Chapter 315

Although the crisis in the Afei Nation was resolved the moment the guardian deity lost its energy, completely settling the incident took a very long time.

For one thing, dealing with the Nightmare Beasts that had suddenly appeared was not a task that could be finished overnight. Not to mention the post-disaster reconstruction work, which was even more time-consuming and laborious.

It was rare for the author not to update the manga chapter immediately after the event concluded. Su Bei estimated that the subsequent reconstruction was also part of the plot, and the manga probably wouldn’t update until Jiang Tianming and the others returned to their country.

During this time, Su Bei continuously received news about the Afei Nation from his class group chat, the official website, and the ‘Destiny’ organization’s database.

From the class group chat, he naturally learned what Jiang Tianming and his group were up to. An Ability user’s primary job was still to eliminate Nightmare Beasts; ordinary people could handle the rest.

Therefore, for the first two days, Jiang Tianming and the others were busy cleaning up the Nightmare Beasts that had suddenly appeared in the Afei Nation, while also cooperating with the Ability users sent from the academy as reinforcements to investigate where these Nightmare Beasts came from.

Normally, it’s difficult for Nightmare Beasts to hide in the human world on a large scale. No matter which country an Interdimensional Gate appears in, it is usually heavily guarded. Even Nightmare Beasts with invisibility functions would find it hard to escape.

So far, the only known way for wild Nightmare Beasts to enter the human world was through an Interdimensional Gate. Thus, they suspected that there was an undiscovered gate, which was causing the continuous flood of Nightmare Beasts.

Su Bei suspected the same. The Black Flash Organization definitely had several Interdimensional Gates under its control. If they decided to cooperate with the Nightmare Beasts and let them out through these gates, it would be a truly terrifying situation.

It was worth mentioning that Meng Huai was among the reinforcements sent over, which made Su Bei almost certain that there was still more plot to unfold in the Afei Nation. If there were no more plot developments there, it would have been unnecessary to send Teacher Meng. As the teacher of the main characters’ group, his presence carried that much weight.

Just as he expected, after two days of eliminating Nightmare Beasts, a small problem arose for the main group. Jiang Tianming sent a message in the group chat saying that it seemed like someone was targeting them. Recently, whenever they went out alone to clear Nightmare Beasts, they would frequently encounter Advanced Nightmare Beasts.

Although quite a few Nightmare Beasts had appeared in the Afei Nation this time, Advanced Nightmare Beasts were always a minority, no matter the situation. To encounter so many in one go could only mean that someone was targeting them.

But the question was, why target them? Ai Baozhu was very puzzled by this. Although she had always held a high opinion of herself, she wasn’t so narcissistic as to believe that the Nightmare Beasts would skip over a host of powerful Ability users just to specifically target a few minors.

Even though minors were indeed the flowers of the motherland, and they were the more vibrant and beautiful among those flowers, compared to the already mature fruits, the practical use of a flower bud was still too small.

Such targeting inevitably left one with the baffling feeling of using an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken—though, it must be said, this ox-cleaver hadn’t actually succeeded in killing the chicken.

Clearly, they were too close to the situation to see clearly. As a bystander, Su Bei saw it perfectly: the Nightmare Beasts were obviously targeting Wu Mingbai!

They had appeared en masse in the Afei Nation this time, certainly for Godean Zhuo. Whether it was to completely turn Godean Zhuo into a Nightmare Beast or to obtain its earth-elemental energy, which the Nightmare Beast World desperately needed, it would have been a win for the Nightmare Beasts.

But the final result was that they had done all the work for someone else’s benefit. Wu Mingbai, by virtue of his bloodline, reaped all the rewards. They got nothing and suffered heavy losses. These Nightmare Beasts that came from the Nightmare Beast World could never go back; the Black Flash Organization wouldn’t expose the interdimensional spaces they possessed just to take them in.

More importantly, even if they had gained no energy, simply eliminating the guardian deity would have benefited the Nightmare Beasts. After all, it sided with humans and was incredibly powerful. As long as it was dead, it would be a zero-sum game between humans and Nightmare Beasts. Therefore, even with some sacrifices, it would have been worth it.

But with Wu Mingbai absorbing all of the guardian deity’s energy, things became different. Even if it would take him a very long time to fully absorb and utilize that energy, it was still a massive loss for the Nightmare Beasts.

It would be bizarre if they didn’t target Wu Mingbai, the vested beneficiary who had gained so much.

However, Su Bei also knew why they hadn’t thought of this. It wasn’t because they couldn’t, but because they didn’t know that the Nightmare Beasts also knew about it. At the time, only the S-Class students and the king’s guards were present. It was absolutely impossible for a Nightmare Beast to have entered the castle.

Logically, the Nightmare Beasts shouldn’t have known about this. Not just the Nightmare Beasts—as long as they didn’t leak the secret, no one should have known.

But unfortunately, this was a manga world. If no one knew that Wu Mingbai had absorbed the earth element, wouldn’t that mean a lot less trouble? The author would not give up on such a plot point. So, Su Bei knew from the beginning that this matter couldn’t be kept secret; the only question was whether it would be exposed to the Black Flash Organization first, or to the Nightmare Beasts first.

Wu Mingbai hadn’t fully absorbed the earth-elemental energy yet. He was currently just storing it in his body; fully absorbing it would be a long process.

That was why he had been desperately eliminating Nightmare Beasts during this time, using his ability and releasing Mental Energy non-stop to speed up the absorption. The frequency of his chats showed that Wu Mingbai was more than just a little bit busier than everyone else; he had barely spoken in the last few days.

From the official website, one could naturally see all sorts of disaster relief information. Since ancient times, no country has possessed the quality of doing good deeds without seeking recognition. The countries that sent aid were all publicizing it heavily on their respective official websites. As the recipient of the aid, the Afei Nation was also very accommodating, helping with the promotion.

Beyond that, there was another point: the Afei Nation’s guardian deity was officially a part of history. The Afei Nation’s official website announced that it had died, but it did not publicize Wu Mingbai’s involvement.

As a prince, even if Wu Mingbai didn’t plan to stay in the Afei Nation, the king wouldn’t reveal this matter and put him in danger.

Speaking of which, he had no idea how Wu Mingbai had convinced the king to let him leave. He originally thought he would be able to see this plotline in the manga once he returned, but the manga hadn’t even been updated.

Finally, there was the information from the ‘Destiny’ organization, which was mainly about the Black Flash Organization. For others, the fact that the Black Flash Organization was active in the Afei Nation was a secret. But for ‘Destiny’, even though the Black Flash Organization had strictly forbidden any leaks, a lot of information still got out after the incident.

For instance, members of the Black Flash Organization had been seen near the castle, an ability item researched by a leader had been activated, the Black Flash Organization seemed to have dispatched two teams for the Afei Nation operation, and some people in the organization had lost contact…

All sorts of intelligence, without exception, revealed that the turmoil in the Afei Nation was deeply connected to the Black Flash Organization. It was just that, for the time being, it was impossible to discern exactly what they had done.

However, based on what happened in the Afei Nation, there were only two possibilities for their actions. One was that they wanted to research the guardian deity and did something to it. The other was that they wanted to destroy the guardian deity and cooperated with the Nightmare Beasts.

If it was the former, there was nothing much to say. The Black Flash Organization had always liked to do bad things under the guise of research; disregarding public safety to study the guardian deity was very much in character.

But inevitably, some clever people realized that the degree of overlap between the plans of the Black Flash Organization and the Nightmare Beasts had been too high recently.

In the past, the Black Flash Organization had always targeted Ability users. News of them targeting Nightmare Beasts rarely appeared before the public. Except for a few major battles where they would publicly help humans eliminate Nightmare Beasts, it was rare to hear of them being connected to Nightmare Beasts at other times.

But recently, there had been a succession of incidents where members of the Black Flash Organization and Nightmare Beasts appeared in the same place. Although there was a reasonable explanation for each instance, it still felt wrong.

Su Bei had already seen someone in the notebook offering points for an answer to the question of whether the Black Flash Organization was cooperating with the Nightmare Beasts.

Honestly, he really wanted to just give a definitive ‘yes’. The ‘Destiny’ organization’s security was good enough that even if the leader saw the answer, it would be impossible to trace who had answered it.

But clearly, that wouldn’t work. Firstly, such an answer required evidence. Otherwise, based on a single word ‘yes’, even the ‘Destiny’ organization couldn’t determine if the information was correct, and the person who asked the question would have no way of confirming it either.

Furthermore, exposing the Black Flash Organization’s conspiracy prematurely might disrupt the author’s plans. It would be bad if that led to further complications.

Because the author had absolute interpretative power over the manga, Su Bei was more inclined to alter some plot points as they happened, like saving the king this time. Although the king’s survival would inevitably cause the author to lose some pre-designed plotlines, the plot segment where he saved the king could make up for the missing content, so it wasn’t a major issue.

As for laying foreshadowing before an event occurred, Su Bei wanted to, but he was a manga character. Laying foreshadowing in the manga to disrupt the plot—was he treating the author as a mere decoration? The earlier he stirred things up, the more time he would give the author to react. He might end up digging a hole for himself instead of successfully laying the foreshadowing.

He estimated that it would be a long time before his next required appearance in the plot. If he was lucky, he wouldn’t have anything else to do for the entire summer vacation. Su Bei’s mood was very relaxed now. However, summer vacation wasn’t really for relaxing. To borrow a phrase every teacher has said, this was a good opportunity to overtake on the curve.

He didn’t plan to participate in the plot to find ways to improve, so he could only enhance his knowledge reserves. Compared to struggling outside, lying in bed memorizing knowledge points was more comfortable.

After Su Bei had spent a comfortable week back in the country, he woke up one day to find that not a single person had sent a message in the group chat. These chatterboxes were usually very active in the group. And because they were on a mission, they often slept late and woke up early. Every day when he woke up, the group messages would be at 99+.

Having no messages today was a very strange thing.

He raised an eyebrow, knowing that some plot must have unfolded over there. Sure enough, that evening, Su Bei heard the ‘Manga Consciousness’ notification: “‘King of Abilities’ has been updated. Please check.”

He opened his phone to read the manga. The last plot point had progressed to their late-night snack session after the family reunion banquet. The late-night snack had revealed some information, setting the stage for the upcoming plot.

During breakfast, Lan Subing was quietly complaining about the piece of intelligence Ling You had mentioned yesterday. Ling You listened silently, nodding occasionally, clearly agreeing that the matter was absurd.

Next came a joyous celebration. Although there weren’t any interesting programs at the celebration, for a shonen manga, peaceful daily life was inherently pleasant.

The brief daily life ended quickly. Su Bei’s disappearance, the earthquake, the rescue operation… everything happened so suddenly, not giving people any time to react before they were pushed stumbling forward.

By now, readers were completely unsurprised by his sudden disappearances. Su Bei even saw a bullet comment that said, “Su Bei actually gave a heads-up before running off, that’s so touching.” It was hard to imagine what kind of image he had in everyone’s minds now, but it was likely an image that perfectly suited his needs.

Su Bei nodded in satisfaction and continued reading.

The preceding plot had nothing to do with him, and since Li Shu had been live-streaming the entire time, Su Bei knew most of the content. He didn’t bother to read the things he already knew in detail, picking through to find information he didn’t have.

First was Mo Xiaotian’s movements. In the manga, he became one with the air, moving cautiously but clumsily into the castle. He accidentally bumped into a vase, then nearly stumbled and fell down the steps, as if performing a silent comedy.

However, Su Bei couldn’t bring himself to laugh.

He became invisible just like that? He only knew that Mo Xiaotian hadn’t appeared for a while and had definitely improved a lot, but he hadn’t expected the improvement to be this significant. Invisibility was already a god-tier skill, especially his type of melding with the air, which was even harder to detect.

Su Bei even saw in the manga that he directly made half of his body turn into air, thus avoiding contact with two maids coming down the stairs.

His defensive ability was maxed out. Although it was obvious this ability couldn’t be used continuously, using it for a moment during an extreme attack could play a major role.

The readers were also shocked.

“Xiaotian, did you secretly go and super-evolve?”

“What a strong skill! I knew the [Air] ability had to be strong!”

“Everyone is improving.”

“I really want this skill. It’s a must-have in a certain city, friends.”

“Invisibility achievement unlocked.”

“What’s he doing in the castle? I smell the scent of a conspiracy.”

Besides this part of the plot, there was another scene that happened before he appeared, content he was unaware of. Li Shu received a phone call, and the moment he saw the caller ID, his expression instantly darkened.

Although Li Shu had always had the image of a pink-haired yandere, he had actually been quite normal after the initial period of interacting with Jiang Tianming.

But just from looking at this single frame, Su Bei had no doubt that Li Shu could instantly turn dark and become a great yandere boss who dreamed of destroying the world.

Whose phone call made this guy react so strongly? He couldn’t help but become curious.

The author didn’t keep them in suspense; the next page revealed the answer. The phone screen displayed “Father.”

Ah, a negative family member. Su Bei, who was well-versed in manga tropes, immediately showed a look of understanding.

Many manga characters would have such a relative. They might be malicious, overbearing, skilled at PUA, or have an overwhelming desire for control… In short, their existence caused the character’s psychological problems.

The trope was old but timeless. This must be the case for Li Shu.

Speaking of which, many of the main characters in ‘King of Abilities’ had plotlines related to their families, yet they were all miraculously different.

Jiang Tianming’s parents were both dead, but his first two abilities were clearly closely related to them.

Wu Mingbai, whose plot had just concluded, finally found his parents and turned out to be a foreign prince.

Mu Tieren’s plot was also related to his family: his controlling uncle, and his current father who, although he helped him, was mainly interested in research.

Zhou Renjie’s family also had a negative effect on him, but the bigger problem on his side was the entire family clan. A family full of intrigue and backstabbing naturally couldn’t produce any good people.

Feng Lan’s case, on the other hand, was a tragedy caused by his uncle collaborating with the Black Flash Organization. Speaking of which, it seemed even more tragic than Zhou Renjie’s situation, since Zhou Renjie actively became an undercover agent, while he was a passive victim.

Wu Jin’s father is the principal of Endless Ability Academy. This fact alone was enough to serve as a plotline.

Mo Xiaotian was even more incredible; his grandfather is the leader of the Black Flash Organization. He and Wu Jin were known as the two with the biggest connections in ‘King of Abilities.’

As for the remaining people, their families should be unrelated to the plot. Zhao Xiaoyu’s relatives were all thoroughly ordinary people. Lan Subing’s and Qi Huang’s parents were loving. Ling You and her mother relied on each other. Ai Baozhu and Si Zhaohua came from prosperous families. There were no catalysts for generating plot.

He had never heard Li Shu mention his parents before. His family had only come once during the academy’s open house day. Thinking back now, Li Shu seemed to have had very little presence that entire day.

This father likely had a different style from the previous relatives. He just didn’t know what specific plot would unfold.

Honestly, Su Bei didn’t particularly like this kind of plot, especially since he knew this was a manga world, which made him averse to such innate, pre-determined settings.

He was fine. As a pure cannon fodder character, the author probably wouldn’t give him a detailed family background, at most choosing someone whose parents were both dead to be this cannon fodder.

The death of his parents was a prerequisite for him becoming cannon fodder, a cause, not an effect. This meant his experiences were all naturally generated, unrelated to the author. His parents’ deaths were not manipulated by the plot.

But the main characters were different. Their family backgrounds, especially those involving the plot, were definitely designed by the author. Their experiences could still be said to be choices based on their own personality and values, things they identified with. But family background was purely the author’s setting. The thought of this was inevitably disempowering.

If he had been designed with such a background, or if his parents had died just so the author could create more hardships for him, Su Bei would seriously consider finding a way to cross over to the third dimension and kill the author.

Pulling back his wild thoughts, he continued reading the manga. Li Shu stood with a grim face for a long time before finally answering the phone. The man on the other end spoke lightly: “It’s time to come back, Li Shu.”

Li Shu’s pink pupils trembled slightly. He finally replied in a low, respectful voice, “Yes, Father. I understand.”

Seeing this, Su Bei roughly understood what kind of character this father was: he had absolute suppressive power over Li Shu, was domineering and unyielding, and was perhaps a sanctimonious smiling tiger.

What kind of plot could a person like this bring?

The readers, equally curious about this point, spammed the bullet comments frantically.

“This father doesn’t look like a good person.”

“Speaking of which, I still don’t know what Li Shu’s family background is like.”

“Li Shu’s expression is so dark.”

“I smell a side story.”

“This expression is the real yandere, right? I would believe it if he said he wanted to destroy the world.”

“Ahhh, is Li Shu’s arc coming?”

“For some reason, I feel like Li Shu’s family is no good either (Hey, why did I say ‘either’?).”

Because he was flipping through quickly, Su Bei soon saw the plot after Wu Mingbai infiltrated the castle. He had seen this part clearly through the tablet. The only thing he wasn’t clear about was how he communicated with Godean Zhuo.

This time, through the manga, Su Bei understood.

Under the stimulus of death, Wu Mingbai successfully achieved a spiritual resonance with Godean Zhuo through the earth elements pervading the air, and spoke with its hidden sanity. The manga depicted this part as very perilous, and indeed, it was very perilous in reality.

Because of Wu Mingbai’s prior instructions, Ai Baozhu activated her ability just a moment before the sphere of light touched him. If she had been even a little slower, Wu Mingbai might already be a corpse by now.

However, compared to the brief two-second thrill in reality, the manga’s depiction of the peril was much more detailed, allowing one to empathize more deeply.

In a pitch-black environment, Godean Zhuo briefly explained its current situation and its origin, then asked Wu Mingbai a question: “If you were me, what would you choose now?”

The question was asked very seriously, but it inexplicably gave off a dangerous feeling, as if a single wrong answer would lead to eternal damnation.

Wu Mingbai dropped his fake smile and, after serious consideration, replied: “Without my sanity, I would rather die. But before I die, I would try my best to take the person who turned me into this with me.”

It was unclear whether it was satisfied with this answer, but Godean Zhuo let out a faint sigh: “I have no way to avenge myself. Are you willing to find the culprit who changed the faith energy and help me get revenge?”

This was undoubtedly a troublesome task. It might take a long time to complete, or it might never be completed at all. But Wu Mingbai still agreed: “I am willing.”

“Why?” Not expecting him to agree, Godean Zhuo was stunned. It then thought that the other party might just be answering this way to placate it, and its aura became dangerous again.

Wu Mingbai seemed completely unaware of the danger, a common silly and sweet smile on his face: “Because you’re my Old Ancestor, of course.”

Godean Zhuo was silent for a while, then broke free from the somewhat tyrannical emotions caused by its impending loss of control and actually smiled: “Since it’s like that, then let this old ancestor give you one final blessing.”

This was the full story of how Wu Mingbai obtained all of Godean Zhuo’s energy. A seemingly unremarkable conversation was, in fact, filled with crisis. Godean Zhuo asked a total of three questions. From the black mist-like, corrupting background behind it when it asked these questions, one could tell that if he had answered any of them wrong, it would have been impossible for Wu Mingbai to leave unscathed, let alone obtain such a huge benefit.

But as a non-natural type, to not step on a single landmine in such a high-pressure environment and even get the hidden easter egg, one had to say that justice truly prevails.

As for how much sincerity was in Wu Mingbai’s answers, Su Bei estimated at least eighty to ninety percent. Whether it was out of a human desire to repay a kindness or a natural love for stirring up trouble, he genuinely wanted to help it get revenge. The last answer was just a bit clever, that’s all.