A Change of Heart III

The black wooden huts lay scattered without pattern like chunks of black stone on a beach.

Faint groans could still be heard from some of the huts, like the dying struggle of people tormented by illness for far too long.

Lin Hui and Deng Mingchao cautiously entered the gap between two black huts, one holding his sword upright, the other bracing his sword across his body.

Piles of black mud mixed with all manner of filth had accumulated in the corners. A faint stench hung in the air—the reek of some protein left to rot for a long time.

As they proceeded, within seconds they found, in a corner to their right, a dark brown female corpse that had rotted away by more than half.

Much of the flesh on the corpse's upper body had been gnawed away by something unknown, exposing the white bone beneath the skin.

She sat slumped crookedly against the wall, her vacant eyes purpled. Thin, long, milky-white maggots occasionally crawled from the corners of her eyes into her nostrils.

She still wore a tattered brown cloth skirt, and her right hand clutched what appeared to be a stone.

"She's been dead for quite some time. Yet the night here didn't completely devour her?" Deng Mingchao frowned as he stepped forward and lightly poked the woman's thigh with the tip of his sword.

"Junior Brother, look at this corpse. Here, anyone who develops tumor lesions can no longer receive Wanfu Meat, so every scrap of food is extremely precious. Under normal circumstances, corpses wouldn't simply be discarded outside—unless there was one possibility..."

"What possibility?" Lin Hui asked with a frown, enduring the stench.

"She died from the illness," Deng Mingchao said gravely. "Otherwise, an ordinary corpse here would have been dragged away as food and stored up."

"..." Lin Hui had no answer. Looking at the corpse on the ground, doubt rose in his heart. "There's no obvious barrier between this place and the outskirts. Why don't the people here flee to the outskirts to seize food?"

"How do you know they haven't? How do you know there isn't something like a barrier over there?" Deng Mingchao countered. "On the way here just now, we passed through a special force that ordinary people cannot sense. The closer it is to the Mist Zone, the weaker it becomes; the closer it is to the city, the stronger it becomes. In truth, it is precisely this force that has kept the Mist blocked outside."

"Senior Brother means that this invisible force that blocks the Mist also keeps these sick people out, making them afraid to approach farther inward?" Lin Hui asked.

"Exactly. But it cannot be denied that when there are too many patients, they also threaten the safety of nearby residents. That is why we are sent out at intervals to clear them out. We are merely one branch of the cleanup force," Deng Mingchao explained. "There are quite a few other factions that have also taken on these cleanup tasks and come regularly to deal with the patients."

"Next, let's see why the patients here require Martial Artists like us to clear them out, and why even the constables are so cautious." Deng Mingchao sheathed his sword and let out a breath.

Suddenly, he slashed to the left, wielding his sword like a saber as he chopped vertically into the shadows.

At the same time, a point of red light shot toward them from within those shadows. It quickly came into view—it was an eye.

A one-eyed man in tattered black hemp clothes, his exposed grayish-white skin covered in festering sores. Roaring with a savage expression, he leaped through the air at Deng Mingchao—only to meet the edge of the descending sword.

Thwack.

The one-eyed man and Deng Mingchao crossed paths, and a spray of blood blossomed through the air.

Then the blood splattered to the ground, and the one-eyed man crashed down heavily, never moving again.

"One," Deng Mingchao said calmly. "A blood-eyed patient."

"Very fast. Compared to an ordinary person, anyone without training probably wouldn't react in time." Lin Hui's expression tightened slightly as he assessed him.

"This is only the lowest-grade blood eye. According to the progression of the disease, after blood eyes comes blood body. Let's go. Further in." Deng Mingchao shook the blood from his blade and walked onward at an unhurried pace.

Behind him, a crack slowly split open across the one-eyed man's head.

"That just now wasn't the Nine Section Fast Sword, was it?" Lin Hui asked in a low voice.

"Of course it was. I merely altered one move a little, changing a thrust into an extended slash. Sword techniques are flexible and ever-changing, not rigid and unchanging," Deng Mingchao replied.

The two continued forward. This time, before they had gone ten meters, two more patients with blood-red eyes appeared.

One was old and one young, both male. They even clutched farm tools resembling hoes in their hands.

"Meat... eat meat...!! I want meat!!" The moment the two patients saw Deng Mingchao, they lunged at him.

"One each." Deng Mingchao slipped aside and sprang into the only open space, drawing away the old man.

He left the youth, who looked to be in his teens, to Lin Hui.

In an instant, the youth pounced before Lin Hui, leaving less than two meters between them.

The other man's hands were already reaching for Lin Hui's face.

Try not to let them touch you, lest you catch the disease. The constable's earlier warning flashed through Lin Hui's mind.

He took a step back, and the blade in his hand abruptly left its sheath.

Sshk!

The silver sword tip precisely pierced the youth's throat the instant he lunged close.

Then the tip swept fiercely upward, slicing his entire windpipe and jaw into two with a sharp hiss.

Black blood sprayed.

Despite such a grievous wound, the youth did not even cry out. He continued lunging forward, trying to grab Lin Hui with both hands.

Thwack.

At that moment, Lin Hui followed up with a second strike.

The Clear River Sword drew back, then thrust out again, piercing straight through the youth's right eye socket and emerging from the back of his head.

That strike finally made the youth go completely still.

Carried by the momentum of his lunge, he crashed heavily to the ground before Lin Hui.

"Whew... No sense of pain?" Lin Hui pulled out his sword and looked toward his senior brother Deng Mingchao, who had likewise finished his battle.

"Yes. Once they fall ill, their speed and strength increase, and they feel no pain. Their only weakness is the head. Even if you chop the rest of their limbs to pieces, it's useless—they can still attack, and they can keep living for a long time." Deng Mingchao's expression was grim. "So don't let your guard down. Try to kill them in a single blow."

He glanced at the wounds on the young man's corpse on the ground and nodded.

"You did very well. Next, we may encounter Blood Body patients. Their speed, strength, and defenses are all far greater than those of Blood Eyes. Once we start fighting, I may not be able to protect you. Be careful and hold on by yourself. Once I finish the battle, I'll come back to help you."

"Don't worry, Senior Brother. I won't hold you back," Lin Hui said solemnly with a nod.

The two said no more and continued deeper inside with their swords drawn.

The cramped alley twisted and turned, and before long they encountered two more Blood Eyes, who were easily dealt with.

After killing so many in one stretch, Deng Mingchao paused briefly to rest. He wiped the filthy blood from his sword to keep it from rusting, then continued leading Lin Hui deeper in.

But this time, they had not even gone twenty meters.

A strange man entirely different from the previous Blood Eye patients appeared ahead of them.

On the pitch-black alley floor stood a bald man whose entire body was blood-red. His arms hung at his sides as he stood silently in the middle of the road, utterly motionless.

The bald man wore no clothes, and it was as though the skin all over his body had been peeled away, exposing the muscles and tendons beneath.

"This is a Blood Body... Step back a little." Deng Mingchao lowered his voice and stretched out an arm to stop Lin Hui behind him.

"Keep watch around us for me," he instructed, then slowly approached with his sword in hand.

Lin Hui opened his mouth to acknowledge him, gripping his sword as he vigilantly watched both sides.

But in the instant his gaze shifted, both his senior brother and the Blood Body patient vanished from the corner of his eye.

Clang!

Clang clang clang clang!!

Five sharp clashes rang out in an instant, scattering five bursts of sparks through the alley.

Deng Mingchao and the Blood Body patient had closed in and exchanged blows in the blink of an eye.

Both were unbelievably fast, launching more than a dozen attacks per second as they slaughtered each other like a howling wind.

Attack, block, attack, block.

Neither evaded.

There was no time to evade. In this kind of high-speed exchange, the goal was to seize the initiative. The moment one dodged, they would fall into a passive position and be dragged into a vicious rhythm where they could only keep evading and defending.

Deng Mingchao's face twisted fiercely as he pushed the Nine Section Fast Sword to its limits. The sword shadows blurred, carrying a faint illusion of wind.

Gray sword shadows continually drifted toward his opponent, only to be rapidly blocked by the Blood Body patient's hands.

The patient's weapons were the black nails on both hands, like ten black spikes—sharp and carrying obvious poison.

For a time, violent collisions erupted one after another amid showers of sparks.

Lin Hui took another step back. In such a dark environment, he could no longer make out the details of their fight.

Deng Mingchao's Nine Section Fast Sword was more practiced and flawless than his, its techniques steadier and stronger. Without using special effects or seals, Lin Hui felt that he would not last a hundred exchanges at such sword speed.

Yet the Blood Body patient had forcibly endured beneath that storm of sword shadows for so long, instantly raising its threat level in Lin Hui's mind to an extreme height.

Not long after.

Squelch!

Deng Mingchao beheaded the Blood Body patient with a single slash.

His sword seemed to have been modified. It was not only suited for thrusting, but for chopping and slashing as well.

He was slightly out of breath now, shaking the filthy blood from his sword.

"Did you see that? That was a Blood Body. Under normal circumstances, unless you rank in the top ten of our school, you wouldn't even last ten seconds before one of them. That's why the Emergency Response Team's standards for strength are so high."

"I understand..." Lin Hui stared warily at the patient's corpse on the ground. "Are there many patients like this? What's the ratio?"

"Of course not. Roughly one Blood Body mutation for every twenty or thirty Blood Eyes. It depends on the patient's physical condition before falling ill," Deng Mingchao explained.

He inspected the Blood Body's corpse and only stepped over it after confirming it was dead.

"Let's go. We continue."

"Do you need to rest?" Lin Hui asked worriedly.

"No..."

"Junior Brother Deng should rest for a while..."

Suddenly, a familiar voice drifted over from somewhere not far behind them.

Deng Mingchao and Lin Hui's expressions both changed slightly. They recognized the speaker at once.

Mu Qiao Zhi!

"Senior Sister Mu, I'll call you Senior Sister one last time. Weren't you assigned to another squad? Why aren't you clearing out patients? Why have you come over to our side instead?" Deng Mingchao's face tightened, a faintly ominous premonition rising in his heart.

"I was simply free and wanted to see how my former junior brothers from the same school were doing now. I also wanted you to see the level of attainment I've reached in the Black Dragon Gate martial arts I recently joined..."

Mu Qiao Zhi's figure abruptly emerged from the darkness behind them.

She wore a dark Emergency Response Team uniform, with a black sword strapped to her back. Her right arm was clad in a set of black metal armor, and her five fingers bore sharp metal claws. Her entire style had changed completely.

"Junior Brother Deng, Junior Brother Lin, what did you practice martial arts for before?"