NOVEL NEXT Chapter 22: Chapter 22: The Task Tyrants
The melody of the zither broke through the formation.
For the first time, Bai Shuang saw someone forcibly scatter a tornado, her mouth slightly agape but silent.
At this moment, the black tornado where the Ash Flies resided turned its direction, releasing a ranged attack toward Han Zhen.
Han Zhen had only read in archives about the Ash Flies' attack methods, but he never imagined these seemingly insignificant little insects would have such rapid ranged attacks.
Thin black needles, as fine as cow hair, rained down toward Han Zhen like a storm.
He couldn't react in time.
Suddenly, a figure stepped in front of him.
It was Yi Fan, who had climbed back up from the truck bed. Holding a bottle of alcohol in each hand, he swayed as he stood up and positioned himself in front of Han Zhen.
In an instant, all the black needles pierced into Yi Fan's body.
"You!" Han Zhen was shocked. These black needles were highly venomous, and if the poison wasn't expelled in time, death would follow within seconds.
Unexpectedly, Yi Fan showed no concern for the black needles lodged in his back. He continued gulping down alcohol as if nothing had happened.
GULP, GULP.
"Hahaha, refreshing! What a rush!" Yi Fan's eyes were bleary as he raised a finger toward Han Zhen, as if about to say something. But before he could, his whole body went limp and collapsed.
"Yi Fan!"
Han Zhen leaned down, only to see that the black needles piercing Yi Fan's body were being bizarrely pushed out one by one.
"SS-grade talent: Immortality"
"Surprised? Astonished?"
Seeing Yi Fan bounce back to life, Han Zhen was indeed taken aback.
His Divine Insight ability could only discern the talent of contracted spirits, not spirit contractors themselves.
Yi Fan having an SS-grade talent was already astonishing, but what exactly were the properties of Immortality? Rapid recovery, or perhaps… eternal indestructibility?
As if reading Han Zhen's mind, Yi Fan exhaled a puff of alcohol-laden breath and said, "You're probably wondering what my SS-grade talent, Immortality, actually does. Beg me, and I might just tell you."
"Or better yet, give me five cases of booze, and I'll—"
Han Zhen ignored him entirely.
Back on the truck bed, the remaining Ash Flies had already lost their initial momentum under the combined firepower.
Han Zhen saw a striking young woman step out of the middle off-road vehicle in the distance, waving excitedly in their direction.
"Well, well, if it isn't the merchant family's young lady, Shang Si Tian. I didn't expect her caravan to not have any spirit contractors—what a reckless oversight."
Yi Fan whistled, giving a casual appraisal.
"Captain, they're requesting access to our private communication channel. Should we approve or reject it?"
In the driver's seat, Bai Shuang glanced at the application prompt on the communicator and asked.
"Reject."
Han Zhen withdrew his gaze. Though the young lady was beautiful, he already had someone by his side. Li Shutong's reminders at the hotpot table were still fresh in his mind.
The more beautiful a woman, the more trouble she brings. [T/N: He knows 😮]
Better to avoid unnecessary complications.
"Let's go, keep moving." Han Zhen sat back in the passenger seat, holding the Fuxi Zither. After Xia Youwei returned to her human form, their seating arrangement suddenly became quite suggestive.
"Well, well." Bai Shuang shook her head with a sigh and stepped on the gas.
The black pickup roared to life, kicking up a cloud of dust as it sped into the distance.
"Bai Shuang, don't pull stunts like that again," Han Zhen said suddenly. "You deliberately steered the truck toward the Ash Flies' tornado, didn't you?"
"Captain." Bai Shuang pursed her lips, remaining silent.
In a world plagued by insect disasters, compassion was a fatal flaw. A single saintly act could doom an entire team—a lesson repeatedly proven by countless examples.
"Don't let it happen again."
———
"Miss, they rejected our communication request."
Looking at the interrupted signal, the driver reported to Shang Si Tian.
"Rejected?" Shang Si Tian was stunned. She hadn't been rejected often in her life.
Confident in her looks and figure, Shang Si Tian recalled the zither player she had seen sitting in the passenger seat, accompanied by a girl just as stunning as herself.
A pang of envy rose in her heart.
Because they were free.
And freedom was what she lacked the most.
"Butler, on this trip to Deep Blue City, I've decided to awaken as a contracted spirit and form a bond with him."
"Miss?" The butler was shocked. "Miss, the family head explicitly forbade you from becoming a contracted spirit. Our Shang family enslaves others—we don't get enslaved ourselves."
"Relying solely on these bodyguards—is that enough?" Shang Si Tian retorted.
"If it weren't for that zither player, we would've been insect food by now."
"I know all about the Shang family's high-level affairs. I just don't want to get involved. And the family shouldn't interfere with my choices, either."
"But this man, I've decided—I want him." Shang Si Tian declared resolutely.
———
"Achoo!" On the other side, Han Zhen sneezed twice in succession.
It took five hours of non-stop driving to get from Deep Blue City to Canghai City.
Aside from that small incident, the journey was mostly smooth. Occasionally, a few stray insect creatures appeared, only to be swiftly dealt with by Han Zhen.
Five hours of driving, five seconds of task completion.
Efficiency at its finest.
After finishing one task, they immediately rushed to the next location.
Before long, several large-scale insect-clearing missions in Canghai City were completed in quick succession, drawing the attention of the local City Guardians' squads.
"Who's taking on all these missions?"
"When did Canghai City get such a team? These guys are amazing."
"Excluding travel time, they're averaging over ten seconds per mission. This is pure annihilation."
"Could it be frontline battle spirit contractors, coming here to fish in our pond for fun?"
The commotion quickly reached the ears of the captain of Canghai City's First Squad.
When he used his authority to pull up the completed task list and saw all of them attributed to Deep Blue City Team 0527, he was furious.
'City Guardians from Deep Blue, coming here to complete Canghai's tasks—is this a slap to my face?'
'Who do they think they are?'
He immediately called Deep Blue City's First Squad, unleashing a torrent of verbal abuse over the phone. Zhao Hu on the other end was left utterly dumbfounded, overwhelmed by the profanity.
Because of this, the entire Canghai City Guardian force was mobilized.
What was once a stagnant system of tasks suddenly turned into a fierce competition for points.
Meanwhile, Han Zhen's Deep Blue City 0527 Team had earned a new nickname.
The Task Tyrants!
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