Clap.Clap.Clap
But Shuren didn't turn around. She didn't need to. She pulled another cigarette from her pack with one hand, rolling it between her fingers as if nothing in the room had changed.A flame sparked. She lit it calmly, inhaled, and let the smoke curl from her lips.
"Impressive, not only did you break her arm, shoot off her ear but you still found time for comedy. I must admit you're something else."
Shuren exhaled
"At least I'm not a fraud who lets my subordinates die while I watch from a chair."
The room was silent once more. Zheng Yan rested his chin in his hand and looked up, his green eyes sparkling slightly with curious, rather than affronted, intent.
"Death, that's a pretty interesting term."he repeated thoughtfully.
His face smiled a little more.
"But I think we should… twist your words a bit."
Shuren's brow furrowed.
"…What do you mean?"
Zheng Yan pointed lazily at the entrance with two fingers.
"Why don't you take a look for yourself?"
Shuren turned. She strode toward the doors, her pace unrushed but her instincts screaming. Her hand stayed near her weapon as she reached for the handle.
Crunch.
A wet, rhythmic sound, sounded like chewing. Her fingers froze and slowly, she pulled the door open. Outside something massive was standing tall
.It was the plain abomination of human skin in a place it didn't belong, sewn and fused into an obscene mockery of muscle and shape. Human faces adorned the torso of the construct, limply and lifelessly, their mouths open in perpetual scream.
The thing raised its head, with blood dripping from its jaw. In one hand, it held Taura or what was left of her. The thing tilted its head as if curious, then proceeded to stretch its mouth impossibly wide to swallow Taura.
Shuren didn't breathe, and she didn't blink. She just glanced back at Zheng Yan's location, her face expressing a slight boredom. Then out of nowhere Shuren shot the door and the illusion broke many pieces.
"If you're that desperate to trick me then you're going to need some time, kid." Shuren said
Zheng Yan was pleased with what he just witnessed making him clap his hands yet again. To him that was the fastest time someone escaped his illusion.
"My curiosity is getting the best of me, you know but I have to ask. Are you a Sionel by any chance?" Zheng Yan asked.
"And what about it? It's not like if I am a Sionel that would make any difference. So are you a Sionel?"
Zheng Yan nodded to Shuren's statement, even though he had to admit that what she was spouting had some truth in it.
"You are correct but I'm so sorry to tell you but just because I just used an illusion on you doesn't make me a Sionel as well. I'm just a simple user of the internal energy that our dear goddess provided us with."
Shuren tilted her head in confusion, clearly not understanding what Zheng Yan just said.
"My apologies for speaking in a formal tone. By internal energy I am talking about Qi…yes I'm a user of Qi like the other residents of our world."
Shuren's eyes widened, her mouth widened making her active cigarette fall to the ground. Zheng Yan gave a smirk seeing Shuren's reaction.
"Oh why are you shocked? Using the simple illusion arts to attempt to play with your mind made you react like this?"
Shuren was still shocked and couldn't even properly answer Zheng Yan's question. What Shuren couldn't believe was that she knew that all Qi uses should not even exist. At least that was what she heard, so how is a Qi user standing right in front of him and just used one of the illusion arts on her.
Shuren slapped herself to get herself out of the questioning stage.
"Your right I am shocked because from what I was told the concept of Qi was erased and people had lost the ability to do their said techniques. But I guess the information I was given was false then."
Zheng Yan let out a chuckle, which was light and undisguisedly amused, as if she were pleased she had made such a witty remark.
"Erased is such a dramatic word," he said.
"Qi was never destroyed. What your records call 'history' is merely the version that survived censorship."
Shuren's eyes narrowed.
"Then everyone else was lied to.Including you." Zheng Yan finished calmly.
He stopped a few steps away. Close enough that she could see the faint glow beneath his skin, subtle, restrained, like heat under glass.
"Qi still exists but in small fragments and as I said earlier thanks to our dear goddess who blessed us with these small amounts of Qi. Many martial masters didn't waste their time and came up with more techniques while reviving the other ones."
Shuren tapped her head with her gun, processing everything that Zheng Yan was spouting. At first it sounded like a stupid lie, that's until he talked about their goddess. Which caught her attention.
What would that goddess do to be involved and also if she did how did she do it? She does have the power to do so but how? Unless the goddess got some help from them.
"You're in deep thought, maybe you found some truth and if so please…do share."
Shuren stayed silent and did a deep sigh before staring back at Zheng Yan with cold eyes.
"Not happening because you're going to be dead by the time I decide to share what I was thinking about."
"Someone's mad."
Shuren points her gun at Zheng Yan, her finger on the trigger ready to fire.