Chapter Twenty-Eight: Battle in the Darkness

Ye Chen swore that in his entire life, he had never seen a mutated beast like this—nor a person like this, for that matter.

His first instinct was... an Awakened One?!

But in the next instant, he noticed something was off.

In the image before him, at the junction where the human and animal bodies merged, there were actual stitches, the marks of needle and thread.

It was as if two broken dolls of entirely different styles had been forcibly sewn together in a manner both grotesque and absurd.

Luckily, relying on the meticulous detail of his "Back-Eye Insight" vision, he caught this detail.

Otherwise, in the pitch-black night, an ordinary person would never have noticed the seam.

Not an Awakened One! The upper and lower bodies had been crudely stitched together by outside means... Ye Chen immediately formed his own theory.

When the creature passed the trash bin, Ye Chen "saw" it pause.

It even turned its head, staring at the bin for a while.

Astonishingly, its gaze was still human. Even more bizarre, it frowned in a distinctly human way.

This sense of surreal absurdity, rendered in stark black-and-white lines, sent chills down Ye Chen's spine, even though he was only a few steps away.

It sensed me?!

Just as Ye Chen was debating whether to charge out at once, a sudden clamor of pounding footsteps erupted from the nearby street, accompanied by Xu Fan’s booming shout:

“Ye Chen, I just saw a dark shadow leap down from the rooftop!
Ye Chen, where are you? Did you hear me? That shadow was huge!”

The monstrous creature was startled by this thunderous outcry.

In the next second, it whirled around and bolted, vanishing in a flash through a half-open door.

Damn it, Xu Fan, you idiot! I told you to contact me through the communicator, not by yelling!

While cursing furiously in his heart, Ye Chen abruptly flung off the lid, braced a hand on the rim of the trash bin, and vaulted out, sprinting in pursuit.

He was now utterly convinced that this bizarre beast was connected to the case.

When he reached the open doorway, Ye Chen didn’t rush in recklessly.

He knew the interior was spacious—beyond the range his Back-Eye Insight could cover.

And the lights were off, filling the place with darkness.

There was another possibility: this could be its lair.

After a few seconds, Ye Chen pressed his back to the wall and slipped through the door in a flash.

Using his x-ray vision, he located the light switch.

Click!

The lights didn’t come on.

Damn... the power core of this place was empty!

Did it choose this house on purpose?

Drip.

At that moment, Ye Chen suddenly felt a chill at the back of his neck. He reached back and touched something—his hand came away sticky, reeking of blood and rot.

His pupils contracted sharply; without hesitation, he dove forward, his body smashing into the floor and rolling rapidly away.

Bang!

The grotesque beast dropped from the ceiling, crashing thunderously to the ground and leaving the floor cracked and splintered.

From its mouth came a rasping, human-like voice, thick with resentment: “Damn you!”

Then, in a flash, it lunged after Ye Chen.

Ye Chen vaulted over a sofa in the living room, then dropped to his knees and slid beneath a wooden dining table.

Behind him, the beast gave chase.

Its powerful forelimbs smashed the table to splinters, sending dishes and bowls scattering with a cacophony of clattering noise.

Such strength...

After that blow, the beast lunged again, instantly closing in on Ye Chen from behind.

Before Ye Chen could widen the gap—

Bang!

That half-human, half-beast head slammed into Ye Chen’s back, sending him flying.

A wave of agony shot through his spine, but Ye Chen was glad he’d been training hard in Breathing Techniques lately. His physical strength and bone density had improved dramatically.

Otherwise, that blow might well have snapped his spine.

But it wasn’t over yet; the creature pressed the attack relentlessly.

Tumbling across the floor, Ye Chen came to a stop near the wall.

The instant he rose and turned, the creature’s forelimbs slammed down with crushing force onto his shoulders.

With a thunderous boom, it pinned him firmly against the wall.

In the pitch-black room, the beast snarled, its foul stench overwhelming, saliva dripping to the floor.

Ye Chen could feel the crushing power digging into his shoulders, his bones aching with the strain.

In the darkness, the monster locked eyes with its ambusher. Its hoarse voice, heavy with hate, sounded again:

“It’s you. You—I’ve seen you before…”

A torrent of thoughts flashed through Ye Chen’s mind:

It can speak. It seems to have memories, even intelligence.

But before he could think further, he saw the creature’s head whip back—and in the next instant, its rancid maw shot forward at breakneck speed.

It was going to bite his head off.

Ye Chen twisted his neck just in time; the beast’s jaws grazed his cheek and slammed into the wall.

Bang!

Those razor teeth, powered by immense force, punched a gaping hole in the wall.

Cold sweat broke out all over Ye Chen—if that bite had landed, he’d be done for.

In a split second, while the creature’s head was still stuck in the hole, Ye Chen seized the chance and lashed out with a powerful kick.

By sheer luck, his foot landed right on the stitched seam of the beast’s belly.

The creature howled in pain: “You... you’ll pay for this!”

A weak spot!

The monster staggered back, and the faint light from the hole in the wall illuminated its twisted, mutated face.

Pain. Rage. Savagery. Bloodlust.

Ye Chen’s dangling hand brushed the baton at his waist. Without a moment’s hesitation, he drew it and swung hard at the beast’s forehead.

The creature’s forelimb lashed out with lightning speed—clang!—slamming down on the baton.

A surge of force shot through Ye Chen’s hand, splitting the skin at the base of his thumb and sending blood oozing. The baton flew from his grasp.

D-rank—the strength of this unknown beast was at least that of a D-rank Awakened One.

It was easy to tell, since his own body matched the standard of an E-rank Awakened One.

And now, he was utterly outmatched.

Ye Chen realized he’d finally met a true adversary tonight.

He’d relied on having mastered the Monster-level Breathing Technique, confident he could easily handle most mutated beasts.

But this creature was different from any foe he’d faced before—its strength surpassed his by a full tier.