Chapter 61: That Simple?
The night in the West District was very quiet. Haisha and Chris moved through the gaps between houses, quickly reaching the edge of the blockade zone.
"Break out directly."
"Are you sure?"
"Sure."
Haisha charged forward without stopping. Soon, several soldiers from the security forces appeared ahead of them.
"Suffocation."
Chris extended one hand forward, making a grasping motion. The soldiers showed pained expressions, clutching their throats as they fell.
This ability of Chris's didn't drain the oxygen around the enemy. Instead, it instantly released an oxygen-free barrier, expelling the oxygen from within the enemy's body. The enemy wouldn't feel suffocation but would lose consciousness or die suddenly from insufficient brain oxygen.
Haisha and Chris broke through the encirclement in just over ten seconds.
Crack, crack, crack...
Ice spread. Haisha, who had just broken out of the encirclement, stopped. He exerted force with his foot, shattering the ice that had bound him in place.
Amu walked out from across the street, holding an ice warhammer, with wisps of cold air rising from his body.
"Moo!"
Amu roared, and layers of cold air spread outward from him.
"Suffocation."
Chris once again extended her hand forward in a grasping motion. Amu, who was some distance away, stopped in his tracks.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
A whistling sound of breaking wind came. Chris sidestepped, dodging the spinning ice warhammer.
With a crack, the ice warhammer shattered upon hitting the ground, exploding like a bomb. The broken ice shards flew in all directions like shrapnel.
"Finish this quickly."
Haisha slapped the ground with one hand. A ripple of water spread across the surface, continuously expanding outward.
Amu suddenly sank into the ground and disappeared, as if falling into water.
The water ripples on the ground stopped, as if frozen. Haisha charged forward, and the two of them quickly disappeared at the edge of Zuer City.
Crack!
A large hand broke through the earth. The ground shattered like frozen ice. Amu's hand braced on the ground, and he easily freed himself from the frozen soil.
Back on the surface, Amu scratched his head in slight confusion. He didn't understand why he had to pretend to be taken care of. He could have held those two back for a long time. He hadn't even felt a strong sense of danger from them.
Bubu Wang had told Amu to pretend to be taken care of because he had set a coordinate nearby using the [Wolf Clan Heirloom]. Bubu Wang knew Amu's abilities well and knew that pursuit was his weakness. Unlike Amu, being targeted by Bubu Wang was a terrifying thing.
Below the bell tower in the West District.
Su Xiao stood in a large patch of minced flesh, lightly flicking the blood off Dragon-Slaying Flash.
"Bubu, don't alert them. Just keep tracking."
After hanging up the communication, Su Xiao let out a long breath. The Space-Time Core wasn't with Mr. J. That made things easier. Now that he had a lead, he just needed to wait for those two contractors to find a foothold, then go and kill them.
Outside Zuer City, Kuangsha, who was charging forward rapidly, slowed down. The outskirts at night were overgrown with weeds, deathly silent.
"That's it?"
Haisha seemed a bit incredulous. He looked at Chris. She was a lone wolf specializing in perception. Such lone wolf contractors were rarer than giant pandas.
"No trackers. At least, not in my perception."
Chris's eyes opened. She actually found it a bit strange too.
Right beside Chris, Bubu Wang looked up and yawned. Working overtime late at night made him a bit sleepy.
"I thought we were in for a big escape. Since we've already escaped the city, things will be easier from here. Outside the city, even if he's the Legion Commander of the Execution Agency, he can't have too many Awakeners out of the city for long."
Haisha checked his summon list. That giant shark had already disappeared from it.
"Mm, that's true. But we still need five to seven safe houses. And we need to figure out how often the Space-Time Core is tracked. I don't believe he found that place by chance. Judging by the scope of that encirclement, the Space-Time Core must be tracked or sensed. From the description of the Space-Time Core, it was transformed from the core of the Eye Chamber. The Eye Chamber in Zuer City was activated this morning, between 10 and 12 o'clock. That means, roughly every 12 to 14 hours, that person can track the Space-Time Core once."
After saying this, Chris looked at Haisha with a questioning gaze.
"Uh, I was thinking the same thing."
Haisha nodded in agreement. In reality, he had only thought of part of it. After all, he was a combat type. Being a bit slower in thinking than Chris was normal.
"So, we need to keep moving between 10 AM and 1 PM tomorrow. And it's not wise to carry the Space-Time Core on us. It's best to have your summon carry it, about 500 to 800 meters away from us. With that distance, if something goes wrong, we can get there quickly and have some buffer time. We won't get trapped in a safe house. It greatly reduces the risk. What do you think?"
"Mm, makes sense."
Haisha was already secretly wary of Chris, but he also felt those six Soul Crystals were well spent. The two walked slowly. Chris kept her head down as she walked, looking like she was thinking. Contractors who could survive to the Fourth Rank and participate in the Fifth Rank promotion all had their own strengths.
"And, holy shi—"
Chris suddenly stopped, her pupils rapidly contracting.
"What's wrong?"
Haisha looked at Chris in confusion.
Following Chris's slender finger, Haisha saw Bubu Wang on a nearby mound of dirt. Noticing their gazes, Bubu Wang raised a dog paw and pointed behind them, as if to say, "Don't mind me. I won't do anything to you. But my master? That's a different story."
"I don't have any furry summons."
"An enemy is approaching from behind! Very fast!"
Chris turned to look behind them.
Boom!
An explosion came from the distance. In an instant, dozens of blade auras flew toward them. Haisha was very dishonorable. He stomped the ground, and with a plop, he sank into it as if falling into water.
"Primal World Barrier."
Chris extended both hands forward. A half-meter-thick barrier wall appeared in front of her.
Sizzle, sizzle...
A harsh cutting sound spread. The blade auras slashed large cracks into the barrier wall.
Crack!
A long sword pierced through the barrier wall, stopping just a few centimeters from Chris's brow.
Chris clearly saw that on one side of the long sword, the "Primal World Barrier" shattered like tempered glass. She had used this thing to block the Eight-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb.
A pair of eyes flickering with blue light met Chris's gaze. Chris grasped with both hands.
"Suffoca—"
Bang!
A foot kicked Chris in the lower abdomen. Her delicate body instantly curled into a C-shape. Drops of blood spat from her mouth.
Zing~
The faint sound of metal wires came. Amid the large pieces of barrier fragments, Chris still hadn't even seen the enemy's face clearly.
If I get caught by that, I'm dead!
This thought had just appeared in Chris's mind when her eyes emitted an emerald-like glow. She became even more beautiful, but she could be killed on the spot at any moment. Her enemy didn't care about her appearance at all. Or rather, in Su Xiao's eyes, even a stunningly beautiful woman was still an enemy, an enemy to be taken seriously.
Perhaps that was the reason. The women who survived encounters with Su Xiao mostly respected him, rather than hating or detesting him. Because they could feel that during the battle, Su Xiao treated them as opponents, not pretending to spare their lives with the ultimate goal of getting on top of them.
"Primal World Synchronization!"
With Chris as the center, an invisible wave spread. Su Xiao, holding the long sword, suddenly slowed down and eventually stopped.
Only then did Chris have time to catch her breath. She quickly scanned her surroundings. A cyan metal thread was distributed near her. Not only that, a long sword glinting with cold light, clearly of explosively high quality, was stopped just in front of her neck. Even though it was still a few centimeters away, she could feel a stinging sensation on the skin of her neck.