Chapter 272: Break

Night.

Violent rain poured down, washing the entire city into a blur of neon light and shadow.

The shrill air-raid siren tore across the sky, its sharp wail cutting through the rain and drilling into the minds of every resident of Happiness Community.

The streets were in utter chaos.

Countless vehicles were jammed together, the irritated honking mixing with the alarms, playing the prelude to doom.

Wearing black combat suits, with the Federal Weird Investigation Bureau insignia on their chests, the special forces members used cold roadblocks and tape to forcibly carve out a huge forbidden zone within the city.

"Everyone, evacuate immediately! This is not a drill! Repeat, this is not a drill!"

The roar from the loudspeaker was shattered into fragments by the rain.

Citizens were forcibly driven away, their faces filled with bewilderment and terror.

They did not know what had happened.

They only knew that the sky above seemed to have something invisible growing angry.

At the very center of the forbidden zone, the old tenement building known as Happiness Community was now emitting a weird aura that made hearts tremble.

Federal Weird Investigation Bureau, temporary command center.

On the huge electronic screen, split into dozens of views, the rain‑shrouded tenement building was monitored from every angle.

In the weird detection imaging, the building's energy response was in utter chaos, two utterly different high‑energy signals colliding and tangling wildly inside.

One was cold and sinister, the other violent and brutal.

Everyone held their breath, the air as oppressive as solidified cement.

Commander‑in‑Chief Wei Gong sat silently in the command seat.

He wasn't looking at the screen; instead, he lowered his head and slowly wiped a pair of reading glasses with a clean white cloth.

The aide behind him had fine beads of sweat on his forehead; he opened his mouth several times but swallowed his words each time.

"Beep."

The encrypted communication channel was connected.

"This is Mei, I've reached the designated position."

Qin Zhixia's clear, crisp voice came through the communicator, without a trace of extra emotion.

Wei Gong then lifted his head, placed the spotless cleaned glasses on his face, and through the lenses his seemingly murky old eyes fell upon the energy signal on the main screen that represented the Ghost Wall.

"Your mission is to hold back Ouyang Feng."

Wei Gong's tone was calm, without a ripple.

"Once the Ghost Wall's power is exhausted and Ouyang Feng breaks free, you need to intercept him there."

On the other end of the communicator there was a moment of silence.

"How long is the time limit?"

"No time limit." Wei Gong said flatly, "Do your best. But remember one thing."

He paused, his tone gaining a hint of unquestionable solemnity.

"Make your own safety the top priority. If it's impossible, retreat immediately."

"Understood."

Qin Zhixia's reply remained brief.

Wei Gong leaned back in his chair, fingers interlaced over his abdomen, watching the two wildly flashing dots on the screen, his eyes deep.

He was like a ruthless chess player, using the city's safety as the board and his most capable subordinates as pieces, all for a sliver of hope.

He knew that sending Qin Zhixia was merely a drop in the bucket.

But this was a blatant ploy.

He needed to buy time, to create the most crucial killing window for Chen Shao's misfit "Evil Person Alliance" and the final reinforcements.

Time flowed, minute by minute, second by second.

Only the hum of operating instruments and the incessant rain outside remained in the command room.

Each second felt like a slow slicing of everyone's nerves.

Suddenly.

"Alarm! Alarm!"

The sharp electronic alert shattered the death‑like silence!

The technician seated at the monitoring console jerked his head up.

"Report!"

His voice carried a tremor he himself hadn't even noticed.

"Sequence 002, the Ghost Wall's energy reading…… is plummeting rapidly!"

"What?!"

The aide stepped up behind him, eyes locked on the screen's cliff‑like dropping energy curve, pupils contracting sharply.

"How can it be this fast? According to calculations, he should at least be able to trap Ouyang Feng for ten minutes!"

"Impossible to calculate!" He hammered the keyboard, streams of data cascading before his eyes, "The energy level of the target unit 'Ouyang Feng' is undergoing an exponential leap inside! He is using a kind of…… a kind of violence we cannot comprehend, forcibly ripping the Ghost Wall's subspace from the rule level!"

"His destruction speed has already exceeded the weird's recovery speed!"

"Damn it!" The aide slammed his fist on the console, "This lunatic!"

Wei Gong remained seated, but his interlaced fingers had silently tightened.

His gaze pierced the screen, as if he could see everything happening inside that building.

He had ultimately underestimated the madness an elite could unleash in pursuit of godhood.

"How long until the Ghost Wall's domain is completely destroyed?" Wei Gong's voice remained steady.

The technician's fingertips stopped on the keyboard.

He raised his head, and through his thick black‑rimmed glasses, looked at Wei Gong, and spat out a number that plunged everyone into an ice cellar.

Ten......

Nine......

Eight......

The icy countdown, like the footsteps of the grim reaper, heavily stepped on each person's heart.

"Plum"! Get ready, he's coming out!

The non‑commissioned officer roared into the communicator.

At the moment the countdown reached zero.

Happiness Community.

That Tongzi Lou, wrapped in a gloomy aura, was like a small sun detonated from within.

There was no earth‑shattering roar.

Only a scalp‑numbing silence remained.

Immediately after, the top floor of the Tongzi Lou, under the gaze of countless shocked eyes, silently... collapsed!

It was not an explosion, but a collapse!

It was as if an invisible giant hand had clenched it tightly and then suddenly exerted force!

The reinforced steel bar concrete was twisted into a braid, the walls turned into hundreds of millions of tons of dust, mixed with the downpour, forming a gray mudslide that rolled upward toward the sky!

A figure shot up from the sky‑filled shattered debris!

He was covered head‑to‑toe in a ferocious pallid bone armor, and behind him spread over a dozen huge bone spikes like demon wings, each tip dangling shattered wall fragments still dripping dark‑red filthy blood.

That was not Ouyang Feng.

It was a monster that had crawled out of the hellish Abyss, having completely forsaken humanity!

He hovered in mid‑air, letting the raging storm wash over his bone armor.

Those scarlet eyes, from a kilometer away, precisely locked onto the figure below on the street—someone in a black combat suit holding a special pistol, looking up at him.

Qin Zhixia.

The 'Ghost Wall' has been broken.

And the ace's hunt has only just begun.