Chapter 472 - 414: Chaisi - Good Dogs Don’t Block the Way

Chapter 472: Chapter 414: Chaisi - Good Dogs Don’t Block the Way

The roar of a car engine suddenly shattered the thick shell encasing his consciousness.

Blinding headlights flooded his vision. A dark shadow, wrapped in a force heavy enough to shatter worlds, scraped right past Chaisi. Before he could even react, the arm seized by the resident was violently twisted back, feeling as if it were about to be ripped from its socket.

He let out a low growl of pain and finally came to his senses, only then realizing that he had, at some point, fallen to the ground.

The thing that had just rushed past him turned out to be the Kai Family’s car.

It was now stopped a few steps away, its taillights piercing the night and dyeing the threads of rain red. The resident from before, and the driver connected to it, had both disappeared under the black car.

But a single long arm, attached to a hand densely packed with fingers, still stretched out from under the car, tightly gripping Chaisi’s arm.

’So Han Liuyue hit it with the car just as it was about to get me?’

Chaisi gritted his teeth against the pain and twisted his wrist, turning his hand back as if to grab the resident’s arm from below. It was a martial arts move for breaking an enemy’s hold, and surprisingly, it worked even on the barely humanoid resident, allowing him to finally pull his arm free.

"Brother Chaisi,"

Han Liuyue leaned out of the car window and shouted, "Get in the car, quick! It’s about to crawl out from under the tires!"

It was true; the front of the car was trembling and lifting up. The headless, two-bodied creature was probably about to get to its feet.

Chaisi glanced back and saw that the other resident, the one with the brain, was also swaying unsteadily as it closed in on him.

"Didn’t I tell you to go?"

As he scrambled to his feet, he swept out his arm, grabbing his jacket off the ground. He wrapped it around his fist in a few quick motions and yelled without looking back, "Go get Uncle Kai and Aunt Hai to safety! Don’t worry about me, I can protect myself!"

"Brother Chaisi," Han Liuyue was clearly exasperated. "I’m about to say this with the utmost respect for you, so please don’t get me wrong—what the hell are you talking about?"

Chaisi didn’t have time to answer. He took a step forward and, with the full force of his body, threw a punch that broke through the air and the curtain of rain, smashing straight into the resident’s brain.

Even through the jacket, the sensation was slimy and greasy, like he’d just punched someone’s fatty liver.

A punch that could bend an iron gate only made the driver topped with the resident’s brain stagger back a few steps and fall on its ass.

"If I hadn’t hit this thing with the car in time—oh, it’s getting up. Hey there."

Han Liuyue waved at the resident before continuing to shout as she reversed the car, "If it wasn’t for me, you’d be totally screwed by now! How can you protect yourself? Brother Chaisi, don’t act like some self-sacrificing hero from a movie holding the line. Nobody needs you to hold the line! I’m begging you, my dear ancestor Chaisi, just get in the car!"

’Why does Han Liuyue get so chatty in a crisis?’

"I know you don’t need me to hold the line,"

As Chaisi spoke, he closed the distance again, getting close to the brain-resident. He fought back his revulsion and took a closer look, but he couldn’t see how the brain was connected to the body. "But I need you to go. I need you to find Uncle Kai and Aunt Hai."

"If you know you don’t have to hold the line, why are you still telling me to leave?" The moment the words left Han Liuyue’s mouth, she stomped on the gas, charging at the headless, two-bodied resident again.

Don’t be fooled by its lack of a head—it was surprisingly clever.

The instant the engine roared to life, the headless, two-bodied resident took an impossibly long stride. Its leg, like its arm, seemed to be able to unfold countless joints, and with just a single step, it crossed the entire front of the car.

A curse from Han Liuyue, the screech of tires from an emergency brake, and the sound of the car spinning out all rose up from the darkness of the night.

The headless, two-bodied resident turned, its chest—a crisscrossing mess of countless bones—once again facing Chaisi.

The driver’s body being dragged behind it had taken a heavy blow, then been run over by the car. It was now nearly a shapeless bag of flesh and blood, with shards of broken bone sticking out stark white from the meat.

’Strange, they both seem to have a special interest in me...’

The headless, two-bodied resident had been closer to Han Liuyue just now, but it paid her no mind, instead walking toward him step by step.

’This plays right into my hands, but... why?’

’Now’s probably not the time for questions.’

"Is there a knife in the car? Throw one to me!" Chaisi shouted.

Han Liuyue was getting more and more disobedient. He’d clearly told her to "throw one," but she pushed open the door, got out herself, and came running over.

"No knife, but I have your T-bar. Will this work? What do you need a knife for?"

The T-bar wasn’t sharp, but it was extremely heavy, so it might do the trick. Besides, it wasn’t like he had a choice.

"Get back in the car," Chaisi said, snatching the T-bar. "They only seem to be interested in me."

"Then doesn’t that mean I have even less reason to leave? You tell me to go, but you’re not going yourself. I really don’t get why."

For a moment, Chaisi wanted to yell at her, wanted to physically throw her out of the way, but knew there was no time. He had no time to respond, and instead swung the T-bar, bringing it down hard on the driver’s throat.

A single blow was all it took to smash the creature’s windpipe, larynx, and flesh into a mangled pulp of blood and fragments.

It wasn’t enough.

"If I leave, what about the resident?"

Chaisi’s blows were vicious and precise. Every strike landed exactly where the driver’s throat had once been, each one digging deeper and hammering harder than the last.

Amidst the relentless, heavy blows, his face was already spattered with blood. He could only squint, panting as he muttered, "If I leave... won’t the resident still be in the human world?"

With a final strike, the neck bone snapped with a CRACK, shattering into several pieces within the pool of flesh and blood.

The neck was finally broken.

’Now that the brain is disconnected from the human body, it won’t be getting up again, right?’

He knew the only reason he’d had time to completely shatter someone’s neck was that Han Liuyue must have been holding off the other resident for him.

When Chaisi turned to look, he couldn’t help but freeze.

He just hadn’t expected this was how Han Liuyue would choose to hold off the other resident.

Han Liuyue obviously knew she was no match for the resident and didn’t dare touch its limbs. So she had just wrapped her arms tightly around the driver’s upper body, yanking back hard on the half of the "compass" that was the driver. As the resident walked forward step by step, she was forced back step by step, and the "compass" was being pulled wider and wider.

"Brother Chaisi,"

She was straining with all her might, her feet constantly stumbling and sliding forward as she clearly couldn’t match the resident’s strength. Her face was red with effort. "You... by yourself... how are you going to send them back to the Nest?"

Chaisi had no answer. He didn’t know either.

This was the first time he had ever seen residents that could enter the human world without a Path, so naturally, he had no idea how to send them back to the Nest.

He only knew that if he got in the car and escaped with Han Liuyue, his thirty years of life would become a joke.

Either kick the residents back to the Nest, or die here tonight.

Only one thing was certain—he would not retreat a single step.

"I... I can’t hold it much longer," Han Liuyue cried out with great effort. "Brother Chaisi, how about this? You get in the car first, and we’ll hit them with the car..."

"Who’s driving?"

"I will."

"Are you kidding me?"

Chaisi said, swinging the T-bar in a quick circle in his hand and aiming it at the headless, two-bodied resident that was nearly on top of him.

’Strange. It could clearly just reach back and hit Han Liuyue—with that many joints, length and angle are no problem—but it ignores her and only comes for me.’

’Why?’

"Brother Chaisi," Han Liuyue suddenly yelled, "Behind you!"

Chaisi spun around and saw that the driver whose neck he had completely smashed had actually gotten up from the ground again.

No, he’d been careless—the neck wasn’t completely severed.

A flap of skin still connected the brain’s neck to the body. The brain dangled from the skin, swinging back and forth in front of the driver.

The two residents, one in front and one behind, now had Chaisi trapped between them.

’Why are they only interested in me?’

As Chaisi swung the T-bar, aiming for that stretched-thin flap of skin and flesh, another thought flashed through his mind: ’Looks like I’m finally going to have to move my feet.’

...Wait.

’Ever since I first saw these two residents, I’ve been standing in the same spot. I might have shifted a little during the fight, but I’ve always stayed within the same few steps.’

’In other words, I’ve been standing right between the two residents the whole time.’

Just as the T-bar was about to hit that strip of human skin, a flash of white-hot realization struck Chaisi’s mind. Almost at the same instant, he violently contracted his muscles, forced his arm up, and the T-bar scraped perilously past the skin, rising into the air.

He understood.

He finally knew what was going on.

Chaisi let go, dropping the T-bar. He bent low and wrapped his arms around the brain-resident.

Before the other resident could lunge, he immediately slung the brain-resident over his shoulder. Flesh, broken bone, and a brain still hanging by a flap of skin instantly splashed over one side of his body like a basin of water.

Carrying the resident, Chaisi finally took a step and left his spot—not to retreat, but to charge toward the Kai Family’s car.

"Come on," he roared without looking back. "I know how to send it back to the Nest!"

"How?" Seeing that he was finally willing to get in the car, Han Liuyue immediately let go and followed close behind.

Chaisi ran to the side of the car, threw the nearly pulverized driver’s body inside, slammed the door shut with a BANG, and then opened the driver’s side door for Han Liuyue. "Get in. Drive."

Han Liuyue was still confused but got into the car immediately and started the engine. "What about you? Where am I driving?"

"Doesn’t matter where. The farther, the better."

Chaisi closed the car door and, just as he expected, saw the other, two-bodied resident striding toward them. "We were both wrong. There aren’t two residents here."

Han Liuyue froze. "What?"

"There’s only one resident here."

Chaisi glanced at the resident in the back seat, which was swaying and seemingly trying to sit up. "Two Black Abyss Belts, one resident."

It dawned on Han Liuyue.

"Ah," she breathed. "The things that came out of the Black Abyss Belts... were a brain... and a body."

"They weren’t just interested in me. They wanted to get back to each other, and I just happened to be standing between them, blocking the way and refusing to move."

Chaisi watched the other resident and gave a low command: "Drive away now, then take the brain into the Nest. Secure the brain."

"Then what about you?"

"Once its head is back in the Nest, the body naturally can’t stay in the human world by itself," Chaisi said. "I’ll hold it off as long as I can... When you’ve made it into the Nest, I’ll leave."