Chapter 41: Controlling Energons

The sound of the cane tapping on the ground grew louder and louder.

Su Xuan had already wrapped the metal wires back around his body and lay down, feigning unconsciousness.

Even after absorbing two Black Energon Stones, Su Xuan still wasn’t confident that he was a match for that old man.

Therefore, playing “innocent” became Su Xuan’s best protection.

Outside, a chaotic battle raged.

Nearly a thousand cultists had surrounded the villa, forming a temporary quarantine zone.

Countless bodies lay on the lawn and the road, their blood staining the earth crimson and filling the air with a foul stench.

Although this group of cultists was just a disorganized mob, easily defeated, under the leadership of the fearless Shadow Assassins, they withstood wave after wave of the warriors’ attacks.

Zhang Heng gazed at the not-so-distant villa.

The altar was in its basement.

To avoid the unpredictable destruction that high-level combat power could cause, the three high-level warriors brought in from the front lines had all gone to fight on the top floor.

Time was running out.

Zhang Heng felt he had to find a chance to break through.

But the persistent middle-aged man before him wouldn’t yield an inch, and Zhang Heng could feel the energons in his body nearing depletion.

The reason he had been able to so霸气domineeringly slay the sallow-faced man earlier was largely due to the residual power left within his blade.

Now that the residual power was exhausted, breaking past this middle-aged man was incredibly difficult.

The stalemate between Zhang Heng and the middle-aged man was a microcosm of the entire chaotic battle.

Advancing even a single step was truly hard.

Even though the Investigation Bureau warriors now outnumbered the cultists, because of the close-quarters combat and the cultists’ tightly contracted formation, the number of warriors the cultists faced at any given time was not as high as one might imagine.

It was like a crowd of people trying to beat someone through a small opening; although they were fighting, a large portion of them couldn’t even land a blow.

They could only wait for a spot to open up and then fill it.

A large number of the Investigation Bureau warriors could only watch helplessly from the back, completely unable to advance.

Wang Xiang listened to the sounds from outside.

The fierce battle told him that no one had broken into the villa from below yet.

He quickly opened the basement door, where his greatest reliance for this chaotic endeavor lay.

The door opened.

The expected greetings from his subordinates did not come.

Under the dim yellow light, despite the May weather, the sight before him sent a chill down Wang Xiang’s spine.

The subordinates guarding the door had their necks twisted, both lying dead on the floor.

Wang Xiang’s gaze trembled as he looked towards the far end.

The dark, evil altar seemed unchanged, still just as strange and terrifying.

However, this seemingly untouched black altar was missing its most crucial components.

The five slots were empty; the four original black-gold Black Energon Stones had vanished into thin air.

A chill shot straight to Wang Xiang’s heart.

His beating heart suddenly quivered strangely.

The cane gripped in his withered hands snapped as he stabbed it into the floor.

His wrinkled, chrysanthemum-like face showed no expression, but his entire body exuded a sinister coldness.

Years of experience allowed Wang Xiang to calm down immediately.

Sensing something was wrong, Wang Xiang quickly turned back to check the state of the door.

Su Xuan, with his eyes half-open, secretly watched Wang Xiang’s movements, his heart pounding.

He saw the old man suddenly turn back and walk towards the door.

Seeing this, Su Xuan first breathed a sigh of relief.

However, the expected scene of him running out the door did not happen.

The old man stopped at the entrance and looked at the security door.

Instantly, the breath Su Xuan had just released caught in his throat.

He immediately understood the old man’s line of thought.

The door was locked from the inside.

This was the only door to the entire basement.

Unless someone had a key, it would be impossible to enter from the outside without damaging the door.

And even if they did get in and take the Black Energon Stones, there was no need to lock the door from the inside again.

That meant, if the door was undamaged, the thief who stole the Black Energon Stones was very likely still inside.

Wang Xiang scanned the security door with his murky eyes.

There wasn’t a single trace of damage.

His heart, which had stopped, began to beat again.

Under the dim yellow light, the old man slowly turned around, his eyes fixed on the group of people lying in disarray—the group of young people bound by metal wires.

There were fourteen people in total.

All those captured before had been high school students whose backgrounds had been investigated.

Except for the two captured today, none of the remaining twelve had broken through to the Initial Form.

Moreover, they had all had their Life Source Energy drained for at least a day, making it impossible for them to kill two Initial Form warriors.

Therefore, the most likely suspect had to be one of the two captured today.

And between these two, Su Xuan had been investigated and was just a high school student.

The other one was brought along incidentally.

The problem could only lie with him.

Wang Xiang figured it out.

Instantly, his sunken mood lifted again.

Like a drowning person grasping a piece of driftwood, his heart, which had sunk to the bottom, soared once more.

He gripped the handle of his cane tightly, the blood vessels visible under the sallow, skin-and-bones flesh of his hands.

His muscles bulged.

With a pull of both hands, a longsword, ink-black yet reflecting a metallic sheen, was drawn from within the cane under the dim yellow light.

The old man slowly walked towards the scattered group of people.

His slow pace quickened, and the longsword, held perpendicular to the ground, was slowly raised.

The moment Su Xuan saw the old man go to check the door for damage, he knew he couldn’t escape today.

His only choice was to rely on the massive amount of Life Source Energy and energons from the two absorbed Black Energon Stones to fight a desperate battle.

Su Xuan watched the approaching old man, his heart beating rapidly, but his whole body felt as cold as if submerged in ice water.

His brain worked furiously.

‘What do I do… When he spoke to me before, he must have investigated my background. In that case, his primary target definitely won’t be me, but Gao Chong, who was brought along incidentally…’

The old man strode forward and shouted loudly, “Stop pretending, kid!”

Under the cover of his bangs, Su Xuan opened his eyes halfway.

The distance of ten meters was closed in an instant.

Just as he thought, the old man’s target was clearly Gao Chong, who was behind him.

Su Xuan clenched his fists tightly.

The Life Source Energy that had just integrated into his body acted like a turbine, frantically churning the energons within him.

His cells crazily absorbed the energons.

Suddenly, his mind felt as if it went blank.

Throughout his entire body, the decomposition of every energon, the release of every bit of energy, was “seen” with perfect clarity.

That block of ice grew “colder” and larger, as if reaching its absolute limit.

Inside his body, the conversion of energons no longer required the pulsation of meridians or the flow of macroscopic energons to be driven.

At this critical moment, Su Xuan understood.

He had mastered Controlling Energons.

Just as the old man passed Su Xuan, a chill suddenly rose up his back.

A blue-white spot lit up on Wang Xiang’s thigh.

With an extremely powerful burst, he overcame his forward momentum, dodging sideways in a motion that defied physical inertia.

However, he was still a fraction of a second too slow.

A not-so-large fist slammed viciously into his back.

Wang Xiang was sent flying, hurtling backward several meters.