Chapter 91
My weak and helpless family members
Plop.
Plop.
Blood dripped from the tip of the knife, pooling quickly on the ground and clearly reflecting in Shen Zhuo’s pupils.
“G-give me…”
The Burmese man’s eyes were fixed on Shen Zhuo, his hand gripping the knife with bulging veins, his sharp, rough breathing echoing through the corridor.
A few seconds stretched into what felt like centuries before Shen Zhuo finally made a compromising gesture. At the Burmese man’s signal, he bent down and slowly placed his gun on the ground.
“Don’t—” Cameron gritted his teeth and barely got out two words before a sudden slash of pain from the knife forced him to stop.
Shen Zhuo ignored his brother. From the inner pocket of his suit, he pulled out two metal syringes. One had an “S” engraved on the cap and the other an “A.” He showed them to the Burmese man, indicating that these were the only ones he had, then made a move as if to throw them to the ground.
“￥%&!”
As expected, the Burmese man immediately roared in protest, glaring viciously at him and signaling for him to come over and hand them to him.
HRG syringes were stored in specially made metal tubes, which would automatically deploy a needle when the cap was popped. The transparent tube walls allowed the liquid inside to be seen directly. The Burmese man feared that Shen Zhuo might break the tubes by throwing them, but he didn’t know that the tubes were made of a special heat-resistant, shock-proof material and wouldn’t break easily.
Shen Zhuo maintained a calm expression, spread his hands to show he was unarmed, then raised the syringes and slowly approached, step by step, under the wary gaze of the Burmese man.
“…No, Shen Zhuo.” Cameron forced out each word through gritted teeth, his chest heaving, “If he evolves, we’ll all die. You can’t—”
Shen Zhuo’s steps landed, and as the Burmese man reached out to snatch the syringes, his cloudy eyes gleaming with greed—
In that instant…
Shen Zhuo suddenly flicked open the tube and jabbed the A-class interferon into the Burmese man’s palm, pushing it all the way in!
The move was faster than lightning, catching the Burmese man off guard. He screamed in pain and instinctively tried to stab Cameron in the neck, but it was too late.
Clang!
The knife fell to the ground with a clear sound. The Burmese man’s hands went rigid, then his entire body began to convulse; he fell to the ground with a thud, his skin cracking in large patches, and blood spurted from his seven orifices!
Cameron staggered out of the hostage range, turning back in shock.
In just two or three seconds, the drug lord had turned into a blood-red figure, with his skin oozing like a rotten tomato, chunks of flesh continuously pouring from his mouth until a heap of red and black entrails piled up on the ground.
“Gurgle… gurgle…”
Blood bubbles foamed from the Burmese man’s mouth, his cloudy eyes glaring at Shen Zhuo like two blood-filled spheres, as if trying to crawl forward, but then, with a loud gurgling sound, a long section of intestines burst from his mouth!
He fell silent, dead as could be.
The air was thick with silence, and blood was slowly flowing.
Shen Zhuo’s face showed no emotion as he put the remaining S-class interferon back into his suit pocket.
Only Cameron’s rapid breathing echoed in the corridor, and after a long moment, he managed to squeeze out a word:
“Why?”
Shen Zhuo said calmly, “Backlash.”
“…”
A chilling suspicion rose in Cameron’s mind, and he stared intently at Shen Zhuo. His gray-green eyes had never shown such an expression before: “I asked why an A-class serum would cause a backlash?!”
Shen Zhuo looked at Cameron, his words steady and clear, calm to the point of coldness: “Because he is different from you and me.”
“He is not one of the 1/79.”
The brothers’ gazes clashed in mid-air, the most terrifying suspicion and the truth they least wanted to face becoming stark reality.
“…”
After a long while, Cameron finally took a hoarse breath, raised a hand to cover his eyes, and rubbed his face vigorously.
“One seventy-ninth of humanity, huh,” he said in a low voice.
In a matter of seconds, he reverted to his usual composed, steady self, ready to face any terrifying truth and start solving the problem as the high-ranking UN official he was. Except for a slight redness in his eyes, his tone had regained stability:
“How many people know this secret?”
Shen Zhuo shook his head without answering.
Cameron asked, “What about Bai Sheng?”
“…”
Shen Zhuo didn’t respond, and Cameron’s cold gaze fixed on his brother: “Did you tell Bai Sheng?”
·
“—Mr. Bai!”
Chu Yan’s startled cry pierced the air, and the next second, an irresistible force pulled her arm, yanking her out of the swamp!
With a thud, Chu Yan fell to the ground and rolled, then looked up in shock.
Six or seven A-class evolutionists descended from the sky, simultaneously launching their strongest attack abilities. The deadly assault targeted Bai Sheng, and the energy surge was powerful enough to tear anyone apart, culminating in a massive explosion!
These evolutionists’ original target in the maze was the solitary Shen Zhuo, but they happened to encounter Bai Sheng’s approaching footsteps. Faced with a choice between avoiding or ambushing, they chose the latter, believing their numbers and strength were sufficient.
Moreover, Bai Sheng had a little girl with him—the perfect bait.
If they succeeded in assassinating or severely injuring Bai Sheng here, the subsequent mission would be much easier. Without his greatest protector, Shen Zhuo would be as easy to catch as a turtle in a jar in this maze.
Unexpectedly, the assassination seemed to go so smoothly that someone blurted out, “We did it!”
But in the next moment, a long, slender hand emerged from the thick smoke, slashing cleanly—
The explosion abruptly ceased, the flames scattering.
As the smoke rapidly dissipated, Bai Sheng stood there, raising an eyebrow at the attackers and brushing off some dust with a click of his tongue:
“Did Su Jiqiao tell you this was enough to kill me?”
The A-class evolutionists simultaneously stepped back, staring at Bai Sheng in disbelief. Someone exclaimed, “How, how is this possible…”
Before their eyes, Bai Sheng’s body bore various wounds from their attacks: a pierced right shoulder, burns on his side, and an arm twisted into a ghastly shape. But he seemed unfazed by the injuries, as all the wounds healed visibly, blood vessels reconnecting, muscles mending, and skin smoothing out without a trace.
Crack! Crack!
With a few crisp sounds, Bai Sheng’s injured arm automatically reset, and he nonchalantly shook it out.
How was this possible?
Six or seven different types of A-class attacks, such as toxic flames, explosions, matter transformation, and air needles—no matter if he were made of steel, he should have been blown to pieces. How could he possibly still be standing here unharmed?
“He… he must have activated a defensive ability…” one of the attackers stammered, “We must have missed our timing, and he managed to activate his defense!”
“Oh, no, no.” Bai Sheng shook his index finger with a reassuring tone, “Your timing was quite precise.”
“…”
“It’s true that one person cannot trigger two abilities at once, but often… there’s no need for me to deploy any defense.” Bai Sheng winked at them playfully, “You didn’t really think that mere A-class abilities could inflict any fatal damage on me, did you?”
He took a step forward, and the six or seven A-class evolutionists instinctively stepped back, their shock mixed with incredulous fear: “So just now, you— you withstood all that with just your body—”
“A group of S-classes might be difficult, but a group of A-classes, it’s just a bit of a sting.” Bai Sheng lazily stretched his neck, “At most, you can cause a bit of… pain.”
As he spoke, the last wound on his shoulder healed, and he raised his hand towards the attackers.
Invisible chains crossed the air; the A-class attackers had no time to react as the foremost one screamed and was lifted into the air before Bai Sheng, who easily disemboweled him, ruthlessly tearing open his abdomen!
Blood, flesh, and internal organs flew into the air, and the tragic scene was reflected in the eyes of the remaining attackers without any obstruction.
Screams, roars, and howls erupted as the A-class simultaneously realized the massive gap in power. Desperate, they had no time to flee and madly charged at Bai Sheng!
If fighting three S-classes had made Bai Sheng work a bit, dealing with a group of A-classes was sheer freedom of slaughter.
No abilities could cause him substantial harm, while the A-classes couldn’t withstand his deathly hand. In no time, dismembered bodies and blood were everywhere. One attacker, in despair, turned the surroundings into a swamp, trying to trap Bai Sheng, but was grabbed by the merciless double-S and pinned underground, suffocated by the mud created by his own ability; another A-class was thrown, smashing into Chu Yan’s feet with a gaping hole in his abdomen.
Despite his intestines spilling out, he staggered up and grabbed Chu Yan by the neck: “Let me go! Or I’ll kill this girl! I—”
Thunk.
His voice and expression froze at the same time as Chu Yan stabbed his throat with a knife.
The blade completely severed the neck bone, blood spurting cleanly. The next moment, she kicked the corpse aside, which fell with a heavy thud.
The girl wiped the blood off the blade on her skirt and sheathed it back into the scabbard tied to her thigh.
“What were you thinking, buddy?” Bai Sheng looked down at the dead A-class in bewilderment and said, “My daughter has a taste for breaking people’s limbs and turning them into stumpy horses.”
“I’m just a fan of waste disposal,” Chu Yan said coolly.
The white maze corridor had turned into a living hell, with sticky entrails hanging on the walls and dismembered bodies and limbs strewn everywhere.
“No… no…” The last A-class trembled, retreating, only to collapse after a few steps: “I’ll tell you, don’t kill me. Mr. Rong ordered us to assist Su Jiqiao. Su had two plans: if he couldn’t capture Shen Zhuo in the square, he’d trigger Plan B, letting that Burmese kid activate his maze ability to suck everyone in. Su Jiqiao must have come in too, but he knew the maze’s layout in advance…”
Bai Sheng asked casually, “Has Su Jiqiao been in cahoots with Rong Qi for many years?”
“I don’t know; we really don’t know. To us, Su just appeared suddenly, but he assured Mr. Rong that this time he’d definitely bring Shen Zhuo back alive. It seems related to his Fatal Strike…”
“What exactly is Su Jiqiao’s ability?”
The A-class frantically shook his head in ignorance but then changed his tune upon seeing Bai Sheng’s young, demonic face: “Don’t kill me! I—I know a way out of this maze!”
“Oh, really.”
Bai Sheng raised his foot and stepped on his chest, slowly increasing the force with his foot until his sternum made a squeezing sound under the heavy load, and asked with a smile, “What’s the solution?”
Devil… this man is a devil…
He’s definitely going to kill me!
Extreme fear finally drove the A-class ability user to desperate action. Just before his ribs were crushed, he launched his ability with a hoarse cry:
“Like this!”
Life swap.
A space-like ability, weak A-class. When activated, all living beings within a 4-square-meter area can swap positions with those in a random nearby 4-square-meter area, achieving teleportation.
It only works between similar life forms, cannot be repeated, and can only be applied to live targets.
Swish! A mirror-like space door opened behind the A-class.
Behind the door was a scene hundreds of meters away. A group of riot control soldiers who had been sucked into the maze were standing in the passage, looking around blankly. Then the life swap was activated, and the A-class psychic and Bai Sheng appeared among the soldiers at the same time.
On the other side of the space gate, two soldiers were randomly swapped and appeared at the corner of the corridor, covered with blood and corpses.
The exchange was completed and the space gate disappeared.
The two soldiers had no idea how they suddenly appeared here. They stared in shock at the hellish scene in front of them, as well as Chu Yan, who looked innocent with blood on her hands. Two seconds later, they shouted at the top of their lungs:
“Ahhhhhh—”
Chu Yan: “…………”
At the same time, hundreds of meters away, a group of soldiers were shocked, but Bai Sheng, who fell from the sky, had no time to explain. He grabbed the A-class evolutionist tightly the moment he landed.
Sure enough, the A-class tried to escape, opening a second space door with a swish—this time, behind the door stood a man and a woman arguing over whether to go left or right at a fork. In the next second, the life swap happened again.
Bai Sheng and the A-class swapped places with the man and woman, who were now in the middle of the soldiers, looking around in confusion: “?!”
The soldiers around them: “?!”
Two seconds later, everyone: “Ahhhh—”
Swish, swish, swish, the space doors continuously opened and closed, causing countless people to scream as they were forcibly swapped with Bai Sheng and the A-class. The A-class was in a sorry state, struggling desperately but unable to escape Bai Sheng’s grip. It wasn’t until the eighteenth or nineteenth space door opened that the scene before them changed drastically.
Behind the space door appeared—
“Shen Zhuo?!” Bai Sheng yelled.
“What about Bai Sheng?” Cameron stared at his brother in the corridor, “Have you told Bai Sheng about this?”
“…” Shen Zhuo took a breath, but before he could say anything, a space door opened behind Cameron. Through it, Bai Sheng was holding a stranger A-class tightly, shouting:
“Shen Zhuo?!”
Shen Zhuo & Cameron: “……”
These two highly intelligent brothers rarely showed such a unified expression of confusion. The next moment, the life swap began.
Swappers: A-class, Bai Sheng.
Swappees: Cameron, Bo Kun.
Cameron disappeared, and the stranger A-class appeared.
Bo Kun’s corpse disappeared, and just as Bai Sheng was about to appear, he slammed into an invisible barrier. Thunk!
—The life swap only worked on living beings, and Bo Kun was already dead, making Bai Sheng’s swap fail!
In an instant, the situation changed.
Bai Sheng was forced back to the original location, watching helplessly as the space door disappeared. The A-class he had grabbed had escaped; instead, he now faced the bewildered Cameron and Bo Kun’s gruesome corpse on the ground.
“What’s going on?” Cameron’s first reaction was: “Where’s my brother?!”
“…” Bai Sheng looked in the direction of the disappearing space door, suddenly realizing a very serious problem: “Shen Zhuo, he—”
On the other side of the corridor, the A-class fell to the ground in mid-air, immediately turned his head, and saw Bai Sheng finally shaken off. The surrounding corridor was empty, with only one person in sight.
A lone Shen Zhuo.
“…” The A-class man was simply stunned. He couldn’t believe that he had such good luck. He used his hands and feet to get up from the ground, and then he couldn’t help but gasp and laugh.
“Great… great!” His face lit up with joy, not even bothering to check his injuries: “It’s me! I completed Mr. Rong’s mission! It’s me!!”
Shen Zhuo glanced downward; the gun he had thrown earlier was still lying quietly on the ground, but it was too late to pick it up now. The A-class lunged at him like lightning. Shen Zhuo dodged sideways, gesturing behind the attacker: “Bai Sheng!”
The A-class turned in fright, seeing nothing behind him.
Meanwhile, Shen Zhuo swooped down and grabbed the gun, chambering a round with a click, but before he could pull the trigger, the A-class turned back just in time, swatting the gun away with a wave of his hand, the force blowing it off course!
“Trying to trick me?!”
The A-class grabbed Shen Zhuo by the collar, ready to chop him unconscious to avoid any delays, but Shen Zhuo nodded behind him again: “Look, who’s here?”
The A-class, enraged and laughing: “You want to fool me twice? I think you—”
An iron fist came through the wind, the steel boxing gloves flashed with lightning, and the A-class man was knocked away!
The sheer force of the punch was terrifying; the A-class was like a cannonball, crashing through half a metal wall, boom! crash!
The ground trembled, debris raining down like a storm, burying the A-class under a heap, unconscious and bleeding profusely.
“—Whew!” Yang Xiaodao stood there, flexing his wrist, looking at Shen Zhuo with a faint hint of pride on his rebellious young face: “Good thing I made it in time.”
An unreliable adoptive father, a fragile, helpless future stepmother, and a quiet, intelligent, timid sister—in the end, this family still relied on him, Yang Xiaodao!
Shen Zhuo patted the young man’s shoulder encouragingly and asked, “How did you find this place?”
“Oh, I seemed to hear Bai Sheng shouting your name while smashing walls along the way.” Yang Xiaodao looked around like a curious husky and asked, “Where’s my dad?”
Smashing walls.
Smashing.
Walls.
Shen Zhuo: “…………”
Hell is other people; it turned out Yang Xiaodao was that hell all along.
Shen Zhuo looked at the young man’s hideous and terrifying pair of boxing gloves. He didn’t know where to start with a thousand words, and he fell into silence with complicated feelings.
