Chapter 94
It was already past ten in the evening, and the restaurant was getting less crowded. Kong Daming had earlier urged Xiang Qingde to head home early, but Xiang Qingde disagreed, insisting on waiting until after work to leave.
“Then I’ll take you home, it’s quite late,” Kong Daming said.
“No need, it’s only a ten-minute walk. How could I possibly get lost? You go ahead and close up, I’ve got a flashlight.”
Xiang Qingde put on his coat, waved at Kong Daming to reassure him, and then left the restaurant.
“Be careful.”
Kong Daming thought about the old man’s robust health; a ten-minute walk at night should pose no problem, so he didn’t think much more about it.
Yu Lei, who had been sitting in the café all afternoon, noticed Xiang Qingde leaving the restaurant. He quickly packed up his laptop and followed him.
In his view, among the grandson and grandfather, Xiang Qingde was the tougher one to deal with; after all, he had been an Awakener for decades, definitely more challenging than Xiang Beifei, who had only awakened two months ago.
Xiang Beifei was merely an N-level Awakener, having just awakened for two months, not even at the Qi-Controlling stage. Wouldn’t it be effortless to subdue him once Xiang Qingde was under control?
He planned to attack Xiang Qingde first in a dark corner, using a control talisman to subdue him, then follow him home to take control of Xiang Beifei and capture both grandfather and grandson.
To fabricate the situation described in his article, he even prepared in advance the medicinal pot and the bag for collecting recyclables, ready to mess up their home, making it look exactly as described in his story.
“Then, I’ll register an account overnight, take a photo with them, generate some traffic, then make the old man quit his job and keep him from contacting other media, making him obediently my puppet!”
Yu Lei had thought through the subsequent steps; he intended to use the grandfather and grandson as tools for making money!
By half-past ten, there weren’t many pedestrians on the street; Xiang Qingde was walking home with his flashlight. He turned into a street without streetlights, pitch-dark, with the lights from residential buildings failing to reach this side.
However, Xiang Qingde was used to it and turned on his flashlight to light up the path ahead.
But he didn’t notice at all that a figure was stealthily closing in on him from behind.
Yu Lei was a practitioner of the literary Dao, but as an R-level System Awakener who had groped his way through the journalism industry for many years for the convenience of secretly taking photos, he had developed agile movements, with skills reaching the mid-stage of Qi-Controlling.
He had scoped out the area during the day; this part of the street had no surveillance.
Xiang Qingde was just an ordinary N-level Awakener, not particularly high in skills; he had to make his move on this stretch.
Yu Lei had completed three system tasks, with the reward being a choice of two out of four, meaning he could select six rewards in total.
He had already chosen to exchange for three memory talismans and three control talismans, which, compared to the truth-telling talismans and stealth talismans, were more useful.
“Old fool, just be my puppet!”
Yu Lei gripped a control talisman, then stretched his hand toward Xiang Qingde’s back.
However, just as his hand was about to touch Xiang Qingde, Yu Lei suddenly felt something was off.
It was as if a sinister breeze had blown past, and his just-exchanged control talisman had disappeared!
“How could this be?”
Yu Lei’s face changed, and he quickly withdrew his hand and dodged to the side.
This incident was unexpected; without the control talisman, directly touching Xiang Qingde would be practically the same as greeting him!
“Where’s my control talisman?”
Yu Lei stopped next to a tree, looking at his system interface in amazement.
He had never encountered anything like this before!
Not only that, but the three Memory Talismans and two control talismans he had already claimed had also disappeared!
In the dead of night, it was like seeing a ghost!
Yu Lei searched for his system rewards. He had redeemed this reward ten minutes ago, and it was still there just now. Why did it disappear all of a sudden the moment he made his move?
But by this time, Xiang Qingde had already walked far away. He hadn’t been disturbed by Yu Lei, so he continued walking forward, quickly turning around the street corner and disappearing.
“Damn it!”
Yu Lei gritted his teeth, his system was acting up for some unknown reason, mysteriously making his rewards disappear, but he knew now was not the time to fret about the system glitching, but to deal with Xiang Qingde.
With the advanced network technology, finding a person wasn’t too difficult. Maybe as soon as tomorrow, someone could find Luhe High School and ask the school’s teachers about Xiang Beifei’s address.
If they were to find out that situation at Xiang Qingde’s home was different from what his article described, he would be in loads of trouble!
“I can’t wait any longer!”
Yu Lei decided to deal with Xiang Qingde first and then consider the issue of the missing system reward. He immediately spent 1000 headline points and redeemed another control talisman!
Besides being a mission completion reward, the control talisman could also be exchanged in the shop using system points. He had only refrained from exchanging it last time because he was worried that the news wouldn’t make it to the trending searches, wasting system points. But now, that article had garnered a massive readership, earning him far more than 1000 headline points!
Yu Lei, holding the control talisman, continued to pursue Xiang Qingde.
However, he hadn’t traveled far when suddenly a furious gust of punches erupted from the side!
Bang!
The fist wind created a spark in the air, the exploding flames roaring loudly, and with incredible swiftness, it smashed towards Yu Lei’s face.
Yu Lei was startled by the abrupt fist wind and didn’t react in time. With a “thud,” he was directly struck in the bridge of his nose, the tremendous impact sending him flying.
“Ah!”
He let out a scream, his body hitting the wall like a sandbag.
Yu Lei was merely a practitioner of the literary Dao, not very adept at fighting. Caught unguarded, he took a solid punch to the nose, breaking it and immediately causing blood to flow.
“Damn, who ambushed me!”
But, being a mid-stage Qi-Controlling Awakener, he was used to dealing with stealthy situations and reacted very quickly. After his nose was broken, he quickly snapped back to his senses, a grey light flashed over his body, and he transformed into black smoke, disappearing from beneath the attacker’s fist.
Stealth Talisman!
He had plenty of such items on him, capable of melding himself with the darkness, transforming into black smoke, escaping, and enabling him to remain invisible in various corners. This was an essential skill for paparazzi and also his most proficient ability.
“Who are you!”
Yu Lei, hidden in the darkness, glared angrily at the person who had suddenly attacked him.
The person was dressed in black and also wore a hat, standing in the darkness just like him. It was impossible to see the attacker’s face clearly, but Yu Lei felt an immense pressure!
The opponent’s fist wind was too domineering, something he couldn’t resist!