Chapter 185: The Mad Building

He remembered back when they left the city to seek the Knights Order. Mother seemed to possess a direct ability to locate people.

After relaxing, Lu Xin’s mind conjured an image of Mother’s elegant figure.

Gradually, he grew increasingly calm.

Then he sensed that his perception of the world suddenly sharpened significantly.

This clarity wasn’t visual, but rather mental. When he looked at the two Security Guards at the entrance, they seemed to thin out and turn transparent. He could perceive their inner thoughts…

It was as if he instantly understood they were discussing the unstable voltage in this residential area.

Such individuals were, of course, safe.

Then Lu Xin gazed around him. In the adjacent buildings, many people slept, their mental states complex and murky. Each mind held distinct thoughts and emotions; their “colors” intertwined into a vivid ocean.

At that moment, the entire surroundings seemed transformed in Lu Xin’s eyes.

He could see the Spiritual Entities around him, each radiating different hues.

Or perhaps, describing them as “colors” wasn’t quite accurate.

These “colors” were the brain’s feedback—translating information into comprehensible imagery.

What he perceived wasn’t color, but rather the “state” of a Spiritual Entity. From these various hues, he could effortlessly distinguish whether they were peaceful or irritable, excited or despondent, anxious or melancholic?

Is this how Mother always sees the world?

This was the first time Lu Xin attempted to forcibly use Mother’s ability. Unlike Little Sister, he hadn’t borrowed power from Mother before. Even when he needed her help previously, she usually appeared proactively and assisted him directly.

The sudden flood of countless Spiritual Entities and their myriad colors overwhelmed Lu Xin.

But he quickly grasped the priority.

His immediate objective wasn’t to analyze this ability, but to locate the person controlling the Psychic Entity.

Summoning his focus, he scanned his surroundings.

Nearby buildings and walls now appeared like semi-transparent black objects.

Seeing through them, Lu Xin discerned the Spiritual Entities beyond.

Moreover, Lu Xin felt certain that upon spotting the controller of the Psychic Entity, he could instantly differentiate him from the other residents here.

The Spiritual Entities of ordinary people differed from Ability Users, and the Entity of an Ability User actively employing their power must differ from a dormant one. As long as he was nearby, Lu Xin would find him…

…Holding this conviction, Lu Xin soon felt his Heart sink faintly.

He failed to locate the controller of the Psychic Entity.

Moreover, one fact became clear to him: it wasn’t that he overlooked the person—the person simply didn’t exist.

The Drunkard had misjudged the situation.

The instant this thought surfaced, Lu Xin spun around and sprinted back toward the Drunkard’s home.

Since the controller wasn’t present here, only one solution remained:

When Mother’s ability couldn’t locate them, resort to Father’s method:

Directly seize the two Psychic Entities and extract their origins through interrogation…

…However, how could he make himself resemble Father more?

……

Lu Xin could make himself more like Little Sister to borrow her abilities in her absence. He could also think of Mother’s usual demeanor to use her abilities. But Father’s ability—how could he borrow that?

His personality differed too drastically from Father’s.

Even if he tried to imitate him, he’d never grasp the essence…

Mulling over this problem, Lu Xin strode forward at a rapid pace, accelerating with each step.

He arrived at the foot of the Drunkard’s building swiftly.

Glancing upward, Lu Xin instantly felt a headache intensify. A roar filled his ears, as if bombarded by tangled TV static.

This sensation only caused him a momentary daze before clarity returned. Plunging into the stairwell, he raced ahead.

He could potentially scale the walls, but with Little Sister absent, he felt unskilled at using her ability solo. The descent moments ago had left his legs weak with fright; attempting another ascent filled him with apprehension.

Additionally, considering the Drunkard’s warning that the Monsters might ascend from below, he might just confront them earlier by taking this route.

Charging into the corridor, Lu Xin skipped the elevator and aimed for the stairwell.

Yet the moment his foot hit the second step, he froze abruptly. A dark Shadow stood ahead.

Focusing his gaze, the silhouette in the dimness sharpened. She stood trembling within the passageway, her eyes chillingly cold.

“Granny Wang?” Lu Xin murmured in surprise.

……

Lu Xin had met this old lady when he first came back with the Drunkard. Surnamed Wang, she seemed to be living here with a young child. A very amiable granny, she would share tasty treats she made with her neighbors and got along quite well with everyone on the block.

Now, in the dead of night, with a Psychic Entity lurking here, why would she be coming downstairs?

“You’re the young man Gege brought home, aren’t you?”

Granny Wang looked up and saw Lu Xin. A kindly expression appeared on her face, but whether it was due to the dim light at this hour or something else, her smile seemed rather stiff, and her eyes held a faint, sinister glint.

She raised the basket in her hand, slowly saying with a smile, “I’m bringing some tasty treats for the neighbors…”

“Bringing snacks in the middle of the night?”

Lu Xin frowned slightly, sensing something was off about her. He didn’t leave immediately.

“That’s right…”

Granny Wang spoke slowly as she descended the stairs. Her voice sounded peculiar in the deathly silent stairwell: “I’m just a lonely old widow, living here with my little grandson. Who knows when someone might try to bully us? These neighbors of mine, not a single one is any good. They covet the little foodstuff this old woman buys all day, then try to fob me off with a few rotten fruits. I just don’t bother arguing with them…”

“After all, if something really happens in the future, I’ll still need to ask them for help…”

“Once they’ve eaten my food, and not repaid this favor, do they think this old granny is someone to be bullied so easily?”

“……”

Chattering away, she slowly walked down. She picked up the basket and spat into it several times.

Ptooey, ptooey.

Her face twisted into an eerie smile: “Let them eat it, let them eat it all…”

Lu Xin furrowed his brow and stared fixedly at the old woman. Not seeing any Psychic Entity attached to her, he simply nodded.

With a leap, he grabbed the stair railing and bounded up the stairs in large strides.

Ascending floor by floor, he found the building had turned into something like a Ghost Domain.

He was still in the state of mimicking Mother’s abilities, so he could see many things. As he rushed upward, all manner of scenes throughout the entire building entered his sight – or rather, flashed directly into his mind.

On the fourth floor, he saw a couple arguing. The woman stood outside the room, her belly swollen in pregnancy, yelling viciously inside: “You think I didn’t know what was on your mind? You’re nothing but scum! Filthy scum! Once you tricked me into marrying you, you started lusting after my best friend! Think I didn’t see you doing those disgusting things to her picture in the bathroom? You make me sick to death!”

“Slap slap slap!”

The man inside was frantically smashing things: “I’ve had enough of you! Stop pretending to be all delicate and wronged all day! I know exactly how many guys slept with you back when you were hitting the nightclubs every night! Why did sleeping with you cost just a drink back then, but now I have to buy you a house, buy you a car, buy you outrageously expensive fruit?! Why do I have to humble myself serving you like this?!”

Lu Xin didn’t linger, charging straight upward.

On the seventh floor, he saw people fighting. A slightly plump woman was forcefully slapping an old man in a wheelchair: “You decrepit old fart! Tell me where you hid the money! Right now! Your son’s money belongs to me! How dare you hide it?! Those thieving eyes of yours are always glued to my ass behind my back! Think I didn’t know?! You disgusting pervert! Shameless! Serves you right that I pushed you down the stairs…”

“Curses! Don’t think you can escape…”

The old man shielded his head, shouting desperately: “Don’t think you’ll ever find it! It’s my son’s money! You’ll never find it! I’d rather burn the money than give it to someone like you! Keep dreaming, you vile bitch! You deserve to be thrown out into The Wilderness!”

……

Everyone in this building had lost their minds…

Lu Xin moved with agile grace, racing up the stairs straight toward the upper floors, like passing through a Hell.

He saw a bespectacled High School Student in uniform squatting by a door, splashing a bucket of gasoline onto a locked entrance. He then snickered as he struck a match, chuckling coldly: “Burn to death! Burn you all to death! Serves you right for not buying me my computer…”

He saw a child shove an old man who was walking towards the stairs, yelling: “Mind your own business! Drop dead!”

He saw a young man dressed in a smart suit stealing cured meat from a neighbor’s windowsill.

He saw a wife pour a vial of sickly green medicine into a pot of soup. Stirring it vigorously, her eyes glowed with fervent light: “Die! All of you die! Why should all the housework be mine? Why should I bear all the bitterness?”

“Might as well all be dead… might as well every single one of you die…”