"Don't be afraid, I'm not here to capture you. Miss Susu, your mother asked me to find you. She was very worried when she hadn't heard from you for so long and has already reported you missing."
Ning Beichen immediately explained, not wanting to be misunderstood.
"My mother?"
Upon hearing Ning Beichen's words, Susu stopped the two people beside her and looked at Ning Beichen, asking herself.
"What proof do you have that you're the one my mother asked for?"
"Miss Susu, the proof is simple. I can call your mother right now, and you'll know."
Ning Beichen told her.
At this moment, a man beside her whispered, "Susu, we need to go. The Red Fox people are almost upon us."
Susu nodded and said to Ning Beichen, "Thank you. If it's true, your mission is complete. You can go back and tell my mother I'm fine and she doesn't need to worry. I'll return, but not now."
"That won't do. I promised your mother I would bring you back safely," Ning Beichen said.
"I have things to do. I won't go with you. Someone is chasing us, I have to leave."
Susu said and was about to leave.
However, Yan Xiong blocked their path. Before Ning Beichen could tell them to leave, they couldn't depart.
Susu shifted her gaze to Ning Beichen, looking angry and annoyed.
"Miss Susu, I apologize, but I'm afraid I cannot let you go," Ning Beichen said with a smile.
Just then, the man in the yellow windbreaker beside her said anxiously, "There's no time, they've caught up. Prepare for battle."
They hadn't expected to be intercepted even on this hidden route, wondering if it was their bad luck or someone else's good fortune.
Furthermore, these people claimed to be hired by her mother to find her, yet their demeanor was not that of hired help, so Susu didn't trust Ning Beichen.
"Move aside!"
The man in the yellow windbreaker pointed his weapon at Yan Xiong.
Yan Xiong, however, didn't budge. The man in the windbreaker suddenly threw a punch at Yan Xiong, creating a sonic boom.
But in front of Yan Xiong and his companions, no matter how fast he was or how strong his blows, it was merely mortal strength.
"Die!"
The man in the yellow windbreaker roared.
But in the next moment, he was sent flying back like a fly.
"Brother Hao."
Susu rushed to his side, seeing that Tian Hao's lips were bleeding and his arm was broken.
Another man prepared to shoot at Yan Xiong from the side.
But before he could pull the trigger, Yan Xiong swatted him away, even shattering his weapon into pieces.
"Unless my master permits it, you'd best not make any rash moves," Yan Xiong warned them impolitely. He was no benevolent soul; without Ning Beichen restraining him, he could have gone on a killing spree.
"You... who exactly are you? Didn't you say you were hired by my mother? Why are you doing this?" Susu asked furiously.
"Your mother did ask me to find you, but that was only one of my objectives. I am not controlled by your mother, and your mother didn't pay me, so I wasn't hired by her," Ning Beichen told her.
"Then what do you want? The people behind us are coming. If you don't let me go, we'll all be captured," Susu said loudly to Ning Beichen.
"With me here, no one can capture you," Ning Beichen remained unhurried.
"No! You don't know how powerful the Red Fox people are. You don't understand them at all," Susu shouted at Ning Beichen.
At this moment, Yan Xiong spoke, "You know nothing of my master's strength."
But his words were of no use to Susu. In her eyes, no matter how strong they were, they were just a few individuals, while the Red Fox was a mysterious and vast evil organization.
They not only had numerous thugs and lackeys but also more formidable gene warriors.
Gene warriors were humans who had undergone genetic modification, making their physical capabilities more than a hundred times stronger than ordinary humans, impervious to blades and spears, capable of fighting a hundred with one. This was a development from recent years, still in a confidential stage.
"Miss Susu, don't worry. They're just a bunch of insignificant riff-raff," Ning Beichen said nonchalantly.
"No! You don't know how powerful they are..."
Before Susu could finish speaking, she saw the Red Fox people emerge from the passage. Seeing Susu, their faces lit up with joy.
"Miss Susu, come with us. I won't hurt you," one of the men said to her.
"Yan Xiong, make sure they don't see tomorrow's sun," Ning Beichen's expression turned grim as he commanded Yan Xiong.
"Yes, master."
Yan Xiong flickered and appeared before the men. Like a gust of wind sweeping away fallen leaves, these Red Fox subordinates turned into corpses.
Because Yan Xiong remembered Ning Beichen saying "make sure they don't see tomorrow's sun," he didn't think it meant blinding them but rather making them corpses.
However, at this moment, a man clad in alloy armor lunged at Yan Xiong like a missile.
His speed was like lightning, swift as a shooting star, but it was still not fast enough for Yan Xiong.
With a resounding crash!
Yan Xiong exchanged a punch with him.
The man in the alloy armor was sent flying by Yan Xiong's punch, his body hitting the wall and creating a large crater.
But soon, the man in the alloy armor got up as if nothing had happened and shook his neck, producing clicking sounds like gears turning.
"Is this the gene warrior Susu spoke of?" Ning Beichen murmured, his eyes clearly expressing disdain, visible to anyone with eyes.
Humans were the spirits of all things, yet they had become like monsters. For cultivators, this was a blasphemy against their own bodies.
Humans indeed needed to evolve, to break free from their limitations and pursue higher realms.
But not by turning themselves into something neither human nor ghost, nor by becoming half-machine. Otherwise, what was the purpose of human life?
However, the gene warrior in the alloy armor did have some substance; he wasn't entirely useless.
Seeing him get up, he charged at Yan Xiong again like a missile.
But the strength of this gene warrior was, at most, equivalent to that of a Grandmaster in the mortal martial arts world. For ordinary people, they were indeed an insurmountable existence.
However, for Ning Beichen and Yan Xiong, who had already transcended the mortal realm, these gene warriors were mere trash.
Yan Xiong, facing the charging gene warrior, punched straight through the armor covering him, creating a hole directly in his body.