Sundering Nature

Original and most updated translations are from volare. Please don’t read elsewhere and stop supporting theft.

TL: Zhao

Editing: Krisaia

Half an hour prior, after leaving Chen Quan to return to the tea shop by himself, Li Yiming made straight for Yunding Tower, the headquarters of Yunyu Corporation. Just as he was about to arrive, he received a message on his phone.

"The buyer is called Zhang Wei. He’s the Public relations VP of Yunyu Corporation." As always, Eyeglasses was highly efficient in his work.

"What a coincidence. Well, that’s going to save me some trouble." Li Yiming smiled as he walked toward the entrance of the skyscraper.

"Please show your ID." This time, the security guards were very diligent.

"I’m looking for someone."

"From which department? Do you have an appointment?"

"Tell your boss that I’m coming here to take what’s mine." Li Yiming extended his senses upward, but he did not find Yun Yiyuan.

"Sir..." The security guard laughed in frustration, thinking of Li Yiming as nothing more than a foolish young man looking to make an impression.

"Oh well, I don’t think you have his number anyways. I’m going in." Li Yiming ignored the security guard and made for the elevator.

"Sir, you’re going to get hurt." This time, the security guard was much more gentle and professional.

"What’s happening?" A voice was suddenly heard.

"We have a visitor here who’s looking for Mr. Yun..." The security guard recognized the manager of his department. He thought that he was going to be in trouble for not kicking Li Yiming out of the building right away.

"You...!" The manager was about to roar out in anger, only to stop himself when he realized that Li Yiming’s face seemed somewhat familiar.

Li Yiming suddenly snapped his fingers, and a purple ark of electricity was discharged in the main hall. Facing the manager, who was a guardian, Li Yiming had far less reserve than when he was dealing with the security guard.

"Can I go inside now?" Li Yiming turned toward the security guard with a smile.

"You..."

"I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that you can go home early today. The bad news is that you might just lose your job today." Li Yiming gave his coat to the security guard.

The security guard scrambled for the exit, as if he had just seen a ghost. As soon as he rushed out of the building, a blackout happened. Just as he tried to calm his trembling and wondered whether he should call the police, a gunshot was heard, followed by another one, and then a flurry of gunshots. Having received rigorous training, the security guard could tell that those were not the sounds of handguns being fired.

’But there’s no way he could have carried any kind of heavy weaponry on him! Does that mean it’s people from the company? I thought we specialized in real estate and luxury goods? Why do people carry assault rifles around here?’ The security guard looked up amidst the chaos, only to see a window shattered into a million fragments. What looked like a giant beast emerged out of the window, only to be sent flying back towards another window by someone with a single kick.

The security guard rubbed his eyes as hard as he could. If it were not for the two giant gaping holes in the building and the downpour of glass shards, he would have thought he was hallucinating.

’I should have listened to my dad and stayed in the countryside... The city really is a dangerous place...’ The security guard ran into the streets in terror, praying for his own safety.

As Li Yiming jumped off a giant lizard, he closed his eyes and extended his senses once again.

’Seven left...’ He frowned as he made for the twentieth floor.

"Did you call for reinforcements?" A middle-aged man holding a knife screamed to a young man inside a reinforced office.

"All of our electronics are fried..." The young man held a cell phone in one hand and a gun with his other. In a situation like this, ordinary people like him were mostly useless.

"Shit! Who has the guts to come here like this?" The middle-aged man cursed between heavy gasps for air. He was about to burst out in anger at what he thought was false alarm, only for the power in the entire building to go out. He knew that this could not have been an accident, as they had many backup plans.

Just as he rushed out of his office, weapon in hand, a giant hole appeared in the floor. Someone had broken through the floor and the ceiling of the floor and flew all the way to the rooftop. As he looked into the hole, he saw it go all the way down to the eleventh floor.

"Our teams will come back to reinforce us. They’ll know that something is wrong with the headquarters." The young man tried to calm himself down as he put down the phone.

"Shit! I’ll deal with him!" The middle-aged found his courage when he was reminded that Yun Yiyuan would soon come back. If he was able to last until his arrival, surely he would be rewarded for his courage. Just has a blue glow appeared around his body, and scales begin to cover his skin, a hand pierced through the metal door and snatched his neck.

"Ugghh!" The man was instantly stopped in his tracks, and his eyes widened as he struggled to breathe.

One light buzzing sound later, and he was turned into a charred corpse.

"Zhang Wei? The VP of the PR department?" A man with a radiant smile came in with a sheet containing information about the managers of the company.

"You’re... Li Yiming?"

"The stone tablet." Li Yiming nodded, walked over the charred corpse, and sat down right in front of the young man.

"What?" Zhang Wei did not understand that Li Yiming was getting at.

"The one you bought from the stone exhibition." Li Yiming picked up a box of cigarettes from the desk and lit one up for himself. Only after one long whiff did he realize that he had not smoked for a long while.

The young man immediately obeyed, rushing to open his suitcase.

"Yes. Very nice." Li Yiming nodded.

"Please..." Zhang Wei trembled even more violently when he remembered that even Yun Yiyuan backed down against Li Yiming back at the banquet.

"This is the twenty-first floor." Li Yiming made himself comfortable on the office chair.

"They... they forced me to join the corporation. They said that they were going to kill me if I didn’t... Please... I’m just responsible for buying merchandise..." The young man was on the verge of collapse.

"I’ll let you live. Go tell Yun Yiyuan that this is my answer for his poking around."

"Huh?"

"Do you really want to jump down?"

"Thank you! Thank you! I’ll deliver your message, I promise." The young man tripped many times as he scrambled toward the exit.

’I’ll spare that one...’ Li Yiming sighed and threw the cigarette butt into the ashtray. As he looked at the stone tablet on the table, he was certain that it was part of the set of slates which depicted a scene of importance for the future, only he was not sure about the meaning of the scene.

The tablet depicted a faceless man holding a staff. Unlike the other stone tablets, this one had a radical change in style — the man was sculpted in the way made any viewer feel like he was about to jump out of the tablet.

When Li Yiming put his hand on the staff depicted on the tablet, he found himself transported into a pitch-black place. In front of him stood a dark shadow.

"Oh, this again..." Li Yiming’s lips curled up as he had grown familiar with such a scene.

"It has really been a long time..." Li Yiming’s countenance shifted as soon as he saw the face of the man. Unlike the previous times, he was not facing Mr. Kong, but himself.