Chapter 170: Slaying the Stream

"He is after that bird."

Once Liu Chang figured out the other party's intention, he sprang up from the sofa in a flash, shattered the door, and charged straight out.

Seeing Liu Chang leave in such a panic, Zhou Kai heaved a sigh of relief while feeling a wave of doubt in his heart. For a long time—or rather, over the past few days—he had actually been very suspicious of this monster's identity. The monster did not seem familiar with Xingtai City, yet his language and communication skills were no different from ordinary people. From all the little details in daily life, he could actually deduce one thing: this monster was actually human, a human with an extremely high degree of mutation and immense strength.

Moreover, judging by his unfamiliarity with Xingtai, Zhou Kai could draw another conclusion—this was an outsider, and he had many companions and enemies who had also drifted together with him into this region of the Prison Forest.

Zhou Kai was very interested in outsiders. Although he had been getting by quite well since the apocalypse, anyone would harbor a curious heart about the outside world. He was equally eager to know what the outside world had become, and he was full of curiosity about this mutant himself.

Especially the person he had drawn, who looked even more heavily mutated—white skin and a tail. She was quite pretty, but her appearance was far too different from a normal human.

All these questions had piled up in his belly over the past few days, festering without any outlet. He wanted to know what was going on, and this matter was closely tied to him as well.

Therefore, a few minutes after Liu Chang smashed through the door and left, after struggling with his inner thoughts for a while, Zhou Kai still stood up from the sofa.

"Boss, where are you going?"

"To the municipal government office to take a look," Zhou Kai replied, tucking a pistol into his waistband. "I'd like to see just how capable this monster is, after holding me captive for so many days!"

Riddled with doubt, a hint of anger, and curiosity, Zhou Kai finished his sentence and followed the path where Liu Chang had smashed through the door, stepping out of the room.

Meanwhile, on the other end.

After leaving the building, Liu Chang did not head straight for the government office. The person who had come was Liu—that super-lifeform possessing intelligence and the ability to evolve independently. Li Qingshui had once said that if Liu had not been so eager to reproduce, thereby scattering most of his energy, he would have been ten times stronger than he currently was.

Therefore, this ancestor of the amphibians could be said to be the most powerful enemy Liu Chang had ever encountered. Li Qingshui was not his enemy, and as for the giant willow tree, he didn't even have the courage to treat it as an adversary.

Thus, Liu represented the greatest difficulty Liu Chang currently had to face. Aside from the giant willow tree and Li Qingshui, he had never seen a lifeform more powerful than Liu.

Facing such a lifeform, he could not act rashly. Although his mind was racing with urgency, he still ran all the way back to Li Feng's hotpot restaurant. The Mince-Maker and the modified Gatling gun were both stored there—these were his capital for fighting Liu. Other handguns and military crossbows were as laughable as toys in front of Liu.

Rushing into the hotpot restaurant all the way, Liu Chang didn't bother to transform. He entered his room at top speed, ignoring the commotion it would cause along the way, grabbed his two heavy firepower weapons, and bolted right back out again.

His high-profile movement naturally caught the attention of two people who had been keeping an eye on him.

Li Feng stood at the entrance of the hotpot restaurant, looking in the direction Liu Chang had departed.

"Was that... Liu Chang just now?"

"Yes," Milan stood beside him, her brow slightly furrowed. "He was so fast that his shadow was a blur. But I happened to be right by his bedroom door just now, and I caught a glimpse of his back as he paused to pick something up. His clothes were identical to what Liu Chang wears, except his build looked a bit larger. Am I seeing things?"

"I don't know. Let's go take a look," Li Feng lowered his head and thought for a moment, then walked in the direction Liu Chang had gone. "He should be heading toward the municipal government. Yesterday, he was asking me about the giant bird."

"A bird?" Milan followed him with a puzzled expression.

...

Ignoring the feelings of others, Liu Chang sprinted all the way toward the municipal government. The most direct effect of his enhanced physical strength was a skyrocketing speed. His speed had never been slow before, but it had always been constrained by his bodily limitations. No matter how good his calculation skills were, or how reasonably he allocated the distance of every step, his limit was just that.

However, now that the genetic evolution of the reptilian creature was complete, his body had been wonderfully remodeled. Coupled with the calculation skills he had gained from Li Qingshui, it allowed his feet to land in precisely the right spots with every stride while simultaneously unleashing an absolute sense of power.

One step, one footprint.

A single step covered tens of meters.

Every single step leveraged the absolute perfect spot.

Liu Chang's speed was like the wind.

Rushing past with a roaring sound of breaking air until he reached the vicinity of the municipal government, he slowed his pace. Since he was going to make an enemy of Liu, the most crucial and important thing was the very first shot.

If they were to fight head-on, even the current Liu Chang had not the slightest possibility of defeating that massive monster. The gap in speed and power, combined with the opponent's perfect camouflage of light-refracting attributes, left him with zero chance in a direct confrontation.

He had once sat on Liu's shoulder and experienced his speed—a speed twice as fast as his own current speed, a speed so fast that he wouldn't even dare open his mouth while sitting there for fear of wind rushing in. Although the opponent hadn't used his full strength at the time, Liu Chang had still made a rough calculation of his vital strength.

At least over two hundred; to be precise, somewhere between two hundred and fifty and three hundred.

His physical abilities were unknown, but he at least possessed the light-refraction skill—this was a skill all their children possessed, and as the ancestor of the amphibians, it was impossible for him not to have it.

Based solely on these known data, Liu Chang knew that in a head-on fight, he was simply no match for that guy. Therefore, he had to wager all his luck on that very first shot.

The first shot from the Mince-Maker had to at least heavily injure the opponent and shatter his light-refraction ability; only then would he have a chance to fight that guy to the death. Of course, the absolute best outcome would be to blow the fellow's head off with a single shot, causing this powerful lifeform to perish instantly.

Actually, if possible, Liu Chang didn't want to kill Liu—he rather wanted to beat him into severe injury and use him as a bargaining chip to exchange for Xiaojing. But after all, this bargaining chip was far too powerful and completely beyond his control. Therefore, weakening the strength of the amphibians was the only thing he had to consider. After all, if this fellow and his child were allowed to unite, his mission to rescue Xiaojing would become an impossible task.

As for Number Seventeen, who was with him, that was not within Liu Chang's consideration. Number Seventeen was undoubtedly the one with the most potential among all the clones, but he was also unquestionably the weakest of the seventeen clones. An infant, no matter how formidable, could only do so much.

Liu Chang believed that if Number Seventeen possessed even a tiny shred of self-preservation ability, Li Qingshui would never have handed him over to Liu in the first place.