Chapter 95: Instant Light!

The streets at one in the early morning were quite silent, with almost no sound to be heard.

Under the glow of the distant urban circle, Lin Qing stood at the entrance of a creative restaurant named Like, quietly waiting for the thirteen inspectors who had just gone inside to search.

Since the main purpose was to search for hidden tunnels, searching at midnight was more suitable.

Even with underground models built from GPR combined with MSM detection data, it was impossible to precisely detect underground spaces of merely two or three meters or even smaller; if anti-detection methods were involved, it would be even harder.

Therefore, having inspectors carry instruments and search personally was more effective.

"Only two places left to check, then we can go back."

Lin Qing pondered silently, "Let Zhao Jiayi come during the day to scan these places with her telekinesis; she can now penetrate one hundred meters underground, perhaps she might find something..."

Suddenly—

Lin Qing turned his head abruptly to look.

He saw a blurry human-shaped afterimage suddenly appear at the street corner ahead, rushing toward him at a terrifying speed.

But even more bizarre was that such a terrible speed did not cause the slightest sound of breaking wind!

"This is..."

In that instant, with just one glance, Lin Qing immediately confirmed: "Free Body! It is the true 'Free Body' combat technique!"

Although he had not yet had time to advance the original 'Free Body' combat technique, he had also learned the cultivation method and naturally knew clearly—

This was the true characteristic of the 'Free Body', free and unbound, acting with wild abandon! Even such a terrifying speed was not affected by air resistance, and did not even produce a sound of breaking wind! Fortunately, over these past two months, he had cultivated and mastered the 'Eye' series of Divine Transformations on his own, making him quite sensitive to light changes; the corner of his eye had detected the other's arrival.

"Strange, why didn't the Order Level drop? Does he have no hostility toward me?"

At the same time, this thought flashed through Lin Qing's mind.

But he still turned without hesitation and rushed into a nearby street alley.

This place was still too bright; a battle would be observed and recorded by satellites, while the nearby alleys had obstructions, the light was dimmer, and the space was narrower, perfectly suited for him to unleash his abilities now!

Inside a dimly lit street alley.

That blurry phantom, moving at nearly half a Mach yet completely silent, paused slightly at the alley entrance, then immediately darted inside.

At the same time, a hint of confusion appeared in the eyes beneath that pale white smiling mask; why had he voluntarily rushed in? But for a true Free Body, such a winding and twisting alley environment was even easier to leverage its advantages!

He naturally could not choose not to enter.

The moment he entered the alley, he saw that figure in the dimness five meters away; immediately after—

Light! In an instant, a pale cyan light, as if from the sky, burst forth, illuminating half the alley.

In that instant, he saw Lin Qing's entire body seem to transform into a stream of cyan light, moving at a terrifying speed ten or a hundred times faster than his own, even completely surpassing the limit of his neural reaction; leaving a cyan arc trail behind him in an instant, he appeared before his eyes.

Then, as the stream of light dissipated, he saw the other's palm-blade already pressed tightly against his mask.

He only had time for one thought to flash through his mind: How is it possible to be this fast? At the same time, cyan light suddenly erupted from Lin Qing's pupils, and his entire body's power surged violently.

"Swish!"

In an instant, the edge of that palm-blade seemed to manifest an invisible blade; with the swing of the palm-blade, it instantly sliced through that sturdy alloy-cast pale white smiling mask.

Then, the invisible sharpness sliced through the other's facial skin, flesh, skull, brain... slicing horizontally across in an instant!

At the same time the mask shattered and fell, the mysterious person's entire skin and flesh suddenly withered, like a flower blooming and fading in a moment, withering in the snap of a finger; before even hitting the ground, it turned into weathered sand, scattering and drifting away in the wind.

"This is..."

Looking at the scattered sand drifting in the wind, Lin Qing frowned slightly, "So he wasn't a living person? Some kind of genetic ability?"

Just now, although he hadn't seen the Order Level drop, perhaps the other only wanted to capture him alive, treating him as a treasure, which is why he had no intention of harming him.

Therefore, that strike just now, he had already used his full strength.

Unfortunately, the one killed was obviously not a living person.

Perhaps something similar to a puppet?

"As expected, I am not the only one possessing incredible genetic abilities..." Lin Qing murmured.

In these nearly two months, except for the original 'Free Body' combat technique which he had not yet had time to advance, he had already advanced all four genetic abilities of the third tier of the Sky Track Monarch.

The ability 'Enhancement' could cause an explosive increase in all aspects of physical constitution, equivalent to doubling.

The ability 'Invisible Edge' could form an energy blade of ultra-wave oscillation on the body surface, slicing through ordinary alloys as simply as cutting vegetables.

And the core genetic ability of the third tier, 'Instant Light', advanced half a month ago, was even more terrifying.

The instant it was activated, enveloped by mysterious energy throughout his body, he was like a ray of light; in that instant, his speed could reach a hundred times or even more of the past, and time seemed to slow down to one percent.

But in that instant, in his light-transformed state, he found it difficult to affect material phenomena; he had no killing power, just like a ray of sunlight shining on a person, naturally having no effect.

Even so, this ability was still terrifying.

The key lay in... he could seize absolute initiative.

In the Instant Light state, in the instant before the enemy could react, he could place a blade at the other's neck.

Although the consumption was enormous, activating it once consumed half of his mysterious energy; although it could only be maintained for that one instant, perhaps not even 0.001 seconds...

But all this could not obscure its power.

Over the past half month since advancing it, he had confirmed this only after multiple experiments.

"This move is quite good for a surprise attack..."

After this actual combat, Lin Qing became even clearer on how to unleash this genetic ability.

Absolute initiative should be used to achieve instant kills as much as possible.

"Fortunately, he didn't use a combat technique of the instinct level; otherwise, without even moving, instantly activating defense, my current strength would probably be unable to break through..."

Lin Qing silently summarized this instant of battle in his mind.

He also understood that his own strength was ultimately still lacking.

If he had already mastered the complete version of 'Free Body', even without using Instant Light, he could have killed the opponent.

"However, it really is him..."

Lin Qing frowned slightly, "No wonder he had such an alibi."

The moment the mask shattered, he had already seen the other's true face.

He originally thought the other had found another person who had cultivated the Free Body to the Instinct level to serve as a decoy, thereby establishing an alibi.

Now it seemed it was some kind of gene ability beyond comprehension?

"But with such an ability, he should have been able to wash himself completely clean."

Lin Qing frowned. "He could clearly have done it without a shred of suspicion, yet he still committed those acts that aroused doubt..."

The night was vast.

Yuan Anping sat lazily on the steps at the entrance of Wanxiang City, smoking a cigarette while waiting for the thirteen patrol officers who had just entered the mall to search to come out.

"This search is taking so long..." With a cigarette dangling from his lips, he looked up at the starry sky obscured by the glow of the urban circle amidst the swirling smoke, feeling a touch of melancholy in his heart: "If we make a big scene tonight, we should still make it in time..."

Suddenly—

Yuan Anping's eyes shifted slightly: "How did he die? Even though Lian Zexu isn't skilled in speed, it shouldn't be that easy to kill him, right?"

He felt somewhat puzzled in his heart. "At this time, my tail should have gone to play with Lin Qing; it should have been just enough to let him hold on until Lian Zexu arrived. How did he suddenly vanish? I cultivated him for so long for nothing..."

At that moment, the communicator suddenly rang; it was none other than the Chief Commander Lian Zexu calling.

"Chief Commander?"

"Ah? I'm fine."

"What? I'll rush over right now."

"You were ambushed by that mysterious person?"

Yuan Anping looked at Lin Qing in shock and couldn't help but ask, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Lin Qing glanced at Yuan Anping. "Just almost died."

"That's impossible..." Yuan Anping found it hard to believe and added, "Isn't your strength quite formidable?"

"What's impossible about that?" Lin Qing looked at him. "Patrol Chief Hu is far stronger than me; he was beaten until he lay paralyzed on the ground. Isn't it normal for me to have almost been killed?"

"... As long as you're fine." Yuan Anping changed the subject. "What about that person?"

"I barely managed Without Zhao Jia for a few moves. When that mysterious person realized the Chief Commander had arrived, he fled directly." Lin Qing wore an expression of having barely survived a disaster. "It was almost the end."

Anyway, no one saw that he was the one who killed, so let Yuan Anping guess however he wanted.

Yuan Anping could only remain speechless.

"When I arrived, that person had indeed already fled." Chief Commander Lian Zexu nodded slightly, looked at Lin Qing with hidden meaning, and sighed, "Patrol Chief Lin is truly hiding his depths."

He had personally witnessed Patrol Chief Hu Xianan, whose strength was not insignificant, being beaten into critical condition in the blink of an eye, with all four limbs fractured, requiring at least half a month to recover.

Yet this Patrol Chief Lin, who had always claimed to be a newcomer, had fought the mysterious person for only a few seconds and emerged completely unscathed? The gap was enormous.

Not far away, the twenty-nine patrol officers who had reassembled also couldn't help but look over.

Patrol Chief Hu, who had previously declared in the meeting that he could fight two opponents, was in the next instant beaten like a dead dog lying on the ground, while Patrol Chief Lin, who had voluntarily admitted defeat, was still standing there perfectly fine.

"Just luck."

Lin Qing shook his head and said, "However, I didn't expect even Patrol Chief Hu to be defeated. This probably means we can't continue the search."

"Report to headquarters." Lian Zexu said in a low voice. "The Original Research Institute's level of attention toward Lin'an City is clearly abnormal. The last search wasn't thorough enough; this time... even if we turn Lin'an City upside down, if we don't dig something up, headquarters won't give up."

Yuan Anping listened quietly from the side, relaxing slightly.

Patrol Chief Hu was sent to the hospital, but aside from the fractures in his four limbs, there was no major issue; once set, with a patrol chief's physical constitution, lying down for half a month would be enough.

However, who knows when Patrol Chief Hu's psychological wound would recover.

When Lin Qing finally left the ward, he happened to notice that Patrol Chief Hu, who had been in a coma and couldn't be woken no matter what, opened a sliver of his eyes at the very end to look at him, his gaze extremely complex.

By the time he returned home, it was already three in the morning.

"Order."

Lin Qing sat on the sofa and summoned the Entropy Reverser panel in his mind.

【Advanced Item: Bloodline Evolution Ability—Sky-Track Monarch 'Instant Light' (37.2% Completed)】

【Advanced Item: Morning Sun Cultivation Method (97.6% Completed)】

"Almost there."

Lin Qing nodded inwardly.

'Instant Light' was advanced half a month ago.

However, as the core gene ability of the third tier of the Sky-Track Monarch bloodline, 'Instant Light' was also the most difficult ability to excavate; it required forty-three perfect optimizations of the genes before this ability could manifest.

"In another two days, the debt for the original Morning Sun Cultivation Method will be paid off."

Lin Qing narrowed his eyes slightly. "By then, I can advance the original 'Free Body' combat technique."

He had originally planned to advance the 'Free Body' combat technique first, but the original technique was indeed extremely difficult, with even entering the basics being quite hard.

The simplified and deconstructed version of the Free Body combat technique was merely an imitation of its six main characteristics, thereby decomposing it into six combat techniques, so the six natures simulated by the mysterious energy were also different.

But the true 'Free Body' combat technique truly regarded the countless force points and energy nodes of the human body as countless stars in the universe, and regarded the mysterious energy as the interaction between those stars, thereby guiding the physical body toward absolute freedom and unrestraint.

After all, the true combat technique was originally meant for Gene Awakeners to cultivate.

Generally speaking, only Gene Awakeners, with their genes that could be freely adjusted and optimized, able to adapt at any time, could cultivate the true combat technique.

Even though the six deconstructed combat techniques reaching the Instinct level would gradually adjust the genes to make them more compatible with the Free Body, it still took him over a month to finally enter the basics.

On May 19, he entered the basics of the 'Free Body' combat technique.

Unfortunately, he had advanced 'Instant Light' on May 15, so he could only keep putting it off.

The next morning.

Zhao Jiayi, as usual, rode with Lin Qing to the branch station.

However, in the car, Lin Qing noticed Zhao Jiayi suddenly shiver, then curl up like a frightened cat, falling silent.

Lin Qing suspected the girl might have used telekinesis to detect something, but with surveillance cameras in the car, it was inconvenient to discuss telekinesis.

Upon arriving at the branch station and entering the office's private rest room, Lin Qing finally asked her, "What's wrong?"

"Just now, on White Oak Street we passed, I detected a huge group of people with very strong life fields," Zhao Jiayi said, slightly excited. "Their life fields are at least at your level, and many have even more terrifying life field auras."

Lin Qing was slightly stunned.

At my level? That meant at least people who had mastered the original Morning Sun Cultivation Method! "Who are they? From Headquarters?" Lin Qing asked.

"No."

Zhao Jiayi shook her head. "None of that group wore Patrol Captain uniforms. The key point is, within the area where that crowd gathered, I discovered a hidden elevator shaft extending straight down eighty meters!"

"Elevator shaft?" Lin Qing asked. "What's below?"

"It was too fast at the time; I only spotted a door beneath the elevator shaft."

Zhao Jiayi whispered, "The door bore the insignias of the Primitive Research Institute and the Illuminati. That door seemed to be an entrance to a research institute."

She thought for a moment, then said, "Oh, right, there was a line of text on the door."

"Text?" Lin Qing couldn't help but look at her.

(End of this chapter)