Chapter Nineteen: The Battle Style of the Enigmatic Forgemaster

At night, the dining hall of the Mercy Orphanage was laden with dishes. Because Qiu Shilu and Liang Zhi were present, a few extra meat dishes had been added, making the children beam with joy. Yet, on Xie Zhitou’s tray, there was only boiled chicken breast and boiled greens—an extremely healthy meal. Xie Zhitou ate contentedly, but just watching him made Liang Zhi’s scalp tingle. He despised this kind of health food; in a place where no one cared about nutrition, he was shocked to find someone eating this way.

After dinner, the children were chased off to their rooms, leaving only the three adults in the hall. Xie Zhitou coughed lightly. “I’ve reported the Taohuayuan matter to the Kaiyuan District Criminal Tribunal several times, but there’s been no response… As long as they exist, they’ll always threaten the children here. So I plan to deal with them myself.”

“You? How?” Liang Zhi spoke with open displeasure.

Xie Zhitou smiled. “On my own, I can’t. But if the three of us join forces, it’s possible.”

“Ha, ability-users really are everywhere these days.” Liang Zhi sneered. “But this has nothing to do with me. I’m not interested. Goodbye.”

He turned and left, leaving only Qiu Shilu and Xie Zhitou behind.

Xie Zhitou sighed. “He refuses to help—what a tragedy.”

“Why is it a tragedy? I can help you too,” Qiu Shilu asked, puzzled.

Xie Zhitou didn’t answer. Instead, he swung a hammer to strike a bronze gong, shouting upstairs, “No sleeping yet! Everyone come down, I have something to say!”

…

“I thought you’d agree to help them with Taohuayuan,” Crow Master drawled from Liang Zhi’s shoulder, clutching his full belly and letting out a satisfied belch. The children loved feeding Crow Master, catching all sorts of bugs for him, and he had stuffed himself full.

Liang Zhi shook his head. “What does Taohuayuan have to do with me? In any world, minding your own business is how you live longer.”

The real reason, though, was that he simply disliked Xie Zhitou and had no wish to act alongside him.

There were no taxis to be found in the Wrecked Street, so Liang Zhi had to walk out before he could catch a cab home. He had just reached the edge of the area when a sudden, thunderous explosion erupted behind him.

His pupils contracted. Turning around, he saw flames leaping skyward and thick smoke billowing. The blast had come from the Mercy Orphanage he’d just left!

In an instant, he recalled the scene of those children thanking him earlier that day, and without hesitation, he turned and sprinted back.

“You just said you didn’t want to meddle,” Crow Master commented curiously.

Liang Zhi’s tone turned dark. “What I can’t see is other people’s business. Now… this is my business.”

As he neared the orphanage, he saw two soot-streaked men walking out, chatting and laughing. One of them had a torn sleeve, revealing a tattoo shaped like a peach blossom.

Taohuayuan!

“That damned priest brags about his alchemy, but his bomb went off early anyway. I’ll have to settle the score with him,” grumbled the man with the mustache, clutching his arm.

The scar-faced man patted his shoulder. “Let it go. You can’t cross him. At least the job’s done…”

“Haah… haah…” Liang Zhi arrived before them, panting hard and propping himself up on his knees. The two men fell silent at once—Taohuayuan’s existence was not to be revealed.

“The explosion at the orphanage—it was you two, wasn’t it? I saw the mark on your arm. You’re with Taohuayuan.” Liang Zhi could barely get the words out, gasping for breath.

The two exchanged a glance, hostility rising in their eyes. “You want to meddle too?”

Liang Zhi fished two iron balls, each about five centimeters in diameter, out of his pocket. “So you admit it. Then die.”

The mustached man snorted. With how breathless Liang Zhi was after just a short run, how could he possibly threaten them? As bottom-rung members of Taohuayuan, neither of them were ability-users or cyborgs, but both had undergone rigorous training.

He signaled Scarface with a glance, flexed his wrists, and indicated he’d handle Liang Zhi. “I like pretty boys like you. The western market doesn’t need grown male goods, and I’ve been pent up too long.”

Liang Zhi said nothing more. When the mustached man drew near, he hurled the iron ball at him with his right hand.

The brute sneered—tossed straight, the ball might be dangerous, but at such close range, it was more likely to injure the thrower’s own hand.

He readied himself. The moment Liang Zhi entered his reach, he’d strike his abdomen and drag him into a side alley.

Coldly, Liang Zhi uttered, “Withered Branch.”

The iron ball in his hand began to writhe, half of it remaining in Liang Zhi’s grasp while the other half extended rapidly onto the brute’s body—chest, neck, abdomen, arms, groin…

Liang Zhi’s hand seemed to hold a multi-pronged iron fork, each point of which latched onto the man’s most vulnerable spots.

Within a meter of his body, Liang Zhi could rapidly link materials together.

“You’re… an ability-user…” The mustached man hadn’t finished his sentence before Liang Zhi swept his hand, driving the spikes into him and shoving him against a wall.

The spikes pierced through his body and anchored him to the wall, forming a cage that prevented even a dying counterattack. Blood streamed down the iron, and the brute’s eyes faded rapidly. “Help… me…”

Scarface twitched, then bolted.

He wasn’t ready to die; no one in their right mind would face an ability-user alone—each one was a monster beyond reason, impossible for normal people to defeat.

“Binding!” Liang Zhi called.

Scarface had barely taken two steps before his clothes began to constrict, tightening until they hampered his movements.

Within a range of one to three meters, Liang Zhi could establish a slower material connection.

Scarface slowed, but Liang Zhi did not. He closed in from behind, pressing an iron ball to the man’s neck. Behind Scarface stood a utility pole.

“Piercing Thorn.”

The iron ball linked with the pole behind Scarface in an instant, manifesting a jet-black blade that stabbed straight through his throat.

He didn’t interrogate them—there was no need.

“Killed with my own hands. Five now.”

Liang Zhi’s ability, “The Macabre Forger,” allowed him to connect any non-living, non-organic, or non-plant materials in any fashion he chose. The better he understood an object and the more he practiced connecting it, the faster and stronger the link became.

In the midst of his thieving, he’d constantly trained his combat abilities. The “Binding” to ensnare foes with their own clothing, “Withered Branch” to strike every vital point at once, and “Piercing Thorn” to deliver a fatal blow—these were the three techniques he’d developed.

There were sixty-four types of ability-users in Dazong, but each ability, depending on its use, could unleash infinite possibilities.