Chapter 52: The Spoils, A Formidable Enemy Appears

In the past, every time Lin Xiao empathized with someone else's painful memories, the sensation of cognitive dissonance would linger for a long time.

This required him to spend a considerable period re-solidifying his self-awareness.

This was an occupational hazard that memory-type ability users could not escape, much like Yang Shubai, a phantom-type ability user, who would doubt the reality of the world and fail to distinguish reality from illusions, leading to a nihilistic value tendency in life.

As for those muscle-type ability users, they were prone to same-sex attraction; if the showerheads in their residences and bathrooms were frequently loose, it was practically a certainty.

In short, almost all ability users suffered from occupational hazards to varying degrees.

However, this time was different.

He lowered his head and stared at the unconscious man with slanted eyes, a startling realization welling up in his mind: while searching the memories just now, he had not felt the slightest bit of mental pollution brought about by empathy.

It was as if those memories were merely commodities displayed on store shelves, which could be touched at will without bearing any consequences.

"Could it be because... the subject lost their conscious resistance?"

Lin Xiao thought to himself as he looked down at the three people on the ground: "The fact that I directly extracted a piece of his memory without triggering divine retribution indicates that I did not violate the principle of 'ultimate truth and sincerity.'

Was it because they made the first move, and after my self-defense counterattack, I harvested 'spoils of war,' which did not require paying an equivalent price like a normal transaction?"

Lin Xiao recalled the divine commandment on the title page of the ability user's license: "Everything has a price!"

They were paying the price for their own actions, which complied with the divine commandment.

My act of self-defense should logically also yield a return value.

Lin Xiao tentatively arrived at a conclusion: if he did not actively attack others, but merely engaged in a counterattack from a position of moral high ground, it seemed he would not violate the principle of "ultimate truth and sincerity."

Because "sincerity" was not stupidity; if one still treated enemies with "sincerity," the heavenly dao itself would find you ridiculous.

"Does this mean I can convert painful memories more aggressively?"

To test this bold hypothesis, Lin Xiao squatted down once more, pressed his hand against the back of the slanted-eyed man's head, and entered his sea of memories.

This time, the scene before his eyes was even more chaotic—memory fragments floated disorderly in the spiritual world like a photo album torn apart by a hurricane; some frames played backward, while others twisted into bizarre whirlpools.

"It's even more chaotic than before!" Lin Xiao recalled the scene just now: "Is it because of my forcible memory extraction earlier?"

At this moment, a drone's aerial footage was transmitted to his mind: a few kilometers away, a rugged man was rapidly running toward the mine tunnel.

Lin Xiao calculated the time and figured he should still have enough time: "I must speed up!"

He immediately activated the Thunder Sound Wood pendant, and guided by several keywords such as "most painful memory, despair, remorse...", five memories were flagged.

Four of them emitted a pale black mist, indicating they were painful memories, but the degree of pain was so low that no source energy could be extracted.

Lin Xiao had suffered a loss because of this before, and he would never acquire this level of painful memory again.

However, the final memory was different.

It was as pitch-black as ink, with asphalt-like viscous substance writhing on its surface, making one's scalp tingle just by looking at it.

Lin Xiao knew that this must be a traumatic memory sufficient to change a person's personality.

Under normal circumstances, he would have used the "empathy mode" to attempt to excise this memory.

Right now, however, he just wanted to see if he could handle it under the "browse mode."

Without any hesitation, he stepped into that memory...

This time, Lin Xiao found himself standing in the stark white corridor of a hospital, where the smell of disinfectant was pungent and the fluorescent light tubes overhead hummed, casting a cold, bleak light.

Lin Xiao looked at himself in the mirror and realized this was likely a memory from when the slanted-eyed man was in his thirties.

At this moment, he was leaning stiffly against the wall, his fingers unconsciously picking at the plaster.

Opposite him was his wife, her eyes red-rimmed and her lips trembling with helplessness.

"The doctor says our daughter's spinal muscular atrophy has reached its final stage..." His wife's voice was very low, yet as sharp as a knife: "If we keep treating her, it's just a bottomless pit."

Lin Xiao's Adam's apple bobbed, but he said nothing.

"Say something, damn it!" His wife suddenly raised her volume, then abruptly clamped her hand over her mouth, terrified of being heard by their daughter in the hospital room: "Every time it's like this, acting mute! You don't even have the courage to be the villain!"

Lin Xiao's gaze fell upon the door of the hospital room.

Through the small window, he could see his six-year-old daughter lying on the hospital bed, reduced to skin and bones, laboriously flipping through a picture book.

"How about... we borrow some more..."

"Borrow? What with to pay it back?" His wife sneered: "The house is mortgaged, every relative has been hit up, and even loan sharks refuse to lend us money anymore!"

She grabbed Lin Xiao by the lapels: "Are you even a man? Do you expect me to make this kind of decision?"

Lin Xiao averted his gaze, not daring to look into her eyes.

"Fine, fine..." His wife let go of her grip and took two steps back: "I'll play the bad guy, is that it?"

She turned and walked away, her heels striking the corridor with a resolute sound: "From now on, you and I go our separate ways!"

Lin Xiao stood rooted to the spot, his fists clenched so tightly they ached.

How utterly heartless must one be to abandon such a young flesh-and-blood child?

Yet what else could be done if not this?

Leaving her at the hospital, perhaps the doctors would take care of her and let her live a few days longer... right?

In the span of a single night, he seemed to have aged ten years.

As dawn approached, he gritted his teeth, fished out the last two hundred yuan from his pocket, gently slipped it into his daughter's medical record folder at the nurses' station, and left the hospital without ever looking back...

The next moment, the memory instantly skipped forward four days.

Lin Xiao found himself inexplicably back at the hospital.

Hiding around the corner of the corridor outside the ward, he finally couldn't resist edging closer to the door crack...

His daughter lay beside the hospital bed, devoid of any medical equipment or medical personnel, entirely alone.

Her chest heaved violently as if she were struggling in her dying throes, but her hands tightly clutched a family portrait as she murmured:

"I really... don't blame you... Goodbye, Daddy! Goodbye, Mommy!"

Her breathing grew increasingly labored.

As a single tear slipped down her small face, her violently heaving chest finally grew still...

Lin Xiao's vision blurred instantly.

He staggered backward, his spine slamming against the wall, and slid down onto the floor.

Tears burst forth like a breached dam, and he bit down fiercely on the back of his hand, not daring to let himself cry out loud...

The next moment, Lin Xiao snapped out of the memory, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

Even without activating the "empathy mode," the weight of this memory still left him gasping for breath.

He could hardly imagine how intense the mental shock would have been had he fully immersed himself in it.

Lin Xiao opened his palm, and an ink-black memory amber appeared in his hand.

Instead of absorbing this amber immediately, he tucked it back into his backpack.

From his mind came the surveillance footage transmitted by the phantom operating the drone, stationed inside the "Time Amber Pavilion."

That rugged man was about to reach the cave entrance!

Without a moment of hesitation, Lin Xiao sprinted deeper into the mine pit.

Less than a minute after his figure vanished into the tunnel, a loud crash suddenly echoed from the top of the mine pit.

A mountain-like, rugged dark figure leaped down from above, slamming heavily into the ground.

Shattered stones flew, dust billowed, and the entire mine pit trembled.

Amidst the dust and smoke, a giant over two meters tall slowly straightened his body.

It was none other than "Iron Wrist" Zhang Kui, Jin Baolai's personal bodyguard whom Lin Xiao had just witnessed in the slanted-eyed man's memory.

Zhang Kui stretched his neck, producing an irritating "crack-crack" sound.

He glanced at the three unconscious men with slanted eyes on the ground, a cruel smile twisting the corner of his mouth.

"Useless trash deserve to stay shut forever."

He strode over to the slanted-eyed man, his massive palm resting gently atop the latter's head.

"Pop!"

Like crushing an overripe watermelon, the slanted-eyed man's skull exploded within Zhang Kui's grasp.

Red and white matter splattered outward, a few droplets even landing on Zhang Kui's face.

Yet his expression remained entirely unruffled, and he casually wiped his hands on his trouser legs.

To be honest, Zhang Kui was quite surprised: how could Lin Xiao have managed to knock down the three of them?

According to the dossier, shouldn't he be a memory-type ability user who had only awakened his powers for thirty-odd days?

What combat capability could a memory-type ability user possibly possess? And he was only a tier-one ability user to boot!

As for that "thunder-like" loud noise just now, what was that about?

However, Zhang Kui dismissed it entirely; that level of tricks meant nothing to him.

Gazing down the tunnel where Lin Xiao had vanished, he sneered:

"Did you really think you could run away?"