Chapter 145

Chapter 145

Before they even reached the main hall doors, several corpses lurched to their feet.

The bodies let out rattling groans from their throats and charged straight at Victor and the others.

Victor let out a cold snort and channeled his Qi on the spot. Several razor-sharp bursts of energy tore through the air, and the corpses at the front were instantly shredded to dust.

He was about to do the same to the rest when a faint sound reached his ears. His expression changed instantly. He snapped his head around and shouted to the other two, "Forget the bodies — run!"

Kaname and Mana didn't hesitate for a second. They spun around and sprinted after him.

The three of them had barely cleared the hall when a deafening blast erupted behind them. A chain of explosions followed one after another, and massive mushroom clouds billowed into the sky. The shockwave tore outward with savage force. The entire Five Star Palace collapsed under the weight of that destruction, reduced to rubble. Shattered stone and ash filled the air in every direction.

Half a step slower, and they'd have been shredded into the clouds with everything else.

Kaname wiped the grime from his face, still shaken. "Mr. Ashford, how did you know this place was going to blow?"

Victor brushed the dust off his clothes. "I heard a bomb countdown just now. The cyborg told us that anyone Romanov kills comes back from the dead. If even one infected person got off this island, Edgar would become the enemy of the entire world. He might have no conscience, but he's not suicidal. To bury his deal with Romanov, he'd have to wipe this place clean. And the safest way to deal with a floor full of corpses is to blow them all to hell in one shot."

What else could a countdown in a place like this possibly mean?

Right then, a chilling shriek came from the edge of the ruins, and a wave of savage killing intent crashed over them. Romanov had appeared.

The three of them immediately pressed back-to-back and settled into their stances, ready.

Romanov's muscles were swollen to an extreme, his eyes blood red, the aura rolling off him wild and monstrous — like a demon lord dragged up from hell. But in the end, he was nothing more than a beast that had lost all reason. Against three elite fighters at the upper tier of the Golden Immortal cultivation base, that kind of raw, mindless power wasn't nearly enough.

Victor struck first. His spear flashed like lightning and punched clean through the creature's chest. Kaname's blade followed like a shadow, slicing both arms off in an instant. Mana leapt into the air and brought a devastating blow down onto its skull, shattering it.

The seemingly unstoppable Romanov didn't last ten seconds before the three of them had reduced him to a pile of wreckage on the ground.

The fight was over. The three of them found some wild fruit near the outer edge of the island that the blasts hadn't reached and ate a little to recover.

Victor took a bite and shook his head slowly. The Black Sun Cult had really outdone themselves — somehow managing to wipe out their own people in the process.

But was it really over?

His chewing slowed. His brow furrowed. The cyborg had clearly stated that Romanov slaughtered everyone after taking the drug. The Black Sun Cult was a major organization that had been entrenched for years, filled with powerful fighters and deep resources. Even if Romanov had gone berserk and his strength had surged, there was no way he could have killed thousands of cult members alone in just a few hours.

Victor tossed away the fruit pit and voiced the discrepancy out loud.

Kaname's expression sharpened immediately. "You're saying this was a setup, Mr. Ashford? The Black Sun Cult knew they couldn't beat you, so they staged all of this to fake their deaths and slip away?"

Mana drew a sharp breath. "The bodies on the ground might not be the cult's real fighters at all. We don't even know for certain whether that thing we just killed was actually Romanov."

The three exchanged a look and got up at once. They moved back to the edge of the ruins and began searching the bodies that hadn't been completely destroyed for any clues.

The answer came quickly. The bodies scattered across the ground — all dressed in black robes — had soft, flaccid muscles. They were just ordinary people stuffed into uniforms.

Kaname extracted blood samples from the remains to bring back for DNA analysis.

Just then, a dull thudding roar rolled in from the horizon. More than a dozen heavy armed helicopters broke through the clouds, kicking up a fierce wind as they descended slowly onto a clearing nearby. The cabin doors swung open, and dozens of fully armed American soldiers filed out, fanning into a perimeter without hesitation.

A lead officer walked briskly up to Victor, snapped to attention, and gave a sharp, textbook salute. "Are you Victor, sir?"

Victor gave a slight nod. "That's me. Do you know who I am?"

The officer lowered his arm, his tone respectful. "The general gave standing orders — seeing you is the same as seeing him in person. Mr. Ashford, can you tell us what happened on this island?"

Victor gestured toward the ruins in the distance. "A bioweapon experiment went out of control here. A failed mutant wiped out everyone on the island."

The officer looked around at the scattered body parts and the scorched wreckage, and the corner of his eye twitched. There was no way these three people alone could have created a scene this bloody.

He swallowed and lowered his voice. "We're stationed at a nearby military base. Half an hour ago, our radar picked up the chain of explosions here — we could even see the mushroom clouds from the base. The general sent us to check it out."

Victor gave a short, cold laugh. "Someone moved fast and cleaned up the mess ahead of time. Their method was to blow the palace and every body in it straight into the sky."

The soldiers nearby all inhaled sharply at that.

The officer wiped the sweat from his forehead. "No wonder the explosion cloud was that size..." He didn't dare ask anything more. He stepped aside and gestured toward the helicopters. "Mr. Ashford, this isn't a good place to stay. Please, come aboard."

The cruise ship was in pieces. They weren't about to leave Ryan's guest stranded on an island full of corpses.

The helicopters lifted off with a thunderous roar. The officer connected to the base's encrypted channel and gave a brief report. Ryan's low voice came through on the other end. "Pass the communicator to Mr. Ashford."

The officer held out the custom communicator with both hands. "Mr. Ashford, the general would like to speak with you."

Victor took it and held it to his ear. "Ryan. It's me."

"Victor, you went to destroy the Black Sun Cult's base today — how did it go?" Ryan asked, getting straight to the point.

"Someone beat me to it and cleaned up first." Victor watched Black Sun Island shrink in the window. "But I suspect the cult's real fighters aren't among the dead. This massacre was most likely Romanov pulling a disappearing act."

There was a brief silence on the other end. "Understood. I'll put the intelligence network on Romanov's trail immediately."

Ryan paused, his tone turning serious. "The lieutenant's report mentioned a large explosion. Who handled the cleanup?"

"Dr. Weber's cyborg unit." Victor's voice was flat. "They buried a substantial amount of high-yield explosives under Five Star Palace. I watched dozens of mushroom clouds go up with my own eyes."

Ryan went quiet again for a long moment. Dozens of mushroom clouds — that yield went far beyond any ordinary act of terrorism. It was practically a direct challenge to the military's limits.