Nue

In the darkness, Huai Shi once again felt the terrifying chill on his forehead that made his scalp go numb—the dreadful premonition that had surfaced countless times in nightmares, a skill forged from experiencing who knew how many deaths—Death Sense had been triggered!

He had no time to think. He dropped to the ground and rolled wildly, recalling what Crow had once said as bitter, painful memories continuously surfaced in his mind. Then, another surge of heat flowed through his right hand, and a handful of Tribulation Ash was refined from those negative memories.

Amid the thunderous crash of the ground shattering behind him, he held his breath and flung it out.

There was a moment of silence.

The next second, he heard Fierce Ape's shrill scream.

"Fuck... light!"

Liu Dongli shouted, "Light! Light! Liiiight!"

"Pfft!"

Despite the crisis, Huai Shi failed to hold back his laughter. Sorry, I didn't expect you to be Intel...

Not daring to waste time, he pulled Liu Dongli's phone from the handbag, turned on its flashlight, and threw it over.

"Catch!"

Smack!

The phone shattered in midair. Fierce Ape's ferocious face flashed through the spinning beam of light. It seemed to have realized what Liu Dongli's power was all about and would not let even the slightest source of light escape.

Huai Shi did not stop moving, tossing out his own smartphone, which was practically ready for retirement. "Catch this too!"

Smack!

That phone was crushed in midair as well.

Well, now neither of them had a phone.

"Damn it, couldn't you slow down?" Liu Dongli was furious. One phone had already been crushed, and Huai Shi had thrown out a second.

"You could've moved faster too!"

"So do you want me to move faster or slower?!"

Huai Shi was furious too. As he fled in a panic, he kept rummaging through Liu Dongli's bag and tossing out bottles and jars. "Hand cream, catch!"

Smack!

Crushed.

Then came another gunshot. The muzzle flash vanished in an instant, but it was impossible to tell whether it had hit that bizarre monkey. All Huai Shi knew was that something seemed to sweep past his heel, frightening him so badly his legs nearly gave out.

"Try aiming properly!"

"Shut up!"

Liu Dongli roared impatiently.

"Do you even want your stuff back?" Huai Shi snapped, grabbing another bottle and throwing it out. "Eye cream, catch!"

Smack!

"Sunglasses and keys, catch!"

As Liu Dongli fought the dead monkey in a tense, vicious battle, Huai Shi kept throwing things over. The sound of things breaking in midair continued to shatter Liu Dongli's heart.

By the end, the handbag was nearly empty, so Huai Shi simply threw everything over at once.

"Miracle water, eye cream, face cream, essence, and what's this..." Huai Shi glanced at it. "Oh, a makeup mirror! Catch!"

Even Fierce Ape could not be bothered with that pile of junk.

But it had not expected Liu Dongli to throw himself forward without hesitation and snatch his makeup mirror out of the air, even with Fierce Ape right in front of him.

The instant he caught it, Liu Dongli revealed a cold smile to the ghost monkey in the darkness.

"—Behold my peerless beauty!"

The next moment, light burst from his hand.

It had never expected Huai Shi and the others to have been waiting for this—Liu Dongli, that flashy bastard, even had lights built into his makeup mirror!

And not just any lights, but a 360-degree, shadow-free whitening soft-light LED ring lamp!

In the instant the light flared on, Fierce Ape's sharp iron claws were only inches from Liu Dongli's face. Yet at that exact moment, its movements came to a complete halt.

For a moment, it ignored everyone else. Even Huai Shi got caught in it and accidentally saw his face.

Then he seemed to freeze in place, unable to move.

And began crazily going, "Oohhh!"

As Liu Dongli fell, he did not even have time to adjust his posture. He raised his gun and fired wildly, emptying the last two bullets, but no blood sprayed out.

Only after he landed awkwardly, nearly face-first, did he scramble back up in panic.

Then came Fierce Ape's piercing shriek. Its iron claws abruptly rose and clawed at its own eyes. With a dull, overlapping thud, thick blood sprayed from behind the holes in its mask.

This time, it could no longer see Liu Dongli's face.

Its arm lashed out, tearing a gash across Huai Shi's arm. If Liu Dongli had not withdrawn his power quickly enough, Huai Shi's neck might have been torn off.

Huai Shi's face went pale with fright.

"Holy shit, man, does your ability even work?!"

Liu Dongli looked just as aggrieved. "I can't help it if I don't have much hair left!"

So his peerless beauty mainly depended on his hair?!

The two of them scrambled away and hid to one side, barely daring to breathe as they tried to remain completely silent.

In the silence, only Fierce Ape, blood flowing from its eyes, prowled around them, frantically tearing apart anything that made a sound.

Until Huai Shi heard a helpless sigh.

As a gale swept through, the black clouds broke apart, and clear moonlight illuminated the dead-silent street.

At the far end of the street, Ai Qing sat in her wheelchair, looking at them as she shook her head unhappily and slowly wheeled herself forward.

In the silence, there was only the faint sound of the wheelchair turning.

The frantic Fierce Ape screamed and suddenly whipped its head around. Its hollow eyes locked onto the source of the sound as it pounced!

Ai Qing shook her head impatiently, sighed, and took a... gun of some sort from the side compartment of her wheelchair, one whose model Huai Shi could not identify at all. She expertly disengaged the safety.

She aimed ahead and pulled the trigger.

In an instant, Huai Shi saw only a burst of scorching flashes erupt from the barrel. Amid the sharp, piercing roar, Fierce Ape froze in midair, trembling wildly like a torn plastic bag floating in the wind before finally crashing to the ground, convulsing and screaming in pain.

After emptying an entire magazine, Ai Qing impassively yanked it out and tossed it aside. Only the crisp clatter of shell casings hitting the ground remained.

Was it over?

Just as Huai Shi stared in shock, the battered monkey on the ground suddenly climbed back up and charged off to the side.

It was trying to escape!

Ai Qing could not even be bothered to stop it.

Then faint red dots appeared across Fierce Ape's shell of a body.

Bang!

A thunderous boom erupted from afar.

Then came a continuous barrage of roaring explosions.

Fierce Ape was struck as though by lightning. Then a large hole appeared in its chest.

Several deep craters appeared in the ground, as though hammers had smashed them out in an instant.

Under the aim of those distant shooters, the monster instantly became a rag doll. Yet unbelievably, it was still alive.

It struggled frantically, using both hands and its remaining left leg to drag itself up. Crawling on all fours, it raced outward at an unbelievable speed.

In the end, it almost floated, skimming over the ground as it flew!

In an instant, it vanished into the darkness amid the continuing gunfire.

Only now did Liu Dongli finally let out a breath and collapse onto the ground. He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took several hard drags before catching his breath.

If Ai Qing had not arrived so quickly, he would have nearly died here just now.

"Still, when did you call them? They got here so fast..."

"Guess."

Ai Qing did not answer directly. As always, she merely looked at him as though he were an idiot, making Liu Dongli sigh helplessly.

Fine. Apparently, there had been no need to call anyone.

Who knew how many people had been secretly taking shifts to keep him in their sights twenty-four hours a day these past few days... This woman had absolutely no humanity.

"I thought you could handle it yourselves, but I didn't expect you to become completely useless the moment the lights went out."

After ruthlessly mocking him, Ai Qing asked, "Did you find anything?"

"I'm not sure about its Soul Ability, but I think I saw its Stigmata on the professor's lineage chart..." Liu Dongli scratched his head and thought for a moment. "It was probably Nue?"

The more he considered it, the more certain he became. "Third-stage Ether-class Stigmata—Nue."

Nue, a monster from legend.

It was said to have a monkey-like face, the body of a raccoon dog, a tiger's limbs, and a snake's tail. It had no wings, yet it could fly.

"Looks like it only just entered Ether-class and can't fly very high yet. Otherwise, I'd have been dead today."

Liu Dongli wiped the cold sweat from his face and panted. "Fuck, a weakling who just entered Gold fought an Ether who was a whole rank above me for that long and still survived. That was way too close.

Where the hell did an Ether-class Ascender come from? I thought the professor was the only Ether-class Ascender in all of New Sea."

"Even Ether-class Ascenders have appeared. Those people really made a huge mess this time..." Ai Qing glanced toward the distance with malicious delight and tapped the wheelchair armrest. "At least the situation isn't too bad. Your efforts had some value. We have quite a few more people to throw out as scapegoats if necessary."

"..."

Liu Dongli fell silent. Looking at her lovely profile, he felt a chill run through his heart.

Getting stuck with such a vile inspector could only mean there was no hope left in life.

After a brief moment of thought, Ai Qing looked up and asked, "Anything else?"

"Huh? No."

Liu Dongli froze for a moment, then shook his head wildly.

"Then continue your investigation. If I get any leads, I'll notify you immediately."

She gave Liu Dongli one last look. Her gaze swept across Huai Shi, but she said nothing further as she turned her wheelchair around and left.

After a long while, Huai Shi finally came back to his senses in the silence.

"Does she not like me very much?"

Liu Dongli rolled his eyes. "I've never seen her like anyone, okay? But you probably offended her badly last time. Good luck."

He gave the young man's shoulder a hard pat, but his heart sank.

That was the one thing he had concealed just now—at the instant the streetlights went out, he had sensed a faint fluctuation of Source Matter behind him.

—That kid... might have the potential for Sublimation.

In the secret chamber, Master saw the bloodied and mangled Fierce Ape and froze.

"What happened?!"

"It was a trap... a trap set by the Astronomical Society!" Fierce Ape screamed furiously. "That kid has Ascenders guarding him! And snipers!"

Master stood there in a daze.

"What are you standing around for?!"

Enduring the pain, Fierce Ape tore off its mask, revealing an aged, twisted face full of malice. "I can't hold on much longer. Give me Source Matter, now!"

Master instinctively covered the box. "But... but... there isn't much Source Matter left."

"Don't you still have so many old ghosts you can drain?!" Fierce Ape climbed off the bed and propped itself up on one leg, pressing forward step by step. "Give it all to me! This mess was caused by cleaning up after your ass!"

Master instinctively took out the box, only for it to be snatched away.

It impatiently opened the box and stared at the layer of clear, mist-like spring water within. It pressed its face against the box and began greedily sucking it up in huge mouthfuls.

Soon, sharp grinding sounds rang out. The sound of bones and flesh multiplying was like colliding steel as new organs and limbs grew from its ruined shell.

Once all its limbs had regrown, Master impatiently snatched back the box. Seeing how much Source Matter was already missing from the bottom, his face went pale with pain.

"Got any powder? Give me some too?" Fierce Ape wiped its face, pulled a packet of powder from his pocket, and inhaled it through its nostrils. After shuddering, its complexion improved considerably. It staggered back several steps and sat on the bed.

"You're the one appointed by the Lords as the person in charge. What are you planning to do next?"

Master remained silent, unconsciously chewing on his fingers as though thinking about something.

After a long time, a trace of ferocity flashed across his face.

"Since the Astronomical Society has set its sights on us, we can't stay in New Sea any longer."

He opened his mouth and looked at the fingers he had chewed until they were bloody. In a hoarse voice, he said, "Once we finish the last mass tomorrow night, we'll change locations and leave overnight... There are still six months until the New Year. If we work hard and gather enough Source Matter, the Lords won't blame us..."

"What about the mission?" Fierce Ape asked. "What about the mission in the quarantine zone?"

Master shuddered.

He said nothing.

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