Chapter 314: Intrigue

"Release me right now, Raven! You treacherous piece of scum!"

Chen Yiran immediately erupted into a fit of fury at the sight of Raven.

Raven wasn't bothered by his insults at all, and he crouched down to look at the man in the cage.

"You're over 100 years old, and you deal in human trafficking, why are you speaking like a naive little child? I never promised you anything. All I said was that I was interested in your experience with Adam." Raven turned to Hebi no Miko, then asked, "Have you heard about the blank slate business?"

"I have."

As a former high-ranking spy in the Japanese Department of Intelligence, Hebi no Miko had naturally heard of this illegal business, which drew in patronage from all of the most powerful and wealthiest people all over the world.

"I've heard of it, but I've never come into contact with it before."

She was one of the most powerful adapters in the world, but her influence, wealth, and social status had never very lofty heights.

Blank slates were exceedingly rare, and every single one of them was extremely meticulously selected.

An unfathomable amount of power and influence was required to create a top-tier blank slate.

"This man is one of the cogs in the blank slate production machine. He's not one of the top figures in the production line, but he's definitely a mid-level figure on the hierarchy, so I'm sure knows many things. Are you interested in taking a look in his psychic world with me?"

"Is this how you plan to keep me from going after Adam?"

"Is this not intriguing enough to capture your interest? If we can seize control of this supply chain, all of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world will be at our mercy!"

"What happens after that?"

"We'll think about the future when we get to it. Now that I've saved you, I've obtained more power, and with more power, I can do more interesting things. Even though I hadn't decided on what I was going to do at the time, I can always make a decision later down the line." Raven extended a hand toward Hebi no Miko as he spoke. "Would you like to join me?"

Hebi no Miko thought about this for a moment, then shook Raven's outstretched hand.

The two of them didn't waste any time with words as they invaded Chen Yiran's psychic world in unison, ignoring his loud protests.

Before the two of them even had a chance to find their footing after arriving in Chen Yiran's psychic world, they were immediately discovered by his psychic body.

Having had his consciousness implanted into the brain of a blank slate, Chen Yiran was currently a bona fide adapter himself. Furthermore, he had been alive for over 100 years and faced countless opponents and hardships in the business world, so his psychic body was far from weak.

As soon as Raven landed on the ground, an elderly technomancer immediately came rushing at him from afar.

Even after doing so many heinous things, he still hasn't undergone any degree of psychic mutation. It's clear that what he's doing doesn't weigh on his conscience at all.

The elderly technomancer was Chen Yiran's psychic body.

His elderly appearance indicated that even though he possessed a young body, deep down in his heart, he still regarded himself as an old man, and the fact that he was a technomancer indicated that he didn't like to directly confront his opponents, preferring to manipulate them from afar instead.

Everyone's psychic body was a manifestation of their personality.

As soon as Chen Yiran appeared, he immediately went on the attack.

Raven and Hebi no Miko had arrived in a certain hospital under the Compassion Company, and a cloud of black mist surged up into the air above the hospital at Chen Yiran's behest, following which every single person in the hospital began to charge at Raven and Hebi no Miko as if they were zombies under Chen Yiran's control.

Chen Yiran's psychic body was quite powerful, and the "zombies" under his control displayed significantly superior physical attributes to the average person. In addition to that, this ability encompassed a huge area, and even if he didn't have any other abilities up his sleeve, his powers were still quite impressive already.

On Adam's power scale, Chen Yiran was at least equivalent in power to a level three anomaly.

In the outside world, he could be considered to be quite a formidable adapter. At the very least, he was superior to the majority of the special psychic police officers, and even in Shadow City, he would've been able to climb up the ranks to become an A rank combatant.

Unfortunately for him, his opponents on this occasion were simply far too formidable.

It would've been an exceedingly difficult task to find an adapter of Hebi no Miko's caliber, and Raven was also a force to be reckoned with in his own right.

"Surely you don't need me to do anything here," Hebi no Miko said as she took a glance at Raven. "I didn't get to see much of your powers last time. How about you give me a demonstration here?"

"I'm afraid you won't be able to see much. He's too weak for me to give a good demonstration."

Raven exhaled through his beak, and the dark clouds above above were instantly swept away. As a result, all of the zombies fell to the ground like puppets that had had their strings severed.

After that, a bunch of tentacles emerged from beneath Chen Yiran's feet to immobilize him.

There was simply too vast a disparity in power, to the point that Raven was able to subdue Chen Yiran in a matter of seconds.

After doing all of that, Raven began to try and manifest a humanoid form, clearly a very difficult task for a psychic mutant.

Hebi no Miko watched as Raven strained and struggled, and only after a few minutes was he able to just barely transform into an inky-black humanoid creature without any facial features. In a rare display of amusement, Hebi no Miko burst into laughter upon seeing this.

"It's not easy for a psychic mutant to revert back to a human form. Would you like me to teach you?"

"That would be fantastic."

The two of them arrived in front of Chen Yiran as they conversed with one another.

At this point, the tentacles had already burrowed their way into Chen Yiran's body, so Raven wasn't concerned about him getting away.

"You're a smart man, I'm sure you know what you need to do next, right?"

Chen Yiran nodded in response. At this point, he knew that he had no choice but to accept his fate.

"Will I be spared if I cooperate with you?"

"Of course. You still have so much wealth and influence, we definitely can't just let you die here." Even though Raven had no face, there was a smile being conveyed in the tone of his voice. "You're a businessman, and so am I. There's no way I would let you die for no reason. Now, I want you to show me and Hebi no Miko the secrets of your production line."

Chen Yiran nodded in response.

He had truly been backed into a corner.

Mechguard was searching for him, and judging from his understanding of the organization above him, he knew that his higher-ups had most likely already abandoned him.

Thus, he had no choice but to cooperate with these two if he wanted to have any chance at survival.

With that in mind, Chen Yiran immediately began to try and suck up to the two psychic mutants.

Adaptability was the key to his long life and lofty status.

"I know a lot of things that I'm sure you'll find interesting, so you're definitely asking the right person," Chen Yiran said as he led the two of them into the internal area of the hospital.

It naturally had to have been quite an important memory to have been able to create a psychic module in such a secretive location.

"This area in this hospital is an important place in which we select our blank slates." After arriving in the internal area of the hospital, Chen Yiran led Hebi no Miko and Raven to a heavily restricted brain treatment area. "This place is usually constantly guarded by carefully hand-selected individuals, and the machines inside the are most cutting-edge in the world, able to accurately select all of the individuals with abnormally advanced neurons..."

"How many blank slates could a hospital possibly produce? Adapters are extremely rare, it would require way too much work for far too little reward."

"You've hit the nail right on the head, Mr. Raven. All of the children who are sent here have already undergone a prior screening process. We have a collaborative partnership with the Ark Learning Children's Fund, and during their physical examinations, they'll pick out the children who are most likely to possess the potential to become blank slates, so not all of the children are sent here for examination. Typically, we get roughly one adapter per 100 children."

"What happens after that? Who do you hand those children over to?"