By evening.
"Luo Yan, you sleep on the bed."
"I'll sleep on the floor in the living room."
Zeng Shan's bedroom was tiny.
Once a bed was placed inside, there was barely any room left to move.
Luo Yan shook his head. "I'll sleep in the living room."
"I'm not used to sleeping on beds."
Even now, the bed in his dormitory was merely decorative.
Every night, Luo Yan slept beneath it.
The cramped space gave him a sense of security.
When Zeng Shan heard that,
"Then it's settled. We'll both sleep in the living room. We can chat."
They had agreed to chat.
But in the end,
less than a minute after Zeng Shan lay down,
he began snoring loudly.
Luo Yan hugged Star Splitter and slept in his clothes.
A moment later, he fell asleep as well.
Life on the surface had trained him to sleep in any environment.
Not to mention Zeng Shan's snoring.
Even if a battle were raging outside,
Luo Yan could fall asleep whenever he wanted.
No one knew how much time had passed.
Suddenly,
"Help!"
A shrill cry rang out from outside the house.
Luo Yan abruptly opened his eyes and rose into a half-crouch, hiding behind the sofa.
Only then did he observe his surroundings.
His sleepiness vanished completely.
"What happened?"
Rubbing his eyes, Zeng Shan sat up.
He saw Luo Yan point toward the window.
At that moment, a scream sounded outside.
Everyone in the Zeng household was instantly awakened.
Footsteps rang out.
Then the lights came on.
Wrapped in a thin blanket covered in patches, Mother Zeng said nervously, "It sounds like it came from Aunt Wang's house."
Luo Yan went to the window and looked outside.
He saw a bungalow.
The house was pitch-black.
Nothing could be seen.
A hint of silver appeared in Luo Yan's crimson eyes.
He activated the Obstacle Breaking Dharma Eye.
The walls vanished at once.
Luo Yan saw several clusters of gray light inside the bungalow's living room.
One cluster of light lay sprawled on the floor. Judging by its outline, it was a woman.
Above the woman was a mass of gray light the size of a wolfhound.
The thing was crouched on top of her, as if gnawing at something.
The other two clusters of gray light moved around the room.
At times, they even crawled up the walls.
Those movements
were very similar to those of insects.
Insects as large as wolfhounds...
Luo Yan suddenly remembered the broadcast he had heard on the train that morning.
The broadcast about smuggled Giant Beast parasites!
"We have a problem."
Luo Yan turned around. "It might be a Giant Beast parasite."
"What?"
"A Giant Beast parasite!"
Father Zeng and Mother Zeng went pale with fright and hurriedly pulled the twin boys and their daughter close.
Zeng Shan said, "I'll go take a look."
Luo Yan said nothing, but he had already charged toward the door.
The two of them entered the alley.
The nearby neighbors had all heard Aunt Wang's screams and came out to investigate.
Zeng Shan shouted, "Don't get close! There may be Giant Beast parasites in Aunt Wang's house!"
"Hurry and contact the Local Security Bureau."
Luo Yan had already drawn Star Splitter and arrived in front of the gate.
Using the Obstacle Breaking Dharma Eye, he saw that the situation inside was much the same as before.
Those gray clusters of light suspected to be parasites were still inside the house.
Luo Yan easily destroyed the door lock with his longsword.
Zeng Shan came over carrying a flashlight.
When Luo Yan pushed open the door with his sword, Zeng Shan raised the flashlight high.
A beam of light immediately shone into the dim living room.
The furniture inside was in disarray.
Aunt Wang lay in a pool of blood.
Perhaps sensing the light, she struggled to raise her head and stretched a hand toward the doorway.
"Help... me..."
Whoosh!
A dark shadow suddenly dropped into the beam of light.
It clutched Aunt Wang's head.
It was a creature with a wolf-like head and a body like a tick.
It began gnawing on Aunt Wang's head.
Zeng Shan sucked in a cold breath. "Wolf Ticks!"
Luo Yan added, "Three of them!"
Zeng Shan glanced at Luo Yan.
Then he carefully lowered the flashlight, making sure not to alert the Wolf Ticks.
A faint blue light appeared in his eyes, and electric snakes began leaping between his hands.
Divine Treasure: Discharge!
After activating his Divine Treasure, Zeng Shan rapidly formed hand seals.
Finally, a black rope formed from Primal Energy shot from his fingertips.
Mystic Art: Black Rope!
But unlike Luo Yan's, electric snakes danced along Zeng Shan's Black Rope.
Just as he had said,
he could imbue his Divine Treasure's ability into a Mystic Art or Combat Skill!
The black rope instantly wrapped around a Wolf Tick.
Before the parasite could react, Zeng Shan shouted.
Dense currents surged along the rope,
spreading over the Wolf Tick in an instant.
The room erupted with flashes of electricity.
The Wolf Tick shrieked several times before Zeng Shan electrocuted it to a crisp.
But at that moment, the other two Wolf Ticks in the room moved their limbs rapidly across the floor.
They pounced toward Zeng Shan.
"Get down!"
Hearing Luo Yan's voice, Zeng Shan immediately dropped flat.
Sword light flashed over his head.
Then,
that lightning-fast sword light
shattered into thousands upon thousands of fragments.
Like countless miniature meteors,
they shrieked through the air.
They sliced through the two Wolf Ticks.
Thus, while the two Giant Beast parasites were still in midair, their bodies shattered.
Legs, wings, shells, internal organs, and eyeballs
clattered across the floor.
Then the "meteors" flew back.
They reassembled into the blade of Star Splitter.
Only then did Luo Yan extend a hand and pull Zeng Shan up.
Looking at the parasite corpses in the room,
Zeng Shan let out a sigh of relief.
He turned to the neighbors and said, "It's all right now. It's all right..."
But at that moment,
screams rang out from his home.
Zeng Shan's expression changed.
He rushed back inside.
Luo Yan hurried after him.
When they reached the doorway,
they saw Father Zeng lying on the floor, clutching his arm.
Mother Zeng was being held hostage by a man.
The man had large tattoos covering his face and a vicious appearance.
He was pressing an automatic pistol against Mother Zeng's temple.
Zeng Shan hurriedly said, "What are you doing? Let my mother go!"
The man looked at Zeng Shan and Luo Yan in turn.
Then he spat.
"Bullshit!"
"Getting cornered in this godforsaken place by the people from the Local Security Bureau was bad enough."
"I planned to release the parasites and create chaos so I could escape."
"But you two went and wiped out my parasites in just a few moves."
"If I don't take some hostages, how am I supposed to get out?"
He glanced outside the window, then muttered, "I absolutely can't get caught. Otherwise, they'll definitely kill me."
So he was the criminal who had smuggled the Giant Beast parasites!
Zeng Shan shouted, "You want a hostage, right? Take me instead and let my mother go."
Luo Yan observed his surroundings and found that the man was right by the window.
He had probably climbed in through the window and taken Mother Zeng hostage.
Without making a sound, Luo Yan backed away, planning to circle around to the back of the house and strike when an opportunity arose.
At that moment,
the smuggler pointed his gun at Zeng Shan. "Get lost. If you don't want your mother to die, then get out of my way..."
Before he finished speaking,
the outer wall of the Zeng family's house and the smuggler's head exploded at the same time!
Luo Yan's mind went blank for a brief moment.
Then a thought surfaced.
Kill him to silence him?
Bang!
Almost at the same time.
Luo Yan heard a gunshot from outside the house.
Luo Yan instinctively looked toward the sound.
He saw a figure flicker across the rooftop of a two-story building three hundred meters away.
Silver-white light rose in his crimson pupils.
Luo Yan activated the Obstacle Breaking Dharma Eye, locking onto that mass of biological gray light.
Then he charged toward the main street outside the alley.
He saw the sniper quickly move toward the street.
When Luo Yan burst onto the street,
he saw the crowd ahead cry out in alarm.
Then a pitch-black heavy motorcycle shot out of the alley.
Its outer shell was painted red with a Nine-headed Bird emblem.
The rider wore a helmet and carried a sniper rifle on his back.
The motorcycle made a savage turn in the street, its tires scraping against the ground with a shrill screech.
Then the engine roared.
The heavy motorcycle sped away, leaving a cloud of dust.
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