Chapter 6: The Sky is About to Change, and a Peaceful Life is About to Be Gone Forever

"D-devil, you... you vicious devil."

Zhang San could not imagine that there was such a vicious person in this world, who could actually come up with so many vicious, anti-human tortures.

Never mind Zhang San, Officer Li, who was slumped on the ground nearby, felt his whole body go numb as if ants were crawling all over him. Then, glancing sideways, he suddenly felt a jolt—holy crap, there really were ants crawling on him! It turned out there was an anthill right on the ground by the wall where Officer Li had struggled to earlier. Although there were indeed ants crawling on him now, Officer Li didn't dare move a muscle. It was just ants crawling on him, after all, not honey being poured on his privates. If he moved around and caught the attention of that devilish man, what if he decided to use that same set of tortures on him later? Even though this person had indirectly saved him, who knew if someone capable of thinking up such cruel punishments was a good person or a bad person? Besides, he hadn't shown the slightest hesitation or doubt when he was ravaging Zhang San just now. Although Zhang San was indeed hateful, but... after all... he hadn't yet... forget it, this bastard Zhang San deserved to die. Even if he hadn't done it yet, it was only because he was taken down before he could carry it out; otherwise, he absolutely would have done the things he just talked about. Served him right! If it weren't for the fact that one of his legs was frozen, the other had gone soft from fear, and a third leg was about to shrink inside, he would have jumped up and delivered a Guanyin sits... pfft, a Crow Flies into the Airplane, and sat him to death with one butt-slam, letting this little punk understand what the unbearable weight of life is. It's just that he didn't know if this guy, whose handsomeness couldn't be hidden even by the mud all over his face and body, would silence him after finishing his questioning of Zhang San, killing the eyewitness and sacrificing a police officer to the heavens.

Officer Li also realized that the mud on the other person's face and body was likely a disguise applied on purpose. He even guessed that this person's home or workplace might be nearby, and that he had probably discovered the situation between him and Zhang San while passing by on his way home from work, leaving him no time to go home and change, so he had to make a simple disguise. The purpose of the disguise was nothing more than not wanting to be recognized. If this were a hermit master who didn't want to show his face or get involved with public departments, that would be fine, but if this were a wanted criminal or a notorious bandit, he might very well slaughter him after finishing up. After all, this mud outfit might not just be to hide his true face from them, but possibly to prevent electronic surveillance eyes from capturing him too clearly, a preparation made to escape capture after killing to silence witnesses.

Thinking of this, Officer Li carefully scooted back a bit more, trying his best to lower his presence and acting like an ostrich.

It wasn't entirely Officer Li's fault for overthinking; after all, although the torture hadn't been applied to Zhang San yet, and it was only spoken of, sometimes language and words can make people feel the pain as if they were experiencing it themselves. For example, let me say one sentence: insert a wooden toothpick into the nail bed of your right big toe, and then kick the wall.

How about it? Do some readers with rich associative and imaginative abilities already feel psychological discomfort or even phantom pain?

During the time Officer Li was lost in his imagination, Zhao Lingyu saw that the "training" was about enough, and even the bystander was starting to get scared, so he began to ask questions.

"When did you obtain this ability? What happened when you first awakened it? Have there been any changes from the awakening until now? Good or bad changes both count. Does activating the ability have any cost? Tell the truth. If you dare to fool me, and I notice it, then there's no need to talk—I'll go straight to the torture!"

Then Zhang San began to confess, trembling. As for lying to fool Zhao Lingyu? He didn't have the guts for that right now.

According to Zhang San's confession, he had awakened his ability four days ago. Nothing special happened when he awakened it; he was just drinking a bottle of room-temperature Happy Water at the time, thinking to himself that it would be great if it were iced cola, and then his palms began to emit a cold chill, allowing him to cool the cola down.

From the time he awakened the ability four days ago until now, the ability had been constantly growing stronger.

The freezing range, activation time, and lower freezing temperatures were all improving. From only being able to cool down Happy Water at the beginning, to now, as long as his hands touched an object, he could instantly lower the temperature of the object he touched to below zero and freeze it. In just four days, the ability had evolved to this extent.

As for the cost, according to Zhang San, it consumed mental energy. After using it at full power and overexerting himself, he would feel dizzy and muddled, though Zhao Lingyu guessed it was likely something like spiritual power.

As for the "preparation" Zhang San had mentioned earlier—that he only dared to come out and commit crimes after being prepared—Zhang San also confessed. Simply put, yesterday Zhang San wanted to test just how strong his ability had become, so he went to the river outside the city to experiment. To put it simply, he found a place with no one around, put both hands into the river, and activated his ability at full power. This test yielded an unexpected surprise.

When Zhang San activated his ability to freeze a large chunk of ice out of the river water, he faintly felt that he could control this block of ice he had created. This was a new method of using the ability that he hadn't discovered before.

Then, after a series of experiments, Zhang San discovered that when his hands were in contact with the ice, he could shape it and control the ice to move in the water. For example, if he rode on the ice in the water and touched it with his hands, he could make the ice move faster than he could run at full speed. He could even create a hollow block of ice and enter it to dive to the bottom of the water and move along the riverbed. Perhaps his ability wasn't strong enough yet; other than being able to move relatively easily while in contact with it in the water, on land, even if he shaped the ice into a cart with wheels, he could only make it budge a little bit with all his might, and creating a larger block of ice to ride on and make it float in the air didn't produce any movement at all.

But even so, this gave him enough courage. After all, that river outside the city connected to other rivers, and those rivers connected to even more, extending in all directions straight to the sea. So he thought that after committing a crime, he could escape directly out of the city, dive to the bottom of the water, and flee. After all, it had only been four days and his ability had already evolved to this extent. Perhaps after fleeing for a few days, his ability would become even stronger, and then he could flee to other small countries and commit crimes on the run, relying on his ability to act recklessly and enjoy a life of doing whatever he pleased.

After Zhang San finished his confession, Zhao Lingyu was silent for a moment, then kicked Zhang San in the face. Well, he used fifty percent of his strength, kicking him unconscious instantly. He didn't care if he had kicked him unconscious or dead; anyway, such scum deserved to die. If he died, it was his bad luck; if he didn't, it was his good luck. After kicking him, Zhao Lingyu cast his gaze toward Officer Li.