The First Order

In the wide and gloomy sewers, footsteps echoed clearly. Compared to the narrow space Ren Xiaosu had imagined, the sewer system in Stronghold 109 seemed more like it was designed based on the specifications of a bomb shelter.

When the strongholds were built many years ago, people were still living in the shadow of The Cataclysm. That led to their designs being influenced by the possibility of war breaking out again. So when Stronghold 109’s sewer system was designed, it was done so that the sewer pipes were constructed as wide as a bomb shelter. But of course, only the main sewer pipes were designed this way.

The black shadow clone was walking in the sewers and carrying an unconscious Yang Xiaojin on its left shoulder. Ren Xiaosu, who was enduring its pain, was being carried on its right shoulder.

Ren Xiaosu had also been injured, and blood was dripping down into the murky sewage from his dangling arm.

Seemingly attracted by the blood, huge sewer rats watched the shadow clone as it walked by in the darkness as well as the two wounded people it was carrying on its shoulders.

But for some reason, the rats did not dare to come out to attack them.

Ren Xiaosu was not only dealing with his own injuries but also enduring the pain from the bites the shadow clone had received during the battle that were in turn transmitted to him.

This was probably Ren Xiaosu’s toughest battle to date. At first, he thought he would only have to face six Experimentals. But once they started fighting, he discovered that another five Experimentals in the building had been attracted by the noise.

During the fight, several Experimentals had been kicked off the building and died on impact. As their corpses were not on the roof, Luo Xinyu misjudged the state of the battle when she arrived at the scene.

Based on Luo Xinyu’s understanding, a supernatural being who could attack and kill six Experimentals at the same time was already very terrifying. In fact, she would not even have dared think beyond that scenario.

In this era when supernatural beings had just started rising up, everyone was slowly feeling their way forward as they advanced in the realm of the supernatural. Unless it was a natural-born evil like Li Shentan, an individual would still find it difficult to use their power to overcome the masses.

That was to say, no single person today would be strong enough to ignore the number of their enemies. Supernatural beings were not powerful to that extent. Why else would they be hunted by the organizations to the point they had to remain hidden all around the world?

But there was a consensus among all the supernatural organizations. A supernatural being powerful enough to ignore the masses would definitely be born sooner or later.

As the shadow clone continued walking forward in the sewers, Yang Xiaojin suddenly regained consciousness. At this moment, all of her body ached so badly that she could not even lift herself up. “Ren Xiaosu?”

Her voice was oddly abrupt in the empty sewers. Ren Xiaosu said dejectedly, “Hm?”

“Where are we?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“Good question.” Ren Xiaosu answered, “Broadly speaking, we’re in the sewers. But if you want to be more specific, I have no clue where we are.”

Yang Xiaojin instantly realized Ren Xiaosu might also be injured. But from the way he was still speaking nonsensically, his injuries shouldn’t be too bad.

The shadow clone finally came to a stop when it found a dry platform to place Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu down on.

Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu both leaned against the wall and sat down. Ren Xiaosu took out a candle and lit it before placing it on the ground. He asked, “Why didn’t Luo Xinyu take you away this time?”

“Probably because something happened.” Yang Xiaojin had recovered a little. “If something hadn’t, she would have come for me.”

Ren Xiaosu still did not give up on trying to hide his powers even at this time. He said to the shadow clone, “Thanks, Old Xu.”

Yang Xiaojin chuckled. “My injuries hurt a lot, so please don’t make me laugh.”

“Old Xu ran from over a hundred kilometers away just to rescue us. Are you really not going to thank him?” Ren Xiaosu said righteously.

“We secretly planted a tracker on Xu Xianchu.” Yang Xiaojin explained, “He just crossed over the Tungsten Mountains this morning and was continuing to head northwest to Stronghold 178. It was you who told him to go that way, wasn’t it? I remember you mentioning Zhang Jinglin before. I didn’t think much of it at that time, just that the name sounded familiar, but I wasn’t sure if it was the same one I knew.”

Ren Xiaosu got angry. “What right did y’all have to plant a tracker on Old Xu!”

“Don’t change the topic.” Yang Xiaojin said softly, “So I used to have a question I couldn’t figure out an answer to. I clearly saw you in the Jing Mountains, yet the Qing Consortium never put you on their wanted list, instead placing a huge bounty on Xu Xianchu’s head.”

Ren Xiaosu said, feeling guilty, “That has nothing to do with me. Don’t try to accuse me of anything.”

“So your superpower is to copy others’ superpowers, right?” Yang Xiaojin said in a soft voice, “You also copied mine. I carefully studied the angle you raise your gun at, and it’s exactly the same as mine. There’s no difference.”

Yang Xiaojin had always felt that Ren Xiaosu raised his gun in an awfully familiar way, as though she were looking at a male version of herself. It wasn’t until now that she finally figured it out.

Yang Xiaojin did not know how she should gauge Ren Xiaosu’s power. The consensus among supernatural organizations was: A supernatural being cannot have more than one superpower at the same time.

But Ren Xiaosu was different. He had already exceeded it having two superpowers since some time ago.

All supernatural beings only managed to awaken their superpowers after going through tough times, yet this superpower of theirs could now easily be copied by someone else. In fact, the replicated superpowers were even stronger than the originals. How frustrating.

For example, Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone was not as strong as Ren Xiaosu’s.

As such, Yang Xiaojin felt… Ren Xiaosu’s power placed him above all of the other supernatural beings.

Yang Xiaojin continued, “So when Luo Xinyu’s bounty was raised the other day, that was also because of you, huh?”

Ren Xiaosu really could not admit to it. “Not at all! I refuse to accept that!”

It was not like he was worried that other people would find out he had framed Luo Xinyu, but rather, he really did not want Yang Xiaojin to know that the power he had copied from Luo Xinyu had actually diverged from the original. She could bring someone through the Shadow Door, but he could at most put an arm through it.

Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if he admitted to that?

“So you own up to everything else, right?” Yang Xiaojin giggled.

Ren Xiaosu felt he couldn’t just let Yang Xiaojin have her way and keep exposing his secrets. He needed to counterattack, so he suddenly said, “Let’s first consider how to escape from this stronghold. I have a plan. Even if we can outrun the Experimentals, we don’t have the stamina to run at full speed for a long distance, so we need a mode of transportation. I know where there’s some bikes. Don’t you know how to ride a bike? When you’ve recovered, you can ride lead and get us both out of here.”

Yang Xiaojin was taken aback. Then she calmly said, “OK, OK, stop probing me. I don’t know how to ride a bike either.”

“Hahahahaha.” Ren Xiaosu stifled his laughter. ‘Yang Xiaojin, serves you right!’

“That’s enough,” Yang Xiaojin calmly said.