Chapter 146 Joint Battle?

Fight together?

Song Ci almost laughed out loud when he heard these words.

"Do you know that the aftershocks of the battle will probably kill you? I don't have time to take care of you…" Crow said coldly, "I told you to get lost, so just get lost. Don't think about being a hero. This isn't the time for you to stand up."

He knew.

Gu Shen had great talent.

But… the current Gu Shen hadn't grown up yet. Moreover, fighting against transcendents of his and Chen Mei's level would likely cause large-scale damage. A transcendent of Gu Shen's level could easily be caught in the crossfire.

"Don't worry, I cherish my life and I'm well aware of my own limitations, so I never act recklessly." Gu Shen lay on the ice, expressionless, and said, "Please stay away from me when you fight later, because I want to live a little longer. But there's one thing I must tell you… I won't go anywhere tonight. I'll only be here."

Crow frowned.

He couldn't understand Gu Shen's choice at this moment.

"Your words just reminded me that since Cui Zhongcheng is already watching the Jiangtan battle… then it would be too slow for me to go find him." Gu Shen said softly, "After knowing each other for so long, you don't seem to know my identity."

"Does your identity matter?"

Crow found it a bit funny. What kind of identity could this young man have?

Could it be that Mr. Cui would send someone to protect him tonight?

There was no time to think about it.

He rotated his fists, and his bones crackled.

Chen Mei sprinted from afar, and a series of water columns exploded on the river.

Crow also started running. The two collided instantly, punching each other. Both were extremely powerful close-combat transcendents. Their bodies had reached the level of indestructible steel. Each punch created a sonic boom. The sound of metal colliding resonated during the impact. Anyone who was too close would have their eardrums shattered.

"Is this all your plan?"

At the moment of the punch.

Chen Mei's lazy voice was mixed with anger, "You deliberately arranged a battle at Jiangtan, attracting transcendents from the South Hall, and then sent someone to sneak into the Nanwan Building?"

"I don't understand what you're saying at all." Crow's expression remained unchanged, and he said lightly, "Don't think of me as too smart. I'm just a reckless man. Can a reckless man come up with such a brilliant plan?"

"You're harboring a criminal." Chen Mei said coldly, "Do you know what the consequences will be?"

"A criminal? What criminal?" Crow smiled, "I don't know him at all. I just can't stand what you're doing… As for what you said about sneaking into the building, where's the evidence?"

Chen Mei was speechless.

Indeed.

He had no evidence…

Moreover, Chen Mei couldn't explain how he could be sure that the locked-down teenager was the suspect, even after the building was locked down and the Deep Sea gave the all-clear.

"Without evidence, I'm going to sue you for defamation on his behalf."

Crow understood the meaning of that expression.

It seemed that… the people in the Nanwan Building really had no evidence.

"…"

Chen Mei didn't want to engage in any more pointless conversations. At this point, he could confirm that Crow was harboring this young man, and what he needed to do was simple.

Kill the person involved directly.

However, there was a huge problem in front of him.

The two exchanged a punch and separated again, both feeling a surge of blood in their hearts.

Transcendents, even with bodies of steel, were still mortals.

Each punch and collision, while seemingly evenly matched, was actually a consumption of their life force.

"Didn't anyone teach you? Concentrate when you fight."

Crow stood in front of Chen Mei, always appearing in the middle of the line between Chen Mei and Gu Shen.

Obviously, Crow saw through Chen Mei's intentions.

What he needed to do was simple: hold Chen Mei back and fight him.

"Do you have time to think about other things?"

Song Ci stuck out his little finger, hooked it at Chen Mei, and smiled softly, "I've been looking forward to this fight for a long time. Don't… don't disappoint me."

…

…

"It's November 25th, 11:07 PM."

Chu Ling's voice sounded again, "Cui Zhongcheng's permissions cannot be captured… Lu Nanzhi's permissions cannot be captured… Just now, I tried to confirm their positions, but I failed. But it can be confirmed that a considerable number of transcendents are approaching the Jiangtan Nanwan area. They are expected to arrive within fifteen minutes."

Gu Shen lay on the ice, half of his body soaked in the river water. He didn't feel cold. The blazing fire burned between his eyebrows, and white hot mist rose around him, scorching and evaporating the water close to his skin.

"Fifteen minutes…" He listened to Chu Ling's words and fell into thought.

The reason he said they would fight together…

Wasn't because Gu Shen wasn't rational enough. On the contrary… it was a decision he made after careful consideration.

Tonight, he would stay at Jiangtan.

While staying away from this battle would allow him to escape danger, it wasn't what he wanted.

Obviously, Cui Zhongcheng had been watching him. From the Sukhamuni stone sculpture to the mist on Yuandan Street, Gu Shen had wanted to explore the true face behind the old man's glasses more than once. He wanted to know how Cui Zhongcheng really saw him…

Since Cui Zhongcheng had set up a large net from the moment he arranged for him to land in the capital, trying to catch the mastermind behind the Long-Standing Foundation, then he, with the compass, was currently the most important chess piece.

Gu Shen stayed at Jiangtan. This time, it was his "test" for Cui Zhongcheng.

Perhaps Cui Zhongcheng didn't care about Crow, the Chengxin Society, or many other things.

But he must care about himself.

If he didn't want him to die here…

Then end it all quickly!

And the important thing was this: through this "test," Gu Shen wanted to see… how many eyes were watching him, and where did these eyes come from?

"How long will it take to decrypt the information on the closed-circuit mainframe?" Gu Shen asked.

"Unknown."

Chu Ling replied, "Without any information, using a brute-force method to crack the key, no one can give a definite time limit for decryption… If it's fast, it could be completed in the next second, but if it's slow, it could take several days, and that's not impossible."

This answer wasn't good news.

Of course, the sooner he decrypted the information stored in the closed-circuit mainframe on the thirty-ninth floor, the better.

"One more question…" Gu Shen said, "Based on the residual information from the Nanwan Building, can you find out the identity of the intruder?"

After invading the building, he maintained contact with Chu Ling throughout the entire process.

Those involved were often confused.

He had tried his best, but he was most afraid of leaving clues that could become future troubles.

Before, the biggest pressure Gu Shen felt from Chen Mei's pursuit was that guy's unreasonable and surging killing intent… Once he was caught, he would be killed instantly.

Chen Mei wouldn't even give him a chance to speak.

He was a fish on the chopping board.

But the situation would be different in fifteen minutes.

If there was no evidence.

All of the Nanwan Building's suspicions about him would be untenable. Chen Mei had no evidence, no reason, and no basis to attack him.

"Gu Shen, be careful of Qi Lu—"

Chu Ling's sudden, loud warning interrupted Gu Shen's thoughts.

Gu Shen raised his head.

The distant river mist was shattered and reorganized. Hundreds of meters away, all the line of sight was blocked by mist and strong winds.

He couldn't see anything, only a piece of broken water mist.

These broken water mists, and the swept-up strong winds, were all the work of Chen Mei and Song Ci… Two top-level transcendents, while restraining their punches and kicks, still made half of the river uneasy.

In this situation, approaching the battlefield was a foolish thing.

As long as one's strength wasn't enough, rashly getting closer could easily result in being caught in the crossfire!

This was also why Gu Shen was on the other side of the river from the battlefield and wasn't in a hurry to leave.

In Gu Shen's opinion, those transcendents from the Chengxin Society couldn't cross the main battlefield to attack him, so he still had plenty of time.

Be careful of Qi Lu…

The moment Chu Ling's voice sounded.

Gu Shen's pupils contracted.

…

…

Qi Lu activated his "Eagle Eye" for the third time, but this time, his target was no longer Song Ci… The Eagle Eye looked towards the river. Hundreds of afterimages densely covered the river's surface. Two evenly matched top-level close-combat transcendents occupied most of the Eagle Eye's field of vision. Extending to the end of the line of sight, between the gaps of those afterimages, one could vaguely see a piece of solidified floating ice.

On that floating ice, a teenager was lying down.

Chen Mei had just told him.

When his group rushed to Jiangtan, the Nanwan Building had been invaded, and this unknown teenager… was likely the intruder.

Qi Lu had a vague guess in his mind about what would happen next tonight.

Soon, people would come, more and more.

And when there were too many people… simple things would become very complicated.

While he could still shoot—

He decided to make a complicated thing simpler.

Qi Lu activated his Eagle Eye, pushed an ordinary red-silver bullet into the chamber, and the Eagle Eye saw that this teenager's strength was very ordinary, not worth using a purple-silver bullet.

Along with the loading action, he silently set up a sniper rifle on the river bank and aimed the muzzle at Gu Shen on the floating ice.

Without any hesitation.

From loading the bullet, to setting up the gun and aiming, to pulling the trigger, the whole process was extremely fast and without warning. No one knew that he would suddenly do such a thing.

Thus, in the long night, there was a burst of—

A "bang"!

A gunshot.

On the river swept by strong winds, it was noisy everywhere, and the sound of the gunshot wasn't intense.

The wisp of wind wrapped by the bullet, smashing water droplets, and the sound it brought out was almost negligible.

But the quietest things were the most deadly.

In an instant.

The red-silver bullet pierced through a distance of over a hundred meters.

From this end, to that end.

From Qi Lu, to Gu Shen.

The trajectory lingered in the air, perfect and dazzling, like someone drawing a straight and solemn long line with one stroke, simply a meticulously crafted work of art.

After the gunshot, the floating ice shattered.

A cloud of scarlet blood mist burst out.