Chapter One Hundred Fourteen: The Battle

Although Yao Lun did not say it aloud, he had already sensed the immense pressure emanating from Ji Cheng.

His progress was too rapid.

Rising like a comet, Ji Cheng had reached 100% assimilation with his genetic prototype at the age of only eighteen—something Yao Lun would never have dared to imagine.

What followed was even further beyond his comprehension: a newcomer had actually survived the central zone of the Hive Laboratory, and not only that, but had led a team to retrieve over a dozen Tier 2 genetic prototypes.

Now, Ji Cheng had become a powerhouse on the level of a councilor, standing as an equal to him, and with the support of Zhou Ze, he was even faintly overshadowing him.

Yao Lun dared not imagine what would happen if he allowed Ji Cheng to continue growing; it might not be long before he was no longer a match for him. He might even go to some ruin, obtain an imperial relic, and be able to kill him on the spot.

"Nangang is finished anyway... I must kill him this time, no matter what."

With that thought, Ji Cheng narrowly dodged the withered branch.

Since he could not break through Yao Lun’s energy shield for the moment, Ji Cheng simply treated Yao Lun as a whetstone for his instinctive combat techniques.

Rushes,绞击 (twisting strikes), dodged. Claw swipes, thrusts, dodged. Roundhouse kicks, throat locks—still dodged.

Yao Lun unleashed a dazzling flurry of attacks, all of which were evaded, until finally, the tip of a withered branch struck Ji Cheng. Before Yao Lun could smile, Ji Cheng mocked him: "My dear Captain, put a little more effort into it."

Relying on "Life Resonance: Instinct," Ji Cheng caused his body to vibrate at the critical moment, dissipating the force of the blow.

"You still remember I'm your captain, then."

Yao Lun was infuriated. The five withered branches, each over a meter long, slowly traced a semicircle. He took a sudden step forward, then another. He lunged, and the branches shot out like spears.

Boom! A deafening crash echoed as the blow struck the earth. The impact site was torn apart, spraying soil and debris as if it had been hit by a mortar shell.

But it failed to hit Ji Cheng. He nimbly curled his body and retreated in a circuitous path.

Yao Lun pressed the attack again, fire dancing in his eyes as he squeezed a strange sound through his teeth. The five branches swept across like a plow.

Clang.

A juniper tree behind Ji Cheng was shattered; the branches corroded it into a foul-smelling liquid. Yet, Ji Cheng evaded it by the narrowest of margins, and with a few nimble movements, regained his footing.

"This feels great. I've only been using these instinctive techniques for a short while, and I can clearly feel my assimilation level increasing," Ji Cheng thought to himself with delight.

Yao Lun, however, was terrified. How many days had this guy been an ability user? He was a veteran powerhouse, yet despite unleashing almost all his tricks, he couldn't do anything to him! Of the six councilors in Nangang, besides the strongest, Zhou Ze, he was ranked second.

Moreover, looking at Ji Cheng’s distracted expression, it seemed as if he hadn't even started taking it seriously! What kind of freak was this?

He didn't know that Ji Cheng was actually fighting entirely on instinct, not only taking it seriously but constantly operating at 120% of his capacity.

"No, I must kill him at any cost!" Yao Lun decided.

"Die!"

Yao Lun’s face suddenly turned ferocious and flushed with blood. The withered branches at his fingertips instantly surged to five meters in length, appearing as terrifying as ghost claws, and struck viciously and swiftly toward Ji Cheng.

He had clearly been holding back before. The force and speed now were incomparable to before.

"What the hell is this?" Ji Cheng was truly startled.

There were countless low-tier genetic prototypes, with new varieties constantly being researched, and this particular prototype of Yao Lun's was one he didn't recognize.

This sudden, drastic change left him unable to react in time. Too late to dodge, Ji Cheng could only arch his back and barely assume a stance to dissipate the force.

But Yao Lun anticipated his intent. He lunged forward, the five branches sweeping past Ji Cheng’s body, shifting from a strike to a trapping motion.

The tips of the branches hooked downward, scraping the ground with a thunderous roar. Countless stones exploded as the meter-long branches formed a sharp, protruding cage, completely sealing off all of Ji Cheng’s escape routes.

Above his head, behind him, to his left and right—there were only highly corrosive branches. Before him stood the imposing Yao Lun, his hair whipping in the wind.

With his retreat blocked, Ji Cheng felt like a helpless basketball being held down by Yao Lun for a slam dunk. Even without direct contact, he was already paralyzed.

"Fine, then I'll fight head-on."

Following his principle of caution, he hadn't wanted to engage in a brute-force confrontation. "But it’s not like I’m actually afraid of you!"

Ji Cheng channeled the Tyrant Serum into his right hand, parrying with his dagger, while his left hand traced an arc through the air. "Regret" triggered an air-cutting force, slashing toward the side of the branches.

Boom!

A force far greater than he expected traveled through the dagger. Ji Cheng felt his arm go numb, followed by a sharp, searing pain in his hand, and his entire side went limp.

*Old Yao's Tier 2 prototype is quite formidable, and his assimilation level is impressively high...*

Ji Cheng pulled his leg from the mud, his face pale. As he prepared to speak, a metallic, bloody taste rose in his throat.

"Ugh..."

He was so winded by the immense impact that he couldn't catch his breath for a moment.

As a seasoned Tier 2 ability user, Yao Lun had spent years honing his strength, resulting in a very high assimilation level. The prototype he injected was also one that provided significant physical enhancement, allowing him to exert a force of 40,000 to 50,000 kilograms in a normal strike.

In this instance, with the branches acting as five-meter-long levers, the impact force Ji Cheng received exceeded 150,000 kilograms. No matter how strong his body was, he was left dizzy and disoriented, his internal organs displaced.

"Damn it, why is there electricity too!"

The glove of his tactical suit had split during the hard clash, and now, bright electric arcs were jumping from the branches, spreading across Ji Cheng’s body.

His hair stood on end, his clothes hissed, and he began to smoke. Ji Cheng’s scream could be heard for a mile around.

...

Six o'clock in the morning.

The sun was about to appear on the horizon, but it had not yet risen; a heavy, deep gray remained the dominant tone of the world.

Zhang Jing'e arrived at the entrance of White Iron Bank.

The hour hand of the clock in the lobby was pointing straight down, meaning the time spent on the road had been longer than anticipated. She tilted her head to listen, but the surroundings were deathly silent.

"I hope I can really help him..."

Zhang Jing'e bypassed the revolving door and walked inside, seeing walls painted snowy white and several lightly decayed corpses. There were no wounds; they had all died from smoke inhalation.

She carefully leaped over a distance of seven or eight meters, careful not to let any filth touch her shoes, and finally turned to the back of the lobby. Standing at the entrance of the elevator, she found the hall doors tightly shut, the button light extinguished.

The elevator doors were divided into two layers: the inner one moving with the car was the car door, and the outer one was the hall door.

Click!

Zhang Jing'e immediately took out a Kun-steel dagger, jammed it between the two closed hall doors, and pried with all her might. She pulled them apart and, without hesitation, tossed the dagger—worth over ninety million—into the gap to keep the doors from sliding shut.

"The car has dropped to the second basement level." Looking down, she understood the situation.

She took the negative-pressure climber from her waist, climbed into the foul-smelling elevator shaft, tightened the pack on her back, and began to climb upward.