Training?

Hearing the arrogant declaration from his opponent, Chu Jizhen couldn't help but sigh. “Looks like this month's salary is going to the traditional Chinese doctor again.”

He extended both hands, and an afterimage materialized in front of him instantly.

“Kid, this isn't a game. No one's going to wait around for you to cast your skills!” With a vicious expression on his face, the afterimage of Liu Qi threw a punch straight at his heart.

Chu Jizhen seemed not to notice Liu Qi at all. His face grew pale at a visible rate, and his breathing turned shallow and rapid.

The space inside the carriage grew even darker as massive black hands, each three to four meters wide, reached out from the surrounding space.

There were so many hands that they completely covered Liu Qi's afterimages, forcefully interrupting his attack.

The massive black hands crisscrossed behind Chu Jizhen. Some pressed together in prayer, while others faced each other from above and below, forming symmetrical clusters of giant black hands.

Liu Qi's expression turned grim as his figure flickered. The surrounding hands seemed endless, bursting from the void to smash down wherever he stood.

The high-speed train carriage was torn open by the giant hands, its floor dented and shattered.

With the carriage destroyed, the battle spilled onto the ground outside. Liu Qi's afterimages filled the surrounding space.

A sneer appeared on his face. “Your strength isn't bad, but no matter how many hands you have, they're useless if they can't hit me.”

The moment the words left his mouth, he vanished. A black hand burst through the ground beneath him, sending shattered stones and dirt flying in all directions.

Over a dozen meters away, Chu Jizhen stood atop a black hand that had risen from the ground. An afterimage would occasionally appear in front of him, only to be forcefully interrupted by another black hand the next instant.

He's so fast. If this is dragged out for even another minute, I'll be completely drained before he even breaks a sweat. Chu Jizhen's hollow eyes flickered slightly.

In truth, he couldn't keep up with Liu Qi's speed at all. He was relying entirely on his contracted Evil Spirit to fight; the battle was actually between the Evil Spirit and Liu Qi.

Without even turning his head, Chu Jizhen barked, “Wen Yu, take the remaining soldiers and escort the Ghouls and Professor Wu out of here!”

Inside the eighth carriage, several soldiers grabbed the Ghouls' iron cage and headed down toward the exit.

At the seventh carriage, despite the deafening noise of the surrounding battle, Wen Yu's sensory supernatural abilities allowed her to hear Chu Jizhen's command clearly.

Wen Yu stood up, pulled a handgun from her coat, and looked at the visibly panicked Wu Jingyi. “Professor Wu, follow me. I will protect you!”

Beside her, a Ghoul soldier hoisted Wu Jingyi onto his back and nodded to Wen Yu.

Wen Yu scanned the area with her spiritual power and pointed to the right. “Leave through that way! There are fewer enemies over there!”

Hearing her direction, the Ghoul soldier immediately carried Wu Jingyi off the train.

Wen Yu followed close behind, raising her gun from time to time.

With a single shot, a Night Slave charging at them from over ten meters away took a bullet right between the eyes and collapsed.

Although her ability did not directly boost her combat strength, it was more than enough to make her a marksman.

It was as if Wen Yu had an aimbot. Every time she pulled the trigger, a Night Slave in the darkness would fall to a headshot.

She swapped magazines continuously, her spiritual perception spanning a thousand-meter radius as she specifically guided them through the gaps with the fewest people.

Behind her, the Ghoul soldiers carrying the iron cage followed closely.

As the group left the tracks and slipped through a broken section of the guardrail, an invisible figure that Wen Yu could not perceive rapidly approached.

Holding a dagger in his hand, his eyes locked onto Wen Yu. Escaping with the target right under our noses? If you actually pull this off, we'll be the laughingstock of everyone.

Closing to within a meter behind Wen Yu, he lunged, thrusting his dagger toward her temple.

“Woof!” A dog's bark rang out from thin air, causing the invisible man to look to his left out of reflex.

A bloody maw larger than himself snapped down hard toward him.

Blood splattered. Wen Yu's pupils contracted. Only now did she realize what had just happened behind her. She had been a hair's breadth away from death.

She hurriedly looked dozens of meters away. Beside a snapped tree, Zhang Liu lay on the ground. He struggled to lift his head, pointing a hand in her direction.

“Run... go...” Zhang Liu gasped out weakly. His head slumped, and his breath faded away.

It was a miracle he hadn't been kicked to death on the spot by Liu Qi. He had only survived this long by sheer force of will.

Her eyes turning red, Wen Yu turned around and continued leading her group deeper into the forest.

Near the rear of the train, hundreds of giant black hands completely blanketed a hundred-meter area.

Amidst the black hands, Liu Qi's fists blurred into countless afterimages, meeting the giant black palms head-on.

Every time a blow landed, a black palm exploded, only to be replenished by another in the next instant.

At the center of the black hands, Chu Jizhen's cheeks were sunken. Once he saw Wen Yu escape with the others, one black hand grabbed him, while two others seized the severely injured Liu Wangao and Yu Renjia, dragging them down into the earth.

He had reached his absolute limit. If he kept fighting, he would completely drain his life force and die.

A second after Chu Jizhen vanished, the giant black hands dissolved, revealing a bound Liu Qi.

He brushed off his black clothes. Aside from a bit of dust, he was completely unharmed.

“What a troublesome ability.” Liu Qi glanced at the countless holes riddling the ground, an annoyed expression crossing his face.

Just as he was about to give chase to Wen Yu, boom—a figure flew backward, crashing heavily onto the ground right beside him.

Turning his head, he saw Cao Liang, whose left arm was fractured, with bone shards piercing through his flesh. Cao Liang opened his mouth to speak, but only a torrent of blood gushed out.

Seeing him in such a state, Liu Qi frowned deeply. “Cao Liang, what happened to you? You brought so many people, yet you still got beaten to this extent?”

Cao Liang did not speak, only staring straight ahead.

Over there, a blood-drenched, demon-like monster was slowly walking toward them.

Its wounds were rapidly regenerating, and within Liu Qi's perception, its aura had actually increased by ten percent.

“Ahhh!!!” Xu Mo let out a furious roar as he stared at the shattered high-speed train and the corpses scattered all around.

The ground beneath him exploded as his body turned into a blur, lunging forward.

Liu Qi took a step forward, completely devoid of fear. “Cao Liang, take the remaining men and hunt down that woman. Even if you have to kill the Ghouls, do not let the Special Bureau have them!”

Whoosh! An afterimage shot forward as Liu Qi's figure vanished.

Scrambling up from the ground, Cao Liang roared to the supernatural beings still standing around him, “You guys, follow me!”

With that, he turned and dashed into the forest to the left.

The remaining nine supernatural beings nearby immediately followed him to hunt down Wen Yu.

Just as they entered the woods, a series of deafening explosions erupted behind them.

The woman with flames flickering on her shoulders heard the commotion and glanced back. “To be able to fight Liu Qi to such an extent, those guys from the Special Bureau really have some skills.”

Liu Qi was one of the earliest supernatural beings; his strength was among the absolute top tier of humanity.

“Cut the crap and move!” Cao Liang barked from the front.

Although he had been injured by Xu Mo, his speed was still superior to these supernatural beings.

They tracked the trail left by Wen Yu and her group, pursuing them relentlessly.

A few minutes later, deep inside the forest, Wen Yu's expression suddenly shifted as they fled. “They're catching up! Ten supernatural beings!”

Hearing this, the surrounding Ghoul soldiers grew solemn.

The captain beside her gritted his teeth. “I'll hold them off for a bit. You guys run first!”

“It's useless. You can't compare to a true supernatural being, let alone ten of them. They wouldn't even have to pause to kill you,” Wen Yu immediately stopped them.

Behind her, Wu Jingyi, who was being carried as they fled, looked at these young people risking their lives with a complicated expression.

After a moment of thought, he spoke up. “Leave the Ghouls behind. Their target is the Ghouls. Only by leaving them can we survive!”

“Professor Wu, absolutely not! The Ghouls are crucial to the future development of our Nanming Kingdom. How can we just hand them over so easily?!” Wen Yu refused immediately.

She was already considering killing the Ghouls; even if she had to destroy them, she couldn't let the enemy have them.

Wu Jingyi's expression grew deeply conflicted. “Listen to me, throw the Ghouls down. Rest assured, the real two Ghouls have already been secretly transported away. These two are merely failed test subjects of the Ghoul Serum. No one knows about this except Director He and me.”

Hearing his words, Wen Yu froze, staring at him in utter disbelief. “Then what did so many of our people die for? To play house with you guys?!”

Wu Jingyi fell silent. He had also asked He Wenxi why she did this, but she had merely shrugged it off, saying it was for “training.”

If nothing happened, it would serve to train their cooperation. If information leaked and drew the enemy out, that was even better; only through combat could they grow stronger.

Staring at the silent Wu Jingyi, Wen Yu gritted her teeth. “Drop the iron cage!”

The soldiers behind her immediately cast the iron cage aside, their expressions incredibly complex.

The thing they had risked their lives to protect turned out to be a fake.

Wen Yu quickened her pace, silently leading the way. Director He, why did you do this? Are we nothing but cannon fodder to draw out the enemy?

Aside from the deceased Zhang Liu, if Liu Wangao and Yu Renjia did not receive medical attention soon, they wouldn't survive long either, not to mention the escorting Ghoul soldiers.

These were all living, breathing human beings.

While the chase was underway, a man and a woman in the forest several kilometers away were quietly sensing the pursuing group. “What are these humans doing? They seem to really enjoy infighting, don't they?”

The speaker was a thin man in his thirties, watching the spectacle with a mocking expression.

“Weren't you human before too? Are you mocking yourself?” The woman beside him couldn't help but glance at him.

The man scoffed with disgust. “The old me is dead. Now, I am a bishop of the Church of the Earth Mother. How could mere humans ever compare to our Church?”

The woman looked at him with disdain. “Let's go, Mu Hai. We need to continue proselytizing.”

Without the Earth Mother's decree, they would not casually interfere in the events nearby, lest they delay their grand mission of proselytization.

“Understood, Bishop Wen Nana.” Mu Hai turned and walked deeper into the darkness behind them.

Wen Nana followed behind him. Just over a dozen kilometers ahead lay a small city.

Proselytizing in such a small city wouldn't attract the attention of other factions.