Chapter 25: A Bewildered Locke is Going on a Rampage

Although the monsters inside the rift were dense, with Zhang Daosheng leading a direct breakthrough, the central battlefront was rapidly pushed forward. Even the monsters that slipped past this Crazy Realm powerhouse were thoroughly harvested by the twenty True Realm experts following closely behind led by Cong Shiyun.

The front lines were secure. In the rear, the slightly less powerful teams carried out their respective duties under Chu Wan's instructions and began setting up defensive lines.

Zhou Yan knew in his heart that this eradication operation, led by a Crazy Realm expert and so many True Realm powerhouses, was a major action for the Vermilion Bird Palace to wash away its past shame, and not a stage for him to show off his abilities. Therefore, along with Luo Xuan, he obediently followed behind Chu Wan, observing the big shots clear out the monsters attracted by the aura of the exit. He simply took it as a chance to broaden his horizons.

After staying for a little while, taking advantage of the moment when Chu Wan left the two of them to assist other personnel facing heavier pressure in battle, Luo Xuan walked beside him with a gloomy expression and suddenly said, "I wonder how my sister is doing over there. I somehow feel a bit worried."

Zhou Yan comforted her, "She's staying in the Leaving Fire Pavilion, which can be considered the safest area in Wing City, right?"

Luo Xuan, however, shook her head. "That's what they say, but the moment I think about how almost all the True Realm masters have followed us here, it feels a bit weird."

"Director Chu said that while inside a rift, because one is cut off from the original world, a special sense of homesickness will psychologically arise." Zhou Yan thought for a moment and offered a suggestion: "If you're really worried, I see there's no room for us to fight here anyway, so we should be able to withdraw early."

Luo Xuan continued to shake her head. "No, I want to participate in the post-battle search here and be the first to confirm the situation of my dad's remains."

However, she was indeed quite tempted by Zhou Yan's suggestion. "How about you go back and take a look, Zhou Yan? I always feel a bit uneasy."

Zhou Yan looked at her and smiled, "You, your bark is worse than your bite. Look, she's going off to college right at the beginning of next month, are you going to be this unable to let go then?"

Her hidden thoughts being exposed by him, Luo Xuan's face flushed slightly.

Zhou Yan's expression suddenly trembled slightly. After a brief silence, he smiled and said to Luo Xuan, "Actually, I think your suggestion is pretty good. There's nothing for me to do here anyway, so I'll go back and take a look."

Seeing that Zhou Yan actually agreed to her somewhat willful decision, Luo Xuan didn't react for a moment and stammered, "Then... will you let Director Chu Wan know?"

"No need, just tell her for me. I'm pulling out." Zhou Yan seemed to become rather urgent.

He directly leaped onto his horse, lowered his head, and smiled at the somewhat dazed Luo Xuan, "Xiaoxuan, stick close to Director Chu, stay safe. Xiaoke and I will wait for you at home."

While Luo Xuan was still puzzled, Zhou Yan turned his horse around, dashed straight toward the rift exit, and vanished into the black hole in the blink of an eye.

"Eh?" Luo Xuan was instantly dumbfounded. Yet Zhou Yan's decisive action actually calmed her inexplicable palpitation. She failed to notice that the moment Zhou Yan turned and rushed toward the rift exit, his expression instantly turned extremely anxious.

***

Zhou Yan's expression was cold and hurried.

Right at the end of his conversation with Luo Xuan, he suddenly sensed that both the "Protective Vine" prop and the fusion material "Endless Desire for Slaughter" that he had specifically left on Luo Ke had produced abnormal movements that should not have occurred.

Especially the Protective Vine. As a quasi-living entity, after being activated, apart from possessing one-star level combat power, this prop also possessed sufficient investigative capabilities, capable of collecting sounds and transmitting and collecting biological signals. Although it lacked direct vision, when it came to acting as an "eye," it was no less effective than that black locust material he had phased out.

However, the intelligence fed back to him by the vine right now was that Luo Ke had been attacked, and the vine itself had already deployed, strangling a monster with a wolf head and a human body.

How could this not make him anxious?

Rushing out of the rift in one breath, the world before Zhou Yan's eyes suddenly changed, and he returned to the deep mountains he had entered earlier.

He reached back to touch the black hole representing the rift, only to find that as he approached a certain distance from the black hole, he began to be repelled, as if he had touched some kind of invisible wall. Just as Zhang Daosheng had said, the rift was currently in a state where exiting was allowed, but entering was forbidden.

He turned his horse around, preparing to leave, and then he saw five shattered skeletons on the ground and bloodstains everywhere.

'These are... the people Pavilion Master Cong specifically arranged to guard and receive outside the rift...'

He glanced at the scattered fragments of clothing and could tell they were in the style of the Vermilion Bird Palace, making his expression even uglier.

There was a conspiracy, a huge conspiracy!

Using this special rift—which had already thwarted a Vermilion Bird Palace eradication operation three years ago—as bait, and taking the Skinner Village incident as the fuse, a mastermind behind the entire composite event had plotted to lure away Zhang Daosheng, Cong Shiyun, and the numerous experts dispatched by the Vermilion Bird Palace.

Combined with the situation Luo Ke was currently facing with the enemy, I'm afraid the Leaving Fire Pavilion in Wing City had already been attacked!

His hands tightened on the reins, and the Yinglong Steed beneath him transformed from a horse shape into a dragon head, with a large number of strange light paths simultaneously emerging across its body surface.

Second-Gear Mode!

He glanced sideways slightly, his gaze cold. The next second, man and mount had already galloped two hundred meters away.

Meanwhile, near the rift exit he had just left, Jean, hiding in the woods, looked back with an ugly expression at the two bodyguards hiding with him. "Did you guys see that person riding the mechanical horse just now?"

The two bodyguards also wore astonished expressions and nodded.

"How could such an expert suddenly run out from inside? Did they discover that something happened at the Leaving Fire Pavilion?!"

"Didn't the Scorching Fire Society say they made special arrangements inside this rift to stall that Crazy Realm powerhouse?"

Jean's expression shifted several times, and he decisively turned around to leave with his subordinates.

'Things are out of control, this counts as mission failure. Scorching Fire Society, you are on your own.'

In less than ten seconds, Zhou Yan had spurred his horse out of the deep mountains and returned to the highway.

His expression was cold, and he ignored the gaze he had just perceived cast from the dense forest. Every extra second he delayed meant one less chance to rescue Luo Ke.

Under his command, the Protective Vine had now crawled out from the back of the keychain doll, transforming into a giant vine serpent to independently guard Luo Ke.

And this suburban area was about thirty kilometers away from the Leaving Fire Pavilion.

The running speed of the Yinglong Steed in Second-Gear Mode was—two hundred meters per second.

The travel time he needed was three minutes.

Luo Ke, you must hold on!

***

On the other side, after perceiving the violent tremors occurring on the ground, Luo Ke ran out of Section Chief Cheng's office with a pale face and looked toward the elders in the God-Machine Section's large office.

Only to find that they, too, wore panicked expressions, having no idea what was happening outside and above.

"An earthquake?" An uncle wearing glasses looked at his colleagues and guessed doubtfully, "I remember Wing City isn't in an earthquake zone, right..."

"Why does it sound a bit like an explosion to me?" Another aunt's expression was uncertain.

"Explosion? Gas leak in the cafeteria?" Another older brother joked, "Even the Leaving Fire Pavilion wouldn't dare to use shoddy construction for their stuff, right? No way!"

Luo Ke raised her hand weakly, "Could it be an enemy attack?"

Hearing her guess, everyone laughed.

"Little sister, this is the Leaving Fire Pavilion, an official institution!"

"Attacking this place? Have they got tired of living?"

Clearly, the idea of the Leaving Fire Pavilion being attacked was far too absurd in this peaceful era; no one could have guessed it right away.

As the crowd discussed animatedly, an uncle simply stood up and smiled, "I'll go check out other offices to see what's really going on."

"Go on, go on. Come back and tell us after you find out," another older sister smiled as well.

Watching the elders, who relaxed again after the tremors, Luo Ke silently returned to Elder Cheng's section chief office.

She took out her phone and dialed Elder Cheng's number...

After ringing for ten seconds, the prompt indicated no answer.

'Elder Cheng said he was going to a high-level emergency meeting, maybe he can't answer the phone.'

Luo Ke thought to herself, feeling her deduction was quite reasonable. Yet, she still felt an inexplicable sense of panic.

Another dozen seconds passed. Suddenly, all the white fluorescent lights in the office switched to red and began flashing rapidly.

A synthesized electronic voice then sounded:

【Illegal intrusion detected in the underground base】

【All room doors will close immediately】

【Office personnel please stay in your seats and do not wander around】

【All guards dispatch immediately】

The broadcast played continuously amidst the flashing red lights.

Subsequently, Luo Ke saw the automatic doors of the God-Machine Section's office rapidly seal shut.

Seeing this, the elders in the office, who had been laughing and chatting just moments before, fell silent.

One had to know that ordinary illegal intrusions wouldn't be serious enough to warrant sealing all office doors and sounding an alarm. The only possibility for such a situation to occur was that someone had broken through the gate guards by force.

You must be localización aware that the guards stationed at the Leaving Fire Pavilion's underground base gates were at least Fierce-tier or even Wonder-tier experts, and all of them were equipped with God-Machines. Even low-level God-Machines possessed combat power that absolutely could not be ignored. To defeat these guards, one had to be a Mech-Martial Artist as well...

Just as the office fell into a dead silence, the sound of guards running echoed through the corridor outside.

Followed closely by a barrage of gunfire and people's screams.

In less than another minute, everything returned to peace.

"W-What's the situation?"

Luo Ke heard someone in the large office swallow hard and ask in a low voice.

"I don't know... This is simply outrageous," another voice replied quietly from the other side.

The next second.

Bang!

A huge sound echoed, and the sealed electronic door of the office bulged inward under the heavy impact.

"Ah!" The people in the large office involuntarily screamed.

Luo Ke was also startled. She quickly ran to her small bag resting on the back of the sofa and pulled out the large-caliber handgun she had crafted herself. Then, she huddled against the corner of the wall, hiding the handgun in her arms while her other hand instinctively grasped the Oddish doll hanging from her bag, as if this could keep her little heart from beating so frantically.

Bang!

The electronic door took another heavy blow, and the office erupted into screams once more.

Bang! Boom!

With the third heavy strike, accompanied by the sound of the door cracking, two greedy beastly roars broke through the screams.

Immediately following were screams and the sound of flesh and bone being torn apart.

Hiding in the corner of the small office, Luo Ke trembled uncontrollably, tears streaming down her little face, not daring to peek at the situation outside at all.

"Help!"

A cry for help rang out.

Bang!

A member of the God-Machine Section stumbled blindly, smashing open the door of the section chief's office and rushing inside.

The next second, in Luo Ke's panicked eyes, a gray shadow violently lunged out from behind him, pinned him to the ground, and bit down hard, snapping his cervical spine.

It was strikingly a giant humanoid gray wolf!

After biting through the man's neck, it drank several gulps of warm blood, twitched its nose, suddenly raised its head, and spotted Luo Ke cowering in the corner.

Its eyes instantly flared with a bloodthirsty, greedy red light.

"Little girl, this smells so good!" muttering incoherently, the beast let out an angry roar and lunged toward Luo Ke.

Luo Ke screamed involuntarily, her hand too late to draw the gun hidden in her arms.

The next instant, she only felt a surge of movement within the Oddish doll she was gripping tightly, and a slender object drilled out.

Her small hand was pushed aside, and a small green shadow shot out, growing rapidly against the wind.

By the time it wrapped around the werewolf, it had already turned into a vine as thick as a human arm!

Immediately after, the vine tightened abruptly.

The sound of shattering bones and the werewolf's shrill roar sounded simultaneously.

In Luo Ke's dumbfounded gaze, the vine that had instantly killed the werewolf slithered back before her like a snake, standing upright like a bodyguard.

"Eh!?"

Luo Ke's scream turned into a cry of surprise. Looking at the vine before her that exceeded her cognitive understanding, she couldn't react for a moment.

However, judging from the movements of this snake-vine, it was clearly meant to protect her, allowing Luo Ke's mind to gradually calm down.

'This... seems to have crawled out from my hand...'

She looked at the Oddish she had been holding before her small hand was pushed away, only to find that the "garlic bulb" on its back had been burst open.

'So, this snake-vine has been hiding in my doll all along?'

Her little brain hadn't figured out the connection yet.

"What little girl, what are you yelling about..."

The next second, a curious voice sounded from outside the door, and immediately afterward, another blood-soaked werewolf violently burst into the room.

Then, it saw its companion lying on the ground with all its bones shattered and its body twisted, completely motionless.

"Roar!" It instantly let out a furious howl, turning its head to spot Luo Ke and the green vine standing guard in front of her.

However, before it even had a chance to lunge, it saw the vine actively dart forward like a green flash of lightning. In less than a fraction of a second, it sprang right before its face.

The werewolf instinctively swung its claws, wanting to tear it apart, but couldn't keep up with the vine's movements at all. In less than a second, it was bound tightly by the vine!

"No!" A panicked scream escaped the beast's jaws.

Without a shred of mercy, the vine instantly tightened!

Crack, crack—

When the werewolf collapsed to the ground with blood streaming from its seven orifices, the vine slithered back swiftly, guarding in front of Luo Ke once more. It swayed slightly, just like a pet raised by Luo Ke.

Having witnessed everything all over again, the girl widened her eyes, finally confirming that this vine was protecting her.

She scratched the back of her head, still somewhat puzzled.

"When... when did I get this bodyguard..."

Following that, an image of her receiving the Oddish flashed through her mind.

"Could it be Brother Zhou?!"

***