Chapter 96 Vicious Scheme

Chapter 96 -95: Vicious Scheme

Outside the underground parking lot near Biyun Resort.

SCREECH!

Gunshots rang out one after another, mingling with the dying screeches of Crocodile Lizards. With Snow Cake practically spoon-feeding them targets, Xu Ming and Professor Ye only needed to repeatedly raise their rifles, aim, and fire.

As they continued to practice, their marksmanship improved significantly. Their targets shifted from young Crocodile Lizards to adult ones. Now, every pull of the trigger hit the creatures’ massive heads. However, adult Crocodile Lizards had abundant Life Force; a single shot to the head wasn’t enough to kill them. It took two or three.

Clusters of pale blue Energy flew into their bodies. Nourished by the Crocodile Lizards’ Energy, their physiques underwent drastic transformations. Xu Ming’s previously lean and wiry frame, worn down by prolonged hardship, began to bulge with smooth, defined muscle lines. The deltoids on his shoulders and the biceps on his arms swelled visibly, brimming with explosive power. The weathered look on his face had faded considerably. His gaze became sharp, and his eyes sparkled with vitality with every blink, making him look as if he had grown five or six years younger. The increase in physical strength made the arms holding his rifle as steady as Pan Shi. His trigger pulls were crisp and decisive, landing headshots with almost every shot.

Outwardly, Professor Ye’s changes were even more astonishing. His once-hunched back had straightened. His somewhat saggy skin had tightened up like a young man’s, and his wrinkles had faded significantly. He looked hale and hearty, as if he had returned to his prime. His breathing was even, and his posture while aiming the rifle was as steady as a mountain.

However, continuously absorbing the Crocodile Lizards’ Energy and experiencing a sudden surge in strength also brought about some troubles.

CRACK! Xu Ming raised his canteen to take a drink and nearly crushed the spout.

SPLASH! Professor Ye had only wanted to shift his position, but he misjudged his own strength. A slight push off his feet drove his boots deep into the mud, causing him to stumble and fall heavily into the water.

“Uh…” He tried to adjust his glasses, but the frame groaned under the pressure and bent completely out of shape.

“All right, that’s enough for today,” Han Ning said, waving his hand. “Your strength has increased too quickly, and you haven’t fully adapted to it yet.”

He thought back to his own early days—he definitely hadn’t had it this easy, with someone constantly spoon-feeding him Energy. He figured that, aside from the soldiers who had firearms right from the start to continuously gun down monsters, ordinary people like them would never experience the “trouble” of leveling up too fast.

“Sigh, I guess we’ll have to stop here. I feel like I don’t even know how to walk anymore.” Xu Ming moved awkwardly through the water, accidentally kicking up huge splashes in the process.

“Make sure you don’t interact with Yinyin when we get back. I’m worried you might accidentally hurt her,” Han Ning couldn’t help but warn.

“Good point…”

***

In a stretch of water a few kilometers away from Biyun Resort, a figure darted between the debris floating on the surface. Li was in his early twenties and had a clean-cut appearance.

He stopped on the roof of a half-submerged truck and pulled a thumb-sized glass vial from his jacket. A few drops of dark red, viscous liquid had settled at the bottom of the vial. This was the blood Lei Gang had left behind before departing, as per Boss Sun’s orders. It wasn’t just Lei Gang; every important member had to leave some behind. The reasoning was that if they ever went missing, their tracks could still be found using their blood.

Li unscrewed the cap and carefully brought the vial to his nose. He didn’t pour the blood out directly; instead, he dipped his fingertip into it and gently smeared a tiny drop on his philtrum.

SNIFF! He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if savoring something.

The next second, his eyes snapped open, a strange red light flashing deep within his pupils. In his vision, the world seemed covered by a faint, blood-red filter. Amidst the endless gray and pouring rain, an extremely faint line of blood extended outward from in front of him, piercing through the heavy downpour and pointing south.

“Found him!” Li’s Spirit lifted. Guided by this invisible bloodline, he waded forward. His tracking speed was incredibly fast as he vaulted swiftly through the scattered debris.

The further south he went, the deeper the water became. Following the bloodline, Li arrived at a vast expanse of water.

“Boats? Hm? That’s our assault boat.” Hiding behind a billboard, he observed the dozen or so large and small boats on the distant water, along with the assault boats surrounding them.

The bloodline didn’t disappear here; instead, it curved and pointed east. Li looked around, memorizing the landmarks near the boats, and continued following the trail. The bloodline passed through collapsed buildings and bypassed floating car wrecks before finally pointing toward an area enclosed by a high wall. Upon arriving here, the bloodline completely vanished, no longer pointing in any other direction.

Li crouched in the upper floors of a half-submerged office building, gazing out through a shattered window. Inside the wall, several relatively intact high-rise buildings were faintly visible. One of them was particularly conspicuous, with traces of artificial reinforcements still present at its entrance. Outside the wall, the murky floodwaters reached almost two-thirds of its height. Simple guard posts, constructed from ropes and floating pontoons, drifted on the surface. People could vaguely be seen patrolling on them.

His gaze shifted to the entrance of the wall. A landscape stone, slightly blurred from the rain’s constant washing, was positioned there. Even through the veil of rain, he could make out the large characters carved into it.

“Biyun Resort…”

He carefully observed the outer Defense layout of the resort, the number and condition of the patrolmen, and the occasional silhouettes flashing behind the building windows. He thought, “It’s an Awakened Gathering. It looks quite large. Captain Lei Gang most likely fell here.”

After silently memorizing every detail, Li slipped out of the building without a sound, turning and quickly retreating along the path he came from.

***

“…Boss, that’s everything.” In the dimly lit room, Li relayed every single detail of what he had seen to the man in front of him.

“The Awakened at Biyun Resort…” Sun Wuyan muttered. “To be able to kill forty of our men, they aren’t weak.”

He suddenly stood up and vanished from the room, leaving behind a single sentence. “Go get Zheng and his men.”

A moment later, his figure reappeared in the room. But now, there were three more people standing in front of him. Sun Wuyan swept his gaze over them and took out a thumb-sized, cylindrical stainless-steel vial from his breast pocket.

“This is the Black Snake King’s Blood I obtained from Colonel Zhao. As long as we smear this Black Snake King’s Blood on their boats and inside their Gathering, the Black Snake Monsters within a ten-kilometer radius will swarm them like sharks smelling blood.”

He handed the container to one of the men, his tone leaving no room for argument.

“Zheng, you will personally lead a team to Biyun Resort. Smear the Snake Blood on their boats and their living quarters.

“Remember, do not expose your tracks. If those bastards can kill Lei Gang, they can kill you just as easily.”

The man known as Zheng took the metal vial and nodded. “Understood, Boss!”