Bai Zhu raised a hand and scratched his hair.
"This Landlord is pretty good at business."
"You just called him your dear father," Ging reminded him from the side.
"Even dear fathers have to follow contracts."
"You have a contract?"
"No. That's why I said he's good at business."
Piyu walked over from behind and glanced at him.
"Can you still walk?"
Bai Zhu immediately straightened up.
"I'm in excellent condition right now. Forget walking—I could run two kilometers without a problem."
He took two steps, his knees gave out, and he nearly dropped to his knees again.
Ging reached out and caught him by the collar.
"Go ahead. Run one."
"The ground wasn't level just now."
"This is a slope."
"Then the gradient is unreasonable."
Piyu stopped listening to his nonsense. She grabbed Bai Zhu's other arm, and together with Ging, dragged him out of the ruins.
The Association's rescue ship was docked on the sea.
Morel stood at the edge of the deck, his pipe already replaced with a new one. Smoke Soldiers were carrying the wounded out of the sea. Gela Jiang crouched by the breach in the Port District, both hands pressing against the water as he guided the polluted seawater layer by layer toward the open sea.
On the distant streets, infected people lay sprawled everywhere.
The golden particles in their bodies had lost their activity and slowly fell out from beneath their skin. Some were still alive, but more had already stopped moving, leaving behind only clothes soaked in muddy water.
The Black Gold monster in the harbor had stopped as well.
Its enormous body had split open around the chest and abdomen. There was no flesh or blood inside, only a pile of dull golden particles. The particles scattered across the ground and