第27章 死灵蛊

Gu Jianlin realized something was wrong the moment he heard that laughter.

Without warning, Nie Xiangsi suddenly coughed, a trace of fresh blood spilling from her lips.

"Are you okay?"

Gu Jianlin's heart sank as he hurriedly steadied her.

"I... I feel so terrible..."

Nie Xiangsi's delicate little face turned pale, her brows furrowed in agony as she began to cough violently.

A pool of blood was coughed up by her!

She collapsed, limp and unconscious.

Every operative in the task force began to cough violently. They bent over, kneeling on the ground in agony, their pale faces twisted as pools of blood sprayed out!

"Damn it!"

Even Cheng Youyu, who followed the Ancient Martial Arts path and was tough as nails, was not spared; he was sprawled on the ground, retching uncontrollably.

Blood was everywhere!

Gu Jianlin's first reaction was that the Joker had poisoned them just now.

But he quickly realized that it wasn't actually poisoning.

Or rather, it wasn't poison administered just now.

Because he hadn't sensed any discomfort within his own body.

Just then, rubble tumbled within the ruins as a pitch-black shadow suddenly lunged out. Its speed was impossibly fast, like a ferocious predator!

The investigator closest to it let out a shrill scream on the spot.

"Hehehehe."

A long while later, the Joker tossed aside the investigator, who no longer had any signs of life. His face, covered in blood and mud, wore a terrifying, chilling smile: "I said it before, the Ether Association? The Tribunal? A bunch of idiots."

After drinking his fill of blood, his withered aura recovered rapidly. Hard, downy fur sprouted all over his body, and a thick, pungent blood mist erupted from his back as eight steel-like appendages tore through his skin.

Even his shattered hands emitted the sound of cracking bones as they rapidly restored themselves to their original state.

The remaining thirteen people struggled to stand, only to spray out even more blood.

Cheng Youyu forced himself up, lifting his painfully twisted face to let out a hoarse voice: "Brother Lin... run!"

He pointed toward the door, his body convulsed once, and he passed out.

With that, the entire rescue team was wiped out.

Gu Jianlin stood there all alone, lost in thought.

Well, they were certainly worthy of being an Ether Association rescue team.

Very reliable.

Very impressive.

Just like that, he had become the director of the orphanage.

"So that's how it is."

He said softly: "It's the hearts of those animals!"

The Joker had clearly completed his final metamorphosis; his massive compound eyes were blood-red and terrifying, and sharp fangs had sprouted in his mouth.

"Smart!"

Gu Jianlin had always been unable to figure out why this guy would risk exposure to cruelly abuse animals.

He had originally thought it was just psychopathy, but that wasn't the case at all.

"You knew long ago that the Ether Association operatives were lurking in the school. You had even confirmed their identities, but you didn't run away, nor did you alert them. Instead, you prepared a grand gift for them."

Gu Jianlin said coldly: "You weren't abusing animals; you were extracting their organs and using that Mythic Armament of yours, which can conceal one's aura, to secretly cast something akin to a curse upon them."

"You really aren't one of those idiots from the Tribunal."

The Joker stood opposite him, stretching his eight spider legs and clapping gently, marveling: "What should I do? I don't even want to kill you now. You guessed right. That is the ability of the Gu Master path. My people used the concealment of the Mythic Armament to secretly put this Gu into their food. You have the Ether Association backing you, but I have helpers too."

He paused: "I originally wanted to add some seasoning to you and your sister as well, but I was afraid your ranks were too low. If the Gu were triggered, you would have died on the spot, and then I would have ended up with nothing..."

Gu Jianlin stood up in silence, grabbed his Desert Eagle, and reloaded.

As he had expected, the Joker was indeed extremely dangerous.

He had thought the Joker's final trump card was his Mythic Armament.

He hadn't expected that the organization behind the Joker had been plotting in the shadows, easily wiping out the Ether Association's task force.

What a nuisance.

"A pistol? That thing is useless against me."

The Joker sneered and raised his right hand, the silver chains suddenly glowing with radiance: "Everything is under my control. The only thing I didn't calculate was that you would find me ahead of time and even manage to suppress me in my normal state."

"However, this is as far as you go."

The silver chains floated into mid-air, emitting crisp clashing sounds as they crisscrossed and flew about.

Mythic Armament, Non-Existent Lock!

—Release!

Crimson blood threads overflowed from the Joker's body, and his frame spasmed slightly, as if he had paid a considerable price.

Gu Jianlin was enveloped by countless silver chains and narrowed his eyes.

He saw those chains crisscrossing, circling the entire ruins to form a void barrier.

At the same time, he lost his perception of the outside world.

Or rather, he gradually could no longer feel the existence of the outside world.

"From here on out, it's just you and me."

The Joker raised his left hand again, and a pitch-black bell appeared in his palm out of nowhere.

Mythic Armament, Soul-Pacifying Bell!

"I know that even if you die, you might not tell me what your father left you."

He raised the bell in his hand: "I will enslave your soul... and then, you will tell me yourself."

On the roof of the Fengcheng No. 2 High School teaching building, Lu Zicheng leaned against the iron railing, overlooking the night.

A green-feathered parrot stood on his shoulder.

He toyed with his phone; there was only one message on WeChat.

"I'll handle the Joker matter myself. Help me protect my sister."

—Gu Jianlin.

Lu Zicheng adjusted his earpiece, using his sister's special clearance to tap into the task force's communication channel.

He knew by now that the task force had been completely wiped out.

Logically speaking, he should have gone to rescue the kid immediately.

However, he didn't do so.

Because he was spinning an ancient copper coin between his fingertips.

A strand of hair was wrapped through the hole in the center of the coin.

It was Gu Jianlin's hair.

The origin of this coin was not simple; it was one of the Lu Family's heirlooms.

Legend had it that as long as a strand of the target's hair was wrapped around it, one could divine fortune or misfortune, and it never missed.

As long as the coin stopped spinning and didn't land on the reverse side, which represented misfortune, nothing would go wrong.

The next moment, the coin stopped spinning and clattered to the ground.

Lu Zicheng never expected that the coin would land on the obverse side.

The green parrot stood on his shoulder and squawked: "Great fortune, winner winner chicken dinner!"

This coin was a Mythic Armament; if it landed on the obverse, it was impossible for anything to go wrong.

Truly incredible.

"Huh, it's actually a sign of great fortune?"

Lu Zicheng hesitated for a moment, a look of surprise appearing on his face: "In that case, does that mean I don't need to go? Can he win? Is there some variable I don't know about? If I go now, wouldn't he lose the credit?"

He pulled out his tablet; the feed monitored by the Eye of Horus satellite showed the movements inside the cafeteria.

Fourteen blue dots were motionless on the spot, clearly having lost their combat capability.

As for that most conspicuous red dot, it had actually disappeared.

Suddenly, the roar of a helicopter sounded overhead, and lights flickered in the night sky.

Lu Zicheng looked up.

According to the Tribunal's operational protocols, every time a task force was sent on a mission, an emergency contingency plan was prepared to ensure nothing went wrong. If the situation spiraled out of control, someone would be sent to forcibly take command.

The strength of this person was guaranteed to be overwhelming, enough to settle everything.

On the helicopter, someone stood in the cabin. Her silhouette, illuminated by the lights, was slender and graceful. Her white hair fluttered in the wind, and she carried a massive sword case that looked like a coffin, from which the faint humming of sword blades echoed.

These features were too obvious: the Sword Sect path.

As a member of the Ancient Martial Arts path, Lu Zicheng had always felt his profession was the best at fighting.

But he had to admit that the Sword Sect, also one of the most ancient paths, was not a bit weaker than Ancient Martial Arts.

And it was even cooler.

Across the street from Fengcheng No. 2 High School, a black Mercedes was parked.

Deacon Nie sat in the passenger seat, holding a tablet. On the screen was the map monitored by the Eye of Horus satellite, showing many blue dots—all of them were the operatives he had arranged.

Although they were all rookies, they were well-trained, and without exception, they were all Second Rank.

The principle behind the Magician's danger perception was sensing the hostility of enemies stronger than oneself.

Therefore, stacking numbers could completely circumvent this sensory ability.

Lu Zijin said indifferently: "Using a rookie as bait is quite dishonorable."

Deacon Nie's smile froze, and his eyes turned cold: "Gu Jianlin has talent and is capable of taking on heavy responsibilities, so he must accept the test. This is also a form of cultivation. If he can truly slay the Joker, he is a one-of-a-kind genius. What would it matter if I gave him those two Mythic Armaments?"

"Why is the Joker's organization targeting him? We still don't know."

He paused: "This is helping him eliminate a future threat!"

Lu Zijin sneered inwardly: "I suspect you want to know if this child is hiding something, right? And while you're at it, you want to snatch the credit for settling this matter so Yan Wu can ascend smoothly?"

It sounded nice, but they were the only ones who had disregarded the child's safety.

But it didn't matter; as long as Lu Zicheng was there, the child wouldn't be in any danger.

Deacon Nie's expression suddenly changed, because the large number of blue dots on the tablet had disappeared!

"Damn it, something's wrong!"

His expression changed drastically.

Lu Zijin sat on the roof of the car and said indifferently: "I think I just smelled the scent of Gu poison. It seems to be a very high-level Necro-Gu. This kind of Gu poison doesn't reveal any supernatural characteristics before it erupts, and it's almost impossible to detect with the naked eye."

She paused: "The rescue team is about to be wiped out. This is a dimensional strike; you can't blame them for being weak."

Deacon Nie's face was extremely gloomy. He gritted his teeth and said: "Thunder! Initiate the rescue plan! I ask that you take action!"

There was a moment of silence on the comms, followed by a pleasant voice that sounded like ice cubes clashing:

"Understood."

The communication cut off.

"Your niece is in trouble, so you're anxious?"

Lu Zijin leaped lightly off the car roof, her black lily-patterned skirt fluttering in the wind as her heels clicked against the ground.

"Weren't you very confident just now? In the end, you still need Thunder to come and clean up your mess."

She said airily: "I'm a bit bored, so I'll go for a stroll. Maybe the mastermind behind the Joker is nearby. If I'm lucky, I'll find him and trade a few blows."

This department head, who looked young on the outside, revealed a mischievous smile: "You won't be scared being here all by yourself, will you?"

Deacon Nie sat in the car, the corner of his eye twitching as he said in a deep voice: "Find him, and then kill him."

"I'll try my best."

Lu Zijin yawned lazily, and in an instant, she was enveloped by a massive mental intent and vanished from the spot with a boom.

Deacon Nie snorted coldly, his expression looking extremely ugly.