Foster Father, What Are You Doing?

"Creak, creak, creak!!!!!"

The sounds around them were deafening. They came from the joints of the Midnight Masses grinding violently against each other.

That also meant they were moving faster and were far more vicious than zombies.

Wu Hen ran with all his might, focusing intently on his hearing and relying on his reflexes to dodge the Midnight Masses' attacks!

When they opened their mouths, their jaws made a distinct cracking sound.

When they leaped at him, their eight limbs made a sound like firecrackers, too.

So even when a Midnight Mass appeared in Wu Hen's blind spot, he could still react!

With only a sliver of light left, Wu Hen moved like an excellent rugby player, forcing his way through the Midnight Masses surrounding him and reaching the railway gate switch!

"Click!"

Grabbing the heavy gate, Wu Hen wrenched it to the other side.

"Ka-thunk~ ka-thunk~~ ka-thunk~~~~~"

The scorching old train finally started moving!

Wu Hen saw the wheels begin to spin faster, and immediately ran toward the tracks!

Two Midnight Masses blocked his way. They raised their sharp foreclaws, trying to pierce his throat!

Wu Hen heard their movements the moment they lifted their claws. He immediately slid beneath them, passing between their slowly descending claws!

The moving train was right in front of him!

Wu Hen got up and ran alongside it for a short distance, then jumped onto the coupling between the cars.

As soon as he landed on the train, a claw suddenly reached out from beneath the carriage and seized his ankle!

Wu Hen's face turned pale with shock. He bent down to look and saw a completely thawed Midnight Mass clinging upside down beneath the train!

Its body was flat, its claws pressed tight against the underside of the carriage. Though the train was moving along the tracks, the gap between the undercarriage and the rails was just wide enough to keep it from being crushed.

His hearing was certainly powerful now, so he didn't have to worry about ambushes from his blind spots.

But if a Midnight Mass had been frozen beneath the train the entire time, making no sound until now, then even if Wu Hen heard it at this close range, he wouldn't have time to react!

This was it!

Wu Hen could feel the Midnight Mass tightening its grip. It could tear off his leg in an instant.

"Xiao Hen, catch!"

At the very moment his life hung by a thread, Wu Hen heard Su Li's voice.

He looked up and saw the small, flashlight-like tactical light arcing through the air.

Wu Hen understood immediately and hurriedly reached out with his right hand.

But the Midnight Mass clinging beneath the train had already tightened its grip. There was still a little light outside, so it hadn't crawled out, but it was dragging him beneath the train.

That tug kept him from reaching the tactical light Su Li had thrown...

As the light that could save his life was about to pass him by, Wu Hen wished his arm could stretch like Luffy's.

Then something uncanny happened.

A phantom appeared over his right palm. It looked like a miniature black dragon, and it shot out from his wrist.

The Black Void Shadow caught the tactical light precisely in its jaws, then returned to Wu Hen's right arm in the blink of an eye!

Wu Hen barely had time to react before the tactical light was already in his palm.

Was it Black Lightning Foster Father?

There was no time to think. Wu Hen pointed the tactical light beneath the carriage. The bright beam instantly pinned the Midnight Mass in place, while revealing the full sight of the ugly, ferocious, and utterly vicious evil spirit!

The train's mechanical wheels on either side spun faster and faster. Its pitch-black undercarriage and the tracks formed an extremely narrow space, where a small Midnight Mass clung upside down. One of its foreclaws was clamped tightly around Wu Hen's ankle, and its pair of ghostly red eyes glared with hatred at the healthy body of a living person!

"You sneaky bastard, you're freaking disgusting!"

Wu Hen cursed inwardly and took advantage of the light pinning the Midnight Mass in place to yank his foot free.

"Xiao Hen, get up here!" Su Li appeared above him, on top of the carriage, and reached down with one hand.

Wu Hen grabbed Su Li's hand and climbed onto the carriage roof.

There were still three cars between them and the safety car, which was already filled with fluorescent light. It wasn't feasible to run along the tracks or go through the carriages.

The faint remaining halo of the total solar eclipse was the last glimmer of hope for Wu Hen and Su Li. The Midnight Masses surrounding the train were moving as fast as tigers and leopards, and were just as strong!

Wu Hen knew they couldn't go through the carriages. Their roofs would block the last light of the eclipse, rendering it useless. And several Midnight Masses had already crawled into the three battered cars.

They could only move along the roof of the speeding train.

"Bang!!"

"Bang!!!"

Su Li fired twice in a row, knocking the Midnight Masses climbing onto the carriage back down.

The two of them made it across the first car, but a group of Midnight Masses clung to either side of the second. They were waiting there for Wu Hen and Su Li to approach.

"You pin them down. I'll shoot!" Su Li didn't hesitate. She leaped straight onto the second car.

Wu Hen immediately followed. He focused on his hearing. Whenever he heard the sudden, heavy crack of bones, he knew a Midnight Mass was launching a fierce attack, and immediately pinned it in place with the light!

"Aunt, watch your feet."

As Wu Hen called out a warning, the tactical light in his hand already pinned the Midnight Mass in front of Su Li's feet.

"Bang!" Su Li fired a clean, precise shot.

The Midnight Mass had only just begun to pounce when the bullet knocked it off the train.

"Behind you."

Wu Hen spun around, and the tactical light shot out like a laser, illuminating a Midnight Mass that had already leaped into the air.

Su Li turned at the same time, swiftly and steadily raising both hands toward the beam.

"Bang!"

The shot was masterful, striking the Midnight Mass as it hurtled through the air.

The wounded creature fell beneath the train and was crushed by its steel wheels!

With the threat behind them dealt with, Wu Hen and Su Li turned in perfect sync and advanced in a crossed formation.

"Left."

"Bang!" The bullet whistled through the air.

"Up ahead."

"Bang!" Su Li's amber eyes barely moved.

"Behind us, below."

"Bang! Bang!" Two Midnight Masses were knocked off the train at once!

The sky had turned pitch-black.

A train hurtled through the darkness.

On its roof, a single beam of light remained. As it flickered rapidly, it seemed to project an old slideshow beneath the total solar eclipse, revealing one grotesque monster after another, with horrifying shapes and loathsome expressions...

"The last car!"

Wu Hen and Su Li leaped across the coupling. Only twenty-five meters remained between them and safety.

But the last trace of light had faded from the sky. It was truly midnight in the middle of the day!

Dozens of Midnight Masses lined the tracks, their eyes glowing red and their bones cracking violently. With no heavenly radiance left, they had finally entered their strongest form!

"Crash!"

A Midnight Mass leaped up from beside the tracks and landed directly on the train roof. When its powerful claws struck the roof, the metal caved in!

The other Midnight Masses did the same. They were moving so fast that it was difficult for the tactical light to pin them down.

"Looks like we won't escape after all." Su Li glanced at the powerful, vicious Midnight Masses ahead. She had already reached her conclusion.

Twenty-five meters felt no easier than passing through a Midnight Mass nest. Wu Hen knew he wouldn't get out of this alive.

"Aunt..." A trace of unwillingness stirred in Wu Hen's heart.

"Take this and return to your world!" Su Li suddenly pulled a piece of something like dark jade from her shoulder bag and pressed it into Wu Hen's hand!

Wu Hen saw what it was and froze.

Yuan You!!

It was a complete piece of Yuan You!!

The peculiar light radiating from the Yuan You enveloped them both. The Midnight Masses around them seemed to freeze for a brief moment.

But once the effect wore off, a scorching light blazed from the Midnight Masses' eyes. They fell into an even more frenzied, ravenous state.

"Crush it, and your soul will return to your world," Su Li said.

Only then did Wu Hen realize this was how a soul could leave Otherworld Desolate Dust!

"There's only one piece. What about you?" Wu Hen asked anxiously.

"I don't belong there..." Su Li shook her head.

Wu Hen gazed at her weathered yet beautiful face, unable to put what he felt into words.

This was the real world. If Su Li couldn't crush the Yuan You and return to the human world like he could, then the evil spirits would subject her to the most horrific torment imaginable!

Her body and her soul would both be utterly annihilated!

Wu Hen couldn't accept it. Deep down, he simply couldn't.

Even though they had spent so little time together, Su Li had already made him feel the warmth of family.

"Xiao Hen..."

"You don't have to say anything. I'll stay with you to the end," Wu Hen said firmly.

"No, Xiao Hen, your... your hand..." Su Li stared at Wu Hen's right hand in astonishment.

My hand??

Wu Hen didn't know what she meant. He turned his head—and suddenly realized the Yuan You that had been in his hand was gone!

Holy crap!

Wu Hen's mind was in turmoil!

Where's my Yuan You???

Su Li was even more incredulous. She had just watched Wu Hen's right hand behave like a living creature and gobble up the Yuan You she had given him to save his life!

Su Li remembered that when she had rescued Wu Hen from the sacrifice earlier, she had noticed that something seemed to have infected his right arm!

"Foster Father, what are you doing~~" Wu Hen nearly cried.

Just when he was filled with heroic resolve, facing a life-or-death parting, and caught up in the emotion of the moment, his foster father had gone and pulled this stunt!

"Run!!"

Su Li was still clearheaded. She couldn't bear to let the Midnight Masses tear Wu Hen apart.

Wu Hen had no choice but to charge forward.

But one disaster followed another.

Su Li fired several shots, clearing the nearest Midnight Masses, only to discover that her gun was out of ammunition!

"I'm out of bullets. I'll draw them away. Keep running!" Su Li didn't hesitate. She actually tried to run in the opposite direction.

Wu Hen reacted quickly, grabbing Su Li and pulling her back.

"Aunt, something's changed!" Wu Hen said, holding up his right hand.

"You have to live..." Su Li was about to scold him, but then she saw a black gun in his right hand!

The black gun had the same design as her Origin Mech Pistol. It was the one she had given Wu Hen earlier.

But its material was completely different. The extremely fine black particles radiated like ball lightning, making the gun glow with an uncanny, mysterious brilliance!

So last night, when Xiao Hen's right hand seemed to be eating the gun, was it... actually eating it? The thought flashed through Su Li's mind.

"Duck!"

Wu Hen suddenly heard a piercing warning sound and shoved Su Li down beneath him.