Task 2
Half an hour ago, in the bathroom of a movie theater on the top floor of Yikou Shopping Mall, Li Sen washed her hands obediently, wiped them clean with a tissue, then turned around and grabbed Luo Zhao and said, "Let's go, sister!" She had already learned to say some simple words and could communicate with several people without the help of a translator.
Luo Zhao edited the photos he had just taken on the rooftop, edited them into a nine-square grid in his circle of friends, and clicked send.
"Let's go!"
As they reached the entrance of the cinema, they saw a figure walking towards them.
"Hello, little friend, we meet again!" The man greeted Li Sen. It was the unusually thin administrator from before. Luo Zhao had never seen him before, and didn't quite understand their conversation, so he could only look at him with a puzzled, inquiring gaze.
The administrator was still wearing his work clothes today, but without a hat. After chatting with Li Sen for a few words, he smiled and said to Luo Zhao, "Hello, Miss Luo."
Luo Zhao narrowed his eyes slightly and became alert because he was speaking the language of District 8.
The administrator clearly noticed the change in Luo Zhao's expression, but he continued calmly without panicking, "Those people came over to check on the scene last time. I wonder how the follow-up progress is going?"
Luo Zhao frowned and said, "This doesn't seem to be something you should be concerned about, Administrator?"
The man chuckled, his laughter becoming increasingly uncontrollable, his shoulders shaking violently. Luo Zhao grabbed Li Sen's hand and tried to leave, but he blocked their path with his right hand. He wiped tears of laughter from his eyes with the back of his left hand, squinting at the two of them and saying, "Of course, the administrators don't need to care about this, but I can't. I'm being paid."
As soon as she finished speaking, Luo Zhao's vision blurred and she lost consciousness. Before she fell to the ground, the "administrator" caught her body and said happily, "Oh my, don't let it get broken."
Twenty minutes ago, Shi Youchen finished a glass of water and leaned against the railing of the observation deck, the fireworks display barely catching his eye. Jiang Yu approached and asked, "Want some juice? Freshly squeezed?"
Shi Youchen shook his head and said, "I don't need it. Leave it to Luo Zhao and Li Sen." Then he remembered that the two had been gone for quite some time. He asked uncertainly, "Luo Zhao didn't drink, right?"
Jiang Yu replied, "No, her family is very strict and doesn't allow her to drink." He glanced at the various bottles on the table and said, "Those bottles are filled with drinks."
Shi Youchen nodded and said, "That's okay." Although he said this, he was still not completely relieved in his heart. Luo Zhao and Li Sen had been gone for almost half an hour.
Ying Yungui turned over, leaned his back against the railing, closed his eyes and said lazily: "The New Year is coming soon. I wonder what big things will happen this year."
Shi Youchen: “?”
Jiang Yu explained: "In the past, the association would assign twice as many tasks at the end of the year, probably because the end of the year is the peak period for accidents."
Ying Yungui sighed loudly: "Ah, I haven't done any missions in the past month or so. Last night I checked my ranking and it dropped a few places. I hope the point doubling mission at the end of the year can make up for it a little."
Shi Youchen glanced down, thinking that his frequency of missions had indeed decreased significantly since he teamed up with him. Then he remembered what he had heard from Yan Zhiyuan: "Ying Yungui is a ruthless points-generating machine." After thinking for a moment, he said, "When this mission is over and we return, you... can stop being my guide."
Unexpectedly, Ying Yungui spread his arms, leaned comfortably on the fence, and said, "You want to go it alone now? No way, how many missions have you completed? The most recorded in the file is probably three, and you haven't even left the Novice Village yet."
Shi Youchen was about to say something when he was interrupted by the ringing of the phone.
Before the beep had even finished, Jiang Yu picked up the phone. "Luo Zhao."
There was no sound from the other side for a long time, so Jiang Yu asked again: "Where are you?"
After a brief "sizzling" sound of electricity, Jiang Yu heard an unfamiliar voice and couldn't tell whether it was a man or a woman.
"Good evening, thieves."
Jiang Yu's expression suddenly changed, and his whole face quickly became gloomy. He said in a hoarse voice: "Who are you? Where are they?" At the same time, he turned on the hands-free mode. Shi Youchen and Ying Yungui also noticed the movement here.
The voice said in a muddy voice: "You don't need to know who I am, but I have to take back what you stole!"
As the voice on the other end fell, the elevator door on the top floor slowly opened under the gaze of the three people.
"I'll return the extra things to you. Please answer the phone~" A strange laugh came from the other end of the phone.
A figure burst through the air from the elevator and flew towards the three people at the edge of the observation deck. His speed was incredible, but his fiery red hair was still very conspicuous in the night. It was Luo Zhao.
It was impossible to catch such a speed with a knife. Ying Yungui made a quick decision to step away from the two of them. When he was about to use his telekinesis to control Luo Zhao who was kicked away, he suddenly felt danger and leaned to the left. A tear suddenly appeared from his right shoulder to his chest. The two layers of clothes inside and outside were torn apart, revealing the new wound with torn skin and flesh.
Ying Yungui suddenly felt pain, and his energy collapsed for a moment. In this moment, Luo Zhao passed by the three of them and flew straight out of the railing at the edge.
Shi Youchen reacted in time and reached out to grab him, but his fingertips just brushed the corner of Luo Zhao's clothes.
"Crash!" "Swish!" At the moment when her body was about to fall, a tree root broke out of the ground from the cracks in the bricks at the edge of the roof. In an instant, branches and vines grew out and tied up Luo Zhao's waist and abdomen.
Jiang Yu half-knelt and gasped for breath, placing his palms on the ground. Instantly, the energy in his body gushed out, causing him to breathe rapidly and feel a stuffy pain in his chest.
Shi Youchen was shocked to realize that he had only heard Ying Yungui say that Jiang Yu was a psychic like them, but he didn't know the specifics of his abilities. Now it seemed that Jiang Yu was a wood-type natural ability user, so the bonfire on the mountain must have been caused by his ability.
Before Shi Youchen could think about it, a figure in a black robe walked out of the elevator, laughing just like the voice on the phone: "What a pity, I almost didn't catch it."
The black-robed man's voice was strange but clearly audible.
Jiang Yu carefully controlled the vines to lift the unconscious Luo Zhao and brought her back to the observation deck to lie flat. He activated the energy and several branches grew out of the floor tiles, wrapping around her legs and allowing her to be connected to the ground.
After doing all this, Jiang Yu whispered to Shi Youchen, "Please take a look at her injuries." When mentioning Luo Zhao, his voice was gentle and firm, but his eyes were completely the opposite, cold and fierce.
Jiang Yu turned and walked towards the black robe. When passing by Ying Yungui, he heard his reminder: "This man's attack method is still unclear, be careful." Jiang Yu did not stop. With every step he took on the road, the ground would crack a small crack, and the wriggling tree roots could be vaguely seen underneath.
Ying Yungui sighed, choosing to remain with Shi Youchen and the unconscious Luo Zhao. He left his back to Shi Youchen, facing Jiang Yu and the black-robed figure, ready to offer support at any moment.
Luo Zhao had been kicked like that just now, so it was unlikely that her body would be intact. Although Shi Youchen had prepared himself mentally, he was still shocked when he saw the white swelling on her abdomen and felt the clammy skin. This was probably internal organ damage. Although she was unconscious, her body's instincts could not be changed.
But it was a good thing that she was not awake, otherwise she would have to endure the severe pain in vain.
Shi Youchen immediately placed his palms over her abdomen, channeling energy. Since there were no surface injuries, he couldn't visually observe the specific condition of the organs. He could only judge the severity of the injury by the subtle fluctuations of energy that had penetrated deeper.
Ying Yungui pressed the wound on his right chest with his left hand, thinking that he had dodged some of the damage, so the wound wasn't too deep. But the wound looked like it had been inflicted by a sharp weapon. Could it be that the black-robed man's ability was wind-attributed?
He was thinking about various possibilities when he heard Shi Youchen say, "Don't stand there like an idiot. Come over here and squat down." The medic had already spoken, so he didn't act pretentiously. He walked over to Shi Youchen and squatted down, but his eyes were still looking towards Jiang Yu.
Shi Youchen did not move his body or his gaze, but just stretched out his left hand, and with the help of his peripheral vision, he stroked Ying Yungui's right arm and climbed up little by little, touching the hot, slightly curled flesh.
He took a deep breath, changed his left palm to two fingers, and separated a small amount of energy to flow to his fingertips and to Ying Yungui's chest.
Shi Youchen was distracted, controlling the situation and healing both sides simultaneously. The background sound of fireworks continued to explode, but it didn't affect his thoughts or operations. However, he lowered his head, unable to take in the battle situation in front of him like Ying Yungui could.
Jiang Yu must have been training systematically since childhood, with a good foundation of physical fitness and a very strong combat awareness. He picked up an empty wine bottle and smashed it, picking up the sharpest piece and holding it in his hand. He did not rush towards the black-robed man rashly, but stepped forward steadily.
The roots of the plants under the bricks could no longer be hidden. The forked branches and vines roared like living things and rushed towards the black robe in the wind, like a snake spitting out its tongue and rushing towards its prey.
While giving the orders, Jiang Yu tore off a piece of the hem of his shirt, tightly wrapped the broken pieces of the wine bottle in his palm, and stared at every move of the man in black robe, waiting for an opportunity to act.
But the black robe remained motionless. All the branches were severed by invisible blades before they reached his side, revealing their brown cross-sections. After four or five rounds of this cycle of being cut, growing, and then being cut again, Jiang Yu moved.
He knew attacking with his supernatural powers alone wouldn't work, so he planted tiny, dense seeds on the surface of his body, creating a tough plant barrier to protect himself from being sliced horizontally like a branch. He leaned forward slightly, clutching the fragments, and rushed towards the black-robed man, imminent close combat.
The branches growing on the ground were still being cut, but perhaps because the black robe could not control them at the same time, the shield on Jiang Yu's body was not broken.
Jiang Yu leaned his upper body slightly to the left, stretched out his right hand and slashed horizontally. The fragment passed through the black robe's throat, but there was no blood on the tip - the black robe itself was not hurt.
As the man in black robe thrust his body back, Jiang Yu suddenly raised his left leg and kicked him diagonally upwards in the head, with such force that it seemed to be able to separate a person's head from his body. The man in black robe didn't have time to turn around, but fortunately he bent halfway back and dodged Jiang Yu's kick.
Jiang Yu immediately spun around, retracted his left leg, and switched to his right leg to kick at the black-robed man's knee. However, as if he had anticipated this, the man did a backhand flip and dodged the attack again.
After three missed strikes, Jiang Yu's attacks became increasingly ferocious. He stomped his right foot heavily on the ground, and several vines emerged from the cracks beneath his black robe. Instead of attacking the robe itself, they quickly wrapped around his legs, and tiny thorns sprouted from the inside, piercing his flesh.
Now he had no way to cut the black robe unless he cut off his own legs as well.
Jiang Yu seized this opportunity, picked up the fragment again and slashed it across the black robe's throat.
The man in black robe caught it, using both palms to catch the fragment that was heading towards his vital points. The front half of the fragment was deeply embedded in his palm, wrapped in flesh and blood, and blood dripped along the fragment to the ground.
He closed his palms and squeezed Jiang Yu's hand hard, along with the broken pieces of the wine bottle.
Before Jiang Yu could react and kick his head off, he laughed sinisterly: "Hey, I got it."
"Show me your hell."
In Ying Yungui's field of vision, the figure in black robe was completely obscured by Jiang Yu's body. However, neither of them moved, indicating that the outcome might have already been decided—Jiang Yu did not fall.
Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, the vines wrapped around Luo Zhao moved. They pulled Shi Youchen's hands away and lifted Luo Zhao high into the night sky.
Ying Yungui and Shi Youchen both saw Jiang Yu turn around gloomily, staring at Luo Zhao in mid-air with unfocused eyes, and he seemed to be muttering something.
Ying Yungui realized something was wrong and didn't care that his injuries had not yet fully healed. He mobilized his energy and used his telekinesis to catch Luo Zhao.
All the vines on Luo Zhao's body swung outwards and pulled away. If Ying Yungui hadn't caught them in time, Luo Zhao would have been thrown out by now.
Jiang Yu was half-kneeling on the ground. A dagger pierced through his right shoulder blade and went below his right clavicle, with a cold blood-red glow on it.
At this moment, Luo Zhao opened his eyes with a scream.
"Jiang Yu!"
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