Prologue

It was the weekend, in a park in South City.

"Huff, huff."

Zhang Yao had just finished a long run through the park. Bracing his hands on his knees, he gulped down air. I haven't exercised in ages, and my stamina's really gone downhill! Running this far used to be nothing! Now I'm panting like crazy. Looks like I'll have to exercise more from now on. He worked to steady his breathing as these thoughts ran through his mind.

After a few more deep, ragged breaths, Zhang Yao finally caught his breath. He stretched his arms and legs, finished his morning workout, and turned to leave the park.

He headed toward Qian's Snacks outside the park.

"Little Zhang, buying wonton noodles for your grandfather again?" The proprietress spotted Zhang Yao approaching her shop from a distance and called out to him.

"Yes, Auntie Qian. The usual, please-two bowls of wonton noodles. Here's the money!" Zhang Yao gave her a sunny smile and politely handed over the money for the noodles.

"Hehe. Our Little Zhang is as thoughtful as ever! Old man, hurry up and make him two bowls of wonton noodles! Remember to put in a couple of extra wontons!" Auntie Qian accepted the money and praised Zhang Yao, then turned and shouted to Uncle Qian, who was busy in the kitchen.

"Got it, old woman!" Uncle Qian called back from the kitchen.

"Little Zhang, come sit down for a bit. Your wonton noodles will be ready soon!" Auntie Qian said.

"Thank you, Auntie Qian!" Zhang Yao thanked her before taking a seat.

Before long, the wonton noodles were ready. Zhang Yao took the bag containing the noodles, said goodbye to Auntie and Uncle Qian, and headed home. Even after he had walked quite a distance, he could still hear the couple and the customers eating breakfast praising him for being such a thoughtful, polite young man.

I wonder how you'd feel if you'd met me half a year ago! Zhang Yao shook his head at the thought, then turned into the park with the noodles in hand.

The park where Zhang Yao exercised had a front gate and a back gate. The front gate faced Qian's Snacks, while the back gate faced the courtyard of his grandfather's home. So whenever he bought breakfast, he always went straight through the park on his way home.

This time was no different. Zhang Yao planned to take the shortcut through the park.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A string of muffled reports rang out, like the sound of a lit string of firecrackers tossed into a sealed bottle.

"Huh? What's that sound?" The sudden noise caught Zhang Yao's attention as he walked through the park. Curious, he found himself heading toward its source.

"What the..." Standing beside an artificial rock formation, Zhang Yao craned his head to look ahead. The sight before him left him frozen.

In a clearing in front of the rock formation, two figures were locked in a fierce duel. They moved so quickly that countless afterimages seemed to dance before Zhang Yao's eyes. Every collision of their hands and feet produced the same muffled bang, bang, bang he had heard earlier.

Bang! After another exchange, the two figures sprang apart, stopping about five meters from each other and watching one another warily.

Only then did Zhang Yao get a clear look at the two combatants. One was rather burly, with hair cropped to half an inch and a bare torso covered in bulging muscles. But the bloody gashes across his chest and back left him looking somewhat bedraggled.

The other man was smaller and thinner, dressed entirely in close-fitting black clothes. Even his head was wrapped in black cloth, preventing Zhang Yao from seeing his face and lending him an air of mystery. More than that, he exuded an aura that made Zhang Yao tremble, adding a sinister edge to that mystery.

"Keh-heh-heh. Yan Wu, you can't escape. Be a good boy and hand it over! As long as you give it to me, I can spare your life! You get to live, and I get the treasure! Two birds with one stone-why not? Otherwise, I'll teach you what a great blessing death can be!" The man wrapped tightly in black let out a strange laugh, then spoke to the burly man named Yan Wu as though proposing a bargain. Yet the malice in his voice was unmistakable.

"Hmph! Zhang Xiao, if I give it to you, I'll probably just die faster! Enough talk. Take this!" Clearly, Yan Wu did not believe a word Zhang Xiao said. With a cold snort, he attacked again.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The muffled impacts of clashing hands and feet rang out once more as the two fought. This time, however, the exchange was quickly decided. Yan Wu spat blood and crashed heavily to the ground. Zhang Xiao's face was covered, making his condition difficult to judge, but his ragged breathing showed that he, too, had suffered serious injuries-though far less serious than those of Yan Wu, who lay on the ground unable to rise.

Clearly, Zhang Xiao had gained an overwhelming advantage in this exchange!

"Keh-heh-heh. I told you to hand it over earlier! You refused, but now it's mine anyway!" Zhang Xiao let out that grating, unnatural laugh again, brimming with triumph.

"Even if I die, I'll never give it to you!" Yan Wu roared from the ground. Planting both hands and driving through his waist, he sprang up and hurled himself straight at the gloating Zhang Xiao.

"Just what I wanted!" Seeing Yan Wu charging at him, Zhang Xiao raised his hand and shot out two streaks of dark light. They hurtled toward Yan Wu with lethal force. Unless he stopped, they would strike him before he could reach Zhang Xiao.

Zhang Xiao felt even more pleased with himself! The two streaks of dark light he had just flicked from his hand were his renowned signature weapon, the Mother-and-Child Centipede Darts! Even if Yan Wu tried to stop and dodge now, it was already too late. They were called Mother-and-Child Centipede Darts because each dart concealed eighteen needles as fine as ox hair, coated in centipede venom. Once a dart had flown a certain distance, those eighteen deadly needles would shoot out, making them all but impossible to guard against. Anyone struck would soon dissolve into yellow liquid and descend to the Yellow Springs!

Back in the day, the mere mention of Zhang Xiao's Mother-and-Child Centipede Darts had been enough to drain the color from people's faces! He would have used them earlier if Yan Wu had not kept him pinned down, forcing him to fight head-on and leaving him no chance to throw them! Now that he had finally seized an opening and unleashed his signature move, how could he not be delighted? He could already picture Yan Wu dying from the darts!

It was a fine picture Zhang Xiao had painted for himself, but reality did not unfold according to his wishes. Yan Wu paid no heed to the incoming Mother-and-Child Centipede Darts and kept charging straight at him.

Thud! Thud! Both Mother-and-Child Centipede Darts struck squarely into Yan Wu's body, but Yan Wu slammed hard into Zhang Xiao's chest as well.

Bang! A muffled impact rang out.

"Urgh!" Yan Wu staggered back two steps and collapsed. After coughing up a mouthful of blood, he gave Zhang Xiao, who stood motionless, a bleak smile. "You wanted me dead! Then I'll drag you down with me!"

Zhang Xiao stood there in a daze, utterly still! It was not that he did not want to move-he could no longer move! A black dagger had sunk all the way into the left side of his chest, piercing his heart!

Even in death, Zhang Xiao's eyes remained wide open, staring at the dagger buried in his chest as though he could not believe it was real.

Zhang Yao stared blankly at the scene before him. Everything had happened far too quickly! Someone had died before he could even react! And he had been murdered-this was serious! Instinctively, Zhang Yao reached for his phone to call the police, but no sooner had he taken it out than he put it away again.

Then Zhang Yao gently set the wonton noodles on the ground and cautiously approached Zhang Xiao and Yan Wu. Zhang Xiao was already dead, and Yan Wu was breathing out far more than he was breathing in! Once he saw that neither man posed a threat, Zhang Yao grew bolder and began searching Yan Wu.

Watching their fight from beside the rock formation, Zhang Yao had realized that these two were anything but ordinary! What, then, could they have been fighting over? Curiosity and greed had risen together, prompting him to abandon the idea of calling the police. Summoning his courage, he had approached them to search for the object they had fought over.

Nothing. There was nothing at all!

Yan Wu was bare-chested and wore only a pair of trousers, making him easy to search. Yet even after searching his lower body for quite some time, Zhang Yao found nothing worth noting.

What's going on? Did I not search carefully enough? With that thought, Zhang Yao was about to search him again. Before he could do so, however, a hissing sound came from Yan Wu's body.

Then Zhang Yao witnessed the most chilling sight of his entire life! Yan Wu's skin slowly rotted away, and the muscles beneath it decayed into pools of yellow liquid. Soaked in that liquid, even his hard bones slowly eroded, eventually becoming part of it. His trousers had already dissolved into nothing when his skin first began to rot.

"Bleurgh!" Once the terror passed, all Zhang Yao felt was nausea. He dropped to his hands and knees nearby and began dry-heaving.

Perhaps Heaven wanted to test how much Zhang Yao's mind could endure. Just as he finished retching, the same scalp-prickling hiss came from Zhang Xiao's body.

Zhang Yao's Adam's apple bobbed several times. Then he turned his head slightly and glanced toward Zhang Xiao out of the corner of his eye. Zhang Xiao had followed in Yan Wu's footsteps-even the dagger had dissolved.

Perhaps because he had already watched it happen to Yan Wu, seeing Zhang Xiao dissolve into yellow liquid still made Zhang Yao nauseous, but the fear in his heart had diminished considerably.

The human ability to adapt is truly frightening! Incongruously, that thought surfaced in Zhang Yao's mind.