Chapter 4: Chapter 3 - How Terrifying!

“Done.” Tie Li said.

“Thanks.” Yuriel smiled.

Suddenly, her face paled. She clutched her forehead, her irises turning blood-red. Faintly, dark-red demonic patterns crept up her neck.

“Miss Zhang? Are you okay?” Tie Li eyed her, concerned.

His voice pulled Yuriel out of the daze. Her appearance gradually returned to normal, and the pain in her head lessened.

“I’m fine,” she smiled. “Just a little tired.”

Tie Li wanted to say something, but at this moment, the surrounding people started to whisper to each other, looking and pointing at somewhere in front, where the security guards were stationed at.

“Everybody, we’re sorry for the disturbance!” a cop said through a voice amplifier, his voice booming in the area. “Just now, we received a report that the criminal Tie Li is heading to the Flash Station after killing a total of eleven citizens nearby. For the sake of your safety, we will conduct an identity scan to find him. Please take off any identity cover.”

The police floating in the air raised a mirror-like thing, its crystal-clear surface facing the crowd below. A soft blue light shot out of it, submerging the crowd in its light. Both Tie Li and Yuriel paled. Facing this predicament, even Tie Li’s mysterious friend couldn’t do anything—he couldn’t do a plastic surgery on them!

Yuriel bit her bottom lip. What should she do? It was actually fine if she were by herself—she could just lie that she was skipping school if asked. But now, she was standing behind Tie Li—a clear sign of her siding with him. And when those people found out about this, they would surely collaborate with the authorities to find her, and also Tie Li, thus bringing him more trouble.

The problem was, Yuriel couldn’t move away from Tie Li—the police, and the surrounding people would notice. And they simply couldn’t escape—police, and probably the Blood Sword clansmen, were already surrounding the area, completely blocking off any path of escape.

“Do you have to go to the Flash Station to leave this city?” Yuriel transmitted her voice right into Tie Li’s ear.

Tie Li was stunned for a moment before slowly shaking his head in reply.

“Where would you go if you were to escape right now?”

“Gardenia.” Tie Li subconsciously mouthed.

“Can your friend hack into the system and turn off the electricity in this Flash Station area, and at the same time remove any trace of us ever being here?” Yuriel asked again.

Still stunned, Tie Li nodded.

“Which area has the least police?”

Tie Li glanced slightly to the bottom-left, as if listening to something.

“South.” he said.

"Alright.” Yuriel smiled. “When I tap your shoulder later, tell him to do it, and after that, we fly south.”

The blue light scanning the crowd was getting closer and closer to where Yuriel and Tie Li were standing. There was still time.

Yuriel crouched down, hiding herself from view. She took out a black-gold full-face mask and replaced her black mask with it, completely hiding her facial features from view. The mask was made with a special technology installed in it—it could stick itself to the user’s skin, and it could deflect every scanning technology, perfectly hiding the user’s identity.

By now, the blue light had nearly reached them. Yuriel got up. She tapped Tie Li’s shoulder.

“Now.” Tie Li whispered.

The bright Flash Station went dark.

The holo screen above it disappeared.

Drones fell from the sky. People screamed.

Two black-clothed figures flew up into the air, shooting fast across the gloomy winter sky, heading south.

“CHASE THEM!!” the police roared in anger.

It was quite the spectacle. A hundred-or-so police rose into the sky, chasing after the two youngsters like a tsunami tide of moth.

The two flew right above the Flash Station, in the direction of the south. Now being high up in the air, they got a better view of the area. The southern area indeed had less cops staitioned there. Probably because they didn’t expect Tie Li to take the furthest path.

Receiving the news that Tie Li and Yuriel were flying south, the cops there rose into the air, rushing toward them.

Flying at full speed, Yuriel and Tie Li managed to cover two-third of the total distance. But at the same time, the cops coming from the south arrived in front of them.

“Don’t slow down.” Yuriel shouted.

“Alright!” Tie Li shouted back.

And they, with some kind of tacit understanding, each blasted a full-powered punch right into the cops’ faces unceremoniously.

Boom! Two blasts of natural power, dark-reddish-gold and silver-grey, collided with the police’s shields.

At the same time, Yuriel’s Eternal Darkness domain technique spread out, dyeing the air with pitch-black darkness.

“Knock them unconscious!” Yuriel shouted as she pushed Tie Li’s back without waiting for his answer, sending him flying through the air.

Yuriel knew that he had lost a huge amount of blood, and could faint at any moment, so she purposedly assigned him an easier task.

Now being behind the police, Tie Li quickly grabbed the chance. He stabilized himself in the air, then showered the police with throwing knives. Some quicker ones managed to raise their sword or shield out of instinct in time to block the knives, but some slower ones were immediately hit.

The cops all wore soft armors and helmets, so none of the knives could pierce through, but Tie Li’s objective was to knock them unconscious, not wound them. Thrown with full power, the knives hit the back of the cops’ necks, immediately knocking them unconscious. Some were still conscious, though, so Tie Li could only bang their heads with the flat of his machete.

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Meanwhile, Yuriel was also busy knocking the police unconscious. She swung her sword, hitting the back of their necks. One cop at a time, Yuriel’s attacks were focused and precise, succesfully knocking them all unconscious.

By this time, the police from the other sides were closing in. Not waiting for them to arrive in time, Yuriel quickly withdrew the Eternal Darkness and activated her current most powerful technique.

At this moment, however, her irises flashed red, and the murderous intent surged. She wanted to kill, kill... But no—she couldn’t! Not now!

Yuriel shook her head and bit the tip of her tongue to clear her mind.

In the cloudy winter sky above the tide of cops, an enormous white-colored circular array formed. Before the police had time to react, huge blazing orangish-white meteors crashed down upon them ruthlessly.

Right after releasing that terrifying aerial attack, Yuriel flew to Tie Li’s side and dragged him away, continuing south. She clenched her jaws, enduring the intense urge to start a massacre, but didn’t let herself collapse.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

Before they could fly far, more cops rose into the air, intercepting them. This didn’t make the two youngsters stop their advance, though.

Darkness engulfed the police, Eternal Darkness activated. From within the darkness, countless knives precisely hit the cops’ necks. One by one, the cops at the front were knocked unconscious. At the same time, the cops at the back had their heads banged, fainting on the spot.

The darkness receeded. The two youngsters continued their advance. More cops rose into the air, ready to catch them.

However, mid-way, the two suddenly changed their direction. With break-neck speed, they rushed southwest.

The police had converged in the south, but now that the two were suddenly changing direction, all chased after them.

The western side of the Flash Station was relatively busier than the other sides, making it the perfect area to hide. Yuriel and Tie Li landed somewhere between the tall buildings, then rushed into a random building. Tie Li’s friend immediately had their footage deleted.

“Turn off the electricity in this whole central city area.” Yuriel whispered.

Tie Li hadn’t even said anything, but the electricity was instantly cut off.

Everything went dark. People screamed in panic.

Meanwhile, two figures crept in the darkness, silently exiting the building. Outside, the police had arrived in front of the mall, but could find no trace of them.

Yuriel and Tie Li rushed, taking a half-circle route toward the east. From north to south, from south to southwest, Yuriel made it as if their destination was somewhere in the southern or western area.

Along the way, they had to avoid many cops and groups of masked men who were rushing toward the southwestern area.

Arriving in the eastern area, the two swiftly got into a public restroom to change their clothes, then boarded a hover bus which was heading toward the biggest mall in the city, Gardenia.

Tie Li’s friend had taken care of their identities, and they had also worn a mask and sunglasses. As long as there were no one scanning their faces using that particular identity-scanner mirror like before, they were practically save.

Walking toward a seat in the bus, Tie Li suddenly stumbled. Yuriel quickly caught him. Tie Li nodded slightly, thanking her. The two sat down, and Yuriel took out two blood-replenish pills, offering one to Tie Li.

The latter eyed the pill. He knew how precious pills like this was...

“Are you afraid that I’ll poison you?” Yuriel smirked, eating the pill.

“Thanks, then.” Tie Li smiled and accepted it.

At this moment, the holo TV in the bus showed scenes of the Flash Station in fire, and the cops with their torn armors scorched here and there—some even got their skin burned.

“...Fortunately, the Flash Station is covered with anti-fire materials, thus only the outer layer got burned.” the news anchor relayed. “In this great incident, a total of eleven people got killed, twenty-two cops got severe burns, and about fifty-seven cops got light burns.”

“Whoa.” Tie Li stared at the video of the injured police in the screen, awed and terrified at the same time.

“How terrifying!” Yuriel clicked her tongue, awed—by her own work.

A middle-aged lady sitting next to her sighed, looking worried as she stared at the scenes in the holo screen.

“Youngsters these days are getting crazier and crazier.” she commented.

“I know, right?” Yuriel said. “My parents always remind me not to be arrogant just because I have some power.”

The lady nodded in agreement, “Your parents are right. You must always remember their advice.”

Yuriel nodded, looking very obedient.

Next to her, Tie Li stared at her, speechless.

“You should hurry,” his friend’s voice suddenly sounded through his earpiece. “Zhang Yujin... she has severe old internal injuries that are further aggravated in the previous battles. And her waist wound is also quite bad.”

Tie Li drew a cold breath, but didn’t say anything. He silently stared at Yuriel’s left waist. Dark liquid was seeping out of the black fabric of her shirt.

The bus ride only took precisely twenty minutes.

“Third stop: Gardenia.” a gentle female voice announced.

It stopped in mid-air, in front of the huge gate—which was wide open—of a huge castle-like building. The gate was tens of meters above the ground, so there was a flight of gleaming white-gold wide escalator leading up to the gate, which the people on the ground level could use to enter the mall.

Yuriel and Tie Li got off the bus along with several other passengers.

Tie Li led Yuriel into the mall, heading toward a Flash Lift in a quiet corner, so that no one else got into the lift with them. He tapped the holographic button with the letters ‘GF’ —groudfloor. Everything around them shone with a warm white light, and after a few seconds, the holographic doors of the Flash Lift slid open, revealing the groundfloor level of the mall.

The two got out, making several turns here and there, until they arrived in front of a bright store. The holographic plaque above it said: [Zeus Electronics]. A famous electronics brand. It had many branches, spreading all over the world. No one knew who its real owner was.

Tie Li approached a salesman, coughed several times, then said, “Hello, do you have a door lock with the latest technology?”

Hearing this, the salesman’s eyes twinkled, saying, “Please wait for a moment.” then tapped the earpiece he wore on his right ear, “Is the latest technology door lock available?”

Yuriel was confused, but didn’t ask anything.

A while later, another salesman arrived.

"If I may ask, for what kind of door lock do you want?” he asked.

“I’ll be using it for my friend’s office door.” Tie Li said.

Immediately, the salesman smiled, “Alright, please follow me. I’ll show you the catalog.”

He then led them deep into the shop, and stopped in front of a door with the word ‘office’ written on it. He placed his hand on the silvery surface of the door. A ding sounded, and the door slid to the side.

The three entered, the door closing behind them.

“Sir, do you have our Zeus Electronics member card?” the salesman asked once the door had perfectly closed.

Tie Li took out a holographic card, as thin as paper, and gave it to the salesman. A cyan light shot out of the latter’s eyes—he was scanning the card through the smart softlenses he wore. A second later, his smile broadened.

“This way, honored guest.” he returned the card to Tie Li.

He went to a bookcase, put his palm on the side of three thick books, and the bookcase silently slid to the side, revealing a dimly-lit room, on which floor was carved an intricate circular array—the Flash Array.

Tie Li placed his card in front of his eyes. White light swept the card. Then, he placed the card at the center of the Flash Array.

“Thank you.” Tie Li thanked the salesman.

Then he and Yuriel stepped onto the Flash Array.

White light engulfed them, and in the next moment, they disappeared from the room.