27: You can't get anything except pain.

Thick fog, like a cold tongue, licked Su Chen's fingertips over and over.

He pulled the car door shut behind him, the crisp metallic clang echoing far across the silent wasteland.

The perspective shifted back inside the vehicle.

Su Chen didn't head for the driver's seat; instead, he sat lazily astride the backrest of the first row of seats.

His vision was blocked by the thick fog, but his senses had become sharp thanks to the blessing of the "Extreme Yang Sacred Body."

Through the faint strand of Yang Energy remaining in that half-piece of medicinal residue and within Zhao Wanting's body, he could clearly capture the trajectory of the woman's movements.

It was like a red dot pulsing on a radar.

"Everyone, in position."

Su Chen lowered his voice, his tone carrying the casual air of someone watching a play.

"Qin Ya, take them and huddle under the seats. Don't let your breathing lose its rhythm."

Li Sisi pushed up her glasses, the lenses flashing with a hint of ruthlessness in the gloom as she gripped a solid steel rod she had dismantled from a seat support.

Lin Mengyao stood by Su Chen's side, the lingering warmth of their interlaced fingers still in her palm.

That scalding energy left her not with fear, but a strange sense of excitement.

From deep within the fog came the sound of boots grinding against gravel, followed by crude laughter and insults.

"Hao-ge, look! It's the bandage that little chick dropped. The blood is still warm."

"Damn, those beauties from Class 1, Senior Grade 3 must be nearby."

"That guy surnamed Su has probably been chewed to bits by monsters already. We can just take over that vehicle."

He heard them.

Five in total, heavy breathing, unsteady footsteps—the standard composition of scumbags.

The corners of Su Chen's mouth curled into a cruel arc.

Through his sensing of the Yang Energy, he "saw" Zhao Wanting kneeling on the ground, her voice trembling so much it was almost unrecognizable.

"He... he's heavily injured and asleep by the back door... Please, give me a sip of water..."

"Asleep? Then it's the perfect time to send him to his eternal rest!"

Chen Hao let out a sinister laugh.

Immediately after, a loud bang came from the bus's back door as the metal door was kicked open violently.

The interior of the bus was pitch black, like a monster devouring light.

Chen Hao had only just stepped half a foot inside when, before his retinas could adjust to the darkness, a sudden change occurred.

"Detonate."

Su Chen whispered softly in his mind.

Zhao Wanting, who had been curled up at the door like a pile of mud, suddenly straightened her body without warning.

The red threads moving beneath her skin seemed to be instantly injected with high-voltage electricity.

Her previously charred arms now shone with startling brightness; crimson runes pierced through her tattered clothes, illuminating the fog within a ten-meter radius like a blood-pool hell.

She had become a living spotlight, a signal flare screaming madly in the wilderness.

"Fuck! What the hell is this thing!"

Chen Hao and the others were blinded by the intense light at close range and instinctively retreated.

But it was too late.

The packs of Rotten-faced Dogs wandering in the fog had a near-pathological obsession with light and energy fluctuations.

Almost the instant the light flared, dozens of glowing green eyes emerged from the fog, accompanied by a pungent, sour stench and tooth-grinding roars.

"Help! Ah—!"

Screams of agony instantly rose in unison.

Several boys from Class Two didn't even have time to draw the weapons at their waists before being pinned to the ground by dark shadows lunging from the fog.

The sounds of bones snapping and flesh being torn apart intertwined, more real than the most gruesome horror movie.

"It's time for us to harvest."

Su Chen moved.

He didn't charge directly into the beast pack; instead, like a black leopard, he nimbly flipped through a broken window onto the roof of the bus.

Lin Mengyao followed closely behind; with her physical attributes enhanced, her movements took on a sense of wild beauty.

She leaped down from the sunroof, the solid steel rod in her hand whistling through the air as it accurately crushed the skull of a Rotten-faced Dog trying to jump through a window.

Li Sisi deftly struck a match and hurled an alcohol bottle stuffed with a rag toward the direction where Class Two was fleeing.

"Bang!"

Flames soared into the sky, illuminating Su Chen's figure as he leaned against the edge of the roof.

In his hand, he toyed with two Iron Beads he had just manifested out of thin air.

With a flick of his fingers, the Iron Beads shot through the air, directly shattering the knees of two Class Two boys attempting to climb into the bus amidst the chaos.

"Your gear or your life—you have to leave one behind, right?"

Su Chen looked down from above, his eyes playful.

The battle ended quickly.

Under the dual onslaught of the girls' group empowered by Yang Energy and the frenzied dog pack, Class Two's ambush site turned into a slaughterhouse.

When the first ray of true morning light tore through the white fog, only severed limbs and broken arms remained on the ground outside the bus.

Zhao Wanting knelt in the center of a pool of blood, her eyes turned completely red from enduring the Yang Energy explosion at close range.

In front of her fingertips lay a Military Dagger that had fallen from Chen Hao, its cold steel reflecting her distorted face.

She suddenly grabbed the dagger and, with all her strength, stabbed at Su Chen's ankle as he stood on the step.

"Go to hell..."

However, the moment the tip of the blade touched the sole of Su Chen's boot, a power hotter than lava surged up from the ground.

"Sizzle—"

The pure steel dagger quickly turned red and softened before everyone's eyes.

Finally, it actually turned into a puddle of molten iron, dripping through the gaps in Zhao Wanting's fingers and searing her already mangled palm with a char mark deep enough to see the bone.

She didn't even have the strength to scream anymore, only opening her mouth wide as a wheezing sound escaped her throat.

Su Chen leaned down, and as if picking up trash, he pushed aside the lump of scrap metal with his toe and picked up the hilt that hadn't completely melted.

"This material isn't bad; I can forge Brass Knuckles for Lin Mengyao."

He casually tossed the hilt to the blushing campus belle behind him, then walked over to Zhao Wanting.

Su Chen slowly crouched down, his slender fingers gripping her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze.

"My dad... my dad is really dead, right?"

Zhao Wanting's eyes were vacant, and she suddenly laughed hysterically, tears mixed with blood seeping from the corners of her eyes.

Su Chen didn't refute her; he just leaned into her ear and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear.

"You should have realized long ago that on this bus, I am the law, I am God."

"Except for 'pain', you can't beg for anything, including death."

He stood up and wiped his fingertips on Zhao Wanting's tattered clothes in disgust.

On the horizon, the once clear dawn was covered by a layer of gray at some unknown point.

The humidity in the air was rising rapidly, and on the previously dry road, a layer of viscous, oily liquid actually condensed out of thin air.

Su Chen looked into the distance, where the silhouette of an Abandoned Gas Station loomed faintly through the curtain of rain at the end of the road.

A rainstorm capable of corroding the soul was coming.