Chapter 62: Battle on the Roof

Meanwhile, Lin Xian braved the howling wind on the roof of the train, sprinting rapidly toward the front carriage. Knowing that Tang Hai was the former stationmaster of North Bay Station and quite familiar with trains, he figured the sabotage of the tracks was undoubtedly another one of the man's "fine deeds."

Thump, thump, thump!

Pacing swiftly along the roof of the carriage, just as Lin Xian prepared to leap from Carriage 3 to Carriage 2, a streak of white suddenly darted out from the carriage junction. The hairs on his body stood on end, and without a second thought, he condensed an ice shield directly in front of him.

Puff!

A tiny hole was punched right through the shield. Lin Xian spun around abruptly, only to catch a glimpse of slender claws flashing past his chest, kicking up a shower of debris.

That was close!

"Die!!"

Tang Hai let out a bizarre, half-human, half-monstrous screech. With a sweep of his seemingly frail arms, an immense force sliced through the ice shield like a hot knife through butter, hurtling straight for Lin Xian's throat.

"You old bastard, refusing to die cleanly! I'll help you along!"

Lin Xian roared with indignation. The thought that this creature had driven corpses into a cave to bury his entire train, combined with the fact that Kiki's current fate was unknown, had already stoked a raging fire in his chest. He threw his upper body backward to dodge the razor-sharp claws while swinging his blade with one hand, striking Tang Hai's neck with pinpoint accuracy!

Clang!

Yet, unexpectedly, Tang Hai's mutated skin was even tougher than that of the giant white monster. The blow from the GK03 electro-blade—forged from tungsten-titanium alloy Grade I—emitted the sound of striking metal. Sparks flashed, and the massive impact jarred Tang Hai, sending him stumbling back step after step.

Instead of caring about the blade at his throat, the creature grinned hideously, its claws—fully grown with black nails—scratching frantically toward Lin Xian's body. As it attacked, it cackled, "Hahaha... I should thank you instead! For making me like this..."

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

Without wasting any breath on him, Lin Xian stepped back and unleashed a barrage from his assault rifle right into the monster!

Before Tang Hai could finish his opening monologue, several magazines worth of bullets slammed into his body. The immense kinetic energy blasted him into rolling backward repeatedly, tearing open blood-spurting holes in his weaker spots.

"Damn you!"

Possessing terrifying speed, Tang Hai barely absorbed a few rounds before agilely scrambling toward the side of the train, vanishing into the night like a ghost.

Lin Xian's heart was filled with uncertainty. Even a physical-enhancement mutant like Dalou would have been pierced by bullets; why was this guy's defense so absurdly strong?

Could he really have undergone a successful evolution?

"Damn it, neither human nor ghost. This bastard must be the product of a failed evolution."

Screech!

At that moment, a dark shadow suddenly materialized by Lin Xian's side. Tang Hai burst forth abruptly, thrusting out a hand whose five fingers stretched out in a bizarre manner like whips. Lin Xian's eyes narrowed sharply as he horizontally blocked with his blade. With a crisp *clang*, the massive force of those fingers knocked Lin Xian violently backward, numbing the web between his thumb and forefinger.

Having failed his single strike, Tang Hai plunged back into the darkness.

What kind of monster is this?! His fingers can even stretch?

Lin Xian stood atop the train roof as the Infinity continued to speed along, propelled by the Star-Ring 7F electric locomotive. The wind on the roof was bone-chillingly cold, and he kept his gun raised, scanning his surroundings with utmost vigilance.

Hoo-hoo...

He breathed heavily, trying to calm himself down, while cursing inwardly.

Regardless of whether this was a failed evolution or not, according to Kiki's words, if a creature that had just broken through to the evolutionary tier was already this formidable, wouldn't level-three or level-four beings be able to fly and tunnel through the earth?

The Tang Hai of just now was in an almost half-human, half-corpse state, his entire body covered in greyish-white, hardened skin, with a few tufts of receding hair on top of his head. He looked precisely like Gollum from *The Lord of the Rings*—truly bizarre.

Whoosh!

A piercing sound rang out through the air once more. This time, well-prepared, Lin Xian sidestepped swiftly, training his muzzle directly at the source of the sound and unloading the remainder of his magazine.

Da-da-da! Da-da-da!

Yet, Tang Hai was exceptionally cunning. Knowing that Lin Xian's gun was low on ammunition, he merely used his stretchable fingers to probe before ducking back into the shadows.

Click...

Sure enough, the assault rifle, holding only thirty rounds, quickly ran dry. Lin Xian frowned, and right then, a piercing sound erupted from the dark rear.

"Out of ammo, are you?!" accompanied by an icy voice.

Clang!

Reacting with extreme speed, Lin Xian slashed backward, managing to strike Tang Hai's extended finger and producing a crisp ring.

The tremendous force jolted Lin Xian into a stagger, and he nearly lost his footing.

At that moment, Tang Hai swaggered out from the shadows, sneering sinisterly, "Heh-heh-heh... Impressive, isn't it? You should be grateful that I hadn't evolved yet that night, buying you one extra day of life. Now, it's your turn to thank me."

"Thank your mother!"

Puff, puff, puff!

Lin Xian didn't bother wasting words. Holding his blade horizontally, he raised his hand and fired off several wind blades.

Hm?

Sensing the hidden threat in the air, Tang Hai jerked his head to the side, dodging the central wind blade, but took two heavy impacts to his chest. The kinetic force sent him staggering backward.

"Bastard!!!"

Tang Hai cursed in a hoarse, gender-neutral voice, suddenly remembering that Lin Xian possessed a remote-killing technique that didn't require firearms. In response, the nails on all ten of his fingers suddenly lengthened, clamping onto the roof like vise grips. Charging his legs with power, he blasted forward from his spot, his speed so great that his footprints left deep dents in the steel roof!

Ice Shield!

Seeing the fierce onslaught, Lin Xian swiftly condensed an ice shield.

"Trash! What use is this thing?!"

Bang!

Cursing loudly, Tang Hai transformed himself into an elliptical white bullet, piercing straight through the ice shield Lin Xian had conjured, giving him no time to slip away.

Yet, at that exact moment, a ghostly flash of the figure behind the ice shield occurred. The cold gleam of the blade vanished, and Lin Xian seemingly disappeared amidst the swirling shards of ice.

Following that!

Swish!

A fierce gust of wind crossed paths with Tang Hai in mid-air, generating a tremendous sonic boom! Clang!

Flash-back!

"What?!"

Tang Hai let out a bizarre shriek. His momentum unchecked, he tumbled forward, his four limbs clawing at the train roof and leaving countless metal gouge marks. His expression shifted drastically as he felt... half of his face, along with an ear, was simply gone.

"Ah!!!"

Tang Hai touched the side of his face in disbelief. A massive stream of crimson blood gushed down, instantly turning his eyes blood-red and plunging him into madness.

"I'll kill you, I'm going to kill you!"

Puff, puff, puff!

Clearly, Lin Xian was not a fan of turn-based combat or idle chatter mid-battle. Giving Tang Hai no chance to catch his breath, he fired off several wind blades before even landing from his flash-back maneuver.

Bang, bang, bang!

With nowhere to hide, Tang Hai took a direct hit to the chest, blasting open a bloody hole and sending him flying backward off the roof to plummet into the pile of gravel alongside the tracks.

"Ah-ah-ah!!!"

Provoked to the extreme, Tang Hai had completely lost his sanity. Covered in filth and seemingly impervious to pain, he charged madly at the moving train on all fours like a wild beast.

Boom!

On the other side, the giant white monster lunged from the roof of Carriage 5 toward Dalou on the flatbed car. Its massive bulk crushed the wooden ties beneath the rails, nearly causing the trailing carriages to derail once more.

Dalou took a few steps back, grabbed the broken heavy chain originally on the cart, and swung it fiercely.

The massive iron chain cracked through the air with a dull, whistling sound before lashing viciously toward the giant white monster's head.

Crack!

The sheer force of the iron whip jerked the monster's head aside, leaving a terrifying bloody welt across its hardened skin.

"Ugh-ah!!!!!!!!"

The giant white monster shrieked fiercely. Turning vicious and relying on its enormous stature and long reach, it raised a hand, intending to bat Dalou right off the train.

Before the monster could unleash its fury, however, a blinding flare of fire suddenly erupted across its back!

Boom!

It turned out that Lou Shasha was manning the M36 grenade launcher. Despite her small stature and young age, the girl possessed immense nerve and remarkable accuracy against such a monster—a testament to how many major battles she had already witnessed along this fleeing road.

Seizing the opportunity, Dalou looped the iron chain around the monster's neck, intending to hurl the other end over the side of the tracks. He hoped to use the immense momentum of the hundreds-ton train moving at high speed to literally snap the creature's neck.

Yet, the giant white monster was blindingly fast. Before Dalou could execute his plan, it grabbed hold of the iron chain and swung its body!

Caught off guard, Dalou was yanked along with the chain, thrown completely airborne. Just as he was about to fall off the train, he gritted his teeth, gripped the chain tightly with one hand, and used the centrifugal swing to loop half a circle through the air, landing squarely atop the roof of Carriage 5.

"Big Brother, watch out!!"

Hearing the heavy thud overhead, Lou Shasha shouted in anxious alarm.

Immediately afterward, she heard footsteps from above, realizing her brother hadn't been thrown off. She hurriedly reloaded her weapon, preparing to fire once more.

The giant white monster tore the iron chain from its neck. Hearing the sound of Shasha reloading, it didn't hesitate for a second, hurtling straight toward Carriage 5 once again.

Bang!

Firing at point-blank range this time, the immense shockwave of the grenade blast blew the diminutive Lou Shasha backward. The grenade exploded against the monster's legs, trapping its lower half at the junction of the flatbed car while its upper half scrambled onto the roof, where it instinctively raised its long claws and brought them down on Dalou.

Bang! With another deafening crash, the air-conditioning unit on the roof of Carriage 5 instantly shattered and caved in.