The night wind swirled with the pungent scent of gunpowder and scorched meat as it rushed into her lungs. Qiu Shubai’s mind buzzed for a moment.
A sudden warmth rushed to her ears, causing a faint flush to creep across her pale cheeks.
She stiffly turned her head away, deliberately avoiding the reflection of the firelight in Luo Yang’s plain glass spectacles.
Her ash-white hair was tossed by the wind, the stray strands brushing against her face with a slight itch.
The pain crawling up the nerve endings at her waist actually helped clear the messy noise in her head.
She believed she understood this man’s ways quite well.
The words he had just spoken didn't contain even a shred of romantic intent; they were purely a product of his arrogance regarding his own strength, combined with a sense of responsibility to help a classmate.
After all, this man was a complete outlier in the academy, constantly hovering right at the passing mark and competing with the second-to-last student, turning score-controlling into a form of performance art.
A person who acted so eccentrically naturally had a thought process far removed from ordinary people; it was hard for him not to be noticed.
To expect him to play at romance on a blood-soaked battlefield? One might as well expect the mutant beasts to line up for suicide.
Tang Xuan approached, her tactical boots making sticky squelching sounds as she stepped on the shell casings littering the asphalt.
She reached up to pull the stringy bit of pink bubble gum from her collar and flicked it onto a nearby abandoned tire. The soot covering her face couldn't hide the blatant desire for gossip in her eyes.
“Whoa, Luo God, which idol drama did you learn that line from?”
“That was pretty cheesy. Good thing it’s just us here; if someone had recorded that, the academy forum would have exploded tomorrow.”
“Let them write what they want,” Luo Yang said.
He took off his glasses, using his thumb to wipe the dust from the edge of the frame. “It’s not like they haven't been making up stories about me anyway.”
“Is that the same thing?” Tang Xuan rolled her eyes, a bubble popping with a sharp sound.
“Back then they were calling you a poser; this time they’re shipping you two as a couple. It’s not the same thing at all.”
Qiu Shubai shot Tang Xuan a cold glare.
Tang Xuan immediately raised her hands in surrender and backed up a few steps, hiding behind Li Qiang.
Li Qiang was leaning on his knees, gasping for air. Seeing this, he only managed a helpless twitch of his lips, not even having enough strength left to speak.
Luo Yang leaned casually against an overturned crash barrier, his toe kicking a deformed brass shell casing into a drainage grate.
“I'm just doing what I'm paid for. Besides, if you guys died here, Old Man Zhang would definitely skin me alive.”
He was about to tease Tang Xuan about her soot-covered face when the words suddenly caught in his throat.
Inside his Sea of Consciousness, the radiant golden tree shook violently, its broad leaves clashing together with a metallic chime.
Two kilometers away, a massive energy source—so powerful it made his teeth ache—slammed into his perception net without warning.
It was like a bucket of ice water being thrown into a vat of boiling oil; the surrounding energy field was instantly torn to shreds.
The temperature in the air plummeted. The previous sweltering heat was cut short by an icy chill that blew against his sweat-soaked back, sending a shiver down his spine.
Luo Yang’s fingers, resting on the hilt of his blade, suddenly tightened.
That aura didn't approach the bridge; instead, it moved northwest through the cluster of unfinished buildings, putting distance between them at extreme speed.
The vibrations from the thing crushing the asphalt were so strong that he could feel them through the ground even from two kilometers away.
He didn't draw his blade, but simply locked onto that direction until the pressure completely exited his eight-kilometer perception limit.
Luo Yang looked at the northwestern night sky, then down at the messy ground, and whispered in a low voice, “It runs fast.”
Yan Zhi followed his gaze.
“Is there something there?”
“Yeah.”
Luo Yang let go of the hilt, his tensed shoulders slumping.
“A Level 5 Snow Lion King. It was hiding nearby watching the show just now. Seeing its six lackeys turned into pincushions, it probably figured this bone was too hard to chew and decided to turn tail.”
As soon as he said this, the faces of the remaining conscious Punishers turned pale.
A new piece of bubble gum Tang Xuan had just pulled from her pocket fell into the bloody water. She didn't even think about picking it up, her voice trembling. “Level… Level 5? It was nearby?”
Li Qiang’s legs went weak, and he sat back down into the pile of broken bricks, panting heavily.
A Level 5 mutant beast—if that thing had pounced just now, with their battered forces, they might not have escaped even with Luo Yang’s help.
“It’s good that it’s gone.”
Qiu Shubai’s voice was slightly hoarse as she forced her trembling wrists to steady. “Now that it’s gone, the crisis at the South Viaduct can be considered officially over.”
With the departure of the Snow Lion King, the atmospheric pressure dissipated, and the blocked communication signals finally returned.
Alternating red and blue police lights pierced through the smoke as the shrill sirens of ambulances approached from all directions, merging into a loud chorus.
Tires rolled over the shell casings and broken glass. Before the vehicles had even come to a full stop, medical personnel in white coats were already rushing toward the defensive line with stretchers.
“Over here! Tourniquet! Fast!”
“Get two bags of Type A plasma! Quick, apply pressure to his artery!”
The shouting, groaning, and beeping of instruments blended into a chaotic mess, and the pungent smell of disinfectant began to mask the scent of scorched meat.
Stretchers wove through the ruins as wounded soldiers and Punishers were quickly lifted, strapped in, and sent to the temporary hospital in the rear.
Li Qiang waved to a stretcher-bearer, pointing toward Qiu Shubai. “Check her first! Laceration on her waist, might have internal organ damage!”
Qiu Shubai didn't refuse, allowing two medics to help her to the back of an ambulance, where they cut open her uniform to inspect the wound.
Hydrogen peroxide was poured over the flesh, causing fine white foam to rise.
She bit her lower lip so hard that blood seeped through her teeth, but she didn't let out a single cry of pain. Only cold sweat dripped from her chin.
Luo Yang retreated into the shadows of a power distribution room, avoiding the direct glare of the searchlights.
The aftereffects of overextending his mental power began to surface. It felt as if a rusty steel needle was piercing back and forth through his temples, and even the edges of his vision were starting to double.
The golden tree in his Sea of Consciousness had stopped swaying, its light growing slightly dim.
The magnificent carpet-bombing attack from earlier had almost forced him beyond his limits of endurance.
Although he still had some blood energy and mental power left, the sense of fatigue it brought was something no amount of recovery could erase.
He still had a bit of a prideful streak; he didn't want to show his vulnerable side to others.
Leaning against the rough brick wall, he slid down to a sitting position and pulled his phone from his pocket.
The screen was smeared with half-dried bloody mud, and a spiderweb of cracks ran across the entire tempered glass protector.
Luo Yang rubbed it against his pant leg a few times, unlocked the screen, and dialed an encrypted number.
The private line of the Director of the Yuanxing City Ability Bureau.
At this critical juncture, he didn't want to bother with going through layers of reporting; contacting the top commander directly was the most efficient way.
The phone rang three times before connecting.
“Old Director.”
Luo Yang didn't wait for the other side to speak, getting straight to the point. “The South Viaduct is clear. Six Level 3 snow lions, all down, none breathing.”
“You did all that, kid?”
“Yeah. The big one showed its face, saw things weren't going well, and bolted. The crisis here… I guess you could say it’s resolved.”
The sound of the Old Director, Li Jinqi, coughing violently came through the receiver, accompanied by the rustle of papers and the overlapping shouts of various dispatchers.
“Are you…” Li Jinqi’s voice was hoarse, thick with the exhaustion of staying up all night. “You didn't lose any limbs, did you?”
“All in one piece, doing great.”
Luo Yang half-closed his eyes, his voice sounding a bit tired.
“Where else is the Bureau short-handed? The wounded here are being moved out. I’ve just finished warming up; I can clear a few more streets.”
The other end of the line went eerily silent for two seconds.
“You crazy brat, do you really think mutant beasts are as easy to slice as cabbages?”
Li Jinqi cursed once, his speaking speed suddenly increasing with an urgency he couldn't hide.
“South City Industrial Park! Old Qian and the Third Section are surrounded by a nest of Level 2 aberrations! I’m sending the coordinates to your phone now!”
“Old Qian?” Luo Yang raised an eyebrow. Qian Yao was usually rigid, but his tactical command was always steady. For him to be pushed to the point of calling for backup meant something had gone seriously wrong on the east side of the city.
“Got it, I’m on my—”
Before he could finish, static took over the receiver, and Li Jinqi’s voice vanished.
“Old Man Li? Hello?”
Luo Yang pulled the phone away and stared at it for a moment, confirming it wasn't just a brief signal flicker before shoving it back into his pocket.
He pushed himself up from the wall and looked toward the east.
That was the location of the South City Industrial Park.
The originally pitch-black night sky was being slowly swallowed by plumes of eerie, dark purple fire. Billowing thick smoke rose into the clouds, completely obscuring most of the moon.
Yan Zhi approached, tossed her empty cola bottle into a drain, and looked up at him. “Are we leaving again?”
Luo Yang patted the dust off his clothes, rested his hand back on the hilt of his blade, and took a deep breath of the thick, muggy summer night air.
He forced himself to stay sharp, trying to push back the intense drowsiness clouding his mind.
“Let’s go, A-Zhi. Looks like we'll have to pull an extra shift for tonight's job.”
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