168: This broken-down car is even more shaky than a hearse.

Chapter 168: This Broken Car Shakes Worse Than a Hearse "Chen Mo!"

That familiar female voice, trembling, seemed to drift over from a great distance.

Chen Mo struggled to open his eyes slightly.

Against the light, he couldn't clearly see the woman's face.

But he could smell the scent coming from her.

It wasn't perfume.

It was a scent mixed with disinfectant, gunpowder, and the faint aroma of mint candy.

That was Su Qingxue's scent.

"Don't... don't come closer."

Chen Mo moved his lips, his voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz. "I... I stink too much right now."

Su Qingxue didn't stop.

She rushed over, kneeling heavily on the scattered gravel without caring about the dirt, and pulled the foul-smelling man into her embrace.

Tightly.

As if she wanted to melt him into her own bones.

"You bastard..."

"You bastard!"

She cursed, tears splashing onto Chen Mo's face, washing away the mud and grime.

They were warm.

And salty.

Chen Mo grimaced in pain.

"Easy... easy there..."

He gasped for breath. "My ribs... three are probably broken. If you squeeze any harder... they really will snap."

Su Qingxue quickly released her grip, her hands hovering helplessly in the air, wanting to touch him but afraid to.

"Where? Where is it broken? Let me see!"

She frantically reached out to feel him; her professional instinct urged her to check his injuries, but her trembling fingers wouldn't obey.

Ninth Master and Li Ke also rushed over.

As soon as Li Ke saw Chen Mo's miserable state, his legs gave out, and he plopped onto the ground, crying even louder.

"Brother Mo... boohoohoo... you're alive!"

Ninth Master's eyes were also slightly red, but he just took a deep drag from the cigarette in his hand, then stuck the half-smoked butt into Chen Mo's mouth.

"As long as you're alive."

Ninth Master's voice was hoarse. "As long as you're alive."

Chen Mo held the cigarette in his mouth.

The filter was wet, carrying Ninth Master's saliva, and the tobacco was damp, making it taste bitter when he inhaled.

But he felt it was the most fragrant puff of smoke he had ever taken in his life.

"Cough, cough..."

He choked on the smoke, and a sharp pain shot through his lungs again.

Chen Mo looked at the people surrounding him.

A crazy woman, a dead fatty, and an old hoodlum.

Plus him, a half-dead cripple.

This was probably the most pathetic world-saving squad in all of Jiang City.

"Stop crying, Fatty."

Chen Mo blew out a smoke ring, his gaze slowly focusing on the city in the distance, still brightly lit.

The people there were still asleep, unaware that they had just brushed past the gates of hell.

"Is Professor Qin dead?" Su Qingxue asked, wiping the blood from Chen Mo's face with her sleeve.

"Dead."

Chen Mo grinned, revealing a set of white teeth that looked particularly chilling against his blood-stained face.

"Not even a speck left."

"But..."

He paused, his eyes becoming sharp.

"That reactor wasn't built by him."

Ninth Master frowned. "What do you mean?"

"An energy core of that level couldn't have been cobbled together by a lunatic who only works on bio-brains."

Chen Mo recalled a mark he had seen on the bottom of the reactor just before he smashed it with the steel pipe.

It wasn't Professor Qin's signature.

It was a symbol he had seen countless times in his previous life.

An Ouroboros, biting its own tail, forming an infinite loop.

"That belongs to Tartarus."

Chen Mo's voice was soft, yet it struck everyone Li Ke a thunderclap.

"Professor Qin was nothing more than the factory manager of a contract manufacturer."

"The real buyer hasn't shown up yet."

Su Qingxue's hand stiffened.

"Are you saying... this isn't over?"

"Over?"

Chen Mo supported himself on Su Qingxue's shoulder, trying to sit up.

The intense pain made his vision darken, but he didn't utter a sound.

"Far from it."

He looked at the night sky.

"Since hell found me too tough to chew and spat me out,"

"Then I have to go back and drag the guy who opened the gates of hell..."

"Down."

Just then, dense police sirens sounded in the distance, along with the roar of helicopter rotors.

Countless searchlight beams began sweeping across the riverbank.

"Captain Zhao's people are here." Ninth Master stood up, shielding Chen Mo.

"It's not just Captain Zhao."

Chen Mo narrowed his eyes, observing that the lights flashing on the vehicles were not standard police lights, but special red and blue alternating signal lights.

"It's the Special Investigation Bureau."

"And... the National Security Committee."

He was all too familiar with those people.

After the trouble is resolved, it's time for the reckoning.

As a destabilizing element who not only blew up a city landmark but also possessed core secrets, he was now a hot potato.

"Let's go."

Chen Mo spat out the cigarette butt.

"We can't go back with them right now."

"Why?" Li Ke was stunned. "Captain Zhao will protect us!"

"Captain Zhao can't protect us."

Chen Mo sneered. "Right now, in the eyes of those big shots, I'm even more dangerous than Professor Qin."

"Where are we going?" Su Qingxue asked.

She didn't question him, immediately hoisting one of Chen Mo's arms over her shoulder.

Chen Mo pointed toward the dark, unfinished building complex on the other side of the river.

"Darkness under the lamp."

"To the place of that 'dead man'."

"Who?" Ninth Master asked.

A cold glint flashed in Chen Mo's eyes.

"Old Lin's lair."

...The door of the specific van model was kicked shut.

The dull thud of the sheet metal sounded Li Ke a bone breaking.

"Hold on tight!"

Ninth Master slammed the accelerator to the floor.

The engine let out a dying bellow Li Ke an old ox, the exhaust pipe spat out a puff of black smoke, and the tires spun wildly twice on the muddy ground before the vehicle shot forward as if chased by dogs.

Inertia slammed Chen Mo hard against the back of the rear seat.

"Cough—"

He couldn't suppress a mouthful of blood, which sprayed directly onto Li Ke's plaid shirt, which looked Li Ke it hadn't been washed in days.

"Brother Mo! Brother Mo, don't die!"

Li Ke was so scared that the flesh on his face was trembling. He fumbled to cover Chen Mo's mouth, then feared he might suffocate him, so his hands just shook in mid-air as if he had Parkinson's.

"Stop... stop shaking."

Chen Mo felt his organs playing bumper cars inside him due to the broken vehicle's jolting. "Ninth Master, is this car's... suspension made of bricks?"

Ninth Master, driving in the front, didn't turn his head, frantically spinning the steering wheel.

"Be grateful! I stole it from the roadside; the keys were still in it. The fact that it moves is a miracle!"

The car suddenly tilted sideways, cut directly over the curbstone, and darted into a narrow alleyway with no streetlights.

Overhead, the roar of the helicopter grew closer.

The enormous searchlight beams pierced the nearby streets Li Ke sharp swords.

"Do we really have to go to the unfinished buildings?"

Su Qingxue shouted forward, desperately pressing the major artery on Chen Mo's arm. "The roads over there were ruined by construction vehicles, they're full of potholes! His body can't handle this!"

"He has to endure it, even if he can't."

Chen Mo gritted his teeth, cold sweat streaming down his forehead and carving channels through the bloodstains.

He struggled to lift his eyelids and glanced at the computer screen in Li Ke's arms.

"Fatty, check what's behind us."

Li Ke sniffled, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

The screen displayed a real-time heat map of Jiang City.

Over a dozen red dots were fanning out to surround them—those were SWAT vehicles equipped with thermal imaging.

And behind these red dots, there were three black skull symbols.

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