Forge a path to success.

Chapter 383: Rapid Chase
A deafening roar, gunfire, collisions, explosions—all the noises were extinguished in a single, resounding boom. The luxury car slid out of the smoke, tearing through the night, and charged forward, accompanied by numerous searchlights.

The city of Jingsha was ablaze with lights at night. All the city's public water screens activated simultaneously, displaying large maps showing the terrorists' movements. The top news anchors chattered incessantly like parrots: "The conflict has spread to the western border of the Third Order. Concerned citizens in the affected areas, please be prepared. All air ducts have been sealed off; the terrorists have nowhere to go!"

Motorcycles ignited, cars sped off, and hunters rode atop roaring beasts. Mercenaries and assassins nearby swarmed out, while Independent Guards members pursued the luxury car in four-feathered aircraft.

The car, its high beams blazing, sped recklessly, as if afraid the enemy wouldn't see it. Several assassins had piled up barricades made of special metal in front of the road, but the luxury car didn't slow down at all. It smashed through the barricades like it was piercing a sheet of paper, sending the assassins flying and screaming in the night sky!

"What a nice car." Chu Hengkong honked the horn with satisfaction. "One of the reasons I like taking your orders is that I get to enjoy a different kind of nice car every time I go out."

Vilbert, engrossed in operating the information terminal, sighed upon hearing this: "I admire your good mood, but we are wanted by the entire city."

Chu Hengkong whistled loudly: "Isn't it cool, Violet? My childhood dream has finally come true!"

"This is the first time I've ever heard of someone dreaming of being wanted across the United States."

"Every man has a dream of racing through a hail of bullets!"

"You really should watch less Japanese anime."

He suddenly slammed on the brakes and swerved, the Cadillac drifting perfectly through the U-turn. The pursuers, unable to react in time, veered off the road and plunged into a ravine. The explosion illuminated the license plate of the departing car.

Several armored vehicles behind them immediately stopped, and the grenadiers took advantage of the luxury car's slowing down to hoist their crossbows. The Divine Guard's standard Level 4 weapon, "Deep Green Impact," possessed enough destructive power to raze a city to the ground.

The dark green crossbow bolt struck the rear of the luxury car but failed to penetrate. It bounced off! It ricocheted back in an illogical direction!
The grenadiers were deathly pale; the armored vehicles had been blasted to ashes. The divine power of the Tree of Love saved these dying fools, who roared into the communications channel, "We can't penetrate the enemy's armor! What kind of vehicles are those?!"

“There’s no such vehicle in the database. They might have used the newly developed vector transfer armor from the Dustless Grounds…” the scholar in the back stammered. “But that’s technology developed for fleet motherships! To miniaturize it for a vehicle is… a pure waste of resources. If such a vehicle really existed, its manufacturing cost would be enough to arm a small fleet.”

"Why the hell would they build something like this?" the team member cursed angrily. "Weren't the people on Fuguang Road supposed to be the most rational?! Where's their rationality?!"

Vilbert, feeling a bit dizzy from the impact, said irritably, "It's too bumpy."

"Sorry, sorry, it's been a while since I've driven, I'm a bit rusty." Chu Hengkong chuckled sheepishly, like a real driver. "I need to get back into the swing of things. Do you have any of my old songs?"

“I don’t have the time to restore your old CDs exactly as they were.” Wilbert gestured. “But the car has Bluetooth.”

"Boss, you're so thoughtful. I knew you loved me."

Vilbert turned her gaze to the side: "The tone you used when you were 15 was so stupid. Even if you've mentally degenerated, please don't use that kind of thing."

Chu Hengkong ignored him and pulled out his old phone to connect to the car's Bluetooth. The phone signal immediately matched, and even the name was exactly the same as before. During this time, he didn't look at the direction at all, only occasionally fiddling with the steering wheel. A motorcyclist almost seized the opportunity to launch a surprise attack, but was slashed in the air by a sharp blade, his blood drawing a long red line outside the car window.

"Done!" Chu Hengkong put down his phone with satisfaction. "Let's move on to Initial D."

"I've completely given up on changing your taste in music."

"You should listen to this while driving."

He pressed play, and the piano accompaniment, accompanied by a soft female voice, began, the tight rhythm quickly drawing the audience into the atmosphere.

The melody drifted into the night, still clearly audible amidst the explosions, and the pursuers saw the same astonishment in each other's eyes. This assassin was even playing it out loud, as if this city-wide manhunt was nothing more than a game to him.

“Stay, Forever my game is good to play
(Stay, my gaming skills have always been pretty good.)
An incredible story if you stay
(You can witness incredible stories if you choose to stay.)
I need you today, My heart is on fire
(I need you today, my heart is pounding like fire)
Please don't leave this way!

(Please don't leave like this!)

They could even hear the killer singing along, and that bastard was actually getting hyped up, as happy as a child on his first school trip!
"Hey Violet, let's sing together!" he laughed heartily. "What a wonderful night, the whole city of Thornsa is racing with us!"

Violet sighed, "Look ahead..."

The roar of propellers drew closer, and a massive, cold silhouette emerged in the night. It was a cube covered in rough tree bark, nearly the size of a building. Dozens of aircraft, carrying it, waited ahead of the road, a deep thumping sound emanating from within the cube.

"Level 5 War Plant Sap Bomb, a devastating weapon used to bomb Imperial bases. The first team is getting serious."

"Can our good car withstand this?"

"It will likely suffer considerable damage."

"OK, OK, let me think of something..."

Chu Hengkong casually opened the storage box and felt a smooth, round object. He smiled with satisfaction: "You really do understand me. Directions."

“3 kilometers in the 10 o’clock direction, a no-man’s land with no signs of life.”

He rolled down the car window and tossed the object in his hand into the air. It was a handful of round pebbles, which were touched by the assassin's fingertips the instant they floated into the air, flying towards the many vines that were dragging the bomb.

Five stones were fired, and nearly a third of the vines snapped almost simultaneously. The unbalanced flight column was dragged to one side by the bombs and crashed with perfect precision into the no-man's-land three seconds later.

Chu Hengkong flicked pebbles one after another, sending them flying in all directions like automatic missiles under his control. One pebble pierced the motorcyclist's skull, another pierced the power box of an armored vehicle, and yet another struck an aircraft hundreds of meters in the air, turning it into a burning fireball. In mere moments, the area behind the luxury car became a silent no-man's land. All the pursuers had vanished. What had thwarted their operation wasn't some weapon of mass destruction, but merely a handful of pebbles!
The first team's vice-captain, Vari, had just caught up, supported by his teammates, and was practically breathless upon seeing the scene. He roared into the communication channel, "Where are the power limits?! Where are the limits imposed by the Divine Tree?!"

"Vice Captain, the restrictions have taken effect; they are now all point masses 3..."

Vari stared at the aircraft that had just smashed to pieces on the ground, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets: "That's a 3-mass point?!"

Chu Hengkong dangled one hand out of the car window, staring at the rearview mirror as he commented, "I feel sorry for Prosecutor Banningtik. If my team members were all such a bunch of incompetent fools, I would rather go to an amusement park to relax."

“I didn’t see any compassion in you when you did it,” Vilbert said. “You knew that the Tree of Love would spare some of its divine power to protect them, didn’t you?”

"What?" Chu Hengkong said, "There's such a thing?"

"So you really did kill again..."

"They made their own choice! Am I supposed to shout 'I am a Blood Alliance assassin, pursue me and you will bear the consequences' three times before I make my move?" Chu Hengkong sneered. "Come on, I don't care if it's brainwashing or deception. Once you step onto the battlefield, you have to take responsibility for your choices."

Vilbert looked somewhat desperate: "Akong, I was just seriously thinking about where you've really improved over the years."

"Do you want to know?"

"I would like to know."

"My progress now is that I will never let my boss get hurt in my car," Chu Hengkong said. "I mean what I say."

Vilbert smiled upon hearing this: "That's a tremendous improvement."

The solitary path leading to the amusement park was just ahead, though it was more of a long, intertwined root system of the sacred tree connecting two lineages. A faint, cold light peeked out from the end of the solitary bridge, where a hooded man stood guard at the root's edge, drawing back his silver bow.

"Our old friends are gradually arriving." Chu Hengkong tapped the steering wheel. "It's the Silver Vulture."

NO.12 Silver Eagle, an assassin skilled in ancient martial arts using a longbow. He slowly drew back the silver longbow in his hand, the bowstring taut as the moon, three specially made long arrows nocked on the string, their heavy, blood-red aura crossing the vast distance to lock onto Velbert's brow, forming an invisible thread between the arrows and the bow.

Silver Eagle's "Triple Shot" delivers three arrows that pierce the target almost simultaneously, a concise yet deadly overlapping sniping attack.

Chu Hengkong narrowed his eyes. There was another person deep in the darkness. Floating like a ghost on the outer side of the Lonely Bridge, two points of soul fire flickered in the dark eye sockets.

NO.14 Corrupt Ghost, a blind assassin who poisons his targets. His insidious nature is transformed after arriving in the Realm of Darkness. The fully ghost-like assassin releases numerous pale white ghosts that obstruct vision from all directions and release deadly toxins.

"One for each person."

"You can entrust this to me with confidence."

“I prefer the insurance approach,” Vilbert said, tapping her cane. “Please.”

Numerous cannons protruded from the luxury car's body, and Chu Hengkong seized the opportunity to sharply swerve, causing the vehicle to spin. The internal weaponry opened fire as it spun, the flames transforming into a dazzling circle. That blazing circle blasted the poisonous horde of ghosts into a shower of blood, and the lonely souls that had once slain numerous hunters were reduced to ashes in a mere instant by the high-concentration pulse of spiritual energy.

Luxury cars swerved across the narrow bridge, seemingly dancing merrily amidst a hail of bullets. The true form of the corrupting ghost attempted to escape but was captured and torn apart by the circle of gunfire. In that instant, a silver eagle in the distance released its arrows, three long arrows joining together to tear through the night sky, their spirit coating the arrows with shimmering feathers.

At the same time, Chu Heng hurled the last pebble, coating it with a crimson hue of burning spirit. The pebble, launched into the air, transformed into a streak of stardust, piercing through the three long arrows in the center and bringing the silver eagle to its knees!
The luxury car stopped spinning and sped forward. Silver Vulture clutched his throat and knelt on the ground. The pebble had not only pierced the arrow but also struck his vitals, and for the Serpent of Sacrifice, it wasn't even a "movement."

Suppressing them at the point level is meaningless. These top figures cannot be restrained by mere points. Even if they are suppressed to point 2 or even point 1, these two people still have a way to fight their way out of the city's siege!
"Are you alright?" Chu Hengkong casually patted the girl's head.

Vilbert realized he was referring to the incident where she had just been locked in a state of emotional turmoil and couldn't help but chuckle: "Do you think this is 10 years ago?"

“People’s nature won’t change even in 10 or 20 years. You’ve never been a brave person. When you were a kid, you would get so scared that your lips would turn blue when you rode in my car.” Chu Hengkong rambled on. “Your bad habit is that you like to scare yourself. You get nervous when you’re wanted by the whole city… It’s just that your acting skills are much better now, so you don’t seem so flustered.”

More assassins gathered in the rear, the lights of the distant amusement park illuminating their figures. The pursuers continued relentlessly. The situation was indeed dire, yet this time Chu Hengkong was uncharacteristically wrong; she didn't feel particularly tense or afraid.

She is now powerful and influential, but this has nothing to do with her actual strength or her assessment of the situation; it's simply a matter of... habit.

She sat beside this man, and nothing in the world seemed to matter.

The old song was almost over, and she listened quietly to the last notes amidst the noise, listening to Chu Hengkong's unpleasant singing along.

“Stay, Whenever you want to feel the same
(Stay if you want to feel the same way.)
I need you forever
(I will always need you)

if you Stay, My heart is okay
(If you stay, my heart will be saved.)

At that moment, she felt as if the past had returned, and that after years, they had found each other again in a hellish world. So Vilbert smiled and softly sang along to the last line of the song.

"Together we'll spend our lives forever more!"

(We will spend our lives together forever!)
　The background music for this episode is "Stay," which is from Initial D.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)