13 Panic at Golden Tail

The crowd surrounding the entrance of the Golden Tail Mall broke into chaos upon noticing the two bullet holes embedded into the ground, with screams and panic blazing throughout the entire plaza. Security guards burst out from within the mall, and soon everyone in the vicinity was surrounded, with impromptu background investigations being conducted en masse.

Standing in a nearby alleyway observing the chaos within the mall, Li Mo Shang held a dazed Su Yuan'er in a tight embrace as extreme vigilance ran through his heart, for his spiritual core was constantly flashing, reminding him that the danger was still not over.

Though it seemed that the police force stationed at the mall were capable enough to handle this crisis situation, Li Mo Shang had a premonition that this matter would end unresolved; the fact that there were no sounds of a gun being fired held some relation to the military, for only groups connected with the military or extremely high social status would have the capability to obtain fully silenced firearms. But who?

Surveying the main roads leading out of Golden Tail Mall, Li Mo Shang noticed that the entire roads nearby had been completely cleared out, without a single trace of man or vehicle in sight. His spiritual core giving off an intense flash incomparable to the others before, Li Mo Shang instinctively directed copious strands of qi to dash forward to before a nearby office building on the other side of the road.

Turning back, he saw with his enhanced vision a tiny cylindrical object falling into the alleyway, which exploded upon landing on the ground. Bullets tore through the walls and nearby buildings at extreme speeds, shredding the original aesthetically pleasing and natural scenery of flowers and antiquely designed buildings into a mess of wood chips, concrete, and steel powder. Hearing successive blasts, Li Mo Shang whirled around to find that all of the nearby alleyways connected to the roads leading out from Golden Tail Mall suffered the same fate.

Looking at the originally pristine marketing sector of Blue Rose City turned into a debilitated war zone in minutes, Li Mo Shang's heart turned cold. What surprised and enraged him further was that the police paid no mind to this, continuing their background checks without even bothering to quell the citizens' distress. Li Mo Shang wondered, did the government preemptively know about this matter? The calmness of the enforcement squads was too unnatural to relate to trained tranquility.

As Li Mo Shang kept turning to find a location to hide and escape, he noticed a squad of black-uniformed men marching down the roads before Golden Tail Mall. Dressed in pure black with a metallic helmet completely encompassing the head, these men carried military grade rifles of the S32 model variant, confirming Li Mo Shang's suspicion of the military's involvement.

The S32 rifle was akin to an improvised assault rapid-fire rifle, an experimental model implementing miniaturized electromagnetic accelerators instead of explosive substances to propel the bullet at speeds just below the speed of sound, creating a devastating and completely silent weapon save for the sound of rushing projectiles. As it relied on precise targeting mechanisms built in to secure the angle of the revolving bullet before firing, these rifles were incredibly accurate.

Realizing that he was in too conspicuous of a location, standing directly before a mahogany building that had been spared from the previous ravaging of bullets, Li Mo Shang directed his qi once more, returning to a nearby, devastated alleyway. Hiding behind a standing, half-demolished three-meter tall wooden board, it was at this time that the Su Yuan'er in his arms woke up. Lightly struggling, she tried to speak, when Li Mo Shang tapped her head and quietly murmured.

"Quit struggling if you want both of us to die."

Faced with the indirect threat, Su Yuan'er immediately quelled her shout after noticing Li Mo Shang's frigid glare. Turning her head to find the wreckage of what used to be the Golden Tail Square, she quivered in terror before burying her head into Li Mo Shang's chest.

Seeing her clinging actions, Li Mo Shang was tempted to throw her off coldly, then acquiesced after realizing that the current situation was indeed quite difficult to comprehend for a normal teenager. Perhaps if he didn't have his spiritual core calming his mind down and holding it stable, he too would freeze in terror, unable to form the cold rational decisions Li Mo Shang was making right now.

Sitting down and allowing Su Yuan'er to use his duffel bag as a cushion against the wall, Li Mo Shang willed his spiritual core to release some more spiritual qi from the orbiting ring. Directing it towards his ears and brain, he slowly expanded his senses until he could slightly perceive the environment beyond the wooden plank.

Aided by his reinforced cognition and a steady, unceasing supply of spiritual qi, Li Mo Shang managed to form a virtual replica of the current surroundings in his mind. Replicating the environment in a spherical format with a radius of five zhang, Li Mo Shang could vaguely keep track of the events within a near distance.

Slowly increasing the intensity of spiritual qi towards his ears and brain, Li Mo Shang slowly expanded the sphere's radius until it reached the middle of the main road, of which Li Mo Shang discovered that progressing further caused a splitting headache. Reluctantly, Li Mo Shang reduced the monitoring radius to ten zhang, a distance where he could barely hear snippets of the black-uniformed men's conversation. What he did hear, however, made his blood run cold.

"Is it confirmed…target is…vicinity?"

"…check…a young…with target…"

"…not found...remove all…"

From the fragmented information obtained, Li Mo Shang guessed that these men were sent by a rather remarkable giant in the upper society of Blue Rose, or perhaps even Nan Qing. In Blue Rose City, the powers capable of amassing such a force and even equipping them with military-grade weapons would only be the Li, Shangguan, Zheng, and Huang families. Although in Nan Qing, anyone from the Twelve Great Families possessed enough influence to cause such a disturbance ignored by the government.

Withdrawing his spiritual senses back to their normal state and noticing that Su Yuan'er's eyes had regained their clarity, albeit slightly dull with terror, Li Mo Shang began to evaluate his options.

First and foremost, his immediate priority was to return to the Blue Rose University's campus, preferably back into his dorm as soon as possible. The curfews were extremely strict, and he did not want to tarnish his profile within days after the beginning of the new semester. Li Mo Shang had truly forgotten that he had already antagonized his homeroom teacher Wan Xue to the extent of drawing blood.

Li Mo Shang's expression darkened when he contemplated about the uncertainty of the extent of the disturbance, and that he also had to lug around a currently useless Su Yuan'er, for though he didn't like her very much, he didn't remember whether there was a regulation within the Blue Rose University's student guidelines that fellow baggage students couldn't be discarded. If there was and he did leave her behind, then Li Mo Shang would have truly dropped a rock on his foot.

Standing up and willing his spiritual core to actively absorb worldly qi, Li Mo Shang began to lightly stretch as he pondered over which method of escape would be best. The black-uniformed men were increasing their range of searching, and if their "target" wasn't found then everyone in this sector, including him, would die. Projecting his spiritual core into his mind, Li Mo Shang began to slowly permeate his entire body with spiritual qi, completely unaware of the outside changes.

A light, cold breeze formed from nowhere, gently brushing back Su Yuan'er hair on her forehead as well as displacing the lightest and smallest of the surrounding debris. Invisible to the human eye, Li Mo Shang's spiritual core voraciously devoured worldly qi at astonishing paces, that anyone capable of viewing into the supernatural would see light pouring into Li Mo Shang's body from all directions.

Li Mo Shang's spiritual core began to refine this inbound worldly qi, increasing the mass of the orbiting ring until it glowed with a light golden brilliance. As Li Mo Shang didn't cease directing his qi into all parts of his body, the spiritual core didn't stop its compression, until a second cluster of qi formed, orbiting at a different angle compared to the first. In an instant, Li Mo Shang's slow pace accelerated many folds without triggering a backlash.

Taking out his duffel bag from under the bewildered Su Yuan'er and placing it back on his back, Li Mo Shang sighed, before tapping her on the head with his index finger. As she looked up to him in confusion, he quickly undid the scarf wrapped around her neck, and rewrapped it around her head, covering her eyes and ears.

"Hey! What are-"

"Quiet down."

Silencing the girl once more, Li Mo Shang suddenly bent down and grabbed Su Yuan'er at the waist, hosting her over his shoulder. Bending his knees slightly, he willed the qi permeating his feet to burst, and dashed away at high speeds. As he ran, he willed the spiritual core to project spiritual qi in a spherical form, encasing his running self in a protective bubble that blocked sound and distorted light.

Maintaining a steady flow of qi throughout his body, he quickly reached a speed of 250 kmph, blazing through the empty sidewalks far away from the main roads. Although he could reach such speeds via assistance of his spiritual qi, Li Mo Shang had little confidence in his protective bubble's ability to distort light when faced against technology's advanced sensors. Though taking these winding paths covered more distance and took more time, it was significantly safer compared to brazenly dashing on the main roads.

All the while he never relaxed his grip on Su Yuan'er, keeping her locked in her position slung over his shoulder. Even though she struggled and wailed for him to put her down, he merely adjusted his grip to ensure that she didn't slip from his hand, and projected spiritual qi extend an inch from his skin, comfortably blocking the struggling girl's pounding and kicks.

Carried in such a fashion, Su Yuan'er felt like dying from embarrassment, for she was slung over a man's shoulder akin to a rice paddy sack. A man's large arm trapped her waist, pressing her stomach against his shoulder, and his back and chest felt extremely slippery, like striking at cotton; no matter the strength poured in, he simply wasn't hurt. Though her vision was largely restricted due to the scarf blocking her eyes, her ears deduced from Li Mo Shang's slightly labored breathing and the difference in sound for each step after certain intervals convinced her that they were moving rather quickly.

But why a shoulder carry ah! She wanted a princess carry from this cold unfeeling man if he was to carry her. She wasn't a bag of rice to hand in for the daily quota!

The unfortunate Su Yuan'er could only wail silently in her mind, for Li Mo Shang didn't respond. When the scarf was removed from her head and her feet touched the ground, she noticed with great surprise that they were in an empty courtyard behind the freshman dormitories. Blushing red from embarrassment as she remembered his warm arm snaked around her waist, Su Yuan followed Li Mo Shang as they made their way back to Room 303.

-

Shortly after Li Mo Shang and Su Yuan'er had successfully escaped from the chaos in Golden Tail Mall, the black-uniformed men had reached the outdoor plaza before the entrance of the mall. Noticing these black-uniformed men, the police immediately ceased their background checks on the panicked citizens and saluted respectfully towards the approaching black-uniformed men. The captain of the stationed police squad even stepped forward to kneel before the approaching group, calmly declaring:

"First District Police Commissioner Chief Su Xuan reporting to your Excellency! We have quarantined the people at Golden Tail Mall as you have instructed!"

"…Much obliged. At ease, Chief Su. If Magistrate Yang is satisfied with the results, you will no longer be restricted to that of a mere Commissioner Chief."

A man among the group of black-uniformed men noncommittally responded. Stepping forward, a slightly majestic aura emitted from his body, presenting an image of nobility, though slightly curbed. On his uniform were three golden stripes and a vertical white semicircle was painted on the back, while the others were plain and completely black.

"Many thanks for your Excellency's grace! Su Xuan shall remain loyal until his death!"

Police Commissioner Chief Su Xuan loudly saluted once more, before instructing the other policemen to stand at a respectful distance, heads bowed in submission. The man with three golden stripes stepped forward towards the trembling group of citizens in the plaza, before declaring with a powerful and sonorous voice that rang throughout the entire location.

"Standing before you is Secret Service Commissioner Chief Baili Ming Zhen! I come here before you as a representative of the Nan Qing government that there has been a terrorist organization detected in the vicinity, leading to the current quarantine. Please wait calmly until we finish our background verification, for once we finish locating these terrorist members, your lives will return to normal, and Nan Qing will provide sufficient renumeration!"

Watching these pitiful citizens sighing in relief and actively stepping forward to have their identity confirmed by the black-uniformed men, Baili Ming Zhen hid a cold smile as he maintained an impassive face, scanning through the crowd to detect any "panicking terrorist".

Inwardly, he sneered at the foolishness of the collective consciousness of these people. How could there be a terrorist in such a sector of the city where security was among the highest? These people were merely sacrificial lambs for the 'altar', and if then target was among them, then he could only say, it's a pity that your life was so short.

It was a shame that he could not taste that kind of delicate beauty, for the magistrate required her completely intact…