90: Chapter 90 The Trump Card of Tsukuyomi
The curtain of rain hung inverted.
Above the abandoned freight station, the cumulonimbus clouds were forcibly commandeered by Bai Cang's water-type rule, each raindrop becoming a prism refracting killing intent.
Black Flame surged beneath Su Jianguo's feet, the abyssal fire steaming the surrounding accumulated rainwater into white mist.
He lowered his voice, speaking to Bai Cang in a tone only the two of them could hear: "Five S-class, can you handle them?"
Bai Cang straightened the collar of his trench coat.
His movements were slow and composed.
It was as if what stood before him were not five Neon S-class Strange Talk Sequences, but five fish blowing bubbles in a market water tank.
"Can't handle them."
Su Jianguo's eyelid twitched.
"Then you…"
"Don't I still have you?" Bai Cang turned his head to look at him, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes that Su Jianguo couldn't decipher. "Last time at the port, we brothers worked together quite well."
Su Jianguo's mouth twitched.
That cooperation at the port? You call that cooperation?
That was him being mistaken for a traitor colluding with the Salvation Society by the Saintess of the Sanctuary, forced to endure the Judgment Rain alongside you!
And after enduring it, you even imagined it into some kind of close-knit comrades-in-arms risking their lives to save a brother!
"That was an accident." Su Jianguo gritted his teeth.
"Accidents are also a form of fate."
Bai Cang smiled slightly.
"Many great relationships begin with misunderstandings."
Su Jianguo: "……"
Don't you fucking make it sound so ambiguous.
My wife is still in Linhai.
Bai Cang didn't give Su Jianguo any more opportunity to let his imagination run wild.
He raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
Snap.
The sound was very light.
Yet all the accumulated water around the entire freight station exploded at the same instant.
Countless water droplets transformed into transparent blades, slashing toward the five Neon S-class Strange Talk Sequences in an overwhelming deluge.
Each water blade was so thin it was almost non-existent, yet they carved extremely fine white marks in the air.
That was not mere water.
It was high-pressure water lines compressed, accelerated, and imbued with cutting rules by Bai Cang.
Yomi Boy moved first.
The zipper of the backpack on his back burst open automatically, and over a dozen rotting child corpses with blue-purple bodies crawled out, using their bodies to forcibly withstand the water blades.
The water blades slashed onto the child corpses, emitting dull thuds like chopping rotten meat, with putrid fluids splattering everywhere.
"Bai Cang!" Yomi Boy's laughter was sharp and shrill. "The debt you owe Neon…"
He didn't finish his sentence.
A fist wrapped in Black Flame had already smashed into his face.
Su Jianguo's fighting style was completely different from Bai Cang's. Bai Cang was elegant, calculating, with every drop of water precisely landing on rule nodes. Su Jianguo was pure, violent suppression—Black Flame paving the way, fists doing the talking.
Yomi Boy was sent flying by the punch, crashing into and smashing the cargo compartment of an abandoned cold-chain truck. Before he could even crawl up, Bai Cang's water lines had already entangled his ankles.
"Little brother," Bai Cang called out.
Su Jianguo instinctively replied, "Hm?"
"Three steps to the left."
Su Jianguo didn't think too much; his body was faster than his brain, and he took three steps to the left.
The moment he moved, the broken blade of the Headless Samurai slashed through the position where he had originally been standing.
The Karma lock-on line swept past silently, but only sliced through the air.
Su Jianguo felt a chill down his back.
"Front right, spread the Black Flame." Bai Cang continued to command.
Su Jianguo raised his foot and stomped violently.
The Black Flame exploded in a fan shape, forcing out the Elder of the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade who was hiding underground to launch a sneak attack. The copper coin fragments in the old man's eye sockets were still oozing blood, and he stared at Bai Cang with venomous hatred.
"How did you know his location?" Su Jianguo couldn't help but ask.
Bai Cang raised his hand to catch the falling rainwater, his tone casual: "I am a water-type Awakened. As long as there are water molecules in the air, even if it's just a single drop, I can perceive the opponent's movements."
Bai Cang's voice hadn't yet faded.
The Noh mask on the Faceless Lady's face suddenly split open a second mouth.
There was no sound.
No spiritual energy fluctuations.
Not even any killing intent.
From the accumulated water beneath Bai Cang's feet, a pale hand extended silently.
That hand had slender fingers, nails painted blood-red, and its movement was as gentle as a lover brushing a cheek.
It gripped Bai Cang's ankle.
"Caught you."
The Faceless Lady's voice came from beneath the water.
Bai Cang lowered his head.
His gaze turned cold for an instant.
Boom!
A vacuum zone with a diameter of three meters exploded at the position where he had been standing.
Accumulated water, gravel, and rail fragments were ground into powder by the water pressure.
Bai Cang's figure appeared ten meters away, a corner of his trench coat missing.
The edge of the gap shimmered with pitch-black corrosion marks, which were still slowly spreading upward.
"Rule infiltration."
Bai Cang tore off that piece of the hem.
The moment the fabric hit the ground, the entire piece turned into black ash.
"You Neon people, whenever you can't win head-on, you like to play dirty."
Yomi Boy flanked from the side.
The child corpses pouring out of the backpack didn't attack directly this time, but instead climbed onto the ceiling, containers, and abandoned signal towers, occupying all the high ground.
"Bai Cang, your water molecule perception is indeed formidable."
Yomi Boy licked the corner of his mouth.
"But can you lock onto the movements of five S-class simultaneously?"
As the voice fell.
The Headless Samurai's broken blade, the Inverse Buddha's incomplete Buddha shadow, the Hundred Ghosts Parade's vengeful spirit tide, and the Faceless Lady's infiltration rule all slammed toward Bai Cang from four directions at the same time.
Bai Cang formed seals with both hands.
All the accumulated water around the freight station shot up into the sky, transforming into a rotating water tornado.
The pressure inside the tornado was great enough to crumple steel into a ball.
But the five S-class attacks were not steel.
They were rules.
The Headless Samurai's Karma lock-on line pierced through the water curtain.
The Inverse Buddha's retrograde rule caused the water tornado to begin rotating in reverse.
The Faceless Lady's infiltration silently corroded every drop of accumulated water beneath Bai Cang's feet.
A wisp of blood spilled from the corner of Bai Cang's mouth.
Su Jianguo rushed over.
Black Flame spread into a wall of fire, forcibly burning through the Headless Samurai's Karma line.
"Big Brother!"
Bai Cang wiped the corner of his mouth.
"I'm fine."
He looked at the five covetous auras surrounding them and suddenly smiled.
"It's just that I have some regrets."
Su Jianguo was stunned.
"Regret what?"
"I regret that when I bombed Neon back then, I didn't blow them all to smithereens."
Su Jianguo: "……"
Did you actually fucking bomb them?
...
East side of the freight station.
The roof of the abandoned office building.
Two women stood in the curtain of rain.
Rainwater fell three feet in front of them and automatically evaporated into white mist.
Lin Wanqing wore a plain white dress, her expression as calm as if she were strolling through a market.
Saintess Lin Xinglan was dressed in her Saintess ceremonial robes, her golden pupils reflecting the battlefield below.
"Bai Cang is about to reach his limit."
Saintess Lin Xinglan's tone was indifferent.
"Him and that Night Owl, two S-class fighting five, they won't last ten minutes."
Lin Wanqing didn't speak.
She looked at the middle-aged man wrapped in Black Flame below.
Night Owl.
An S-class defector.
Yesterday he was still fighting side-by-side with Bai Cang at the port, caught red-handed by the Sanctuary.
Now he's come to save Bai Cang again.
"That day at the port, he said he was just passing by."
Saintess Lin Xinglan sneered.
"Happened to pass by the port's trash heap, happened to erupt with S-class combat power, happened to execute a perfect combination with Bai Cang."
"Former Saintess, do you believe it?"
Lin Wanqing finally spoke.
"I don't."
She paused.
"But we can let him finish fighting first."
Saintess Lin Xinglan looked at her.
"What do you mean?"
"Six Neon S-class infiltrated Linhai to assassinate the Queen and sacrifice the entire city."
Lin Wanqing's voice was very soft.
"They are the ones who must die."
"Bai Cang and Night Owl can be put aside for now."
Saintess Lin Xinglan was silent for a moment.
"Then we shall wait another ten minutes."
"Wait for them to both suffer losses."
...
Executive Jiang Xu leaned on his dark gold spear, half of his body eroded by black spots.
In front of him, the black moon crack in Tsukuyomi's right eye was still spreading.
Neither of them moved.
Executive Jiang Xu was suppressing the rule conflict within his body.
Tsukuyomi was repairing the Domain that had been bitten through by the Void Realm's giant maw.
"Your companion is about to die."
Tsukuyomi looked toward the distant Bai Cang and Night Owl, who were being besieged by five S-class auras.
"Two S-class, fighting five."
"How long do you think they can last?"
Executive Jiang Xu didn't answer.
He raised his left hand and pressed his earpiece.
"Saintess."
"Have you seen enough?"
On the roof.
Saintess Lin Xinglan's pupils constricted slightly.
Lin Wanqing also frowned.
Executive Jiang Xu's voice continued to come through the communication channel.
"You want to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, waiting for Neon and Bai Cang to both suffer losses before making a move."
"I understand."
"But if Bai Cang and Night Owl die, the next situation will be four against one."
"In my current state, I can hold off Tsukuyomi for at most another three minutes."
"Three minutes from now, what you will have to face is five Neon S-class plus one Half-step King Level."
Executive Jiang Xu's voice remained calm.
"Saintess, are you sure you want to gamble?"
Saintess Lin Xinglan's expression changed.
Lin Wanqing sighed.
"Let's go."
She stepped out.
Her figure disappeared from the roof.
The next second.
A golden pillar of light exploded in the center of the battlefield.
Holy Light poured down like a waterfall, forcing back all five Neon S-class besieging Bai Cang.
Lin Wanqing landed in front of Bai Cang.
Her plain white dress was dyed gold by the Holy Light.
She looked back at Bai Cang.
"The leader of the Salvation Society also has days where he gets beaten up by a crowd."
Bai Cang coughed up a mouthful of blood, but was still smiling.
"Former Saintess."
"Your entrance style is much more low-key than when you used to ring the bells at the Sanctuary."
Lin Wanqing's gaze was slightly cold.
"Shut up."
Saintess Lin Xinglan also arrived.
She landed on the other side of the battlefield, her golden pupils sweeping over the Neon group.
"Six Neon S-class, illegal entry, planning a terrorist attack."
"According to Sanctuary law."
"Execute on the spot."
The mask on the Faceless Lady's face laughed aloud.
"Four S-class."
"Finally, things are getting interesting."
Su Jianguo forcibly suppressed the panic in his heart, his Black Flame receding slightly.
Saintess Lin Xinglan looked at him.
Her gaze was as cold as a knife.
"Night Owl."
"That day at the port, you said you were just passing by."
"What about now?"
"Also just passing by?"
Su Jianguo took a deep breath.
"Saintess."
"I have explained."
"That day I really went to the port to avoid inspections."
"As for the fact that Bai Cang is my Big Brother, I just found out too."
Saintess Lin Xinglan's gaze grew colder.
"You, an S-class legendary Monster Hunter, suddenly pop up with a globally wanted criminal for a Big Brother."
"Do you think I would believe that?"
Su Jianguo gritted his teeth.
"Whether you believe it or not."
"I came today because Neon wants to kill the Queen, wants to kill Executive Jiang Xu, and wants to kill me."
"If I don't come, should I just wait for them to blow up Linhai?"
Bai Cang chimed in from the side.
"Little brother, don't explain."
"Saintess doesn't believe you because she dares not believe."
Saintess Lin Xinglan's gaze turned icy.
"What did you say?"
Bai Cang smiled.
"If you believed that Night Owl was innocent, wouldn't the S-class arrest warrant the Sanctuary issued for him yesterday be a slap in your own face?"
"Therefore, you must not believe it."
"Even if the evidence is placed in front of you, you must still say he is a traitor to humanity."
Saintess Lin Xinglan gripped the Holy Light in her hand.
"Bai Cang, you are courting death."
Lin Wanqing raised her hand.
"Enough."
She looked at Su Jianguo.
Her gaze lingered for three seconds.
"We'll talk after the fight."
...
Four against five.
The situation reversed instantly.
Lin Wanqing's Holy Light sealed off the Faceless Lady's infiltration rule.
Saintess Lin Xinglan's Judgment Rain evaporated the Hundred Ghosts Parade's vengeful spirit tide completely.
Bai Cang's water tornado reformed, and combined with Su Jianguo's Black Flame, pressed Yomi Boy and the Headless Samurai into continuous retreat.
The Inverse Buddha's incomplete Buddha statue was pierced through by Executive Jiang Xu's spear.
Before he could crawl up, Lin Wanqing's golden silk net had already covered him.
"Purify."
Holy Light poured into the Inverse Buddha's body.
The three Buddha faces on his back shrieked simultaneously.
Black gas surged frantically from the cracks in the Buddha statue, like boiling asphalt.
Yomi Boy's expression finally changed.
"How is this possible?"
"Four S-class, how can you suppress us?"
The mask on the Faceless Lady's face cracked open with more fissures.
"Lord Tsukuyomi!"
"Are you not going to make a move?!"
In the distance.
Tsukuyomi stood beneath the black moon.
He watched his retreating companions, his face devoid of any expression.
The black moon in his right eye rotated slowly.
"People of Great Xia."
"You just love to use numbers to bully the few."
Executive Jiang Xu raised his spear.
"Right now, we are the ones outnumbered."
Tsukuyomi was silent for a moment.
Indeed.
Six against five.
They had the advantage in numbers.
But their combat power was completely suppressed.
Bai Cang alone could hold off two.
The combination of Lin Wanqing and Saintess Lin Xinglan's Holy Light was almost a natural counter to Strange Tales.
Night Owl's Black Flame was being thrown out as if it cost nothing.
Although Executive Jiang Xu was severely injured, every thrust of his dark gold spear precisely interrupted Tsukuyomi's rule activation.
This wasn't bullying the few with numbers.
This was being outnumbered.
Yomi Boy suddenly laughed.
The laughter was sharp and piercing.
"People of Great Xia, have you forgotten something?"
He looked at Bai Cang.
"There is still one head on the gift list."
"Queen of Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth."
"She should have arrived in Linhai by now, right?"
Bai Cang's gaze turned cold.
Yomi Boy continued to laugh.
"You are holding us here."
"But can the Queen's guard platoon withstand an S-class assassination?"
Saintess Lin Xinglan's expression changed.
She pressed her earpiece.
"Sanctuary, where is the Queen's private plane right now?"
A hurried reply came through the communication channel.
"Saintess, the Queen's private plane landed at Linhai Airport five minutes ago."
"Currently safe."
Saintess Lin Xinglan just breathed a sigh of relief.
The communication channel suddenly exploded with a piercing alarm.
"Saintess!"
"An S-class spiritual energy fluctuation has appeared at the airport!"
"It's not Neon!"
"It's… it's the sea surface!"
Everyone looked toward the east at the same time.
Toward the direction of Linhai Port.
On the sea level, a phantom city rose, so massive it covered half the sky.
That city had high-rise buildings, streets, neon lights, and port cranes.
One could even see figures walking on the streets.
But it was not real.
It was a massive Mirage of the Sea Kingdom.
The mirage slowly opened its eyes.
They were a pair of pupils larger than the entire city.
Reflected in the pupils was the entire city of Linhai.
Mirage of the Sea Kingdom.
Half-step King Level.
Tsukuyomi bowed ninety degrees.
The black moon in his right eye shattered completely, black blood sliding down his cheek.
His voice was so devout it was almost insane.
"Welcome, Mirage of the Sea Kingdom."
"Please, for our King, clear the steps to godhood."
Bai Cang looked at the mirage obscuring the sky and slowly spat out one word.
"Fuck."