Chapter 86: Gu Jinsheng Loses Control

Chapter 86: Gu Jinsheng's Composure Cracks

Ji An couldn't help but glance at Gu Jinsheng, who had already stood up from the back row and was walking toward him. For some reason, he felt a faint sense of guilt.

Gu Jinsheng’s face was as dark as storm clouds, and the aura of menace radiating from him could be felt even a hundred meters away.

Wang Dazhi shivered, his heart uneasy, but remembering the crowd around him, he reassured himself that Gu Jinsheng couldn’t do anything to him here. He quickly steadied himself.

Holding the bouquet with both hands, Wang Dazhi knelt on the ground and looked straight into Ji An’s eyes. "Researcher Ji, I’ve admired you for a long time. Ever since the spatial storage device, I’ve been in awe of your brilliance. Back then, you were like a god high above, while I was just a drab little duckling on the ground—unworthy of reaching for you. So, I kept this admiration hidden deep in my heart."

For some reason, Ji An’s sense of guilt grew stronger, as if he were an unfaithful spouse caught in the act by their husband. He wished he could cover Gu Jinsheng’s ears and eyes, making him unable to hear or see.

But that was impossible—Gu Jinsheng was already approaching.

Whoa! Now this is juicy drama—more, more!

The superpowered individuals from the Command and Research Departments, who knew Gu Jinsheng had been pursuing Ji An for a long time—even nearly dying for him once—were practically straining their eyeballs to soak up the drama.

Deputy Commander Kong Zhongcheng was the only high-ranking officer present today. His jaw practically hit the floor, his eyes full of admiration for Wang Dazhi. It was as if his forehead was stamped with the words, "You got this, bro!"

Little Rose and Little Stone, whether they understood or not, were equally engrossed. Little Rose blushed, covering her mouth with giggles, while Little Stone clenched his fists and cheered for Gu Jinsheng, "Commander-in-Chief Gu, I support you! Brother Ji An is definitely yours!"

Even Na Boyu, who had been fixated on examining the displaced table earlier, snapped out of his trance. He craned his neck left and right, as if trying to get a closer look at Wang Dazhi—this fool who dared poke the bear—to see what made him different from others.

"Later, when I saw you on TV, charging alone into a human traffickers’ den to rescue those children, I knew from then on, you weren’t just my idol—you were the person I loved, my hero!" Wang Dazhi spoke with genuine emotion, tears glistening in his eyes at the heartfelt moment. "Only afterward did I learn that your superpower was crippled in that battle, that you’d fallen from grace. That’s when I knew my chance had come."

He pushed the bouquet closer to Ji An. "Researcher Ji, when I decided to confess to you, I had no idea your abilities had recovered. I thought they were gone forever. So, my feelings for you aren’t based on your status or power—it’s pure love.

If I’d known your superpower was still intact, maybe I wouldn’t have confessed today. I never intended to overstep my bounds.

My love for you is sincere. Please accept it."

"Ooooh—!" Someone started cheering, and soon the entire training ground erupted in raucous cheers. Ji An quickly scanned the crowd and spotted many from the Command and Research Departments mixed in, clearly aware of Gu Jinsheng’s complicated history with him. They weren’t cheering for Wang Dazhi’s sake—they just wanted to provoke Gu Jinsheng and enjoy the drama.

Just as Ji An was about to refuse, Gu Jinsheng let out a derisive snort. Though he didn’t say a word, the sound carried endless mockery.

The surrounding cheers seemed to embolden Wang Dazhi. Instead of backing down, he raised his voice defiantly. "Commander-in-Chief Gu, what’s the meaning of this? I know you admire Researcher Ji too, but love is free. Someone as outstanding as him naturally attracts many admirers—isn’t that only right?"

Gu Jinsheng smirked derisively. "Of course. But what nonsense are you spouting?

You said you only dared make your move on Xiao An because his superpower was gone and he’d ‘fallen from grace’?

Let me translate that for you: You thought Xiao An was powerless, and since you’re also worthless, you figured you were a match for him!

And then you said if you’d known his abilities had recovered, you wouldn’t have confessed—meaning you know a nobody like you isn’t fit for him!

In short, your entire speech boils down to: ‘I thought you were diminished, so I, another cripple, had a shot!’"

KO! Flawless victory!

Gu Jinsheng barely broke a sweat—a few well-placed words dismantled his rival.

At its core, Wang Dazhi had treated Ji An as washed-up!

Wang Dazhi paled, realizing the glaring mistake in his words. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he hurriedly explained, "No, Researcher Ji, don’t listen to his twisting of my words! He’s deliberately nitpicking—you know I didn’t mean it like that! I just wanted to express that my love is pure, free from ulterior motives!"

Gu Jinsheng remarked lazily, "Xiao An, in short, he thinks you’re a loser."

Ji An’s eyebrow twitched. He’d never known Gu Jinsheng to be so quick with words. Wasn’t his whole image supposed to be the strong, silent type? Yet today, with just a few sentences, he’d turned Wang Dazhi’s words around into something that strangely made sense.

"My apologies." Ji An took a step back and said to Wang Dazhi, "I'm not entertaining romantic notions at the moment."

Wang Dazhi's face turned bright red, whether from the embarrassment of being publicly rejected by Ji An or from anger at Gu Jinsheng's deliberate distortion of his words.

"Right now is the time for training the students. The Command is paying for every minute of my time here, and it's not appropriate to discuss my private matters—it's wasting everyone's time and resources. So let's continue with the lesson," Ji An said.

However, the crowd, still eager for more drama, wanted to shout that they didn’t mind the cost—hell, we'd pay premium for front-row seats! The Commander-in-Chief’s gossip wasn’t something you got to see every day!

But no one dared to say it out loud. Instead, Kong Zhongcheng shook his head at Wang Dazhi in disappointment. "I had such high hopes for you, but you got wrecked before the boss even used his big move!"

Wang Dazhi was so angry his nose practically contorted.

Ji An said, "Alright, I see everyone’s ability training is going well. Since we’re all on the field now, let’s proceed with the psychic defense training."

Ji An acted as if nothing had happened and calmly continued the lesson.

"Psychic defense training, as the name suggests, is training to resist mental invasions.

Some of you may know, while others don’t, but there are now psychic variants among the zombie hordes.

The Psychic Zombie King has shown signs of intelligence—it can strategize, use Mind Control on its subordinates, and if this continues, it’s not impossible for the Psychic Zombie King to psychically infiltrate human minds and start destroying us from the inside out!"

"Is that even possible?" The mere thought was terrifying.

Bi Xue asked, "Weren't zombies supposed to be mindless?"

Ji An replied, "Perhaps our earliest human ancestors weren’t very smart either—they evolved gradually over millennia. We’re evolving, and so are the zombies.

Besides, the Psychic Zombie King isn’t just hypothetical. We’ve encountered it before—Deputy Commander Zhou lost his leg in that battle."

Bi Xue covered her mouth, her eyes wide with horror.

Ji An continued, "So, resisting mental invasion is absolutely necessary. We must achieve the greatest results in the shortest time possible. This isn’t just about defending against our own kind—it’s about not being controlled by the Zombie King, becoming its puppet, and harming our families and fellow humans."

Those who hadn’t taken mental resistance seriously before suddenly became fully alert.

Even if they weren’t afraid of being controlled by psychics, they feared the Psychic Zombie King. Once turned into its puppet, they—and everyone around them—would become helpless thralls.

Seeing everyone went from joking to dead serious, Ji An nodded in satisfaction. "Now, Commander-in-Chief Gu Jinsheng and I will demonstrate first. Everyone, observe closely, and afterward, you’ll pair up for training."

The crowd nodded.

Ji An stood opposite Gu Jinsheng and said, "When I mentally invade you, imagine me as the Psychic Zombie King and resist with all your might. My psychic power is strong—don’t worry about backlash."

"Understood," Gu Jinsheng replied.

Ji An said, "Commencing."

Ji An locked eyes with Gu Jinsheng. His normally round pupils slowly contracted, turning into vertical ovals before narrowing further into thin, snake-like slits.

This was the unique trait of psychics—when performing mental invasions or Mind Control, their eyes transformed into serpentine slits.

Countless tendrils of mental energy surged from Ji An’s eyes, drilling into Gu Jinsheng’s pupils.

Gu Jinsheng’s eyes were a deep, bottomless black—mysterious and dangerous, as if beneath their calm surface lurked unspeakable danger.

This time, when Ji An entered Gu Jinsheng’s mental landscape, he saw the same impenetrable fortress walls as before—no doors, no windows.

The only difference was that this time, a golden Thunder Dragon was already coiled along the battlements, waiting.

Upon seeing Ji An, its large red eyes lit up with excitement. "An-An, An-An, you're here! I knew you'd come. I've been waiting for you for a long time."

This time, Ji An ignored Thunder Dragon and charged straight in. He intended to test how far Gu Jinsheng's mental defenses could hold up under his forceful intrusion.

Ji An moved swiftly, not giving Thunder Dragon a chance to react, and dove straight into the off-limits zones of Gu Jinsheng's mind, digging for his most buried secrets.

Ji An expected formidable resistance, but while there was some, it was weak—like a breeze against a jet, barely an obstacle to him.

Surprised by how easily he had entered, Ji An had no intention of violating Gu Jinsheng's privacy. After all, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Capital City Base, Gu Jinsheng's secrets weren't just personal but also involved base secrets—something Ji An had no right to pry into.

Just as Ji An was about to withdraw, a familiar voice still carrying childhood's pitch of a young boy rang out. The boy wore old clothes hanging off his small frame, his long, unkempt hair covering half his face. He asked, "Are you an orphan too? A child without a home?"

Ji An stood in the pouring rain, the water soaking his clothes and blurring that memory. The wet tang of rain filled his nose.

Though the boy's hair obscured his features, Ji An knew exactly what lay beneath—an unearthly pretty face. Despite the boy's youthful innocence, he was often mistaken for a girl.

The shabbily dressed boy was addressing another child sitting at the entrance of a supermarket.

This other boy was neatly dressed, his hair perfectly groomed, wearing the latest limited-edition sneakers—each pair costing thousands—and a matching tracksuit of similar value. The custom smartwatch on his wrist with personalized apps was likely worth hundreds of thousands. With his experience, Ji An recognized all this at a glance.

But the ragged boy couldn't possibly know. His own threadbare, washed-out clothes made it impossible for him to recognize the luxury brands adorning the other child.

Assuming the lonely boy at the supermarket entrance was also homeless—a pitiful soul like himself—he couldn't have known that, in Ji An's eyes, this was just a spoiled, rebellious rich kid with no regard for rules.

For once, the little aristocrat lifted his head, every inch the privileged young master, and shot a look dripping with superiority at the shabby boy, whose poverty was evident in every detail.

The ragged little boy's hair was soaked by the rain, and just then, he brushed his wet hair aside, revealing his unusually pretty face.

The rich kid didn’t answer. His big eyes stared at the boy whose gender wasn’t obvious across from him, lighting up with surprise. Instead of answering the question, he asked in return, "Are you a girl?"

The ragged boy seemed used to being asked this. He let the damp hair he had just pushed back fall over his face again and shook his head, said firmly, "I'm a boy."

"Oh." His excitement faded in the rich kid's eyes. He responded indifferently and ignored the ragged boy afterward.

Unaware of the vast difference between them, the ragged boy crouched in front of the rich kid and said innocently, "Big brother, if you have nowhere to go, you can come with me to our place."

The rich kid’s eyes brightened again. He stood up, brushed off his pants, and said, "Let’s go. Take me there."

Ji An watched as the two boys from entirely different worlds walked one after the other. He saw them arrive at the entrance of a run-down, grubby orphanage, saw the rich kid frown slightly in dissatisfaction, and heard the ragged boy announced proudly, "This is my home!"

Ji An closed his eyes. A tear slid down his cheek, quickly blending with the rain, indistinguishable from the droplets.

Ji An didn’t need to see what came next. He knew the ragged boy was talked into it by the rich kid into returning to the orphanage to fetch his only two sets of old clothes. Then the rich kid changed into the ragged outfit and tossed his branded clothes into a roadside trash bin. Even the expensive watch on his wrist was stomped into pieces.

Afterward, the two entered the orphanage together.

The rich kid’s lie was too flimsy to fool the adult matron.

On the other side, people were searching frantically, but knowing the rich kid was safe here, they deliberately took their time.

Perhaps to teach him a lesson, they let the orphanage keep him for a while, allowing the rich kid to experience the hardships of orphanage life.

They made sure to tell not to inform the rich kid’s family of his whereabouts, telling the orphanage director to pretend to be deceived.

And so, the rich kid stayed.

At that time, the wealthy young master was only four years old, and the poor little boy was three and a half.

Then, a period of happiness—lasting a full month—appeared in the poor little boy’s bleak childhood, like a beam of light illuminating his entire gloomy youth.

The wealthy young master was a bossy little tyrant. He protected the poor little boy, wouldn't let anyone bully him. Whoever dared to pick on him, the young master would fight back. He took him up trees to steal bird eggs and into rivers to catch fish.

He even told him that when they grew up, they would stay together forever and never part.

The poor little boy was only three and a half at the time. He understood some things but not everything, so he asked naively and confusedly, "But the headmistress says when we grow up, we’ll marry someone we like, have our own home and children. Then we won’t be able to stay together."

The wealthy young master pondered for a moment, then, like he'd cracked the code, declared, "I’ve got it! You can marry me when we grow up, and then we can stay together forever!"

The poor little boy was too young to understand. Something felt off, yet also not quite wrong. In the end, he nodded blankly. "Okay."

But the very next day after the wealthy young master said those words, his family came looking for him.

The poor little boy then learned that the wealthy young master was not some unwanted child from a poor family in the nearby hills, but a well-off young master with both parents alive and well.

No one knew how a four-year-old child had managed to travel alone to this remote, backwater mountain village—a place so obscure most people couldn’t even find it.

The reason he had run away was that his parents wanted to send him to a military kindergarten, where the children of military families were subjected to strict, closed-off, military-style education from an early age.

The wealthy young master refused to go and ran away. His family had intended to leave him at the orphanage for a while to let him learn some hardship, hoping he would repent sincerely. But the young master was enjoying himself so much that he seemed to have genuinely forgotten he had a home.

His parents were about to leave for a mission soon and had to make arrangements for him before departing, so they came to retrieve him.

After that, the wealthy young master was taken away and never returned to see the poor little boy again.

The poor little boy’s bleak childhood had only that one shining month, yet it was deeply imprinted into his soul.

It seemed he remembered every single word the wealthy young master had spoken to him during that month—the glittering prosperity of the outside world, the progress and excitement he described, and even the glorious future the four-year-old had imagined!

Ji An suddenly pulled back from the deepest recesses of Gu Jinsheng’s memories. Lowering his eyes, he avoided Gu Jinsheng’s gaze, his voice toneless. "You didn’t resist me."

Gu Jinsheng’s dark eyes flickered with unease. He studied Ji An’s expression carefully, speaking in a slightly ingratiating tone. "Xiao An, it’s hard for me to resist you."

Ji An lifted his gaze, devoid of any emotion. "Again."

This time, Ji An went all out, plowing into Gu Jinsheng’s mental domain once more, ignoring Thunder Dragon, who had been waiting on the defensive walls.

Ji An saw the little boy again but did not linger, swiftly withdrawing.

"You still didn’t resist me," Ji An said. "Try someone else."

"Alright," Gu Jinsheng replied.

Gu Jinsheng’s failure to resist Ji An’s mental intrusion twice drove home just how overpowering Ji An’s psychic strength was. At the same time, it unintentionally created the illusion that while Gu Jinsheng was a powerful combatant, his mental defenses were weak.

This misconception was understandable. Non-psychic superpowered individuals inherently had weaker mental resistance. A psychic superpowered of a lower rank could overpower a higher-ranked superpowered—this was the unique nature of psychic abilities.

Ji An’s psychic powers were too strong. Probing anyone else’s mind would be inappropriate, so he stopped probing others and instead had the superpowered pair up for training.

From a distance, Wang Dazhi’s eyes lit up before he approached Gu Jinsheng with a smile. "Commander-in-Chief Gu, why not train with me?"

Gu Jinsheng couldn’t be bothered to look up, replying coldly, "Aren’t you a spatial superpowered?"

Mental intrusion was an ability exclusive to psychic superpowered.

Wang Dazhi chuckled. "Actually, I’m a psychic superpowered. When I first enrolled, I signed up as one. The reason I ended up in the spatial superpower class was because I saw Researcher Ji there. You know, I like him. To get closer to him, I attended the spatial ability classes."

Commander-in-Chief Gu finally deigned to look at Wang Dazhi, sizing him up from head to toe like a butcher evaluating a mediocre cut of pork.

Wang Dazhi felt the insult in that gaze. He tilted his head challengingly, eyeing Gu with a smirk. "I'm a level-six psychic-powered individual, the same rank as you. Truth be told, if it comes to a mental invasion, I'd have the upper hand. I wonder if Commander-in-Chief Gu dares to accept this challenge?"

His words carried an implicit jab—one that everyone present caught, including the unspoken reference to Ji An.

Gu Jinsheng glanced briefly at Ji An, who stood watching them expressionlessly, then nodded. "Fine."

A flicker of triumph flashed in Wang Dazhi's eyes, and he wasted no time launching his assault.

Thick strands of psychic energy, far coarser than the ones Ji An had released earlier, slithered out from Wang Dazhi's slit pupils. The sheer thickness of those tendrils made it clear they weren't to be trifled with. Everyone halted their own training, riveted by the duel between Wang Dazhi and Gu Jinsheng.

The onlookers watched as the invasive threads burrowed into Gu’s pupils. At first, Gu’s gaze remained sharp, while Wang Dazhi’s expression strained with effort. But as seconds ticked by, Gu’s pupils gradually lost focus, glazing over. Meanwhile, a gleam of triumph and smugness flickered through Wang Dazhi’s eyes.

And the crowd’s hearts lurched in unison.

Gu Jinsheng had succumbed.