Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Hour of the Hunt

From the moment Ye Chen burst into the house to when the baton slipped from his grasp, it all happened in the blink of an eye.

Yet it was enough for him to realize that this bizarre creature would not be easy to deal with.

The opponent knew how to ambush its prey and how to choose battlegrounds advantageous to itself.

That was why, even after hearing Xu Fan’s cries, it still chose to hide inside the house.

And once it sensed its opponent was weaker than itself, such a creature would launch its most ferocious assault, determined to finish the kill.

The strange being dropped to all fours, its back arched slightly, and with a hiss, it lunged at Ye Chen once more.

Its two forelimbs shot forward, aiming to pin Ye Chen against the wall again.

Trying that trick again? In your dreams!

Even in the darkness, Ye Chen’s perceptive eyes had already mapped out every movement of the creature in his mind.

Before the gust of wind from its charge could reach him, Ye Chen ducked low, his right hand slipping inside his uniform to draw out the broken blade hidden there.

At the same time, he dodged diagonally forward, swinging the blade as he moved.

There was a dull thud, followed by the creature’s frenzied, agonized roar:

“Ah… you deserve to die, you deserve to die!”

Yes, that was the exact cry he’d heard on Bar Street that night—Ye Chen instantly connected the sound to what he was witnessing now.

The broken blade, infused with his inner energy and wielded by Ye Chen’s strength, finally sheared through one of the creature’s legs.

This was no ordinary strike; it was the perfect fusion of bodily power and weapon mastery.

The severed limb was cut cleanly, as if hardened fat had been sliced through by a red-hot knife.

Just then, Ye Chen noticed a rag wrapped around the creature’s thigh.

It actually knew how to bandage its own wounds—no wonder there’d been no bloodstains earlier. Another mystery resolved in Ye Chen’s mind.

All the more, he was convinced this bizarre creature’s intelligence was nearly equal to a human’s.

At that moment, blood gushed from the wound and the searing pain drove the creature’s eyes red with fury.

This man must die!

Balanced on one leg and two arms, the creature continued its fierce pursuit of Ye Chen.

It was clear it would not rest until it tore him apart.

What tenacity, what resentment… Ye Chen ran while glancing back, his brows tightly knit.

Having just lost a hind limb, the creature was unable to regain its balance at once.

It staggered, knocking over chairs and toppling a cabinet against the wall.

Bottles and jars in the kitchen smashed to the floor with a cacophony.

Its speed was slowed, granting Ye Chen the chance to widen the gap between them.

At this moment, the creature was beside itself with rage, howling incessantly, “I’ll bite you to death! I’ll eat you!”

Suddenly, it saw the fleeing figure ahead stop, turn to face it, holding the broken blade.

It was this blade that had just severed its leg. “Damn you, damn you, damn you…”

Having regained its balance, the creature gathered power in its remaining hind limb, and, enraged, lunged at Ye Chen.

It wanted to bite through this man’s skull.

It wanted to tear open his chest with its powerful forelimbs.

It wanted to feast on his organs.

In the next instant, the creature raised its muscular forelimb, black claws extended, and swiped at Ye Chen’s chest.

With this strike, it was confident it would rip through his body and wrench out his heart.

At that very moment, it saw the man opposite it smile, the corners of his mouth curling ever so slightly.

“This is the moment I’ve been waiting for!”

A muffled thud sounded from the ground.

The creature saw the man before it leap—no, he was flying backward, torso arched as he fell.

Its forelimb, which had nearly reached its target, was left just a small distance from Ye Chen’s chest.

Meanwhile, Ye Chen, retreating, thought:

My judgment was correct. Any beast’s power in a forward lunge comes largely from its strong hind legs.

With one leg gone, its strength is greatly diminished.

And with some distance between us, just as it reaches me, it’ll be at the very end of its power.

My charged backward leap creates a moment of zero relative speed between us.

Even if that moment lasts only half a second, it’s enough.

With that, Ye Chen twisted his wrist, slashing upward with the broken blade once more, inner energy surging through it.

Slice! Slice! Two sharp sounds.

A flash of the blade, and both of the creature’s forelimbs fell away.

Blood spurted like a fountain, drenching Ye Chen.

With a crash, the creature’s body slammed heavily to the floor, sliding some distance and trailing three thick smears of blood.

Just then, two loud bangs came from the front and back doors.

Xu Fan, who had climbed over the back wall, kicked open the rear door.

Chen Bingfeng, following the sounds from the front, rammed the front door open with his shoulder.

Finding the lights inoperable, both men switched on the flashlights attached to their communicators, illuminating the center of the room.

The moment they saw the strange creature sprawled on the floor and Ye Chen covered in blood, Xu Fan was just about to flick off the safety of his weapon when Ye Chen urgently shouted:

“Don’t shoot, we need it alive!”

Only now did Ye Chen allow himself a sigh of relief.

Not just because his teammates had arrived, but more importantly, there was now a gun in play.

That gave everyone a sense of security.

Chen Bingfeng took a quick look around—this was a house that could only be considered luxurious in the outer city.

Besides some decorative items, in one corner of the living room stood a bookshelf and a desk.

Clearly, the owner of this house was someone who loved to study, a rare trait in the outer city.

Regrettably, the place was now a wreck.

Splintered wood lay everywhere, shattered crockery covered the floor, glass shards glinted underfoot, overturned chairs and a sofa slashed open with massive tears.

Three thick severed limbs of the strange creature lay scattered, and the ceiling still bore marks where it had clawed its way up.

The creature on the floor panted heavily, whimpering in pain.

Blood continued to ooze from the wounds, pooling across the floor.

Ye Chen, standing beside it, wiped the blood from his face with one hand and spat.

One booted foot pressed down on the stitched wound along the creature’s spine.

Just like pinning a snake by its neck—preventing any chance of it lashing out again.

This was the weakness he had deduced, and it seemed he had been right.

At that moment, Xu Fan edged nervously closer to Ye Chen, stepping carefully to avoid the spreading blood, eyeing his blood-soaked teammate with anxious concern:

“That’s not your blood, is it?”

Ye Chen, eyes cold and brimming with doubt, never relaxing his guard on the strange creature beneath his foot, replied simply:

“I’m fine, it’s all from this thing. Its blood is bizarre—the stench is something else.”

The air inside the house was thick with the smell of blood, but mixed within it was an indescribably foul odor.

Xu Fan had always hated bloody scenes; seeing his teammate unharmed, he quickly retreated a few steps, one hand rubbing his backside, the other keeping his gun trained.

He’d fallen again while climbing the wall.

Chen Bingfeng, for his part, was just as stunned by the sight of the creature.

Only after confirming Ye Chen was uninjured did he ask, “Why did you want it alive?”

“Because, before it bleeds out and dies, we have to interrogate it!”

Chen Bingfeng’s eyes went wide. “What? Interrogate it?”