Lu Yuan walked to the fourth-floor corridor and looked down.
The courtyard was silent. The two tank-topped men who had been feeding the birds earlier had vanished.
Lu Yuan didn’t continue searching the remaining rooms; he walked directly down the nearby staircase. He didn’t conceal his footsteps as deliberately as when he came up, even hoping those in the hall below would hear and ascend.
As he was about to descend from the third to the second floor, suddenly...
A noise like pots and pans falling to the ground echoed from below.
Lu Yuan paused. He slowly leaned his face downward, listening to the movement below.
He thought he heard someone speak. Then, light footsteps ascended.
A subtle flicker crossed Lu Yuan’s eyes. He matched the other’s rhythm of climbing the stairs and cautiously descended to the second floor, stopping at the corner of the staircase. Moonlight shone in from a side window, illuminating half his face, while the other half remained hidden in shadow.
Lu Yuan quietly closed his eyes, his "faint" Spiritual Power spreading around him like light from a tungsten filament. He vaguely "saw" a towering figure ascending the stairs in his direction.
This person doesn’t look like anyone I saw downstairs...
A sliver of doubt rose in Lu Yuan’s mind.
At this moment, the person climbing the stairs suddenly stopped.
Lu Yuan’s eyes snapped open, and aided by the moonlight, he stared intently at the top of the stairs where the figure would emerge.
Have I been discovered? It didn’t seem like it.
After a few seconds, the ascending footsteps resumed.
Lu Yuan slowly inhaled. Oxygen filled his lungs, stimulating his heart to pump more blood and power with each beat. He felt his body begin to function like a finely tuned machine.
The footsteps grew closer, and closer...
Finally, a head faintly peeked out from the stairs leading from the first to the second floor.
A glint flashed in Lu Yuan’s eyes, his handsome face instantly turning fierce. He leaped several meters in a single stride, his right hand bracing against the stair railing for leverage as he sprang up. He lifted his right leg, swinging it horizontally like a battle-axe, viciously kicking at the appearing figure’s temple.
A shrill, whistle-like sound echoed in the dim staircase.
The person ascending seemed to raise a hand to block the blow, grunted, and stumbled backward with a THUMP-THUMP.
Lu Yuan, however, felt as if his kick had landed on a thick, solid steel plate. The expected overwhelming outcome didn’t materialize; instead, waves of bone-cracking pain shot through his foot.
It’s not the tank-topped men! he thought. They’ve got new help! And they’re strong!
These thoughts flashed through Lu Yuan’s mind. After perhaps a millisecond of hesitation, he unhesitatingly lunged at the figure below. He stepped onto the last step in the middle section of the stairs and pushed off forcefully with both feet.
The tiles and cement on the step instantly shattered. He twisted his body to the side, taking advantage of the opening as the person below was still reeling from his kick and hadn’t yet reacted, diving sideways from above and crashing into the person’s chest.
The newcomer, who had barely steadied himself, was caught off guard and slammed hard against the wall by Lu Yuan’s impact.
With a loud crash, the person’s entire back sank into the wall. Large patches of plaster cracked and peeled off, revealing broken red bricks underneath. Lu Yuan pressed tightly against the person, clearly hearing the sound of ribs cracking within their chest.
He had experienced hundreds of battles, large and small, in his Consciousness Space. He was no longer the raw, clumsy rookie he had once been in real combat. The experiences and techniques of those Imaginary Enemies who had "killed" him, or been "killed" by him, were like nutrients stimulating his rapid growth. They lay dormant within his body, flowing quietly like blood.
And in this moment... they erupted!
Lu Yuan propped himself up on his elbow from the opponent’s chest and quickly stood. He tilted his head back slightly, using the faint moonlight to lock onto the person’s head. The contours of his face were hard and cold, belying his youth, and his eyes flashed with a searing, dangerous light.
Lu Yuan took a deep breath, his chest rising sharply. He clenched his right hand into a fist, his knuckles cracking audibly.
The trajectory of Lu Yuan’s punch was almost impossible to follow. At the instant he threw the punch, it was as if a switch flipped in his brain, and countless images flooded out: the crane breathes, the crane flies, the crane spreads its wings, the crane walks...
In a vast expanse of mist, the shadow of a crane appeared, its cry piercing the air. Follow current novᴇls on Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
Lu Yuan’s Crane Cry Punch, triggered by a Flash of Insight, landed solidly on the person’s face.
With a dull BANG, the person’s head was hammered into the wall as if by a heavy sledgehammer, smashing a hole straight through the foot-thick barrier. Light leaked in from outside.
Lu Yuan, expressionless, shook his hand after delivering the punch, not even glancing at his opponent. He swiftly leaped up the stairs without hesitation and jumped out through the small window he had used to enter.
The outer wall of the house was within reach. With a light jump, Lu Yuan could completely escape this "Cult den." Once out, he could use the photos on his phone to bring Ge Wenjun and raid the place tonight.
These new cultists were very powerful. Lu Yuan had exhausted himself just dealing with one. With unknown enemies remaining, staying longer would only put him in greater danger.
Crow God Sect... I’ll have Cheng Yue help me investigate thoroughly when I get back, Lu Yuan thought, mid-air. It seems the disappearances in Burnt Rock City these past two months were their doing. The actual number of missing and murdered people must be far higher than what the news reported...
With 12 points in Agility and the explosive power from 13 points in Strength, the three-meter-plus distance between the window and the compound wall was nothing to him. He was almost over the high wall.
Just then, Lu Yuan suddenly felt a tight grip on his right foot, as if a pair of iron pincers had ruthlessly clamped onto his ankle, yanking him down from mid-air.
Lu Yuan’s body plummeted. Before he could react, he felt his arms quickly pinned. A powerful force surged from behind, slamming him against the wall.
Lu Yuan instinctively tried to struggle but was horrified to discover that even with his 13 points of Strength, he couldn’t break free from the pressure on his arms and back. He felt as if he had been nailed to the wall.
Then, Lu Yuan heard someone speak behind him. It was a cursing voice.
"This kid was trying to escape!"
"Damn it! He almost totaled Number 13!"