Dark night.
Xue Jing walked on the streets just outside the perimeter of South City.
The narrow and poorly planned blocks were crammed together in disarray, all the buildings old and dilapidated, some could not even be called houses, but were merely shanties made of sheets of iron and planks of wood.
The construction material of these houses was obviously inferior, having lacked basic maintenance for a long time, some parts were already crumbling.
The ground was littered with floating tin can garbage, uneven cement surfaces with puddles everywhere, a few stray dogs watched Xue Jing, as if waiting for something.
"..."
Xue Jing stopped.
Even though there was no one to be seen on the streets, he had a strange feeling.
Just like the calm before a storm, the dark night seemed to be gestating a terrifying beast, with an indistinct sense of something swelling and contracting.
It was his heartbeat.
Even though he wasn't using any breathing skills, the blood in his body suddenly began to circulate faster, his body temperature started to rise as if it was about to boil.
The hair on his back stood up, his scalp tingled as if there was an extremely sharp knife resting on his neck, slowly scraping against the skin.
Without any reason, without the aid of any senses, the "fighting" instinct latent deep within his body was reminding him of danger.
Without any hesitation, Xue Jing chose to trust his instincts.
Run!
On the street, Xue Jing crouched slightly, his thigh muscles tensed, and in an instant, the leg strength from "Running" exploded, whooshing towards the outskirts of the street!
Just as he suddenly started to run, shouts and curses came from the crevices and alleys between the houses.
"Damn it, he's noticed!"
"Wants to run, chase him down!"
"Shit, this little bastard is so fast!"
From various hidden alleys, more than a dozen figures emerged, chasing after Xue Jing.
Most of them were armed with a variety of weapons, knives, sticks, machetes, baseball bats... The clanging sound of metal weapons dragging on the ground was incessant.
These people were obviously not doing this for the first time, the positions of each person, centered on Xue Jing, had almost formed an encircling net.
If Xue Jing had acted just ten more seconds later, once the encirclement was fully formed, there would be no escape.
But now, there were only two people directly in front of him!
"Orange, Little Li, stop him!"
The people behind were shouting, Xue Jing looked at the two in front on the road, one was a skinny teenager in a red T-shirt wielding a baseball bat, the other was a fierce-looking young man with a crew-cut, his hands empty.
The distance between Xue Jing and the two was rapidly closing, and although contact was imminent, he showed no sign of slowing down.
The crew-cut young man didn't move, while the teen with the bat took two steps forward, raising the bat, ready to swing, seemingly about to treat the charging Xue Jing like a baseball.
Closer, ever closer.
Just as the skinny teenager's gaze focused and swung his bat, Xue Jing's body, without any decrease in speed, suddenly ducked.
The whooshing bat grazed his head, brushing few strands of hair, and at the same time, Xue Jing, squatting down, clenched his right hand and on rising, delivered a ferocious uppercut "Rising Dragon Fist" to the skinny teenager's chin!
With his "Aiming" skills, the precision of his punch was incomparable, hitting the teenager's chin directly.
"Bang!"
A blast sounded at the same moment, faintly accompanied by the sound of breaking bones, Xue Jing felt from his fist the sensation of having smashed something.
The strong inertia from the running, combined with his 180 kilograms of "Punch Force", the intense kinetic energy sent the skinny teenager flying nearly a meter into the air; when he landed, he was already rolling his eyes and motionless, his neck twisted at an exaggerated angle, the skin on his chin uneven, obviously his jawbone had been completely shattered.
"Little Li!"
"Damn it, this kid's a bit tough, everyone be careful!"
The people following behind called out in shock.
Xue Jing did not pause for long, merely a brief moment, before he continued charging forward.
The remaining buzz-cut youth, who initially wore a casual expression, understood through the previous scene that Xue Jing was not an ordinary weak student.
His expression became serious as he raised his fists, his knees slightly bent, adopting a boxer's stance to meet the oncoming attack. S~eaʀᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
He was fully prepared, confident that he could react no matter from which angle Xue Jing attacked.
As long as he could momentarily block this rapidly running student, his companions would catch up, and then it would be like catching a turtle in a jar or beating a dog in a dead-end street.
He stood ready for battle, his face stern, watching as Xue Jing rapidly approached.
'Left punch, right punch, or a kick?'
And just when he was about to make contact with Xue Jing, at the most critical moment…
Xue Jing didn't pay him any attention and simply ran past him.
The buzz-cut youth was taken aback.
It seemed to him that Xue Jing, as they brushed shoulders, gave him an odd look that seemed to say: What are you doing?
"Fuck you!"
The buzz-cut youth instantly turned red with rage, cursed loudly, and chased after Xue Jing.
On the main streets on the outskirts of South City, Xue Jing was running ahead with a dozen people chasing after him.
A few minutes later, as they watched Xue Jing's figure getting further away, everyone gradually began to slow down and stop.
"This... this damn brat... how... how can he run like that..."
A panting person leaned on his machete to support his tired body and spoke in broken sentences.
"Damn it, spent all day hunting geese, but the geese pecked out our eyes, this time we really screwed up, didn't catch the guy, and even got a brother hurt."
"What now, Duan is still waiting in the warehouse, we couldn't handle this trivial matter, no idea how badly we're going to get chewed out."
"What else can we do, everyone has..."
A dyed-haired youth didn't finish his sentence when he suddenly stopped.
At the corner of the street at the end, just as Xue Jing was about to disappear from their view, he suddenly stopped, slowly turned around, and looked toward them.
"Hey, that little bastard, can't run anymore huh?"
Someone sneered.
"Let's go, we'll get that dog, made us exert so much effort, later we definitely need to mess him up good."
"My pliers for pulling teeth are almost rusting, this kid looks so prim and proper, just the type those girls who like pretty boys fancy, not sure if he can still..."
Mockingly, the group approached Xue Jing.
...
As the curses and footsteps behind him became fainter, Xue Jing knew he had escaped the danger.
The accelerated heartbeat brought on by the sense of crisis slowly subsided, but a rage began to smolder in his heart.
Out of nowhere, a bunch of people chased him like a dog, no matter the reason, he took note of this grudge.
Rationality told him he should leave immediately and not take risks, it would be safer to seek revenge after becoming stronger; there was plenty of time for a gentleman's revenge, even if it took ten years.
But his emotions told him to fuck rationality!
He slowly turned around and looked across the street at the dozen or so figures.
He opened his panel and confirmed the passive effect of "Twin Lifes," feeling a surge of confidence.
He looked around on the ground and spotted a half-piece of red brick about the size of a fist nearby.
Xue Jing picked up the half brick and weighed it in his hand.
Under the astonished gaze of the dozen or so people, he walked towards them with a blank expression and steady steps.
...