"This is bad!" Chunyu Bao's expression shifted.
He felt the entire building begin to vibrate subtly, and then the shaking erupted with wild intensity.
Then, the entire building collapsed at a bizarrely fast pace.
Chunyu Bao executed a spatial jump without hesitation. After clearing the building's interior, he continued to race away, lest he get caught in the collapse.
'I'm not afraid of it, but I'm not stupid enough to take it head-on. If I actually got buried, just digging my way out would be a problem.'
Before he could even regain his footing, an intense sense of danger flared up.
A shadowy beam shot toward him, this one clearly at least fifty percent faster than the first.
The hair on his skin stood on end. It was too late to dodge.
With no other choice, he was forced to activate his spatial jump ability again. He managed to jump away, but the shadowy beam struck the spatial distortion he created in the process.
When he reappeared, half of his body had been sheared clean off. Fortunately, the blast hadn't hit any vital spots, so the wound wasn't fatal.
"My luck... is terrible." Chunyu Bao's face was grim. The injury wasn't severe—for him—and new flesh was already starting to granulate and regenerate.
He only had two vital points: his heart and his brain. As long as both organs weren't completely destroyed in a short span of time, he could not be killed.
'What in the world is that energy weapon powered with? To think it can interfere with my spatial jump...'
The reason Chunyu Bao's injury was so severe was because the shadow energy had clashed briefly with space itself. The energy was annihilated, but it destabilized the very space he was jumping through.
If Chunyu Bao's spatial jump ability had been more developed and his jump distance longer, he wouldn't have just lost half his body—he would have been turned into a pile of mincemeat.
"Dawn, get me his location."
Much of his equipment had been damaged in the escape, but fortunately, his communications earpiece was still functional.
He was now outside the jamming field. After finding good cover, he immediately contacted Dawn, the Watchman Dawn artificial intelligence.
"Location acquisition failed. Target has escaped," Dawn's mechanical voice replied through the earpiece.
Hearing this, Chunyu Bao's expression immediately darkened.
"Run a trace on him!"
The man had fled, but he had faith in Dawn's capabilities.
More importantly, he was certain of one thing: his opponent had used up all the charges for that energy weapon.
'If he could really use it without restraint, why would he run? All he had to do was keep bombarding me, and I would've been the one to die, no question.'
'My opponent held the tactical high ground, giving him far more room for error than me. I wouldn't say he could afford to make countless mistakes, but definitely more than I could.'
'For me, a single mistake meant death.'
'But he gave up that incredible advantage. The only possible explanation is that his energy weapon can't be used again. Otherwise, there's no way he would have fled.'
"Trace failed. Enemy is using an unknown shielding technology."
Dawn's reply made Chunyu Bao's heart sink to his stomach.
'If I can't find him, I'm in big trouble.'
'The only way to atone for my failure was to succeed on this mission. Now that success has flown out the window, I'll be in huge trouble when I get back to headquarters.'
His father would certainly help him deal with the fallout, but he could kiss his position as supervisor goodbye.
"Patch me through to my father's private line," Chunyu Bao said.
Fortunately, the situation wasn't a total loss. The target's value had just increased yet again.
The target possessed an energy weapon capable of threatening an Immortal, and Watchman Morning Company would undoubtedly want to acquire that technology.
"Connecting..." Dawn immediately executed Chunyu Bao's command.
Soon, the voice in his earpiece was replaced by that of his father, Chunyu Hu.
"Did the mission fail?" Chunyu Hu asked, getting straight to the point.
"Yes, I failed." Chunyu Bao didn't try to make excuses or argue. He simply recounted the entire incident from beginning to end, without embellishment.
He added no embellishments, reporting only the facts.
"I understand." After listening, Chunyu Hu showed no anger, nor did he scold him. Instead, he said, "I will use my authority to divert a satellite to assist you."
"This man must be captured alive!"
"If you fail again, the company will replace you. You will tender your own resignation."
Chunyu Hu was giving Chunyu Bao one last chance. After all, the target had provided a compelling reason for the company to invest more.
But if he failed this time, the company would take full control of the operation, and it would be out of his hands.
He was a major shareholder, true, but even he couldn't run the company by himself.
"It's not enough. I need the company to dispatch ten special task forces as backup!" Chunyu Bao knew his opponent was cunning. While his technology was inferior to that of the Watchman Morning Company, he deployed it with extreme flexibility.
Even with this second chance, he couldn't complete the mission alone.
"Alright. They'll arrive by tomorrow at the latest." Chunyu Hu didn't refuse; he agreed to Chunyu Bao's request.
-----------------
"Strong. Ridiculously strong."
"But it's not like there's no solution," Qi Suian mused, his expression calm after his successful escape.
Further researching the Abyssal Virus would certainly be difficult and require a significant amount of time.
But if it was a matter of *clearing* the Abyssal Virus, he was actually quite confident.
"Looks like they're not going to let me go."
"I thought the Abyssal Virus serum could only be used against zombies. Now it seems it's not half-bad against people, either."
Qi Suian's original plan was to grow stronger in peace, but his enemies wouldn't let him. He had no choice but to pause and change his approach.
As for capturing Chunyu Bao alive, that was something he couldn't even consider right now.
He couldn't even win in a head-on confrontation; just being able to kill his opponent was already a tall order.
He did covet the immense power his opponent possessed, but he understood that it was not something he could obtain at his current level.
"Smart-brain, pick a safe location."
'After this failure, the Watchman Morning Company will definitely use satellites to pinpoint my location.' Qi Suian was sharp; he knew the next hunt would be even more intense.
He had demonstrated even more of his value, and their sunk costs had naturally increased as well.
Therefore, they would certainly not give up.
If he couldn't win in a direct fight, he would have to counterattack through other means.
He had considered increasing the Tai Sui God's evolution count, installing a new module, and strengthening its existing ones.
However, his progress on that front was sorely lacking.
[Searching...]
The smart-brain responded at once, quickly selecting a suitable location.
It then began piloting the Tai Sui God toward the safe point.
Meanwhile, Qi Suian's mind was already contemplating how to modify the Secondary Solid Clearing Serum, that ultra-potent antivirus agent.