Chapter 53: Do You Need to Breathe?

Zhang Kui's figure surged through the mine tunnel like an armored vehicle at full throttle.

His hulking frame, over two meters tall, should have felt clumsy, but at this moment it erupted with astonishing speed.

The wind pressure generated by his charge made the emergency lights on the tunnel walls swing violently. Amidst the flickering, unsteady light, a cold sneer curled the corners of his mouth:

"Run? Where do you think you can run to?"

In Zhang Kui's mind, memory-type ability users were mere weaklings hiding in the cities, their physical bodies no stronger than those of ordinary people.

He was confident that in less than five minutes, he would catch that brat and make him understand what true agony felt like.

However, just as he rounded the third bend, Zhang Kui abruptly slammed on the brakes.

Before his eyes, more than twenty branching paths appeared, unfurling across the ore vein like a giant spiderweb.

Every tunnel was pitch black, their ends swallowed by the dark, with the scorched traces of veteran explosives still lingering on the rock walls.

"Trying to shake me off using labyrinthine tunnels? Is this the clever little trick your brain came up with?"

Zhang Kui stood his ground unhurriedly, not a shred of impatience on his face.

First, he narrowed his eyes. His enhanced pupils gleamed with a beastly, feral light in the darkness, instantly locking onto a scuff mark at the entrance of the eight-o'clock tunnel:

It was the moss smeared by a backpack when someone had passed through in a hurry.

Following that, he took a deep breath, his exaggeratedly flared nostrils quivering slightly.

A faint scent, imperceptible to ordinary people, was precisely captured by him: the lingering trace of sweat, acting like an invisible thread pointing toward that very same tunnel.

"Found you!"

Less than ten seconds after stopping, Zhang Kui set off once more.

He sneered as he charged into the target tunnel, moving even faster than before.

The moss on the ground was crushed beneath his leather shoes, scattering into a green mist behind him.

In a mere twenty seconds, he sprinted through over four hundred meters of winding excavation tunnels, finally reaching a wide cavernous hall.

The everlasting lamps on the walls were still glowing faintly, casting a dim, yellowish hue over the entire space.

Zhang Kui slammed to a sudden halt, gravel scattering beneath his boots.

For he saw Lin Xiao slowly stepping out from the shadows, his expression as calm as anything, entirely unlike someone being hunted down.

"Why aren't you running anymore?" Zhang Kui sneered as he looked around, realizing this was a dead end—mining operations had ceased right here years ago, and unexploded drill holes were still visible on the rock face.

"Turns out you ran out of road."

Zhang Kui pulled a length of rope from his waist: "Mr. Lin, be a good boy and come with me."

Lin Xiao, however, shook his head calmly. "No, you won't be taking me away today."

"So confident?" Zhang Kui narrowed his eyes. "Then I'd love to see what kind of capital you're relying on..."

His words cut off abruptly.

Lin Xiao had pulled out a bizarrely shaped metal tube from somewhere, steadily resting it upon his shoulder.

The device was entirely dark green, equipped with a strange grip at the rear, while its front end opened into a dark, hollow muzzle.

Zhang Kui froze.

He had never seen such a gadget before, unable even to classify it as a weapon—because things like the RPG-7 rocket launcher simply did not exist in this world.

Without a single word of superfluous nonsense, Lin Xiao pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"Boom!"

A blinding white plume of exhaust erupted from the tail of the rocket launcher, the searing heat wave whipping Lin Xiao's hem back and forth.

The warhead shrieked outward, dragging an orange-red smoke trail behind it as it plowed an incandescent trajectory through the narrow tunnel. The air along its path was compressed to its absolute limit, emitting a piercing, explosive screech.

Zhang Kui's eyes widened in horror!

Through his transcendent vision, that 120mm warhead was spinning as it closed in on him, every single rifling groove on the projectile body clearly visible.

It was too fast! There was no dodging it!

"What in the world is thi—"

"Boom!"

The explosion's fireball instantly expanded to five meters in diameter, orange-red flames intertwined with a bluish-cyan core.

The shockwave blasted outward in a ring, sweeping up every speck of rubble across the cavern floor.

The everlasting lamps on the stone walls shook violently, several of them shattering outright, the flying glass shards instantly vaporized by the intense heat.

Lin Xiao was driven back two steps by the backdraft, narrowing his eyes as he stared into the center of the billowing smoke.

He had seen Zhang Kui in the cross-eyed man's memories, and he had felt that man's sheer terror, knowing full well that Zhang Kui was an absolute monster.

Therefore, he had never expected to finish off this beast using the lethality of firearms alone.

The standard RPG-7 rocket projectile was loaded with 0.73 kilograms of RDX-mixed explosive, capable of piercing 1.5-meter-thick concrete fortifications and effortlessly tearing through older, lightly armored tanks.

Lin Xiao figured this explosive force should be more than enough.

Yet the next second, a terrifying figure towering over three meters tall strode out from the smoke.

"Zhang Kui?" Lin Xiao said in surprise.

Zhang Kui's physique had expanded by a full circle; his upper garments had long since been blasted to shreds, and his exposed muscles bulged like blocks of granite. The basketball-sized wound on his right chest was healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Amidst the high-speed rippling of flesh, the injury restored itself to pristine condition in the blink of an eye.

"Many people think I possess a strength-type ability..." Zhang Kui's voice dropped deep: "But how could such a lowly tier-one ability ever be worthy of me?"

He casually tore away his tattered remnants of clothing: "I possess the ultimate tier-two ability: The Transcendent Physique!"

Lin Xiao furrowed his brows, his expression turning grave.

A few days ago, when browsing abilities at the Heavenly Dao Shrine to select his second ability, he had laid eyes on the Transcendent Physique.

This ability not only granted the user terrifying muscular strength, but also comprehensively enhanced dynamic vision, neurological reflexes, self-healing capabilities, and a myriad of other attributes.

Coupled with his tier-four ability user status, no wonder he could become one of Jin Baolai's trusted bodyguards!

Zhang Kui's towering three-meter frame leaned slowly forward, pressing down on Lin Xiao like a mountain of flesh:

"Playtime is over."

The ground trembled slightly with every step he took, his massive form completely blocking out the light of the everlasting lamps, plunging Lin Xiao into darkness.

"I know you have some kind of trick that resembles 'summoning lightning'." Zhang Kui cracked the knuckles of his fingers, which were as thick as tree trunks: "But it won't work against my Transcendent Physique."

"If you still refuse to give up, feel free to try."

He deliberately slowed his pace, closing in on Lin Xiao step by step.

Yet Lin Xiao remained utterly motionless—in front of Zhang Kui, running away was entirely meaningless.

Zhang Kui split his lips, revealing a mouthful of pearly white teeth: "I hate pretty boys the most. But don't worry, I won't crush your skull; Boss Jin still needs you alive.

I'll just ruin that utterly detestable face of yours..."

Then his gaze drifted downward, lingering on Lin Xiao's crotch: "And then smash your little parts to pulp. As long as you're still breathing, Boss Jin won't care about details like that."

The air inside the mine cavern seemed to freeze solid.

Zhang Kui anticipated relishing the sheer panic on his prey's face, only to find—

Lin Xiao actually started to smile.

"You can still smile?" Zhang Kui failed to comprehend the scene before him: "Are you scared out of your wits?"

Lin Xiao smiled and asked politely:

"Even with your Transcendent Physique, you still need to breathe, right?"