Chapter 60: Cold Snowy Night · Killing Saber (Part 2)

Volume 1 “Year of Calamity”

Although the other party was a wanted criminal, it was already the apocalypse now. Besides, An Sheng wasn’t a police officer, so there was no need to dwell on the other’s identity. However, An Sheng would absolutely never allow such a person to enter Yushan. Not only would An Sheng disagree, but all survivors in Yushan would refuse.

Originally, An Sheng could have just left directly, but he suddenly recalled the conversation he’d overheard earlier. If those five girls were left unattended, they would inevitably be tortured to death by these beasts. He felt a stir of compassion.

The current An Sheng was no longer the timid young man from before. Through life-and-death battles one after another, his Heart-Nature had become extremely resolute. Moreover, having spent so much time with Old Zhang and the others, he couldn’t help but be influenced by the sense of justice possessed by soldiers and veterans. Besides, An Sheng hadn’t been a bad person to begin with—just an ordinary one. In the past, when encountering such situations, he would have at most called the police. But now things were different. He had the confidence and ability to be a hero who punished evil and promoted good.

Without further hesitation, An Sheng darted out from the darkness and punched the spot between Fatty’s occiput and neck. When Xun Lili had taught An Sheng Muay Thai, she’d said that with his strength, areas like the jaw, lower back of the head, and temples could definitely incapacitate an enemy with one strike.

However, this was An Sheng’s first time attacking a living person, and he had no experience controlling his strength. A crisp cracking sound of broken bone was heard, and Fatty collapsed without uttering a word. That wasn’t all—after twitching a few times, the fallen Fatty stiffened his legs and died outright.

This was An Sheng’s first actual killing of a person. Although he was in his ordinary state, one mustn’t forget that even as an ordinary person, An Sheng could fight fifty rounds with Xun Lili in her transformed state without losing ground. The power of his punch could even knock out a rhinoceros directly. Such force striking a human’s occiput would result in either death or a vegetative state.

An Sheng realized he had struck too heavily. Although this was his first time killing a person, he had already slain countless Zombies and personally consumed an Evolver and a Mutant Zombie, so he was quite accustomed to such matters. Besides, a drug trafficker with heinous crimes—killing him was justified, and there was no need for psychological burden.

What he didn’t expect was that during this brief delay, the Skinny Tall Guy who had gone to the vehicle to retrieve something actually returned and, of all misfortunes, came face to face with An Sheng.

Upon seeing An Sheng, the skinny guy was first stunned, clearly not comprehending the situation. But when he noticed Fatty lying on the ground, he realized something was wrong and immediately reached for his gun to shoot. Of course, An Sheng wouldn’t give him that chance. In one swift stride, he rushed forward, pinned the skinny guy down into the snow, and with a forceful tug, snapped the sling of the Type 95, then pressed the gun against the skinny guy’s head.

“Big brother, don’t shoot!” The skinny guy, realizing he had encountered a tough opponent, immediately begged for mercy.

“Keep your voice down, or I’ll blow your head off!” An Sheng threatened in a low voice. In truth, the skinny guy didn’t know that An Sheng wasn’t even holding the trigger; he was merely pressing the gun barrel against the skinny guy’s head.”Alright boss, I won’t shout, I’ll keep my voice down.” The skinny man had no idea An Sheng wasn’t even holding the trigger, so he could only obey and lower his voice.

To be safe, An Sheng dragged the skinny man to the back of the truck before quietly interrogating him: “Tell me, how many people do you have, and how many guns?”

This time, An Sheng’s finger was firmly on the trigger, and the gun’s safety was off. Though An Sheng wasn’t much of a marksman, he’d spent enough time with Nie Chong and the others to become quite familiar with firearms.

“We have sixty-eight people total, with over thirty guns between rifles and pistols,” the skinny man answered truthfully, not daring to hide anything.

An Sheng continued: “Who is this boss you mentioned? How many followers does he have? And how many are survivors you’ve captured?”

“Our boss is A Kun. He has forty-one followers—eleven were his original crew, the rest joined after the catastrophe. The captives are villagers from this area, plus five women we just found outside.”

“Do you live underground? Tell me more about your situation.” An Sheng was surprised by the number of people here, which piqued his interest.

Skinny Tall Guy thought to himself, What kind of person is this, making me tell stories in the freezing snow? Isn’t he cold? If he wants to hear stories, we could at least go inside the vehicle. But despite his thoughts, he obediently explained their situation.

“Underground here is Boss… A Kun’s drug manufacturing facility, and it’s quite large. You know these guys are desperadoes with guns. After the catastrophe, they dealt with the man-eating Monsters in the village. A Kun started scavenging for supplies and survivors, and our numbers grew. Originally, we all lived in the buildings—only A Kun and his closest followers stayed underground—and back then, we had more than twice as many people. But a few months ago, we went to Huan’an for supplies and ran into a short Freak. That thing was invulnerable to blades and spears, and it had Sabers growing from its hands. It killed dozens of us right away, then suddenly left for some reason. That’s when A Kun moved all of us into the underground factory.”

Skinny Tall Guy spilled everything he knew clearly and thoroughly. What An Sheng hadn’t expected was that he and Xun Lili were indirectly these people’s saviors. That short Freak he mentioned was none other than the Purifier An Sheng had killed. An Sheng guessed that Chen Mu, the Purifier, had let them go because he was drawn away by the Air Raid Siren. If An Sheng had died in that fight, Chen Mu would have surely chased these people down and killed them.

“Where’s the entrance? Take me there.” Now that he understood the situation, there was no need for further talk. Dealing with these ordinary people—even if they were desperadoes living by the blade—posed no threat to An Sheng.The entrance was well concealed, and finding it wouldn’t be easy without a guide. When Skinny Tall Guy triggered the mechanism, a downward staircase emerged from the floor beneath the stairs. It was entirely mechanical, no electricity involved—these criminals had spared no expense to hide their factory.

The descending stairs consisted of about seven or eight steps, leading to a slanted iron door facing upward. Double security—even if someone found the entrance, opening this iron door wouldn’t be straightforward. The door opened from the inside. An Sheng gave Skinny Monkey a look, signaling him to knock, since his own voice would be unfamiliar to those inside.

Knock, knock, knock. “Open up!” Skinny Tall Guy forced himself to stay calm, though inwardly he was overjoyed. He thought, This idiot behind me didn’t take me out outside. Back underground, with all my people, what can he possibly do alone?

“Wait!” came an impatient shout from inside. A few seconds later, the iron door slowly creaked open.

Skinny Tall Guy had been waiting for this moment. He was about to shout a warning, but An Sheng was faster. With a powerful kick, An Sheng sent both him and the person who opened the door flying. The force was so immense that their bodies soared several meters before crashing into the concrete wall inside.

Without a word, An Sheng, clutching his Type 95 assault rifle, leaped in after them. Behind the door was a space of about thirty square meters, occupied by at least a dozen people. However, they were in the middle of a meal, and the strong smell of alcohol and tobacco indicated they had been drinking for quite some time.

The sudden disturbance startled the intoxicated and disoriented group. Many instinctively reached for their guns nearby, but their speed was no match for An Sheng’s. An Sheng fired a burst at the wall and roared, “Don’t move!”

He had learned this move from TV shows. In his mind, ordinary people would surrender immediately in such a situation. But were these ordinary people? They were ruthless killers, and this was no longer the peaceful world of the past—it was the apocalypse. These people dealt with Zombies and Mutants daily; how could they be intimidated by one man and one gun?

Ignoring An Sheng’s threat entirely, everyone raised their guns and aimed at him.

“Damn it!” An Sheng barely had time to curse under his breath before he rolled aside like a lazy donkey, taking cover behind a pile of sacks. A barrage of gunfire erupted instantly, with bullets densely striking the sacks in front of him and the concrete wall behind. Sparks flew, and concrete debris scattered everywhere, leaving An Sheng momentarily disoriented by the onslaught.

An Sheng thought, This is nothing like what I imagined. But there was no time for complaints—he had to deal with them. Originally, he hadn’t planned on a bloodbath, but now it seemed unavoidable.

An Sheng extended the barrel of his Type 95 beyond the cover and unleashed a full magazine without caring whether he hit anyone. Under normal circumstances, such blind firing would be unlikely to hit targets, but his opponents were drunk, standing closely packed in the confined space. Surprisingly, An Sheng’s spray took down several of them.The sudden attack instantly sobered up the drunken men. Those who hadn’t been shot scrambled for cover behind rock formations, no longer daring to stand out in the open as living targets. An Sheng’s spear had run out of ammunition, and he was contemplating how to deal with the remaining men when Skinny Tall Guy’s voice echoed from beyond the rocks.

“Brothers, kill him! He shot Second Brother dead!”

Hearing this, An Sheng burned with rage. He regretted not having finished off that fellow earlier – he’d intended to show mercy, but it turned out the bastard had been plotting something foul all along! Since there was no chance of peaceful resolution now, he might as well charge forward directly!

An Sheng carefully removed and set aside his upper garment, then drew the Nepalese Kukri from the leather sheath at his lower back. With one swift motion, he stabbed the saber into his own arm. Instantly, thick, blood-colored pheromones permeated the entire space. The thugs were stunned by the spectacle – none had ever witnessed such a phenomenon, leaving them momentarily bewildered.

But when they glimpsed An Sheng through the crimson mist, their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets!

“Monster!”

Someone let out a piercing shriek, followed by a cacophony of gunfire. An Sheng’s hardened skin could withstand even particle cannons – what could mere bullets do to him? Paying no mind to the projectiles ricocheting off his body, An Sheng advanced slowly toward the thugs, Nepalese Kukri in hand.

Unbeknownst to An Sheng, this entire scene was being captured by the camera attached to his discarded garment. Though obscured by the blood mist, his transformed figure marching toward the crowd with saber in hand remained faintly visible. This very recording would ultimately alter many lives.

Seeing the monster before them was impervious to blades and bullets, the thugs panicked and scattered in all directions. An Sheng felt no urgency to pursue them – his objective was rescue, not slaughter. As long as he could save the enslaved survivors, the fate of others mattered little. Of course, he also planned to bring all their firearms back to the Fortress.

Skinny Tall Guy had collapsed in terror before An Sheng’s Demon State. He’d been fortunate – An Sheng’s earlier kick had nearly crippled him, but the man who opened the door had cushioned his fall, sparing him serious injury. Unfortunately, that man had fared worse, knocked unconscious after crashing into a concrete wall. Yet at this moment, Skinny Tall Guy envied the unconscious man, for he now faced a Demon alone.

With one hand, An Sheng lifted Skinny Tall Guy effortlessly, bringing the man’s face level with his own eyes.

“Open your eyes!” An Sheng commanded in a deep voice – not his usual tone, but deliberately adopted to enhance the terrifying atmosphere, with quite satisfactory results.

Reluctantly, Skinny Tall Guy opened his tightly shut eyes. When he saw An Sheng’s purple demonic face adorned with silver patterns, he nearly wet himself.

“Take me to the people you’ve enslaved. Don’t try any tricks, or I’ll devour you!” This last threat was purely for dramatic effect – the idea of cannibalism remained utterly repugnant to An Sheng.”K-k-k-k-kno… known” Skinny Tall Guy was so terrified he began to stutter. When An Sheng set him down on the ground, his legs nearly gave out beneath him.

“Hurry up, stop dawdling!”

An Sheng half-dragged him by his collar, urging him to lead the way quickly. Skinny Tall Guy didn’t dare delay—though his legs were still trembling, he forced himself to shuffle forward with all his might.

Passing through the door where the others had fled, they entered a narrow, elongated corridor that stretched over fifty meters by visual estimate. The surrounding walls were poured concrete, indicating significant effort had been put into constructing this Underground Project—its owner had clearly spent a fortune.

But An Sheng had no mind to dwell on these details. What he most wanted to see right now was where the enslaved people were being held. Back on that rooftop, he had witnessed survivors being kicked and beaten by these thugs—clearly a common occurrence—making him all the more desperate to rescue those enslaved by the brutesto.

Soon, Skinny Tall Guy led An Sheng to an iron door and stammered, “Th-that… Demon big bro, this is the place.”

The iron door was secured by a Large Lock, but it posed no obstacle to An Sheng. With one punch, he sent the lock flying, then pushed the door open and stepped inside. By the dim light of an oil lamp, he saw a row of large iron cages crammed into the tiny room—and inside them were nothing but children and women!

No wonder the men he’d seen moving supplies earlier looked so frail—they were actually children! The oldest among them were barely teenagers, while the youngest appeared no older than Little Biscuit. Every one of them was sallow and emaciated, clearly suffering from long-term malnutrition. Even more enraging were the women in the cages—their clothes torn, not a patch of unbruised skin visible, their eyes vacant and hollow as if they had endured endless humiliation and torture.

Recalling Nie Chong’s accounts of his special forces team’s experiences with survivor settlements, An Sheng exploded with fury!

“Animals! Take me to your leader!”