Recalling the cruel methods Gu Xiaorou used against her enemies in the memory fragments he had just seen, Ling Yun couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine. He couldn't help but wonder if she would use supernatural powers against him, should he resist or just let her do as she pleased? "People really shouldn't do wrong things," Ling Yun thought to himself, a sincere plea of repentance. "I was really wrong."
…………
Unexpectedly, nothing happened! Gu Xiaorou's expression changed repeatedly; in just a few minutes, several rich expressions appeared on her stunning face: surprise, sadness, anger, nostalgia, tenderness, and a smile...
Just as a mask of indifference was removed, hidden beneath the icy coldness and strength was the girl's true nature. Ling Yun unintentionally removed Gu Xiaorou's mask, and at the same time, he also removed her defenses.
"Why did you take off my mask?" Gu Xiaorou stared at Ling Yun, her stunning beauty even making the guilty young man dare not look her in the eye.
"I...I just wanted to see the real you." Ling Yun murmured, finally mustering the courage to meet Gu Xiaorou's gaze. His lips trembled for a long time before he finally spoke, "I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself..."
"I was wrong, you can scold me," Ling Yun said regretfully.
Gu Xiaorou looked at him, then suddenly burst into laughter, her laughter as vibrant as a blooming daffodil, instantly shining ten times brighter than the light from the barrier. "Why would I scold you?" the girl said gently, "Just because you were secretly watching me?"
"I did ask for your permission." Seeing that Gu Xiaorou wasn't angry, Ling Yun finally felt more confident and said somewhat awkwardly.
"I didn't expect you to be so cute." Gu Xiaorou said with a smile, then suddenly winked at Ling Yun playfully, "Am I that good-looking? You want to see me so badly."
"Of course you're beautiful, you're the most beautiful girl in the world," Ling Yun blurted out, without a hint of flattery.
Chapter Sixty-Two: The Heavenly Eye
"Oh? How come you're the prettiest? Tell me." Gu Xiaorou suddenly found Ling Yun's silly and adorable demeanor extremely endearing, far more so than his wooden and indifferent attitude when they were enemies. Moreover, the tone of his words was full of sincerity, clearly not a false compliment, but a heartfelt liking. Even with her naturally aloof nature, the girl couldn't help but feel a warm glow in her heart, and an unprecedented happiness was slowly rising from the depths of her soul.
"Uh... this..." Ling Yun scratched his head, racking his brains for words to describe beautiful women. He seemed to have read quite a few books on the subject before; the beauties described in novels were all stunningly beautiful, vividly portrayed, as if they were right in front of him. But at this moment, he couldn't think of a single word.
He did consider using phrases like "the moon hides its face in shame" and "fish sink and geese fall from the sky" to describe Gu Xiaorou's beauty, but then he thought they were too cliché. He lamented his own tongue-tiedness, unable to answer the beautiful woman's question. Ling Yun sighed inwardly, "All that reading you've done is useless at this crucial moment."
“Beauty needs no reason!” Ling Yun finally uttered a pointless statement. Then, he looked at Gu Xiaorou with a slightly guilty expression. Seeing his silly look as he racked his brains for words, Gu Xiaorou couldn't help but smile. This guy was really honest enough, like a blockhead.
However, encountering such a blockhead is a happiness that a young girl can only hope for after a very long time.
She sighed softly, a heartbreaking sadness appearing on her exquisitely beautiful, fair face: "Beautiful...heh, what's the use? Men just want to possess me. When I was five, there were men old enough to be my grandfather who had those beastly thoughts about me. All men are like that. Besides my mother, I don't know who else in this world I can trust." Crystal-clear tears, like pearls, dripped from her flawless white face, shimmering with a sorrowful light.
"You can trust me." After a long silence, Ling Yun said sincerely. He didn't know why, but ever since he spied on the girl's experiences, his heart had been deeply shaken. It seemed that in a short period of time, he had developed an invisible closeness and tacit understanding with Gu Xiaorou. The hostility and estrangement of the past had vanished with this strange, sleepwalking-like experience.
Gu Xiaorou gazed at Ling Yun, her beautiful, dark eyes sparkling. For some reason, the girl suddenly felt at ease. Although Ling Yun was just a stranger to her, in his presence, Gu Xiaorou felt she could freely express her emotions without pretense. This young man was completely unlike anyone she had ever met before. He was like a transparent statue, revealing utter sincerity from the inside out.
"Why can I trust you? Is it because I saved you?" Gu Xiaorou said softly.
Ling Yun hesitated, wanting to say it wasn't because you saved him, but because he saw her memories. But he dared not admit to spying, otherwise the girl who had just been smiling so brightly might turn around and kill him in the blink of an eye.
He was trying to come up with a better reason, like some vague and whimsical excuse like, "You give me a feeling of innate closeness." Something vivid and touching. But the girl's next words shattered all his unrealistic ideas.
"Is it because you glimpsed my memories?"
"How did you know?" Ling Yun blurted out.
“Even when I was unconscious, my consciousness was very clear. Moreover, with such close contact between your mental energy field and mine, how could I not sense your presence? It’s just that although I could feel it, I couldn’t communicate with you using my mental energy.” Gu Xiaorou said slowly, and when she said the words “close contact,” two light blushes appeared on her flawless white face.
Ling Yun looked down at her fingers again: "I really didn't mean to."
“I don’t blame you. It was all a coincidence. At least the outcome wasn’t bad, was it?” Gu Xiaorou said gently, then suddenly sighed. “I should thank you. These memories represent my emotions. I’ve been holding them in for too long, and I needed someone to share them with. I’m glad you can see and understand. I feel much better now.”
"By the way, how did you end up in the suburbs? And why did you save me?" Ling Yun didn't know what to say, so he suddenly thought of what to ask.
Gu Xiaorou's expression became hesitant. After a long while, as if she had made up her mind, she put her hands behind her head, untied the knot of the thin rope hanging around her snow-white neck, and then took off the silver sphere pendant. She looked at Ling Yun and said, "I remember you said that you are an acquired mutated superhuman, right?"
"Yes." Ling Yun nodded, recalling what Elder Yu had once said about him being the only person in the world with acquired superpowers.
“Perhaps this is what makes you different from other superhumans,” Gu Xiaorou said with emotion. “I used to want to control you, to find out your background, and then I came to Jinghua University because of you, and even saving you was all because of this.” As she spoke, she handed the silver ball pendant to Ling Yun.
"What is this?" Ling Yun took the pendant and immediately felt the lingering warmth and delicate fragrance of the girl's skin.
"You'll know once you open the pendant," the girl said.
Ling Yun examined the silver pendant carefully, then gently pressed a small switch at the bottom of the pendant. The silver, curved cover popped open, revealing a dark bead the size of a longan fruit embedded inside the pendant box. The bead pulsated rhythmically, flashing a faint silver light, looking quite peculiar.
Gu Xiaorou pointed into the air, and the black bead detached itself from the locket box, slowly rising and hovering in the space in front of the two of them. It flickered like a tiny firefly, truly wondrous.
"This bead is quite fun." Ling Yun gazed curiously at the black bead, gently pinching it between his index finger and thumb, and immediately felt a cool sensation at his fingertips.
"Fun?" Gu Xiaorou gave a bitter smile. "My mother died because of it, and I fled here because of it. I have been hiding my identity and changing my appearance for nearly three years. I was seriously injured and have not recovered. I am still living in danger every moment."
Ling Yun stared at Gu Xiaorou in shock, never imagining that so much had happened to this girl, all because of this seemingly ordinary black bead that emitted no special energy other than a pulsation and a flash. He hadn't seen these fragments in his memory; presumably, even while unconscious, the girl's self-preservation instinct prevented her from revealing these cruel memories.
“This black bead is called the Heavenly Eye, which, as the name suggests, is the eye of the heavens,” Gu Xiaorou said slowly. “As for the origin of the Heavenly Eye, no one knows. But that’s not important. What’s important is that the Heavenly Eye is a rare treasure that is hard to come by for people with superpowers.”
"Legend has it that a secret is hidden in the Heavenly Eye. Whoever can decipher the secret of the Heavenly Eye will possess unparalleled power," Gu Xiaorou said softly.
Chapter Sixty-Three: The Heavenly Eye Society
"Supreme power?" Ling Yun looked at the Heavenly Eye with doubt, not feeling that this ordinary black bead could have any other use besides emitting light. He tried to use his mental field to sense the inside of the Heavenly Eye, but the mental field failed for the first time. The result of his perception told Ling Yun that the inside of the Heavenly Eye was solid, without any gaps or anything special.
Aside from its unknown material, the Heavenly Eye is just an ordinary solid black bead. Although it can pulsate and emit flashes on its own, Lingyun has seen many extraordinary people and events, so it's not surprising.
“Yes, although it’s just a legend, don’t think it’s absurd.” Gu Xiaorou looked at his dismissive expression. “If you knew that the Heavenly Eye is the founding treasure of the Heavenly Eye Society, you wouldn’t think that way.”
"What is the Heavenly Eye?" Ling Yun asked.
Gu Xiaorou stared at him speechlessly for a long time before realizing that this guy was a self-taught individual with only a superficial understanding of the supernatural world. She could only helplessly explain, "The Sky Eye Society is the most mysterious and powerful supernatural organization in the world. However, unlike the official supernatural organizations in China, the United States, Russia, and some European countries, the Sky Eye Society is a private organization with a huge influence in the supernatural world. Even the strength ranking of supernatural individuals is basically based on the Sky Eye Society's military rank system… Their lowest rank is private, the lowest level of supernatural individual in the organization, followed by lieutenant, colonel, and general."
Ling Yun nodded in surprise, never expecting such an organization to exist in the world of superhumans. He had always thought only the Chinese Superhuman Headquarters existed. Suddenly remembering that Xia Zhen and Xia Tian had mentioned vampires, he quickly asked, "Do vampires really exist in the world?"
"Yes." Gu Xiaorou nodded. "Vampires and werewolves are mainly distributed in Europe. They are all dark creatures. Strictly speaking, vampires and werewolves are not superhumans because they are not human. However, due to their nonhuman strength, they can be loosely classified as superhumans. But dark creatures have always been the common enemy of mankind and have always been suppressed by the judgment of the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore, their range of activities is actually very small, and they rarely appear in the secular world."
"Aren't those dark creatures pitiful? Are there any good vampires?" Thinking of all the touching vampire movies and novels he had read, Ling Yun couldn't help but feel sorry for the non-human creatures he had never met. Of course, werewolves were always objects of ugliness, so he decided to leave them out.