Chapter 22: Wash Your Face, Then Jump Off the Building

Yang Qi’s face was cold on his way back to the Courtyard from the park, and so were his eyes. Only when he returned to the Courtyard and saw the little ones either playing around or reading and doing homework seriously did his eyes soften and a smile appear on his face.

And because of this, Yang Qi couldn’t let what Qin Muchu said come true.

The people in the Courtyard were too important to Yang Qi; even the slightest mishap would be unacceptable.

What Qin Muchu said was most likely meant to scare him, a joke, but Yang Qi couldn’t be sure, he didn’t dare to guarantee it.

So, he came here in the middle of the night.

This estate had some defensive measures, but for Yang Qi, who descended from the sky on the Phantom Chariot, they meant nothing.

After entering Qin Muchu’s room, Yang Qi briefly considered directly hypnotizing Qin Muchu and making him jump out the window to kill himself.

This was undoubtedly the best method, a clean break. With the high technology of the Phantom Chariot and the magic of Hypnosis, Yang Qi believed there would be no clues left.

But Yang Qi did not do this. He told himself he could not start this sinful precedent. Once this seed of bloodlust was planted, his future would be controlled by it, leading him down the wrong path.

Although Yang Qi detested Qin Muchu, and although Qin Muchu’s threat against the people of the Courtyard touched Yang Qi’s bottom line, he still suppressed the killing intent in his heart. After all, Qin Muchu only threatened him verbally, his crime did not warrant death.

Qin Muchu seemed to feel a slap on his face and woke up with a start. Seeing Yang Qi standing before him, he was shocked and was about to scream, but then he found his consciousness growing fuzzy, and after that, he knew nothing.

After hypnotizing Qin Muchu, Yang Qi routinely asked a few guiding questions and got to the main point: “How much do you hate Yang Qi?”

“Hate him, I hate him very much, I wish he would die immediately.”

“You threatened Yang Qi with his family, was that just to scare him?”

“No, I already told the butler to take action. The butler said Yang Qi would be kneeling before me begging next week.”

Hearing this answer, Yang Qi’s eyes turned extremely cold, his chest heaving.

“Now it seems, besides killing you, there really is no other way to stop my family from being threatened.”

Yang Qi had thought about using Hypnosis to make Qin Muchu forget his memories of opposing him. But even that was not safe. The people around him could easily make Qin Muchu remember his hatred for Yang Qi. Even if he didn’t remember, with his personality and the words of those around him, he would surely come to hate Yang Qi again.

So, he could only kill him!

“It seems this sinful beginning is destined to happen after all!”

Yang Qi gritted his teeth. He told himself he had to do this. Compared to the safety of his family in the Courtyard, Qin Muchu’s life wasn’t worth a penny.

“In that case, then jump out the window. Head first!”

Yang Qi coldly gave the command. However, before he could finish speaking, the notification sound appeared in his mind again.

“Ding! Task triggered: cause a person’s emotional neuron disorder through Hypnosis.”

“Task completion reward: early activation of the [Emotion Control] sub-effect under [Psychokinesis].”

“Task failure penalty: cancel the already activated [Hypnosis] sub-effect under [Psychokinesis].”

“Ding! This task has a time limit of 10 minutes. The countdown begins now.”

…

Detailed information about the task flooded into Yang Qi’s mind.

Emotional neurons were one of the many neurons in the human brain’s domain. Research on the human brain domain on planet SM69 had reached a very high level; they could distinguish and highly utilize brain domain neurons, something current Earth technology could not achieve. The information introduced emotional neurons, but for Yang Qi to rely on Hypnosis to find and disorder emotional neurons was still very difficult.

This was a task, but also a challenge. Completing it would naturally be good, allowing early activation of [Emotion Control], normally obtained at [Psychokinesis] Lv.3. If he failed, his already activated [Hypnosis] would be directly canceled. Whether it was a permanent cancellation or postponed to the next level for reactivation, Yang Qi did not know.

So, this task could only succeed, not fail.

And the countdown had already begun!

Yang Qi didn’t expect to suddenly trigger such a task. Thinking about it carefully, it was very likely related to his earlier muttering to himself. It seemed the Superpower List was offering him another method besides making Qin Muchu jump off the building. Whether he could obtain this method depended on himself.

Calming down, temporarily removing all distracting thoughts, Yang Qi began searching for the fluctuations of Qin Muchu’s emotional neurons using Hypnosis.

The fluctuations of neurons were extremely subtle. If not for Yang Qi’s Hypnosis, he absolutely could not sense them. This belonged to the realm of Psychic Energy and psychology, already beyond the concept of matter.

One minute passed quickly. Yang Qi couldn’t even distinguish the types of neurons among the complex neurons in the brain domain. Even with the specific introduction to emotional neurons, he couldn’t sense them immediately.

Three minutes passed, and it was still the same.

Yang Qi was already getting a bit anxious. It wasn’t until the fifth minute that his heart truly calmed down.

He knew very well that if his heart wasn’t calm, this task would fail completely.

Sensed it!

In the sixth minute, Yang Qi finally sensed the fluctuation of the first emotional neuron.

Finding the first one made finding the second much easier.

This time, it only took about thirty seconds for Yang Qi to lock onto the second emotional neuron.

The next step was to disorder them.

The method for causing disorder was also included in the information.

Yang Qi now only needed to proceed steadily, fulfilling all the requirements listed in the information.

Disordering neurons required collisions between neurons. Yang Qi currently could not manipulate neurons; all he could do was guide them. The guiding force was definitely relatively weak, so causing a collision leading to disorder was difficult.

Several consecutive collisions just barely grazed past each other.

However, Yang Qi’s mind remained very calm this time; no impatience appeared.

He didn’t check how much time was left, focusing entirely on guiding the neuronal collisions.

Finally, the notification sound rang in Yang Qi’s mind, announcing the task’s completion. At that moment, less than ten seconds remained.

“Ding! Completed the neuronal disorder task. Reward obtained: early activation of the [Emotion Control] sub-effect under [Psychokinesis].”

Yang Qi saw the [Emotion Control] option light up on the Superpower List, and a large amount of knowledge immediately appeared in his mind. How to operate it, what effects it had—all related information was there.

At the same time, because of the early activation of [Emotion Control], the effect slot for [Psychokinesis] Lv.3 on the Superpower List became empty. It wasn’t as ideal as Yang Qi had hoped, where all effects would be obtained one level early.

After familiarizing himself with [Emotion Control], Yang Qi also understood the other method besides making Qin Muchu jump off the building. That was to use the newly obtained [Emotion Control] to affect Qin Muchu’s hatred towards him, dissolve that hatred, and even make Qin Muchu inwardly revere Yang Qi, not daring to do anything harmful to him again.

Compared to making Qin Muchu jump off the building, this more thoroughly solved the future trouble. Jumping off a building would still trigger a series of investigations. Many people knew about the conflict between Yang Qi and Qin Muchu. Although they might not be able to find anything, it was still a potential risk.

Several sub-effects under [Psychokinesis] were interconnected, even forming a set of effects. For example, Emotion Control and Hypnosis were closely related; the two working together could achieve twice the result with half the effort. Dream Construction was also linked with Hypnosis.

One could even say Emotion Control and Dream Construction were supplements and sublimations of Hypnosis.

Under the effect of Hypnosis, Yang Qi quickly completed the emotional control of Qin Muchu, dissolving the hatred Qin Muchu held for him in his heart and increasing his reverence for Yang Qi. As for making Qin Muchu like or admire him, Yang Qi decided against it. He didn’t want to be liked and admired by someone he disliked.

After doing all this, Yang Qi finally breathed a sigh of relief. This matter was considered over.

However, Yang Qi was not a saint. Although he wasn’t ruthless enough to make Qin Muchu jump off the building, he certainly couldn’t just let go of Qin Muchu’s threat against his family, or the harm that might have been about to come.

“Jump off from the balcony.”

Yang Qi still gave the command to jump, but from the balcony, not the window, and most importantly, not head first. Since there was grass behind the balcony, death was unlikely; at most, he might break a leg.

As Qin Muchu walked mechanically towards the balcony, Yang Qi suddenly made him stop again, remembering the fingerprint he left on Qin Muchu’s face from slapping him. So, he changed the command: “Wash your face first, then jump off the building.”

Qin Muchu obediently went to wash his face and then jumped off the balcony.

The moment he jumped, Yang Qi released him from the hypnotic state and simultaneously summoned the Phantom Chariot, flying into the high sky.

Qin Muchu fell to the ground, letting out a scream like a slaughtered pig, immediately attracting the estate’s bodyguards, the butler, and Xun Tuizhi, who also lived in the estate.

Qin Muchu was now fully awake. He couldn’t understand why he had fallen from upstairs. Was he sleepwalking?

“Master Qin, what happened to you?”

A group of people surrounded Qin Muchu, asking anxiously. It wasn’t that they truly cared about Qin Muchu’s well-being, but about their own jobs. If something happened to Master Qin, they would all be in big trouble.

“My foot!”

Qin Muchu found he couldn’t move his foot. Tears streamed down his face, and he was terrified to the extreme. Suddenly, scenes like a dream flashed through his mind, giving rise to a feeling that this fall from upstairs was retribution for him doing something bad. He immediately grabbed the butler’s hand and asked, “Have you acted on the revenge against Yang Qi?”

“Not yet. Don’t worry, Master Qin, I’ll have them do it right away,” the butler replied.

Qin Muchu shook his head repeatedly. “No, don’t do it. Don’t take revenge.”

And with the inexplicable incident of jumping off the building, Qin Muchu suddenly lost all his hatred for Yang Qi and even felt a trace of reverence towards him. This provided a plausible explanation in his subconscious mind. Logic didn’t matter; under the effect of Emotion Control, Qin Muchu’s subconscious would convince himself.