Night of Despair

Chapter 68: Journey Four
 

“Do you recognize me?” Xu Fan moved his gloved hands with some surprise, “Looks like you had a friend who escaped from me… interesting.”

The man inside the helmet grinned wickedly.

“I… I…” Xu Yang trembled all over, even the hand holding the gun was shaking violently. He had no idea why, having only come to capture a somewhat skilled cash cow, they had provoked such a formidable opponent.

If he had known they would provoke someone at the level of the Butcher, he would never have followed Captain Zhao here.

His demeanor clearly affected the other team members as well, with everyone on high alert, sweating profusely, and tensely watching Xu Fan, guns all aimed at him.

Some had heard of the Butcher’s reputation, while others intuitively sensed trouble from their leader’s reaction.

“I thought this mission would be difficult, but it turns out it’s just a bunch of kids…” Xu Fan looked at the group and felt somewhat disappointed.

“Ten seconds,” he mouthed.

Bang!!!

In a flash, his body leapt forward, turning into a black shadow rushing towards them.

Like an unstoppable rhino, the shadow ferociously barged into the waistline of their formation.

Before they could react, two black chains flew out from the shadow’s arms, like a pair of black wings, instantly sweeping across a range of several meters on both sides.

Pupupupu!

In an instant, the necks of four team members were slashed open, their tracheas exposed, gushing blood.

The four of them wore looks of astonishment and hadn’t even seen what had hit them before they lost strength and collapsed to the ground.

After killing four people, the shadow retracted the chains, turned, and dodged just as Xu Yang fired his pistol in rapid succession.

His body contracted, and in an instant his over two-meter frame shrank into a little over one-meter tall black sphere, then leapt into the air, violently slamming into the gap between two team members.

Woosh!

The shadow’s body stretched out, his arms grabbing the heads of the two men beside him and smashing forward.

Bang!!!

A loud crash.

The two heads were smashed hard against two large trees, bursting open. They were dead beyond doubt.

The shadow leaped again, avoiding a series of gunshots, and pounced on the remaining team members.

Pupupupu…

Like a real rhino, his right shoulder rammed straight into each team member.

In less than ten seconds.

Soon, only Xu Yang and a monkey holding explosives were left standing on the slope.

Both of them were trembling, pale-faced, sweating profusely, and dared not move an inch, just staring at the black shadow that had stopped moving.

“You… what the…!!?” Xu Yang opened his mouth, and though he aimed his gun at the assailant, he felt no sense of safety.

More than ten people, that’s half of a joint military squad! All of them were professionals, not some gangsters or mobs.

Yet, so many armed soldiers were… were so quickly… taken down…

But Xu Fan wasn’t paying him any attention at that moment; instead, he turned to another direction, as sounds came through the miniature earpiece he was wearing.

“Right, two more left,” Xu Fan said gravely. “It will be over soon.”

He glanced at Xu Yang and the monkey across from him, who seemed about to say something.

But it was too late for everything.

A flash of firelight lit up Xu Fan’s right hand, and a bullet from his concealed gun flew out instantly, hitting one of the explosives the monkey held.

Boom!!!

The flame exploded in an instant, swelling and sweeping around for several meters.

An orange fireball instantly submerged Xu Yang and the monkey, vanishing into it.

The flames ignited the surrounding trees and dry leaves, and when the explosion subsided, only charred remains were left in its place.

Xu Fan’s figure had already vanished, with only the slight cracking of twigs coming from the woods.

*

*

*

Yu Hong heard the shouting, the explosions, and the burning flames outside.

He decided to wait until everything quieted down, then quietly opened the shutter to check the outside situation.

Peering out the window, he saw flickering flames reflecting off everything, turning the surroundings a bright red. Hot air currents carried by the wind scattered around, mixed with many charred black ashes.

‘Is it on fire?’

He could feel the heat reaching his garden.

‘Wait, my luminous stone grasses won’t be cooked alive, will they?’

Thinking this, Yu Hong planned to go check, but the recent explosion made him afraid to leave.

‘What if there is a confrontation outside and I walk into trouble?’ He knew today was the day the expert he had hired was due to arrive; he was informed of the situation by Li Rushan.

‘So, the explosion just now was likely my hired expert clashing with the attackers’ backers. They even used bombs?!’ A shiver ran through Yu Hong; his reinforced polar bear suit definitely couldn’t withstand a bomb; it was good he hadn’t been blindly confident this time.

‘Thank goodness I chose to let a professional handle this instead of taking it head-on. Safety first, as it turns out.’

With that thought, he decided not to go out for the day.

Otherwise, if those attackers found him in his current weakened state, he wasn’t sure he’d be a match for them.

After deciding not to go out, Yu Hong dragged a wooden stool to the door, sat down, and occasionally looked out the window.

Suddenly, his expression changed, and he quickly closed the shutter, peeking out only through a crack.

He saw a number of people in dark green camouflage quietly approaching from the distance through the woods.

The group moved with agile motions, and the leader wore a dark brown, fitted bulletproof vest that was clearly more advanced and complex than the others.

The moment he saw this person, Yu Hong recalled Zhao Zhenghong and Xu Yang, the two men he had seen before.

‘It seems it was one of those two… they’re the ones causing trouble…!’ A chill went through Yu Hong, and he was even more determined not to make a sound.

He saw the group quickly approaching his yard, flipping over to enter. The few walking at the very front were holding small silver round boxes in their hands, moving towards the outside of the wooden door.

“What is that thing?” Yu Hong had a bad feeling in his heart. Those little boxes had black and white stripes on their surfaces and were adorned with black plastic paper, which bore the print: DANGER.

The more he looked, the more it seemed off.

“Could it be some kind of lock-picking tool?” he guessed, but seeing that several of the people each had one, he felt it was unlikely.

But as the group drew closer, a vague sense of unease began to rise in his heart.

Zhao Zhenghong frowned, holding a bomb and slowly, carefully approached the wooden gate.

There was silence around him. Since he had split from Xu Yang, he had followed the tire tracks moving forward, but halfway through, he heard an explosion and rushed over here.

Unfortunately, he found nothing. He only saw a fierce fire igniting a swath of forest, burning bright red. He couldn’t even get close.

With no other choice, he could only lead his team to the cave first, planning to blast the door open with explosives and get their hands on some useful things inside before capturing anyone.

The current situation, however, had deviated from his expectations. It was very likely that Xu Yang had found the culprits and engaged in a fight with them, even using portable bombs.

So he had to finish quickly, blast the door open to investigate clearly, and then immediately locate Xu Yang to regroup.

Thinking this, Zhao Zhenghong sped up, quickly sticking the bomb onto the wooden gate.

Suddenly, he saw a black shadow flash past in the reflection from the metallic silver piece of the bomb.

A familiar intense threat emerged from his left side.

His face drastically changed, and he violently threw himself backwards.

Bang bang!

Two gunshots rang out as bullets instantly passed by where he had just been standing.

Zhao Zhenghong let go of the bomb and, agile as a swift monkey, somersaulted backwards over a dozen times, leaping more than ten meters in one breath, and then lightly leaned against the back of a sturdy big tree.

Bang bang bang bang!!

By this time, the rest of the team realized something was wrong and one by one drew their guns to shoot towards the side.

The bullets were quickly exhausted, and the men, growling, pulled out daggers, short swords, and steel rods, and surrounded the area from where the gunshots had come.

The first team member to charge to the forefront had barely approached that area when he suddenly paused, lifted into the air, and was grabbed by a large hand that gripped his head and threw him upward.

Whoosh!

The team member spun two meters into the air before coming down.

Thud!

His abdomen was pierced sharply by a pair of large hands as if they were knives.

The large hands tore to either side.

With a tearing crunch, the team member didn’t even have a chance to scream before he was ripped into two pieces.

Large amounts of blood sprayed out, staining the surrounding tree trunks, wild grass, and black mud red.

With flames raging, the blood mist mixed with sparks made the others around them freeze.

“Fucking hell!!!” Zhao Zhenghong had just steadied himself when he witnessed this scene; his eyes instantly turned red.

He drew a sharp short knife from his right arm and lunged forward, moving hands and feet together like a truly fast black ape in full sprint, crossing over ten meters to pounce on the black shadow that had torn his man to shreds.

Clang!!

Midair, his hand holding the short knife was grabbed by an alloyed glove.

What met his eyes was a massive man, towering over two meters tall, built like a bear, his arms as thick as his own thighs.

The giant was dressed in full body armor, his helmet adorned with bloodied spikes, and beneath the red goggles, a pair of excited eyes could vaguely be seen.

“You’ve got some strength,” the man’s voice was low, tinged with mockery and cruelty.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!!

At this moment, the other team members around him also rushed in, roaring, each swinging their knives and rods, smashing down on the giant man.

From all sides, a total of six people surrounded him in a circle, exerting their full strength to chop and pummel the giant.

Including Zhao Zhenghong, who attacked from the front, that made seven men!

But…

“Retreat!!” Suddenly, Zhao Zhenghong’s expression changed dramatically, and he rolled backward, leaping away from a sweeping black hand.

While he avoided it, the other six men didn’t have his speed of neural response.

Boom!

The black hand, fast as lightning, shot out, hitting its target squarely.

One man’s head was instantly smashed in.

The rest tried to scatter and flee but were caught by the giant man who grabbed two by the arms and flung them aside.

Both men were airborne, spiraling and smacking right into two team members trying to escape.

The four of them tumbled heavily to the ground, unable to rise again.

The last two attackers, fortunate enough to distance themselves, had no time to feel relief before they saw the giant man grab a grindstone-sized rock from the ground and throw it.

Boom! Boom!

After two muffled thuds, the two were struck consecutively by the rock, their upper bodies stacking on top of one another, chests caved in, they were squashed into a pulp against the tree trunk.

“Use the bombs!” At this point, Zhao Zhenghong was beyond enraged; in less than half a minute, half of his team had been reduced to a few men.

His face was covered in bulging veins.

With the remaining few, they quickly dispersed, pulling out portable bombs and tossing them forward.

But before the bombs had even hit the ground, the giant man had vanished from their sight.

Zhao Zhenghong violently turned his head and saw a huge black shadow already less than three meters away from him.

The man stretched out his arms slightly, jumped a little, and assumed a pose like a crane spreading its wings.

Seeing this stance, a name flashed through Zhao Zhenghong’s mind like lightning.

‘Iron Wing Splitting Sky? Crane Fist?!!’