Shackles of Humanity

Luo Kai shouldn’t have been able to see any of this, but he did. The resentment and hatred carried within the gray mist even tried to actively resonate with his consciousness.

BOOM! Another violent explosion erupted. A mountaintop above them shattered, and a tidal wave of dust and rubble swept down.

Luo Kai’s face paled. There might still be survivors in the train cars, but once the rockslide hit, all hope would be lost.

This was a premeditated attack. The enemy had first destroyed the tracks and then triggered a landslide, intent on annihilating all several thousand soldiers. The cruelty of war had revealed itself before he even reached the battlefield.

But he was just one man; he couldn’t change anything. He could only heft Big Bear onto his shoulder and start scrambling up the opposite slope. The moment he moved, the hair on his arms stood on end. That sense of crisis flared in his heart again. He twisted instinctively. WHOOSH! A bullet shot past him.

The ravine was extremely steep. Not only did Luo Kai have to climb it while carrying a burly man weighing seventy to eighty kilograms, but he also had to dodge the fire of a hidden sniper.

He took a deep breath, his chest heaving like a bellows. He pushed his Qi and Blood Circulation to its absolute limit, and his skin took on an eerie red hue. He clearly perceived the trajectory of another bullet and dodged it by a hair’s breadth.

On a mountaintop over two thousand meters away, five men in short gray robes and armed with swords and guns watched indifferently. One of them, crouched on the ground with a long rifle, gave up after firing three shots. "He’s good," he said. "Can’t hit him."

"Should we go finish him off?" a slender man asked.

Their leader was a middle-aged man with whitening eyebrows. His eyes were strange—his pupils were vertical and tiny, like a hawk’s, and incredibly sharp. He stared directly at Luo Kai.

By this time, Luo Kai had reached the top of the hill. He set Big Bear down behind a large boulder and then stood on top of it, staring coldly toward the other mountain. Their gazes collided across several thousand meters, instantly igniting a blazing battle lust.

The white-browed man sneered and made a throat-slitting gesture at Luo Kai. Then he turned to his men. "The mission is complete. No loose ends. Let’s move out."

...

The sensation of being watched vanished. Luo Kai let out a sigh of relief, knowing the attackers had withdrawn. He wasn’t particularly afraid for himself; even if he couldn’t win a fight, he could have escaped. But Big Bear probably wouldn’t have survived.

He looked back down below. A torrent of mud and rock had buried the train. The gray mist in the air above was growing thicker, and the negative emotions it carried grew more intense. His consciousness had only just brushed against it when a gray vortex formed. Countless frequencies, filled with resentment, vied to resonate with him, even swarming toward him. He became flooded with this endless hatred, and the urge to slaughter all Living Creatures surged through him once more.

Luo Kai grunted and forcibly severed his connection to the frequencies. The gray mist swirling around him rapidly dispersed, and his mind cleared. He collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. The feeling was terrifying. If the Water Frequency was akin to the gentle warmth of love and kinship, then this gray mist’s frequency was one of savage slaughter and Destruction.

After a while, a light rain began to fall. Soon, all of Heaven and Earth were shrouded in a hazy drizzle. The gentle water seemed to sense the turmoil in Luo Kai’s mind and body, softly swirling around and soothing him.

Luo Kai’s thoughts gradually calmed. Watching the rain swirl around him, he was suddenly reminded of some strange phenomena from his previous life. Whenever a major disaster like an earthquake or tsunami caused heavy casualties, it would rain the next day or the day after. This bizarre natural occurrence had always baffled scientists.

Now he finally understood the reason. It was because the negative emotions of the dead triggered the Water Frequency, creating the natural phenomenon. As for why it didn’t happen on battlefields, it was likely because someone was absorbing those emotions.

Li Gui had once said this type of negative emotion was called Evil Qi, a form of Dark Matter unknown to mankind. Shangjing University in the Dongyuan Kingdom seemed to have conducted extensive research on the subject. ’I should go attend one of their lectures if I get the chance,’ he thought.

Beside him, Big Bear coughed violently and groggily awoke. The big man was relatively lucky; he only had a fractured sternum pressing on his lungs. The injury was severe, but not life-threatening.

He looked around in confusion before the memories of what happened came rushing back. He cried out to Luo Kai, "What happened? Where’s the train?"

Luo Kai pointed downward. "It’s gone."

Big Bear looked down. The entire train was buried beneath mud and rock. All he could see was blood and mangled corpses that had been thrown from the cars. He went completely numb, muttering, "They’re all dead..."

Luo Kai sighed. He noticed that the tunnel entrance had also been buried by collapsed rock. He vaguely remembered an explosion inside the tunnel as well, trapping several cars. The casualties in there were likely even worse. He said to Big Bear, "You rest here. I’m going to check the tunnel."

Big Bear didn’t reply, still repeating the same words. The incident had clearly been a heavy blow, his first real taste of the cruelty of war.

The slope was incredibly steep, but Luo Kai bounded down it like an ape. He first made a pass through the ravine below, his ears twitching as he searched for any signs of life. After two sweeps turned up nothing, he headed for the tunnel.

The tunnel mouth was buried under collapsed rock; digging a path by hand would be a monumental task. He hesitated, then took a deep breath and slightly accelerated his heartbeat. His consciousness extended from his body in an attempt to probe the situation inside, but the dense rock was a far greater obstacle than any normal structure. He could only penetrate five or six meters, making it impossible to learn what was really going on inside.

With no other choice, he began the arduous and lengthy task of moving stones. He worked until nightfall, only managing to clear the largest boulders from the entrance. He found some military compressed rations, ate, and then continued to work.

He lost all track of time. His muscles and bones ached with exhaustion. Just as he was about to give up, he caught the faint glint of a train car’s metallic body. At the same time, he heard moans and gasps. His spirits soared. ’There are people alive!’ He quickened his pulse and dug with renewed vigor.

After a moment, a scraping sound reached his ears, as if someone was digging from the inside. Soon, a narrow gap was cleared, and a figure covered in soot and dust scrambled out. He gasped for air for a moment, then shouted at Luo Kai, "Why is it just you digging? Go get help!"

Luo Kai saw the insignia on the man’s epaulets: two bars and one star. He was a Major. Luo Kai shook his head. "There’s no one left."

The Major froze, pointing a trembling finger outside. "All of them?"

Luo Kai nodded. "The train derailed into the ravine and was then buried by a landslide. Besides me and one other who’s severely injured, everyone is dead."

The Major was stunned for a moment, then snarled through gritted teeth, "This has to be the work of the Nanzhao Kingdom’s Secret Service Bureau!"

"We can talk about that later. Right now, we need to save people. What are the casualties like in there?"

"I don’t know. There are a few more survivors in my car. Let’s hurry and dig."

Panting, the two men continued to widen the opening. They squeezed inside and began carrying out the bodies one by one. Most had died from lack of oxygen; others had been crushed to death by the debris.