Legend of the chosen ones: Beyond Destiny

For a moment, Lu Feng almost thought his night vision device was broken.

But since this morning, he had already endured enough shocks, and felt this was just one more to add to the list.

A greenhorn who had never handled a gun before had, without any sighting in, pulled the trigger for the first time and hit a fast-moving target fifty meters away with three bullets in less than half a second?

Was this some kind of cheat?

Not even trying to hide it?

However, caught in a surprising glimpse, he watched Ji Jue's grip on the gun, that infuriatingly perfect shooting stance, enough to move an instructor to tears, and covering fire worthy of a comrade giving him a salute on the spot. For a moment, he even began to doubt himself... Had he joined a fake Hell Camp?

"Good kid, hey—"

Beneath Lu Feng's mask, he couldn't help but laugh out loud. His right hand drew the tomahawk hanging from his lower back and cleaved it into the skull of a man charging at him, then dashed forward,

no longer minding the shadows of pursuers behind him.

Letting Ji Jue's bullets whistle past his ears!

In the distance, Ji Jue fired again.

One shot after another.

Then bullets, as a matter of course, opened new skulls, or forced those peeking from corners back into hiding, unable to show themselves.

He could feel the pulling of the trigger, the functioning of the firing mechanism, the roar of the bullet through the gun barrel, the shell casing ejecting from the chamber—like effortlessly picking up an apple with the hand.

No need to contemplate or concentrate, just a simple and easy action.

Just that and nothing more.

And even more abundant was a kind of [feeling] of communication, and an unprecedented [instinctive response].

A sensation of unparalleled satisfaction that he had never experienced before.

It was as though invisible hands were guiding and hinting, engraving the accumulated experiences of a long time directly into his marrow—

The moment Ji Jue's power infused into the gun, he instinctively knew.

It possessed a soul!

Ji Jue strangely realized: maybe this was the true way to use his ability—to feel the tool, to learn the tool, and then, to let the tool tell you how to truly use it!

So, he pulled the trigger.

At that woman in the corner of the chaotic crowd, who had been coldly observing from the start, he could see Zhu Hong's contemptuous smirk and the scarlet eyes behind her sunglasses.

Those eyes shifted slightly, glancing toward Ji Jue in a blink of an eye.

Bang!

The bullet tore through the air with a loud noise, the brass bullet spiraling, aiming to enter her forehead, penetrate the skull, and scramble the brain into a putrid bowl of tofu brains, splattering and spraying—that's what should have happened, the natural outcome, but unfortunately, it failed from the very first step.

The bullet entered flesh and, as if hitting a ballistic plate head-on, incredulously ricocheted off the skull!

```

Only a rapidly closing wound remained.

Ji Jue pulled the trigger again.

In that moment, in Zhu Hong's eyes, blood and fire burst forth, with scales faintly emerging from her beautiful face. She opened her mouth and silently mouthed something.

Ji Jue couldn't hear anything.

But it chilled him to the core.

Because the newly restarted surveillance was frantically sending him an alarm—[Dodge Dodge Dodge Dodge Dodge!!!!]

Without a second thought, without hesitation, Ji Jue lunged forward like a rabid dog pouncing for food, neither graceful nor carefree, but as fluid as a donkey rolling in a mud pit.

An ugly stream of movement.

Then, the solid concrete ground beneath him, along with the parking sign above, just burst apart!

A thunderous roar.

A long tail covered in scales of strange colors suddenly appeared from thin air, visible only for an instant before blurring again into the darkness, hard to distinguish. Yet in the camera's infrared light, a continuous stream of images was sent to Ji Jue.

It was a python!

In the infrared surveillance, the eerie giant snake slithered through the shadows, its body scales reflecting a stunning faint glow, crystal clear. When viewed with the naked eye, however, the coloring blended with the environment, utterly indiscernible in the dark.

A giant snake, several meters long, wriggled and coiled in the darkness, and from its belly dangled limb-like growths, as if evolution had not been completed, their faces sprouting one tumor after another.

And swirling within its eyes was a blood-fire filled with hunger and frenzy!

"Fuck, Feng bro, be careful, there's a hunter..."

In the fleeting moment, Ji Jue didn't even dare to look back, shouting with all his might. Then he saw the giant snake leap at him like a released spring.

Instinctively crouching down, he tried to roll away subconsciously, but as soon as the front half of his body was thrown forward, his legs felt as if they were entangled by ropes, suddenly yanked up!

The snake's tail was as nimble as a hand, wrapping around his left leg, gripping tight, and lifting him into the air. Then, just as it opened its gaping maw, the stench of blood in the air, it snapped shut toward Ji Jue's head.

Thud.

A muffled sound burst from between the closing teeth, and the snake's mouth, powerful enough to crush bone like a guillotine, came to an abrupt halt… blocked by Ji Jue's arm!

Even in the wild-eyed gaze of the snake, there seemed to be a flicker of shock, disbelief.

Underneath the torn work clothes, shredded paper emerged from where the snake's teeth had slit through—to prevent another deadly attack from Old Deng, Ji Jue had wrapped his arms in thick books with layers of tape, specifically the series that could make the youngest of the Lu Family cry at night, "The Thirty Volumes of Exam King!"

"How does knowledge taste?"

Amidst the agony of fractured bones, Ji Jue's expression twisted, and he couldn't help but grin, his other hand shot out fiercely, the hot barrel of the gun piercing into the giant snake's eye, tearing through the iris, and he frantically pulled the trigger!

Four consecutive bullets exploded within the eye socket, the giant snake let out a horrific scream, convulsing violently, flinging Ji Jue away, crashing onto the ground, his vision darkening, nearly passing out.

But before he could get up, he felt a bone-chilling cold.

The giant snake's massive body writhed as it crawled out, suddenly coiling around Ji Jue, squeezing tighter inch by inch!

This was the python's instinct to hunt, capable of crushing even large carnivorous animals into dust with its squeeze!

```

Crack!

Ji Jue heard the piteous groan of his left arm, unable to bear the load. His other hand groped frantically but could only grasp the tip of the tail, incapable of pulling it off.

Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, Lu Feng witnessed Ji Jue's dire situation. He dropped the empty submachine gun in his other hand and sprinted over bodies.

The other hand drew the shotgun, not aiming at the python but spinning to aim at Zhu Hong, who was embracing the cold with a sneer in the distance, and pulled the trigger!

Capture the ringleader to capture all the followers!

A metallic rain of fire sprayed out of the barrel, whistling towards her instantaneously, perforating Zhu Hong's body. But after passing through the custom-made gown, it was swallowed up by her writhing flesh, causing her only to step back.

He didn't stop, pulling the trigger over and over again, filling the entire parking lot with deafening blasts.

Even the slender figure seemed to turn into a lump of hacked flesh in the blink of an eye, patches of shocking crimson and heart-pounding pallor exposed as the torn fabric fluttered.

And then, three soft, springy, conic objects... Three?

Lu Feng involuntarily paused as his eyes blurred, seeing something fly past.

Wait, why does she have three breasts?! And, what just flew by...

The barrel of his gun suddenly dipped as two bloodied hands raised and grabbed the barrel, hissing.

Up close, within the narrow space, that once lovely face slowly lifted, revealing a twisted smile full of bullet holes and scarlet, mocking:

"What are you, looking at?"

The next instant, Lu Feng finally understood what had just flown by him. The object was lodged in his throat... an arm!

An eerie arm, hidden beneath the gown and disguise!

It grabbed Lu Feng's neck, slowly lifting.

One, two, three...

Lu Feng's eyes widened as he counted the number of arms on the woman's body, unbelieving. But then, he resigned to the logic: Everyone knows humans are born with two breasts and two arms, so having three arms if you have three breasts seemed rational enough.

Then, he saw the fourth limb, sharp as a blade, emerging slowly from Zhu Hong's back, followed by the fifth!

Like a spider finally breaking free from its confining skin, it revealed its true form.

"I thought it was some kind of monster, but to my surprise, food has delivered itself to my doorstep. What's more, I have you to thank for clearing out this burdensome trash."

Zhu Hong grinned, smiling as her fingers tightened slowly, savoring the pleasure of her prey crumbling under torment. But suddenly, before her eyes... the light flared.

The lights flickered.

Finally, the power returned!

But this bright arrival was not a signal of victory, but an unexpected harbinger of disaster.

A dreadful shriek echoed.

Lu Feng swore this was the first time in his life he heard a snake scream, sounding somewhat similar to Ji Jue's agonizing cries... but then, he realized it was indeed Ji Jue screaming.

Because the thing that once was a monstrous serpent could no longer make a sound!

Just moments ago, Ji Jue, on the verge of being strangled to death by the giant snake, made his final futile struggle.

He didn't waste any energy biting the thing again but used all his strength to grab the tail of the monstrous python… and stabbed it into a socket!

"Hey, buddy."

Ji Jue's face, swollen to the color of liver, struggled to lift, turning to the serpent with a final smile, "Got a grounding wire?"

Pop!

In that moment, drawing spiritual essence from his watch, his abilities activated!

Restarting everything that was turned off, once again, anew.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The entire building trembled as if in a shudder. The tripped breaker, as if coming to life, rejoined, filling the nightclub, lost in darkness and chaos, with dazzling light.

Along with Ji Jue.

In the wailing of the transformer box, when the fearsome voltage, enough to power an entire nightclub's dance floor, lighting, sound system, performances, booths, kitchen, main hall, and every room, answered Ji Jue's call, not minding burning the wires to ashes, the giant serpent shimmered with light for the first time in its life.

Like a light bulb.

Racing electricity, like a tsunami, burned through the thin shell on the tail, pierced into the python's flesh, and, following the blood and bones, spread and propagated throughout the body, dispersing heat.

In less than a second, the wire completely burned out, losing effect, and the serpent's body rigidly froze in place, wrapped in an insulating carapace, barely maintaining its original posture.

Soon, amidst Ji Jue's convulsions, it broke into several pieces, no longer bearing the once ferocious and fierce appearance, like skin charred to a cinder beneath an electric knife, exuding a disturbing, burnt aroma.

Ji Jue coughed violently, convulsing, struggling to rise, then falling, and finally propped himself up only to be unable to stifle the impulse to vomit.

He retched violently.

Only when he regained his sensibilities, panting, did he lift his head to see the dead bodies nearby and Lu Feng, neck grasped and lifted in a pool of blood.

And Zhu Hong, looking like she'd seen a ghost.

Looking at him.

He subconsciously touched his face, realizing in the struggle with the giant serpent his mask had long since disappeared. His white face was splattered with saliva and blood, hardly recognizable anymore.

Only the scar stretching from the neck to the cheek stood out, so notable.

Unforgettable.

Done for, he's been unmasked.

Ji Jue slapped his forehead, sighed, and managed a warm smile towards the car owner sister who had so kindly invited him out.

"Hey, boss."

He combed through his exploded hairdo, blinked his watery eyes, and tried hard to squeeze out a bit of seductiveness, "Need any service?"