“Ah?”
A forced smile appeared on Zhao Xiaokui’s face for two seconds.
She dryly said, “It’s, it’s very beautiful, right?”
“Yeah, very beautiful,” Shen Zhifei smiled and said to her, “The fishtail is very beautiful.”
Zhao Xiaokui sat down abruptly, grabbed Shen Zhifei’s hand, and buried her face in it.
“Damn,” she cursed, and Shen Zhifei felt a slight dampness in the palm of her hand. “Stop talking, I’m about to cry.”
Previously, she could calmly describe to Shen Zhifei the hardships she had experienced because she felt that those were all in the past.
It was like a child who scraped their knees on the school playground. When they got home, they could casually mention to their parents while getting the wounds treated, “Oh, I fell while running.”
But if he fell while his parents were standing right there, he would definitely cry uncontrollably and wouldn’t get up from the ground until they comforted him.
Shen Zhifei gently stroked Zhao Xiaokui’s long hair, letting her gradually calm down.
She thought of some scenes—
Zhao Xiaokui lying in the bathtub, playing with her phone, but her right leg suddenly shakes uncontrollably.
The shaking right leg gradually overlapped with the spasming fishtail in the mermaid world.
Shen Zhifei felt the nerves in her heart pounding, a painful sensation spreading.
She remembered Zhao Xiaokui’s age when she transformed into a mermaid—eighteen.
What were other people doing at the age of eighteen?
Going to college, hanging out with friends, falling in love…
And Zhao Xiaokui—
She was in the boundless deep sea, enduring loneliness and pain.
Zhao Xiaokui’s emotions came and went quickly.
She lifted her head from Shen Zhifei’s palm, her face was dry, except for her slightly red eyes, revealing her emotions.
“Shen Zhifei,” she sniffed, deciding to avoid the topic, and said, “Shen Zhifei, have you felt anything different in your body compared to before?”
“What?” Shen Zhifei asked.
“I felt the fluctuation of superhuman power from you when you were unconscious. I suspect that your superpower has awakened,” Zhao Xiaokui said. “Quickly sense it and see if there’s any difference from before.”
Shen Zhifei was slightly surprised but complied with her request, closing her eyes.
After a moment, she opened her eyes and shook her head slightly to Zhao Xiaokui, who was full of expectation, “There’s no difference.”
“It’s impossible,” Zhao Xiaokui murmured. “I can’t be wrong, and you said you saw the scenery of the mermaid kingdom, which means you entered my memories. How could there be no superhuman awakening?”
She didn’t believe it. With a quick movement, she stood up and said to Shen Zhifei, “Wait, I’m going to cast a few detection spells on you. I don’t believe I saw it wrong.”
Before casting the spells, the faces of the Night Watcher team suddenly flashed into Zhao Xiaokui’s mind.
She thought of the mysterious instruments in the hands of the Night Watcher, alerting, “I’ll set up a shield first.”
Saying this, she arranged a simple barrier.
Numerous detection spells flashed in Zhao Xiaokui’s mind one by one, excluding those she couldn’t cast, those with less than a hundred percent success rate, and those that could cause irreversible damage to the one being tested…
Thinking of Shen Zhifei’s inability to practice the wizard’s meditation and the knight’s breathing technique, she also excluded the methods to detect human superpowers.
After all the exclusions, Zhao Xiaokui found that she could only use three detection spells.
The first spell could be used to detect alignment, where alignment refers to the tendency of power within the body toward order or chaos. Shen Zhifei’s result was neutral.
Just having a result was good, and Zhao Xiaokui breathed a sigh of relief.
Alignment detection is ineffective for true ordinary people. Having a result indicates that there is indeed superhuman power within Shen Zhifei.
After confirming that her eyesight was clear, Zhao Xiaokui closed her eyes and began to meditate on the second spell.
Compared to the alignment detection spell that could be released with a wave of the hand, the second spell is mainly used to determine a superhuman’s affinity for elements.
Zhao Xiaokui closed her eyes tightly, placing her hand on Shen Zhifei’s face. Shen Zhifei watched her actions and inexplicably felt like laughing.
This reminded her of those behind-the-scenes footage in movies without special effects.
However, the girl’s forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat, proving from the side that the execution of this spell was not as easy as she had seen.
No response.
Unwillingly, Zhao Xiaokui opened her eyes and said, “How could there be no response?”
Although Shen Zhifei felt a bit regretful when the girl described that magnificent world to her, unable to accompany her and appreciate those unique sceneries together, she had no particular obsession with becoming superhuman.
Seeing no success, she comforted, “Being an ordinary person is actually…”
The belated superhuman particles, like a snail with a slow reflex arc, finally gathered slowly in Zhao Xiaokui’s palms.
One second before she let go, a droplet, condensed with both light and water elements, hovered beneath her palm.
The droplet was only the size of a grain of rice, and if it weren’t emitting a faint light and the unique ripple of superhuman power, it would almost be mistaken for sweat.
Zhao Xiaokui became excited and said triumphantly, “Haha, I knew there would be.”
The previously frustrated and annoyed person seemed not to be her at all.
“Fantastic, Shen Zhifei!” Zhao Xiaokui bounced a few times in place and excitedly waved her fist, “Now you are just like me, a superhuman!”
She seemed even happier than Shen Zhifei herself.
Seeing Shen Zhifei looking at her with some embarrassment, Zhao Xiaokui, feeling a bit shy, fiddled with her hair and sat gracefully on the edge of the bed. However, her eyes still sparkled like two amber springs.
At this moment, Shen Zhifei noticed a flash of golden light between Zhao Xiaokui’s dark-colored long hair.
Shen Zhifei knew that Zhao Xiaokui didn’t have the habit of wearing accessories, so curiously, she reached out to touch Zhao Xiaokui’s ear.
Her fingertips touched a delicate yet cold scale.
Suddenly, as if shocked, Zhao Xiaokui tilted her head back, covering her ears, blushing, and glaring at Shen Zhifei with a pair of watery eyes, huffily saying, “D-don’t touch randomly!”
Shen Zhifei was stunned for a moment. Then, her face gradually turned red too.
“Sorry, I didn’t know there…”
For her own embarrassing reaction, Zhao Xiaokui bit her lip in frustration. But seeing Shen Zhifei’s expression even shyer than hers, she couldn’t help but play a prank.
She leaned forward, her amber eyes turned into vertical pupils. The ear that revealed the abnormality not only didn’t conceal it but boldly grew scales. The arched ear gradually became sharp, pressed against the skull. Sharp fangs protruded from the corner of her lips. The charm of supernatural beings was vividly displayed by her, and almost in an instant, Shen Zhifei lost her breath due to such beauty.
She saw herself in those vertical pupils.
She reached out again, as if enchanted, and touched the cold scale. The mermaid slightly glanced aside, but didn’t react as intensely as before. Her amber eyes deepened continuously, showing a profound dark gold color. A smile curled up at the corner of her lips, releasing the aura of a predator bit by bit. Shen Zhifei felt her body starting to tremble uncontrollably.
“No, Xiaokui…”
Her last strand of rationality was still struggling.
However, the mermaid paid no attention, kissing the corner of her lips and lingering on her neck. Sharp fangs grazed her skin, as if ready to pierce her veins at any moment.
Shen Zhifei’s breath became rapid, the surface temperature of her body sharply rising, and the exposed skin dyed in a twilight-like crimson.
Her legs entwined, and her hands clung tightly to Zhao Xiaokui’s shoulders like a drowning person. After a moment, she suddenly turned her head and bit into Zhao Xiaokui’s shoulder, emitting a sobbing sound.
At that moment of her bite, Zhao Xiaokui released a spell of light.
If those winged bird people knew she used a light spell in such a situation, they would probably declare war on her in the name of the God of Light.
After a long time, Shen Zhifei finally regained her consciousness.
She let go of Zhao Xiaokui’s shoulder, her eyes, filled with watery light, glaring at the smiling mermaid with determination.
Unfortunately, this gaze, due to the weakness of the owner, seemed powerful but lacked energy. Zhao Xiaokui only saw soft affection from within.
In her heart, Zhao Xiaokui chuckled, but on her face, she earnestly reached out to remove the gauze wrapped around Shen Zhifei’s head. “I just stimulated the superhuman power in your body; the wound should have healed.”
If the doctor who stitched up Shen Zhifei’s wound were here, he would surely be shocked. The ferocious wound from half a day ago had miraculously healed, leaving only a shallow mark.
Shen Zhifei lay on the bed. Having sweated a lot, she did feel much lighter. Even the dizziness caused by the concussion had eased a lot. However, thinking about what she had experienced, her teeth began to itch.
She blushed and turned her head, tightly closing her eyes, not wanting to look at Zhao Xiaokui again.
In the darkness, she felt Zhao Xiaokui get up and affectionately kiss her scar.
The just-healed wound was extremely sensitive, and when touched by her soft lips, Shen Zhifei felt like she had been kissed in her heart.
With just that one kiss, any remaining anger vanished completely.
What she didn’t see was that when Zhao Xiaokui’s lips touched the wound, those dark golden vertical pupils turned as cold as ice.
Though Wang Junwu often said that men and women are equal, he was indeed a Captain of the Nightwalkers who leaned towards favoring men.
Just by looking at the fact that there was no female superhuman in his team, it was evident.
Therefore, he felt very unwilling for Zhao Xiaokui, a non-Nightwalker, to follow them on this mission.
Although he didn’t dare to show his unwillingness openly, his mouth kept going, repeatedly talking about how dangerous it is to chase superhuman fugitives, that a young girl should stay in logistics, and that tough and laborious work is meant for men.
While saying this, he somehow managed to find a lollipop and stuffed it into Zhao Xiaokui’s hand.
Zhao Xiaokui peeled off the candy wrapper and put the slightly melted lollipop in her mouth, speaking to him with the candy in her mouth, “I won’t wander off.”
But she didn’t agree to stay at the command post.
Wang Junwu could only reluctantly bring her along when he received the mission notification.
At the same time, accompanying her were Lin Bai, borrowed temporarily from Zhang Hongyi’s team, and Gou Rixin.
The two didn’t have any other purpose but to protect Zhao Xiaokui.
Gou Rixin somehow produced a piece of candy and handed it to Zhao Xiaokui, comforting her, “Don’t mind him. Captain Wang is just like that. He doesn’t doubt your abilities; he’s just worried about your safety. After all, even though you’ve awakened superhuman abilities, you are still an ordinary person.”
Zhao Xiaokui asked, “Can you tell me about the fugitive you’re chasing?”
Lin Bai asked her to take out the tablet.
He aligned the sides of the two tablets, and this afternoon, the tablet that Hong Ying took from him and gave to Zhao Xiaokui added a PDF document to the desktop.
“…” The down-to-earth mermaid girl was once again marveling at the high-tech of human society.
Zhao Xiaokui followed the Nightwalkers into the car. As the inconspicuous black business car moved through the night, she lowered her head and browsed through the information Lin Bai gave her.
Wang Yan, nineteen years old.
Pyrokinetic superhuman, A-level seed.
Before Shen Zhifei had an accident, she had organized the information obtained from the Nightwalker public account into several documents for her.
So Zhao Xiaokui didn’t dwell on the term A-level seed and continued reading.
Zhao Xiaokui: “He killed thirteen people?”
Lin Bai nodded, “According to our investigation, these thirteen people all had a blood relation to him, including his biological parents and a sister who just turned one year old.”
This was undoubtedly a shocking case of killing one’s own family.
Through the photos from the crime scene, Zhao Xiaokui saw the charred bodies lying in various rooms, burned to a crisp.
Ironically, the arsonist had excellent fire control abilities. Next to these bodies almost carbonized by the fire, the cloth curtains and sheets remained intact.
The little baby girl lying in the crib even seemed to have been wrapped in a swaddle after being burned into charcoal.
As Zhao Xiaokui looked at these photos, Wang Junwu, smoking a cigarette, discreetly observed her expression.
As he looked, a satisfied expression involuntarily appeared on his face.
Although the photos of the arson scene were not as gruesome as typical murder scenes, it was difficult for most people to remain as composed as Zhao Xiaokui when seeing bodies shaped oddly by intense flames for the first time.
Thinking about the fact that he was dealing with a super A-level seed, Wang Junwu felt like his mouth was about to split open, and that was just because he didn’t want the cigarette in his mouth to fall.
He had thought it out quite well. Execute a mission together first, cultivate some teamwork, and maybe when Zhao Xiaokui agrees to join the Nightwalkers, her first consideration would be joining his team…
Lost in these delightful thoughts, Wang Junwu’s waist-mounted walkie-talkie suddenly rang, “Captain Wang, interception failed. The one we caught was a fake, and the fugitive is heading towards Qu Bie Mountain.”
Ignoring those pleasant daydreams, Wang Junwu grabbed the walkie-talkie and urgently asked, “How could there be a fake?”
“After intercepting the fugitive’s car, we found an ordinary person inside. He claimed someone paid him to drive this car over.”
“But our dog detected the scent of the locator. The fugitive didn’t change the route, probably got out of the car after being intercepted and switched to walking, heading into the woods.”
“Damn, he’s pretty cunning…” Wang Junwu cursed under his breath.
Cursing aside, no one found it unexpected.
If the fugitive wasn’t cunning, there wouldn’t be a need to chase him this far.
The driver accelerated the car through the night, and in the dark interior, there was only a faint glow from the tablet.
Zhao Xiaokui lowered her eyes slightly, and her gaze happened to fall on the photo of the infant’s body.
