Shackles of Humanity

The truth was, this was happening because Luo Kai’s Body Techniques cultivation level was too low. The Mighty Dragon Fist was a High Tier combat technique. When mastered, every part of the body could be used as a weapon, but the prerequisite was a formidable physique.

Dogs never let go once they bite down. Luo Kai gritted his teeth through the excruciating pain, every muscle in his body bulging as he raised his fist and frantically hammered the Shar-Pei’s head. The results of his recent Mighty Dragon Fist practice were clear; each punch was packed with power. An ordinary person might have died from a single blow, but canines were known for their hard skulls and vulnerable bodies. Scarlet blood trickled from the corners of the Shar-Pei’s eyes and nose, yet it showed no sign of releasing its grip.

Luo Kai took a deep breath, and his chest began to heave violently again. A massive amount of blood rushed to his head, turning his eyes bloodshot in an instant. Capillaries started to burst, and blood even began to trickle from his mouth and nose. It felt like an eternity, yet also just an instant. Then, a large volume of thick blood surged into his arm, which soon swelled to nearly double its size.

Luo Kai let out a muffled roar and, with his swollen arm, punched the Shar-Pei right on the nose. The punch whistled through the air. With a pained yelp, the dog’s nose was completely shattered. Shards of nasal bone pierced its brain, and after a few violent tremors, it died.

Luo Kai flung the Shar-Pei’s corpse aside and collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. ’I can’t believe it was this hard to kill a single dog,’ he thought. If he hadn’t figured out that strange Gathering Power technique when he killed Wai Gou, he probably would have died right here.

’I’m still too weak. The Soft Body Technique is only for self-cultivation; it has no offensive applications. And the Mighty Dragon Fist is too one-dimensional. Humans are best at using tools. In a fight to the death, a person will use a weapon, and an animal has fangs and claws. If I’d had a knife or a gun, this Shar-Pei wouldn’t have been a threat at all.’

Luo Kai was covered in blood. Some of it was the Shar-Pei’s, but most was his own. The wound on his shoulder blade wasn’t actually that serious—just a flesh wound that hadn’t reached the bone. The real problem was the putrid stench coming from it. The feral hounds on the island often fed on carrion; their mouths were bound to be teeming with bacteria.

He gasped for breath for a moment longer. Just as he tried to stand, a wave of weakness washed over him. ’Looks like this is it for today.’

He had been debating whether to escape all night. Now that he was injured, and with no confidence whatsoever that he could swim to the mainland, he had no choice but to give up on the idea.

He glanced regretfully at the distant sea. As he was about to get up, he suddenly noticed many small green dots appearing in the surrounding darkness. A cold sweat beaded on his forehead. Those green dots were eyes. One by one, hunting dogs emerged from the shadows. Without him realizing it, he had been completely surrounded!

The pack worked with chilling coordination. They didn’t bark, simply forming a circle around Luo Kai. Saliva dripped from their great maws, full of sharp teeth, as their bloodthirsty eyes locked onto him.

’I’m finished,’ Luo Kai thought. ’It must have been that mangy hound’s dying howl that brought the pack.’ He’d had so much trouble killing just one, and now there were at least seven or eight of them.

He struggled to calm himself and crouched into a defensive stance. He scanned his surroundings. It was a barren beach; there wasn’t even a stick to use as a weapon. He took a few small steps back, his eyes darting toward the tunnel. ’My only chance is to make it back to the tunnel, but how can a man on two legs outrun dogs on four?’

The pack glanced at the Shar-Pei’s corpse on the ground, and a look of hatred filled their eyes. They let out a low growl in unison. The lead hound lunged first, while two others simultaneously attacked from his left and right flanks.

His experiences over the past few days had honed his brutal instincts. In this moment of crisis, instead of retreating, he advanced. He threw his calloused fist straight ahead. His only hope for survival was to cast aside all thoughts of life and death.

The lead hound was incredibly cunning. It twisted in mid-air, flipping back to dodge the punch. It had only been a feint. By now, the flanking hounds had reached him. Their gaping, tooth-filled maws snapped viciously toward him. Luo Kai had no time to dodge and couldn’t help but feel a surge of despair.

”AWOOO!”

Just then, a series of SWISHING sounds cut through the air, followed by the pained yelps of the hounds. The dogs on his left and right suddenly dropped from mid-air, trembled a few times, and died.

One after another, the seven or eight surrounding hounds died. The one in front of Luo Kai also fell from the sky. He could clearly see a bloody hole in the hollow of its ear, as if its head had been pierced by some kind of projectile!

”You’ve got no skill, yet you love to run around. I’ll save your life this one time, for the sake of us being fellow inmates!”

A cold sneer came from the darkness. In the pale moonlight, a small, thin figure appeared not far away. It was Dicky. He held a weapon that looked like a crossbow, and he gave Luo Kai a slight, mocking grin.

Luo Kai had just opened his mouth to thank him when Dicky crouched low and vanished into the darkness like a cat.

’Dicky must have dug a tunnel to escape the prison, just like me. Does that mean his goal is the same as mine? Is he also looking for a way off this island?’

He looked at the dog carcasses littering the ground. The hounds’ dying yelps might attract more of them. There was no time to deal with the bodies. Luo Kai crouched low and crawled cautiously back to the tunnel entrance. He glanced around; it was a desolate stretch of beach that no one should ever visit. He dragged some withered branches over to hide the entrance before sliding back into the tunnel.

Inside the tunnel, Luo Kai used mud and sand to carefully clean the blood from his body. The wound on his shoulder had stopped bleeding, but it was now unbearably numb and itchy, a sure sign of infection. This made him both angry and frustrated. ’It’ll be a real problem if I get rabies or something.’

...

The Han Hua Festival was one of the most important holidays on the Eastern Continent. It was said to commemorate the day humanity first emerged from their underground bunkers to once again face the dangerous, ever-changing world.

On this day, trade consortiums would arrive for a special visit. These consortiums were similar in nature to the massive financial groups from before the Great Cataclysm. They were commercial trade organizations, spearheaded by major corporations, that spanned multiple industries. They engaged in monopolistic, high-profit trade and also maintained large private armies, making them an extremely powerful force.

The fact that humanity was able to regain its foothold in the world after the Great Cataclysm was largely due to these consortiums bravely exploring the complex outside world. This was also the main reason why the various human nations permitted them to maintain their own armed forces.

Crates of liquor and meat were transported from the docks to the camp. The prisoners stared longingly at the barrels of beer. They didn’t care much about the meat; it was the alcohol that was a true rarity. This was their only chance to drink all year.

The atmosphere was unusually festive. Even the prisoners, whose faces were usually etched with suffering, were smiling. Luo Kai stood in the crowd, his face pale. The corner of his mouth twitched from the pain. The wound from the mangy dog’s bite last night had begun to rot and stink. Overnight, his shoulder had swollen even more, and it was now unbearably itchy. It took all of his willpower to resist the urge to scratch it.