Chapter 427 - 225: I’ll Catch the Bad Two-legged Beast Again Next Time
Chapter 427: Chapter 225: I’ll Catch the Bad Two-legged Beast Again Next Time
A sharp glint flashed in Yang Qi’s eyes.
Target acquired!
He didn’t charge in immediately. Instead, he first grabbed his walkie-talkie and quickly reported in a low voice.
"Captain Deng, Xiaojiu has spotted a suspicious target. Location is the tree-lined path west of Swan Lake, moving toward the Bonsai Garden. Single individual, male. He has a peculiar scent, and his pace is panicked."
"Requesting all nearby personnel to converge on the area and form a perimeter."
"Roger!"
Deng Lei responded quickly. "Plainclothes Teams Three and Four, move toward the Bonsai Garden west of Swan Lake immediately!"
After ending the call, Yang Qi shot off in pursuit, racing toward the Bonsai Garden.
As he moved, he sent a mental command to Xiaojiu, telling it to head to the Bonsai Garden as well, to keep up the pretense of "tracking."
’Understood, Master.’
Xiaojiu responded from afar, then transformed into a black shadow and shot toward the Bonsai Garden.
...
Using the cover of a bamboo grove and rockeries, Yang Qi’s figure rapidly closed in on the target.
The target was clearly not a first-time visitor to the Zoo. He seemed to have cased the park’s paths beforehand, specifically choosing the quietest and least crowded routes.
After bursting out of the bamboo grove, the view opened up to a quiet, stone-paved path connecting the Bonsai Garden and Swan Lake.
The path wasn’t long, and there were a few tourists on it at that moment.
There was an elderly couple taking a leisurely stroll, a young mother who had stopped with her stroller to look at her phone, and a young man with a backpack who looked like a student and seemed to be waiting for someone.
When the man burst out of the bamboo grove and saw the people on the path, a vicious glint flashed in his eyes.
He had no weapon. He’d tossed his knife back outside the wolf enclosure.
But he knew he had to create chaos and take a hostage.
There was no other way to escape!
He could already hear the sound of police officers running nearby.
Instantly, his gaze swept the area and locked onto his target: the young mother closest to him. She had her back to him, her head bowed over her phone, with a sleeping baby in the stroller beside her.
’It’s her!’
The man’s facial muscles twitched. He pushed off with his feet, lunging toward the unsuspecting young mother like a starving wolf.
His hands were spread wide, intending to grab her neck from behind and use her and the child as bargaining chips!
The other people were further ahead and didn’t see what was happening.
The young mother was still engrossed in her phone.
Just as the man was a mere two or three meters away from the young mother, his hands about to touch her shoulders—
Yang Qi, who had caught up, narrowed his eyes and discreetly flicked his finger at his side.
’Entanglement Technique!’
Target: the ankles of the man’s rapidly striding legs.
In an instant, invisible threads of Magical Power crossed the twenty-odd meters of space and wrapped precisely around the man’s ankles!
THUMP!
The man had been lunging forward with great momentum when his feet were suddenly snagged by an unseen force. His upper body continued forward due to inertia, and he instantly lost his balance, face-planting spectacularly onto the hard stone path with a dull thud.
Hearing the commotion behind her, the young mother turned her head. Seeing the man sprawled on the ground, she quickly pushed her stroller back, putting distance between herself and him.
The elderly couple and the student-like young man also heard the noise, turned around, saw the scene, and similarly backed away.
The young student pulled out his phone, seemingly about to call the police, but his finger hovered over the screen, hesitant.
In this day and age, there were too many stories of people getting extorted for helping the elderly or being framed after acting heroically. The first instinct for most ordinary people facing such an unexpected situation was to protect themselves and avoid trouble.
The man was completely dazed from the fall. His forehead, nose, and lips had slammed against the stone, and they stung painfully. He could taste blood in his mouth.
He struggled to lift his head. His face was covered in dirt and blood, and his eyes filled with confusion.
’What just tripped me?’
He instinctively glanced back, but there was nothing on the ground but the bare stone path and a few fallen leaves.
Nothing at all.
With no time to dwell on it, the man’s survival instinct took over.
’The police will be here any second! I have to grab a hostage!’
He once again looked at the young mother, who was watching him with a mixture of confusion and wariness just four or five meters away.
’She’s the best and closest target!’
SPIT!
The man spat a mouthful of bloody saliva, scrambled to his hands and feet to get up, lowered his center of gravity, and reached forward with his hands...
’Still trying?’
A cold glint flashed in Yang Qi’s eyes.
He mobilized his Magical Power once more.
’Entanglement Technique!’
Several tough, swift, invisible threads of Magical Power shot out again like phantoms. They not only wrapped around the man’s ankles but also split off to precisely snag the back of his right knee—the very leg he was using for support.
THUMP!
The man, who had just gotten to his feet and was about to lunge, felt several invisible ropes simultaneously and viciously constrict and trip his feet and the back of his right knee!
Before he could even cry out in surprise, he lost his balance again. This time, it was an even uglier sideways fall. With a loud BANG, he slammed onto the stone path, a piercing pain shooting through his shoulder and hip as he saw stars.
"..."
The few tourists were dumbfounded.
’What is going on?’
The man had fallen twice in a row, both times in a comically pathetic manner.
It looked painful no matter how you looked at it!
The elderly couple exchanged bewildered glances. The young student forgot about calling the police. The young mother’s eyes were wide; her initial fear was now replaced by a sense of absurdity and... a strange feeling of satisfaction?
The man, now on the ground for the second time, was also completely baffled.
He lay on the ground, not getting up immediately. With wide eyes, he looked down at his own feet and knees, which were perfectly fine and showed no sign of anything unusual. Then he looked up at his surroundings.
The empty stone path, a few tourists keeping their distance with strange expressions on their faces, and by the distant bamboo grove, a young man in a Zoo uniform, calmly watching him.