"Hou Yi! I was, uhhh, I just—"

Shin Tao could not believe his eyes. He had just made up his mind to withdraw his statement against Hou Yi, and now suddenly seeing him standing there he could not come up with a single valid excuse for why he was here.

Miss Xue walked to the corner and unplugged a switch connected at the bottom corner of the room.

"Mr. Yi, the surveillance has all been cut off. Nobody can now see or hear what is happening inside this room."

Miss Xue said with a slight bow, to which Hou Yi nodded.

"What do you mean the surveillance is cut off, Miss Xue!"

Shin Tao had clearly heard every word but did not dare go anywhere near Hou Yi.

"Miss Xue! Take me with you. Miss Xue!"

Shin Tao shouted, but the door closed behind her anyway.

"Hou Yi, look man, I didn't mean to—"

"Use your talent."

Hou Yi said flatly.

"What?"

"Use your talent on me. If you can land a hit then I will ask them to let you go."

Shin Tao stared at him with wide, disbelieving eyes.

Let me go? I don't believe him. But I still have to try. If it only takes one hit, I'm sure I can manage that much.

He gathered his Chi and a faint glow started to rise from the ground before him, plain white, nothing like the gray shimmer of Yu Ming's eyes.

Slowly the white air climbed upward and began to take shape, and after a few seconds another figure was standing in front of him that looked exactly like Shin Tao. Same clothes, down to every detail. But the expression was completely dead. No life behind the eyes, just staring straight ahead at nothing.

A mirage? It takes a moment to conjure but it could be useful.

Hou Yi walked closer and took a close look at it.

If it can't do anything besides stand there then it would still be useless in a real fight.

Now I understand what Lunox said about most talents being worthless without modifiers. If Shin Tao had reached Modifier rank then maybe this clone of his might be able to attack, or at least move around.

He was still closely examining it when a fist suddenly shot out from the clone's abdomen, driving straight for Hou Yi's stomach.

Hou Yi was still on full alert. In one clean motion he caught the fist with the handle of his cane, grabbed it by the sleeve, and yanked it forward. The arm stretched longer and longer until Shin Tao's body came stumbling out of the mirage entirely.

Hou Yi had already positioned his right knee by the time Shin Tao was pulled downward, and with a crack Shin Tao's face drove straight into it.

"Aaaahhhh!"

Shin Tao was still not out cold.

He wailed in agony, clutching his broken nose and rolling to the side.

One hit and his fighting spirit had already completely broken. His confidence was gone.

"Using your clone to cut off my line of sight and launch a sneak attack from behind. That was a decent strategy, considering I had no idea the clone was intangible and you knew how to use that to your advantage."

Hou Yi said as he passed his hand clean through the mirage. Then with his right hand he raised his cane and plunged the tip of the handle into it.

The mark on his palm lit up. The mirage of Shin Tao began to break apart into white light and was drawn into the cane.

The whole process took only a few seconds.

Shin Tao watched it all with wide, terrified eyes. In his five years inside the other space he had never once seen a skill that could simply absorb another person's ability like that.

It is glowing again.

Hou Yi thought, looking down at his palm.

And somehow I can sense the skill that is now stored inside the cane.

"You're not human!"

Shin Tao screamed from the floor in a terrified panic.

"You planned all of this. You knew I would have reported you if they made an announcement, so you had them make one."

Hou Yi did not spare him a glance. He reached into his hoodie pocket and pulled out the gun he had taken from Zhou Zhixia earlier.

His mind is completely unraveling. Too bad I had him attack first before questioning, but at least I got a sample of his skill. That was the main objective anyway.

Without pausing, Hou Yi raised the gun toward Shin Tao, who was still on the ground with his back against the wall, blood running steadily between his fingers.

"Wait wait wait, Hou Yi! Please, is this because of what I used to do to you? Do you still hate me for it? I regret everything I did, I mean it, please don't kill me."

Shin Tao pleaded, to suddenly have a gun pointed towards him, all of a sudden, his broken nose didn’t hurt as much.

"Hate is too strong a word. Disappointment would fit better, but I don't even feel that towards you."

Hou Yi said coldly.

He meant every word. Twenty-five years stuck in a timeless space with no other human being around had worn down every unsettled feeling he had ever carried. The desire for revenge had gone in the first decade. If he had come back anywhere other than that alley, he would never have gone out of his way for Chen.

"I have someone important to me that I have to get back to. And you are one of the stepping stones I need to get there."

Hou Yi said, and pulled the trigger, blasting Shin Tao's head open and sending blood spattering across the wall.

Hou Yi stood there staring at it, the faint smell of gunpowder mixing with the thick, wet stench of blood filling his nose.

gag

He held it as long as he could but his body gave out on him. He rushed to the bathroom and vomited into the toilet. Unlike Chen, Shin Tao's death was far more gruesome, too much for his body to just take in stride.

At least my hands aren't shaking as much as they did before.

This is fine, it is what needed to be done, he was the one who made my life so miserable during all that time.

Hou Yi clenched his fist as he resolved himself.

He sat still on the floor, breathing, and only got back up once he had recovered.

When he came back out, a white ball was levitating above Shin Tao's corpse, clear and see-through, drifting just above the body.

Hou Yi reached out and picked it up, holding it in his palm.

The surface is a little rough and it is also warm. Lunox never mentioned anything like this.

With that thought he slipped it into his pocket and walked out of the room.

Back at the reception area, Feng Xinghi and Zhou Zhixia were waiting alongside several guards.

Hou Yi could feel the hostility in their gazes the moment he stepped through. He understood where it came from. By any measure the comparison was not flattering. They were bigger and taller, armed and carrying real combat experience built up before the transmigration. Hou Yi was a lean teenager with nothing to show for it, five foot eight at most, walking around with a cane and somehow treating the entire place like it was beneath him.

This is the Rank 4 Chi user we have? I don't see anything special about him. He even needs a cane to walk. What on earth is Chairman Feng thinking?

If General Zhou wasn't standing here I would have taught him a quick lesson about keeping his head so high. Just because some angel announced his name he thinks he is all that.

The guards were full of it but Hou Yi paid them no mind. He already knew there would always be people like this wherever he went. Stopping to prove himself every time was not a game worth playing.

"Mr. Yi, are you done already?"

Feng Xinghi asked.

"Yes."

Hou Yi answered flatly and pulled a gun from his pocket casually, alerting everyone.

"Stop! What are you doing!"

The guards shouted and immediately raised their weapons at him.

"Mr. Zhou, I borrowed your gun."

Hou Yi said, and slowly set it down on the floor.

"Shin Tao and I got into a heated argument and he suddenly attacked me, so I had no choice but to defend myself."

Zhou Zhixia checked his holster. Empty. He had no idea when it had been taken. He picked the gun up off the floor with a glare that could have cut through steel and holstered it without a word.

This man does not take me seriously at all.

Zhou Zhixia thought, enraged.

His name sat first on the pillar of glory, the closest of anyone to advancing to Rank 2, which was how he had made General at such a young age. Before the transmigration he had not even reached Captain yet.

He had tolerated Hou Yi's attitude up until now because of the Rank 4 title, but stealing his weapon right from under him and using it to kill someone in the same building, Zhou Zhixia had never felt more disrespected in his life. Hou Yi was making it clear he did not see him as a fellow Chi user at all, just an obstacle.

"That's it. Hands behind your head. On the ground now!"

Zhou Zhixia ordered while the guards were still trained on Hou Yi.

"Enough, General Zhou."

Feng Xinghi cut in.

Zhou Zhixia turned to him, caught off guard by it.

"Sir! This man is a murderer and a thief."

"You heard him say it yourself. He was only borrowing the gun to defend himself."

Feng Xinghi was not interested in the details. He was looking at the bigger picture. One Spark class dead, one confirmed Rank 4 now indebted to them. He could already hear how the announcement would read.

"Mr. Yi, I was hoping you would rest tonight and we could discuss business in the morning. We have a room prepared for you. Miss Xue will take you there."

Feng Xinghi said, to which Hou Yi nodded.

Going home right now would be more trouble than it's worth. I haven't eaten anything, I have no money, and they offered first. Lucky.

Hou Yi thought.

"Hold it."

Zhou Zhixia called out once more right as Hou Yi passed him.

"The refined core. Shin Tao was still a Chi user so he should have left behind a dead drop. Where is it."

Hou Yi reached into his pocket and held up a crystal ball roughly the size of a tennis ball.

"You mean this."

Hou Yi said, holding it up between two fingers.

So that's what it was. Good thing I picked it up.

"Yes, that. Now hand it over."

Zhou Zhixia said, reaching for it. Hou Yi pulled his arm back at the last moment.

"Not so fast. Like you said, Shin Tao was a close friend of mine. Even if we fought every now and then, I believe he would still have wanted me to have it."

"What!"

Zhou Zhixia stared at him in disbelief.

"It's only logical."

Hou Yi replied. A true display of shamelessness.