Sundering Nature

TL: ZhaoEditing: Krisaia

The crowd’s entranced fascination lasted until one of the “special effect” light orbs was deflected back into them, causing an explosion which injured many. The whole venue immediately turned into a chaotic mess of people fleeing for their lives, pushing and even stomping on whoever was in their way. 

Li Yiming could only watch as the tragedy unfolded. Even if he wished to help those around him, he had no attention to spare, for he knew that his confrontation with the other guardians had only started.  

The young employee invited inside by Mr. Kong was about to make for the exit when Mr. Kong grabbed her wrist. “No need to run. Trust me, you’ll be safe if you stay with me.”

Strangely, instead of fleeing in disbelief, the young girl was compelled to listen to Mr. Kong and sat down calmly. 

As the fighting continued, the lighting truss was blown off by a mortar round, while a steel beam which supported the temporary stage was cut cleanly into two by an ax. A gaping hole was produced in the giant LED panel behind the stage, and a small fire had already started on another panel to the side. Li Yiming, however, continued dancing, with more and more shadows emerging from his body with every movement. 

“A technique suitable for a large brawl…” Stargaze observed from the crowd. 

“Wait, something’s wrong. He shouldn’t need to use this ability to fight against small fries…” Mr. Xie frowned as he scrutinized Li Yiming’s movement. 

“No need to worry, we can wait. The real players to the show have yet to do anything,” Yun Yiyuan leaned comfortably against the sofa and slowly slid his hand full of calluses around Ying Mei’s collar. 

As the instrumental music for the first song finally concluded, Li Yiming paused briefly and looked around before closing his eyes once more. ‘So I lose these clones if they get hit…’ 

Sai Gao had helped Li Yiming familiarized himself with his new ability; with every dance, he would be able to temporarily acquire a new talent. However, the nature of the talent was out of his control. It was as if he was playing at a slot machine. The cloning technique was transient, and Li Yiming could only hope to be as lucky with his next draw. 

“Shit!” Li Yiming suddenly exclaimed as he continued dancing. A flurry of insults followed. 

“Crap!” 

“Asshole!” 

“Son-of-a-bitch!” 

“Animal!” 

Li Yiming looked on as he realized that his second choreography had allowed him to access a new talent: intimidation. This was a special technique which allowed him to temporarily boost his combat prowess by insulting others. 

‘Well then, this is interesting…’ Li Yiming suddenly wanted to laugh. It was an almost comical situation, were it not for the fact that he could die if he made a single mistake. 

Li Yiming sighed and accelerated his pace, hoping to finish his choreography as quickly as possible. Despite the seemingly humorous situation, his clones were greatly empowered by the technique, which spelled doom for the guardians, who were already outnumbered. 

Bang! 

Li Yiming turned to the side as a hole appeared in the ground where he stood, all while trying to keep his rhythm. 

‘Eyeglasses…’ Li Yiming knew exactly who was behind the sudden attack. 

Boom! 

Another shot. 

This time, a ray of light suddenly shot up from behind Li Yiming and intercepted the sniper round, creating a miniature explosion in midair. 

‘Fang Shui’er?’ Li Yiming turned around and saw Fang Shui’er, in her full-body armor, slowly lowering her bow. 

Li Yiming nodded in her direction as a sign of gratitude and continued dancing. 

“Alright. It’s time,” A black van arrived at the sports stadium, and a dark-skinned man jumped out of the vehicle, looking at the building from afar. 

“We need to hurry. There’s something strange with this domain. I don’t think that its sole purpose is to hunt down Li Yiming.” Pan Junwei signaled his teammates to move toward the stadium. He himself, instead of following suit, turned around and looked at an alleyway across the street. 

“Li Yiming talked to me about you. You’re quite an interesting guy.” A tall silhouette came out of the alleyway. It was Sai Gao, who looked like a bigger version of Fang Shui’er. 

“Do you know what I hate the most? People like you. You disgust me.” Pan Junwei said coldly. 

“Hahaha! Quite the contrary for me. I find muscular men like you very charming,” Sai Gao smiled and licked his lips. 

The muzzle of Pan Junwei’s gun flashed as he quickly jumped back to create some distance between Sai Gao and himself. However, by the time the bullets reached where Sai Gao stood, the latter had long vanished. 

As she cut through four of Li Yiming’s clones, Liu Meng pointed her finger in Li Yiming’s direction, and a ray of red light shot towards him, causing a giant conflagration as it landed right next to Li Yiming. 

“Li Yiming!” Fang Shui’er cried in shock as Li Yiming was engulfed by the flames. She could not understand why he did not dodge the attack. 

One of Li Yiming’s clones, who was entangled in the fight below, suddenly stopped moving. After taking care of the guardian he faced with a single blow, he turned around and looked at Liu Meng. 

“He can switch places with his clones?” Mr. Xie frowned after immediately figuring out Li Yiming’s technique.

“We’ve finished the preparations!” The young tailor came to report to him.

“Just wait a bit more…” Mr. Xie glanced at Mr. Kong, who lit up another cigarette. 

‘Alright, I’m done for now…” Li Yiming wiped his sweat. Although the battle had been in his favor up until now, he was fully aware that his true enemies have yet to make a move. He took a deep breath and resumed his dancing.  

“The one who’s dancing is the real one!” A guardian suddenly yelled and dove towards Li Yiming, despite taking a blow in the back from one of Li Yiming’s clones. 

Most of the guardians who had attacked Li Yiming now deeply regretted their decision. Many jumped to the action immediately as they were afraid that they would be too late to receive a reward. As the fight raged on, most discovered that the clones were much stronger than they had anticipated, especially considering that they were after Li Yiming for a small profit rather than risking their lives. As a result, the majority of were simply doing the bare minimum to keep the clones occupied while waiting for further development.  

As soon as someone pointed out the location of the real Li Yiming, most of the guardians immediately committed with a burst of energy and rushed toward Li Yiming. 

As his blade pierced Li Yiming’s chest, one of the guardians, a skinny man, trembled in excitement, unwilling to believe that such good fortune befell him. 

The next moment, his skull was pierced by a ray of light. As Fang Shu’er lowered her bow down again, she turned around to look at Li Yiming, who was still dancing on the other side of the stadium. 

“Idiots. How could he be killed this easily?” Yun Yiyuan as he tightened his grip around Ying Mei’s breast. 

“Are you going to wait?” Ying Mei bit her lip and glanced at Yun Yiyuan, not daring to resist despite being in pain. 

“We can wait. Don’t you see that all those old foxes are sitting still?” Yun Yiyuan chuckled and glanced in Li Huaibei’s direction.

As the crowd of guardians turned their attention toward Li Yiming, they saw all of Li Yiming’s clones standing in formation. 

“Eat my hammer!” The clones yelled in unison as they put their arms up. A giant flash of light streaked across the sky, followed by the drop of a hundred massive hammers.