Chapter 50

Li Shang tore a strip of cloth and bound it around his lower back where the blade had gashed him, driving force through his spine; two cords of muscle twisted like pythons, forcibly cinching the triangular wound into a single slit.

Third Grade martial art, Coiling Snake Effort — the bleeding stopped for now.

Li Shang's expression was gloomy; his gaze swept across the narrow alley and settled on the strange man opposite.

Long trousers, short sleeves, crew cut, ordinary features, about twenty-something — the type lost in a crowd — but a pair of eyes black and shining.

Just now this man had approached from behind without a sound and stabbed him once.

As Deputy Captain of the Patrol Bureau, Li Shang had no shortage of enemies, yet he ransacked the memories in his mind and could not match a single face to the youth before him.

"Who sent you to kill me? Do you know who I am?"

Li Shang's eyes were sinister as a viper, line of sight fixed on the three-edged spike in the man's hand, its blood grooves dull.

Had his Coiling Snake Effort not already permeated his whole body, letting him direct internal force to roam at will, he would likely be a bloodied man by now.

The youth stayed silent, flinging the three-edged spike from his hand.

Hiss—

The air let out a sharp shriek.

Li Shang's pupils contracted sharply; though still several meters away, a stabbing pain pricked his brow center. He instantly executed footwork, right hand thrust into his trouser pocket, pulling out iron handcuffs and clenching them in his fist.

He was off duty bathing, so he carried neither gun nor blade; only the handcuffs never left his body, barely serving as makeshift brass knuckles.

Clang!

The instant handcuffs and three-edged spike collided, Li Shang twisted his waist and sidestepped, his other hand whipping out like a lash.

The whole motion looked like a giant python swinging its tail as it slid across the ground, snake head flicking its tongue, biting at prey from the flank.

Behind the three-edged spike, the youth stomped the ground and surged forward, instantaneous explosive power catching up in a blink; he then re-gripped the spike, wrist rotating.

The rotating three-edged spike became a Poison Dragon Drill, scraping sparks off the handcuffs, veering in a bizarre arc, pursuing like a bone-attached maggot.

Li Shang's back of head instantly went numb, layers of gooseflesh rising on his neck.

He raised his head to look at the youth; in those black-shining eyes there was actually a stretch of indifference — no fear of trading life for life, not even a ripple of emotion.

"Who could hire a madman this reckless to kill me?"

Li Shang's heart sank, cool air shooting from his soles straight to his crown.

Faster than Li Shang's heart sinking were his knees — he abruptly dropped to both knees, body instantly shrinking by half a head as if collapsing.

Li Shang's scalp turned cold; a vicious wind gouged a patch of scalp away, his taut crown scorching hot, blood bursting from the middle and spilling red across his face.

The youth's fingertips rotated, the three-edged spike withdrawn; in the end he had been tricked by Li Shang, his vision losing the target for a split second.

Yet his heart felt no panic; the heartbeat in his chest was vast and steadfast, filled entirely with the resolve to die calmly.

"A few rounds fewer than planned, but life-and-death struggle is fleeting as a darting rabbit and swooping hawk; me dying here shouldn't affect the plan, it's enough." He thought.

Pfft!

His chest exploded, terrifying force caving in and shattering ribs.

The youth lowered his head, meeting Li Shang's venomous snake-like eyes, and the bloody, still-beating heart inside his chest cavity.

Li Shang's knees sprang up, like a coiled python suddenly straightening; ferocious power blasted the youth flying, rib fragments and meat spraying across the ground.

Li Shang touched his scalp — the middle had been scraped raw to the skull, a burning, searing pain.

"Close call, nearly capsized in the gutter." Li Shang licked the blood stuck to his lips.

He could now roughly judge that the strange youth's overall strength was actually only Second Grade, far weaker than himself, but relying on the sneak attack, slightly faster strike speed, and a ruthless disregard for his own life, he had caught Li Shang off guard.

"Damn it, ever since becoming Deputy Captain it's been a long time since things were this dangerous; my skills have slipped." Li Shang thought with lingering fear.

He walked up to the youth with a black face, one foot crushing the wrist that held the blade; thinking it not secure enough, he crushed the other wrist as well.

Yet the youth seemed to lack pain nerves entirely, feeling nothing, gazing at him with indifferent eyes.

Facing those black-shining eyes, Li Shang felt inexplicable anxiety; he planted his shoe sole on the other's face and said fiercely: "Tell me, who sent you to kill me, I'll give you a quick death, otherwise…"

The youth grinned, pearly white teeth smeared with blood: "Kill me, and your whole family will be buried with me."

Li Shang glared angrily, crouched down, and grabbed the other's collar with one hand: "What did you say?"

The youth did not directly answer Li Shang's question, yet seemed to have answered; he rasped: "Tell Zheng Laoda when you see him, Xiao Wu owes him, repaid with my life."

Li Shang froze, a hidden dread rising in his heart; he cradled the youth's head — now he was actually afraid the youth would die.

"What do you mean? Speak clearly — Zheng Laoda is Zheng Si? What has he done to my wife and son?" Li Shang's face was ferocious, the blood and grime covering his face making his expression exceptionally terrifying.

The youth spat black blood, the heartbeat in his chest rapidly weakening; in life's final moment he forced his eyes open, as if trying to memorize the face of his killer, yet also as if not looking at Li Shang at all, but gazing upward at the colossal, dazzlingly colorful Upper City butt above his head.

"Truly ugly~"

The youth muttered, and with those last words he suddenly bit through his tongue, frantically chewing it to pieces with his teeth and swallowing it down his throat.

Li Shang furiously pried at the youth's mouth — inside was all blood mixed with minced meat residue.

He watched the youth stare wide-eyed and breathe his last; the anger in his heart was replaced by a bone-deep chill.

This chill seeped into his marrow, making his hair stand on end.

Standing dazed for three seconds, Li Shang snapped back, ran to the sewage manhole, yanked up the manhole cover, and picked up the fallen phone.

The incoming call screen was still flickering; who knew how many times it had rung.

Li Shang hurriedly answered the call.

"Er Bing, hurry to my house and check — Zheng Si has gone mad, he wants to…"

"Captain Li, you finally picked up, the Green Wolf Gang has gone mad, grabbing people everywhere, police reports all morning…"

The moment the call connected, both spoke at once, urgently spraying saliva into the phone.

Then, both fell silent simultaneously; in the deathly stillness came ragged, almost voiceless breathing.

Li Shang's intracranial pressure spiked, vision blackening; he looked at the corpse on the ground and listened to the voice on the phone, his mind filled with a single thought.

The man Zheng Si sent to kill me is a reckless madman; Zheng Si is a madman who stops at nothing to avenge his son; the Green Wolf Gang's underlings are also a bunch of brainless madmen.

The Green Wolf Gang from top to bottom are all out-of-control madmen — simply beyond reason.

A thread of regret surged in Li Shang's heart, but regret was useless now; he had to find a method to salvage all this, and also save his wife and children.

Li Shang roared at Chang Erbing: "Notify the brothers immediately, all of you come find me."

After Li Shang finished speaking, he hung up the phone call, harboring a final thread of fantasy as he dialed his wife.

Continuous busy tone, no response; just as he was about to despair, the phone call connected, but in merely an instant, it was hung up.

Dial again, the phone prompted powered off.

Li Shang no longer needed to despair; his heart directly died.

His mind went blank, anger and fear seized his heart, he subconsciously wanted to crush the phone, then go all out and kill his way to the Green Wolf Gang.

But he had after all served as a chief constable for over a decade, had dealt with all kinds of ferocious criminals too many times, the last remaining thread of rationality persuaded him to stop.

Rushing to the Green Wolf Gang like this, not only would he fail to save his wife and children, he would also lose his own life.

The Green Wolf Gang from top to bottom are all madmen, cannot force a breakthrough, this skin of his cannot intimidate a group of madmen, must find an inside man, find one who isn't that mad.

Suddenly, a human face surfaced in Li Shang's Nao Hai.

And just as he thought of this person, in the darkness it seemed as if someone had arranged a preset script, his phone happened to receive an incoming call, the caller ID name was shockingly exactly the person he had just thought of...

End of Chapter