Intercept at the Broken Bridge
"Waaaaah--waaaah--"
"Damn it! My mech is out of control!"
"Eject! Eject now!"
"Pop-up error! I... Ah--!"
confusion.
This is what Yun Jingheng and his group saw; the key point is that they were still quite a distance from that bridge.
When the modified off-road vehicle sped onto the coastal highway, the road was no longer as empty as it had been at midnight.
The red and blue lights of emergency vehicles flashed in patches in the distance ahead. Some people were looking towards the cross-sea bridge from the roadside. Several residents in their pajamas stood by the flower bed below the apartment building, looking up at the falling lights in the sky.
Xie Xie's driving style was even more impulsive than his personality.
The car lurched violently as the wheels rolled over a small crack in the road. Yuanen Yehui, sitting in the back, reached up and braced himself against the roof beam to steady himself.
Yun Jingheng sat in the passenger seat, looking out the window. The sea breeze blew in through the half-open window, messing up the stray hairs on his forehead, but he didn't reach out to fix them.
"What did the academy say?" Yun Jingheng turned his head and asked.
"They told us to be careful, the volunteers are already on their way." Ye Xinglan clung to the back of the front seat, trying to adjust to Xie Xie's wild speed.
"Everyone, it normally takes fifteen minutes to get to the bridge via this route."
Xie Xie lowered his voice, but didn't ease off the accelerator, "The road conditions aren't good right now; there might be a traffic jam ahead."
It's definitely blocked.
About 500 meters ahead, a temporary warning line was set up across the road.
Several police cars flashing blue and red lights were parked across the middle of the road, blocking all lanes leading to the bridge.
Many people in uniforms are evacuating the surrounding crowd.
Xie Xie did not slow down.
The modified off-road vehicle's headlights flashed twice, and he turned his head and said, "Hold on tight."
The steering wheel was suddenly turned to the right, and the SUV rolled over the shoulder and plunged into a narrow alley that could only accommodate one car at a time.
The alley is lined with the exterior walls of residential buildings, with air conditioner units and clothes racks brushing past car rooftops, and occasionally a few startled dogs barking from upstairs.
The car sped through the narrow alley for about two minutes, then emerged from the other end and rejoined a parallel riverside path, with the outline of the bridge already faintly visible ahead.
Just then, a piercing metallic tearing sound came from above.
Yun Jingheng was the first to look up.
Through the half-open sunroof of the SUV, he saw a massive, burning object sweep diagonally across the sky.
The flames from that thing cast flickering light on everyone's faces inside the vehicle. Blackened cracks were clearly visible on the outer shell of the mech. The left thruster had completely shut down, while the right side was still futilely spewing out scattered streams of flame. The entire mech was hurtling towards them at an almost out-of-control angle.
"Turn left--!" Gu Yue's voice from the back row was short and sharp.
Xie Xie almost instinctively jerked the steering wheel, the SUV's left wheel bobbing high, the vehicle tracing a sharp arc on the road as it squeezed towards the left alleyway entrance.
Above the sunroof, the burning mech grazed the rear of the off-road vehicle, its scorching underside less than three meters from the roof.
A scorching wave of heat rushed in through the rear window. Yuanen Yehui raised his hand and conjured a pale yellow light shield to block the window. Even so, the temperature inside the car still suddenly rose several degrees.
But the mech didn't fly far.
After passing the off-road vehicle, it maintained a horizontal trajectory for less than two seconds. The last bit of thrust remaining in the right-side thruster was completely exhausted, and the entire aircraft suddenly sank in mid-air like a broken line, plunging nose-down into a row of riverside warehouses about fifty meters ahead.
Then it exploded.
A bright fireball rose from the center of the warehouse complex, and the shockwave, carrying broken tiles and metal fragments, spread outward in a fan shape, while the sound of shattering glass blended into a series of crisp crackling sounds.
Although the SUV had already rushed into the depths of the narrow alley, the shockwave from the explosion still caught up with it, causing the vehicle to shake violently. The rear windshield shattered into a spiderweb-like pattern of cracks, but fortunately, Yuanen Yehui's light shield prevented it from completely shattering.
Gu Yue's voice came through. "The spot where you just fell is about one kilometer from the bridge break."
"The Evil Soul Master ' interception zone is expanding outwards. The mechs are being destroyed one by one. They are no longer satisfied with just guarding the bridge; they are clearing out all combat forces around the bridgehead."
Yun Jingheng sat in the middle of the back seat, his gaze passing over the windshield to the faintly visible flames and plumes of smoke at the alley entrance. He suddenly spoke, "Xie Xie, can this road lead around to the bridge? The place where that mech crashed is right next to the warehouse complex; that's the closest passage to the bridge."
Xie Xie quickly glanced ahead, then at the rearview mirror. "We can go around, but we'll have to walk. With our cultivation levels, we can get there quickly."
"Then stop the car."
Yuanen Yehui said, "The explosion has just torn a gap in the warehouse area. If we go through there, we should be able to get directly to the bridgehead."
"Squeak--!"
Xie Xie slammed on the brakes, causing the group to stumble.
As soon as the car came to a stop, Xie Xie pushed open the door and jumped out.
The soles of his shoes crunched crisply on the broken bricks and shards of glass. He glanced up at the still-burning breach in the warehouse area, then turned and gestured to the others.
"This way, follow me."
When Yun Jingheng got out of the car, he didn't close the door, leaving a gap so that the wind could disperse the remaining scorching heat inside the car.
He stood still and quickly scanned the surrounding terrain. A large section of the warehouse complex's wall had been knocked down by the crashed mech, with broken steel bars and cement blocks scattered all over the ground. Flames were still crackling behind the broken wall, and thick smoke was spreading along the ground towards the low-lying areas.
A cleared path could be vaguely seen deep within the smoke, with several fresh tire tracks on the ground, likely left by emergency responders.
Ye Xinglan stepped over a piece of charred metal and landed beside Yun Jingheng, sniffing lightly. "The remaining Soul Power is very mixed. There were at least three or four different types of fluctuations intertwined around the crash site."
"Stay close to me, don't get separated."
Xie Xie had already started jogging towards the gap, his steps much lighter, and he landed almost silently.
Yuanen Yehui and Gu Yue followed behind him, while Ye Xinglan and Yun Jingheng brought up the rear. The five of them filed in, hugging the shadows of the broken wall.
The interior of the warehouse area was even more devastated than it appeared from the outside.
The crashed mech was stuck diagonally on the roof of a warehouse, half of its body embedded in the steel frame. The remaining fuel was still burning slowly, and the sound of molten metal dripping was particularly jarring in the quiet night.
Scattered on the ground were some things that were clearly not building materials, Yun Jingheng didn't look at them much and quickened his pace to catch up with the group in front.
After walking through the warehouse area for about three or four minutes, we heard voices ahead.
"Over here! There are people over here! Come quickly and lend a hand—"
A middle-aged man wearing an orange emergency vest was kneeling beside a pile of collapsed shelves, using his bare hands to remove a metal plate that was pressing down on an injured person.
His forehead was covered in sweat, and there were several cuts on the back of his hands, but his movements didn't slow down at all.
Two other people were lying nearby; they were not in immediate danger but were clearly unable to move.
Xie Xie was the first to rush over. "I'll do it!"
He gripped the edge of the metal plate with both hands and lifted it, flipping the plate to the side.
Yuanen Yehui crouched down and dragged the injured man out of the rubble, quickly checking his neck with her fingers. "Alive, but lost a lot of blood."
The middle-aged man took a heavy breath, looked up and saw the group of young people in front of him. He paused for a moment, then said urgently, "How did you get in? This is a war zone! Back off—"
Before he finished speaking, the sky above the warehouse suddenly brightened.
A purplish-black arc of light slashed down from above, like the tip of a giant scythe sweeping across the warehouse complex, sending tiles flying wherever it passed.
Then came a chilling laugh, not loud, but echoing through the empty warehouse area, like the hooting of an owl deliberately kept to a low volume.
The middle-aged man's face turned deathly pale. "Here they come again! A team of emergency responders just rushed in and were stopped behind the broken wall—"
Yun Jingheng looked up.
Through the broken roof of the warehouse, he saw a figure hovering about thirty meters above.
The man was dressed in a dark robe, with a slender build, and was surrounded by five Soul Ring: two yellow, two purple, and one black.
At this moment, he was facing away from the warehouse, seemingly focused entirely on the three leading figures at the bridgehead in the distance, showing little awareness of the rubble beneath his feet that had already been exploded.
A lone Evil Soul Master is patrolling and keeping watch from a high vantage point.
Yun Jingheng didn't stop walking.
Without even greeting anyone, he slightly lowered his body and then suddenly rose into the air.
A pale silver moonlight condensed into a phantom beneath his feet, silently lifting his figure into the air at a speed as fast as a wisp of night mist swept up by the wind.
That person seemed to have sensed something.
Almost instinctively, I turned my head, but it was too late.
Yun Jingheng's first sword strike came without any warning.
His Moonlight Sword was thin and cold, its blade almost transparent in the night, precisely slicing across the man's neck and drawing a thin line of blood.
The man let out a short, sharp sound, his body jolted violently, and his Soul Ring flickered intensely, but he didn't even have time to make any defensive movements.
The dark figure plummeted from a height of thirty meters, crashing onto a patch of concrete outside the warehouse with a dull thud.
When Yun Jingheng landed back on the ground, his toes barely made a sound.
The Moonlight Sword in his hand slowly dissipated. He turned to look at the middle-aged man, "It's done. You continue evacuating the crowd."
The middle-aged man's mouth hung open, his gaze shifting back and forth between Yun Jingheng and the headless corpse. His lips moved several times before he finally managed to squeeze out a single word. "... Fine."