Chapter Five: The Bath Was All for Nothing

The bloodshot in Xiao Nan’s eyes grew deeper, his breath caught in his lungs until they felt ready to burst, leaving his mind dizzy—a consequence of forcing his blood to surge. It seemed that this body had never been through rigorous training, and the sudden outburst left his brain flooded, utterly drained.

He felt a wave of weakness sweep through him, a desperate desire to collapse and never move again. Behind him, the burly man with the brutish face chased him like a demon, and a group of seven or eight others closed in, blocking every escape route.

Even so, Xiao Nan still had some confidence in his ability to slip away.

There were two reasons for this.

First, he had spent years fighting for his life amidst gunfire for the sake of his missions, painstakingly mastering Eight Trigrams Steps, a technique perfect for dodging in tight spaces.

No matter how fast someone chased, could they outrun a bullet?

He was a man who had once strolled through hails of gunfire.

As long as his stamina held, Xiao Nan believed that, in such a rush, the burly, musclebound man would have a hard time catching him.

The key was that he offered no resistance—only evasion. The initiative remained in his hands.

The other reason was the birthmark on his chest, which now reminded him that the blood ritual beast had awakened.

Very soon, these people would have no leisure left to capture him.

He darted, barely escaping the encirclement, his legs weak and unsteady, stumbling so badly he nearly fell, yet a faint smile played on his lips.

A thunderous roar erupted.

Bricks and stones flew as a shadow, dark red and drenched in blood, crashed through the wall and lunged out with a foul wind.

It moved so fast that in Xiao Nan’s eyes, it was nothing but a string of afterimages.

His breath caught, and he dropped flat onto the grass, pinned by a suffocating pressure that sent his heart racing wildly, leaving him powerless to run.

He turned in terror and saw—amidst the shrieks—a pair of pursuers flung backward, seized by a monstrous creature, more than three meters tall, with the body of a man and the head of a beast. It snatched them up and shoved them into its fanged maw, biting down with a sickening crunch as blood splattered.

The thing’s muscles were exposed, hideous and savage...

As it devoured flesh and blood, its skin slowly formed, and in moments, a layer of horny scales appeared.

“No—”

The burly man was no longer as fierce as before. Step by step, he retreated, his eyes darting with both hope and terror as he watched the monster.

He could no longer bother with Xiao Nan.

The earlier ritual had not been completed; without the final sacrificial offering, the demonic beast flew into a rage, and he no longer knew what to do.

It was likely to go out of control.

Watching him inch rapidly backward, it was clear he intended to run.

The rest, however, did not even dare to flee. All were paralyzed by the overwhelming stench of blood, their bodies limp and unable to move.

“Danger. After all my struggle to survive, it seems I’ll be done for anyway.”

Xiao Nan lay slanting on the ground, utterly spent, watching the monster helplessly.

Like the others, his body betrayed him; even the thought of escape was futile.

Yet his will was unbreakable—he had seen the harshest of battlefields, and now, instead of fear, he felt only resignation.

Fortunately, because he had escaped quickly and kept his distance, there were still seven or eight people between him and the beast. For now, he would not be the first on its menu.

He turned and saw Zhang Xiaorou, who had fallen beside him… Her little face was streaked with green grass stains and black dust, filthy and unconscious, eyes tightly shut from the fall.

Well, that bath had been for nothing.

At least she was spared the terror of seeing such a hideous monster.

Just as this thought crossed his mind, a brilliant light flared in his eyes—a streak of golden-red shot down from the sky with a sharp hiss.

With a thunderous roar, a pillar of white light, vast and blinding, descended from the heavens.

The ferocious monster howled desperately in the white glow, its cries quickly fading to silence.

In the violent shockwave, Xiao Nan’s body was flung into the air, tossed more than ten meters before crashing to the grass. Broken stones and dust nearly buried him.

His limbs were weak, his eardrums roared, and he lay motionless, cursing his luck.

The little girl he’d clutched was nowhere to be seen, flung to some distant corner.

His vision went black, and it was a long moment before he could make out vague human shapes.

When his sight returned, he found the villa courtyard utterly transformed.

Collapsed houses, leveled walls...

Amid the rubble, only half of the monster’s dark red, scaly flesh remained.

The upper half had turned to black ash, utterly lifeless.

The burly man who had managed to retreat a little farther was now missing half his body, a bloody, mangled mess—dead in the most gruesome way.

Most of the other men had also turned into suspicious heaps of black ash.

A dozen or so figures in black uniforms charged in, all armed with guns.

A few had swords slung across their backs, and as they rushed in, they began to form a loose perimeter.

Their leader, a cold-faced man of about thirty, tossed out a small white object.

The thing grew in the wind, scattering sparks of white light and covering an area of ten meters.

The net of light fell silently.

“Nothing?” The man’s face darkened, his gaze sharp as an eagle’s as he scanned the scene. “Search. Dig three feet if you must. See if there’s anything out of the ordinary.”

“Yes.” The others kept their combat formation as they spread out.

“What kind of attack was that?”

Xiao Nan was also stunned by the sudden strike and blurted out.

In truth, it wasn’t the pillar of light that shocked him, but what he saw at the place where the monster’s corpse lay. A golden thread, like a stream of light, flashed across the twenty-meter distance and plunged straight into the birthmark on his chest.

No one else seemed to notice.

As the golden light entered him, the weakness in his body vanished, replaced by a blazing vitality.

It was as if a film had been wiped from his eyes—everything around him suddenly vivid in color.

Dust hung in the air, glimmering with sunlight.

The scattered bloodstains bloomed like flowers, imprinting their image on his mind.

Every blade of grass, flattened or upright, was clear as day.

He could smell layers of scents.

Floral sweetness, charred meat, and the sickening tang of blood.

Even the faint whiff of body odor from the black-uniformed man over ten meters away.

From a distance came a faint cough, followed by soft sobbing—that was Zhang Xiaorou.

She was unharmed, just farther away.

The little girl was amusing, probably crying before doing anything else.

Relieved, he took stock of his own condition.

“How strange. My senses have all sharpened…”

What was that golden thread? Why did it fly straight into me, unnoticed by everyone else?

It seemed they couldn’t see the golden light.

Of course—the net of white light must have been meant to catch that golden thread.

Too bad the man moved a moment too late.

…

“My darling, are you alright? Don’t scare me!”

A thunderous shout rang out nearby, snapping Xiao Nan to attention. Not far away stood a tall, burly middle-aged man, just over two meters high. He was hunched anxiously over Zhang Xiaorou, his lips quivering, eyes sharp as blades.

…

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