I suddenly felt a cold sweat running down my back.

  Zhu Shi's ability can see through lies?

  I reflexively recalled whether I had lied to Zhu Shi and how many lies I had told.

  Fortunately, unlike when I was facing Ma Zao and Chang'an, I had generally been sincere with Zhu Shi, so I hadn’t lied much… but that was impossible.

  I had already lied in front of her, always using Agent Kong as an excuse to say I heard this or that, and even pretended not to know Ma Zao while probing for information in front of her and Patrol Lu.

  Although the lies I told Zhu Shi were fewer than those I told Ma Zao, to say I had been completely honest with her was an absurd falsehood.

  Recently, I had lied so much that I couldn’t even remember if I had lied and forgotten about it immediately afterward.

  Had she seen all of that?

  I had even silently compined about her being so easily deceived!

  "Zhuang Cheng, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Zhu Shi asked curiously.

  "No, nothing..."

  Wait, can she really see through my lies? Calm down, don’t panic.

  If she really can discern every lie, then even if Agent Kong could temporarily hand over the Seed of the Heart, he wouldn’t be able to hide the identity of the Oddities from her.

  And if she had previously pretended not to notice my lies, there would be no need for her to now reveal that she had the ability to see through lies.

  From the clues I had observed in the past, her ability probably wasn’t always active.

  I needed to test it further.

  Perhaps seeing that I wasn’t reacting properly, Zhu Shi’s expression became thoughtful. "Did you lie to me before?"

  Did she really not know?

  "Yes." I admitted directly, then turned the tables and asked in a testing tone, "Do you know which one it was?"

  Seeing my calm attitude, she seemed to think it wasn’t such a serious lie and answered in a rexed tone, "I don’t know. Which one was it?"

  "It was the one I said just now, that if it’s inconvenient to expin your ability, you don’t need to force yourself." I said.

  "Ah, that sentence!" She suddenly realized, her face lighting up.

  "That makes sense. You’re so interested in strange and mysterious things, of course you'd want to dig into my ability. So that was just a polite remark!"

  It seemed she genuinely didn’t know.

  Also, to be fair, I really hadn’t pnned on digging too deeply before.

  The unknown has its own allure, and I wasn’t in such a hurry to uncover every secret.

  "Do you usually not use that ability?" I asked.

  "I don’t usually use it on allies because it can easily offend people. Plus, using it continuously strains my eyes," she replied.

  I first felt a wave of relief, then noticed something odd in her wording.

  "Why would seeing through lies offend people?"

  I tried to build a logical reasoning chain in my head.

  While it wasn’t entirely unreasonable, it still felt insufficient as an expnation.

  "It’s not just about seeing through lies. My ability also makes it easy for me to see through other people's abilities," she expined.

  "Do you remember that Oddities from st night?"

  "I remember, You made his ability stop working. Was that also reted to you finding a fw in it?" I asked.

  "When an opponent uses their ability in front of me, I can identify the fw in it. And in that process, the true nature of their ability is revealed to me, That’s why I immediately knew his ability was ‘damage transfe.,’" she said.

  I see.

  She had mentioned before how important it was to conceal one’s power.

  For those who rely on keeping their trump cards hidden, her ability would pose a significant threat.

  Naturally, it wouldn’t be appropriate to casually use it on allies.

  In those superpowered strategy manga, her ability could even be considered a "game-breaking cheat."

  And to think she once said my skill was overpowered—hers, in some ways, was far more absurd.

  "But still, what fw did you see in the ‘damage transfer’ ability that made it suddenly stop working?" I pondered aloud.

  “There isn’t actually such a fw. It’s just that…”

  She paused briefly, then said something even more outrageous.

  “When there’s no objective fw, or when there’s no exploitable fw I can use, my ability allows me to subjectively force the observation of a fw that I can exploit.”

  “And as long as I attack that fw, I can achieve an extraordinary effect.

  Since his ability was ‘damage transfer,’ I was able to deal damage that couldn’t be transferred.”

  What kind of broken ability is this?!

  If I wasn’t misunderstanding her, she could essentially create a weakness out of thin air, one even her opponent wouldn’t know existed.

  “Your ability is way more ridiculous than mine…” I said in disbelief.

  “No, it’s not!” she replied, though her voice carried a hint of pride.

  “Does this ability have a name?” I asked, curious.

  “Yes, it does. My grandfather gave it this name.”

  She clenched her fist lightly, coughed softly into it, and then said with a serious expression.

  “This ability is called ‘Buzhou Mountain.’ ‘Bu’ means ‘negation,’ and ‘Zhou’ means ‘completeness.’ Buzhou signifies the negation of completeness.”

  “And ‘Mountain’ carries my grandfather’s wish—he hoped I could grow strong enough to cut down a mountain with a single strike, just like the Ancient God who toppled Buzhou Mountain…”

  As she spoke, her voice gradually grew softer, her cheeks flushing pink.

  I understood her perfectly.

  Expining the profound meaning behind your ability’s name feels embarrassingly simir to expining the lore of a middle-school fantasy notebook.

  Even if those “settings” were crafted by her grandfather, saying them aloud herself must’ve felt mortifying.

  She probably started off confident, only to grow increasingly self-conscious halfway through.

  Seeing her so flustered, I tactfully stepped in to save her from her embarrassment and smoothly changed the subject.

  “Since your ability can also target inanimate objects, could you take a look at this for me?”

  She tched onto the change in topic like grabbing a lifeline.

  “What is it?” she asked eagerly.

  I took out the Bck Rope Heart-Locking Ring that Patrol Lu had given me.

  "Bck Rope Heart-Locking Ring?" She paused, slightly startled.

  "This is an artifact that mimics the authority of the underworld's Yama King, preventing its target from lying or staying silent.

  Otherwise, they'll suffer a fatal punishment... But I recall this should belong to Lu Chan. Why is it in your possession?"

  "Patrol Lu gave it to me," I expined.

  "He said it was a personal gift to thank me for helping him track down leads on the 'Humanitarian Division.'

  But honestly, I don't know him that well, and him giving me a gift out of the blue makes me uneasy. So I wanted you to take a look at it."

  "What!"

  Hearing that Patrol Lu had given me a gift, Zhu Shi's expression shifted dramatically.

  "You’ve been meeting with him in private!"

  "Uh… yes."

  Judging from her reaction, she was probably worried about Patrol Lu trying to recruit me.

  I quickly crified, "He tried to bring me into the Transcendentalist Faction, but don’t worry, I refused.

  More importantly, could you check this ring for me?"

  Hearing this, Zhu Shi immediately took the ring from me and began carefully examining it under the light.

  Her expression grew increasingly serious.

  My heart tightened as I watched her.

  Could there really be something wrong with this ring? Should I abandon it? I didn't want to give up such a rare and useful supernatural artifact if I could avoid it.

  After a long while, she finally looked up with a stern face and said, "The ring is fine."

  "Then why do you look so grim…"

  "Damn Lu Chan," she muttered angrily, completely ignoring my question.

  "Even I haven’t given Senior Brother Zhuang a gift yet…"

  Then, suddenly, she looked at me with determination and asked, "Senior Brother Zhuang, is there any gift you’d like to receive?"

  "You don’t need to give me anything," I said awkwardly.

  "I haven’t done anything that warrants a gift from you."

  I wasn’t good at handling these kinds of conversations, so I quickly changed the subject again.

  "By the way, it seems like you've been putting in a lot of effort to help me hide my elementalization.

  But I should let you know—Patrol Lu already knows about it.

  Last night, he was watching our fight from afar through binocurs."

  "What? He did that too?! Lu Chan, that scoundrel…" She once again wore an expression of deep frustration.

  I was thinking about how to expin my conversation with Patrol Lu to Zhu Shi.

  Although Patrol Lu accused Zhu Shi's faction of being the ones who would ultimately ensve humanity, I didn’t believe they currently had such intentions.

  At the very least, Zhu Shi certainly didn’t—this was something even Patrol Lu couldn’t deny.

  I had no interest in thoroughly studying the ideologies and doctrines of either side, nor did I have any intention of getting involved in their open and covert power struggles.

  I would focus on pursuing what I wanted, walking the path I had chosen, and calmly accepting whatever difficulties or consequences came from my choices.

  And if Zhu Shi ever found herself unable to bear the path her faction had taken, I would stand by her side as a friend.

  That was enough for me.

  Before I could voice these thoughts, a loud, abnormal rumbling noise erupted in the distance and rapidly approached our direction.

  Zhu Shi and I exchanged a gnce and immediately hid behind a nearby parked car.

  No sooner had we concealed ourselves than the distant neighborhood wall was violently smashed apart from the outside.

  A massive bck silhouette forcibly crashed into the residential area.

  Despite it being nighttime, its clear outline allowed me to immediately identify it.

  It was a humanoid monster, towering at three meters tall, with grotesque, terrifying ram-like horns on its head, and a muscur, explosive physique.

  This was the very Oddities we had been searching for!

  After breaking into the residential area, the Oddities didn’t stop moving.

  It charged toward us at an arming speed.

  Had it discovered us? No—it didn’t feel that way.

  Somehow, I got the impression that it was running away from something.

  And just as it closed the distance to less than twenty meters from us, a new figure suddenly appeared behind it.

  The figure materialized without any warning, as if spat out by the air itself, floating briefly in mid-air with a rge recurve bde in hand.

  The newcomer swung their weapon immediately, aiming a strike at the back of the Oddities neck.

  I recognized her instantly.

  It was a girl, about thirteen or fourteen years old, with a face that haunted my dreams, a petite and delicate body, and movements that were sharp and deadly.

  She struck with a ferocity that left no room for hesitation.

  The bde fell like the guillotine’s executioner axe, slicing through solid muscle and sturdy bone effortlessly.

  The sudden intruder, Ma Zao, had appeared out of nowhere and, with a single strike, decapitated the Oddities.

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