Chapter 63: Highway robbery
When Huo Zaiyuan's inner energy recovers to the point he regains consciousness, it's already early morning of the second day. Body bogged down by fatigue, meridian feeling empty and only a sliver of spiritual energy within him, this sort of feeling is extremely uncomfortable.
"Mmm…" A low groan slips pass his lips, Huo Zaiyuan's eyebrows draw together slightly, eyelashes flickering for a while before he eventually opens his eyes.
"Good morning, Sleeping Prince." Long Zhanye's handsome visage hovers above Huo Zaiyuan, so close their noses almost brush.
"Older brother Long…" Huo Zaiyuan jerks in surprise at the voice so close to his ear.
Only when he finds his movements restricted does he finally realise he is being held tightly by Long Zhanye, his entire body bundled from head to toe by a quilt and his face pressing against the soldier's exposed collarbone. Heart giving a hard thump, his eyes widen.
"Wh - what happened…?"
Heavens above, just what happened after he fainted? Being wrapped up like a cocoon, a wet, sticky feeling on his lips, hugged by Long Zhanye who is currently not wearing his coat…isn't everything too shocking for someone who just regained consciousness?
"You passed out after sealing away that poisonous swamp, then your body temperature began to drop. That's why eldest brother Long is hugging you." Still driving the car, Qin Jun glances at Huo Zaiyuan from the rearview mirror and answers plainly.
"Eh…oh." Huo Zaiyuan nods his head in understanding before looking up at Long Zhanye beneath his lowered eyelashes. "Older brother Long, I'm fine now…thank you."
How embarrassing ah.
"As long as you're good. Here, have something to eat." Seeing Huo Zaiyuan's embarrassed blush, the corners of Long Zhanye's mouth curves upwards before setting the youth down next to him, handing over a bag of bread and a clean shirt.
Huo Zaiyuan's body is slim and soft, and embracing him (HZY) to his (LZY) chest feels extremely comfortable. Hence, Long Zhanye is rather reluctant to let go, but he is aware that some things require time and patience. Or else he might just scare the kitten off and the only one ending up feeling bitter will be Long Zhanye.
The oblivious Huo Zaiyuan, on the other hand, is really starving. Opening the bag of bread, he tears into it, wolfing a piece down before changing his clothes.
"Eat slower else you choke." Long Zhanye opens a bottle of mineral water and holds it before Huo Zaiyuan.
"Mhm." Drinking a mouthful of water, Huo Zaiyuan gave a muffled thanks as he continues eating, gaze drifting out the window only to see the car driving through a main street, occasionally passing crashed vehicles and a few wandering zombies. "Where are we right now?"
"We've just left Z City and is currently on 524 Huan Shan Street." Qin Jun replies.
"Huan Shan Street? Did we completely bypass Y City and head directly towards X City?" Huo Zaiyuan blinks, evidently startled by the fact that they've already left Z City. "Did you drive for the whole of last night?"
"No, it's dangerous to keep driving at night. There was a wasteland with thick bushes and dense weed not far after leaving Z City. The car was well hidden behind all the vegetation. Since Qin Jun is in charge of driving, he has to sleep and recuperate. I kept night vigil for the first half and little Qing took over after." Long Zhanye says as he drinks a mouthful of water.
"And here I was wondering why he is asleep instead of talking endlessly." After finishing the entire bag of food, Huo Zaiyuan feels like he has recovered a little more strength, and the uncomfortable feeling eased. Eyes shifting away from the bleak scenery outside, he glances at Li Qing, who is sound asleep.
Now that he is feeling much better, Huo Zaiyuan retrieves one of the three bamboo tubes filled with peach juice that he buried beside the bamboo house. After fermenting underground for ten days, the flavour is a lot less sweet, but he drinks it up as his first priority right now is to replenish most - if not all- of his spiritual energy.
Naturally, meditating in the dead of the night or within the silence of his interdimensional space is the most ideal. Pity he is in a vehicle right now and cannot enter the space, only able to sit quietly in the backseat and slowly absorb the spiritual energy from the peach juice.
With Huo Zaiyuan meditating and Li Qing sleeping, the atmosphere in the car falls into an easy silence as it continues speeding onwards.
At this moment, at the crossroads up ahead, a large truck approaches at high-speed. Just as both vehicles are about to collide, the truck drifts and its entire body slides to a horizontal stop, effectively blocking the road. If not for Qin Jun's quick reflexes by yanking the steering wheel to the right instantly while stepping down on the brake, the outcome would have been horrific. Although the off-road vehicle did not hit the truck, the four people within are treated to a rough jolt.
Li Qing who is curled up in the passenger seat was thrown to one side and nearly crashes into the dashboard in front but fortunately, Qin Jun manages to pull him back before his head met the hard surface. However, his hipbone knocks roughly on the door, causing tears of pain to well in his eyes. As for the meditating Huo Zaiyuan, his entire body was thrown forward, but Long Zhanye shifts his body, resulting in Huo Zaiyuan crashing into his chest.
"Are you all right?" Long Zhanye softly inquires.
"Thank you. I'm all right, but what's going on?" Pushing himself off the taller man, he turns to look out the car's window.
"Hmph, no matter when and where, scums like these always appear." Glancing at the situation outside, Long Zhanye sneers as he sees ten over men coming out of the truck with clubs and knives in hand.
Having witnessed situations like this before in his previous life, Huo Zaiyuan is naturally aware of what these armed men want to do after obstructing the road. Besides zombies, devil ants, poisonous swamps and mutant plants, one also had to guard against other humans as in this chaotic world, moralities and virtues have no place in society.
"I'll enter the space and look for an opportunity to take action." Huo Zaiyuan says, then in a flash of light, he disappears.
Just as he vanishes, a man with dishevelled hair uses the steel rod in his hand to knock on the car's roof before beckoning his finger, clearly hinting for them to get out. Li Qing and Qin Jun glance at Long Zhanye, only getting off the vehicle when he gives a faint nod.
"Yo, youngsters! Where did you squeeze out from and where are you heading?" At the rear of the thuggish group stands a sunglasses-wearing, gold-tooth man holding a gun and biting on a cigar. He looks to be in his late-thirties to early-forties.
"We are heading towards A City." Long Zhanye answers lightly, a small smirk on his face as he nonchalantly leans against the off-road vehicle. "I don't know why Old Uncle, you, suddenly blocked our way for? Are you perhaps trying to ask for directions?" An eyebrow rises up slightly, clearly mocking.
"Hahaha…" That man throws his head back and guffaws, looking like a maniac. "Little punk, your guts are pretty damn big. Do you know who this old man is? I'm X City's crime lord, Mad Dog. Aren't you scared this old man will fire a bullet into you?"
While speaking, Mad Dog gestures for his subordinates to pat the three men down. Before Huo Zaiyuan disappeared, Long Zhanye collected all the guns and knives on their person and told him to bring it into the space, so he is not worried the thugs will discover any weapons on the three of them.
"Mad Dog…un. Military clothes." Long Zhanye's eyebrow rises again as the person who is assigned to pat them down hesitates before him.
Hearing this, the previously cackling Mad Dog abruptly becomes serious again. Reaching up and slowly removing the sunglasses on his head, two beady eyes fixed unwaveringly on Long Zhanye.
"Who are you?"
"Eh…I'm no one. I'm just someone escaping from Y City who managed to scavenge a few things. Boss Mad Dog, no need to worry." Long Zhanye spreads his hands out in a show of harmlessness.
After patting him down and finding no weapons on Long Zhanye, the thug relaxes his guard. As this Mad Dog's subordinate is about to enter the off-road vehicle and search, he suddenly grunts in pain. Not waiting for the guy to comprehend what happened, the individual is thrown back, his entire body sailing through the air before hitting the ground.
Pew!
The crack of a gunshot sounds and a bullet flies out from the car. It is clear the shooter doesn't have a very high accuracy, for the bullet fails to hit Mad Dog. However, it is still enough for the group to descend into confused panic.
Qin Jun is also quick to follow up, hooking his leg around the thug's shins, sweeping the guy's feet out from under him before stomping down on the fallen man's stomach, easily kicking away the steel rod from his victim.
Snatching up that steel rod, Li Qing brings it up horizontally just in time to parry the downwards swing from another metal pipe. A hard kick from Qin Jun sends Li Qing's attacker flying away.
"You did great." Qin Jun praises over his shoulder, smiling as Li Qing's face turn cheerful.
Mad Dog is a member of the Underworld and has been a gang leader for a few decades. Moments before Judgement Day came, the transaction for an arms deal had just gone through. It is because of this pile of weapons he acquired that he and his gang are able to survive the apocalypse until now. Finally, when the situation became even more dire, he gathered up his subordinates and looted the entire northern district of X City. Shopping malls, residential areas, commercial areas…as long as they had food, he raided the place and adds whatever they scavenge into his stockpile. But he feels that is still far from enough. So he and his gang began to intercept every vehicle on this stretch of road that are trying to flee the city. In these past ten over days, they killed and robbed quite a number of people.
However, he is a mistrustful person. Although he has a large store of firearms, in order to oppress the people beneath him, he doesn't plan to hand a gun over to any one of them, which is why everyone else besides him is carrying only melee weapons. But little did Mad Dog expect that due to his untrusting nature, he will be buried right here on this road, on this day.
Another bullet is shot and Mad Dog dives to one side in a roll. As he gets to his feet again, he grabs his gun and prepares to fire at the off-road vehicle when a black shadow descends from the sky. Before he can raise the muzzle of his firearm, a burst of pain erupts in his head and he collapses.
Stepping on Mad Dog's body, Long Zhanye smoothly evades a downwards strike of a chopper. Grabbing the crime lord's gun, he fires it from the hip. A single gunshot rings out and the thug who attacked Long Zhanye falls, a bullet hole in his chest.
For someone capable of infiltrating and silencing an entire army barrack all on his own, faced with un-skilled, disorderly ruffians clumsily waving melee weapons around, he completely disregards them all. Throwing himself into the midst of thugs, his figure flashes here and there, all but dancing around their attempted strikes. Every punch and kick results in another fallen victim unable to get back up. With the support of Huo Zaiyuan, Qin Jun and Li Qing, in less than half an hour's time, the entire group was put down.
"Truly not worth a sliver of attention." Sweeping his gaze over the fallen men, Long Zhanye's expression is unsatisfied and displeased. Harrumphing as he straightens his coat, he turns to Huo Zaiyuan. "Little Yuan, let's clean up the place. Whatever's been delivered to our doorsteps…it'll be a waste if we don't take it."
"Un."
With no trace of politeness or courtesy, Huo Zaiyuan picks up all the melee weapons lying scattered on the road and tosses them into his space, sometimes even plucking it right out of an unconscious person's grasp.