Chimpanzee

In a sewer beneath a secluded street.

On Bai Yuwen's advice, Xiao Qi slipped on the golden dragon-head ring to make it easier to sense any approaching targets.

He closed his eyes, observing the few dots drawing closer in his mind. The sun has barely risen, and these guys are already on the move?

He opened his eyes and looked at Bai Yuwen, who was lying nearby. “Old Bai, those guys are moving!”

Bai Yuwen's eyes snapped open. “What does that have to do with us? Didn't you say we should lay low?”

“I'm just letting you know. Their movement means most of the supernatural attention will be drawn away. If you want to go back, you can bring this intel to the authorities. They might not hold your defeat against you,” Xiao Qi said from the side.

Hearing this, Bai Yuwen sat up and looked at Xiao Qi. “You really are quite considerate. If my sister weren't in their hands, I honestly wouldn't mind living in the sewers with you.”

Xiao Qi smiled and pulled out a sheet of white paper he had prepared beforehand.

On it, he had sketched a rough circle representing the four districts, circling a spot on the edge of the West District and leaving a string of numbers.

He handed the paper over and leaned back against the wall. “The location is right here, and my number is on it. Give me a call when this is all over. But let me make this clear: I'm not going, and since you've lost your abilities, you'd better not go either. Getting anywhere near a struggle of that level is a death sentence.”

Bai Yuwen took the paper and walked toward a distant manhole cover. “Don't worry, I value my life very much.”

He climbed up the ladder and pushed open the manhole cover, emerging onto a quiet, secluded street.

But in Yangcheng, no matter how secluded the street, there were always plainclothes agents.

He scanned his surroundings and quickly spotted a woman standing outside a breakfast stall.

Although she was eating breakfast, her eyes scanned the street from time to time.

When she saw someone climbing out of the sewer, she couldn't help but stare intently at him. What was this kid doing in the sewer? He looks a bit familiar...

As she watched him, he suddenly looked her way and began striding toward her.

As he drew closer, she quickly recognized him as the missing Bai Yuwen.

The woman quickly stood up, but before she could speak,

Bai Yuwen said rapidly, “I need to contact the higher-ups. I have critical intel!”

A few minutes later, Bai Yuwen was holding a phone. “Where is Minister Lu? I need to speak with him.”

“Bai Yuwen, Minister Lu had to return to the Capital on urgent business. I'm in charge of your matter now. You can tell me whatever you need. I'm Wang Hai, the Team One Leader of the Security Bureau,” Wang Hai's voice came from the other end of the line.

Bai Yuwen fell silent for a moment. He didn't know if this was true or if he had messed things up so badly.

Perhaps Minister Lu couldn't be bothered to deal with him anymore and had just assigned some random person to handle him.

“I have information regarding the Lord of Evil's items. Several item holders are currently converging,” Bai Yuwen said after a brief hesitation.

“Bai Yuwen—no, I should call you Mr. Bai. I thought you were no longer of any use. If you aren't in a rush, you can follow the Security Bureau agent in front of you and come over first,” Wang Hai said.

Bai Yuwen replied, “Alright, I'll follow her.”

Inside the underground fallout shelter.

Wang Hai hung up the phone, his face pale. “Is this enough? I never expected you to still be alive.”

In the seat of honor where Lu Senyu usually sat, Zhang Yi was sitting with a calm expression.

Beside him sat the elderly garrison commander, Inspector Bureau Chief Sun Longxi, and Song Lianhu, all of their faces completely devoid of color.

Behind each of them stood a grotesque monster, two to three meters tall.

Zhang Yi glanced at Wang Hai. “I am only alive thanks to the Earth Mother's grace. As long as you all assist the Church of the Earth Mother faithfully, I can recommend you for initiation afterward. You won't have to die in this conflict like the others.”

The elderly garrison commander glanced at the grotesque monsters behind them, his voice trembling. “Archbishop Zhang, is that true?”

“Whether it's true depends on your sincerity. Don't think of me as one of your own just because I used to work for the government. If you fail to perform, you will die all the same,” Zhang Yi said with a faint, mocking smile, his gaze shifting to Wang Hai.

Back in the Capital, he had interacted with this man quite a bit.

Wang Hai lowered his head, masking his expression. “Don't worry. To survive, I will cooperate fully. I'll get Bai Yuwen to reveal the location of the item holder who was with him.”

With that, he raised his head. “Should we kill them all once it's done?”

“Kill them. They're just a bunch of trash anyway; keeping them around is pointless,” Zhang Yi said, leaning back in his chair.

As he spoke, he looked at the large screen nearby, which displayed an aerial view of a zoo.

In a corner behind them, Bai Xiaohua was tied up.

Her mouth was gagged with bandages, and she listened to their conversation with terror in her eyes.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town...

Jin Dada Zoo was an old, rundown park located in the suburbs.

It was small, and its only staff members were an elderly married couple.

At the ticket booth near the entrance, an old man wearing glasses leaned back in a lounge chair.

Creak! Creak!

“Old man, can you go check on Ah Dong? What's gotten into him lately? He just sits under the tree all day and doesn't even play with the female chimps anymore,” an elderly voice called out from outside.

The old man in glasses turned to look. An elderly woman leaning on a cane stood at the entrance, her face etched with worry.

“Don't worry about it. Ah Dong is probably just tired. After all, we feed and house him well here,” the old man said dismissively.

Hearing this, the old woman turned her gaze back inside.

The “Ah Dong” they were talking about was a chimpanzee, currently sitting cross-legged under a tree.

A long blade rested across its knees, and its eyes were tightly closed, its expression solemn and dignified.

It looked anything but normal, but the elderly couple was rather thick-skinned and simply assumed Ah Dong was exhausted from playing with the female chimps.

Suddenly, the chimpanzee opened its eyes and leaped lightly, gripping the long blade with one hand.

It jumped four or five meters into the air, landing squarely on top of the enclosure fence. Its eyes shone with an intelligent, human-like gaze as it stared toward the far end of the street.

Over there, a beggar with an unnatural smile on his face was walking toward the zoo.

He looked up at the chimpanzee perched atop the fence. “How bizarre. Even an unintelligent beast can obtain my power.”

He stood right where he was, making no move to step forward.

No matter the creature, as long as it could comprehend his techniques, the power fed back to it by the long blade would grow stronger.

He had only glanced at this chimpanzee from afar, yet he had instantly sensed something was off about it.

“Ooh ooh! Ah ah!” Seeing the beggar suddenly stop, anger flared on the chimpanzee's face. It pounded its chest hard with a fist and roared at him.

Seeing that the beggar was not advancing, the chimpanzee bent its legs slightly, the muscles in its thighs bulging.

Swish!

In the next instant, it launched itself like a rocket toward the street where the beggar stood, leaving a deep dent in the fence beneath its feet.

The chimpanzee soared over ten meters through the air. Just as it was about to touch down, it reached out and grabbed the edge of a nearby eave.

Bang!

With a powerful push against the roof, it propelled its falling body forward once more.

Repeating this motion, the chimpanzee crossed a distance of a hundred meters down the street in a matter of seconds, charging straight at the beggar to kill him.

The Lord of Evil smiled as he watched the approaching chimpanzee, extending his left hand. “Perfect timing!”

A surge of black mist gathered on his hand. The moment the chimpanzee made contact, its power would be drained.

What the Lord of Evil did not know was that tiny cracks were suddenly spreading across the ground behind him.

The fissures rapidly snaked their way right up to his back.

Crack!

A sharp sound rang out, and the Lord of Evil instinctively turned his head.

Bang!

The ground instantly exploded as a grey monster covered in half-meter-long spikes burst out from the concrete.

What on earth is that?! The Lord of Evil's pupils shrank. In his current weak state, his body simply could not react in time.

Pfft!

The half-meter-long spikes plunged violently into the Lord of Evil's body, riddling his upper torso like a sieve as dozens of blood-soaked spikes pierced clean through him.

“Hehehe! What a piece of trash. With this pathetic strength, you actually dared to come and snatch the Lord of Evil's items?” The owner of the spikes was a bald man about 1.7 meters tall. He stood up, hoisting the Lord of Evil aloft on his spikes.

Blood trickled down the spikes, coating the bald man's entire body.

The Lord of Evil stared at this monster in utter shock. I thought there were no supernatural beings left in this world. What the hell is this thing? How does he have an aura even more sinister than mine?!

The Earth Mother's aura was far too bizarre, possessing a level of creepiness that rivaled, or perhaps even surpassed, his own.

His vision began to darken as the beggar's body rapidly died.

Before he lost consciousness, the bald man flung him to the ground and charged toward the incoming chimpanzee.

“A mere chimpanzee dares to fight me? Die!” From the bald man's body, the spikes shot out directly at the ape.

As the bald man's spikes closed in, a look of sheer disdain actually crossed the chimpanzee's face. The hand holding the long blade suddenly flashed.

Splat!

The charging bald man was cleanly sliced in two, his body halves crashing to the ground.