# 1375
Chapter 1376: Memory Reading
"Black Pupil, can you find it?"
Lin Qiye stood in front of the public telephone, a crimson-eyed Black Pupil quietly opening from his palm, its gaze locked onto the telephone surface as a faint glow flickered.
Within its vision, everything around rapidly rewound—the sequence of buttons pressed on the telephone replayed itself. After rewinding through roughly two strings of numbers, the number once dialed by Yiyu appeared in Black Pupil's eyes.
After the receiver was hung up, a trail of footprints extended from beside the telephone, heading toward the other side of the road.
"I can." Black Pupil's voice rang in Lin Qiye's ear. "I've found his trail."
Guided by Black Pupil, Lin Qiye transformed into a streak of night, darting rapidly between the roads. With so little time before the Catastrophe struck, he had to give his all.
Fortunately, the sky was gradually darkening, the dusky sunlight casting across the road, stretching the shadows of buildings and pedestrians. Even as this wisp of darkness raced through the city, few people noticed anything amiss.
Soon, Lin Qiye, guided by Black Pupil, caught up with the figure who had made the phone call.
That figure blended into the stream of people, carrying a black briefcase, rapidly approaching the direction of the Huangpu River.
"He's walking with ordinary citizens. It'll be tricky to make a move..." Black Pupil's voice carried a grim tone.
In this bustling, busy street, that figure was surrounded by ordinary people coming and going. If he struck here, any slight misstep could startle the prey and harm innocent bystanders.
Lin Qiye's eyes narrowed slightly as he calmly spoke: "That's not a problem."
Trailing behind the crowd, Lin Qiye pressed his foot against the ground. A flash of darkness swept through the crowd before him—except for the figure carrying the briefcase in the center, the eyes of all ordinary people nearby were shrouded in darkness.
They only felt their vision go dark, as if an invisible hand had covered their eyes.
Almost simultaneously, a crisp sound of a blade being drawn rang out!
Clang—!
【White Slash】 unsheathed, Lin Qiye gripped the blade's hilt, his form phantom-like as he passed through the crowd. A blade's gleam无视 space itself, instantly flashing to the back of that figure's neck!
That figure felt every hair on his body stand on end, an unprecedented life-and-death crisis shrouding his heart.
His reaction speed was not slow—he immediately mobilized all his spiritual power, wanting to activate his God's Ruins. But the instant the God's Ruins was activated, another invisible domain descended upon him, forcibly pressing the God's Ruins back down!
With Lin Qiye's God's Ruins countermeasure in effect, this brief hesitation was the other party's death sentence.
A blade's gleam swept across his neck, and the head with its terrified wide eyes was flung high into the air. Before the gushing blood could spray out, the corpse was dragged into the void by 【White Slash】 and vanished from the scene.
The pedestrians around only felt their vision blur momentarily. The darkness shrouding their eyes vanished, and their vision was restored.
From the night shrouding their eyes, to the blade drawn, the God's Ruins countered, the kill, the body dragged away... This entire process seemed complex, but in reality took less than two seconds. To the surrounding ordinary people, it was simply a moment of darkness before everything returned to normal.
They had no idea that a figure among them had already vanished into thin air.
In an empty alley two streets away, Lin Qiye stepped out of the void with the Church of the Ancient Gods member's corpse. Gory blood splattered across the ground.
Lin Qiye expressionlessly sheathed 【White Slash】, picked up the briefcase, and searched inside. He found glass tubes identical to the ones in Yiyu's possession, shallow red liquid sloshing within, emanating an eerie glow.
"Director, your strength is getting stronger and stronger." Black Pupil's voice of praise echoed in Lin Qiye's ear.
When Black Pupil first encountered Lin Qiye, he was still just a rookie Night Watcher at the "Sea" realm. How long had it been since then? Now he could silently take the head of someone at the "Measureless" realm from within a crowd.
"Save the flattery. Continue finding the next person's location." Lin Qiye put away the glass tubes and spoke calmly.
"At your service..."
Guided by Black Pupil, Lin Qiye transformed into a specter, silently reaping the lives of Church of the Ancient Gods members within this bustling, lively city.
In just over ten minutes, Lin Qiye had consecutively killed three Church of the Ancient Gods members, not a single one able to see clearly what he even looked like.
Of course, this was related to the fact that most enemies Lin Qiye encountered were at the "Sea" and "Measureless" realms. During this period, the Church of the Ancient Gods had just emerged, its members' cultivation realms were generally low, their strength varied greatly. Among the three people Lin Qiye killed, Yiyu had already been the strongest.
Lin Qiye finished off a Church of the Ancient Gods member and was about to continue searching for the next one when the radio at his waist suddenly crackled:
"Qiye, how's it going on your end?"
"Already killed three. On my way to pursue the fourth." Lin Qiye replied.
"...We're running out of time. Many Church of the Ancient Gods members have already reached the banks of the Huangpu River. Fat Pang just finished off one—if it weren't for his disarmament ability, the river water might already be contaminated."
A grave expression appeared on Lin Qiye's face. He thought for a moment, then spoke:
"In that case, I'll head straight to the riverbank to stand guard. No matter how these Church of the Ancient Gods rats try to scatter, in the end they'll have to gather there anyway."
"That's what I was thinking too." An Qingyu paused, then continued, "Oh, and Fat Pang said there's something at the bottom of the Huangpu River."
"Something? What is it?"
"I don't know, but he said he can be certain it's related to this Catastrophe."
Lin Qiye's eyebrows rose. "Understood... Fat Pang's intuition isn't usually very reliable, but to be safe, I'll take a look down there later."
"Okay, you head to the riverbank first. Jiang Er and I will be right there."
......
007 Squad Station.
An Qingyu turned off the radio and slowly rose from the chair at his desk. He looked at the five bound members of the 007 Squad before him, his expression somewhat complicated.
"I told you, I'm really not a bad person..."
"Mm mm mm..."
An Qingyu silently tore off the tape stuck to one of their mouths.
To prevent them from shouting and disturbing his communication with Lin Qiye, he had no choice but to implement some simple silencing measures... Though these measures made him look even less like a good person.
"Go to hell, Church of the Ancient Gods! Even if we die today, you'll never extract any information from us!" The burly man shouted defiantly.
Seeing this, An Qingyu let out a helpless sigh.
"Then don't blame me for this... It might hurt a bit. Try to bear with it."
A strange purple glow flickered in An Qingyu's eyes. He abruptly thrust out his palm, pressing it against the burly man's head. The next moment, the man's ferocious expression gradually went blank.
He was directly using his ability to read the other party's memories.
After an unknown period, An Qingyu's eyes snapped open, the purple light receding like a tide...
"This is bad..." he murmured to himself.