him for the leadership position.

Repaying kindness with enmity, but out of necessity for survival, the two still chose to team up.

Subsequently, Li Lei encountered one stroke of luck after another; when weak, each time he met a mutant he could easily escape, and even gained something.

Later on, Li Lei seemed to know all the mutants' weaknesses, and with Wang Kun's cooperation he killed many mutants.

Afterwards, they happened upon Fan Bing, who was trapped at the filming site; the two easily slaughtered the zombies besieging the crew, then led the crew members all the way to the guesthouse.

And the Manchineel Flower was found by Li Lei again with ease when he killed the mutant near the hospital.

As if he had long known that there was a spirit plant there.

Later still, they simply ran into Lin An and the others.

It's a very clichéd script, with hardly any useful information.

After a moment's thought, Lin An gave up investigating.

Only two points were useful.

One, from Li Lei's experience it can be seen that his becoming an Awakened One is closely related to the necklace, and he may even have been artificially "produced" by the so‑called Master.

Two, there really is an aura of the Abyss emanating from near the hospital; as the Manchineel Flower is a product of the Abyss, the surrounding space must have undergone an anomaly.

All the questions point to the "Master"; it's just unknown whether the spirit devoured by the Black Dragon has been digested...

Later we'll go upstairs and ask the Black Dragon; the spirit body called the "Master" must certainly hide many secrets.

"Ding"

Lin An took off the necklace from Li Lei's neck; the pale‑blue necklace bore an inconspicuous crystal.

"Drip, obtained special prop: Soul Box."