Chapter 22: Slaughter

Slash.

Darkness descended instantly upon the young man. A tearing agony in his eyes forced him to instinctively hunch over and clutch his face. As a warm, wet sensation mixed with the metallic scent of rust filled his palms, he realized what had happened.

“Over here! She’s hiding under the car! Come qui—”

Before he could finish, an indescribable agony pierced from his mouth through to the back of his neck. His tongue suffered a numbing, searing burn, accompanied by the extreme torture of his mouth being forcibly slit and pried open. This agony lasted only a second; the miao dao plunged into his mouth was yanked out, only to be immediately thrust into his chest.

Blood gushed from his eyes, lips, mouth, and chest. The cascading gore quickly turned him into a bloody figure. The moment Shi Yue withdrew the blade for the final time, he collapsed.

“Left! The path on the left, by the van!”

Shouts and rapidly approaching footsteps filled the air. Shi Yue dared not retreat; there were simply no other places to hide. She steeled her heart—she would charge straight at them and pick them off one by one before they could regroup!

At the factory gate, the two men standing guard were brandishing plastic pipes as weapons. They had just turned toward the noise when they saw Shi Yue sprinting toward them, long blade in hand.

“Huh?”

The leader trembled in terror, raising the plastic pipe to block. However, the durability of a plastic pipe was negligible against a forged blade. With a single swing, Shi Yue sliced through both the baton and the neck. The blade struck the carotid artery, cleaving through nearly half his neck. A jet of hot blood sprayed out, forming a scarlet line in the air before splattering a pattern of red spots across the adjacent wall.

Having cut down one, Shi Yue immediately locked onto the other. Seeing his companion instantly slaughtered, the man lost all will to fight; he dropped his stick, turned, and ran! Shi Yue couldn’t close the distance in a few steps, but fortunately, the dagger she bought last night would come in handy. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a small knife and raised her hand to throw. To ensure accuracy, she activated “Bullet Time” the instant she released the blade.

Thwip. Only a blur was visible. The knife struck the man squarely in the back of the head. He staggered once, then planted face-first into the ground.

“I see her!”

“Get her, all together!”

Four men returning from two other directions spotted Shi Yue instantly. They saw the blade in her hand, of course, but they were armed too. There were four of them—strength in numbers. So, even seeing their brother cut down, they dared to charge.

Shi Yue crouched to retrieve her dagger—making sure not to repeat the rookie mistake of getting it stuck. She stood up immediately. Glancing at the four closing in, she knew she couldn’t take them head-on, so she turned and ran into the factory building. The catwalk on the second floor was extremely narrow, making it perfect for a fighting retreat.

She had just stepped into the spacious factory floor when she saw the bowl-cut boss coming down the opposite staircase.

“Stand still!” “Don’t move!”

At the same time, gritty roars shattered the silence behind her. The four pursuers, plastic pipes in hand, were chasing her relentlessly.

“Don’t run!” Shi Yue growled at the bowl-cut man.

Of course, he didn’t listen. Seeing Shi Yue rushing toward him with a blade, he instinctively turned and scrambled back upstairs. Thud, thud, thud—heavy footsteps drummed urgently on every step. First the bowl-cut man, then Shi Yue… and then the four pursuers. The boss reached the catwalk first. He glanced around, locked eyes on a door across the walkway, and sprinted toward it.

Shi Yue drew her dagger, intending to cut him down first, but the chaotic, rapid footsteps closing in from behind forced her to slow down. She turned. The remaining four were clattering close behind her. Because the catwalk circling the factory’s second floor was narrow—barely wide enough for two people—they were forced into a single-file line, rushing at her one by one.

Just as Shi Yue had calculated, the terrain drastically reduced their numerical advantage. Now, it was just—

“Aaaah!” The first man raised his plastic pipe to smash her skull. Shi Yue spun and raised her blade to block. Clang. The pipe bounced off the blade upon impact, causing the man to stumble back a step. Shi Yue instantly summoned her gauntlets; black, seemingly metallic armor encased her hands and forearms, the spiked pattern on the back of the hand standing out sharply. She followed up with a straight punch to his nose. Frozen momentarily by the pain, he was helpless as Shi Yue’s blade sliced his throat. She kicked him off the ledge, and he landed with a heavy thud on the floor below.

The second man rushed up immediately, swinging his pipe from a high diagonal angle. Shi Yue triggered “Bullet Time” for a split second, stepping back to easily evade the blow, then thrust her blade straight through his chest. As she withdrew the weapon, hot blood sprayed from the wound. The man collapsed, a red pool quickly spreading across his chest.

Then came the third. Stepping over the previous body, he lunged. Besides the pipe in his right hand, he pulled a dagger from his pocket with his left, attempting a surprise stab. Countering this was simple. Shi Yue activated “Bullet Time,” her left hand clamping firmly onto his extending wrist. Simultaneously, her right hand swept across—and his entire arm fell to the ground!

“Aaaaaah!!!”

A shrill scream echoed through the empty factory. The man dropped the pipe, clutching the stump of his left arm. Blood poured out, leaving the cross-section of bone, muscle, and skin clearly visible. Shi Yue didn’t waste words; she drove her blade into his throat, instantly revoking his right to scream. She kicked him aside and walked straight toward the final man.

In the blink of an eye, three brothers… no, apart from the boss, he was the only one left. He looked at the precious blade in Shi Yue’s hand with terror. It was bizarre—despite cutting down so many people, the blade remained unstained by blood! He shifted his gaze to Shi Yue and felt a vague, suffocating aura of bloodlust radiating from her.

Run!

Staying a second longer would be a waste of the life his parents gave him. He turned and fled, his heavy footsteps rattling the catwalk. Shi Yue quietly watched his retreating back. She drew a throwing knife, squinted one eye to aim, and threw.

The blade sank steadily into the back of his head, and he hit the floor with a thud.

Silence returned to the spacious, abandoned factory. Shi Yue looked toward the room where the bowl-cut man had hidden and walked briskly toward it.

If that room led to an emergency exit, today’s efforts might have been in vain.

She reached the door and kicked it open. It was a dead end. The room appeared to be a former office, long since cleared out. It was empty, save for the two girls she had seen being unloaded from the van earlier. They were huddled in the corner, trembling, tightly bound with ropes.

The bowl-cut boss was clutching the window frame, one leg already hoisted up, craning his neck to check the ground below. He seemed to be hesitating over the two-story drop. Hearing the door crash open behind him, he jolted and spun around in a panic. The moment his eyes locked with Shi Yue’s, he immediately crouched down, grabbed one of the girls in a chokehold, and pulled out a knife.

“Don’t come any closer! I’ll kill her!!”