Chapter 25: Grease

There was no need for verbal sparring; through mere movements and glances, both parties had already confirmed their resolve.

Cai Zixuan grinned in a silent, maniacal laugh, his arms spread wide, preparing to clasp his hands together.

Thump!

Li Sheng pushed off the stairs, his body lunging forward like a cannonball. With a light tap of his toes against the ground, he leapt slightly, his mantis bone blades spinning as he launched a forward-thrusting slash.

Knowing he could not take the blow head-on, Cai Zixuan retreated half a step and snatched up a car door lying nearby, using it as a shield.

Clang, clang, clang!

The metal door was scored with as many gashes as the bone blades had rotations, until, unable to withstand the force any longer, it snapped into two pieces. The remnants of the blade’s momentum carved two deep gashes into Cai Zixuan’s arms, sending blood spraying.

Cai Zixuan let out a savage laugh, swiveled his hips, and unleashed a whip kick.

The strike was swift and fierce. Li Sheng, having just halted his momentum, had exhausted his forward energy and had none to spare. He immediately retracted his bone blades, crossed his arms before him, and held his palms open in a defensive stance to block the kick.

Boom!

Li Sheng felt as though he had been struck head-on by a speeding car. His feet skidded across the floor, and he was forced back over ten paces to dissipate the force.

As for Cai Zixuan, his arm muscles bulged, constricting his blood vessels to staunch the bleeding. He casually snapped off a nearby metal lamppost and weighed it in his hand.

There was no finesse in his fighting style; his heavily augmented physique was his greatest weapon.

Cai Zixuan swung the lamppost down. Li Sheng dodged repeatedly, and when he could not avoid the strikes, he used his bone blades to parry, shearing off the top of the pole.

The two fought their way into the inpatient building. Wherever they passed, wheelchairs were overturned and stretchers sent flying. The bodies of bystanders were shattered countless times, turning into dust before slowly reconstituting after a long duration. Had this not been the Shadow Realm, the place would have been littered with corpses.

Whoosh!

The corridor was too narrow for a sweeping blow, so Cai Zixuan thrust the lamppost forward. The metal pole, now shorn of its tip, drove toward Li Sheng’s shoulder like a spear.

Li Sheng tilted his head, letting the metal rod graze his neck. His left hand moved like a viper, sliding up the length of the pole to grip Cai Zixuan’s left wrist firmly.

At the same time, he planted his right foot, tilted his upper body backward, and pulled his left leg in, tensing it with his toes slightly curled and the sole aimed forward.

Aligning his torso, thigh, calf, and heel, he twisted his waist and hips, driving his leg forward in a violent side kick.

The strike landed squarely in Cai Zixuan’s crotch, lifting him off the ground. With his left wrist still held by Li Sheng, his entire body was pulled down toward the floor.

Seeing the ground rushing toward him, Cai Zixuan slammed his right palm against the floor, using his inhuman strength to prop himself up. He released the lamppost with his left hand, countered by grabbing Li Sheng to prevent him from breaking free, and threw his head back, slamming it into Li Sheng’s forehead.

Thump!

Blood sprayed from both their brows as they recoiled from the impact.

Cai Zixuan managed to find his footing, while Li Sheng’s vision was filled with stars; through his blood-rimmed eyes, he could barely discern his opponent’s silhouette.

Driven by a surge of killing intent and primal ferocity, Li Sheng lunged forward instead of retreating. He stepped his left leg in to close the distance, shifted his weight back, and delivered a heavy kick to Cai Zixuan’s knee.

A leg technique: the intercepting kick.

The sound of bone snapping echoed instantly from Cai Zixuan’s left knee—his patella shattered, his bursae ruptured, his meniscus damaged, and both his patellar and anterior cruciate ligaments torn.

Yet, he did not fall. Beyond his inexplicably enhanced physique, he braced himself on his right leg, balled his right hand into a fist, and whipped it out in a raw, unadorned diagonal strike.

Both men had their left hands locked against one another, and since Cai Zixuan had the longer reach, even if Li Sheng leaned back to dodge, the whip-fist would strike his left arm and shatter it.

Seeing no other choice, Li Sheng gripped his own left wrist with his right hand to prevent dislocation. He pushed off the ground with his left leg and kicked off the wall with his right, hurling his entire body into Cai Zixuan.

The immense jumping power granted by his cricket genes fully manifested, releasing a surge of force that carried them both crashing out of the building.

The sensation of weightlessness seemed to trigger some terrible memory. Cai Zixuan instinctively let go and curled into a ball to protect himself.

This saved Li Sheng the trouble of breaking free. He released his grip, adjusted his posture in mid-air, and bounced a few times upon landing to absorb the momentum.

"..."

Cai Zixuan, having landed hard, slowly rose from a flowerbed. Blood streamed from his forehead, running down his eye sockets like bloody tears.

Li Sheng’s brow was also bleeding. Fortunately, external objects in the Shadow Realm dissipated over time, so there was no need to worry about hair or blood left on the ground being discovered by the Bureau of Special Affairs.

He raised a hand to brush back his blood-matted hair, pressing his bangs flat.

Both had sustained heavy injuries. The next strike would likely be the last.

A realization dawned on him. Li Sheng leaned forward, the muscles in his thighs standing out in sharp, distinct detail.

Whoosh—

He darted away like a swift arrow, disappearing from his spot. Instead of heading straight for Cai Zixuan, he used the exterior walls of the four buildings surrounding the flowerbed to bounce and accelerate.

His speed increased until he was nothing more than a blur.

Cai Zixuan balled his fists, timed his moment, and slammed his right fist out.

It hit, but it hit nothing.

A jacket caught on Cai Zixuan’s knuckles, the fabric tearing as it was swept away by the wind.

Li Sheng, cloaked by the shadow of the garment, had closed in rapidly, climbing onto Cai Zixuan’s back like an ape. He locked his legs around his waist and clamped his left arm around his throat.

This was no standard jiu-jitsu rear-naked choke.

Li Sheng raised his right hand high, the mantis bone blade extending from his forearm, and aimed it at the crown of Cai Zixuan’s head, plunging it straight down.

Splat—

The skull was pierced clean through by the bone blade. Cai Zixuan’s body shook violently, and his left fist, which had been aimed at Li Sheng’s temple, lost all strength and fell limply to his side.

He stumbled forward, swaying, and collapsed by the corridor window, his palms slowly coming together.

He could draw power from slaughter. As long as he kept killing, he could heal his wounds and grow ever stronger.

He needed to dispel the Shadow Realm.

He needed more blood.

"Where is my son? Where is my son?"

A middle-aged woman in a trench coat, her expression frantic, rushed into the inpatient lobby.

Her face was made up and well-maintained, a new wedding ring sat on her index finger, and she dragged a suitcase—a United Airlines luggage tag still clung to the handle, not yet torn off.

"Ma'am, please calm down."

A nurse hurried over, asking, "What is your son’s name? What is he being treated for?"

"Cai Zixuan. 'Cai' as in Cai Lun, 'Zi' as in son, 'Xuan' as in Xuanyuan."

The woman said anxiously, "He fell from upstairs and is hospitalized with a fracture. I just got off the plane, and no one answered any of the calls I made to his father on the way here. I shouldn't have left him with his father; I should have taken him with me..."

Cai Zixuan gazed at the woman on the other side of the glass, listening to her voice—familiar yet strange. He suddenly ceased his efforts to expand the Shadow Realm, merely staring blankly, his head pressed against the window, unmoving.

Gradually, he stopped breathing.

Two streams of black tears slid from his eye sockets, falling to the ground and forming two beads of semi-coagulated grease.

"..."

Li Sheng slowly released his hold. He did not know what had transpired within the giant, but he could only close the man's eyes, pick up the black grease and the shredded clothes from the floor, and hurry back to the first-floor restroom.

A few seconds later, the Shadow Realm, having lost its anchor, gradually dissipated. Li Sheng had already changed into his spare clothes; he exited the restroom and left the hospital quickly before Cai Zixuan’s body could be discovered.