Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Endgame
Yang Shen killing the big-mouthed woman was clearly something no one had expected.
Moreover, the sheer bizarreness of the situation and the gruesomeness of the scene were simply unbelievable!
They’d been fighting over there for so long without a single fatal wound, yet how long had it taken here to splatter an entire wall with gore?
Fragments of internal organs were strewn about, and her body was nailed to the wall like a sack of grain.
The Bee Control Technique had been a massive game-changer!
In truth, before the woman swallowed her red beetles, Yang Shen had struggled to inflict any real damage. However, the wondrous nature of Cultivation Techniques had instantly turned the tide of battle.
It also made Yang Shen realize something. ’It doesn’t matter if a technique is for farming or for weaving... ’
’There’s no such thing as a useless Magic, only a useless user.’
The two remaining enemies were both shocked and furious, but they also realized the tide had turned against them!
Their goal was to kill everyone here. Failing that, the entire mission was meaningless.
This was especially true for the P.E. teacher who had turned traitor. If even a single person was left alive, he would be forced to spend the rest of his life as a fugitive.
But now, that was clearly impossible.
Even their supposed backup, "Liu Yuankui," was nowhere in sight.
Ten minutes had passed since they first appeared, and police reinforcements could arrive at any moment. Without a moment’s hesitation, they abandoned the mission and fled for their lives.
The two police officers instinctively moved to give chase, but when they saw the students lying all over the ground, they decided to stay.
Protecting the students was their top priority.
Leaning against the wall and gasping for breath, Yang Shen felt a bone-deep exhaustion set in as the adrenaline from the frantic battle moments before finally faded.
He looked toward Teacher Zhou Yao and froze.
The P.E. teacher, who had been worrying about her students until the very end, was now completely still.
That spray bottle... hadn’t brought about any miracle.
Yang Shen gritted his teeth and turned to leave.
"Hey, kid! Where are you going? Don’t run off!"
Yang Shen glanced back. "My deskmate is gone... I’m going to find her. Teacher Zhou Yao might still be alive, but I don’t know first aid. You should go check on her, quickly."
The officer shouted for him to stop, but Yang Shen didn’t listen. He walked through the collapsed section of the courtyard wall and leaped onto the mountainside.
The trail of disturbed undergrowth faintly showed that someone had fought their way down the mountain. Yang Shen followed the tracks, his eyes drawn to a flicker of firelight in the distance. ’Is that a fire?’
With no other leads and no way to track them, Yang Shen could only instinctively head toward the light.
He moved quickly down the slope. The distance was only a few hundred meters, and with his resilient skin ignoring the scrapes of branches and deadwood, he covered a dozen meters in a single leap, soon arriving at the source of the fire.
However, the scene he found was completely different from what he’d imagined.
Xu Bamboo was sitting quietly under a tree, and the person beside her was none other than Chen Beiwang!
"Holy shit! What are you doing here?!"
Chen Beiwang’s clothes were a mess, and he looked like he’d been beaten black and blue for three days and nights. He was slumped on the ground, and said weakly, "You little brat... this is all your fault!"
He pointed to a splintered, burning log next to him. "This is your idea of a barbecue?!"
He’d gotten Yang Shen’s text earlier and, having nothing better to do, decided to come check it out. His plan was to eat some barbecue and then spend the night at his new girlfriend’s place at the foot of the mountain.
Halfway up, he saw the firelight and thought to himself, ’Wow, these high school kids really know how to party.’
’This is a full-blown bonfire party!’
’Classy!’
But when he got closer, he found two experts he didn’t recognize locked in a duel! One of them was a pyrokinetic.
As a financially successful but decidedly non-combat-oriented Martial Arts Practitioner, despite also being at the Innate realm, Chen Beiwang had turned to leave without a second thought. At most, he’d call the cops later and play the part of a concerned citizen.
But then he turned around and ran right into a crazed Xu Bamboo!
The P.E. teacher who’d turned traitor had apparently realized he couldn’t defeat Xu Bamboo quickly. Her strength had exceeded his expectations, so he had vanished to rejoin the main attack and launch a sneak attack there instead.
He left a mentally unstable Xu Bamboo behind, rampaging through the forest and attacking anyone she saw.
And so, Chen Beiwang got the crap beaten out of him for a good long while, until he found an opportunity to use a certain device.
His face bruised and swollen, Chen Beiwang pointed to a small, chip-like object on Xu Bamboo’s temple.
"It’s from my company. A prototype. Lucky for me, it worked!"
Yang Shen let out a sigh of relief. He picked Xu Bamboo up and checked her condition. She wasn’t injured—at least, she was in much better shape than Chen Beiwang.
"What is this? It can actually suppress ’Martial Arts Psychosis’?"
Chen Beiwang winced in pain. "Why do you think I’ve been researching ’Martial Arts Psychosis’? My company was commissioned by the government to develop this. It regulates emotions. Your whole Training Camp is basically just a bunch of pre-certified psychos, right? I brought one along to test, and what do you know, I actually had to use it!"
Yang Shen heaved a long sigh. A huge weight had just been lifted from his chest.
He stepped forward and gathered Xu Bamboo in his arms. Her unconscious body was limp, and Yang Shen had to hold her tightly to keep her from slipping.
He looked her over as he held her, then listened for her heartbeat. She seemed to be fine; her breathing was steady.
"Let’s go. Come back to the courtyard with me. It’s safe there now."
’It’s the safest place to be right now. There are two cops, and backup will be here soon.’
Chen Beiwang limped along behind him. "So what the hell happened? There were two people dueling a minute ago. They took one look at me and moved somewhere else."
’They probably couldn’t figure out whose side Chen Beiwang was on...’
As they climbed the slope, Yang Shen gave him a brief rundown of the situation. Chen Beiwang frowned in thought for a moment. "Exotic Evil Technique? So ’Martial Arts Psychosis’ really is related to the Exotic Realm! They were here to silence witnesses... a classic organized hit. Does the Jinshui District really have that many cultists?"
Yang Shen’s interest was piqued. "Cultists? Can you tell me more?"
For a moment, the only sounds on the mountainside were the rustle of crushed twigs underfoot and Chen Beiwang’s pained groans as he answered.
"This isn’t really something a high school student should know... ’Cultist’ is just a catch-all term. In my opinion, they should be called the Exotic Realm Opposition."
"You have to understand, Cyan Blue has been exploiting various Exotic Realms for many years. The one with the longest history has been under continuous development for over a thousand years. Have you ever stopped to think what ’Cyan Blue’ means to the people of the Exotic Realms?"
Chen Beiwang spread his hands. "Think about it. A door suddenly opens in their sky, and a horde of powerful Martial Arts Practitioners rushes out to plunder resources, steal technology, and conquer civilizations and native peoples... While it’s true that most Exotic Realms now have stable exploitation methods, and the truly brutal days were during first contact, there’s always a small faction of ’Aliens’ who try to resist."
"The people we send to the Exotic Realms are all experts, part of the regular military. Crushing them over there is easy. But if they manage to infiltrate Cyan Blue society, it opens up a lot more angles for them to act, like engaging in covert sabotage."
"Of course, that’s not to say everyone who masters an ’Exotic Evil Technique’ is an Alien. I think they could also be brainwashed Cyan Blue Star People who’ve been recruited. After all, it’s incredibly difficult for anyone from over there to cross over."
Chen Beiwang looked down at his expensive shirt, now torn to rags fit for a beggar.
"My luck is just the worst. I came here for a barbecue, and I haven’t even caught a whiff of it. All I got was a giant pile of trouble!"
Yang Shen exhaled slowly. A vast corner of the world had just been unveiled, and he, a high school student, had only just scratched the surface.
’It wasn’t beautiful, and it wasn’t peaceful...’
’But for now, I should just focus on myself.’
Just as the three of them were about to reach the courtyard, the urgent wail of police sirens finally echoed from the winding mountain road.
You couldn’t say the police were always late. If it hadn’t been for the two officers in the courtyard holding their ground, everyone would likely have been dead tonight.
Only after Yang Shen saw seven or eight officers rush into the courtyard, confirming that the situation was finally secure, did he emerge from the collapsed wall, still carrying Xu Bamboo.
He was just about to speak when a voice came from behind him. "Excuse me. Make way."
Neither Yang Shen nor Chen Beiwang had noticed anyone behind them, and they both jumped in fright.
He turned to see a man in a black trench coat. ’I think I’ve seen him before,’ Yang Shen thought.
’He was there the first time they questioned me.’
The man was expressionless. He bore the clear marks of a fight but didn’t appear to be seriously injured.
He calmly walked past Yang Shen and Chen Beiwang, his gaze lingering on the latter for an extra second before he stepped into the courtyard.
He tossed an object from his hand onto the ground, then pulled out his badge and flashed it at the other officers. "I’m Luo Sheng, from the city division. I was on leave, but I was worried about the situation up here and came to take a look. Happened to run into a suspicious individual."
"The suspect was quite strong, possessed an Exotic Secret Technique, and could briefly erupt with the power of a Late-stage Innate. I couldn’t afford to hold back, so I killed him on the spot."
Only then did Yang Shen make out what the man had thrown on the ground.
It was a charred head.
He could vaguely make out... the face of Liu Yuankui.
"RETCH! BLEGH!"
Smelling the aroma of burnt flesh in the air and seeing the half-melted human head, Chen Beiwang finally couldn’t stop himself from dry heaving.
He’d finally gotten a whiff of barbecue, after all.
——Portal——
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