A Touch With Death
Mere meters away, Li Mo Shang could feel the displacement in the air generated by the speeding bullet. Cold sweat running down his back, he noticed that had he not moved preemptively from receiving the spiritual core's warning, the bullet would have pierced his heart. Narrowing his eyes, he glared at the black-uniformed men with a touch of dread and anger.
"Who allowed you to shoot all of a sudden? Did you not receive enough training, acting so brashly?"
"I sensed somebody approaching me, and the helmet's assistance discovered an aerial bogey nearby. I shot at it without confirmation, this one is ready to receive punishment for his misconduct!"
"...Everyone beware, keep your eyes open! As for you, you'll receive punishment if there wasn't anything nearby."
On the ground, one of the black-uniformed men scolded the man who had just shot. From his position, Li Mo Shang couldn't notice anything special for everyone's uniforms were different, but the snippets of conversation he could pick up determined that the scolding man was a commander of some sort.
Following the tiny dispute among the black-uniformed men, Li Mo Shang noticed that a shroud of menace and vigilance encompassed each one of them. Quickly descending to the ground, his foot accidently landed on a tree branch, splitting it into pieces. The quiet sound, no matter how little, was easily picked up by the men in the black uniforms, and over thirty pairs of eyes filled with killing intent gazed in Li Mo Shang's direction.
Whirling on his heel, Li Mo Shang quickly raced towards the abandoned courtyard, utilizing his
It was unknown how the helmet enhanced the sensory abilities of the black-uniformed men, but the men closer to Li Mo Shang quickly began to give chase. Like that, one indistinct and five black figures raced towards the abandoned courtyard, where the knee-high weeds obscured Li Mo Shang's position even further.
Staring warily at the five black uniformed men surveying the area, Li Mo Shang grumbled at their persistence. Every time he would move, they would easily detect the change in position, mirroring his movement to return to the stalemate. Gradually, his frustration began to disrupt his concentration, and the
Without giving Li Mo Shang any time to respond, the pre-aimed gun instantly changed directions and the bullet sped towards Li Mo Shang, easily penetrating his right thigh near the bone. The impact sound easily garnered the attention of the five men, and Li Mo Shang could only soundlessly curse as he rapidly changed position.
Alarmed and perplexed, he was confused by how the spiritual core couldn't detect the killing intent emitted by the five men when he got shot.
"Someone is wearing an optical illusion suit…?"
"No way, there would be a glitch where the bullet hit! No optical suit would remain at peak performance once damaged like that."
"Shut up and take it down. We can send it to headquarters to analyze later."
The five black-uniformed men were now easily keeping track of Li Mo Shang's position due to the bloodstains on the grass. As he constantly changed his location, Li Mo Shang willed his spiritual core to infuse the wound with spiritual qi, attempting his best to ignore the mind-numbing pulses of pain.
Gradually, the bleeding had stopped, and Li Mo Shang could wield the
As he suffused his mind with spiritual qi, Li Mo Shang formed a basic steel sword utilizing three strands of spiritual qi, grasping it tightly with his right hand. Compared to the divine sword sold in the auction just hours prior, this sword was of much better quality in sharpness and durability.
On the pommel were faintly drawn inscriptions of the nine interlocked suns, and an engraving of a chain on the tang of the sword. Unfortunately, there was no coiled dragon inscription on the blade like Li Mo Shang's masterpiece residing in his spiritual core, nor were the nine suns releasing a brilliant glow.
Gritting his teeth, Li Mo Shang dashed directly towards the center of the five black uniformed men. Before they could react, he was in the middle of their formation.
"Holy-"
Stomping with his left foot, Li Mo Shang executed Wu Tianqi's
In the span of a second, the two swings had accumulated a great gust that scattered then gathered the uniformed men with Li Mo Shang as the pull's epicenter, several of them losing their limbs by the flashing sword. With a light roar, Li Mo Shang reversed his grip before plunging the sword into the ground, causing a stronger gale to rip through the black uniformed men's bodies.
Muscles were torn and bones were severed as the harsh gale spread out from the blade, creating quite the gory scene. Extracting the blade, Li Mo Shang was in mid-grimace when the spiritual core flashed a sense of danger stronger than the previous.
Relying on his instincts, Li Mo Shang dashed to his right, looking back in horror as a massive bullet hole demolished the ground where he stood previously. Compared to the quiet popping noises of the five men's weapons, there was not a single sound to be heard this time, sending Li Mo Shang into a panic.
"How odd. A human should be incapable of such instantaneous speeds, especially with optical illusionary suits. Could he be an enhanced…"
From the entrance of the abandoned courtyard, Li Mo Shang could see one of the black uniformed men enter. As the man gazed in surprise and confusion at the gory scene of what used to be five members of his platoon, Li Mo Shang gave a start, recognizing the man to be the presumed leader of the black-uniformed men.
Just a few minutes ago, he had seen this man scolding another for prematurely responding to the observing Li Mo Shang. Finished observing the mess on the ground, the man softly chuckled before speaking with a cold voice, causing Li Mo Shang to grasp the sword even tightly.
"Haven't left already? Didn't you know, your optical illusion suit is an excellent craft, but the operator is a complete amateur. Leaving such obvious trails with all of that noise you make, did your superiors not train you properly?"
With a cold gleam within his eyes, Li Mo Shang finally obtained a clue for the reason why he kept feeling that the
However, he had developed the basic idea of the technique during a rather chaotic and busting incident, hence the thought of masking any noise he made had been discarded. It simply hadn't come to mind because the surrounding environment during Li Mo Shang's previous usage of the
Now, he could also confirm how he was detected by these uniformed men without fail each time. With each movement he made, be it in the air or on ground, was far too noisy and easy to detect by modern technology and amplified senses.
Li Mo Shang berated himself for his moment of stupidity before returning his mind to a calm state with the aid of spiritual qi. Sure enough, if he remained completely still, the man before him wouldn't be able to differentiate between him and the environment. However, this guise couldn't last permanently for the scent of blood still remained on Li Mo Shang's pants, for he had not obtained the opportunity to switch out the clothing even if the bleeding had been stopped.
"Hey, let's talk. Killing my men like this, shouldn't you give me an explanation? Who sent you?"
The black uniformed man in the abandoned courtyard suddenly began talking, his voice lucid and light-hearted, almost as if he was talking over a cup of tea. Li Mo Shang quickly decided to remain silent, for he guessed that the man was attempting to sound his location out.
"Not talking? You must have received some training on how to act yourself…but it's not enough!"
While muttering under his breath, the black uniformed man quickly pulled out a military-grade revolved from within his uniform, pointing it at Li Mo Shang's direction.
Reacting quickly, Li Mo Shang rushed towards his left while palming towards the ground behind the black-uniformed man, causing two sources of sound to manifest simultaneously. Upon hearing multiple sounds of movement from different locations, the black uniformed man coldly smiled, baring his teeth.
The gun muzzle, to Li Mo Shang's surprise, continued to track him unfazed of the diversion, and a streak of fire burst out from the barrel as a bullet tore through Li Mo Shang's abdomen.
"A diversion is a nice idea, but too bad for you, the scent of blood is far too strong on your body!"
Slowly striding towards Li Mo Shang who was clutching his abdomen, willing his spiritual qi to mend the wound, the black uniformed man chuckled as he twirled the gun in his hand. Ensuring it was always pointed at Li Mo Shang, the uniformed man seemed to be oddly happy as he hummed under his breath, stopping a few meters before Li Mo Shang.
"Hey kid, being loyal to your superiors is nice, but young men like you should value your life. If you release that optical suit and confess, I'll spare your life, how about that?"
Ignoring the black uniformed man, Li Mo Shang closed his eyes, coldness seeping into his heart. The pain from either wound reminded him that had the spiritual core not reminded him to respond preemptively, he would have died in both attacks.
As anger towards his own weakness surged, a searing heat emanated from the tattoo of the broadsword on his torso, shrouding Li Mo Shang's vision in a pale scarlet. On his skin, the faint outlines of a broadsword entwined with two majestic dragons were visible.
Guided by a mysterious impulse, Li Mo Shang summoned the sword stored within his spiritual core, dissolving the one previously held within his hand. As the sword emerged, hovering in the air next to Li Mo Shang, the black blade released a scarlet glow. The black uniform man could not help but frown upon Li Mo Shang's silence; for some reason, he had a terrible premonition, but could not determine the reason.
"Hey kid, why are you so silent-"
With a slight whistle, the spiritual sword had struck at the black uniformed man at incredible speed. Without giving him an opportunity to react, the blade had already disconnected his head. The upright body remained twitching as the head soared in the air to land next to Li Mo Shang's feet, where the head maintained its gaping expression of surprise and horror.
With a grimace, Li Mo Shang quickly departed, storing the spiritual sword. He didn't have enough time to clean up the gore and mess for the other men would notice the ruckus, and his wounds still required immediate treatment. Speeding into the darkness, Li Mo Shang had forgotten that some of his blood remained on the grass.
Minutes later, footsteps could be heard as twenty men in black uniforms rushed into the abandoned courtyard. Looking at the littered bodies and mutilated limbs from the carnage of