Chapter 2606: The High-Age Roller Coaster Ride
Old Sir Xi wanted to say something else, but just as he opened his mouth, a blinding light flashed in the distance, followed by a powerful air current pressing down from all directions, and then a massive explosion.
The monitoring instruments that the Metal Plate player had placed high in the air happened to capture the suit flying out from the center of the explosion. Several of them saw it, and Xu Huo raised an eyebrow, saying, "Isn't this self-rescue?"
Yes, self-rescue was that simple. Aside from some passively triggered items that could shift positions, using a large-scale destructive item like this wasn't a bad idea either. With such an explosion, whether it was players or the Night Parade group, the likelihood of being blown away was high. Once blown away, the distance naturally increased. As for the risk of death, passive defense items and the Night Parade suit could help reduce it.
"How about we go take a look?" another player asked the Metal Plate player. Before the latter could respond, they saw several figures in Night Parade suits—whether they were human or not—flying over. They looked like they had been thrown out by the blast, but their hoods and clothes were completely intact. As they flew toward them, a group of demon masks followed!
The target was so clear that just looking at it made one's scalp tingle. Now no one said anything about going over to check. Xu Huo and the others split into two directions and ran.
Sure enough, those masks and Night Parade performers hadn't been thrown toward their direction by chance. After they split up, the performers and masks also divided into two groups, chasing after them separately.
Several space barriers appeared one after another, covering the performers and masks in sequence. To buy time, both Xu Huo and the Metal Plate player deliberately delayed the activation of their items and instruments, hoping to create brief pauses each time they broke free from the barriers.
But after just two or three times, the performers seemed to see through and grow tired of this delaying game. They suddenly vanished and reappeared right in front of Xu Huo and the others—the bell sound that had appeared before seemed to ring again from a distance. At the same time, the clothes on the performers began to peel away, and countless roots shot out from inside, crossing and attacking everyone present!
"Boom!" Xu Huo pushed Old Sir Xi toward the Painting Woman and immediately conjured a space bomb. As the blast wave spread, the floating roots scattered completely, and they, along with the Night Parade performers, were pushed in different directions.
In just an instant, before Xu Huo and the other two could be carried far by the explosion's shockwave, they passed through a space door. The pitch-black view switched to daylight in a second, and even the force of the explosion vanished completely!
Using his spiritual power to pull the Painting Woman and Old Sir Xi, Xu Huo quickly moved to their side. Looking at the demon masks emerging from all directions, he said to Old Sir Xi, "Maybe you should hide in a container item. Otherwise, I'm worried you won't make it out."
The old man was still stubborn. "At my age, you want me to get into a container item? I'd like to live a few more years!"
Xu Huo was quite helpless. "Do you think the current situation or hiding in a container item will kill you faster?"
Old Sir Xi snorted, flipped open his coat, and took out a sheet-like instrument from his belt. He tossed it into the air, and the sheet directly decomposed into extremely fine threads. One end of the thread quickly looped through the air, and in the blink of an eye, it strung up all the visible masks and hung them on a streetlamp!
A thick stack of masks squeezed together, neither torn apart nor able to escape immediately. They writhed in a cluster, looking like a pile of wriggling worms.
"Why didn't you bring that out earlier?" the Painting Woman asked, holding her bat in one hand.
"I came out for a stroll. Why would I carry all my items and instruments on me? I only have this one, alright?" Old Sir Xi said matter-of-factly. "Besides, you're the players. Are you really going to rely on an old man who can't even lift a finger?"
Xu Huo was speechless, but the Painting Woman said bluntly, "You were running pretty fast just now!"
As soon as she finished speaking, one of the masks hanging on the streetlamp tore itself off. Old Sir Xi's eyelids twitched, and he hurriedly said, "Enough talk, run!"
"Fine!" Xu Huo nodded. He opened a spiritual gate right in front of his feet. The old man stumbled forward and fell straight into the ground, disappearing!
Once he was gone, Xu Huo and the Painting Woman naturally left too. But compared to the gates they opened on the ground, the gates on Old Sir Xi's side were much more thrilling. Sometimes they appeared flush with the ground, sometimes directly in midair. Only when the old man fell headfirst would a new gate appear.
After riding this roller coaster for a while, the old man couldn't take it anymore and shouted, "Kid! Don't you know what it means to respect the elderly!"
Xu Huo teleported in front of him, grabbed his shoulder, and straightened him up. "Not stuffing you into a container item is already my way of respecting the elderly. So, are you willing to go in now?"
The old man looked at him dizzily. "Trying to force my hand? No way!"
"Alright then." Xu Huo let go, gave him a slight smile, and then looked at the ground.
The old man followed his gaze. The once-flat ground had another pitch-black gate appear. A curse that hadn't been fully voiced suddenly vanished, only to reappear in the distance.
But this time, Xu Huo didn't toy with him. He quickly took him to a previously marked location.
After not finding the animal head he had left earlier, he pinched out another snake and stamped it on a lamppost.
The old man lay on the ground dry-heaving, his trembling finger pointing at Xu Huo, unable to speak for a long time.
"Since you're old, save your energy." Xu Huo said coolly, "Talking less is also a shortcut to extending your life."
After lying there for a while, the old man finally gave a thumbs-up, then flipped it over and jabbed it hard into the ground.
The Painting Woman crouched in front of him, holding up her communicator to show him the entire process of him kneeling on the ground.
The old man reached out to grab it, but the Painting Woman quickly raised it higher. Seeing that he couldn't erase this black history, he simply gave up. "At my age, am I afraid of being embarrassed? Go ask around—how many video records have the Artificer Association and the Clockwork Association dragged me out of? There are hundreds of meme compilations on the Message Collection Terminal!"
Seeing him take pride in his disgrace, the Painting Woman turned to look at Xu Huo.
Xu Huo knocked away a few nearby masks, walked over, and helped him up. "What good does it do to go against the associations?"
"If it doesn't work, then don't do it?" Old Sir Xi said. "Back in Zone 001, the people who first resisted the invaders from other zones didn't know if it would work either. But without them, there would be no spark that started a prairie fire. Can you say now that they didn't accomplish anything?"
"Everything needs someone to take the lead. Once someone leads, more people will join in."
"But you've been leading for so long, and you're still alone?" the Painting Woman said bluntly.
Old Sir Xi glared at her. "A pioneer is never too early to appear!"
Caught an illness right at the tail end of the year, the cold is quite severe. Tomorrow's update may not come. Wishing all readers a happy New Year's Eve in advance!