Chapter 514: Shattered Alliances

Just a slight movement to rise sent a long afterimage trailing from his body.

No one witnessed Black Jack’s subtle maneuver.

People only saw him standing up from his seat, and in the blink of an eye, he had vanished from his chair. In that instant of smooth transition from sitting to full rise, he appeared right in front of Secretary Shen, who was trapped beneath a dense encirclement, and reached out to grab her.

His left thumb and forefinger pinched at Secretary Shen’s cheek, slowly applying pressure.

Secretary Shen stood about 1.67 meters tall and was slender, yet she still had a visible presence.

Astonishingly, he hoisted her up by her cheek as if she were a fish leaping from water, her low-heeled shoes barely leaving the ground.

“Crackle…”

At that moment, bystanders were aghast. The guards armed with guns immediately raised their weapons and aimed at Black Jack.

“Heh heh…”

Facing a hail of several dozen gun sights, Fang Pian and Hong Tao exchanged a look before letting out a cold laugh simultaneously.

In the next instant, they split to the left and right. Fang Pian’s body moved with inhuman agility—as if shrinking, his head tucked in so that he almost disappeared into himself. In a swift flash, he darted into the crowd before extending his hand.

He grabbed the arm of one of the guards, and something odd began to unfold.

The moment the guard’s arm was seized, his body started convulsing unnaturally. As if struck by an electric shock, his other arm jerked out suddenly to grab the shoulder of a nearby guard. This set off a chain reaction, with one guard after another, their limbs flailing in rapid succession.

In a bizarre display, all the guards became entangled, linked together through various physical contacts.

Pain and terror twisted their features, yet, like victims of high-voltage shocks, they couldn’t break free.

Observing their horrified expressions, Fang Pian smirked condescendingly. With a slight movement of his hand on one guard’s palm, all the guards slowly turned, their guns now pointed at each other.

Fang Pian burst into a mocking laugh, baring his two prominent canine teeth.

Then, with his other hand, he mimicked a gun and tapped his temple with a sharp “click.”

“Rat-a-tat-tat…”

In the next moment, every guard fired their weapons simultaneously. The air filled with the acrid scent of gunpowder.

One by one, the guards collapsed; blood gushed from their muzzles, and terror mixed with shock was etched on their faces.

Over a dozen armed guards were eliminated in an instant.

……

Meanwhile, Hong Tao, charging forward, ended up landing squarely on the lap of the portly, big-eared Administration Hall Director across the long table.

Her head tilted slightly as her vividly red lips – smeared like fresh blood – parted. She bit down gently on the Director’s throat area; not forcefully, even licking him with the tip of her tongue, making his back instantly stiffen.

Other ministers, secretaries, and officials tensed up simultaneously.

They realized that, no matter the gender, a woman had mounted each of their laps.

They could even feel the warmth of exhaled breath and the delicate pressure of teeth on their throats.

Then the surrounding guards fired again, slaying one another.

Their throats were clamped by a woman’s teeth, ever on the verge of taking a bite.

So no one dared move or speak; beads of cold sweat trickled down as everyone stood frozen in terror.

……

At the same time, Old K pulled his two hands out of his pockets.

Clutched between his fingers were a set of black nails, each a little over three inches long.

Without any flashy movements, the eight nails in his hands were flung to the walls on either side with a series of sharp clatters. They struck four grotesque human faces carved in the wall, each nail embedding about three centimeters deep.

Where the nails hit, a thin trickle of dark, tainted blood began to seep out—it seemed the nails were still active, digging ever deeper.

Old K frowned slightly as he watched the faces on the wall, his gaze alert.

……

……

Black Jack had unwavering faith in his team’s ability. Amid the surreal chaos unfolding around them, he didn’t even look back.

His eyes slowly lifted to rest on Secretary Shen’s face—still gripped by his fingers mid-air:

“You can’t even handle the aberrant creatures in the S-level forbidden zone, yet you dare to scheme against us?”

“Do you have any idea how much it delights me to see your overconfidence?”

“Because with that, we can officially take over Heichao City…”

“…”

Secretary Shen was hoisted into the air by her face.

Yet, she still wore a polite, respectful smile, albeit slightly distorted from the pressure on her cheeks.

Listening to Black Jack’s words, her eyes suddenly jerked like the second hand of a watch. After two rapid twitches, her gaze fixed on Black Jack, and she slowly raised both hands.

Her hands came to rest under her chin.

It appeared that being hoisted in the air had strained her neck, and she instinctively tried to steady herself.

But as her hands supported her chin, Black Jack suddenly sensed that the skin between his fingers felt off—a delicate fissure had formed on the skin of the female secretary, as if some fragile porcelain had been crushed inward.

He could even feel the crack spreading along his fingertips.

In the next moment, the female secretary forcefully pushed upward with a crisp “crack.”

Her head suddenly slid right out from her neck.

A loud “thud” echoed.

Her body hit the ground with a heavy impact, but her head remained in Black Jack’s grasp.

A vivid, blood-red spine dangled from her head like a grotesque living thing.

The sight shocked both Black Jack and his subordinates, making them instinctively recoil.

Then, the headless corpse of the female secretary suddenly stirred. It fumbled along the floor with both hands, finding a small, black remote control. Her finger pressed one of its buttons lightly, and it emitted a soft “beep.”

“Sss…”

The sound of whirring gears filled the air as a black curtain in front of the meeting room slowly parted to the sides.

Behind the curtain lay a one-meter square glass tank, inside of which grew a scarecrow.

It was the typical kind seen in fields—a body woven from straw, with two outstretched arms, a head fitted with two glass marbles for eyes, a grotesque grin drawn in red chalk, and topped with a black pointed hat.

Under the incandescent lights, the glass eyes glittered vividly, their dull gaze fixed straight ahead.

“Buzz…”

A strange, intense presence filled the entire meeting room.

In an instant, the moment the scarecrow appeared, an eerie contaminating force permeated every inch of space.

Everyone was suddenly shrouded in it.

“This is bad!”

At that moment, Black Jack, Old K, Fang Pian, and Hong Tao all felt a chill run down their spines.

They sensed an ominous, electrifying threat unlike anything they had ever felt.

Instinctively, without a thought for resistance, they blinked and turned to flee as fast as possible.

They even felt as though they had already escaped.

Yet, in a sudden moment, they felt weightless—and when they looked back, they discovered they were still rooted to the spot.

Their bodies stiffened, their eyes glazed, frozen in the very pose they struck when they first saw the scarecrow.

They could hardly believe it; scrambling forward, they reached out as if to drag themselves along, shouting in frustrated anger.

But in that meeting room, only a few stray breezes passed by.

“Clatter…”

There was a noise.

It came from the headless female secretary, who groped her way up. In her blindness, she accidentally bumped into a table.

Still, she managed to steady herself, then continued slowly groping forward with both hands.

After a few steps, she reached Black Jack’s position. With both hands, she slowly raised them to cradle his head.

With a slight exertion, a soft “plop” sounded as Black Jack’s head was yanked free, bloodied and attached to a dangling spine. Carefully, she cradled the head and, aligning it with her own throat, began to insert the spine bit by bit.

“Clack-clack-clack…”

A series of crisp clicks ensued as the head settled neatly onto her neck.

She then gently cradled it with both hands and gave a slight shake until it fit perfectly.

For the first time in a long while, Black Jack’s otherwise expressionless face twitched into a respectful smile.

“Truly worthy of an Ability User who can kill aberrant creatures—his power is formidable indeed…”

Murmured Black Jack, or perhaps it was the female secretary, smiling to herself.

Then she slowly turned and fixed her gaze on the wall.

The four carved human face statues on the wall still had nails in the position of their eyes, but their expressions had inexplicably changed.

It was as though an odd, eerie smile had crept upon the statues.

In the next moment, three of these statues slowly opened their mouths, and from within, each expelled a glob of black substance.

This substance slowly slithered on the floor, gradually coalescing into human forms—three women dressed in the same attire as Secretary Shen, identical to her previous appearance, complete with the same subtle smile.

Their low-heeled shoes made a crisp sound as they stepped onto the ground, and they arrived in front of Old K, Fang Pian, and Hong Tao.

With expressions of narrowed pupils and utter speechlessness, they simultaneously extended their hands, gently reaching for the three men’s heads, and carefully lifted them as if handling prized artworks.

After a moment, the Ability User Team of Changhu City regrouped.

But now, their faces bore respectful smiles, a stark contrast to their previously fierce expressions.

Moreover, their attire had changed from the mismatched, bizarre clothes of before to uniform black suits paired with low-heeled shoes.

“Another team taken down…”

Black Jack turned his head to look at the crowd across the conference table, who were now cowering in their chairs.

“I only wish we could have a few more teams come over…”

In unison, they all broke into the same arched smile. Their voices rang out in perfect harmony, creating an uncanny resonance:

“Otherwise, He won’t be pleased!”