Bait

"What benefactor?"

"Are you out of your mind?!" Baili Pangpang glared at Cao Yuan, his eyes full of hostility.

"You fat bastard, looking for a fight?!"

"You lousy monk, I'll fucking..."

"Stop, stop, stop!" Lin Qiye stepped between them with a wry smile. "Mask is almost here. No infighting!"

"Fat bastard!"

"Lousy monk!"

The two glared at each other, then turned away, still cursing.

"Let's go!" Lin Qiye glanced back at Cao Yuan. "By the way, how good are you in a fight?"

Cao Yuan hugged his saber. "I'm very strong, but if I draw my saber, I'll go berserk. I won't distinguish friend from foe."

Lin Qiye stared at him in bewilderment, then slowly said, "You know that, and you still want to come with me?"

"If it's your order, I'll obey unconditionally!" Cao Yuan looked like a lapdog, an invisible tail wagging furiously behind him.

"Then what's your Forbidden Ruins?"

"Sequence 031, [Black King Annihilation]!"

"That's ranked way higher than Mr. Swagger's and Molly's!" Shock filled Lin Qiye's eyes. He had never imagined that the last ultra-high-risk Forbidden Ruins he had been searching for was right in front of him.

From his time studying with the 136 Squad, Lin Qiye remembered that the first thirty Forbidden Ruins in the sequence were called divine domains, meaning that the vast majority of those thirty belonged to deities.

That made [Black King Annihilation] the strongest power beneath the gods in the truest sense.

A walking weapon of mass destruction!

The corners of Lin Qiye's mouth lifted. "You don't need to act as bait with me. Wait for my signal before joining the fight."

"All right!" Cao Yuan agreed without asking why.

"Get some rest and conserve your strength!" After leaving him with that reminder, Lin Qiye returned to the ground floor.

Shen Qingzhu and Molly had already been waiting at the dormitory entrance for some time. Together with Lin Qiye, the three formed the bait team, tasked with diverting the Mask Squad's attention.

Outside the dormitories, the setting sun sank low, staining the distant sky red.

The three dormitory buildings stood in a triangular formation. Shafts of light streamed through the gap between the two front buildings and fell on Lin Qiye and his companions. From a distance, they seemed draped in red gauze.

Lin Qiye gazed at the blood-red horizon and unconsciously touched his pocket, which held a Forbidden Item called the [Scroll of Sealing].

According to the information Baili Pangpang had provided, this Forbidden Item was meant to counter the saber in Wang Mian's hand. Getting close to Wang Mian, however, would be extremely difficult.

Gradually, five figures appeared on the horizon, their gray cloaks snapping in the wind.

"Just the three of you?" Wang Mian looked at Lin Qiye from afar and asked evenly.

"Of course!"

"The three of us are enough!" Lin Qiye nodded, brimming with confidence.

"Interesting!"

"You sound just like that guy!"

"No wonder you're his apprentice!" Wang Mian teased. He truly saw a trace of Wang Quan in Lin Qiye, though this boy's meticulous nature lacked some of that wild arrogance.

"I'm not that damned white-haired guy's apprentice!" Lin Qiye emphasized.

"Captain, enough talking. Let's get started!" Rose was impatient. Before she even finished speaking, she charged.

In the blink of an eye, a pink hammer four stories tall blotted out the sunset. It bore down with the weight of a mountain, whipping up fierce gusts in its wake.

The next moment, something astonishing happened. An invisible wall stopped the massive hammer ten meters from Lin Qiye and his companions.

"It's [Air Barrier]!" Tian Ping warned his teammates as he drew his saber and advanced from the flank.

"The game's finally ending! I'm starving!" The chatterbox Vortex advanced from the right.

Moon Ghost dissolved into invisible moonlight, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Wang Mian rested one hand on his saber's hilt, showing no intention of attacking.

Lin Qiye and Molly took the left and right respectively, each raising a saber to meet the enemy.

The battle was about to erupt!

Seeing his teammates move, Shen Qingzhu reached toward Rose and clenched his hand. At the same time, he dispelled the air wall, allowing the massive hammer to fall.

At that instant, he tossed out his lighter.

Beneath the blood-red sky, the flickering flame suddenly flared. A thunderous explosion shook the surrounding buildings.

The massive hammer in Rose's hand shattered inch by inch, and both she and Shen Qingzhu were hurled backward.

Shen Qingzhu flew through the shadows below the buildings and landed in the open space between the three dormitories. He spat out a mouthful of blood, sprang to his feet with a kip-up, and brushed off his half-scorched uniform. His piercing gaze cut through the curtains of dust.

Facing the sunset, he raised his middle finger at the somewhat disheveled Rose and sneered, "The Mask Squad? Nothing special!"

"You lunatic! You blew yourself up too!" Furious, Rose conjured another massive hammer in one hand and charged straight at Shen Qingzhu.

At the sight, Lin Qiye and Molly couldn't help smiling.

They hadn't known him long, but when it came to infuriating people, no one beat Mr. Swagger. Any normal person facing him would explode with anger.

That was right!

They were provoking the enemy, and making it painfully obvious, too.

But against a renowned Special Squad, the simpler and more direct the tactic, the better it worked.

After all, they had their pride.

"Rose, it's a trap!" Tian Ping shouted, but it was already too late.

"I'm going to beat this little bastard to a pulp!" Rose didn't care about any of that. All she wanted was to thrash Shen Qingzhu.

Once Rose stepped into the open space between the three dormitory buildings, the ground behind her began to shake violently.

Walls rose from the earth, some made of stone, some of vines, some of compacted soil...

Those walls completely sealed the formation's only opening.

The plan was to shut the door and beat the trapped enemy. Which member of Mask they caught no longer mattered.

The next second, countless gun barrels and cannon muzzles emerged from the dormitory buildings, unleashing bullets, grenades, rockets...

An endless hail of ammunition engulfed Rose. The smell of gunpowder was like an airtight wall, suffocating her.

"Captain, if you don't..." Tian Ping looked frantic, but before he could finish, he froze in place.

It wasn't just Tian Ping. Vortex and Lin Qiye froze too.

From a distance, Wang Mian moved like a phantom. Wherever he passed, everything fell still.

This was the power of time.

In the span of a single breath, Wang Mian stood beside Rose. Looking at the oncoming hail of ammunition, he drew his saber.

Clang-!

The black saber slid an inch out of its sheath, becoming the world's pause button.

Everything around him except Wang Mian slowed to a near standstill.

Then the black saber came fully free. Rings of invisible ripples spread outward, and the blade suddenly shone, its radiance eclipsing the sun behind him.

Wang Mian swung in an instant. Countless streaks of saber light wove into a vast net, likewise suspended around him.

Click-!

With a crisp ring, the black saber returned to its sheath.

The world's play button was pressed, and noise erupted once more.

With Wang Mian at their center, slash after slash sliced the three dormitory buildings into countless fragments in an instant.

Even more astonishingly, the saber light destroyed only the dormitory buildings, without hurting a single person.

Rumble-!!!

The dormitories collapsed. Billowing dust swallowed everything, and startled cries rang out one after another.

"Holy fuck!"

"Is he even fucking human?!"

"Cheating! He's cheating!"

"Fucking monster!"

Shen Qingzhu swore loudly, thrust an arm out of the rubble, and finally clambered to his feet, covered in dust.

"You're pretty cocky, kid!"

Wang Mian spoke quietly, his tone unruffled.