Chapter 88: Cutting Down All Those Before His Blade
Fang Dawei and the other twelve members of his gang were either sitting or lying down in the guard post. Aside from the doctor who needed protection, nine people still had the ability to fight. The remaining three were quite badly injured and were practically knocked out on the ground.
There were originally sixteen of them. The missing three had either gotten separated or killed.
Fang Dawei was fair and had a clean look. He wore a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His hair was parted to the side, and a pair of glasses rested on his nose. While he was built, he did not look like a robber. Instead, he looked like an office worker.
But a membrane resembling scales covered his exposed skin, including his face.
Tong Baitao was sitting not far away from him. He was tall and large. A black-gray shell could be seen under his damaged clothes with graze marks from bullets. There was a tall lump at his shoulder blades, but his shirt was covering it. No one could tell what exactly it was.
Before them was a small radio. A tiny man had headphones on while squatting in front of it. He was monitoring the incoming transmission and writing down nonstop. After he recorded the code, he removed the headphones, grabbed a notebook, and translated it.
“I got it,” he said once he was done.
“What did they say?” Everyone turned to him.
“They’re asking us to persevere for a little longer. Black Orchid’s security team is on its way. They’ll be here in about forty minutes. Those guys will keep us alive. Black Orchid won’t kill us,” the tiny man replied.
“Black Orchid? Damn it!” Tong Baitao’s eyes burned with hatred. They had ended up like this because of Black Orchid, but Black Orchid was also the only entity that could keep them alive.
Fang Dawei remained calm. “It’s not as if we won’t have a chance to escape again. The resistance gave us a lot of things, but they’re not helping us out of the kindness of their hearts. They’re definitely thinking about causing trouble.
“Once chaos breaks out in the city, those Constabulary hounds will leave. Then, we’ll have a chance to escape. Submitting to Black Orchid is our final resort. If we didn’t have to take that path, we wouldn't.”
“You’re right!”
The robbers cheered up since his thinking was correct. The constables had to defend the city. If anything happened within its territory, they would not have any time or energy to care about them anymore.
Just then, they heard rustling sounds above. A person climbed down the wall clinging to it like a spider. He also moved his limbs like an arthropod.
Fang Dawei looked up. Sunlight shone through a large hole in the ceiling, and he squinted. “Seventh, I told you before, but stop climbing above me.”
“Okay,” Seventh said and quickly got off the wall, just like how a spider would.
While crouching on the floor, he said, “I checked everywhere. There’s a secret tunnel below us. I think the villagers dug it in the past. Do you want me to block it?”
Fang Dawei thought about it and said, “No. Keep it. One of you should go watch over it. We might have a use for it later.”
He then turned to the doctor, who was checking on the injured. “Dr. Lin, can my friends be saved?”
Lin Fa, the one Fang Dawei was talking to, was a lean man in his forties. He had white hair and carried a stethoscope while he examined the unconscious robbers. “The medicine the resistance gave us can keep them alive, but they won’t be getting any better than this. Even if you go to a proper hospital, they won’t get better in a flash.”
He hesitated for a moment before adding, “Honestly, as long as they don’t die now, they’ll be okay. Their severed limbs won’t be an issue either. Once we’re at Black Orchid, they’ll give them new limbs.”
Fang Dawei’s facial muscles twitched, as if he had remembered something horrible.
Just then, his eyes flew wide open. Veins bulged on his face and forehead, and blood capillaries appeared in his irises. He started panting and scratching at himself. The scales on his body also seemed to have turned harder.
“Oh no!” Tong Baitao cried out. “The boss is having another episode! Quick, Dr. Lin, the Clarity Capsule!”
Lin Fa brought out a medicine box, took out a capsule, and tossed it over.
Tong Baitao caught it and swiftly returned to Fang Dawei’s side. He lifted him up and said, “Here, Boss.”
Fang Dawei grabbed the capsule and shoved it into his mouth. With great effort, he swallowed it. After some time, his breathing calmed down, and the rest of the abnormal reactions disappeared.
Lin Fa made sure he returned to normal, then turned to the others. “One capsule’s effects can last for three days, but that’s under the condition that you don’t do any strenuous exercise. If you use your implants to fight, you’ll need to take one every half a day. All the medicine we got will only last you three days.”
Tong Baitao cursed under his breath. “Damn it. We should have detonated the bombs and blown those people sky-high once we got the medicine.”
“Tong Baitao, the kid wasn’t with us. If we met them, the act would have been up. Getting rid of a few more agents was the better choice. Those Constabulary hounds only know how to fight with guns, anyway. They’re much less of a threat to us,” one of the lackeys said.
Tong Baitao glared at him. “That’s what you say, but how many did you kill in the end?”
The lackey looked embarrassed. They had been in a hurry to leave, but he did detonate one bomb when he saw that the time was right. What could he do, though, that they suddenly turned to leave? That was not his fault.
Tong Qianjiang stood up on the upper level of the guard post. He looked down and turned around. “Baitao, Boss, I think I saw movement down there!”
“What are those Constabulary hounds up to this time?”
The group immediately became wary and went to the cracks in the walls and narrow slits built as spy holes to look down. The constables were pointing their guns upward, while a boy in a student uniform stood at the bottom of the hill with a long saber in hand. His clear and cold gaze was trained at them.
“I think he’s from Martial Valor University, and I think I’ve seen him before... Yes, that night, when I went to trade with Tian Yaozu’s lackey, I saw him. I left early since I thought that something was off,” Tong Qianjiang said.
Tong Baitao looked up at him and exclaimed in surprise. “Am I seeing things? He’s alone?” He turned to everyone and said loudly, “He’s alone! Seriously? Did we manage to scare off all the gutsy ones, and they sent a boy over?”
The robbers in the guard post laughed maniacally. It was not because they looked down on the students from Martial Valor University, but because Chen Chuan was alone and only had a saber with him. No matter how good he was, what could he possibly do against them?
Just then, everyone thought that their vision blurred, because the boy vanished from the spot. Only Seventh managed to capture his movements. “He’s charging up, and he’s fast!”
Rapid gunfire came from below. The bullets rained down on the guard post, forcing them to shrink back.
They had gotten into a shootout with the Constabulary before, only to realize that it would make them suffer massive losses if they let it continue. The constables were too far away, so they could not hit them accurately. Also, there were plenty of those Constabulary hounds. Even if they managed to kill some of them, it would be useless. Their supply of bullets would just get depleted. So, they decided to hide in the guard post, which had some defensive capabilities. As long as no one charged up, they would not make a move.
The Constabulary knew that they could not bring down the guard post, which was why they had not made a move even after such a long time. But now, they were suddenly firing at the guard post. Clearly, they were working with the boy.
Fang Dawei sat back down after he took the medicine to recover. He did his best to breathe. The scales on his body seemed to relax and expand as he breathed. “Fourth, keep an eye on him,” he said.
A large man brought out a handgun and stood up without a sound. He put on a head cover, so only his eyes remained visible, and walked outside. He took a few steps to the rather spacious platform before pointing his gun at the charging boy.
The bullets from the constables came at him, but even if they hit his body or limbs, they just bounced off of him. One of them hit his forehead, but only succeeded in tilting his head and tearing off a strip of his head cover to reveal the black shell underneath.
Chen Chuan kept his gaze forward. If he ran in a straight line, there was about one hundred meters or so from the bottom of the hill to the guard post, but the real distance was longer, because there were three rather narrow curves along the way.
No matter how fast he charged up, he would inevitably slow down at the curves. He would also expose his side to the sniper guarding the guard post.
To avoid that, he maintained his speed even at the curves. The moment he reached them, he stomped on the ground so hard that his foot formed a pit, and he shot sideways.
Since he was too fast, Fourth was unable to hit him. The bullets fired continuously, but they all landed behind Chen Chuan.
After the first two curves, Fourth brought out another gun from his waist and pointed both of them at the last curve. He also spaced them out a little to cover the start and end of the curve. The moment Chen Chuan entered the curve and his line of fire, he would be unable to avoid the torrent of bullets that would rain down on him.
Just as Chen Chuan was about to enter the third curve, he did something unexpected. He did not continue onward. Instead, he twisted his body, stomped down, kicked off, and jumped over a trench that was around six meters wide. He then landed at the last stretch of the straight path. When he looked up, Fourth was right ahead of him.
Fourth reacted quickly. He brought the guns together and opened fire, but the moment Chen Chuan landed, he bent his back and charged forward. He also started swaying side to side, so the bullets only managed to hit the earth behind him and kick up some dirt.
Chen Chuan was so fast that he managed to close almost ten meters of distance in the blink of an eye. Then, he swung his saber diagonally upward. A severed arm flew into the air. He took a step to the side and ran past Fourth. As he did, he swung the saber sideways.
Thud.
He stopped, and one of his feet sank deep into the earth as a result of his speed. When he looked up again, the entrance of the guard post was about five paces away.
He flicked the saber and walked over slowly.
Behind, Fourth stood still for a moment before his severed upper body toppled down, dragging the rest of him down.
The implanted armor, modified skeleton, and protective gear meant nothing. Chen Chuan cut them all in one swing.