Chapter 321: Something Big Has Happened

Chapter 321: Chapter 321: Something Big Has Happened

Seeing Feng Ling frozen in place and looking frightened, Huangfu Miaomiao yelled her name: "Feng Ling! We have to go downstairs! It’s coming after us!"

Feng Ling suddenly bolted, disappearing into the stairwell in the blink of an eye.

Startled, Huangfu Miaomiao scrambled to chase her downstairs, shouting, "Feng Ling! Feng Ling! Wait for me!"

Sensing that things were going south fast, Feng Ling pulled out her phone to make a call.

Ye Zheng was still the one on the other end. Feng Ling spoke in a rapid-fire torrent. "Get Li Qing to the Inspection Bureau right now! We have a major situation!"

Ye Zheng’s voice was steady. "We’re already on our way."

Apparently, Ye Zheng had deduced from their previous call that something was wrong at the Inspection Bureau and was one step ahead of them.

"AAAAHHH, FENG LING!!!" Huangfu Miaomiao shrieked, hurtling down the stairs.

The Headless Giant had already pursued them to the fourth floor.

Its bodily structure was clearer now, the ambiguous mass of flesh and bone gone. Every joint was now swollen to at least twice its normal size, making it look exceptionally sturdy—like a precision-engineered automaton, only its components weren’t metal, but human bodies.

At its chest, splayed ribs and fascia encased Bai Lu’s body, leaving only her head, neck, and part of her upper chest exposed. She looked exactly like the giant’s pilot, controlling its very will.

Feng Ling continued backing downstairs, speaking rapidly into her phone. "A Pollution Body called a Cursed Puppet has appeared in the Inspection Bureau. I suspect Xing Guang is behind it. Get the Daoist to look up what a Cursed Puppet is, quick."

BAM!!!

An Ice Cone slammed onto the stairs with a crash, sending ice shards flying everywhere!

Huangfu Miaomiao shrieked in terror!

Feng Ling had seen Bai Shuang and Bai Lu use this move in a video. In the video, their Ice Cones were the size of daggers or throwing knives. But the Ice Cone thrown by the Headless Giant was almost as thick as a bucket!

Feng Ling grabbed Huangfu Miaomiao and tossed her toward the third-floor landing. Then, bracing herself on the handrail, she vaulted over to the steps below and sprinted toward the banquet hall.

She and Huangfu Miaomiao burst into the empty banquet hall. Clutching her phone, she asked, "Did the Daoist find anything?! Hurry up! This thing is not only immune to spiritual power, it can also emit a freezing aura! It almost froze me solid a second ago! Could Bai Lu have assimilated Bai Shuang’s Card? How else could its cold aura be this powerful!"

"You just said it was a Cursed Puppet. Why bring up Bai Lu now?" Ye Zheng asked.

"Bai Lu is embedded in the puppet’s body. This Cursed Puppet has to be her doing!" The words had barely left Feng Ling’s mouth when the giant squeezed into the banquet hall. It crawled forward, its four arms flailing, and a layer of frost instantly coated everything in its path, radiating a bone-chilling cold.

’What the hell!’ Feng Ling cursed, then heaved a large round table and kicked it violently at the Headless Giant before bolting for the door on the other side of the hall.

The heavy wooden table hit the giant with a muffled THUMP, then clattered against the wall. Ye Zheng heard the commotion over the phone.

"Stay calm," Ye Zheng said. "Its energy has to run out eventually. The larger the body, the faster it tires. Just lead it on a chase around the building for a while."

Feng Ling ran out and shut the banquet hall’s back door, but it couldn’t be locked. There was no way it would hold the Headless Giant.

"Go find He Xingluo! Have her get some weapons from the armory!" Feng Ling yelled to Huangfu Miaomiao. "Go in your Ghost Shadow form! Hurry!"

Not daring to waste a second, Huangfu Miaomiao transformed into a pool of black shadow and SLITHERED away across the floor.

The giant behind her smashed the door open! A blast of cold air surged out, so frigid that goosebumps erupted on Feng Ling’s arms.

She sprinted a few steps to put some distance between them, then decided to head upstairs to buy He Xingluo as much time as possible.

But then the Headless Giant changed course. As if it had lost interest in her, it reached the stairwell, ignored Feng Ling above, and started heading downstairs instead.

Feng Ling froze for a second. Then, she decisively smashed the window beside her and leaped from the third floor. As she fell, she whipped out her cone spikes, drove them into the exterior wall to break her fall, and upon landing, immediately screamed at the fleeing crowds nearby, "Run! The monster is coming out!!!"

Everyone in the Supervision Building had already been evacuated, but plenty of daredevil reporters were still nearby, cameras raised.

Feng Ling had no time for them. She sprinted toward the Supervision Building’s main entrance—the banquet hall door couldn’t be locked, but she had to at least lock the main entrance to keep the giant from reaching the street.

The monster radiated a freezing aura; if it froze a few people to death, there would be nothing she could do to save them.

"Feng Ling!!!" someone yelled in the distance.

The voice sounded familiar. Feng Ling turned and was stunned to see Sang Yin leaning halfway out of a car, waving frantically at her, positively beaming with excitement.

’It’s that reporter who’s always fainting!’

Feng Ling faltered for a step.

If the situation weren’t so critical, she would have asked the woman if she had a death wish, chasing a story all the way from Qingjiang City to Jinnan City. But she had no time for that now. She spared her only a fleeting glance before looking away and running back toward the Inspection Bureau.

"She was looking at me! Did you see that?! Did you?!" Inside the car, Sang Yin grabbed her colleague Douzi’s arm, shaking it incessantly with excitement.

Douzi, getting dizzy from the shaking, gripped the steering wheel and managed to say, "...Ma’am, I’m getting a really bad feeling about this. Maybe we should go. Feng Ling just told everyone to run."

Sang Yin snapped a few quick photos and scanned the area. Spotting an apartment building just across the street from the Inspection Bureau, she patted Douzi. "Go! Let’s get into that building. We can find a higher floor to get a better view."

「...」

The moment Feng Ling re-entered the Inspection Bureau, she saw the Headless Giant charging right for her!

’I was right, it wants to get out!’

Feng Ling slammed the main doors shut!

Just then, He Xingluo arrived, raising her gun and firing at the giant! She tossed another gun to Feng Ling.

After a few shots, Feng Ling realized it was useless. She frowned and yelled at He Xingluo, "What is this?! Bring out the grenades! The rocket launcher! The flamethrower!"

"They’re here!" the Ghost Shadow by the wall called out, wrapped around a large metal box.

He Xingluo kept firing, her face grim. "Weapons like those are best used in open spaces, or we risk collateral damage! If the Supervision Building catches fire, the underground armory could get detonated!"

"You didn’t close the blast doors?!" Feng Ling was aghast. She remembered the armory had several layers of blast-proof doors and extremely high security.

"I left in too much of a hurry to think about it!" He Xingluo explained through gritted teeth, her heart pounding with anxiety.

In the brief moment of their exchange, the Headless Giant switched targets. It raised a hand, conjured a bucket-thick Ice Cone, and hurled it at the Ghost Shadow!

Clearly, it was intelligent enough to know the metal box contained weapons that could harm it.

Huangfu Miaomiao let out a shriek, grabbing the metal box and fleeing for her life! She was almost frozen solid!

Feng Ling was out of options. The cold was concentrating within the enclosed space, dropping the temperature far too quickly. Even if Huangfu Miaomiao dodged this one, she would inevitably be frozen solid!

The safest place was now, ironically, outside, because it was the height of summer.

She threw the doors open again and roared at Huangfu Miaomiao, "Get outside! Now!"

The Ghost Shadow shot outside with the metal box, and Feng Ling and He Xingluo immediately followed, exiting the Supervision Building.

Just then, Li Qing’s voice came through Feng Ling’s phone. "Feng Ling, be careful! The Cursed Puppet is being controlled by a puppet master! Because it’s a heartless puppet, it’s immune to spiritual power and can’t absorb energy!"