Chapter 39: X
Those crimson pupils gleamed with bloodthirsty killing intent, swiveling in strange, unnatural motions.
X felt a chill run down the back of its neck and burrowed desperately into Wu Heng’s armpit.
“I’m scared too.” Wu Heng’s voice was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz.
“Brother, it’s even bigger than the bug at the mall.” Wu Zhi shrank into her seat. Her eyes locked with the stick insect’s, and tears instantly spilled down her cheeks.
“What do we do?” Lin Mengzhi bit down on her teeth.
“Turn around. Change route.” Xie Chongyi stomped the accelerator without hesitation. The roar of the engine and the screech of tires scraping against the ground tore through the sky.
The stick insect, which had been motionless, suddenly stirred in agitation.
Several thick, powerful legs slammed onto the car roof with a heavy thud.
Seeing this, Xue Shen raised his hand, and a longsword formed of water condensed in midair. He slashed down, severing the insect leg that had pierced into the car.
Du Yaoyuan grabbed the heavy, thick limb and heaved it out through the already shattered window.
The stick insect twitched its remaining legs a few times, then—new legs sprouted in place of the broken one.
Xue Qi shouted, “Stick insect legs can regenerate!”
“All insect legs can regenerate?” Xue Shen sealed up the window with water. “Teacher, we have to turn back!”
Ying Liuquan’s face was ghostly pale, his hands barely able to grip the steering wheel.
More and more stick insects disrupted the path of the other vehicles, until only Xie Chongyi managed to charge through the swelling swarm.
“Mengzhi, roll the window down. Light it up.” Wu Heng snatched up the gun at his feet. Before Xie Chongyi could even tell him to stop, the window slid open, wind and rain lashing into the car.
Click.
The boy’s fingers slid deftly across the gun, chambering a round. He leaned halfway out the window, muzzle aimed squarely at a stick insect’s head above, and without a blink fired the first shot.
“Brother, you’re so cool!” Wu Zhi clenched her fists, cheering him on.
Wu Heng wiped the rain off his face. “I missed.”
Whoosh—
The stick insect’s pillar-like leg swept past his ear, whistling through the air. The car crashed against it, and the three people in the backseat nearly had their bones shaken apart.
But Wu Heng darted out again. With one round of experience, his movements were faster this time—he fired a shot straight at the insect’s lower jaw.
The bullet couldn’t inflict a fatal wound, but it did make the creature feel pain.
Above them, the stick insect slowly lowered its head. Those blood-red eyes locked onto the human holding the gun. Its mandibles opened and shut twice before a spray of transparent fluid suddenly jetted downward.
A powerful force yanked Wu Heng back into the car.
Xie Chongyi, one hand on the steering wheel and the other gripping Wu Heng, pulled him in. “It’s poisonous.”
The car screeched to a stop behind another stick insect. “Lin Mengzhi—set it on fire.”
Flames burst forth across the car roof. Within seconds the metal body turned scorching hot, even the rain on their faces carried heat.
Above them, fire spread like a sea, and the insect’s elongated, towering body blurred in the blaze.
Shen Ping’an’s vehicle followed close behind, sheltered beneath the firestorm, while Ying Liuquan’s car was still lurching desperately, swaying under the relentless kicks of the insect swarm.
No one knew yet whether these creatures’ shells had evolved fire resistance. Xie Chongyi extended his arm out the window, palm aimed at the swarm.
Boom, boom, boom—
Several of the mutated stick insects’ long legs snapped all at once. Their massive bodies crashed to the ground, and one heavy tail swept out, flinging Ying Liuquan’s car straight into the thickest part of the swarm.
Screams and shrieks erupted from the other side.
“Old Xie, you son of a—!” As several sharp forelimbs stabbed down toward the roof, Xue Shen summoned a sphere of water to wrap around the car.
From the passenger seat, Wu Heng saw Xie Chongyi touch his ear in slight embarrassment.
A piercing screech rang out overhead—more than one.
Sweat poured down Lin Mengzhi’s face. Hearing the cries of agony, he shouted at once, “It’s lit!”
A stick insect, engulfed in flames, went berserk and charged into the swarm. The dense mass of insects scattered and broke formation, leaping and even taking flight. Some sprouted wings, and the air above filled with a droning buzz that made everyone’s scalp prickle.
Flames spread down the road, rainwater evaporating into curling white steam, the stench of charred insect flesh thick in the air.
Then, a massive black shadow appeared in midair.
It came from the far end of the swarm. The thrumming of its wings sent the already frenzied horde into a greater frenzy. Sweeping swiftly over their heads, it dove down in a rush, seized the blazing stick insect that writhed and rolled on the ground, and with a wrench tore it in half—innards and limbs flying everywhere. When the remains rained down, the other stick insects swarmed greedily, raising their forelimbs to snatch pieces.
“It’s the leader of the stick insects,” Wu Heng said evenly.
No sooner had he spoken than the creature lunged toward the car encased in Xue Shen’s water sphere. Xie Chongyi thrust out a hand, dragging their vehicle sharply back, but the insect’s razor forelimbs still sliced the front tire clean off.
The swarm surged toward the immobilized car.
Lin Mengzhi raised a wall of fire and shouted at them hoarsely, “Get out of the car!”
Xie Chongyi’s vehicle sped past. Dou Lu kicked open the door and dragged the injured Xue Qi into the backseat.
“Don’t you f*cking have abilities?” Lin Mengzhi roared at Du Yaoyuan, who was frozen in place.
Du Yaoyuan stammered, “How do I use them?”
The entire car fell into stunned silence.
Xue Shen shoved the limp, mud-soft Ying Liuquan into the backseat by force, then stuffed in Du Yaoyuan. After that, there was no more room in the car.
He slammed the door shut, rain dripping down his glasses. “I’ll go to Shen Ping’an’s car. You guys go first.”
Xue Qi stared in shock at the other vehicle, which was at least a hundred meters away.
“Old Xie, drive.” Xue Shen slapped the car window twice.
“Brother!” Xue Qi flung himself desperately against the glass. He saw the swarm pouring toward Xue Shen like a collapsing tsunami, his eyes tearing wide with horror. “Brother! Brother!”
Xie Chongyi rammed their car into a half-crushed vehicle nearby and swerved in the opposite direction. Xue Shen’s figure grew smaller and smaller in the distance.
Wu Heng’s gaze lingered in the rearview mirror. Cradling the gun and the bird, he saw several transparent water arrows materialize before Xue Shen. After a brief pause, they all shot out at once, felling a large swath of the insect horde in moments.
Shen Ping’an’s car screeched to a stop in front of Xue Shen, and he leapt aboard successfully.
“I’m gonna get crushed to death in here!” Lin Mengzhi panted heavily. His arm still stuck out the window, but now he was so tightly wedged in that he couldn’t pull it back.
Wu Zhi crouched in front of the seat, Dou Lu ended up sitting on Lin Mengzhi’s lap, while Du Yaoyuan and Xue Qi were both squashed into crooked positions.
The stick insects caught up, their blood-red eyes swaying like a sea of lanterns—terrifying in number.
“Du Yaoyuan! That trick you used at the 4S shop this afternoon—where is it?! Use it!”
Du Yaoyuan roared back, I need a weapon!
Wu Heng patted his pocket, then handed him a bullet. “Will this do?”
“Worth a try.” Du Yaoyuan snatched the bullet, leaned out the window with difficulty. The round floated into the air from his hand, the silver casing gleaming before shifting into gold as it rose. With a sharp whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, it streaked toward the swarm.
The bullets infused with supernatural power proved lethal to the mutated stick insects—several collapsed at once. Du Yaoyuan immediately turned to Wu Heng for more ammunition.
Wu Heng’s face remained expressionless. “For you, bullets shouldn’t be single-use.”
“Wu Heng, what the actual f—!”
Xie Chongyi glanced into the rearview mirror. “Wu Heng’s right.”
Helpless, Du Yaoyuan stretched out both hands, feeling for the bullets still lodged inside the insect corpses.
One by one, the bullets burst free of the bodies, redirected midair, and struck down several more insects.
A third time, a fourth time… Du Yaoyuan’s movements grew sharper, smoother. Before long, he could make a single bullet pierce through multiple stick insects in succession.
But the swarm refused to relent.
“There are too many! If this keeps up, they’ll wear us down to death here!” Xue Qi shouted.
Dou Lu’s face turned pale. “Dying at the starting line… amen.”
“Don’t amen me, I—”
Mid-sentence, the car jolted violently—the front end lifted, then the entire vehicle left the ground. Every face inside went rigid in shock.
“What the hell?!”
Xue Qi blurted in panic, “Stick insects are masters of camouflage! It must’ve gotten ahead of us and blended into the road—”
The arched back of a massive stick insect rose before them, lifting the car entirely into the air.
Xie Chongyi unclipped his seatbelt, and the seatbelt holding Wu Heng in place also automatically unfastened itself.
“Jump.” He spat the word, then lunged for the passenger seat.
He seized Wu Heng by the shoulder, kicked open the door, and leapt, pulling Wu Heng out with him. Their bodies soared into the air in an instant.
Wu Heng glanced down—they were at least ten meters above the ground. He shut his eyes tight, clutching X in his arms, while Xie Chongyi held him fast.
A forest of insect legs stabbed toward the fleeing passengers—only to be severed mid-strike with a resounding boom, boom, boom.
A wall of air caught the group, while the Land Rover crashed down from the stick insect’s back. The moment the vehicle hit the ground, it exploded with a thunderous bang.
Wu Heng rolled out from Xie Chongyi’s arms. Pulling a knife from the small of his back, he slashed at a massive leg that landed beside him, spraying blood across his face.
The usual cold, unhurried expression on Xie Chongyi’s face vanished the instant they landed. He pressed his palm to the ground—suddenly, everything nearby except for them shrank to half its original size. The swarm of stick insects, along with the surrounding mountains and forest, were crushed and warped, bursting apart one after another.
Lin Mengzhi hauled Xue Qi onto his back, raising a wall of fire to shield the people behind.
Shen Ping’an’s vehicle burst through the flames, skidded into a sharp turn behind them, and braked hard.
Xue Qi shouted back at the others, “They can camouflage—watch out!”
But Wu Heng turned instead to Dou Lu. “Your ability… can you only sense energy fields?”
Before Dou Lu could answer, Wu Heng’s gaze fixed on the swarm hammering against the fire wall. “Try it. Destroy the energy cores inside them.”
Dou Lu swallowed hard. “Alright.”
The girl clenched her fists tight, her eyelids twitching as beads of sweat streamed down her face. A cold current, lower than blood temperature, surged through her heart—and suddenly, a leaping insect dropped out of the sky mid-flight.
“Yes!” Dou Lu’s face lit up with joy.
Wu Heng didn’t praise her. He simply issued the next order: “Widen your attack range.”
Then he raised his gun, narrowed his eyes, and fired—a bullet straight into the eye of a stick insect.
Dou Lu made no protest. She focused wholly on tracking the constantly shifting energy cores.
The group clashed violently with the swarm, blood pooling beneath Wu Heng’s feet. The Poppy was still in its dormant phase; he couldn’t rely on it. He lowered his head and sighed—when suddenly, X cried out.
X had never called out like that before.
Xie Chongyi’s eyes snapped toward Wu Heng, his expression shifting sharply. He freed one hand to grab hold of Wu Heng.
Behind Wu Heng, out of thin air, appeared the mutated head of the stick insect swarm’s leader—it had been hiding, perfectly camouflaged in the transparent air!
Unlike the ordinary swarm members, the leader radiated a bloodthirsty killing intent that made one’s hair stand on end.
Wu Heng’s arm was caught in its jaws and he was flung straight into the middle of the swarm. His body rolled across the ground, bones nearly shattering from the impact.
“A’Heng!” Lin Mengzhi was drenched in sweat, instinctively rushing toward him.
In that instant, the wall of fire collapsed. Several stick insects leapt between them, forelegs lashing, their jaws spewing venom.
Dou Lu cut them down, then staggered. “Shit—!”
Gritting his teeth, Lin Mengzhi could only ignite the fire wall again.
Hordes of stick insects swarmed at the boy who was still struggling to get up. Half of them were torn apart alive by Xie Chongyi.
But the swarm was too vast.
And with Xie Chongyi being their strongest fighter, every time he pulled away to rescue someone, his diverted power left the others’ defenses crumbling.
Wu Heng clutched a panicked X as he scrambled desperately across the ground. Even though the poppy-symbiont inside him was injured and couldn’t fight, its agility and reflexes still lingered in his body.
But trapped in the middle of the swarm, there was no way he could dodge every attack.
Corrosive venom splattered across his face, razor-sharp antennae pierced into his thigh—blood welled from wounds all over his body.
A sudden foreleg slashed at him from the right, sending Wu Heng flying more than ten meters. His consciousness blinked out for a moment.
The swarm instinctively built a wall of defense from their own bodies—whenever one fell, another immediately filled its place.
Wu Heng lay sprawled on the ground, coughing up blood.
The leader stomped on his back, drool dripping down, forelegs raised high toward the sky, ready to devour.
And just then—a tiny gray parrot, smaller than a fingernail compared to the massive insects, leapt up from the ground, frantically pecking at the leader’s eyes.
The leader shook its head a few times, spraying streams of venom. A single drop burned through X’s wing, and with a shriek of pain it slowed midair, only to be swatted into the nearby forest by a stick insect’s strike.
Wu Heng struggled to push himself up. The swarm leader lowered its head to sniff at the nape of his neck, letting thick, toxic saliva drip onto his back. His skin sizzled where it landed, searing pain forcing a muffled groan from his throat.
He grabbed hold of one of the insect’s legs, veins bulging across the back of his hand.
Thin, fragile vines burrowed in. The insect twitched at the ticklish sensation, tilting its head in confusion.
But the poppy-symbiont’s power was limited; it snapped back into Wu Heng’s body and climbed in reverse, winding tightly around his arm.
Wu Heng’s pupils bled red. Vines coiled up his throat and face, spreading, until more and more of his body was encased in them.
Sensing its prey was about to spoil, the stick insect shrieked and lunged, jaws opening wide.
A piercing bird cry split the sky.
Massive wings scythed through the swarm, cleaving the insects on both sides cleanly in half, spraying a crimson arc through the air.
A huge gray bird—no one knew from where—swooped down. With its talons, it seized the boy already half-entombed in vines and dove headlong into the mountain forest.
Food that had been within reach was gone.
The swarm leader froze for a long moment, then spread the wings on its back and shot into the forest in pursuit.
Behind it, countless stick insects followed. Those that had evolved wings darkened the sky, while the wingless ones crashed into the forest below, the ground reverberating as though a horde of giant beasts were stampeding through the woods.
In less than half a minute, only heaps of stick insect corpses remained before the others’ eyes.
The few still alive burst apart with a flick of Xie Chongyi’s hand, their blood mist mingling with the falling rain.
What pooled beneath their feet was no longer rainwater, but surging blood.
After the swarm vanished, the sound of rainfall gradually surfaced again. Heavy, ragged breaths filled the silence of the battlefield. Everyone’s faces were soaked, each of them injured to some degree, every ounce of their abilities drained dry.
Xie Chongyi’s complexion had gone pale. Stepping over severed insect limbs, he ran to the spot where Wu Heng had fallen. The area was unnervingly quiet, yet at least there were no human remains.
A moment later, he lowered his head, eyes narrowing.
Wu Heng’s blood was red, but on closer inspection, one could see the difference from normal human blood. His was brighter, more vivid, almost luminous compared to the blackish ichor of the stick insects.
Nearby, a few gray feathers lay scattered, stained with blood.
Lin Mengzhi finally crawled to Xie Chongyi’s side. Staring blankly at the empty ground, he suddenly clutched at Xie Chongyi’s leg and broke into sobs.
“Xie Chongyi! Class Monitor! Dad! Save my best friend! Save him! He’s been taken!”
Xie Chongyi pressed bloodied fingers to Lin Mengzhi’s forehead and pushed him back, his gaze glacial.
“I know.”
In the next instant, Xie Chongyi’s figure vanished.
Lin Mengzhi’s sobbing cut off at once. He stared in disbelief at his own hands. His legs? The man? Gone? Was that an ability—or was it magic?!
—
“…”
“…”
Wu Heng opened his mouth several times to speak, only to close it again. After a long pause, he leaned back against the parrot’s damp but soft chest.
“…Was it really necessary to bring me to a place like this?”
His eyes grew distant, gazing at the rows of dark, unlit buildings ahead. Rain filtered through the moonlight, falling over the cityscape of uneven towers. The swarm had stopped at the forest’s edge, abandoning the chase—likely having turned back the way they came.
And he—he had been carried back into the city by a bird. By a bird. By a bird…
Wu Heng lowered his head, taking in a deep breath. Beneath his feet stood the central tower of Hanzhou City, 536 meters tall—the tallest in the province, seventh tallest in the country.
Looking down was like standing on the edge of an abyss; overhead, the crescent moon seemed close enough to pluck from the sky.
X, drenched in blood, held its head high with pride.
That X would evolve was something Wu Heng had expected, though what form its evolution would take remained unknown.
He had never considered forcing its growth—after all, from beginning to end, this creature had been cowardly, greedy, lazy. Even if it evolved today, who was to say it wouldn’t flee tomorrow?
When he looked up, what met his gaze was a massive beak gleaming with a cold light. No longer the form of an ordinary parrot, its back feathers now appeared visibly stiff, tail feathers like spears, every edge of its plumage sharp as blades.
Moments earlier, Wu Heng had parted its feathers to check the roots: the scales on its skin had grown more defined, clinging like armor across its surface.
But what demanded the most attention was its sheer size—twice Wu Heng’s height, towering and robust, with a mane of thick plumage that only added to its imposing, majestic presence.
It kept turning its head, warily scanning the surroundings.
“Bird, we have to go back. Mengzhi and the pup are still there.” Wu Heng finished speaking, then pressed a hand to his mouth with a cough. A palmful of blood welled up, and without hesitation he smeared it onto the parrot’s feathers.
A low sound rumbled from X’s throat.
Wu Heng continued, “When we get back, we’ll find a way to deal with the stick insect swarm. Otherwise, we’ll be forced to detour—and without a car, the cost of that is far too high.”
“Bird.” In the middle of his planning, Wu Heng’s tone suddenly softened.
X’s blood-red eyes turned toward the boy, its expression oddly confused. So gentle? It wasn’t used to this at all. Was he out of his mind?
“You haven’t been with me for long, and I haven’t exactly treated you well. If you post about me on the forum, the viewers will probably accuse me of ab*sing a bird.”
“Squawk.” —On that point, it agreed. But its loss was that there was no internet right now.
Wu Heng gave a faint, mocking laugh. “I don’t even know when my abilities will recover. There’s nothing in it for you to stick with me now.”
After a long silence, he spoke softly: “Get lost.”
X didn’t leave. Instead, it shuffled closer to him and bumped its head gently against the top of his.
Feeling the weight from above, Wu Heng murmured, “Parrots… seem to be very loyal birds.”
Mistaking it for praise, X flapped its wings and puffed up with pride again.
But Wu Heng stepped forward. On that small patch of ground beneath his feet, he turned around to face the enormous gray parrot.
When X saw the boy lift the corner of his lips in a smile, it tilted its head, sensing danger with sharp instinct.
Wu Heng took another step back. Behind him lay the boundless night sky; the entire city sprawled below, nothing but a backdrop at his feet.
X tilted its head left, then right, a puzzled look in its eyes. Reflected in its pupils was its master’s haggard, fragile face.
After a brief standoff, Wu Heng opened his arms as though to embrace the mutated bird. X, unable to resist, took a step forward.
And in the next instant, Wu Heng’s body tipped backward.
“If you don’t want to get lost, then prove it to me,” Wu Heng said. His pale, delicate face was framed by a voice slow and light as drifting feathers, torn apart by the wind as his body fell, plummeting.
X leapt forward without a second’s hesitation, diving headfirst after him, its speed like an arrow loosed from the string.
Author’s Note:
X: Master’s going to hug me, yay.
Two seconds later—
X: Damn it! …
(X: If you knew what kind of willful, dark-hearted master I’ve got, you’d pity me too.)