Forge a path to success.

Chapter 29 Disaster Knight

The gunman didn't show his face, wearing a mud mask. His torso was pierced by a single bullet, and no muscle or blood was visible inside the wound, only a few broken pieces of wood. Chu Hengkong squatted down and lifted his camouflage uniform, revealing beneath it an empty frame made of twisted wooden planks and wire. The person who assassinated Granny Sangjia was actually a crudely made puppet.

Beneath the mud mask, the gunman's head was a ball made of rubber and sheet metal. The maker had a great sense of humor, even drawing a comical smiley face on it. Since a gun couldn't be used with just wood and wire, the puppet's arms were meticulously crafted. The prosthetic arms, with their white porcelain bases, achieved flexible small movements through ball joints, moving almost indistinguishably from real hands.

The gunman wasn't even human; no wonder he hadn't sensed any killing intent before. Chu Hengkong carefully searched the puppet but found nothing resembling a transmitter or threads.

Using puppets as assassins always requires a medium; could it be that the AI ​​from another world can run on such a rudimentary device? Or perhaps…

What is attached to this puppet?

·
"Breaking news: I messed up. The target was more troublesome than the intelligence described; the puppet didn't last even half a minute."

"As expected of the Chief Detective," the man on the other end of the communication exclaimed. "What is Chu Hengkong doing right now?"

“I can’t possess the puppet again after it’s been meticulously destroyed.” The sniper paused, then added, “Its tentacles are strange. Ambiguous.”

“They have something on their mind and a secret. Testing them was definitely the right thing to do.” The man pondered for a moment. “Let’s retreat first, Bessen. We’ll find another opportunity to retrieve the puppet later. It’s never good to leave evidence behind.”

“I’ll take another look,” Bessen said. It drifted with the wind to a dead tree and observed the settlement’s movements from afar. A single puppet was insignificant, but its subsequent developments were worth its attention.

It was eager to know whether this fledgling "skilled hand" could defeat a veteran "cornerstone" and twenty-one "glimmers of light".
·
Chu Hengkong delivered the final kick, crushing the puppet's head into dust.

The battle with Tina and the dog was only recently, and in a world with spirits and demons, possession was no longer a myth. Therefore, he carefully destroyed the puppet's head and limbs to prevent this third-rate act of resurrection.

During this process, fearful gazes were cast from behind the windows one after another. The earlier sonic boom had alerted people to the fighting in the settlement; they hadn't seen the details, only that a man was torturing a mangled "corpse," and naturally, they felt terrified.

Chu Hengkong also noticed this. He raised his identification with his tentacles to prove his identity to everyone: "I am Senior Detective Chu Hengkong, currently pursuing a dangerous suspect... Residents, please close your doors and windows and do not go out!"

Halfway through his speech, Chu Hengkong suddenly raised his voice. The menacing aura in his announcement caused the swamp dwellers to immediately draw their curtains and tremble in the darkness. He had no interest in frightening the common people; his threatening words stemmed from a sense of unease. The swamp was dimly lit, and even with the commotion, the residents shouldn't have been able to find him so quickly. They could see Chu Hengkong because light was seeping into their surroundings.

Glug. Glug. Glug. The sound of thick bubbles rang out one after another, and patches of light appeared from the front and back of the wooden house. Chu Hengkong became more alert. He had expected to see glowing corpses, but the new enemies weren't even human. Clumps of mud surged from the swamp, and the patches of light clung to the waist-high clumps of mud, transforming into a filthy army that surrounded him.

There were twenty mud-covered corpses in total. Their movements resembled those of small insects, rampaging through the damp swamp. Chu Hengkong crouched low, his tentacles transforming into long whips that lashed out, cleaving ten mud monsters in half at the waist with a single strike. But he knew something was wrong the moment he struck; the impact from their muddy bodies was almost nonexistent.

Sure enough, the scattered mud gathered together again, and the light spot stabilized after only a moment of swaying. Simple attacks were ineffective against these things.

Chu Hengkong decisively withdrew his attack and leaped away, running towards the edge of the settlement. This time, he didn't jump onto the rooftops; while that would be safer, the mud monsters might damage houses and injure innocent residents. The mud-covered corpses also turned and chased after him. These things were indeed controlled by someone; the mastermind behind them was furious this time, willing to expose their power within the settlement to make a move.

Chu Hengkong cautiously maintained his distance. After a dozen seconds, he ran out of the settlement and began circling along the wooden fence that served as the boundary. Strikes and thrusts were likely ineffective, the power-up bracelet was useless, and throwing water bullets into the mud wasn't a solution… He really had no other options at the moment, but he still had Ji Huaisu. He would find an opportunity to scatter them all and then quickly rejoin Ji Huaisu—

【Boom】

A deep, resonant voice echoed in his mind, like a scepter striking his heart, the reverberation reverberating endlessly. Chu Hengkong, who was running, suddenly stopped. The inexplicable resonant voice brought his thoughts to a standstill, leaving only a cold, indifferent command echoing in his mind.

stop.

Stop. Halt. The bright spot of light magnifies in your vision. Don't move. Follow his instructions. You're about to be touched by the light. You can't handle so many "glimmers." Pause for a moment. Light. The light is converging... No!

The flowing mud knocked Chu Hengkong down. His eyes rolled stiffly, and he saw the mud-covered, glowing corpse crawling up his legs like venomous insects. An indescribable emptiness washed over him. His body heat was draining away, and his mind flashed through a series of past experiences, memories playing back rapidly like a slideshow. But the crucial images were blurry; no matter how hard he tried to recall them, he could only see a blinding light. And the glowing corpse grew brighter and brighter…

Chu Hengkong realized he was being "devoured," that he was about to lose something he could never have taken away. He desperately screamed in his mind to drown out the damned embellishment. He kicked stiffly, flinging the muddy corpse away, but his body remained immobile.

It would take at least another second, or even longer, before Chu Hengkong stretched out his numb hand. At that moment, the swamp in front of him surged like waves, blinding spots of light spraying out along with massive amounts of mud. The mud and decaying matter were gathered together by the light, solidifying into a rough, mushy body, transforming into a filthy behemoth exceeding ten meters in height!
Its height surpassed all the houses in the settlement, and it smashed a wooden house with just one step forward. The screams of the settlement's inhabitants were deafening, but the giant ignored the panicked civilians. It raised its blindingly bright palm and punched Chu Hengkong with tremendous force.

This was the real killing blow. Everything before was just a prelude to forcing him to create distance and fight alone; that heavy sound and the sudden appearance of the gigantic creature were the intended fatal strike. Chu Hengkong's heart sank. He was currently unable to move or defend himself. He could only endure the blows and see if his resilience could withstand the impact that shattered the house. But what if this thing also possessed that strange "corrosion" ability? What if it could also devour memories…?

His vision was completely overwhelmed by the light, and he braced himself for the worst. But for a moment, Chu Hengkong thought he was hallucinating; he saw a dense shadow within the light. Pitch black as night, gloomy as thick clouds, the shadow forcefully overshadowed the light spots, forming a massive weapon that obscured his vision!

He wasn't mistaken; it was a weapon, a greatsword forged from shadow. Longer than a normal person's height, its thickness comparable to a shield, the shadows on the blade's edge swirling, violent like dark flames. The swordswoman stood before him, her hood falling as she moved with incredible speed, her swaying hair like golden light. She raised the greatsword with both hands, as if to etch her power into it, and swirled her body deeply.

In the next instant, Ji Huaisu swung his greatsword, the intense shadow tearing through the bright light, the sword wind ferocious like a roar!
Mud flew everywhere, and the giant body collapsed. That sword cleaved off the monster's hand along with half of its body, the cut as smooth as a mirror. The light spots inside the monster's body were forcefully severed by the shadow, and the twenty mud-covered corpses around it were pulverized by the sword wind before they could even get close. That frenzied slash was like the command of a tyrant, and not a single ray of light could survive under its blade.

Chu Hengkong was stunned, his eyes fixed on the sword strike, momentarily forgetting to think. Then, the greatsword vanished like smoke in the girl's hand. Ji Huaisu turned and squatted down, patting his shoulder hard: "Hey! Are you hurt?"

He regained control of his body at that moment, and Chu Hengkong took a deep breath: "...I owe you one."

"What debts? We're all brothers, damn it." Ji Huaisu used his arm to support himself as he stood up, glancing warily around. No new mud-covered corpses appeared, so the mastermind had probably given up on the attack. The swamp people stood amidst the chaos, casting blank stares at them.

"It's good that everyone's alright, and Granny Sangjia is fine too." Ji Huaisu quietly pulled up her hood. "Let's retreat now..."

"……what?"

Chu Hengkong doubted his ears. He turned his head and saw that the other person was wearing an awkward smile. It wasn't the kind of awkwardness that comes from being impolite, but rather the kind of smile a child gives after making a big mess and being caught by their parents. Then he noticed that all the people in the swamp were staring at Ji Huaisu. Their pupils shrank, their faces contorted, and their blank expressions turned into panic, and then into terror.

"Oh no! The Calamity Knight is here!" "A divine enemy!" "We can't stay here! Everyone run! Run!!" "Great Wizard, save me!!" "She's going to eat people!!!"

Immediately following, screams pierced the settlement, and men, women, and children fled in terror. If the mud-covered firefly corpse was a messenger of fear, then Ji Huaisu at this moment was the monarch of fear. The behavior of these people couldn't be described as seeing a ghost; it was as if they had seen the King of Hell.

Chu Hengkong was stunned for a moment: "What exactly did you do in the swamp?"

“That’s right, you know, it’s about upholding justice…” Ji Huaisu said softly, “You know there are a lot of charlatans and villains in places like this, right? So it’s only natural for me, as a law enforcement officer, to give them the punishment they deserve…”

"Just tell me how many you killed," Chu Hengkong said.

"...That's a bit much."

Chu Hengkong glanced at her sideways, and the blonde girl's voice grew even softer.

"A tiny bit too much..."

(End of this chapter)