Chapter 287: Let Go?

The moment Tie Tu's words fell,

The person moved.

Tie Tu had no intention of giving the mouse inside any chance to move.

Tie Tu's movements were so fast that Hui Ya's high-speed mechanical brain didn't have time to react.

The metal grille of the ventilation duct was gripped at its edge by a hand.

It wasn't disassembly, wasn't cutting, it was pinching.

Under the grip of those fingers, the six-millimeter-thick special steel plate deformed like dough, collapsing inward and rolling into a lump of scrap iron.

Hui Ya's alloy skeletal system completed its combat stance switch within 0.1 seconds.

The concealed blade slots on the inner sides of the arms popped out, and two high-frequency vibrating blades crossed in front of the body in the narrow duct.

The sixth-rank crystal core ran at full power, and all twenty-seven tactical prosthetics on the body entered overload mode simultaneously.

However, Tie Tu didn't give Hui Ya any chance to act.

A hand reached in through the duct's gap, five fingers gripping Hui Ya's ankle.

Pull.

Hui Ya was dragged whole out of the ventilation duct, the back of the head slamming heavily onto the ground.

The alloy skull emitted a dull thud, and the inner shock-absorbing layer was mostly shattered.

Hui Ya leapt up, the vibrating blades tracing two intersecting arcs of light, aiming straight for Tie Tu's vital points.

Tie Tu did not dodge.

Tie Tu didn't even bother to look at the two blades claimed to be able to cut through a main battle tank, extending Tie Tu's left hand, two fingers clamping onto the blade of the right one.

Crack.

The blade broke.

It wasn't a malfunction, nor was the blade edge stuck; Tie Tu used two fingers to bend the sixth-rank combat weapon into two pieces.

Hui Ya's pupils contracted sharply.

Hui Ya didn't have time to think, the left vibrating blade slashing toward Tie Tu's carotid artery.

Tie Tu tilted the head to avoid it, the right hand reverse-gripping Hui Ya's wrist and pressing down.

The sound of breaking bones echoed in the circular passage, crisp beyond belief.

Hui Ya's left forearm, together with its precise transmission mechanism, was crushed by Tie Tu's hand into a scrap metal ball.

From the moment Hui Ya was dragged out of the duct to now, less than three seconds have passed.

Hui Ya knelt half on the ground, the remaining tactical prosthetics having lost forty percent of their actuation capability.

The brain crystal core frantically splashed red warnings across Hui Ya's retina.

Hui Ya forced composure, pressing the emergency communicator at the waist with the only still-functional right hand.

Tie Tu looked down at Hui Ya, like looking at a beetle flipped onto its back.

"You're from Upper City District." Tie Tu wasn't asking.

Hui Ya didn't answer.

Hui Ya's thumb had already touched the communicator's trigger key.

As long as it's pressed, the encrypted signal will be transmitted back to Upper City District within 0.5 seconds.

Tie Tu stomped on Hui Ya's communicator, shattering it.

Along with Hui Ya's right hand.

"I said it, mouse."

Tie Tu squatted down, lifted Hui Ya up, dragged Hui Ya into the conference room, and threw Hui Ya onto the long table.

Hui Ya lay on the long table, the sixth-rank crystal core's calculations still running.

Pain was suppressed by the built-in anesthetic injector of the prosthetic, Hui Ya could still think.

Tie Tu stood before Hui Ya, not continuing to attack.

Tie Tu was waiting.

Waiting for the immortal seated in the secret room to speak.

When Gu Yuan's divine sense descended upon the conference room, Hui Ya's tactical ocular prosthesis detected the subtle change in Tie Tu's bearing; this rough former gang leader instantly bent the waist, attitude shifting from hunter to watchdog.

"Sir, caught a mouse. Comes from Upper City District, loaded with top-tier gear."

Tie Tu laid out the parts stripped from Hui Ya's body on the table, one by one; naturally the most important was the sixth-rank spirit-aura crystal core pulled from the back of Hui Ya's head.

Gu Yuan's divine sense swept over that sixth-rank crystal core.

Interesting.

Like the third-, fourth-, and fifth-rank ones seen before, it shares the same underlying architecture, but its precision is higher by several orders of magnitude.

The array patterns are exquisitely precise, and the blood-drawing efficiency is also higher.

But the most valuable thing isn't this crystal core.

It's what's inside Hui Ya's head.

Gu Yuan's half-step immortal king–level divine sense lightly probed Hui Ya's sea of consciousness, encountering no obstruction.

The divine-soul protection of this world's top combat automaton was, before Gu Yuan, like a sheet of window paper.

Hui Ya's entire memories unfolded in Gu Yuan's sea of consciousness.

The organizational structure of the Four Great Conglomerates, the deployment of the Internal Security Enforcers, the power distribution of the four stewards of Eleventh City, the defense system of Upper City District, part of the operating logic of the Spirit Gathering Matrix, and even some fragments about the forefathers of the Four Great Conglomerates.

Gu Yuan went through it all, then withdrew the divine sense.

This mouse doesn't know much.

The Four Great Stewards have spent a lot of money on Hui Ya, but the authority granted is extremely low.

He knows nothing of what should be kept secret, a typical tool person.

"My lord?" Tie Tu waited for instructions.

"Let him go."

Tie Tu froze.

"He has an activation code jointly signed by the four stewards." Gu Yuan explained, "Release him and let him send back the information that should be sent."

Although Tie Tu didn't quite understand, the Immortal said to release, so release.

He released the grey crow, kicked it, and threw it out of the air-raid shelter's doorway like trash.

The grey crow vanished into the shadows of the black market.

Less than ten minutes after he left, Tie Tu received Gu Yuan's second order.

"Increase the spread of the Reverse Spirit Art by another thirty percent; I want the people of Upper City to see that the lower-class ants are breaking free of the chains on their necks."

Tie Tu grinned, revealing half a set of metal teeth.

He fully understood what the Immortal was doing.

Letting the grey crow go is the bait; accelerating the transmission art is the fire.

To make Upper City know the details of the Ancient Immortal Sect, forcing them to act.

What the Immortal wants is not to play hide-and-seek with the four stewards; he wants to draw out all those maggots hiding above the cloud layer.