Chapter 357: Bitter? Happy?

"Who?"

Teacher Li Ya didn't react for a moment, and subconsciously asked again.

Who? Ying Duo?

What trouble has he caused this time?

What cannon?

You mean that kid is really not human, but a weapon spirit?!

The next second, she finally caught on.

Flame City Cannon......

The Church had previously issued several notices raising the bounty on that person, and it is said that the recent Co-Absorption operations in Tianmian City were all his doing.

Teacher Li Ya opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but found she couldn't utter a word.

Su Jingchuan's voice came through the communicator, seeming also laden with an indescribable complexity:

"I know it's hard for you to accept, I only just found out myself."

Li Ya inhaled deeply, "...... Are you sure?"

"The Church's report, personally confirmed by the Holy Saint."

The Holy Saint personally confirmed.

Those six words hit Li Ya's heart like a massive stone.

She slowly set the communicator down, her gaze unintentionally drifting outside.

At the distant edge of Tianmian City, she could faintly see a speck of pale blue light flickering.

Ying Duo...... is he there?

Li Ya's mouth corner lifted slowly, first a slight curve, then becoming more pronounced, until she was almost laughing out loud.

Flame City Cannon.

The terrorist who caused the Church's bounty to rise repeatedly, striking terror throughout Tianmian City.

He was even chased across the school by Luo De'an, just to keep his hair.

He was even pursued by her for compensation, being told to endure while she pointed at his nose.

He actually......

Li Ya finally couldn't hold back, letting out a low laugh.

"So......" she murmured, "Do I now have a legitimate reason to beat him?"

The thought lifted her mood a bit, but immediately her smile froze on her face.

Flame City Cannon.

Blasting the Black Stone Mountain Range, destroying the Air Train, triggering a Mutation in Tianmian City—how many ordinary families among the civilians caught in the disaster are enduring despair?

Li Ya recalled Ying Duo's perpetually expressionless face, and his inexplicable actions......

Behind that silence, how many things does she not know?

"...... Cultist."

Li Ya's voice was soft, yet carried an indefinable emotion.

"Sure enough, they're all a bunch of lunatics, not even sparing the children."

————————————————

Su Jingchuan set the communicator down, not moving immediately; he sat like that in his chair, staring at the pair of guns inside the box on the desk, silent for a long, long time.

Those were the guns his older brother once used; both the design and the Rune circuitry were commissioned from Tianmian City's most renowned masters.

He once thought that if anyone could inherit this pair of pistols, they must be a genius.

And that genius, he had once believed would be Ying Duo.

But Ying Duo never attended his class even once.

There was no choice; considering Ying Duo's mind truly had issues, Su Jingchuan could only keep a low profile.

Later, when he heard that Ying Duo finally added the course to his schedule, he felt a brief surge of happiness.

But in the blink of an eye, the kid was taken away by a "parent", claiming to go check his brain.

Now he finally understands.

It wasn't a brain check.

It was to carry out a terrorist attack.

Su Jingchuan's mouth formed a bitter curve, "Flame City Cannon......"

He whispered the name repeatedly, as the Church had consecutively issued several notices raising the bounty.

It is said that the recent Co-Absorption operations in Tianmian City all bore the mark of the "Flame City Cannon".

And he, an ordinary firearms instructor, still fantasized about taking that "Flame City Cannon" as a student.

He once thought he could teach him something.

The pale blue speck outside grew brighter, almost piercing the night sky.

Su Jingchuan stared at the light, silent for a long, long while.

"Perhaps...... I'm overreaching."

He closed the cabinet door, turned and walked toward the exit.

——————————————

Let's cut the camera back to the cliff edge.

The night wind howls, the pale blue light swirling and compressing deep within the cannon mouth, now shining so brightly it is almost impossible to look at directly.

Lu Mu's shoulders sag slightly, and a jet-black Raven falls silently.

His expression changed.

"The city is bustling now, the Church's people are swarming out, the Supervision Bureau is also gathering, Lei Zhao is standing alone over there......"

Lu Mu spoke, his tone tinged with schadenfreude and a hint of solemnity.

"Probably can't stop it."

Hong Ling's eyes widened instantly, and she spun around, ready to rush into the city.

"Move aside! I'm going back!"

An arm stretched across her path.

It was Bai Mu Yun.

He leaned against the broken wall, the wound on his shoulder still bleeding, yet the arm that blocked Hong Ling stood as steady as a wall.

"What can you do if you go back now?"

Hong Ling gritted her teeth, "I—"

"A suicide mission."

Bai Mu Yun finished it for her.

Hong Ling's eyes reddened instantly; she stared at Bai Mu Yun, her gaze full of anger and anxiety.

But she didn't move.

Because she knew Bai Mu Yun was right.

Fang Zhiyan ignored the dispute, turned his head, and his dark‑red eyes looked toward Ying Duo.

"How much longer?"

Ying Duo lifted his head and glanced at the countdown in the upper‑right corner of the view.

【Countdown: 05:27】

"A little over five minutes."

Fang Zhiyan nodded.

"Then it should be fine."

He stepped forward, silver‑white tendrils rising slowly behind him, swaying gently in the night wind.

"You only need to ensure that one cannon fires, the rest is up to us."

Ying Duo said nothing.

He merely lowered his head, his gaze falling on the cliff beneath his feet.

Under the dual pressure of the massive cannon's weight and energy fluctuations, the rock had begun to develop fine cracks, which were slowly extending toward the edge of the cliff.

Ying Duo tilted his head; once the game became this realistic, there were far more factors to consider.

Then his fingers flew across the virtual keyboard again, and Ying Guang Lu energy lines surged from his fingertips, piercing the fissures in the rock below.

Simultaneously, he selected several metal plates and some components from his pack; the material was cut and reshaped by the energy lines mid‑air, then embedded piece by piece into the cliff's rock layer.

Each time a metal plate was set, a Ying Guang Lu Rune flashed across its surface, then vanished swiftly into the rock's depths.

Lu Mu's eyelids twitched as he watched.

"....... What is he doing?"

Bai Mu Yun glanced over.

"Reinforcing the foundation."

"What?"

"That cannon is too heavy; if it keeps shaking like this, the whole cannon will fall off the cliff."

Lu Mu opened his mouth, seemed about to speak, but swallowed the words.

In the end he said nothing, merely stepped back silently two paces, putting a little more distance between himself and the cliff.

Having grown accustomed to Ying Duo's chaotic and off‑beat behavior, it was rare to see him actually doing something proper.

The key is, in this regard, he truly knows nothing at all.