Chapter 9 – Even crazier than imagined

Ying Xize did not have the chance to consider how Su Fengzhou had successfully breached his spiritual barrier without facing any opposition. He swiftly retracted his spiritual power, and upon observing the alien creature rising to its feet and charging at him with a roar, he did not show any reaction.

The next second, Su Fengzhou had already drawn the gun at his waist and fired several shots in a row.

He appeared oblivious to the repulsive, thick blood spraying in all directions. Seizing Ying Xize, he yanked him aside and rapidly guided him to the wall adjacent to the emergency exit.

The entire event unfolded in the blink of an eye. All Ying Xize could sense was the warmth of breath occasionally grazing his skin.

Eventually, he slightly grimaced and whispered, “That hurts.”

Su Fengzhou had been keeping a close eye on Ying Xize, but when he heard those words, he suddenly realized he had been gripping the guy’s wrist so tightly that it had turned red.

He couldn’t help but think about how delicate these researchers seemed, but he also recognized that his constant tension had made it tough to manage his strength.

With a sigh, he looked down and released his grip, then pulled out a special alloy knife and handed it over. “Here, take this.”

Ying Xize didn’t take it. “I already have a weapon.”

Su Fengzhou raised an eyebrow, puzzled, until he spotted what Ying Xize was clutching—a knife that looked like something you’d use to slice fruit.

Su Fengzhou: “……”

What’s that gonna do? Chop vegetables?

Ying Xize clearly saw the disdain in his eyes but didn’t explain.

Just then, the alien creature, supposedly killed with a headshot, unexpectedly started moving again.

“Stay here and wait,” Su Fengzhou said quickly, not insisting on lending the knife anymore.

After all, with him standing in front, whether Ying Xize had a weapon or not didn’t matter.

When he turned, he heard Ying Xize suddenly add, “Be careful with this mutant.”

The warning seemed unnecessary, but Su Fengzhou paused for a second. A faint smile tugged at his lips before he charged straight at the furious mutant without hesitation.

Su Fengzhou had fought alien creatures for years and was used to finding his chance in the most dangerous moments.

It wasn’t rare for bullets to fail. That’s when close combat became necessary, and Sentinels, with their superior physical strength, had a natural advantage in such situations.

In a way, Sentinels themselves were the most powerful human-shaped weapons against alien threats.

The entire fight changed by the second. Several times, the crazed alien nearly pierced Su Fengzhou’s skin, but he narrowly dodged at the last possible moment.

His battle-hardened instincts were operating at their peak, but the more Su Fengzhou fought—despite seemingly having the upper hand—the more unsettled he felt.

No matter how much damage he inflicted, the damaged parts of the mutant would always start sprouting soft, wriggling flesh, rapidly regenerating into new tissue, closing up its wounds right before his eyes. It was an endless loop of destruction and regeneration, as if some vital force was constantly fueling it.

This had never happened before.

Su Fengzhou’s expression darkened as he slightly rotated his wrist. Yet in his eyes, an uncontrollable excitement slowly surfaced. “Tsk… this is getting interesting.”

Normally, wiping out this low-level, early-stage alien should’ve been a piece of cake. But now things were going off-script—and much more fun than Su Fengzhou had imagined.

He was already extremely exhausted after barely sleeping for days. So once he found something exciting, all his self-restraint and mental effort instantly collapsed.

It felt like a rotten wooden board finally shattered under a heavy hammer—his long-suppressed spiritual power started surging, itching to break free.

If this thing loves to resist so much, then it should enjoy the feeling of dying slowly… Just imagining the bloody carnage he was about to cause made the ripples of his spiritual energy twist into something close to madness.

Once all his impulses were laid bare and uncontrollable, the demon long locked inside his spiritual cage was bound to wake up.

Even Su Fengzhou himself didn’t realize that, without noticing, he had already slipped into a state of descent beyond recovery.

Ying Xize had been watching the alien from the start. However, the moment he saw that soft regenerative tissue appear, the aura around him turned icy cold.

As the fight dragged on, he finally sensed something and looked up in Su Fengzhou’s direction.

The alien’s healing rate had reached its limit due to the explosive barrage of attacks. It could no longer keep up with the sheer volume of destruction.

The entire scene looked too savage for words. But what sent chills down the spine even more… was that figure, who looked like he was slowly getting drunk on the pleasure of killing.

Guides were always extremely sensitive to changes in spiritual energy. Ying Xize immediately sensed something seriously wrong with Su Fengzhou’s spiritual state.

He released a few spiritual tendrils to probe and felt countless fine threads tangled throughout Su Fengzhou’s spiritual realm.

Though tightly wrapped around him, they remained fragile, trembling with every pulse of flesh and blood. They seemed ready to break from excitement, yet somehow they clung on by an unseen thread of will.

Ying Xize didn’t even need to dig deep. He could already imagine how Su Fengzhou’s spiritual realm was dangerously unstable, teetering on the edge of collapse.

A spiritual state this dangerous didn’t happen overnight.

It made Ying Xize recall the rumors he’d heard about Su Fengzhou. He hadn’t expected that after experiencing it firsthand, he’d realize this man was even crazier than the rumours said.

What shocked him even more was that, under pressure strong enough to send multiple Sentinels into berserk mode, Su Fengzhou was still able to hold himself back by pure force of will, refusing to cross that final dangerous line.

But right now, Ying Xize didn’t have time to worry about Su Fengzhou’s difficult emotional path.

Although the alien’s movements had slowed dramatically, it was still stubbornly regenerating. This kind of desperate, dying struggle was enough to greatly slow down its destruction under Su Fengzhou’s overwhelming power.

Ying Xize knew clearly. As long as they couldn’t land a decisive blow, then this threat would never truly be over, no matter how dominant the fight looked.

He had planned to wait for the right moment, but now, the sound of rapid footsteps was coming from the stairwell.

Closer and closer…

If they wanted to settle things completely, there was no extra time left for him.

Without a moment of hesitation, Ying Xize gripped his knife tightly and charged toward the man and monster locked in battle.

Su Fengzhou had been lost in the thrill of the kill. In a daze, he heard movement, then looked up and saw that familiar figure rushing toward him.

His body paused almost reflexively.

However, in the next second, he felt a spiritual realm suddenly bloom open all around him.

As Ying Xize collapsed into his arms, all of Su Fengzhou’s Sentinel senses were completely shut down under the Guide’s direction. In that moment, an immensely powerful spiritual power slammed into his spiritual realm.

In his fragile, barren world, an explosion of blinding light burst forth, instantly flooding his vision, and in the next moment, it swallowed him into a completely unfamiliar world.

As his thoughts slipped away, Su Fengzhou seemed to sense something quietly sprouting within his spiritual realm.

Then, he sank into it completely.

It always came with a price for a Guide to forcibly interfere with a Sentinel’s spiritual realm.

Ying Xize hadn’t expected Su Fengzhou’s spiritual realm to be so vast. It stunned him while also sending his consciousness spinning from the backlash.

His chest churned, and a faint taste of blood rose to the back of his throat.

With footsteps already so close, he couldn’t afford to waste any more time.

Forcing his mind to focus, Ying Xize gathered his strength and slashed a deep cut across his palm with the knife.

This was the weapon he used to fight aliens, but not to stab them. It was meant to be used on himself.

His blood dripped one drop at a time onto the floor.

In the next second, the alien let out a bloodcurdling scream that pierced the sky.

The overwhelming impact struck straight at their spirits, making the other members of the Investigation Department rush forward at full speed.

But when they reached the doorway, they all abruptly stopped in unison, as if by some unspoken agreement.

Those in the back didn’t have time to stop and crashed into each other in a chain reaction.

No one even had the chance to curse. Everyone froze in place at the sight before them.

If it weren’t for the distinctively colored blood of the creature, one might easily have mistaken this for a crime scene left by a deranged serial killer.

Everywhere they looked was covered in writhing soft tissue, and the entire rooftop was smeared with sticky green blood.

The alien, which had been screaming in pain just moments earlier, was now a withered shell. It seemed as though all of its flesh had been removed in a matter of seconds. The only remaining indication of its former identity was the faded and stained uniform from the Investigation Department that still clung to it.

Not far from that gruesome scene, Ying Xize sat slumped on the ground, face deathly pale, and a toy-like knife clutched in one hand.

Lying in his arms was Su Fengzhou, his eyes tightly closed.

Blood dripped from the cut on Ying Xize’s palm, dotting the floor and pooling into a bright red stain right over the fabric of Su Fengzhou’s clothes, already soaked deep green.

The Seventh Squad members had never seen their captain look this peaceful. The moment was so still, it felt as if time had frozen.

Rong Yun’s lips twitched slightly under the weight of the moment, but she still managed to calmly assess Ying Xize. Seeing no signs of alien mutation, she restrained herself from reaching for her weapon.

Next to her, Shen Wenyan pushed through the crowd, his voice thick with sobs as he ran straight over. “Boss, what’s wrong?! Boss, wake up! It was only one alien. Why can’t you wait for us?! Boss—!”

Each shout was more heartbreaking than the last, making everyone’s heart clench.

Some even felt a faint sting at the tip of their noses.

Just as Shen Wenyan was about to reach them, a hand suddenly lifted, palm out, and blocked his rush forward. “Don’t worry. Your Captain Su is probably asleep.”

The tears gathering in Shen Wenyan’s eyes came to a sudden halt. “Ah?”

He gently moved his hand to Su Fengzhou’s nose. Once he felt the steady, calm breathing, he finally let out a deep sigh of relief and waved to his teammates. “He is asleep.”

That one sentence made everyone’s tension completely melt away.

Only then did Rong Yun finally take a moment to examine the lifeless alien.

He turned back and asked Ying Xize, “Did you kill it?”

Seeing the others gather around, Ying Xize calmly cooperated by putting on the alien detection device.

Under Rong Yun’s scrutinizing gaze, he slowly shook his head. “Maybe Captain Su hit one of its vital points during the fight. I’m not sure. I just rushed in instinctively when I saw him collapse. I even accidentally cut myself with the knife… I was so scared, I couldn’t even think straight.”

At that moment, Ying Xize’s face was so pale it had lost all color. He looked completely shaken.

With that face, everything he said sounded entirely believable.

And judging from the on-site scene, it wouldn’t be hard to believe that Su Fengzhou had brutally finished off the alien himself before falling unconscious.

Rong Yun’s gaze lingered on Ying Xize for a moment, but she found nothing suspicious. She turned and gave orders, “Have the logistics team come over immediately and clean up the on-site scene. This footage absolutely cannot be leaked, understood?”

The people behind her responded at once, “Understood!”

Rong Yun nodded. “We’ll handle the rest once Captain Su wakes up. Everyone else, tidy up. We’re heading back first.”

Then she looked at Ying Xize. “Researcher Ying, you’re coming too.”

Ying Xize responded calmly, “Alright.”

The Seventh Squad immediately swarmed forward, fumbling awkwardly as they tried to lift Su Fengzhou together.

Yet Su Fengzhou, though fast asleep, seemed unhappy with what they were doing. Half-dazed, he suddenly rolled over, reached out to take Ying Xize’s hand, lifted it to the cut in his palm, and sniffed it softly.

Only then did he seem truly satisfied and settle back into peaceful stillness.

Ying Xize felt the ticklish brush of warm breath across his palm. “…?”

The scene fell completely silent. Everyone stood frozen, like they’d turned to stone.

What to do? An incredible secret has been uncovered!