Chapter 52: Escape

Ali and Andy, the outlaw brothers, had no idea that Hsiang Shan had already spotted them via drone before they even laid eyes on him.

Hsiang Shan was not one to initiate unprovoked attacks or hijack vehicles. However, since the adversaries had taken the initiative to strike with lethal intent, he would naturally return the favor in kind.

Ali was already gripped by terror. Yes, sheer terror. He no longer had room for the emotion of regret.

He felt that man hoist Andy’s corpse up with his own weapon and hoist it behind his back. He had also confiscated Andy’s armaments.

Andy’s motorcycle continued to roll forward on its own. With its extremely low center of gravity, the vehicle could maintain momentum even without a rider. Should steering be required, Hsiang Shan simply needed to press down on the handlebars using his long staff.

Ali heard a series of metal-striking sounds from behind. By some means, Hsiang Shan was systematically destroying the screws securing the external armor.

Immediately following that came the sound of a sharp blade slicing through flesh, accompanied by the dripping of fluid.

Blood might have splashed onto his own back, Ali thought. That was his younger brother’s blood.

The stench of blood could not outpace the speed of the motorcycle, sparing Ali from olfactory torment.

Yet, he began to weep.

"Oh, crying now," that terrifying voice came from behind him. "Can you feel it? What it's like to be treated with violence..."

"You’re a martial artist, aren't you? What good does doing this sort of thing do you..."

"What are you babbling about..."

A hand pressed down on the back of Ali’s head. Ali thought he was dead as blackness closed in—terror had completely overwhelmed his visual processing.

Then he heard: "That blood-soaked spine behind your brother, do you see it? What good did treating its original owner that way do for you and yours? Whatever good that act brought you, this action brings me the exact same."

Ali shuddered. He realized that even if he complied completely with the martial artist’s demands, the man would never let him go. Despair eclipsed every other thought—he could not even muster the courage to drag his killer down with him.

Meanwhile, Hsiang Shan had sliced open Andy’s torso.

Then he let out a sigh of relief. "Hoh, 'Dragon's Breath'... not bad."

"Dragon's Breath" was a first-generation artificial prosthetic lung designed for athletes. Its special design mimicked the unique "air sac system" of sauropsids and birds, adding a cluster of air sacs to the posterior section of the lungs. This ensured that whether inhaling or exhaling, the air inside the lungs flowed at a continuous, high speed, unlike mammals, where air remains stationary between breaths.

According to research, this structural lung design supported the terrifying athletic capabilities of dinosaurs, which was why this particular artificial lung prosthesis was named "Dragon's Breath."

"Tsk tsk, this prosthetic architecture has actually been passed down to this day... Well, if your cyberization rate is maxed out, the lungs are nothing more than a burden. As long as they can supply enough oxygen to the brain, that's enough. I remember from the first cyborg... what was that athletic event... to full cyberization, it only took ten years?"

In this era, artificial prosthetic lungs were only used temporarily by individuals with relatively low cyberization rates.

Still, an artificial prosthetic lung was always better than a biological one. After all, prosthetic lungs had no need to account for rejection reactions.

With this, Yuki could be saved.

"Come to think of it, 'Dragon's Breath'... is that some kind of Japanese brand? The naming taste is truly beyond words."

While pondering, Hsiang Shan extracted the battery from Andy’s body.

His battles with Griad and the welfare officer had consumed a tremendous amount of battery power. Moreover, the "Donkey" carrying his spare batteries had wandered off, and he still had to divert energy to keep Yuki alive. Right now, he was indeed running a bit low on energy.

At that moment, he suddenly raised his head, gave Ali’s elbow a casual tap, and simultaneously used his long staff to alter the trajectory of Andy’s motorcycle.

The drone transmitted a signal back.

The "Donkey" had been found.

***

With a soft "puff," Grand Dog stamped out the small flame flickering beneath his foot.

It was a self-igniting metal battery—yet another booby trap.

Grand Dog realized something: his opponent was a veteran.

That fellow named "Shan" possessed a very high degree of anti-tracking awareness. The amnesiac seemed to be well aware of his existence as a "pursuer," and had thus laid out these non-lethal booby traps. Their sole purpose was to broadcast a faint signal at close range, acting as beacons to mark his position.

Every spot that carried a "scent" had these little contraptions hidden nearby.

"Interesting..."

Following the direction indicated by the three mines he had triggered, Grand Dog ran along a sinusoidal trajectory.

A short while later, he stopped and sniffed the ground intently.

There was a set of footprints and two sets of tire tracks. It appeared to be one person on foot and two thugs on motorcycles. At a certain point, the footprints simply vanished.

The windblown sand had nearly obliterated the tracks, leaving him unable to glean any further details. However, one detail niggled at the back of his mind—had the owner of those footprints been abducted onto a motorcycle, or had his target hijacked the vehicle?

Judging by the direction indicated by the booby traps, that seemed unlikely, as the path of those footprints diverged from the direction "Shan" was heading. But if the footprint owner had attempted to hijack the motorcycle, it would have required formidable martial arts mastery. That would largely align with "Shan's" profile.

After all, there weren't many people with that kind of martial prowess around.

Grand Dog jogged a few steps along the direction of the tire tracks before spotting blood on the ground.

He sniffed it. It didn't smell like "Shan."

It looked as though the owner of those footprints had been killed.

So thought the dark brown hound as he resumed his pursuit in the direction he had chosen.

The wind and sand soon thoroughly erased both the footprints and the tire tracks.

***

As dawn broke, Hsiang Shan finally let out a long breath.

Looking down at Yuki lying on the ground, he twisted his mouth into a grimace. "Tsk tsk, a good thing I know a thing or two about medicine... Come to think of it, how is it that I know how to do everything? Just who on earth am I?"

Mr. Ali ultimately did not escape with his life. Once the "Donkey" was recovered and the motorcycles no longer required manual steering, Hsiang Shan sent him on his way without a shred of lingering sentiment.

Having learned of the outlaws' ecology from Leif's memories, Hsiang Shan held not an ounce of pity for any of them.

Capable of committing such malicious acts, they were utterly unworthy of the name human.

Andy's prosthetic lung was successfully implanted into Yuki's body. Furthermore, the artificial plasma, water, and rations carried by the two motorcycles were all fed into Yuki.

His disciple's life had likely been saved.

Additionally, the pursuer seemed to have been successfully misled in another direction.

After the first booby trap set by Hsiang Shan was tripped, the fourth and sixth mines were triggered in succession. The pursuer apparently failed to realize that he was merely running in circles in this area while searching for the "Donkey," assuming instead that his quarry was fleeing for his life, and thus charged straight ahead in hot pursuit.

This was why Hsiang Shan had dared to stop and perform surgery on Yuki.

The enclosed space formed by half a tapestry barely blocked the howling wind and sand—this served as their operating room. The scalpel was none other than Ronconi's blade, and the suture thread was made from stripped electrical wire.

Hsiang Shan remembered that none of the old-generation pathogens could infect metal-based humans. Yet he had also heard that Yuki's father and Enoch had both fallen ill.

This was hardly a favorable sign. It should not have been the result of natural evolution. He simply could not fathom why anyone would want to upgrade pathogens to match this new version.

With no other options, however, he had no choice but to push forward. Hsiang Shan could only place his trust in the resilience of metal-based humans—what was the species name again?—this new breed of humanity's resistance to mechanical damage.

"Still... what on earth is it... the species name..."

While deciphering Griad's chip, Hsiang Shan occasionally found himself pondering such questions.

Then, the sun and moon traversed the sky, alternating day and night.

Over the next two days, Hsiang Shan continuously fed water and nutrient solutions into Yuki's body, then waited in quiet vigilance.

On the third day, Yuki finally regained consciousness.

"Phew... Kid, consider yourself lucky. Thank whoever developed that genetic modification therapy," Hsiang Shan remarked. "If you were still Homo sapiens, you'd have been brain-dead long ago."

Yuki blinked in confusion. "Ho... mo... sapiens?"

"The binomial nomenclature for 'Old Humans.' 'Homo' is the genus name, the human genus. Sapiens, the wise man species," Hsiang Shan muttered thoughtfully. "By binomial rules, 'New Humans' ought to be named 'Homo vexillues'."

Yuki was puzzled. "Does this... mean anything?"

Hsiang Shan looked around. "Well, true enough, you probably don't see any significance in it. After all, I haven't even laid eyes on a single blade of grass lately."

Taxonomy was the sort of discipline whose necessity only became glaringly obvious when the diversity of species was sufficiently vast.

Yuki had practically never laid eyes on more than a handful of species worth classifying.

Though the boy did not fully grasp what his master was talking about, judging by his teasing tone, it was presumably some kind of joke. He strained his facial muscles, forcing a smile.

Yet tears still spilled over.

"Wah... wahhhhh..." Yuki wiped at his tears with his hand. Having received his prosthetic hand only recently, he had yet to master its force control and inadvertently scraped a bloody gash beneath his eyelid. Hsiang Shan immediately pinned Yuki's hand down. "I didn't replace your prosthetics so you could mutilate yourself."

"I know... wah... I know..." Yuki choked out. "But my mother... my mother... Mom, she..."

Hsiang Shan released Yuki's hand and gently patted his head. "Yes, Ms. Yulia was an extraordinary person. Remember the feeling you have right now, Yuki—never forget the pain you feel at this moment, and carve it deep into your heart."

Yuki sniffled. "And then?"

"And then, it depends on what you want to do." Hsiang Shan looked straight at him. "You could decide it was all my fault. If I had left a little earlier, perhaps this disaster wouldn't have spilled over onto your mother. Thinking that way might make you feel a bit better..."

"That's impossible!" Yuki roared. "I saw who did it... The person who killed my mother, I know who it is!"

"Good. Since you've discarded the path of self-deception, you've earned the qualification to walk 'this road' to the end." Hsiang Shan looked at Yuki, his expression solemn. "Get yourself ready. We're going to exact our revenge."