Chapter 42: The Chase
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
At 2 a.m., Qiong City was still alive with activity—perhaps even louder than it had been at noon. The sea breeze was cool and comfortable, and the lights from the night market lit up a slice of the sky.
Shi Wenze gripped a rope and rappelled from the rooftop to the sixteenth floor. A small piece of glass was silently removed, and the window creaked open. High above the clouds, Chiwen had been circling, but now dove straight down and slipped into the apartment with the speed of lightning. In this kind of operation, he was slightly better than Shi Wenze—being a complete monster, he could fly at will.
From the bedroom came a chorus of rising and falling snores. Xu You couldn’t help but marvel, “Pretty musical, actually.” Shi Wenze motioned for him to handle Yu Feizheng, while he himself followed a familiar beastly scent to the other bedroom door.
The snoring softened for a moment. The sleeping figure mumbled something incomprehensible, then shifted back into a long, even breath. The blankets rustled—a sound that might’ve meant tossing and turning… or—
Five razor-sharp steel claws suddenly tore through the door, abruptly curling into a fist midway. Had Shi Wenze not reacted instantly—dodging at the exact moment the wood cracked—he might have taken the hit. Meanwhile, Xu You kicked open the adjacent bedroom door, and Yu Feizheng bolted upright in bed, startled. In the darkness, he grabbed something from his nightstand and hurled it toward the sound.
The clinking of metal echoed in quick, dense beats—like a blade thrown into a high-speed shredder. Xu You ducked to the side and caught the whirling object just in time. It was a small mechanical contraption, spinning like a top—but clearly unfinished, with no real threat.
In that split second of distraction, Yu Feizheng dashed toward the window. Xu You didn’t want to cause a major scene on human turf, so he leapt after him—and mid-air, kicked the other into the Mist Realm.
Yu Feizheng hit the ground and rolled, transforming into a small silver jiang—clearly prepared for this night. He zipped forward with the wind, pressing a button on a remote. A second later, a giant metallic bird sprang into the sky, scooping him up and soaring away.
“Are you kidding me?” Xu You had expected a battle of brute strength, not one with tech upgrades. A line of motorcycles roared past behind him, kicking up sparks—chasing division backup with sirens blazing. Xu You shifted into Chiwen and flew off in pursuit.
Elsewhere, Shi Wenze and Qiongqi both crashed into the Mist Realm. It was déjà vu from the battle in Qinghu Garden—but this time, Qiongqi, once known as Qian Dagang, looked like something from a cyberpunk nightmare. In addition to steel wings, he now had claws seemingly grown from the bones of his wrists. His expression was stiff and monstrous, as if his heart were wired not to blood vessels, but to circuits.
“You again,” Qiongqi growled, slowly closing the distance.
Shi Wenze replied calmly, “I know you hate qilins. But I’m afraid I’ll have to repeat myself—Chengdu’s complaint hotline is still open.”
Qiongqi lunged, jaws wide, snapping toward his throat.
Inside a nearby vehicle, Lin Su was rapidly spiraling into panic. He knew Shi Wenze had entered the Mist Realm, and the report from Qiong City’s chase unit painted Qiongqi as a radioactive steel-beast. Who the hell could win against that?
Trying to calm him down, Bai Tianchi addressed the subordinate on the phone, “Where’s our Chengdu colleague?”
“Brother Xu is chasing Yu Feizheng. The guy made himself a jetpack—flew off fast as hell,” came the reply. “Brother Shi and Qiongqi are near Hongshu Mountain. Xiao Song and Sister Ya just followed them in.”
Bai Tianchi glanced back. Lin Su was gripping the back of his own neck so tightly it was turning purple. Shocked, Bai tried to reassure him. “Don’t worry too much. All of our people are in the Mist Realm.”
Lin Su nodded stiffly. He knew that already—but out of ten agents, only two were sent after Qiongqi. Hardly reassuring. He was currently occupied with something rare: reflecting. Reflecting on how he had apparently inherited none of his mother’s divine blood, and now all he could do was sit in a damn car, listening to updates.
He’d wanted to ask Bai Tianchi why he—supposedly the city’s guardian beast—wasn’t participating. Chengdu’s qilin always fought on the front lines. But then again… maybe that afro in the Mist Realm was enough of a reason not to. Maybe guardian beasts came in two types: combat models and pure mascots. Lin Su kept rubbing his cold, stiff neck, trying to jolt himself back to clarity through the sharp sting.
Back in the Mist Realm, Chiwen had caught up to Yu Feizheng. He opened his mouth wide and clamped down on the bird’s steel wing. With a yank, he tore off a shower of metal feathers. But the bird didn’t plummet—it regenerated a new wing on the fly, just like Qiongqi had once done, and accelerated toward the upper sky.
Xu You had a thousand curses on the tip of his tongue but no time to say any of them. The bluish Chiwen ripped through gust after gust, tearing clouds apart in his wake.
At the same time, Qiongqi launched himself skyward. Shi Wenze latched onto a steel wing, swung onto the beast’s back, and crouched low to keep balance. His gloves nearly pierced as he made contact—Qiongqi’s spine had been implanted with jagged teeth, like a prehistoric monster.
Shi Wenze didn’t understand the point of the smokey-cyberpunk aesthetic—but it did match Yu Feizheng’s pink choral cult aesthetic. He raised his combat knife and drove it into the joint where metal met skin. Qiongqi couldn’t feel pain anymore, but he could sense the cold blade ripping through flesh. Enraged, he twisted midair in a 180-degree spin.
Shi Wenze wrapped an arm around his neck and, with his free hand, yanked the exposed spinal ridge clean from top to bottom with a zip-like tear—then flung it into the void.
Qiongqi howled, violently thrashing in the air. Shi Wenze locked his arms tighter around the beast’s neck and drove his knee hard into the gory spine, lifting with all his might.
Crack.
It sounded like the real spine snapped.
Qiongqi’s body went limp, tumbling toward the ground.
Wind screamed in Shi Wenze’s ears. Rain and mist slapped his face like knives. He glanced down—calculating the timing to jump.
But Qiongqi wasn’t done yet.
His steel claws, swaying limply in the wind, suddenly twitched. They weren’t broken after all. With one final burst of strength, he thrust a claw into his own chest—tearing through flesh and locking it around Shi Wenze’s arm like a steel cuff.
Shi Wenze realized instantly what was happening. No time to think—he locked his legs around Qiongqi’s massive frame and tried to force him to flip back over.
But that was no easy feat. Hanging upside down made leverage almost impossible. He tried several times, but only managed to sway the beast slightly. The two steel wings stayed rigid, unfazed by the effort.
Shi Wenze exhaled deeply. If he didn’t want to be crushed underneath that thing, he had no choice but to try one last time.
Qiongqi growled low in his throat, the sound garbled and taunting.
In the distance, a great roc was flying their way—
Her wings, once spread, could block out half the sky. The roc was none other than Yajie, sent by Bai Tianchi to assist Shi Wenze. As Qiongqi plummeted, she folded her wings and dove like a missile, shooting downward at breakneck speed.
Meanwhile, a massive tree had taken root solidly below. Furry branches stretched outward like thick whips, ready to lash out the moment Qiongqi made an impact and flip him over.
Both teammates were giving it their all, but Shi Wenze had always been the type to rely on no one but himself. His fingers fumbled for the steel talons wrapped around him, while both feet braced firmly against the most vulnerable point of Qiongqi’s spine. With all the strength he could muster, he kicked upward—
A dagger burst through the sole of his heavy combat boots, nearly impaling Qiongqi clean through. A series of bones shattered on impact, and the metal components connected to the claws loosened instantly. Shi Wenze yanked his hand free, managing to break out of the restraints just in time and leapt toward the ground below.
The giant tree flung out a makeshift bed with impressive agility—yes, Xiao Song was nothing if not thoughtful and fast. In the blink of an eye, he had woven a net-bed that caught Shi Wenze safely.
The roc swooped down and, with a careful grip of her claws, placed Qiongqi gently off to the side—because while the fight could be brutal, post-fight conduct had to be gentle. That was part of the job. Panting heavily, Shi Wenze sat up. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” Xiao Song and Yajie replied, already shifting back to human form and calling their colleagues to come handle the scene. The arrest operation was only halfway complete. Up to this point, everyone had assumed Qiongqi would be the hard one—but no one had expected that Yu Feizheng would still be flying around on a giant bird.
Xu You: Sorry! Sorry!
Chiwen tore through the clouds, muttering curses in his mind. Why did everyone else get to ride a Rolls-Royce Phantom, and he had to conjure his own phantom with raw talent? This criminal was way too good at running.
Their subordinate quickly reported to Bai Tianchi that Shi-ge had taken Qiongqi down—but had gotten a little carried away and ripped him up.
Bai Tianchi noticed Lin Su’s look of confusion and asked on his behalf, “Did he rip off the wings again?”
“No,” the subordinate answered. “This time, it was the man.”
Lin Su felt a sharp pain shoot through his own body at the thought.
Even Bai Tianchi had to admit the mental image sounded a bit too gory, so he changed the subject. “What about Yu Feizheng?”
“We’re all still chasing him. Shi-ge and Yajie just took off after him too,” the subordinate replied with a groan. “Seriously, that guy runs too damn fast. Whether we’re flying or driving, all we see are afterimages.”
“Try not to tear him apart,” Bai Tianchi ordered. “Knock him out if you have to—but don’t scramble his brain.”
“Understood. Though to be fair, he’s not showing any signs of aggression,” the subordinate said. “Honestly, it doesn’t even seem like he wants to fight us. He just keeps running.”
A tech-enhanced shut-in—he really was like the wind. The roc carried Shi Wenze, swiftly catching up to Xu You. Chiwen flew with his mouth wide open, gulping air and roaring, “How’d it go over there?!”
“All set,” Shi Wenze shouted back, leaping onto Chiwen’s back mid-flight. “Go!”
Xu You: Excuse me, who gave you permission to hop over like that?!
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