Chapter 579: A Fateful Encounter in the Abandoned Town
by xennovel“The Dragon Team Leader brought him over. That’s him.”
Lu Xin found himself cornered with a gun pointed at him, led to the edge of this abandoned town’s western outskirts.
Beside the convoy, seven or eight armed personnel wielding submachine guns had taken up positions.
Their stances and grip on their weapons spoke of rigorous training. The vehicles, clearly modified professionally, and the standardized firearms revealed they were part of a well-cultivated regular army from a major faction.
Yet, none of them sported any insignia—no armbands or chest badges—adding to their mystery.
According to them, the Dragon Team Leader was a young man in his twenties.
Unlike his comrades in full combat gear, he wore a white silk Tang suit adorned with several exquisite gold-thread embroideries. His hair was meticulously styled in spikes, exuding energy, and he balanced a pair of black sunglasses low on his nose.
Probably due to the poor visibility at night, the dark lenses hung precariously on his nose.
Leaning against a Jeep with a tablet computer in hand, he scrolled slowly.
“Why is anyone here in the middle of the night?”
Upon hearing his subordinate’s report, the Dragon Team Leader merely shot Lu Xin a disdainful glare from above his sunglasses, rolling his eyes slowly.
He bowed his head slightly yet continued to focus on his tablet.
Beside him, a burly bearded man who looked to be around forty—lacking shoulder marks but exuding an air that set him apart from the others—cast a sharp look at Lu Xin and asked, “What do you do?”
He punctuated his question with a nod.
Only then did the three armed personnel escorting Lu Xin finally understand, stepping forward to frisk him.
Now, with at least a dozen guns aimed at Lu Xin near the vehicle, they dared to search him only because his cooperative and compliant demeanor had slightly eased their suspicions. As their hands rifled him, they retrieved nothing more than his black bag.
“Hey, friends, I just needed to borrow a light. I mean no harm…”
“Please keep your hands off my bag…”
“…”
The others who had grabbed the bag completely ignored his protests, while those at his side brought their guns even closer.
“Borrow a light?”
The bearded man couldn’t help but break into a smile at the suggestion.
Glancing at the cigarette Lu Xin had in his mouth, he produced a lighter from his pocket and snapped it open, igniting a flame.
Lu Xin visibly relaxed, tucking the cigarette back into his mouth as he waited.
Unexpectedly, the bearded man slowly lit his own cigar, drawing an intense puff that sent swirling clouds of smoke around him.
After a heavy drag, he pocketed the lighter and looked at Lu Xin with a half-smile that was hard to read.
Lu Xin fell silent, fixedly staring back at him.
Meanwhile, someone beside him had already opened Lu Xin’s bag and methodically taken out its contents: a crumpled pack of cigarettes, a refined ZIPPO lighter, an elegant cigarette case trimmed with gold, a steel pen, two guns, a black 12-layer Rubik’s Cube, and a premium playing card—all passed around with strange glances.
Who in the wasteland would carry such items?
The strangest of all was when he pulled out a yellow, shrieking chicken with puncture marks from the bag.
“What the heck is this?”
As they inspected the items, one man used a mental detection device to scan them.
It seemed he was measuring the subtle radiations of mental energy from the items; in the end, his expression turned to one of stunned curiosity as he casually tossed the other items back into the bag, but the shrieking chicken was set aside and stomped on.
Screech—Ah!
Despite the stitched seams, the sound was surprisingly loud.
The tense, solemn atmosphere around them became bizarrely unsettled by the piercing cry.
“Who exactly are you?”
The bearded man, after collecting two of Lu Xin’s guns—removing their magazines and cylinders to inspect the bullets—disdainfully tossed them back into the bag without reloading, then raised his chin and, igniting another puff of cigar smoke, asked Lu Xin with a predatory smile as if sizing up his prey.
“I’m just a passerby,”
Lu Xin’s irritation simmered inside him. Glancing at the discarded shrieking chicken on the ground, he replied as calmly as he could, “I’m waiting for a friend. I had some business to handle. I didn’t mean to frighten you, nor harbor any ill intent…”
“So, how about we all just stay out of each other’s way?”
“…”
A scoff escaped.
Lu Xin’s answer plunged the group into an uneasy silence.
Then the Dragon Team Leader suddenly laughed, looking up at Lu Xin and remarking, “No ill intent, huh?”
“Then how do you show ill intent?”
“…”
Lu Xin’s brow furrowed slightly.
From his words, it was clear the man disrespected him.
The Dragon Team Leader, uninterested in an explanation, merely glanced at his tablet after his offhand comment.
The bearded man chuckled warmly and said, “We have our own work to do and don’t want to hinder anyone. So tell us what you’re up to here and where your companions are, and we’ll go our separate ways. How’s that?”
“…”
After a brief frown and a moment of silence, Lu Xin patiently responded, “I’m alone. I have no connection with you; theoretically, I don’t even need to state who I am. But since you’re insisting, I’m from Qinggang, and as for why I’m here, it involves a promise with someone else that I can’t divulge…”
“Everyone’s on their own path. Isn’t it unreasonable for you to press me for details?”
“…”
Silence fell over the group.
The armed personnel formed a circle, exchanging glances; a few even stifled their laughs.
Rustle…
At that very moment, a faint hum of electrical currents drifted through the bearded man’s headset.
Despite his highly secure headset—which made it nearly impossible to catch a sound even with a face-to-face whisper—Lu Xin could clearly hear multiple teams reporting their findings from within the ruins.
“Team A: Secure.”
“Team B: Secure.”
“Team C: No anomalies detected…”
“…”
The bearded man, clutching his gun, furrowed his brow and exchanged a glance with the Dragon Team Leader.
If all teams found nothing out of the ordinary, then the ruins really only housed this one man?
No special bullets, no parasitic items, and no traces of mental energy radiation on him…
His clothes looked like cheap market wares, marked by signs of climbing and rust.
Even the cigarettes he smoked were crumpled, low-grade smokes!
Is he just a lunatic?
“Enough chatter…”
As the bearded man himself began to grow uneasy, the Dragon Team Leader, his eyes fixed on the tablet, suddenly let out a cold, dismissive chuckle and said, “Time’s almost up. No more wasting time. If he won’t talk, so be it.”
The burly man with the gun understood immediately, gave a nod, and then shot Lu Xin a smile.
Lu Xin, oblivious and uninterested in their banter, returned a quiet, steady glance as he was dismissed with a smile.
The man holding the gun softened his smile and said, “You may leave.”
Surprised, Lu Xin raised both his right hands slightly as he pointed into the distance, his eyes filled with curiosity.
“Right.”
The man with the gun nodded again and said, “Turn around and go.”
Lu Xin exhaled in relief and slowly lowered his hands.
The surrounding armed personnel all smiled at him, with two of them even stepping aside to give him room.
Lu Xin’s smile faded as he met their gaze.
Without a word, he crouched, picked up the shrieking chicken, and dusted it off.
Then he slowly turned and headed back to his original spot.
Watching his retreating figure, the armed soldiers exchanged knowing smiles.
They shared glances; a few even discreetly swapped out their standard magazines for a new kind.
Even the Dragon Team Leader seemed to anticipate something amusing, momentarily setting aside his tablet and glancing back, while the burly bearded man silently attached a black barrel to his gun.
He then fixed his sight on Lu Xin, who had taken seven or eight steps away, slung the gun butt over his shoulder, and squinted one eye.
Aiming carefully.
He lightly pressed his lips together, and a cloud of cigar smoke billowed out.
Then, with sudden force, he jerked the trigger.
Rat-a-tat-tat…
The silenced gunfire, subdued yet insistent, echoed as bullets flew toward Lu Xin’s back.
In an instant, seven or eight bullets struck Lu Xin’s back.
The armed personnel watching couldn’t help but let excited smiles creep onto their faces as they squinted in anticipation.
Hunting has always been a cherished thrill since time immemorial.
Swish, swish!
But just as the bullets whistled by, they noticed the mysterious young man’s body sway unnaturally.
Under the hazy glow of the Red Moon, his figure blurred momentarily, as if multiple images appeared in a split second—but when looked at closely, he hadn’t moved.
He merely halted his steps.
Visually, it should have been clear that the bullets hit his back.
Yet, curiously, he bore no wounds; instead, the sound of bullets splattering on the ground came from in front of him.
It was as if the bullets had passed right through him.
Or perhaps the moment the bullets were fired, he contorted his body to evade them?
“Hmm?”
This bizarre scene instantly froze the smiles on the armed men’s faces.
They sensed an uncanny possibility.
Their bodies tensed up.
The bearded man gripping his gun’s trigger eyed it coldly and suddenly kept his finger on it, unyielding.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat…
A series of muffled gunshots erupted, drowning into the air toward the man’s back.
Then, in a flash, the figure standing seven or eight meters away vanished.
The sheer strangeness of the moment sent shivers down their spines as they instinctively looked upward.
The light of the Red Moon cascaded from above, revealing a distorted, eerie silhouette in the sky—its body hunched, arms spread wide. Its rapid swoop stirred a furious wind that slammed down hard.
“Swish!”
The bearded man, startled, quickly raised his gun and aimed at the airborne shadow.
In that moment, as he lifted his weapon, he clearly saw the black shadow’s face—a grin revealing sharp, white teeth.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat…
A third volley of bullets was fired at the figure in the sky.
But as he pulled the trigger, the airborne figure suddenly reached out, grabbing his gun.
With a swift upward twist of the wrist, the bullets whistled back into the air.
Seizing the momentum, the figure dove downward; his knee hit the bearded man’s chin with a heavy thud.
The force was enough to flip the man over, his jaw snapping with a harsh crack.
In the next moment, Lu Xin wrested the gun from his grasp, removed the silencer, and pointed it squarely at the man’s face.
……
……
“Don’t move…”
At that command, the surrounding armed personnel reacted instantly, raising their submachine guns in unison.
Especially those equipped with special bullets.
“I’m so pissed off…”
At that moment, a small girl’s laughter suddenly rang out.
Just as the armed men, aiming at the lunatic riding on the team leader’s back, felt an icy little hand brush against them, an odd force surged through their bodies, paralyzing every muscle.
Their limbs went limp, as though they’d become puppets to another’s will.
Some guns clattered to the ground while others fired wildly, turning on one another in chaos.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat…
Bullets splattered, electric flashes danced, and everything descended into utter chaos.
……
……
In the midst of the turmoil, Lu Xin lowered his gaze to the middle-aged man with a gun pointed at his face.
He paid no heed to the guns raised around or the terrified expressions of the armed personnel.
The burly bearded man, who had moments earlier sported a mocking, cat-and-mouse smirk, now wore an expression of pure fury.
“You…”
His forehead bulged with veins, his pupils shrank, and he forcefully spat out his cigar before roaring,
“Rat-a-tat-tat-tat…”
Before he could utter another word, a deafening series of sounds erupted as Lu Xin jerked the trigger.
The submachine gun’s bullets cascaded over the man’s face.
The recoil of the gun sent shockwaves through Lu Xin’s arms and body, leaving him numb and trembling.
Yet his expression remained unchanged as he locked eyes with the middle-aged man, his finger unrelentingly on the trigger while continuous gunfire shattered the man’s face into fragments, scattering stones all around.
After a dozen rounds were fired, Lu Xin glanced at the smoking muzzle, his brow furrowing.
He then reached over, pulled another magazine from the middle-aged man’s waist, inserted it into his gun, and continued shooting.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat…
By the time the bullets ran out, the man’s head was nowhere to be seen; the ground beneath bore a deep crater where his head once lay.
Only then did Lu Xin slowly raise his gun to take a glance, bringing the muzzle close to his mouth.
The blood-soaked, crumpled cigarette butt near the barrel was instantly ignited by the scalding gun flame, sparking briefly.
He deeply inhaled to keep it lit.
Only then did Lu Xin stand up and toss the submachine gun aside.
Turning around, he revealed his body splattered with blood, with odd patches of white staining his sleeves.
He looked as if he had just washed in a rain of blood, yet his face was remarkably calm.
Slowly, he removed the cigarette from his mouth, exhaled a plume of smoke, then replaced it as he seriously watched the youth in a Tang suit with a tablet on the armored car’s roof; the young man smiled and said, “I recall you mentioning earlier…”
“That you wanted to see what I look like when I harbor ill intent?”