Chapter 139: The Efficacy of Internal Energy

The usual triple plea! Votes, recommendations, collections, collections, collections, please collect, please collect, please collect, please collect!

"Bang, bang!!"

Yang Tang was walking towards the base's small convenience store when he suddenly heard gunfire coming from the northwest. He hurriedly squatted down, tucking himself into the knee-high grass along the roadside.

"Real gun or fake gun?"

Since Yang Tang had not heard the sound of real gunfire very often, he originally intended to determine whether the shots were blank cartridges or live ammunition. Just as he was hesitating, a woman's scream came from the northwest: "Blood! Murder!"

"There's blood?!" Yang Tang immediately realized it must be live ammunition, and at the same time, he felt a bit puzzled: "That woman's voice just now sounds somewhat familiar?"

Right at that moment, a shrill alarm pierced the sky above the base.

Yang Tang instantly realized things might have gotten a bit serious. Normally, blowing the emergency assembly horn in camp would be enough, but this was a military training base. Although training had only begun half a day ago, the base commander must have feared that some students would hear the emergency assembly horn and actually head outdoors to gather, so a formal alarm was sounded instead. This precisely indicated that the gunfire just now was an accident, not a drill.

"Who on earth is that somewhat familiar female voice?"

Yang Tang originally intended to use his super memory to delve deeper into his memories, but on second thought, if it were a guy crying for help, he certainly wouldn't care this much—unless it was the voice of Yang Jixue. If it were any other guy, even Qin Xuewu, he probably wouldn't be willing to lend a helping hand. But now it was a female crying for help, and coupled with the fact that the voice was somewhat familiar, Yang Tang subconsciously already had the intention to go over and see what the commotion was about. As for whether to save someone, he would play it by ear.

One has to admit, men—no matter how mature or sophisticated their mindset—as long as they are still capable of appreciating youth, if a young, beautiful girl stands by the provincial highway in the middle of nowhere waving her hand to hitchhike, he will definitely stop the car. If it were replaced by a grown man waving, he would most likely step on the gas and drive right past.

Yang Tang's mindset at the moment was pretty much like that, and he even gussied it up with a noble-sounding excuse: "I can't just let a female college student perish before she even gets to enjoy college life!" Oh, and if it were a male student, you'd just watch from the sidelines, or even turn a blind eye?

Having made up his mind, Yang Tang had just sneaked a few steps toward the northwest when he stopped because Liu Tong's sweat-stiffened shoes were a bit too small and pinched his feet.

"Damn it, this is hindering my actions!"

Yang Tang took off the boots and hid them in a conspicuous tree, planning to retrieve them later. He stepped down barefoot and let out a low bark: "Inner Qi, fill the body!" A layer of "Qi" as thin as a cicada's wing instantly enveloped his entire body surface.

Taking another step forward, not even Yang Tang's footprints were left on the soil beneath the grass.

Once this "Inner Qi filling the body" was activated, it not only had the effect of "leaving no trace on snow," but more importantly, it added four points to his defense. This was similar to the nameless ring granting one point of defense, but Yang Tang hadn't quite felt the specific effects yet, seeing as he hadn't been injured at all in the past half year or so.

Even more frighteningly, once Yang Tang activated "Inner Qi filling the body," the three major inner kung fu special effects of the Golden Wild Goose Skill would manifest: 1. Golden Wild Goose Across the Sky: permanently increases evasion by twenty percent. 2. Dusk Wild Goose March: movement speed plus one, lightness skill level plus one. 3. Mid-Air Counterattack: after evading, attack power increases by thirty percent, hit rate one hundred percent, lasting for three seconds or until the next evasion. However, maintaining these three special effects—Yang Tang had tried it—consumed three points of mana per minute, one point per special effect. With Yang Tang's current total mana pool of just over three hundred points, maintaining it for a hundred minutes was more than enough.

Previously, Yang Tang had only been testing the mana consumption of the inner kung fu special effects, but when he actually started moving, he discovered just how insanely powerful special effect number two, "Dusk Wild Goose March," truly was.

Movement speed plus one, lightness skill level plus one—this was by no means as simple as one plus one equals two!

Yang Tang felt his body become as light as a civet cat. Weaving through the grassy woods was faster than a "rabbit starting when startled," and it seemed to require very little effort. With just a few bounds and leaps, it seemed not long before he arrived near the scene of the incident.

Ahead was a row of old barracks, in front of which was a flat clearing. On the eastern side of the clearing stood a sentry box, where one soldier had already fallen in a pool of blood, while another was holding a Type 95 rifle and firing aimlessly toward the barracks.

"Da-da-da!"

"Bang!"

A sniper shot rang out from the barracks, striking the sentry soldier's right shoulder, and the gunfire abruptly ceased.

Simultaneously, through his super hearing, Yang Tang heard the sound of someone climbing through a window inside the old barracks.

"Damn it, trying to run!" Yang Tang was just about to give chase when he heard a chaotic rush of footsteps on the dirt road east of the sentry box. "These must be the instructors from the base coming to provide backup!"

This showed that Yang Tang's actions were indeed prompt. He had rushed over the moment the alarm sounded, yet he was a good minute or more faster than the group of instructors.

"Since that's the case, instructors, I'll just act as your guide for once!"

Thus, Yang Tang stealthily bypassed the barracks and, confirming through super hearing that the old barracks was completely empty, he trailed closely behind the fellow who had climbed the wall to escape, following him all the way into the northwest forest.

The person being tracked by Yang Tang was built like a lumberjack—broad-shouldered, thick-waisted, tall, and with disheveled hair; seen from behind, he looked like a wild man. Even more exaggeratedly, he moved with the speed of flying, and under his arm, he clutched a female whose head hung limply downward, looking unconscious. Yet the footprints he left on the ground were extremely faint, and only Yang Tang's super vision could easily spot them, preventing him from losing the trail.

By the time Yang Tang had penetrated more than 1,500 meters deep into the forest, he heard the sound of someone leading a team sneaking into the forest behind him.

"Their reaction is really slow!"

Yang Tang muttered to himself, then imitated the calls of a bird twice. Thanks to his perfect vocal cord control, the bird calls had reached a degree of realism that could easily fool anyone.

Fortunately, the soldiers sneaking into the forest were veterans of the training base and knew that this forest did not have the kind of bird Yang Tang had imitated. They immediately judged that someone was trying to lure or mislead them, and instantly heightened their vigilance, though their search speed slowed down accordingly.

Good grief! At this speed, you might not find that wild man even by the year of the monkey! Yang Tang thought to himself while faintly hearing the sound of tearing fabric. No way? That wild man kidnapped a female and ran into these desolate mountains and woods—does he want to rape her? Forget it, I'm not waiting for the guys in the back anymore. I'll go check it out first...

In an instant, Yang Tang's super senses opened fully. In a brief moment, he locked onto a direction, his figure leaping onto a tree branch like a nimble monkey, and he sprinted toward the spot where the wild man's scent was strongest.

A few seconds later, as Yang Tang sped along the tree branches, he caught a faint glimpse through the gaps in the leaves: a female with disheveled hair and half-exposed snowy shoulders was being pinned down by the wild man, and was on the verge of being compromised...

Yang Tang felt a slight sense of anxiety. Seeing that he was still two to three hundred meters away from the two of them, it was simply too late to pull out a compound gun or simulation weapon from the storage grid of the nameless ring to launch an attack. In his haste, he casually grabbed a handful of leaves and threw them out as if venting his frustration.

Enlightenment arrived instantly: the hidden weapon technique "Scattering Flowers by a Heavenly Maiden" reached standard radius of ten zhang; aiming sniper enabled, automatically switching to Category 2 mode!

Several crosshairs instantly appeared on Yang Tang's retina, and he froze slightly before locking all of them onto the wild man.

"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!"

The wild man didn't even have time to dodge when he heard the sound of leaves cutting through the air. His entire body shook violently a few times, and he crashed heavily down onto the female. The gaze in his ox-bell-sized eyes began to scatter, but his blood-filled mouth was still muttering, "Flying flowers and plucking leaves..."

Yang Tang's super hearing naturally caught the wild man's murmur, and he thought to himself that this trick of his really was just like the "flying flowers and plucking leaves" from martial arts novels!

Killed a lower-tier special human, gained three hundred merits!

Immediately acquired the karmic burden carried by this lower-tier special human...

Prevented this lower-tier special human from murdering sixty-six other people in the future, gained...

Gained a total of 29.3 secondary merits and 14.4 secondary sins for the sixty-six other people!

Wait, no! When I killed those two Japanese ninja bastards last time, why did I only get two hundred merits (see chapter 111)? How come a single special human this time gives three hundred merits?

Killing a single lower-tier special human yields a merit reward ranging between eleven and nine hundred and ninety-nine points!

Yang Tang: "..."

Right, what about that female?

Realizing this issue, he hurried forward. Using his eagle eyes to confirm that the wild man was thoroughly dead, he tossed the corpse aside and checked the female instead. He found that her military trousers were completely intact, and even her upper body had only a small tank top ripped open, exposing her tender shoulders.

"What's going on here? Wasn't the wild man going to rape her?"

Yang Tang looked closely again at the female's shoulders and small arms, which bore numerous red marks, and found that although she had a few scratched marks where the skin was broken and bleeding, she had not suffered any substantive harm from the wild man.

"It's just this neck area covered by her hair..."

Yang Tang pushed aside the female's hair, lifted her chin, and saw her face: "Tao Youfei?!"

It really was an acquaintance! But that wasn't the main point, because Yang Tang discovered two rows of very wide bite marks on Tao Youfei's right snowy neck, though the impressions were very shallow—merely to the extent of having just broken the skin.

"Oh crap, could this fugitive wild man be some kind of vampire or cannibal?" Yang Tang muttered to himself, walked back to re-examine the wild man's corpse, and found that meat residue and bloodstains still remained between his teeth. He leaned in and sniffed.

"Men's flesh, men's blood..."

As expected of the super senses of Kayu, who had once poisoned children of the same age to death, it instantly identified the components of the food residue in the wild man's mouth.

"Damn, did this wild man really eat people?"

Yang Tang couldn't help feeling a bit nauseous. He hurriedly helped Tao Youfei straighten her clothes, hoisted her onto his back, and took a detour back toward the training base.

Ten-odd minutes later, returning to the woods on the outer perimeter of the base, Yang Tang unloaded Tao Youfei and took a look: "Crap!" He had still underestimated the situation. Along the way, the small broken-skinned cuts on Tao Youfei's body had attracted countless poisonous mosquitoes and insects. By now, her face had swollen up like a steamed bun, while Yang Tang himself, protected by his inner Qi filling the body, was completely fine.

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