Chapter 48 - 41: Taken Hostage
"Damn it! They just won’t go away!"
He watched as five murderous figures descended in an instant.
Yan Shan’s face was a mixture of shock and fury, and a cold despair surged through him.
According to his original plan, he was supposed to blow up the shelter’s main gate and immediately escape in the ensuing chaos.
It should have been a flawless scheme.
But he had never imagined that such a powerful force would be left behind to guard the shelter, or that they would react so quickly!
This completely threw off the rhythm of his carefully crafted plan.
’Escaping won’t be so easy now!’
There’s a special kind of hatred reserved for when old enemies meet.
Director Liu and the other four teachers gave Yan Shan and his men no room to talk or negotiate.
The five exchanged a look of perfect understanding. Like five tigers that had spotted their prey, they pounced in for the kill!
’We can’t let these desperadoes have another chance to escape!’
BOOM!
In an instant.
A brutal skirmish erupted amidst the downpour!
The turbulent energy of the fight churned the rain into a white, misty blur.
Director Liu and the head teacher of Class 3-6 were the strongest. Their eyes met, and with perfect coordination, they both locked onto Yan Shan, who had the most powerful aura!
Fists and palms flew, energy crackled, and every move was lethal!
Each strike carried stone-shattering force and was filled with endless killing intent!
The storm-like offensive instantly overwhelmed Yan Shan, threatening to tear him to pieces!
The other three teachers didn’t hesitate either, each finding a target and engaging Yan Hao, Hu, and Yuan in one-on-one combat!
Yang City No. 1 High School was a key martial arts academy, and every one of its teachers was a powerful, battle-hardened veteran.
Not only were their own Martial Dao foundations incredibly solid,
but the Martial Skills they cultivated were also tempered through a thousand battles. Their attacks were ruthless and precise, their coordination between offense and defense was impeccable, and their methods were disciplined and severe!
’Without such abilities, how could they possibly command the respect of those exceptionally talented students?’
In contrast, Yan Shan and his three companions had just gotten "yard time" from an iron-walled prison.
They were supposed to be slaying monsters to reduce their sentences, but instead chose to break out, completely unprepared.
More fatally,
they had been unable to practice their Cultivation normally in prison. Their realms had long stagnated, or even regressed.
The long-term injections of muscle relaxants had also severely ravaged their physical foundations!
Although the drug’s effects had faded, the deep-seated weakness and soreness in their muscles and bones had not yet dissipated. They couldn’t even exert seventy percent of their full strength!
As one side weakened, the other grew stronger!
The moment the fight began, Yan Shan’s group was at an absolute disadvantage!
"PSHH!"
"AHH!"
"CRACK!"
Screams of pain and the sound of breaking bones rang out one after another!
In just a few moments.
The slightly weaker Hu and Yuan were successively struck down and killed under the teachers’ relentless assault, their bodies thudding heavily onto the muddy ground!
"Hu! Yuan!"
Yan Shan and Yan Hao let out a mournful cry, their eyes burning with fury and their hearts twisting in agony!
A glance from the corner of his eye toward his younger brother, Yan Hao, made his heart stop.
Under his opponent’s fierce attacks, Yan Hao was in constant peril, struggling to defend himself. It was clear he was about to suffer the same fate as Hu and Yuan!
"Xiaohao!!!"
Yan Shan let out a beast-like roar.
Completely ignoring Director Liu’s lethal iron fist that was about to slam into the left side of his chest, he abandoned all defense and charged toward Yan Hao.
BANG!!
A dull, heart-stopping thud!
As if struck by a battering ram, Yan Shan violently spat out a mouthful of hot blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs!
He could clearly feel a crushing pain from the left side of his chest—
His left lung had been completely shattered by Director Liu’s terrifying punch!
The excruciating pain nearly made him pass out.
But his powerful will to survive, coupled with his worry for his brother, made him erupt with his final ounce of strength!
Using the force of the blow, he twisted his body bizarrely, forcibly breaking away from Director Liu’s pursuit and lunging like a madman at Yan Hao’s opponent!
"Get away!"
With his last bit of strength, his blood-stained palm pushed aside the teacher who was about to deliver the fatal blow to Yan Hao, carrying with it a tragic, suicidal aura.
He yanked Yan Hao behind him and rasped in a low growl:
"Xiaohao! Go! Go now!!"
"Brother!!"
Yan Hao stared at the horrifying indentation on his brother’s chest and the gushing blood. His eyes instantly turned crimson as tears mixed with the cold rain and streamed down his face:
"I’m not leaving! If we die, we die together!"
"Shut up!"
Yan Shan whipped his head around, his blood-red eyes staring fixedly at Yan Hao.
His voice carried the frenzy and unquestionable authority of a dying beast:
"You want to drag me down to die with you?! Get out! Get the hell out of here! ...Wait for me... Once I get away from them, I’ll come find you! Now go!"
He was practically roaring as he used his last ounce of strength to give Yan Hao a hard shove!
The mix of determination and pleading in that gaze instantly shattered Yan Hao’s heart into a million pieces.
Yan Hao knew his brother was buying him a path to survival with his own life!
If he didn’t leave now, his brother would die right in front of him!
He bit his lip so hard his teeth nearly shattered, and a beast-like whimper escaped him, mixed with blood and tears:
"Brother... you... you have to live!"
Before his words had even faded, he spun around!
In the instant he turned, his right middle finger twitched almost imperceptibly!
SHING!
A thin, nearly transparent thread, tougher than spider silk, shot out silently as if it had a life of its own, precisely wrapping around the top of a tall lamppost on the distant athletic field!
Immediately after, Yan Hao’s body was violently yanked by the thread!
WHOOSH!
Like an arrow shot from a powerful bow, he instantly became a blurry afterimage, disappearing at a bizarre, unnatural speed into the thick curtain of the downpour.
The cold rain mercilessly washed over the battlefield, splattering against Yan Shan’s deathly pale face.
He gasped for breath, each inhale pulling at his shattered lung, bringing heart-wrenching pain and a sense of suffocation.
He knew he was finished.
His left lung was completely destroyed. Gravely injured and on the brink of death, he didn’t even have a tenth of his combat strength left.
An ordinary person would have died long ago from a shattered lung. He was only clinging to life by relying on the powerful physique of a Martial Artist to temporarily suppress his injuries.
But without immediate treatment, he probably wouldn’t last much longer.
Forget the five murderous teachers before him; even if he faced only the weakest among them, he could do nothing but submit to his fate.
Escape?
That was a hopeless fantasy!
He was too heavily injured, too slow. There was no way he could outrun his pursuers.
His bloodshot eyes slowly turned, a final trace of madness and venom in them, and fixed on the dark, blasted-open entrance to the shelter behind him.
’A sliver of hope...’
’The only chance of survival... is in there!’
’Those students... those completely helpless students!’
’If I can just rush in and grab a few...’
’No, even just one!’
’I can use them as bargaining chips to negotiate with the Yang City officials!’
’In the eyes of Yang City’s bigwigs, those precious students are far more important than I, Yan Shan!’
’To save the lives of these students, the Yang City Public Security Bureau will definitely agree to all my conditions!’
’Hostages!’
That was his only lifeline now!
The next moment.
A venomous, crazed look appeared in Yan Shan’s eyes.
A wheezing hiss escaped his throat like a broken bellows. Ignoring the deadly attacks from Director Liu and the others, he recklessly poured his remaining Qi and Blood into his legs!
"Stop him!"
Director Liu instantly saw through Yan Shan’s intentions, his expression changing drastically as he roared.
However.
The gravely injured, dying Yan Shan suddenly burst forth with unexpected speed!
Like a wounded, crazed leopard that had scented blood, he charged recklessly toward the five teachers.
BOOM!
CRACK!
In just a single exchange.
Yan Shan’s right arm was blown apart by Director Liu, blood pouring from the mangled stump.
But this only made him more ferocious. Using the force of the blow, he stumbled forward and, by a hair’s breadth, tumbled through a gap in the five teachers’ attacks and into the dark, blasted-open entrance of the shelter!
The cold edge of the alloy breach scraped across his mangled back, bringing fresh, agonizing pain, but the agony only spurred his frenzy.
"Hhha... hhha..."
His shattered left lung spasmed violently. Every breath was accompanied by tearing pain and a suffocating tightness in his chest, and bloody foam mixed with bits of his organs bubbled from his mouth.
His eyes turned crimson as he ran toward the nearest room, filled with the will to survive.
’As long as I get into this room and take those students hostage, the teachers and any other official Martial Artists will be forced to hesitate!’
’That’s the only way I’ll have a chance to live.’
Outside, Director Liu and the others were both shocked and enraged, about to charge in.
"Don’t all come in!" Director Liu made a swift decision, stopping the others. "Someone has to try and block the main gate immediately! If the monsters swarm in, we’re finished! Li, Wang, you two come with me to catch him! Zhang, Sun, you two block the gate at all costs, as fast as you can! Even if you have to use your bodies, buy us time!"
The two men he called instantly understood the priorities. Gritting their teeth, they turned and rushed toward the blasted opening to retrieve the alloy steel welding doors from the storeroom.
Meanwhile, Director Liu led the other two teachers like three arrows loosed from a bow, charging murderously into the dim corridors of the shelter in hot pursuit of Yan Shan!
...
Inside the Class 3-1 shelter room.
Lin Yi leaned against the bone-chillingly cold metal door, his body as taut as a fully drawn bowstring.
The explosion, the alarms, the sounds of battle, the shriek of tearing alloy, the teachers’ enraged shouts...
like rolling thunder, faintly penetrated the heavy door.
Every tremor made the hearts of everyone in the shelter pound wildly.
Listening to the sounds from outside, Lin Yi’s heart was in his throat.
He had no idea what was happening out there.
’Did the teachers win or lose?’
Just then—
"THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!"
Heavy footsteps echoed in the corridor outside the room.
That sound...
was right on top of them! Just outside the door!
In an instant.
the blood in everyone’s veins seemed to freeze solid!
Lin Yi’s pupils contracted, and every muscle in his body tensed to its absolute limit in a flash!
Through his Spiritual Nose Spirit Essence, he could clearly smell a chaotic, violent life aura—reeking of blood and a desperate struggle for survival—madly approaching the door!
Its target was them!
’He’s here!’
Lin Yi roared silently in his heart, pressing himself flat against the wall and assuming a fighting stance.
’I only have one chance for a sneak attack!’