Chapter 25: Heaven’s Punishment
Chapter 25: Heaven’s Punishment
At night, Lan Mu, dressed in a black hoodie and carrying a bow and arrows, moved swiftly across the rooftops of Pinghu Pedestrian Street.
The first two floors were mostly shops, while the upper levels had residents living inside.
Lan Mu began his search silently, without leaping from window to window using his light-stepping ability.
Instead, he whistled. Soon, a large flock of birds of all kinds flew to him, swirling around him.
“Search every window,” he commanded. “Find the target and report back to me.”
At his order, the birds scattered, fluttering their wings past windows, searching house by house.
These were birds Lan Mu had forcibly captured. He had pulled the Life Force from each one, then fed it back to them.
This transformed the birds, giving them the ability to communicate with him. Through this bond, they became the eyes and ears of nature’s will.
This was the method he thought of to find the killer. Animals and plants tamed by Nature’s Power would fall under the sway of nature’s will. This was the domain of the Elf.
While Pinghu Street wasn’t a forest-like home ground, the birds were still somewhat useful in helping find a person.
Lan Mu didn’t idle either. Bird searches were still a bit naive. He himself moved among the rooftops, scanning every person below with his sharp vision.
Finally, in the latter half of the night, a bird reported back to Lan Mu.
A suspected target had been found. Lan Mu immediately had the bird lead the way and followed closely behind.
His agile figure darted through the concrete jungle. With a casual leap, he could bridge the gap between two buildings.
Yu Hetu was indeed hiding in Pinghu Pedestrian Street. His hiding spot was nothing special—just in a regular residential building.
He slept soundly in a room on the third floor, completely unaware he’d been discovered.
Standing on an air conditioner unit outside the window, Lan Mu saw the sleeping Yu Hetu and smiled coldly.
He then rapped on the window, jolting Yu Hetu awake.
Yu Hetu jumped down from the bed. His first sight was the figure in black outside the window. The person was shadowed, wearing a mask and sunglasses – enough to alarm anyone.
Strangely, Yu Hetu didn’t scream immediately. Instead, he asked tentatively.
“Uncle Wolf?”
This time, it was Lan Mu’s turn to be confused. Uncle Wolf? Wrong person?
Was this “Uncle Wolf” his accomplice?
A split second later, Yu Hetu spotted the bow and arrows on Lan Mu’s back. Enemy! He realized instantly.
Instead of running, he grabbed an iron rod hanging nearby and thrust it through the window at the intruder.
The glass shattered with a piercing scream.
Seeing Yu Hetu’s desperate resistance, Lan Mu shook his head coldly. He shifted his weight slightly and dodged with ease.
He then grabbed the iron rod as it jabbed past him and yanked it hard towards himself!
The force lurched Yu Hetu right towards the window. He stumbled forward two steps.
Moving swiftly, Lan Mu reached through the broken window, clamped his hand around Yu Hetu’s neck, and pulled him bodily out!
Yu Hetu’s upper body dangled in the open air. Only his feet still hooked onto the windowsill, leaving him completely off-balance.
If not for Lan Mu gripping the back of his neck, he would have plummeted down right then.
“Who are you? Who ARE you?” Yu Hetu screamed.
Lan Mu paid no attention to his questions. Instead, he spoke flatly, “Yu Hetu. Use your phone. Call the police.”
“Huh? What? Let me go! Let me go, damn you!” Yu Hetu ignored the command, struggling violently instead.
Unfortunately, Lan Mu’s hand was coated in Nature’s Power. He held Yu Hetu in an unbreakable grip.
Yu Hetu managed to twist his head slightly, looking up from below at Lan Mu’s thoroughly concealed face.
Though he couldn’t see the features, he was clever. Suddenly, realization flashed.
“It’s you! That… that pretty boy with the sunglasses! You were there that day too!” he gasped.
A dark anger flickered across Lan Mu’s eyes. “Do as I said,” he said frostily. “Call the police.”
Then, he abruptly let go.
Yu Hetu lost his balance and immediately began to fall out the window.
Lan Mu was quicker. He instantly grabbed the man’s leg. Yu Hetu, driven by instinct, also clawed desperately onto the air conditioner grate just in time.
“Call. The. Police. Last time I’m telling you.”
Yu Hetu knew he was trapped. Pointless struggles and shouts wouldn’t save him now.
He seemed to be calculating something, but slowly, he fumbled for his phone. He powered it on and dialed the emergency number.
“Say it. Say you are Yu Hetu. Say you’re sorry… to every person you killed!”
“I… I…”
The call connected. Hearing the police operator’s ‘Hello? Emergency?’ on the other end, Yu Hetu felt completely confused about what this masked figure wanted. But his options were gone. He had to comply.
“This is Yu Hetu,” he rasped into the phone. “I… I’m sorry… for every person I killed…” He finished the forced sentence.
Instantly, chaos erupted on the other end. Obviously, Yu Hetu’s phone number was known to the police. Previously, he’d kept it switched off, immune to their calls.
Now suddenly? Yu Hetu himself, the suspect, calling? Reporting himself? The police were instantly on high alert. The dispatcher changed twice in twelve seconds. Finally, a thick, authoritative voice came on: “Yu Hetu! Where are you? Is this some kind of mockery? Answer!”
Mockery? Yu Hetu wanted to cry. It was anything but that.
Beside him, barely audible to the phone, Lan Mu whispered, “Tell them your location. Then confess everything. The crimes. Your accomplices.”
Yu Hetu frowned and snorted. “Accomplices? I don’t have any accomplices!”
Seeing the denial, Lan Mu wasn’t surprised. He hadn’t expected Yu Hetu to cooperate honestly. Anyway, Yu Hetu had just discarded his only lifeline.
“Fine, you don’t want to confess? Then forget it.” Lan Mu shrugged dismissively.
At the same time, the police on the line heard the confusing exchange. “Yu Hetu! Who are you talking to? WHERE ARE YOU? What is your objective?” the deep voice demanded.
Under the suffocating pressure radiating from Lan Mu, Yu Hetu felt his mind unraveling. He had no choice. “Damn it! I… I’m at Pinghu Pedestrian Street!” he choked out, humiliated. “Someone… someone’s trying to kill me! Fuck!”
Saying it made him burn with shame. He, a murderer, who had just killed a cop days ago, was now forced to call the police himself? Forced to report that someone was trying to kill him? The bitter irony was driving him mad.
“Wrong!”
Lan Mu’s voice cut through sharply, amplified.
“It is Heaven’s Punishment!”
With that declaration, Lan Mu abruptly released his grip.
Yu Hetu screamed in pure terror as he plummeted. Then came a sickening thud.
The third floor wasn’t super high. As he fell, Yu Hetu instinctively tucked and rolled, protecting vital areas. He survived the impact.
Agony tore through him. “ARGGHH!” His wails pierced the night air. Clutching his broken body, biting back agony, he forced himself to scramble up onto the sidewalk. He tried to stagger, half-run, half-hobble, away from the building.
All around, lights snapped on. Windows were flung open as residents, startled by the commotion – the screams, the shouting, the heavy thud – peered out curiously.
“Hey! Someone jumped down!” came the shout.
A neighbor whose flat shared a wall with Yu Hetu’s opened his window. He peered at the shattered window next to his, then scanned the street below, spotting the crippled figure stumbling away.
Seeing no one else, the neighbor muttered, confused. “Heard voices… ‘Heaven’s Punishment’ or something? Where’d the other guy go?”
Yu Hetu tried desperately to flee. One leg was broken, his hip felt shattered, and his right arm hung uselessly from a dislocated shoulder. Pure agony pulsed with every uneven step. He made it only a few dozen feet.
Suddenly, the wail of police sirens sliced through the night air. Multiple patrol cars. Converging fast.
“Damned cops!” he spat, despair mixing with terror. “But… at least that guy isn’t chasing me…”
Yu Hetu repeatedly glanced back over his shoulder. The dark figure was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps relieved to finally be rid of him?
“Maybe…” he choked out between gasps of pain, “getting caught by the cops… is still better… than being caught by him.”
He’d felt it—Lan Mu genuinely intended to kill him.
Then, a cold, detached voice cut through the air, directly above him.
“Talk. Who is the accomplice? Or you won’t even face trial.”
Yu Hetu’s blood froze. He jerked his head upward.
Standing perfectly balanced on a street lamp directly above him: the black-cloaked figure. An arrow already knocked, drawn back tight, aimed straight at his heart.
“You…?”
He had no idea when the figure arrived. Cloaked in night shadows against the dark sky, it descended like a ghost onto the lamp. Yu Hetu hadn’t sensed a thing.
SHWIP!
The arrow flashed down. It hammered into Yu Hetu’s only uninjured limb—his left arm.
“AHHH! AGH!” Yu Hetu screamed, pure fear overwhelming the pain now.
“HELP! POLICE! HELP ME!!” he shrieked towards the approaching sirens.
SHWIP!
Another arrow! This one punched squarely into his right chest, violently piercing a lung.
Yu Hetu gasped instantly, unable to scream. Agony crushed his chest. Every breath felt like swallowing fire.
“P-please! D-d-don’t kill me!” he rasped, choking.
Lan Mu asked with chilling calm. “Speak. Who is the accomplice?”
“I’ll talk! I’ll tell! Uncle Wolf! It was Uncle Wolf who helped me!”
Yu Hetu finally cracked. Raw survival instinct kicked in. The terrifying chill radiating from the arrows embedded in his flesh made him tremble uncontrollably.
“Go on.” Lan Mu calmly nocked another arrow. SHWIP! It ripped into Yu Hetu’s left leg, anchoring him to the spot.
“NO MORE! PLEASE!” Yu Hetu begged, near-hysterical. He forced the words out between coughs that wracked his bleeding chest. “Uncle Wolf… fellow villager… Shandong province… know he goes by ‘Qu’… met by chance… only saw him a few times…”
A violent coughing fit seized him. Blood sprayed onto his lips. He pushed through, terrified of another arrow. “After Zhang Hong fired me… I complained… He said he could settle things… Got Zhang Hong… When I… with her…” he stammered shamefully, “…she fought hard… went mad… choked her… didn’t mean to…”
“Uncle Wolf… said he’d fix it… delay finding her… make cops think she died later…” More coughing. “I agreed… so I wouldn’t be suspected… let myself get locked in… the local police station…”
“Later… I found out… he cut up her body… did something… faked the time of death somehow…”
“Cough… cough… After that… I was stuck… He’d kidnap girls… one a week… give them to me…” Yu Hetu gulped air like a dying fish. He spat blood. “Then he’d… take them… for some… experiments…” Coughs shook him violently. “Don’t know… exactly… seemed medical… scalpel… he was very fast…” His breath rattled. “Cutting them up… always his job! I just… carried stuff! Cleaned up!”
Lan Mu’s voice was icy. “But you killed the cop.”
“I… had no choice…” Yu Hetu whimpered, tears streaking his dirty face. He slumped lower.
Lan Mu pressed sharply. “That man? His full name? Is it Qu Lang?”
“Don’t know full name!” Yu Hetu gasped desperately. “Just know surname ‘Qu’! Told me… call him Uncle Wolf! Fake name! Must be!”
Lan Mu leaned slightly forward on the lamppost, the compound bow held steady. “Anything more you haven’t said?” His tone held a sinister finality.
Yu Hetu stared up in pure terror at the figure silhouetted against the city night sky. “Nothing! I swear! That’s ALL! PLEASE! Let me li—”
SHWIP!
The final arrow drove home.
It struck Yu Hetu directly between his wide, horrified eyes.
His face froze in absolute terror, etched with raw disbelief and furious panic. A choked gurgle escaped him. He toppled backward.
Yu Hetu was dead.
The police sirens screamed deafeningly now. Patrol spotlights pierced the street, sweeping towards the scene.
Lan Mu dropped silently from the lamppost. Moving faster than the eye could track, he ripped the arrows free from the corpse and the pavement. He placed a small object next to the body—a Voice Recorder.
Then, like wind dissolving into shadow, he melted away, disappearing into the enveloping night.
When the police cars screeched to a stop seconds later, blue lights strobing the surrounding buildings, they arrived too late.
The body lay cold on the street.
The mysterious killer was gone.
He left them just one thing: the Voice Recorder containing every terrified word Yu Hetu had confessed before his final bowshot.
The gathered police stared blankly at the lifeless form. A heavy silence pressed down, thick with unanswered questions.