Chapter 7: Detonation
PLUCK!
The needle-nose pliers pulled the bullet from his chest.
Blood oozed from the wound. With a slight exertion, Zhang Ji flexed the muscles around it, staunching the flow.
After mastering the Iron Shirt technique, another of its functions was gaining finer control over the muscles tempered throughout his body.
Zhang Ji then plucked another bullet from his right arm.
He carefully examined the wound on his right arm.
The bullet had only penetrated by its tip before being stopped cold.
All in all, it was a superficial wound.
Even lighter than the injury Kratos had sustained earlier.
Zhang Ji sprinkled on some medicine, wrapped it in a bandage, and then sat down to eat his roast duck rice.
This was the first time he had killed someone.
He felt no nausea, no fear.
In that moment, he felt anger, and even a sliver of excitement.
’Is it because I have power now?’
’As the saying goes, a blade in hand gives rise to a murderous heart?’
Zhang Ji’s swallowing hitched for a moment.
Then he looked at the little bit of medicinal paste he had left.
’My injuries aren’t serious. This should be enough to cultivate two more Essences.’
...
「The next day.」
Inside the unloading warehouse, the atmosphere was heavy.
A body lay on the ground, covered by a dark blue tarp.
Uncle Cheng stood there smoking, a subtle change in his expression.
This was the first time Zhang Ji had seen such a look on Uncle Cheng’s face since he’d arrived.
’What’s going on? Who’s dead?’
Zhang Ji was confused. He wanted to find Gu Ming and ask him.
But Gu Ming, who usually arrived early, was nowhere to be seen.
Zhang Ji’s heart sank a little.
A guess formed in his mind, one he hoped wasn’t true.
He strode forward. No one stopped him.
Until Zhang Ji lifted the tarp.
The familiar face was revealed before him.
Zhang Ji’s hand froze in midair. After a moment of silence, he lowered the tarp again.
Gu Ming was dead. Just like that.
The brutal reality gave Zhang Ji a new understanding of this place.
Shanli Island.
A place that had left goodness behind.
All goodness would be destroyed here.
Zhang Ji hadn’t even had the chance to talk to Gu Ming about his son. He had just been planning to let Gu Jie study on his own...
An inexplicable anger welled up in his heart.
’The fox mourning the hare’s death?’
There was also the rage of having his friend murdered!
Gu Ming may have been a bit of a schemer, but on the whole, he had helped Zhang Ji adapt to life here.
A while later, Gu Ming’s family arrived.
No one knew who Gu Ming’s father was, and his mother had died of illness long ago.
Now, there was only his wife, Mu Duo, and their son, Gu Jie.
His wife looked to be around thirty, but she was actually only twenty-four. The hardships of her life had aged her prematurely.
Mu Duo didn’t cry when she saw Gu Ming’s body.
She had grown up here, too.
She had lived through the days before Kratos’s arrival.
After Kratos came, there was a period of chaos before the current, relatively peaceful environment was restored.
Having experienced so much, she naturally wouldn’t break down and cry at the first sign of trouble like an ordinary woman.
Even Gu Jie didn’t cry, merely standing quietly beside the body.
Uncle Cheng offered some money and had everyone help with Gu Ming’s final arrangements. They cremated him, reducing him to a handful of ash.
During this process, Zhang Ji managed to learn the general circumstances of Gu Ming’s death.
A gunshot wound. He died in an alley.
That alley was the very one he had passed through last night.
In other words, it was possible he had already avenged Gu Ming.
...
「In his residence.」
Zhang Ji rapidly struck his body with a wooden stick.
’Once the "water bottle" has been stretched, it’s much easier to fill it with water.’
The effect of the same portion of medicinal paste was ten to twenty percent stronger than before.
Zhang Ji could feel that he might not actually need three full days to obtain a skill Essence for his Iron Shirt technique.
If he kept training, once his body adapted and his potential increased, he might not even need medicine. His body might be able to recover on its own.
The original, ancient method for Iron Shirt didn’t use any of these medicines; it relied purely on the body’s own Recovery Power and regenerative ability.
It’s just that training method was incredibly taxing.
Therefore, as long as his Recovery Power and regenerative ability were strong enough, he could definitely train without relying on medicine.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
The knocking sounded. After checking the situation, Zhang Ji carefully opened the door.
Gu Jie was standing outside.
Gu Jie didn’t enter. Upon seeing Zhang Ji, he said, "Teacher, I won’t be coming anymore. My mom asked me to tell you."
"Mm, I know," Zhang Ji nodded after a moment of silence.
"Goodbye, Teacher, then." Gu Jie turned, preparing to leave.
"Wait!"
Zhang Ji called out to him.
He then turned and retrieved a box from inside his room.
Inside was the large portion of batteries he had saved up.
"Take them all. It’ll help you hold out for a while longer," Zhang Ji said.
His thinking was simple: help out where he could.
Without Gu Ming’s income, Mu Duo wouldn’t be able to support herself and Gu Jie, and she would inevitably fall into darkness.
This money should help her last for a while longer.
As for what would happen after that...
Zhang Ji didn’t know either.
Right now, he could barely protect himself.
He had just killed someone, and he still didn’t know if the other party had tracked him down.
"Thank you, Teacher."
Gu Jie bowed, took the box, and turned to leave.
Zhang Ji watched his retreating figure, silently closed the door, and then resumed his training.
He didn’t know what was happening outside, but as long as he was training, he could feel a sense of security.
...
「That night.」
Lying in bed, Zhang Ji heard gunshots again.
BANG!
BANG!
Some shots were distant, others were close.
Uncle Cheng had already given them a two-day break.
The cafeteria was still open, though.
But the quality of the food had dropped significantly.
He wasn’t training anymore; his medicinal paste had run out.
And right now, he couldn’t find anywhere to buy more.
BANG! PING!
That sound was very close to Zhang Ji. It might have even hit his shipping container.
Zhang Ji froze, a ruthless glint appearing in his eyes.
He sat up, his hands gripping the edge of his bed, involuntarily tightening his grip.
The cardboard was crushed and twisted in his grasp, and his own knuckles cracked.
BANG!
Zhang Ji looked up, his gaze piercing through the wall of the container toward the source of the sound.
.....
Chu Xiangwen stood in a high-rise building, looking down.
The battle was erupting down there.
Kratos’s crew was in a firefight with the men Hong Kang had brought.
As a nominal disciple of Kratos, Chu Xiangwen held him in high regard, even though the old man was past his prime.
However, he also believed fervently in the law of the jungle: the weak are meat for the strong.
The current situation was a tiger hunting a rabid dog, and he had wisely chosen to side with the tiger.
Kratos, however, wasn’t so clever. He was still fighting the rabid dog sent by another tiger.
He didn’t seem to realize that even if he won, it would only attract another, more ferocious dog, or even the tiger itself.
Suddenly, he saw a figure burst out of the darkness.
Amidst the hail of bullets, a crowbar smashed down violently on one man’s head.
In an instant, the man’s head was reduced to a bloody pulp.
Just as Zhang Ji was about to strike a second person, a gun aimed his way.
BANG!
The bullet struck his skin. Spurred by his breathing, his Qi and Blood naturally gathered, and his toughened skin deflected the bullet.
Other than a flash of pain, Zhang Ji was completely unaffected.
His Iron Shirt was not only mastered, he had even cultivated two extra Essences!
In other words, it was at 120% of its power!
He had even surpassed the theoretical limits of the Cultivation Technique.
"IS THIS EVER GOING TO END!?" Zhang Ji roared.
His voice gave him away, attracting everyone’s attention.
Zhang Ji raised his crowbar and charged the group of men.
WHOOSH!
The crowbar swept out, striking one of the men.
In an instant, bones snapped and tendons tore!
THUD!
The man slammed into a wall and crumpled to the ground.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Zhang Ji shielded his eyes with one hand and sprinted forward, crowbar in his right, charging another man.
Faced with the charging Zhang Ji, the man was startled, but he knew he couldn’t outrun him.
All he could do was shoot.
The bullets struck Zhang Ji. His movements faltered, but he kept running, powering through the impacts.
WHOOSH!
SPLAT!
A head burst like a watermelon before Zhang Ji’s eyes.
WHOOSH!
THUD!
No one could withstand a single blow from that crowbar.
And Zhang Ji could withstand their gunfire!
"Go! Fall back!!"
The remaining dozen men scattered and fled. Zhang Ji didn’t pursue. He locked eyes with the men on the opposing side for a moment, then turned and vanished into the darkness.
Up in the high-rise, Chu Xiangwen fell silent.
Even Kratos didn’t possess that level of Horizontal Training Power.
The two warring factions were even more dumbfounded.
They had no idea where such an expert had come from.
Wu Chen stared at the figure disappearing into the darkness, finding him somewhat familiar.
Then, he suddenly made a connection.
’He was hiding this deep?’
He couldn’t fathom how someone who fought dogs for food could have such strength.
’With this kind of power, why would he be fighting dogs for scraps?’
This time, the man hadn’t appeared to help either side. It was more like he’d been disturbed and came out to blow off some steam.
’I have to tell Kratos about this. It would be best if we could win him over!’
...
"What? He charged through gunfire and killed four of your men right in front of you?" Hong Kang said, his face a mask of disbelief.
It wasn’t that he’d never seen a Horizontal Training Expert, but at least Zhao Kui couldn’t do that.
So, another Horizontal Training Expert had just appeared out of nowhere?
The number of variables had suddenly skyrocketed.
"That person" only gave him a two-month deadline.
If he didn’t succeed in taking Kui District soon, he was a dead man.
"Investigate him. I’ll go myself!" Hong Kang ordered.
....
....
’Acting on impulse feels good for a moment...’
Zhang Ji took off his tattered clothes, revealing a lean, powerful torso covered in bruises.
Despite his ferocious charge, he hadn’t escaped unscathed.
Most of the bullets’ force had been negated, but some of the impact was still transferred to his body.
That’s why his body was a patchwork of bruises.
Still, bruises were better than holes.
Zhang Ji now had a rough idea of his own power level.
He should have solidly entered D-Class.
The level of a professional fighter.
But only around the level of a First or Second Rank professional.
In an age of cold weapons, he’d be a terror, but in this era of firearms, while he had some Combat Power, he couldn’t just charge in recklessly.
’My power is still too weak!’
After applying some medicine to himself, Zhang Ji changed into a new set of work clothes and lay down.
The sudden transmigration, the inexplicable attack, the death of a friend—all of it had stretched his nerves taut, so much so that the slightest provocation had set him off like a powder keg.
Of course, the prerequisite for that explosion was that he now possessed a small amount of Combat Power to protect himself.
If he were still in his original, fragile state, he would never have been so reckless as to charge headfirst into gunfire.
KNOCK KNOCK!
A knock suddenly sounded at the door.