Chapter 22

At the brink of death, the space before the Candle Holder twisted slowly. Then, a withered hand reached out from within, striking the Shut-Door Old Man's corpse, which was close at hand. In the next second, the Shut-Door Old Man's corpse exploded with a "peng," and the enormous impact directly repelled Wu.

The ghostly blue Nether Butterfly suddenly flew toward the Candle Holder, but something was faster. The withered hand grabbed the Nether Butterfly and crushed it.

This killing move, which even Wu and Old Man Shui dared not underestimate, was extinguished so casually, leaving no trace.

To cover Dahe Niangniang's withdrawal, Wu took a breath and swung his blade fiercely at the Old President, who had already revealed half of his body. The layers of blade light were extremely intimidating, but such an attack was received by the withered arm in its entirety.

However, the goal was achieved. Dahe Niangniang took the opportunity to withdraw and safely returned to the ranks.

The Candle Holder, who had escaped death, looked ferocious. He knew that if the Old President had acted a little later, his life would have been forfeited. "President, Quan Xu is stubborn and useless!"

The Old President finally appeared, but most of his body was still wrapped in thick black fog. Only his hands and feet were exposed, barely visible in a gray cloth gown. He wore a pair of old-fashioned white-soled black cloth shoes. His exposed ankles and hands were bluish-black, covered with unsightly cadaver spots.

Under the Candle Holder's ferocious gaze, the Old President slowly raised his hand and pressed it on Quan Xu's head. Quan Xu's body began to tremble, and all the blood in his body concentrated on his head. His pale face turned red, and blood flowed from the corners of his eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth, a tragic sight.

But Quan Xu not only wasn't in pain, but laughed wildly as if he had accomplished something great.

"What are you laughing at?" The Candle Holder suddenly felt something was wrong. This feeling came suddenly, a lingering effect from his many confrontations with Quan Xu. "I'm asking you, what are you laughing at?!"

As if realizing something, the Candle Holder suddenly reached out and tore off Quan Xu's robe, which he never took off. In the next second, his pupils shrank to a slit.

Quan Xu's skinny abdomen was bulging exaggeratedly. After tearing open his clothes, the Candle Holder completely collapsed. Quan Xu's belly was densely covered with stitches. This was a direct and crude way to sew a big fellow into his body.

"A teachable child... hehe, an unteachable child." Quan Xu's eyes were already blind, but he was still laughing. "I know Xiu Niang can... can sense this thing, but if it's stuffed into my belly, she... she won't be able to sense it. You... you're right, aren't you?"

"Impossible!" The Candle Holder screamed. "You only have two of these things. One was used 20 years ago, and the other was destroyed by Xiu Niang! Destroyed!"

"You're bluffing me! You're bluffing me!"

"Hehe, who told you there were only two of these things?" Quan Xu raised his bloodshot eyes. "Let me guess, is it your mole in the research institute, the... the bespectacled, seemingly honest deputy director?"

At this point, Jiang Cheng and the others understood. This was also a trap. Quan Xu had long anticipated that the other party would make such a move. Jiang Cheng looked at Lin Wan'er with some anger, but No. 13 shook his head violently. "Zero, don't misunderstand. We didn't know either, really didn't know!"

Lin Wan'er took a deep breath and suppressed the anger in her heart. "He's using No. 1 to set up the trap. No. 1's death was arranged by him to cooperate with the Night Watchman to complete the next plan!"

"And Gong Zhe, he's also his pawn. That's right, if a figure like Gong Zhe doesn't die, how can this play be more realistic?!"

In an instant, all the irrationalities were strung together. And the insistence on sending the reserve team into the battlefield, resulting in the emptiness of the personnel guarding the secret weapon, was clearly an intentional creation of loopholes, so that Xiu Niang and those people could drill into it. If that weapon wasn't destroyed, the Old President couldn't possibly show himself!

Then came the last link. Quan Xu knew that the other party would definitely kidnap him. They certainly wouldn't be willing to kill him directly, because he held a lot of important information.

Also, he saw through his old rival, the Candle Holder's heart.

He had been defeated so many times, losing in open and secret struggles for decades. This last time, he would definitely get his revenge, flaunting his power in front of him as a victor.

And the last step was to get as close as possible to the Old President. The closer, the better. Lin Wan'er suddenly turned her head and looked at Wu, Old Man Shui, and Dahe Niangniang. "You weren't trying to kill the Candle Holder just now, you were just trying to drive him into a dead end, so that the Old President would come out to save him!"

"You are also part of the plan! But what time did you contact Quan Xu?" What Lin Wan'er really couldn't figure out was this.

"It was me." Storyteller, Jingde Xiansheng, slowly opened his mouth. "I secretly persuaded Wu to take action. I didn't reveal that this was Quan Xu's plan. Their purpose was really to kill the Candle Holder, but they just didn't succeed."

"This is also what Quan Xu meant. Quan Xu explained that if the Old President was very close, he would directly detonate the weapon. If the distance was a bit far, and he couldn't ensure lethality, then Wu and the others could only execute this last step, to lure the Old President out."

"Buzz—"

Accompanied by a burst of ear-piercing buzzing, everyone's bodies were restricted. This was a difficult feeling to describe, somewhat like an electric shock, with electricity traveling back and forth in the blood vessels.

The center of the buzzing sound was Quan Xu, the commander-in-chief of this operation. His belly was slowly becoming transparent, and the bones, blood vessels, and meridians inside were clearly visible. Of course, there was also the secret weapon, about the size of a basketball, which looked like a bomb.

It could be felt that the Old President and everyone nearby wanted to escape, but none of them could do it. There seemed to be a strange tearing force inside, not an explosion, but an inward collapse, pulling everyone towards Quan Xu's body.

"Jingde, don't forget what I told you!" Quan Xu's voice exploded like thunder, "I'm off!"

As the light, comparable to the sun, lit up, Jingde Xiansheng, known as the Storyteller, took out a gavel from his sleeve. Without Jingde Xiansheng making any movements, the gavel rotated strangely, then grew larger and larger, until it encompassed everyone.

"Sorry, the limit of my ability is only to save some people in this catastrophe." Jingde Xiansheng cupped his hands at the crowd, and then shouted sternly, "Soldiers, step forward!"

The men in tattered camouflage uniforms did not hesitate at all, supporting each other as they walked out.

"Not enough." Jingde Xiansheng shook his head.

At this moment, the wounded Luo Laoxiansheng also limped out of the team.

"Dark Army, follow me!"