"A monster..." the thug muttered, his spirit shattered.
He couldn't even summon a sliver of the will to resist. A tide of darkness submerged him, swallowing his courage whole.
A gunshot rang out, and the thug's body was instantly hurled away by the rampaging gale. Xu Xiaoyou adjusted her aim toward the truck bed ahead, where the machine gun was still spewing lead.
"What... what is going on with you?" Ling noticed the abnormality.
"Don't look," Xu Xiaoyou said casually.
"I can't hold it much longer!" In this life-or-death situation, Ling felt her consciousness about to tear apart. It felt as though lead weights were falling from the sky at every moment, smashing into her skull. Blood began to seep from her eyes, nose, and mouth; her face was as white as a sheet of paper.
"Then drop the barrier." Xu Xiaoyou gripped her gun, her head slightly tilted and her vision slanted. Within her crosshairs, the madness on the machine gunner’s face was frozen in time.
"Are you crazy?" Ling asked subconsciously after noticing her movement. "At this distance, you think you can hit him?"
They were at least ten meters away from the truck in front. In this high-speed chase, both vehicles were constantly shifting positions. Not only was it difficult to aim, but she also had to account for wind speed, direction, and a series of other factors. Even a trained sharpshooter wouldn't dare claim a 100% hit rate at this range—let alone a one-shot kill through the machine gun’s bulletproof glass.
"If we don't take that guy out, we're finished!"
"Bullets can't penetrate that kind of bulletproof glass; they'll just ricochet!"
"Otherwise, do we just wait to die?" Xu Xiaoyou countered.
Ling wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but after the girl opened that third eye, she seemed like a different person. She had become like a cold-blooded assassin from a movie: calm, confident, and decisive, with an aura that made one's skin crawl.
"That machine gun will run out of ammo in two seconds," Xu Xiaoyou said rapidly. "Now!"
Ling buried her face against the steering wheel. She didn't have the luxury to think. No matter how absurd the suggestion was, she could only place all her hope in Xu Xiaoyou. She violently retracted the gravity barrier.
Simultaneously, a bullet spiraled out of the muzzle, trailing a wake of fire!
With a sharp whistle, the bullet struck the bulletproof glass, leaving a crater. Web-like cracks instantly spread across the entire surface. It didn't ricochet, but it didn't penetrate either.
Ling’s heart sank into despair. Even if the outer layer of the glass was shattered, the inner structural layers remained intact. Even if more bullets hit the same spot, they wouldn't break through.
They were dead. Once those lunatics reacted, they and this convertible would be turned into a sieve. In that moment, Ling thought of lotus pods—green, crisp, and slightly bitter. She quite liked them; they felt just like the bitterness in her heart right now.
Thoughts of helplessness and despair flooded her.
The thug behind the machine gun grinned. Just as he was leisurely preparing to reload, he suddenly noticed a flash of a smile on the blonde girl's face—one that looked like she held all the cards. Before he could figure out where that confidence came from, a second flash of fire erupted.
Xu Xiaoyou pulled the trigger, firing the second bullet.
This bullet struck the exact same impact point as the first one with unerring precision!
Pfft! To the thug's horrified eyes, a bullet hole appeared in his forehead. His massive body toppled forward, taking the machine gun with it. He fell to the ground and was hurled away by the 100 km/h momentum.
Several thugs chasing them on motorcycles were tripped up, resulting in a series of collisions that ended in a distant explosion.
"Holy crap..." Ling’s mouth hung open. The way she looked at Xu Xiaoyou was as if she were looking at a monster.
No, this person was a monster. This was simply not something a human could achieve! Beneath that innocent and harmless shell, there had to be a demon hidden away. Perhaps she was some kind of Evil God wearing human skin whose power hadn't fully awakened yet.
Xu Xiaoyou, of course, didn't know Ling's mind was wandering. The high-intensity use of the Gaze of Spiritual Vision put a massive strain on her spirit. After Bai Youyou cleared out the dismantler nest, she could no longer feel the connection between this eyeball and the scarlet heart.
The Gaze of Spiritual Vision's ability to see the essence of things was essentially a cheat code for a card maker. As long as she had used a skill card before, she could use the eye to analyze it and forcibly condense it.
To perceive was to master.
But whenever she used the Gaze of Spiritual Vision, a voice in her heart seemed to tempt her—tempting her to keep using this power, to go deeper and further down this path. She had a premonition that if she relied too much on this power from the unknown, her soul would be twisted, her limbs would deform, and she would turn into a second Heart of Desire.
She shook her head. Now was not the time for such thoughts. There was a greater crisis to solve.
Two cards with golden patterns appeared in her hands simultaneously:
【Sword Arts Training】
【Fireball Bombardment】
She held her long blade horizontally before her eyes, her fingers slowly brushing across the blade shimmering with green light. The contact between her fingertips and the metal actually kicked up dancing sparks.
The two skill cards pressed against the blade, slowly dissolving into golden light that merged into the metal. Flames roared to life from the sword!
【Dawn Haze Blade】had been condensed.
"You're an Elemental Swordsman!" Ling was stunned. "Why didn't you say you had such a powerful combat profession earlier?"
Xu Xiaoyou swung the flame-wreathed blade. Wherever the edge passed, the air distorted from the intense heat, and sparks flew everywhere. Black smoke mingled with the shouting sparks, the twisting flames resembling the face of a demon.
"If you say so, then I am."
Xu Xiaoyou flicked the blade. Under Ling's terrified gaze, she leapt forward.
The thugs on the truck were dumbfounded. They watched as the blonde girl stepped through the gale, holding a radiant long sword high, and pounced toward them from the air!
"Fire!" a thug roared.
Several thugs turned their muzzles, pouring out sheets of lead like money was no object. Shell casings rained onto the floor with sharp metallic clinks.
"Back Alley Thrust."
Xu Xiaoyou whispered. Her entire body turned into an afterimage, crossing the several meters to the truck in an instant. She landed steadily like a ghost and then sprinted toward the nearest thug.
"Damn it!"
Before the thug could even aim, Xu Xiaoyou was in front of him, swinging the incandescent blade. The gun he held up to defend himself was sliced through like tofu, the cross-section glowing with golden light.
"Let me handle this! Berserk!"
A burly man roared as his body expanded by an entire size. Coarse black bristles sprouted from his skin, his arm muscles bulged, and his claws swiped toward Xu Xiaoyou's head.
Another flash of searing blade light. The man collapsed, howling in agony.
One of the thugs went mad, hoisting his rifle and spraying wildly. Xu Xiaoyou moved rapidly, diving behind cover. Bullets tore through the metal panels of the truck bed and shattered the overhead lights. The rounds ricocheted everywhere in the cramped space, finally hitting a pile of old wooden crates in the corner, kicking up a cloud of sawdust.
Just as the heat in the thug's head cooled and he wanted to see if his target had been turned into a sieve, a flying knife embedded itself in his throat. The world turned crimson, and as his strength failed, his finger instinctively pulled the trigger one last time, sending a line of bullets across the front of the truck.
Hearing the muffled sounds, the remaining thugs in the truck bed swallowed hard. They looked at the figure emerging from behind cover, their faces filled with terror.
Xu Xiaoyou didn't speak. She pointed her slowly dimming blade toward the road rushing past outside the truck, her eyes signaling her intent. The thugs looked at each other, their minds clearing. No matter how greedy they were, they knew how to judge the situation.
Recognizing the reality and yielding to the strong was the first lesson one learned to survive in this world. Life was more important than money.
The thugs jumped off the truck one by one like driven ducks. Only when the last figure disappeared from sight did Xu Xiaoyou breathe a sigh of relief. She decisively deactivated the Gaze of Spiritual Vision. Every second of combat was an intense drain on her body; a wave of weakness now washed over her, and the tempting voice rang in her heart again.
Suddenly, she realized something. Something was wrong.
Xu Xiaoyou stepped forward quickly, stabbing her blade into the front partition of the truck bed and shouting:
"Stop the car!"
No response.
In the driver’s cabin of the speeding truck, the windshield was shattered. The driver had been caught in the crossfire, clutching his neck as he slumped over the steering wheel. It was that last burst of fire from the dying thug that had hit him.
In other words, she was currently on a driverless truck!
Before Xu Xiaoyou could react, the truck veered out of control to the side. The entire vehicle began a violent rollover.
In a whirlwind of chaos, the truck was like a giant beast reaching the end of its life. After letting out a final roar of mechanical strain, its massive body crashed onto the pavement. With an ear-piercing screech of friction, it finally slammed into the wall at the tunnel exit with a thunderous impact!
The entire tunnel trembled from the explosion. Fire swallowed everything.
Thick smoke billowed. The air was thick with the smell of melting asphalt, pungent gasoline, and the stench of something charred. Burning flames danced among the wreckage of twisted metal, crackling and turning the darkening sky outside a deep red.
Xu Xiaoyou crawled out from under a piece of debris. As soon as she looked up, she saw people appearing.
"Found you!" a thug grinned excitedly, licking his teeth.
She silently raised her hand, her face covered in dust. Leaning against the tunnel wall, her tired eyes reflected the jumping flames, her thoughts unknown. She hadn't yet recovered from the shock of the explosion.
Several more thugs appeared from behind, parking their modified motorcycles nearby, discussing how to split the bounty.
"I've never seen this much money in my life!"
"We'll never be short on cash again. We won't have to risk our lives to survive."
"Yeah, yeah."
One thug nodded, then suddenly pulled his gun and blew his companion's head off. His face turned vicious: "To hell with you all! This money is all mine!"
The other thugs reacted instantly, pulling their weapons and firing. A massive free-for-all erupted within the tunnel.
Xu Xiaoyou watched the scene silently. In the flashes of muzzle flares, people screamed and fell. The number of standing thugs decreased by the second. She was used to this in the Corrupt Hive City. These jackals would kill their comrades over a few hundred credit points, even if they had been fighting side-by-side moments ago. To say nothing of a bounty of 500,000.
500,000 credit points was enough for these people who lived on the edge to squander for a lifetime in this city.
She wanted to use the chaos to leave, but her body felt like it was falling apart. Her mind was reeling; she could barely even stand up.
She thought the chaos would last until only one person remained, but a sharp crack of gunfire echoed from the distance, piercing the quiet night.
"Hmm?" She looked up.
Just then, several black cars pulled up to the tunnel entrance. By the dim light, she saw "Lions" in formal suits stepping out.
"Shit, it's the Lion Group..."
A thug didn't even finish his shout before he was hit in the chest and collapsed. The Lions quickly finished off the remaining thugs. One Lion noticed Xu Xiaoyou leaning against the wall and nodded, turning to his companion:
"We found her."
Ling ran over with a medical kit and squatted down to check Xu Xiaoyou’s vitals. "Your vitals are stable. I can't believe you survived that. You've got quite the luck."
Xu Xiaoyou watched as the other girl lifted her jacket and searched her body. Finally, through her shirt, she pulled out a vial of ice-blue solvent and injected it into her. As the level of the liquid dropped, a mist-like gas filled the air. Xu Xiaoyou sniffed it; it smelled of mint.
Soon, she felt much better—at least enough to stand up. But she didn't rush to get up. She remained against the wall, her eyes fixed on one figure among the Lions.
The hunched Lion noticed her gaze and suddenly let out a laugh. She saw contempt, mockery, and ambition in his eyes. Just as the other Lions were about to step forward to carry her into the black car, the hunched Lion spoke, purposely dragging out his words:
"Yo~ everyone."
"That's 500,000 credit points. Are you really going to listen to that 'deer' and just let her go?"
"Manji!" Scarface roared. He stepped forward and punched the hunched Lion in the jaw. "I told you..."
Just as he grabbed Manji's collar, the surrounding Lions moved. Several pulled out handguns and aimed them at him; one gun was even pressed against the back of his head. Out of the dozen or so Lions, only three stood frozen, not understanding what was happening.
"You guys... what are you doing?"
Xu Xiaoyou raised an eyebrow. Things were getting interesting. She looked toward the tunnel exit; no one was paying attention to her right now...
"What exactly have you done?" Scarface suppressed his rage, questioning in a low voice.
"What else?" Manji snorted, wrenching his collar out of the other’s grip. He walked into the center of the group. "I'm going to help the Lion Group get back on the right track!"
"I called you 'Old Leader' because I was being polite. You really think you're something?"
As he spoke, a Lion suddenly stepped forward and swung a metal pipe, smashing it into Scarface’s right leg and forcing him to one knee. Scarface’s expression twisted as he gritted his teeth.
Despite his disheveled hair and haggard appearance, his chest remained broad like a former king's. The authority and fury in his eyes made the surrounding Lions shrink back, not daring to step closer.
"Don't think about resisting. Everyone out today is my man," Manji’s ugly face finally betrayed the long-simmering venom in his eyes.
"What has that dead deer ever done for us?"
"For that bitch's son, how much money did he spend? Hundreds of thousands of credit points!"
"He owes that much to Universal Heavy Industries," Manji sneered. "Do you know what that means? If the cash flow stops, the entire Lion Group goes down with him."
"I can't just stand by and watch the Lion Group decline and die in his hands~"
"As long as the Lion Group cuts ties with that guy, this debt won't fall on our heads, right?"
"What the hell are you saying? If it weren't for Mr. Hao, the Lion Group wouldn't be half the size it is today!" Scarface bellowed.
"That doesn't matter!" Manji finally showed his hand. "What matters is that we are noble Lions! Why should we be led by a dead deer?"
"Exactly, exactly," the nearby Lions echoed.
"Tsk tsk, this girl is worth a full 500,000. If we sell her, we're set for life." Manji spread his hands toward his followers.
"The investigator said she just needs to be alive. Maybe we should..." Two Lions shared a look, both revealing lecherous smiles.
Seeing faces he once knew and trusted among the supporters, Scarface finally saw Manji's true colors. He realized how deep the ambition went. Manji didn't just want to kick Mr. Hao out—he had been plotting to become the leader of the Lion Group for a long time!
Unknowingly, he had cultivated his own faction, becoming a hidden cancer. Even if things went as Manji said today, Scarface realized he would likely be purged upon their return.
Furthermore, Mr. Hao wasn't just his boss—he was the man who had saved Scarface’s wife and his family. He couldn't stand by and watch the man who had pulled the Lion Group back from the brink of destruction die.
Suddenly, Scarface realized something else. Based on his understanding of Mr. Hao, how could the man be completely unaware of today’s events? As a leader, he was shrewd and far-sighted. He should have known what Manji was doing behind his back and taken precautions.
Was it really a coincidence that almost every Lion sent out today was part of Manji’s clique?
Just as he was thinking this, the blonde girl who had been silent in the corner suddenly smiled faintly.
"So that's how it is."
She raised the gun in her hand. Under the stunned gazes of the Lions, a bang echoed. A grotesque flower of blood bloomed on Manji's head.
Rate on N.U.
