Gone Mad? You're Sending My Brother to His Death?

The door to the purification room opened with a creak.

Illumi lowered his head, his body trembling slightly as two nurses roughly hauled him up.

The room was small: a cold metal bed, several tubes of unknown purpose, and a row of bottles filled with pale golden liquid, all giving off a cloying disinfectant smell.

"Get on it!" The nurse on the left shoved him.

Illumi staggered along with the push, looking terrified out of his wits. He braced himself against the bed, his breathing short and ragged.

"I... I'm scared..." Even his final syllable trembled.

"Scared of what? Being the Lord's vessel is a blessing you couldn't earn in eight lifetimes!" The nurse on the right impatiently attached monitoring tubes to his arm and lower abdomen.

Illumi did not resist.

All of his attention was focused on an almost imperceptible aura.

Just moments ago, that aura had descended from the surveillance hole in the corner of the room like an impossibly thin spider's thread. It had precisely adhered to his skin, sensing his breathing, heartbeat, and even the slightest reactions of every muscle.

This was not En.

It was a "thread" refined through countless trials and condensed to the extreme—chilling, bizarre, and carrying malicious scrutiny.

Danger!

The Nen Needles beneath Illumi's skin trembled softly. He curled himself up even tighter, his body huddled like a startled hedgehog.

The nurses merely assumed his stomach was hurting again and cursed, "Again? Why is every vessel in this batch more troublesome than the last?"

Illumi's fingertips began tapping ever so lightly against the cold edge of the bed.

Thump, thump, thump.

A pause.

Thump, thump.

The movement was completely concealed by the trembling of his body.

But at that very moment, the atmosphere in a dilapidated inn outside Sankara Town abruptly froze.

Thud!

The bag of chips in Milluki's hand hit the floor, scattering snacks everywhere.

All color drained from his fat face as he stared fixedly at the barely noticeable movement on the controller screen.

"What is it?" Bai Zhu looked up. "Your brother sent you Morse code?"

Milluki ignored him. His fingers clenched so hard that his knuckles turned white, and even his voice changed pitch.

"Big Brother says... there's a top-tier Nen user inside."

In the corner, Ella's cup shook. Scalding water spilled onto the back of her hand, yet she seemed not to feel the pain at all.

Bai Zhu's brows furrowed as well. "How top-tier?"

"I don't know!" Milluki practically sprang from his chair and lunged at the equipment, his voice shrill. "But that's the highest-level danger signal! He has to withdraw! Immediately!"

He swiftly pulled up the signal sources of the three mechanical spiders, his chubby fingers already reaching for the bright red detonation button.

Just as he was about to press it, a hand shot out like lightning and firmly pinned down his wrist.

It was Bai Zhu.

"What are you doing?!" Milluki whipped his head around furiously, his eyes red.

"Calm down first."

"Is this the time to be calm?!"

"The more panicked you are, the more you need to stay calm." Bai Zhu's voice was flat as ice. "Tell me, can blowing up the spiders kill that top-tier Nen user?"

"No! But it can create chaos!"

"And who will that chaos affect first?" Bai Zhu countered. "Your brother is right under their noses. The moment you set off an explosion here, their first response will be to control 'Ella'! Are you saving him, or rushing him toward his death?"

Milluki's breathing grew heavy, his chest rising and falling violently.

"So we just watch him die?! The mission can fail, but my big brother can't die in that godforsaken place!"

"That's why I'm telling you not to make things worse!" Bai Zhu put a little more force into his grip, pinning Milluki firmly back into his chair. "You're a Zoldyck too. Think about the truly strong members of your family. If your big brother had run into someone on your grandfather's level, would he still be there pretending to be pregnant? He would have fled long ago! The fact that he hasn't run and is still acting—what does that mean?"

"It means he thinks there's room to maneuver! If you flip the table now, you'll block off even that last bit of room he has!"

Those icy words were like a basin of snow water poured over Milluki's head.

Several names flashed through his mind.

Great-grandfather Maha... Grandfather Zeno... Father Silva.

Right. If it were someone on Grandfather's level, Big Brother would have withdrawn immediately. The fact that he was still observing meant the enemy's strength...

"It's... at Father's level, or perhaps a little lower." Milluki finally pulled his hand away from the detonation button and slumped heavily against the back of his chair.

Only then did Bai Zhu let out a breath of relief, but he saw Milluki looking at him suspiciously.

"Were you panicking just now too? You were holding your pen backward."

Bai Zhu looked down. He really was.

He calmly turned the pen around. "Personal habit. Reverse thinking."

"You'd better actually have a plan!" Milluki snorted.

Sitting by the bed, Ella listened to the unfamiliar names and terrifying rankings of strength. At last, she understood what a dreadful vortex she had plunged headlong into.

She looked down at her stomach. After a long while, she asked in a weak voice, "If... the thing in my stomach really is what they want, will I become a monster too?"

Bai Zhu did not comfort her. He merely stated the facts. "I don't know."

"Then... will you kill me?"

"Yes!"

Even Milluki could not stand listening anymore. "Can't you say something nicer?"

"Nice words won't save lives." Bai Zhu pointed at the church's location on the map. "But before I decide that you have to die, I'll do my best to keep you alive."

The answer was cruel, yet it settled Ella's heart somewhat.

Just then, the image on the screen shifted.

The purification room door opened, and the silver-robed bishop walked in with two silent men behind him.

"The Elder wants to see her."

One of the nurses froze. "Now? Her purification isn't complete yet."

"It's the Elder's order."

The two men lifted Illumi off the bed. His body went limp, and he nearly fell to his knees, but his right hand slipped beneath the blanket, fingers packed with Nen Needles.

They led "Ella" out of the purification room and deeper down the corridor.

"Something's wrong. The spider signal on Big Brother is being interfered with!" Milluki immediately began hammering at the keyboard. "The other hidden spider has been affected too. It won't last more than three minutes!"

On the left side of the screen, a structural map of the underground base rapidly took shape.

At the far end stood a heavy stone door with no electronic markings whatsoever.

"They're heading there!" Milluki pointed at the door. "That's the core area, where the old monster lives!"

"Good." Bai Zhu drew a circle around the core area.

"Good my ass! My big brother is being sent into the boss room!" Milluki was nearly losing his mind.

"Only by sending him in can we see what we can't see from here." Bai Zhu's tone was terrifyingly calm. "Besides, the real trump card now isn't him."

His pen circled the inn's location on the map, then he wrote two words.

Ella.

Ella's body trembled.

"Me?"

"Yes." Bai Zhu looked up. "That old monster has his eye on the 'fake Ella,' but he'll soon discover she's an impostor. When that happens, we'll need a real 'perfect vessel' to appear before him."

"You're insane!" Milluki finally understood what he meant. "You're pushing her into a pit of fire!"

"Correction: we're luring the enemy out of the pit of fire." Bai Zhu dropped the pen. "Illumi infiltrates, you create chaos aboveground, and I'll handle..."

"Enough!"

A hoarse yet resolute voice interrupted them.

It was Ella.

She stood up and stared at the women on the screen, each assigned a number and lying in glass compartments like livestock.

She did not look at Bai Zhu or Milluki again. Instead, she gazed directly at the red circle representing the core area.

"If I become the bait, can we save them?"

Bai Zhu put away his frivolous expression. "I can't guarantee we'll save them all."

"What if I don't?"

"If you don't, they'll definitely die. You too."

Ella slowly closed her eyes. When she opened them again, all that remained was hatred, rekindled after everything had been burned away.

"I'll go."

"Madmen. You're all madmen!" Milluki muttered a curse, but he still rummaged through the toolbox, pulled out a small metal box, and tossed it to Bai Zhu.

"Six miniature bee-type demolition scouts. Red detonates them. Don't press it randomly!"

"Don't worry. I know how to hold back."

Bai Zhu slipped the box into his pocket. Just as he pulled open the inn door, Milluki's voice came from behind him, carrying a trace of tremor.

"Bai Zhu!"

"Yeah?"

"Big Brother... went in."

On the screen, the heavy stone door slowly opened before "Ella." Beyond it lay a sticky darkness and an ominous aura so powerful that even the surveillance lens began to distort.

Bai Zhu turned back and grinned, baring a mouthful of white teeth.

"Perfect."

"Then it's about time I went to the church and helped them knock on the door."