Chapter 48: The Yamaguchi-gumi Operation, Part 2

Nearly an hour later, Yan Tian had fought his way from the rear to the carriage where Han Hai and Wang Han were located.

From the very last carriage to that specific one, he had passed through a total of eleven carriages. Each carriage was guarded by three to four members of the Yamaguchi-ginkai, and in two of them, explosives had been concealed among the passengers.

However, not a single Yamaguchi-ginkai member under Yan Tian's hands had the opportunity to retaliate. Often, by the time Yan Tian stepped into a carriage, the thugs inside had not even reacted before Yan Tian hurled pairs of disposable wooden chopsticks that pierced straight through the centers of their brows, killing them instantly.

Yan Tian had never studied the art of flying daggers, but his cultivation had now reached the Xiantian realm, granting immense power to his every gesture. Plucking a leaf or casting a flower to take a life was effortless for him. Locking onto his enemies through the spiritual aura generated by his profound cultivation, he infused the wooden chopsticks with his true essence. Even when casually and randomly tossed, the chopsticks acted as hidden weapons that accurately and unerringly pierced the enemies' foreheads.

Strictly speaking, what Yan Tian wielded was not the orthodox art of flying daggers. True flying daggers could only travel in straight lines, modifying their flight paths slightly at best by relying on object rebounds, air friction, or wind speed.

Yan Tian's technique could only be described as relying on pure cultivation to control the trajectory of his hidden weapons, bearing a striking resemblance to the sword-piloting arts found in immortal-hero fantasy novels.

This skill was something others could not learn, nor could he teach it even if asked, unless the other person possessed cultivation as profound as his own.

Passing through the eleven carriages, he repeated the same method: distributing the gear of the Yamaguchi-ginkai thugs in each carriage to the bolder passengers, while conducting thorough body searches since it had been verified that explosives were mixed among the passengers.

Yan Tian entered the carriage where Han and Wang were, summoned them to his side, and said, "Take the passengers toward the rear and clear out two empty carriages."

Han Hai asked, "Are we going to open up a battlefield and fight them head-on?"

Yan Tian replied, "That fellow Koizumi-whatever gathered those celebrities for some cocktail party over an hour ago. The party is probably coming to an end by now, and the thugs who led them there could return at any moment. Once they come back, no matter how fast I strike, it's impossible to kill all the Yamaguchi-ginkai members simultaneously. The moment even a single person survives and shouts out, the surprise is ruined. While I'm not afraid, if a firefight truly breaks out, these passengers will suffer. Hmm, if things go poorly, I plan to sever the train directly and let the engine run away."

Locking onto the enemies' auras in an instant while simultaneously throwing hidden weapons infused with true essence would be manageable if the targets were distinct. However, the train corridor was far too narrow, accommodating only two people abreast. If the Yamaguchi-ginkai thugs who had escorted the celebrities to the dining car were to return with them, the mixed crowd would make it genuinely difficult for Yan Tian to deploy his skills.

Therefore, he intended to rescue them carriage by carriage, starting from this one, evacuating everyone to the rear, and leaving two empty carriages to serve as the battlefield. From then on, every time the passengers of a carriage were rescued, they would retreat in order, ensuring that a buffer of two empty carriages was always maintained.

Should the Yamaguchi-ginkai thugs discover the anomaly and send reinforcements to fight, he would not need to worry about harming the innocent. If the Yamaguchi-ginkai intended to use powerful explosives, he could also strike first and sever the train completely, detaching the already-saved carriages from the rest of the train.

Han Hai nodded and said, "That's well thought out." Then, with a hint of doubt, he asked, "Severing the train... you can only unhook the couplings from the control room. How do you plan to cut the train apart?"

A trace of a smile flickered in Yan Tian's eyes. He extended his right hand and made a downward chopping motion: "Of course, by cutting through it!"

Although Han Hai had witnessed Yan Tian's miraculous martial arts, he remained skeptical of the claim that he could chop through a train carriage. He shook his head with a smile and said, "Then Wang Han and I will start right now."

With that, Han Hai and Wang Han signaled the passengers to remain quiet and led them sequentially toward the rear carriages, quickly clearing out two empty cars.

After finishing, Yan Tian instructed Wang Han to bring all the passengers who had been distributed equipment from the rear carriages, gather them into one of the empty cars, and assign them to guard duty. From then on, whenever the people from a newly rescued carriage emerged, they would retreat in sequence into the empty car, while these armed passengers would push forward.

There were about forty-plus passengers who had received equipment, all of whom were exceptionally bold individuals. Hearing that they now had a chance to engage in a firefight with the Yamaguchi-ginkai thugs, most of them felt a mixture of fear and intense excitement, their faces flushing and breathing growing rapid.

Once all the armed passengers were gathered, Han Hai demonstrated how to handle the firearms, then divided them into groups of five, explaining how to provide mutual cover in the event of a firefight and how to fire in turns to avoid exhausting all ammunition simultaneously, which would create a firepower vacuum.

After providing a fairly detailed explanation, Han Hai selected five bold, meticulous, and agile passengers, leading them up to the train roof to take up positions and prevent any Yamaguchi-ginkai breakthrough from above.

Seeing that Han Hai had completed the deployment, Yan Tian pressed forward. Han Hai and the others patiently waited, ready to advance the moment passengers retreated into the two empty carriages.

Naturally, Han Hai also gave a rough explanation of tactical movements, such as how to advance and how to seek cover.

In truth, Yan Tian had not planned to let these passengers—who had likely never touched a gun in their lives—participate in the combat. He was extremely confident in himself, believing that his own strength was enough to wipe out all the thugs. The only reason he let the passengers join was to add a bit of deterrent force just in case.

Of course, in Yan Tian's view, this "just in case" was virtually impossible to happen.

Pressing his right hand against the corridor door, a gentle internal palm force instantly turned the entire door into silent dust. Before the pulverized wood could scatter and drift away, Yan Tian flung four pairs of disposable chopsticks. Without a sound, the four pairs of chopsticks pierced straight through the wooden powder and accurately and unerringly struck the brows of the four Yamaguchi-ginkai members in the carriage whose auras Yan Tian had already locked onto.

A glass window shattered with a crisp sound, landing atop the pile of wood dust as Yan Tian strode inside. Only after he entered did the four thugs' bodies collapse limply to the floor, blood pooling profusely across the ground.

With a soft hum, a sound generated by internal energy exploded in the ears of all the passengers, choking back the cries of alarm that were about to escape their lips. Just as Yan Tian was about to speak, he suddenly saw a blinding flash of light before his eyes!

Almost simultaneously with the flash, Yan Tian soared into the air, his twin palms striking the roof above him and blasting away the metal sheeting, leaping straight out onto the roof of the train!

"Boom—" Only then did a deafening explosion reach Yan Tian's ears. A violent shockwave blasted out from the fracture in the roof that Yan Tian had smashed open, accompanied by turbulent, surging heatwaves, scattered steel balls, and flying flesh and blood!

Guided by his intent, Yan Tian circulated his qi, his protective astral energy completely repelling the shockwave and flames while he deftly dodged the few small steel balls.

Suspended in mid-air, Yan Tian clearly saw that all the windows of that carriage shattered almost simultaneously. Shards of glass, firestorms, and flesh sprayed outward through the windows, and the entire carriage trembled violently, nearly derailing.

The train was speeding forward. When Yan Tian landed using the art of descending with a thousand catties, his footing was already on the roof of the following carriage.

Blazing fury erupted in his eyes, his teeth clenched so tight his jaw ached, and the veins on his temples and forehead bulged visibly.

He strode all the way to the large hole he had blasted out, leaped down, and gazed around to find utter devastation.

Amidst raging fires and billowing black smoke, mutilated limbs were strewn everywhere—some hanging from the seats, others collapsed in the aisles, and some sprawled across the windows. Blood and brain matter splattered everywhere, emitting a foul, pungent stench of raw meat and sulfur mixed with the burning heat.

Faint groans occasionally sounded, only to subside into silence after a few whimpers. Under such a violent explosion, it was practically impossible for anyone to survive.

The epicenter of the explosion was in the middle of the carriage, where the central rows of seats had been completely obliterated, leaving only charred remnants. The condition of the corpses there was the most tragic, almost all of them torn to pieces without a single intact body. Centered upon that spot, the walls of the carriage were riddled with radial pockmarks where the steel balls had struck. Some of the steel balls embedded in the iron walls even carried bits of flesh, blood, and sticky brain matter.

Such a gruesome sight, even to Yan Tian who had killed countless people, filled his heart with profound anguish and a strong urge to vomit.

Stepping forward a few paces, he suddenly caught sight of a pair of seats with their backrests destroyed, where a couple was tightly intertwined—the wife below and the husband above him, his arms spread wide as if shielding her. Beneath their bodies protruded a pair of delicate little calves severed cleanly at the ankles.

Suppressing his aching heart, Yan Tian reached out to pull aside the husband's corpse, whose upper head had been sliced away and whose body was pierced by over a dozen bloody holes. He then pulled aside the wife's corpse, which had a gaping hole blown through her waist dripping with bloody entrails and likewise riddled with a dozen wounds, revealing what they had been protecting.

It was a little girl, a toddler who looked to be only three or four years old.

The child was as exquisitely carved as jade, lovely and adorable. Her parents had used their bodies to block the tongues of fire, leaving her face and skin free from burn marks.

Yet at this moment, her face was