"Whizz!"
Lin Xun, positioned toward the back, drew his bowstring taut, and the arrow, whistling as it flew, struck true between the man's brows. But before he could draw a second arrow, someone kicked him down.
"Xiao Xun!" Seeing this, Ning Zhe lunged forward and drove his knife straight through the man's neck.
"Thud!"
In the chaos of the melee, another man lunged forward and pinned Ning Zhe to the ground, the tip of his blade driving straight for his throat.
"Clatter!"
By now Ning Zhe's bone knife had already been knocked from his grip; all he could do was clamp both hands around the wrist of the man holding the blade, straining against him. Seeing this, the burly man who'd been knocked down crawled over and grabbed the attacker's hand to help force it down.
With the man already on top of him, and the burly man now lending his strength, the attacker's advantage grew far greater than Ning Zhe's. Within seconds, the blade's tip began inching slowly toward Ning Zhe's throat.
As Ning Zhe gritted his teeth, straining to push the wrist back, he felt that unbearable burning sensation surge through his body once again.
At this critical, hair's-breadth moment, the warning signs of his attack were coming on once more!
The bandit, bolstered by his companion's help, could already feel Ning Zhe's strength failing. He figured just a little more force would finish him off easily.
But just as he was about to deliver the killing blow, he saw Ning Zhe's pupils turn a spectral red, and the hand gripping his arm felt like a branding iron, so hot it made his arm tremble.
"Aaargh!!"
Ning Zhe suddenly let out a savage roar, and with startling strength, sent both men flying off him.
"Damn it! Kill this one first!"
One bandit, who'd originally been about to strike Lin Xun, saw Ning Zhe erupt from the corner of his eye and swung a handsaw at him instead. But Ning Zhe, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, dodged the blow with uncanny agility, twisted around to clamp down on the man's shoulder joint, gripped his arm with the other hand, and wrenched with sudden brutal force.
"Crack!"
With a sharp crack, the man's arm dislocated on the spot, and a scream began to tear from his throat.
Half a scream, because in the very next second, Ning Zhe had already snapped his neck.
Ning Zhe, plunged inexplicably into a berserk state, was like a tiger let loose among sheep, tearing through his enemies bare-handed. Both his reflexes and his raw strength had reached a terrifying degree.
Unable to so much as scratch him, and having already left several bodies behind, the rest of the attackers broke and ran for the door.
"Tap, tap!"
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As the group scattered, Ning Zhe leaned forward and gave chase, his eyes locked on Li Bin, running ahead of the rest.
"Screw this!" Seeing the monstrous young man barreling toward him, Li Bin didn't hesitate. He drew the single-shot pistol at his waist, cobbled together from a length of steel pipe.
"Brother Zhe! Watch out!" Li Dongbao, his body still limp from the drug, gritted his teeth and forced himself up off the ground at the sight.
"Bang!"
As the gunshot rang out, Li Dongbao crumpled back to the ground.
"Something's wrong! We're no match for him! Go!" Big Beard, near the door, let out a strangled cry and spun around, bolting outside.
Li Bin moved even faster, darting past Big Beard and pulling the door shut behind him.
"Bang, bang!"
Inside, the now-unhinged Ning Zhe began hammering furiously at the door.
"Li Bin! Give me a hand, my belt's caught!" Big Beard, once outside, found his waist belt jammed in the door and shouted.
"Whish!"
Li Bin, who'd already run several steps away, turned back at the sound and drew the bone knife at his waist, meaning to cut the belt free.
"Crash!"
The instant Li Bin drew his blade, the cabin's flimsy, rotting wooden door burst apart under a single punch. A blood-soaked hand tore away a plank, and the pair of spectral red eyes staring back at him from behind the door made Li Bin's breath catch in his throat.
"Don't just stand there! What are you doing?!" Big Beard saw it too, his whole body trembling with fear.
"Squelch!"
In the next instant, the knife in Li Bin's hand plunged straight into Big Beard's belly.
"Li Bin! You mother..." Big Beard looked down and saw the knife buried in his gut, his eyes filled with shock.
"That thing in there's a monster! If we don't leave someone behind to slow him down, none of us gets away! Don't set moral limits for yourself, you taught me that!" Li Bin ripped open the pocket on Big Beard's chest, snatched the chip, and turned to run.
"I was already stuck on the goddamn door! If you wanted to sell me out, you could've just left me! Why the hell did you stab me?!" Big Beard clutched at the wound in his belly, cold sweat pouring down his face as he shouted.
"...Shit, I forgot." Up ahead, Li Bin's footsteps faltered for a moment, then he vanished swiftly into the darkness.
"Clang!"
The next instant, the rotting door was shoved open, and a powerful hand seized Big Beard by the throat, dragging him back inside.
In the glow of the gas lamp, Big Beard stared at the bodies littering the floor, his voice shaking. "Brother! Listen to me! I've been a bandit for years, I've got money saved up. If you let me go, I'll pay you a ransom! Food, money, whatever you..."
"Crack!"
Before he could finish, a sharp crack rang out: a joint snapping.
As Big Beard's body dropped to the ground, Ning Zhe slowly turned and started walking toward Lin Xun.
"Brother Zhe! Brother Zhe! What's wrong with you? Don't scare me like this!" Lin Xun backed away as Ning Zhe approached, until he hit the wall and had nowhere left to go.
"Thud!"
Ning Zhe suddenly raised his hand, seized Lin Xun by the throat, and hoisted him up.
Choking, Lin Xun clutched at Ning Zhe's scalding-hot arm and forced the words out. "Brother Zhe! It's me, Xiao Xun! Lin Xun! We grew up together, have you forgotten me? Back when you were begging for scraps in the refugee village, it was my dad who took you in! He raised you! My dad was the only teacher in the settlement, he taught us both to read and write since we were kids, have you forgotten all of that too? And Qin Xiaoyu, do you remember Sister Xiaoyu? She was another kid my dad took in! The three of us were inseparable back then! After my dad died, you swore at his grave you'd protect me for the rest of your life!"
"Whish!"
Ning Zhe's grip had already begun to tighten, but at Lin Xun's words, the red glow in his eyes flickered.
A few seconds later, Ning Zhe's arm dropped, and he set Lin Xun back down.
"Brother Zhe! Do you remember now? Do you still know who I am?" Lin Xun stared into those red eyes, breathing hard.
"Thud!"
Without a word, Ning Zhe's body went rigid and crashed straight to the ground.
Five minutes later.
"Flap!"
His shirt stripped off by Lin Xun, his body cooled with water, Ning Zhe abruptly sat up from the ground. Catching the thick smell of blood in the air, he looked around at the bodies scattered nearby, his eyes filled with shock.
Three meters away, Lin Xun stood gripping a knife, hands trembling slightly. "Brother Zhe! Do... do you still know who I am?"
"Xiao Xun, what happened here? Who did this?!" Ning Zhe stood frozen for a moment, about three seconds, before he remembered he'd been fighting someone earlier. But staring at the hellish scene before him, aside from a bone-deep, drained kind of exhaustion, his memory of it all was a complete blank.