An explosive lightning bolt broke in the air right above Marcus, the bright flash lit up the entire graveyard for a brief moment. The wind became stronger, a lot of the burning grass was blown away from the sword plate. Marcus rushed back with two more handfuls of grass, and he had to run and push back the still burning patches.

  “There! It’s there!” Voices of men came from the outer area of the graveyard.

  “It’s not going fast enough. You need more fire.” Bulu Want struggled to stand up: “I see what you’re trying to do, and I know what you can do - well, what I can do.”

  “What do you mean?” Marcus asked as he threw a new bunch of burning grass onto the sword plate.

  “You’re using fire, while using Yang Qi is just more direct and simpler.” Bulu Wang smiled: “And I think you understand why. It is because using one’s Qi will expose you to the kind of energy residing in this stone plate that could be - dangerously unpredictable for you, or anyone who wished to survive this. But - ” he coughed again and pointed at himself: “But for someone who was not going to survive this, one should have no reservations.”

  “Wait, no - ”

  “Get back!”

  Bulu Wang roared, pushing his Qi to the fullest, both his hands became blindingly bright from his action. He thrust his palms forward, unleashing a single palm strike in unison. The heatwave blew the grass all over the air and ignited all of the leaves while they were in the wind. A loud boom exploded from the clash between the sword plate and his fiery palm mark.

  Another bolt of lightning blasted through the sky, descending from above and striking the sword plate on its hilt.

  Shockwaves threw Marcus back, shaking and numbing his every joint and every muscle. When he finally landed on his feet, Bulu Wang had already fallen onto the ground, his body gradually turning gray and into ashes.

  “Old Wang!” Marcus rushed over and held Bulu Wang in his arms again: “What did you do?”

  “I see now - what you have done, and what you’re trying to do.” Bulu Wang’s eyes glowed with the new revelation he just had. His face lit up with a relieved smile: “I know now - and please, Marcus, press on. Don’t ever stop - ” He did not get to finish his last words, as the ashening consumed him and his entire existence floated away through the turbulent wind.

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  “Marcus! We need to leave!” Liaowu emerged from the grass: “They’re coming this way, and they’re looking at my van!”

  Marcus took a look at the sword plate. It was now fully white in color, all the dark spots and marks were gone. The chilling aura was no more, and in its “place” was a warm glow and some kind of invisible forcefield, gently pushing everyone in its presence away. “... let’s go.” he took a deep breath then stood up and bowed at the position of the sword plate, before picking up the two pieces of the broken metal staff, going back into the surrounding grass with Liaowu behind him.

  “Go! Go go go!” The voices of those men that just came over came from almost all around them. They lowered their bodies some more. Liaowu held his wrench tighter and kept wiping his sweat, while Marcus took long, deep breaths to soothe his meridians as he moved.

  If only he had spent more time meditating and cultivating his Qi, he wouldn’t be this powerless - this was a thought that flashed through Marcus’ mind. Having fought in the datacenter and then Bulu Wang already left him at his wit’s end. He needed quite a bit of time and a lot of food before he could put up a passable fight.

  “Hey! Who’s there?” One man in a gray tactical suit brushed past the right side of Marcus and pointed his handgun their way.

  Before Marcus could do anything, Liaowu already lunged at the man, swinging his wrench right into the man’s face. The man’s face was behind a transparent face shield, and it let out a loud crunch on impact. It was unclear whether Liaowu broke anything else, but the handgun was dropped and Marcus was right there to catch it.

  It was a purely mechanical gun, with no identification chip on its trigger. So Marcus just held it in his right hand and pulled Liaowu away.

  “What happened?” “Who’s there!?” More men came around to this position, which led to Marcus and Liaowu accelerating their steps.

  Marcus tried to hand Liaowu the gun, but Liaowu shook his head and refused: “You need it more than I do, detective. Also I’m pretty shit with guns.”

  “We have someone down! ” Someone raised their voice to the top of their lungs, just when Marcus and Liaowu were about to crash into a group of three men. Marcus lunged forward, throwing a batch of grass into two men’s faces. While both of them were dazed, he unleashed two heavy palm strikes onto the two men’s chests. The metal plates in their body armors left Marcus’ hands shocked and in dull pain; the two men were thrown back and onto the ground, barely able to hold onto their guns. Marcus shot forward and landed a kick on the face of the one on the right and then knee-ed the other in the face.

  Liaowu let out a low roar and swung his wrench at the crotch of the man he was facing. The hit landed and rendered the man a whimpering mess. Liaowu followed up with another wrench to his target’s face, completely breaking his face shield and knocking him out.

  Guns fired, a few men started firing at their general location. Bullets shot through the grass and forced both Liaowu and Marcus to lie down. Both of them grabbed the fallen guns and began crawling towards the van.

  “Bang bang bang!” Pellets of dirt and rock burst from the ground in front of them just as they made it out of the grass. It was the two men guarding the van, both of whom were carrying guns. Marcus immediately opened fire at them, forcing them to dive and find shelter.

  “Boom!” A beam of light descended from a hole in the clouds above and striking the graveyard, unleashing a golden shockwave that swept through the entire area. All those standing were thrown into the air, even Liaowu and Marcus were lifted up from the ground and sent tumbling on the ground.

  But it was not a bad thing for them at all. For Marcus, the shockwave sent a warm sensation throughout his entire body and cheered him up just like a glass of hot, sweet tea.