A Fierce Battle

Was Deep Sea's optimal solution to rescue this young man first?

Nan Jin was not surprised by the answer.

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She knew very well what it meant for someone to coexist peacefully with A-009 for twenty minutes... This was an Uncontrolled One with a danger rating of A.

That could not be explained away as mere good luck.

The files showed that A-009 was madly pursuing some truth incomprehensible to ordinary people.

It could not have been an accident that Gu Shen had gotten along with her peacefully... Could this young man also be a madman?

There was no time to think further.

Wei Shu's voice rang out again. "I will detach this carriage. Next, you need to take him and get out."

Rumble—

The light rail tore wildly through the night wind on the outskirts of Da Teng City. A dull cracking sound rang out as this carriage broke free of the couplings connecting it to the cars behind it. Amid violent screeching, the wheels locked tight. Driven by inertia, the entire carriage slowly began to lift from the bottom.

Nan Jin's expression remained blank. "Hold on to me."

Gu Shen: "???"

He lunged forward and unapologetically wrapped his arms around Nan Jin's slender waist. Beneath the broad trench coat was a warm, slim body. Gu Shen felt several long, cold outlines pressing against his hand... This woman had three blades of varying lengths hanging from her waist.

Thinking of the cold flash that had sliced through the train earlier, he could not help shuddering.

A violent jolt!

The train carriage nearly left the ground. The two of them stood against its floor, sliding downward at an angle almost perpendicular to the ground.

Nan Jin took quick, tiny steps at astonishing speed. She did not seem at all like someone with a full-grown man wrapped around her waist. As the carriage flipped backward, she was like a night cat running across eaves and walls. The whole world had been inverted, but she alone maintained her balance.

She held her breath, focused her mind, and crossed her blades in a two-handed slash.

Blazing blade light pierced the darkness.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The Bone Scraper blocked the blades!

But another pained growl rose from the lady's throat. Even Gu Shen could see the string of bright red droplets flying from beneath her open black evening gown.

The instant Nan Jin drew her blade, all color drained from her pupils, leaving only coldness.

She did not press her advantage. Though she broke through after the clash and drove a blade precisely into the tall woman's chest, she immediately turned back after landing the strike. At the critical moment, Nan Jin shot out one hand like lightning, clenched the back of Gu Shen's collar, then crouched sharply as the carriage completed its ninety-degree roll. One heavy boot smashed through the tempered glass, and she plunged downward like a diver.

Shattered glass and tumbling arcs of electricity drifted like seaweed in the Deep Sea.

The derailed carriage, meanwhile, was like a rising submarine—except this was land, not the ocean.

The carriage rolled, flying off the tracks. Like a boulder tumbling down a slope, it slammed into the ground with unstoppable force, colliding again and again as countless brilliant sparks sprayed forth. At the very last instant before it overturned, two figures leaped out of the darkness by the narrowest margin and landed on a patch of grass.

Nan Jin brushed the dust off her trench coat. Her eyes remained fixed on the shattered carriage that had skidded four or five hundred meters away. After leaving the tracks, it had gone silent, utterly still.

Dust and smoke rose. She did not lower her guard. Instead, she drew the third long blade from her waist and reported coldly, "The target has been rescued... A-009 is still inside the carriage."

Wei Shu replied quickly, "Seal off the perimeter. Reinforcements will arrive soon. Do not let it escape."

Nan Jin gave a quiet hum.

Crack...

After the dead silence, the carriage twitched slightly within her line of sight... Nan Jin immediately gripped and drew a fourth blade in reverse. Holding two blades put her more at ease, but she still felt something was off.

Nan Jin lowered her head and found the reason. "How long are you planning to hold on?"

"Can I hold on a little longer?" The young man clung to her leg without a shred of dignity, rubbed against it shamelessly, and forced out a fawning smile. "Big sis... I'm so scared."

Did that expression really look scared?

When she had sliced open the carriage, this guy had clearly been chatting and laughing with A-009.

"A-009's ability is Corruption." Nan Jin's face remained expressionless. "Under normal circumstances... she can contaminate anything she touches, including but not limited to knives, swords, metal, firearms... and people."

Gu Shen recalled the final scene inside the train, the woman in the gown smiling as she reached a hand toward him, and could not help shuddering.

Corruption?

That was terrifying... He had even taken that ruler. Would he be all right?

"During the fight just now, I cannot be sure whether these clothes came into contact with it."

At Nan Jin's casual remark, Gu Shen released the trench coat as if it were burning hot.

"Big sis still has a fierce battle ahead. You can do it, you can do it..." Gu Shen cheered her on while asking cautiously, "This little brother really has limited abilities... How about I leave first?"

Honestly, he wanted to run.

When immortals fought, ordinary people should not get involved.

"Want to leave... Go ahead and try." Nan Jin glanced at the young man from the corner of her eye and sneered. "This time next year, I'll burn paper offerings for you right on schedule."

Gu Shen: "???"

"This area has already been sealed off. I suggest you do not leave my line of sight... because I cannot truly restrain A-009. She is obsessive and insane. If she insists on killing you, it will not matter how far you run."

Nan Jin gently planted her two long blades in the grass, put on specially made snow-white silk gloves, then gripped the blades again and assumed a stance. Facing the silent, ruined carriage, she was As if Facing a Great Enemy. In a low voice, she gave her final warning. "Before the reinforcements arrive, I can only protect this small area. The farther you run, the faster you die."

The night wind surged.

Strands of silver light emerged visibly from the empty darkness, like fireflies, eventually winding around the blades held in opposing stances. Nan Jin, standing with her blades raised, seemed at that moment to become a river of stars in the night.

Gu Shen swallowed. He could no longer explain this sight with any knowledge he possessed... What exactly was this snow-white substance that flowed like the wind?

Could it be the legendary blade aura?

Then came a dull boom.

Bang!

A scalp-numbing impact exploded above the carriage.

More precisely, it came from beneath the carriage.

After overturning, the metal carriage lay upside down. Yet amid the swirling dust and smoke, some force pushed it from within, slowly righting it. Moments later... a tall figure gradually appeared in the shadowy haze.

The lady pushed open the door and slowly bent down to emerge from the train. She remained unhurried and composed throughout, dignified as an aristocrat, even remembering to hold down her broad formal hat with one hand.

From afar, she was actually as tall as the overturned train, like a walking giant.

The two long blades that had pierced the lady's chest one after another had now been completely eroded by Corruption. At a gust of wind, they cracked apart, their blades and secret silver patterns turning to ash.

Within the dust and smoke, the Tall Woman slowly turned around, scanned her surroundings, then stopped and looked toward Nan Jin.

A dim red light seeped from her snake-like pupils.

Just meeting her gaze made Gu Shen feel as though all the blood in his body had turned cold. Nan Jin had been right... He absolutely should not have tried to flee on his own. If that thing set its sights on him, there would be no chance of survival.

The next moment.

Something horrifying happened—

The tall woman in the formal gown rose slightly onto her toes, slowly lifted one corner of her skirt, and performed an ancient, proper curtsy. The instant the curtsy ended, dozens of muddy fountains exploded across the grass hundreds of meters away.

In one second, she entered Nan Jin's Frame Sword range. The Bone Scraper, wrapped in old newspaper, slashed into the point where the two crossed blades met.

Clang!

The impact was tremendous. Gu Shen felt as though a heavy hammer had struck him through the air. His ears rang as he fell hard onto the ground.

That was supposed to be a Bone Scraper? It was clearly a bone-crushing hammer!

He watched the valiant woman standing in front of him with her blades crossed. Her trench coat whipped loudly in the gale. At that moment, she was like a majestic valkyrie, strong enough to pull up mountains and shake the world. Without changing expression, she had forcibly withstood that mountain-shattering blow.

Then came a blade-shaking backward step—

Countless strands of silver blade aura moved with the wind, surging and roaring!

The woman, rooted firmly in her stance, delivered dozens, then hundreds of slashes in an instant. The dazzling blade light seemed to illuminate the night itself!

A deep roar rang out. A-009 was instantly swallowed by the radiant blade light, her tall body like a lone flower amid ocean waves. She was sent flying in an instant and crashed heavily back into the dust around the carriage.

The dust had yet to settle.

That immense pressure descended once again.

The woman in the gown, sent flying by the blade shock, came rushing back in tiny steps at an absurd speed—

Nan Jin's expression was icy as she shook her blades for the second time.

Boom!

A third time!

A fourth time!

The high-frequency blasts of air bombarded them in succession, making Gu Shen's ears nearly go deaf. That was only because he was hiding behind Nan Jin. At that moment, aside from the crashing, vibrating noise, he could hear nothing else.

"...Wei Shu."

Nan Jin was in terrible condition. Blood seeped from her lips, while bloodshot veins kept surfacing in her eyes, nearly gathering at her pupils and staining them completely red.

This encounter was different from A-009's file records. Some strange change had occurred.

What had it experienced to become so insane?

Even in such dreadful condition, Nan Jin remained calm. She quietly asked the control room through her earpiece, "How long until the reinforcements arrive...?"