Chapter 712 - 385: Contaminant 3

Seeing the lights again put Yang An’s mind at ease.

After retracting the Spinal True Feather, Yang An entered an alley. He followed a path lit by neon signs until he reached the end, stopping in front of a bar.

The clamor from inside the bar caught his attention, but Yang An had no intention of going in. He was only there to wait outside for some unlucky drunk to stumble out. He needed a phone.

He needed to gather information, but he didn’t trust the people here. The best way was to find a map of the area on an electronic device; he might be able to learn something from it.

Yang An’s luck was good. He only had to wait a few minutes before a drunk woman in shorts and black stockings staggered out of the bar.

There were no cars on the street this late at night. The woman glanced around with drunken, hazy eyes, then turned and steadied herself against a wall as she headed in the other direction.

Yang An followed her. Before he’d gone far, the woman collapsed to the ground with a THUD. She struggled to get up but didn’t have the strength, so she just sprawled out on the pavement.

Seeing his chance, Yang An moved closer, intending to take the phone from her.

Just then, however, three men emerged from another dim alley. They saw the woman on the ground, exchanged a look, and broke into knowing, malicious smiles as they approached her.

"Scram."

Yang An said coldly, walking toward them one step at a time.

The men were startled by his voice, but when they saw he was alone, one of them immediately pointed at him.

"Who the fuck are you?"

The words had barely left his mouth when several white shadows shot out from behind Yang An. A series of thuds followed, and the men fell simultaneously into pools of blood, their eyes wide as their bodies began to convulse.

Yang An nonchalantly retracted the White Feathers. He walked over to the woman and pulled a phone from the bag slung over her shoulder.

Yang An wasn’t sure if this place was the world of his past life. The phone he’d just obtained was identical to the smartphones from his previous life, though he’d never heard of this particular brand.

He unlocked the phone with the woman’s fingerprint. Just as he was about to open the map app, the men on the ground suddenly rose to their feet in unison, staring at Yang An with a bizarre look in their eyes.

"Found you!"

The three men surrounded Yang An, forming a perimeter. In that same instant, the drunken woman on the ground suddenly opened her eyes.

The scene before him tore away like a fabric curtain. The bar and streets vanished, replaced by a wide, empty lawn.

In that same moment, the three men’s appearances changed, revealing they were wearing white training uniforms.

The body of the drunken woman seemed to melt away, and a round, black, fluffy ball emerged from beneath the skin, leaping into the hands of one of the men.

’An illusion?’

Yang An was somewhat surprised; he hadn’t even realized when he’d fallen into the trap. Perhaps a suggestion had been planted in his mind the moment he saw the neon signs.

’The people were all fake, so the phone in my hand...’

Yang An looked down at his hand. The phone had vanished, replaced by another fluffy ball, only this one was white.

The ball in Yang An’s hand exploded with a POP, bursting into countless threads that rained down, instantly forming a spherical cage that trapped him inside.

"I don’t know why you came back after already leaving the city, but now that you have, don’t even think about leaving again."

Seeing that Yang An was trapped, the men relaxed and spoke with mockery in their voices.

Looking at the white cage before him, its threads swelling until they were as thick as rebar, Yang An reached out and gave one a gentle squeeze.

It was incredibly hard, and it secreted a white liquid where he touched it.

As he pulled his hand back, the white liquid clung to his skin, stretching out like taffy before quickly hardening, cementing his hand firmly in place.

’Is this all it is?’

Yang An looked at the white substance on his hand. He had already tested it. This stuff couldn’t hold him at all. He could shatter it with either his Physical Power or his Spinal True Feather. At worst, he could use Broken Armor to escape with ease.

"You must have heard of its famous name: Pollutant Seventy-Three. Whether you’re a Cultivator or a Mutant, once you’re inside the cage of Seventy-Three, it’s impossible to break out from within using any kind of power. Touching it will only get you more entangled.

Even a power like Instant Teleportation won’t work; it will follow you to the ends of the earth.

So don’t even think about running. You can’t escape."

The leader, a man in a training uniform who looked to be in his late twenties, toyed with the black, fluffy ball in his hand. He seemed to be the one in control of the white cage.

But when Yang An remained silent, the man quickly lost interest in continuing the conversation.

"Take him back. The mutant power inside this guy is bizarre. We might be able to refine him into some unique pollutant. The higher-ups will definitely be interested in him."