Liongrass Mercenary Group

Luo Yi drove the Mustang, and after more than ten minutes, they were about to leave the city.

Xia Heng began checking the rearview mirror frequently. Wu Zhong knew someone was tailing them again.

"Which car?" Wu Zhong asked, turning in the back seat to glance behind them.

Luo Yi picked up a cigarette. Remembering he was driving, he didn't light it, instead stuffing it into his mouth and chewing on it. "Yeah, stop looking. It's seven or eight cars back, that silver refrigerated truck way over there."

Wu Zhong searched for quite a while before finding it. Its license plate was from Hunan Province, meaning it had been following them since they were still in Hunan.

"Have you fought them before?"

"Yeah, a rookie. He doesn't even dare fight me." Luo Yi lifted his milk tea cup, found it empty, and casually tossed it into the back seat.

Wu Zhong picked up the empty cup and sniffed it. Only then did he realize Luo Yi hadn't been drinking milk tea. It was fucking baijiu!

"Huh? You were drinking?"

Luo Yi grunted. "What about it?"

Wu Zhong's eyes widened. "No, you're driving! You're drinking while driving? Let Xia take the wheel."

Luo Yi snorted. "It's fine, it's fine."

Wu Zhong was speechless. How could Xia let a drunk, mentally ill man drive?

Xia Heng said blandly, "It doesn't matter. His driving skills are excellent, and his alcohol tolerance is even better."

"That's not the issue! What if traffic police stop us?" Wu Zhong said agitatedly.

Luo Yi popped another cigarette into his mouth and chewed it. "What traffic police? Relax. I haven't had a drink in twenty minutes. We'll leave the city and get onto the national highway."

Helpless, Wu Zhong could only keep watching the person behind them.

He also found his bag in the car. His pistol and Laughing Grenades were all still inside.

After watching for a while, Xia Heng said, "It's still that rookie. His Poly-Elemental Art should be tracking-based."

Luo Yi spat out the cigarette butt, replaced it with another, and chewed it. "Something like aura-reading."

"He must have sensed my... imposing presence, standing out like a firefly in the night."

Xia Heng rolled his eyes, then said irritably, "Too many mercenaries have been deployed to search for us."

"Quite a few have aura-reading or tracking methods. It couldn't be helped if we happened to run into one of their groups while driving across provinces."

"My Poly-Elemental Moment is always active. No matter how well it's concealed, they can sense it if they get too close. That guy probably noticed when we stopped for gas together."

Wu Zhong asked curiously, "Just one person? Didn't you say it was a mercenary group?"

Xia Heng nodded. "It is. We've only found their scout for now."

"That's why he only dares to tail us and doesn't dare fight. Before you woke up, we were speeding nonstop, so their main force never caught up."

Luo Yi chuckled. "After I spotted him, I lured him to a park to play with him. Didn't expect him to run off immediately."

"By rights, he should have lost us. Yet now he's caught up again. It must be an aura-reading ability, and his perception is quite strong."

Wu Zhong pressed, "How can you be sure he belongs to some mercenary group?"

"Couldn't he be a lone wolf working solo?"

Xia Heng's tone was rather proud. "What kind of lone wolf this weak would dare wade into these troubled waters?"

Luo Yi laughed. "If you know them, just say so. Why put on such an act?"

Xia Heng curled his lip. "He's from the Liongrass Mercenary Group. I've seen that scout before."

"Oh?" Luo Yi asked curiously. "When did you cross paths with Reinhardt and his crew?"

"We only met once." Xia Heng was unwilling to explain further.

Luo Yi didn't press him, merely saying, "Other than Liongrass Reinhardt, no one else in that mercenary group is worth my attention."

Xia Heng pondered. "If they're in the country, Matsutake may be leading them."

"Matsutake's illusions are truly troublesome."

"His illusions are extremely sophisticated. They can blend perfectly with the current environment, making it impossible to distinguish real from fake or even notice them. He can even layer multiple illusions. Ordinary methods of breaking them are useless."

"If we get caught in an illusion, Wu, you'll have to rely more on yourself."

Wu Zhong pursed his lips. Him? How could he possibly fight a group of veteran mercenaries?

But even Xia Heng said it was troublesome, so Wu Zhong had nothing to say.

Luo Yi glanced at Xia Heng. "Oh? Matsutake's Poly-Elemental Art includes illusions? Never heard that before."

"How do you know? Old Xia, you've really changed a lot since we last parted."

"..." Xia Heng froze for a moment before saying, "Though we were only apart for half a year, a great many things happened."

Both of them fell silent.

Wu Zhong blinked. He had no idea what Xia Heng had been like before for Luo Yi to feel he had changed so much.

To break the awkward silence, he asked, "Um, Luo, do you have any connections that could help me become an Awakened?"

Luo Yi chuckled. "Get Yang Chunsha to marry Old Xia, then become their son. Wouldn't that do it?"

"..." Wu Zhong thought, Why did I expect anything from him?

Clearly, Xia Heng was more reliable. Even Xia Heng found becoming an Awakened difficult, so Luo Yi was even less likely to manage it.

Wu Zhong said no more and looked out the window.

Suddenly, his pupils contracted. The others in the car were stunned as well.

At the intersection ahead, a group of traffic police were checking for drunk driving.

"Huh?"

Yang Chunsha smacked Wu Zhong. "You really are a jinx."

Wu Zhong lowered his voice. "What do we do? Can we turn around?"

"Can't turn around now." Xia Heng looked at Luo Yi. "Can you handle it?"

"Are you kidding? How long has it been since I drank?" Luo Yi truly looked calm, with no sign that he had been drinking.

Wu Zhong looked at the milk tea cup from earlier and grimaced. "How long? Didn't you just drink—"

Luo Yi ignored him and drove straight over, fully cooperating as instructed and pulling over to the side. He rolled down the window.

Seeing how cooperative he was, the traffic officer saluted and asked him to blow into the tester.

But the moment Luo Yi exhaled, the alcohol tester started beeping furiously...

Wu Zhong thought, We're done. One look at the display showed it was completely red.

Even the traffic officer froze. 198 mg/100 ml?

"Please step out of the vehicle!" The officer's voice changed.

Luo Yi looked innocent. "Huh? I didn't drink."

The officer snapped, "One hundred ninety-eight, and you're saying you didn't drink? Turn off the engine! Get out!"

He opened the car door, found the keys, and clenched them in his hand.

Luo Yi got out and spread his hands. "I really didn't drink. It's a misunderstanding, the machine must be broken."

Wu Zhong was utterly speechless.

Several traffic officers gathered around and asked Luo Yi to move to the roadside. "Your breath reeks of alcohol, and you say you didn't drink?"

"I really didn't. The steamed buns I ate had gone bad, so the smell lingered..."

The officer laughed angrily and pulled out a new mouthpiece. "You won't admit it? Fine, we'll test you again."

"This is a disposable mouthpiece. I'm opening it right in front of you."

Luo Yi honestly spread his hands. "Don't worry, I haven't drunk recently. I'll fully cooperate."

The officer stressed, "It's best if you haven't been drinking. If you haven't, then you're a law-abiding citizen."

He replaced the mouthpiece and handed it over. "Hold the end in your mouth and blow steadily into it... Blow out, blow..."

Luo Yi fully cooperated. The instant he blew, it started shrieking with beeps.

"Fuck..." Wu Zhong had thought Luo Yi had some trick up his sleeve. So he was just stubbornly denying it?

The officer said coldly, "Your alcohol level is one hundred milligrams of alcohol per one hundred milliliters of blood."

"This has seriously exceeded the drunk-driving standard... and you say you haven't been drinking? You've had quite a lot."

Luo Yi's eyes were clear, his face full of grievance. "Do I look like I've been drinking?"

"They were the ones drinking. Your machine has a problem. It may have been contaminated."

"I demand a blood test!"

The officer nodded. "A blood test? Fine... Take him for a blood draw."

Luo Yi was quickly taken away, leaving Wu Zhong dumbfounded. His mouth really was tough.

The other traffic officers questioned Xia Heng. "What is your relationship with him?"

Xia Heng calmly replied, "We're all friends."

"Have you been drinking?"

"The three of us drank a little this morning. He was driving, so he didn't drink." Xia Heng answered without batting an eye.

After asking a few more questions, they stood by the roadside and waited for the matter to be handled.

Wu Zhong glanced at the silver refrigerated truck that had been following them. It had also pulled over for inspection.

The driver was a young man in a white shirt and suit pants. He looked quite refined and wore a pair of pretentious glasses.

Of course, he hadn't been drinking. After the test, he was about to be allowed through.

As the pretentious young man drove past the three of them, he looked their way and met Wu Zhong's eyes.

But he didn't avoid Wu Zhong's gaze. His eyes even carried a hint of provocation.

"Oh..." Wu Zhong curled his lip and watched him drive away.

The other man knew he had been exposed. He hadn't even changed cars. He was tailing them openly now.

"His teammates should arrive soon."

Xia Heng agreed. "They hadn't arrived before because we drove all the way to Chengdu without stopping."

"Now, with the time you spent recovering in the hospital and the delays on the road, they should have arrived no matter what."

Wu Zhong said quietly, "We've already been exposed. These people might report our location to the firefighters..."

Xia Heng told him not to worry. "If they were going to mobilize them, they would have done so long ago. This group is after you. They intend to secretly eliminate you and inherit what you have."

Wu Zhong didn't know whether that was good news or bad news.

985 hadn't found them, but other mercenaries had. And those mercenaries wanted him dead!

As they spoke, about twenty minutes later, the traffic officers brought Luo Yi back.

The officer's expression was somewhat bewildered.

Luo Yi, meanwhile, looked smug. "It's fine, it's fine. Just a misunderstanding."

The other officers were astonished. "What happened?"

The returning officer pursed his lips. "His blood test came back clean."

"Huh? He blew 198 for alcohol!"

"But the blood test says he hadn't been drinking. Maybe the handheld tester was faulty..."

"But everyone else tested normally."

"Either way, let's switch machines."

The officers discussed it and let Luo Yi return to the car.

"Just a misunderstanding. Let's go." Luo Yi's eyes were clear as he took back the keys and started the car.

The traffic officers still reminded the others, "Even though he wasn't drinking, you aren't allowed to drink in the car either."

"Got it, got it. We stopped drinking ages ago."

They all agreed and drove away.

Before long, they left the city and got onto the national highway.

Wu Zhong couldn't help asking, "What happened? The blood test actually passed. What did you do?"

Luo Yi's face remained calm. "I didn't do anything. There wasn't any alcohol in my blood to begin with."

"I drank so long ago that it had already been broken down."

Wu Zhong was horrified. "You drank half a jin of baijiu, got a blood test just twenty minutes later, and it had already all been metabolized?"

"After twenty minutes, a normal person's alcohol would barely have entered their bloodstream."

Xia Heng explained, "You said it yourself: a normal person. He isn't human."

"Of the mental illnesses he's absorbed, five have reached severe levels. That makes his physical constitution at least six times that of an ordinary person."

"Note that it's across the board. His cellular activity and immune system are doubled again, reaching twelve times normal."

"So his liver breaks down pure alcohol at a rate of at least 120 grams per hour... equivalent to more than half a jin of fifty-proof baijiu per hour."

"This liquor had a low alcohol content, and he deliberately drank slowly while driving. So it was basically metabolized as soon as he drank it, just like water. It never even got the chance to enter his bloodstream."

Wu Zhong was dumbstruck.

Xia Heng continued explaining. The Madblood Clan gained comprehensive physical enhancements with every mental illness they absorbed.

This included, but was not limited to, muscle output, neural reactions, sensory functions, the immune system, and cellular activity.

Cellular activity and the immune system increased the most, while neural reactions and sensory functions increased the least.

But even so, a constitution five times that of an ordinary person was terrifying enough.

"So it depends on the type? Absorbing the same mental illness repeatedly has no effect?" Wu Zhong asked.

Luo Yi took out another cigarette, stuffed it into his mouth, and chewed. "That's right. I only choose illnesses I can accept."

"Repeated ones won't make me stronger, but absorbing the same illness does have a healing effect. Actually, that's more useful."

"If I'm injured, absorbing two or three alcoholics with severe withdrawal symptoms can basically heal me."

Wu Zhong suddenly understood. "So new illnesses raise your stats, while repeated ones restore health?"

Luo Yi smiled. "Precisely."