78: A life-or-death struggle by the sacred spring.

"Water temperature at forty-two degrees, constant temperature circulation on—now this is the life."

Su Chen leaned lazily against the pool wall, half his body submerged in the warm water that shimmered with a faint golden light.

This "Sacred Spring" was no ordinary water; it was a "diluted spiritual liquid" generated through energy conversion after the Sacred Yang Divine Body fused with the vehicle's core.

To him, it was a supply station for restoring physical strength; to an ordinary person, it was like the flesh of Tang Sanzang, capable of cleansing the marrow and refining the essence.

Aunt Zhang had long since traded her large ladle for a notebook she'd found somewhere. With an unprecedentedly serious expression, she directed the scene: "Alright, everyone! Line up by height! No pushing! That spot is reserved for Little Su! You there, pull back those thick legs of yours, don't go dirtying the pool water!"

While the "Living Supplies Synthesizer" that came with the carriage upgrade couldn't produce Chanel, it provided more than enough of these skin-tight nanofiber training suits.

In an instant, the pool was filled with snowy-white thighs and tight curves. The air was thick with a cloying scent—a mix of shower gel fragrance and female hormones.

Su Chen appeared to be resting with his eyes closed, but in reality, every pore on his body was opening and closing, greedily devouring the free energy in the water.

And on his back, just beneath the tile pressed against the pool wall, was that jammer bomb that could send everyone to heaven at any moment.

He was gambling.

Gambling that the woman's greed would override her reason.

The weaker he appeared, the faster that venomous snake would crawl out of her hole.

"Su... Brother Su."

A timid voice sounded by his ear.

Su Chen cracked his eyelids open just a sliver.

Chen Wei was holding a plastic cup with a cartoon print, steam rising from its rim.

The training suit she wore seemed to be a size too small on purpose, making her chest look ready to burst forth. Her face wore a standard, even somewhat fawning, smile.

"I see you're sweating a lot, have some water." Chen Wei's voice was trembling. She tried her best to appear concerned, but her shifting eyes betrayed her.

In Su Chen's peripheral vision, an imperceptible hint of pungency was faintly wafting from the top of the water.

Qi-Dissipating Powder.

This stuff was hard currency on the black market in the early days of the apocalypse. It was specifically used to deal with newly Awakened Ones, capable of instantly stagnating the energy circulation within their bodies.

It seemed her "financial backer," Zhao Meng, had really spared no expense to kill him.

In the shadowed corners of the pool, several other girls were shifting toward the driver's cabin with shifty eyes, clearly the subordinates Chen Wei had developed.

Su Chen didn't move.

He just quietly watched the cup being brought to his lips, watching the fervor gradually rising in the depths of Chen Wei's eyes.

Just a second before the rim of the cup could touch Su Chen's lips—

Splash—!

The originally calm water surface suddenly exploded.

A red figure, like a lurking crocodile, lunged out from beneath the water.

Ye Hongyu.

The former underworld big sister didn't even use a weapon; she simply delivered a fierce strike to the wrist holding the water cup.

Crack.

The crisp sound of bone fracturing was masked by the splashing water.

The plastic cup fell from her hand. The moment it touched the pool, the entire cup of warm water rapidly diffused into an eerie purple-black cloud. Several small goldfish used as decoration nearby instantly turned belly-up and dissolved into bloody water.

The entire area fell into deathly silence.

Only Chen Wei's scream, as she clutched her broken hand, hadn't yet had time to burst from her throat.

"Is this all the ambition you have?"

Su Chen finally opened his eyes. There was no trace of sleepiness in those pupils, only two clusters of burning golden flames.

He didn't even spare a glance at the toxic purple mass, instead slapping his hand against the pool wall behind him.

It wasn't to dismantle it.

A surge of extremely masculine Sacred Yang True Qi poured tyrannically through his arm into the wall, blasting directly into the control core of the jammer bomb.

He wasn't detonating it; he was—reversing the frequency.

Since it was a remote-controlled bomb, it had to have a signal receiver.

And for someone like Chen Wei, who was tasked with a suicide mission, the signal transmitter would usually be hidden close to her body to ensure the timing of the detonation.

"Aaaah—!!!"

Chen Wei's scream suddenly jumped an octave higher.

This time, it wasn't because of her broken hand.

A blinding blue light suddenly flared from within the deep cleavage she had specifically emphasized to seduce Su Chen.

It was the precursor to the signal receiver overloading and exploding under the impact of high-frequency energy.

A muffled explosion rang out.

The training suit on Chen Wei's upper body instantly disintegrated into ash, and large patches of her skin were charred black by the high temperature.

She was thrown backward as if hit by a truck, falling into the scalding pool water.

If she were an ordinary person, she would have died instantly.

But her Awakened One physique kept her clinging to life. She rolled painfully in the boiling water, her once-pretty face twisted like a vengeful ghost from the agony.

"Help... help me..."

"Help you?"

Su Chen slowly stood up. The moment he rose, the mild pool water seemed to receive an emperor's summons, beginning to boil and swirl frantically.

Golden mist condensed around him, forming a visible "Yang Energy Domain."

Within this domain, he was the absolute sovereign.

"Aunt Zhang," Su Chen's voice was as cold as a death sentence, "this woman colluded with the enemy and committed attempted murder by poisoning. Killing her is too easy. Throw her into the power compartment. From today on, she is this vehicle's biofuel. As long as she doesn't die, keep her pedaling the generator."

Aunt Zhang shuddered at these thunderous methods, but she quickly reacted. With a fierce expression, she grabbed her large ladle and led several strong girls to drag the half-dead Chen Wei away like a dead dog.

Having dealt with the trash, Su Chen's gaze swept across the room.

Those fence-sitters who had been about to move now wished they could bury their heads in the water and play dead.

"This is the price of betrayal."

Su Chen didn't pursue it further. In the apocalypse, fear was often more effective than loyalty.

He reached out his finger and tapped thrice in the air.

Three beams of dense golden light shot into the foreheads of Lin Meng Yao, Qin Ya, and Ye Hongyu, who had just performed a service.

"Since there was punishment, there must be reward."

The three women's bodies shook violently.

Complex and sacred golden patterns began to emerge on their fair skin, like some ancient totems awakening.

Especially for Lin Mengyao, who was the first to establish a "bond" with Su Chen; the air behind her distorted slightly, manifesting a faint phantom of an Ice Luan.

Awakened Rank Two, break!

As these three powerful auras erupted, the overflowing energy diffused through the pool water. The other girls who were merely soaking in the water felt the long-standing barriers within them shatter with a 'pop.'

The entire crew reached Rank One!

This wasn't a party; it was a collective ascension.

Just as everyone was immersed in the ecstasy of their surging power—

Boom—!!!

An ear-splitting roar slammed into the rear of the bus.

Following that was the screeching sound of metal grinding. The entire bus, weighing dozens of tons, actually jerked backward violently, as if its tail had been bitten by some prehistoric beast.

"What's happening?!" Qin Ya's face turned pale, not yet recovered from the afterglow of her upgrade.

The ventilation duct cover overhead was brutally kicked open.

Joey, covered in oil stains, slid down like a nimble monkey, even rolling on the floor to dissipate the force of the landing.

"It's harpoon guns!"

Joey wiped the black soot from her face, her tone urgent, "Those bikers are crazy! They've used four heavy pickups equipped with pneumatic whaling harpoons. All four hooks are latched onto our rear bumper! They're braking, trying to drag us to a halt!"

Su Chen walked to the panoramic rearview mirror.

In the mirror, four modified steel pickups were spewing black smoke, pulling hard on thick steel cables. Behind them was a Motorcycle Gang as dense as a swarm of locusts.

A bald, muscular man leading them stood on the roof of a pickup, brandishing a chainsaw and laughing wildly. His arrogant mouth was clearly saying: "Come out and meet your death."

Su Chen reached out to wipe the water droplets from his face, his lips curling into a cruel arc.

He raised his foot and stepped heavily on the floor switch marked with a skull symbol.

"Want to play tug-of-war?"

"Then let's see if your lives are tougher, or if my electricity is stronger."

Outer hull high-voltage power grid, full power output.

Activate.