Chapter 67: Play and Violence

Electric motors sat in rows, their rumbling sounds perfectly masking any subtle noises. Neither footsteps nor heartbeats were detectable. Yin Hu hunched over, crouched, and carefully used the motors as cover, slowly approaching the innermost corner.

His figure flashed, hiding behind the last motor, peering through the gaps between them.

A few meters away, what was originally a cluttered area separated by a half-wall had now been cleared out.

Yin Hu’s gaze sharpened. Amidst the clutter, he saw Chen Chong with his eyes tightly shut, knees bent in a half-squat, his palms and arms twisted together. His entire body was almost folded, striking an extremely bizarre pose.

He could faintly see that Chen Chong’s robust muscles held a dark iron sheen, bulging exaggeratedly and pulsing rhythmically. In this posture, Chen Chong’s entire body seemed to vibrate and breathe, his skin steaming like a furnace—truly miraculous!

“What is this!”

Taking in this wondrous sight, Yin Hu’s pupils constricted behind the motor, his mind reeling in shock:

“A legendary martial art? Yoga? Or some special training method?”

As far as Yin Hu knew, Awakeners currently had roughly two ways to improve. One was continuously consuming Spiritual Fruit to enhance their Life Field; the second was using ordinary methods like weightlifting to tear muscles and train their physique, speed, and strength.

But the miraculous posture and display Chen Chong now showed before him completely surpassed his understanding!

“Could it be… that this is the Gene Lock training method only circulated in those large gathering places?”

As if something clicked, Yin Hu’s heart trembled, and he was suddenly overcome with wild joy.

The elusive Gene Lock was something Yin Hu had almost never considered before. Though the world had fallen into a wasteland, they were certainly not the only survivors. In fact, the survivor belt they inhabited was just a few county towns before the Great Cataclysm. The large gathering places Yin Hu spoke of were those heavily populated large, even mega-cities from before the Cataclysm.

Yin Hu had heard that such large gathering places housed survivors numbering in the tens of thousands. The earliest batch of Awakened powerhouses had long since developed various effective special training methods, allowing Awakeners to further unlock the mysterious Gene Lock within their bodies, thereby completely mastering their Life Field and transforming it into Vital Prime, unleashing extraordinary power!

Just like the uncrowned king of the entire Crimson Territory, the Blood General.

The Wilderness was full of dangers, forming natural barriers that isolated survivor gathering places, leaving information blocked and hard to circulate. This remote, sparsely populated area was like a primitive tribe compared to the large gathering places with their massive populations and technological foundations built on the remnants of big cities.

In this territory stretching over a hundred kilometers, the number of Transcendents besides the Blood General could be counted on one hand, and these individuals were all leader-level figures in various gathering places. No one knew how they broke their Gene Lock, and practically no Gene Lock training methods ever leaked out. But now, in Yin Hu’s spying gaze, the extremely mysterious training method Chen Chong displayed immediately led him to judge that this was, in all likelihood, the method to unlock the Gene Lock!

Without bothering to think about or judge why Chen Chong possessed such a method, Yin Hu’s heart pounded, his mind already filled with incomparable greed and ambition:

“Get it!”

“No matter what, I have to get this method!”

“With it, I can…”

“Who!? Who’s there?”

In the next instant, Chen Chong’s alert voice suddenly rang out, making Yin Hu’s heart seem to skip half a beat.

Yin Hu came to his senses. Through the gap, he saw Chen Chong had stopped all movement, turned his head, and locked his gaze on his hiding spot, shouting with a startled and suspicious look:

“Who’s hiding back there? Come out!”

He had been discovered.

He hadn’t expected Chen Chong to be so vigilant. In that instant, countless thoughts flashed through Yin Hu’s mind. But he seemed to have already made plans. He stopped hiding his figure and instead, wearing a confident smile, slowly walked out from behind the motors.

“Yin Hu? You!” Seeing him emerge, Chen Chong’s expression instantly turned shocked and furious: “What are you doing here!?”

Watching the ‘panic’ all over Chen Chong’s face, a sinister smile tugged at the corner of Yin Hu’s mouth:

“I just couldn’t sleep at night and was taking a walk. As for you… Chen Chong, isn’t this your night watch shift? What are you doing?”

Chen Chong’s face changed at first, then he hastily defended himself: “I… I was just tired, just moving my body a bit.”

“Moving your body? Heh heh…”

Yin Hu let out a sinister laugh, his gaze fixed on Chen Chong as if looking at his own prey:

“Very well, Chen Chong. Am I stupid, or are you? What if I reported what you were just doing to the General? Do you think he’d believe you? You’ve hidden yourself so deeply. What do you think the General would do to you?

If I’m not mistaken, the massive change in your body over this past half-month is because of those strange poses you were doing just now, right? You might not know the General well, but I can describe it for you. Even if you voluntarily revealed your secret to the General tomorrow, he would no longer trust you. He would suspect whether you have even more secrets hidden.

So next, he would strike first, capture you, cripple you, then use all sorts of methods to torture you, pulling out every little secret from your birth until now, and finally kill you like crushing an ant!”

“You!”

Chen Chong’s face instantly turned livid, veins bulging on his forehead. He clenched his fists tightly and then, grinding his teeth, growled in a low voice:

“Yin Hu, what exactly do you want? If you want to report me, you can go do it right now!”

Yin Hu revealed a silent smile and chuckled lowly:

“Bold, aren’t you?”

With his hands behind his back, pacing gently, Yin Hu’s eyes swept over Chen Chong’s iron-tower-like frame. Finally, he revealed his true purpose, speaking slowly and deliberately:

“As the old saying goes, the common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure brings guilt. Perhaps… you could share this magical training method with me, to persuade me to help you continue covering it up. As long as you tell me this secret in full detail, not only will I help hide it, but I can even help you escape the territory without the General finding out. What do you think?”

Right now, Yin Hu’s face was full of an expression that said everything was under control. Judging from Chen Chong’s performance, that strange training method was clearly his biggest secret, and the Blood General absolutely didn’t know about it. This was Chen Chong’s greatest weakness!

In Yin Hu’s view, Chen Chong had been silently cultivating while enduring, clearly full of ambition and harboring ulterior motives. But with an irresistible existence like the Blood General as a threat, Yin Hu was completely confident that Chen Chong could only let himself be manipulated and obediently comply!

As for whether Chen Chong would be angered into killing him to silence him, Yin Hu hadn’t even considered that possibility.

The reason was simple: he was a seasoned Awakener who had experienced many dangerous life-or-death battles, while Chen Chong was originally just an Initial Awakener. Even if he practiced a Gene Lock unlocking method, in just half a month, his strength couldn’t have undergone an earth-shattering transformation. Unless he was a Transcendent who could instantly kill him, if Chen Chong made a move and alerted others, it would only hasten his own doom!

“So, have you thought it over?”

Yin Hu narrowed his eyes, revealing a sinister grin:

“The chance to persuade me, it’s only this…”

“Idiot, I was just acting along so I wouldn’t scare you off, and you’re getting cocky?”

But in the next moment, in Yin Hu’s sight, Chen Chong, who just a second ago looked indignant, terrified, and unwilling, changed his face as if performing a scene change. All expressions vanished, replaced by a fierce, merciless look as he interrupted him:

“You think I didn’t know you’d come spying today? Persuade you? I don’t have that habit. I’ll just hammer you to death!”

Bang!

In the next instant, without even waiting for Yin Hu to respond, a muffled, heavy sound burst out amidst the rumbling of the motors!

Chen Chong took a step forward, the cement floor instantly cracking and splitting. At the same time, his iron-tower-like, imposing body violently slammed through the air, instantly crossing several meters. His sandbag-sized, dark-cyan iron fist, carrying a ferocious, howling airflow, smashed down right at the face of Yin Hu, whose smile had frozen!

In the narrow space, the air surged like a tide, as if stirred by Chen Chong’s punch. That force was like a giant wielding a heavy hammer and smashing it down, overwhelmingly ferocious!

And at this moment, the suffocating force of the punch seemed to be rushing at his face. Completely not expecting Chen Chong to attack so resolutely, Yin Hu’s eyes were filled with terror, his facial skin twitching wildly. All the hairs on his body instantly stood on end!

It was the alertness he had honed through countless life-and-death crises:

If this punch landed, he might die!

“Ah!”

His heart felt like it was violently squeezed by a giant hand. His original self-satisfaction completely vanished. A twisted roar escaped Yin Hu’s throat. Chen Chong’s punch was too sudden, too swift and fierce. Even with his reaction speed, he couldn’t completely dodge it. He could barely turn his head while abruptly raising his arm, trying to assume a defensive posture against Chen Chong’s hammering fist.

However—

Bang! Crack!

The punch’s wind surged, mixed with the clear sound of shattering bones. Yin Hu’s eyes suddenly bulged!

“How, how can this power exist!”

This was his only thought in that lightning-fast moment.

The next instant, at the point where fist and arm met, Yin Hu’s arm bone broke and shattered without any resistance! Then, Chen Chong’s iron fist, heavier than a giant hammer by an unknown measure, landed squarely on his shoulder, violently shaking his internal organs. Then, under the astonishing force, his waist and legs didn’t even last half a second before bending like straw. His entire body crashed to its knees with a boom!

Crack! Under the massive force of Chen Chong’s hammering blow, Yin Hu’s knees slammed hard onto the cement floor, directly shattering.

“Pfft!”

Under the dim lights, Yin Hu, kneeling, violently spat out a large mouthful of blood. Then, from his nose, mouth, eyes, and ears, copious amounts of crimson blood gushed out, covering his face in blood, a miserable sight.

This was because, under the pressure of Chen Chong’s single punch, not only was his arm bone pulverized, but most of his internal organs were also shattered by the shock, leaving him unable to even speak.

“You…”

His lips moved slightly. Weakly, with difficulty, and in disbelief, Yin Hu raised his head. Streams of blood gushed wildly from his face, as if trying to see Chen Chong’s face clearly, or perhaps to voice some question.

However, just as his head was halfway lifted, all the questions, resentment, and unwillingness in his eyes froze solid, and his head fell down powerlessly.

He was dead.

At the moment his ambition, greed, and desire burned hottest, he died hastily, without even taking a single punch from Chen Chong.

And Chen Chong’s iron-tower-like body coldly maintained the posture of hammering down, standing before Yin Hu’s lifeless corpse. Looking down at him from above, Chen Chong grinned fiercely:

“Useless thing. I wasn’t even using my full strength, and you’re already dead!”

Crack!

To prevent Yin Hu from playing dead, Chen Chong’s palm-leaf-fan-like hand stirred a dull airflow as it slapped down violently. Yin Hu’s drooping head immediately twisted at an eerie angle—his neck bone was already completely broken!