Chapter 256

Chapter 256

Bang!

The crimson revolver ejected orange-yellow casings.

After a blinding muzzle flash, the entire door exploded in a fireball. Yet within the mere milliseconds between the bullet’s flight and impact, the Firearms Master stretched that moment infinitely through *bullet time*. Hui Cui grabbed his white automatic pistol, reloaded, and unloaded the clip in rapid succession—bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

Black shell casings flew out, shattering before they even touched the ground.

Jet-black coal was far too brittle for any part of a bullet, but through mystic power, it protected the ice-crafted projectile.

Whatever the thing outside the door had intended to say was forcibly silenced by the bullets. Ice and biting wind erupted within the Windrider Secretary’s office, freezing an undead in place at the doorway.

Only then did Hui Cui take a moment to scrutinize this sudden enemy. With a single glance, his expression turned grave.

The undead’s face bore a five-tenths resemblance to Lin’s—at least, if one were to push its bulging eyeballs back into their sockets, stuff its spilled intestines and liver back into its abdomen, and patch up the missing flesh and organs.

But anyone else would struggle to recognize that resemblance. The undead’s skin was crisscrossed with hastily stitched seams, and the mismatched shades of its flesh made clear the materials had been scavenged from different corpses. The face, too, had clearly undergone crude grafting arts.

The ears, shaped like Lin’s, likely came from a deceased simian. To make them fit, the creator had roughly snipped off part of the earlobes.

All evidence pointed to this being nothing more than a macabre marionette crafted by some necromancer—except—

After just two seconds of restraint, the undead shattered the ice trapping it.

Hui Cui was no Bellringing Frost Crow adept, but the strength of the Firearms Master lay in their ability to harness the powers of other Pillar God devotees through specialized bullets.

The jet-and-ice bullets he’d fired carried a suppression effect nearly on par with that of a high-tier Frost Crow adept. Yet even so, the undead had broken free with unsettling ease.

—Yes, this was no ordinary undead.

An ancient human skeletal revenant? No, more than that…

As Hui Cui pondered, the undead spoke. “So quick to attack. You don’t seem to believe me at all, but—”

Hui Cui crushed a teleportation charm. The undead moved in sync—by the time the charm slipped from his sleeve into his palm, the creature had already lunged forward.

Boom—!

Hui Cui, having discarded his pistol, met the undead with a punch. His secondary class, Combat Master, granted him an ability called the Fast-Slow Circle, allowing his delayed strike to instead send the undead flying.

The ghoul pirouetted midair, unfazed as it spat embalming fluid and continued speaking:

“—But these really are the remains of Lin’s mother.”

Bang!

Before teleporting away, Hui Cui raised his other gun, firing a mana-infused bullet imbued with icy force.

The undead howled in pain. The next moment, Hui Cui reappeared on the floor above headquarters—the platform of Spire City’s subway station.

The station had previously been overrun by rapidly spreading fungi. Bloating, lurid mushrooms clogged the train tunnels, while virulent spores befouled the air.

The Fungal Lord might have regained lucidity, but between awakening and reining in the frenzied fungal-folk, calming the rampant blight, molds, and yeasts, and more, mere seconds weren’t enough.

So Sourceblood devotees were still toiling to purify the area, while those not of her order couldn’t survive here without hazard suits.

One can imagine the sheer terror they felt when they looked up and saw a white coat—certainly not a specially made combat uniform—suddenly appear.

About a dozen voices cried out at once, "Presiding Judge?!" Yet the Presiding Judge of Spire City simply raised his sniper rifle with one hand, pressing his left eye against the scope.

The direction of his barrel was unmistakable. A weak female voice asked from behind him, "You're looking for Lin, right?"

"Presiding Judge!"

Several judges reacted quickly, shouting warnings, while others rushed forward without hesitation to shield Hui Cui.

"Step back!"

Hui Cui finally spoke his first words. He held the sniper rifle in one hand—which meant he still had another free for combat.

Since identifying the enemy as an undead being, the white automatic pistol had never left Hui Cui’s right hand. When the undead somehow followed him onto the subway platform, Hui Cui had already fired a shot over his shoulder.

Frost coated the undead's chest. Before the judges who expected the Presiding Judge’s shot to succeed could even cheer, they watched the undead push through the frost and strike.

*Teaaar!* The sharp finger bones of the undead ripped open the front of the white coat. Hui Cui grunted heavily—the tight-fitting suit under his shirt barely managed to block the attack.

"Huh?" The undead sounded surprised. "You weren't the kind to use protective alchemical tools yourself, were you?"

Indeed, Hui Cui rarely used such defensive items before. He remained silent, offering no explanation. But the undead curled its lips into a grotesque, exaggerated grin and whispered mockingly, "Changed your habits? Because you're in love?"

*None of your business!*

Even the surrounding judges who didn’t know what was going on mentally retorted.

Some even wanted to give Lin—who had already been transferred—a commendation.

Take for example the former head of the Medical Department, now serving on the front lines. She had repeatedly urged the Presiding Judge to value his own safety, but he always listened without acting. Now, finally, he was protecting himself. *Good for Lin!*

"So that means your relationship is real..." the undead mused, charging again and forcing Hui Cui to lower the sniper rifle—the weapon that could offer long-range support. As they fought, it added, "If it's true, then at least call me 'mother-in-law,' won't you?"

Those Sourceblood Mothers who had obeyed orders to step back—but not too far—reacted with shock; some immediately bristled with anger.

If having one’s corpse seized and forcibly revived by the Revivalists was the second greatest fear among Pillar practitioners, then seeing a loved one's body desecrated and controlled by necromancers to attack them was their greatest nightmare.

Some judges who had friendly ties with Lin could hardly bear to imagine how devastated Lin would be if they were here now. Others cast anxious glances toward Hui Cui, deeply distressed on behalf of their Presiding Judge.

If their loved ones were desecrated and resurrected as undead, they would not hesitate to kill the undead, for this was actually saving their loved ones. But if the loved one of their partner was resurrected as an undead, although they would not hesitate to kill it either, they would worry about how their partner would react upon learning of it.

Would it be better to use methods that could preserve the corpse rather than quickly destroying the undead?

The choices in battle suddenly multiplied, and the judges who empathized with Hui Cui's current situation were almost tearing their eyes out in frustration.

But Hui Cui showed no hesitation in his movements, using both his fists and weapons to destroy the undead before him as quickly as possible.

Even the undead was surprised, saying, "You really don't care about Lin's feelings."

The onlookers broke into a cold sweat, but Hui Cui, who disliked talking during battles, only replied in his mind: Lin is someone who looks forward.

If Lin were here, if the undead before him truly used Lin's mother's bones as its skeleton, what Lin would least want to see is his mother, after being resurrected as an undead, hurting others.

Hui Cui wanted to do this for Lin, but his heart involuntarily split in two, worrying about Lin far away.

For he had sensed that the purpose of this undead appearing here was to prevent him from checking on Lin's situation.

No matter what, Lin is at headquarters; nothing will happen to him...

As an apostle, Hui Cui also heard the sound of the dome cracking. At this moment, he tried hard to convince himself, but a growing unease became more and more distinct.

He wanted to see Lin with his own eyes.

He wanted to confirm Lin's safety.

After the dome cracked, the three great evil gods would send their avatars into the dome, and the Mirror Eye would become the center of the battle.

But Lin... Lin is just a ritualist! How could an evil god specifically target him?

Hui Cui crushed another teleportation amulet.

The undead before him was likely a Fallen Heaven avatar, and he needed to pull the battlefield away from the city.

The Fallen Heaven indeed followed.

While following, He used that weak female voice, speaking in that strange language, and laughed, "Is that what you think?"

Having witnessed countless noble warriors over millennia, the Fallen God easily guessed Hui Cui's thoughts and mocked, "I didn't expect... that a practitioner of the contradictory twin professions should have strong intuition. Do you really believe that your lover is just a ritualist?"