Chapter 54: At the Brink of Life and Death

**Chapter 54: A Life-or-Death Moment**

The tall man’s cry for help startled the entire village. Ji An could hear many footsteps rushing toward them—along with what sounded like mutated beasts. At the same time, the personnel mentioned by the squinty-eyed man to handle the evacuation seemed to have arrived, as Ji An heard the roar of approaching car engines growing louder in the distance.

Ji An led the charge, wielding a bow formed from his superpower. When the first man appeared, Ji An didn’t give him a chance to react—he fired two arrows in quick succession, taking the enemy down before he could even use his own ability.

Ji An shouted, “Run faster if you don’t want to end up as human pigs! Stay close to me!” *(Note: "human pigs" refers to a brutal historical punishment where victims were mutilated and left alive.)*

The children sprinted at full speed, sticking tightly to Ji An, while Yuan Mingan held off the pursuers from behind.

As they rounded a corner, a three-meter-long mutated wolfhound charged straight at them, jaws wide open, its sharp fangs gleaming and dripping with drool. Ji An could almost smell the beast’s rotten breath.

Ji An fired an arrow—but four or five more mutated wolfhounds burst out from behind the first.

The lead wolfhound was struck in the head and collapsed, but the others had already closed in.

The children stood no chance against these beasts—confronting them meant certain death.

“Ahhh! Brother Ji An, Mother Yuan, help!” the children screamed in panic.

Ji An couldn’t hold off so many wolfhounds with just a bow. He retracted it and wove his superpower into a large net, throwing it in front of the children to trap the charging beasts.

The wolfhounds crashed into the superpower net, gnashing their teeth and clawing at it violently.

Ji An felt the strain on his superpower reserves, waves of sharp pain surging through him. The children from the orphanage screamed in panic, crying out uncontrollably.

A few, overwhelmed by fear, bolted from the group in panic.

“Come back! It’s dangerous over there!” Little Stone yelled.

“Get over here! If you don’t want to die, stay close to Brother Ji An! Getting caught by them means becoming a human pig—better to be bitten to death by these beasts!” Little Rose roared, managing to grab two of the fleeing children.

But one child still dashed away in terror, running straight toward the human traffickers’ hideout. Seeing Ji An and Yuan Mingan locked in battle, Little Stone had no choice but to chase after the child himself.

“Little Stone!” Little Rose cried out in alarm.

Little Stone shouted back, “Don’t follow me! Stay with Brother Ji An—I’ll bring him back!”

“Come back, Little Stone!” Ji An shouted when he noticed. At this moment, anyone who ran back would be lost.

Sure enough, the child hadn’t gotten far before being captured by a trafficker’s superpower attack.

The child wailed, kicking and hitting in resistance, but the trafficker had none of Ji An’s patience. With a single blast of superpower, the child went limp and silent—alive or dead, no one could tell.

Seeing this, Little Stone turned and ran back, but the traffickers gave chase. Small with short strides, he was overtaken in just a few steps.

Ji An’s superpower wasn’t strong enough to maintain multiple forms at once. With no other option, he quickly retracted the net.

The mutated hounds, still tearing at the superpower net, were suddenly ensnared as the strands thickened and strengthened. The net tightened, cutting into their flesh, and the beasts yowled in pain.

But it wasn’t enough. The net twisted violently, like wringing out wet clothes, ripping the hounds apart. Blood sprayed as limbs and heads scattered across the ground.

Ji An didn’t have time to check the damage. He hurled the superpower net toward Little Stone.

At the same time, he sprinted forward, pushed off the wall with one foot, and leaped ahead, closing the distance in just a few strides.

He scooped Little Stone up under his arm and sprinted forward, shouting, “Kids, stick together! Don’t lag behind!”

Seeing Little Stone rescued, Little Rose grabbed the two children she had stopped and dug deep, summoning all her strength to keep up with Ji An.

The psychic barrier behind them blocked some of the pursuing traffickers, while others were engaged in battle with Yuan Mingan. With her low-level superpowered abilities, Yuan Mingan dared not confront them head-on and could only fight while retreating.

Fortunately, Ji An’s psychic barrier bought her time to escape, intercepting some of the traffickers. Soon, she caught up with the group.

Among the traffickers was a high-level superpowered. With a single devastating strike, he blasted a hole through Ji An’s psychic barrier. Little Stone, who was being carried by Ji An, gave a pained grunt and coughed up blood.

"Brother Ji An!" Little Stone cried in panic.

Ji An wiped the blood from his lips and reassured him, "I'm fine. Everyone, run!"

With Ji An's psychic barrier damaged, traffickers began streaming through the gap one after another. More of them attacked the barrier directly, creating new breaches.

The psychic barrier was now in tatters and posed no threat to the pursuing traffickers. Leaving it up would only worsen Ji An’s psychic injuries, so he simply withdrew it.

The children, with their short legs and arms, couldn’t outrun a group of adults. One child beside Little Rose tripped and fell in their frantic rush.

In the blink of an eye, the group had left the boy behind, and the traffickers were closing in.

Terrified, the boy scrambled forward, sobbing wildly. Little Rose noticed and turned back to help him up.

Just then, a trafficker reached them and grabbed for the boy. The boy clutched Little Rose's hand and suddenly shoved her toward the trafficker before scrambling to his feet and running away without looking back.

Little Rose’s expression froze in shock as she was seized by the trafficker.

Little Stone, who had been silently watching Little Rose’s movements, struggled in Ji An’s arms. "Little Rose! Brother Ji An, Little Rose was caught!"

Yuan Mingan saw it too, but she was busy protecting other children, entangled in combat with several superpowered opponents.

Little Stone struggled too fiercely for Ji An to hold onto, forcing Ji An to put him down. Gripping Little Stone’s arm, Ji An said, "Keep running forward. Don't look back. I'll save Little Rose. If you come, you'll only make things harder for me."

After giving his orders, Ji An turned back to fight.

He released his psychic energy once more from his mind, this time shaping it into a massive psychic sword.

Gripping the hilt, Ji An swung the sword down with nearly all his psychic power.

The blade seemed to glow with energy, its descent carrying the force to cleave mountains and part seas—as if capable of annihilating the heavens and earth. The sword's energy formed a radiant curtain, its sheer force blasting several low-level superpowered opponents away.

The psychic sword descended straight toward the head of the man holding Little Rose, bisecting him instantly. One half of his body still clutched Little Rose.

Little Rose screamed in horror. Ji An whirled and struck again, the sword’s speed leaving blurred afterimages in the air. It was unclear how many he struck, but the air filled with the traffickers’ screams of pain.

Only a few high-level superpowered managed to evade Ji An’s strike, barely remaining standing.

"Challenging above your rank—a psychic superpowered?" One quick-witted trafficker realized. "Are you from Capital City Command Base?"

Rumors had spread that Capital City Command Base was secretly training a group of combat-oriented psychic superpowered individuals. The most formidable among them was the one who, on the day of the execution of the American, had fired three consecutive arrows to turn a superpowered into a mindless fool.

Ji An grabbed Little Rose and loosed a psychic arrow at the man’s head without waiting to see if it hit before whirling to escape.

"Quick! Don't let him escape! He's probably from Capital City Command Base. If he gets away, we're all dead!" The man dodged Ji An’s arrow and immediately shouted.

Every trafficker heard him—and grew even more frenzied.

Ji An, carrying Little Rose while fighting, was overwhelmed. The traffickers had identified him as the main threat and focused their attacks on him.

Between fighting, protecting the children, and dodging assaults, Ji An was spread too thin.

One trafficker, positioned behind Ji An, took advantage of his distraction and unleashed a killing blow with his superpower. If it landed, Ji An would die instantly.

The trafficker's face flushed with excitement, as if he foresaw Ji An’s death—since Ji An hadn’t noticed the sneak attack at all. By the time Ji An realized what was happening, it would be too late.

Just then, a thunderous tiger roar shook the wilderness. A massive mutated Blueeyed Winged Tiger descended from the sky, its heavy paw swiping down and sending the attacking superpowered human flying. His power veered off midair and exploded beside Ji An’s feet.

The Blueeyed Winged Tiger landed beside Ji An, lowered its head, and picked him up with a forceful toss. Ji An flipped 360 degrees in the air before landing on the furry back of the giant tiger.

Before he could steady himself, the tiger flung a small furry bundle into the air. Ji An quickly reached out and caught it—it was the injured cub he had saved earlier using his spider silk.

The tiny bundle was gasping weakly, clearly at death’s door, perhaps only moments away.

Ji An had released the mother tiger, but it seemed he hadn’t managed to save her cub. Yet, the mother tiger had undeniably saved his life—he owed the tiger his life.

Ji An had to save this cub, and it had to be now. If the cub stopped breathing and died, even the Magic Spring water couldn’t bring it back. Fortunately, this mutated cub was still young and low-level; otherwise, the Magic Spring water might not have worked.

Swiftly, Ji An retrieved an undiluted bottle of Magic Spring water, forced the cub’s jaws open, and poured it in.

The cub’s nose twitched, as if sensing the life-giving water. Despite being on the brink of death, it found the strength to gulp down the water as Ji An poured.

The Blueeyed Winged Tiger ran and fought, seemingly sensing something. It glanced back at its own back and slowed its pace, trying to keep steady so Ji An could feed more of the life-saving water to the cub.

But as the tiger slowed, the traffickers took better aim. A superpower shot struck Ji An’s arm.

Ji An gasped in pain, his grip loosening, and the water bottle went flying.

The Blueeyed Winged Tiger, knowing the bottle could save its cub, turned abruptly, leaped, and caught the bottle mid-air by its cap before continuing its sprint.

Ji An was amazed by the tiger’s cleverness—it knew gripping the cap would keep the water in.

Checking the cub in his arms, Ji An saw it had swallowed several large gulps and now looked stronger, probably out of danger. Noticing Ji An’s gaze, it let out feeble little whimpers.

Ji An handed the cub to Little Rose, instructing, “Hold onto it!”

“Okay,” Little Rose replied, knowing the cub’s mother had saved them. “As long as I’m alive, I won’t let it go.”

Ji An nodded absently and summoned his psychic ability, rejoining the fight. Man and beast fought as one, cutting a bloody swath through their enemies.

Had it been just them, they might have escaped already. But with the children to protect, even with the mutated Blueeyed Winged Tiger’s help, they fought desperately against the odds.

“Kill them!” one trafficker shouted. “That psychic is a secret operative trained by the capital base! If he escapes, we’re all dead!”

“Forget capturing them alive—leave no one alive!”

The traffickers abandoned plans to capture them, opting instead to leave their bodies behind to cover their tracks.

“Everyone, attack together! Leave no one alive!”

“Agreed!”

The traffickers unleashed a barrage of powers into the sky, weaving a deadly web of energy so vast it blotted out the sky, like a shroud of doom descending upon them.

Beneath this net, Ji An and the others felt the world darken instantly, as if night had fallen—a sign of their coming end.

The oppressive net descended like a storm cloud, radiating apocalyptic force. The children wailed in terror, shaking like leaves in a storm.

Amid the chaos, Little Stone, who had been panicked, suddenly grew calm. Holding Little Rose, he smiled. “Little Rose, these past days felt like stolen time—so happy, almost unreal. Even if I die now, I’ll have no regrets. I’d rather die here than fall into their hands.”

Little Rose wiped her tears and said firmly, “I’m not scared either. Facing the afterlife together—with you, Ji An, and Mother Yuan—I won’t be afraid.”

“Ji An,” Little Rose added, tears in her eyes but smiling, “thank you for giving us such joy. And I’m sorry we dragged you into this. These people only wanted us kids, but because you saved us, built the orphanage… now it’s cost you your life.”

Little Stone echoed guiltily, “We’re so sorry, Ji An. If there’s a next life, Little Stone and Little Rose will repay you—as your loyal servants.”