Chapter 110: Ambush and Surprise Attack

Chapter 110: Chapter 110: Ambush and Surprise Attack

Xiang Yi left the shelter with Shi Tie.

He hopped on the Ghost Fire and sped toward the power substation.

He had always used the Ghost Fire as his transport for traveling in and out of the city. The narrow underground tunnels were just wide enough to accommodate it, and it could reach a top speed of over a hundred kilometers per hour.

The trip back would take less than three minutes at top speed. From there, he could go to the neighboring junkyard, get his Shuttle Boat—which was even faster than the motorcycle—and be in the Southwest City District in under five minutes.

He was certain he could make it to the scene in under ten minutes.

This was a perfect opportunity to capture Lu Qi alive. He desperately needed the information in Lu Qi’s head.

Moving at breakneck speed, Xiang Yi rushed from outside the city limits back into the city, arriving in the airspace above the Southwest City District in just seven minutes.

From a distance, he could see a crowd of people gathered below.

They were still in a standoff with the sealed-off hardware store.

Although they were all worked up, they hadn’t actually done anything.

In the middle of the crowd, Lu Qi was on a walkie-talkie, giving orders.

"Keep an eye on the surrounding alleys. The target has likely been tipped off and will be here soon."

"Remember our mission. We’re not here to kill him. Our job is to make the target use his abilities as much as possible, while ensuring you all stay alive."

"Don’t be too scared. The gear we brought is designed specifically for him. Even if you can’t win, you’ll have no problem staying alive."

"But if the target doesn’t show up within the hour, then you know what you have to do."

Xiang Yi couldn’t hear him, but he already had a good guess what was happening.

’Lu Qi’s real target is me, not the robot.’

’All of his actions are in service of his goal. This whole siege is probably just a way to force me out into the open.’

’Even after seven minutes, all they’ve done is surround the place. They have no intention of forcing a direct conflict with the robot.’

’Of course, if I don’t show up soon, they’ll probably deal with the robot anyway, just to stop it from trading with me and making my life easier.’

Xiang Yi knew it was rash to come here, but he came anyway.

He was confident he could handle them.

The Shuttle Boat was now directly above the hardware store.

The people below noticed the Shuttle Boat overhead, but for a moment, they didn’t realize Xiang Yi was on it. They just assumed it was passing by.

Only Lu Qi looked up at the Shuttle Boat, his eyes narrowing.

"Shi Tie."

At Xiang Yi’s command, Shi Tie opened the door, hoisted the heavy machine gun, aimed the barrel at the crowd on the ground, and pulled the trigger.

Shi Tie was incredibly strong. Even under the immense recoil, his gun hand remained perfectly steady.

The roar of the heavy machine gun echoed as .50 caliber tracer rounds swept down from above, raking the ground.

The bullets cut a nearly perfect line across the edge of the crowd below.

Puffs of blood mist erupted from the crowd. Flying limbs and scattered, terrified screams were chilling.

The line of fire, however, deliberately avoided Lu Qi in the center of the crowd.

’He’s my real target. I don’t care what happens to the others.’

The crowd below never expected an attack from the sky.

Only Lu Qi had reacted the instant he saw the thick gun barrel appear. He dashed for nearby cover, roaring, "Find cover!"

The sheet-metal shacks couldn’t stop the heavy machine gun rounds, but they could block the line of sight from the air, which increased the chances of survival.

But few of his men could match his reaction time. Most were instantly torn to shreds by the machine gun fire.

The strafing continued for nearly a minute before it finally stopped.

The barrel was glowing cherry-red. Shi Tie tossed aside the empty ammo-belt backpack and slung an identical one onto his back.

In front of the hardware store, nothing was left moving.

The survivors had all taken cover.

At this point, Xiang Yi had to tell Shi Tie to hold his fire.

It wasn’t a matter of collateral damage. Any sane person in the area would have fled the moment such a large, armed crowd gathered.

The problem was, it would be a huge setback if Lu Qi was accidentally killed.

Killing was easy; capturing someone alive took effort.

In the brief moment Xiang Yi had Shi Tie cease fire, Lu Qi and his surviving men were already hiding within the cluster of sheet-metal buildings, darting from one to the next.

They didn’t dare stop, terrified of being spotted by some kind of bio-sensor or other detection device and getting picked off.

Lu Qi turned to a nearby subordinate, who was staring blankly, still in shock from the recent carnage. "How many are still alive?"

Another man confirmed over the radio, "Fourteen. Six of our guys from the outer perimeter are on their way to us now. The thugs we hired for extra security have pretty much all scattered..."

"Lu Qi, maybe we should pull back. We lost so many men in the first exchange. We can’t even begin to gauge this target’s upper limits."

Lu Qi’s expression was grim. "Get your protective suits on," he said firmly. "Ready your weapons."

"But... the target’s in the sky."

"Did that attack rattle your brain? Have you forgotten what we brought with us?"

The Shuttle Boat circled continuously over the slum.

Xiang Yi was looking for a good spot to drop Shi Tie off to deal with the men hiding in the shantytown.

Suddenly, he noticed someone emerge from an alley between two buildings.

The person wore a protective suit with a familiar metallic sheen, obscuring their face. On their shoulder rested a long, thick, tubular object.

’An RPG?’

The thought had just crossed Xiang Yi’s mind when the tubular object fired a cone-shaped warhead, which rocketed toward Xiang Yi in the air.

Xiang Yi quickly maneuvered the Shuttle Boat into reverse.

He had used his Spiritual Energy to learn how to pilot the Shuttle Boat right after he acquired it. He was a bit rusty, but his reflexes were by no means slow.

But the rocket, trailing flames, had already locked onto the Shuttle Boat. Xiang Yi’s series of evasive maneuvers failed to shake the warhead. Instead, he ended up flinging the unbuckled Shi Tie out of the vehicle.

In mid-air, Shi Tie righted himself into an upright position.

Gravity pulled it down like a meteorite, and it slammed into the very center of the area where the crowd had been.

The violent impact twisted its leg muscles and fractured its bones, but such injuries were nothing to it.

Within a few breaths, its injuries had already almost completely healed.

Meanwhile, Xiang Yi was still in the air, desperately maneuvering the Shuttle Boat to evade, continuously dropping its altitude.

His heart pounded and his thoughts raced as he calculated the best possible maneuvers for the Shuttle Boat.

Once he reached a suitable altitude, he jumped.

He landed on the hardware store’s roof, rolling to absorb the impact of the fall.

The Shuttle Boat, its autopilot destination set, instantly veered and shot straight up into the sky.

The flame-tailed warhead followed, piercing the front of the Shuttle Boat.

But the explosion Xiang Yi had anticipated never came. Instead, the warhead deployed several sharp, claw-like hooks, anchoring itself to the vehicle.

Visible arcs of electricity flashed across the Shuttle Boat. The engine belched thick, black smoke as the vehicle began to plummet toward a nearby area.

’Not an explosion... it’s arcing electricity... and it’s emitting a low-level, continuous EMP.’

He knew because when his Spiritual Energy tried to repair the Shuttle Boat, he found its internal circuitry was being constantly destroyed.

’Was this designed to counter my Spiritual Energy?’

The thought flashed through Xiang Yi’s mind.

He quickly estimated how much Spiritual Power it would take to safely land the Shuttle Boat while it was under a continuous EMP attack.

He instantly dismissed the idea and scrambled down from the hardware store’s roof.

He followed the back alley, found the hardware store’s sealed rear entrance, and pushed the door open to get inside.

Inside, there was a frantic scramble and the sound of guns being raised.

"It’s me," Xiang Yi called out.