Late in the night, on the rooftop.
A shadow was seen bearing his weight on his arms, doing push-ups.
“801… 802…”
“932… 933… 934…”
Li Anping did a total of 1000 push-ups before standing up, wiping his hands. There was only a few beads of perspiration on his forehead, but he did not look like he had reached his limits.
Next he laid on the ground, and started doing sit-ups.
“Is this useful? Isn’t this just a normal person’s training method? After I did this much, I don’t feel a hint of exertion.”
“Heh, this is just the warm up to get you used to your body’s movements.” Black said in disdain: “Since you do not want to eat people, in order to get stronger, we can only force out your full potential.
Actually after consuming 30 plus souls, although your body had strengthened, a large portion of the energy was not absorbed directly but instead lay dormant in your muscles and bones, to be slowly absorbed by you in the future. Your training now is to exert your body to its limits and accelerate this absorption process, to raise your fighting strength.
In addition, your body after the modifications using the energy, has become more malleable. This is the most primitive method of muscle training, and it will improve your body constitution as a result. However, after this energy had been depleted, your training will barely show any more improvements. Thus, in conclusion, to get stronger, the best way is through devouring people.”
Li Anping felt a hot rush through his body as the exercise time lengthened, and he felt waves and waves of energy replenishing his body. Being able to see himself get stronger by the second, felt like taking drugs, experiencing a feeling of incredible ecstasy.
After a thousand sit-ups, he started to handstand with both arms, and moved around the edges of the building.
This was a twenty storey building, there was strong winds at the edge of the building, and as Li Anping was moving upside down at the fringe of the building, he felt that the wind was going to blow him over any moment.
“Walk in a handstand like this for 6 hours, it will strengthen your muscle endurance as well as sharpen your will. Walking on the edge like this will also conquer the fear in your heart. You were an ordinary person before this after all. To learn how to fight, you must first learn to conquer your own fears.”
As the wind swayed Li Anping left and right, he did not have the leeway to reply to Black. His entire concentration was focused on his hands.
He felt that he could be blown away any moment, and the only thing he could do was to grip tightly with both hands, as well as desperately trying to maintain his balance.
Although Black had said that even if he fell there was enough energy to repair his body, the thought of falling from a 20 storey height and being crushed into a meat patty, even Li Anping shivered while thinking about it.
It was very exhausting to walk while doing a handstand, moreover Li Anping was in intense concentration mode. In such a situation, his stamina fell quickly. After five and a half hours, he was already drenched in sweat, his hands starting to spasm periodically. Every movement he made, he felt like his muscles were going to tear apart. The blood flowed to his brain and it felt like it was going to explode.
“Don’t stop, 6 hours is your limit. The closer you are to your limits, the more your body’s potential gets forced out. Since you have stored up energy to repair your body even if there is an injury sustained anyway, all you need to do now is to force yourself to relentlessly dig into your inner potential unleashing it to the limit.”
Although Li Anping understood this in his heart, the so-called limits was indeed his extreme limit, and the closer he was to it, the more pain he felt through his body, the only thing he could do was to grit his teeth and endure. The short span of half an hour felt like an eternity to Li Anping.
At this point, be it revenge or justice, all sorts of reasons to get stronger had already left his mind. Being extremely close to his limits, he did not have the capacity to think about other things anymore. The only thought in his mind, was to persevere!
But after 5 minutes had passed, Li Anping saw darkness in front of him, his left hand lost its grip and his entire body fell down from the building.
In midair, his body lost every ounce of energy and he had completely lost his consciousness. Like a sturdy rock, he fell towards the ground from the 20 storey rooftop.
Losing his consciousness, his body seconds from reaching the ground, at this point, Li Anping’s death was certain.
Only to hear a loud ‘boom’, Li Anping had already smashed on the ground, his limbs twisted at a horrific angle. On his leg and spine, bones pierced through his muscles revealing his white bones.
His internal organs were smashed to bits, blood poured out from his body like a fountain.
Even his face was a bloody mess, his entire face was disfigured, with no trace of his former appearance left.
Fortunately, it was 3 o’clock in the morning, and there was barely anyone in the streets. If not, this impact would’ve alerted everyone in the vicinity.
His breathing stopped, there was no heartbeat. Li Anping was like a broken doll lying down in a puddle of blood.
But, did he really die?
Bringing away with him endless rage and fury to hell? Or will he continue staying in this filthy world?
‘Lub dub’……
The sound of the heart beating.
‘Lub dub’…… ‘Lub dub’……
Li Anping opened his eyes and sat up at once.
But the next moment, the hellish pain shot out and like waves, crashed towards all parts of his body, causing him to shriek out in pain.
At the same time, his bloody face, as if time reversed, had slowly restored back to his original appearance. Granular tissues continued to grow, and his muscles reconstructed, the bones twisting and turning under the movement of the muscles, his broken nerves started to connect and repair themselves.
Merely a minute passed. Li Anping’s external injuries had been fully healed.
Before he could catch a breather, Black instructed: “Push back the bones on your leg and spine. They will adjust themselves accordingly, otherwise get ready to be a hunchback for the rest of your life.”
Hesitating for a second, Li Anping grabbed at his leg bone and pushed it back ferociously. This caused him to scream out in agony again.
Next he stood up, and with a howl, pushed back his protruding spine into his body.
With the sound of cracking, the bones under the influence of his muscles gradually returned to their original positions.
Li Anping breathed roughly, the feeling of dying still frightening him even now.
Five minutes later, his body had been completely repaired, injuries that was severe enough to let him die completely had not left a trace on his body.
“Rested enough?” Black snickered: “This time the restoration used up a person’s worth of energy. You have 9 left. Let’s continue with training.”
Li Anping furiously responded: “I nearly died! You still want to continue training?”
“Died? Aren’t you well and alive right now?” Blank said emotionlessly: “You are no longer a normal human, being an ability user. The injuries normal people sustain aren’t a problem to you. Situations where the ordinary person dies are not fatal to you.
All because you are an ability user, not a normal human. So, stop restricting yourself with the mentality of a normal person. Try to think like a strong person, use the thought sequence of an ability user to adapt to this world.
Because if you are an ordinary person, you will definitely have no chance of having your revenge against Shang An Guo, Shang Zheng Bang.”
This series of sentences caused Li Anping to be stunned, Black knew that he had not adapted fully, thus he continued: “In fact, since absorbing souls can heal any form of injury you sustain, even if you ‘die’ a few times it does not matter. In the future, your training will only get crueller. An ordinary person’s training method is no longer suitable for you.
If you want to get stronger, conquer your fear of death, and treat it like a daily business. Only then can you unleash your full ability in combat, and the advantage of your ability to heal and regenerate rapidly will also be evident in battle.
If you are unable to accept this thinking, I would advise you to give up on revenge, and go back to farming.”
Li Anping did not respond immediately, he thought about what Black had said, and only responded long after: “I understand.”
Hearing Li Anping’s words, Black’s smirked in his heart: “How many people would you have to consume to repair your body in order to maintain this type of suicidal training? I’m so curious……”
At this time, several security guards came running with torch lights, but when they got to the area, they only found a puddle of blood traces.
Connecting it to the earlier commotion and screaming, starting from the next day, rumors of ghosts loitering around the building had spread like fire.
On the other side, after the murder case, the entire factory was sealed and chained, tens of police cars stopped at the factory area, and the police taped up the place, isolating numerous reporters outside. The non-stop flashing of the sirens made the policemen’s mood even worse.
Lian Zhong’s face was pale as he walked out of the factory. Taking in a deep breath, he suppressed the revolting feeling in his heart. Song Si who is beside him patted his shoulders, handed him a cigarette and asked: “How is it? Are you okay?” His face was similarly pale.
Lian Zhong took a few puffs of his cigarette before calming down: “I’ve never seen such a horrifying scene, who could have done that?”
Song Si nodded: “The forensic department is still investigating and collecting evidence, but it doesn’t look like a triad gang fight.”
Lian Zhong did not say anything. The two silently stood side by side, waiting for the professionals to examine their findings.
The factory slaughter case, dubbed by the police as the 115 Factory Crime, had gotten quick respond from the committee and used almost all of the elite forces and investigators to form a specialised group. The Mayor had ordered personally, for all the departments to cooperate and solve the case and apprehend the perpetrator within 5 days.
Information on the case had faced complete lockdown, and all the relevant members were taken for ‘talks’, the first few reporters who had arrived had been ordered to remain silent. Newspapers, television, internet, all of the media had no information regarding this……
Zhongdu Police Bureau Building Floor 7. The examination report has come out, and the investigation team held a meeting overnight.
“Through the hair, footprints and blood samples, we can confirm that the factory slaughter case was committed by the same perpetrator at the hospital murder case and the murder case at the suburbs……” The forensics team were giving their report, and on the projector, a series of images flashed past, causing the atmosphere in the room to be very heavy.
The investigation team’s group leader, Huang Ling Jun looked extremely worn out. Ever since the hospital murder case had happened, he had already been awake for the past 48 hours, his eyes were bloodshot, and Lian Zhong even suspected that he could faint at any moment.
“The murderer was brought directly into the factory by Chang Zheng’s henchmen, and after that they got into a dispute, Chang Zheng’s men started to attack the murderer, after a series of brawling, the murderer was injured by their guns and under that situation, he murdered Chang Zheng and all of his men.” Saying so, the forensics member paused for a moment and continued:
“What is worth mentioning is, the murderer was alone from the start to end, but he was able to kill 32 gang members who were fully equipped with guns. By throwing the pipes from afar, he managed to murder numerous men, and along with the strength he displayed at the hospital when he crushed the victim’s bones to bits, we need to have a new evaluation of his strength.”
“What is the match between the murder and Li Anping’s DNA? What’s the results?” Huang Ling Jun suddenly interrupted him and asked.
“The similarity is less than 10%. From the footprints and the surveillance cameras in the hospital, the two have very different body sizes, we don’t believe that they are the same person.”
“What about Li Liping? Has he woken up?” Huang Ling Jun continued asking.
“Chang Zheng and the others did a good job at stopping his bleeding. Li Liping’s life is in no danger but after the shock, he has become completely insane.”
“Gone crazy?”
“We have sent an expert to examine him, he’s not responding to anything from the outside world.”
“Understood.” Huang Ling Jun looked at the information in his hand and raised his head: “Everyone here is an elite in Zhongdu’s police force. I would like to hear your thoughts on this matter.”
Silence.
Lian Zhong also lowered his head and said nothing. What could they think? The murderer’s actions were extremely cruel, and his ability was way superior to normal humans. The seemingly casually committed crime, had not left any traces of evidence.
If Great Xia was like the Federation of Amester across the sea with their revised DNA base, it’d be easier to catch the perpetrator through his blood samples, or hair.
But the only recording of the murderer, was the surveillance camera in the hospital’s corridors. But those kinds of surveillance equipment were mostly for show and to deal with checks, the recording was too blurry and the murderer’s appearance could not be made out.
Thus, the police could only continue to rule out, interview, and determine the suspects. Finding eye witnesses, relying on the most primitive method to find the criminal out of all the citizens. This is also Great Xia’s reliant method, numerous criminals had fallen in front of them this way.
But this time around, Liang Zhong had a feeling that the method that had always been successful, was not going to work for this case.
Finally, a police officer broke the silence: “The perpetrator has extraordinary skills, this is a point we should look into. He could be a retired soldier or an athlete, bodyguard. We can investigate in this direction.”
Another police followed up: “That’s right, we can ask all the related people in the city, including the train stations, airports, buses, we have to take note of the activities of these group of people. Moreover, those victims were Huo Qing’s henchmen, we can investigate on the nature of their conflict. Why did the criminal find Chang Zheng, why did they have conflict, I think these are the areas we can investigate.”
“There’s also Li Anping, he disappeared from the hospital with the criminal, and in Chang Zheng’s factory, we even found his uncle Li Liping. I think this person is crucial to this case, and we should investigate it. In fact, this person had never received proper training, he is just an ordinary student with a handicap. Before this he had also attracted much attention from the public, his traces should be easier to track. As long as we find him, we could possibly find out who’s the criminal.”
On the meeting table, the discussion got progressively heated, but Huang Ling Jun’s still frowned. While the discussions were mostly on the case, his thoughts right now were on other matters.
No matter how small the case, the moment it involved ability users, it will become complex. Moreover, this was a case that had been rarely seen in the last 10 years.
The hospital murder case which had originally been handled by him alone, after become Case 115, had set up a specialized group. Zhongdu City’s government has zero tolerance toward such fatal crimes. The Bureau Chief had already spoken to him personally, ordering him to solve the crime in 5 days.
Thus, it could be seen that although the crime has a lot of leads, most of those were useless fragments that could not lead to a conclusive result. Especially the other party’s status as an ability user, it could involve the Mayor and the related political strife.
Thinking about this, Huang Ling Jun felt a headache. Zhongdu City’s Mayor was originally from the Public Security sector. Now within the entire Zhongdu City’s Public Security system, the important positions were filled by Shang An Guo’s men. If not for his ability user status, Huang Ling Jun would have been replaced by them already. If this case involved the Mayor, the criminal’s identity was no longer important.
At their level, right and wrong no longer had any meaning, it was just the death of a few people. To them, what is more important is the political grounds and power. If Huang Ling Jun got involved in it, even with his ability user status, as long as he let down his guard, he would be instantly crushed by the political turmoil.
“Let’s just hope that this case has nothing with do with Shang An Guo.”
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