The crowd descended into chaos, the child's mother wailing hysterically. Ren Yuanhao knew the white shadow could no longer provide aid. He immediately pushed the Flying Dragon Grasping Cloud Hand to its limit, his entire being transforming into a fleeting streak of lightning. Ignoring all else, he lunged forward, scooped up the little girl, and with a leap akin to a diving catch, vaulted from the nearly ten-foot-high slide!
"Catch!"
Ren Yuanhao roared, directly tossing the little girl towards the white figure that had just darted past. At that very instant, blue arcs of electricity, like swords cleaving through the darkness, struck Ren Yuanhao's back. His entire back, slick with sweat, acted like a human conductor. Blood spurted, flesh and skin tore open!
The emergency lights in the store finally flickered on, albeit sluggishly, after a brief period of darkness. Staff lit candles, while the preschool teachers began to soothe the children's emotions.
"Xiao Ting!"
The child's mother, illuminated by the lit candles, took her frightened daughter from the white-robed man. The other two boys he had rescued were also reunited with their mothers. The hall erupted in cheers and cries, with only Ren Yuanhao, who had risked his life to save them, lying on the floor, his back blackened by the electric sparks, torn and bleeding profusely.
The white-robed man slowly approached, his chest heaving like a turbulent tide. Ren Yuanhao could clearly sense a piercing killing intent surge towards him, yet his body was completely numb. His back felt like it had been pierced through by a spear, the pain excruciatingly sharp. Inside his mind, the system girl's voice, choked with near-sobs, echoed.
"Hey, Ren Yuanhao, don't scare me, get up! That man will definitely take your powers, you~"
"It seems the system girl's electrotherapy really took care of me. This Wrath of Thunder has caused me a great deal of trouble. I want to move, but I'm utterly exhausted."
"No matter how exhausted you are, you have to get up! What if~"
"No need. I trust this guy."
Ren Yuanhao actually managed a few teasing laughs. In reality, the white-robed man had staggered to his side and crouched down.
"Truly pathetic."
It was unclear whether he was mocking himself or Ren Yuanhao.
"When you rushed to save them so desperately, did you ever consider that this was all my design? Merely to make you comply willingly?"
Ren Yuanhao naturally couldn't respond, but the system girl became anxious.
"Did you hear that? The law among ability users is mutual devouring. This man is too terrifying, using your kindness to throw you into the fire!"
"No, miss, you're wrong. I've never met this guy before. How could he have known I'd definitely go to save them? Even if this accident was his design, I think he just wanted to test me."
"You think too simply."
"It's you who thinks too complicatedly. But, I never knew you cared about me so much, miss~"
"At a time like this, can you stop saying foolish things? Wake up!"
It wasn't that Ren Yuanhao didn't want to wake up, but he simply couldn't. His entire muscles and bones felt as if their connections had been severed by the blue electrical arc, numbness flooding him like a tide.
"It seems you really can't get up. In that case, I won't be polite!"
After these words drifted into Ren Yuanhao's ears, he felt a surge of pain, and his last vestige of consciousness vanished.
...
After an unknown amount of time, faint streaks of light pierced his eyelids. A strong medicinal scent filled his nostrils. He was still breathing; he wasn't dead.
He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids were incredibly uncooperative, like trying to open a door that had an opposing force pushing it shut, no matter how hard you tried.
"Damn it, I got electrocuted, I wonder if I'll become a genius."
After a bout of self-mockery, his hearing slowly began to return. He focused, straining to hear what sounded like someone's painful groans.
He had heard that childbirth pain could reach level 8, even level 10. While this groaning wasn't as agonizing as a woman giving birth, it was a different kind of chilling lament, low yet continuous. As the pain escalated, the groans gradually rose, eventually sounding like someone having an epileptic fit, their voice becoming intermittent, saliva dripping.
Finally, through his persistent effort, or perhaps out of curiosity, Ren Yuanhao slowly opened his eyes. His neck was stiff, and when he tried to twist it, he heard a grinding sound between his bones, like gears lacking lubrication. For the first time, he felt so helpless; even turning over required his utmost strength.
He wasn't sure how long it took him to turn over, only that his muscles felt like they were tearing and being rearranged.
The flickering candlelight cast the entire room in a eerie gloom. Ren Yuanhao squinted, observing the small room. Besides the bed he lay on, there was little else. The whitewash on the walls had almost peeled off entirely, and all the windows and doors had been replaced with iron bars, sealed shut with planks of wood. It was impossible to tell if it was day or night.
A person sat under the light, their face completely obscured by a black hoodie. At their feet seemed to be a brazier, its charcoal burning brightly, the ash quickly rising with the hot air like duckweed floating on ocean waves.
Whether it was the candlelight or his half-closed eyes, the man's body trembled as if electrocuted, and one hand resting on the table was also shaking incessantly. Soon, Ren Yuanhao discovered a deeply unsettling sight.
In the flickering candlelight, the man's arm seemed to churn and ripple like boiling water. His pores were unnervingly large, no, they couldn't be called pores anymore, but actual cavities!
Whether these cavities were intentional or a result of a chronic illness, Ren Yuanhao could tell from the intensity of the man's tremors that he was in great pain.
As his gaze followed the exposed arm to his palm, he suddenly noticed the ring, the one that belonged to the old woman, which he had seen many times, resting in the man's palm!
"So it was him who took the old woman's ring!"
As he wondered, he suddenly recalled the story the old woman had told him, where her grandfather had repeatedly warned her to discard the ring, or at the very least, never let it fall into a man's hands. And now, this man held the ring!
While Ren Yuanhao was momentarily dazed, extremely tiny black particles rose from the man's arm cavities, like wisps of swirling ash. Upon closer inspection, he realized they were a multitude of minuscule insects!
Suddenly, the entire room was filled with the sound of buzzing wings, and the man let out another muffled groan.