Chapter 38: Laughing Grenade |
A desperate counterattack, using the enemy’s own weapon, thrust into the enemy from behind.
Wu Zhong’s strike did not go in very deep, after all the other side was wearing pants.
He inserted it just a little, barely getting in, but… it was enough.
The human body has the “Seven Gateways,” referring to seven key parts of the digestive tract.
They include the Fei Gate, meaning the lips and mouth, the first gateway for food entering the body.
The Hu Gate, meaning the teeth, the second gateway for food.
The Xi Gate, meaning the epiglottis, the gateway that opens when breathing and closes when swallowing to prevent food entering the airway.
The Ben Gate, meaning the cardia at the stomach’s upper entrance, preventing stomach contents from refluxing into the esophagus.
The You Gate, meaning the pylorus at the stomach’s lower exit, the gateway connecting to the small intestine.
Finally the Po Gate, meaning the anus, the ultimate exit gateway for excretion.
With this strike, Wu Zhong used the opponent’s sword blank to hook from behind and locked the Po Gate.
Even if it didn’t go in deep, once closed it was closed—just like the half-closed door Wu Zhong had welded earlier: a piece of paper jammed into a leak still stops the leak.
The point wasn’t how wide the opening was, but the act of using it.
Any “gate” that Wu Zhong used had its open-or-closed state made unchangeable by others.
Only Wu Zhong could intervene.
“What’s your Chongyang Iron Sword compared to my Seven Gate Sword, huh?” This “Seven Gate” sword technique by Wu Zhong finally shattered Feipeng’s composure.
“Ugh ah…” Feipeng writhed in agony, his cold, proud expression completely gone!
He managed to hold the front part together, but now he was hit from both ends!
He was still a tough guy, clutching the wooden pole, trying to yank it out.
No matter how he pulled and tore, aside from wrenching the muscles into excruciating pain, the stick was as if welded in place.
It stayed jammed there, not moving an inch!
A three-foot wooden pole was welded into his pants at the rear, like a raised tail.
“Ugh ooo…” Feipeng’s eyes bulged, he clenched his lips, his features contorted, stifling groans of humiliation.
Why couldn’t he pull it out! Why couldn’t he pull it out!
He was ruthless and decisive; he channeled true energy into the pole, which hummed as sword light burst forth!
His intention was to cut flesh and rip it free!
Cut the tangle with a quick blade; short pain is better than prolonged torture!
But he gravely misunderstood—the problem was not flesh binding the pole, it was an absolute trait.
The sword light shredded his own flesh, but the wooden pole would not budge at all.
It only made him suffer more, blood pouring, his whole body trembling and weakening.
“Feipeng!” Ya Bai watched, stunned.
Feipeng was one of their mercenary group’s main fighters; his host was a famous rogue figure on the weapon roster of some world.
His swordsmanship and movement were both peerless, yet he was felled by a newcomer using such a despicable trick and couldn’t get up.
“Hmph.” Wu Zhong completed a two-hit heavy blow and quickly put distance between them.
This opponent was formidable; he did not dare linger, for fear of being counter-swung, and he had no intention of keeping that wooden pole.
He didn’t even know what the stick was; even his energy blasts hadn’t left a mark. It seemed indestructible, a valuable item.
But Wu Zhong abandoned it without hesitation, because it was the enemy’s weapon and might have a trick; keeping it was too dangerous.
Better to leave it stuck in the other guy and walk away…
Wu Zhong rolled along the ground following the momentum; even though the hard soil rubbed his severed arm painfully and sharp stones dug into his flesh, he rolled a few short times until he was beside his detached arm.
He grabbed the severed limb and pressed it to his shoulder in one fluid motion!
“Hiss…” Wu Zhong felt the flesh on his shoulder twitch, then his arm tingled with numb pain.
Feeling the hand hurt meant the arm’s nerves were reconnecting.
This was a living symbiote armor with a self-rejoining severed-limb feature.
“It can reconnect… but… not yet…”
Wu Zhong was sweating like rain, fingers moving slightly, his palm beginning to diffuse a purple glow, but he still couldn’t lift the arm.
He could sense nerve reconnection, yet the arm remained severed—obviously, even with the rejoin function, wounds of this severity could not heal in such a short time.
He even needed to clutch the right arm with his left hand to hold it in place; once he loosened his grip, the arm would droop again.
“Raise it, raise it up!”
At last Wu Zhong clutched his right arm with his left and hoisted it, but this caused the severed surfaces to misalign slightly, the nerve signal lost again, and the palm glow dimmed.
That delay cost him the chance to finish off Feipeng.
Because Ya Bai, furious, had already arrived; a whip-like kick slammed through the air with a terrifying whistle.
“You brat, you’re asking for death!”
That kick had murderous intent, aimed straight for Wu Zhong’s head.
The noise and violence were terrifying, and Wu Zhong, from severed arm to counterkill to retrieving his arm, had been moving nonstop—yet he showed signs of being spent.
The counterkill on Feipeng had been an outburst. Now he was facing two opponents; with Ya Bai closing in he pictured his brains splattering.
But at the critical moment, a stone stele suddenly rose up!
“Boom!”
The stone stele blocked the kick, but it was shattered by the strike.
Flying debris smashed into Wu Zhong, and he rolled out, bloodied and mangled.
“Fire!” Yang Chunsha shouted; at the crucial moment it was she casting.
The illusion had already been dispelled for her, and with Ya Bai rushing to save his teammate and ignoring her, she finally could join the fight.
Now a faint glow shone on the woman’s chest as pages flipped.
Her magic made the ground undulate, soil sink, rocks protrude.
Ya Bai’s legs sank into the mud, his body squeezed by rock—this was the perfect opening.
Wu Zhong, clutching his arm, the purple glow in his palm flickering and fierce.
“Boom! Shoot!” Wu Zhong was anxious; the purple-melt ordnance merely flickered and refused to fire.
Ya Bai’s eyes widened with rage; he knew he couldn’t take this, and suddenly his body ignited with crimson life aura as he shot upward.
With one palm he smashed a rock, and with a kick he sent shattered stones flying like bullets.
Crackling! Wu Zhong’s body was covered in blood marks, his cheek smashed, the flesh on his face shaking, blood spat from his mouth.
He threw his head back and collapsed; the purple-melt ordnance command was interrupted again.
Ever since losing his arm the thing had been unreliable, no longer smooth as before.
“Damn it, I can’t fire it!”
Wu Zhong was frantic, but the more frantic he got, the less it would fire; the purple glow in his palm fluttered unpredictably.
“I’ll take your life!”
Ya Bai no longer bothered to capture Wu Zhong alive. His whole body radiated bloody fury, like a bulldozer smashing stele and rock, terrifying in force.
This guy had suffered tremendous injuries yet still charged with such might?
Earlier it hadn’t been obvious, but when Wu Zhong’s purple-melt ordnance misfired, Ya Bai’s ferocity became clear.
Ya Bai and Feipeng were different kinds of strong. Ya Bai’s strength lay in his incredibly vigorous life force.
“Graaa!” Ya Bai charged recklessly.
Yang Chunsha cast repeatedly but could not stop him.
The earthen walls she raised were large and soft; the stones were solid yet loose.
“De Biao! Use Triple Rashomon now!”
Wu Zhong kept retreating, forced to signal aloud.
Fortunately Yang Chunsha understood and the book’s pages flipped rapidly; following his shout she intoned: “Spirit Summon: Triple Rashomon!”
Thud thud thud!
Between Wu Zhong and Ya Bai three consecutive ghost-mask stone gates rose.
Over two meters high, wide and solid.
Yang Chunsha understood Wu Zhong’s door trait well—one of the few who knew—so she made actual doors, with ghost faces carved in the middle, and Wu Zhong could just push them open.
“Ninjutsu?” Ya Bai’s voice was hoarse.
Yang Chunsha was delighted; she had tricked someone.
Ya Bai glared at Wu Zhong; their clothes were already torn in the fight, and with Yang Chunsha tapping multiversal power as well,
“So you are Wu Dong after all?”
Ya Bai growled, like a bulldozer smashing stele and rock, charging ahead.
He easily broke through two doors.
Wu Zhong’s scalp tightened and he quickly shut the third stone gate again.
“Boom!”
Ya Bai cracked the stone gate with one palm!
But though it split, the fragments did not scatter—the broken stones still maintained the door’s shape.
Thud thud thud! Ya Bai struck three times in succession and still could not destroy the gate.
“Huh?”
Ya Bai was astonished; he stepped aside to go around the door and launched a whip kick.
But Wu Zhong reacted fast and ran around the door!
Ya Bai’s kick missed, leaving cracks on the stone gate.
He pursued fiercely; Wu Zhong frantically circled the pillars—or rather, circled the doors.
Although Wu Zhong’s strength was less than his opponent’s, in these tight-dimensioned circling movements he was not much slower.
Ya Bai’s blood-fire aura surrounded him, full of brute force and high straight-line speed, but he was not as nimble as Feipeng, and was continually stopped by these isolated stone doors.
“Argh!”
Ya Bai, enraged, suddenly rolled and jumped over a stone gate, bringing a heavy stomp down from the air!
At that moment Wu Zhong’s arm finally twitched to life; the purple glow had finished charging.
He lifted his right arm and fired.
“Boom!”
The blast was brutal. Ya Bai was midair and could not dodge; the shot struck under his butt.
“Pffft!” His butt exploded open!
Gore spilled forth, intestines and innards pouring out, the lower area blown wide like a busted dam.
The residual force of the purple-melt ordnance splashed onto the stone gate, destroying it.
Yet Ya Bai’s leg still landed on Wu Zhong’s chest; the purple-melt ordnance could not stop that heavy stomping blow!
“Uwaa!”
Wu Zhong, his arm across as a shield, was still viciously kicked in the chest, vomiting a mouthful of fresh blood, wondering how many ribs snapped.
If not for the armguard cushioning somewhat, his thorax would have been crushed inward.
Even so, he was severely injured, breathing painfully.
Blood also spurted from his shoulder; the severed arm pressing atop him was torn open again by the force.
“Thud!” Ya Bai collapsed to the ground, trembling all over.
A hole in his chest, his butt torn open, and an arm severed—his injuries were actually worse than Feipeng’s.
“De Biao! Kill him!” Wu Zhong howled.
Yang Chunsha made a patch of rock and soil soft, burying Ya Bai alive.
Wu Zhong breathed a sigh of relief, but just as he rose he heard a pop and a huge hand burst out of the soil!
“Huh?”
Wu Zhong was stunned, seeing Yang Chunsha half buried while Ya Bai clawed out.
He decisively pulled a laughing grenade from his pocket, pulled the pin, and threw it.
He had used these three times already and was thoroughly familiar with them, knowing the effective radius of thirty meters.
This time he threw it deliberately farther away, hoping only to graze the edge, since being too close would affect him as well.
However, after a surge of blood aura the soil pit suddenly erupted.
Ya Bai blasted out of the ground in a high leap.
The force of his emergence knocked the grenade off course.
Feipeng was still doubled over; as he stood up he saw the grenade land in front of him.
“Oh ho?”
He wasn’t afraid of grenades, but cautious—so he hunched and twisted away to dodge some of the blast.
Unfortunately he wasn’t cautious enough.
Boom! The grenade detonated, and its radius still covered him.
When he heard the explosion something felt wrong; there was no flash of fire.
“What! How does he have… ahahaha!” Feipeng’s terrified laugh broke out.
His whole face lost control: “Ohoho, a laughing grenade! Oh hohoho, it’s a laughing grenade! Hahaha!”
He was furious inside, having never expected Wu Zhong to have this trick.
Everyone knew how dangerous this thing could be, but the laughing grenade was a product unique to Unit 985; perhaps a few leaked out, but they were extremely rare—who would guard against it?
It looked exactly like an ordinary grenade!
Every molecule in it showed nothing abnormal; Unit 985 researched it for decades, running countless tests, and could not separate it from a normal grenade.
Yet when it detonated, within thirty meters it forced uncontrollable laughter.
“Feipeng!”
Ya Bai roared in anger. Feipeng had it worse—he too was hit by the laughing grenade.
Feipeng’s face twisted grotesquely, his body bent, one hand gripping the wooden pole, the other braced on the ground, his butt thrust as he laughed uncontrollably.
The scene was as bizarre as it was grotesque.
“De Biao, your earth escape can’t kill anyone?” Wu Zhong felt awful too.
He saw Ya Bai drenched in bloody aura—missing one arm, a hole in his right chest, his butt blown open.
The man looked like a flesh-and-blood ghoul crawling out of hell, yet he could still stand!
Not only that, he dug out a piece of crimson, jelly-like substance and plastered it directly into the wound, where it immediately melted away.
“Hiss…” He exhaled a foul breath, eyes coldly fixed on Wu Zhong.
Yang Chunsha shouted, “He ate Kun Blood!”
“Run!” Wu Zhong thought to himself that this fight was over.
He turned and fled, stumbling to Yang Chunsha’s side. “Get in the car!”
Yang Chunsha understood; she raised one last earth wall to block Ya Bai, then dove into the driver’s seat.
She spat out as she hit the throttle, gripping the wheel with one hand as they sped off. “Me drive? I lost a hand…”
“Am I any better? My chest is caved in,” Wu Zhong rasped weakly.
He too had lost an arm and had to hold it with one hand to keep it from falling.
“Then hold on tight…” Yang Chunsha gritted her teeth and swallowed the pain to drive.
“Ugh ugh!”
Dust flew as the car crossed the ridge and hurtled toward the distance.