MCL CH57

Chapter 57: He Didn’t Fall in the Same Place…

The flickering flames rendered a red halo on the water’s surface. Unnoticed while underwater, the supposedly incompatible elements of water and fire had unknowingly blended together.

When Lin Xi saw this magnificent sight, he was not surprised at all.

Water-type Contaminants were indeed a counter to ordinary fire-type ability users, but he was different. His X-coded ability allowed his flames to devour everything in any situation.

As if sensing a kindred spirit, the flames began to boil even more fiercely as Lin Xi approached.

The moment he broke the surface of the water, the first thing that met his eyes were the completely scorched and destroyed plant branches. The Siren knelt on the ground in dejection, its splendid golden hair looking utterly disheveled, a stark contrast to before. It suddenly tried to summon back the life of the withered wood, but could only watch helplessly as its habitat was reduced to ashes in the inextinguishable flames. “No… how can this be… it can’t be…”

Vaguely, it heard a sound from behind. Turning its head, it saw Lin Xi and Yan Xingzhou back on the shore. Its pupils contracted slightly as its gaze roamed between the two of them, and its originally beautiful face gradually twisted into a ferocious expression. “After all this time, you’re still not dead? It was you—! It was all of you! You destroyed this place, it was you!”

No longer a distant voice that lingered by the ear, the sharp, grating sound pierced directly into the eardrums, like a curse born of impotent rage. “Die! All of you, die here!”

The sea of fire floating on the water’s surface flickered for a moment with a sudden gust of wind. The instant the light dimmed, a bone-chilling cold surged from all around.

The entire body of water condensed into whirlpools under the pull of an invisible force. A huge wind-waterfall rose behind the Siren, soaring into the clouds and almost blocking out half the sky.

“Give it to me! Give me all your power! This way, I can create a brand new inner world!”

“…”

Lin Xi tilted his head back slightly to look at the shadow cast by the massive waterfall, falling into a moment of silence. “Are all these Contaminants some kind of megalomaniacs?”

His words were filled with disdain for the opponent’s combat strength, yet he was leisurely wringing out his completely soaked clothes, which were still dripping, showing no intention of making a move to deal with the situation.

Noticing the gaze from his side, he turned to look. After meeting Yan Xingzhou’s stare, he paused for a moment, seemingly dissatisfied with the other’s slowness. “What are you looking at me for? I was so tired just now. Isn’t it time for you to let me rest a bit?”

With no sense of urgency despite the impending battle, Yan Xingzhou leaned down slightly, looking at Lin Xi with a half-smile. “Tired already? Are you sure?”

Since it concerned a certain aspect of his dignity, the words “are you sure” ultimately did not leave Lin Xi’s mouth. However, the CEO’s attitude of taking advantage and then feigning innocence was inevitably infuriating, causing Lin Xi’s lips to twitch without warmth. “If you wish for this ghostly appearance of mine to return to normal before the others arrive—”

Before he could finish, Yan Xingzhou had already lifted his chin and naturally cut off the rest of the sentence with a kiss. “Of course. I am very willing to be of service to you.”

During their conversation, the water curtains from all directions had gradually closed in and completely surrounded them.

With a snap of Lin Xi’s fingers, the raging flames around them were extinguished. At the same time, a flood-like torrent poured down on them.

It was like being in the center of a stormy sea, with faint vibrations traveling up from under their feet.

The layers of film floating on the surface were completely rolled up and torn, and the entire inner world seemed to fall into a faint tremor. The sky above developed layers of cracks that spread and expanded like a spider’s web.

The Siren’s intense killing intent was completely undisguised. Sharp sounds continuously came from its mouth, at times piercing the eardrums, as it recklessly controlled the entire body of water.

The moment the pressure bore down from all sides, countless water blades emerged from the dense waterfall, about to slice everything apart like a giant guillotine.

However, the next second, the scene of flying flesh and blood did not appear. Instead, there was a complete collapse and scattering of water. The splashing water droplets converged and fell as a torrential downpour, making the single safe space within the water curtain particularly conspicuous.

Like a downpour washing over glass, Lin Xi stood beside Yan Xingzhou, looking at the airtight protective barrier around them, and let out a light laugh of unsparing praise. “The protection work this time is quite well done.”

Yan Xingzhou was noncommittal about the teasing in his words.

He never had the habit of falling in the same place twice. Even if it wasn’t the Charm Water, he had no interest in continuing to experience this Siren’s other tricks.

The splashing water blades had already left mottled wounds on the Siren’s body. Just as Calamity had said, this race had always been skilled at manipulating people’s minds. Once it uncontrollably revealed its ferocious nature, it stood no chance in a situation where it was completely overpowered in terms of combat strength.

Lin Xi watched as Yan Xingzhou raised his hand again and reached out to press it down.

Meeting his gaze, he simply smiled radiantly. “I just thought about it again. Why don’t I take care of it?”

Sensing Yan Xingzhou’s questioning gaze, he calmly looked away.

Ahem.

He had accidentally over-replenished a little just now. If he didn’t vent some of it, he probably wouldn’t be able to suppress it before Su Qiuyin arrived.

“Captain Qi! Over here! We’ve found the plane over here!”

“Reporting, Captain—! All personnel inside the aircraft are safe!”

“Director! There seem to be signs of a battle over there, should we go over…”

“The previously captured contamination value fluctuations have been confirmed. Please provide further instructions!”

…

The edge of the rift was gradually being filled by the support teams that were arriving one after another.

With the assistance of the healing-coded ability user team, the sealed cabin door was opened. The passengers, filled with the feeling of having escaped death, were successively evacuated with the medical team to the nearest quarantine area for mutation observation.

Several ability users who were also on the plane stayed behind to explain the situation. Qi Xian stood to the side, watching the staff take notes, and glanced inside a couple more times. However, he did not see the familiar figure he remembered and couldn’t help but ask, “Is it just you guys? Lin Ni, he’s not here?”

The heart that had been hanging in suspense all the way finally settled upon seeing everyone was safe. He finally had time to pay attention to other things.

Hearing his question, the others exchanged somewhat bewildered glances. In the end, it was the female healer who reacted first. “Um… the Lin Ni you’re talking about, is he the one with red hair who’s really good-looking?”

“Yes, that’s him.” Qi Xian thought to himself, so that guy was here after all, and asked with a smile, “So, why don’t I see him?”

After he spoke, a strange silence fell over the area.

This sudden silence gave Qi Xian a slight sense of foreboding. Sure enough, he heard the girl continue, “If it’s him… something happened after we entered the rift, and then he suddenly volunteered to go out and take a look. He, uh, left the plane and never came back. As for now, we don’t know where he went.”

With every word, Qi Xian’s expression turned a little uglier. Finally, his lips pressed into a thin line, and he confirmed again, “How long has he been gone?”

“From our perspective of time, at least an hour.” The girl witnessed the entire change in Qi Xian’s expression and asked somewhat nervously, “Is it… likely that something bad has happened to him?”

“We’ll only know about that kind of thing after confirming it.” Before he finished speaking, Qi Xian arranged for the staff to continue taking notes and then turned and left with brisk steps.

As he walked towards the unified command area, he silently began to pray in his heart.

Lin Ni absolutely cannot have anything happen to him!

Everyone had witnessed how much CEO Yan cared about him before. If something happened because of this accident, he hadn’t even established a firm foothold in N City yet, and it would be a sign of a major upheaval!

Seeing Su Qiuyin from afar, although Qi Xian was dissatisfied with the man’s unhurried attitude during the deployment process, his position was what it was. He still walked straight over. “Director Su, I think we need to…”

“If you’re looking for someone, then there’s no need to hurry.”

Su Qiuyin calmly interrupted Qi Xian’s next words and raised his eyelids slightly. “That Mr. Lin has already returned on his own.”

“How did you know I was looking for…” Qi Xian followed the direction Su Qiuyin indicated, and the rest of his words were cut short by the scene that met his eyes. He hurriedly went up to him. “Lin Ni? How did you get yourself into this state?”

Just from his appearance, Lin Xi indeed looked excessively wretched right now.

Extremely messy clothes, his whole body soaked as if he had just been fished out of the water, even the strands of hair falling by the side of his face were constantly dripping water.

The exhaustion in his expression was self-evident. When he saw Qi Xian, he didn’t forget to smile pleasantly. “Yo, Captain Qi, I didn’t expect to run into you here.”

Qi Xian: “…”

For a moment, he didn’t know whether he should marvel at how big-hearted this brother of his always was. If not for the surrounding environment, that tone of voice really sounded like a chance encounter on the street.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Qi Xian confirmed again.

“Should be fine.” Lin Xi never hesitated to reciprocate such kindness. After speaking, he turned his head and, as if he had just seen Su Qiuyin, showed a surprised expression. “Yo, Director Su, you’re here too.”

“Mmm.” Su Qiuyin replied, his gaze casually sizing up Lin Xi. His face remained expressionless. “Are you the only one who came back?”

Lin Xi looked at him strangely. “Should there be someone else?”

Su Qiuyin did not detect much of an emotional change and found nothing amiss, so he also withdrew his gaze. “If I remember correctly, this is the second time we’ve met in a place like this.”

“It’s fate.” Lin Xi affirmed. “And, we should have even more fate in the future.”

Of course, Su Qiuyin knew that Lin Xi was talking about reporting to him for duty. Gu Beiqiu had already informed him of this in advance. At this moment, he paid no mind to Lin Xi’s sudden attempt to get close and, without showing any pleasure or anger, turned his head to look into the distance. “It seems the Contaminant here has already been dealt with?”

Lin Xi’s answer was also very direct. “I suppose so.”

As his words fell, Qi Xian, who had just been thinking about how to report back to Yan Xingzhou, finally came back to his senses and directly entered another state of self-doubt. “…What do you mean, dealt with?”

According to the intelligence received earlier, wasn’t the one inside this rift a Special A-grade Contaminant?!

Lin Xi listened to Qi Xian’s doubtful words and just smiled gently. His peripheral vision inadvertently glanced over and saw a figure unobtrusively disappearing from the other side, in the direction of the rift’s entrance.

Withdrawing his gaze, he quietly suppressed the curve of his lips.

In a certain sense, when it came to bewitching people’s minds, a dream-coded ability user was no less capable than that Siren.

Effortlessly manipulating the minds of low-level ability users and ordinary people, it was really useful when he needed to hide his tracks.

Judging from the current ending, the stage they had painstakingly set up before was, at least, preserved.

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