At night, half past eleven.

Three cars drove on a road leading out towards the city outskirts. Everyone seated inside the cars had their eyes hung low, their expressions solemn.

The cars were extremely quiet and smooth as well. As the scenery outside the windows extended further and further into the outskirts, the buildings on either side of the road became progressively scarce. Each person’s heart was filled with complex feelings.

They were really going to arrest the criminal… Their superiors had truly approved of it!

“Old Chen...” Old Zhu loaded his rifle with bullets, scanned his surroundings, and said lowly, “Could it really be true… what Captain Xu said, that he was actually invited to come? How was the last-minute notification approved?”

Holding a cigarette in his mouth, Vice Captain Chen slightly narrowed his eyes, the corner of his mouth hanging because of his heavy smoking. After a while he snorted, “I still didn’t believe it before… but now, I really do believe in it a little. Why was our response to Chief Zheng met with ambiguity? Why isn’t the mayor and municipal committee secretary saying anything? If he was invited to come, then everything would’ve been relayed!”

“He’s not a paratrooper?” Old Zhu pinched a bullet between his fingers, still a bit reluctant to believe. “How old is he? Even if he started studying from the womb, his work experience isn’t nearly as long as ours. How’s that possible?”

“Whether or not he is, everything will be clear tonight.” The policewoman Qin Wanyu took an ammo clip, loaded her rifle with it, and forced her strength on it as the ammo clip made a screeching metallic sound. She tidied her police uniform. “If you don’t believe it, how can I? I’ve never even heard of a kid being invited before! Anyways, it’s no use saying this now. We’ll know soon enough.”

After ten more minutes passed, the car stopped. As everyone in the Disciplinary and Investigations Unit got out of their vehicles, they were thoroughly stunned.

Ahead of them was an unfinished construction site. It wasn’t all that big and there weren’t any buildings in its surroundings.

The sound of the late-night wind poured in from a dilapidated window that went through a ruined corridor and drifted out from the other side, like a countless number wraiths wailing as they revolved around the building. 

Not a glimmer of light or a sliver of human presence could be seen within. The ruined building was like an enormous beast perched in the darkness. It seemed to give people an indescribable sensation of sinister terror. 

Yet this wasn’t much to consider at all. The crux of the matter was the heavy encirclement of people stationed in front of them!

“Captain… Captain Gao?” Vice Captain Chen saw a man not too far away and asked in amazement, “Why are you here?”

“What, you want to stop me…?” Captain Gao laughed towards the side and lifted his chin. “Take a look over there. That’s Major Zhou from the military police. Sanshui City’s three forces are also here; all of the captains have brought their squadrons over.”

There were over a hundred men… A wire fence that not even a drop of water would be able to escape from formed the surroundings of the run-down building!

The officers of the Disciplinary and Investigations Unit glanced at each other at the same time. 

Had they seen a ghost? Was this a criminal arrest? Wasn’t this using a heavy fist to strike a housefly?

Not to mention a single criminal, even ten, twenty—no—a hundred criminals wouldn’t be able to escape through any means!

The machine guns reflected a dead appearance beneath the moonlight, black in color and deathly still, imbued with a feeling that made all men’s courage shudder coldly. What kind of criminal required such military weaponry?

“This is fucking crazy!” The end of Old Zhu’s cigarette fell out of his mouth, and he observed the scene in amazement, his lips trembling. “I’ve handled cases for many years… but I’ve never seen anything like this before!

Layer and layer of doubts arose within his heart. Who had said the criminal was here? How had the transfer of the entire city’s ordinance passed through the city government? What criminal required so much action? Was Batman sealed off inside?

[1]

“You don’t know? I still don’t either!” Captain Gao heavily gulped, “The order that all of Sanshui City’s army, military police, and public security have received is as follows: ‘in case something appears within a hundred-meter perimeter, don’t hesitate to shoot it dead on sight at all costs’. Hehe… in all my years I’ve been a police officer, I’ve never heard of a command like this!”

“Thing?” Officer Qin keenly caught onto this word. It flashed across her mind, yet she didn’t understand any of it. She only felt this command was too strange. “It’s not… a person?”

Who fucking knew?

Vice Captain Chen and Captain Gao exchanged glances, both of their eyes reflecting loss.

“The city government is being stupid. I heard a paratrooper came to fuck around and bullshit.” Captain Gao waved his hand. “How great is this kid’s background that all these people are mobilized to arrest a criminal? This goes against all fucking logic!” 

“Did we come to the wrong place?” A new police officer’s forehead was slick with cold sweat. With the present somber mood, he didn’t risk speaking loudly.“How about we ask the captain?”

“You guys haven’t come to the wrong place.” Before the police officer’s voice even fell, a familiar voice rang out from behind him. Xu Yangyi walked over. “Your mission is to deal with the aftermath.”

“Captain Xu!” At this time, Vice Captain Chen was still of mind to argue with Xu Yangyi. He snapped his head around and said, “Why are these people here?” We’re only arresting a killer! Who the heck is it? C-Captain Xu! You…”

As soon as he turned his head, he was entirely stunned. However, he wasn’t the only one that was dazed. Everyone that got a look of Xu Yangyi was also stunned.

The young captain was standing there rather calmly. There wasn’t anything different about him compared to usual, but… he was surprisingly geared in camouflage! He wasn’t wearing his police uniform!

“Captain Xu…” Old Zhu stared blankly for quite a while and said with a trill voice. “Your… gun?”

“Gun?” Xu Yangyi rubbed his fists and locked his slender fingers together, making them crack. “I don’t need one.”

“This… This is the heavy firepower you were talking about?!” Vice Captain Chen’s voice was shaky as he pointed at the encirclement of men before him. “You transferred the entire city’s armed forces?!”

Xu Yangyi glanced at him indifferently, the corner of his mouth faintly turned upwards, yet his next words made Vice Captain Chen almost jump!

“Stay where you should, rookie.” Xu Yangyi loosened up his shoulders and narrowed his eyes. “Special things… should be handed over to the specialists to take care of.”

Vice Captain Chen choked back on the air in his chest. Even as his lips trembled for a period of time, he didn’t regain his composure. He only used his finger to point falteringly at Xu Yangyi.

Xu Yangyi paid no heed to him and said into the microphone line he flipped over from his collar. “Ready?”

“No problems… After you enter, I’ll activate the Big Dipper Heaventail Formation straightaway and isolate all visual and sound… I’m really looking forward to our harvest this time!”

 Mao Ba’er’s familiar voice rang out from the transceiver.

Xu Yangyi nodded and inhaled deeply. His gaze began to turn cautious, and he lifted up his hand. Even if his mind was in disarray, not a sound could be heard at this moment.

The only noise remaining was the low hum of the summer night insects. Such a deathly still silence, a terrifying silence, a tense silence like that of a heel maggot slowly creeping upwards every person’s heart.

Captain Gao’s vision flickered, and he raised his hand. The troops under his command wordlessly raised their rifles. With another wave of his hand, the army soldiers on the other side raised their rifles. 

Clip clip clip…

 Like a silent rallying song, a sonata of firearms, rifles were loaded.

Xu Yangyi took a long, deep breath, raising his leg and moving forwards. His silhouette seemed to become fainter and fainter, darker and darker. In short time, he couldn’t be seen any longer.

“I’ve already entered the Big Dipper Heaventail Formation. You can relax, pretty boy.”

 Strange laughter could be heard from the transceiver, yet Xu Yangyi didn’t laugh. Instead, he took a knee on the ground and fished out a bamboo stick from his pocket. Inside the bamboo, there was a floating liquid that reflected the moon’s brilliance.

“Demonslaying Crossbow? Pretty boy, you’re willing to part with this capital?”

“Well, if you hadn’t touched my money, I would’ve originally had more than a single crossbow bolt.” Xu Yangyi shook his right hand, and with a swish, the camouflaged sleeve on his right hand crumbled apart in a flash. An exquisite rectangular iron case was fastened onto his hand.

Klack… Klack!

 Following a light burst of noise, the tightly attached crossbow on his wrist sprung forth like the flapping wings of a tiercel wishing to take flight. At first, the weapon had taken on the form of an iron case, but like a transformer it swiftly morphed into a fine crossbow!

The crossbow exterior wasn’t different in any way from the ones seen on television. However, it was carved with mysterious and arcane runes on its entire body! Moreover, the runes were flickering with blue edges that made the heart tremble!

On its flight groove, there was an arrow, simple and unadorned. The iron bolthead was already extremely mottled. It was just that the rusted bolthead was dressed with an even more profound talisman. 

“Are you sure nothing’s wrong with the formation?” Xu Yangyi asked once more, taking the bolthead and inserting it into the water inside the bamboo pipe without delay. “If the demon’s true body is seen by ordinary people, not to mention me even graduating, I’ll be lucky if I don’t get sentenced.” 

“Relax.”

Xu Yangyi closed his eyes, and his lips thinned into a straight line. This was his first demon extermination… For all his many years of cultivation, he would finally be able to see the result today!

In the end, what kind of trash was this demon? A psychopath that had killed twelve people, a beast with extremely strange spiritual force fluctuations, even daring to attack Sanshui City’s City Hall… 

“Let me see what you got.” As he opened his eyes, they were already filled with an eerie killing intent.

A wisp of a deep-blue flame began to rage from the bolthead! The night wind whistled, and Xu Yangyi silently lifted his hand up.

Cricket…

 Like the chime of a bell and the cry of wildlife, the night wind blew over his hand, and a faint-blue flame the length of his arm roared, yet it burned unhindered. Its dazzling radiance made the moon in the sky lose color. 

At this moment, the wind rolled and the clouds moved. Killing intent filled the air. A soundless killing intent that could cause one to tremble in silence!

With a wave of his hand, a cloud-penetrating bolt, a blue bolthead wreathed in an eye-dazzling blue edge, loudly charged into the sky with a swoosh! Its splendor was equal to the moon!

Hum!

 Dragging forth bewitching one-meter-long tails of flame, an azure shower of flowers emerged in the sky. From the bolt, one tail split into two, two tails split into four, and four tails split into eight… In the blink of an eye, the brilliant blaze seemed to draw the trajectory outlines of a celestial chart in the middle of the night sky, making the starry ceiling pale.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

 The sound of shattered sky barraged the ear. Stony rubble pierced clouds, and raging waves beat against the shore. Bolts, resplendent like shooting stars with long flaming tails, launched towards the pitch-black building with a speed that evaded the naked eye.

Scars of blue flame interweaved in the air, and black clouds pulled back. Like a stratum of blue clouds tearing open the black night, the moon and stars were dim without luminescence.

Yet now, the run-down building stirred. Like the entire building was the chasm of the devil’s box, countless black shadows suddenly bore out from the pit! In the next second… all that was brought forth by the bolthead faded away! The only thing remaining was the blazing curtain formed by the interweaving azure flame that filled the entire sky.

In a flash, Xu Yangyi’s expression finally turned grave. In that flickering moment when he’d fired the bolt, his eyes had become red, taking in that flashing shadow in the darkness. He captured it entirely within his eyes. 

A towering black shadow… A shadow that completely engulfed all of the flames. It… was a serpent.

An infinitely long black serpent shot out like arcing lightning from the run-down building. The creature then retreated demonically once more. The inside of the building seemed to have become the nest of an immense serpent!

1. 蝙蝠俠 - this is what the Chinese call Batman. Literally: Bat Hero

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