Chapter 465: Chapter 465: Yang Lao San’s ‘Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms

Xiang Kun understood that the reason why Old Xia had summoned Alice earlier was to get them to try and capture how the previous four people had felt when they were scared.

But he had seen the figure of “Little Old Xia” so many times that he was thoroughly familiar with it. How could he feel scared? Seeing the confused and vacant expression of “Little Old Xia”, holding a scalpel and not knowing what to do next, he even thought it was a bit cute and silly.

As for Old Xia herself, she naturally wouldn’t be scared by Alice, whom she had summoned herself.

Of course, Old Xia understood that the real reason other people got scared was because of Alice’s sudden appearances and disappearances. But recalling past experiences, her reaction to similar incidents had always been different, and she couldn’t empathize with the “fearful” reaction.

After turning on the living room light and listening to Old Xia’s description, Xiang Kun remembered the night after this Blood-drinking Period. He tried to give Old Xia a scare by splashing water on her from his cup. Not only did he fail to scare her, she didn’t even blink or dodge.

Ordinarily, even if it’s known that Xiang Kun is careful and would not hurt anyone, a typical person would instinctively blink, raise their hand, or dodge the incoming water.

That Old Xia could keep her eyes open, without dodging or hiding, was indeed extraordinary.

Looking at Xia Libing sitting on the bed and talking with her, Xiang Kun suddenly had some ideas. So he got up, poured a cup of water, and as he was handing the water to Old Xia, he deliberately let go of the cup.

The cup filled with more than half a cup of cold boiled water dropped towards the ground. Just before it hit, Xiang Kun quickly bent over and caught it with his other hand, before standing up and handing it back to Old Xia.

Throughout this process, he had been observing Old Xia and found that she indeed didn’t have any fear response. Even though her gaze followed the movement of the cup, her body didn’t respond at all, there was no instinctive reaction to rescue the falling cup.

Xiang Kun asked, “Did you know I definitely wouldn’t drop the cup?”

Xia Libing sipped her water, put the cup on the bedside table, then responded, “Yes, if you had dropped the cup, it definitely would have been intentional.”

Suddenly, Xiang Kun released a small paper ball, accurately hitting Old Xia’s smooth forehead, then fell to the ground.

Throughout this process, Old Xia still had no dodging or fear responses, only her gaze locked onto the paper ball that had been dropped on the ground— which Xiang Kun had secretly stashed in his pocket earlier.

Xiang Kun swiftly reached out and “attacked” Old Xia’s cheek, then lightly pinched her left cheek.

Old Xia looked up at him, her eyes showing no confusion, obviously understanding his motives.

Xiang Kun withdrew his hand awkwardly and said, “You really didn’t evade or block.”

“I know you are observing and testing my instinctual responses, so I just made my most natural reaction,” Xia Libing said.

“If it wasn’t me dropping the cup, but a different person, say your cousin, how would you react?” Xiang Kun asked.

He didn’t think that Old Xia constantly relied on rationality and thinking to decide her actions, because many reactions couldn’t happen “after thinking”, otherwise people would appear very slow, and obviously, not only was Old Xia not slow, her responses were swift. This was evident from her frequent “interactions” with Yang Lao San, her action against human traffickers, her response when she encountered two fugitives in Chongyun Mountain area, and from her behavior observed in daily life.

Sure enough, after hearing his hypothesis, Old Xia lifted her feet off the floor and pulled them onto the bed.

“From that distance, rescuing the cup is certainly impossible, my instinct would be to avoid getting splashed. But if I was aware beforehand that she was going to drop the cup, I might make a prediction, and reach out to catch the cup,” Xia Libing said.

“What if it was a different person throwing water at you?” Xiang Kun asked again.

“Of course, I would dodge,” Xia Libing naturally replied.

As they were talking, a clanging metallic sound emerged from the speakers behind Xiang Kun as if something had sprung forth from that direction.

Xia Libing’s body instinctively leaned in front of Xiang Kun’s body, as if using him as a shield…

However, she soon realized that the sound had come from the computer speaker and then glanced at Xiang Kun, who remained motionless. She quickly understood something, “Is it Alice? Another experiment?”

Xiang Kun nodded, “While I went to pour water just now, I secretly instructed Alice and tried an experiment. Didn’t you feel scared even for a moment just now?”

Xia Libing shook her head: “No.”

Xiang Kun now understood that Old Xia had no reaction to his sudden actions, but it wasn’t that she had no reaction to all sudden changes.

Moreover, under conditions where normal people would feel scared and their reflexes would be triggered, her body would also experience a momentary increase in function, but she did not have the emotional perception that ordinary people would have after being scared.

That’s why Old Xia asked about the “emotional changes following being scared”.

But there is a problem here. Since Old Xia has the reflexes of being startled or encountering an attack, she shouldn’t be able to not react when facing Xiang Kun and react when facing others. After all, in that split second, the instinctive reaction is above cognition.

It’s like someone telling you that they won’t really hit you, but when their fist rushes towards your eyes, you will subconsciously close your eyes, let alone a sudden splash of water on your face.

Xiang Kun immediately realized that Old Xia was able to do this not only because of her subjective trust in herself and her understanding of her abilities, but also possibly due to her connection with the “Super sensory Item System.”

This connection allows her body instinctively to maintain complete trust in Xiang Kun.

It’s like controlling your own fist to swing at your eye and stopping in front of your eye, which makes it very easy not to flinch or blink.

Xiang Kun conveyed his hypothesis to Old Xia, who agreed with him.

However, just as he was about to finish speaking, Old Xia suddenly jumped up from the bed. Her right hand formed a claw-like shape and promptly swiped at his face.

Looking at Old Xia’s right hand suspended in front of him, Xiang Kun laughed and said, “You’re too slow. I noticed as soon as you started to move your hand and just as you were about to reach my face, I clearly saw the trend of your bicep and forearm muscles tensing up and holding back energy, so you couldn’t scare me. Plus, I have tough skin, even if you landed a full punch on me, I would be fine.”

Old Xia casually withdrew her hand and asked, “Have you been scared recently?”

“Actually, I get scared frequently…” Xiang Kun said helplessly. “But as you should know…most of the time, the scare is more of an instant physiological reaction. After the momentary scare, depending on the specific situation, it will change into fear, worry, and other related emotions. But my brain judges situations too quickly now, so I basically can’t experience those subsequent emotions, like the reactions of those four people just now, I probably won’t have.”

“It’s like when ‘Xiao Lingdang’ sent me a voice note saying ‘Help me’, I immediately judged from her voice that she was not in any danger after the initial moment of being scared. Therefore, even if I am momentarily scared, it should be very hard to produce the ‘Emotional Assimilation’ effect.”

As he was saying this, the speakers not far behind Xiang Kun made a sound again, this time it was Alice’s normal voice: “Boss, I also want to ‘be scared’.”

Xiang Kun was taken aback and, together with Old Xia, looked at the mainframe against the wall in the room.

“You’ll find it easy.” Xiang Kun laughed. He turned his palm over, and coins flew to him one after another from the faraway cabinet, stacking up in his palm.

The lights in the living room began to dim. Although Alice’s mainframe was connected to the UPS and was not affected, she immediately shouted, “Boss, that’s enough! I’m scared now!”

Scaring Alice, who’s particularly afraid of death, is simply too easy.

Xiang Kun put the coin away casually and asked to the computer case, “Is there any difference between the last two ‘co-manifestations’ and the first one?”

“No difference, Boss,” responded Alice.

She then continued promptly, “Boss, I need more data about connection protocols, connection rules. I need more access and supporting assistance to the ‘hardware’.”

Xiang Kun knew that the “hardware” she was referring to, wasn’t related to electronic devices, but the ‘Super-connected Objects’ and ‘Emotion Infused Objects’ which helped her temporarily connect with the ‘Super sensory Item System’.

“Regarding the matter of entering reality through ‘Illusion Reality’, Old Xia and I will develop a plan. You don’t need to worry too much for the time being. It won’t be easy to solve all the related issues in a short time. You should adapt in Old Xia’s ‘Dream in A Dream’ first, and figure out how to better integrate into it, proceed with a deeper connection. By the time of my next Blood-drinking Period, I’ll create some exclusive ‘Super-connected Objects’ for you, which should grant you more privileges in the ‘Super sensory Item System’, and allow you to truly integrate into it,” Xiang Kun instructed.

“Alright, Boss!” responded Alice cheerfully.

Old Xia glanced at his phone and said to Xiang Kun, “Zhen’er is asking in the group chat if your phone is fixed yet, she’s looking for you.”

Before Xiang Kun could respond, his new phone vibrated. After checking the incoming call notification, he smiled at Old Xia, “It’s your cousin, never mind replying in the group chat, she’s gone ahead to call.”

“Brother Xiang! Finally, your phone is reachable!” exclaimed Yang Zhen Er’s vibrant voice, full of excitement and a hint of suspicion as soon as the call was picked up.

However, a “shhh~” followed from the side, it was clearly Tang Baona reminding her not to be too loud, given it was quite late.

Xiang Kun chuckled, “My phone was broken, even the SIM card was damaged. I only got a new SIM card today. What’s up, anything you need at this late hour?”

“Your phone broke again? Brother Xiang, I remember your phone just broke not long ago! Are you some kind of a phone Terminator? And you even dare to ask if there’s anything up? Bro, Nana and I are in Peng City helping with your task! Didn’t you care to follow up on the progress or inquire about the situation at all?” Yang Zhen Er lowered her voice after Tang Baona’s reminder, yet her excitement was still evident.

Xiang Kun responded, “Because I trust you guys. Well, mainly Nana.”

“We’ll talk about that later. First, where have you been these days? How did your phone break?” Yang Zhen Er asked.

“Didn’t Old Xia tell you that I went to Nande City?” Xiang Kun replied.

“What were you doing in Nande City? Did you know that ‘The Giant’, I mean, Old Xia’s Cousin, was kidnapped before you left?” Yang Zhen Er asked immediately.

“Yep, I did know.”

“And yet you still went to Nande City? Well, Nande City is not far from the Burma border, were you by any chance there for this matter?”

“Yep.”

“Denying it would be useless! I got intel from secret sources, I know about your whereabouts in Nande City…wait, what did you just say?” Yang Zhen Er realising just as she was on a roll that Xiang Kun’s reply was opposite to what she was expecting.

Xiang Kun chuckled, “I heard from Old Xia that you found out I joined a secret organization that rewards superpower usage privileges by carrying out tasks. Oh, how could something this confidential be dug up by you?

“You’re right! I did join a secret organization because of a series of lucky coincidences. This trip to Nande City was indeed to save Old Xia’s Cousin.”

“Our organization has a super-giant with eight arms and eight eyes. I asked it to swing around in Burma, found Brother Xia Tianhuo, and saved him. Then as luck would have it, a riot broke out in Myitkyina, so I helped to maintain order. Did you see the news? Impressive, huh?

“Zhen’er, no matter how you discovered this, it’s top secret!

“If you leak it to the outside, I could be in danger. You must keep this to yourself!”

…

In a hotel room in Peng City, after ending the call with Xiang Kun, Yang Zhen Er was lost in thought, staring at the IPAD full of a dense, maze-like flowchart.

She had been brainstorming these two days about how to “dig out” Xiang Kun’s secret, how to extract his “true identity” and his previous whereabouts.

She had carefully scrutinized for a long time, and devoted much time, contemplating various dialogues with Xiang Kun. She then divided them into eighteen ladder-type questions, each of them with multiple presumptive responses from Xiang Kun, leading to various ways to counter each of his responses, followed by predicting Xiang Kun’s counter-responses and planning accordingly.

Only after she felt fully prepared, confident that she could unmask Xiang Kun’s secret, did she begin to attempt to call Xiang Kun again.

The call to Xiang Kun, who had been unreachable for a few days, was finally put through again.

However, confident as she was, ready to follow the plan and prepared line of questioning, after the first three questions, Xiang Kun simply admitted to everything, completely catching her off guard!

None of the possible routes she had designed had provisioned for Xiang Kun admitting everything straightaway!

Her original idea was that she and Xiang Kun would have a battle of wits, gradually uncovering Xiang Kun’s secrets until he would have no choice but to reveal more information, which she could use to pursue further reveals.

Tang Baona, watching as Yang Zhen Er, brow furrowed in deep thought, was flipping between her phone and iPad, couldn’t contain her laughter. She couldn’t resist capturing Yang Zhen Er’s antics on her phone.

“What are you doing?” asked Yang Zhen Er, hearing the shutter sound on Nana’s phone.

Tang Baona laughed, “Zhen’er, you look so cute when you’re all serious! So, your ’18 Dragons Subduing Palms’ didn’t force Xiang Kun to confess?”

“Brother Xiang admitted to it,” said Yang Zhen Er, feeling helpless.

“What?” Tang Baona was startled.

“He admitted to being a member of a secret organization, completing various tasks to gain special ability usage rights; the eight-armed monster was also recruited by him; he was out to save ‘The Giant’, and also happened to suppress the riot in Myitkyina…He said my speculation was all correct,” Yang Zhen Er frowned, “I am now a little confused. Did Xiang really confess, or is he just messing with me?”

Stunned momentarily, Tang Baona burst out in laugher, rolling around on her bed, clutching her stomach.

“Nana, what’s the matter! I’m really not sure anymore! You don’t know, the tone Xiang Kun used when he spoke, sounded very serious, and I really think…it seemed…it seem like he was a tad bit sincere! Hey, stop laughing!” Yang Zhen Er pounced on the bed, trying to control the rolling Tang Baona.

Removing her glasses and wiping her eyes, Tang Baona managed between breaths, “Wait, repeat what you just said again, I want to record it on my phone…Hmm, later I’ll interrogate Xiang Kun with it.”

Cheered up by Tang Baona’s outburst, Yang Zhen Er realised she must have been overthinking, Xiang Kun was simply messing with her!

Even though this attempt at ‘questioning’ failed, Yang Zhen Er still felt Xiang Kun was hiding something. Something unusual must have transpired during his periodic disappearances!

Following Xiang Kun around, with heightened detecting ability, Old Xia must have found something, but whether she was bribed by Xiang Kun, or due to other reasons, she refused to share her findings.

She decided, she will need Nana’s aid after all.