Ling Yun tried to take a few steps forward, but the surrounding scenery did not change at all, as if he was just standing still.
Ling Yun tried to use telekinesis to touch the pale yellow space, but his mental field failed to work. He could neither penetrate the pale yellow barrier nor perceive anything in the space. It just stretched infinitely along the space, as if there was no end.
A mysterious voice echoed in the space: "Your mental field is weak, young man."
Ling Yun was startled and turned to look around, but still couldn't find where the sound came from.
"You can't see me. Alas, after so many years, finally someone has been able to enter my barrier," the mysterious voice continued, its tone tinged with loneliness.
"Who are you? What kind of barrier is this?" Ling Yun asked calmly, the mysterious voice sounding harmless.
"Who am I? Hehehe," the mysterious voice laughed loudly, "That's a good question. No one has asked me that in all these years."
"I must thank you, young man. If you hadn't activated my barrier with your mental energy field, I would probably have remained dormant and unable to awaken. But if too much time has passed, even with minimal energy consumption, this barrier will likely disappear soon," the mysterious voice continued.
"Have you existed for a long time?" Ling Yun asked curiously. "Is this yellow book your barrier? I found it in a coffin in an ancient tomb. If it weren't for some voice calling to me from the shadows, I really wouldn't have found it."
"Hehe." The mysterious voice chuckled. "That's an automatic detection system I use to detect ability users with psychic fields. If you're just an ordinary person, you won't feel that. By the way, young man, what's your name?"
"My name is Ling Yun. Are you also a superhuman? May I ask how I should address you?" Ling Yun replied respectfully, his heart pounding with excitement. The mysterious voice seemed to have existed for a very long time; it appeared to be a senior superhuman. He wondered how such a voice could exist in an ancient tomb.
Since gaining his superpowers, Ling Yun has possessed immense strength, but in a sense, he is also quite lonely. He can neither find anyone like himself to communicate with, nor can he reveal his extraordinary abilities in public, because that would mean big trouble. After all, Spider-Man and Superman in the movies are just romantic and legendary stories.
He didn't want to be sent to a research institute to be studied like a guinea pig by experts, even though it was the best way to find out his secrets. Ling Yun didn't want to try it. So he could only search for the secret of his superpowers himself, but after thinking it over, the only reason he could think of was after being knocked unconscious by Zhang Yunfeng and his gang of thugs!
Ling Yun's exploration ended there. Afterwards, as his supernatural abilities became more and more prominent, his confusion also increased. Now, he finally encountered another supernatural being in the mysterious barrier, which could dispel all his doubts. How could he not be excited?
The mysterious voice chuckled, "So it's young friend Ling Yun. What a grand name. My name is Yu Xiujie. I'm definitely much older than you, so just call me Old Yu. You're right, I'm also an ability user, just like you. Since you triggered my barrier, it proves we're destined to meet. We can communicate properly. It's been so many years, and I know nothing about the changes in the outside world."
Ling Yun felt secretly ashamed. His name was nothing special, yet the mysterious voice described it as grand, as if there were three or four people named Ling Yun in their school alone.
So he asked curiously, "Old Yu, why are you staying inside the barrier? Can't you come out?"
"Well, that's a long story. It seems you don't know much about people with superpowers. You don't even seem to have seen a barrier before," Yu Xiujie said.
As the words fell, ripples spread across the pale yellow space in front of Ling Yun. A long figure gradually deepened, transforming into a white-haired old man with white hair and beard. He wore an ancient-style purple robe, his posture upright and steady as a mountain, his face majestic and dignified, exuding authority without anger. A single glance was enough to captivate anyone.
With a wave of his long sleeves, Yu Xiujie conjured an antique rosewood octagonal table and two armchairs in front of Ling Yun. On the table was a rosewood lotus-shaped tray containing a purple clay teapot with cloud-shaped plum blossom design and two teacups. Steam rose from the teapot, which then floated up automatically, tilted to fill the two teacups with tea, and flew back to its original position.
"Sit down, Lingyun." Yu Xiujie smiled slightly, took the lead in sitting down in a grand chair, picked up his teacup and took a sip, a satisfied expression appearing on his face.
"Yes, Elder Yu." Ling Yun had never seen such a miraculous technique before. His eyes widened in amazement. With excitement, he carefully sat down on another armchair. Before he even picked up his teacup, he could smell the faint, refreshing aroma of tea.
"Don't take it seriously, it's all an illusion. Within my barrier, whatever you want, I can conjure it up," Yu Xiujie said with a smile.
"Is this fake?" Ling Yun picked up the teacup, took a sip of the fragrant tea, and found it perfectly balanced between hot and cold, like a divine brew that soothed him to the core. It was far better than any beverage Ling Yun had ever tasted before. Feeling the slightly warm tea and the solid porcelain teacup in his hand, Ling Yun felt it was incredibly real. If Yu Xiujie hadn't told him himself, he would never have believed it was just an illusion.
Yu Xiujie stared at him, his smile growing wider: "So I was mistaken, Ling Yun. I didn't expect you to be a superhuman with acquired mutated abilities. No wonder you don't know much about superhumans."
"Are all superhumans born that way? Elder Yu, I don't know. I don't even know how I became a superhuman. I have many questions I'd like to ask you." Ling Yun drank the tea in his cup in one gulp. Before he could even reach for the teapot, it flew up automatically and filled it with tea for him.
“It’s all innate. This is the first time I’ve seen someone like you who has mutated later in life. Of course, there have been other people with mutated abilities before, but without exception, they all died.” Yu Xiujie also filled his cup with tea.
"Ah! Will I die too?" Ling Yun broke out in a cold sweat.
“No, I can feel that your mental field is very stable, which is exactly what I find strange. Generally, people who have undergone mutations later in life may collapse at any time, even if they have superpowers. Of course, this is related to the methods they deliberately pursue for mutations,” Yu Xiujie said with certainty.
"Oh, Mr. Yu, you scared me to death." Ling Yun finally felt relieved.
“However, I can’t say for sure what will happen the day after tomorrow. After all, I’ve never seen a superhuman who mutated after birth before. You’re the only one.” Yu Xiujie’s next words made Ling Yun anxious again.
"By the way, Elder Yu, you still haven't told me why you can only stay inside the barrier?" Ling Yun asked as if he had just remembered something.
"You just said you found me in a tomb, right? Did you examine the tomb complex carefully? Did you notice any changes? By the way, did you see the lotus lamp stand in the coffin?" Yu Xiujie didn't answer, but instead asked with great interest.
"I saw it, and I even kicked and broke that lampstand," Ling Yun answered honestly. He then recounted in detail what had happened last night. His eloquence was quite good, and with his permanent memory, his account was almost identical to what he had described the night before.
Yu Xiujie listened with a smile at first, but when Ling Yun mentioned the shadow, his expression became serious. When Ling Yun finished speaking, Yu Xiujie's face showed disbelief: "The Yin Spirit actually appeared? How is that possible? Has so much time passed? But my barrier couldn't have held up until now. No, something must have happened!" A thoughtful expression appeared on his face.
"Old Yu, is that shadow some kind of evil spirit? I don't think it's anything good. How could it kidnap people in the city? And what if that evil spirit entered my classmate's body? Will something bad happen?" Ling Yun asked nervously. Old Yu seemed to know a lot about all of this. The mysterious cemetery and the evil spirit seemed to be related to Old Yu. Ling Yun placed all his hopes on Old Yu.
Yu Xiujie stopped thinking and explained, "Yin spirits are not evil things. They are just forms that naturally arise under specific conditions, like mountain goblins and water spirits. They have a certain consciousness, but no thoughts or intelligence. In reality, they are just a mass of cold energy. How could they possibly abduct young girls and absorb their primordial yin energy? Moreover, this Yin Spirit Array of Heaven and Earth, oh, the graveyard you mentioned, was set up by me personally. Although it can gather yin energy, it would probably take a very long time to generate Yin spirits. Judging from the energy consumption of my barrier, only about a hundred years have passed so far. The yin energy gathered in such a short time could not possibly generate Yin spirits."
"A hundred years? Old Yu, you've lived for over a hundred years?" Ling Yun was almost dumbfounded.
"More or less. Actually, my physical body has long since perished. What appears before you is merely an image conjured by my spiritual energy field. The barrier is used to support the spiritual energy field. In fact, I have been in a state of dormancy for the past hundred years, so the energy consumed by the barrier is very small. Otherwise, how could you possibly see me?" Yu Xiujie said.
Ling Yun listened, seemingly understanding but not quite, finding it all incredibly strange: "Elder Yu, since you said that Yin spirits don't attack humans, what happened to me? And since Yin spirits have Yin spirit arrays to provide Yin energy, why do they need to absorb the primordial Yin energy of young girls?"
Yu Xiujie said, "Think carefully, have you encountered any other strange things beside the Yin Spirit Array, or even yourself? First, Yin Spirits cannot be born so quickly. Second, even if Yin Spirits are born, they will not leave the Yin Spirit Array if they are not affected by external factors. Something must have happened in between."
Ling Yun exclaimed, suddenly remembering something. He then hurriedly recounted the incident of the corpse driving the taxi he had encountered before going to the Emperor Garden residential area. If there was anything strange about his experience, it was only this one.
"A corpse puppet!" Yu Xiujie immediately realized, "Someone is using spirit summoning magic!"
Chapter Thirteen: Becoming an Apprentice
Ling Yun was startled and involuntarily repeated, "Corpse puppet? Spirit summoning technique?"
“Yes.” Yu Xiujie nodded. “This is a very strange and evil technique. As the name suggests, a corpse puppet is a puppet made by refining a corpse. It is said that the spirit communication technique is a powerful technique that can connect to hell. However, according to what you said, that corpse puppet is still the crudest and lowest-level puppet. It can't even change the shape of the corpse. A truly refined high-level corpse puppet is no different from an ordinary person. Its speech, actions, and even thinking are the same as a living person. If you are not a superhuman, you can't tell the difference at all.”
Ling Yun felt his throat go dry, and the thought of that horrific corpse sent chills down his spine. He said with difficulty, "I never imagined there were such terrifying things in the world. How could I have run into this? What bad luck."
Yu Xiujie glanced at him with a smile: "Scared already? Hehe, you haven't seen a real battle between superhumans. There are many supernatural abilities that are more terrifying than corpse puppets and spirit communication."
Ling Yun stuck out his tongue: "Old Yu, I'm still a high school graduate. I've never heard of such a thing before. Please don't scare me."
Yu Xiujie said solemnly, "Now that you've entered the ranks of superhumans, you're no longer an ordinary person. I understand now why there are Yin spirits. Since someone uses psychic arts, it's indeed possible to continuously concentrate the Yin energy within a radius of several hundred miles to catalyze the Yin spirit array and produce Yin spirits. Presumably, the Yin spirits were influenced by the evil aura of psychic arts, which is why they instinctively went to the city to abduct people."