Chapter 343 – Ability Elimination
The transparent film enveloped his entire body, its surface shimmering with blue light.
The continuous gunfire from the machine gun, with hundreds of bullets, struck the film from every angle, attempting to break through.
It wasn’t successful.
“Tu Ran, don’t you have many abilities? Why aren’t you using them?”
The man in mid-air arrogantly spread his arms, revealing sharp canine teeth.
Tu Ran had never seen this expression on the real Xie Zhao’s face, which made her question whether the person before her was truly Xie Zhao.
But that didn’t matter now. He was a strong opponent, and without killing him, they couldn’t leave this place.
The machine gun Tu Ran held in both hands flashed with a white light, and in the next moment, it disappeared from her hands, returned to her space.
She fixed her gaze on the fake Xie Zhao inside the protective shield, her lips moving.
“Blooming flowers and full moon.”
[Ding—]
A crisp notification sound echoed in her mind.
Xie Zhao’s face broke into an enigmatic smile.
Tu Ran’s hand, hanging by her side, inexplicably trembled.
[Blooming Flowers and Full Moon: Ability Invalid]
The green energy screen representing [Blooming Flowers and Full Moon] flashed three red lights before disappearing from Tu Ran’s mind.
Tu Ran quickly searched the list of her abilities in the primary, intermediate, and advanced categories, but couldn’t find [Blooming Flowers and Full Moon] anywhere.
It wasn’t a temporary failure for three minutes—it was completely gone from her body.
Losing such a hard-earned trump card left Tu Ran frustrated, but what bothered her even more was that she couldn’t figure out what the fake Xie Zhao’s ability was, or what its limitations were.
From her experience, the more powerful the ability, the more restrictions it usually had.
The [Ability Seal] that Tu Ran had obtained from the previous Xie Zhao lasted for three minutes.
She wondered if this fake Xie Zhao had a similar ability to eliminate powers, and whether there was a limit to how many times he could do it.
After launching a series of three fireballs, Xi Chunzhi quickly moved toward Tu Ran.
“What’s wrong?” she noticed Tu Ran’s unusual expression.
“He has an ability similar to power elimination. He removed one of my abilities,” Tu Ran explained quickly.
Xi Chunzhi couldn’t hide her shock. Had abilities evolved to this extent? Could they completely eliminate powers?
Indeed, this kind of ability was almost overpowering, crushing in comparison to simple skills like throwing fireballs or instantaneous movement.
No wonder he dared to be so arrogant.
“He didn’t eliminate your abilities, but kept pressuring me to use mine,” Tu Ran said, glancing up at the fake Xie Zhao in mid-air, his brows lowered and his eyes filled with disdain. “I’m sure he doesn’t have many times he can eliminate powers.”
Tu Ran paused and looked at Xi Chunzhi.
The two exchanged calm glances, and Xi Chunzhi immediately understood her meaning.
She turned her attention back to the copy, examining him seriously for the first time—looking from top to bottom, inside and out, as if trying to see through him and into his very soul.
In reality, Xi Chunzhi was looking directly at his soul.
With the [Eye of Fortuna], she could see through his life and death.
“He’s going to die,” Xi Chunzhi said with certainty. “His soul is becoming increasingly transparent.”
Tu Ran’s lips curled into a malicious smile, and her mocking reflection appeared in the fake Xie Zhao’s eyes.
His heart suddenly constricted, a strong sense of unease gripping him. His breathing became labored, as if his lungs were being squeezed and tortured by a giant hand.
He immediately dropped to the ground, fleeing from the oxygen-deprived area. Raising his hand, he summoned a bolt of lightning and hurled it at Tu Ran in retaliation, the crackling sound echoing as it shot toward her.
Tu Ran and Xi Chunzhi quickly split up, with Xi Chunzhi immediately throwing a fireball.
The flames struck the protective shield, causing sparks to fly, and the fake Xie Zhao’s vision was obscured. The next moment, an even hotter laser beam hit the shield.
The laser’s powerful penetrating force made the shield vibrate faintly.
The long, oval-shaped shield was surrounded by red, blue, and white lights.
Inside the shield, the fake Xie Zhao was blinded by the intense light, unable to open his eyes.
He had been waiting for the right moment, hoping Tu Ran would use one of her powerful abilities like [Illusion Realm], [Space Cutting], [Shadow Warrior], or [Ability Seal].
Unfortunately, there was no such moment. After losing her [Blooming Flowers and Full Moon] ability, Tu Ran refused to use any other powers. Not even [Teleportation] to dodge the lightning or [Wheel of Time] to recharge her laser gun.
She came close to being struck by lightning several times, half of her clothes turning charred. Her movements were frantic, but she still had no intention of using her superpowers.
Instead, she continued pulling out various weapons from her space. She had already used up four laser guns, afraid that he might eliminate her [Wheel of Time] ability, leaving the guns unable to recharge. Once they were out of energy, she discarded them on the ground.
What a stingy bastard, the fake Xie Zhao gritted his teeth as he desperately tried to maintain the shield.
He wasn’t willing to waste one of his limited ability-elimination chances just to remove her [Shadow Storage].
The heat of the situation was unbearable.
He regretted not bringing more people with him.
But regrets were useless now.
As the shield finally began to fail under the continuous attacks, the transparent film flickered and cracked. In that instant, Tu Ran and Xi Chunzhi pounced like wolves.
The fake Xie Zhao took a step back in fear.
Tu Ran, Xi Chunzhi—he had heard of them.
In the time before superpowers appeared, these two had already stood out among the pioneers. Their strength was evident and undeniable.
The fake Xie Zhao, wearing Xie Zhao’s face, quickly summoned two lightning bolts—one aimed at Tu Ran, the other at Xi Chunzhi.
He then leapt into the air, using his ability to try and fly away.
Above, the hovering vehicle silently approached, intending to pick him up.
Tu Ran and Xi Chunzhi exchanged a brief glance, and in the next instant, Xi Chunzhi launched a fireball at the hovering vehicle.
Tu Ran, meanwhile, put all her strength into a jump and grabbed the fake Xie Zhao by the ankle, yanking him downward and slamming him forcefully into the ground.
As his body rapidly fell from mid-air, Tu Ran’s intent was clear: she aimed to smash his head, spilling his brains out. In that brief moment before his head met the ground, he focused entirely on creating a protective shield.
He forgot that Tu Ran had the ability [Memory Reading].
The moment Tu Ran made contact with his ankle, a flood of brief but vivid memories surged into her mind.
Brief, because the meaningful memories only spanned two months.
Two months ago, his memories consisted only of a faint red liquid, and the distorted human shapes outside the liquid caused by the refraction of light.
He had grown inside a glass tank, developing a body identical to Xie Zhao’s.
There were many bodies identical to his, and many that differed. In some fleeting images, Tu Ran saw the copies of Xie Xu and Xie Heng.
Two months ago, the first heir of the Xie family died, and Xie Zhao became the next heir.
The group that had been cultivating him took all the Xie Zhao look-alike clones out of the tanks and used a memory transmission device to fill their brains, making them capable of replacing Xie Zhao without being detected, all within the span of two months.
**TN
RIP [Blooming Flowers and Full Moon], my favorite super OP ability. This one reminds me of Kurama from Ghost Fighter. I watched that anime when I was a kid, and there was that one scene where he planted a seed on his opponent’s body, and then it bloomed from the inside. Man, it was super cool. From then on, I wanted to have a superpower related to plants. Ahahaha! My Chuunibyou days. (>0<)
