81: Bloodline resonance

Without any hesitation, the muscles in Su Chen's right leg instantly gorged with blood and swelled, the veins beneath his trouser leg bulging like dragons.

In this life-or-death moment, morality?

That was an epitaph only the dead were worthy of possessing.

"Get lost!"

Accompanied by a tooth-aching crack of bone, Chen Wei's already unrecognizable face caved in several more inches.

The sliver of vitality she had been barely clinging to was completely shattered by this fierce snap kick. She flew backward like a tattered sack, instantly vanishing into the darkness beneath the bus.

Without that damned burden, Su Chen's body felt suddenly light.

But he didn't dodge.

The black "insect spear" above his head, which felt as if it could pierce through the Earth's crust, was already touching his scalp. The terrifying wind pressure even caused his eyeballs to bulge slightly.

If he couldn't dodge, he would take it head-on!

Su Chen's feet were like the roots of an ancient tree, digging deep into the floor of the driver's cabin. The alloy floor instantly twisted and deformed under that terrifying downward pressure.

He crossed his arms and thrust them upward. The Sacred Yang blood and Qi within his body erupted like lava from a broken dam, surging outward recklessly.

A golden hemispherical light shield exploded into existence three feet above his head.

The loud bang caused everyone's eardrums to throb with pain. The entire bus felt as if it had been struck by a giant's hammer.

The four modified hydraulic shock absorbers were instantly compressed to their limits, letting out a metallic wail on the verge of collapse.

The vehicle's body sank a full twenty centimeters, the chassis grinding against the gravel on the ground and throwing off massive sparks.

He blocked it.

But Su Chen's expression did not look good.

The spear above his head, compressed from the corpses of countless high-tier hard-shelled beetles, was spinning and drilling frantically.

Every friction point consumed a massive amount of his blood and Qi.

This thing was like a bottomless pit. At the current consumption rate of 300 points per second, he would be sucked dry in less than ten seconds.

"Don't just stand there! Move if you want to live!"

Su Chen's voice came through his clenched teeth, carrying an unquestionable authority. "Qin Ya, take the center of the formation! Ye Hongyu on the left wing, Lin Mengyao on the right! Everyone hold hands and link your Qi together!"

This formation wasn't a spur-of-the-moment idea. Back during the Sacred Spring Party, he had planted Qi seeds inside these women through a certain indescribable deep exchange.

At that time, it was for 'pleasure' and enhancement. Now, it was a life-saving cable.

The panicked screams inside the bus came to an abrupt halt.

Qin Ya was the first to react. This usually dignified Class Teacher

showed no trace of her usual reserve or hesitation as an educator. She reached out with her delicate hands—which should have been holding chalk—and firmly grasped Su Chen's left hand hanging by his side.

It was cold and trembling, yet firm.

"Connected!"

Qin Ya gave a low shout. A cool and gentle feminine aura flowed from her palm like a trickling stream into Su Chen's parched meridians.

Next was Lin Mengyao, then Ye Hongyu... They formed a mystical circle, their fingertips interlocking.

The unique fragrance of young women instantly intensified in the air, overpowering the foul stench from outside.

It felt like many small streams converging into a river, finally surging into Su Chen's parched ocean.

"Weng—!"

Su Chen's nearly depleted dantian was instantly filled to the brim, even causing a sensation of swelling pain due to the energy overload.

He jerked his head up, and it looked as if two blazing suns had been ignited deep within his pupils.

The previously flickering golden shield instantly solidified and even began to push back outward.

Glancing through the bus's rearview mirrors, a pale golden flame pattern had appeared on the foreheads of all the girls.

Their faces, originally pale from fear, were now exceptionally flushed. Faint light flowed beneath their skin—this was the purified Sacred Yang Qi from Su Chen's body feeding back into them, washing away the impurities in their mortal forms.

Was this the power of dual cultivation... no, of group resonance?

Not just the people, even this steel beast began to undergo a transformation.

The metal skin on both sides of the bus began to writhe and grow. Half-meter-long dark-gold spikes bristled like a porcupine's quills, gleaming with a bloodthirsty cold light.

The heavily worn rubber tires disintegrated directly, replaced by four floating vortexes of dark-gold energy, completely breaking free from the constraints of physical terrain.

"This is impossible!!"

In mid-air, Mo Fei let out a shrill scream.

He could clearly feel that the person below—who in his eyes was just a "slightly stronger ant"—was now erupting with an aura that made his soul tremble.

It was the scent of a natural predator. It was the absolute suppression of fire over insects.

"I will devour you all! Not even a bone fragment will be left!"

Mo Fei had gone completely mad.

He violently tore open his own chest with his arms. Countless black tentacles erupted, forcibly dragging the swarms of locusts from the sky toward him.

Billions of insects stacked, squeezed, and fused onto his body.

In the blink of an eye, a Cthulhu-esque mountain of flesh, ten stories high and covered in countless compound eyes and mouthparts, blotted out the sky.

That nauseatingly evil aura made the surrounding air become thick and putrid.

The mountain of flesh opened a maw like an abyss, descending upon the tiny bus with a despair that threatened to consume everything.

"Disgusting thing. Not only are you ugly, you've also lost your will to live."

Su Chen snorted coldly. With a tap of his toes, he launched himself like a cannonball through the roof's skylight, landing steadily atop the bus.

The fierce wind whistled, making his clothes snap.

He didn't use any flashy moves; he simply raised his right hand slowly.

Inside the bus, the breathing of all the girls synchronized perfectly with his at this moment. That massive power of will was continuously gathered at his fingertips through the formation.

A "miniature sun," only the size of a glass marble yet so incandescent that it was impossible to look at directly, spun rapidly at his fingertip.

The surrounding space showed visible collapse and distortion due to the high temperature.

Su Chen looked at the hideous mountain of flesh pressing down from above, a cruel arc curling at the corner of his mouth.

He hooked his thumb against his middle finger.

And flicked lightly.

"Off you go."

Swoosh—

There was no world-shaking explosion, only a light sound of something cutting through the air.

That "little sun" drew a straight golden line, drilling into the wide-open maw of the flesh mountain monster without any resistance.

The world went silent for a tenth of a second.

Then, a visual feast began.

The massive black mountain of flesh suddenly froze in mid-air. Then, countless rays of blinding golden light shot out from billions of cracks within its body.

It was like a balloon being blown apart.

A golden halo exploded outward from the point of impact, sweeping frantically in a ring.

The night sky within a ten-mile radius was instantly illuminated as bright as day.

Those skin-crawling locusts didn't even have time to scream before they were vaporized the moment they touched the golden light, leaving not even ashes behind.

At the center of the explosion, Mo Fei stared with wide eyes that were nothing but whites, looking down at his own body.

Starting from his fingertips, then his arms, his torso... like a sand sculpture blown away by the wind, he disintegrated inch by inch, turning into a sky full of flying light dust.

"This... is... a god..."

His final murmur dissipated into the scorching wind.

With the annihilation of this last trace of evil aura, the bus's body jolted violently. That layer of dark-gold flowing light completely solidified, letting out a crisp and pleasant metallic chime.

Su Chen dropped lightly back into the driver's cabin. The cold mechanical voice in his mind now sounded somewhat pleasant:

[Ding! Core threat detected as cleared. Vehicle evolution conditions met.]

[Congratulations, Host. Your vehicle has evolved into the "Eternal Divine Domain (Larval Stage)".]

[Highway Dominion of this area has been unlocked.]

Su Chen glanced at his still-smoking fingertip, gave it a casual flick, and his gaze landed in front of the driver's seat.

The originally ordinary plastic dashboard had disappeared. In its place was a dark-gold metal disk floating in mid-air, engraved with intricate runes.

The disk rotated slowly, emitting an alluring luster, as if waiting for its new master's coronation.

Su Chen narrowed his eyes, reached out both palms, and slowly pressed them onto it.