Unconventional [Rebirth] - Chapter 99

It was a scene that no one present would ever be able to forget for the rest of their lives.

Just as the pursuers thought the three escapees were like turtles trapped in a jar, a figure suddenly ascended from the edge of the dead-end cliff. Unlike an actor in a martial arts drama suspended by wires, this person had his hands folded behind his back, his posture leisurely, and his feet level as if he were treading on solid ground.

The gunmen froze, staring blankly as Jiang Rui walked from the void toward the cliff’s edge. His pace was slow, yet cold sweat began to pour down the faces of many.

Jiang Rui was dressed in black. His mid-length hair rested quietly against his neck, and his eyes were calm. However, when his gaze landed on the fresh wounds on Xiao Lunan’s arm, a flash of uncontrollable rage flickered within those dark, bottomless depths.

He recognized a familiar face among the crowd—Wang Chenghui—who was now staring at him with eyes wide in shock. Jiang Rui’s lips curled into a mocking smile. He knew that in his previous life, Wang Chenghui had been a devout worshiper of Guan Yu, the God of Brotherhood. The irony was palpable; in two lifetimes, Wang Chenghui’s actions toward Jiang Rui hadn’t possessed a shred of the “brotherly loyalty” Guan Yu represented.

“Mr. Wang, it has been a long time,” Jiang Rui said softly. Though he made no aggressive move, his sheer presence forced many of the men to swallow hard in fear.

The late summer wind rustled through the dense suburban woods, and the buzzing of insects—a sound usually ignored as a nuisance—now added a layer of eerie horror to the atmosphere. Wang Chenghui involuntarily took a step back. He watched Jiang Rui approach him with a regal, solemn stride, looking as unreachable as an ancient emperor performing a sacrificial rite.

Upon closer inspection, every step Jiang Rui took was measured with terrifying precision. As he walked, wild flowers fell in his wake; from any angle, it looked like the legendary “Lotuses blooming at every step.”

Terrified to his core, Wang Chenghui forced a stiff smile, trying to suppress a fear so great it felt like his organs might burst. “Mr. Jiang… what kind of trick is this?”

Jiang Rui did not answer. He looked at Wang Chenghui with an arrogant gaze, as if he were looking at an ant.

The silence was too much for one of the henchmen. With a scream of terror, the man dropped his weapon and fled. Jiang Rui smiled, his fingers moving slightly behind his back as he withdrew the mental illusions he had placed in the man’s mind. That scream acted as a catalyst; several others dropped their weapons and stumbled down the mountain.

Wang Chenghui’s expression was ghastly. Of his thirty men, only the driver with the broken hand and fewer than ten others remained. He could see their legs shaking—they were useless.

“Your men seem to have very little courage, Mr. Wang,” Jiang Rui remarked. His voice was as relaxed as someone waking from a nap to sip tea, yet these words were the final straw for the remaining cowards, who promptly scrambled away.

Scoffing, Jiang Rui lost interest in talking. He turned to walk toward Xiao Lunan, but as he did, he saw Xiao Lunan’s pupils contract and his mouth open as if to shout a warning.

It was too late. Jiang Rui felt a dull thud against his back—he had been shot.

Frowning slightly, he turned back to see Wang Chenghui holding a smoking gun, his expression crazed and pushed to the limit. The gunshot sparked a chain reaction; the remaining loyalists raised their weapons and aimed at Jiang Rui.

Expressionless, Jiang Rui reached out into the air. Using his internal energy, he gripped Wang Chenghui’s throat and flung him aside. Wang’s head slammed against a tree, and blood splattered across the grass.

He wasn’t dead. Jiang Rui kept a sliver of life in him, forcing him to remain conscious to feel his blood draining and the agonizing pain in his head without allowing him to pass out. As for the others who fired, Jiang Rui didn’t hold back; he cast two Confusion Charms, causing them to begin shooting at one another.

Ignoring his fallen enemies, Jiang Rui returned to the others. Xiao Lunan looked at him with an intense gaze—not one of malice, but something more like a child’s curiosity toward a new toy. Jiang Rui felt a chill; he knew Xiao Lunan’s stubborn, inquisitive nature all too well.

He knelt and patted little Jiang Xi’s head. Seeing the admiration in her eyes, he felt a bit playful despite the corpses surrounding them. “Xi-Xi, was your brother cool just now?”

Jiang Xi blinked. Unlike a normal child, she remained calm—perhaps she had seen too much by now. She nodded heavily. “Brother is the coolest!”

Jiang Rui smiled, but his ears caught the sound of sirens approaching the base of the mountain. “I’ll send the three of you away and clean up here…”

Suddenly, two silenced gunshots rang out. Xiao Wu and the treacherous driver both collapsed.

The smile froze on Jiang Rui’s face. The back of his thin shirt was now soaked through with warm blood. He turned woodenly to see Wang Chenghui with a grotesque smile, his hand finally slumping to the ground.

At the same moment Wang Chenghui had fired, the driver had also fired—but his target had been Wang Chenghui. The situation was bizarrely tangled. The driver had been standing in a position to shield Xiao Lunan; Wang Chenghui’s shot had been meant for Xiao Lunan, but why had the driver fired at himself?

Jiang Rui looked at the dying driver and forcibly read his memories. It was a risky move; forced memory reading can damage the minds of both parties and lead to mental instability. However, Jiang Rui only extracted the specific part he needed.

It turned out that Wang Chenghui had kidnapped the driver’s wife and daughter. The driver had been forced to betray Xiao Lunan, but recently, Wang’s men had “mistaken” his wife for a prostitute and abused her and his daughter. Though they survived, the driver was broken. In his final moments, he chose to protect Xiao Lunan as a way to atone and get revenge on Wang Chenghui.

Jiang Rui looked down coldly and dissipated the man’s memories. Wang Chenghui had taken a bullet to the chest but was still alive because Jiang Rui was forcibly sustaining his life force. Wang’s throat made a horrific, mechanical wheezing sound as he suffered.

Jiang Rui rushed to Xiao Wu’s side. His body was still warm and his heart was beating, but he was surrounded by an aura of death. Suddenly, the temperature on the mountain plummeted. Little Jiang Xi shivered, her eyes glazed.

Jiang Rui’s face paled. He heard the sound of chains rattling. It was just past noon in the heat of summer—why would the Wuchang (Soul Reapers) be coming now?!

There was no time to think. As the spectral chains reached for the fallen, Jiang Rui struck. He grabbed Xiao Lunan’s hand, sliced a small wound, and used the blood to draw a rapid incantation, hurling it toward the Soul Reapers.

A clattering of chains echoed, followed by the strike of a white “Mourning Staff” hitting Jiang Rui. He let out a pained groan, his face turning ghostly white. Xiao Lunan and Jiang Xi stayed perfectly still as instructed, watching in horror as Jiang Rui collapsed and rolled on the ground in agony.

Once the dark energy finally dissipated, Jiang Rui spat out a mouthful of black blood. The taste was metallic and foul. He rinsed his mouth with summoned water, but the blow to his back from the Soul Reaper’s staff was devastating.

However, Xiao Wu’s soul was still in his body. Jiang Rui realized that Wang Chenghui’s aim had been off; he hadn’t been aiming for Xiao Lunan, and Xiao Wu had shielded Jiang Xi at the critical moment. Seeing the glowing red thread of fate between Xiao Wu and Jiang Xi grow thicker and redder, Jiang Rui narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

Hearing the hurried footsteps of the police, Jiang Rui quickly cast several concealment and illusion spells. In the eyes of the arriving officers, they were all bloody victims. With Jiang Xi’s help, Jiang Rui “fainted.”

Xiao Lunan saw Zhou Yongping leading the police up the mountain. Looking at the “unconscious” Xiao Wu, Jiang Rui, and Jiang Xi, he silently lay down on the ground and started playing dead too. He didn’t know that under Jiang Rui’s careful arrangement, they all looked like they were on the verge of death. As soon as the ambulances arrived, the paramedics treated Xiao Lunan and Xiao Wu as high-priority cases, handling them with extreme care.