Chapter 123: Characters and Information

The swarm of flies seemed to have materialized from thin air, drawing sustenance from unknown sources and hatching from nowhere. They were an enigmatic anomaly that defied the laws of physics.

The flies writhed across the door, their tiny six-legged limbs scuttling about. Following some predetermined pattern, they gradually formed the shape of a human face.

Chen Qing’s expression shifted; it was unmistakably the likeness of a smiling face. Eyes, a mouth, a nose. It looked like a crude doodle drawn by a child’s clumsy hand, yet it was undeniably a face—one that could be clearly recognized as such.

He furrowed his brow, and the vertical slit-eye between his eyebrows flared wide. The small blisters surrounding the pupil began to burst one after another, creating a ceaseless, snapping sound. To Chen Qing, however, the sensation was not unpleasant. It felt like pulling away a lock of hair that was already shedding or snapping off a fingernail hanging by a thread—it required a bit of effort, but it was far from painful.

Behind him, Bu Zhaozhao had turned deathly pale. She sensed the terrifying pressure emanating from the doorway, and an unprecedented sense of crisis welled up within her. Just as humans naturally recoil from sharp objects, she felt a visceral, instinctive fear of the lethal force unfolding before them.

The face before Chen Qing provided the most direct evidence of his influence. Large masses of flies plummeted to the ground. Those that remained attempted to fill the gaps, but after scrambling a few times, they found themselves unable to climb any further, as if blocked by an invisible wall. They writhed in place, and then, they began to die. One after another, the thumb-sized flies hit the floor with a rhythmic patter.

"Chen Qing... you..." Bu Zhaozhao’s voice trembled behind him.

"Hmm?" He turned his head, but his gaze did not land on her.

"Don't look at me! Have you lost your mind?" she shouted, grabbing his head with both hands and forcing it back toward the door. "How do you have psychic abilities?" she asked, her voice filled with bewilderment.

"How would I know?" Chen Qing replied, appearing unbothered. "It seems my traits have evolved. It’s a bit of a surprise, but nothing major."

Ignoring the pale-faced Bu Zhaozhao, he looked ahead once more. Only a few flies remained, still twitching on the door. It could no longer be called a face; it was now little more than a series of lines. The line representing the mouth twitched slightly. It was trying to say something.

Chen Qing frowned, but the sound of the door opening interrupted his thoughts.

He turned his head. It was Jiang Wan; he had seen her from quite a distance. Following Chen Qing’s footprints all the way to the second floor, Jiang Wan stopped, her brows knitting together as she gazed at the flies remaining on the door. However, seeing the pile of dead flies on the floor and noting that nothing had breached the threshold, her expression softened slightly.

"How did you..." she began softly, but Chen Qing turned back to face her.

He looked into Jiang Wan’s eyes, watching as her expression froze in shock.

"What the hell? Your eyes!" Her voice carried a note of revulsion, which was reasonable; the eye on his forehead looked exactly like a dense cluster of frog eggs, with each egg containing a tiny, peering eye.

"A mutation," Chen Qing said, appearing nonchalant. "Hey, it’s actually become quite powerful."

He turned back to the door, only to see the flies shifting once again. They no longer formed a face; instead, they began to arrange themselves into a word. They piled layer upon layer, shrinking into a smaller, tighter space. Once there were no gaps left, they had formed a single word.

"HLEP"