Volume Two: The Youth of a Thousand Faces, True and False Chapter Thirty-Five: Risks and Rewards

After dinner, Reirimi went home, while the other three each returned to their own rooms.

At this moment, Huo Ye was genuinely avoiding Shangguan Yudie—who knew when she might try to read his mind? Huo Ye felt he couldn’t afford to offend her, but at the very least, he could try to stay out of her way.

Even those with supernatural abilities still needed to sleep. However, as ordinary people evolved into ability users, their need for rest was halved: four hours for them restored as much as eight hours did for others, and with the help of a hibernation pod, even that time could be cut in half again.

Though their sleep was highly efficient, for many, sleeping itself was a pleasure. Even when fully refreshed, they still indulged in lazy mornings—like Alice, who would sleep in until noon during holidays.

Huo Ye had no intention of lazing around; with the start of the school term upon him, he naturally adjusted his state, ready for action.

Two hours later, Huo Ye rose from the hibernation pod and quietly slipped out the front door—he was going to find Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng had been living on edge lately, ever since Huo Ye had told him, “You’re done for,” leaving him anxious and uneasy. Now, within a three-kilometer radius of his residence, he had installed countless surveillance cameras. Whenever no one was seeking to buy intelligence, he would watch the feeds with unwavering attention.

Few people knew that Jiang Feng also possessed an individual ability, though it was entirely unrelated to combat.

It’s often said that humans use only five percent of their brains—but Jiang Feng had developed eight percent. Those three extra points shouldn’t be underestimated; they made his intellect almost unmatched, and his memory was extraordinary. All the information he’d collected over the years was destroyed on the spot after he reviewed it; nothing was ever left behind.

Hundreds of monitors flickered, cycling through surveillance feeds. Jiang Feng stared at them intently. Suddenly, his neural interface chimed—a message from a stranger’s FlyMessage account. Jiang Feng hesitated briefly, then accepted the call.

“Hello, I’d like to buy some information.” The moment Jiang Feng heard the sweet female voice, he relaxed; it wasn’t the person he feared.

“What do you want to buy?” Jiang Feng replied.

“I heard Huo Ye wants to form a club. I’d like to know the requirements to join.”

“Are you in a bit of a hurry? He only announced his intention to form a club this morning—it hasn’t even been established yet. I don’t know the answer myself.”

“Is that so? But I heard that as long as Huo Ye takes a liking to you, you can join his club.”

Something felt off to Jiang Feng, but he remained calm. “That’s a pretty vague statement. I’d like to know—how exactly does one get Huo Ye to take notice?”

“I might know a little. How about I sell that information to you?” The sweet voice teased slyly.

A cold sweat broke out on Jiang Feng’s forehead. Years of gathering intelligence had given him an instinct for danger—he could clearly sense what was beyond his reach. Just like when Flame Demon Hall fell to Huo Ye: even though there was no footage of their battle, he could piece together from subtle clues that Huo Ye was dangerous. Perhaps he was gentle on the surface, but anyone who crossed his bottom line would face unpredictable consequences.

That was why he had been so afraid of Huo Ye on the city wall.

Now, the owner of this female voice gave Jiang Feng the same feeling as facing Huo Ye. A voice changer? No, that wasn’t it.

Jiang Feng had trained himself to recognize voice changers—even the most advanced ones still left faint electromagnetic traces. But this was a real human voice.

Jiang Feng continued the conversation, hoping to glean some clues. “Alright, how many points do you want?”

“I don’t want points, I want…” The voice in his neural interface abruptly cut off, and Jiang Feng’s instincts screamed at him: Run. Immediately.

“…you.” Before Jiang Feng could rise from his chair, a blade was already pressed to his throat. The rest of the sentence came from behind him, but now it was a man’s voice.

Huo Ye.

“Very good. You remained calm throughout, even when you sensed something was wrong—you kept your composure. It’s just a pity that your own ability limits your self-defense. Your hardware is lacking, but your software is exceptional,” Huo Ye commented.

“Brother Huo, what are you doing? Why the knife? Why don’t we put it down, and I’ll… pour you a cup of tea? We can talk this out.” Jiang Feng gently tapped the blade, signaling Huo Ye to lower it.

Huo Ye was only trying to frighten him. He sheathed the blade, pulled up a chair, and sat down facing Jiang Feng, a silent smile on his lips.

Jiang Feng couldn’t stand the unblinking gaze any longer and finally broke the silence. “Brother Huo, may I ask you two questions?”

“Speak.”

Jiang Feng hesitated for a long moment, only then realizing that “speak” was in classical language—couldn’t he just talk normally? What had he wanted to ask again?

After gnawing his teeth for a while, Jiang Feng finally asked, “First, how did you get past my surveillance? I didn’t miss a single feed.”

“Oh, that. Take a closer look at your screens.” Huo Ye gestured, “You’ve got so many cameras, but the screen can’t show them all at once, right? So, you have to switch between them. During the switch, the indicator lights on the cameras dim, so I just moved from one blind spot to another during those moments.”

Jiang Feng fell silent, thinking, Just how fast are you? Those cameras switch every two seconds—how did you manage to slip through all the blind spots?

“And your voice?”

“Oh, that.” Huo Ye spoke, but it was now the same sweet female voice from earlier. “That’s my individual ability—subclass stem cells. I can locally alter my body’s structure. Sound is produced by the vibration of the vocal cords; by changing their length, thickness, and some fine structures, I can create different voices.”

As he spoke, Huo Ye demonstrated four distinct voices: a mature woman, a young girl, an adolescent boy, and a gruff man—each unique, leaving Jiang Feng in awe.

Jiang Feng pondered for two seconds, then said, “Brother Huo, you’d make a top-tier assassin.”

“You flatter me.”

“So, what did you come to me for, Brother Huo?”

“Take a guess.”

Jiang Feng was silent for a moment, then asked, “You’re not here to recruit me for your club, are you?”

Huo Ye nodded with satisfaction. “I knew I wasn’t wrong about you.”

Huo Ye had gone to great lengths to sneak into Jiang Feng’s residence, just to test his abilities. The result was clear: though his combat skills were lacking, in every other aspect he was outstanding. What Huo Ye valued wasn’t his fighting ability, but rather his unrivaled talent for intelligence in all of Bancroft.

Jiang Feng hesitated, then finally spoke. “Brother Huo, this puts me in a difficult position. You know someone like me has to remain neutral at all times, or I’ll become the target of every other group.”

Huo Ye understood the implication. If Jiang Feng really did join a club, he would inevitably share all the major groups’ secrets with them—a huge threat. To protect their interests, the major clubs might well unite, if only temporarily, to deal with Jiang Feng.

But Huo Ye had done his research. “But your father is the academy’s director—they shouldn’t be able to touch you so easily.”

Jiang Feng gave a bitter smile. “Didn’t think you’d find that out. My father, Jiang Tong, is indeed the director, but I’ve hardly told anyone. Still, the big clubs have ways to force me out of the academy. My father can only help me as much as possible. Joining a club is too great a risk for me.”

Huo Ye patted his shoulder, having heard Jiang Feng’s concern, but said, “But risk always goes hand in hand with reward. High risk, high return. If you join my club, you’ll reap the benefits in time.”

“Come on, Brother Huo, don’t try to sell me dreams. If you think your club has something that could really attract me, just say it outright.”

“Reaper Hunter Squad.”

“What?!”

Huo Ye smirked. “Did you really think my club was just for fun? I have no intention of creating a big, bloated group. As president, my first requirement is for members to be elite—the best of the best. When I join the Reaper Hunter Squad, my club members will be coming with me.”

His meaning couldn’t be clearer. Jiang Feng was stunned, but he didn’t doubt the truth of Huo Ye’s words, since Huo Ye himself was heir to the Reaper Hunter Squad. Forming an elite club in Bancroft was the perfect way to build his own team.

Jiang Feng’s combat ability was poor, and for a squad that faced calamity head-on, that was a crucial shortcoming. With his abilities, he’d never dreamed of joining the Reaper Hunter Squad. Now, Huo Ye was offering him the chance, proving he was qualified—if he was willing to accept the risks.

Huo Ye was right: risk and reward always coexist. To risk becoming the enemy of every major club, all for a shot at joining humanity’s number one hunting squad—was it worth it?

It was.

Jiang Feng was decisive. He needed less than a minute to make up his mind.

He said, “Brother Huo, from now on, I’m with you. You have to look out for me.”

Huo Ye shook the hand Jiang Feng offered, then turned and melted back into the darkness. As he left, he said, “Keep running your business. When the club is officially founded, I’ll call you.”