“Lining up in formation,” also known as “holding the line.”
Simply put, it’s when the main commanders of two opposing sides are squaring off, and their deputies stand by on the sidelines, ready to jump in and assist—or launch a sneak attack—at any moment.
The moment Jiang Nian realized this, the expression on his face turned rather amused.
Back when they’d first crossed paths, Sunglasses Guy had been the main commander squaring off against Jiang Nian.
But now, they’d stepped forward merely as deputies, there only to hold the line.
So where had their main commander gone?
Jiang Nian swept his gaze across the surroundings.
“If I’m not mistaken, your main commander is probably in the middle of a relocation right now, isn’t he?”
He’d been fully prepared to tough it out against the crossbow bolts in this situation.
But he hadn’t expected Sunglasses Guy and his crew to hand him their weakness on a silver platter so quickly.
Of course, that wasn’t to say Sunglasses Guy and his men were amateurs.
Quite the opposite—it was precisely because they were so professional that this loophole had emerged.
Their main force was currently in a gap period.
And the pressure they were putting on Jiang Nian was immense.
As we all know, people tend to do a lot of impulsive things when they’re under pressure.
If Jiang Nian, in a moment of hot-headedness, decided to go all in and gamble everything—turning his motorcycle into a bicycle, so to speak—
there was a real chance he might just seize that opening and bolt away.
So to prevent that, they had to step forward and keep piling on the pressure, creating the illusion for Jiang Nian that they held all the cards, making him afraid to make any reckless moves.
This could honestly be called a flawless strategy.
Anyone else in this situation would have been completely cowed by them, waiting in despair for the end.
But unfortunately, they were up against Jiang Nian—a man who’d been baptized by the memories of “Du Gao” and “Yu Huatian,” and had somehow, through sheer hard work, maxed out his combat talent.
Not only could he determine their general positions just by listening to their footsteps, but he could also work backward from that to see that they were merely holding the line.
And so—
“Yuán’er, hold on tight.”
Jiang Nian said to Gao Yuán’er, and without a moment’s hesitation, he pulled her close and burst straight out of the shop, charging right at Sunglasses Guy and his crew!
The attack was so sudden that Sunglasses Guy and his men didn’t even have time to react.
The gap in strength between the two sides was already significant; if the other side hadn’t been constantly sniping from the shadows with modern weaponry to suppress him, Jiang Nian would have wiped them out long ago!
By the time they snapped back to their senses, Jiang Nian had already appeared in front of the man dressed like a migrant worker in the blink of an eye.
He clenched his fist and threw a punch.
BOOM!
It was like a thunderclap out of a clear sky.
To break free from the encirclement and fight for his life, Jiang Nian held nothing back in this strike—he poured every ounce of his internal energy into it.
The moment his fist made contact with that crew-cut man—
the terrifying internal energy surged directly through his skin and flesh, wildly flooding into his body.
The next second.
BANG!
The migrant worker’s chest cavity exploded on the spot.
Bones shattered, organs ruptured, all mixed in with spurting blood—like a spectacular fireworks display.
Except fireworks are ignited by gunpowder; this one was ignited by his life!
Pfft!
The migrant worker spat out a mouthful of blood, and without even managing to utter a single word, collapsed to the ground, dead as a doornail.
As for Sunglasses Guy and the skinny little man, the sight of the crater in Crew-Cut Guy’s chest made even them—hardened as they were—gape in sheer horror!
Earlier, when Jiang Nian had sent “Salesman Ah Long” flying with a single slap, they could still somewhat rationalize it as Jiang Nian’s natural-born brute strength and profound martial arts skill.
But now—one palm strike, and the entire chest cavity was gone.
The two of them were deeply shaken.
“If you’ve got any guts, stop sniping from the shadows and come at me all at once!”
But Jiang Nian couldn’t care less about any of that. After finishing off Crew-Cut Guy, he noticed that no more arrows had come flying their way, confirming that his guess had been correct.
Without missing a beat, he pulled Gao Yuán’er along and strode briskly toward the exit of the shopping mall.
His main priority now was still to draw them away.
Seeing this, Sunglasses Guy finally snapped out of it and immediately pressed his earpiece: “Team B, plan change. The target has broken free.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a reply came back through the earpiece: “Team A, what happened? How did he get away?”
“The target suddenly lashed out and is now running toward the mall exit. Team C, intercept immediately. We’re on our way.”
With that, he sprinted off with long strides, hurrying in the direction Jiang Nian had fled.
Team B, meanwhile, cursed under their breath. Pushing aside the shock still churning in their hearts, they hastily changed course and scrambled to catch up.
As for Jiang Nian, he was well aware that these people wouldn’t let him go.
Right now, he was stuck with a burden, and the enemy would only attack from the shadows. The modern compound crossbow had an effective range of up to five hundred meters—that’s half a kilometer!
Over such a long distance, even as a first-rate martial artist, Jiang Nian didn’t dare to recklessly take it head-on.
One mistake, and he’d be a goner.
“Man, if only I had a Cao Zhengchun or a Dongfang Bubai right about now.”
Soon, after sprinting wildly with Gao Yuán’er all the way out of the mall and temporarily shaking off Sunglasses Guy and his crew, Jiang Nian spotted a relatively safe spot nearby and immediately set Gao Yuán’er down:
“Yuán’er, things are urgent and I don’t have time to explain everything. In short, these people are a bunch of terrorists—they’re planning to blow up this building. You need to leave right now, call the police, and I’ll go hold them off. This is my backup phone. I’ll use my main phone to send real-time location updates to it. Once you find the police, have them follow the GPS to come find me. I’m going to lead them somewhere else. Got it?”
Rattling off everything he needed to say in a hurried rush, Jiang Nian pulled an old-school phone out of his pocket and shoved it into Gao Yuán’er’s hands.
Then, without waiting for her to respond, he dashed out of the alley.
With the burden off his shoulders, Jiang Nian now had plenty of ways to deal with them.
And the moment he appeared—
“There he is! Follow him!”
A man’s voice rang out, followed by a car speeding by.
At the same time—
Swoosh—
A crossbow bolt came flying in.
Jiang Nian reached out his hand, then forcibly stopped himself, suppressing the urge to catch it barehanded. He dodged to the side and melted into the night.
The bolt slammed ferociously into the ground, piercing straight through the blue bricks!
“The power and speed of these bolts are insane!”
Jiang Nian’s mind raced. He knew his own physical limits—tanking a hit head-on would definitely mean death. After all, in Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, Yu Huatian himself got cut down by a flurry of swords, which showed that the body’s raw durability wasn’t all that high.
But—what if he combined internal energy, technique, and his sharp spiritual perception—could he catch a crossbow bolt barehanded?
That was probably a stretch; it wasn’t much different from catching a bullet.
So Jiang Nian didn’t dare make a snap decision—yet he felt a strange, inexplicable urge to try…
Because ever since he’d casually killed Salesman Guy with a single palm strike, he’d realized something: he was completely clueless about his own strength.
On the other side, Gao Yuán’er understood the gravity of the situation. After the group had left, she immediately ran to the crowd on the neighboring street and dialed 110.
Meanwhile, back at the CBD—
Thanks to the two-day hype buildup,
the venue for the Flying Swords of Dragon Gate film promotional event was now packed to the brim with people.
But Xu Ke felt no joy in his heart—only anxiety.
Because there were only ten minutes left until eight o’clock.
And Jiang Nian, one of the lead actors, still hadn’t shown up.
“Still no word?”
Xu Ke asked Zhang Zhiliang, the director beside him.
This was the seventeenth time he’d asked in less than twenty minutes.
Hearing this, Zhang Zhiliang put down his phone and shook his head, giving the same answer he’d given sixteen times before: “No.”
“Dammit. That little brat—did he oversleep after crashing in some actress’s bed again?”
Xu Ke cursed under his breath, feeling the anxiety eating at him.
But just then—
Ring-ring-ring—
Ring-ring-ring—
A shrill phone ring cut through the air. Xu Ke perked up immediately and looked at Zhang Zhiliang: “Is it Teacher Jiang calling?”
Zhang Zhiliang looked at his own dark phone screen and shook his head: “Not mine. I think it’s yours, Director Xu.”
“Mine?”
Xu Ke blinked, fished his phone out of his pocket, and sure enough, it was his ringing.
Thinking it might be Jiang Nian, his face lit up with hope. He focused his gaze on the screen.
But the moment he saw the caller ID, the smile on his face froze solid.
Because the caller ID displayed only three digits: 110!
“???”
Xu Ke’s heart skipped a beat.
Why is the police calling me?
Immediately, his mind jumped to Jiang Nian, who’d been unreachable all this time. Realizing something, he couldn’t help but swallow nervously:
“Hold on—it’s the very last day. Jiang Nian… he didn’t get himself into another mess, did he?”
