Family Man Boss Milluki

Accompanied by a dull boom, frozen earth, wooden beams, rubble, and snow came crashing down, completely sealing off the bottomless passage. The front half of a black truck was crushed out of shape, its wheels spinning uselessly in midair.

All the gray-robed attendants panicked.

"The mine tunnel collapsed!"

"The support beams broke! Who did this?"

"Contact the bishop!"

"The communicators aren't responding!"

Amid the chaos, Milluki's cold laugh came through Bai Zhu's earpiece.

"Without a way out, they really can't escape now."

Bai Zhu had no time to ask how many contingencies that fat man had set up.

Because the woman in white had stopped.

The seven Black Crystal Needle Tubes hovering behind her turned toward the mine tunnel ruins at once. She took two steps in that direction, as if assessing the damage.

The opportunity had arrived.

Bai Zhu lowered his body, braced with his left foot, and forcibly pulled his shoe free from the fine Black Crystal spikes.

"Crack."

The spikes snapped, leaving a gash in his sole. Cold seeped up through the bottom of his foot. The thing had merely grazed his flesh, yet it felt as though a corner of his Reiatsu had been gnawed away.

Bai Zhu clenched his teeth.

This thing was truly nasty.

Milluki pressed, "Did it hit you?"

"Just grazed me."

"Can you still run?"

Bai Zhu did not answer.

He flexed his ankle, and his enhanced body suppressed the pain. His Reiatsu had not recovered much, but it was enough to hold on a little longer.

The woman in white was still focused on the mine tunnel.

Bai Zhu stepped into the snow and activated Shunpo, skimming across the ground toward the bus.

Wind howled past his ears.

A gray-robed attendant spotted him and had barely raised his gun when Bai Zhu was already in front of him.

The flat of Bai Zhu's blade struck his wrist.

Bone snapped, and the pistol fell into the snow.

Bai Zhu drove an elbow into his chest, knocking him flying. Another attendant lunged from the bus entrance, but the moment he showed his head, the sword hilt hooked beneath his chin and sent him crashing backward.

He stepped onto the bus stairs and grabbed Number Nineteen's arm.

"Don't scream. Come with me."

Number Nineteen flinched, still clutching a medical kit in her arms.

"Who are you?"

"Ella sent me."

"Ella? Where is she?"

Bai Zhu paused for half a beat.

"She's still alive."

Number Nineteen's eyes instantly reddened, her fingers tightening around the edge of the medical kit.

Bai Zhu bent down, picked her up, and prepared to leave.

Several pregnant women were still tied to their seats in the rear of the bus. Some had just begun to shake off the drugs, and the cloth gags had slipped to their chins as they struggled to raise their heads.

"Save... save us..."

Bai Zhu's steps halted.

Milluki cursed anxiously through the earpiece.

"Don't stop! You can't take them all! That woman's about to turn around!"

Bai Zhu did not move.

Milluki spoke even faster. "Number Nineteen is connected to Ella. She's only valuable if she survives! If you stay on that bus, everyone dies!"

Number Nineteen also clutched Bai Zhu's clothes, crying too hard to form a complete sentence.

"They... they're awake..."

Bai Zhu looked down the aisle. A pair of medical scissors had fallen beside a seat.

He nudged them with his foot, sending them sliding to the feet of a pregnant woman who had already freed one hand.

"Those who can move, cut yourselves free."

With that, he carried Number Nineteen and rushed off the bus.

The instant he landed, that numbingly cold gaze locked onto him from behind.

The woman in white had already turned around.

Standing in the snow, she wore a strange pause on her face, like a broken mechanism whose gears had reconnected.

She did not approach.

She merely raised a hand.

The seven Black Crystal Needle Tubes crossed the snowfield and shot straight into the bus.

Bai Zhu's pupils contracted. Carrying Number Nineteen, he turned and ran, but the Needle Tubes had never been aiming at him.

Thud.

Thud, thud, thud.

Several impacts of flesh being pierced rang out in succession.

The faint cries from inside the bus vanished.

"No!"

Number Nineteen struggled in Bai Zhu's arms, her scream tearing through the wind and snow.

Bai Zhu stopped.

Inside the bus, the pregnant women who had been crying for help moments ago had their necks pierced by Black Crystal Needle Tubes. Their bodies rapidly withered, skin tightening around bone. The woman who had gotten the medical scissors still had her hand raised in the air when the scissors dropped, striking the floor with a soft clink.

Every trace of laziness faded from Bai Zhu's face.

He turned around.

The woman in white withdrew the Needle Tubes, their tips wrapped in a faint black glow.

She spoke in a flat tone that sounded inhuman.

"Uncontrolled materials cannot be recovered."

Bai Zhu laughed.

It was very brief.

Number Nineteen clutched his clothes, trembling all over.

"Don't look."

Bai Zhu pressed her head against his shoulder.

His rage rose into his throat, burning away any extra words he might have said.

Rush over and cut her to death?

That thought had circled through his mind more than once.

But Number Nineteen was still in his arms. Ella was still underground. Illumi was underground too. This was not a place where he could indulge himself.

Bai Zhu bit down on his back teeth and forced down that killing intent.

"Fatty, route."

Milluki fell silent for half a second before replying.

"The old water channel, westward! I'll pick you up!"

"How long?"

"Just keep running until you see the headlights!"

The woman in white raised her hand.

This time, all seven Black Crystal Needle Tubes aimed at Bai Zhu.

Bai Zhu lowered his head and said to Number Nineteen, "Hold tight."

The next second, he pushed off with his feet, activated Shunpo at full force, and charged toward the old water channel with her in his arms.

The Needle Tubes pursued him.

The first drilled along the snow's surface. Bai Zhu stepped diagonally aside, his sole carving a deep mark through the snow as he narrowly avoided it.

The second dropped from overhead, stabbing straight at Number Nineteen's abdomen.

Bai Zhu drew his blade upward, and its flat collided with the Needle Tube.

Clang!

His tiger's mouth went numb as the Needle Tube was knocked aside.

The third circled behind him. Bai Zhu did not look back, relying only on the sound of air splitting to judge its direction. He used a short Shunpo to shift half a meter sideways. The Needle Tube grazed his lower back and plunged into the snow, black crystal veins immediately spreading across the ground.

Bai Zhu raised his foot and crushed them.

Blade, Needle Tubes, snow, and ragged breaths tangled together.

With Number Nineteen in his arms, his room to swing his blade was severely restricted. He could only rely on Shunpo and his body's reactions to evade by force. Every step brushed against death.

"Are you done yet?"

Gritting his teeth, he activated Shunpo again. His figure flickered briefly by the snowy channel, opening a gap of more than twenty meters before he flipped down into the dry watercourse.

Milluki shouted through the earpiece, "Forward! Keep going!"

Bai Zhu looked up and saw broken logs and a steep slope piled at the end of the channel, blocking the way.

"You call this forward?"

"Quit yapping, I'm on my way!"

The woman in white had already caught up above the watercourse.

Barefoot, she stood at the edge of the channel and looked down at Bai Zhu and Number Nineteen. The seven Needle Tubes spread apart, sealing every angle.

Bai Zhu held Number Nineteen tighter, his back pressed against the channel wall.

Number Nineteen's voice trembled. "Are we going to die?"

Bai Zhu stared at the Needle Tubes overhead and replied softly, "I value my life. I'm not dying that easily."

The Needle Tubes descended at once.

Just as their tips closed in, the snow slope to the left of the channel was smashed through by a car's front end.

The engine roared like a beast.

A fully black modified vehicle burst out from behind the snow slope, an exaggerated metal skull welded to its front, and rammed straight into the formation of Needle Tubes.

Bang!

Bang, bang!

Three Black Crystal Needle Tubes were sent flying by the vehicle's front end and buried in the frozen earth on either side of the watercourse. Their bodies bent as black light flickered wildly.

The driver's window rolled down.

Milluki had a potato chip between his lips, both hands gripping the control sticks, his fat face full of irritation.

"Get in!"

The vehicle swung its rear around, and the back door automatically sprang open, stopping directly in front of Bai Zhu.

Bai Zhu did not waste a word. Carrying Number Nineteen, he dove into the vehicle.

The door shut, and the modified vehicle turned around at the same time, its tires gouging up huge sprays of snow and mud.

Above the watercourse, the woman in white raised her hand.

The Needle Tubes that had been knocked away flew back before her. The seven Black Crystal Needle Tubes fused together, melted, and reformed. Layer upon layer of black light compressed until they finally condensed into a longer, thicker Black Crystal Spear.

Sitting in the vehicle, Bai Zhu saw it take shape through the rear window, and his eyelid twitched.

"Fatty."

"What?"

"Is this vehicle bulletproof?"

Milluki looked at the rear-view screen, the flesh on his face twitching.

"Bulletproof."

Bai Zhu had just let out half a sigh of relief.

Then Milluki added, "But it might not be spearproof."

Bai Zhu looked down at Number Nineteen in his arms, then at the Black Crystal Spear behind them.

"Then what are you waiting for?"

Milluki stomped on the accelerator, and the modified vehicle shot out of the watercourse.

"Hold on!"