Chapter 653 429: Mission [2]

A highway snaked through the outskirts of Taiban City. Far from the urban center's hustle and bustle, the area was surrounded by endless desolation.

Occasionally, a few cars sped past, their headlights blazing.

A gray van was speeding down the highway.

The scenery outside flew by in a blur.

"So much for a 'difficult' mission!"

Inside the van.

A woman and two men.

They all looked to be in their twenties or thirties.

The van's interior was dark, lit only by the faint blue glow of the dashboard.

The short-haired woman in the driver's seat steered with one hand, the other resting casually on the edge of the open window.

The blood-red spider lily tattoo on her neck was jarring in the darkness. Its petals followed the curve of her neck, looking as if they might start to bleed from her skin.

In the back of the van.

A fat man was counting a stack of cash with greasy fingers.

The other, a young man with red hair, suddenly scoffed.

His gaunt frame was slumped in the seat, strands of his choppy, Crimson-dyed hair falling over his eyes.

On the floor of the van, the mouth of a bulging sack had come loose, revealing bundles of Sakura Coins.

The edges of the brand-new bills rustled with every jolt of the van.

"'Those idiots actually tried to fight back. I just riddled them with bullets. God, what a rush.'"

The fat man chuckled slyly.

"'Sister Hua, are we heading to Shenmu City next?'"

the red-haired young man asked, looking toward the short-haired woman up front.

Hearing this,

the short-haired woman merely snorted in response.

"'This world isn't that simple. Those... Huh? Oh no!'"

She was only halfway through her sentence

when her expression suddenly changed.

The next second.

SHLICK!

Suddenly,

the moving van lurched violently, accompanied by the piercing shriek of twisting, tearing metal.

A hole was abruptly punched through the van's interior wall.

A black, blade-like tail with a triangular tip shot straight through it, burying itself in the fat man's chest.

"'Ugh... help... help me...'"

Blood sprayed from his mouth in a torrent.

His eyes found the other two as he struggled to reach out a hand.

"'Shit!'"

At the sight,

the other two's expressions shifted.

And because of the sudden turn of events,

the van became unstable. One side lifted off the ground, causing the vehicle to tilt precariously.

The van screeched to a halt.

Its tires shrieked as they scraped against the pavement, a horrifying sound that tore through the quiet night.

Then, the van veered sharply, smashing straight into the green guardrail.

"BANG!"

A deafening crash shattered the night sky. The van burst through the guardrail, tumbled down the embankment, and finally landed on its side.

The van's wheels, still driven by inertia, continued to spin mechanically.

Thick black smoke, mingled with the flicker of flames, began to pour out from the wreckage.

It looked as if the van would explode at any moment.

BAM!

Just then, a deafening impact resounded, the shockwave echoing within the confined space of the van.

A closer look revealed that the van's steel door had warped under a heavy blow, a horrifying bulge protruding from the metal.

BAM!

A second heavy blow followed, and the entire door was launched into the air like a cannonball, soaring high and tracing a parabola before

it landed with a THUD, embedding itself diagonally in a muddy patch of earth several meters away.

"CRUNCH—"

An arm, its veins bulging, reached out first. Its fingers gripped the twisted frame of the van like iron pincers.

To the sound of groaning, overburdened metal, a figure leaped nimbly from the van—his red hair disheveled and his body now as burly as a mountain.

A moment later, a second, more slender figure landed close behind.

Incredibly, the hulking figure was none other than the formerly gaunt, red-haired young man.

However, he had undergone a dramatic transformation.

His entire frame had swelled to several times its original size, as if he were a balloon being pumped full of air.

His eyes glowed with a faint red light.

He stood there like an iron tower.

Amazingly, despite the violent crash,

the two of them were merely a little disheveled, having suffered no major injuries.

"'What the hell is that thing?'"

The pair scanned their surroundings.

Their eyes instantly locked onto one spot.

There, on the road ahead,

was a monster.

It hovered in mid-air, its body formed from what looked like a mass of twisted fog.

Its silhouette flickered in and out of existence.

What stood out most was its long tail.

It was pitch-black, its surface covered in a fine, scaly pattern. The tip was sharp as a blade, forming a perfect triangle whose edges glinted with a cold light, looking as if it could slice through anything.

Each time it swayed, the tail left a faint black afterimage in the air, like the stinger of some venomous creature—dangerous and deadly.

Its head was featureless, save for two long, narrow slits that served as eyes, glowing with a Crimson light.

Below them, a large maw was filled with shark-like serrated teeth.

The very light around it seemed to distort where it hovered.

Clearly, this was the monster that had attacked them.

Noticing their gazes,

the monster said nothing and simply charged straight toward them.

At this,

the spider lily tattoo on the neck of the short-haired woman, Sister Hua, began to twist bizarrely.

It squirmed as if alive, its dark-red tendrils spreading madly across her pale skin.

In an instant, a blinding red light flared up around her, like an ominous glow seeping from the Hell Abyss.

Then, a layer of fire enveloped her body.

"'It's a Yin Beast!'"

she shouted.

"'Together! Kill it!'"

...

「Half a minute later.」

"BOOOM—!!!"

A deafening explosion ripped through the night sky. The burning van completely disintegrated in the inferno, and a searing shockwave of thick smoke billowed outward.