In the darkness, Huai Shi once again felt a terrible chill numbing his forehead—it was the same horrifying premonition that had emerged countless times in his nightmares, a skill formed from experiencing death over and over again—'Death Perception' was triggered!
Without time to think, he violently threw himself to the ground, rolling frantically as memories of the Raven's words and a mix of bitter and painful recollections surfaced in his mind. Then, a warm surge flowed through his right hand, and a handful of Apocalypse Ash was refined from the negative memories.
Amidst the thunderous noise of the ground breaking behind him, he held his breath and flung it out.
There was a moment of silence.
The next second, he heard the Ferocious Ape's piercing scream.
"Damn it... the light"
Liu Dongli shouted, "Light! Light! Light light!"
"Pfft!"
Despite the crisis, Huai Shi couldn't help but laugh: Sorry, didn't expect you to be a damn Intel...
Not daring to linger, he pulled out Liu Dongli's cell phone from his bag and tossed it over with the flashlight turned on:
"Catch!"
Smack!
The phone shattered in mid-air, and the Ferocious Ape's grim face flashed and disappeared in the swirling light. It seemed to have realized what Liu Dongli's power was all about and wouldn't let any light escape.
Huai Shi didn't stop; he threw his own nearly retired smartphone as well: "Catch this one too!"
Smack!
The phone was crushed in mid-air once again.
Well, now both of them were without phones.
"Damn, can't you throw slower?" Liu Dongli was infuriated, as the first phone was crushed, and yet he threw a second one.
"You could've moved faster though!"
"Do you want it faster or slower?"
Huai Shi was angry too. Amidst the embarrassing flight, he constantly pulled out bottles and jars from Liu Dongli's bag: "Hand cream, catch!"
Smack!
It was crushed.
Then a gunshot rang out, the muzzle flash was fleeting, but it was unclear if it hit that strange monkey. Anyway, Huai Shi felt something brush past his heel, scaring him nearly to collapse.
"Could you aim better!"
"Shut up!"
Liu Dongli yelled impatiently.
"Then do you still want your stuff or not?" Huai Shi, annoyed, threw another bottle: "Eye cream, catch!"
Smack!
"Sunglasses and keys, catch!"
Amidst the tense and fierce struggle between Liu Dongli and the damned ape, Huai Shi kept throwing things over, and the air was filled with sounds of Liu Dongli's heartbreakingly shattering belongings.
By the end, the bag was almost empty, and Huai Shi simply threw everything over at once.
"God's Water, eye cream, face cream, serum, and what's this..." Huai Shi glanced at it, "Oh, a makeup mirror! Catch!"
This mess of things was so chaotic that even the Ferocious Ape couldn't be bothered to deal with it.
But it never expected that Liu Dongli would throw caution to the wind and lunge out, grabbing his makeup mirror from midair, even disregarding the Ferocious Ape right in front of him.
In an instant, as he caught it, Liu Dongli revealed a cold smirk in the dim light to the ghostly monkey:
"——Behold my peak beauty era!"
The next moment, light burst forth from his hand.
It didn't expect that Huai Shi and the others were just waiting here——that flamboyant Liu Dongli even had an LED light on his makeup mirror!
And it was a 360-degree dead angle-free soft light LED ring lamp, no less!
In the light that flared up instantly, the Ferocious Ape's sharp iron claws were only inches away from Liu Dongli's face when, in that split second, their movement came to an abrupt halt.
For a time, he couldn't care about others, and even Huai Shi was caught off guard, accidentally catching sight of his face.
Immediately thereafter, it was as if frozen in place, unable to move.
It began to cry out frantically.
Liu Dongli, even in his fall, couldn't be bothered to adjust his posture and lifted his gun to fire wildly. He shot the last two bullets but failed to see any blood spray.
Not until he fell clumsily, nearly landing face-first, did he scramble to his feet in a panic.
Right after, he heard the Ferocious Ape's sharp shriek as its iron claws were suddenly raised, reaching toward its own eyes. With a muffled thud, thick blood spurted from behind the mask's holes.
This time, it would no longer see Liu Dongli's face.
The arm swung violently, tearing open a gash on Huai Shi's arm. Had Liu Dongli's ability not retreated quickly, his neck might have been snapped.
Huai Shi turned white from fear.
"Damn it, brother, does your ability even work?!"
Liu Dongli also became mournfully indignant: "I can't help it if I'm losing hair!"
So your peak beauty era relies on your hair?!
The two of them rolled and crawled to the side, not daring to breathe heavily, striving for silence, making no sound whatsoever.
In the silence, only the Ferocious Ape with bleeding eyes wandered relentlessly around, furiously tearing apart anything that made a sound.
Until Huai Shi heard a sigh of resignation.
As the wild winds swept through, the dark clouds shattered, and cleansing moonlight illuminated the dead streets.
In the middle of the street, Ai Qing in black on a wheelchair was looking at them, shaking her head disapprovingly, and slowly wheeling forward.
In the quiet, only the faint sound of the wheelchair could be heard.
The crazed Ferocious Ape shrieked, abruptly turned its head, its hollow eyes fixed on the direction of the sound, and lunged!
Ai Qing shook her head with some impatience, sighed, and took out a gun from the side of the wheelchair, one which Huai Shi couldn't even tell the model of... and expertly disengaged the safety.
Aimed ahead, she pulled the trigger.
In that instant, Huai Shi only saw a stream of fiery light burst from the barrel, and amidst the sharp and piercing sound, the Ferocious Ape froze in midair, spastically twitching like a broken plastic bag caught in the wind, before falling to the ground, spasming and screaming in pain.
After a full magazine of bullets, Ai Qing indifferently tossed the empty magazine aside, with only the crisp sound of the casings hitting the ground.
Is it over now?
Just as Huai Shi stared dumbfounded, the tattered monkey on the ground suddenly rose again and dashed to the side.
He wanted to escape!
Ai Qing couldn't even be bothered to care.
Then, faint red spots began to emerge from the body of the Ferocious Ape.
Bang!
An instant later, a loud explosion erupted from the distance.
A continuous barrage of booms.
The Ferocious Ape seemed to have been struck by lightning; one of its legs suddenly burst into a cloud of blood mist, followed by a large hole appearing in its chest that was torn open from the back, its organs spilling out like mud.
Several large holes appeared on the ground, as if they were indentations hammered out in an instant.
Under the aim of those from afar, the monster instantly turned into a rag doll. Incredibly, it was still alive.
It struggled desperately, using its hands and remaining left leg to pull itself up and started crawling outward frantically, moving at an unbelievable speed.
In the end, it almost seemed to float as it flew close to the ground!
In a blink, it disappeared into the darkness amid the constant shooting.
It was only now that Liu Dongli finally let out a sigh of relief, plopping down on the ground. He pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and took several deep drags before he could catch his breath.
If it hadn't been for Ai Qing arriving quickly, he would have almost died here just now.
"But, when did you call for backup? You arrived so fast…"
"Guess?"
Ai Qing did not give a straightforward answer, but looked at him with the usual look reserved for an idiot, which caused Liu Dongli to sigh in resignation.
Fine, it seemed there was no need to call.
He might as well have been under 24-hour surveillance these past few days… This woman truly had no humanity.
"I had thought you could handle it on your own, but it turns out you're completely useless once the lights go out."
Without mincing words, she mocked him before asking, "Found anything?"
"I'm not sure about his Soul Ability, but I think I've seen his Stigma on the Professor's genealogy chart..." Liu Dongli scratched his head, considering, "Probably a Nue, right?"
He thought a bit more and became more certain: "A Third Stage·Ether Level Stigma—the Nue."
The Nue, a monster of legend.
It is said to have a face like a monkey, body like a tanuki, limbs of a tiger, and a tail of a snake; without wings, yet it can fly.
"Looks like it just entered the Ether Level; it can't fly high or else I'd have been done for today."
Liu Dongli wiped the cold sweat from his face and gasped, "Damn, I, who just entered the 'Gold' level, fought with an 'Ether' level, who's one step ahead of me, for so long and still manage to survive; that was way too close.
Where the hell did an Ether Level Sublimator come from all of a sudden? I thought the Professor was the only one at the Ether Level in Xinhai."
"Now that even Ether Level Sublimators have appeared, this time those guys have really screwed up big time…" Ai Qing gloated, glancing in the distance, tapping on the armrest of her wheelchair: "At least things aren't too bad; your efforts have value, and when necessary, there are quite a few people you can throw under the bus."
"..."
Liu Dongli fell silent, looking at her beautiful profile, feeling a chill in his heart.
Being stuck with such a nasty prosecutor, one could only say that life was hopeless.
After a short ponder, Ai Qing looked up and asked, "Anything else?"
"Hmm? It's gone."
Liu Dongli was stunned for a moment, frantically shaking his head.
"Then let's continue with the operation. If I get any clues, I'll notify you immediately,"
She gave Liu Dongli one last look, her gaze sweeping over Huai Shi, but she didn't say anything more and turned her wheelchair to leave.
After a long silence, Huai Shi finally reacted.
"Does she not like me very much?"
Liu Dongli rolled his eyes, "I have never seen her like anyone, okay? But you probably offended her badly last time, so just pray for good luck."
He patted the young man's shoulder forcefully but couldn't help feeling a sense of heaviness in his heart.
That was the only thing he had just concealed—at the moment the streetlights went out, he sensed a faint source fluctuation behind him.
—This kid... might have the potential to sublimate.
.
.
In the secret room, 'Master' saw the blurred mess of flesh that was Ferocious Ape and stood frozen in place.
"What happened!"
"It's a setup... a setup orchestrated by the Astronomical Society!" screamed Ferocious Ape in anger, "That little brat has a Sublimator for a bodyguard! And a sniper!"
Master was frozen in shock.
"What are you still standing there for!"
Ferocious Ape, enduring the pain, tore off the mask to reveal an old, contorted face full of malice, "I can't hold on much longer, give me the Source Substance, now!"
Master subconsciously covered the box, "But, but... there's not much Source Substance left."
"Don't you still have so many old ghosts you can extract from?!" Ferocious Ape got up from the bed, propping himself up on one leg and advancing step by step, "Give it all to me! I'm in this mess because I was cleaning up after you!"
Master subconsciously took out the box, which was snatched away in one grab.
It opened the box eagerly, gazing at the layer of clear and transparent liquid inside, like mist, then plunged its face into the box and began sucking greedily.
Soon, the sound of sharp friction began to emerge, the noise of bones and flesh proliferating like the clashing of steel, as new organs and limbs grew out from the mutilated shell.
After all the limbs had grown back, Master couldn't wait to snatch back the box, looking at the bottom where a significant amount of Source Substance had been depleted, his face turning pale with distress.
"Got any 'dust' for me? Give me some too?" Ferocious Ape wiped its face and fished out a packet of powder from its pocket, inhaling it through its nostrils. After a shiver, its complexion looked much better. It stumbled backwards a few steps and sat down on the bed.
"You are the Person in charge anointed by the Lord, what do you plan to do next?"
Master was silent, subconsciously gnawing at his finger as if contemplating something.
After a while, a fierce expression flashed across his face.
"Now that we've caught the attention of the Astronomical Society, Xinhai can't stay here much longer."
He opened his mouth and, looking at his finger chewed raw and bloody, said hoarsely, "After we complete the last mass tomorrow night, we'll change locations and leave overnight... With six months until the New Year, if we work hard to gather enough Source Substance, the Lords won't blame us..."
"What about the mission?" Ferocious Ape asked, "What about the task in that quarantine zone?"
Master shuddered.
Without speaking.