Art Is Explosion

"Get Illumi moving."

The moment Bai Zhu spoke, Milluki was already swearing through the earpiece.

"You think I don't want to? The interference underground is getting worse. It's a miracle I can even contact big brother right now!"

Bai Zhu stared at the black stretcher.

Four white-robed deacons carried it step by step from the underground entrance toward the side door.

It was covered by a black cloth.

But the cloth was restless.

It twitched.

Whenever its surface bulged, fine black powder shook loose from its edges. The moment it landed on the snow, it melted tiny pits into it.

Bai Zhu's teeth ached just watching it.

"Milluki, this isn't an ordinary fragment."

"No shit! The readings are off the charts!"

Milluki's keyboard clattered at a terrifying speed. "Black Crystal Powder mixed with postmortem Nen residue. The concentration is far higher than the holy water in the underground surveillance footage. You'd better not let it touch Ella."

"Do I look like I want it to?"

Bai Zhu raised his blade to block a deacon's short sword, then casually kicked the man back into the crowd.

The side door had already descended into complete chaos.

Ella leaned against a doorpost, blood from her palm running down the wood grain.

Her face was pale, and her body swayed several times, yet she stubbornly refused to fall.

More than a dozen believers and guards surrounded her, each shouting more crazily than the last.

"Protect the vessel!"

"Don't let the holy infant bleed!"

"Catch her! Don't hurt her abdomen!"

"Number Fifteen, the Lord is calling you!"

Ella was forced back until her back pressed against the doorpost.

She did not cry for help.

She merely clenched her injured hand, blood dripping through her fingers.

Bai Zhu's scalp tightened as he watched.

This girl really dared to commit to the act.

The problem was, if she overdid it, she might end up actually dying.

As the Black Crystal stretcher drew near, Ella suddenly doubled over and pressed her other hand tightly over her lower abdomen.

She bit her lip, forcing out a muffled groan.

Milluki's voice changed in the earpiece.

"Her heartbeat's rising, and the abdominal reaction is spiking too! Bai Zhu, that thing really locked onto her!"

Bai Zhu's eyelid twitched.

The information gap in this situation had already become a tangled mess.

The people aboveground thought the "Ella" underground was the Number Fifteen vessel.

The elder had sensed through the Black Crystal that the real thing was aboveground.

He and Milluki knew the one underground was Illumi.

Illumi himself was still waiting for a chance to evacuate.

Everyone held different cards.

And these cult lunatics loved jumping to conclusions.

Every additional mistake they made gave Illumi a better chance of getting away.

But Ella could not hold out much longer.

Bai Zhu retreated half a step and glanced toward the main hall.

The chandelier was still hanging.

That Exploding Mosquito was still beneath the choir platform.

The pursuers crowded out through the side door, their path passing right along the edge of the main hall.

His fingers touched the controller.

The silver-robed bishop noticed his movement and immediately roared.

"Stop him! He's going to destroy the holy relic!"

Bai Zhu looked up.

"Why is everything in your line of work a holy relic? Even the fire inspector would have to kneel when he came in?"

The silver-robed bishop ignored the nonsense and swung his silver staff, Nen crashing toward Bai Zhu's shoulder.

Bai Zhu shifted half a step aside and raised the back of his blade to block.

Clang!

His wrist went numb.

Using the force, he slid backward, stopping beside a collapsed wooden beam.

The silver-robed bishop pursued quickly.

But just as the man turned to look at Ella, Bai Zhu pressed the controller.

A red light flashed beneath the choir platform.

Boom!

The explosion was not large.

But its placement was perfect.

The chandelier's chain snapped from the shock, and the enormous iron chandelier above the main hall came plummeting down.

Candles, glass, and iron crashed to the floor all at once.

Sparks erupted.

Burning wax splashed into a ring, neatly cutting off the guards pursuing Ella.

The two fastest believers could not stop in time. Their boots stepped into the flames, and they screamed as they rolled into the snow.

In an instant, an open space had been carved out before the side door.

Ella leaned against the doorpost, her chest heaving violently.

Seeing the line of fire blocking the way before her, she finally had half a second to catch her breath.

Through smoke and shattered glass, Bai Zhu emerged with his Zanpakuto resting on his shoulder.

He crushed a piece of stained glass beneath his foot and waved at the silver-robed bishop.

"Explosion is art."

Milluki fell silent for a moment in the earpiece.

"That was kind of cool."

Bai Zhu immediately followed up. "Want to learn?"

"Shut up."

The silver-robed bishop's face twisted with rage.

"Blasphemer!"

Bai Zhu pointed his blade toward the underground entrance.

"Don't rush. Next up is a special crackdown on illegal obstetrics. Your little workshop is unlicensed, your staff aren't certified, you're practicing medicine illegally, and your fees are outrageous. No one's getting away today."

"Kill him!"

The silver-robed bishop completely lost control.

The guards swarmed Bai Zhu again.

But several others refused to give up and tried to circle around the fireline to seize Ella.

Milluki immediately made his move.

A Mechanical Spider shot out from the snow and skidded along the ground to Ella's feet.

Ella looked down at it and nearly stepped on it.

Milluki's curse came through the earpiece.

"Don't step on it! That's my spider, not a cockroach!"

Ella panted. "Sorry..."

"Sorry my ass! Shift half a step to the left. There's a blind spot behind the doorpost. Don't let your legs go weak, and even if they do, don't kneel. If you kneel, I can't aim properly!"

A thin tube sprang from the Mechanical Spider's abdomen.

Pfft.

A cloud of gray smoke burst out.

Two guards rushing forward began coughing violently. They had barely raised their hands to rub their eyes when the spider fired two tiny flash charges.

Pop! Pop!

The two stumbled back, covering their faces.

Before one of them could regain his footing, a blade on the spider's leg sliced through his bootlace.

He fell straight down beside the fireline, nearly throwing himself into the burning wax.

Milluki was still cursing.

"You can't even walk properly, and you're trying to play bait? Do you know what the most important thing about bait is? Staying alive! Dead bait isn't worth anything!"

Leaning against the doorpost, Ella somehow managed a faint smile as she listened to that string of words.

"I'll stay alive."

"You'd better, or that lunatic Bai Zhu will definitely pin the blame on me!"

Bai Zhu heard that and found time to answer.

"Don't worry, you're already carrying half of it."

"Go to hell!"

The silver-robed bishop had clearly realized that Ella was temporarily protected.

He stopped tangling with Bai Zhu.

He slammed his silver staff into the ground and charged straight toward a gap in the fireline.

"Everyone, break through! Bring Number Fifteen back!"

The smile on Bai Zhu's face faded slightly.

"Hey, get in line."

He flicked his fingers.

"Bakudo #4: Hainawa."

Yellow light wrapped around a section of the fallen chandelier's iron frame.

Bai Zhu gave it a fierce pull.

The entire burning wreckage was dragged two meters, forcibly widening the fireline and blocking the silver-robed bishop directly.

The bishop raised his staff and smashed the iron frame aside, burning holes into his robes.

He endured it without retreating and continued charging toward Ella.

Bai Zhu stomped the ground.

"Hado #1: Sho."

The snow exploded.

The ground beneath the silver-robed bishop was thrown off balance, and he had to drive his silver staff into the earth to steady himself.

Bai Zhu pressed in with the momentum and slashed horizontally.

The silver-robed bishop raised his staff to block, his arm jolting downward from the impact.

Bai Zhu leaned a little closer, his tone thoroughly irritating.

"Don't rush. Get in line and register. Specialist obstetrics appointments are limited today. Queue-jumpers like you get thrown out first."

The silver-robed bishop roared, and the amount of Nen on his silver staff surged.

Bai Zhu immediately retreated.

The next second, the silver staff smashed into the ground, blasting apart snow and stone tiles together.

A shard of stone grazed Bai Zhu's shoulder, making him ache badly enough that he nearly cursed aloud.

This bastard was genuinely desperate.

Desperate was good.

Desperate people made mistakes.

But the Black Crystal gave him no time to keep baiting them.

The four white-robed deacons carrying the stretcher stopped outside the fireline.

One of them drew a short blade, cut open his palm, and smeared the blood across the black cloth.

The black cloth abruptly bulged.

A ring of gray-black Nen waves spread outward.

The ordinary believers around them dropped to their knees like wheat before a scythe.

Some bled from their noses and mouths, yet continued shouting.

"The Lord has descended!"

"The holy infant has responded!"

"Quick, offer up Number Fifteen!"

Ella's body jolted, and she nearly slid down from the doorpost.

Her lower abdomen spasmed violently, her fingers digging into her cloak.

"Urgh..."

The alarms on Milluki's end rang nonstop.

"Bai Zhu! Her data's crashing! Her heartbeat's too fast, and her abdominal readings are abnormal!"

"Give her a stabilizer!"

"I'm giving it!"

The Mechanical Spider crawled up Ella's calf, and a needle pierced the side of her leg.

Ella sucked in a breath from the pain but didn't dodge.

Milluki's voice grew more urgent.

"If this drags on, she won't just get captured—she'll explode into cultist fireworks right here!"

Bai Zhu glanced at the Black Crystal stretcher.

That thing was still throbbing.

Ella's blood had stimulated it.

Bai Zhu tightened his grip on his blade.

Simply stalling for time wasn't enough.

He had to throw the underground into chaos too.

"Milluki, how many people are left in the core area?"

"You finally asked the important question!"

Milluki rapidly reported the numbers. "Two more batches of deacons just came up. More than half the outer perimeter is gone. There are only two guards and three medical staff left near the core ward. The silver-robed bishop is directing people to the surface, but the elder himself hasn't moved."

"Can Illumi get out?"

"If he's willing, the people in the ward can't stop him. The problem is that he needs an evacuation route, and he has to avoid the elder's detection."

"Send the signal."

"I'm sending it!"

Milluki switched the spider's tap code, his fingers pressing so hard they turned white.

"The surface is in chaos. The real Ella has been exposed. The core area is moving people. Get out immediately."

As he listened, Bai Zhu blocked the silver-clad bishop again.

The silver-clad bishop had gone mad, disregarding the cost as he repeatedly smashed down with his silver staff.

"Hand over Number Fifteen!"

"She belongs to the Lord!"

Bai Zhu was forced back two steps, his heel landing on shattered glass.

He suddenly smiled.

"You people are really interesting."

The silver-clad bishop panted heavily.

"What are you laughing at?"

"I'm laughing because you people aren't very smart."

The silver-clad bishop froze, unable to understand what Bai Zhu meant.

Seeing that momentary lapse in the silver-clad bishop's focus, Bai Zhu struck.

"Hado #4: Byakurai."

Lightning blasted from his fingertips.

The silver-clad bishop hurriedly twisted aside, but his shoulder was still grazed, leaving more than half his arm charred black.

Bai Zhu stepped forward and slammed the flat of his blade into the man's chest. Bang!

The silver-clad bishop staggered back and knocked over a guard.

Bai Zhu didn't pursue him.

He turned and charged toward Ella.

Four white-robed deacons had already crossed the line of fire.

They lifted the stretcher forward, and Black Crystal Powder fell onto the burning candle wax. The flames actually weakened.

Milluki cursed.

"This thing can put out fires too? That's cheating!"

Bai Zhu had only charged halfway when three black-robed deacons pounced from the side.

Just as he was about to strike, a scream suddenly came from behind him.

A cultist was grabbed by the collar by the silver-clad bishop and thrown straight toward Ella.

"Use a human wall and force your way through!"

Bai Zhu's expression darkened.

"You cultists don't even treat your own people like people."

The silver-clad bishop stared at him.

"Dying for the Lord is an honor."

"Fine."

Bai Zhu nodded.

"Then I'll help them reject that blessing."

He stepped onto a fallen wooden beam and leapt into the air, slashing a finger through the air.

"Bakudo #4: Hainawa!"

Yellow light wrapped around the thrown cultist, forcibly yanking him aside and sending him crashing into a nearby snowbank.

When Bai Zhu landed, his knee hurt again.

He nearly couldn't hold it together.

This body was still too weak.

He had to grind out some achievements that boosted his physique later, or he'd eventually kill himself with his own ridiculous stunts.

Milluki suddenly lowered his voice through the earpiece.

"I made contact."

Bai Zhu immediately perked up.

"Illumi replied?"

"Not yet, but the tap code got through."

Footsteps sounded from the underground entrance again.

Another group of deacons came up.

There were more people on the surface, but the underground had been emptied out.

Bai Zhu looked at the Black Crystal stretcher, now only a dozen meters from Ella, and let out a breath.

"Illumi, stop pretending to be pregnant."

The underground private ward.

Illumi, wearing Ella's appearance, leaned against the headboard.

A nurse was adjusting the restraints.

The two guards outside had been drawn in by the alarms on the surface and kept looking toward the other end of the corridor.

The Mechanical Spider clung to Illumi's waist, its legs moving rapidly.

[The surface is in chaos.]

[The real Ella has been exposed.]

[The core area is moving people.]

[Get out immediately.]

Illumi slowly raised his eyes.

The nurse was still looking down, checking the instruments.

"Number Fifteen, don't move around. Sanctification Descent will begin soon. You should feel honored to have been chosen by the Lord..."

Crack.

The restraints snapped.

Before the nurse could finish speaking, a Nen Needle had already appeared in her neck.

The other two medical staff had barely turned around when their pupils dilated at the same time.

Hearing the commotion, the guards at the door pushed it open.

"What happened?"

Illumi stood beside the bed, still wearing Ella's face.

Several Nen Needles slid out from between his fingers.

He spoke softly in Ella's voice.

"Received."