Golden Thread Worm seized the opportunity to direct the people inside the church to exit from the side. At the same time, he manipulated the mummy to protect the children of the choir as they fled. Once he confirmed there was no one else left in the church, the mummy returned to Golden Thread Worm’s back, wrapping the spider silk back around his armpits and waist, restoring the state where Golden Thread Worm was carrying him.
Controlling the humanoid spider cocoon mummy was Golden Thread’s M2 ability, Dual-Minded Thread. After a period of time, the mummy needed to return to him, giving Golden Thread a moment to catch his breath.
Lan Bo entered the sea near the ballet theater and traveled by water to land on the coast, which is why he arrived so quickly.
He descended from the church roof and landed beside Bai Chunian.
Bai Chunian asked, “How did you get here so fast?”
Lan Bo tucked his blond hair behind his ear: “I was delayed a bit by the Imperial Crocodile at the theater.”
“Did you kill him?”
“Not yet. You told me to hurry over, so I just bit off his head and came straight here.”
“It wasn’t quite that urgent…”
“Is he the only one?” Lan Bo looked at Eris, who had no intention of fighting and was trying to escape.
Hearing Lan Bo speak, Eris sped up her escape, swinging away in the distance on the cursed golden thread. Covering her eyes, she shouted, “ “Get lost! Nix put these on me himself—brand-new, with my name engraved on them. Don’t even think about taking them off again, you stinking, good-for-nothing, cat-and-dog-ignored herring can.”
“Huh?” Lan Bo’s eyes widened. The pier was just ahead. A surge of furious energy welled up, forming a transparent hydro-steel quad-rocket launcher in his palm. He hoisted it onto his shoulder, but just as he was about to charge forward, Bai Chunian grabbed his wrist and yanked him back.
“Don’t cause chaos in the city. He and the Imperial Crocodile must be here to wreak havoc and throw us off the scent. The Puppet Master’s target is the Medical Society’s test subjects. Come with me to IOA.”
“I’m going to kill him. I’ll gouge both his eyes out.” Lan Bo’s back teeth ground together.
“Forget about him. Let’s go.” Bai Chunian yanked Lan Bo into the passenger seat and drove back toward IOA, contacting the headquarters’ on-site personnel via communicator: “There may be intruders in the Medical Society. Dispatch additional personnel to the ward area to protect the doctors. The Forensic Technology Department should ensure information security.”
“Copy that.”
“Copy that.”
“Doctors reporting civilian casualties.”
Han Xingqian replied, “The emergency response team is on-site. Fifty-two with minor injuries, two with severe injuries. No fatalities.”
Dr. Zhong’s voice suddenly cut into the transmission. He was breathing heavily—the situation must be critical for him to have rushed to the monitoring room to deliver the message: “The experimental subjects Qishenggu and Wangliang Sandglass have infiltrated the ward area to steal experimental subjects. Eight experimental subjects have been taken from the wards, three nurses are dead, and over half of the patrol team assigned to intercept them has suffered casualties. They have already fled into the city.”
Upon hearing this, Bai Chunian immediately replied, “Copy that. Special Operations Unit Search Division, be on alert. I’m heading back to headquarters. Xiao Xun and Lan Xing, find sniper positions on the spot and prepare to ambush the ‘Abnormal Bone’ and ‘Wanliang Hourglass’.”
“Those bastards.” Bai Chunian hung up the mic and slammed his fist hard against the steering wheel. “What do they think they’re doing, taking such a risk to head into the city? Why steal the test subjects? The ones we handle are either non-aggressive or just kids in the cultivation phase—what use are they to them? If they really get stolen, we’re in big trouble.”
“These test subjects don’t belong to IOA. IOA is only holding them temporarily for inspection. Once the holding period ends, we have to return them all to the research institute. If any test subjects are stolen during this time, not only will the institute find an excuse to hold us accountable, but our evaluation of our ability to safeguard test subjects will also take a major hit. This concerns IOA’s credibility—we absolutely cannot afford any slip-ups.”
“ Lanxing, update me on the Anomalous Bone.”
Bi Lanxing quickly located the relevant entry on the query watch provided by the Crawler: “Test Subject 723, Anomalous Bone, M2-level mature Alpha, J1 differentiation ability ‘Rainbow Garment’: Can form a protective shield centered on itself, absorbing 70% of the opponent’s attack damage and reflecting it back as explosive shrapnel.”
m2 Differentiation Ability “Snow Skeleton”: Corrodes the flesh and blood of everyone within a radial radius around the user until enemies are reduced to skeletons.
Companion Ability ‘Emerald Dawn’: Causes targets exposed to the radiation to mutate, with mutations being either positive or negative. After being exposed, a tri-colored dot—gold, green, and blue—identical to the one on the Qisheng Bone’s forehead will appear on the target’s brow.
“What a hassle…” Bai Chunian frowned. “No wonder they had to hide her away at the Berner Pharmaceutical Factory to cultivate her. And no wonder the Puppet Master went to such great lengths to personally retrieve the Strange Bone from there. Even though she’s only an M2-class specimen, each of her differentiation abilities is exceptionally strong. The Puppet Master said she’s the most beautiful test subject in the world. On top of that, among all M2-class test subjects, her strength ranks among the very best.”
Lan Bo propped his head up and glanced out the window. “Yeah, of course. Just like a flower-feathered chicken—she looks like a cat teaser. Do you like her?”
Bai Chunian’s taut nerves relaxed a bit at his teasing. He tilted his head to see Lan Bo sitting in the passenger seat, sniffing the webbing between his fingers with a sour expression, muttering to himself, “It doesn’t stink. I’m a cat; I like the smell of canned food.”
“Oh, come on, why are you taking what Eris says to heart? He’s full of it. You’re catnip—you smell especially good.”
“Found it.” Lan Bo suddenly tapped urgently on the car window. After Bai Chunian rolled down the window, he spotted a blue-green figure leaping between buildings about two or three hundred meters away.
Although Qishenggu had no wings, he seemed to glide through the air using the gold-and-blue peacock tail feathers on his back, trailing a shimmering gold-and-blue trail of light behind him. Uninformed citizens on the street were still looking up and taking photos with their phones.
They’ve gone to all this trouble just to cause trouble for IOA.
Lan Bo pulled a sniper rifle from under the seat, leaned his upper body out the window, and wrapped his tail tightly around the seat to steady himself. He whispered, “Give me the 4x scope.”
Bai Chunian controlled the steering wheel with his left hand while picking up a bottle of mineral water with his right. He bit off the cap with his teeth and tossed the bottle out the window.
As the bottle flew out the window, an invisible force instantly crushed it flat. The water gushed out, gathering before Lan Bo as if by *telekinesis*, forming a transparent, water-hardened steel 4x scope on the sniper rifle he was aiming with one eye. The blue reticle locked onto the rapidly moving Qishenggu.
“She has self-healing abilities. Don’t shoot her—just drive her to a less crowded area.” Bai Chunian spun the car around in a drift, turning it around and weaving through the narrow alley.
Lan Bo leaned out through the sunroof, crouched on the roof to take aim, and gently pulled the trigger. A single bullet followed the flight path of the Strange Bone.
Qishenggu spread her peacock feathers and glided through the air, with Wangliang Shalou perched on her back.
“Sis, there’s a gun.” Wangliang watched the sedan speeding along the road in the distance, with Lan Bo lying on the roof, aiming at them.
Qishenggu slightly adjusted her course: “Cover us a bit. We should go. The Puppet Master told us to return; he said the surveillance puppets discovered some new information about the research institute.”
Just as the bullet was about to strike them, Wángliáng suddenly shifted the hourglass, and the approaching bullet instantly flew back along its original trajectory.
As they neared the clock tower, Qishenggu was about to descend at an angle, but a window suddenly opened in the center of the silent, deserted clock face. A sniper rifle emerged, and without hesitation, fired a shot at her.
Qishenggu made a sharp turn, and as she did, a dazzling, shimmering shield formed before her. The sniper round struck the shield and was stopped in its tracks. The shield, having absorbed 70% of the bullet’s force, shattered suddenly, sending shards as sharp as glass flying in all directions.
But black vines grew rapidly on the bell tower, forming a resilient wall of vines that shielded Xiao Xun, the sniper.
The vines grew wildly under Bi Lanxing’s control, taking root on the bell tower while their tips shot upward like ropes.
Bi Lanxing watched as the Qishenggu changed its trajectory, pressed his earpiece, and whispered, “Brother Chu, the Wangliang’s glass hourglass is packed with test subjects—at least seven or eight of them. It looks like the ones that were stolen are all inside.”
Bai Chunian: “Let’s drive her back. Xiao Xun, take aim at the hourglass.”
Xiao Xun hesitated. “My bullets won’t penetrate the hourglass.”
Bi Lanxing said, “Jinluchong is already on his way. His silk grenade launcher can penetrate the hourglass.”
“No time for that. You aim for the homing missile; leave the rest to me.” Bai Chunian was driving on the ground in pursuit of Qishenggu. Seeing that she was nearing the city limits, Bai Chunian pulled Lan Bo back through the sunroof, Lan Bo immediately understood his meaning. After a turn, Bai Chunian clung to the roof with both hands and slid out of the driver’s seat. Lan Bo slid into the driver’s seat to take the wheel, while Bai Chunian leaned halfway out the sunroof, using Lan Bo’s hydro-steel 4x scope to locate Qi Shenggu.
A sniper round struck the hourglass in Wangliang’s arms with pinpoint accuracy. The hourglass was incredibly resilient and didn’t show a single crack, but a red targeting marker appeared on its surface.
Xiao Xun’s M2 ability, “Hunt Lock,” activated. Once a target was locked by his sniper round, the hit rate of all friendly firearms would increase significantly.
Bai Chunian opened his left hand. The collar around his neck melted into Dead Sea Heartstone, and the black crystal reformed in his palm into a crossbow. He inserted Lan Bo’s Water-Hardened Steel 4x scope into the crossbow, aimed at the mark left by the tracer round, and silently calculated the distance and drop.
The crystal crossbow bolt flew from the string. Qishenggu spotted Bai Chunian on the ground and abruptly changed direction, but since the homing projectile could correct its course, the bolt still pierced the hourglass in a single shot.
The Wángliáng let out a shriek as the massive force from the exploding hourglass flung it off Qishenggu’s back.
Falling alongside it were the experimental subjects that had spilled out of the hourglass.
A strand of golden thread snaked through the air, wrapping itself around the Wángliáng’s limbs. Eris, rushing from the city’s edge, yanked hard on the cursed golden thread, dragging the Wángliáng away before it hit the ground.
Qishenggu glared fiercely at Bai Chunian, and the gold-green-blue circle on his forehead lit up: “Do you want it? I’ll give it back to you.”
At the same time, the circles identical to Qishenggu’s lit up on the foreheads of the test subjects who had fallen to the ground, and each of them underwent a bizarre transformation.
The test subjects closest to the clock tower turned green, their eyes lost their whites, fangs grew from their mouths, and, as if driven mad, they scrambled rapidly up the tower, emitting high-pitched, maniacal laughter.
Xiao Xun glanced down. These test subjects were moving incredibly fast, able to climb up in just three or five strides. Not daring to face them head-on, he scrambled back into the clock tower’s dial, locked the door, and braced himself against it, saying urgently, “I’m surrounded. I can’t hold out for even three seconds. Lanxing, can I burn your vines?”
“Wait for Brother Han to come and neutralize the mutation…” Over on Bai Chunian’s side, he was standing on the car roof, kicking the mutated test subjects tangled around the wheels. He couldn’t bring himself to kill them—that “Growth Bone” ability was truly disgusting.
“Lan Bo, ditch the car. Let’s walk.”
“Oh.” Lan Bo brushed the snacks from his fist and followed Bai Chunian as they jumped off the car and ran toward the clock tower.
The city echoed with the intermittent wails of police sirens and ambulance horns. Alliance officers and the IOA task force had already sealed off every street, but the target had already vanished into thin air.
The Qisheng Bone had drained too much of his energy, and his coughing grew worse.
“We… didn’t bring… the test subject. Nix, are you mad?” Wangliang asked cautiously, clutching the hourglass he’d hastily taped back together.
“So what if he’s mad? He can’t do anything to us. Cough… Eris failed a hundred times, and the Puppet Master didn’t even scold her… Cough… The air here is so thick with smog. Humans really are resilient to a certain extent—it really annoys me.” Qishenggu brushed the dust off his tail feathers.
Eris strode forward, resting her head on her hand: “Big Sis, I’ve only failed six times. Besides, that doesn’t even count as a failure—they didn’t want to come with us in the first place. Guess what those idiots brainwashed by IOA’s pyramid scheme said? Satan actually started preaching, Jade wants to learn origami, Dandelion won’t stop crying, and Golden Thread Worm spends every day carrying his mummified brother around the vegetable garden to water the plants, willingly acting as a human’s dog. They don’t deserve all the effort we’re putting in—this is an outright insult to Nyx.”
“He doesn’t want to. He’s disappointed. But then again, he can’t beat them.” Wangliang silently ran his fingers through his curly, soft hair and muttered, “I’m sorry, Nyx. I couldn’t save them.”