Dude, something's really wrong with your abilities.

Chapter 21 Old Friends

Chen Shi's mouth was slightly open, not because he didn't want to speak, but because he simply didn't have time.

The owner of the fist had been hiding in the shadows, perhaps thinking that the few people in front were enough to deal with Group 5. He didn't expect that Chen Shi would cause such a stir, and within a few minutes, all three men in black were taken out of the game.

So he had no choice but to take action himself, targeting that particularly sharp-tongued kid.

Chang Biao screamed and then darted to Chen Shi's side with incredible speed, as if he had been thrown there. He pushed Chen Shi aside with his back, and then his fist landed squarely on his own chest. Chang Biao was sent flying, and Chen Shi clearly heard the cracking sound of bones breaking. Then Chang Biao crashed into the wall, bounced back to the ground, and lay motionless.

Chen Shi's heart sank. He hurriedly and laboriously crawled towards Chang Biao, wincing in pain from his twisted ankle. Biao was lying on the ground, his left hand pinned under his body, and the fingers of his right hand were still twitching slightly. Chen Shi dared not touch him.

"Brother Biao, Brother Biao!"

"Ouch, that hurts so much." Chang Biao finally managed to utter a sound after a long while, but his voice was much softer than usual, as if a broken bone had punctured his lungs, and he was speaking with a slight lisp.

"Brother Biao, don't move, your bones are broken."

Chang Biao didn't respond to that. He raised his head slightly and looked at Chen Shi seriously: "Xiao Shi, if I don't make it through, don't throw away my baking tools, give them to Da Qiang. Da Qiang said he wants to learn how to make egg tarts."

"Who said you couldn't hold on? You just broke a bone, it's not a big deal."

"I mean, just in case." Chang Biao's voice was soft and sweet, but his breath was clearly insufficient, and his sentence was broken. "Also, there's a dough ball on my table. Remember to ask Daqiang to put it in the refrigerator for me. It's refrigerated, not frozen."

"You'll have to put it there yourself. Fatty can't tell the difference between refrigeration and freezing," Chen Shi said casually. "Last time he put his wife's skincare products in the freezer, and they froze into popsicles. His sister-in-law scolded him for three days. Do you really think you can entrust the dough to him?"

Chang Biao gasped in pain, but he was still seriously considering whether the fat man was reliable.

The owner of the fist emerged completely from the darkness. He was of medium height, lean, and wore a completely black mask, with only his eyes revealing a cold glint beneath it. In the instant after knocking Chang Biao away, he intended to attack Chen Shi again, but by then the fat man had already rushed over. His hardened skin was dented by the fists, and the fat man cried out in pain, but he still did not retreat an inch.

When Sun Tiemei saw Chang Biao being knocked away, she actually smiled. Yes, but the smile beneath that cold expression was very strange, though no one saw it at that moment.

She grabbed the silver thread wrapped around her wrists with both hands and pulled it forcefully towards herself. The silver thread dug into her skin, and blood trickled down her wrist bones, freezing into red ice beads before it even hit the ground.

Her hands clenched into a fist, and powerful ice energy spread along the silver threads. This time, it didn't freeze them, but instead flowed back to the source along the threads.

By the time the manipulator realized something was wrong, it was too late to stop. Ice was poured into his fingertips, and all ten fingers froze into a transparent bluish-purple color in the same second, before shattering like glass, instantly crushed.

The silk-controller screamed as he fell out of the darkness, kneeling on the ground with his hands raised in front of his chest, his fingers reduced to jagged, unruly roots.

Sun Tiemei didn't stop. She waved her hands, and two ice spears formed. She then threw them, and the ice spears pierced through the legs of the silk-controlling man, pinning him to the ground.

Just as the man who was drawing the electric arc was about to run, his feet became entangled in the ice flowers that rose from the ground. The petals of the ice flowers quickly closed, enveloping his entire body.

The bleeding on her wrist had stopped, leaving only a bluish-purple mark, but the coldness in her eyes only intensified.

In an instant, all the moisture in the air condensed into countless ice crystals. Instead of attacking from all directions, she aimed from a single angle, like a bullet, at the masked man's face. Seeing his boss approaching, the fat man quickly stepped aside to attend to Chang Biao.

The man punched away the oncoming ice spikes, but as the number increased and they became more numerous and denser, his fist gradually began to feel a bone-chilling pain.

He knew he had failed; the woman before him was far too powerful, and she was very different from how she had been back then.

He dared not linger and turned to run into the deeper passage, but how could Sun Tiemei, in her rage, let him go?

The fat man had already retreated, so she no longer needed to hold back. Ice shards shot towards the masked man from all directions. Several muffled thuds came from the darkness, the sound of ice shards piercing flesh. Finally, the mask could not withstand the continuous heavy blows and shattered.

Even in the dim light of the underground, Sun Tiemei recognized his face immediately beneath the mask, and then she froze.

"Li Mo?"

Li Mo was pierced in several places by Sun Tiemei's ice spikes, but he seemed to feel no pain. He just stared at Sun Tiemei, his eyes churning with countless emotions, but he didn't say a word. Perhaps he didn't know how to say it, or dared not to.

While Sun Tiemei was distracted, he turned and disappeared into the darkness of the passage. Sun Tiemei wanted to chase after him, but then she heard a loud crash, and the passage deep inside collapsed.

The surroundings quieted down, and the four people in the five groups remained silent, each with their own distinct feelings.

Chang Biao fainted. Before he passed out, he kept thinking about whether entrusting the baking to Fatty was a mistake. Fatty was exhausted and in pain, his body covered in bruises. He was now thinking about how to weave something when he got home.

Chen Shi wanted to say something, but seeing everyone's silence, he remained silent. Sun Tiemei's face remained cold, but inwardly she was filled with overwhelming confusion and anger—why him?

It wasn't until the sounds of police cars and ambulances overhead that everyone snapped out of their daze. Rescue workers widened the hole in the ground, lowered a stretcher, and the fat man helped lift Chang Biao up, before they were taken to the hospital in the ambulance.

The men in black were handcuffed and taken away, while the underground search continued, with sound-emitting devices being dismantled and transported away.

Chen Shi stood next to Sun Tiemei, his sprained ankle now somewhat numb. After a long silence, Sun Tiemei finally spoke.

His name is Li Mo.

Chen Shi didn't respond, waiting for her to continue.

"His special ability is internal energy. When he throws a punch, the force doesn't dissipate but continues to penetrate. Hardening can't stop it, and neither can ice armor."

She paused for a moment: "He once shielded me from a mission with his body."

Sun Tiemei's expression was the same as usual, but after she finished speaking, her lips were still slightly open, as if there were still words stuck in her throat that she couldn't say.

"He joined the bureau much earlier than me. At that time, I was only a C-level officer and the youngest in the group, while he was an A-level officer. Every time we went on a mission, he was always the one who rushed ahead of us."

"And then what?"

"Uncle Yan... The year after Yan Guang disappeared, he suddenly handed in his resignation. He didn't give a reason." She glanced down at the ground. "He didn't say goodbye to anyone either."

Police officers carrying an instrument passed by her. She stepped aside slightly and then returned to her original position.

"His fists weren't like this before. He used to yell for people to get out of the way before he threw a punch. But today, he didn't say a single word from beginning to end."

"So, team leader, what should we do next?"

"Grab him."