Chapter 69: Chapter 69 – Kill and Destroy

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

The sky was already dark when Ren Suo parted ways with Xia Lingyu and Li Ke’er.

As it was April when the zenith of the sun was shifting towards the Northern Tropic, the northern hemisphere experienced longer periods of daylight. Furthermore, Lianjiang City, which Ren Suo was in. was situated along the Northern Tropic, making the contrast between day and night even more distinct.

When the sky turned dark, it would have been past 7 p.m. Ren Suo had even eaten dinner with the girls and exchanged contact numbers before parting ways.

It was because Ren Suo was extremely curious about the “Ren family of Luoyang” that they talked for such a long time. In a quest to fulfill his curiosity, Li Ke’er and Xia Lingyu had told Ren Suo about everything they had learned, and they even discussed while searching for information online.

One of the many facts that they learned was that the Ren family was actually not located in Luoyang but Taibai Plains, which was located near the mountain ranges south of the then Luoyang and southwest of present-day Beimang Mountain.

Another fact they found out was that there were no detailed records of the number of historical figures who had friends from the Ren family. Nonetheless, all of those “friends” were masters of the Qi Men Dun Jia and astrological methods of divination, as well as proficient in geology and astronomy. The killing was effortless to them, and their methods of saving lives were equally divine.

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Another example was that the Ren family was actually not formed of people from the same family lineage but were instead a village of people who had the same surname, Ren. As time passed, the people from the Ren village were dispersed throughout the Nine Provinces, where the people who still had the surname Ren today came from.

By the end of their conversation, Ren Suo was almost certain about his intuition, but he still wanted to know more about the historical records of the Ren family of Luoyang.

However, according to Li Ke’er, there were actually few records of the Ren family of Luoyang in history, of which none were entered into official historical records. The only recounts of the Ren family of Luoyang were in the letters and records of famous warriors during the final years of the Eastern Han dynasty.

No one would have believed that they lived such a large family during the final years of the Eastern Han dynasty if not for the fact that the records came from a vast number of famous historical figures, from well-known names like Lu Bu and Zhang Xiu to Liu Bei and Cao Cao, and from Jiang Wei and Lu Xun to Ji Kang and Chen Lin.

But that was also almost all that was known about the Ren family of Luoyang. Although the Ren family knew many well-known figures in history, they never once became officials in the palace, nor did they ever pledge their allegiance to a particular political power. In most historical accounts, the Ren family was described as being akin to legendary figures like Chen Zhuan, Zhang Sanfeng, and Hua Tuo. They were able to wield the ultimate abilities they possessed so effortlessly that it seemed strangely extraordinary.

However, unlike legends such as Chen Zhuan, Zhang Sanfeng, and Hua Tuo, the Ren family never left behind any known works. They remained very secretive and mysterious and never accepted any disciples.

Due to the fact that official historical records did not mention about the Ren family, as time passed, increasingly fewer researchers and historians took notice of them. Those who did become aware of the Ren family, however, would often be forced to give up due to the lack of new historical evidence about them.

The reason why the present generation of researchers and historians became aware of the Ren family was that archaeological records were normalized and central databases were established and it was then that they discovered the existence of the peculiar Ren family during the final years of the Eastern Han dynasty.

“There are actually very few local researchers who research about the Ren family,” Li Ke’er said as they were waiting for their train. She continued, “Finding out more about the Ren family is also just a mere hobby of Teacher Cheng. Currently, local researchers have only found out that the Ren family was separated into three branches, and one of which is located at the senior’s hometown in Fofeng Village. If you are still interested to find out more about it, why don’t you make a trip back to your hometown to search for records?”

“I will,” Ren Suo replied.

Although Ren Suo said so, he did not actually intend to do so.

If it was not a coincidence that he also had the surname Ren, Ren Suo figured that he would soon find out more about the Ren family very soon, and he did not need to search for information on his own. On the other hand, if it was really a coincidence…it was even more certain that Ren Suo would not search for information as he had no interest in his own ancestors.

When the train pulled into the station, Li Ke’er and Xia Lingyu bid their goodbyes to Ren Suo as they took the train heading in the opposite direction. As Ren Suo looked at them leaving, he thought to himself that people truly cannot be judged based on their appearances.

Over the last few hours, Ren Suo found out that not only were the two girls Awakeners but also that there seemed to be more than just a simple friendship between the two of them—but that was only Ren Suo’s guess, and he did not have any of such “relevant experience”.

Ren Suo also did not know how they became such close friends, but based on the current situation, it seemed that they knew they were both Awakeners. Although they were Awakeners with keys that had not “formed fully”, it was almost as rare as striking the lottery for them to have found each other.

That being said, however, it was still not extraordinary for such occurrences to happen, given the large population of Xuan Nation.

The reason why they wanted to meet Ren Suo was also very likely because they wanted to get information from a civil servant about any “special” movements and plans within the government, while also considering if they wanted to become a civil servant themselves.

After all, being an Awakener would have thrown their life aspirations off-track, especially if they were not willing to give up on their Awakened Abilities. If they wanted to further make use of their Awakened Abilities, the direction that the government was heading with regards to Awakeners like them would be extremely important. It would be the best-case scenario if they became a government official.

As Ren Suo pondered about what he had just learned, his train pulled into the station. However, loud shrieks suddenly echoed from the front.

Ren Suo looked up to see deep red-colored bloodstains on the glass windows of the arriving train!

Passengers, who were waiting for the train, also saw the bloodstains. They were shaken and took a few steps back. At this juncture, the platform staff also rushed forward and told passengers to remain calm while evacuating.

Ren Suo equipped himself with the [Clothes] ability!

Afterwhich, an unfazed Ren Suo waited for the train doors to open.

As the train doors whooshed open, the panicking passengers in the train rushed out in a frenzy. In the meantime, the subway police and staff entered the train cabin.

Ren Suo stood on the platform and saw only one teenager, who was wearing a jacket, left inside the cabin through the train windows. There was also a dead body of a middle-aged man on the floor—his head seemed to have been twisted a few rounds forcefully and the flesh in his neck was all torn apart. A large pool of blood had formed on the floor.

A strange feeling emerged in Ren Suo’s heart as he looked at the teenager.

It was not the same feeling of extreme attraction, but more of…a disgust felt after taking a whiff of spoilt, rotten food.

“Turn around and put your hands up!” the subway police shouted as they slowly surrounded the teenager, with batons in hand. Even though they did not have guns, any ordinary thief would have been scared to their wits seeing the strong and muscular subway police advancing towards him.

However, the teenager in the jacket merely puckered his lips as he suddenly took a deep breath. He appeared somewhat ferocious as he shouted, “Back off! Or you would be sorry!”

Hmm?

Ren Suo looked on as a deep purple mist suddenly began emerging from the teenager’s body as if a flame was surrounding him.

Ren Suo was stunned momentarily but soon thought of something.

“Sir, please go back up to the gates, it is…” said a subway policewoman, urging Ren Suo to leave. She tried to pull Ren Suo away but realized that Ren Suo remained rooted in his original position.

“He is going to run,” Ren Suo said. At the same moment that Ren Suo finished his sentence, the teenager in the train cabin sprung towards the group of subway policemen, as if he were a compressed spring that had been released!

The subway policemen who had anticipated his move swung their batons towards him, but the batons were all broken in one fist of the teenager!

The four subway policemen charged forward to surround him, but they were all sent flying backward when the teenager swung himself at them! Other crew members came forward to help but were all thrown back!

The policewoman was astounded and quickly held onto Ren Suo’s arm, saying, “Hurry, it is dangerous here!”

However, Ren Suo pushed her away and slowly approached the train cabin, muttering softly to himself, “6, 5, 4…”

At this moment, the teenager ran out of the cabin to see that the platform was empty, except for a calm and composed man who was walking towards him.

The teenager’s expression turned cold. In Ren Suo’s eyes, however, the black misty blaze surrounding the teenager was growing bigger.

“You are asking to die!” the teenager shouted.

“… 1, 0. Great, the ability has been equipped,” said Ren Suo to himself as the teenager threw a punch at him. Ren Suo stepped back and dodged the punch.

“Trying to run? Let’s see how you dodge this!” the teenager hollered furiously as he threw yet another punch at Ren Suo.

This time, Ren Suo was extremely focused. He dodged sideways as he swung his left hand towards the teenager, slapping the latter in his face. Upon impact, the teenager fell straight to the ground!

“You—” shouted the teenager as he attempted to return the blow as soon as he fell down. However, the moment he stretched his fist out towards Ren Suo, he lost his strength and fell back to the ground.

“What happened?” thought the teenager, stunned. At this moment, Ren Suo lifted his head and threw him towards the wall!

The impact almost made the teenager lose consciousness. Then, Ren Suo threw another punch towards his diaphragm, just below his ribcage, and finally knocked the teenager out.

Ever since Ren Suo obtained the ability [Fighter Novice], Ren Suo had researched the web on how to knock people out more easily. He learned that the back of a person’s head and the diaphragm at the front of a person’s chest were the two easiest places to strike to cause the person to lose consciousness.

Although he was not fully equipped…but the effect seemed rather impressive.

At this point, the subway staff who were still able to move walked over in shock. Ren Suo showed them his official work pass and called his team leader to inform him about the entire incident and the presence of the Awakened teenager committing a crime. You Xulong told Ren Suo that he would send the other members over immediately and that the subway department would assist in handling the case.

As Ren Suo calmed down after successfully handling the sudden incident, he felt a sense of fear.

Why did he rush forward to subdue the teenager just now?

Indeed, he had the ability “Lock”, and it was almost effortless to subdue an Awakened person like the teenager who had no prior experience honing his skills. As long as he had physical contact with the person, any other power was no use against Ren Suo’s [Lock]—at least for now.

But what if the target had a ranged attack ability?

In that situation, Ren Suo, who would have equipped himself with [Ability: Lock] would have to rely on his own Reiki ability to invoke [Clothes] to block the target’s attack.

It had to be made clear that Ren Suo’s own Reiki talent was merely average, and the [Clothes] he invoked on his own was extremely weak. As such, the defense power [Clothes] would provide him with was insufficient to ensure his safety.

“Why did I voluntarily go forward to subdue him?” Ren Suo asked himself as he looked at the unconscious teenager on the ground. He continued grabbing the teenager’s arm with one hand, preparing to [Lock] him any moment if required.

But of course, there was one other minor reason:

[A key has been found.]

[The key is in a state of unconsciousness. Starting to retrieve the key.]

[The key has already been formed. 72 seconds is required to retrieve. Do not remove physical contact. 71, 70, 69…]

In Ren Suo’s eyes, the black mist of wrath around the teenager was no longer as large, but instead, smoky black clouds of smoke were dispersing.

That was how…demons looked like.

In the game [Over My Dead Body], demons were one of the four types of monsters in the game. They were the incarnations of humans who had been Practitioners. In the game, demons were essentially humans who had mists of black smoke surrounding them.

Demons were humans that had been negatively influenced by Reiki. Apart from the changes in their behavior, more importantly, they gradually lose their “human nature”. They become tools of Reiki that are unable to communicate and reason, and can only continue doing what they had been used to, which was to continue utilizing Reiki and savaging humans.

Of course, those who had totally no ability to think and reason were the worst and most corrupt of demons that Ren Suo did not even come across in the game. Most of the demons he encountered were mere “villains” in the ordinary sense. In the game, “demons” were human-looking Practitioners.

But not all “villains” were demons, although demons were definite and grave threats to the development and harmony of society.

In reality, however, it was different.

At first glance, Ren Suo was able to confirm that the teenager was a “demon”.

Thereafter, based on his own set of abilities, he very naturally equipped himself with [Ability: Lock], and went forward to “kill and destroy” the monster.

Why was this happening…

At this moment, Ren Suo felt the teenager twitch. Then, the black fury suddenly froze and turned into a cloud of thin smoke, and vanished into Ren Suo’s arm in a whoosh!