novelraw Chapter 948: Immortality
Chapter 948: Immortality
A deep blue arc of electricity formed a grid in the air, but Cook’s spear swept across, breaking the electric net with a flash of light. Then, he swung the spear fiercely towards the woman in the black trench coat.
Bang!
The woman was sent flying.
Cook, now holding his spear in one hand, suddenly halted his attack, watching her. She was crouched in a defensive stance, her arms crossed protectively in front, her posture somewhat unusual.
“Are you from Paradise Island?” Cook asked after a pause, his tone calm. “Your martial skills are typical of their style. Generally, external operatives learn this.”
The woman in black, trembling slightly, tried to shake off the numbness in her arms. Just blocking that one strike had left her arms paralyzed. Without the electric net absorbing some of the force, her arm bones might have broken.
One of the society’s Twelve Guardians, Cook was terrifying indeed, even after all the training she had done to develop the lightning powers gained from that man.
“No, wait,” Cook muttered, frowning. “With your strength, you shouldn’t be an external operative… at least, you should be an elite warrior. Scanning, identity search.”
Cook murmured, and a crescent-shaped device on his neck began to flash.
“You’re really just an external operative?” he muttered, studying her in surprise. “Jessica?”“Hello.” The woman—Jessica—suddenly grinned, surprising him. But in that instant, she crouched and placed her hands on the ground.
Electric sparks leaped across the floor, racing toward Cook like wild horses.
Electricity exploded around him, arcs bursting and crackling across his body.
But Cook was unfazed, striding toward Jessica. “I’m not sure how you got this power level, but it’s still far from enough. This current would need to be at least ten times stronger to trouble me.”
“Is that so… then as you wish!” Jessica roared, and a surge of blue electricity exploded around her.
“Come back with me to Paradise Island,” Cook said, shaking his head and walking through the terrifying electric field as though it were nothing. “It’s a waste for you to die here.”
“I’ll return… one day!” Jessica screamed.
Cook sighed, gently waving his dark red spear to dispel the surrounding arcs. “Fine, just be ready to get hurt. I’ll take you back.”
Suddenly, objects flew towards him. Cook’s spear skills were unmatched; he blocked each projectile in a flash, knocking them away—a handgun, metal plates, screws.
Cook frowned, realizing Jessica wasn’t using telekinesis. “Oh… magnetism, huh? But at this level, it’s still…”
Boom!
An explosion erupted next to him—the control console in the command room. Jessica had used her lightning to ignite the machinery.
Flames roared to life.
Amid the fire, Cook calmly walked out, but Jessica was nowhere to be seen. She had likely planned her escape during the explosion.
He caught a stray screw flying at his face, smiling slightly. “Nice sense for battle.”
At that moment, his communicator buzzed.
“Mr. Cook, how is the branch base? Did you find the intruder?”
Glancing at the man lying headless from the explosion, Cook responded indifferently, “We were too late. The intruder killed the branch chief and left.”
“Understood! The intruder shouldn’t have gone far; reinforcements are arriving soon, and we’ll conduct a thorough search. Mr. Cook, please wait outside the base, and I’ll pick you up.”
“No need, I’ll stay and see if there are any clues.” Cook closed the communicator.
He moved to the body of the man Jessica had interrogated but who had perished in the blast—the branch chief. Cook crouched, prying open the man’s eyes and extracting his left eyeball.
...
In the forest, a staggering figure pushed forward.
The explosion hadn’t been massive but had left Jessica battered. Her back was exposed where her clothing had been burned away, and her left sleeve was gone.
In the dark woods, searchlights flashed intermittently—presumably from those sent by the society to pursue her.
Jessica’s head throbbed painfully, likely from the overuse of her powers during the fight with Cook. Her vision blurred, and her body grew weaker; evading capture was uncertain… Returning to Paradise Island for revenge… was it even possible?
Finally, she collapsed at the base of a large tree.
Jessica struggled to turn over and lifted her shirt, revealing a sharp metal shard lodged in her abdomen—embedded during the explosion.
With trembling hands, she grasped the shard’s edge. It had sunk too deep; without proper medical supplies, it shouldn’t be removed directly, yet leaving it meant continuous bleeding.
After a few deep breaths, she bit down on a branch, clenched her fingers, and, timing her breaths, wrenched the shard from her abdomen.
The branch snapped between her teeth—but her ordeal wasn’t over.
Jessica pressed her hands to the wound, sending a flicker of electricity to cauterize it.
Her breathing grew ragged; the pain was nearly unbearable. Though she managed to stop the bleeding, the effort drained her remaining strength.
At this moment, standing up was almost impossible for her—she could barely even crawl. She had no choice but to leave it to fate, hoping that her pursuers would be careless.
“Well, you’re certainly resilient…”
Suddenly, a pleasant voice broke the silence.
What surprised Jessica wasn’t the voice itself, but that the speaker was using her native language. Why would someone from Yè Yán's country be here?
Jessica struggled to open her eyes, seeing a petite figure before her, seemingly just a small girl.
“You are…”
“Oh? You can still understand me?” The petite girl squatted down in front of Jessica. “This seems to be a branch base of that lousy organization… Did you destroy it?”
Jessica weakly confirmed with a nod.
“Why destroy it? Do you have a grudge?” asked the little girl.
“Revenge…” Jessica murmured faintly.
“Revenge, huh… What a coincidence.”
The girl chuckled quietly. “I’ve got some scores to settle with this trashy organization too. Thanks to them, I’ve been poisoned pretty badly… You don’t look like you’ll make it out alive, so how about I lend you a hand? I’m a bit hungry anyway.”
“You…” Jessica moved her lips.
But before she could finish, the little girl leaned down. Jessica felt a sharp pain on her neck, oddly soothing her abdominal pain and even evoking an inexplicable tingling that made her softly moan.
“Who… are… you…”
“Remember the one who granted you immortality… Su Zijun.”
“Su…” Jessica’s lips moved as her consciousness faded.
The moonlight flickered, dispelling the shadows of the trees a bit. The little girl lifted her head, her red eyes widening slightly.
She wiped the blood from her lips and looked down at Jessica. “A remarkable child.”
“We found her! Over here!”
Suddenly, beams of light converged beneath the tree, forming a luminous barrier, shadows surrounding them.
“There’s another one… A little girl? An accomplice?”
“No matter, take them both.”
The little girl stood up, sneering coldly. “Consider this the first bit of interest…”
Some presence disturbed the sleeping birds in the forest, sending them flying into the night sky.
…
In the distance, Cook looked toward the forest, puzzled, but merely frowned without investigating further. He was now in a secret chamber of the branch base.
Almost every branch had a place like this—a room to communicate with Paradise Island, as well as the branch’s main network hub.
The elevator descended around fifteen meters. When Cook stepped out, the space was small, roughly twenty or thirty square meters.
Cook moved to a large control console and quickly typed in a series of commands. Soon, a small scanner panel opened on the side.
Cook placed a freshly extracted eyeball from the branch leader in front of the scanner.
“Authentication successful.”
The screen lit up. Cook sat down at the console, hands flying over the keyboard, inputting commands.
“Connected to the Paradise Island main system. Agent from Branch 019, clearance level three. Access to documents below Level Three. You may upgrade to access higher-level files.”
Cook took a crystal card from his pocket, marked with intricate circuitry and the number 7.
He inserted it into a slot on the console.
“Upgrading clearance… Upgrade successful. Access granted by Seventh Heavenly General ‘Tyrant’ for all documents below Level Seven.”
Frowning, Cook produced another crystal card marked with the number 5.
“New clearance detected, authorized by Fifth Heavenly General ‘Demon Spear.’ Access granted for all documents below Level Seven.”
Reading the screen, Cook shook his head, “Two generals’ authorization still isn’t enough?”
Without hesitation, he retrieved the cards and left.
Returning to the surface, he received news of the deaths of a dozen search team members. Their bodies were bizarrely blown apart, as if bombs had exploded within them, leaving only unidentifiable remains.
No culprit was found.
Shortly afterward, Cook received an order from Seat 26 of Paradise Island, summoning him back to the island immediately. The reason? A highly intelligent ‘Prometheus’ had been discovered in Romania.
…
…
Fireworks, traditional gongs and drums, and a lion dance troupe.
In front of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, the festivities drew a crowd, including locals and reporters.
Today wasn’t a holiday, but Chinatown was lively because Old Master Song wanted to dispel recent bad luck by hosting a feast for all the old neighbors.
Song Tianyou, the patriarch of the Song family, hadn’t appeared in Chinatown for a long time. This sudden news drew a large crowd.
Especially some of the elderly residents, who once exchanged words with the old master—many felt a warm nostalgia.
“Today, I have two announcements,” Old Song said into the microphone, smiling at the crowd. “First, President Bai Shuitang of the Chamber has resigned due to health issues. A new president will be chosen soon.”
Pausing, Old Song continued, “The second announcement is that the ‘Gate of Life’ will be abolished from now on.”
The crowd gasped.
The ‘Gate of Life’ had a long history, and its sudden abolition left many feeling at a loss.