Chapter 51: An Astonishing Discovery

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Lin Xiao lightly touched the Thunderwood pendant with his fingertips. The purple grain shimmered faintly.

He bent down and pressed a hand against the back of the man with the triangular eyes. His consciousness sank into the other man’s sea of memories like a diver descending into the depths.

This was the first time Lin Xiao had forcibly entered someone else’s sea of memories while that person was powerless to resist.

What he saw before him came as a great surprise.

Under normal circumstances, the fragments within a memory sea were arranged like strips of film, one scene after another, ordered by the time they had occurred, from the most recent to the most distant.

But the triangular-eyed man’s memories now resembled strips of film torn apart by a hurricane, drifting chaotically through the space of his consciousness.

A scene of stealing bread in childhood tangled with a fragment of drinking the previous night. Images of watching obscene recordings two days earlier overlapped and interwove with the scene of stealing a young woman’s underwear on some other occasion.

Worse still, the neurological disruption caused by the flash-bang had cast every memory beneath a bizarre layer of snowy static.

The Thunderwood suddenly began to hum. Silver patterns intertwined before Lin Xiao’s eyes, forming a network for searching.

He silently recited the keywords:

“Boss Jin… Yue Chongguang’s memories… find the memory amber… trace everyone who has seen the memory…”

In an instant, countless irrelevant fragments receded like the ebbing tide.

A memory glowing with red light was “fished” from the depths. The unusually vivid scene suddenly enlarged, and Lin Xiao was immersed in it at once…

…

…

The filthy little tavern was empty. Lin Xiao felt himself holding a lighter in both hands, carefully bringing its flame to a thick cigar.

The fingers gripping the cigar were fat and greasy. A Spiritwood ring on one finger gleamed coldly in the dim light.

As the owner withdrew the hand holding the cigar, smoke billowed from above.

Through the swirling haze, Lin Xiao could make out only the other man’s chin—layers of fat piled over one another, the skin an unhealthy bluish white.

“Why aren’t you looking up at me?”

Lin Xiao recognized the voice. He had heard it the previous day at Lu Mingyuan’s residence.

It was Jin Baolai.

Sure enough, the Boss Jin mentioned by the triangular-eyed man was Jin Baolai.

Lin Xiao also understood why, when he had first met Jin Baolai yesterday, the man had seemed to recognize him while remaining uncertain.

Within the memory, Lin Xiao spoke ingratiatingly. “You hadn’t given me permission to look up. How would I dare?”

“Guo the Second, we once went through hardships together. Am I truly that frightening in your eyes? I’m not the sort of man who forgets where he came from just because he’s made a little money,” Jin Baolai said in a low voice.

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If anyone else had said such a thing, Lin Xiao might have believed him.

But coming from Jin Baolai, he did not believe a single word.

Lin Xiao knew that the slightest sign of disrespect would turn him into a corpse the next second.

From the corner of his eye, he glanced toward the door. A bodyguard wearing black sunglasses leaned against the doorframe, arms folded across his chest. His knotted muscles rose from the shadows like a mountain.

Through the triangular-eyed man’s memories, Lin Xiao recognized him—“Iron Fist” Zhang Kui.

A fourth-level superhuman of the strength type, capable of crushing steel with his bare hands.

What had truly made Zhang Kui notorious was his fondness for crushing people’s skulls with his bare hands whenever he killed them.

As blood and brain matter splattered across his face, he experienced a perverse ecstasy.

Lin Xiao merely lowered his head a little farther. “Boss Jin, if you have something for me to do, you only need to give the word. How could I dare trouble you by coming personally to such a filthy place?”

“I’ve always been softhearted. I can’t stand to see an old brother suffer,” Jin Baolai said indifferently. “Do something for me, and I’ll guarantee you food and clothing for the rest of your life.”

Lin Xiao sensed the triangular-eyed man thinking in secret within the memory.

With so many capable people under his command, which one of them couldn’t handle a task?

My abilities are enough for petty theft, but for something important?

Could it be that his own people are being watched too closely, so he’s handing this to me—a man he hasn’t dealt with in several years?

But Lin Xiao did not dare refuse. He answered cautiously, “Just tell me what you need, Boss Jin. How could I dare ask for payment?”

“You know the commercial pedestrian street better than anyone.” Jin Baolai slowly exhaled a ring of smoke. Ash from the cigar fell in a soft shower onto the tabletop. “There’s a little shop there called the Amber of Time Museum… Its owner removed a very important memory from Yue Chongguang.”

His thick fingers tapped lightly against the table. Each tap seemed to strike the very center of Lin Xiao’s heart.

“I want that memory amber…” Jin Baolai’s voice suddenly dropped. “And a list of everyone who has come into contact with that memory.”

“Understood. I’ll do my best.” Lin Xiao nodded repeatedly, beads of sweat sliding from the back of his neck into his collar.

Thud!

A bulging black backpack was thrown down beside his feet.

The zipper had split open from being overstuffed, revealing stacks upon stacks of brand-new hundred-dollar bills.

The dark-blue notes were painfully conspicuous in the dim light. The clean fragrance of ink mingled with the charred bitterness of the cigar and seeped into his nostrils.

Lin Xiao’s pupils suddenly widened.

He stared fixedly at the opening. His Adam’s apple bobbed frantically, and his fingers began to tremble uncontrollably. He wanted to touch the money, yet did not dare. There were at least forty stacks—more than he could have saved in ten years as a thief.

“This is the deposit.” Jin Baolai casually flicked away some ash. “Once the job is done, I’ll add five times as much.”

Lin Xiao’s breathing immediately grew heavy.

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A windswept hillside overgrown with weeds appeared in his mind. The crooked wooden marker had been so eroded by wind and rain that its writing was no longer legible.

Would this money be enough to buy a sunny burial plot and have the finest granite gravestone carved for her?

“Thank you, Boss Jin! I’ll get right—” Lin Xiao said excitedly.

“Remember.” Jin Baolai suddenly leaned forward, the glowing end of his cigar nearly touching the triangular-eyed man’s face. “If word gets out…”

He glanced toward the giant by the door.

Zhang Kui understood. He bared his teeth in a grin and squeezed the metal doorframe with his thick fingers.

Crack!

Lin Xiao felt as though he were hearing his own skull shatter.

He shuddered violently, but the banknotes at his feet soon reclaimed all his attention.

When he hugged the backpack tightly to his chest, the sensation made his entire body tremble.

The memory ended abruptly…

Lin Xiao’s consciousness tore itself from the memory and returned to reality. Staring at the unconscious triangular-eyed man, he finally understood why these foolish thieves had suddenly grown so bold.

He opened his hand.

The triangular-eyed man’s memory condensed into a gray amber in his palm.

When Lin Xiao saw the memory amber, he suddenly froze.

Wait.

Could I really remove someone else’s memory this easily?

Having removed memories many times before, Lin Xiao knew very well that doing so required “synchronization” and “empathy.”

Only by fully experiencing what the subject had gone through—by feeling it as though it had happened to himself—could he successfully extract the memory.

But because this method involved immersing oneself too deeply, it caused an immense mental shock and could easily blur one’s sense of identity.

After empathizing with Mr. Zhang’s memories and with Yue Chongguang’s memories, Lin Xiao had been unable to tell who he was for a time on both occasions.

Yet when he had read the triangular-eyed man’s memories just now, Lin Xiao had merely needed to understand what had happened. He had never entered “empathy mode” to experience it himself.

That was why he had been able to analyze the memories even as he read them.

But he was astonished to discover that even without empathizing with the triangular-eyed man, he had still successfully extracted the memory and formed a memory amber.

Could this mean he could now ignore the dangers of cognitive disorientation?