Chapter 309: Mao Si's "Death"

The relentless bombardment must have lasted five or six minutes.

Only when the weird energy inside Yan Jing's body was completely depleted did he finally fall from the sky and crash to the ground.

He was in terrible shape. Almost half of his black fur had fallen out, and bloody wounds covered him from head to toe. Just standing upright was a struggle.

Yet he forced himself to walk toward the figure that had just tried to kill him.

The figure was mangled beyond recognition. Its massive, grayish-white body crammed the entire alley. From its blurry silhouette, one could just make out featherless gray wings and backward-bending legs ending in a pair of sharp claws.

"Looks like a bat..."

Yan Jing muttered, "I wonder if it was Fourth Tier or Fifth Tier..."

He hadn't known exactly how strong his opponent was, so he had used almost everything at his disposal.

Aside from his final two trump cards, that had been his absolute strongest combat form.

Unfortunately, the Second Stage of the Fear Stance didn't synergize well with Mao Si's abilities.

Mao Si's combat style relied heavily on agility, its core ability being the teleportation-like blink. But after activating the Second Stage of the Fear Stance, his body could only move by the pull of threads.

This naturally led to some severe restrictions in battle.

Moreover, even though this body was at the Fourth Tier, the side effects of the second stance were still incredibly overbearing.

By now, his vital energy was completely exhausted. A light tap from anyone would be enough to knock him to the ground.

Still, he staggered toward the pile of scrap from earlier.

"Miss Jiang! Miss Jiang, are you there?"

Yan Jing called out weakly, putting on the best hoarse, exhausted voice he could muster.

Inside the hidden compartment, tears welled up in Jiang Jiu's eyes. She clamped her hands over her mouth, terrified to make a sound, her entire body trembling in fear.

She didn't know how to describe her feelings at that moment.

Growing up, even though she wasn't particularly favored in the Family, she had always considered herself worldly. But the scene she had just witnessed...

It was simply unheard of.

More importantly.

The Fifth Tier the Family had assigned to protect her was dead!

What was she going to do now?

How was she going to explain this?

If the Family found out, she would be completely ruined. She would permanently lose whatever favor she had left and end up banished to some insignificant subsidiary company to rot away, just like her marginalized cousins.

How was this even possible?!

Even the weakest Fifth Tier was still a Fifth Tier.

The opponent was clearly only a Fourth Tier. How could a Fourth Tier kill a Fifth Tier?

Suddenly, she remembered what that Fifth Tier had said when she questioned him about why Mao Si was still alive.

"Still alive?! Impossible!"

The relentless bombardment must have lasted for about five or six minutes.

Only when the weird energy inside Yan Jing's body was completely depleted did he finally fall from the sky and crash to the ground.

He was in terrible shape. Almost half of his black fur had fallen out, and bloody wounds covered him from head to toe. Just standing upright was a struggle.

Yet he forced himself to walk toward the figure that had just tried to kill him.

The figure was mangled beyond recognition. Its massive, grayish-white body crammed the entire alleyway. From its vague shape, one could just make out featherless gray wings and backward-bending legs ending in sharp claws.

"Looks like a bat..."

Yan Jing muttered, "I wonder if it was Fourth Tier or Fifth Tier..."

He hadn't known exactly how strong his opponent was, so he had used almost everything at his disposal.

Aside from his final two trump cards, that had been his absolute strongest combat form.

Unfortunately, the Second Stage of the Fear Stance didn't synergize well with Mao Si's abilities.

Mao Si's combat style relied heavily on agility, its core ability being the teleportation-like blink. But after activating the Second Stage of the Fear Stance, his body could only be moved by the pull of threads.

This left him severely restricted.

Moreover, even though this body was at the Fourth Tier, the side effects of the second stance were still brutal.

By now, his vital energy was completely exhausted. A light tap from anyone would knock him to the ground.

Still, he staggered toward the pile of scrap from earlier.

"Miss Jiang! Miss Jiang, are you there?"

Yan Jing called out weakly, putting on the best hoarse, exhausted voice he could muster.

Inside the hidden compartment, tears welled up in Jiang Jiu's eyes. She clutched her hands tightly over her mouth, terrified to make a sound, her entire body trembling in fear.

She didn't know how to describe her feelings at that moment.

Growing up, even though she wasn't particularly favored in the Family, she had always considered herself worldly. But the scene she had just witnessed...

It was simply unheard of.

More importantly.

The Fifth Tier expert the Family had assigned to protect her was dead!

What was she going to do now?

How was she going to explain this?

If the Family found out, she would be completely ruined. She would permanently lose whatever favor she had left and end up banished to some insignificant subsidiary company to rot away, just like her marginalized cousins.

How was this even possible?!

Even the weakest Fifth Tier was still a Fifth Tier.

The opponent was clearly only a Fourth Tier. How could a Fourth Tier kill a Fifth Tier?

Suddenly, she remembered what that Fifth Tier expert had said when she questioned him about why Mao Si was still alive.

"Still alive?! Impossible!"

The Fifth Tier's eyes had gone wide.

His expression hadn't seemed fake at all.

"I chopped him into mincemeat and burned every last hair to ash, right there in that abandoned building!!!"

Chopped into mincemeat...

Before, she had simply assumed Mao Si was cautious and had used a body double or something similar. But after what she just saw, she realized something was very wrong.

Just what kind of monster was out there...

Tears of sheer terror swam in Jiang Jiu's eyes.

Right then, Yan Jing, who had been calling her name, suddenly seemed to notice something. Step by step, he approached the hidden compartment she was hiding in.

"I think I heard something..."

Hearing Yan Jing speak, Jiang Jiu desperately clamped her hands over her mouth to muffle her scream.

It was no use. Yan Jing kept walking closer until he finally vanished from her line of sight.

Due to her blind spot and Mao Si's short stature, she couldn't see him anymore.

But just as Jiang Jiu was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the very next second—

"Miss Jiang Jiu!"

A half-bald cat face suddenly lunged right in front of her.

"Ah!"

Unable to hold it in any longer, Jiang Jiu let out a piercing shriek. She shoved the door open and scrambled out like a madwoman.

"Thud!"

As she sprinted away, she heard the heavy thud of something collapsing, but she didn't dare look back. She just kept running desperately toward the exit of the alley.

She pulled up the holographic projection on her Information Component and instinctively reached to press the emergency button.

It was a lifeline the Family provided to all its children. The moment it was pressed, the Family would immediately dispatch reinforcements.

But just as her trembling fingers were about to touch the button, she stopped.

If the Family arrived, she wouldn't be able to explain the death of the Fifth Tier protecting her...

She could claim that Mao Si had gone berserk, or weave an even more elaborate lie, but without proof, it would only lower her standing in the eyes of the Family.

She ran blindly for an unknown amount of time until she finally saw the light at the entrance of the alley. Just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a silhouette suddenly appeared at the exit.

It startled her so badly she almost jumped out of her skin.

"Is someone in there?"

It was a well-proportioned figure standing against the light. She couldn't make out their face, only vaguely discerning that they seemed to be wearing traditional ancient clothing.

Jiang Jiu froze in place, unsure if she should speak.

The person's next words made her heart give a violent lurch.

"I wonder if Brother Mao is done with his business..."

It was... it was one of Mao Si's people!

Jiang Jiu immediately covered her mouth and slowly edged backward, terrified of making even the slightest sound.

"Maybe I should go in and check..."

The person spoke again, nearly scaring the soul out of Jiang Jiu's body.

She quickly sped up her retreat, shuffling all the way back into the depths of the alley.

What do I do... what do I do now...

Crouching beside an abandoned crate, tears streamed down Jiang Jiu's face. She couldn't retreat, she couldn't advance, and she couldn't call for help...

She was truly trapped in a dead end.

Finally...

Just as she made up her mind to press the emergency button, she suddenly realized she hadn't heard a peep from Mao Si in a while.

That's right. Ever since that inexplicable thud, there had been complete silence from him.

Could it be?

Her heart pounded wildly. It was as if she had blindly grasped the one and only chance to turn things around in the suffocating darkness.

Yes, she had to gamble.

If she pressed the emergency button now, there was no guarantee she would survive the fallout anyway.

She couldn't afford to lose everything she had. Just the thought of all those people who usually bowed and scraped before her eventually stepping on her head made her feel physically sick, a wave of nausea washing over her.

Holding her breath, she gathered her courage and crept back into the deeper parts of the alley.

A short while later.

From a distance, she spotted Mao Si collapsed on the ground.

He was lying flat beside the door of the hidden compartment, clearly unconscious.

Her heart hammered against her ribs as she boldly inched her way closer. Even when she was right beside him, the black cat still didn't react.

He's passed out. He's really passed out...

The ecstatic relief of survival flashed in Jiang Jiu's eyes. She pulled a Scalpel from her pocket, took a deep breath, and viciously stabbed it right into Mao Si's neck!

"Squelch!"

Blood sprayed like a fountain. On the ground, Yan Jing's eyelids twitched, scaring Jiang Jiu so badly she violently shuddered.

But a second later, before his eyes could even fully open, they slid shut once more.

He really had reached his limit! Jiang Jiu felt as though the very air she breathed was made of blades, stinging her throat. Having confirmed that Yan Jing was completely incapacitated, she gripped the Scalpel tightly and frantically began stabbing his body over and over again.

It wasn't until she heard footsteps at the alley entrance that she panicked, hastily stopping her assault and fleeing into the depths of the alley.

There was indeed a small path deep within the alley that led to the hospital, but it was incredibly difficult to navigate.

Now, faced with her sole avenue of survival, she suppressed her weird energy to keep it from leaking, pushed her mechanical right leg to its absolute limit, and bolted.

She ran for what felt like an eternity before finally spotting the entrance to the path and diving inside.

Not long after she left.

The fingertips of Yan Jing, who was still lying on the ground, twitched. Then, a bright light began to shine.

In the next instant, the injuries covering his entire body began to heal at a terrifyingly rapid pace. The faint, almost imperceptible beating of his heart grew strong and vigorous, and even his dried-up weird energy surged with absolute fullness once more.

Then, he opened his eyes, smiling as he touched the two holes that had just been stabbed into his neck.

"That bitch really didn't hold back."

"If she'd stabbed any harder, I would've had to abort the plan early."

Chongming.

This was his second-to-last trump card.

During his original plan against the Source of Mutation, he had intended to use this ability to see if he could survive the attack of that giant eye, or perhaps even steal something...

"Even though it has a thirty-day cooldown, Mao Si's body shouldn't need to use this ability again within the next thirty days anyway."

The ability consumed origin power, but since different bodies possessed different origin power, he didn't need to worry about the cooldown overlapping.

Thinking of this, he looked up at Xiao Xin, who was holding the Video Camera in midair, and smiled.

"Did you record all that, Xiao Xin?"

"Eeya, eeya~"

Xiao Xin spun around happily, shaking the camera in its hands.