146: Conspiracy

These five people were the Wind Shadow Squad from Adam City, and their strength was in the middle tier among all the competitors from Adam City.

The person who was two meters tall was named Gai, the captain of the Wind Shadow Squad, and his strength was comparable to a twenty-two-year Contaminant.

"Princess Avril?!" Gai exclaimed in surprise.

How could Avril be here??

Avril pursed her lips and leaned against a small tree, saying very lazily, "Yeah."

Gai narrowed his eyes and looked Xu Jingzhe up and down, the aura radiating from his body making people fearful.

If such a burly man were walking down the street, passersby would definitely not dare to even glance at him, fearing they might get beaten up.

His gaze was fervent; he touched his bald head with his mechanical hand, looked at his goddess Avril, and asked eagerly, "My dear Princess, did you get separated from the other four princesses?"

"Or... are you hunting?"

Avril's expression changed, a flash of panic crossing her eyes, and she snapped, "Shut up! Get lost!"

Xu Jingzhe looked at Avril in confusion. Hunting... what did that mean?

Just then, the man standing behind Gai stepped forward, his pair of mechanical alloy eyes glowing with a faint green light. Gaia lowered his head slightly, and he leaned in to whisper something to him.

Gai suddenly raised his head, a subtle, imperceptible smile on the corners of his lips.

He pulled out a metal lighter and took a cigar from his combat suit.

"Click."

The blue flame flickered; he took a deep drag, and the smoke slowly exhaled from his mouth had a pleasant tobacco scent.

It had to be said that although Gai looked rough and burly and was bald, his facial features were rugged, and he looked quite masculine smoking the cigar.

"Princess Avril, you are hurt," Gai said.

"Being held hostage by him, right? Don't worry, once I finish this cigar, I will rescue you."

"The competitors from Nüwa City and Pangu City... will all die!"

Gai did not wait until he finished his cigar to attack as he had said; instead, with the cigar hanging from the corner of his mouth, he moved like an iron tower, running over with a 'thud, thud, thud' that made the ground tremble slightly.

His mechanical arm joints rotated, the internal gears whirring to engage various auxiliary devices, and he slammed a fist toward Xu Jingzhe's face.

But anyone with a discerning eye could see that the momentum of this punch included Avril.

Avril's pretty face turned icy; this was clearly a test for her.

Xu Jingzhe stepped out, shielding Avril behind his right arm, and exploded with energy from within his body, combining it with the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea martial arts technique to throw a punch.

Gai's eyes were filled with contempt. What kind of thing was this? Did he think he was one of the Adam Five, daring to go head-to-head with mechanical power using his flesh and blood?

"Boom!"

With a loud explosion, Xu Jingzhe retreated several steps. Without the energy boost from the Golden Contamination Core, he was far too weak.

Blood overflowed from the corner of his mouth; golden blood made up two-thirds, while red blood made up only one-third.

This was mainly because Xu Jingzhe's body had not fully recovered; if it were fully recovered, the blood occasionally overflowing from the corner of his mouth would be entirely golden.

"Heh!" Gai snorted with his nostrils flared, saying, "To think he's a consumptive ghost; he can't even block one of my punches."

"Gai!" Avril clenched her delicate fists and walked up to him with her long legs.

She looked up at him coldly, the dignity of a princess evident without a word.

"Respected Princess Avril, I am very happy to be at your service," Gai said, bowing his head.

"Get lost!" Avril squeezed the word out through her teeth.

"Yes, respected Princess Avril." Gai stood straight, pointed at Xu Jingzhe, and then gestured toward Li Zhi and the others, his eyes filled with undisguised mockery as he said, "We only need to kill one squad to complete the mission, and since we have Princess Avril with us, let's take our time and play."

After speaking, he waved his mechanical arm and actually disappeared from this unfinished building.

"Captain, are we just leaving?" the sniper of the Wind Shadow Squad asked.

"Leaving? Don't you know how a cat plays with a mouse? We'll kill them after we've had enough fun!" Gai discarded the cigar from his mouth and crushed it fiercely on the ground.

"Lei Xi, you keep an eye on them."

"The four of us will rest for a while."

On the first floor of the unfinished building, Li Zhi and the others were lying on the ground; he had a large wound on his abdomen, and his intestines were exposed.

Li Fei and Li Mao were in a similar state, with terrifying wounds all over their bodies, some deep enough to expose bone.

Without medicine, if they weren't treated in time, they would just be waiting for death once infection set in.

"Th-Three Young Masters, you, come here." Li Zhi's face was pale, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

He was very wary of Avril and didn't understand why Xu Jingzhe would be with someone of such high status.

It seemed that the two of them were... getting along quite well.

"This competition is, it's not a competition at all."

"The competitors from Adam City and Eve City have only one goal: to kill."

"Kill them all; not a single competitor from Nüwa City or Pangu City is to be left alive!"

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Because of his agitation, Li Zhi coughed up blood incessantly, and the blood from his abdomen flowed even more profusely.

Xu Jingzhe's heart skipped a beat, his voice tense as he asked, "Are you sure?"

"You, you should ask her; given her status, she must know everything." Li Zhi cast a cold glance at Avril, his face showing undisguised killing intent.

"You rest well first; I will treat the three of you." Xu Jingzhe stood up and walked toward Avril.

"This isn't a competition for you all, is it?"

Avril sighed heavily, sitting on the nearby concrete floor, knowing that this matter could not be hidden, and said helplessly, "Yes, this is the intention of the higher-ups on both sides."

"Why?" Xu Jingzhe took a deep breath, suppressing the urge in his heart.

"It concerns a level-one secret; I only know a part of it." Avril looked at Xu Jingzhe's terrifying gaze and said, "We are all here in the Pollution Zone with a mission."

"I don't know the mission of the Adam Five, but it's more difficult and dangerous than that of us Eve Five Princesses."

"Our mission is to find folded spaces and record their coordinates. After the competition ends, we are to enter them to acquire more advanced technology."

"Swish!"

Suddenly.

Xu Jingzhe's fist arrived in an instant, stopping abruptly just five centimeters from Avril's stunningly beautiful cheek.

The force of the punch stirred her long hair, messing up her neat locks and causing them to drape over her forehead and shoulders.

"You should go. Next time we meet, we will be mortal enemies." Xu Jingzhe's voice was calm, revealing neither joy nor sorrow.

Avril's large eyes grew moist; she bit her lip and nodded, her voice slightly choked as she said, "Also, this competition is not for one month, but one year."

"Presumably, all the major families have received this news by now. The families should have also sent this news to the captain of every squad, though I don't know if the squads that entered the middle or outer edges of the Pollution Zone received it."

"However, even if they didn't receive it, it doesn't matter; they will all know this news once they go to Tark City."

Xu Jingzhe clenched his fists, feeling immense grief and indignation. The only thing he was grateful for now was that he had left the vibranium combat suit with Ye Zi.

The vibranium combat suit brought out from the pyramid exceeded the current technological level of Blue Star.