PDLP 129. Don't linger in battle.
129. Don't linger in battle.
As the fleeing crowds gradually dispersed, the streets were left in a mess, and there were very few pedestrians blocking the way. Zhou Hongyi and his group quickened their pace. But just as they were about to cross the Jing'an District, a dark figure suddenly leaped down from a low building next to them.
Zhou Hongyi, who had activated both the [Master of Deception] and [Melee Domain] abilities simultaneously, reacted with his body before his brain. The moment the dark shadow fell on his head, he lunged to the side, rolled once on the ground, and then quickly bounced up, taking eight steps backward in quick succession.
During this process, Zhou Hongyi saw through the small hole in the mask that the white, cold light flashed out eight times. It wasn't until he slammed against the wall with a "bang" that a bead of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.
"Hehehe... Gotcha."
The swift-moving black figure was none other than Sasaki, a blind man dressed as a ronin.
With his dog-like keen sense of smell and equally keen hearing, he accurately located Zhou Hongyi and his two companions in the crowd, and chased after them by scaling walls and houses and taking shortcuts.
He had just drawn his sword and swung it eight times at his target. Zhou Hongyi heard a few soft "crack" sounds, and the big-headed doll covering his head instantly shattered into eight pieces and fell to the ground.
Fortunately, although the big-headed doll's head was smashed, what was revealed inside was not its original appearance, but a monkey face mask.
The agents of Agent 76, who were chasing after Sasaki, were about to draw their guns when they were suddenly knocked over by a crowd that surged out of an alley.
There were more than two hundred people in the group. They seemed to be civilians who had fled from the other side. The torrent of people knocked down the agents and trampled over them. By the time the crowd had passed, the agents had been trampled beyond recognition.
The two hundred-plus people quickly surged toward Zhou Hongyi and his group. The blind Sasaki's ears twitched slightly, and he suddenly raised his knife to his side.
With a clang, a longsword struck his blade, sparking a shower of sparks. Comrade "Awakening Lion," who had already removed the big-headed doll mask, was still wearing a monkey face mask, but somehow he now held a gleaming longsword in his hand.
"You all go quickly, leave this old blind man to me!"
Zhou Hongyi knew this was no time for politeness, so he turned and ran. However, the blind swordsman Sasaki did not chase after him. Instead, he gripped the hilt of his sword and assumed a fighting stance.
"A master..."
As the saying goes, when masters clash, one must not be distracted. Just from that one sword strike, Sasaki was able to roughly judge the strength of the attacker. Although he still had a smile on his face, he had already vaguely realized that the enemy in front of him could not be defeated by him if he was distracted, and he had to take him seriously.
"Hehe~ I've only just arrived in Shanghai and I'm already meeting a master like you. Kondo-kun really wasn't lying to me. China truly is a land of hidden talents."
"Stop talking nonsense and look at the sword!"
Comrade "Awakening Lion" twirled his sword, and the longsword, as thin as a cicada's wing, made a "whooshing" sound, like a snake swaying from side to side, as it thrust straight at the blind swordsman opposite him.
Sasaki tilted his head slightly, as if listening. He raised the hilt of his long sword, deflecting the incoming sword tip. Then, the blade of his long sword slashed upwards.
Comrade "Awakening Lion" was slightly startled when his longsword was deflected. He quickly dodged the attack, and the sharp blade grazed his chest. Although it did not injure his body, it did slice off a piece of the prominent nose tip of his monkey-face mask.
"Such fast swordsmanship!"
"Stop wasting time with this old blind man, let's go!"
Just as Comrade "Awakening Lion" was thinking about how to deal with the next move, he saw Zhou Hongyi run back again, holding something in his hand and throwing it forward.
He had also been trained in firearms, and when he saw that dark, iron lump, his hair stood on end. He yelled and quickly lunged forward.
But before he could even lunge halfway out, Zhou Hongyi grabbed his clothes and ran around the corner.
Sasaki frowned slightly and slashed at Feng Sheng with his sword, accurately cutting the thrown weapon in two.
However, the hidden weapon that Zhou Hongyi threw was actually a hand grenade he made himself, which exploded with a bang 0.5 seconds after the blade slashed across it.
Sasaki's nose seemed to smell something, and his body quickly sprawled on the ground like an eel, rolling to his side.
In his memory, after such a grenade exploded, a lot of iron slag and nails would spread around, but this one seemed to be different. After the explosion, apart from the shattered outer shell flying around, there was no iron sand or anything like that inside.
Because he was blind, the explosion's roar affected Sasaki's hearing. He subconsciously twitched his nose, trying to find the direction Zhou Hongyi had fled in, but a pungent, irritating smell suddenly rushed into his nasal cavity, causing him to sneeze three times in a row.
"Chili peppers... Sichuan peppercorns... black pepper!?"
Yes, at this moment, the blind swordsman Sasaki felt as if a spice shop had opened in his nasal cavity, with all sorts of pungent spices "fighting" in his nose, making him sneeze repeatedly and unable to smell anything at all.
Zhou Hongyi grabbed Comrade "Awakening Lion" and quickly moved away from the scene of the incident. He chuckled and said, "Don't forget our purpose. Don't get entangled in a battle with the enemy. Besides, those Japanese devils are quite strong. If we get bogged down, we won't be able to retreat even if we want to."
Comrade "Awakening Lion" put the soft sword he had just used into his belt, nodded silently, and realized that he had indeed handled the situation poorly. He had become competitive when he saw a master wielding a sword. He should know that this was not a martial arts contest, but a mission. If it weren't for Comrade "Four-Faced Buddha" reminding him in time, he might have been surrounded by the enemy.
Indeed, after Zhou Hongyi took away the lion dance, large numbers of agents from the Special Higher Police and No. 76 rushed over. They saw Sasaki sitting there sneezing incessantly, but they didn't see the person they were looking for. They wanted to ask this old man, whom even their superiors were wary of, but he kept sneezing and was crying with snot and tears streaming down his face, making it impossible for him to speak normally. Helpless, they could only send a few people to each road to chase after him.
Zhou Hongyi and Comrade Xing Shi zi finally shook off their pursuers after several twists and turns. At this moment, another big-headed doll by the roadside also took off his helmet, revealing a monkey face mask underneath. He was panting heavily as he sat in a rickshaw, pulled by a driver, and quickly ran northwest.
But as Zhou Hongyi and his group ran, a group of Japanese soldiers with machine guns set up appeared on a road ahead.
"Oops!"
Zhou Hongyi's heart skipped a beat. Without thinking, he reached out and threw a grenade, then directed the rickshaw to turn onto another side road.
The Japanese soldiers lying in ambush here didn't expect that the moment their target appeared, the Japanese would throw grenades at them, as if they had known they were waiting there all along.
This grenade was not intended for killing enemies; after the explosion, it created a choking smoke that lingered for a long time.
Zhou Hongyi specially made several functional grenades for today. The one he threw out earlier was originally meant to deal with the Japanese dogs, but it turned out to be just what happened to the old blind man. This one is now used to create smoke and cover his escape.
Once they successfully turned onto Suzhou Road, they could cross the Wusong River by crossing the bridge over Xizang Middle Road and continue along this road to Zhabei District, where he and "Bodhi" had agreed to meet.
That's right. Zhou Hongyi didn't take the waterway or the mountain road. He didn't intend to transport people out of Shanghai by other means. Instead, he wanted to take the railway.
"Stop! Don't run! You're surrounded!"
When Zhou Hongyi and his group finally arrived at the Central Road of Tibet, they encountered pursuers again, this time from Kondo himself. He was riding on a sidecar motorcycle, leading a group of Special Higher Police agents, and they were trying to take a detour to block Zhou Hongyi and his group's path.
"Alright, you were well-prepared, Kondo-kun. But do you think you can outmaneuver me like this? You underestimate me. Come out!"
Zhou Hongyi shouted, and suddenly, dozens of passersby poured out from the intricate alleys beside him.
They did nothing but run out in a huge swarm from one end of the road and disappear into the other.
"Baka yarou! Arrest them all, and find the one with the monkey mask!"
Kondo shouted orders, but when they rode their motorcycles closer, they discovered that the dozens of people who had emerged from the alley were all wearing monkey face masks.
"Damn it, which one is it?"