Forge a path to success.

Chapter 342 Starry Chessboard, Dark Serpent Staff Rises (3)

"The target's speed has slowed down! Number 5 has stopped her!"

"gogogo!"

"Kill her!"

Riding the strong winds, using vehicles, or employing mutated limbs, the bloodthirsty assassins swarmed out. If someone could look down upon the Third Lineage from ten thousand meters above, they would see a long serpent winding its way through the buildings. At the end of this serpent were the pursuing assassins, in the middle was the Black Death Army like a dark cloud, and only at the very front was a single flash of light—the lightning-fast Ji Huaisu.

Ji Huaisu is currently seriously injured, and the enemy's mental attacks are quite troublesome. She has missed the original signal, which means that Trek has spent more time dealing with another bomb in the battle. She is currently running along the newly revised route, and her speed has been reduced by 20% due to the continuous attacks.

The Black Death Army pursued her relentlessly. These soldiers were extremely cunning, maintaining their distance and harassing her only with mental attacks and arrows. She wanted to turn around and use her Shadow Claws to take care of a group of them, but she was worried about wasting time and dared not make any rash moves.

"Damn it, I, a dignified knight, am being chased around by a bunch of puppets!"

“These puppets are the main force of Floating Light Path Point 5. Your ability to persist until now far exceeds my expectations,” VV said. “No path correction, moving forward at the fastest speed.”

Vande stared wide-eyed at the path ahead; another group of assassins had already reached them from the other side of the crossroads. It shrieked, "Aren't you going to change course?!"

Without a second thought, Ji Huaisu charged forward, not even throwing a single extra fireball. Just before she clashed with the assassins, three armed police cars sped out, smashing through the interceptors in their path. Ji Huaisu seized the opportunity to pass through the checkpoint. She saw the Divine Guard members salute: "Captain Huaisu, please be careful!"

"Thank you very much!" Ji Huaisu smiled. "You contacted the Divine Guard?"

“The Divine Guard had already taken measures, and I provided them with the precise coordinates.”

Ji Huaisu suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "Wait a minute, you can send messages to people other than me now?"

At the Dustless Grounds headquarters, Velvet was personally sending instructions to multiple information terminals. These magical devices, concealed by badges, buttons, pens, and other disguises, were converging on the center of the Third Meridian. Supporters like Councilor Croz began their operations upon receiving the instructions.

“Yes, 5 seconds ago.” Vilbert left the command to discard the terminal and confirmed that the supporters had evacuated before saying, “Now I can help you hack into a communication once, limited to the third pulse sequence only.”

"Okay! Locate the third floor of the Third Team's headquarters and find the man in seclusion in the secret room at the end of the corridor!"

“First of all, this is communication, not telepathy. If the other party doesn’t have the means to communicate, there’s nothing I can do,” VV said. “Secondly, the scan results don’t show any rooms that match your description. In fact, the third team is currently struggling to cope, and there are fewer than 50 team members left at headquarters.”

"What the hell is he doing?! This isn't right!"

Ji Huaisu scratched his head vigorously, searching for anyone else he could ask for help. The Divine Guards were all out of manpower, and their combat strength was severely limited in this situation. The bookstore veterans had gone to volunteer, and their absence meant they were also busy dealing with the mess. The rest were people who could help…

"I've got it! Contact Lico Trek for me!"

She seemed to hear VV's sigh: "You asked me to pinpoint a single name among 340 million people."

"You can do it! Right?" Ji Huaisu asked hopefully.

“I can,” VV said. “Transfer successful. You have 3 seconds.”

Several disguised terminals around the Third Team headquarters were overloaded, transmitting Ji Huaisu's voice to Li Ke's channel: "Fly over! Emergency!"

"I'm fucking busy here too!" Lico shouted. "The Third Lineage is a complete mess, and I'm trying to maintain stability—"

"I'm busy saving your dad!"

"Report your location!!!"

VV reported the coordinates directly, and a second later the exposed terminal was destroyed by the Black Death Army. Ji Huaisu rolled on the spot in a sorry state, dodging the incoming missiles. She was about to miss the next coordinates again when a large number of eagle-faced soldiers landed, completely surrounding her in a fountain square.

A bright red light shone in their eyes, and hundreds of mental energy attacks were about to strike simultaneously in the next instant.

"How about I try one more time?" Vande said, trembling.

A green storm descended from the sky, sweeping the array of black iron soldiers high into the air. Withered branches bursting from the ground transformed into spears that pierced the soldiers' bodies, while bright red fruits formed on the branches, exploding inside the soldiers and tearing them to shreds.

Ji Huaisu had already taken to the air, with huge wings woven from trees extending above her head, and two hands tightly gripping her waist.

“Give me an explanation in three sentences,” Lico said.

·
"So you've come here to find me to be your mount?!" Rico screamed.

Ji Huaisu shouted back, "Yes!"

"Miss Ji, if you need any manual labor, why don't you find your unparalleled boyfriend!"

"If I could get in touch with him, none of this would have happened. Next!"

Lico swooped down, using her branch-like claws to grab her thirteenth target. While capturing him, she paralyzed his senses with synthetic gas, Vande followed up with hypnosis to control his ghostly body, and Ji Huaisu delivered a thunderous punch that completely vaporized him. The three worked together flawlessly, a teamwork that would put even professional kidnapping gangs to shame.

This combination of punches is enough to instantly kill any opponent below Legendary Point 4. In fact, according to VV's assessment, even a Legendary Point 4 without the Unifying Path would probably be instantly killed. Lico wove a wooden sling to trap Ji Huaisu, then turned and glanced at him: "New pursuer, come on!"

Several falcon-masked soldiers flew out of the clouds; these were models specifically designed to absorb Lico's life force. Ji Huaisu swiftly threw three lightning spears, smashing them to pieces, and then five more life auras surrounded them from all directions.

"Change of personnel, it's the Flying Assassins!"

"They're as annoying as flies...!"

Lico suddenly slowed her descent, allowing her pursuers to rapidly close the distance. The assassins' bullets and melee weapons pierced her almost simultaneously, only to find it was nothing more than a piece of withered wood sculpted into a human shape. At the same moment, whip-like thorns pierced their chests; neither elemental beings, mechanical modifications, nor martial artists could stop the thorns from draining their life force. Life draining—Lico's unique technique, instantaneous death upon contact with ordinary life force.

Above, Lico released the five people who had been turned into dried corpses, and Ji Huaisu threw five more lightning arrows, reducing them to ashes. Lico couldn't take it anymore: "Did you really have to grind them to dust?"

"Watching the enemy die without leaving a trace is a basic skill for a detective. Do you know how many times I was tricked by people pretending to be dead when I first started out?" Ji Huaisu said. "There are also those who pretend to surrender and then launch a sneak attack, those who ambush and then betray, those who use their child status to gain sympathy and then..."

Lico rolled her eyes: "Please have mercy on me. We people of Jingsha are honest and simple, we don't have so many strange things to do."

"Your simple and honest city-state of Jingsha is now riddled with bombs! Even my hometown wasn't this badly damaged back then!"

The two bickered but didn't let it interfere with their business; the moment they finished off their pursuers, the fourteenth target was also reduced to ashes. With the addition of new members, the counter-terrorism squad's efficiency improved dramatically. Miss Lico, as a legendary Skywing, possessed speed that was literally unmatched, and her diverse methods and sturdy physique greatly increased the squad's margin for error.

The only drawback is that her moral standards are too high, but this flaw is perfectly compensated for by Ji Huaisu, making the team virtually flawless.

“The progress is ideal. We have 30 seconds left before the next target analysis is completed. We can talk about some personal matters now,” VV said.

“Now?!” Lico exclaimed incredulously.

Van Der was on the verge of collapse: "Do you really have to hold a women's tea party at such a critical moment?!"

"25 seconds." VV continued the cold countdown. "Just out of personal interest, have you ever heard of an assassin named Chu Hengkong?"

Ji Huaisu nearly choked on the wind: "So you do know Ah Kong?! Who are you anyway?!"

"18 seconds. Sounds like you know him."

"I also know him... No one in this city-state knows him better than I do!"

“I disagree,” Vande muttered.

"You're not human."

VV pressed on: "10 seconds. Is he doing well?"

"It's great, isn't it? Fame and fortune, success and invincibility. From any perspective, he's a successful person. It's just that he's always thinking about how he used to live like a widower!"

Lico yelled, "If your boyfriend is a widower, then aren't you a dead man?"

"Xiao Li, please be quiet for now. This topic is not your concern," Vande whispered a reminder.

Another wave of Black Death soldiers arrived and concentrated their fire. Lico made a sharp turn to avoid the gunfire. VV's speech quickened, and this time it didn't count down: "Where is he now?"

"I told you he's in a secret room on the third floor of the Third Team headquarters!"

Ji Huaisu turned and fired continuously, but this time the Black Death Army seemed to have optimized their algorithm again, dodging all the lightning arrows, forcing her to unleash Dustbreaker. "Li Ke, didn't you ask him for help when you came?"

"I can't find him! He's vanished! I can't even find that shabby room where he used to cultivate!!" Lico complained. "How many more targets do we have to find before this ends? A huge wave of life force is surrounding us; I think we're going to crash if this keeps up!"

"3."

"Three more?"

“2.1.” From afar, Velbert pressed the button. “Analysis complete. Main antenna coordinates transmitted. Please proceed to the target location for the first phase as quickly as possible.”

"There's a second phase?!"

The new coordinates in Ji Huaisu's eyes turned into bright red dots, located in the central part of the third vein sequence, also known as the "Unity Grand Theater" of Jingsha Municipal Grand Theater.

Lico groaned loudly, "Tell me this is fake... This place is showing 'Bloody Thorns' today, the national drama of Thorns!"

"So, does that mean we can listen to music while we fight?" Ji Huaisu said.

"She means the theater is packed today!" Van der screamed. "We're trying to find a main antenna that's nowhere to be found in a crowd of nearly 700 people!"

"No need for that. You just need to smash up the Grand Theater," VV said casually.

·
The exterior of the Jingsha Municipal Grand Theatre resembles a combination of a Western church and a sports field. The oval building is entirely painted in seven colors, and its semi-transparent facade is adorned with murals depicting significant events commemorated by the people of Jingsha over the past three thousand years. This grand theatre has thus become a must-see for tourists; even without purchasing opera tickets, a mere glance from the entrance is enough to immerse one in the city's rich cultural heritage.

This immortal cultural treasure has suffered its most devastating destruction in 3000 years: a fiery meteor crashed through the opera house's dome, and the blast from its impact smashed the transparent long wall into brand-new shards of glass.

"The otter editor will eat me alive!" Lico wailed.

"Let Jing Sha rebuild one tomorrow, as long as it looks similar!" Ji Huaisu jumped out of the pit. "Ladies and gentlemen, the performance is suspended. This is an anti-terrorism operation. Everyone please evacuate immediately—"

The theater was completely silent. Not a single audience member showed any displeasure. The audience members obediently stood up, along with the performers on stage.

They uniformly ripped off their masks, revealing the dark, ghostly faces beneath their disguises. All the spectators were Black Iron Soldiers, who simultaneously brandished their cold gun barrels.

A low swearing broke the silence: "Damn it."

(End of this chapter)