Darkness Falls

It was 8:58 PM in Yangcheng, just five hundred meters away from the fallout shelter.

This was a small park in the suburbs. Only a few people visited during the day, and at night, it was completely deserted.

Around the park, a group of monsters hid in the shadows, frowning as they stared at the dead-silent park.

“It's almost nine o'clock. Why hasn't anyone shown up? Are they scared?” a supple young man wrapped around a tree trunk whispered.

Beneath the tree, a woman stood and replied, “It's only natural to be scared. Xiao Qi didn't even know the two Bai siblings until a few days ago.”

They had already doxxed Xiao Qi and dug up all his personal information.

If the kid hadn't been an orphan, they would have kidnapped his mother to threaten him.

Time ticked away, and it was soon nine o'clock.

Suddenly, a whistling sound echoed from the sky, and all the monsters below looked up.

A man was flying through the sky, hanging onto a hang glider. When he reached about a dozen meters above the park, he suddenly let go and dropped.

In the open clearing in the middle of the park, Xiao Qi crouched on the ground, shirtless and wearing only a pair of gray jeans.

He slowly stood up, tossing the golden dragon-head ring up and down in his left hand. “I'm here. I hope you guys can be punctual. Don't waste my time.”

A strong gust of wind blew, rustling the surrounding trees. As a leaf drifted in from afar, Xiao Qi looked toward the entrance.

The leaf drifted past Xiao Qi's eyes. At some point, five figures had appeared at the previously empty entrance.

Leading them was the long-haired Guan Rong, who strode forward with a sinister grin. “Kid, you've got guts. I can't believe you dared to come and trade with us alone!”

He looked around but didn't see anyone else.

To his left, a woman with a nose several times larger than normal sniffed the air deeply.

After a moment, she whispered to the others, “Confirmed once again. There are no explosives nearby.”

Although they had already checked this place over a dozen times, they were still afraid that their opponent might have planted a massive bomb to blow them all to kingdom come.

“Where is she?” Xiao Qi frowned, not seeing any sign of Bai Xiaohua.

Guan Rong waved his hand. At the entrance, a two-meter-tall, four-armed brute appeared, carrying a young girl.

“Hand over the ring, and you get the girl,” Guan Rong said.

As he spoke, the surrounding monsters quietly closed in, waiting for the order to tear Xiao Qi to shreds.

Xiao Qi didn't reply. He swept his gaze over the area, completely ignoring the monsters closing in on him. “Your Zhang Yi didn't come?”

Hearing his question, Guan Rong's expression turned sour. “Who the hell do you think you are, wanting to see our Archbishop? Kill him and take the ring!”

Upon receiving the order, hurried footsteps echoed from all around the park.

In the next second, over a dozen figures leaped seven or eight meters into the air from all around the park.

They came in all shapes and sizes. One pitch-black monster roared with a ferocious grin, “This kid's life is mine!”

The moment they leaped, the sky suddenly turned pitch-black, as if the moonlight had been blocked by something.

Guan Rong subconsciously looked up at the sky, and his expression instantly warped in shock.

At some point, a dense swarm of crows had blanketed the sky. There had to be at least a hundred thousand of them.

“Caw!!!” As he stared at the sky, a massive crow's cry echoed from above.

The cry sounded like a command, and all the crows in the sky moved in unison.

A series of sonic booms erupted, so dense that it made one's skin crawl.

“It's an ambush! Run!!!” Guan Rong roared, his hair rapidly growing to cover his entire body.

But the leaping monsters weren't as fast to react, and the crows were certainly not slow.

Crows shot down from the sky like bullets, piercing straight through the flesh of the airborne monsters. Writhing in agony, the monsters were quickly shredded into a bloody mist by the swarm.

Before these crows, which were harder than special alloy, their defenses were as flimsy as paper.

This included Guan Rong, who had wrapped himself in his long hair for defense.

His hair fell to the ground. Guan Rong's eyes widened as his left hand trembled, reaching up to touch his left cheek.

The flesh that should have been there was completely gone. Only thick, warm blood dripped onto his hand.

Xiao Qi looked over and saw that the left side of Guan Rong's face had vanished. Even his exposed brain was missing a large chunk, with white matter still dripping down from the wound.

“Damn... it...” Guan Rong stared at Xiao Qi, choking out his final words before collapsing backward onto the ground.

A crow landed on Xiao Qi's head and said calmly, “There are only eighteen monsters here. Zhang Yi didn't show up. It seems he became much more cautious after the subway station incident.”

The entire park plunged into darkness as the dense swarm of crows circled above.

“Hiss! You took care of eighteen monsters just like that?!” Xiao Qi gasped.

If he had to fight these monsters using the ring, he could manage two or three at most. Any more than that, and he'd have to resort to dancing.

“They were just minor characters. Once you take her back, come find me immediately. I'll head out to find Zhang Yi first,” the crow said.

With that, the swarm of crows took flight, heading toward the fallout shelter.

The park returned to normal, but the surrounding trees had collapsed and the walls were shattered, leaving the place looking like a pile of ruins.

Bai Xiaohua watched this scene unfold, shivering in fear as she saw the shirtless man walking toward her.

She instinctively took a step back.

“Don't be scared. I'm a friend of your brother's. I'm here to save you.” Xiao Qi flashed a creepy grin and raised his eyebrows at her.

While the operation was underway here, on the other side, inside an underground base...

After dealing with Liu Jiyun, Zhang Yi's group had used their abilities to teleport here.

In the command room, Zhang Yi stared at the screen, which had suddenly gone fuzzy and lost its signal. “An ambush? Everyone we sent is dead.”

Standing before him were Wang Hai and the other three who had been teleported along with them.

“Archbishop Zhang, I didn't expect a monster capable of instantly killing eighteen Earth Priests to appear. With our current roster, it will be very difficult to handle such power,” a woman behind Zhang Yi said solemnly.

She even felt that only Zhang Yi, after fully absorbing all thirteen abilities, would stand a chance against such an opponent.