Shackles of Humanity

It was late morning when he awoke. An old man smoking a long-stemmed pipe was sitting in the courtyard. Luo Kai wasn’t surprised to see him and asked softly, ”Is Erya feeling better?”

The old man shook his head bitterly. ”She had a bit of a scare. It’ll be a while before she recovers.”

The old man was the chief of this fishing village and also Erya’s grandfather. Last night, Luo Kai had brought Erya back and told him everything that had happened.

The old village chief looked at Luo Kai’s scar-covered body, opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, only said, ”Well... Xiaokai, thank you.”

”Don’t mention it.” Luo Kai waved his hand, then frowned at his tattered clothes, wondering if he should find a needle and thread to mend them. Resources were scarce in this fishing village; clothes and other necessities had to be bartered for with other fishermen.

”Sigh, this is all my fault. Two years ago, the Jiuyuan Farm Stronghold came saying they wanted to buy our village. I knew they had deep ties to pirates, so I refused. I never thought they’d still be after the village now.”

The old village chief took a drag from his pipe and sighed. ”Years ago, pirates were a plague along the coast, burning, killing, and plundering everywhere. Later, the Great Lord led the navy and drove them out. But now, it looks like they’re making a comeback. It’s a pity. In the end, it’s us common folk who will suffer.”

”Don’t the higher-ups do anything about this?” Luo Kai asked as he washed his blood-stained clothes from last night in a basin of water.

”The Jiuyuan Farm Stronghold has over ten thousand soldiers and can produce its own machinery and gunpowder. It’s become a state within a state. The higher-ups are too busy trying to curry favor with them to dare interfere. Sigh!”

Luo Kai wasn’t very interested in these matters, so he just nodded and said no more.

The old village chief said softly, ”Xiaokai, you... those men were Tax Officers from the Commandery City, and they’re connected to the Jiuyuan Farm Stronghold. They won’t let this go. Why don’t you go lie low somewhere else for a while?”

”It’s fine. I’m not afraid,” Luo Kai said nonchalantly. As the saying goes, skill breeds confidence. With his growing strength, he had become more self-assured. Besides, the village was backed by the sea. Even if he couldn’t win a fight, no one could do anything to him once he escaped into the water.

The old village chief continued to press him, ”I’m planning to send Erya to her parents in the Commandery City. A lot of the young people from the village work there. If you go, you’ll have people to look out for you. After a year or so, this whole affair should be forgotten.”

...

That evening, Luo Kai sat atop Wanghai Cliff, gazing at the glittering surface of the sea. He felt a sense of being lost. Deep down, a part of him had always resisted this world. He had thought he could live a simple, peaceful life in this fishing village, but things rarely go as one wishes.

He looked down at the Iron Ring on his finger. ’To think my incredible, miraculous adaptability in the water is all thanks to the Water-Repelling Totem,’ he thought. ’It’s the only reason I’m still alive. I have to fulfill the task Shui Su entrusted to me. It’s time to leave this place.’

But before he left, he had to get something to repay the simple fishermen of the village. He casually picked up a nearby fish spear and dove into the sea again. As ripples spread out, the paths of the fish and shrimp stirring the water around him entered his mind with perfect clarity.

An hour later, Luo Kai leaped onto the shore with five plump, fresh fish hanging from his body. He walked slowly toward the village. As he drew closer, a burst of intense gunfire suddenly rang out, mingled with countless heart-wrenching screams.

Luo Kai’s heart tightened. He rushed toward the Small Fishing Village. After cresting a small hill, he saw the blaze ahead illuminating the pitch-black night sky. The Small Fishing Village, nestled among the hills, had been completely consumed by a sea of fire. Squads of men in black short-sleeved shirts were holding firearms, killing wantonly.

Several men in black dragged a woman, covered in blood with her hair in disarray, out of a house. The woman wailed desperately, begging for her life, but the men in black were completely unmoved. One of them coldly shot her in the head...

Luo Kai trembled all over. He dropped the fish he was carrying and charged toward the village entrance, his body low to the ground. He had only taken a few steps when the hairs on his body suddenly stood on end, his eyelids twitched violently, and an indescribable sense of crisis flooded his heart. His body instinctively shifted slightly to the side.

WHOOSH. A bullet hole appeared in the ground before him. Luo Kai broke out in a cold sweat and hastily dodged behind a large rock. A bullet’s speed far exceeds human reaction time. If not for the warning from his mysterious Sixth Sense, that shot would have been a Guaranteed Hit. His body, in its current state, couldn’t withstand a bullet.

A small squad of men in black was already flanking him. They wore black hoods that exposed only their cold eyes.

Luo Kai suppressed his racing heartbeat and struggled to calm his furious Heart Spirit. These men in black were driving the fishermen out of their homes and shooting them one by one. They were completely cold, not uttering a single word—clearly well-trained killing machines. ’Why would a remote Small Fishing Village attract such ruthless assassins?’

Seeing the men in black closing in on him in a fan formation, he felt not a trace of nervousness or Fear at this critical moment. Instead, he grew calmer and calmer, his mind racing to find a solution. His opponents were all armed with guns and were extremely alert. ’If I rush out rashly, I’ll surely die.’

The night was thick with Darkness; there wasn’t a sliver of moonlight. A normal person would surely have trouble seeing in this kind of blackness, but Luo Kai was different. Over a year in prison had caused his eyes to evolve a powerful Ability to adapt to the Darkness. Whether he could fight these men in black depended entirely on this.

Luo Kai casually picked up a rock and threw it to one side, then immediately burst out from the other. He flexed every muscle, unleashing his full Power. His speed was truly like an arrow loosed from a bow. As he ran, he constantly changed direction, weaving in an S-shaped pattern that made him impossible to predict. He could hear the continuous crack of gunfire and the whoosh of bullets Breaking Sky right behind his head. If he had been even a fraction of a second slower, he would have been dead.

A trace of horror appeared in the eyes of the squad of black-clad men. They were all highly trained death commandos, each with godlike Spear Technique. But the person before them was not only as fast as a leopard cat but also as slippery as a water snake. The bullets, though fast, couldn’t catch him, making for an incredibly frustrating fight. They could only watch helplessly as he vanished into the night.

The men in black lowered their long guns and glanced at each other, their eyes extremely grave. They never expected to encounter such a person in this remote fishing village.

One of the men in black said icily, ”Mission complete. We leave immediately!”

”Yes, sir!”

Luo Kai hadn’t gone far. After shaking the gunmen, he immediately doubled back. This time, he was doubly careful to hide himself, sneaking into an orchard on the side of the village. He finally understood why the village had met with such a catastrophe. Inside the village was one man not dressed in black. The man wore a pair of glasses, leaned on a cane, and watched the Hell-like scene around him with a savage expression on his face.

This man with glasses was one of the group from the valley earlier. To think he hadn’t died, but had instead brought these ruthless killers here, bringing a disaster of utter annihilation upon the Small Fishing Village.