"I also advise you not to move. Every time you shift your body, the wind blades will shear off a lock of your hair, until you're completely bald."
Ren Yuanhao saw the opponent's dreadlocks and some messy colorful ornaments, and suddenly realized that this man probably cherished his hair as much as his life.
"Wind elemental ability! Who exactly are you? We don't have such a powerful esper in Nanming! Are you a Mandara gene vivisection subject?"
The man's rapid-fire questions were simply annoying. Ren Yuanhao scratched his head. "I'll ask you just one thing: do you want to keep your hair?"
"Yes, of course I do."
"Then fine. If I catch you using your powers again, I'll guarantee to shave your head clean."
Ren Yuanhao withdrew his hand, and the wind element binding the man also dissipated.
"Who are you? Why are you here in this unlucky place at this hour?"
The man shook off the grime from his body, retracting his ability, and his pupils instantly changed from red to blue.
"I don't have much luck anyway, so who cares if it's lucky or not," Ren Yuanhao said, patting a domed stone and leaping onto it.
"Interesting. Most people who manage to come to Mirages do so due to luck or destiny. Yet you claim you don't have much luck. That's quite perplexing."
Ren Yuanhao tossed a cigarette to the man and added, "Mirage looks quite majestic on the surface, but doesn't it also have these hellish landscapes?"
"Then I can only say you've come at an inopportune time. If you had come two months ago, you could have seen a clear river winding its way through, with citizens on both banks enjoying themselves. There were even fireflies and the like. Now, besides flies and maggots, only two eccentrics like you and I can breathe in the miasma here, chatting like old friends meeting after years apart."
There was a hint of sorrow in the man's words, but Ren Yuanhao knew this fellow probably wanted to glean some useful information from him. It was a relationship of mutual exploitation.
"Tell me, why did you cause the car accident?"
Ren Yuanhao didn't want to hear only Meng Meihui's side of the story, which was why he continued to ask this question.
"It's natural for fallen leaves to return to their roots. Seeing these people turn to ashes and die at the hands of those people, I couldn't bear it."
The man's answer was identical to Meng Meihui's.
This was not the answer Ren Yuanhao wanted.
"Are you sure that's the reason? Or is it that these people still have value for you?"
Ren Yuanhao's words made the man tremble all over!
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is not important. When you answer, please don't let your eyes dart around. Look me in the eye, so I don't easily see that you're lying, because the consequences of that would not be pleasant." Ren Yuanhao took a drag from his cigarette, the smoke swirling out with the tense atmosphere.
"You're threatening me? Do you really think I'm afraid of you?" The man raised his hand, and three more innate espers leaped out from the shadows.
Ren Yuanhao added, "You're too troublesome. You're clearly hiding something. Why not let those who are hiding deeper come out as well, so I don't waste my time?"
He raised his hand, and three more people lost their cover of wild grass, instantly exposed before Ren Yuanhao.
"Indeed, nothing can escape your notice. Who exactly are you, and what business do you have in our southern region?"
The animal-type esper was clearly the leader of these people, and seven innate espers were not something a simple faction could produce.
Ren Yuanhao flicked his cigarette butt upwards, a flash of gold suddenly appearing in his eyes. "That's a question I should be asking you!"
A powerful pressure descended like Mount Tai, and the faces of the seven people instantly changed.
Such pressure was almost comparable to that of their young master!
"You, you were sent by Tianyu?"
Ren Yuanhao increased his force by another three parts. The seven felt as if their skin was about to be torn apart. "I told you, some questions are for me to ask you. If you still don't understand what I'm saying, I'll have to take you all down one by one and interrogate you slowly."
"What do you want to ask?"
"Didn't I just say? Why did you take these Devourers?"
As Ren Yuanhao spoke, his golden eyes fixed intently on the animal-type esper. At that moment, the man suddenly let out a tiger's roar, instantly dispelling Ren Yuanhao's pressure. One of them scattered a mist, and the seven seized the opportunity to escape.
"Forget it. The fact that you care so much about this question means these Devourers are different from ordinary ones. There's a big problem."
Ren Yuanhao brushed away the thick dust raised in front of him with his hand, and a gust of wind instantly dispersed it.
His eyesight was excellent, and he had already locked onto the direction the seven had fled. He was not in a hurry. He then calmly walked towards the Devourers being transported from the van.
He lowered his body and probed the internal bodies of these people with his fingertip's true qi. After a while, he discovered something unusual!
In the Dantian of these people, there was a tiny vortex of qi. He had experienced it himself; this vortex represented an ability core!
In other words, these people were different from ordinary Devourers. At the very least, they were close to nurturing their own abilities, but their bodies simply couldn't withstand the torment of Mandara genes. If—
Ren Yuanhao suddenly thought of a terrifying problem. He then moved to another Devourer and sensed with his true qi, his face immediately turning pale!
Although these people's Dantians did not have ability cores, upon sensing with true qi, he detected a faint circulation of true qi in their Dantians. Their hearts were twice the size of ordinary people's, clearly having used some kind of potion to enhance the survival rate and prolong the lifespan of Devourers!
"Damn it, I guessed it right! What 'fallen leaves return to their roots' crap, it's just a smokescreen by these bastards! Their goal is to devour these ability cores! But why are these Devourers outside the southern region? Could it be—!"
Ren Yuanhao thought of a possibility, but to confirm this inference, he had to capture the previous espers. They might know the truth.
Ren Yuanhao glanced at the pitch-black wilderness. He tapped his toe, first returning to Meng Meihui's residence to bid farewell, and then immediately heading back to the graveyard, swiftly cutting across the direction the seven had taken.
The sky was bleak, and the wild grass grew luxuriantly. If this were inland, such weather would likely be brewing a heavy rain. However, Ren Yuanhao knew that in the desert, such weather signified a black sandstorm that could devour everything. He wondered if this large city, with its high walls and various high-tech defense measures, could withstand the onslaught of the black sandstorm.