Chapter 458: A Burst of Luck
The moment the bald man's figure fully surfaced, he reacted instantly, springing up as if launched from a trampoline. His gaze locked onto the young man beside Ignatius Woods—the one whose hand was wrapped in white holy light.
"Wayne Sturwell…"
Having just witnessed his power, the bald man's pupils tightened. His voice dropped low. "Our target is only Ignatius Woods. If you walk away now, everything he promised you—we'll give you double."
Double, huh?
Zhou Ning gave Ignatius Woods a meaningful look, as if genuinely tempted.
"Wait—"
Fear surged through Ignatius Woods. He tried to speak, but Zhou Ning cut him off and stepped in front of him.
"I want to know the identities and histories of the three across from us. The more detailed, the better."
"Their identities?" Ignatius Woods didn't have time to think and blurted out, "The one facing you is Cosmo Isaac. Church executioner. Hunter-class. Fights with crossbows and firearms…"
Before he could finish, Zhou Ning opened his palm—and with the silver holy light flowing across his glove—caught a bullet fired at Ignatius Woods.
The bullet froze in the powerful radiance, encased, then slowly dissolved. Zhou Ning's expression remained unchanged. "Keep talking."
At the same time, Retribution materialized in his hand again. He fired continuously, launching holy light bullets that curved from impossible angles, forcing Cosmo to dive forward in a quick roll to evade. Thunderous cracks sounded behind him, though the environment remained unscathed.
They were clearly inside a hidden space.
In the Westfaric Kingdom, most clandestine organizations used these: isolating cries for help, blocking interference from the War God Church, and sometimes even creating environments favorable to their side.
Meanwhile, Cosmo Isaac's body swelled. His clothes tore apart as he grew into a nearly three-meter-tall beast, complete with two ram-like horns.
The Fallen—demonization.
Harrison Rivers and Chris Fischer had both used it before.
Panting, Ignatius Woods continued quickly:
"Cosmo Isaac loves torturing and murdering traitors and heretics. He usually kills their whole families and stitches their bodies into alchemy puppets. As for the other two, I'm not familiar, but they're definitely not good people."
"That's enough."
Zhou Ning's voice was low. He had already decided Cosmo Isaac would become the second soul among the Thirty-Six Wicked after Wolfman Mason.
At that moment, the other two enemies recovered from the holy flames and charged—one a long-haired woman wielding a polearm, the other a towering 2.5-meter Northlander crossbowman.
One was a lower-threat BOSS-tier combatant.
The other was a transcendent-class professional whose paper strength rivaled Zhou Ning's own.
Worse still, the night, the rain, the three-story building—everything warped. The scenery twisted into a decayed alleyway in Nathaniell. Thin fog drifted through, buildings crumbling.
At the entrance to the alley was a legal notice:
Firearms prohibited.
The rain stopped.
This law was among the strictest. Others—like "no fighting"—mostly affected the fighters themselves, punishments easily resisted by the powerful. But "no firearms" directly sabotaged the weapons—misfires, jams, backfires. Extremely troublesome.
Zhou Ning eyed the shadowy alleyway ahead. If he didn't know it was a fabricated hidden space, he'd believe he was in Nathaniell.
But trying to deal with him using such small tricks—
They were far too optimistic.
As someone who had already stepped into Plunderer's Wing, he had countless trump cards. Firearms were only one weapon among many.
He squeezed the trigger experimentally. As expected, Retribution jammed immediately.
His eyes flashed. He pivoted sharply just as three blue-glowing bolts struck the ground where he had stood, swelling and detonating.
Clack—clack—clack!
Zhou Ning sprinted forward, coat flaring. He switched his special ability back to Bohemian Requiem. He'd said it before: with three special abilities unlocked, he could freely switch between the two active ones (the third, World: Over Heaven, still dormant), though each switch required a thirty-minute cooldown.
In most fights, he could use two different abilities—and he'd gotten inspiration from his past streak of bad luck. Time to test whether it worked.
As he ran, radiant light gathered in the Beowulf glove. A golden UR card formed on his palm—Cyber Twin Dragon—manifested purely from his spiritual power. The card dissolved silently into light.
As a top-tier hunter, Cosmo excelled in both shooting and traps. His bolts came traceless—falling from above, rising from below, reversed, spun, angled. A storm of shots from every direction.
Meanwhile, the long-haired woman and the Northlander abandoned attacking Zhou Ning and instead turned toward Ignatius Woods. No need to tangle with him—just kill Ignatius.
But a massive shadow dropped from above—
A twin-headed metal dragon crashed down in front of them, unleashing a surge of sparks.
Blocked!
Zhou Ning's hand brushed the brooch on his chest.
He activated Lucky Burst.
A surge of green energy rushed through him. He twisted his waist, stamped his foot, and slipped past the three incoming bolts. One bolt, most unfortunately—for its owner—failed to explode on impact and instead ricocheted into the other two, detonating all three together.
Using the opening, Zhou Ning slipped through without a sound.
Cosmo Isaac clearly hadn't expected Wayne Sturwell to break through his trap barrage like that. He had just drawn a massive sword of pure lightning when he suddenly felt an overwhelming pressure radiate from his opponent.
Conqueror's Haki.
Cosmo and the other two attackers stiffened under the crushing force. At such close distance, blood even seeped from Cosmo's nose.
But Zhou Ning didn't strike immediately.
He looked upward.
Instinctively, Cosmo looked too.
A small meteor plummeted from the heavens, growing rapidly larger—hurtling straight at him.
"No—!"
Cosmo tried to dodge, but it was already too late.
The meteor smashed him into the ground, blood spreading outward.
This was an idea Zhou Ning had conceived after experiencing "Heaven-Averting Starquake" during his streak of misfortune.
Using the brief window granted by Lucky Burst, combined with his upgraded Stand's ability to manifest scenes, he had tested the technique—
And the result was spectacular.