Under a barrage of punches, controlled in strength yet heavy enough to suppress her frenzy, her struggles grew weaker, and the blood-red savagery in her eyes faded little by little.
Just as Chen Xiao raised his hand to deliver another punch, the woman, her face covered in blood, suddenly spoke weakly. "Stop... stop hitting me."
"Oh, finally awake."
Chen Xiao withdrew his hand with a hint of regret.
This feeling of beating someone into complete submission... was kind of addictive, wasn't it?
Ahem, no, I'm not that kind of person.
He shook his head, casting aside the strange thought that had surfaced, and released her wrists.
After Chen Xiao let go, the Mutant still stared with scarlet, savage eyes, but she neither lunged at him again nor roared.
Only then did Chen Xiao's tense shoulders ease slightly. His gaze swept across the wall by the door, and he soon found the power switch and pressed it with a click.
Snap!
A wall lamp in the corner lit up, its dim yellow glow barely outlining the room.
The fluorescent tubes that should have lit the ceiling had long since shattered, leaving only a few exposed wires dangling in midair.
The fight had only just ended. Severed limbs littered the floor, and splashes of dark red blood soaked it through. The whole room looked as though a slaughterhouse had been moved inside. Even Chen Xiao, accustomed to such scenes, could not help a twitch of his mouth.
At that moment, the woman shrank farther into the corner.
As she stared at Chen Xiao, upright in his sleek black combat suit, his features clean-cut, a trace of embarrassment actually surfaced in her eyes.
Compared with the clean, composed Chen Xiao, she had loose, matted hair, torn clothes, and blood-soaked bandages wrapped around several places. Dried and fresh blood crusted her entire body. She looked exactly like a shadow that had just crawled out of hell.
Noticing her withdrawal, Chen Xiao softened his voice. "Don't be afraid. I'm here to get you out. Besides, I'm a Mutant too."
"You... are too?" The woman froze, her voice tight with doubt.
Chen Xiao smiled. "You're wondering why I don't have horns, shed skin, or have a tail?"
He had expected that reaction.
Over the years, the media had portrayed Mutants as symbols of ugliness, loss of control, and inhumanity. Among ordinary people, "mutant" was practically synonymous with "monster."
And reality did bear that out. More than half of all Mutants had severely deformed appearances: protruding bone spurs, ulcerated skin, altered limbs... all manner of grotesque features that made people keep their distance.
"Mutants aren't all the same. Some look normal, and others come in every strange shape imaginable. I just happen to be in the former group."
"So... that's how it is." Envy flickered in her eyes, as though she were gazing at an unreachable shore.
Chen Xiao saw it and added softly, "You don't have to think you look frightening, either. You don't look ugly like this. You have this fierce edge instead. It's pretty badass."
"Really?!"
Her body jolted. It was the first time since her mutation that anyone had told her to her face that she was "not ugly."
Chen Xiao nodded. "Really."
Of course, those words were partly meant to comfort her.
The woman before him was dark red all over, her hair glued into hard clumps by blood. Blood kept seeping through her bandages, some her own and some her enemies'.
She looked as though she had just broken free of a torture rack, wounded from head to toe. No wonder she had become maddened by killing and lost control completely.
Her appearance was far removed from "pretty" or "delicate," but "cool" was not entirely wrong. That reckless ferocity was an edge in itself.
After those few reassuring words, her breathing visibly slowed, and the bloody gleam in her eyes dimmed somewhat.
Chen Xiao turned his gaze to the silver collar around her neck. "There's still fighting outside. I'll get this off you first. Everything else can wait until we're out."
Ferocity surged in her eyes again. She grinned, lifting her upper lip to reveal two sharp canines, and rasped, "It won't come off."
"What the hell did they make it out of? I hacked at it with my blade, and it didn't budge."
"That tough?" Chen Xiao was slightly surprised.
He knew how formidable her blade was. Ordinary alloys were little different from tofu in her hands.
"Let me see."
Frowning, he approached and crouched under the direct stare of those crimson eyes. He carefully lifted the silver ring that had rubbed her neck raw, peeling back skin and flesh. The instant his fingertips touched it, he knew it would be difficult.
The ring fitted snugly around her neck, leaving no purchase.
He turned his attention to the chain. Made of silver-gray metal, it was as thick as a chopstick and five meters long, with its other end welded fast to the innermost brick wall.
Chen Xiao gripped the middle of the chain with both hands and drew a deep breath. His arm muscles abruptly tensed, more than twenty tons of grip strength erupted, and he wrenched his arms apart.
Clang!!!
The chain instantly pulled taut, throwing blinding sparks as it scraped against his palms.
Yet aside from bending slightly, it did not even develop a crack.
"...It really is tough." Chen Xiao clicked his tongue, feeling a little embarrassed.
But he refused to give up. He lifted the chain again and examined it closely, finding that every link was seamlessly joined, without the slightest gap.
At the back of the collar, however, where the chain was fused to the metal ring, the color was slightly paler and the material somewhat softer. It clearly was not from the same batch of material.
Chen Xiao's eyes flashed. When they shackled this woman, their welding process probably wasn't up to the job, so they had to make do with an inferior metal.
The corners of his mouth lifted. "This might hurt a little. Bear with it."
A bloody gleam shifted through her eyes. Her voice was hoarse but firm. "As long as you can take it off, I can stand any amount of pain."
"All right."
Chen Xiao firmly gripped both sides of the collar.
After days of struggling and pulling, the collar had already sliced her neck into a bloody mess of torn skin and flesh. The sight made Chen Xiao clench his teeth.
This woman was ruthless toward her enemies, and even more ruthless toward herself.
He gently pressed his fingertips against the metal edges, avoiding the wounds as he sought the angle that would require the least effort to pry it apart.
She, on the other hand, was extraordinarily calm, as though the dull pain buried deep in her flesh were nothing more than a mosquito bite.
With his hands secured and his leverage established, Chen Xiao's gaze hardened, and the X-Gene in his body abruptly activated.
Boom!
A surge of primal brute force exploded from his spine. His black hair whipped wildly, and even the air around him seemed to hum under the pressure. The oppressive force struck her head-on. So close to him, her pupils abruptly contracted, and all she saw was the handsome, cold face before her.
Whoosh!!
His transformation activated instantly. His muscular strength surged fivefold, and his grip strength in a single hand shot past a hundred tons.
Hah!
With a low roar, Chen Xiao hooked all ten fingers tightly around the collar. His arm muscles suddenly tensed, and a brutal force erupted. The silver metal ring gave a piercing creak.
Under the crushing force, the weld began to distort, and fine cracks quietly spread like a spiderweb.
They were extremely close. As Chen Xiao exerted himself, his hot breath washed directly over the female Mutant's face, carrying a rough, scorching masculine scent.
But at that moment, both Chen Xiao and she had their eyes fixed on the silver ring embedded in her flesh.
Crack!
The weld split. The gap in the metal ring abruptly widened, and it snapped apart completely. Her neck loosened, and she was free again.
"Phew... done! Congratulations. You're free again."
Chen Xiao's chest heaved violently. Holding the metal ring he had forcibly snapped apart, he smiled in relief.
"I'm... free?" Her fingertips trembled as she repeatedly stroked her bare neck, her eyes dazed, as though she could not believe this body had finally escaped ten years of shackles.
"Come on. Let's get out of here first."
Before his words had faded, he turned toward the corner, where the other end of the chain was embedded deep in the concrete wall.
This chain was anything but ordinary. Heavy and gleaming a cold gray, it had clearly been forged from some high-density alloy. Naturally, Chen Xiao would not leave it behind.
"Hah!"
A hundred tons of force poured out. The chain hummed and deformed, and the steel ring anchored inside the wall screeched. Then, with a dull bang, spiderweb cracks burst across the entire wall.
He brutally yanked out the section embedded half a meter deep, sending fragments of stone tumbling down.
Fierce winds surged around him. He deftly wound the five-meter chain around his arms, then nodded to her. "Stay close."
She silently picked up the long blade from the floor and stepped after him without a word.
Outside the room, Shadowcat and Wolverine had rescued all eight Mutant children. The youngest were only eight or nine, and the oldest just twelve or thirteen.
But when they saw Chen Xiao wrapped in swirling air, his hair flying, and the female Mutant beside him with bloodstained clothes, a long blade in hand, and eyes as cold as steel, the children all backed away, their little faces deathly pale.
Even Logan's pupils contracted. That killing intent was so dense it almost took physical form.
Chen Xiao reassured them gently. "Don't be afraid. She's a Mutant who was imprisoned and tortured, just like you."
Then he turned to Wolverine. "Mr. Logan, is everyone here?"
Logan nodded. "They're all here."
"Good. Kitty, Mr. Logan, I'll take point."
"I'm strong and fast. I'm the best fit."
Before his words had faded, he raised a hand and clenched it. The thick steel door of the neighboring room tore free, and he lifted it with one hand, holding it across his chest as a shield.
Logan and Shadowcat said little. Having witnessed him snap the metal ring apart with his bare hands and rip the chain out of the wall, they no longer found such a small feat surprising.
The group immediately reorganized: Chen Xiao at the front, Wolverine bringing up the rear, and Shadowcat and the female Mutant guarding the middle.
She had insisted on walking beside him at the very front, but Chen Xiao merely shook his head. "You just got out. You haven't recovered your strength yet."
Within the research facility, the fifth floor was the detention area. There were only two routes to the surface: the elevator and the stairs.
But the elevator had already broken down. Whether it had been caused by Scott's earlier demolition or caught in another explosion was unknown. It was completely inoperable, leaving only the stairs.
At the fourth-floor stairwell, more than ten fully armed guards held submachine guns, staring fixedly at the end of the corridor a dozen or so meters away.
Their orders were clear: Mutants had breached the fifth floor. Hold the passage, shoot anyone on sight, and leave no survivors.
Just as they held their breath in concentration, a dark figure suddenly burst into view. A black-haired youth stood upon the wind, the air shrieking around him.
Before they could react, the triggers had already been pulled!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Muzzle flashes blazed, and bullets poured down like a rainstorm, weaving an impenetrable net of death through the narrow corridor.
Under the simultaneous fire of hundreds of bullets, even Wolverine would have been riddled with holes on the spot, his flesh torn apart.
Unfortunately for them, the one they had encountered was Chen Xiao.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The instant the bullets left their barrels, the steel door was already firmly in place before him.