Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions continuously rang out in the center of New Covenant City. The flames didn't just ignite several streets and rows of buildings, but also the dark, heavy night sky.
Residents living nearby cowered in their homes in panic, wondering why such fierce fighting was happening in the city center. Wasn't the attack supposed to have been only at the wedding?
"Whoosh—Boom!"
A short-range missile shot toward Uenoshi. She stomped against a wall and launched herself far away, the building behind her immediately struck by the missile, engulfed in a sea of destruction.
"Cease resistance immediately. Cease resistance immediately."
Several war machines surrounded her, their mechanical announcements repeating endlessly. Uenoshi gritted her teeth.
Damn it, these things just never end!
Her abilities worked well against living beings, but they were useless against these metal, lifeless objects. After all, machines had no genes for her to forcibly transform.
That was also why Guan Tong had brought Coal Ball to fight with her. Coal Ball could use blood vines, and their strength and toughness could effectively destroy metal constructs.
But Coal Ball had limited stamina too.
Uenoshi glanced at Coal Ball, who was gasping for air not far away. She and Coal Ball had worked together to destroy five or six war machines, but more kept coming in an endless stream.
Moreover, all the Serpent Servants she had transformed were already spent. The person commanding this operation had clearly seen through her abilities, so they no longer sent Ascendants for her to transform, only war machines to encircle and capture her.
Coal Ball was running out of stamina, and her own Mind Power was nearly depleted. The situation was extremely unfavorable.
*I wonder how the Troupe Leader is doing. There's still no news from him. I have to keep drawing their attention until the very last moment. But Coal Ball...*
Uenoshi thought to herself. Coal Ball was Guan Tong's pet, but now it was a true war beast. Even if she had to fight to the death, she couldn't let it die with her.
She barked out an order: "Coal Ball, leave the city immediately!"
Coal Ball lifted its head, hesitated for a moment, and then instead of running away, it ran toward her.
Uenoshi furrowed her brow. Just as she was about to say something, she heard a familiar voice from beside her.
"The battle is over. We're leaving now."
"Troupe Leader?!"
Uenoshi turned her head and saw Guan Tong, who had arrived without her noticing.
Just then, the several war machines that had surrounded them all opened fire, and over a dozen missiles roared toward them.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The blinding flames engulfed the two humans and the beast. But soon, the war machines scanned signs of life—the enemy hadn't been blown to pieces.
They tried to attack again, only to find their bodies out of control.
The Shadow's phantom forms had drilled into their bodies the moment the explosion occurred, and at this instant, they all materialized.
One by one, the war mechs turned into fireballs and crashed from the sky. Guan Tong dismissed the shadow barrier and summoned the shelter, letting Uenoshi and Coal Ball inside. Then he looked down over the entire city.
"Gaelid... From now on, no matter where you are, I will find you and tear you apart limb from limb..."
October 21st, early morning.
Banzhen City. Uenoshi dressed in a black outfit and went with Guan Tong to a wilderness area outside the city.
Beneath a tree was a freshly dug pit. Guan Tong placed Adam's broken corpse inside and covered it with dirt.
"Aren't you going to put up a gravestone or something?" Uenoshi asked.
"No need," Guan Tong said. "He wasn't the type to care about that sort of thing anyway."
"..."
Uenoshi looked at the patch of fresh earth, a mix of emotions swirling in her heart.
Although she hadn't had much fondness for Adam, there was one thing she truly admired about him: his devotion to his family.
If anyone else had Adam's abilities, they might have long given up on their missing wife and daughter. With the power they had, they could become a valued guest anywhere, enjoying top-tier treatment and benefits.
Even if they still wanted to marry and have children, with their skills and appearance, countless members of the opposite sex would undoubtedly be willing to marry them.
But he had spent his whole life running around for his wife and daughter, and now he had died for it.
This stirred an indescribable respect in Uenoshi's heart for Adam—she, who had been abandoned by her parents as a child. This man, who seemed a bit careless and sloppy, had far exceeded too many people in taking responsibility for his own duties.
Then Uenoshi thought of what Guan Tong had told her—Adam was killed by his own daughter, even if the one controlling that body was someone else. Her heart felt even heavier.
"Rest now, Adam," Guan Tong said to the grave. "I'll take care of the rest."
Uenoshi looked at Guan Tong. "Troupe Leader, his daughter's body is being occupied by Gaelid's consciousness. What do we do?"
"Her consciousness hasn't completely disappeared. Bruce knows that very well." Guan Tong recalled the scene. The tears that the girl shed after using her ability to kill Adam hadn't been fake.
This meant the girl still retained her own consciousness. As a genius from birth, not only had her Mind Power developed prematurely, but her brain's subjective consciousness must also have far surpassed that of children her age.
So at that moment, she must have recognized her own father, but she couldn't control her body's use of its abilities. She could only watch helplessly as "she" killed Adam.
That was also why, in his final moments, Ye Dang had sent Guan Tong one last message through the Mind Network: "Don't kill her, save her."
In that final instant, he must have realized his daughter was being forced against her will. That's why he bore no resentment toward her for killing him.
"Uenoshi, what Bruce wants isn't just a body. He wants the ability to manipulate force fields. This means he can't completely erase Adam's daughter's memories and consciousness."
An Ascendant's abilities and exclusive items were never bound to a body, but to consciousness.
If Adam's daughter's consciousness was completely erased, then her abilities and Mind Power would disappear along with it. At that point, what Gaelid occupied would only be an ordinary little girl's body, making it hard to pass the subsequent Rule challenges.
"So you're saying Bruce will only try his best to suppress Adam's daughter's consciousness and let Gaelid's consciousness take absolute dominance?"
"Exactly. What we need to do is find her, find a way to separate her, or directly erase Gaelid's consciousness, letting that body return to Adam's daughter's control."
Uenoshi nodded. "Gaelid knows you're going to do that. He'll be extremely cautious and on guard. Also, about this Han Qiu... He's not dead, is he?"
"He was indeed killed by my shadow at the time," Guan Tong speculated. "But his body disappeared after a while... Combined with the things he said, his ability might be to resurrect somewhere else after death."
"Resurrect from the dead..." Uenoshi was stunned. "There's actually an ability like that?"
"Precisely because he has that kind of ability, he's always been able to stay calm and composed even in dangerous situations. This time, when he was trapped in the Countermeasures Research Office's base, he must have activated that ability by committing suicide, thus successfully escaping and going to Suroma."
Guan Tong paused, then added, "But this kind of extremely special ability must have some limitations, or require a huge price."
Uenoshi nodded in agreement.
If Han Qiu could infinitely resurrect after death without any restrictions or costs, that would be too terrifying.
But even so, this ability was still ridiculously powerful.
It meant that for ordinary survival-type Rules, even if Han Qiu failed the challenge, it didn't matter—after all, he could just resurrect.
Having this ability gave him an extremely high margin for error. Perhaps that was exactly why Han Qiu had so rarely failed all along.
Just like he had said to Guan Tong: losing a "game" didn't matter. He always had another chance to start over, and in the next round, he would learn from the mistakes of the previous failure and do better.
A Bruce who controlled national power and various intelligent technologies, and a Han Qiu who possessed the heaven-defying ability to resurrect after death... Uenoshi looked at Guan Tong and knew that both enemies were truly terrifying.
Anxiety began to grow in her heart.
She turned her head to look at the earthen grave. She couldn't imagine what it would be like if Guan Tong were the one lying there. That was a result she absolutely could not accept.
"Troupe Leader, we need an army," Uenoshi said. "I want to train all of Sakura Prayer's Ascendants into soldiers—soldiers who fight only for us."
Guan Tong looked at her and slowly let out a sigh. "Uenoshi, we can't become another Bruce just to achieve our goals. If you make those Ascendants obey blindly without discernment, how is that any different from Bruce's cyborgs?"
"But—"
"We can win. With our own strength." Guan Tong said firmly.
"Guan Tong."
Shi Jingyi's voice suddenly and without warning rang through the Mind Network.
Guan Tong thought she was going to ask about what had happened the night before—after all, the wedding had been live-streamed, and the whole world had seen his and Ye Dang's attack.
But he was wrong. Shi Jingyi didn't ask about that. Instead, she told him a piece of news.
There was a hint of sorrow in her voice as she delivered the message. Guan Tong was momentarily stunned after hearing it.
"Fang Qian is dead. Her funeral is this afternoon. Do you want to come?"