Chapter Nineteen: The Arrogant One

Gongsun Ce opened his pocket watch to check the time.

It was now 7:25. Having ridden a pigeon across half the Fixed Wing Zone, the two of them were standing before the entrance to the district’s wastewater treatment plant.

“This time our target is Yoshihisa Takizawa—a former researcher from Zero Island, with a gloomy temperament. According to the Impermanence Method, he’s at the Divine Realm, but his exact abilities are unknown.”

“Did Mo Yuan Kai mention any details?”

“The informant said he deduced the destination from anomalies in the water flow. From his account, we might be facing an enemy who uses water to fight.”

The young man led Alice and leapt over the gate, his superpowers particularly useful at moments like this.

“Using water in combat… According to what you’ve told me before, this enemy is a practitioner of the Strange Aspect Method?”

During their earlier pigeon ride, Alice had shared some basic knowledge about the Impermanence Method.

The Wild Aspect Method, which he had already encountered twice, mostly manifested as physical enhancement. Alice herself used the Brahma Aspect Method, which manipulated space or time. The hunter’s description reminded him of the Strange Aspect within the Impermanence Method.

According to the hunter, practitioners of the Strange Aspect Method often excel at manipulating their surroundings, sometimes conjuring flames, lightning, energy spheres, and other attacks out of thin air. They resembled sorcerers from fantasy novels; if compared to the superpowered folk of Sky City, they would be the typical energy-type users.

Alice shook her head. “Not necessarily. Water is a conveniently available material, and many Spirit Aspect practitioners use it as a medium to cast illusions or launch psychic attacks. Judging abilities based on fragmentary information isn’t reliable until we see the enemy ourselves.”

He remembered that the Spirit Aspect of the Impermanence Method often manifested as illusions, mental suggestion, or mind control.

The methods of Impermanence practitioners were surprisingly diverse.

“We’re at the site now. I need to remind you—this isn’t some old, rundown factory in the city’s backstreets. A modern wastewater plant covers at least 25,000 square meters, which is more than the area of three large football fields. And that’s just the land area, not the buildings. If you count the pump house, laboratory, dehydration room, and so on, we could spend all night here and still not finish searching.”

The superpowered youth wasn’t exaggerating. They were now walking along a central path bordered by tidy rows of massive circular sewage pools, with more unfamiliar facilities ahead. Alice Aidar visibly shuddered upon seeing these structures—each round pool was covered by a smooth layer of flesh wall. The gray-blue flesh was etched with glowing green lines, proof of their origin in the city’s biotechnology.

The hunter swallowed nervously. “First, tell me—what are these bio-flesh walls?”

“The scientific name is Clean-Type Bio·Flesh Wall. Like the Bio·Horse and Bio·Pigeon, there’s a dot in the name, but we usually ignore it when speaking.”

“They’re really called bio-flesh walls?! This is the third or fourth biotech product I’ve seen today. Why are Sky City’s researchers obsessed with these things?!”

“How should I know? Maybe the lunatics at the Cecil Lab think a giant pigeon, horse, or chunk of flesh is cooler than any laser gun, satellite ray, or huge robot.”

Gongsun Ce fully understood the hunter’s confusion.

He too thought giant robots were far more stylish than these bizarre biotech creations.

Unfortunately, the lab-coated researchers’ inventions actually proved useful. They hadn’t smelled any foul odors by the sewage pools, thanks to these biological tissues. As an ordinary citizen enjoying technological convenience, the young man had no grounds to accuse them of wasting funds, so he could only comment on aesthetics.

The blue-haired woman’s lips twitched. “Frankly, robots and bio-creatures are equally odd. Are you familiar with the layout here? What’s the first step in processing domestic sewage?”

She didn’t like giant robots? What was wrong with her?

“I visited once in high school. Sky City’s wastewater plants use the activated sludge method. A few years ago, the lab coats bred a new strain of purification microbes, which greatly boost the efficiency when paired with those bio-flesh walls you just saw. We usually call that—”

“I’m guessing Purification-Type Bio·Sludge.”

“You’re becoming more like a local.” The youth clapped to encourage her. “From what little I remember, domestic sewage first goes through several stages to remove dense inorganic particles, then sedimentation to clear smaller suspended solids, and only then do the purification microbes kick in. We’re now…”

The hunter grimaced. “I don’t make a hobby of searching wastewater plant procedures online, so I have no idea what you’re saying.”

“In short, before microbes purify the water, sewage first flows into a large sedimentation pool.”

“Then let’s check the place where sewage first enters for any traces of spirit aspects. If he’s used his abilities here, we should find something… Good grief, before dinner I was fighting Tyros, after dinner I’m poking around sewage next to flesh blocks. On missions, my stomach suffers more than my brain.”

Look on the bright side—at least your heart hasn’t stopped beating.

The superpowered youth almost wanted to comfort the hunter with his own experiences, but managed to swallow his words.

“Look on the bright side—at least you didn’t eat stinky tofu, durian, or fermented bean curd tonight.”

“If you can’t think of something nice, just don’t speak. No need to force it.”

Their footsteps didn’t pause as they conversed, moving quickly down the path, checking the map for directions. After some time, they finally spotted the sedimentation pools the superpowered youth had mentioned—a row of square basins separated by railings.

Murky sewage surged through the pools, with silt rapidly filtered out. Though the staff had evacuated before their arrival, the large facilities still operated automatically.

This time, there were no biological tissues atop the pools; the stench of sewage hit his nose.

The young man noticed traces of gray-blue flesh roots around the basin edges. It seemed the staff had taken the bio-flesh walls along when evacuating.

“Wait a moment…” Alice pulled out paper and pen, sketching a one-eyed monster symbol onto a sheet the size of a note.

He pinched his nose, wondering why the plant workers had acted so. Maybe the cleaning bio-flesh walls held some unknown safety risk, requiring staff nearby to monitor them. But that would make the previous pools’ flesh walls inexplicable—they hadn’t been moved… Perhaps the hurried evacuation meant they hadn’t finished handling them…

Alice was trying to let the paper touch the sewage, but her face turned green as she struggled.

“Need help?”

“What do you think?”

Gongsun Ce pointed to the sedimentation pool. The hunter’s paper floated down, touching the sewage for a second before an invisible force pulled it up.

Night had fallen.

It was the new moon; no pale disk hung in the sky, only stars shining brighter than the city below.

In the darkness, he couldn’t see the symbol changing. The youth walked over to Alice, watching her paper.

He saw the black-inked symbol gradually turning a vivid red.

“I’m guessing that’s a sign of reaction.”

Alice tore up the paper. “Anyone can see that. Be ready—the dragon cultist arrived first, he could—”

“He could attack us any moment! No, little girl. Before that, there’s something more important you should worry about.”

A strange, mocking voice reached their ears.

The sound was muffled, as if blocked by something, yet the speaker made no effort to hide himself. Despite his volume not being high, his words overpowered the noise from the pools, and were clearer than their own conversation.

Gongsun Ce and Alice turned around together.

A tall man’s silhouette emerged from the darkness.

“Oh, you heard me? Not bad—at least your ears ar