"Leave?"
Huai Shi stared at Liu Dongli in astonishment.
Even in the middle of performing, Liu Dongli still smiled with boundless charm, throwing flirtatious looks at the old ladies below the stage. Even checking a text message on his phone looked absurdly alluring.
Then, the smile froze on his face.
Amid the jubilant, rustic yangko music, his face turned deathly pale. Without caring that his act was still underway, he turned around, grabbed Huai Shi, and left.
At first, they were jogging in small steps. Soon, they were sprinting in long strides.
"Of course we're leaving! What else, stay here for the New Year?"
Liu Dongli's face was livid as he muttered curses about that damned woman having no conscience. He shoved aside everyone blocking his way, ignoring the commotion he caused behind him, and headed straight for the back door.
The door moved slightly, then stopped dead.
It was locked.
From the outside.
"Damn it, the front door..."
In a panic, Liu Dongli pulled a gun from his pocket and aimed it at the two people chasing after them. "Get lost! Get lost! Get lost!"
Bang!
Bang!
The bullets struck the wall and embedded themselves in the brickwork, sending dust flying.
But once those people realized the thing in Liu Dongli's hand was no toy, they screamed and turned to flee.
"Was that really necessary?" Huai Shi asked in shock.
Then his phone buzzed again. A message from Ai Qing.
Closed 4
"Do you know what this means?" Liu Dongli's face was ashen as he pointed at the words on the screen. "Closed means lockdown!
"It's the Astronomical Society's most common measure for dangerous objects. The 4 after it is the countdown. Four minutes left! In four minutes, this entire area will be physically isolated... Then we'll be locked in the same cage as whatever they're trying to contain!"
This was the last chance Ai Qing had left them.
The operation had been canceled.
There was no time left for them to withdraw.
Run as far as you can...
"That's vicious!"
Huai Shi was so scared his face nearly turned transparent. He suddenly felt dizzy, and his vision darkened in waves. Staggering behind Liu Dongli, he passed through another corridor, only to collide with a handyman carrying supplies because he was moving too fast.
"Sorry, sorry."
Huai Shi scrambled to his feet, wanting to help pick up the scattered things, but there was no time. After apologizing repeatedly, he turned and followed Liu Dongli again.
The dull-looking man said nothing. He merely glanced at Huai Shi and mechanically began gathering the things from the floor.
But in the instant he looked up, Huai Shi saw it... Behind the eyes in that ordinary face, something golden-red seemed to drift slowly past...
Like a... goldfish in a fish tank?
For some reason, that was what Huai Shi thought of.
Five minutes earlier.
"Cancel all the remaining performances."
In the dressing room, Wang Hai paced restlessly as he waited for this sermon to begin. For some reason, though, he could not shake the feeling that something was wrong.
Every escape route had clearly been arranged. They only needed to finish this job and leave immediately, yet he still felt a panic he could not suppress.
Something wasn't right...
He unconsciously gnawed at his fingers, biting open the wounds on flesh that had already healed. The unease in his heart grew stronger and stronger.
"Start the sermon immediately!"
At last, he could wait no longer. He stomped his foot, grabbed the box from the table, and ordered his disciple, "Forget those boring acts. We cleaned up well this time, so there's no need to warm them up!"
After the disciple hurried away, Wang Hai forced down his panic and put on the benevolent smile that had long become muscle memory.
Then, all of a sudden, he felt his pocket vibrate.
It was his phone.
An inexplicable message from an unknown number. Yet its contents made his face turn white.
"Tu Tai has been arrested. The Astronomical Society is here. Run, Wang Hai. You have one minute."
In an instant, a bone-deep chill nearly made him scream.
He had no idea who had sent the message, or how they knew this number that only a handful of confidants knew. But this was no time to worry about that.
This was the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Leave.
He had to leave immediately.
He could not stay in New Sea any longer!
Gripped by terror so intense it nearly made him scream, he clutched the box, shoved open the dressing room door, and charged forward as though fleeing for his life. He kicked open another door, snatched up the keys, and rushed toward the back exit.
As he rounded the corner, he heard voices ahead.
"Little brother, why are you leaving? Didn't we agree so nicely?" The old lady Liu Dongli had first struck up a conversation with warmly grabbed his arm and urged him to stay. "After the sermon, big sis will make you some gnocchi noodles."
"No, ma'am, I have something urgent. Really urgent."
Liu Dongli struggled desperately and looked up ahead.
He saw Wang Hai.
Wang Hai saw him too.
As though they were staring at each other across an abyss, their expressions froze. Then, in the next instant, both faces twisted with resolve and savagery.
Then came the gunshot.
From behind Liu Dongli.
Smoke rose from the muzzle in the young man's hand.
It was Huai Shi.
In that instant, he snatched the pistol from behind Liu Dongli, raised it fiercely, aimed, and fired.
But he had not aimed at Wang Hai. He had aimed at the... old lady beside Liu Dongli.
"She's going to kill us!"
Under the intense stimulation of Death Sense, Huai Shi had felt unmistakable killing intent from this seemingly amiable and enthusiastic old woman.
Killing intent strong enough to tear both him and Liu Dongli to pieces.
In his haste, Huai Shi nearly lost his grip on the gun. The bullet aimed at the old lady's body went wildly off target and only hit the hand gripping Liu Dongli, blasting a large hole through her wrist and nearly taking Liu Dongli with it.
Silence fell.
Blood splattered.
Liu Dongli instinctively ducked and retreated, only to see the aged hand that had been gripping him gradually turn the color of steel. Sharp, iron-gray claws extended from its fingertips.
As the flesh slowly knitted itself together, a deformed bullet was squeezed from the wound.
"So you saw through me?"
The old woman slowly raised her head. Her aged face gradually distorted, her pupils turned a familiar blood-red, and her face slowly transformed into that of a beast as she bared a hungry smile at them.
"Damn it, Nue!"
Liu Dongli screamed.
Closed 3.5
Three minutes and thirty seconds remained until Old Pond was sealed off. The situation was sliding in the worst possible direction. It was not only the East Xia national football team; the time left for Huai Shi and the others was also running out.
Having met so awkwardly under such abrupt circumstances, they naturally could not sit down for tea and conversation.
Liu Dongli reacted the fastest.
Or rather, this flamboyant bastard had been prepared twenty-four hours a day to show off his so-called peerless beauty to anyone at any time.
"What are you looking at?!"
After that furious shout, Nue, who had instinctively looked over, froze in place. Liu Dongli grabbed the pistol that had nearly numbed Huai Shi's hand from the recoil and frantically fired at his former old sweetheart.
The rustic romance between an older woman and younger man that had been so lovey-dovey moments ago naturally vanished amid the gunfire.
He emptied an entire magazine in the blink of an eye, but without a large-caliber destructive weapon, handgun fire did almost nothing to an Ascender who had reached the third stage and whose internal organs had begun Etherification.
The Nue-like old woman had already closed her eyes.
The balance between offense and defense had reversed.
Huai Shi, meanwhile, did not stand around blankly. Summoning his courage, he rolled up his sleeves and charged straight at Wang Hai, launching himself into a flying kick. "Leave the box behind!"
Wang Hai had been about to turn and flee when Huai Shi's flying kick struck him in the lower back. He flew forward and sprawled face-first on the floor, yet he still clutched the box tightly to his chest.
Then Huai Shi pounced on him and unleashed a set of Military Boxing right onto his old face.
Since he did not know whether Wang Hai possessed any strange abilities, he did not hold back in the slightest. His own fingers hurt from the blows.
Poor Wang Hai had only been valued by the Lords for his talent at preaching. Even when he went out scamming people, he relied on his tongue. When had he ever gotten into such an ugly brawl?
He was just an ordinary person!
Now, Nue, the Savior Society's top powerhouse, was tangled up with Liu Dongli, while the disciples who had been reassigned as bodyguards could not arrive in time. Huai Shi's Military Boxing finally got its first real workout today.
Huai Shi went ha-ha-hah-heh through half a set of Military Boxing, feeling incomparably refreshed from head to toe, every pore tingling with pleasure. Seeing the old bastard unable to fight back at all made him relax considerably, only for his teeth to itch with even greater hatred.
"So you're the bastard who sent people after me, huh?! I'll show you murder! I'll show you crime! I'll show you drug dealing! I'll show you betraying society!"
"Where did this little bastard come from? Go die!"
Wang Hai was completely enraged. He flailed his arms wildly, and Huai Shi felt a pain in his arm. A bloody line bloomed beneath his torn clothes.
He had been cut by a knife!
Taking advantage of Huai Shi's inattention, Wang Hai pulled a dagger from his shoe. Seizing the chance, he hugged the box to his chest, flipped open the lid, and flung its contents at Huai Shi.
A cloud of mist-like powder flew out and splashed across Huai Shi's face.
The stuff worked frighteningly fast. The instant Huai Shi inhaled it, his entire body went weak and chaotic hallucinations filled his mind. He felt unbelievably good, as though floating among the clouds, before realizing that the old bastard had gotten him.
"Damn it, you inhale some too!"
He grabbed Wang Hai by the collar, scooped up a handful of refined Tribulation Ash, shoved it onto Wang Hai's face without warning, and rubbed it in hard.
Wang Hai's old face instantly turned bright red. Snot and tears streamed down together as he began shrieking and howling.
Taking advantage of the moment, Huai Shi stuffed some into his own mouth as well. The wild joy in his heart was immediately diluted by sudden sorrow, and his inflated, blissful consciousness rapidly wilted beneath the terrifying effects of what felt like spiritual swill.
The two of them swung between joy and grief, laughing madly through tears and snot as they grappled together like inmates in a psychiatric ward fighting each other.
Truly, they had met their match.
But their pathetic little scuffle lasted only a short time. From beginning to end, only twenty-five seconds had passed.
Then the hazy hallucinations were jolted awake by a tremendous crash.
It came from behind them.
In those brief twenty-some seconds, Liu Dongli's face had already been smeared red with blood. His tailored suit had become little more than beggar's rags, and a deep wound across his chest had nearly disemboweled him.
The pistol had fallen into Nue's hands and was casually tossed aside.
For him, those twenty-five seconds had been pure hell.
Even with her eyes closed, Nue could easily crush him.
But in the instant he fell backward, he finally found an opening... From the concealed holster beneath his suit jacket, he drew the trump card he had prepared long ago and aimed it at the old woman lunging toward him through the air.
It was a shotgun that had been cut down even further.
He had prepared this fine little gift especially for Nue.
The opportunity would vanish in an instant.
There were only two bullets, and only one moment to fire them.
After that moment passed, the incredibly agile Nue would activate her skill, glide through the air, evade the muzzle's aim, and tear off one of his arms.
But now, the outcome had already been decided.
Before you continue