The killing intent was like a tangible needle, pricking Jiang Jiang's skin until it ached.
In the darkness, the black‑clad woman's crimson beast‑like eyes gleamed with a chilling light, her suppressed growl brimming with primal hunger.
She moved!
No warning—the figure vanished like a phantom, leaving only a blurred afterimage burned onto his retina.
Jiang Jiang's Xuan Tian Medical Sight flared to the limit, forcibly enhancing his dynamic vision.
He saw it! She hadn't disappeared—she was fast. Faster than anything he'd ever faced.
Her approach was not a straight dash, but a rapid Z‑shaped assault, metal claws tearing the air, sending up a shrill screech, aimed straight at his throat.
Too fast! His body couldn't keep up with what his Medical Sight was capturing.
Instinct—pure survival instinct—overrode everything else.
Without thinking, his right hand flashed from his pocket, not with one, but three cold silver needles between his fingers.
No formal technique, no calculated aim—just the outline of that high‑speed, life‑threatening heat source locked by his Medical Sight, and his body's reflex to mortal danger. He hurled them with all his strength.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Three barely audible whistles cut through the air, nearly drowned by the claws' metallic shriek.
Thk!
A muffled sound, followed by a short, inhuman cry of pain.
Agony flared in Jiang Jiang's left shoulder, as though a red‑hot iron brand had been pressed into his flesh.
The impact threw him back several steps until he slammed into the cold wall.
Looking down, he saw the thick outer coat, sweater, and shirt ripped apart with ease—three deep gashes laid bare to the bone, flesh curling at the edges, blood pouring out to soak his chest.
The pain sent his vision spinning; cold sweat drenched his back.
But the woman had also stopped.
She stood frozen less than two meters away, body trembling.
One of the needles had pierced the narrow gap of her right shoulder joint—the complex hinge where scapula met humerus—almost buried entirely, only the tiniest gleam of the tail visible.
Another needle had grazed her neck, embedding itself in the wall behind, and the third lodged deep in the muscle of her upper left arm.
But it was the right‑shoulder hit that mattered most.
Through his Medical Sight, Jiang Jiang saw: the needle carried a faint but extremely pure surge of energy from his own spiritual meridians. Like a drop of water in boiling oil, it disrupted the bio‑electrical signals and energy flow in her entire right side.
The smooth, deadly motion of those claws was cut short, twisted out of control.
She roared, eyes locked on him with fury and disbelief. She tried to lift her right arm, but instead of pain, there was a strange numbness—an energy backlash—rendering the limb heavy, unresponsive, its claws trembling in spasms.
"Silver needles… Xuan Tian…" she hissed, voice thick with hatred—and maybe a trace of fear.
Opportunity!
Gritting against the agony and dizziness from blood loss, Jiang Jiang locked onto her again.
The left‑arm needle had also struck true, hitting a nerve node controlling her forearm flexors.
Not as devastating as the shoulder strike, but enough to slow her left claw.
No time to let her recover.
Lin Nine‑Needles' warning rang in his head: Silver needles can heal… and they can kill.
Now was the time to kill.
A flash of ruthless resolve lit his eyes.
Clutching his wounded shoulder with his left hand, he reached into his pocket with the right—five needles left.
All his strength, all his focus poured into those five cold slivers of metal.
His spiritual meridians surged like never before, the mark on his brow burning hot.
The x‑ray‑like world of his Medical Sight sharpened until he could see the erratic currents in her body—and several dangerous, red‑glowing nodes: the source of her beast‑like power, and her vital weak points.
"Die!" he snarled, sending the five needles flying—straight for her heart, throat, and both knees.
But a killer from the Dark Medical Gate was no ordinary foe.
In the same instant, she made her own decision.
Her eyes blazed crimson, a shrill screech ripping from her throat.
Ignoring the numbness in her arm, she launched off the wall with a terrifying burst of power, veering just enough to evade the three lethal needles aimed for heart and throat.
Thud! Thud!
Two struck home—one deep in the muscles of her outer left thigh, the other in the calf of her right leg.
Her scream was sharper now.
The needles didn't just cause pain—they crippled her movement.
His energy crawled through her muscles and nerves like a parasite, halving her speed in an instant.
She crashed to the floor, no longer the relentless predator she'd been seconds ago.
Right arm paralyzed, left arm slowed, legs wounded—fear and disbelief finally flickered in her beast‑eyes.
Jiang Jiang was barely standing.
Two full‑force bursts of Medical Sight and needles, plus the shoulder injury, had drained him.
Leaning on the wall, breath ragged, sweat and blood dripping, he drew his last spare needle from his pocket.
"Talk! Who are you people? What does the Dark Medical Gate want?" His voice was hoarse, but his gaze was sharp. "Where's the man in the grey coat?"
Her eyes narrowed in hate… then widened in sudden fear.
She glanced at the needle in her shoulder—the tail was turning black.
From it spread dark‑red lines, crawling toward her neck and heart, devouring her life force like fire on dry grass.
"No… 'Cleaner'… activate…" she rasped, trembling hand moving toward a hidden switch on her vest.
Through his Medical Sight, Jiang Jiang realized it was a self‑destruct—an insidious energy designed to erase every trace of her body.
"Stop her!" His heart pounded. He tried to move, but his body failed him.
Too late.
Her finger pressed the switch.
A twisted smile of release—and hatred—crossed her face.
Zzzhhh!
The sound of flesh dissolving filled the corridor.
The red lines flared and raced across her body; skin, muscle, bone melted like wax, vanishing in seconds, leaving only a pool of dark‑red sludge and corroded claw fragments.
The predator who had nearly killed him was gone—by her own hand.
The corridor reeked of blood and chemicals. Jiang Jiang retched, scanning the remains—an unknown nanotoxic blend, engineered to erase all evidence.
"Dark Medical Gate…" His heart sank. This was only one operative. The man in the grey coat…
He tore a strip from his shirt, binding his shoulder to slow the bleeding, and staggered to the display case holding the brass acupuncture box.
With his Medical Sight guiding a thread of energy, he popped the old lock open, seized the box, and turned to leave.
But just before stepping into the main hall, he sensed a faint energy fluctuation from the ceiling vent.
He looked up—two cold, emotionless eyes stared back at him from the darkness.
The grey‑coated man. Watching.
Their gazes locked for a moment—no anger, no killing intent, only the cold study of a test subject—before the eyes vanished.
A small silver wafer drifted down from the vent, landing at the edge of the bloody remains. Its tiny signal light flickered once, then went dead.
Jiang Jiang's pulse hammered.
He shoved the box under his coat, hid the bloodstains, and slipped into the crowd of museum visitors, heading for the exit.
He had to leave Dawson City immediately.
The grey‑coated man was the true danger—like a snake in the dark, waiting to strike.
On a bus heading for town, Jiang Jiang studied the brass box. No latches.
He channeled a thread of Medical Sight energy—
Bzz…
A faint vibration, a Tai Chi fish emblem glowing softly. Inside, engraved micro‑characters lit up, forming an energy path.
Click.
The lid opened, revealing a wafer‑thin shard of pale‑blue ice, carved with impossibly fine lines.
As he stared, a faint 3D map projected—snow‑covered mountains, a marked valley labeled Han Yuan.
At its entrance, nine needles formed a glowing sigil.
"Han Yuan… needle map…" he murmured, gripping it tightly. The next step was clear.
Outside, the Yukon wilderness stretched cold and endless.
Inside, Jiang Jiang's pulse pounded—not from fear alone, but from the knoledge that the road ahead was far deadlier than any storm.