Chapter 15: Adoptive Father, What Are You Doing?
"Creak, creak, creak!!!!!!!"
The surrounding noise was particularly loud; it was the intense friction sound of the Midnight Mass's joint bones.
This also meant that their speed was increasing, and their savagery was many times stronger than the zombies.
Wu Hen ran with all his might, focusing on his hearing, dodging the attacks of the surrounding Midnight Mass with his reflexes!
When they opened their mouths, their jaws made a distinct cracking sound.
When they leaped, their eight limbs sounded like firecrackers.
So even the Midnight Mass in Wu Hen's blind spots, he could still react to!
The glow was running out, and Wu Hen was like an excellent rugby player, breaking through the encirclement of the Midnight Mass to the barrier switch!
"Click!"
Grabbing the heavy barrier, Wu Hen pulled it to the other side.
"Clunk~ Clunk~~ Clunk~~~~~"
The scorching old train finally started!
Wu Hen saw the wheels speeding up, so he immediately ran towards the track!
Two Midnight Mass blocked Wu Hen's way, raising their sharp foreclaws to pierce Wu Hen's neck!
Wu Hen heard the sound of their movements the moment they raised their claws and immediately slid, passing through the gap between the two slowly descending claws of the Midnight Mass!
The moving train was right in front of him!
Wu Hen got up and ran alongside the train for a distance, then immediately jumped onto the connection between the cars.
Just as he leaped onto the train, suddenly a claw reached out from under the carriage and grabbed his ankle!
Wu Hen was shocked; looking down, he found a Midnight Mass lying flat on the train's underside, completely thawed!
Its body was flat, claws clutching the undercarriage tightly. Although the train was moving on the track, the gap between the undercarriage and track was just right so it couldn't be crushed.
His listening sense was indeed powerful now, not worrying about a sneak attack in his blind spot.
But if a Midnight Mass had been silently frozen under the train all along, and hadn't made any sound before, such a close-range ambush, even if Wu Hen heard it firsthand, he wouldn't have time to react!!
This is it!
Wu Hen already felt the Midnight Mass's claw exerting force, capable of tearing off his leg in an instant.
"Wu Hen, catch this!"
At the critical moment, Wu Hen heard Su Li's voice.
Looking up, the small flashlight-like tactical light was arcing through the air.
Wu Hen immediately understood, hurriedly reaching with his right hand.
But the Midnight Mass clawing at the train's underside was exerting force, dragging it further under the train where there wasn't enough light. It didn't come out but instead dragged Wu Hen further under the train.
This dragging made him unable to reach the tactical light thrown to him...
Seeing the life-saving tactical light slipping out of reach, Wu Hen wished his hand could stretch like Luffy's.
Something bizarre happened.
A shadow appeared on his right palm, a mini black dragon shadow darting out from his wrist.
The Black Void Shadow precisely caught the tactical light, and in the blink of an eye returned to Wu Hen's right arm!
Wu Hen barely had time to react; the tactical light was already in his palm.
Was it Black Lightning, his adoptive father?
No time to think, Wu Hen directed the tactical light under the carriage; the bright beam instantly pinned the Midnight Mass under it, allowing Wu Hen to see the hideous, grotesque, and extremely evil spirit clearly!
The mechanical wheels of the train on either side spun faster and faster, the pitch-black undercarriage and track forming a tiny space. In this narrow space lay a small Midnight Mass, a front paw clutching Wu Hen's ankle tightly, its eerie red eyes filled with resentment for the healthy human body!
"You old rogue, you're freaking disgusting!"
Wu Hen cursed in his heart and took advantage of the Midnight Mass being pinned by the light to pull his foot out.
"Wu Hen, get up here!" Su Li appeared above Wu Hen, reaching a hand down to him from the top of the carriage.
Wu Hen grabbed Su Li's hand and climbed to the top of the carriage.
There were still three cars to the safety car filled with phosphorescence; running on the track or walking through the cars was nearly impossible.
The residual glow of the total solar eclipse was the last ray of hope for Wu Hen and Su Li's survival; the Midnight Masses hunting around the train moved with the speed and strength of tigers and leopards!
Wu Hen knew they couldn't walk through the cars. The cars had roofs, making the glow ineffective, and several Midnight Masses had already entered those three dilapidated cars.
They could only walk on top of the moving train.
"Bang!!"
"Bang!!!"
Su Li fired two shots in a row, knocking down the Midnight Masses that had climbed onto the carriages.
The two smoothly ran past the first car, but on either side of the second car, a group of Midnight Masses was waiting for Wu Hen and Su Li.
"You lock them, I'll shoot!" Su Li didn't hesitate, leaping onto the second car.
Wu Hen immediately followed, focusing on his listening sense. Whenever he heard the sound of bones suddenly cracking, it meant a Midnight Mass was launching an attack, and Wu Hen would lock it with the light first!
"Watch your step, Aunt!"
As Wu Hen gave his warning, the tactical light in his hand locked onto the Midnight Mass in front of Su Li's feet.
"Bang!" Su Li's shot was swift and clean.
That Midnight Mass was just about to pounce when it was shot out of the car.
"Behind you."
Wu Hen turned around, the tactical light shining like a laser on a Midnight Mass already in mid-air.
Su Li turned simultaneously, her hands swiftly lifting in the direction of the light beam.
"Bang!"
This shot was marvelous, hitting the Midnight Mass in mid-air directly.
Because of the shot, the Midnight Mass fell to the train's underside, ground down by the steel wheels!
Eliminating the threat behind them, Wu Hen and Su Li pressed forward with high coordination, moving in a cross-tactical manner.
"Left side."
"Bang!" The bullet whizzed.
"In front."
"Bang!" Su Li's amber pupils showed no hesitation.
"Behind you, low."
"Bang! Bang!" Two Midnight Masses were shot away simultaneously!
...
The sky was as black as ink.
A moving train sped through the darkness.
On top of the carriages, a single remaining light flickered rapidly, like an old projector playing under a solar eclipse, displaying one grotesque monster after another…
"The last car!"
Wu Hen and Su Li leaped past the connection, only 25 meters away from the safe zone.
But the last bit of glow in the sky disappeared, making it truly white night midnight!
On either side of the track, dozens of Midnight Masses with scarlet eyes emitted a loud skeletal crackling sound. With the Heavenly Light gone, they finally reached their strongest form!
"Bang!"
One Midnight Mass leaped up, jumping from the side of the track directly onto the train's roof, its powerful claws creating craters on the roof!
The other Midnight Masses did the same, moving so fast that the tactical light could barely lock onto them.
"It seems there's no escape." Su Li glanced at the brutal Midnight Masses ahead, already making a judgment in her heart.
Twenty-five meters was just as arduous as crossing a Midnight Mass's lair; Wu Hen also knew it was impossible to escape this time.
"Aunt..." Wu Hen felt a bit unwilling.
"Take this, and go back to your world!" Suddenly, Su Li took out a certain object, as dark as jade, from her bag and shoved it into Wu Hen's hand!
Wu Hen was stunned to see it.
Yuan You!!
It was a complete Yuan You!!
The special glow from Yuan You enveloped the two, causing the surrounding Midnight Mass to fall into a brief freeze.
But after the freeze, the light in the Midnight Mass's eyes became scorching hot, driving them into an even more frenzied and ravenous state.
"Crush it, and your soul will return to your world." Su Li said.
Wu Hen realized this was the way to leave Otherworldly Dust!
"But there is only one; what about you?" Wu Hen asked urgently.
"I don't belong there..." Su Li shook her head.
Wu Hen looked at the weathered yet beautiful face, unable to find the words.
This was the real world, and if Su Li couldn't return to humanity by crushing Yuan You like he could, then she'd face the most horrific torment by the evil spirits!
Her body, her soul, would be utterly destroyed!
Unacceptable, Wu Hen couldn't accept it from the bottom of his heart.
Even with their short time together, Su Li had made Wu Hen feel the genuine affection of family.
"Wu Hen..."
"You don't need to say it, I'll stay with you till the end." Wu Hen said, resolutely.
"No, Wu Hen, you... your hand..." Su Li was wide-eyed, staring at Wu Hen's right hand.
My hand??
Wu Hen didn't know what Su Li meant. He turned and suddenly realized that the Yuan You, which had just been in his hand, was gone!!
Shit!
Wu Hen's mind was racing!!
Where's my Yuan You???
Su Li was equally incredulous; she had just seen Wu Hen's right hand behave like it was alive, devouring the Yuan You she had given him!
She recalled when she saved Wu Hen from the sacrificial altar, noticing that something seemed to infect his right arm!
"Adoptive father, what are you doing~~" Wu Hen almost cried.
During this heroic, life-and-death, emotional moment, this happens!
"Get moving!!"
Su Li's clarity returned; she couldn't let Wu Hen fall victim to the Midnight Mass.
Wu Hen also had no choice but to charge forward.
But the bad news kept coming.
Su Li fired several shots, clearing the closest Midnight Masses, but then she realized her gun was out of bullets!
"Out of ammo, I'll distract them, you keep running!" Without hesitation, Su Li tried to run in the opposite direction.
Wu Hen's quick eyes and hands grabbed Su Li and pulled her back.
"Aunt, the situation has changed!" Wu Hen said, revealing his right hand.
"You must live..." Su Li was about to scold him but then suddenly noticed a black gun on Wu Hen's right hand!
This black gun was identical in shape to her Elemental Weapon Pistol, the one she had given Wu Hen.
But its material was completely different, a highly sophisticated black particle substance like ball lightning, making the gun glow with a mysterious aura!
"So when Wu Hen's hand was munching the gun last night, he was really... eating it?" The thought flashed through Su Li's mind.
"Duck!"
Wu Hen suddenly heard a sharp, dangerous sound and swiftly pushed Su Li under him.