230: Transform into bee armor.

Liu Hongwen walked step by step toward Li Youliang, who was slumped on the ground and constantly backing away. His pace was steady, but as he approached, an abnormality occurred.

A faint, scalp-numbing buzzing began to sound, low at first, then quickly amplifying.

Li Youliang's eyes widened in horror. He saw something squirming and bulging beneath the skin of Liu Hongwen's exposed neck and wrists. Then, one by one, yellow and black "bees" with a cold, metallic luster crawled out from his pores, collar, and cuffs!

These "bees" were larger than ordinary wasps, their compound eyes flickering with an unnatural red light. Like a gushing viscous liquid, they continuously emerged from Liu Hongwen's body. There were so many that they instantly covered his arms, shoulders, and torso.

They didn't fly around in a disorganized mess; instead, they clustered, linked, and stacked tightly together, spreading and taking shape over his body like living armor.

Under Li Youliang's terrified gaze, in just a few seconds, Liu Hongwen was completely enveloped in a layer of yellow and black "Bee Armor" that slightly squirmed and emitted a low, collective hum.

Its appearance was hideous and terrifying, vaguely retaining a human shape yet filled with arthropod characteristics, like a monster stepped out of an insect nightmare.

The Bee Armor Monster raised an "arm" made entirely of a dense swarm of bees, its tip pointed sharply at Li Youliang.

The internal structure of that "arm" squirmed and changed. A pitch-black giant stinger, composed of countless bee stingers, was rapidly forming and protruding, its tip gleaming with a lethal cold light.

Just as the stinger was about to shoot out—

A dark red beam of light tore through the air without warning. It didn't strike the Bee Armor Monster but hit the floor precisely half a step away from his feet!

Pshhh!

A small hole was pierced through the floor, its edges instantly carbonized, emitting pungent blue smoke.

The Bee Armor Monster's reaction was startlingly fast. The moment the beam appeared, his forward thrusting motion came to an abrupt halt. The bee-swarm-enveloped "arm" snatched downward like lightning, its five fingers—formed by the bee swarm—grabbing Li Youliang's back collar. He hoisted him up like a chicken for slaughter, thrusting him in front of himself to face the direction the beam had come from.

Deep within the shop, in the shadows of the passage leading to the kitchen, a matte black figure slowly stepped out. His right hand was held level, gripping a "twin stars" pistol with a unique structure and the cold glint of biological metal. The muzzle still held a faint dark red energy afterglow. Deep red composite eyepieces locked onto the target in the dim light.

It was Shen Mingyuan, who had rushed there at full speed after receiving the message and had already transformed into his "shadow" form.

The Bee Armor Monster looked at the uninvited guest through the "viewports" formed by the dense bee swarm. A low hum with multiple insect-wing-vibration echoes came from within him, turning into distorted but clear human speech: "...Who?"

Shen Mingyuan's voice came through the armor's voice-changing System, low and clear, with an unquestionable tone of deterrence: "I am shadow. This ends here, Liu Hongwen. Put him down and stop the killing."

Li Youliang, held in mid-air by his neck by Liu Hongwen, saw Shen Mingyuan appear and treated him like a life-saving straw. Ignoring the feeling of suffocation, he desperately squeezed out a raspy plea for help from his throat:

"Save... save me! I beg you! Please save me!"

The bee-swarm arm choking his neck tightened slightly, and Li Youliang's plea immediately turned into painful wheezing.

Shen Mingyuan maintained his gun-aiming posture, his deep red eyepieces locked onto Liu Hongwen.

"Liu Hongwen, I know about your son." He tried to stay calm and communicate. "I understand your pain and anger."

"But meeting violence with violence and taking the law into your own hands isn't the way to solve the problem. The law will provide a fair judgment. Calm down, put him down, and we can talk."

Li Youliang, whose face had turned purple from being choked, also struggled to agree: "Yes... yes... calm down... we can talk... civilized... a civilized solution..."

"Civilized?" Liu Hongwen's voice suddenly rose. His body, made of the bee swarm, trembled slightly with excitement, and the buzzing became sharp and ear-piercing. "Look at your pig-like appearance! Except for those pretentious glasses on your face, where do you deserve the word 'civilized'?!"

"Is your so-called civilization teaching your little brat how to trample on others' lives, and then using your filthy money and connections to smooth everything over as if nothing happened?! Is this your civilization?!"

His emotions were clearly in an extremely unstable state. Anger and long-held grief surged like lava beneath the Bee Armor.

"Calm down, Liu Hongwen!" Shen Mingyuan raised his voice, trying to stabilize the situation. "The evidence already points to them! If you are willing, we can work together through legal channels to make him face the punishment he deserves! Violence will only turn you into a criminal as well!"

"Yes, yes, yes! Send me to prison! I'll confess! I'll plead guilty!" To save his life, Li Youliang shouted hurriedly, "Justice delayed is still justice!"

"What kind of justice is justice delayed?!"

Liu Hongwen's voice was almost a roar. The resonance of the Bee Armor's hum made the entire messy restaurant tremble slightly. "At most, that's... that's just the truth coming out! It's not justice at all!"

"Give me back my son! Give him back! If you send him to prison, will my son come back to life?! Will he?!"

"You... you kill me... your son... won't come back either..." Li Youliang squeezed out these words in fear.

"Yes! He won't come back!" Liu Hongwen's voice suddenly dropped, sounding even colder and more desperate. "But at least... at least it will make my heart... feel just a little bit better!"

Before he finished speaking, the tip of his other "arm" formed by the bee swarm—that lethal, pitch-black stinger composed of countless bee stingers—

Suddenly snapped out. The sharp tip flickered with a dark luster, and precisely yet slowly, it pressed against the carotid artery of Li Youliang's fat, violently trembling neck.

"I don't care anymore... I don't care anymore!!!"

Liu Hongwen let out a roar mixed with endless pain and determination, and the stinger pressed against Li Youliang's neck suddenly thrust forward!

Pshhh!

The sharp composite stinger pierced through skin and muscle without resistance, precisely entering the carotid artery. Li Youliang's eyes instantly bulged, his body convulsed violently, and a strange "gurgling" sound came from his throat. His face was left with extreme terror and disbelief. Dark red blood surged out along the grooves of the stinger, dripping onto the floor.

Like throwing away a piece of filthy trash, Liu Hongwen swung his arm, tossing Li Youliang's limp corpse aside, knocking over a chair.

He slowly turned around, his hideous head made of the bee swarm "looking" toward Shen Mingyuan. Only cold madness and emptiness remained in that buzzing voice: "Come on. Weren't you going to stop me? Then, kill me."

He took a step forward, the Bee Armor scraping against the floor with a faint rasping sound.

"If you don't kill me here, I will continue. I'll kill this man's wife, kill the entire family of that other brat, kill their parents, kill their parents' parents... I'll completely wipe every bit of their filthy Bloodline from this world! Not one will be left!"

He took another step forward, the bee swarm surging violently, his Aura overbearing.

"So, come on! Either you kill me and end all this! Or, let my fires of revenge burn away everyone who deserves to go to Hell!"