Dark Clouds

"Luffy, can you handle it?" Lu Su asked Luffy in front of him, watching President Bai with a grave expression.

Luffy scratched his head and said uncertainly, "Probably."

Lu Su mounted Pidgeot and flew outside the building, saying in a low voice, "End this quickly."

The stairway was becoming increasingly unstable. It felt like it could collapse at any moment.

Naturally, he was not stupid enough to risk his life waiting inside the building for the battle's outcome.

"Leave it to me." Luffy pressed down on his straw hat with his left hand, a confident smile appearing on his face.

Luffy's skin took on a faint pink hue, and white steam began to rise from his body.

Gear Second!

Since they needed to end this quickly, Luffy naturally could not continue hiding his strength.

As for why he did not use Gear Third, first, he did not know whether it could swiftly deal with the monster before him; second, after using Gear Third, he would enter cooldown.

In their current dangerous situation, Lu Su only had Luffy as a Bronze Grade card. Naturally, he could not let Luffy enter cooldown.

Kaneki was the first to attack, controlling his Centipede Kagune as he tried to create an opening for Luffy.

"Whoosh!"

A long, scarlet, disgusting tongue shot from the huge mouth in President Bai's abdomen and slammed fiercely into Kaneki's Centipede Kagune.

As the two became entangled, Tsugikuni Yoriichi took a deep breath and darted forward in an instant.

"Sun Breathing, Thirteenth Form!"

Blazing firelight burst across the area, severing the red tongue in a single slash!

"Aaargh!"

President Bai dragged his severed tongue behind him, letting out an earth-shaking howl of pain.

"Good chance!"

Luffy's eyes narrowed. His right fist struck President Bai at a speed too fast for the eye to follow, carrying a roaring gale with it.

"Gum-Gum Pistol!"

"Boom!"

President Bai was instantly sent flying. He smashed through several pillars in the office area before crashing into a corner.

"Is it over?"

Lu Su watched the smoke-filled area with a grave expression.

Sure enough, cards needed to work together to unleash their greatest combat power. And this was without any bonds among Lu Su's cards—if they had bonds, they would only be even more terrifying.

But seeing that Luffy and the others did not dare relax in the slightest, Lu Su knew the battle was not over yet.

"Crunch, crunch, crunch."

A strange sound of chewing and swallowing came from within the smoke.

Kaneki's expression was cold as his Centipede Kagune instantly blasted into the smoke.

"Rip!"

To their astonishment, Kaneki's Centipede Kagune was directly severed.

The smoke gradually dispersed, and Lu Su finally saw President Bai's current appearance clearly.

His already massive body had now become like a Meat Mountain. The huge mouth in his abdomen was continuously chewing office desks, walls, and Kaneki's Centipede Kagune.

A moment later, before Lu Su's shocked eyes, a Centipede Kagune identical to Kaneki's extended from President Bai's back.

Knowing they could not drag this out any longer, the markings on Tsugikuni Yoriichi's forehead gleamed fiery red as he charged forward in an instant.

The Centipede Kagune President Bai had gained through devouring fiercely stabbed toward Tsugikuni Yoriichi.

But it was intercepted halfway by Kaneki's already restored Kagune.

Left with no choice, President Bai swung his enormous arm down at Tsugikuni Yoriichi.

But—

Too slow.

Tsugikuni Yoriichi easily evaded it.

The blade in his hand plunged straight into President Bai's body.

But such an injury was practically painless to President Bai in his current state.

The next moment, Lu Su sensed that Tsugikuni Yoriichi had entered cooldown.

Of course, Luffy had not been idle either.

He had already spotted President Bai's weakness.

His speed was simply too slow. He was practically a living target.

"Gum-Gum Gatling!"

Fist shadows far more terrifying than those in his normal state pounded viciously into President Bai's body.

The fat on President Bai's body continuously quivered in rolling waves.

"Uraaaah!!!" Luffy roared.

"Boom!"

With the final devastating blow, President Bai collapsed to the ground, twitching as he no longer had the strength to resist.

Lu Su reentered the building. With so little time left, he naturally had to pick up the materials scattered across this floor.

When he reached President Bai's body, Lu Su discovered that President Bai had not yet drawn his last breath.

He took a step back and instantly placed Luffy in front of himself.

President Bai stared vacantly at the battered ceiling.

At the very end of his life, he seemed to have regained a little of his sanity.

"I never thought that after hunting geese all my life, I'd be pecked in the eye by one."

President Bai had not possessed the talent to become a Card Master when he was young. He had studied law in college.

When signing the contract, he had naturally checked it again and again to make sure there were no problems.

It was simply that Jin Ping's abilities far exceeded his expectations.

"Cough."

He spat out a mouthful of blood and looked at Lu Su with lifeless eyes.

"I really envy you, Lu Su."

"I suppose geniuses like you can never understand the pain of ordinary people."

Lu Su felt no pity for him. He merely said in a low voice, "You aided evil."

Upon hearing this, President Bai first showed a look of astonishment, but then said in relief, "Yes, I aided evil."

"This outcome is only what I brought upon myself."

Perhaps in an attempt to atone for his sins, President Bai used the last of his strength to say haltingly, "Lu Su... I understand the Spirit Summoning Society's goal now..."

"Everything they have done... is only to create greater chaos in Shanghai City."

"They do not care at all whether traitors like us live or die."

Lu Su frowned deeply upon hearing this. Just as he was about to ask something, he discovered that President Bai had already fallen silent.

A material slowly condensed atop his corpse.

Bronze Grade Bloody Devourer (Gold).

Lu Su quickly collected the material. Several materials condensed from ordinary employees were also scattered throughout the office area.

Black Iron Grade Inferior Flesh Demon (Blue) *7.

Lu Su froze. He had thought they would all condense into Flesh Demons like the one Old Wang had produced before.

But on second thought, they were merely ordinary people. It was perfectly reasonable that the materials they produced lacked Old Wang's quality.

Tearfully looting the drops.jpg

With no time to ponder President Bai's final words, Lu Su rode Pidgeot straight outside.

The building was about to collapse.

He quickly reached the ground floor.

At this moment, not a single person whom Pidgeot had brought down earlier had left.

Lu Su had thought they had all run away long ago.

Among the crowd, Kong Cong looked Lu Su over and sighed in relief. He then stepped forward and asked in confusion, "What happened upstairs just now? We saw you staying in the air the whole time without coming down."

Lu Su naturally understood what he meant and merely said calmly, "There was a Bronze Grade demon. I wanted Luffy and the others to see if they could deal with it quickly."

Kong Cong nodded in understanding. No wonder Lu Su had not come down for so long.

But a Bronze Grade demon...

At that thought, everyone present could not help but smile bitterly.

At this point, most of them had already given up on trying to catch up to Lu Su.

They simply were not even in the same league.

Watching the building tremble as dust continued to fall from it, Lu Su said heavily, "The Association should have already issued evacuation instructions. Hurry and leave."

Everyone nodded in response.

Just as everyone was preparing to flee, a massive dragon of flesh violently slammed into the building.

"Boom!"

Jincai Credit's headquarters building snapped in half.

I also wrote out the card advancement paths in the earlier chapters where the cards were introduced. If you are interested, you can go back and take a look.