Catching Bullets with Bare Hands

Three figures stood in the living room outside Lu Yuan's room, using the faint light filtering through the windows to survey their surroundings.

In the slums, home invasions happened every single night. If the robbers felt like it, killing someone after the job was done wasn't unheard of either. Lu Yuan had lived here long enough to know the stories — he'd never been a victim himself, but he'd heard plenty.

At the front of the group, a tall man with brown hair swept his gaze across the room and gave an expressionless nod.

"This is a shared house. Which room is that kid in?"

The two figures flanking him traded nervous glances. They scanned the corridor as though something might come lunging from the shadows at any moment.

These were the same two thugs Lu Yuan had already dealt with once before. Their previously crushed arms had been replaced with mechanical prosthetics, and their complexions were still slightly pale.

"We... don't know, Big Bro Pete. Should we check one by one?"

"Then check one by one."

The three of them moved deeper into the apartment, guns in hand, murder in their eyes.

It hadn't been a spontaneous raid. Earlier, the red-haired thug had laid it all out for Pete: *The target is a senior at Rose High School. Orphan. Rents here because he can barely afford it. A few days ago he Awakened as a Gene Warrior — he'll probably be moving up in the world soon.* A flicker of envy had passed through his eyes as he said it.

Pete had listened without expression and made his decision quickly.

*That kid showed too much interest in Lao Dao's cause of death. He probably knows something. Grab him and find out. And he dared put his hands on Black Rat Gang members — student or not, there are consequences for that.*

In Li Qinghe's room.

She had been sitting cross-legged on her bed with her eyes closed, deep in cultivation. Now her eyes opened. Her elegant brows drew together slightly, and a thread of cold killing intent surfaced in her gaze.

*Sewer rats daring to set their sights on me? Death wish.*

She rose to her feet, ready to go out and deal with it herself — then stopped.

An eyebrow lifted. A trace of interest crossed her face.

*...A Gene Warrior.* She read the sense of him more carefully. *Though not a particularly strong one. The engraved gene doesn't appear combat-oriented.*

But something else was happening out there.

She stayed where she was.

In his room, Lu Yuan heard the sound of the front door opening and frowned.

This was the slums. The middle of the night. Nothing good came through that door at this hour.

A cold light passed through his eyes. He opened his door and stepped out.

In the living room, Pete and his two thugs turned toward the sound.

The instant the two thugs saw Lu Yuan, their bodies flinched on instinct, a flicker of fear tightening in their eyes. Then the red-haired one stabbed a finger at him.

"Big Bro Pete! It's him! That's the kid!"

Pete's eyes narrowed.

The two thugs rallied their nerve and put on savage expressions. "Hmph! Don't think this is going to go the same way as this morning, punk! You're finished — the Black Rat Gang doesn't let anyone walk away after putting hands on our members!"

Pete paid them no attention. He raised his pistol at Lu Yuan, his expression flat.

"This is an order, not a request. I know you're a Gene Warrior, but you just Awakened, haven't you? Firearms aren't something you can withstand."

Lu Yuan glanced at the gun in Pete's hand and smiled.

"Kid. Come with us."

The other two thugs drew their weapons as well. Three barrels leveled at him, killing intent thick in the air.

*If it had been before,* Lu Yuan thought, *he might have felt a flicker of unease.*

*But now—*

His body detonated.

Speed surged as he drove straight at the three of them.

The two thugs scrambled, raising their guns in a panic.

*Bang bang bang!*

Lu Yuan was already on them — he shot out both hands, seized the two gun barrels, and wrenched them sharply upward.

Shots rang out in rapid succession. Every round punched harmlessly into the ceiling.

The burst ended. The two thugs squeezed their triggers again and again — and found their magazines empty.

Lu Yuan released the weapons and turned to face the two men with a smile.

"Do you two remember what I told you? Next time, don't let me see you."

His voice snapped them out of their stunned paralysis.

The green-haired thug screamed, hurled his useless pistol at Lu Yuan's face, and bolted.

Lu Yuan caught it without looking and threw it back in a single motion. It connected squarely with the base of the green-haired thug's spine. Bone cracked. The man pitched forward, crashed face-first into the floor, and lay there convulsing.

Lu Yuan pivoted. His foot slammed into the red-haired thug's chest.

*Crack.* The man rocketed backward into the wall with a brutal impact, slid to the ground, and didn't stop twitching.

He looked down at the two of them with a thin smile. "Next time, don't let me see you."

The two thugs — doing their best from the floor — nodded vigorously, eyes full of feeling.

Pete had watched all of it without changing expression.

His pupils contracted. In one decisive motion, he pulled the trigger.

*Bang!*

Lu Yuan's hand — darkened to jet black by Black Iron Body — closed around the barrel. The shot fired. The bullet stopped.

In the next instant, Pete's eyes went wide. His face was a portrait of disbelief.

Lu Yuan tightened his grip. A shriek of tortured metal rang out as the barrel crumpled in his fingers. The pistol was scrap.

"This is impossible!" Pete's voice cracked. "You just Awakened — how are you catching bullets bare-handed?!"

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow.

He drew his hand back. A flattened slug tumbled from his palm and struck the floor with a clean, bright clink.

He glanced down at the scrape across the center of his palm, a thin bead of blood welling up.

These pistols had limited stopping power to begin with. Against Black Iron Body, the damage was barely worth noting — just a surface wound. Black Iron Body's defense had never let him down.

"What's impossible about it?" Lu Yuan said. "Didn't you see it with your own eyes?"

Pete swallowed. "What are you — don't come closer!"

Pete bolted for the window. He hit it at full speed, crashed through the glass, and dropped into the night.

Lu Yuan crossed to the window without hurrying. Three floors below, Pete had already landed and was sprinting for the street.

Three floors. Not a terrifying height, but not trivial either — a normal person taking that drop unprepared would come away injured.

Lu Yuan braced a hand on the windowsill and followed.

He landed without breaking stride, and then he opened up his speed.

Pete heard the impact behind him. He glanced back to find Lu Yuan already closing fast. Without breaking stride, he wheeled and threw a knife.

*Whoosh!*

Lu Yuan snatched it out of the air and sent it back.

The blade blurred straight for Pete's chest — and then Pete's eyes snapped to vertical slits. He hurled himself sideways in a single explosive motion. The knife grazed past.

Lu Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly.

*A Gene Warrior after all.*

He pushed harder. Within a few dozen meters he had closed the gap entirely.

Pete spun to face him, both hands coming up in a guard.

Lu Yuan's fist crashed through the block.

A dull thud. Pete grunted, face going white. He staggered two steps back — and before he could recover Lu Yuan was already moving forward again, fist swinging.

A muffled impact. Pete shuddered, face draining to chalk. Blood sprayed from his lips.

"Wait!" Pete shouted. "I surrender! I have something to say!"

Lu Yuan pulled back and stopped his fist an inch from Pete's nose.

Pete stared at the knuckles hanging in front of his face and forced himself to swallow. Cold sweat poured down.

Lu Yuan looked up at his pale, shaking expression and smiled.

"Do you believe I could kill you right now?"

Pete immediately raised both hands, a strained smile fixed in place. "I believe you — I believe you."

"Then what did you want to say?" Lu Yuan didn't lower his guard. "Let's hear it. We'll see if it's worth your life."

Pete worked his jaw. He drew a slow, careful breath.

"Friend... you want information on that shadow, don't you."

Lu Yuan's gaze sharpened. He looked at Pete steadily, a slight smile at the corner of his lips.

"You know something?"

"The Black Rat Gang isn't the biggest outfit in the slums, but our intelligence network runs deep," Pete said. "We do know a thing or two about it — and some of our own members have been among the victims. We've been running down leads on it ourselves."

He paused. "Friend... after I tell you everything I know, can you let me go?"

"What if I say no?"

Pete looked at the bruises on his own hands. He looked at the blood on his lip. He looked at the fist still hovering inches from his face.

"I'll talk," he said immediately. "Right now. Everything."

Back in her room, Li Qinghe was still standing beside her bed — no longer moving toward the door.

Her expression was quiet and thoughtful. The cold killing intent from before had faded entirely.

*Interesting.*