After Clearing the Infinite Flow, I Tamed the Mad Dog Boss - Chapter 23

Chapter 23

“Hey, I heard you have a relative in that building. How are they?”

“He was some distance away, so he wasn’t really hurt. But his neighbor on the second floor got it bad. I heard the blast scattered him all over the place, and they still haven’t found all the pieces.”

“Holy shit… that’s terrifying. How did it even explode? The reports said it was a gas explosion?”

“It was gas, yeah. But someone lit it on purpose. One tank of liquefied gas couldn’t make a blast that bad. Someone put several tanks in their apartment and set them off together. People heard insane laughter before the explosion.”

“What??? Some psycho taking revenge on society? If they catch him, won’t he get off without even being sentenced because he’s mentally ill?”

“I hope he gets the death penalty. Better yet, death by a thousand cuts. Hey, don’t you feel like things haven’t been very peaceful lately?”

Qin Xian picked the stir-fried peas from his tray one by one and slowly popped them into his mouth, eating at an agonizingly leisurely pace.

From the looks of it, this seemed to be an incident caused by some lunatic taking revenge on society. The uncanny rarely killed this way. They preferred tormenting people, savoring their victims’ fear and despair.

But it wasn’t impossible. This horrifying accident had thrown the entire city into panic. If more similar incidents occurred, the whole city would be shrouded in a pall, and the influence of the uncanny would only grow stronger.

The atmosphere in this area already felt distinctly uncomfortable.

Qin Xian put down his bowl and chopsticks, paid the bill, and headed straight out toward a nearby dark corner. After weaving through various narrow alleys for a while, he arrived beside the Longyuan River.

There was a stretch of mudflat here, very close to the apartment building where the incident had happened, but it was deserted, dark, and damp. In some places, the weeds were taller than a person, and illegally dumped construction waste was scattered all over the ground. It was perfect for dumping a body… or attracting something filthy.

Qin Xian pushed aside the grass and stood atop several concrete slabs, gazing toward the building in the distance. As night fell, the filthy things began to appear. He heard the grass rustle, and something sticky writhed closer along the ground.

It had crawled out of the river, leaving a long trail of slime behind it. After silently approaching the seemingly defenseless human, it condensed into a vague humanoid shape and reached out to strangle him.

But that human suddenly turned his head, not a trace of panic in his eyes.

Qin Xian saw a face that clearly belonged to someone who had drowned. It was pale and bloated, reeking with a sickening fishy stench.

His brows furrowed. Tightening his grip on the whip that had abruptly appeared in his hand, he lashed out. The whip landed with a slick, greasy sensation, easily slicing through the uncanny’s entire body and cutting it in half at the waist. But the thing had no fear of being cut. Its body, now two puddles, swiftly wrapped around the whip and crawled along it toward Qin Xian.

The whip abruptly vanished. Having lost its support, the uncanny dropped to the ground with a wet gurgle, then stubbornly continued writhing after Qin Xian.

Qin Xian silently stepped back twice and did not rush to attack. This thing moved far too slowly. It could not hit him at all, so he might as well look for its weakness first. Generally speaking, things like this were rather afraid of dry environments…

He looked up and locked onto a pile of dumped construction debris not far away. There seemed to be a patch of sand in the middle. Several torn woven bags lay on the sand, spilling a large amount of white powder-lime. This kind of chemical product worked wonders against low-level, water-based uncanny beings like this.

Qin Xian immediately prepared to jump down from the concrete slabs, but then he suddenly smelled another odor beneath the fishy stench. It smelled like liquefied gas.

In the dim light, a single charred hand suddenly stretched out from the grass… no, many charred hands. Humanoid things, pitch-black from head to toe, were sprawled in the weeds. When they realized Qin Xian had noticed them, they also raised their heads, eerie smiles spreading across their charred faces.

These things were people who had died in the explosion! Most of their skin had been burned, and their bodies bore horrific wounds left by the blast.

Qin Xian flung out his whip again, wrapping it directly around the neck of one uncanny, then swung it up and hurled it toward the water ghost behind him.

The instant the two uncanny beings came into contact, the charred monster let out a shriek, and its body violently exploded from within. Firelight, chunks of burnt flesh, and slime splattered in every direction. Qin Xian jumped down from the concrete slabs as fast as he could and hid beneath them, but a bit still inevitably splashed onto the hem of his clothes.

“Tch.”

Qin Xian curled his lip. No longer caring whether it was dirty or not, he picked up a stone from the ground, stood, and hurled it at one of the charred corpses on the ground.

These things were newly born uncanny beings. Although their explosions were highly destructive, triggering those explosions was very simple.

Even a slightly larger stone could make them blow up. It was like playing Minesweeper. After a few stones, brilliant sparks burst open in the dark grass. The weeds quickly caught fire, lighting up the entire area. The rather funny part was that these charred corpses and the water ghosts were not on the same side. The flames clearly restrained the water ghosts, forcing several heads that had surfaced on the river back down.

Qin Xian used his whip to clear out several charred corpses from a distance. As he fought, he suddenly laughed aloud and said, “Who told you to handle things this way? You’re so stupid it’s funny.”
The grass not far away rustled, and the sound of living people arguing drifted out.

“Over there? Let me see what kind of people you are.” Qin Xian headed straight for the grass.

But after only two steps, a flash of fire suddenly flared from the grass, followed by a deafening bang.

At the critical moment, Qin Xian jerked his head aside. A bullet grazed past his face, instantly opening a cut across his right cheek. Blood welled from the straight wound, then slid down his face and into his mask.

But it wasn’t over. Qin Xian had just started to retreat when three more shots rang out in quick succession.

Guns!? What kind of people could get their hands on guns in a society with such strict firearm control!? Qin Xian had barely encountered these things even in the Infinite Flow World.

He quickly found cover and ducked behind it. A bullet struck the stone by his foot, spraying chips in every direction.

The enemies opposite him probably thought they had already won because they were armed. Giggling, they raised their guns and stood up, moving toward Qin Xian’s position.

“Heh. An idiot holding a gun is still an idiot.” Qin Xian sneered, his whip coiling around the neck of a charred corpse.

Two meters away, the two armed thugs were smugly approaching Qin Xian’s hiding spot when they suddenly saw a flailing charred corpse flying at them. They froze. One of them fired instinctively. The bullet struck the corpse, and flames suddenly burst across its body before it exploded with a boom.

Qin Xian only heard the two of them scream before they seemed to scramble miserably back into the grass.

“Are you stupid!? Those things explode if you shoot them! Do you have a death wish!?”

“Fuck, how was I supposed to know he’d use the charred corpses too… Damn it, low-grade things really are useless. It’s bad enough they can’t help, but now they’re making trouble for us.”

“Hurry up and drive those charred corpses away. We’d be better off using guns…”

Qin Xian’s eyes darkened. Sure enough, someone was behind this explosion. And from the sound of it… they could even command these low-level anomalies?

“They’re gone, they’re gone. Huh? Where did that kid go?”

“Make it quick! I hear the cops coming!”

The two hurriedly stood up and searched for Qin Xian with guns in hand. But under cover of the night and the weeds, they somehow failed to notice their target standing only one meter behind them.

Qin Xian observed them coldly.

Two young men, dressed in cheap off-brand T-shirts and casual pants. Dyed hair, tattoos, cigarette packs in their pockets-they looked like ordinary street punks. Ordinary street punks had somehow gotten guns?

Seeing them probe forward with their guns raised, Qin Xian lost his patience and lashed his whip straight at their necks.

“What was that sound?!”

“What-hurk!!”

The whip wrapped tightly around both their necks, choking them until their eyes rolled back. In a panic, they reached up to untangle it, only to find that the whip was covered in barbs. Just touching it sliced painfully into their fingers, and the skin on their necks had already been scraped raw. One touch left their hands covered in blood.

Qin Xian stepped onto one man’s chest, leaned down, and asked, “Who are you? Why did you attack me?”

Both men’s faces and necks flushed red from lack of air. One of them gritted his teeth and said, “We won’t talk… Gah!!”

Qin Xian increased the force under his foot, feeling the man’s ribs sink slightly beneath him.

“If I press just a little harder, your ribs will snap and pierce your lungs. The police are almost here. If you don’t want to die, answer my questions.”

With the moonlight behind him, his face was completely in shadow. All they could make out were those emotionless eyes and the blood on his right cheek. The sight made both thugs tremble.

“N-No… We can’t say. We’ll die.”

Qin Xian studied their expressions. One was fat, one was thin. The thin one had his eyes shut, his jaw clenched, refusing to make a sound. Without hesitation, Qin Xian raised his hand and slapped him across the face. The force twisted the skinny man’s head to the side, knocking him out cold.

The fat one shook even harder at the sight and immediately began begging for mercy. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please, let us go!”

Qin Xian sneered. “Then answer my questions. Otherwise, I’ll kill you right now.”

As he spoke, he hooked his fingers around the gun on the ground and pressed the muzzle directly against the fat man’s temple.

Tears and snot streamed down the fat man’s face as he trembled. “Someone hired us to kill you!”

Qin Xian asked, “Who?”

The fat man opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He froze, then began struggling frantically.

Qin Xian frowned. “Are you part of some organization? Was the liquefied gas explosion your doing?”

The fat man struggled to squeeze out two words. “Y-Yes… Ghost Path…”

“What is Ghost Path?”

“It’s a new sect. They’re descendants of celestial masters. If you join, you can learn the Ghost-controlling Art and control demons, monsters, and ghosts! This world is about to be devoured by ghosts and monsters. Only people who master ghost-controlling powers will survive!”