Chapter 57: Blocking the Road

Chapter 57: Chapter 57: Blocking the Road

Shi Tie had been following quietly at Xiang Yi’s side — still, obedient, practically invisible.

But the moment Xiang Yi’s order reached his ears, he broke into a charge, plowing into the crowd blocking their path like a freight truck.

The men up front immediately swung their blades at Shi Tie, but he didn’t dodge a single strike. He let the knives land, shredding his cloak and carving gashes into his flesh.

No blood sprayed. There was only the flesh itself, knitting back together at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Unlike the thugs with their blades, Shi Tie carried no weapon of his own.

He simply used his grotesquely powerful body as a battering ram and slammed straight into them, sending every last one of the men flying.

Literally flying.

Everyone who dared stand in Shi Tie’s path was launched three or four meters through the air, with no more ability to resist than a handful of day-old chicks.

Shi Tie didn’t even break stride. He stepped over their bodies and kept going, chasing after the direction where that person had disappeared, just as Xiang Yi had ordered.

He left wreckage in his wake.

One of the blocking thugs had been sent flying by the collision, and then Shi Tie’s foot came down squarely on his abdomen. The man immediately vomited several mouthfuls of blood thick with what looked like fragments of ruptured organs, and went still within seconds.

The others were already a chorus of groans.

Shi Tie was gone — but the men who had been blocking Xiang Yi from behind didn’t seize the opportunity to attack. They didn’t dare move at all.

Because the moment Xiang Yi had issued his order, he’d already drawn his Laser Rifle and leveled it at the men behind him.

The Laser Rifle had no charge left to actually fire, but it still had just enough residual power to stay in standby mode.

In standby, it still emitted the faint, telltale glow of concentrated energy.

That glow looked real enough to plant a seed of doubt in the minds of the men at his back.

If Xiang Yi had simply raised the Laser Rifle, there might have been someone bold enough to test him.

But what Shi Tie had just done — charging into blades without flinching, without slowing — had genuinely rattled them.

Xiang Yi turned unhurriedly toward the gang leader who had just been knocked down by Shi Tie. "I’d like to have a little chat with you," he said calmly.

"Chat my ass!"

The leader hauled himself up off the ground, hurled his backpack aside, and charged at Xiang Yi with a roar, cleaver raised.

At the same time he screamed at the others who were still hesitating, "What the fuck are you all waiting for? You’re gonna let a toy gun scare you off? Without his bodyguard he’s nothing! Cut him down!"

The leader surged forward first, and the rest found their nerve and closed in on Xiang Yi.

Xiang Yi didn’t fire.

The others instantly understood what that meant. Their expressions twisted with fury, and every one of them scrambled to be the first to hack Xiang Yi apart.

Xiang Yi furrowed his brow.

He directed his Spiritual Energy toward the Mind Pulse Generator in an unhurried motion and flipped it on.

In an instant, every man around the leader dropped to the ground in unison.

The backpack that had been lying on the ground came flying toward Xiang Yi, and he snatched it and hurled it at the group behind him.

Another wave of men collapsed as one, and the cleavers and daggers they had been brandishing overhead came crashing down onto their own people.

Blood gushed freely, but not a single scream rang out. The only sound was the slow, quiet spread of their blood across the floor of the alley.

"Damn, this thing is useful."

Xiang Yi couldn’t help but marvel.

The Mind Pulse Generator was, aside from Shi Tie, the whole reason he’d been willing to risk coming to the Southwest City District in the first place.

Its effect against the Shuffling Monsters had been poor, but against ordinary humans, the Mind Pulse Generator was devastatingly effective.

Once he’d recovered a bit more, he could try pushing it further with Spiritual Enhancement.

That might just patch up its weakness against Abnormalities.

Xiang Yi switched off the Psychic Pulse and stepped forward, pulling the gang leader out from the pile of fallen bodies.

The man had a gash across his forehead — something had caught him — and blood was running freely, but he was still alive.

Xiang Yi couldn’t be bothered with the others, but he took the time to stop the leader’s bleeding himself.

The man was the head of this group, after all. He’d know the most.

Though in truth, the one who knew the most was probably the person who’d just run off. Whether Shi Tie could actually catch him was another question entirely.

Xiang Yi pulled a length of rope from his pack, trussed the leader up, and settled himself onto a nearby pile of junk to wait in silence.

The surrounding area remained completely quiet.

It seemed this gang had already cleared the area before moving in, which saved him the trouble of dealing with any passersby.

After nearly ten minutes, a few of the fallen men appeared to have bled out — likely nicked a vessel when they went down — while others were beginning to show signs of coming around.

When he’d activated the Mind Pulse Generator, Xiang Yi hadn’t pushed it to maximum overload.

He’d been worried about the battery, so compared to when he’d used it during the prison break, he had dialed the pulse intensity back a notch.

He hadn’t expected them to start waking up this soon.

But Shi Tie still hadn’t returned.

Xiang Yi considered issuing Shi Tie a new command remotely through his Spiritual Power.

Before he actually did, however, he felt Shi Tie’s position through his Spiritual Power — a sudden, unbidden awareness.

He could vaguely sense that Shi Tie was still moving through this part of the district, circling in wide loops.

The one called Pingyu hadn’t led Shi Tie toward the central city district. He apparently didn’t dare go there.

That was fine. Given the situation, Xiang Yi saw no rush to call Shi Tie back. Better to let him keep tracking. Bringing the man back alive would be the ideal outcome.

In the meantime, Xiang Yi grabbed the leader and began dragging him out of the alley.

Night had fallen completely by now.

A few lights bled through the walls of the nearby tin-sheeted shacks, but no one poked their head out at the strange scraping sound of something being dragged past.

It seemed that people who’d lived here long enough knew better than to let their curiosity get the better of them. Convenient for Xiang Yi.

He still remembered the way he’d come in. He deliberately steered toward the unlit back paths as he dragged the leader along, and without much trouble he hauled the man all the way to the edge of the Southwest City District.

The outskirts of the Southwest City District were dotted with isolated tin shacks, and several of them looked like they hadn’t been occupied in a long time.

Xiang Yi picked one at random and shoved the leader inside.

Mouth stuffed, door shut.

Then he turned and headed back into the Southwest City District.

He reached out through his Spiritual Power again to locate Shi Tie, and found that Shi Tie was now not far away — and closing fast.

It looked like Pingyu was making a run for the edge of the district.

Hard to say how much he had left in the tank after running this long.

Xiang Yi got his bearings in the dark and set off in Shi Tie’s direction.

Meanwhile.

Pingyu — the one who had taken the photo — was sprinting through the Southwest City District like his life depended on it.

He gulped air in ragged bursts as he wove through the maze of buildings he knew by heart.

He’d never run this far without his legs giving out before. He hadn’t known he had it in him.

Every time exhaustion crept up and he wanted to stop, all he had to do was think about what that photo had captured — and something like hope surged up inside him, enough to push his legs a little further.

But then the heavy footsteps behind him suddenly drew close again, and his heart nearly missed a beat.

He was running as hard as he could, but that towering figure refused to let go, shadowing him no matter what he tried, impossible to shake.

Pingyu cut through the interior of a tin-walled building.

He’d hoped the structure might at least slow the giant down.

Instead, the building — which had looked reasonably solid — simply caved in.

The jagged shards of metal pierced into the figure’s flesh, only to be pushed back out moments later by a web of regenerating tissue.

Terror tightened its grip around his chest.

And then he realized, with a jolt, that he was steadily approaching the outskirts — the buildings around him were thinning out.

He suddenly found himself regretting why he’d ever followed the crew’s leader out here to jump someone.

Why had he been stupid enough to snap a photo of that device — and why did the one person they were trying to rob have to see him do it?

Anyone walking around with a bodyguard and a piece of hardware like that was never going to be simple.

That bodyguard was clearly wrong — not human. Was it one of those Alien Warriors from the rumors?

Pingyu’s mind was spiraling now, and the crushing weight of panic was close to breaking him entirely.

Then, without warning.

A heavy backpack came hurtling straight at his face — and it looked oddly familiar.

His vision went black, and he couldn’t see a thing.