trapped beast
If you were to ask Shi Youchen what was the decision he regretted most today, it would most likely be "the temporary trip back to City Z."
If you ask him what was the best decision he made, it would definitely be "choosing to take this bus back instead of the other way."
He'd been riding the old bus for over ten years, and he knew the interior layout better than most people, if not better than the driver. Shi Youchen opened the partition from the inside and swiftly pulled the driver out, even pressing the emergency stop button. Sure enough, the bus kept moving.
The driver was not in a clear state of mind, and his whole body floated like a packaging bag with its contents emptied out. He was easily pulled out, but his hands kept gripping the steering wheel, causing the direction of the car to deviate slightly.
Shi Youchen shielded him behind him, turned around, and took the incoming dagger with trembling hands. "Tsk, I already told you there's no way this car can stop."
Blood dripped onto the ground, and a distinct pain rippled through his hands and the back of his head. Shi Youchen, his mind buzzing, raised his foot and slammed it into the attacker's abdomen, sending him reeling and nearly falling. "You've never ridden a bus before?" The cuts on his palms healed in an instant.
The car had already passed most of the bridge. Shi Youchen was thinking about shaking off the blood on the knife. He held the knife in front of him and took two steps to the left to protect the driver behind him. He reached out to take down the window breaker, but was suddenly hugged by the waist by the person behind him in the next moment.
"How do you know that the person behind you is not an enemy?" As he spoke, the man walked up to Shi Youchen, who was locked in the core and unable to struggle, grabbed his wrist and pressed it on the tiger's mouth, took away the dagger, and did the same to him, taking away the hammer in his left hand.
"Wouldn't it be possible to break free if you stabbed him right away?" The man played with the tip of the knife between his fingers, his tone somewhat disdainful. "In the end, it's you who's useless."
Shi Youchen was shackled and his sore spot was poked. He couldn't move his strength to pry the driver's arms free, nor could he attack the driver as the man had suggested. So he watched helplessly as the man, who was able to move freely, smashed open the corners of the car's front window with a window breaker. "Then I'll be leaving first," the man said, walking into the driver's seat and adjusting the steering and accelerator pedal. "Good night, Shi Youchen."
The moment he hit the water, Shi Youchen's breathing paused for a moment, and then the driver, who was also exhausted, loosened his waist. The cold river water pouring in through the broken front window pressed hard on his lungs, and Shi Youchen reluctantly turned around to find that the driver was struggling from choking on the water.
The two or three layers of clothing soaked up the water, dragging the driver down with them. Shi Youchen was now completely unable to pull the driver. Unconcerned with the potential for hypothermia, he quickly stripped off both of their heavy coats. Then, wrapping his arms around the driver's armpits, he swam out the front window of the falling car, toward the endless river.
A man holding an umbrella stood under a streetlight by the bridge, counting the number of ticks on the minute hand on his watch. He looked up and breathed a sigh of relief. Five minutes was already the maximum time allowed by professional training, not to mention the burden of carrying a burden.
"Judging from his behavior just now, there's a good chance he won't abandon the driver and come up on his own." He thought, then withdrew his hand, staring at the dim river surface with a cold sneer, "Still the same as before, full of useless hypocrisy."
Having successfully completed his goal and mission, he was in high spirits, thinking that all his time and effort in planning this was worthwhile. He thought about how he had spent half a day controlling all the vehicles and drivers on this route, how he had to use his abilities to make Shi Youchen fall asleep after he got on the bus, and how he had to control all the other people around him to make them get off the bus before it reached the bridge in order to avoid being monitored by the association and other unnecessary matters.
The energy he consumed during this effort was far more than he had imagined.
"Tsk, if it weren't for that damn inspection, it would be much easier to just arrest everyone in the car." He muttered to himself as he put away the long-handled black umbrella, which he had specially picked out for today's plan.
The umbrella was thrown onto the damp ground. The man stretched out his arms to embrace the icy wind, tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and let the biting rain fall on his face. He sighed, "This is life," and opened his eyes. The dim streetlights were reflected in his gray pupils.
But the next moment, his laughter vanished. A whirlpool suddenly formed on the river's surface, so obvious it was visible even under the dark night sky. It appeared out of nowhere, then moved along the lake's surface toward the shore. This was definitely not a force of nature.
He panicked for only three seconds before calming down and searching for his new opponent. The movement on the river stopped as he turned, and a column of water shot up from behind, yet he dodged it with ease. "I was wondering who had such great power. It turns out it's Minister Yan who has arrived."
"If you had chosen to use a more powerful attack just now, I might have been knocked down. Why didn't you use it? Are you afraid of damaging this place?"
Yan Zhiyuan's figure appeared at the bridgehead more than ten meters away. Because it was raining, his ability as a medium for sound transmission allowed him to clearly hear every word the other party said.
"Haven't you read a book? That's not how you greet me." Yan Zhiyuan was surrounded by mist. He didn't approach rashly, but observed the man calmly, and always felt that the pair of gray eyes looked familiar.
If he was a colleague or worker in the association, then knowing him and knowing his identity wouldn't be surprising. After all, what happened to him back then was indeed a hot topic. However, the man in front of him, who was behaving strangely and had just killed Shi Youchen and an ordinary driver, clearly didn't fit into any of the above categories.
"Who is your accomplice?" Yan Zhiyuan raised his hand and made a shooting gesture. He asked the question symbolically before taking action, and was expectedly ridiculed by the other party. "Minister Yan, you are joking. What accomplices could I have? I am not like you." The last five words were said meaningfully.
Upon hearing this, Yan Zhiyuan stopped talking nonsense and fired a water bullet with a speed and power comparable to that of a real gun. He aimed at the position under the opponent's feet while adjusting the distance between them.
Ah Xian, or 08, was using lampposts to dodge water bullets while sprinting to close the distance. After all, close combat was more advantageous to him. As he moved, he noticed that Yan Zhiyuan's attacks were mostly aimed at his lower body, so he chuckled, "What? Afraid of hitting passing cars?"
Yan Zhiyuan, unfazed by his deception, extended his other hand, slightly spreading his fingers, forming a summoning gesture. 08 felt a sudden pain in his shoulders and sides, and from the momentum of running forward, he fell flat on his face, his clothes already soaking wet. Yan Zhiyuan, on the other hand, was spotless, not a trace of water.
"Natural science has an advantage in places like this." 08 rolled over in the puddle like a broken jar, dodging the water bullet that hit his face. Now even his hair was covered in dirt from the ground, making him look even more miserable.
The rainy day, the riverside, the wide battlefield, these factors simply gave Yan Zhiyuan multiple benefits in his abilities. His perception, control, and energy conservation were greatly improved. Because the surrounding environment was full of water elements, he could maximize the use of energy on shape and precision control rather than manufacturing.
Therefore, the environment definitely has the greatest impact on those with natural abilities, and it is true what 08 said that Yan Zhiyuan has all the advantages.
"Didn't you choose this place yourself?" Yan Zhiyuan said this as 08 stepped into the deepest pit to avoid the water arrows. "So, you're pretty incompetent for not foreseeing the current situation."
The next second, 08's vision became blurred. He turned around and found that he was trapped in a water prison. Even his head was covered by waves.
A water dungeon rose from the deep pit beneath his feet, encasing him completely and isolating him from the outside world. The temperature inside the dungeon had dropped significantly, and 08's lips had already begun to turn purple. After the cage formed, Yan Zhiyuan observed it from a distance for a minute before moving closer and saying, "It seems you haven't received much education, and your combat awareness is weak."
"Most of the attacks just now were directed at your lower body, not because we were afraid of affecting any passing cars."
"It's to force you to move. After all, it's not easy to find a place that can instantly form a water cage." Yan Zhiyuan's voice passed through the surface of the water prison and reached the ears of 08 inside. His face flushed red. He was extremely angry, but he didn't dare to curse easily.
Because the air inside the dungeon was gradually being consumed, every time he cursed, he took one less breath.
"I will unlock this water prison in ten minutes, but by then only your corpse will come out." Yan Zhiyuan tried to compress the density again, but found that the water that was not created by his own energy could not be completely controlled by him, so he had to give up the attempt to save another two minutes.
Just a few minutes, Shi Youchen should be fine. Thinking this, he turned and looked down at the riverbank. There lay Shi Youchen, unconscious, after he had rescued him from the water and drained the excess water from his body. Unfortunately, the driver had already passed away by the time he arrived, and for various reasons, he didn't bring the driver's body with him.
Feeling somewhat guilty, Yan Zhiyuan was about to vent his emotions on his trapped opponent, but he found that the water mist barrier around him had disappeared, and the heavy rain was howling and touched his body, making him unable to tell whether it was rain or cold sweat on his back.
"!" Yan Zhiyuan was kicked and sent flying into a streetlight pole. The impact from his back instantly made his face turn pale. He fell to the ground, coughing violently and looking up in pain. A blurry, masked tall man appeared in his sight.
08 emerged from the dungeon, his face grim as he grabbed the dagger that had fallen to the ground long ago and rushed forward to kill Yan Zhiyuan, but was stopped by someone who suddenly appeared. "He's still useful," a voice clearly processed by a voice changer said. 08 stared at Yan Zhiyuan fiercely and said, "Then why not chop off his hand first?"
The man withdrew his hand. "Whatever you want. Have you completed the task assigned to you?"
08 held the short knife and made a flower: "I saw him stay in the river for a full five minutes."
"Five minutes?" The man seemed a little dissatisfied. "Where's the body?"
08 paused, his confidence weakening. "He rushed down with the entire car. The body...it's hard for me to find."
The man raised his hands and loosely grasped the ends of the mask. He chuckled, his tone unclear. "Do you know what this person's ability is?" He didn't seem to really want to ask, so before 08 could speak, he continued, "Water, everything related to water. Just because you can't find the body in the river doesn't mean he can't find it either."
08 The dagger in his hand was snatched away, and the masked man stabbed it into Yan Zhiyuan's shoulder: "Where is Shi Youchen's body?" Yan Zhiyuan was still sitting on the muddy ground. If there was a fourth person present at this time, he would definitely find that his condition was very strange.
Yan Zhiyuan, who had never shown any big expression, was once secretly called the "Minister of Facial Paralysis". However, his face at this moment was filled with extreme fear and regret.
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