Jiang Yan and Hei Jin each took one; the moment Jiang Yan held it,
a vision flashed through his mind—within it, a moon and two star-lights appeared.
When Jiang Yan lightly sensed the moon, Ba Yao's face surfaced in his thoughts.
Right then, he perceived a black sausage-dog popping into his head, though the image vanished as quickly as it came.
Yet in the lower-left corner of the vision a blinking dot pulsed, and Hei Jin's face flickered in sync; with a thought he could connect or refuse.
"Master, I touched your light-dot, but it looks like I need your okay before we can talk. This thing's amazing—the picture appears right inside your brain, like getting a phone implanted in your head." Hei Jin hopped around Jiang Yan.
The star seal in its hand turned into a stream of light that merged into its paw; only when contacting someone did a five-pointed star mark show there.
After studying it a while, Jiang Yan let the star seal in his own hand flow into his palm as well.
'It's basically a phone, except it only does calls,' Jiang Yan mused, eyes gleaming.
Still, the function was priceless; under certain abilities electronics were useless, yet he could still reach his subordinates through the star seal.
Jiang Yan led them back beneath the karst cave.
He picked a spacious spot and sank his consciousness into his mind.
pearl of the abyss: 7.74 million / 7.74 million
"Negative emotions at maximum. Summon?"
'Summon!' Jiang Yan willed it.
Hum! An invisible ripple swept the area as a mass of purple-black cloud appeared from nowhere.
The cloud stopped expanding at about two metres across, rumbling inside.
A dozen minutes later the cloud dispersed, leaving a white-boned skeleton in front of Jiang Yan.
Green flames burned in the skeleton's eye sockets, looking like some small-fry from a movie or anime.
Jiang Yan frowned and checked the skeleton's data.
Undead Skeleton: a being from a special world, surviving by devouring the death aura given off by corpses!
Devour: accelerates the absorption of death aura!
Bone Swap: spends death aura to replace any bone in its body!
Soul Fire: the flame in the Undead Skeleton's eyes is its true form—while the fire burns, the skeleton cannot die!
The Undead Skeleton knelt to Jiang Yan on one knee; though it could not speak, he could sense its reverence in his mind.
'Thought it was trash, but it's actually somewhat useful.' Jiang Yan gave a slight nod.
Bone Swap was a handy ability; his lab held piles of Monster and human corpses.
With a bit of creativity he could assemble the skeleton into a mighty bone warrior… Two days later, in Vitka—a poor, backward nation of barely ten million souls.
Whirr! Along the country's border more than a dozen black helicopters streaked across the frontier.
No identifying marks of any faction were painted on the choppers.
In the central craft Fang Wenyu sat calm, eyes bloodshot as he watched the target draw closer on the screen.
Even though he was about to wipe out a Monster Association stronghold, his heart stayed flat.
His mind was full of yesterday's dream of his master.
"Xiao Yuyu, you look off. Are you overtired? Take a rest." Beside him, Qin Wan studied Fang Wenyu's face.
Haggard, eyes red—she assumed the stress over the Director's seat had done it.
"I'm fine. Half an hour to go; once we secure the site we'll pull ahead of Jiang Ao." Fang Wenyu shook his head.
Qin Wan could only return her gaze to the screen.
Fang Wenyu closed his eyes for a short nap.
"Wenyu, you're exhausted."
When he opened his eyes again he was in a small room.
His master, face full of heartache, looked at him though bandages wrapped his own body.
"Master…" Tears rolled down Fang Wenyu's cheeks once more.
Under the pillar of despair's effect, every time he came here his memories of reality were deliberately dulled.
"As long as you eliminate Jiang Ao you won't have to suffer; he's the greatest obstacle on your path of justice, the ultimate villain!" the master raged.
"Master—" Before Fang Wenyu could speak, a loud shout cut through the space.
"Xiao Yuyu!!!"
"Hah!" Fang Wenyu jerked awake; before him stretched pure white, and a faint fragrance drifted into his nose.
Qin Wan lay half on top of him, cupping his head, shouting his name.
Seeing his eyes open she asked in puzzlement, "What happened? You didn't respond no matter how I called."
"I'm alright—probably just too tired." Fang Wenyu sensed something wrong, yet the feeling was blocked by an unseen force.
He couldn't grasp it at all.
"After this raid, go home and rest." Qin Wan sat back.
Fang Wenyu glanced at the screen: five kilometres to target.
He lifted the radio. "All squads, we're almost on site—stay sharp."
"Copy that!"
"Got it, Boss Fang!"
Understood, Boss Fang—we'll make sure you make Deputy Director!"
Replies crackled through the radio in relaxed tones; every Awakened aboard belonged to Team Six.
The intel had been scraped from a Monster captured by chance in Lingzhou Prefecture.
Once they learned the place recruited, created and issued missions for Monsters,
Fang Wenyu decided to wipe it out; no powerful Monsters were reported there.
Ahead, yellow houses dotted the horizon; the deeper the choppers flew, the newer the buildings became.
Below, Black faces looked up in curiosity as the helicopters roared past.
They rarely saw aircraft here, let alone more than a dozen in one day.
On the lead chopper, Deputy Team Leader Mo Yu—fat and bulky—sneered at the ten-storey building ahead.
"Trash—watch how your Grandpa Mo deals with you."
The helicopters held a steady hundred metres above ground.
When the squad appeared, several three-metre Monsters stepped to the windows of the tenth floor.
Before they could react, a fat man leapt from a chopper.
His body ballooned as he fell; by the time he hovered above the roof he stood twenty metres tall, his arms even larger.
"Meat Fist Strike!" Mo Yu roared, slamming two fists each a dozen metres long and four or five metres wide straight through the roof.
Boom! The roof exploded, tonnes of rubble flying as dust surged skyward.
The whole tower shook; floors ten through five were pulverised beneath the twin gargantuan fists.