Chapter 56: Peculiarities
"Report any new developments to me."
"Yes, sir."
However, the two clearly hadn't anticipated that their phone conversation would be overheard by Bai Mo, word for word, from dozens of meters away.
"Since they chose to compromise, many things will be easier to handle," he thought to himself.
At this moment, Yue Yu and Chen Fangqing were still sparring on the training ground. To call it sparring was less accurate than to say it was simply daily practice.
Chen Fangqing's speed was slightly slower than Yue Yu's, so even with her Life Field, her attacks largely failed to land on Yue Yu. Thus, Yue Yu wasn't entirely on the defensive. However, lacking offensive abilities, she couldn't overcome Chen Fangqing, who was protected by her Life Field. Since Chen Fangqing also had no intention of striking hard, the two exchanged blows like a performance, creating a remarkably harmonious scene.
"Fangqing, you two have played enough, haven't you? It's our turn to warm up. Watching you play around is quite boring," Hong Si shouted towards Chen Fangqing on the field.
"Alright."
"Captain Yue, let's stop here for now. Some people are already impatient to get on the field."
In the time that followed, everyone on the field found an opponent and practiced. However, after witnessing the earlier performances of Bai Mo, Ye Zi, and Chen Bo, no one dared to challenge them with a masochistic desire to be crushed.
Bai Mo, delighted to be undisturbed, sat aside, lost in his own thoughts. Meanwhile, Ye Zi and Chen Bo each scrutinized the performance of every team member, acting very much like the leaders of their respective squads.
"Everyone, it's already 1:40 PM. Please pack up. We'll be boarding the bus in twenty minutes, heading to the assembly point," Feng Dong announced from the sidelines, like a steward.
Twenty minutes later, the passenger bus carrying the group departed from the Dragon Group Building, heading for the Tianhai Municipal Government Headquarters. After the two parties converged, a new motorcade set off from the headquarters, driving towards Tianhai City's airport to board a pre-arranged chartered flight.
"I can't shake the feeling that I've been flying a lot recently." Gazing at the familiar cabin, Bai Mo suddenly had this thought.
Seven hours later, the plane landed at Rome Airport in Italy.
The group disembarked with the Huaxia delegation. On the plane, through Feng Dong, they had already received some information about their opponents and the schedule for the conference.
"The competitions start tomorrow! I'm so excited," Yue Yu exclaimed, thrilled.
"What's there to be excited about? Your neural pathways truly are different from ordinary people's. This is a battle where you could lose your life," Yun Jie interjected, pouring cold water on her enthusiasm.
"Everyone, get some good rest and prepare for tomorrow's battles. Though there's risk, the rewards are also extremely generous. Just consider it a gamble; fortune is found in peril," Liang Gong smoothly interjected, mediating.
Deep in the night, Bai Mo lay alone in bed, meticulously probing his surroundings with his Divine Sense. He had suddenly been seized by a premonition that something significant related to him would happen tomorrow, yet he couldn't detect any trace of it. Thus, he decided to wander through Rome, searching for clues.
He walked onto the balcony, launched himself with full power, and leaped to the rooftop of the hotel next door. From there, after a few maneuvers, he dropped directly to the ground.
As it was deep in the night, not many people were active in the urban area. With his current movement speed, coupled with his innate three-hundred-meter radius search radar, he had swept through nearly the entire city of Rome in just an hour.
"I haven't found any suspicious individuals, and logically, there shouldn't be too many people left who can significantly affect me. If the intelligence department's information on our opponents is correct, tomorrow's competition will just be a formality, so where exactly is the problem?"
Carrying his doubts, Bai Mo continued to roam through the city of Rome, searching for any clues that might appear.
Suddenly, within his perception, he discovered a peculiar individual. This person was incessantly drawing the same pattern in an alleyway. Under his Divine Sense, he found that the pattern was a circle with a cross inside. What shocked Bai Mo even more was that these crude drawings actually had faint Spirit Energy reactions!
He instinctively felt that these patterns were connected to the significant event that was about to befall him, so he immediately rushed to the peculiar individual and controlled him with his mental force.
Though the peculiar individual was unable to move, his body still struggled with all its might. Alas, in Bai Mo's eyes, it was merely "An ant trying to shake a tree."
He tried questioning the peculiar individual in Chinese, English, and even some simple Italian he'd just picked up on the fly, but the person offered no response, continuously trying to escape. However, with his mental force firmly controlling the other party, how could he possibly let the peculiar individual break free from his grasp?
Seeing no escape, the peculiar individual simply stopped struggling. Watching the sudden cessation of resistance, Bai Mo felt something was amiss.
A few seconds later, he noticed the peculiar individual's body seemed to be swelling, as if about to explode. Instinctively, he swiftly retreated two steps.
"Boom!" The peculiar individual's body violently exploded, sending flesh and blood scattering everywhere and producing a deafening roar that startled the surrounding residents awake. Seeing this, he intended to leave the scene immediately. Before doing so, he swiftly used his mental force to extract one of the concrete blocks inscribed with the pattern.
"No! There's something else." Within his Divine Sense, Bai Mo discovered a small chunk of flesh abruptly flying in a straight line from the exploded corpse, unlike the other fragments of blood and gore that would fall to the ground. He instantly used his mental force to tightly bind the flesh chunk, preventing its escape. Then, wrapping the concrete block with his mental force, he swiftly departed the scene with both items.
Only after returning to his hotel room via the balcony did he have the leisure to meticulously examine the chunk of flesh that appeared to possess an independent life.
"No wonder that fellow wouldn't speak no matter how I questioned him. He was already being manipulated by this chunk of flesh, left with only a simple consciousness to relentlessly draw these peculiar patterns." From this living piece of flesh, he quickly surmised puppet control.
"Whose Ability User's doing could this be? But that's not the most crucial thing. The most important question is, why did this thing give me that premonition, and how exactly can it affect me tomorrow?"
Filled with questions, he pondered for a long time but still found no clues. So, he simply shifted his attention to the "captured" chunk of flesh.
Bai Mo retrieved his portable, simple experimental kit from his luggage, then took out a scalpel and tweezers from the kit.
As he used the scalpel to cut open the chunk of flesh, Bai Mo discovered that the flesh wasn't entirely the true entity. So, he began meticulously separating the flesh from the actual core, taking care not to damage the material. Of course, throughout the dissection, his mental force remained firmly in control of the entire chunk of flesh, preventing it from escaping again.
"So this is the true controlling mechanism," Bai Mo mused, looking at the net-like structure he had painstakingly separated from the flesh. "However, even with this in my possession, I still can't extract any useful information. How can I obtain what I want from it?"
Comments