Chapter 442: Chapter 442: Emergency Rescue

If it were possible to set up in advance, and to confine within a relatively small area, Xiang Kun’s first choice to drive others away and scare them off would definitely be the use of the fear-emotion projection of the “Eight-Armed, Eight-Eyed Wood Carving”.

Moreover, he has now developed a method that, under the “Super Sensory State”, the emotional projection can take effect without having to make eye contact with people or revealing himself, which makes it easier for him to carry out his actions.

But the situation here and now has too many variables, and using this method would be too uncertain. Not to mention anything else, the opponent is a “mutant”, and Xiang Kun is not sure if the fear-emotion projection would have the same effect on him as it does on other humans.

Therefore, after taking everything into consideration, the strategy that Xiang Kun decided on was to use the weather conditions and mobilize the thunder and lightning to “drive away the enemy”.

Xiang Kun is not the “Thunder God”, he cannot actually control where the thunder and lightning strike. The previous “lightning storm” was actually just a “by-product” of his Electric Mastery Flight, much like the air blast and smoke caused by the take-off of a helicopter.

Although the weather at this time is very “nice”, if he is willing, he can use the “super-connected objects” to induce the electric field, control the electricity to fly, just like on Zi Huan Mountain, creating a small range of “lightning storm”.

But in that case, he would expose himself, so Xiang Kun’s current method is to break down the whole into parts, using the units of the “super-connected objects” as the main body and separating himself from the entire flight system.

It is equivalent to dismantling the helicopter propeller and turning it into dozens of electric fans blowing on the ground, only creating a façade, but without any actual effect.

Upon hearing the return of the “flying mutated creature” through auditive senses, Xiang Kun closed his eyes and began to enter the “super sensory state”, starting to induce changes in the electric field in advance through the “super-connected” beads carried by dozens of “flying worker ants” scattered outside.

In the sky, the heavy clouds press down, lightning rumbles.

And in the mountains, gusts of wind begin to blow.

…

For Mr. Liang, his attack on the “giant raptor” was only aimed at capturing it, so he would not strike to kill.

Moreover, after chasing for so many days and having multiple confrontations, he had long figured out the giant raptor’s ability to resist attacks, knowing that it could take a beating. Even conventional firearms might not be able to kill it easily.

So Mr. Liang thought he was quite restrained. After controlling the “giant raptor” and temporarily disabling it, he used the ultra-thin chain connected to his hand to “carry” it and began to fly out of the mountain.

On a mountain road, a truck prepared by driver Old Xie as he scheduled for the purpose of transporting the “giant raptor” stood waiting.

During the flight, Mr. Liang always kept an eye on the “giant raptor” to prevent it from recovering too quickly and starting to break free.

Initially, Mr. Liang was fairly confident because when he monitored the “giant raptor” in real-time using the equipment on his body, he found that this fierce “blood-eating creature” was badly wounded, with its heartbeat constantly slow and its body extremely weak.

However, within a short period of time, Mr. Liang sensed that something was wrong. Why did this “blood-eating creature” look like it was about to die?

Even if it was beaten to a pulp by him and badly injured, it wouldn’t likely continue to deteriorate like this, because he wasn’t continuing to attack it.

Given the physiological characteristics of “blood-eating creatures,” they should start to recover and heal at this point, especially considering the super resilience and regenerative abilities this “giant raptor” had previously displayed. According to his estimates, even if those injuries hadn’t fully healed yet, they should have at least stopped getting worse.

So, Mr. Liang landed from the sky, untied this “giant raptor,” and began to check its injuries. He found that, although the injuries were severe, they were primarily on the wings and two feet, as well as a pair of hidden feet, and they were not fatal.

What Mr. Liang couldn’t understand was that the “giant raptor” appeared to be breathing in more than it was breathing out, visibly on the edge of death.

Mr. Liang looked at the distance to the truck on the virtual map projected in front of him from his eyeballs, thought for a few seconds, then had dozens of unmanned aircrafts of different sizes enter a defensive warning state around him.

Although he hadn’t ingested blood in the field for safety reasons after reaching a certain stage, this “giant raptor” was probably one of the top three “blood-eating creatures” he had encountered in terms of its degree of evolutionary mutation. Watching it disappear into dust without doing anything felt somewhat wasteful.

At his current stage, such a standard devouring target was very rare.

Mr. Liang stepped on the bird’s head of the “giant raptor” with his bare foot, directly smashing its head into the mud. He then lifted up his right hand, which was covered in special patterns and shone with a metallic luster, and a sharp object slowly penetrated through his palm without bringing forth a drop of blood, looking as though it had broken through a layer of a plastic bag.

The needle-like object on the head stabbed swiftly into the neck of the “giant raptor”, starting to withdraw fresh blood and feed it to Mr. Liang.

His two big eyes, which were already scant of whites, were now almost entirely occupied by his pitch-black pupils and flowed with an eerie red light. The sight at night was exceptionally sinister and terrifying. If anyone happened to see this in the mountains at the time, they would probably think they had stumbled into Hell.

However, Mr. Liang’s blood drinking lasted less than three seconds before it stopped. The needle line was extracted from the neck of the “giant raptor” and retracted into his palm.

Mr. Liang started to thoroughly examine the body of the “Giant Raptor” again, with four small drones moving in to light up his area with their lamps.

Just a brief taste of blood made Mr. Liang realize that the blood of this “Giant Raptor” was far from fulfilling his blood-drinking needs. Even if he consumed the blood of five such “Giant Raptors”, it would not be enough for a full serving, but would only awaken his current stage of blood-drinking needs.

This meant that the “Giant Raptor” was just a newly-transformed “Blood-eating Creature”. And it was nowhere near making predatory blood-drinking attacks on other “Blood-eating Creatures”, and its transformation progress was quite low.

However, this clearly did not align with the formidable strength the “Giant Raptor” had previously displayed. Something was off!

Mr. Liang quickly noticed that the heartbeat of the “Giant Raptor” had already stopped, as if it were completely dead. Soon after, the body of the raptor, which was bigger than Mr. Liang himself, turned into dust and scattered into the woods.

“Bang!——”

A loud noise echoed through the forest as a large tree exploded from the middle of its trunk and slowly toppled over, leaning on the trees next to it.

Mr. Liang pulled back his fist. Due to prematurely severing the blood-feeding, he was even more brutally violent than usual.

But after the punch, a silent smile slowly spread across Mr. Liang’s face.

He realized that the “Giant Raptor” did not really die, nor was his previous judgment of its power wrong. Instead, this special “Blood-Drinking Creature” had a method of escaping that he had not noticed, a “sloughing-off” technique.

Indeed, if his goal tonight was to “capture the Giant Raptor,” then looking at the current situation, it was a complete failure.

But the “Giant Raptor” demonstrated a strength and evolutionary stage far beyond his previous estimates, beliefs, and convictions, which fits his long-term interests and expectations even better.

The stronger the other “blood-drinking creatures”, the happier he was. He was hoping to find a real “Predator”.

Some things he couldn’t explain in detail to Old He just yet. When necessary, he had to make decisions on his own.

However, Mr. Liang wasn’t entirely satisfied. He didn’t want to return this night without knowing what had transpired.

He wanted to figure out exactly how the “Giant Raptor” managed to escape under his nose.

So Mr. Liang soared into the sky again, leading several dozen drones back to where he had previously battled the “Giant Raptor”.

But as he approached the location, the weather suddenly took a drastic turn.

The weather tonight wasn’t good to begin with, with occasional bouts of rain. However, given that the northern mountain areas of Haixi Province were typically rainy, he didn’t pay much attention to the changing weather, as his drones and himself had strong wind and water resistance, as well as surge protectors and associated circuit protection components.

But soon, Mr. Liang realized something was wrong.

The weather deterioration was occurring too quickly. Clouds in the night sky were continuously rolling and converging, strangely all within his vicinity. Electric dragons hustled and bustled, and electric lights flickered frequently, as if brewing a terrifying force.

Perhaps because of his special body composition, he could even clearly feel the oppressive force from the energy gathering above him, and a strong sense of danger surged in his heart.

An immensely loud roll of thunder exploded between the heavens and the earth, the sound lingering in the air.

Even though no lightning struck the ground, Mr. Liang instantly lost contact with all his drones.

After losing signal, his drones typically had three modes: self-assess the situation and continue the previous task; find a place to land and enter power-saving mode; determine the closest pick-up point and return on its own.

However, at this moment, dozens of drones were all like drunken bees, either crashing into the forest directly or flying erratically, clearly showing that their flighting modules, related circuits, and chips were all affected.

Not just the drones, even Mr. Liang himself felt something was off. He even suspected that if it weren’t for the special structure of his gear and the distinct connection between them, he might have lost power instantly and could only maintain flight by gliding.

Even though falling from this height wouldn’t likely cause his demise, what he feared more was the lightning in the sky.

At this moment, he couldn’t help but recall the videos of the lightning storm on Zihuan Mountain and Chongyun Mountain District that he had seen before.

His body composition was very unique, unlike any other creature’s, but he wasn’t sure what he would become under such a lightning storm, or what would happen if he got struck by lightning repeatedly.

However, the innate fear of the terrifying lightning welled up in his heart, along with the awe-inspiring pressure of the world that he could clearly sense, making him decide to leave before the “lightning storm” descended.

But as he departed, there were more questions bubbling up in his heart.

Why now?

Why here?

The “Giant Raptor” experienced the lightning storm of Zi Huan Mountain, and now another lightning storm was about to happen here, could this really have a direct connection with it?

Did it cause it?

No, this couldn’t be. Regardless of how advanced the evolution and mutation of the “Giant Raptor” was, it could never summon the power of natural lightning. It was not within the capabilities of these “blood-eating creatures”.

If it really could, then I would’ve been long dead.

Mr. Liang, who was flying in the sky, suddenly thought of a possibility. His fear of the “lightning storm” lessened, but another deep-rooted fear and anxiety that had been suppressed for years surfaced, making him shiver all over his body.

…

Xiang Kun, hiding in the forest, naturally noticed the departure of the “Flying Mutated Creature”. His plan to scare it away seemed to have worked perfectly, even exceeding his expectations.

Just a moment ago, he had a sudden inspiration to use the “Super Sensory Thunder” amplified by the “Super-connected Objects” matrix, which had an excellent EMP (electromagnetic pulse) effect. It successfully paralyzed almost all the drones in the area.

This wave of Super Sensory Thunder, coupled with the continuous friction, accumulation, and discharge caused by the cloud layers overhead, made the atmosphere very grandiose. It seemed as if “lighting would scorch and eradicate everything on earth”.

Xiang Kun guessed that if the “Flying Mutated Creature” was from “Divine Technology”, it could very likely be aware of the previous lightning storms in both Zi Huan Mountain and Chongyun Mountain area. Therefore, being frightened away was expected and logical.

In fact, despite the frightening spectacle of the gathering storm in the sky, which is even more turbulent than the preliminary setup at Zi Huan Mountain, without his power of “Electric Mastery Flight” causing the clouds to discharge in an ultra-short period, a “lightning storm” would not occur.

No matter how grandiose the commotion in the sky, it would only result in continuous, intermittent discharges over a longer period and a larger area, but the power would be much less.

Xiang Kun emerged from his hiding place and began to run quickly in the scattered rain, heading directly to the place where he had spotted a drone falling.

He did not approach immediately, but first judged the working conditions of the devices on the drone, including the camera. Only after confirming that nothing was functional did he go forward and observe it closely in a different visual mode.

Although he didn’t have in-depth knowledge of drone technology, he could still see at a glance that this drone was quite different from common civilian drones.

And judging from their previous flight status, they seemed to be much more advanced than the drones Mijoe and Fang Pingfang used to monitor the “mutated big bird” and the “mutated ants” on Wushu Mountain.

After observing for a while, Xiang Kun directly picked up a piece of simple metal debris that had scattered nearby and tried to establish a “Super Sensory Contact”.

He speculated that even if the “Flying Mutated Creature” was scared away, someone would likely come back later to salvage these drone wreckage parts.

Though the metal shard appeared to be of simple materials and construction, Xiang Kun still spent over twenty minutes trying to establish “Super Sensory Contact” without success. He didn’t have enough information about it to swiftly establish contact like he could with a coin or a piece of A4 paper.

He didn’t persist but decided to give up. He then coated a tungsten steel ball with some damp sand nearby, mixed them together, and stuffed it deep into a crevice in the damaged drone.

Xiang Kun then began to cover up his tracks. Not just here, but everywhere else as well. He used a controlled coin to quickly scrape and distort the shape of his footprints, making it unrecognizable as such.

Just as he was about to finish covering his tracks, Xiang Kun felt a sudden movement in his heart and then focused his senses. It was Old Xia, frantically invoking his powers, activating the “Illusion Reality”.

Whether it was Xiao Pingguo, Little Fatty Girl, or Old Xia, when they invoked his abilities via the “Super-connected System”, he could sense it. But this was only under circumstances where had a high level of concentration, then he could vaguely sense it.

If his abilities were likened to a resource, each time a “developer” invokes it, the resource consumed is extremely small. Hence the responsive reaction of Pingguo, Little Fatty Girl, or Old Xia, due to their familiarity with his abilities, barely caused any ripple in his senses.

Except for two scenarios – one, when a “developer” developed a new capability; and second, when a “developer” frequently uses the ability to reach their own threshold, Xiang Kun would have a noticeable sensing and response. He would be able to perceive it even when his attention was on something else.

When he went into the mountain, he left all his electronic devices including his phone with Old Xia. So they agreed that if anything urgent happened that required him to return immediately, Old Xia would vigorously use “Illusion Reality”, pushing his abilities to the limit. That way, Xiang Kun would be alerted.

But it’s only been around ten hours since he entered the northern mountain area of Wushu Mountain, so what could have possibly happened in Chongyun Village?

…

Half an hour ago.

In a tourist city on the eastern side of Burma, Southeast Asia.

Located within the slums consisted of low houses connected into one piece.

In a small courtyard filled with stacks of recyclable waste like cardboard several meters high, a few dark-skinned men in T-shirts or tank tops were dozing off against the wall of the house.

Though it was only March, the temperature in eastern Burma had already risen to between twenty and thirty degrees, making the courtyard a refreshing place to sleep at night.

Suddenly, the door of the courtyard was thrown open and a motorcycle drove in. The men who had been dozing off jumped up in shock, scrambling to their feet in panic. One of them even instinctively reached for the weapon in his pocket.

However, the two men who rode in appeared to have a higher status than the men in the yard. After scolding them in low voices, they went straight into the house.

Oddly enough, the language they were using wasn’t Burmese, but Mandarin with a heavy accent.

After entering the house, the two men on the motorcycle greeted a tall man with glasses guarding the living room. They then casually picked up two masks from the cluttered coffee table and put them on.

One was wearing Zhu Bajie’s mask, the other wearing Monk Tang’s mask.

After whispering to each other for a while, they stepped into a room.

Inside the room, a burly man with a hood over his head was tied to a chair and seemed to be still in a daze.

The man in Zhu Bajie’s mask took off the man’s hood and gave a few strong slaps on the face of the man who was sporting a crew cut.

After being slapped a few times, the man began to wake up groggily. However, despite having the hood removed, his eyes were still covered, and his mouth was stuffed with a rag.

“Do you know why you’re here?”. Zhu Bajie’s mask took out the rag from his mouth and asked in heavily accented Mandarin.

The man spat out a few times, getting rid of the dirty taste in his mouth. Then he tilted his head slightly as if to survey his surroundings through the gap under his blindfold, but gave up after receiving another slap from Zhu Bajie’s mask.

“I don’t understand, I’ve only been here half a day and lost money at the casino. I didn’t cause any trouble with anyone, why would I offend someone? Brother, did you… kidnap the wrong person?” His tone was relatively calm.

“No mistake, Young Master Xia, Mr. Xia, with a physique like yours, we couldn’t have gotten the wrong person in Burma,” laughed Zhu Bajie’s mask.

Monk Tang’s mask urged, “Stop wasting time, get to the point.”

Zhu Bajie’s mask then said, “Young Master Xia, we took you mainly for ransom. If you cooperate well, everything can be discussed. If you don’t cooperate, we might have to cut off a few fingers, toes, or noses. Think about it. Now, call your dad to prepare five million dollars in cash. Once he has it ready, we’ll notify him. No contacting the police or we will feed you to the eels.”

The kidnapped man was Xia Tianhuo. After hearing Zhu Bajie’s mask, he sighed, nodded and said, “Alright, I’ll cooperate. But brother, our Xia Family may seem well-off and our business may seem big, but we owe the bank a lot of money. We’re waiting for clients to repay us so we can repay our loans. This business hasn’t been good in recent years, it’s almost over…”

“Do you die pig consider us stupid?” Zhu Bajie’s mask gave Xia Tianhuo a slap on the head, scolding, “Keep your mouth shut…”

“No… it’s just that if you guys have a demand, you should be practical, right? Not to mention whether our family can take out that much money, even if we can… we don’t have any major business in Burma, we definitely cannot get that much money in US dollars here. And in our own country… there are strict foreign exchange controls, let alone five million dollars in cash, even exchange of fifty million would be difficult! And there’s no way to bring it to Burma. Why don’t you ask us to open an account with a Swiss or Swedish bank first …” Xia Tianhuo continued to complain.

“Cut off his thumb,” said Monk Tang’s mask coldly.

Hearing the snap of a switchblade being thrown open, Xia Tianhuo quickly said, “Give me the phone, I’ll make a call. But I can’t remember the number, it’s saved in the contact list on my phone, I need to look at the phone…”

“Which contact?” Zhu Bajie’s mask took out a phone, unlocked it with Xia Tianhuo’s finger and asked.

Xia Tianhuo hesitated for a moment, then said, “Look for ‘Old Xia’, that’s him.”

As the monk mask was pressing the number on another phone, Xia Tianhuo added, “But my dad was hospitalized with health problems recently, and his phone has been kept by my mom who is in charge of company affairs. She should be the one picking up the call…”

After the call was connected, Monk Tang mask put the phone to Xia Tianhuo’s ear. He spoke immediately without waiting for the person on the other end to speak.

“Mom!”