The Man Standing on Top of the Food Chain

“Their actions, isn’t it all evil? These sc.u.mbags, even dying ten thousand times isn’t enough. That’s why you should devour them, let the power of evil be the energy source of your Justice.”

“No, I… I should not eat people.”

“Hey lad, Brother Chang is asking you a question.” One henchmen gave a slap towards the back of Li Anping’s head, putting his inner conversation to an end.

Chang Zheng’s gaze on Li Anping become increasingly hostile: “What is important to us Triads is comparing who is more ruthless. You were more ruthless than Song and the others, a better fighter than them, thus you could break his leg. But you injured my men and still dared to come to my territory. Now we’re more ruthless than you, do you think it’s acceptable if you don’t give us an answer? If you continue being silent, don’t blame me for what’s about to happen.”

The speech sounded logical and fair to the surrounding men, but to Li Anping, it sounded extremely unpleasant.

“Do you guys kill people?” Suddenly, Li Anping asked: “The elderly lady at his house, was her death caused by you guys as well?” His tone was eerily calm.

“Oh, I sent them there. In fact, they’re here right now, but so what?” Chang Zheng thought for a moment, squinted his eyes and shrugged his shoulders: “What, you’re related to her? This matter has huge implications, something unimaginable to you, and since you ignore the rules of us Triads and is so meddlesome, you’re making life hard for me.”

“So your ‘rules’ dictate that you can simply hack people, steal money but when people bully you, they must give you an answer? You’ve harmed so many people, but have you ever accounted for them? Did they deserve it?”

At this point, the surroundings were already drowned in scoldings and people rubbing their hands together in antic.i.p.ation.

“Chop his hand off, we’ll see if he can still clamour.”

“Why are we still talking? Cripple him first.”

“Heh, he’ll cry later”

Chang Zheng looked at Li Anping, his face revealing a cold smirk. He walked towards Li Anping feeling amused in his heart. Naive youngster, just because he has some skills he had to be meddlesome. Chang Zheng thought while being curious, how long would Li Anping last before he submitted? 1 minute? 1 hour?

“Haha, young people are indeed foolish. You are more arrogant than me when I first entered this business. Kneel and admit your mistake, say what relationship you have with this family and I’ll let you leave alive with just one arm left here. If not…”

Chang Zheng took out a dagger from his belt, pressing it on Li Anping’s face, his tone ominous: “…I will skin you alive, slowly and painfully.”

But who knew just ask Chang Zheng finished his sentence, Li Anping immediately replied: “The person to admit their wrongdoing should be you, I am just here to seek justice from you people.”

“HAHAHAHA, good.” Chang Zheng was so amused from Li Anping’s childishness he laughed: “Do you know how long its been since anyone took me for a fool? You think you’re ruthless, strong-willed, f*ck, are you even aware of the situation? We have so many people here, just our saliva is enough to drown you to death.”

The surrounding henchmen started to get rowdy, taking out their pipes and cleavers, with Li Anping in the center like a tame sheep surrounded by a wolf pack. He lowered his head and muttered: “I have already died once. Back then I had no power, and needed others to defend justice., hoping that the leaders of society had conscience. But now, I finally have power, I have the power to oppose you, how can I back down?”

However, Li Anping’s words were drowned by the noise and other than Chang Zheng no one could hear him. He stared at Li Anping, thinking about how preposterous the situation was. He had never seen such a situation where a guy who is surrounded by dozens of armed men can rebuke so calmly. Even the superheroes in comics aren’t so?

Chang Zheng felt that his authority was severely undermined by Li Anping, he hated people who looked down on him. Keeping his dagger, he furiously shouted: “Then let me see how you resist, f*cker!!!” Saying so, he slapped towards Li Anping. He had already given up on communicating with Li Anping. This guy had probably gone r.e.t.a.r.ded from reading comics.

‘Piak’, with a sharp sound, everyone silently stared dumbfounded at Li Anping who pulled back his hand. Opposite him, Chang Zheng’s face could be seen swelling at an observable pace.

Li Anping gave a tight slap across his face.

“F*CK! KILL HIM!” Chang Zheng’s face was black as coal, his features distorting due to rage: “Don’t fire your guns!” He waved to the men: “Tie him up! I want to slice his meat to feed the dogs, I won’t let you die even if you want to. I will torture you for 3 days and 3 nights……”

But before he finished his sentence, Li Anping gave him a punch on his stomach and he flew backwards by 2 metres, with a ‘wah’ sound vomited all the food he had just ate. Feeling waves of pain in his abdomen, the punch earlier felt like it almost tore his intestines apart.

One punch knocked out Chang Zheng, Li Anping turned around, his leg swung at the stomach of a man behind him, the man’s figure of 1.8m was thrown back and caused a domino effect on the people around him.

At the same time, Li Anping’s other arm had smoothly grabbed towards the pipe on his shoulder. Using a bit of strength, he took control of the pipe from a man and before he even reacted, smashed it on his face, causing him to collapse with a head full of blood.

Another 4 men rushed up, wielding pipes and cleavers, and all attacked towards Li Anping. However, in Li Anping’s eyes they were simply too slow, as slow as the old people exercising in the park in the morning. His brain even had time to a.n.a.lyse which person to attack first.

Thus, with a sweep of the pipe, two were sent flying into the air, the area where they were hit bent at a weird angle, like plastic toys that were crushed by children. Taking a step forward, Li Anping dodged another two men’s a.s.sault from the back, turned around and the pipe swerved like a dragon’s tail, landing on one of their faces. The force caused his nose to be deformed, a few teeth in his mouth fell out and dropped to the floor.

Next, before the other man had reacted, the pipe swung vertically and hit the top of his head. Without a sound, he fell with his mouth foaming with blood and saliva.

Li Anping dared not hold back anymore, as he was up against these violent people, he knows that any form of pity for them was cruelty to himself.

He had simultaneously defeating several people, even before the surrounding people had responded, as Li Anping was too fast. To them, it just looked like he waved his hands and they immediately fell down.

“F*cker still dares to retaliate!”

“Slaughter him!”

“Beat him to death!”

One person walked towards the corner and grabbed the fire extinguisher, throwing it at Li Anping. The fire extinguisher had the length of one’s arm, if it hit anyone, it’d cause serious injuries.

Li Anping however, managed to catch the fire extinguisher and after staring at the guy for one second, with the other party stunned as he did not expect Li Anping to catch the extinguisher. The next moment, he had already thrown it back.

The fire extinguisher became a red trail and smashed directly on to the person’s face, causing his entire nose to be sunken in, fainting without making a sound. Within this moment, a few people had already rushed up to Li Anping but they were beaten senseless without even landing a hit on li Anping.

All of them were hit on the face by the steel pipes. The most severe case, the flesh on half his face was almost torn out. Li Anping naturally did not know how to fight, he only used
his biggest strength and greatest speed to attack the opponent’s face. As for why he targets the face, that’s because he thinks it’s a lethal spot.

“Gulp…”

The few people who were behind them subconsciously slowed down their steps but this caused them to knock into the people behind them, causing a congestion. Li Anping silently walked to them and, one by one, knocked out another 5 people.

The scolding had already stopped. In fact, at this point the majority of the people had already found something amiss, a few more cleavers were hurled at Li Anping but he caught them with one hand and threw them back.

Every knife flew at him at around the same time, but all of them were caught by Li Anping, and thrown back simultaneously. Almost as if it was a circus trick, if there was an audience, he’d have received a standing ovation already.

But to have such an opponent, the men could only feel despair.

At this moment, a gunshot was heard.

Chang Zheng fired a shot at the ceiling, held the handgun and walked towards Li Anping while scolding: “F*cker, aren’t you very good at fighting?” As if he was wary of Li Anping’s physical skills, he stopped 2 metres before him, and pointed the gun at his chest.

“Continue and fight! Let’s see who’s faster, your fists or my gun, f*cker.” Chang Zheng frowned deeply, while speaking the corner of his lips had traces of blood flowing out, evidently being injured by Li Anping’s earlier punch.

“Throw the pipe in your hand away.” He rubbed his chin, and said to the men beside him: “Take out all the guns, get someone to tie him up. Don’t block me, tie him up from the back.” Li Anping’s earlier actions had obviously alerted him, he no longer dared to be careless.

Seeing that both his hands were held, about to be tied up by nylon rope, Li Anping suddenly leaped forward and pounced towards Chang Zheng, about to risk his life.

But the moment he moved, Chang Zheng fired with a smirk on his face. Blood sprayed from his leg and upon losing the momentum, Li Anping half kneeled on the ground.

In his head, the voice sarcastically said: “What childish resistance, if you have seized their boss as hostage from the start instead of attacking the men, you would not be as cornered as you are now.”

Li Anping gritted his teeth, his leg had been penetrated by a bullet, although the bullet did not pierce any major vein, but the muscles were torn and unless he jumped with one leg, he had practically become immobile.

Seeing Li Anping shot, Chang Zheng walked towards him with a grin, smashing the gun handle on his face.

“Trying to take me down with you when you were at your wits end? What era is this, did you really think your fist was faster than my gun?” Raising his gun again, he swung the gun barrel at Li Anping’s face. The blood splattered on Chang Zheng’s face, making him look even more devious.

“Give him a good thrashing.” Chang Zheng laughed: “I will attend to him personally later, and cut off his p*nis.”

“Lend me the power you gave me at the hospital again.”

“It’s already used up…… hehehehe, if you still want it, devour them.”

His fist rained down upon them, among the 30 odd men in the factory, a dozen were knocked out by Li Anping, a few of the men carried them out and the remaining ten plus men surrounded the injured Li Anping.

Earlier, Li Anping could still rely on his monstrous strength to defend or counterattack. Now after a few minutes, the blood loss from the gun wound had already severely weakened him. The first area he got hit was his leg. A man took the chance when Li Anping was distracted to step on his wound, the intense pain causing Li Anping to cry out.

Li Anping knocked the man back with a punch, but at the same time a baseball bat slammed him on his back, causing him to fall on the concrete floor.

He struggled to get up but the surrounding men were like evil spirits from h.e.l.l, numerous pairs of hands grabbed at him, as if they wanted to drag him down to h.e.l.l.

These people who normally followed Chang Zheng, were arrogant and proud, almost each of their hands were blood-laden, and had a gang of henchmen of their own as well. Never had they suffered such a loss, tens of them getting thrashed by a single person, the biggest disgrace of their lives. Now that they had the chance, there was no way they would let Li Anping go.

However, due to their years of brawling experience, they had good control in their a.s.sault. Since Chang Zheng had declared that he was going to torture Li Anping, they would definitely not beat him to death. Even so, within a few minutes, Li Anping’s flesh was already torn open, a b.l.o.o.d.y mess, like a broken doll thrown on the streets.

“Didn’t you want to seek justice from us?” Outside the circle surrounding him, the shrill laughter of the triggered Li Anping’s nerves: “f.u.c.k you!”

“Still not retaliating? As long as you absorb a few souls, it’ll be enough to alleviate the crisis.” The voice in his head mockingly said.

Seeing the unmoved Li Anping, the voice howled: “Useless, you piece of trash, at this rate you’ll never get your revenge. You’ll be trampled on forever, becoming worthless garbage that cannot protect anyone.”

The grievance of being framed, the pain of losing his loved one, Chang Zheng’s sheer arrogance. Li Anping’s emotions erupted like a volcano.

Li Anping felt like there was a breeze cold air emitting from his body, as if something had awakened in his mind. He stretched out an arm and grabbed at a leg which was kicking at him.

“f.u.c.ker, still not letting go?” The man found that his leg was tightly gripped thus he raised his other leg to kick at Li Anping’s arm. However, after several attempts, the grip had not loosened in the slightest.

“f.u.c.k, let go!” A few people saw this and hurried to help attack Li Anping’s arm, shoulder, some used their legs while others smashed with a pipe.

The person who was grabbed trembled: “Why is it getting colder?” Next, he felt his leg tighten, and a strong sucking force emitted from it.

“Eat him! Devour him!”

“Together for eternity, become the source of energy for our strength!”

“Devour! Li Anping!”

The man instantly fell. The surrounding men were confused at this peculiar scene, and Li Anping had already let go of his leg.

“What? Did he get sick?”

“He had a spasm?”

“Gu… guys…. look at him, what happened?” A man pointed at Li Anping, his face full of terror.

Only to see that Li Anping was still sprawled on the ground, but the sportswear on his body jerked up and down nonstop, like a python slithering about. The sound of his bones and muscles twisting and turning cracked continuously, sending a chill down everyone’s spine.

Li Anping gradually stood up, the injuries on his body closed and healed at an insane rate. His muscles expanded with time, and his entire frame became much large, over 2 metres.

His eyes were dyed with the colour of blood.

“You… will all die.”

Rushing into the crowd, Li Anping pulled back his right arm at an arc, and his fist landed on two people’s head, sending them flying. In midair, their necks emitted a cracking sound, their heads and necks compressed into a ball and before they had hit the ground, they lost all signs of life.

Absorbing two more souls, Li Anping felt revitalized, as if there was unlimited energy about to burst out from his body, with the wave of his hands, the weapons surrounding him were all blown away.

“Use the gun, quickly draw your guns!”

“De…demon…”

“Don’t run, fire together!”

—Bang–Bang—

Li Anping body was pelted by bullets, blood spraying out like a fountain. The impact pierced his bones and muscles, sending his body flying backwards.

Being shot again by handguns, the difference this time was that Li Anping did not lose his fighting capability as the energy from the souls he had absorbed earlier continued to repair his body as well as increase his strength. Slithering on the ground, Li Anping rushed towards the shadowy area of the warehouse, the intense pain causing his body to move via muscle memory.

As mentioned earlier, this warehouse, other than its huge s.p.a.ce, had leftover cupboards and boxes. It was already night time at the moment, thus they provided a large number of shadowy areas.

“What happened, why did you guys fire again?” Chang Zheng rushed over upon hearing the gunshots, bringing with him two of the dogs, which were barking nervously at the shadows. Seeing the three men on the ground, Chang Zheng howled: “What are you guys doing? So many people and you can’t even take care of an injured good-for-nothing?”

A few of the men stammered to explain the situation, some saying he was possessed, being immune to bullets, Chang Zheng waved his hand impatiently: “He’s in this warehouse, go find him now!”

At this moment, Li Anping leapt out from the shadows, his four limbs moving across the ground at an unimaginable pace, bringing a trail of afterimages behind him as he disappeared into the darkness again.

Chang Zheng stared blankly at the spot at the vanishing afterimages, turned around and saw the henchman who was talking to him a moment ago had been beheaded. The wound on his head was like a devil’s smile, the blood oozed out from the wound and sprayed on Chang Zheng’s face.

“AHHHHHH!!!”

A chain of cries and screams were heard. Although some of the men had seen blood before, they had never seen something so savage. The men that hung out with them daily had been beheaded right in front of them.

“Shut the f.u.c.k up!” Chang Zheng pulled out his gun and shouted: “Two men one group, back to back, stay sharp, fire if you see anyone.”

“What the f.u.c.k was that.”

The remaining people having heard the instructions regained their composure, and immediately took out their guns, standing back to back. They carefully observed the surroundings, realizing that the place which was familiar as home to them had become almost terrifying to be in.

“f.u.c.ker, come out if you have the guts.” Chang Zheng’s vision swept through the warehouse and suddenly shouted: “All you know is hide? Didn’t you want to teach us a lesson? Then get the f.u.c.k out here and fight me fair and square.”

After saying that, the surrounding was still silent, only the sound of their coa.r.s.e breathing could be heard.

“Boss, this is too creepy, shall we retreat?” One of the men suddenly whispered.

“Escape your a.s.s.” Chang Zheng scolded him, and pointed to the door: “All of you follow me to the door, there is only one exit here, if we block the exit he will have no choice but to show himself.”

The factory had split into 3 groups of people. Li Anping and Chang Zheng’s group of 10 plus people stayed inside the warehouse. Another 10 plus who were knocked out by Li Anping earlier were dragged out for treatment. And there was the man in the steel cage.

Hearing Chang Zheng’s instructions, everyone headed for the door, their movement was slow and they stood close together, pointing their guns at every possible angle, as if Li Anping was about to spring out any moment.

“What in the world was that?”

“He’s very fast.”

“How would I know.” Chang Zheng’s expression was grim, and he muttered: “Who cares what he is, once I catch him, he is dead meat.”

Before he finished his sentence, above them a shadow suddenly fell, and instantly pounced at a one of the men.

“Don’t fire! Save me! Save me!” The man screaming in terror, his cry for help caused the others to hesitate but Chang Zheng had already aimed his gun. He had obviously been trained in using a gun before, compared to the surrounding men, his posture was way more professional. He also let go of the leash, releasing his two wolf dogs.

But faster than his gun, was Li Anping’s movement. ‘Bang Bang’ Two shots fired had only left dents on the ground as Li Anping had already dragged the man into the shadows. The two wolf dogs barked and followed into the shadows.

At this time, the men had finally reacted and all fired towards the place where Li Anping had disappeared into. The gunshots were fired continuously, as if they were trying to get rid of the fear in their hearts, thus they continuously fired at the shadowy area.

But the shots that they fired could not hit Li Anping, within the shadows the man’s pleas could be heard.

“No, no, please let me go!”

“Please I’m begging you! Please let me go!”

“AHH!!! My arm! My arm!”

The inhumane wailing tore through the skies and followed by the two dogs’ whimpering, silence returned.

When Chang Zheng had rushed to the spot, there was only the corpse of the men which was torn apart on the ground, and two wolf dogs lying lifelessly beside him.

No one could imagine what kind of cruelty the man had gone through in the shadows, but this was what made it more horrifying, the surrounding darkness struck fear in everyone’s hearts, as if it would devour them at any moment.

Seeing the man’s corpse, some could not help but vomit.

“I can’t take this anymore, I’m leaving!” Someone swallowed his saliva, and ignoring the others, ran for the door screaming: “Ahh!”

But after he had taken a few steps, a steel pipe flew out of nowhere and stabbed him right on the back, piercing his chest. The scream stopped abruptly and the man fell on the ground, blood and substance flowing out of his mouth.

He turned his head around, staring at the group of men, as if he wanted to say something, but could not. Finally, his head jerked and he stopped breathing, dead.

“Ah! Ah! Ah!” One man raised his gun like he had gone insane and fired continuously: “I see you! Come out here!”

Unfortunately, what answered him was a metallic clang sound as another pipe flew out again and at a speed where only a trail of black shadow could be seen. He plopped on the ground, like there was something stabbed into his body.

He looked around but found himself uninjured and started laughing maniacally. But halfway through, he found that everyone including Chang Zheng looked at him with a weird expression, like they were looking at a ghost.

From the people’s perspective, a steel pipe and penetrated the man’s brain and only after a few seconds did he fall with a loud scream.

As if it was a signal, Li Anping had seemingly found a new toy as after the man collapsed, numerous pipes were thrown out and shot towards the remaining gang. Corpses fell like domino pieces, at this moment life seemed utterly fragile.

After blood has splattered all over, the men could care no longer. Even with Chang Zheng’s intimidation, it could not stop them. Their face was full of terror as they rushed towards the door with bloodshot eyes.

The scene had completely lost control. Li Anping rushed out from the shadows again, his four limbs moving on the ground towards the men. His speed was spectacular and his body continued to twist and turn, none of the bullets could hit him.

This time, he did not make the scene as b.l.o.o.d.y as before. All the men he chased were taken out with one hit. All their souls were devoured.

No screaming, no bloodshed. The remaining people died unknowingly in the darkness.

When Li Anping stopped, there was only Chang Zheng still standing.

He pointed his gun at Li Anping, his hands trembling uncontrollably: “Kill me if you have the guts.”

Li Anping coldly looked him in the eye: “Originally I wanted to talk to you a little first.”

“I…” Chang Zheng howled at Li Anping.

Ignoring him, Li Anping rushed forward before Chang Zheng was able to fire and twisted his neck.

Observing the surroundings, Li Anping waved his hand and Chang Zheng’s corpse flew out, smashing onto a wooden box and landed in a mountain of trash.

“Then I realized, I have nothing to say to sc.u.m like you.”

“I should probably… go find Huo Qing myself.”

Next, Li Anping walked out of the warehouse and slaughtered the remaining henchmen one by one. He also collected some of the cash in case of emergency usage.

“Da Guang Road’s abandoned factory, there was a gang fight here.”

Picking up one of the corpses handphone, Li Anping called the cops and hung up after saying one line. He looked at both his hands, solemnly.

“You regret it?”

“How can that be?” Li Anping raised his head and walked out of the factory: “Initially, I thought that after killing these people I would feel remorse, disgusted, angry but to speak the truth, when I broke their necks and devoured their souls, I felt nothing at all. As if I was simply killing a chicken.”

Perhaps shocked by Li Anping’s att.i.tude, the voice only sighed long after: “Because you are a born devil.”

“How should I address you?”

“You can call me Black.”

“Black, I should thank you.” Li Anping stood at the factory’s door: “If not for you, I would never have the strength to do what I did today. I understand now, towards those sc.u.mbags, since they don’t have any principles and don’t treat themselves as human beings, then I do not have to treat them as humans either. You said something wrongly, I am not a devil, I represent justice.”

“Oh?”

“I have decided, I will use the power you gave me to defeat all evil. From today onwards, I will only devour the soul of the evildoers, I will become stronger and stronger, and eliminate all the evil in the world.” Li Anping clenched his fists as he spoke full of determination.

“To punish the evildoers, and to reward the kind people.”

“I will become, the Hero of Humanity!!!”

Saying so, he punched a steel door nearby, causing it to be detached from the door frame and was sent flying on the ground.