Chapter 491: Bold Break‑In

The rain fell densely.

The searchlight cut through the water curtain, illuminating the small patch of ground in front of Secret Passage No. 3 a stark white.

All twelve hidden sentries had already raised their guns.

Infrared targeting dots crawled over Ji Bai's forehead, chest, throat, and knees, dense and countless, as if pre‑drawn autopsy marks.

The Captain stood behind the cover, finger on the trigger, throat tightening.

"Qiu Ce Yuan Forbidden Zone, halt."

"Advance further and you will be treated as an attack."

Ji Bai propped the Old Black Umbrella, standing motionless in the rain.

The black coat was already soaked through, the bandages on his shoulders bleeding darkly, dripping down his arms. His overly youthful face was a chilling white in the searchlight, eyes flat as a wall, as if looking at a wall or a crowd of corpses.

He opened his mouth.

"Open the door."

Two words.

Absurdly blunt.

The hidden‑sentry captain almost laughed in anger.

"You're alone, you want a door here?"

Ji Bai nodded.

"Yes."

A team member behind muttered "madman" under his breath, raising his muzzle another half‑inch.

The Captain did not rush to give an order.

Captain Liang Wen had already instructed that this youth was probably not an ordinary target; if they could capture him alive it would be best, if not, they should hold him until reinforcements arrived.

So he wanted to try one more line.

"Put down your weapon, clasp your hands over your head, and kneel."

"I'll give you three seconds."

Ji Bai glanced at the iron door.

Three solid locks, and a second gate behind it.

Trouble.

He lifted the umbrella handle, as if weighing its heft.

"Three seconds is too long."

The Captain's eyelid twitched.

"Open fire!"

The gunfire erupted almost simultaneously.

The rain curtain was shredded into fragments by the dense fire, bullets interlaced, sealing every inch of space in front of Ji Bai.

A normal person couldn't even think of charging forward; standing still would be sifted like a colander.

Yet Ji Bai moved.

Not backward.

Forward.

The Old Black Umbrella tilted, its canopy brushing bullet trails as they passed; the ribs trembled from the impact, rain droplets splashed. He lowered his center of gravity, kicked off the pooled water with his shoe, his silhouette skimming the ground, so fast the thermal‑imaging frame left only a after‑image.

The left‑side hidden sentry just adjusted his muzzle when darkness fell before his eyes.

The umbrella handle had already arrived.

Snap!

A large piece of his faceplate buckled inward, his body flew outward, the back of his head slammed into the wall, and he was motionless on the spot.

"Right side! Right side, cover!"

"Don't let him get close!"

Someone shouted hoarsely.

But Ji Bai gave them no chance to weave a fire net.

He moved like a blade slipping into gear teeth, his stance narrow and ruthless, each step landing on the thinnest overlap of fire. Bullets skimmed the rain, leaving strings of white streaks that didn't even touch his coat's edge.

The next second he was already at the bullet‑proof door.

A heavily armored guard burst from behind the door, raising a shield overhead, the other hand pressing a miniature Containment Object at his waist.

Ji Bai didn't even glance.

He folded the black umbrella.

One‑handed reverse grip.

He twisted his waist, shifted his shoulder, channeling his whole body's force into a single line, and swung the umbrella handle straight into the center of the bullet‑proof door.

Bang!

The thick Alloy Door panel dented inward, forming a clear deep pit.

The lock tongue behind the door emitted an unpleasant scraping sound.

The duty officer in the monitoring room twitched, spilling coffee all over his pants.

"Is this damn thing still a person?"

A colleague beside him stared at the screen, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"He's not holding an umbrella, right? He's holding a hammer, right?"

On the ground, Ji Bai's second strike already caught up.

Bang!

The third strike.

Bang!

The whole drainage station was trembling.

The alloy door frame began to deform, the fixing bolts popping out one by one, as if being crushed to the limit by an invisible hydraulic press.

The captain's scalp went numb.

"Don't worry about the door, shoot his legs, shoot his joints!"

Firepower poured down again.

This time Ji Bai didn't dodge.

He turned sideways, his back against the door, right hand swinging the umbrella, left hand grabbing a guard who rushed over, forcibly pulling him over as a shield. The bulletproof vest was hit by bullets making puff puff sounds, that guard screamed and struggled, and in the next moment Ji Bai flung him out, he knocked over two people.

Immediately after, Ji Bai stepped forward.

The umbrella tip lifted the gun barrel.

A knee strike.

An elbow smash.

A palm knife cut the throat.

The motions were short, vicious, with no flashy moves.

Four seconds.

The area before the door was cleared.

The last sentry hadn't even had time to pull out a second containment object before his wrist was crushed. His scream stuck in his throat, Ji Bai kicked him into the rain puddle, mud and water mixed with blood splashing everywhere.

He stood again before the door, raising his hand to wipe the rainwater flowing to the corner of his eye.

At the rear pipe outlet, black vapor began to roil.

A Jie walked out.

Her toes hovered half an inch off the ground, her hair slowly rising in the rain, resentment spreading like a tide.

She glanced at the mess all over the ground.

"You were too ruthless."

Ji Bai didn't even turn his head.

"No room to hold back."

A Jie sighed.

"Fine."

Behind them, Xiao Li poked her head out holding a cloth doll, timidly adding a sentence.

"A Jie, are we illegally trespassing?"

Du Bi Lao Gui gave a chuckle.

"We've come to break out of jail, and you still worry about legality? Baby, your notion of the rule of law is a bit ahead of its time."

Just as his words fell.

The watchtower on the other side of the drainage station lit up.

A sharp alarm shot up into the night sky.

The entire perimeter of Qiu Ce Yuan simultaneously switched to the highest-level response, red lights spinning wildly, the rain curtain dyed red. In the distance, armored vehicle engines roared, several automatic gun positions began to turn, aiming points locking onto the drainage station's coordinates.

The monitoring room descended into chaos.

"The outer perimeter outposts have been overrun!"

"Gate three is severely damaged!"

"High-density resentment entities approaching detected, not a single one, but a group!"

"Notify Liang Team! Notify Su Team! Raise the underground authorization! Quick!"

The duty officer's hands were shaking, gripping the communicator and shouting frantically.

"Lock the inner door! Lock the inner door!"

Too bad, it's too late.

Because someone reacted faster than they did.

Meng Wan lifted her head.

Her pale face was covered in cracks, like porcelain repeatedly smashed and pieced back together. The next moment, her long hair shot up, the stagnant water under her feet giving off a foul black hue, spreading along the ground, climbing the wall, and slipping into the power box and firing ports.

A guard about to trigger the automatic machine gun had his finger just touch the button when black water already coiled around his wrist.

"What the hell is this!"

He couldn't shake it off.

The next second, the black water slipped in through his sleeve.

He immediately went to his knees.

He opened his mouth and vomited, not stomach acid but clumps of foul sludge.

On the other side, A Jie raised her hand.

Crimson blood lines extended from her fingertips, dense and numerous, like a net woven in midair, completely immobilizing the firepower points of the second wave of guards charging in. Those blood lines aren't thick, but they're eerily effective: hitting a gun barrel makes it veer, hitting a person makes them stiffen.

"Left side is mine."

A Jie's tone was light.

"Don't any of you try to take it."

Du Bi Lao Gui sat in his wheelchair, gave the armrest a single pat, and the wheelchair surged forward on its own, all the while muttering curses.

"I used to drive a taxi when I was alive, and after death I still have to run a raid; what a hard fate."

When he passed a fallen guard, he casually snapped off the shock‑blast device on the guard's waist, studied it for two seconds, then turned and tossed it to Xiao Li.

"Kid, take it and play."

Xiao Li caught it while holding a cloth doll, and blinked.

"Thanks, uncle."

Then she cried out, "Wah."

She sobbed wildly.

Weirdly, when she cried, every electronic screen in the drainage station went static, the cameras went "Zila", the laser array flashed twice, and the data went completely garbled.

The screen before the monitoring‑room operator instantly turned snowy.

"What's happening again!"

"The source of interference isn't electromagnetic; it's Spiritual Pollution!"

"Mark that little girl in red! Mark her in red!"

The situation completely spiraled out of control.

Ji Bai ignored the melee behind him.

He raised his hand, felt the deformed Alloy Door, found its most fragile stress point, was about to make the final fix, when a slender metal slot suddenly sprang out from inside the door.

A black box about the size of a palm rose inside.

A micro Containment Object.

Identify, lock target, auto‑activate.

Ji Bai's pupils contracted, and his body instinctively sidestepped.

The black box cracked open.

A gray‑white Shadow burst out, looking like a person but not quite, and upon landing lunged at his neck.

Big sister shouted low from behind.

"Careful, that's a cognitive‑type!"

Before she finished speaking, Ji Bai had already moved forward.

He didn't dodge; instead, he stepped half a pace forward, grabbed the umbrella with his left hand, and with his right hand directly clamped the gray‑white Shadow's face.

It felt cold and slippery in his hand.

The next moment, the thing began crawling up his arm, trying to slip into his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.

Ji Bai didn't even blink.

Deep in his chest, the power left by Hong Jie gave a slight tremor.

The gray‑white Shadow froze midair.

As if it had hit something even more ferocious.

It began to shiver, writhe, and even recoil.

Ji Bai squeezed it, his five fingers exerting force.

Snap.

The cognitive‑type Containment Object was brutally crushed by his grip, shattering into pieces of Gray Mist that were swept by rain into the drainage ditch.

Meng Wan behind him stared dumbfounded.

"That works?"

Du Bi Lao Gui clicked his tongue twice.

"This kid is looking less and less human now."

Ji Bai gave no reply.

He lifted the umbrella, stepped forward, and swung it a third time.

The Alloy Door finally gave way.

The hinge shattered, the whole door panel tilted inward, splashing a large spray of water.

The inner door's password lock was exposed.

A silver panel, twelve dynamic passwords, and beside it a dual iris and fingerprint verification.

Ji Bai crouched, glanced twice.

No way.

He's being honest.

So he pressed the tip of the umbrella directly against it, preparing a physical hack.

Just then,

A narrow black flame slashed diagonally from the top of the high wall outside the drainage station.

The rain curtain was forcefully split by that blade‑like flame.

The pooled water on the ground surged to both sides, the metal password panel at Ji Bai's feet instantly split in two, and sparks flew wildly.

Big sister's complexion changed.

"Retreat!"

Ji Bai had already stepped back.

He hauled the nearest Xiao Li backward, the Old Black Umbrella held horizontally before him, the black flame brushed the rim and swept past, scorching a ring on the edge of the umbrella cloth.

On the high wall.

A swaggering, punch‑ready figure pressed a knife with one hand, Windcoat fluttering, standing more flamboyantly than a searchlight.

Liang Wen looked down, flicked the black flame on his blade, and spoke with a theatrical tone.

"You're really being disobedient."

"You actually ran under my throne and went wild."

He finished speaking and paused for half a beat, as if waiting for the audience to applaud.

But no one below cooperated.

The one‑armed old ghost twitched the corner of his mouth.

"Who wrote this guy's entrance speech? Must be a work injury."

Big sister rubbed the bridge of her eyebrows.

"The Senior Executive of the Investigation Bureau's mental state is still this beautiful."

Ji Bai lifted his head, rainwater streaming down his forehead.

He stared at Liang Wen on the high wall, his hand gripping the umbrella gradually tightening.

And deeper still.

Underground Laboratory.

The metal Restraint Ring gave a slight tremor.

Lu Yu's previously lowered head rose.

In his chest, the gluttonous beast seemed to smell the scent of a banquet spread across the table, trembling with excitement, a low hum rolling from deep in his throat.

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