Quantum Cultivation by Jace Kang (simple e reader TXT) 📕

as another Peacekeeper barreled through. Before he could even point his gun, Ken landed six Wing Chun punches into the man’s chest in half a second, felling him as well.

How was he doing this? Was this speed and power the result of advancement? “Sorry!”

He turned to the next steps, but then ran into solid air. It would knock anyone else back, but Ken just noticed a buzz.

“Force field,” Ken said. “We have to take this door and go to another stairwell.”

“Not necessarily,” Siena said, holding out one of her titanide beads. “This is why you should let me lead. These will drain the force field’s energy and allow me to use it.”

“You could have said something earlier,” he mumbled.

A blue bolt slammed into the wall near Ken’s head. He tracked it back to its source: a female Peacekeeper one flight up.

He dashed past Siena, avoiding the rain of blue bolts as he zigged and zagged up the steps. When the woman pointed her gun at his head, he turned out of the line of fire, seized her wrist, and twisted the weapon away. A hero didn’t strike defenseless women—

In a quick, smooth motion, she whipped a stun stick out and swung at him.

A pulse from below struck her in the chest, knocking her back into the wall just before the stick would’ve connected with his chest.

Ken looked back.

Siena snorted. “I mean, she’s pretty, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t dangerous.”

Sheepishly, he let her take the lead. They continued up the steps unmolested until the eighth level.  Thirteen flights of steps, and he wasn’t tired at all.

“All right,” he said. “The interrogation rooms are down the hall, on both the left and right sides.  Do you know which one she’s in?”

Siena coughed. “I think she passed at least four…”

Which still left another ten. And on the other side of the stairwell door, they’d probably have to fight through at least a dozen Peacekeepers.

What would Master Ryu do?

Chapter 32:

The Cultivator

L eaping rooftop to rooftop through a neighborhood which hadn’t changed much since his youth, Ryu worked his way back to Pontocho Park.  There the open space would take away the cover all the buildings provided his pursuers. For now, they darted among the skyscrapers which formed a valley wall, taking shots at him, then bouncing out of sight when he tried to track the blue wisps back to their source.

Aya had yelled something out about Ministry of Defense assassins. Whatever they were, they were much faster than any of the other XHumans he’d encountered since his return. Their speed made them the equivalent of Second or Third Rank. Maybe even Fourth.

Still, Cores did not lie. With the air thick with water vapor, Ryu sensed that they were just as internally weak as all the other XHumans. Like Aya, they had technology-enabled abilities with nothing substantial to back them up.

He slipped left, dodged right, pulled up to a sudden stop, each time avoiding more blasts which sizzled into the pavement. He was almost there.

Avoiding one last blast, he arrived at the park and skidded to a stop.

The six assassins darted in and surrounded him. Clad in form-fitting black skinsuits, they wielded pistols in each hand. They shifted back and forth with admirable speed and coordination, enough that a regular person wouldn’t be able to get a good look at them.

With his Wood Path-enhanced vision, however, Ryu could tell they were short and wiry. Instead of trying to spin around, he let their movement through the water vapor reveal their location and vector.

Then their weapons unleashed a barrage.

Unlike the careless Peacekeepers, they only shot when one of their comrades wasn’t in their line of fire. Ryu sidestepped, bent over, twisted and turned, always finding the safe gap between the pulses of light. Still, their coordination kept him from getting closer to any of them, their encirclement adjusted to his position.

There was a pattern, though. Even though he’d introduced some unpredictability with the way he reacted, they’d adapted quickly. As if they operated like all the AI.

Well, it was time to introduce something their programming would have never conceived. With his next leap between the twelve different blasts, he landed. He rooted to the ground for a split second and drew his hands up in a Watershaping movement. A Water Whip formed in the path of an assassin’s jump, decapitating him.

The remaining five paused for a split second, giving him enough time to slash the Water Whip through the outstretched arms of another. Both his hands, guns and all, fell to the ground.

Ryu’s next three slices missed as the assassins dodged and countered with blasts of their own guns, but he’d successfully taken the initiative. In the meantime, the handless one jumped in with a series of kicks.

Ryu spun away from the first two, then rooted and shoved his shoulder into the man’s chest as he landed.  The Crashing Wave cracked ribs and sent his victim flying into the path of one of his comrade’s shots. He fell to the ground, convulsing.

In unison, the remaining four holstered one gun and drew a knife. They surged in, stabbing and slashing, then shooting. Ryu caught the first’s knife hand. With a twist of his hips, he pulled the assassin’s arm so that he stabbed the next closest. The black blade slide through the man’s sternum as if the bone was no harder than jelly.

Ryu swam his arm through the first’s outstretched arm and cranked. The pressure on the man’s elbow and shoulder would immobilize anyone else, but he flipped with the force and landed on his feet.  Still, Ryu was able to sweep his knife away. When the man landed, he drew