Chapter 55: The Death of Ji An

**Chapter 55 The Death of Ji An**

Ji An looked at Little Stone and Little Rose, who were clearly terrified but forcing themselves to appear calm with smiles on their faces. A powerful sense of responsibility and mission suddenly surged in his heart.

With a loud roar, an overwhelming wave of Psychic Superpower erupted from his mind, densely interweaving and forming a vast network. Yuan Mingan saw this and raised her hand, directing a thin stream of superpower water from her fingertips to merge into Ji An's Psychic Superpower. Strangely, these two incompatible forces blended together seamlessly.

Unfortunately, Yuan Mingan's superpower level was too low. She held out for barely a quarter-hour before her energy was completely drained. Collapsing to the ground, drenched in sweat, she wore a pained expression. "I'm sorry... I did my best!"

Yuan Mingan's superpower was indeed too weak—her contribution was like a cup of water poured into the sea, offering little help to Ji An.

Ji An didn’t speak. He poured all his Psychic Superpower outward, his mind unleashing it like a floodgate had burst open. Above them, a tightly woven Psychic Superpower net formed, as vast as the superpower net cast by the traffickers.

By now, Ji An’s Psychic Superpower reserves were nearly exhausted, yet he somehow squeezed out more energy, shaping it into protective armor that enveloped everyone.

This was nearly impossible for someone at his level. A Level 3 Psychic Superpowered could typically manifest only one form at a time—certainly not multiple forms simultaneously.

Yet Ji An did it. Not only did he succeed, but he also materialized over a dozen pieces of armor.

The consequence was that his Psychic Superpower reserves were completely drained, leaving his mind as barren as a desert without a drop of water.

The pain from overexertion made his head feel like it was about to explode.

Two colossal energy nets—one descending with crushing force, the other surging upward with unyielding momentum—collided violently.

**KABOOM!**

A thunderous explosion erupted, like two missiles colliding midair, sending up a massive, dark mushroom cloud.

"Ah—!"

"Waaah—!"

Low-rank superpowered among the traffickers were sent flying by the shockwave, vomiting blood.

Even the higher-level ones fared little better, staggering and clutching their chests to suppress the churning in their bodies.

Thick black smoke and dust obscured everything. The traffickers swiped at the air, trying to clear the debris while squinting through the haze to see the fate of those beneath the net.

Five minutes passed before the smoke dissipated enough for them to make out Ji An and the others.

The sight froze them in place.

Despite the devastating shockwave—which had flung several low-level traffickers aside—Ji An’s group, though quaking where they lay and covered in dust, were all unharmed. Not a single limb was lost. Even Yuan Mingan only appeared ashen-faced from depletion.

How was this possible? These were children who hadn’t awakened their superpowers!

Could that Psychic Superpower net really have been strong enough to withstand the combined superpower attack of over a dozen traffickers? How could a single Psychic Superpowered shield so many?

Yet the evidence was undeniable.

"Pfft—!" Ji An coughed up three spurts of blood in succession, barely suppressing the churning in his chest.

Little Stone, who had been shielded beneath Ji An during the explosion, was close enough to see the shreds of organ tissue mixed in the blood.

"Ji An... brother..." Little Stone and Little Rose called out, voices thick with tears. They ached to embrace him but didn’t dare—afraid even the slightest touch might be the death of him.

To them, Ji An now seemed more fragile than spun glass, ready to shatter at the slightest pressure.

Ji An wanted to reassure them, but he couldn’t. The coppery taste in his throat threatened to spill out the moment he opened his mouth. He couldn’t risk speaking.

One of the superpowered traffickers looked at Ji An, who lay on the ground in a seemingly pitiful state, yet he didn’t see him as utterly defeated. Instead, he noticed that even now, Ji An exuded an overwhelming aura—one that was titanic, heroic, and unbreakable, as if even death couldn’t diminish his valor!

Though they were opponents and enemies, the superpowered man couldn’t deny the sudden surge of respect he felt for Ji An.

“That day, it was you who shot that American bastard with three arrows, wasn’t it?” the trafficker’s superhuman ability carrier suddenly guessed after witnessing everything.

He expected Ji An to deny it, as the entire Capital City Base had locked down all intel about the psychic super who reduced the foreigner to a vegetable—no details were allowed to leak.

But to his surprise, Ji An didn’t deny it. Instead, he nodded in acknowledgment.

At this point, admitting or denying made no difference. If he died, his identity being exposed wouldn’t matter. If he survived, these traffickers would be the ones to die, so he had no fear of them knowing.

The superpowered man froze for a moment before barking out a laugh. “To be honest, I watched that livestream that day and was quite impressed by you. I remember thinking, if I ever faced you, you’d probably turn me brain-dead in just two arrows. After all, my superpower level is two full tiers below that American bastard’s.”

“One arrow.” As soon as Ji An spoke, blood mixed with chunks spilled from his lips. He wiped it away unbothered, locking eyes with the man. “If it were you, one arrow would be enough.”

The superpowered man blinked before realizing Ji An’s meaning. Even now, Ji An was insisting that just one arrow would be enough to turn him into a vegetable.

His face twisted, unsure whether to admire Ji An’s composure or be angered by his own lack of intimidation.

He sneered. “At a time like this, you still have the nerve for such useless banter. I have to admit, I’m a little impressed by your guts!”

“Thanks,” Ji An hocked up more blood as he replied.

Little Stone was terrified. He tugged at Ji An’s sleeve and pleaded, “Brother Ji An, you’re in this state—just say one less word! One less word won’t kill you, but one more might make you hack up a lung!”

“Hahaha…” The superpowered man let out a sharp laugh. “See? Even a child gets it better than you.”

Another superpowered stepped forward. “Even though we suffered heavy losses in this fight, losing many of our brothers, facing a legend like you was worth it.”

“Honestly, if we’d known we were up against you, we might not have dared to fight,” the first superpowered added. “None of us wants to end up a vegetable. But who’d have guessed the hidden powerhouse who shocked the world was just a puny third-tier super?”

The superpowered crouched in front of Ji An, pinching his bloodstained face and studying it like a specimen.

Ji An’s striking features, lips stained with blood, didn’t make him look disheveled—instead, it added a fatal allure.

The man’s heart skipped a beat, and he sighed. “What a waste of a pretty face.”

“For a third-tier super, you’re truly remarkable. I almost admire your skills! Given more time to grow, even with these burdens dragging you down, we’d all be dead meat.”

He sighed again. “But alas, you won’t get that chance. And what a pity for that face.”

With a smirk, the man raised a dagger formed from his power and aimed it at Ji An’s chest. “Goodbye, psychic super!”

But just as the dagger was about to pierce Ji An’s chest, a bolt of lightning as thick as a bowl descended from the sky, instantly turning the man into a charred corpse. The wind scattered his ashes like dust.

An earth-shaking dragon’s bellow shook the heavens, making the skies tremble. Everyone looked up to see the Thunder Dragon circling above, its predatory gaze fixed on the ground below.

“Gu Jinsheng…” Ji An’s heart finally settled at the sight of the Thunder Dragon, and he blacked out from relief.

“Brother Ji An! Brother Ji An!” Little Stone and Little Rose screamed in panic.

The traffickers wanted to cry too—who in the Capital City Base didn’t recognize the Thunder Dragon, the power of that living weapon, the Supreme Commander?

The Thunder Dragon’s arrival was like a predatory hawk diving into a rabbit den. The rabbits didn’t even dare to resist—they could only think of fleeing for their lives.

“Run! It’s Gu Jinsheng—that living weapon! Everyone, escape!” someone shouted, and the traffickers scrambled in terror.

But escape was impossible. If the Thunder Dragon had arrived, how far behind could Gu Jinsheng be?

In the blink of an eye, Gu Jinsheng arrived at the scene with his team.

"Take them alive!" he commanded.

The Thunder Dragon in the sky obeyed instantly. Its massive body circled above, then opened its mouth and spat out a thunderball the size of a washtub. Upon impact, it didn’t just turn people into charred remains—it blasted a deep crater into the earth itself.

Yet Gu Jinsheng did not join the battle. His eyes darted across the crowd until they finally landed on the person he sought—lying unconscious in Little Stone and Little Rose’s arms.

Ji An’s face and lips were smeared with blood, his pallor making him look already dead, as if he had passed away for good.

Gu Jinsheng’s heart hammered in his chest. He rushed forward in one swift motion, gathering the limp body into his arms. He pressed a finger beneath Ji An’s nose to check for breath—and his hand began to tremble. At first slightly, then violently, like a Parkinson’s tremor, shaking beyond control.

Ji An had stopped breathing!

"Ji An!!!" The coldness ingrained in Gu Jinsheng shattered. Rage and despair tore through him. He bellowed raw-throated, his voice hoarse with grief, his entire being unraveling.

Above, the Thunder Dragon’s eyes burned crimson, fireballs erupting from them one after another. A few nearly struck their own allies. They started to protest—but the moment they heard their leader’s anguished cry, they bit back their words.

The dragon let out a deafening roar that shook the very foundations of the world. Heaven and earth seemed to tremble with it.

Hearing his leader’s agonized scream, Kong Zhongcheng loosed a devastating strike that finished off the trafficker before him. Then he shouted urgently toward the healer sprinting toward them: "This way! Hurry! Song Su, stop fighting—carry Xiang Tongxin over here!"

"Got it!" Song Su, a speed-type superpowered, swiftly dispatched his opponent. Pouring his power into his legs, he became a blur—a whirlwind that swept past, lifting strands of hair as he dashed forward, carrying Xiang Tongxin on his back straight to Gu Jinsheng.

"Boss," Kong whispered, terrified a louder word might reduce him to ash. "The healer is here. Let her take a look."

Gu stared through Kong, unseeing, his arms locked around Ji An like iron bands.

Xiang tried to reach for Ji An but couldn’t wrest him free. Who dared rip him from Gu’s grip in this state?

She swallowed hard, her throat dry with fear. "Commander Kong, Commander-in-Chief Gu won’t let go. I don’t dare force it. What should we do?"

Kong broke out in a cold sweat. He’d never seen Gu like this—not even when he himself had been bitten by a zombie. But he couldn’t stand by.

Gritting his teeth, he stepped closer. "Boss, let Xiang Tongxin examine Ji An. She’s a healer. She can save him."

"Yes! A healer!" As if jolted back to the present, Gu suddenly seized Xiang’s wrist, forcing her to check Ji An. His grip was crushing—his strength so great she felt her bones might snap.

But she didn’t dare resist. Not now. Not with Gu like this.

Her heart turned to ice. Ji An wasn’t breathing.

Her hands shook violently enough to blur her vision as she reached for his neck. Her fingers found nothing—no pulse. Her face contorted with barely suppressed horror.

She couldn’t say it. Couldn’t speak the truth.

If she declared Ji An dead, Gu might descend into psychic backlash—triggering his crystal core to explode from within.

At his level, extreme mental trauma could cause catastrophic self-destruction.

She didn’t need to speak. Everyone understood what she saw. Someone behind her frantically waved her to silence, urging her not to provoke Gu. He couldn’t take it—not now.

"Well? How is Ji An? Can you heal him? Or do we need a higher-level healer?" She wanted to stay silent, wanted to protect him from the truth—but Gu wouldn’t allow it. He hounded her, demanding answers, desperate for hope.

Now Xiang Tongxin was truly frightened to tears—tears from a superpowered healer. She saw Wan Xueying behind Gu Jinsheng urgently nodding at her.

Through her sobs, Xiang Tongxin said, "Yes, I can heal him!"

If Gu Jinsheng had even a shred of clarity left, he would have seen from Xiang Tongxin's expression that there was no hope for Ji An.

But unfortunately, Gu Jinsheng, his eyes bloodshot and wild with grief, had lost all reason. Lost in madness, he grabbed Xiang Tongxin’s hand and shouted, “Hurry up and heal him! Now!”

Xiang Tongxin was panic-stricken. She glanced at Wan Xueying standing behind Gu Jinsheng, who continued nodding at her.

Xiang Tongxin began using her healing ability on Ji An’s injuries.

Behind Gu Jinsheng, Wan Xueying shot Kong Zhongcheng a meaningful look, signaling that whoever got the chance should knock Gu Jinsheng unconscious first.

Kong Zhongcheng felt like crying—what a terrible position to be in! But in the end, he nodded at Wan Xueying with resigned determination.

Even though Xiang Tongxin knew Ji An was already dead, she didn’t dare pretend. She swore that if she faked using her power without actually releasing her superpower energy, Gu Jinsheng would strangle her the moment he noticed the absence.

So Xiang Tongxin treated Ji An as if he were still alive. Given Ji An’s immense contributions to the base, even in death, restoring his body to wholeness was an honor he deserved—no one would object.

As her healing ability flowed slowly into Ji An’s body, Xiang Tongxin discovered that all the organs in his chest had exploded, leaving behind nothing but gory masses of pulverized tissue.

Even his heart was shattered—no wonder he was dead. How could anyone survive this?

In fact, the fact that Ji An hadn’t died instantly and had held on long enough to see Gu Jinsheng arrive was nothing less than miraculous!

But she couldn’t say that. All she could do was silently repair Ji An’s organs.

This was the wonder of healing abilities—as long as even a single cell remained intact, the ability could restore it to its original state.

Under the influence of her healing power, the blood clots in Ji An’s chest reformed, reconnected, and regenerated back into their proper forms.

By the time she was done, Ji An’s chest cavity was pristine, indistinguishable from a living person’s—no longer resembling the aftermath of an explosion.

Except for his heart, which would never beat again, every other organ in Ji An’s body had been restored to perfect condition.

Having repaired his internal injuries, Xiang Tongxin decided to fix his external wounds as well. Since she’d already gone this far, she might as well restore him completely.

Letting him pass on whole would be a fitting tribute to his achievements—creating nutrient formulas that saved countless lives!

Starting with his head, Xiang Tongxin found only minor wounds from superpower blasts, none of which had damaged the bone. They were easy to heal.

But at the same time, she discovered something even more horrifying—the final confirmation of Ji An’s death.

The psychic’s Crystal Core inside Ji An’s brain was gone!!!

As everyone knew, the moment a superpowered individual died, the Crystal Core in their brain would vanish along with their life.

Xiang Tongxin had lost all hope—Ji An was truly dead!

Her hands trembling, she continued treating the remaining minor wounds on Ji An’s body. But no matter how much she dragged it out, there was only so much left to heal.

Now, from the outside, Ji An looked like a perfectly healthy man—except for his deathly pallor.

Perhaps the only difference was that Ji An showed not a single vital sign—not a breath, not a heartbeat.

Gu Jinsheng, of course, noticed this too. His eyes so bloodshot they seemed to weep blood, he pierced through Xiang Tongxin with his gaze and demanded, “Why isn’t he breathing yet? Why isn’t Ji An’s heart beating?!”

Because Ji An is dead. *He’s dead!*

Xiang Tongxin didn’t dare say it out loud—only screaming in her head!

A heavy silence fell, with no one daring to respond.

The human trafficker still fighting the command center’s forces overheard Gu Jinsheng’s heart-wrenching question and burst into laughter, delighted. He laughed maniacally, his voice filled with provocation as he roared, “Why isn’t Ji An breathing? Why isn’t his heart beating? The answer is simple—he’s dead! Ji An is dead! That meddling psychic superpowered lover of yours, Ji An, is dead!”

“You fucking idiot! You’re insane—if you want to die, don’t drag us down with you!” Wan Xueying cursed loudly. “Shut him up!”

But it was already too late. Gu Jinsheng threw his head back and let out anguished, animalistic howls—the kind of agonized cries a beast makes when it loses its kin, enough to shake the heavens and earth!

At the same moment, Thunder Dragon in the sky unleashed deafening roars, its thunderous rumbles shaking the world!

Thunder Dragon seemed to have lost all reason. It opened its maw and unleashed torrents of lightning-fire upon the land, indiscriminate and all-consuming, as if intent on burning everything in existence to ash!

Wherever the lightning-fire struck, blazing infernos erupted, flames leaping meters high and growing ever taller—as if they sought to burn through the heavens themselves, reducing all to ash!

The taunting human trafficker had only wanted to rub salt into Gu Jinsheng’s wounds. He relished seeing the mighty brought low, reduced to the same weakness as the powerless. But he never expected things to escalate like this. Now, he regretted his provocation!

But it was far too late!

“Fall back, now! Retreat!” Wan Xueying bellowed. “Get out! And if possible, save some traffickers—we need survivors for interrogation!!!”

In the end, the battle had come to this: the superpowered forces of Jing City Base, originally tasked with capturing the traffickers, now had to protect them just to secure a few survivors for questioning!

Amid the raging flames, only Gu Jinsheng remained, cradling Ji An’s lifeless body in silence, motionless. The stark contrast between their stillness and the surrounding chaos made it seem as though they were in their own world.

“Ahhh! Help! Over here—save me!” A spark landed on a trafficker’s clothes. At first, he paid it no mind, dismissing it as nothing. But before he could even finish that thought, the fire engulfed him entirely.

The searing pain made him scream, and almost instantly, a flood of water slammed into him—so much that it knocked him to the ground. Yet, it still couldn’t extinguish the flames.

In the blink of an eye, the once-shouting trafficker was reduced to ashes.

“Here! Save me! I’m the one you’re after—I know everything! I know all about our organization, even who ordered us to kidnap those kids! Just save me, and I’ll tell you everything!” Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined the day would come when he, a trafficker, would beg for help from law enforcement.

“Save that one!” Kong Zhongcheng, too far away, shouted to Wan Xueying.

“Got it.” As a water-type superhuman, Wan Xueying lashed out with a whip of water, reaching through the wall of flames to yank the man to safety.

Luckily, only his leg had caught fire, sparing the rest of his body. Wan Xueying didn’t hesitate—she lopped off his leg, cutting off the flames’ spread.

It wasn’t that she wanted to torture him—her water abilities simply couldn’t compete with Gu Jinsheng’s flames. Her water couldn’t extinguish his fire.

Besides, for a trafficker, keeping him alive for questioning was enough.

The command center’s personnel scrambled to rescue the traffickers from the inferno—saving who they could, leaving the rest to burn.