Chapter 71: The Coastal Heist (2)

The whale aberration came ashore a full day earlier than the Paranormal Bureau had initially predicted. No one knew how the evacuation was progressing in the northern district of Binhai. At that moment, the whale aberration resembled a turtle without its shell, crawling swiftly along the beach. Smaller aberrant offspring fell from its back one by one, rushing toward any humans nearby who had not yet escaped.

The slaughter began...

Screams rose and fell among the crowd. The stench of blood, carried by the sea breeze, filled the entire coastline. Though the spiritual investigators had already landed nearby from their helicopters and started clearing out the aberrant spawn, the sheer number—thousands upon thousands, small but tough—made the task nightmarishly difficult.

Meanwhile, the whale aberration absorbed the flesh and blood brought by its spawn and, leading them, advanced toward the northern district of Binhai. Any houses in its path were effortlessly crushed beneath its enormous body, while the aberrant spawn swarmed into the ruins, feasting on the flesh of any surviving humans.

Fortunately, only a handful of people remained on the coastline; over ninety percent of the citizens had reached the northern district under the escort of the spiritual and mundane investigators after receiving the evacuation notice. If the whale aberration reached the northern district and battle erupted, rivers of blood would truly flow.

At this moment, the spiritual investigators received orders from above: stop the whale aberration from reaching the northern district at all costs.

If they could hold it off for just half an hour, all citizens could be fully evacuated. Only moments ago, a formidable expert had arrived in the northern district and shattered the remnants of the confinement space.

If they failed, every spiritual investigator was to retreat to the sea at once, and the military would strike the whale aberration with special missiles—wounding it, stalling its advance.

The investigators conferred briefly and decided to call for missile strikes immediately. Even in the few minutes they had discussed, the whale aberration had nearly crossed the city center, covering almost half the distance from the coastline to the northern district.

Its speed on land was astonishing—even faster than in water. If they delayed further, once the aberration neared the northern district, missile strikes would no longer be an option.

After requesting the strike, several helicopters carrying the spiritual investigators sped away. Then, a dozen or so specially designed missiles, trailing flames, converged from all directions, encircling the whale aberration at the center.

Boom—Boom—

The explosions thundered relentlessly; the deafening noise was heard even in the northern district. The military officials had already cleared all roadblocks, and many citizens with vehicles were able to leave immediately.

This greatly accelerated the evacuation.

In the city center, though the missiles were designed to combat aberrations, they still turned an area the size of an entire district to ruins. On the scorched, blackened ground, all the aberrant spawn had been reduced to charred dregs.

As for the whale aberration, its body was nearly severed into several pieces, with only a few scraps of flesh clinging together. It lay prone and motionless, appearing dead.

Spiritual investigators in helicopters at a distance had returned to the city center, watching from above as they discussed through their communicators.

"Is it dead?"

"It should be!"

"Blasted to pieces by those special missiles—if it’s still alive, then there’s nothing we can do."

...

Just then, the whale aberration’s shattered body began to writhe. The fragments of special missiles embedded deep within it were forced out by squirming, pitch-black flesh. Wisps of black smoke rose from its wounds where the fragments had touched.

As the golden fragments were expelled, the human head embedded at the front of the whale aberration abruptly opened its eyes. The venomous hatred and malice in them struck every observing spiritual investigator like a viper’s bite.

Despair, resentment, and a will to destroy surged in the hearts of all the spiritual investigators. At the same time, blue magnetic energy flared from their bodies, shielding them from the aberration’s psychic contamination as they all averted their gaze from those eyes.

"Tsk, tsk—Is that all you’ve got? Pathetic! You want to kill me? How disappointing! Roar—"

With a furious bellow from the human head atop the whale aberration, an invisible force exploded outward. The land around it was swept bare; even the last standing Paranormal Bureau building in the city center crumbled to dust under this power.

Only the rooms made of magnetite—the magnetic awakening and enhancement chambers—remained intact. Within a three-kilometer radius of the whale aberration, not a single remnant of a building was left; the ground itself was gouged into a massive crater.

Most of the force was hurled straight toward the northern district, obliterating every structure in its path. In an instant, the route from the city center to the northern district was carved into a deep chasm.

And the chasm was still expanding, creeping ever closer to the northern district. The whole city of Binhai was shrouded in dust and smoke. Just then, a shaft of golden light broke through the gloom like sunshine piercing storm clouds, surging against the aberrant force and dissolving it. The golden ray shot upstream, piercing the whale aberration from head to tail.

A circular wound a meter wide appeared, emitting waves of resentful energy. The agony drove the whale aberration into a howling frenzy.

As the dust settled, a figure appeared—dusty, clad in tattered rags, carrying a massive bronze bell on one shoulder, standing precisely where the golden light had flashed.

Panting slightly, he muttered, "Just in time!"

This was none other than Wu Xiang, who had once crossed paths with Wu Zui and his companion—the monk-like man who had never taken his vows.

Nearby, the newly spawned aberrant offspring, ready to hunt, instinctively scrambled into the whale aberration’s mouth, replenishing its energy. As it devoured them, its body—riddled by golden light and missile strikes—rapidly healed.

Wu Xiang frowned; this aberration was proving more difficult than he had anticipated. He gripped the bronze bell by its loop, leveled it so that its mouth faced the whale aberration, and struck its side with his other hand.

Dong—dong—dong—

For humans, the sound was like a morning bell, awakening the soul; for the aberrations, it was a death knell, chilling them to the core.

The whale aberration dug its limbs into the ground, every grotesque face on its body opening its maw to strike back. But before it could attack, deep grooves were gouged into the earth beneath its legs. The massive creature—almost a hundred meters long—was forced backward by the sound of the bell, utterly powerless to resist.

As the whale aberration retreated, its black-and-red hide began to crack, exposing pitch-black bones beneath. Black liquid oozed from its wounds, turning into smoke that thickened the aura of resentment all around.

Wu Xiang continued to strike the bell. At the bell’s mouth, golden waves rippled outward, visible to the naked eye. The waves struck the whale aberration, forming a golden cage that enclosed it.

With each strike, the golden cage grew more solid. The fissures on the whale aberration widened, black-and-red flesh sloughing off, its stunted limbs shattered by the golden ripples.

Inside the cage, the ground collapsed under the onslaught of their powers, forming a deep pit. Pinned at the bottom by the golden waves, the whale aberration was utterly trapped.

Even though it could spawn more offspring, under the assault of the golden ripples, they could not last long, nor could they escape. Deprived of fresh flesh, its wounds would never heal; eventually, the golden waves would wear it away entirely.

Just then, a sharp crack sounded from the bottom of the pit—like a water pipe bursting.

A surge of clear water flooded in, weakening the golden waves as they struck the flow. Though Wu Xiang’s golden cage still imprisoned the whale aberration, its strength had dropped to less than half.

At this moment, the human head atop the whale aberration snapped its eyes open, fixing Wu Xiang with its gaze. Malice, despair, and nihilism clouded Wu Xiang’s mind.

Even his serenity wavered under the aberration’s psychic assault.

Taking advantage of his momentary lapse, the resentful energy within the pit surged more violently than ever.

"Run!" Wu Xiang shouted as he came to his senses.

He hurled the ancient bronze bell directly at the golden cage. The bell expanded as it flew, enveloping the entire cage. Without looking back, Wu Xiang turned and fled.

The spiritual investigators in their distant helicopters, hearing his warning, immediately turned and sped away.

In less than half a minute, cracks spread across the bronze bell. Black resentment leaked through the fissures. As the cracks widened, the bell abruptly shattered, releasing a tempest of resentful energy that swept from the city center across all of Binhai.

This time, even the surviving magnetic enhancement chambers and other special rooms nearby were obliterated by the aberrant energy. The investigators’ helicopters were hurled into the distant sea; who knew how many would survive.

Wu Xiang, retreating, now stood between the northern district and the gaping crater at the city center, pressing his palms together and chanting softly.

With each Sanskrit syllable, a vast golden barrier, thin as a cicada’s wing, materialized before him—a hundred meters long, several stories high, inscribed with scripture.

The golden barrier stood firm in the face of the raging wave of resentment, blocking it from flooding the northern reaches of Binhai.