The night wind was cool, carrying the sticky dampness that usually came before a torrential downpour.
Jiang Nuan stood on the steps by the side entrance of the Starsea Hotel.
Just minutes ago, in that cramped dressing room, Shen Wu’s psychic tendrils had forcefully invaded her territory. The shuddering sensation of their souls intertwining still lingered in her body.
But something else had pushed those thoughts aside for now.
Qi Sui had been found. Ye Que had gone alone into the cordoned-off area of the underground black market.
They had to hurry over and provide backup.
Shen Wu had gone to get the car. The others stood by the entrance, the atmosphere heavy and oppressive.
Qinian’s face—one that could make every girl in Whale Harbor City scream—was now as cold as an ice sculpture, his jaw clenched tight.
Every few seconds, he closed his eyes, trying to sense Qi Sui’s condition through their shared senses. But his brows drew tighter and tighter.
Clearly, things were not going well.
“Vroooom!”
An arrogant engine roar approached from the distance.
A flashy red sports coupe came sliding around the corner and braked neatly in front of the steps.
The door sprang open, and Su Yang jumped out, a delighted smile on his face. “Jiang Nuan? Jiang Ce? What a coincidence!”
But the moment he saw the expressions on their faces, his smile vanished. “What’s going on?”
The passenger-side door opened as well, and a beautifully dressed girl climbed out.
She had been complaining about how fast Su Yang was driving, but the instant she looked up and saw Qinian standing in the shadows, her eyes lit up.
“Ah! It’s Qinian!” Her face flushed with excitement, and she rushed forward without a second thought. “Qinian, I’m your—”
Qinian turned his head.
When his gaze landed on the girl, it held not the slightest trace of warmth.
His beautiful eyes contained nothing but pure killing intent and impatience. He did not even bother to pretend otherwise.
“Get lost.”
The girl shuddered in fright. Covering her mouth, she did not dare take another step forward, and her eyes instantly reddened.
Su Yang reacted quickly. He stepped forward and pulled the girl aside, ushering her into the hotel first.
At that moment, a black van drove out of the parking garage and stopped in front of the steps.
Su Yang keenly sensed the grim, murderous atmosphere at the scene.
He glanced at the van, then at his own sports coupe.
He barely hesitated.
“My car’s faster than the van.” He pulled his keys from his pocket and held them out. “Take mine. Here.”
The keys sailed through the air and landed in Jiang Ce’s waiting hand.
This was the same boy who had been scared stiff in the barbecue restaurant, yet still found time to flirt in front of a monster. Now, without asking a single question, he had simply handed over the thing that could help them most.
He was actually a pretty decent guy.
The group quickly reorganized their positions. Qinian took the keys, yanked open the driver’s door, and got in. Jiang Nuan hurried into the passenger seat. Shen Wu got out of the van and opened one of the rear doors.
Jiang Ce walked toward the back of the sports coupe. He stared at its low roof and cramped legroom, then fell silent.
“I suggest you take the van,” Shen Wu said sincerely. “The design of this car clearly didn’t account for biological diversity.”
Jiang Nuan couldn’t help it—the corner of her mouth twitched.
Jiang Ce remained expressionless as he forced his nearly six-foot-four, heavily muscled frame into the back seat. The car visibly sank lower beneath his weight.
His broad shoulders and back nearly filled the entire space. He carefully drew in his long legs, afraid his knees might hit the back of Jiang Nuan’s seat.
“…Drive,” Jiang Ce ground out through clenched teeth.
The engine roared, instantly tearing through the dead of night in Whale Harbor City.
Jiang Nuan was slammed against her seat by the powerful acceleration. She felt as though her soul might be flung right out of her body, while the city lights outside smeared into a blur.
She had never experienced such insane speed.
Beside her, Qinian’s lips were pressed into a thin line, his entire body taut with concentration.
His eyes were focused to an almost terrifying degree. His hands moved rapidly over the steering wheel as he shifted gears and cut through turns with fluid precision, as though he were flying just above the ground.
It was the first time Jiang Nuan had seen Qinian drive.
His driving skills… were simply inhuman.
The back seat was packed to the brim.
Jiang Ce’s massive body was rigidly wedged into place, his knees pressed against the front seat, though his eyes remained alert as they swept over their surroundings.
On the other side, Shen Wu had closed his eyes, one finger habitually resting against his temple, as though the chaos around him had nothing to do with him.
Only Jiang Nuan could feel the extremely faint, icy psychic energy drifting around her neck and cheek, carrying with it a hidden, soothing comfort.
Jiang Nuan’s heart gave a little flutter.
Shen Wu… used his psychic power as a substitute for a hug?
He always looked so cold and aloof. Who would have thought that in private he was such a flirt—a clingy little cuddle monster?
Although… that chilly sensation really did calm her heart, which had been pounding from the reckless drive.
Just as the sports coupe was about to race through an intersection, four heavy off-road vehicles burst out of the alleys on both sides at once!
Their blinding high beams came on in unison, weaving into a dazzling wall of light ahead. The glare was so intense that Jiang Nuan instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes.
At the same time, two heavy motorcycles were already waiting in the middle of the road. The people riding pillion raised some kind of net-launching weapons, their dark muzzles gleaming coldly beneath the headlights.
Six vehicles had sealed off every possible escape route.
“Fuck!”
Qinian cursed.
But the corners of his mouth actually lifted.
A nearly bloodthirsty excitement erupted in his eyes, as though the suppressed violence within him had finally found an outlet.
He did not slow down in the slightest.
His hands moved rapidly across the steering wheel. He alternated between the accelerator and brake, and the car let out a piercing screech as it began to drift at an angle that defied the laws of physics.
“Skreeeech!”
The shriek of rubber grinding against asphalt stabbed painfully at Jiang Nuan’s eardrums.
The sports coupe shot past one of the off-road vehicles, skimming so close to its front end that it barely slipped through the gap in the encirclement.
The off-roader’s bumper scraped across the coupe’s rear wing, sending a shower of sparks into the air.
“Hold on!” Qinian growled.
Shen Wu opened his eyes in the back seat. His pale irises looked exceptionally calm in the darkness.
“It’s the Cleaners.”
His voice remained perfectly clear despite the roar of the engine.
“They’re an organization that only emerged in this world within the past year. They’re extremely hostile toward all outsiders—in other words, toward those of us who regard this world as a forbidden zone.”
He lowered his hand from his temple.
“Looks like we’ve been noticed.”
The Cleaners. Hostile toward outsiders.
So they were an organization made up of native life-forms from this forbidden world…?
Jiang Nuan had no time to think about it.
One of the motorcycles had already used its superior maneuverability to circle around to the side of the coupe. Its engine hummed close against the car.
The passenger on the back raised the net-launcher, its muzzle locking onto the window.
Jiang Nuan extended her right hand, palm facing upward.
The supernatural power that had once been as feeble as a trickling stream now surged through her body like a raging river.
Energy gathered at her fingertips, solidifying into shape.
In an instant, a silver crescent blade as thin as a cicada’s wing and gleaming with a razor-sharp chill materialized between her fingers.
She flicked her wrist.
The crescent blade flew from her hand, transforming into a silver arc that sliced toward the motorcycle’s rear wheel.
“Bang!”
The tire exploded.
The motorcycle instantly lost control. The two riders went tumbling into a stack of shipping containers by the roadside, sparks flying in every direction.
“Well done.” Qinian praised her, then abruptly cranked the wheel to the left.
A stream of bullets chased them from behind, clanging against the rear of the car. One of them flew straight toward the back window.
Jiang Ce let out a low growl.
In the cramped space of the back seat, he raised his arm. A thick, half-formed phantom shield condensed in his palm and spread across the window.
The bullet struck it, sending out nothing more than a ripple.
“Qinian, turn right into the industrial park two hundred meters ahead. The terrain favors us,” Shen Wu ordered rapidly. “Jiang Nuan, watch the right side. They’re going for the tires.”
“Got it.”
A second crescent blade had already taken shape in Jiang Nuan’s hand. Silver light flashed from her fingers, slicing cleanly through the front wheel of the SUV closing in on their right.
The vehicle let out a mournful screech. Its nose dipped, and it rolled across the road before crashing into the median barrier.
Qinian still had enough room to strike back.
As the sports car approached a bend leading into the industrial park, he controlled the steering wheel with one hand and thrust the other out of the window. Facing the SUV pursuing them most closely, he snapped his fingers.
“Snap.”
A mass of flames erupted out of thin air directly in front of the SUV!
Scarlet fire swallowed the driver’s entire field of vision. The SUV swerved violently.
The sports car plunged into the abandoned industrial park.
Towering concrete silos and derelict warehouses swept past in the headlights, their enormous shadows crisscrossing the ground.
Qinian was unfamiliar with the layout, but his reactions were so swift that it was as though he had anticipated every turn. The sports car slipped through the narrow passages like a fish through water.
The roar of an engine rose again behind them.
The SUV that had been blocked by the flames recovered and, astonishingly, smashed through a shortcut sealed off by cargo containers. It then circled around to the front side of the sports car at an even higher speed.
The window rolled down.
A Cleaner leaned out, the muzzle of an ability-suppression net launcher in his hands trained steadily on the nearest person in his line of sight—Jiang Nuan.
Jiang Nuan instinctively summoned her ability. The crescent blade at her fingertips was already poised to strike.
Jiang Ce let out a low growl from the back seat. A solid phantom shield was unfolding beside Jiang Nuan.
At the same time, Shen Wu’s fingers clenched. An invisible wave of mental interference was about to be unleashed.
But just as their attacks were about to be released—
The gunman suddenly froze.
The frenzied confidence on his face was instantly swallowed by overwhelming terror.
Jiang Nuan saw the killer’s eyes clearly.
They bulged outward in sheer fear. His lips began to tremble violently, as though he had just heard a sentence of death.
Then—
The engine of the SUV, which had been charging forward with unstoppable ferocity, suddenly let out a shrill wail.
The driver seemed to have lost control of his own body. His hands jerked the steering wheel sharply.
Without warning, the SUV veered off course and, with almost suicidal resolve, slammed into the enormous concrete silo beside the road.
“Boom—!”
The explosion shook the entire industrial park. Flames shot into the sky.
The front of the SUV crumpled inward on impact, completely crushed. Thick smoke and fire billowed upward, and the vehicle was left utterly crippled.
*
At the same time, a cold warning rang through the encrypted communications channel shared by all the members.
[Those who defy the highest command will be eliminated.]
The channel fell silent for a moment.
Then, from one of the vehicles, a man spoke through barely contained terror, his voice trembling. “It… it was the command… He had just aimed his weapon at that woman…”
“Shut up! Do you want to die too?!” another Cleaner shouted, cutting him off. Panic colored his voice as well. “As long as we don’t touch that woman, the command won’t interfere! We’ll set up an ambush on the other side. Everyone else in the car is still a target!”
*
Jiang Nuan and the others naturally heard none of this hidden internal turmoil, nor the lethal warning behind it.
To the members of Team Zero, what they witnessed was an entirely different and utterly bizarre scene.
The pursuers who had been clinging to them suddenly slammed on their brakes after seeing the SUV inexplicably crash into the wall, as though they had seen a ghost.
Several vehicles in the rear slowed sharply. Two of them even began making frantic U-turns on the spot.
Qinian was puzzled, but he would never let such a rare opportunity slip away.
He floored the accelerator. After executing several superb drifts, he broke cleanly through the encirclement.
A series of complicated turns left every pursuing shadow far behind in the darkness.
The danger had passed.
Breathing filled the cramped, suffocating cabin in uneven waves.
Jiang Ce slowly withdrew the phantom shield hovering beside Jiang Nuan and leaned back against his seat.
Qinian also relaxed his clenched jaw as the car gradually settled into a steadier speed.
Jiang Nuan’s palms were drenched in cold sweat.
She turned to look at the silent, empty road behind them.
The gunman’s look of utter terror just before his death continued to circle through her mind.
What had happened? Had they turned on one another? It was too bizarre.
“Don’t you find this strange?”
It was Shen Wu. Everyone in the car turned their attention to him.
“Throughout the entire chase, their tactics were clear and their coordination disciplined. They were determined to kill every one of us,” Shen Wu analyzed calmly.
“The turning point came in the abandoned industrial park, with the SUV that had circled around to our front side.”
Qinian glanced at him through the rearview mirror. “That was when it lost control.”
“It didn’t look like a loss of control,” Shen Wu corrected him.
“If it had been a mechanical failure or driver error, it wouldn’t have crashed so precisely into the silo and disabled itself. Nor would that explain why all the other vehicles abandoned the pursuit at the same time.”
He paused before posing the question.
“What happened in that moment that could make a fearless organization abandon its mission in an instant—even destroy itself—to stop the attack?”
The question once again froze the air inside the car.
Jiang Nuan’s heart jolted. “At the time, the gunman in that vehicle was about to attack me with the ability-suppression net…”
“He was aiming at you,” Jiang Ce said in a low voice.
“Let’s reconstruct the chain of events,” Shen Wu continued. “Their target was everyone, but just before the attack could reach Jiang Nuan, the attacker himself suffered some kind of punishment. That interrupted the attack, and the entire organization chose to retreat.”
He leaned forward slightly.
“So there can only be one conclusion.”
“This organization—or rather, the will behind it—allows them to attack all of us…”
He paused. Each word fell like a hammer against Jiang Nuan’s heart.
“But it absolutely will not allow them to hurt you.”
Jiang Nuan tightened her fingers around the seat belt.
The conclusion sounded the most absurd, yet it was the only explanation.
An organization whose purpose was to hunt them down had designated her as a forbidden target.
Why?
No one spoke again. Everyone was lost in thought.
Qinian pressed the accelerator to the floor. Carrying several people full of doubts, the sports car sped toward the coordinates Ye Que had sent, plunging deeper into the night.
Meanwhile, that thread of Shen Wu’s cold mental power continued to wind faintly around Jiang Nuan’s wrist.
