Chosen: Beyond Fate

Chapter 12: When Golden Wind and Jade Dew Meet

For a brief moment, Lu Feng almost thought his night‑vision goggles were broken. Since this morning, he had been through more shocking circumstances than he could count, so for a second it felt like one more would not make much difference.

A complete newbie who has never touched a gun in his life fired for the first time with no pre‑aim at all, and in less than half a second he landed three shots on a fast‑moving target that was fifty meters away? Is he cheating or what? He’s not even trying to hide it!

In that split second glimpse, he caught sight of Ji Jue’s shooting stance. It was so textbook‑perfect it was downright obscene, the kind that would make an instructor weep with joy. Add to that the kind of cover fire that would make comrades drop to their knees in gratitude, and for a moment Lu Feng genuinely doubted himself. Had he joined some fake hell battalion back then?

“Good kid, heh...”

Under the mask, Lu Feng burst out laughing. His right hand yanked the hand axe from his lower back and brought it straight down into the skull of the man charging at him, then he surged forward. He stopped caring about the figures chasing behind him as Ji Jue’s bullets whistled past his ears.

In the distance, Ji Jue fired shot after shot. As if only natural, bullets tore open fresh skulls, or forced the figures peeking out from corners back into hiding, unable to show their heads.

He could feel it. The pull of the trigger, the cycling of the firing mechanism, the bullet roaring through the gun, the shell casing ejecting from the slide... All was as effortless as picking up an apple with his bare hand. There was no thinking required, and no need to focus. It all just came so easy to him.

And even stronger than that was a certain sensation born of communication, an instinctive response he had never felt before. A kind of exhilaration he had never experienced so fully, as if invisible hands were guiding him and teaching him, engraving years of accumulated experience straight into his bones.

The moment Ji Jue’s ability flowed into the gun, he understood it. This thing had a soul.

A sudden realization came to him; maybe this was the real way his power was meant to be used. He was supposed to feel the tool and learn it, then let the tool tell him how to truly use it.

So he pulled the trigger, aiming at the woman standing in the corner of the chaos, the same one who had been watching coldly from start to finish. He could see the faint sneer at the corner of Zhu Hong’s mouth, and the crimson eyes behind her sunglasses.

Those eyes shifted slightly. In an instant, they locked onto Ji Jue.

Bang!

The thunderous crack of the shot spread outward. The brass bullet spun through the air, buried itself in her forehead, punched through her skull, and churned her brain into a bowl of foul‑smelling mush that sprayed everywhere. Or at least, that was how it should have gone logically.

Unfortunately, the plan failed at the very first step. The bullet sank into her flesh, then seemed to slam head‑on into something like a ballistic plate. It actually bounced off her skull, leaving behind only a wound that closed up almost instantly.

Ji Jue pulled the trigger again.

Blood‑red fire flared in Zhu Hong’s eyes, and faint scales surfaced across her beautiful face. She opened her mouth and said something.

Ji Jue could not hear a thing, yet her words sent him plunging into icy dread, because the surveillance system that had just finished rebooting was screaming warnings at him like mad.

“Dodge, dodge, dodge, dodge, dodge!!!”

Without thinking, without hesitation, Ji Jue lunged forward like a vicious dog pouncing on its prey. He was not graceful nor stylish, but smooth in the way a donkey rolls around in a mud pit. His actions were unsightly, yet flowed smoothly.

Right where he had just been standing, the thick concrete floor, along with the painted parking marker on top of it, shattered.

There was a thunderous roar, and a long tail covered in scales of bizarre colors abruptly manifested out of thin air, flashing into view for a split second before blurring again. It was hard to distinguish in the darkness, yet through the camera’s infrared feed, images poured relentlessly into Ji Jue’s awareness.

It was a python. In the infrared surveillance, the monstrous snake glided through the shadows. Its scales reflected brilliant specks of light, crystal clear and dazzling. However, to the naked eye, those colors blended perfectly into the surroundings, making it almost impossible to discern in the dark.

The giant snake was several meters long, and it writhed and coiled in the darkness. Along its belly trailed limb-like appendages, as if they still had a few stages of evolution to go through, and its face was studded with swollen lumps. In its eyes burned blood‑red fire, brimming with hunger and madness.

“Holy shit, Feng, be careful, there’s a hun—”

Ji Jue did not even dare to look back. He shouted with all his strength, and then he saw the giant snake leap forward like a compressed spring.

By instinct he dropped low and tried to roll away, but just as he lunged forward, his legs were yanked back hard, as if ropes had wrapped around them.

The python’s tail, agile like a hand, had coiled around his left legs and tightened, lifting him into the air. Then the creature opened its cavernous, blood‑soaked maw and, amid a gust of foul wind, snapped it shut toward Ji Jue’s head.

Thud!

A dull impact burst from between its fangs, and its jaws that were strong enough to crush bone like a guillotine came to an abrupt stop when they made contact with Ji Jue’s arm. Even the snake’s crazed eyes seemed to fill with shock and disbelief.

Beneath the torn work uniform, scraps of shredded paper fluttered from where the snake’s teeth had bitten through. To guard against another deadly bite like the old freak’s, Ji Jue had taped thick books layer upon layer around his arms. It was none other than the full set of King of Exams: Thirty Sets, tough enough to make the youngest of the Lu family cry at night.

“How’s the taste of knowledge?”

Through the agony of cracking bones, Ji Jue’s face twisted as he forced a grin. His other hand shot out, the scorching gun barrel plunging straight into the python’s eye. It tore through the iris, and he squeezed the trigger like mad.

Four bullets exploded in succession inside the eye socket. The giant snake shrieked in agony and convulsed violently. Ji Jue was flung away and slammed into the ground, his vision going black as he nearly passed out. Before he could even get back up, an icy dread washed over him. The python’s massive body slithered closer amid its spasms and coiled around Ji Jue, tightening bit by bit.

This was the true hunting instinct of a python, a crushing stranglehold capable of grinding even large predators into pulp.

Crack!

Ji Jue heard the groan of his left arm giving way under the strain. His free hand groped wildly, managing only to grab the very tip of the tail, unable to pry it loose.

Glancing from the corner of his vision, Lu Feng noticed Ji Jue’s plight. He abandoned the submachine gun in his hand, now completely empty, and sprinted over, trampling corpses.

His other hand drew the shotgun. He did not aim at the python, but instead swung the barrel toward Zhu Hong, who sneered in the distance with her arms crossed, and pulled the trigger.

I’ll take the leader first.

A storm of metal fire erupted from the muzzle, howling through the air and slamming into Zhu Hong, but after punching through her custom dress, it was swallowed by writhing flesh, only forcing her to stagger back a single step.

He did not stop. He kept pulling the trigger as the entire parking garage filled with deafening thunder.

Even that slender figure seemed to turn into a mass of mangled flesh. Torn scraps of clothing flew, revealing shocking patches of crimson as well as porcelain smooth skin, and even three bouncing, flexible, cone‑shaped forms.

Three? freewёbnoνel.com

Lu Feng faltered as he closed in, his vision blurring as something flew past him.

Wait, why does she have three boobs? And what was that thing that just flew by?

His gun barrel suddenly sank as two bloodied, mangled hands shot up and gripped it, producing a sizzling sound. At arm’s length, the once beautiful face slowly looked up, revealing a twisted smile, riddled with bullet holes and soaked in red, brimming with mockery.

“What are you looking at?”

Lu Feng finally understood what had flown past earlier. That thing was now jammed against his throat.

It was an arm. Hidden beneath the dress was a grotesque arm. It tightened around Lu Feng’s neck and slowly lifted him.

One, two, three.

Lu Feng stared wide‑eyed and counted the number of arms on this woman again, disbelief flashing through him before quickly giving way to acceptance. After all, everyone knew a person was born with two boobs and two arms. If someone had three boobs, then having three arms seemed perfectly reasonable, right?

A fourth blade‑sharp, grotesque limb slowly extended from Zhu Hong’s back. Then came a fifth, like a spider finally tearing off its skin to reveal its true form.

“I thought you were some random freak, but turns out, the food practically delivered itself to me. And thanks to you, I got rid of this bunch of dead weight and useless trash.”

Zhu Hong grinned, her fingers curling slowly as she savored the perverse thrill of crushing her prey. Suddenly, the scene brightened, and the lights flickered.

Finally, a signal came through! But this light wasn’t a sign of victory, it was a harbinger of disaster.

A horrific, piercing shriek rang out.

Lu Feng swore it was the first time in his life he had ever heard a snake scream. It sounded almost like Ji Jue’s own shriek, until he realized, no, that scream was from Ji Jue, because the thing that had once been a monstrous serpent could no longer make a sound.

Moments before, as Ji Jue was about to be completely crushed by the giant snake, he made a final, desperate move. He didn’t waste energy trying to bite back. Instead, he used all his strength to grab the serpent’s tail and shoved it into the electrical outlet!

“Hey, buddy.” Ji Jue’s face, dark red like raw liver, strained as he lifted the snake and gave it a final grin. “You got a grounding wire?”

Snap!

The spirit matter drawn from his watch activated his power! Everything that had been shut down now rebooted.

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

The whole building shook. The tripped circuit breakers seemed to come alive, reconnecting. The nightclub, filled with darkness and chaos, was bathed in brilliant light. Ji Jue himself was engulfed in it.

Amid the wails of the power box, the horrifying voltage basically capable of running the entire club, including the dance floor, lights, speakers, performances, booths, kitchen, lobby, every single room, responded to Ji Jue’s command. Even if the wires melted, the current surged through. And for the first time in its life, the giant serpent shone brilliantly like a light bulb.

The electricity surged like a tsunami. In less than a second, it burned through the thin armor on the tail and penetrated the python’s flesh, traveling through blood and bone before spreading heat throughout its entire body.

In less than a second, the wires were completely incinerated, no longer accomplishing anything, but the serpent’s massive body stiffened. Trapped in place, its armored scales were barely holding its shape. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

Soon, as Ji Jue twitched, the snake snapped into multiple sections. Its once ferocious, monstrous form was gone, now resembling charred strips of flesh burned by an electric blade and radiating an almost maddening smell of scorched decay.

Ji Jue coughed violently, convulsed, forced himself to sit up, then collapsed again. Finally, he managed to prop himself up and could no longer hold back his nausea.

He vomited violently. When he finally came to while panting, he lifted his head and saw the corpses all around, and Lu Feng being hoisted by the neck out of a pool of blood.

And then... He saw Zhu Hong, pale as if she’d seen a ghost, staring at him.

Ji Jue instinctively touched his face, realizing that in the struggle with the serpent, his mask was long gone. His pale face was smeared with saliva and blood, and was now barely recognizable. Only the scar that ran from his neck up to his cheek remained unmistakable.

I’m done for. My identity was revealed.

Ji Jue slapped his head with a sigh and forced a warm smile toward the car-owner who had enthusiastically asked him out.

“Hi, ma’am.” He ruffled his wild hair, blinked his big watery eyes, and tried to muster a hint of charm. “Do you need my service?”