“Hiss, that’s weird. Didn’t you say your arm was dislocated?”
“Because our examination shows it’s perfectly fine. And since when did your arm get so thick? Have you been working out?”
Just as Jiang Nian was sizing up how many people were there,
the Team C member beside him, who was checking his injuries, noticed something off. He let out a puzzled grunt and furrowed his brow.
Staring at Jiang Nian’s arm, he looked thoroughly confused.
Jiang Nian, however, just gave them a cold smirk and said in a low voice: “Of course I was lying. If my arm were really dislocated, how would I be able to kill all you scumbags?”
The moment those words left his mouth, the Team C guys realized something was wrong.
Because that voice—it wasn’t B1’s voice!
But by the time they figured it out, it was already too late.
The next second, Jiang Nian’s fist came flying.
Thump!
A dull thud.
“What?”
The Sunglasses Guy heard the noise and started to turn his head.
But just then—
In front of him, one of the Team B members who had gone to check the body spotted something and stumbled backward in shock, plopping onto the ground with his eyes wide: “B-B-B-B1?!”
“What about B1?”
The Sunglasses Guy’s attention was pulled away again.
He saw the Team B member staring in disbelief at the corpse hanging from the tree, saying: “This… this is B1! This is his body! It’s not Jiang Nian’s!”
“What did you say?!”
The Sunglasses Guy’s eyes went wide.
He rushed over, forgetting all about staying hidden, and whipped out his portable flashlight, shining it at the body on the tree.
Under the bright light, it was clear as day—that wasn’t Jiang Nian hanging there.
It was B1, his throat torn open, face covered in blood, eyes still wide open in death!
“How is this possible?!”
The Sunglasses Guy’s eyes bulged.
How did B1 end up here?
If B1 was here, then who was the one he’d just been talking to—
In an instant.
A bone-chilling cold shot up from his tailbone all the way to the top of his skull.
The Sunglasses Guy spun around in shock.
His flashlight beam swept across the scene—
And there stood a tall man, gripping a Team C member’s head with one hand and squeezing hard.
Crack-crunch!
The sound of bones shattering echoed.
Under everyone’s horrified gaze, that Team C member’s head twisted and deformed like a gummy candy, brains and blood spraying from every orifice. The guy didn’t even let out a whimper before he dropped dead on the spot!
And just like him, three others had already been killed silently without putting up any fight!
“Jiang! Nian!”
Staring at that face, the Sunglasses Guy trembled all over and gritted out the name through clenched teeth.
But it wasn’t out of fear—it was pure rage!
By now, he’d realized he’d been completely and utterly played by Jiang Nian, without the slightest suspicion!
Hearing his name, Jiang Nian turned to look, and when he saw the Sunglasses Guy’s twisted, furious face, he let out a cheeky laugh: “Aww, you caught me.”
“Fire! Fire!”
“Kill him!”
The Sunglasses Guy barked the order, his fury boiling over.
The Team B members immediately raised their crossbows, aiming at Jiang Nian.
But Jiang Nian had been ready for that—no way he was giving them that chance.
He channeled his internal energy and flicked his wrist.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh—
A series of sharp whistles cut through the air.
The pebbles Jiang Nian had been holding in his hand shot out like bullets, striking the nearest Team B members in an instant.
Thwack!
Thwack!
Thwack!
Guided by his internal energy, the stones hit their targets with deadly precision—right in the skull. In that moment, several human fountains erupted on the scene.
After letting the stones fly, Jiang Nian saw a few crossbow bolts coming from farther away. Not taking any chances, he channeled his energy to his feet, fully activating Eight Steps to Catch a Cicada to jerk his body out of the way.
Listening to the whistling bolts and the sound of them shattering boulders where he’d just been standing—
In that moment, Jiang Nian felt like he was back in the park again.
Familiar flanking. Familiar one-shot-kill-if-you-peek.
“Damn, you guys are really pissed, huh.”
“All because I fooled you once? What a bunch of sore losers.”
Jiang Nian laughed and cursed, but he wasn’t really panicking.
He’d long since lost that initial tension from when he first ran into danger.
Not just because the tactical gear gave him the ability to pinpoint their positions—
But also because, after that earlier ambush, Jiang Nian had realized something: with his current strength, he could block those crossbow bolts if he wanted to.
But faced with such a dense barrage, and wanting to minimize any damage to himself, he didn’t charge out recklessly like a hothead.
His eyes landed on the tactical vest he’d stripped off “B1.”
Earlier, when the Sunglasses Guy had checked B1’s body, he’d pulled a flashlight out of that same vest.
If the Sunglasses Guy had one, didn’t B1 have one too?
Jiang Nian patted himself down.
Sure enough, after a bit of rummaging, he fished a palm-sized flashlight out of an inner pocket.
Small as it was, it packed a punch.
It had five different brightness settings to switch between:
The basics—50 lumens, 300 lumens, 850 lumens, 1700 lumens, and a whopping 4000 lumens!
It also had a strobe function.
After skimming through its features, Jiang Nian was pleasantly surprised.
Originally, he’d just planned to use it to flash them and draw attention if the brightness wasn’t that high.
He didn’t expect this thing to be such a beast.
And if that was the case…
“Hey, Mr. Sunglasses, there’s no need to be so furious, you know? Anger’s bad for your health. Can’t we just sit down and talk this out like reasonable people?”
Hiding behind a boulder, Jiang Nian held the flashlight and yelled at the top of his lungs.
But the Sunglasses Guy didn’t even flinch—he just kept barking orders.
He refused to believe that with the power of their heavy crossbows, they couldn’t smash a single lousy rock!
Once that rock shattered, with this big open space, where the hell could Jiang Nian run?!
Seeing that, Jiang Nian couldn’t help but let out a tsk.
No point trying to reason with these guys.
He fiddled with the flashlight, set it to the right mode, and then shouted:
“Hey, I said—do you believe in light?”
“Ultraman Tiga’s coming!”
With that, he pressed the switch and hurled the flashlight with all his might.
Instantly.
The flashlight erupted into a frantic strobe.
The Sunglasses Guy and his crew, still wearing their night-vision goggles, were suddenly blinded. A searing pain shot through their eyes, forcing them shut and making them cry out in agony.
Hearing that, Jiang Nian knew the moment had come. He turned off his own night-vision, activated Eight Steps to Catch a Cicada, and shot out from behind the rock, zeroing in on the nearest enemy.
Drawing his breath and focusing his energy—Shaolin Boy’s Kung Fu, Sparrow Hawk Descends into the Forest!
WHAM!
A heavy thud. Jiang Nian’s foot connected squarely with the guy’s face.
Under that terrifying force—
CRACK!
His head flew off like a soccer ball, arcing gracefully through the air, and landed perfectly—right in the Sunglasses Guy’s hands!
“Captain, there’s a light up on the mountain.”
Down at the foot of the mountain, while Jiang Nian was duking it out with the Sunglasses Guy and his crew,
Xiao Li, holding a low-light telescope, noticed the flickering bright light on the slopes and immediately spoke up.
Hearing that, the middle-aged man who was a First-Class Police Supervisor perked up and asked quickly: “Where?”
“Mid-slope! Not too far from us!”
Xiao Li said.
“Good!”
The Supervisor said.
Now that they had the location, the rest was simple—just three things: head up the mountain, rescue the hostages, and take down the bad guys!
“Move out!”
The Supervisor ordered, then took the lead, gun in hand, and started marching up the mountain.
And if their boss was charging ahead like that,
there was no way the others were going to hang back hesitantly—they all followed suit.
Honestly, they’d been itching to go for a while already.
If it weren’t for the fear of getting chewed out later for acting rashly,
they would have charged up the mountain the moment they got out of the car. Who’d stand around listening to all this blabbering?!
You think the line “young soldiers yearn to make their mark” was just thrown in for rhyme’s sake?
No way—that was the realest feeling in their hearts!
Cops and soldiers share the same core drive.
Now that they’d finally run into a gang of terrorists armed with heavy crossbows, if they let this opportunity slip by, they’d be waking up in the middle of the night just to slap themselves and ask, “How the hell could you be such a letdown?!”
