Chapter 2

Volume 1 Chapter 2: The Mo and the Guhuo Bird

This was definitely not a human!

At the same moment Li Yan’s mind raced, the hideous monster lashed out with a vicious whip kick, striking toward Li Yan’s temple like a bolt of black lightning.

Li Yan instinctively raised his arm to block, but was sent flying sideways by the tremendous force.

Before Li Yan could get up, a domineering dark shadow came crashing down from above. He couldn’t dodge in time and was struck on the right shoulder by a kick. His entire arm went numb with pain, and then his vision blurred as the insidious toe of a shoe came at his face.

This barrage of kicks descended like a rainstorm—he had no way to avoid them. If that kick landed solidly, Li Yan would be either dead or crippled.

Without a second thought, he reached both hands toward the crew-cut man’s flying leg. The fingers of his left hand silently and savagely gouged at the side of the man’s knee!

“Smack!”

“Thud.”

The crew-cut man’s right foot struck Li Yan’s elbow, but his entire body crashed to his knees on the ground.

That mangled, flesh-obscured face was aimed right at Li Yan.

In a flash, the hitherto passive Li Yan grabbed the crew-cut man’s shoulder and leaned his body backward. The crew-cut man’s upper body tipped forward uncontrollably!

A flash of ruthlessness crossed Li Yan’s eyes. He immediately rolled over, pinned the man’s neck with his right leg, and with a crack, the crew-cut man’s entire arm was torn off!

Then, pressing against the crew-cut man’s lower back, he grabbed the man’s other arm and pulled and wrenched it with clean efficiency, ignoring the bone-grinding sound of fracturing. His right foot stomped heavily onto the man’s shin—the kick was both fierce and precise, dislocating the crew-cut man’s lower leg and twisting it outward at an irregular angle.

Only then did he stand up, looking down at the crew-cut man writhing on the ground, his gaze lingering especially on that rotting, festering face.

Watching the crew-cut man struggle to get up for quite a while, Li Yan let out a long breath and turned to grab his phone. But the man on the ground actually surged up at this moment in complete defiance of possibility, opening his pale white teeth to bite at Li Yan’s thigh!

As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Li Yan twisted his waist, spun, and delivered a flying kick. His right foot, trailing wind, struck viciously at the man’s temple.

The crew-cut man’s cervical spine was broken clean by that kick! His head, like a snapped spring, twisted a full ninety degrees and hung from his neck at a bizarre angle. The brutality of it was beyond description.

Li Yan licked his gums and spat out a mouthful of bloody water:

“Still fucking scary, huh.”

His fierce, brutal gaze swept back and forth over the man’s corpse, a cold, blood-tinged aura of violence spilling out freely. Where was the mild-mannered audio-video store owner now?

“Splendid, truly splendid. The Tan Leg’s Single Whip to the Ear emphasizes unbroken momentum. Once you seize the initiative, the opponent basically has no chance to turn things around. I never expected a vicious and unorthodox White Horse Turns Its Hooves to turn defeat into victory. They say the Li family of Hejian is peerless with both spear and sword, and their grappling techniques are sharp as well.”

He looked up at a short, stout fat man standing in the doorway.

The man wore a white tank top, bell-bottom pants, and slippers. His hair was greasy and he was very slovenly. The three words “dead fat otaku” summed him up perfectly, without a single inappropriate detail.

But Li Yan keenly noticed that behind the fat man was pitch-black darkness. Outside the door there was no moonlight, no neon lights, no barbecue smoke, no car engines—only a thick, viscous black, terrifyingly black.

“Where’s that woman?”

Li Yan stared hard at the fat man before him.

“Strong ability to adapt. First-rate skill and reflexes. Very good.”

Sensing Li Yan’s gaze growing more hostile, the fat man smiled and pointed at the ground.

Li Yan glanced over with the corner of his eye and found that the man’s corpse on the ground had actually vanished!

Only the toppled sofa and the mess proved that everything just now had really happened.

“Am I dreaming?”

Li Yan rubbed his forehead. Maybe nothing had happened at all. He’d drunk three cups of hot water and fallen asleep on the sofa. There was no leather shoe, no man with flesh dropping off his face, nothing at all.

“I have nothing to do with those two from just now. The only thing we have in common is that we’re both very interested in you. Don’t worry—I just borrowed one of that crew-cut man’s thoughts to say hello to you, that’s all. Those two know nothing about it.”

Li Yan said nothing, waiting for the fat man to continue.

“Hmm, let me introduce myself. Hey, what was my name again?”

The fat man reached into his pocket and fished out a whole pile of things—crumpled vitamin wrappers, a hair salon discount card with a ** drawn on it, used tissues of unknown origin, and so on. Finally, he dug out a grimy ID card.

On it were clearly written the three characters: Wang X Yang.

“Anyway, just call me Wang Yang. But you can also call me by another name.”

The fat man smiled eerily.

“Mo.”

Li Yan glanced at him. Heh.

“Mo. Want some dumplings?”

Wang Yang was momentarily stunned, then burst out laughing, laughing more and more wildly.

“You—haha—you’re too interesting. Hahaha…”

Li Yan narrowed his eyes. He could swear on the three ancestor masters that he very much wanted to plant the sole of his leather shoe viciously on this greasy fat man’s face—provided he could actually do it.

“I can save your life.” The fat man suddenly stopped laughing.

Li Yan stared at him and asked: “You have a matching bone marrow donor for me?”

“That’s child’s play.” Wang Yang shook his head. “I can give you something better.”

Li Yan lowered both hands. He pondered for a long while, until Wang Yang grew a bit impatient.

“What can I do for you?”

Wang Yang spread his hands.

“Try it and you’ll find out. But this is a road of no return…”

“Sounds a lot better than waiting to die.”

A cold, sharp light flickered briefly in Li Yan’s eyes.

“Go on. Let’s hear it.”

The fat man grinned, his expression turning abnormally dark and solemn. “Then, come.”

Behind him, a tide of abyss-like blackness surged forth, swallowing the shocked Li Yan whole.

…

In that moment, Li Yan felt himself falling. Blackness enveloped him, and countless bizarre, inconceivable visions appeared before his eyes.

Black chains spanning the sky, a towering hall cast from millions of catties of green bronze, golden-red albatrosses dancing in the heavens, dense blue-purple thunder slurry brewing within the heavy dark clouds, and within the great hall, countless enormous, mysterious shadows watching him.

Incredibly scalding blood burned Li Yan’s vision red. And within that scarlet curtain, he made out one of those enormous, mysterious dark shadows…

Eighteen wings of alternating lengths, nine heads fierce and grotesque, one neck dripping with fresh blood…

“Awaken her, my walker.”

“Who are you?”

Li Yan couldn’t make a sound. He could only shout in his heart.

Cold. Dark.