Night Patrol

Without hesitating further, he forcibly loaded the Aberrant Spiritual Root, and the sealed power instantly surged forth like a raging tide.

Standing in Running, Yuan Zhu's eyes glowed dark gold, his pupils narrowing into vertical slits. With every rise and fall of his breathing, the shadows within ten meters of him began to stir restlessly as well, like boiling water rolling and churning.

The pressure brought by the armored warrior receded like the tide. The man running toward him likewise showed surprise mixed with delight in his eyes, secretly marveling, Just as I thought! Anyone who dares wander at night and remain unfazed even when facing a spacetime anomaly can't be simple. This time, I guessed right.

The black-armored warrior abruptly stopped and raised his right arm toward Yuan Zhu. The chains wrapped around his armguard clattered crisply, shaking without pause.

His right hand formed a distance-measuring gesture, then shifted into a sword-finger sign and pointed through the air at the fleeing man's back. The hooked claws on the chain around his arm immediately came alive, soaring through the air at tremendous speed. One second before the man could lift his foot out of the alley, they pierced straight through his chest from behind.

Crack!

Blood flashed beneath the moonlight. The mechanical hook claw bored through the man's chest like a drill, then bloomed open and shut like flower petals before stabbing back into his flesh. The armored man flicked the chain with his right hand, turning it into an advancing arc-shaped wave that finally reached the man's chest.

With a squelch, the man, who had already stepped halfway into Running, was yanked high into the air by the chain hook before crashing heavily back onto the ground of Little Sweet Water Well Alley, spitting out a cloud of blood mist.

"Save... save me!"

One hand clutched the bundle in his arms tightly, while the other trembled as he reached toward Yuan Zhu, hoping Yuan Zhu would pull him up.

By now, Yuan Zhu's body had been climbed over and wrapped in shadows, turning him pitch-black from head to toe. His form trembled with the elastic softness of jelly. He struggled to keep himself from transforming into a Tiger Demon, doing his utmost to maintain a human outline and reveal the silhouette of a Kitty standing upright.

He had a feeling that once he could perfectly control Shadow Power, he might not need to become a black Shadow Tiger Demon. He could retain human characteristics, take shape, and gain a humanoid demon form better suited for battle.

Clatter... clatter...

The armored figure started walking again, step by step toward the alley entrance. He did not rashly attack the Shadow Demon. He merely twisted his right arm back and forth, winding the cast chain back around his wrist and dragging the man, whose mouth kept spilling blood, backward, leaving a striking trail of blood across the bluestone road.

Chime... chime...

The bronze bell rang again and again, spreading simultaneously through the moonlit and pitch-black spacetime realms. It suppressed all anomalous elements and drove away dangers lurking in the dark.

Even shadow-transformed Yuan Zhu was forced into an unprecedented state of calm rationality. Power roiled within him like a volcano about to erupt, and he could unleash a finishing move through the shadows at any moment. Yet his mind was clearer and steadier than ever, and he had no desire to launch a rash attack. He appeared incomparably rational and restrained.

"I'm as cold and calculating as Zhuge right now!" Yuan Zhu bragged, feeling exceptionally pleased with himself.

Little Elf said, "Your mental state is strange. You're too rational, like cold machinery. That bell has an effect that calms the mind. Looking at that guy's getup, could he be some kind of midnight night watchman?"

Since the armored warrior showed no intention of attacking, Yuan Zhu restrained himself as well. He remained in his shadow-enhanced state and silently observed the other man's movements.

Crack! The armored warrior walked step by step to the man, who was vomiting blood wildly and whose eyes were beginning to lose focus. He pulled the iron chain taut, making blood gush violently from the wound. Then he stepped down, his iron boot crushing the man's shoulder. The bundle that had been clutched so tightly fell to the ground as the man's arm went limp.

Holding a blood-glowing lantern in his left hand, the armored man bent down and grabbed the bundle with his right. With a hard tug, he exposed a chubby doll within that gleamed with metallic luster.

It was a chubby doll the size of a one-month-old infant. Its tiny arms and legs looked plump and fleshy, its eyes were shut, and it had no breath. Its body gleamed like metal, as though it were a lifelike work of craftsmanship.

Yet its hands and feet appeared to have been deliberately torn off, leaving it limbless. From the cross-sections of the wounds, dense plant roots extended outward, like processed ginseng rootlets.

The armored man paid no attention to Yuan Zhu, who was staring intently from nearby. He simply curled his five fingers into a claw and viciously gripped the infant by the back of its neck.

The next moment, the chubby metal doll suddenly opened its mouth, revealing rows of dense, razor-sharp fangs, and let out a piercing scream-cry. Yuan Zhu immediately felt as if his skull membrane were about to be torn apart and gouged to shreds. That crying was poisonous!

Then the fat infant twisted its limbs and began struggling violently. Though its body looked metallic, it displayed the springy texture of flesh and blood. The roots extending from its severed limbs also came alive, growing wildly and spreading through the air.

Some of the roots burrowed into the vomiting man's flesh, crazily draining his life force. The others coiled and spread up the arm gripping the back of the infant's neck.

Chime! Chime! Chime! Chime...! The hand holding the blood lantern shook rapidly, making the bronze bell ring in urgent peals that spread through the darkness and suppressed the metal infant's shrill screams.

As the two sounds battled each other, the chain around the armored warrior's right arm came alive again. It slithered with a clattering sound, coiling around the metal infant like a venomous snake and tangling with the roots thrashing through the air. In the end, it bound and sealed the metal monster infant that was resisting to the death.

After everything ended, Yuan Zhu noticed that the scene in the alley across from him was gradually blurring. The transparent air began to ripple and twist violently. The man, left with only his last breath, faintly twitched his fingers. Despair, regret, resentment, and unwillingness filled his eyes as he stared fixedly at Yuan Soy Sauce, who had not acted from beginning to end, his heart full of hatred.

The armored warrior lifted the infant wrapped into an iron ball, turned to look at Yuan Zhu's fading phantom, then raised a hand and threw out a token. It shattered the twisted, separating spatial ripples and flew from the moonlit world into the dim Shadow World.

Smack.

Yuan Zhu raised his hand and caught the flying bronze token. Then the scene before him suddenly vanished like a television being switched off. Little Sweet Water Well Alley disappeared, replaced by a row of closed shops.

The two worlds that had briefly connected were severed without a sound.

After dismissing the Boss Template, which had never gotten the chance to prove useful, Yuan Zhu picked up the bronze token in his hand. The words "Night Patrol Division" were engraved on it. Just as he had expected, that man had been a security guard patrolling at night.

But what kind of world had that been on the other side? A mere nighttime security patrolman had already put considerable pressure on him. Was the other side overflowing with powerful experts, or was his Tiger Demon Form actually just weak trash? The Little Elf had also shaken off the bronze bell's "rationality boost" and regained its vigor. It said, "It looks like that spacetime phenomenon just now wasn't caused by the Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture. Even you were merely a passerby NPC who stumbled into the scene. The true protagonist was that unlucky fellow who died. He should have been a local from Running. He stole something he shouldn't have, then was hunted down and killed!"

Yuan Zhu also sorted out the sequence of events and felt somewhat worried. "Isn't this world a little too dangerous? Why does it feel like I run into something filthy every three steps? And I'm even qualified to encounter connections between different spacetimes? What a pity. If that guy had run just a little faster and successfully returned to Running, escaping the armored warrior's pursuit, I'd have had the chance to rob the robber and snatch that root-bearded monster infant."

Little Elf said, "I don't recommend doing that. That strange infant contains an extreme aura of contamination. It's even stronger than the Shadow Origin devoured by the Tiger Demon Template—a super bomb. That armored warrior may be a righteous companion who contains evil contraband like this. His bronze bell is a treasure that suppresses evil, dispels demons, and makes people rational and calm."

Yuan Zhu said, "Tell me, where exactly was that moonlit alley? Another corner of Du Ling Planet? Some other alternate spacetime? Or one of the eight Outer Universes?"

Still puzzled, he picked up the Night Patrol token and examined it carefully, muttering, "It's actually Earth's clerical script? There must be some unspeakable secret between Duling and Earth! I wonder what this thing does. Can it let me cross over too?"

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