The Bound Spirit chasing the skeleton looked up, its gaze bearing three rings of light sweeping toward the severed wrist flying through the air!
Yang Zicang immediately sensed something was wrong.
[Deploy!]
The “palm,” controlled by the deployed ability, traced an odd arc with its blood as it rushed toward the other side.
But in that instant, the Bound Spirit seemed to seize the invisible trajectory, its massive hand pulling—the severed palm naturally fell into its giant grasp!
Pfft, fizz, fizz.
Blood dripped into its palm, and the mottled energy lines within its body instantly flared brightly.
Hong Haocheng swung his sword, cutting through the Psychic Bodies of a few who charged at him—they couldn’t even scream before collapsing to the ground as if unconscious.
[I have gained a total of 3721.5N]
“How dare he kill!”
“Kill him!”
“Psychic attack, watch out!”
Some retreated in fear, while others charged in fury.
Hong Haocheng turned his head coldly, his blade ruthlessly slicing through space, colliding with the oncoming crowd; frost and droplets scattered in the air amidst their golden and red illusory flames.
Crack!
The atmosphere in the hall suddenly tensed.
The dark, concealed ropes binding the Bound Spirit’s body snapped instantly.
Crack! Crack! Boom!
Boom! Amid explosive shouts10_7, rocks scattered as a massive figure sent a dozen figures flying with a single palm slap.
A blue figure appeared at high speed behind the boy who had had two swords stabbed into his body.
With two crisp sounds, these weapons snapped apart, and the attackers instantly aged. With a flick of a finger, one turned into ashes.
Blood gushed profusely around Hong Haocheng; his body was broken. He struggled to lift his head and look up.
The monster’s head drooped low, its massive hand falling beside Haocheng like a protective shield. Its towering form shielded the boy from behind. Before any attack could even graze him, it twisted and scattered like leaves caught in a vortex.
Yang Zicang circled his longsword, withdrawing his arm to point horizontally at the bound spirit. He was astonished that the boy could command this ferocious bloodline beast—one that Lost Illusion Company could only seal away!
Cheng Yunze and the others quickly retreated near the Lightgate. He stared in disbelief at the shattered figure standing a head shorter than himself.
That monster was protecting him!
The model aura on the bound spirit’s chest flickered, fractured—some sections dim, some still glowing bright.
It lowered its head and buzzed:
{You awakened me… So this is what I have become.}
“It’s awake.”
The surrounding crowd was shocked—the bound spirit had awakened its will!
“What now?”
“If we all fight together, we should be able to take it down.”
The moment these words fell, the colossal bound spirit kicked a piece of floor tile flying.
[Dispatch!]
Bang! The object that had been redirected by the scheduled ability reversed course and struck the head of the man who had urged a joint attack. That figure wobbled and collapsed to the ground.
Gasps erupted all around as the crowd retreated another ten-odd paces.
Luo Bin connected with Yang Zicang through their minds.
{This is a waking monster—who knows how much humanity it still has left? And that guy on the other side is just too terrifying.}
Yang Zicang’s steps slowed down.
A three-ring bloodline creature driven solely by battle instinct was entirely different in nature from a three-ring bloodline creature that had regained its will.
At this point, he was essentially facing an executive under an editor-in-chief.
“A waking Bound Spirit is immensely valuable. Killing it for virtual zero-sequential weapons would be a huge loss.”
Yang Zicang looked toward the boy tightly shielded by the monster. He seemed only slightly younger than him.
The boy’s face still held an innocence untouched by the world, yet also radiated deep exhaustion and weakness.
He understood his own worth. He knew the unique abilities of his bloodline. He had perfectly wielded those abilities through his own decisiveness, his will, and his sacrifice of his body.
Yang Zicang let out a sigh.
He thought to himself: If it were him in that place, he might not have been able to do the same.
A deep and hefty voice of thought emanated from within the Bound Spirit, spreading through the surroundings, cold and solemn.
{You awakened my lost will with your own body. But now, what will you make of yourself?}
The monster turned its head and swept a gaze over the many people who had retreated, like a butcher eyeing the livestock waiting to be slaughtered in their pens.
{Hand over anyone with a healing ability sphere, and I’ll spare your lives. Otherwise, everyone here will be buried with my friend.}
“No need!” Hong Haocheng’s voice came firmly from his throat. “Take me away; I have my own way.”
Yang Zicang stepped forward, and Cheng Yunze also stepped forward.
Cheng Yunze said, “Friend, we are all from the same city, and we truly came to save you today. You can invest in each other with the Red Model member of my team. If anything comes up in the future, feel free to contact us anytime.”
Yang Zicang glanced at the man. After a moment of contemplation in his mind, he severed his connection with Luo Bin, and the fold on his chest jutted into the void.
{So you actually contacted me.}
Cheng Yunze’s expression shifted slightly before he calmly accepted Yang Zicang’s mental link.
Yang Zicang silently communicated in his mind:
[My train can plant a station marker on a target, allowing me to be by their side at any time.]
{What do you want to do?}
[I’ll hold off the Bound Spirit, and you use your skeleton to stuff the marker into that man’s body.]
{Planting a marker would be like handing him over willingly. Do you think I’d agree to such a request?}
[I can let your female teammate go, or else you’ll never see her again. Moreover, I can also let my spirit dragon plant the marker on that kid.]
That special skeleton was extremely durable, capable of regenerating no matter how much it was hit, instilling deep apprehension in Yang Zicang.
Cheng Yunze quickly weighed the value between Hong Haocheng and Ning Jiajia; clearly, Ning Jiajia, who was completely loyal to his own team, held higher worth.
As the two conferred, the Bound Spirit, its hand somewhat reduced in size, had already grabbed Hong Haocheng in its grasp.
Cheng Yunze’s expression shifted.
“Go!”
As his words fell, the White Shadow Nian Dragon emerged from behind Yang Zicang, carrying a small phantom of a platform in its mouth. The spectral skeleton dashed over, took it from its mouth, and swiftly crashed toward Hong Haocheng in the distance.
Though hunched over, the Bound Spirit stood like a sovereign. Seeing that someone still dared to attack even after it awakened, its thick, viscous-blue aura brightened.
{How dare you!}
The monster flew into a rage.
Boom!
It stomped the ground, causing the earth to quake; fragments of stone were kicked up instantly, exploding and splintering into countless shards.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
[Deploy!]
Thump, thump, thump!
Yang Zicang burst forward at suddenly increased speed, dissolving into a blur as he raised his Blazing Sword, charging toward the Bound Spirit through the parted rubble.
[Deploying Position Expansion: Thousand-rank.]
[I have marked 1,879 trajectories!]
The rain-like debris had their trajectories twisted by the power of dispatch, accelerating as they flew toward both rear sides! But then, a mysterious force pulled them back, and the forward momentum of the fragments collectively took a step backward.
Boom!
Amid the group’s shouts of surprise, Yang Zicang’s sword stirred up rubble from the ground.
The Bound Spirit kicked aside the charging skeleton, punched upward to shatter the basement’s ceiling, and leaped out through the gap with a whoosh.
Splintered stones flew and crashed everywhere, causing chaos as the people below scattered to dodge in disorder.
[There are too many—I can’t mark them all.]
A faint smile curled at the corner of Yang Zicang’s mouth. Amidst these swirling debris, a coin, now visible then hidden, mingled with the dust and smoke. In the dim, shadowy light, it rushed toward a certain someone among the group near the light door.
Thwap, thwap, thwap! Multiple shields in front of Cheng Yunze trembled violently as the hail of rubble struck them. The stones blasted out by the Bound Spirit carried a phantom-zero effect, and only these force fields could resist them.
In that instant, they shattered quickly and yet were raised anew.
Suddenly, before one of the force fields, that speeding stone flickered abruptly with a faint golden light!
A sharp sense of danger surged within Cheng Yunze.
“Watch out!”
Beside him, An Juke’s face was filled with terror as he reached out a large hand, trying to seize that suddenly accelerating stone—and the coin tightly hidden beneath it!
Cheng Yunze’s slowly blinking eyes gradually opened, catching sight of a “copper coin” emerging from the rubble of the shattered force field, flying toward him.
Born Treasure!
Hum!
With a resonant sound, a beam of light manifested from within the man’s body.
Psychic Body!
Slap! The coin stuck onto Cheng Yunze’s body. The moment Yang Zicang crushed the 【Life Bank】Ability Sphere, the Psychic Body Cheng Yunze had already raised his hand, and his figure vanished in a swoosh.
[No target for inheritance.]
[Life Bank use failed.]
Yang Zicang, having retreated a good distance, turned his head to glance for a moment. His brows slightly furrowed as he quickly dashed toward a nearby pillar, leaped upward with a kick, and refractively jumped out of the hollow to the ground above.
The Psychic Body Cheng Yunze sneered as he kicked off, his body directly crossing through the ceiling, appearing on the first floor of the grand hall.
At this moment, the now-awakened Bound Spirit had issued a summons, with hundreds—if not thousands—of monsters rushing in from the surroundings. As the crowd heard the sound, their faces turned pale with shock.
The Psychic Body state of Cheng Yunze resembled a martial arts master strolling leisurely. With his hands clasped behind his back, he turned to look over and snorted, saying:
(Brother Yang, weren’t we supposed to deal with the monsters together?)
Yang Zicang, whose foot had just touched the ground upon landing, saw the translucent figure rising from the ground. He let out an awkward chuckle and said,
“Sorry about that—he pulled me back to my original trajectory when I was accelerating over. It just so happened to fall within the time-flow’s control range, so I decided to give it a casual try.”
“Ha, fine. You two, one speaks casually, the other acts impulsively.”
The train brought Luo Bin and dozens of others up to the first floor ground. Before the ghostly window of the phantom train, Ning Jiajia covered her mouth. She had never known that her captain could possess such a state! The people inside the car were also extremely astonished. They never expected that Yang Zicang could leverage the situation to force out Cheng Yunze’s ultimate trump card.
“You people just won’t leave me alone!”
The one-armed youth seated in the palm of the Bound Spirit shouted angrily:
“Get lost quickly. I don’t have time for you. If you follow me any further, I’ll tear your lair apart!”
Drifting sideways, Cheng Yunze gave his hand a shake, and his vanished body reappeared. He stepped into it, and his sleeping form immediately opened its eyes.
Pointing at Yang Zicang, Cheng Yunze said, “Everything just now was his scheme. You saw it too — he planned to set me up. Such a person is not worth trusting. Join our Four-Phase Team, and I can grant you the right to recruit Red Model teammates. I can also erase the mental mark just planted on you.”
Outside the great hall, blue giants of various sizes began surging up the stone steps.
Placing the youth in his hand on the ground, the Bound Spirit let the dark glow behind him gradually dissipate, replaced by streaks of azure blue.
“Why would I need you to erase it?”
The monster’s fingers pinched toward Hong Haocheng’s head, then, like pulling an object stuck in glue, yanked the station platform lodged inside him out.
{Zicang, quickly leave. The light here is too strong, the train can barely hold together anymore.}
Yang Zicang looked at the boy who had awakened the sleeping giant and said, “As this friend said, my target is not you. So, brother, if you’re willing to stay here, my camp is open to you, ready to provide supplies and food. Join our Great Client Construction Team. I am Yang Zicang.”
Hong Haocheng turned his head to glance behind him; groups of monsters appeared at the main entrance, like courtiers coming to greet their leader.
He looked back solemnly and declared, “None of you have the right to make me join. Because I, Laozi, am the leader of the Hongtu Society—Hong Haocheng!”
Yang Zicang, who had remained calm throughout, widened his eyes abruptly.
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