Chapter 697: A New Brother

My sister Siwei and I were walking along the road when suddenly two people dashed out and stood in front of us, saying they wanted the "yu" we had on us.

But we didn't have it with us; it was all with Uncle Wan.

I thought we were going to get beaten, but then a young man suddenly appeared. He threw out a few cards and conjured a ball of flame in his hand, quickly scaring off the two troublemakers.

He was so impressive, like a superman.

Siwei pulled my hand and stepped forward to face him.

The young man looked at us both with some curiosity, then casually slipped his small cloth bundle into his pocket.

"You women and children shouldn't be moving around alone. Find somewhere to hide," he said.

I noticed he was wearing all black clothes, and his hair was very long—I'd never seen a young man with long hair before.

He nodded casually at us both and then started to leave.

His scent was different from others'. Besides the "qing xiang," there wasn't much "absolute despair," just more "doubt."

"Sister..." I squeezed my sister's hand, and she understood what I meant.

"Um... could you wait a moment?" she asked.

The young man in the distance stopped and turned back to look at us. "What is it?"

Sister turned to me and called, "Yingxiong..."

I nodded, lifted my nose to sniff, and those two words came through clearly.

"Yin Ni."

"It's the 'qing xiang' of 'Yin Ni'..." I said.

Sister nodded, then stepped forward and asked, "Handsome guy... have you noticed lately that you've gained some strange 'ability'?"

"I..."

A wave of "vigilance" came from him at first, but after looking at sister and then at me, he probably decided we weren't bad people, and that scent quickly faded.

"Who are you two?" he asked.

"I'm Li Siwei, and this little brother is Zheng Yingxiong. We're both like you—just ordinary 'participants'."

Hearing sister introduce me, I quietly added, "I'm called 'Yingxiong', with the fourth tone."

He nodded. "Nice to meet you. I'm Gu Yu... About that strange ability you mentioned..."

Siwei scratched her head after hearing that. "This is a bit mystical to explain... I don't know if you'll believe it..."

"We're already here..." Gu Yu gave a bitter smile and shook his head. "What's left to not believe? I did feel something odd in the 'game' earlier... but what do you mean by 'Yin Ni'?"

Siwei organized her thoughts and gave Gu Yu a general overview of the situation.

She explained that I seemed able to smell the names of other people's super abilities and tried to make him understand as much as possible.

Gu Yu seemed to accept it quickly. He listened carefully to what Siwei said and kept nodding.

"So that's how it is..." After Siwei finished, Gu Yu nodded thoughtfully. "Earlier in the 'Ren Hou' game area, I made a card vanish from my hand without a trace..."

He looked down at his hand, then moved his fingers, and a playing card appeared out of nowhere.

This startled Siwei.

"Huh...? Is that your 'ability'?"

"Oh... no, no..." Gu Yu shook his head. "Don't misunderstand. I'm originally a magician. I've tried many ways to make cards disappear before, but none were as complete as today... It didn't hide on the back of my hand or in my palm; it just totally vanished."

Siwei nodded after hearing that. "So the fireball earlier was also a magic trick? Your ability is to make something 'disappear'?"

"Saying it's 'disappear' isn't quite right..." Gu Yu replied. "This is really hard to grasp... I could still touch the card, but neither I nor 'Ren Hou' could see it... So from an onlooker's perspective, the card no longer existed."

"It's definitely a bit hard to understand..." Siwei reached up to scratch her head. "So, basically, you made that card 'invisible'?"

"Yeah... that's the idea."

Gu Yu moved his fingers again, and the card in his hand vanished once more.

I wasn't sure if he'd made the card disappear or if it had become 'Yin Ni'.

"What a bizarre place..." Gu Yu slowly lifted his head. "I thought I was the only special one... but there are others with this 'qing xiang' too?"

"I don't know about that." Siwei smiled and glanced at me. "Only little Yingxiong can tell if someone has that 'scent'. Maybe it's not that others are special—maybe he's the special one."

Gu Yu pondered for a moment, then suddenly thought of something. "By the way, do you two have a team?"

"Ah...?" Siwei was taken aback. "You mean..."

"According to what those referees said, we only have two days left... The people in my room decided to split up as soon as we went out, and now I've completely lost contact with them. I should have kept everyone together." Gu Yu sighed. "So, do you have a team? Want to join up and travel together?"

Siwei looked at Gu Yu, then at me, as if waiting for me to say something.

I got her meaning, so I lifted my nose to sniff. It was clean, and Gu Yu's scent was clean too, but there was an extra hint of something else—he seemed to have a touch of "yin hen" amid the cleanliness.

Overall, though, his scent was a thousand times better than Uncle Wan's, so I nodded at Siwei.

Siwei understood. "We don't have a team. Let's go together."

I turned to look at Siwei but didn't object.

I never liked Uncle Wan anyway, so if we didn't have to stay with him, that would be good for me.

The three of us formed a team and were about to leave when we suddenly heard that spine-chilling voice.

"Hey, Little Li, got some new friends, huh?"

We all turned around and saw Uncle Wan approaching from a distance—he must have been following us.

"Wa... Wan Ge." Siwei forced a smile. "What a coincidence, you're here too?"

"You two were gone for so long, I was worried..." he said.

Seeing Uncle Wan appear, I suddenly felt scared. Siwei had just told Gu Yu we didn't have a team, but now that Uncle Wan showed up, wouldn't Gu Yu know we were lying?

I nervously glanced at Gu Yu, but he just smiled as if nothing had happened and stepped forward to shake Uncle Wan's hand.

"Siwei, is this the Wan Ge you mentioned? He looks really reliable."

Siwei was slightly startled, then quickly nodded. "Yeah, Gu Yu, let me introduce you. This is Wan Cai, Wan Ge."

Uncle Wan nodded with a heavy scent, his smile not reaching his eyes. "Kid, you're a smart one. Want to join our little family?"