Chapter 129

Chapter 129: Turning The Tables

“Uncle, one jianbing guozi, please.”  

“Sure thing, hold on a second.” The stall owner frowned at the batter oozing unevenly through a torn hole in his griddle.  

“No rush, Uncle. I’ll grab some milk tea first.” The young man wiped his sweat and turned toward the neighboring drink stall—only to find its owner flipping through an instruction manual while clumsily operating the machine.  

Wait, no—he’s learning how to use the machine on the spot?!  

The boy inhaled sharply, scanning his surroundings:  

—Takoyaki balls glued to the grill from lack of oil.  

—A butcher hacking meat against the grain like a serial killer.  

—”Wolf tooth” potatoes fried with ginger chunks mixed in like landmines.  

…Is this the police preparing for an all-out war against Tian Xing Dao (Heaven’s Judgment)?  

“Hey, kid! Your pancake!” The undercover officer sighed as the terrified customer bolted.  

Too obvious? No helping it. Even with this many officers deployed, they stood no chance of capturing the “Black-Clothed One” before the LV4 ability users arrived.  

Forget her infamous “windmill-to-the-gut” move—her spatial abilities alone were a nightmare. Even baseline spatial users could teleport, and though she’d never demonstrated it, that didn’t mean she couldn’t.  

Their plan? A tranq dart ambush—efficient, but timing was everything. The White Whale Unit had tried a similar approach, only for their projectiles to vanish mid-air into her spatial void.  

Now, their target seemed suspicious, veering into backstreets crawling with delinquents—where she predictably got “cornered.” Just as they prepared to strike, and save those thugs from themselves, an unexpected variable appeared: 

Young master Dias from the Black family, charging in for a hero saves the villain moment.  

Kid, that’s the Black-Clothed One! Don’t trust her!  

Meanwhile, the fleeing delinquents rubbed their bruises in confusion. They’d only wanted to warn the girl about a blocked alleyway—why’d they get punched?  

Scary… Getting jumped by thugs in broad daylight.  

“Can we get a clean shot?” The pancake vendor whispered into his comms.  

“The Black family boy’s blocking the alley. Tranq him by accident, and we’ll have the family’s lawyers up our asses. Switch to Plan B.”  

“This location? We’re definitely getting complaint letters…”  

———  

Despite Mi Xiaoliu’s changed eye color this time, Dias recognized her instantly. 

How? Simple—no amount of disguises could dull the radiance of such cuteness. (Or so he told himself. In truth, he’d have recognized those dead-fish eyes anywhere.)  

“You okay?” He spun around with what he imagined was heroic flair. 

“Don’t worry, I chased them off.”  

Mi Xiaoliu stared silently.  

She recognized the boys from earlier—when Heli had dropped her wallet while grocery shopping, they had chased their electric scooter for a full kilometer just to return it.  

Mi Xiaoliu took a step back, putting distance between herself and this bad guy.  

“Uh, so… I just saw an upperclassman at school who looked a lot like you. Is she your sister?” Dias scrambled for conversation.  

He assumed her retreat was just a natural wariness of strangers.  

“No sister.” Mi Xiaoliu shook her head.  

“Er… how about a magic trick?” With a flick of his wrist, Dias produced a blue rose like a stage magician, flashing her a bright smile. “Miss, can you tell me what color this is?”  

It’s the same beautiful shade as your eyes, he rehearsed in his head. 

“Gray,” Mi Xiaoliu answered.  

“…Huh?”  

Dias blinked at the flower, suddenly doubting his own vision.  

“I’m colorblind.”  

“Wha—? Is that… an excuse to brush me off?” He stared, baffled.  

“No.” She shook her head again.  

“O-oh… S-sorry, I didn’t mean—”  

Flustered, Dias fumbled with the rose, his hands unsure where to rest. His wingman hadn’t prepared him for this scenario.  

At the very least, he’d inadvertently helped the police confirm a possibly useless piece of intel.  

Nearby, undercover officers were grinding their teeth. Just ask for her name, you idiot! We need to run a check!  

“Ugh, this guy again? How many times does he need to get rejected?” Sasha groaned. “Master, ignore him. Walk away.”  

“Mmm.”  

Mi Xiaoliu sidestepped him, heading for the alley’s exit.  

“Now. Positions 1, 3, and 6—fire!”  

Dias’ shoulders slumped, the rose in his hand drooping as if mirroring his mood.  

Yes, he was being persistent—maybe even annoyingly so. But he knew that if he let her walk away now, he might never meet a girl who made his heart race like this again. 

Even if that “heart-pounding” was 90% hormones and 10% her face.

Chasing beauty, coveting what dazzled the eye—wasn’t that human nature?  

So even if he knew he was acting like the 🤡 side character from every rom-com, he’d still throw himself into the pursuit. Reckless, selfish, stupid—wasn’t that what teenage boys did for love?  

He turned—and froze.  

“LOOK OUT!”  

His foot lashed out, kicking away three tranq darts mid-air. Second heroic rescue: unlocked.  

“That little SHIT!” a police officer snarled.  

Plan A was dead. Time for brute force.  

A dozen muzzles swung toward the pair.  

“FREEZE! POLICE!” This was directed at Dias.  

Dias threw his hands up, shielding Mi Xiaoliu. “Friendly fire! I’m from the Black family!”  

“Step aside. That girl’s a murderer.” As they spoke, a stocky officer in a skinsuit sank into the pavement like quicksand.  

“Gah! Stupid Gloriaaaaa!” Sasha wailed.  

“Murderer…?” Dias’ head whipped toward Mi Xiaoliu.  

No way. She looks so… harmless.  

Tian Xing Dao (Heaven’s Judgment)? Had to be. There had to be more to this.  

His moral compass was now fully steered by her face.

In a flash, he grabbed her wrist and pressed her hand against his own throat. “I’M BEING TAKEN HOSTAGE!”  

Why? Because every TV drama showed hostages getting yanked into chest-crushes.  

He was very excited about this.  

Mi Xiaoliu: “…?”  

The police stared in disbelief.  

“What the hell is he doing?”  

“Pretty sure… love rots your brain.”  

“Go back and tell his grandpa, and let his grandpa beat the daylights out of him.”

“No choice. We’ll have to hit him too.”

After all, they were just tranquilizer darts, and Dias’s physique was tough enough.

To Dias’s disappointment, Mi Xiaoliu did not show him any gratitude, nor did she press him close to her chest.

Instead, she simply pulled her hand back. Then, with a flash of white light, she changed outfits in the blink of an eye—a move that left Yiwen, lurking in the shadows, green with envy.

Another volley of tranquilizer darts rained down. Seeing that the girl wasn’t taking the bait, Dias simply leapt forward, letting all the darts hit him instead.

Taking advantage of the moment, Mi Xiaoliu punched the burliest super-cop in front of her, sending him flying and toppling three or four others behind him.

The police officers’ blood pressure instantly spiked.

Love-struck idiots are really the worst.

Still, she hadn’t used her spatial abilities to kill anyone outright. As White Whale had said, this girl wasn’t beyond redemption.

Glancing down at Dias, who was now barely conscious, Mi Xiaoliu hesitated for a moment before grabbing him by the collar and leaping away, covering dozens of meters in an instant.

But just as her feet touched down, the ground beneath her suddenly softened, and Yiwen’s gravity manipulation bore down on her.

The girl, her guard ever-lowering, suddenly found herself as if she’d slipped into water—thanks to Yiwen’s meddling, only her head remained above the mud.

“Impact!”

“Understood.”

Someone grabbed Dias, though not very gently—he sent a non-lethal, paralyzing current through Dias and into Mi Xiaoliu’s hand, forcing her to let go.

Poor Dias, tranquilized and then electrocuted.

It seemed there was a bit of personal grudge at play.

Five or six people fired at once, but their bullets only occupied a single inventory slot in her system space.

The ground became like quicksand, swallowing the lower half of the girl’s body completely.

No matter how strong someone is, when they’re trapped in a swamp, there’s only one outcome—nowhere to find leverage, struggling only to feel their strength draining as they sink deeper and deeper.

But they never thought this trick would actually subdue the girl in black. The moment Mi Xiaoliu fell in, everyone still able to move used grappling hooks to quickly leave the ground.

Just as they’d expected, the mud didn’t tire Mi Xiaoliu out. The instant she fell in, all that was left was a bottomless pit.

Mi Xiaoliu leapt out of the pit, using a streetlight as a springboard to vault upward. A massive amount of mud suddenly appeared in the air above the street, even blotting out the sun.

Nowhere to hide—the police had created a vast mud pit to buy enough time to rescue Dias, but it had become the enemy’s weapon instead.

“That must have hurt, huh?” The squad leader, watching from below, silently fitted Dias with a spare gas mask.

At least it was better than having a windmill house dropped on them.

With that thought, a whole team of super-cops—who had been ganging up and bullying the smaller girl—was buried together with the entire street beneath the mud. Luckily, the civilians had already been evacuated, and the cops had gas masks. It was just a shame about the decoy stalls.

Mi Xiaoliu crouched on the streetlight, looking down.

“Master, don’t worry about that guy. Didn’t the cops already give him a gas mask? They’re well-equipped, he won’t die.” After a pause, Sasha added, “Don’t get too close to him in the future, or Yiwen will get mad.”

First, use Little White-Hair as a decoy—at least he’s much better than that clingy, relentless monkey. Even if it means letting Master get close to Little White-Hair, we can’t let Master make things easy for the monkey!

“Mmm.” Mi Xiaoliu leapt up onto the roof.

But in an instant, her ankle was grabbed.

They’d never expected the mud trap to actually work against her, it was only meant to rescue Dias from her grasp.

And anyway, how could they be foolish enough to gather everyone together and give Mi Xiaoliu the chance to wipe them all out?

Didn’t expect that, did you? We’re just the weakest ones!

After pressing Mi Xiaoliu into the mud, Yiwen—who’d been lying in wait on the roof with an optical ability user—knocked her down and grabbed a tranquilizer dart in her other hand.

Without hesitation, she jabbed it through Mi Xiaoliu’s coat and straight into her butt cheek.

Why the butt? Because it’s fleshy and absorbs anesthesia best… Or, well, maybe Yiwen just wanted to do it.

Yiwen’s grin widened, turning downright goofy.

“Mmm!” Mi Xiaoliu groaned in pain, her body trembling slightly.

“You little bitch, let me get my revenge, huh?” Yiwen sat triumphantly atop Mi Xiaoliu, brimming with satisfaction.

She pulled out a second and third needle, sticking them in one after another. Every time she did, the girl underneath her twitched.

It couldn’t be helped—this little bitch’s constitution was just too strong. One dose of anesthetic might not be enough to knock her out.

So what next? Should she take off the little bitch’s socks and stuff them in her own mouth?

But just as Yiwen was considering this, the girl—who’d already been hit with three doses—still had the strength to suddenly sit up and flip Yiwen off.

She pulled the needles from her own butt and jabbed them into Yiwen’s.

“Ah!”

Then the second needle, the third…

[Translator’s Note: See the index page for this Novel if you want to see the Amazon Link for the eBooks.]