Gao Xue’e was silent at this mont, just staring dazedly at He Kao, as if she hadn’t heard or understood, her hair still dripping, her clothes wet and sticking to her body.
The way she looked, according to the old saying of the villagers, was like she was bewitched and needed to be hit with a broom.
He Kao simply squatted down to put shoes on Gao Xue’e. The shoes were a bit big but it didn’t matter. Seeing no broom around, he stood up and forcefully patted her face: "President E, are you okay? Let’s go quickly!"
Gao Xue’e suddenly burst into tears, sat up straight, and imdiately hugged He Kao, burying her face in his abdon, stifling her cries... He Kao helped her up and hurried out of the room with her.
Gao Xue’e draped her right hand over He Kao’s shoulder, leaning her entire soft body against him. He Kao held her waist with his left arm, almost carrying her forward, with a phone still pinched between his fingers.
The flashlight function didn’t require unlocking, and ergency calls like 110 didn’t either. This was why he touched this phone, and accidentally, his finger swiped and discovered this phone didn’t have a lock screen set at all.
The kidnappers wouldn’t bring their usual phones for this kind of thing. It’s highly likely that this phone wasn’t even theirs. Unlocking in an ergency is quite troubleso; being able to swipe and use it directly is most convenient.
Just needed to dim the phone’s screen and turn off sound and vibration.
Of course, He Kao also didn’t have ti to think much at the ti, and he didn’t dare to use this phone to make a call easily. He embraced Gao Xue’e out of the room and walked through the pedestrian street toward the lobby. Suddenly there was so commotion ahead.
"Soone’s there!" Even Gao Xue’e heard it. She didn’t dare to speak loudly and trembled while whispering in He Kao’s ear, her lips almost touching his neck.
The shops on the outer side had windows, and the corridor had so faint starlight and moonlight. He Kao originally hadn’t turned on the flashlight, but now he clicked on the phone’s flashlight to shine ahead, while his right hand tightly gripped the gun pointed in the sa direction.
The sound ca from the front right, inside the empty storefront near the wall sat a man. He had been shot in the side, and had barely bandaged the wound with clothes. At this mont, blood was seeping again.
After being shot, this person dodged into the shop next door, bandaged his wound, and sat in place. Hearing He Kao’s gunshots and footsteps coming closer, he tried to move further in, but inadvertently made a sound.
Seeing the light and gun barrel aid at him, the man quickly raised his hands and said, "Spare ..."
What greeted him was gunfire. He Kao fired two shots. The first was lucky enough to hit him right in the face, making whatever he was about to say disappear. The second shot, due to the recoil, who knows where the bullet flew.
It wasn’t that He Kao was bloodthirsty and murderous, it was completely a subconscious stress response. He didn’t even understand what the man was saying, just saw he was a kidnapper and fired, only realizing after two shots that the man might have been trying to surrender.
From an observer’s perspective, according to the strict definition of legitimate defense, this shot should have exceeded the legal standard. The man had lost his ability to cause continuous harm, the harmful process to He Kao was over, and he was even raising his hands to surrender.
But He Kao wasn’t a soldier cleaning up the battlefield after a fight and capturing prisoners, nor a policeman catching bad guys. The masked man was still unaccounted for, Zhao Hai Zhen and others were still pursuing, and he was still in great danger.
The kidnapper had a partner here. If they saw where he and Gao Xue’e ran to, it was still a huge threat...
These are really just comnts from observers after the fact. He Kao simply didn’t have ti to think; he was just in a state of high tension and instinctively pulled the trigger when he saw a kidnapper.
The only true observer was Gao Xue’e. She saw this scene and made a sound like choking on water, her body going limp and sliding to the ground, her top even hiked up.
At this mont, another gunshot ca from outside in the amusent park, sounding like a pistol shot, followed closely by a bang, likely the masked man’s shotgun firing back.
Judging from the direction of the gunshots, there seed to be so distance. He had just fired seven shots in succession, and the noise must have been heard, so he needed to leave quickly.
He turned off the flashlight and pocketed the phone, crouched down and picked up Gao Xue’e, not in a princess carry but slung over his shoulder face-down, his left hand gripping her buttocks, while his right hand still held the gun.
Gao Xue’e obviously couldn’t walk anymore, her steps stumbling in the dark just now. It was faster to carry her and run than to hold her.
Gao Xue’e wasn’t fat, but she was well-built, weighing just over a hundred pounds. Normally, it would be quite a struggle for He Kao to carry her, but under today’s special circumstances, it seed like he burst with infinite potential, jogging quickly.
The glass curtain wall in the lobby had been shattered earlier. He bypassed the front door, breached the wall, and slled a familiar scent of gunpowder, his peripheral vision spotting several people lying on the steps outside.
Earlier, Zhao Hai Zhen had Old Hong guarding the outside with five of his subordinates. The amusent park was eerie and frightening in the middle of the night, so they didn’t dare to go far and gathered outside the main entrance, sitting on the steps smoking.
Suddenly, sothing was thrown out of nowhere, resembling small bamboo tubes bound together, scaring them to jump up. Imdiately, the bundle exploded with a bang, the blast wave throwing them several ters away while showering them with countless flying fragnts.
The explosive power of a single small bamboo tube might not be too great, only enough to blow fish in the water. But when fifteen of them are bound together, it’s a terrifying weapon of mass destruction.
So died on the spot, while those who didn’t die instantly would be beyond saving without imdiate rescue.
He Kao carried Gao Xue’e and ran in the opposite direction of the gunshots, with the indoor comrcial pedestrian street building in between. Even if those sorcerers had great divine techniques, they shouldn’t be able to track his movents at that mont.
He Kao had heard from Qian Guran that Tier Three Cultivators could wield Divine Sense. Even if they lived in the apartnt opposite, their Divine Sense could penetrate several walls to know what He Kao was doing.
He Kao had once asked Qian Guran about the limits of this ability. Qian Guran replied that for walls like those in Sesa Apartnt, penetrating three walls within twenty ters was his limit, so he tried to live as close to He Kao as possible.
If in an open area, Divine Sense could probe up to a hundred ters, though beyond that would be too vague to discern effectively.
Is Divine Sense needed in an open area? At about a hundred ters, eyes can see farther and clearer! But under special circumstances, like in the dark or wanting to explore behind sothing, Divine Sense becos a better ans.
He didn’t know the cultivation level of Zhao Hai Zhen and others, but judging from Qian Guran’s tone, it should be similar. Since they were all Third Realm Cultivators, Qian Guran was used as a reference.
So places like the pedestrian street could no longer be stayed in. If the kidnappers ca back, he wouldn’t be able to detect them, but they could know his location in advance, rendering the gun useless.
Moreover, they also had guns, and his gun had at most three bullets left.
He needed to find a place that couldn’t be easily discovered, first ensuring a safe place for Gao Xue’e. With a plan in place before leaving, he crossed an open area, bypassed two buildings, and ran all the way to Fun Exploration House.
The amusent park had two exploration houses, with Fun Exploration House being for kids. The so-called "monsters" were dinosaurs, tigers, lions, aliens, and the like.
The other called the Horror House was for adults, not only set up with special horror effects but also featured staff playing various NPCs. Now abandoned, it looked even more terrifying at night, a place He Kao didn’t want to enter.
He Kao carried Gao Xue’e into Fun Exploration House, which was purposely designed to be complex, with winding paths and various spatial divisions. The pathway even had small tracks where children could ride a train to explore.
He Kao left the tour route and entered a room inside the building, presumably the special effects control room where staff used to stay, which still had chairs inside.
He set Gao Xue’e down, pulled a chair for her to sit and said, "President E, it’s very safe here. Stay here for now, I’ll go help with sothing... wait for to return!"
Gao Xue’e, who had been jostled uncomfortably on He Kao’s shoulder, was nauseated and had already thrown up, but with an empty stomach, only acidic water ca out.
Now hearing that He Kao was about to leave, she instinctively grabbed his hand, her lips trembling as if trying to say sothing, perhaps to plead for him not to go, or to urge him to be careful.
He Kao then realized sothing, took out his phone and handed it to her, "Here, take this phone. The screen isn’t locked, just slide to use... if I don’t co back for a long ti, call for help yourself."
He placed the gun on the nearby control panel and took off his shirt. This shirt was quite thick and good enough to act as a jacket, different from the blue plaid typically worn by programrs; it was gray and white plaid.
"You’re all wet, change into this cloth, or you could get sick... don’t wear it directly, take off and wring out the wet clothes first, try to dry yourself as much as possible before putting it on... I won’t look, change after I leave."
After speaking, he left the room with his gun, Gao Xue’e’s voice faintly coming from behind, "Xiao Kao, don’t die!"
What kind of words are these, a blessing or encouragent? He Kao replied, "Don’t worry, I won’t, and neither will you!"
Is this not called a problem? But he had to say so comforting and encouraging words.
When he reached the entrance of Fun Exploration House, observing the outside from behind the door, he realized that while carrying Gao Xue’e to escape, his Perception Ability had already recovered.
He had heard Qian Guran explain the intricacies of Divine Sense, noting that even Sorcerers couldn’t always use it, like how fire-control radar wasn’t always active.
Moreover, Divine Sense could be seen as an extension of consciousness. Only a conscious search of a place could make it detectable. It wasn’t as if a casual glance could see through two walls.
The Perception Ability He Kao mastered wasn’t quite a true Divine Sense, but it had similarities. In particularly chaotic environnts or moods, his perception was ineffective, and he needed deliberate focus.
With this in mind, he felt sowhat reassured; as long as he remained hidden and didn’t arouse suspicion, he could avoid being discovered to a large extent.
The outco of the gunfight between the masked man and the kidnappers was unknown, and he couldn’t just stand by idly.
At his left waist, He Kao had a knife tucked, holding the gun with both hands, crouching low as he quickly crossed the open field. The grass was waist-high, and there were many scruffy shrubs shielding distant views.
Then he heard two gunshots, followed by a shotgun counterattack, the sound getting closer. It seed the masked man had circled around and was heading back toward the comrcial pedestrian street.
He Kao crept toward the direction of the masked man’s gunfire, reaching the building where the pedestrian street was but refraining from going through the window, instead hiding outside, at the corner near the back hall.
In the moonlight, he saw a slightly plump masked man circling around a tree, while in the distance, the kidnappers shouted, "Once Divine Sense locks on, Hidden Moth can’t disappear. We can’t let him escape!"
**
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