96: Violent clashes at the execution square

Under the washing of that wave of energy, the dilapidated bus seemed to come to life.

The originally rusted iron plates emitted a tooth-aching "creak," like bones growing in spurts.

A layer of dark red cuticle quickly spread from the wheels, covering the entire vehicle in the blink of an eye. This was Biological Armor fused with the flesh of the Nightmare Demon Flower and Pure Yang aura; it looked both hideous and full of wild, violent beauty.

"This is the kind of ride an apocalypse should have."

Su Chen gave up chasing that fleeing "mouse," turning to leap into the driver's seat.

At this moment, the roar of the entire vehicle's engine became deep and powerful, like a snoring steel behemoth.

Without any hesitation, he shifted gears and revved the engine, the movements fluid and seamless.

The reinforced bus was like a dark red cannonball, tearing through the thin mist at the edge of the square and crashing straight into the black heavy truck positioned in the center of Execution Square.

That heavy truck was the vanguard vehicle used by the Ghost to clear the area. It was entirely black, its front welded with sharp steel spikes, looking like a steel hedgehog.

"Where did this stray dog come from, daring to hit my truck!"

A loud shout rang out, and the roof of the black heavy truck was violently torn open.

A burly man nearly two meters tall jumped down, landing on the concrete ground with a boom that shook the earth slightly.

This was the vice-captain of the Ghost, Thunder Tiger.

He didn't care about the speeding bus at all.

His arms shook violently, and his skin petrified instantly; his two arms swelled into massive granite hammers, gleaming with a cold, hard, grayish-white luster.

As a strength-type Awakened One, he had once stopped a runaway pickup truck with his bare hands, giving him blind confidence in his own defensive power.

"Stop for me!"

Thunder Tiger bent his legs slightly, assuming a sumo-like intercepting stance with a cruel grin, prepared to smash the bus's front flat like swatting a fly.

"Idiot, do you really think you're the Hulk?" Su Chen looked at the death-defying meat shield through the windshield, his gaze like he was looking at a corpse.

Without Su Chen needing to speak, the firing port on the roof had already opened.

Lin Mengyao knelt on the roof, the string of the Bone Crossbow in her hand pulled taut.

She was in a strange state; Extreme Yang True Water given by Su Chen flowed through her body. That warm power not only reinforced her physical strength but also created a mysterious resonance between her divine sense and the Bone Crossbow.

In her vision, faint red lines appeared on Thunder Tiger's indestructible granite arms—those were the stress nodes of the rock structure, and also its weaknesses.

"Hit!"

With a cold shout, three Bone Arrows whistled out in a triangular formation.

They were not aimed at Thunder Tiger's head, but were precisely pinned into the joints of his arms.

"Crack!"

The originally iron-hard stone armor was weakest at the joints. The Bone Arrows, empowered by the force of Extreme Yang, pierced through like a hot knife through butter.

Thunder Tiger's powerful interception stalled instantly; the intense pain caused a fatal flaw to appear in his originally perfect defensive stance.

Now.

The moment the bus was less than five meters from Thunder Tiger, the driver's door burst open.

Su Chen's figure lunged out like a black viper. Using the momentum of the high-speed vehicle, he left an afterimage in the air.

He used no fancy moves, merely forming a blade with his fingers. His muscles tightened as his family's internal aura poured frantically into his fingertips.

Close-quarters Combat: Inch-Force Mountain Breaker!

"Bang!"

Su Chen's fist arrived later but struck first, hitting precisely into the crack in Thunder Tiger's right arm caused by the Bone Arrow.

This seemingly casual strike contained two entirely different forces—the momentum of the impact and the penetrating power of Internal Martial Arts.

Thunder Tiger's prideful granite arm shattered like glass hit by a hammer, instantly covered in web-like cracks before exploding into countless flying stone fragments.

"Ah—! My hand!!"

Thunder Tiger's scream had just left his throat when it was cut off by a cold palm.

Su Chen locked his throat with one hand. Using the massive momentum, he pushed the two-meter-tall man backward, slamming him against the heavy door of the black truck.

Thunder Tiger's eyes widened in terror as he looked at Su Chen close at hand, and at the dark red beast roaring toward him from behind Su Chen.

He wanted to struggle, but the iron grip on his throat left him without a shred of strength; he wanted to beg for mercy, but Su Chen's indifferent eyes held no human emotion whatsoever.

"In your next life, remember to learn some physics."

Su Chen let go, stepped aside, and dodged.

The movement was as fluid as dancing a death tango.

The next second.

"Boom—!!!"

The reinforced solid front of the bus, carrying tons of terrifying kinetic energy and with no intention of braking, slammed squarely into Thunder Tiger, crushing him and the heavy truck door together.

The tooth-aching sound of twisting metal and shattering bones mixed together, echoing across the empty square.

The once arrogant Thunder Tiger was now like a mosquito swatted against a wall. Along with that heavy door, he was crushed into a gruesome patty of meat and iron; dark red blood dripped down the chassis of the heavy truck.

Su Chen stood by the gap between the two vehicles and reached out to pat the steaming hood of the bus, as if soothing a warhorse that had just finished a hunt. The engine continued to roar without stalling, emitting an even more excited growl as if anticipating more frantic slaughter.