Chapter 9: Berserker (1)
At night, half past eleven.
Three cars drove on a road leading out towards the city outskirts. Everyone was in the car with their eyes hung low, their expressions solemn.
The sound of the car was extremely quiet and smooth, as well. As the scenery outside the windows extended further and further into the outskirts, the buildings on either side became more and more infrequent. Everyone’s heart was filled with complex feelings.
They were really going to arrest the criminal… Their superiors had truly approved of it!
“Old Chen...” Old Zhu loaded up his rifle with bullets, scanned his surroundings, and said lowly: “Could it really be true… what Captain Xu said, that he was actually requested to come? How was the last-minute notification approved?”
Holding a cigarette in his mouth, Vice Captain Chen slightly narrowed his eyes with the corner of his mouth hanging because of his vaporous smoking After a while he snorted: “I still didn’t believe it before… but now, I really do believe in it a bit. Why was our response to Chief Zheng met with ambiguity? Why isn’t the Mayor and Municipal Committee Secretary saying anything? If he was invited to come, then everything would’ve been relayed!”
“He’s not a paratrooper?” Old Zhu pinched a bullet between his fingers, still a bit reluctant to believe: “How old is he? Even if he started studying from the womb, his work experience isn’t nearly as long as ours. How is this possible?” [1]
“Whether or not he is, everything will be clear tonight.” The policewoman Qin Wanyu took an ammo clip, loaded her rifle with it, and exerted her strength on it as the ammo clip made a screeching metallic sound. She tidied the police uniform on her body: “If you don’t believe it, how can I? I’ve never even heard of a kid being invited before! Anyways, it’s no use saying this now. We’ll know soon enough.”
After ten more minutes passed, the car stopped. As everyone of the Disciplinary and Investigations Unit got out of the car, they were thoroughly stunned.
Ahead of them was an unfinished construction site. It wasn’t all that big and there weren’t any buildings in its surroundings.
The sound of the late night wind poured in from a dilapidated window through a ruined corridor and drifted out from the other side, like a countless number wraiths wailing as they revolved around the building.
Not a glimmer of light or a sliver of human presence could be seen within. The ruined building was like an enormous beast perched in the darkness. It seemed to give people an indescribable sensation of sinister terror.
Yet this wasn’t much to consider at all. The crux of the matter was the heavy encirclement of people stationed in front of them!
“Captain… Captain Gao?” Vice Captain Chen was looking at a man in the not so far off distance and asked in amazement: “Why have you come?”
“What, you want to stop me…?” Captain Gao laughed towards the side and lifted his chin: “Take a look over there. That’s Major Zhou of the military police. Sanshui City’s three forces are also in attendance; All of the captains have brought their squadrons over.”
There were over a hundred men… A wire fence that not even a water drop would be able to escape from formed the surroundings of the run-down building!
The people of the Disciplinary and Investigations Unit glanced at each other simultaneously.
Had they seen a ghost? Was this the arrest of a criminal? Wasn’t this using a heavy fist to strike a housefly?
Not to mention a single criminal, even ten, twenty, no, a hundred criminals wouldn’t be able escape by any means!
The machine guns reflected a dead appearance beneath the moonlight, black in color and deathly still, bearing a sensation that made the courage of men tremble coldly without exception. What kind of criminal required such military weaponry?
“This is fucking crazy!” The end of Old Zhu’s cigarette fell out of his mouth, and he observed the current scene in amazement, his lips trembling: “I’ve handled cases for many years… but I’ve never seen a spectacle like this before!
Layer and layer of doubts arose within his heart. Who had said the criminal was here? How had the transfer of the entire city’s ordinance passed through the city government? What criminal required so much action? Was Batman sealed off inside? [2]
“You don’t know? I still don’t either!” Captain Gao heavily gulped: “The order that all of Sanshui City’s army, military police, and public security have received is follows: ‘in case something appears within the perimeter of a 100 meters, do not hesitate to shoot it dead on the spot at all costs’. Hehe… In all my years I’ve been a police officer, I’ve never heard of such a command!”
“Thing?” Officer Qin keenly caught onto this word and it flashed across her mind, yet she didn’t understand any of it. She only felt this command was too strange: “It’s not a… person?”
Who fucking knew?
Vice Captain Chen and Captain Gao exchanged glances, both of their eyes reflected a loss.
“The city government has gone dumb. I heard a paratrooper came to fuck around and bullshit.” Captain Gao waved his hand: “How great is this kid’s background that all these people are moved to arrest a criminal? This is in the fucking defiance of the heavens!”
“Have we come to the wrong place?” A new police officer’s forehead was drenched with a cold sweat. The somber atmosphere of the present scene made him simply not dare to speak loudly: “How about we ask the captain?”
“You guys haven’t come to the wrong place.” Before the police officer’s voice even fell, a familiar voice rang out from behind him. Xu Yangyi walked over: “Your mission is to deal with the aftermath.”
“Captain Xu!” At this time, Vice Captain Chen was still of mind to argue with Xu Yangyi and immediately turned his head and said: “Why have these people come?” We’re only arresting a killer! Who the heck is it? C-Captain Xu! You…”
As soon as he turned his head, he was stunned in his entirety. It wasn’t only him that was dazed; everyone that got a look was stunned, as well.
Xu Yangyi was standing there rather calmly. There wasn’t anything different about him ordinarily, however… he was surprisingly geared in camouflage! He wasn’t wearing his police uniform!
“Captain Xu…” Old Zhu was dazed for quite a while and said trill of voice: “Your… gun?”
“Gun?” Xu Yangyi rubbed his fists and locked his slender fingers together, producing a cracking sound: “I don’t need one.”
“This… This is the heavy firepower you spoke of?!” Vice Captain Chen’s voice was shaky as he pointed at the encirclement of men before him: “You transferred the entire city’s armed forces?!”
Xu Yangyi glanced at him indifferently, the corner of his mouth faintly turned upwards, yet his next words made Vice Captain Chen nearly leap!
“Stay where you should, rookie.” Xu Yangyi loosened up his shoulders and narrowed his eyes: “Special things… should be handed over to the specialists to take care of.”
Vice Captain Chen choked back on the breath of air in his chest, and even as his lips trembled for a period of time, he still didn’t regain his composure. He only used his finger to point falteringly at Xu Yangyi, his lips shivering.
Xu Yangyi paid no heed to him and said into the microphone line he flipped over from his collar: “Ready?”
“No problems… After you enter, I’ll activate the Big Dipper Heaventail Formation immediately and isolate all visual and sound… I’m really looking forward to our harvest this time!” Mao Ba’er’s familiar voice rang out from the transceiver.
Xu Yangyi nodded and inhaled deeply. His gaze began to turn cautious, and he lifted up his hand. Even if his mind was in disarray, not a sound could be heard at this moment.
The only noise left remaining was the low hum of the summer night insects. Such a deathly still silence, a terrifying silence, a tense silence was like that of a heel maggot slowly creeping upwards every person’s heart.
Captain Gao’s vision flickered, and he raised his hand. The troops under his command wordlessly raised their rifles. With another wave of his hand, the army soldiers on the other side raised their rifles.
Clip clip clip… Like a silent rallying song, a sonata of firearms, the rifles were loaded.
Xu Yangyi took a long, deep breath, raising his leg and moving forwards. His silhouette seemed to become weaker and weaker, darker and darker. In not much time, he couldn’t be seen any longer.
“I’ve already entered the Big Dipper Heaventail Formation. You can relax, pretty boy.” A strange laughter could be heard from the transceiver, yet Xu Yangyi didn’t laugh, rather he kneeled on the ground with a single knee and took out a bamboo stick from his pocket. Inside the bamboo, there was a floating liquid that refracted the brilliance of the moon.
“Demonslaying Crossbow? Pretty boy, you’re willing to part with this capital?”
“Well, if you hadn’t touched my money, I would’ve originally had more than a single crossbow bolt.” Xu Yangyi shook his right hand, and with a swishing noise, the camouflaged sleeve on his right hand crumbled apart in a flash. An exquisite, rectangular iron case was fastened on to his hand.
Klack… Klack! Following a light burst of noise, the crossbow that was tightly attached to his wrist suddenly sprung forth like the flapping wings of a tiercel desiring to take flight. Originally, it had taken on the form of an iron case, but like a transformer, it swiftly morphed into an exquisite and compact crossbow!
The crossbow exterior wasn’t different from the ones seen on television at all. However, it was carved with mysterious and arcane runes all over its body! Moreover, the runes were flickering with blue edges that made the heart tremble!
On it’s flight groove, there was an arrow, simple and unadorned. The iron bolthead was already extremely mottled, merely, the rust-worn bolthead was dressed with an even more profound talisman.
“Are you sure nothing is wrong with the formation?” Xu Yangyi asked once more, taking the bolthead and inserting it into the water inside the bamboo pipe without delay. “If the true body of the demon is seen by ordinary people, not to mention me even graduating, I’ll be lucky if I don’t get sentenced.”
“Relax.”
Xu Yangyi closed his eyes and tightly pursed his lips. This was his first demon extermination… For all his many years of cultivation, he would finally be able to see the result today!
In the end, what kind of trash was it? A psychopath that killed twelve people, had extremely strange spiritual force fluctuations, and dared to attack the city hall…
“Let me see what you got.” As he opened his eyes, they were already filled with an eerie killing intent.
A wisp of a deep-blue netherworldly flame began to rage from the bolthead! The night wind whistled, and Xu Yangyi lift his hand up reticently.
Cricket… Like the chime of a bell and the cry of wildlife, the night wind blew over his hand, and a devilish blue flame the length of his arm roared out, yet it burned unhindered. Its dazzlingly radiance made the moon in the sky lose its color.
At this moment, the wind rolled and the clouds moved. Killing intent filled the air. A soundless killing intent that could cause people to tremble in silence!
With a wave of his hand, a cloud-penetrating bolt, a blue bolthead carrying an eye-dazzling blue edge, loudly charged up into the sky with a swoosh! Its splendor was identitical to the moon!
Hum! An azure shower of flowers with bewitching flame tails dragging a meter in length came into view in the sky. From the bolt, one tail split into two, two tails split into four, and four tails split eight… In the blink of an eye, the brilliant blaze seemed to the draw the outline of the trajectories of a celestial chart in the middle of the night sky, making the starry ceiling lose its color.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh! The sound of shattered sky barraged the ear without end, stony rubble pierced clouds, and raging waves beat against the shore. Bolts that were resplendent like shooting stars carrying long flaming tails launched towards the black-painted building with a speed incapable of being seized with the naked eye.
Streaks of blue flame scars interweaved in the sky, and the black clouds pulled back. Like a stratum of blue clouds tearing open the black night, the moon and stars were dim without luminance.
Yet just at this moment, the run-down building stirred. Like the entire building was the chasm of the devil’s box, countless black shadows suddenly bore out from the pit! In the next second… all that was caused by the bolthead completely faded away! The only thing remaining was the blazing curtain formed by the interweaving azure flame that colored the entire sky.
Xu Yangyi’s expression finally turned grave in a split second. In that flickering moment where he had fired long ago, both of his eyes had metamorphosed into a red color, taking in that flashing shadow, capturing it entirely within his eyes.
A towering black shadow… A shadow that completely engulfed all of the flames; it was… a serpent.
A boundless black serpent shot out like arcing lightning from the runned-down building and then retreated demonically once more. The inside of the building seemed to have become the nest of an immeasurable serpent!
[1] Literally “Isn’t airborne?” I guess paratroopers in China are serious business
[2] 蝙蝠侠 = this is what the Chinese call Batman, folks. Literally: Bat Hero
Chapter 9: Berserker (1)
At night, half past eleven.
Three cars drove on a road leading out towards the city outskirts. Everyone was in the car with their eyes hung low, their expressions solemn.
The sound of the car was extremely quiet and smooth, as well. As the scenery outside the windows extended further and further into the outskirts, the buildings on either side became more and more infrequent. Everyone’s heart was filled with complex feelings.
They were really going to arrest the criminal… Their superiors had truly approved of it!
“Old Chen...” Old Zhu loaded up his rifle with bullets, scanned his surroundings, and said lowly: “Could it really be true… what Captain Xu said, that he was actually requested to come? How was the last-minute notification approved?”
Holding a cigarette in his mouth, Vice Captain Chen slightly narrowed his eyes with the corner of his mouth hanging because of his vaporous smoking After a while he snorted: “I still didn’t believe it before… but now, I really do believe in it a bit. Why was our response to Chief Zheng met with ambiguity? Why isn’t the Mayor and Municipal Committee Secretary saying anything? If he was invited to come, then everything would’ve been relayed!”
“He’s not a paratrooper?” Old Zhu pinched a bullet between his fingers, still a bit reluctant to believe: “How old is he? Even if he started studying from the womb, his work experience isn’t nearly as long as ours. How is this possible?” [1]
“Whether or not he is, everything will be clear tonight.” The policewoman Qin Wanyu took an ammo clip, loaded her rifle with it, and exerted her strength on it as the ammo clip made a screeching metallic sound. She tidied the police uniform on her body: “If you don’t believe it, how can I? I’ve never even heard of a kid being invited before! Anyways, it’s no use saying this now. We’ll know soon enough.”
After ten more minutes passed, the car stopped. As everyone of the Disciplinary and Investigations Unit got out of the car, they were thoroughly stunned.
Ahead of them was an unfinished construction site. It wasn’t all that big and there weren’t any buildings in its surroundings.
The sound of the late night wind poured in from a dilapidated window through a ruined corridor and drifted out from the other side, like a countless number wraiths wailing as they revolved around the building.
Not a glimmer of light or a sliver of human presence could be seen within. The ruined building was like an enormous beast perched in the darkness. It seemed to give people an indescribable sensation of sinister terror.
Yet this wasn’t much to consider at all. The crux of the matter was the heavy encirclement of people stationed in front of them!
“Captain… Captain Gao?” Vice Captain Chen was looking at a man in the not so far off distance and asked in amazement: “Why have you come?”
“What, you want to stop me…?” Captain Gao laughed towards the side and lifted his chin: “Take a look over there. That’s Major Zhou of the military police. Sanshui City’s three forces are also in attendance; All of the captains have brought their squadrons over.”
There were over a hundred men… A wire fence that not even a water drop would be able to escape from formed the surroundings of the run-down building!
The people of the Disciplinary and Investigations Unit glanced at each other simultaneously.
Had they seen a ghost? Was this the arrest of a criminal? Wasn’t this using a heavy fist to strike a housefly?
Not to mention a single criminal, even ten, twenty, no, a hundred criminals wouldn’t be able escape by any means!
The machine guns reflected a dead appearance beneath the moonlight, black in color and deathly still, bearing a sensation that made the courage of men tremble coldly without exception. What kind of criminal required such military weaponry?
“This is fucking crazy!” The end of Old Zhu’s cigarette fell out of his mouth, and he observed the current scene in amazement, his lips trembling: “I’ve handled cases for many years… but I’ve never seen a spectacle like this before!
Layer and layer of doubts arose within his heart. Who had said the criminal was here? How had the transfer of the entire city’s ordinance passed through the city government? What criminal required so much action? Was Batman sealed off inside? [2]
“You don’t know? I still don’t either!” Captain Gao heavily gulped: “The order that all of Sanshui City’s army, military police, and public security have received is follows: ‘in case something appears within the perimeter of a 100 meters, do not hesitate to shoot it dead on the spot at all costs’. Hehe… In all my years I’ve been a police officer, I’ve never heard of such a command!”
“Thing?” Officer Qin keenly caught onto this word and it flashed across her mind, yet she didn’t understand any of it. She only felt this command was too strange: “It’s not a… person?”
Who fucking knew?
Vice Captain Chen and Captain Gao exchanged glances, both of their eyes reflected a loss.
“The city government has gone dumb. I heard a paratrooper came to fuck around and bullshit.” Captain Gao waved his hand: “How great is this kid’s background that all these people are moved to arrest a criminal? This is in the fucking defiance of the heavens!”
“Have we come to the wrong place?” A new police officer’s forehead was drenched with a cold sweat. The somber atmosphere of the present scene made him simply not dare to speak loudly: “How about we ask the captain?”
“You guys haven’t come to the wrong place.” Before the police officer’s voice even fell, a familiar voice rang out from behind him. Xu Yangyi walked over: “Your mission is to deal with the aftermath.”
“Captain Xu!” At this time, Vice Captain Chen was still of mind to argue with Xu Yangyi and immediately turned his head and said: “Why have these people come?” We’re only arresting a killer! Who the heck is it? C-Captain Xu! You…”
As soon as he turned his head, he was stunned in his entirety. It wasn’t only him that was dazed; everyone that got a look was stunned, as well.
Xu Yangyi was standing there rather calmly. There wasn’t anything different about him ordinarily, however… he was surprisingly geared in camouflage! He wasn’t wearing his police uniform!
“Captain Xu…” Old Zhu was dazed for quite a while and said trill of voice: “Your… gun?”
“Gun?” Xu Yangyi rubbed his fists and locked his slender fingers together, producing a cracking sound: “I don’t need one.”
“This… This is the heavy firepower you spoke of?!” Vice Captain Chen’s voice was shaky as he pointed at the encirclement of men before him: “You transferred the entire city’s armed forces?!”
Xu Yangyi glanced at him indifferently, the corner of his mouth faintly turned upwards, yet his next words made Vice Captain Chen nearly leap!
“Stay where you should, rookie.” Xu Yangyi loosened up his shoulders and narrowed his eyes: “Special things… should be handed over to the specialists to take care of.”
Vice Captain Chen choked back on the breath of air in his chest, and even as his lips trembled for a period of time, he still didn’t regain his composure. He only used his finger to point falteringly at Xu Yangyi, his lips shivering.
Xu Yangyi paid no heed to him and said into the microphone line he flipped over from his collar: “Ready?”
“No problems… After you enter, I’ll activate the Big Dipper Heaventail Formation immediately and isolate all visual and sound… I’m really looking forward to our harvest this time!” Mao Ba’er’s familiar voice rang out from the transceiver.
Xu Yangyi nodded and inhaled deeply. His gaze began to turn cautious, and he lifted up his hand. Even if his mind was in disarray, not a sound could be heard at this moment.
The only noise left remaining was the low hum of the summer night insects. Such a deathly still silence, a terrifying silence, a tense silence was like that of a heel maggot slowly creeping upwards every person’s heart.
Captain Gao’s vision flickered, and he raised his hand. The troops under his command wordlessly raised their rifles. With another wave of his hand, the army soldiers on the other side raised their rifles.
Clip clip clip… Like a silent rallying song, a sonata of firearms, the rifles were loaded.
Xu Yangyi took a long, deep breath, raising his leg and moving forwards. His silhouette seemed to become weaker and weaker, darker and darker. In not much time, he couldn’t be seen any longer.
“I’ve already entered the Big Dipper Heaventail Formation. You can relax, pretty boy.” A strange laughter could be heard from the transceiver, yet Xu Yangyi didn’t laugh, rather he kneeled on the ground with a single knee and took out a bamboo stick from his pocket. Inside the bamboo, there was a floating liquid that refracted the brilliance of the moon.
“Demonslaying Crossbow? Pretty boy, you’re willing to part with this capital?”
“Well, if you hadn’t touched my money, I would’ve originally had more than a single crossbow bolt.” Xu Yangyi shook his right hand, and with a swishing noise, the camouflaged sleeve on his right hand crumbled apart in a flash. An exquisite, rectangular iron case was fastened on to his hand.
Klack… Klack! Following a light burst of noise, the crossbow that was tightly attached to his wrist suddenly sprung forth like the flapping wings of a tiercel desiring to take flight. Originally, it had taken on the form of an iron case, but like a transformer, it swiftly morphed into an exquisite and compact crossbow!
The crossbow exterior wasn’t different from the ones seen on television at all. However, it was carved with mysterious and arcane runes all over its body! Moreover, the runes were flickering with blue edges that made the heart tremble!
On it’s flight groove, there was an arrow, simple and unadorned. The iron bolthead was already extremely mottled, merely, the rust-worn bolthead was dressed with an even more profound talisman.
“Are you sure nothing is wrong with the formation?” Xu Yangyi asked once more, taking the bolthead and inserting it into the water inside the bamboo pipe without delay. “If the true body of the demon is seen by ordinary people, not to mention me even graduating, I’ll be lucky if I don’t get sentenced.”
“Relax.”
Xu Yangyi closed his eyes and tightly pursed his lips. This was his first demon extermination… For all his many years of cultivation, he would finally be able to see the result today!
In the end, what kind of trash was it? A psychopath that killed twelve people, had extremely strange spiritual force fluctuations, and dared to attack the city hall…
“Let me see what you got.” As he opened his eyes, they were already filled with an eerie killing intent.
A wisp of a deep-blue netherworldly flame began to rage from the bolthead! The night wind whistled, and Xu Yangyi lift his hand up reticently.
Cricket… Like the chime of a bell and the cry of wildlife, the night wind blew over his hand, and a devilish blue flame the length of his arm roared out, yet it burned unhindered. Its dazzlingly radiance made the moon in the sky lose its color.
At this moment, the wind rolled and the clouds moved. Killing intent filled the air. A soundless killing intent that could cause people to tremble in silence!
With a wave of his hand, a cloud-penetrating bolt, a blue bolthead carrying an eye-dazzling blue edge, loudly charged up into the sky with a swoosh! Its splendor was identitical to the moon!
Hum! An azure shower of flowers with bewitching flame tails dragging a meter in length came into view in the sky. From the bolt, one tail split into two, two tails split into four, and four tails split eight… In the blink of an eye, the brilliant blaze seemed to the draw the outline of the trajectories of a celestial chart in the middle of the night sky, making the starry ceiling lose its color.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh! The sound of shattered sky barraged the ear without end, stony rubble pierced clouds, and raging waves beat against the shore. Bolts that were resplendent like shooting stars carrying long flaming tails launched towards the black-painted building with a speed incapable of being seized with the naked eye.
Streaks of blue flame scars interweaved in the sky, and the black clouds pulled back. Like a stratum of blue clouds tearing open the black night, the moon and stars were dim without luminance.
Yet just at this moment, the run-down building stirred. Like the entire building was the chasm of the devil’s box, countless black shadows suddenly bore out from the pit! In the next second… all that was caused by the bolthead completely faded away! The only thing remaining was the blazing curtain formed by the interweaving azure flame that colored the entire sky.
Xu Yangyi’s expression finally turned grave in a split second. In that flickering moment where he had fired long ago, both of his eyes had metamorphosed into a red color, taking in that flashing shadow, capturing it entirely within his eyes.
A towering black shadow… A shadow that completely engulfed all of the flames; it was… a serpent.
A boundless black serpent shot out like arcing lightning from the runned-down building and then retreated demonically once more. The inside of the building seemed to have become the nest of an immeasurable serpent!
[1] Literally “Isn’t airborne?” I guess paratroopers in China are serious business
[2] 蝙蝠侠 = this is what the Chinese call Batman, folks. Literally: Bat Hero
