Chapter 64—Searching
Chapter 64: Chapter 64—Searching
Chapter 64—Searching
A few minutes later, Lei Cheng stood at the center of the street and glanced at the Hungry Dog Gang courtyard.
"So," Lei Cheng said, turning to Constable Zhu. "What do you think the right call is here?"
The moment they came close, the thugs already noticed them. They picked up weapons.
"Constable—didn’t we warn you not to approach?" one of the guarding thugs snapped, stepping forward and drawing his spear. The second thug leveled his weapon at Lei Cheng, ready to strike.
Footsteps thundered through the courtyard as gang members poured out, armed and clad in gleaming new armor. Even their heads were covered with solid iron headgear.
Not one of them looked surprised. It was as though violence had become part of their daily routine.
On their armors were different-colored dog emblems inscribed. ’They are of different ranks, just like the Bamboo Snake Gang.’
’In the slums, people are starving and malnourished...’ Lei Cheng scowled. ’Here, they’re armed to the teeth. Even the low-rank thug had armor of the same quality as the highest-ranking member.’ Every coin stolen from the slums and outer city had clearly found its way into this courtyard.
He noticed that everyone had the same armor except for the color change.
An old man emerged from the crowd—thin, bald, with a long white beard, leaning on a walking stick as the thugs parted for him. His temperament was bloodthirsty, his eyes gleamed with cold light. He was clad in martial hanfu robes, with a golden dog emblem on his chest.
"Who are you?" Lei Cheng hissed, despite noticing the shining emblem.
"I am the leader of the Hungry Dog Gang," the old man said, his voice dry and raspy.
Lei Cheng nodded. "I assume the constable has already explained why we’re here."
Before he could continue, a gang member cut in, sneering. "Who do you think you are? We won’t help."
Another thug raised his voice and mocked, "Those people just lost their kids—now they don’t have to spend money feeding them anymore."
Another laughed. "Exactly! More money for us now!"
The thugs roared with laughter at the deaths of other people’s children. Not one of them showed the slightest trace of guilt.
Lei Cheng’s voice turned cold. "Do you understand these children were under five years old?"
The old man scoffed through his nose. "We’re happy they don’t have to waste more coins on those lumps of flesh." He turned to his men. "Isn’t that right? Those people were already struggling. Losing a mouth to feed is a blessing." Years of greed had long since stripped away whatever humanity they once possessed.
Zhu Lin’s body trembled with rage, veins bulging on his forehead. "You’re mocking their lives!"
"Lives?" a thug spat back. "Those were just—"
Lei Cheng raised his arm. "You gang members—are you siding with your leader on this, or will you come help us?" His voice sharpened. "I’ll give you a few seconds to decide. Your answer will decide whether you live or die."
The thugs burst out laughing. "You? Deciding over our lives?" One almost threw his spear, grinning wildly, before a bald man nearby held his arm. Another jeered, "Which brat clan are you even from? Name it!"
"Seems our reputation needs some polishing," the gang leader sighed, and a bald man behind him with a silver dog tattoo on his scalp added, "Gang Leader, our face’s taken a hit—any random brat thinks he can lecture us now."
"Indeed," another agreed. "We need to show them our strength, or tomorrow even a five-year-old will scold us." Their arrogance had blinded them to the danger standing before them.
The gang leader nodded, considering it. He spat, "You think a brat like you, who hasn’t even grown proper hair yet, can judge my gang?
"Enough!"
White-golden flame erupted from Lei Cheng’s body. "I gave you a good amount of time to decide."
He clenched his fist. Fire surged up from beneath every gang member and the leader himself, rising into the sky, several meters tall. "Ahh!" Screams tore through the courtyard as their bodies burned to bone, then to dust, within moments.
Silence fell. No one remained to speak. The courtyard that had echoed with laughter moments earlier now held nothing but drifting ash.
Lei Cheng took a step forward and paused, glancing down at a shadow pooling beneath his feet. His expression changed. "There you are."
Life Intent surged. Crack!A green vine tore up from the earth, coiling around the shadow and hoisting it into the air.
"Life Explosion," Lei Cheng said, injecting it with a massive burst of green energy without waiting for a reaction.
The shadow shrieked. "Not bad, human. Ha... looks like I’ll die here after all."
"Wait—you’re not that Shadow," Lei Cheng said sharply. The shadow aura was different in his senses, and it was just Level Two. He realized the enemy was even more fragmented than he had imagined.
The featureless fog suddenly formed a round head, a crimson eye occupying half its surface, a gaping crack splitting the rest.
"Indeed," it said, voice eerily blending male and female tones. "I’m not the one you’re hunting. I had also wanted to invoke my own Bizarre Rule." Half its body had already crumbled to dust under the Life Intent’s power. "Since it wouldn’t let me do it, I’ll take my revenge instead." It turned toward Lei Cheng and roared as the last of it disintegrated. "You must find it within seven hours—not just find it, but find its true body, its true appearance from many clones!"
The creature’s final words sounded less like a warning and more like a curse.
Then it was gone, turning into black dust and blown away by the wind.
Lei Cheng ran a hand through his hair, lips twitching. ’It died before telling me the entire details. I didn’t expect it to be an entirely different creature.’ He’d assumed it was the same Shadow from the gang hideout and attacked with full force.
He muttered, "Clones, and main body. So it was hiding this."
He raised his brows. "No wonder it was so confident." He glanced at his surroundings and even the sky. "If the main body is hidden in the sun like Xiao Ming... what then?"
He paused. "Clones might kidnap, main body hide..." He clenched his teeth. "This is impossible to find." He exhaled. "Let’s go step by step."
’I need to comprehend a sensing intent...’ He took a deep breath. ’But my Instant Enlightenment is not omnipotent.’ His Instant Enlightenment ability doesn’t comprehend anything out of nothing. He needs something to observe from, and for detection, he has nothing. Even enlightenment couldn’t create knowledge from absolute nothingness.
He shook his head.
"Let’s move." He waved Zhu Lin over, and they returned to the gathered crowd on Luminous Street 191. Every eye turned to him—even children had joined the group; everyone in the Bizarre Domain had joined, not a single healthy one remained, and many old, disabled had arrived on their supporting sticks.
"Everyone," Lei Cheng said, "watch your children closely. Don’t let them out of your sight."
"Sure." The crowd yelled, a loud sound of many people echoing and reaching the entire domain. But the sound was swallowed by the domain’s boundary before it could travel far.
"We don’t have much time," Lei Cheng said. "I need everyone searching everywhere—the ground, the rocks, the sky, everything you can think of."
"Even the sky?" Zhu tilted his head.
"Yes."
At this point, nothing could be dismissed as impossible anymore.
A young man in a plain blue cotton robe stepped forward. "But how?"
Lei Cheng gestured toward a nearby courtyard, which was over 100 meters. Crack! A massive vine tore up from the ground, shattering the structure and lifting the debris into the air before smashing it down. He muttered, "Life Explosion."
The broken pieces glowed light green.
Gasps rippled through the crowd. "Wha!"
"So powerful!"
"Is this a Bizarre Cultivator’s power??"
"..."
People whispered in awe. Their eyes brightened as hope spread faster than fear.
"These broken pieces carry my Life Intent," Lei Cheng explained. "Pick them up, throw them wherever you have doubts about."
He destroyed several more courtyards, infusing each fragment with his intent. Zhu picked up a glowing shard, eyes widening. "Incredible. With this, we actually have a chance."
Lei Cheng rushed ahead. "Go—I’ll scout forward first."
He tore through the slums, ignoring the stench entirely now, focus locked on his Life Intent. Within ten minutes, he had searched every corner of the slums before moving on to the surrounding streets.
An hour later, he reached Luminous Street 241.
Lei Cheng’s breath came ragged, heart pounding from over half an hour of continuous high-speed searching. "Life intent." His body glowed with green light as his heartbeat calmed. He regained full stamina. Unlike the crowd, he didn’t need physical searching—his Life Intent alone should have located them. Yet it hadn’t found any child.
"Damn it," he cursed. "No life essence here."
His expression was cold, as he had already found that the Shadow had kidnapped two kids, but under his command, people managed to stay calm. Instead, they focused all their emotions on searching.
In another new street, he focused his life intent and sensed carefully.
Just a few meters beneath him, underground, an open chamber held a group of children. They looked up and could see straight through the earth toward him.
A four-year-old girl with twin pigtails shouted, "I’m here! I’m here!"
The others joined in immediately. "I’m here! Save me! Save me!"
"Call my mom!"
They all yelled with their loudest voice. Some children pounded desperately against the walls with their tiny fists, convinced Lei Cheng would hear them.