CHAPTER 80: CHAPTER 80: CHANGES_1

This was your responsibility in the first place.

Lu Yuan recalled the information Ge Wenjun had shared with him over the phone.

But he maintained a polite demeanor.

"No need... you’ve helped me locate it. I should be able to handle the rest on my own."

He worried that Zhou Ling and the others might take too long, and he could resolve this trouble faster himself.

Zhou Ling chuckled, then turned his gaze towards the staircase. "Actually, we noticed you the moment we came in."

"Huh?"

"Number 13 went up, intending to bring you down. He probably didn’t expect you to act so decisively, or so ruthlessly. I guess he initially had no intention of fighting you..."

Zhou Ling looked at Lu Yuan and asked, "Do you understand what I mean?"

Lu Yuan fell silent.

What Zhou Ling was probably trying to say was that Lu Yuan’s own strength wasn’t as formidable as he imagined. The reason Number 13 had been beaten so badly was mainly because Number 13 hadn’t intended to fight him at all, while he, Lu Yuan, had been aiming to pummel the guy. One had no will to fight, the other had murderous intent; that’s what led to the outcome.

Lu Yuan neither agreed nor disagreed with Zhou Ling’s statement. After a moment’s thought, he suddenly asked, "Why did you tell me so much?"

This was a question he had wanted to ask for a while.

Zhou Ling’s current attitude towards him was a little too friendly. Even though, thanks to his Crane Cry Punch, he bore the title of a "core true disciple of the Heaven Water Crane Sect" in Zhou Ling’s eyes, Zhou Ling was still quite talkative. Some things... he felt were completely unnecessary to share with a high school student like himself.

"Yeah, I did talk quite a bit today," Zhou Ling admitted readily. "Mainly, it’s because we’re quite interested in you too."

Lu Yuan was stunned for a moment, then blurted out, "Are you thinking of... inviting me to join Yellow Bear?"

"We have considered it," Zhou Ling nodded. "Yellow Bear has always actively recruited elites from all fields, especially talented fresh blood like you..."

Thinking of Number 13, whom he had beaten so badly that the man needed brain surgery, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but say, "I have no interest in undergoing any human modification."

"Haha—" Zhou Ling couldn’t help but laugh at Lu Yuan’s words.

"I figured you’d say something like that.

"Not everyone in Yellow Bear is a Modified Human. You can join as an ordinary Martial Artist, and there are many benefits.

"But to be honest, the path of modification is much more orthodox and promising than your martial arts practice... You’ll understand in the future..."

Zhou Ling mused for a moment, then suddenly stood up from his chair and patted Lu Yuan’s shoulder.

"It’s still too early to tell you these things. And it’s about time..."

Zhou Ling turned his head to look to one side.

It was only then that Lu Yuan noticed that the muscular men in tight suits in the living room had, at some unknown point, all adopted grave and solemn expressions.

Only then did Lu Yuan notice a cacophony of sounds coming from outside the house. It was the sound of countless birds flapping their wings as they took off, a sound like heavy rain drumming on an awning.

He turned to look outside and saw vast black shadows taking flight.

Lu Yuan inexplicably felt a surge of tension, the kind that signals an impending storm. He quickly stood up from his chair as well.

"Get ready," Zhou Ling said, his demeanor changed; his previously relaxed and comfortable posture vanished. It was as if a languid tiger had just awakened from a nap.

For an instant, Zhou Ling before him gave Lu Yuan the same feeling he’d had when he first saw Qin Feng at the entrance of the Origin Martial Arts Hall—that terrifying pressure that bore down on one’s spirit.

"You get ready too," Zhou Ling said, turning back to instruct Lu Yuan.

"Me too?" Lu Yuan was taken aback. He blinked. "Ready for what? Who are we fighting?"

"Go up? Like hell you are!" Zhou Ling chuckled, then scolded, "I’m telling you to get ready to find a place to hide. Once the fighting starts later, I might not be free to look out for you. As for who we’re fighting..."

Zhou Ling glanced at the group of men in tank tops huddled in the corner and said coolly, "You don’t seriously think we came all this way just to apprehend these few lowlifes, do you?"

The Crow God Sect!

Lu Yuan’s heart skipped a beat as he instantly understood.

Of course. Even a cult faction like the rat-men, something he himself could handle, involved the Extraordinary. How could the Crow God Sect—which had shaken all of Burnt Rock City and drawn Zhou Ling and his team here—not have an Extraordinary figure in command? He had prepared himself to face the Extraordinary before coming in. But after meeting Zhou Ling and his team, he’d somehow forgotten all about it.

Lu Yuan quickly began to move, searching for a hiding place.

"The basement is this way..." a man in a tight suit kindly pointed in a certain direction.

Lu Yuan merely glanced in that direction without a word and headed straight for the stairs to the second floor.

"This kid’s smarter than you," Zhou Ling laughed, then paid Lu Yuan no more mind. His expression grew cold as he casually removed his jacket, revealing a black combat suit underneath, identical to what the others wore.

The tight-fitting material outlined Zhou Ling’s perfectly proportioned and powerful physique. On his left chest, an emblem of a white bear, roaring with a raised arm, gleamed brightly under the incandescent light.

Zhou Ling strode to the living room doorway, squinting in one direction, as if awaiting someone’s, or something’s, arrival.

THUMP—

A clueless crow flew headfirst into the window by the stairwell. Struggling to its feet, the first thing it did was to flap aggressively towards Lu Yuan, who happened to be passing by.

Lu Yuan casually swatted it. Like a ping pong ball struck at high speed, it slammed violently against the wall with a SPLAT. It left a patch of dark red, foul-smelling blood that slowly trickled down the wall.

Without a second glance, Lu Yuan rushed up to the fourth floor in one go.

He found an upward opening in the ceiling at the far left end of the fourth-floor corridor and had initially planned to go up to the rooftop to assess the situation. But as he took just two steps closer, he saw countless bird droppings pattering down from the opening, just like rain.

Lu Yuan lacked the courage to "brave the shitstorm," so he abandoned the idea and stood still in the fourth-floor hallway.

By now, the sky above the house was completely dominated by a dark, oppressive mass of crows. The crows that had been roosting in the front yard, and those in the backyard pecking at human corpses near the septic tank, had all taken flight for some unknown reason. They were like mad things, shrieking as they circled the house incessantly.

In Chinese language class, when describing someone noisy, the phrase "as noisy as a crow" is often used. Lu Yuan had never quite grasped the full impact of this comparison before. Only now did he realize just how incredibly apt that metaphor was.

These thousands of crows, gathered around the house and cawing all at once, created a din more than ten times louder than a bustling morning market. Apart from these caws, he could hardly hear anything else.

Devil Sound Pouring into Ears—this, damn it, was the true Devil Sound Pouring into Ears!

Lu Yuan noticed his own expression involuntarily twisting into a snarl. Countless grating sounds filled every inch of the space around him, desperately trying to bore into him through his pores. Even the most good-tempered person would become irritable.