Chapter 163: White Fox

Tiangou flew Jiang Zhihui into Seoul's skyscraper cluster, weaving between buildings to evade the relentless machine-gun fire behind them.

Inside the high-end office towers, unlucky white-collar workers forced to overtime and still stuck at work late at night first heard the flapping of wings outside their windows.

When they curiously went to look, a barrage of bullets shattered the building's windows, sending them screaming and scrambling under their desks.

Boom!

Tiangou couldn't dodge in time; its back took a hit, staggered downward, and made an emergency landing in the middle of a commercial street.

Landing abruptly, Jiang Zhihui suffered multiple abrasions; she turned to see Li Cheng diving toward her, lips tightly pressed, spitting out an order through clenched teeth: "Cover me."

Then she solemnly pulled out a purple paper-cut, held it between her lips, and used her sharp nails to slice open both of her wrists.

Blood gushed forth, defying gravity as it flowed upward, soaking the purple paper-cut and rising in thick smoke.

Lower- and mid-rank spirit servants lack self-awareness; Tiangou, expressionless, spread its wings to their full extent, shielding Jiang Zhihui as machine-gun bullets rained down and struck its body.

Ordinary civilians on the street, hearing the rapid gunfire, mostly cowered and fled, scrambling into shops along the road.

A few young people, however, were exhilarated, standing at the edge of the commercial street and raising their phones to film this spectacle only seen in movies, utterly unconcerned about being hit by stray bullets.

This commercial street had previously appeared in the prophecy of the 【Diary of Self-Destruction】, signaling immense danger.

Li Cheng kept a watchful eye, constantly monitoring Jiang Zhihui's movements.

The surrounding air twisted and warped like ripples on water; in the next instant, the massive head of a white fox emerged from the sky, jaws wide, lunging at Li Cheng.

Li Cheng had already gripped his bat-hook gun, simultaneously activating his rocket pack to climb urgently while firing the hook to embed it into the skyscraper's exterior wall.

His entire body—or rather, half his body—swung in a half-circle through the air, evading the white fox's bite.

Glug glug.

Jiang Zhihui's wrists continued bleeding; her face paled visibly, and the purple paper-cut in her mouth still emitted smoke, further releasing the spirit servant.

After the white fox spirit's head manifested, its entire upper body also emerged from the void.

Unlike the typical cute, fluffy fox spirit, this white fox was enormous—nearly three stories tall—with eyes crimson as blood, facial muscles taut and grotesque, veins bulging with ferocity.

It slowly opened its mouth, brewing a black energy sphere the size of a basketball, then fired it forth.

The energy sphere moved slowly, missing Li Cheng and striking the skyscraper's wall.

Then, an invisible wave radiated outward from the sphere.

Gravity abruptly shifted; the building's plaster, rebar, concrete, tiles, wires, potted plants—all were pulled toward the black sphere, colliding and crushing into powder.

Another energy sphere flew down, striking a lower floor; Li Cheng maxed out his rocket pack's power, resisting the twin gravitational waves.

Boom—

The roar of an engine drew near; Huiyu rode in on a bat-wing motorcycle, grabbed two thighs, and hurled them into the air, precisely into Li Cheng's hands.

The 【Assemble Puppet】 effect activated again; Li Cheng attached the two legs, exhaled deeply, shut off his rocket pack, and relied solely on the hook's pull to land between the two zones of gravitational anomaly.

His feet landed firmly on reinforced concrete; he bent his knees, tensed his leg muscles, and pushed off with all his strength, breaking free from the gravitational pull, landing on the ground beside Huiyu.

Huiyu, en route, had somehow acquired a pair of sunglasses and now wore them, coolly posing with a blank expression.

From buildings on both sides of the street, numerous fearless bystanders held up their phones to film.

Seizing a rare chance to appear as a divine figure, Huiyu dramatically pushed his sunglasses up with his middle finger, lowered his voice, and recited in a solemn tone the line from the movie *Terminator 3*: "I am back."

Li Cheng muttered under his breath: "You're too quiet—they can't hear you."

"Oh." Huiyu complied immediately, cleared his throat, and shouted: "I am back!"

Li Cheng's eye twitched; he said nothing more, stretched his limbs slightly, looked up at the fox spirit, and called out loudly to Jiang Zhihui: "Is this your trump card?"

"No," Jiang Zhihui said, her lips pale and bloodless, yet a faint cold smile curled at her corner: "They are my trump card."

Hum—

Dozens of wheeled armored transport vehicles surrounded from both sides, screeching to a halt at the intersection.

Soldiers equipped with advanced gear leapt out, using vehicles and buildings as cover, seizing firing positions, suppressing their terror of the giant fox, and raising K2 assault rifles to aim at Li Cheng and Huiyu.

These soldiers belonged to the Seoul Capital Defense Command, the only military force in Korea that can be deployed by presidential order without U. S. approval, headquartered at Namsan in Seoul, less than five kilometers from the city center, under the direct command of the Presidential Security Service.

Earlier, when Jiang Zhihui evacuated from the private club, she called Ms. Park at Cheong Wa Dae and ordered her to deploy the Capital Defense Forces.

"Ms. Park really trusts you."

Li Cheng scanned the soldier deployments on both streets: 55th Security Regiment, 33rd Military Police Regiment, 35th Special Operations Task Force, Artillery Support Battalion.

Aside from the presidential guard units, she had pulled nearly every military force the Presidential Security Service could mobilize in a short time—this would inevitably carry a heavy political cost afterward.

Jiang Zhihui exhaled a long breath; as the white fox spirit fully manifested, the purple paper-cut in her mouth vanished. "She had no choice but to trust me."

Ms. Park had already faced political attacks over her mishandling of the Sewol ferry disaster, her presidency unstable. Now, with this chaos erupting in Seoul, she had no option but to stake everything on the gamble and cooperate with Jiang Zhihui's actions.

"Biological life is incredibly fragile against modern weapons; even transcenders, faced with machine-gun volleys, artillery barrages, and precision-guided missile strikes, have only two choices: die or flee."

Standing beneath the white fox, Jiang Zhihui said calmly: "My offer hasn't changed: leave this world, and we can coexist in peace."

". Hah."

Li Cheng fell silent for a moment, then chuckled softly: "How to put it? Your isolated environment has limited your perspective."

Jiang Zhihui felt a faint unease, narrowing her eyes: ". What do you mean?"

Li Cheng said calmly: "You've been locked in this world, cutting yourself off from other players. The greatest advantage of transcenders has never been destructive power."

Even Lv20 or Lv30 transcenders, unleashing their full strength, cannot match the 2750-ton ammonium nitrate explosion in Beirut in 2020, let alone reach nuclear levels.

"The greatest advantage transcenders hold against modern armies lies in their diverse, unpredictable methods."

Li Cheng raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.

The 【Mist Concealment】 skill activated instantly; thick white fog erupted from him, spreading rapidly to engulf the entire intersection.

(End of Chapter)