36: Chapter 36 Decisive and Ruthless! Crushing Inferior Thugs!

Ten minutes later, the back alley of Changfeng Street.

Lin Zhe threw his shared bike into the weeds by the roadside.

Ahead was a row of rusty sheet metal hoardings, spray-painted with red text: "Demolition Zone, Entry Strictly Prohibited."

Crossing the hoardings, inside were stretches of broken walls and construction waste, and in the deepest part stood a brick house with half its roof collapsed.

The system radar showed that the flickering light spot was right inside the brick house.

Lin Zhe did not rush in rashly; he lightened his footsteps and crept along the base of the wall to the windowsill on the side of the brick house.

Besides the strong stench of the sewer, the air was filled with a very fresh smell of blood, and deliberately lowered voices could be heard from inside.

"Be quick about it. The boss gave orders: we need to see the person alive or see the corpse. That thing isn't on him, so he must have hidden it nearby." This was a hoarse male voice, dripping with impatience.

"This kid is like a cockroach; he ran this far even with three bloody holes in his stomach." Another, slightly younger voice spoke up, accompanied by the rustling of clothes as they searched through things.

"Stop the chatter. Go search his body. Be quick, lest we invite trouble."

Lin Zhe leaned against the glassless window frame and tilted his head slightly to look inside.

The light inside the brick house was very dim, with only a little moonlight leaking through the roof.

Two people were standing with their backs to the window.

One was holding a blood-stained triangular military dagger, while the other was crouching on the ground, rummaging through the body of a person covered in blood.

The person lying on the ground was motionless; his black tight-fitting clothes were completely soaked in blood, and his face was covered by messy hair.

The dark gold trait representing [Shadow] above his head now had only a faint spark left, ready to dissipate at any moment.

They were here to destroy the evidence.

Lin Zhe didn't care at all what kind of garbage these people were looking for; what he cared about was the top-tier trait on the kid on the ground.

Once the person died, he would have to start from scratch to find such a one-in-a-million specimen.

The young man crouching on the ground suddenly cursed.

"Damn, didn't find anything. Boss, let's just slit his throat and get it over with, no need to complicate things."

"Do it." The man holding the military dagger said coldly.

The young man pulled a dagger from his tactical boot, held it in a reverse grip, and aimed it at the throat of the person on the ground.

Just as the dagger was less than ten centimeters from the neck, half a mud-covered red brick flew in from outside the window, accurately smashing into the young man's wrist.

Crack!

Accompanied by the sound of breaking bone, the young man screamed, the dagger flew out of his hand and clattered against a discarded iron bucket nearby.

"Who's there!" The man with the military dagger reacted extremely quickly, instantly turning to face the window, holding the dagger horizontally in front of his chest, his muscles tensed all over.

Lin Zhe stepped on the broken glass covering the floor and swaggered in through the doorway that had no door.

He looked at the dying A-Gui on the ground, then looked at the two vicious-looking killers in front of him.

The system panel automatically expanded above the two men's heads.

[Professional Thug], [Cold-Blooded], [Dagger Mastery].

Low-level skill traits; they didn't even qualify to be recorded in the warehouse.

"Which path are you from? The boss is working here, stay away, bystander." The man with the military dagger stared at Lin Zhe, not daring to rush up immediately.

The strength and precision displayed by that half-brick just now meant he was definitely an expert.

"I have no interest in who your boss is." Lin Zhe pointed at A-Gui on the ground. "This person is under my protection."

The young man opposite stood up, clutching his swollen wrist, laughing out of sheer anger, and pulled a switchblade from his lower back.

"Boss, is this kid crazy? Running over here alone to snatch someone from us?" He stared at Lin Zhe, gritting his teeth. "Might as well slaughter him too!"

The man with the military dagger narrowed his eyes, stopped talking, exerted force with his feet, and lunged at Lin Zhe like a cheetah.

The triangular military dagger went straight for Lin Zhe's heart; there were no fancy moves, only lethal strikes.

Lin Zhe stood still. With the boost of [Supernormal Reaction], the opponent's movements, which were lightning-fast to ordinary people, looked like slow-motion replays to him.

The moment the military dagger thrust forward, Lin Zhe just shifted his body slightly.

The blade slid past his clothes.

In the next second, Lin Zhe didn't give the opponent a chance to retract his move, delivering a Baji Quan "Mountain-Leaning Strike" that slammed hard into the man's chest.

Bang.

A sickening, dull thud exploded in the abandoned factory building.

The man with the dagger couldn't even let out a scream; he flew three or four meters into the air, his back slamming solidly against the graffiti-covered brick wall, shaking lime dust down from the entire wall.

The man slid to the ground, and the triangular military dagger in his hand clattered to the floor.

His chest was visibly caved in, and he spat out a mouthful of black blood mixed with organ fragments, passing out on the spot.

The young lackey with the switchblade swallowed hard.

He looked at his unconscious boss, then at Lin Zhe, who stood there without even a change in his breathing, and his crotch grew warm as he wet himself.

He dropped the knife and turned to run outside.

Lin Zhe flicked a piece of broken brick from the ground with his toe, exerted force with his right leg, and kicked it violently.

The broken brick created a gust of wind in mid-air, accurately smashing into the young lackey's knee pit.

With a crisp "crack," the lackey screamed and fell to the ground, rolling around wildly while clutching his deformed lower leg.

Lin Zhe walked over, raised his foot, stepped on the lackey's already fractured right wrist, and ground down hard.

A pig-like howl echoed through the abandoned factory.

Lin Zhe, finding it noisy, kicked the lackey in the chin.

The screaming stopped abruptly; the lackey's jawbone shattered, his eyes rolled back, and he passed out completely.

Having dealt with the two low-class thugs, Lin Zhe turned and walked into the corner.

The smell of blood was heavy.

A-Gui lay on the ground, which was mixed with mud and weeds.

The horrifying bloody hole in his abdomen was gushing dark red blood, and even his tactical vest was completely soaked.

The system panel flashed frantically above A-Gui's head.

The crimson trait [Penetrating Injury] grew deeper in color, frantically devouring the target's vital signs.

Beside it, the dark gold trait [Shadow] that made Lin Zhe covet it had its light dimmed to the extreme, ready to dissipate at any moment.

This person wouldn't live for more than three minutes.

Lin Zhe squatted down and reached out to pat A-Gui's blood-stained cheek.

"Wake up."

A-Gui's cracked lips parted slightly, and his eyelids lifted heavily, leaving a slit.

Excessive blood loss made it impossible for his vision to focus; he could only see a blurry figure squatting in front of him.

"I can let you live." Lin Zhe didn't waste words, his voice extremely steady. "The price is that you belong to me."

A-Gui's consciousness was about to fall into endless darkness, his survival instinct instinctively supporting his last breath.

He couldn't hear clearly what the other person said, but the word "live" stimulated his dying nerves.

He didn't want to die.

No matter the cost, he didn't want to die in a gutter like this.

A-Gui used the very last ounce of his strength, squeezing a weak syllable from his throat.

"Okay."