Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 550 - 516 Mysterious Woman

Chapter 550: 516 Mysterious Woman

We moved to the courtyard of the Abandoned Evangelical Hospital. Half of it was submerged in water, while the other half was pockmarked with pits and dents, as if it had been baptized by a hail of bullets. Looking up, the ceiling was invisible; there was only a dark sky.

Since the front is all submerged and collapsed areas, forming a dead-end, Youhun and Tan Xiang intended to take a detour. But I stopped in my tracks. The two looked over at me with puzzled expressions. I turned around and looked towards my rear flank.

Now I could confirm that the person who had been tailing and observing us was hiding behind the broken walls over there.

"Isn’t it time to come out and show yourself?" I said, "You’ve been trailing us for twenty minutes. Although I don’t know what you are watching for, if you have any grievances against us, you might as well come out and say your piece."

"And if there’s something you want to ask us to help with, depending on the specifics, it can be considered too."

The reason I didn’t launch an attack right away but opted for communication was because the look in the opponent’s eyes did not convey any intentions to attack. To be precise, I could vaguely sense hostility and aversion, yet not enough to reach a confrontational level.

To describe it, it’s akin to encountering a stranger with unclear intentions on one’s own turf. Though wanting to expel them with force, it’s not genuinely malicious to cause lethal outcomes - that’s about the feeling.

Both Youhun and Tan Xiang showed a vigilant response, looking over in the same direction as me. The person hidden in the dark still didn’t respond, perhaps pondering if I was trying to bluff them out.

"It’s not just you who are unable to understand the other party here; we won’t let an unknown entity tail us from the shadows for long either." I said, "If you don’t plan to respond, we’ll have no choice but to treat you as an enemy."

Two seconds later, a responding voice finally came from the opposite side.

"——Who are you?"

It was a young woman’s voice, probably around Zhu Shi’s age, or maybe two or three years older, reminiscent of a novice in the workforce.

This isn’t to say her voice revealed a sense of immaturity and inexperience; it’s merely indicative of how youthful her voice is. In reality, her tone was remarkably calm and steady. Though her stealth had been discovered by her target, there was no hint of panic or surprise - instead, it suggested she had countless contingency plans, an experienced veteran.

Youhun’s ears twitched slightly, his gaze roving about. It wasn’t possible to pinpoint her exact location just based on her voice, which seemed to resound from all directions. However, I had already completely locked onto the spot where the mysterious woman was hiding, rendering such small tricks futile.

The mysterious woman then asked, "What is your purpose in intruding here?"

"We came here searching for Three-Life Stone Powder," I replied.

"There’s no such thing here; you should return," the mysterious woman said bluntly.

"You know about Three-Life Stone Powder?" Youhun asked.

According to his recent words, very few Doomsday survivors should know about the Three-Life Stone Powder, so few that he occasionally doubted if it really existed, or if he had subconsciously concocted it in his mind as a genuinely credible concept.

Yet the mysterious woman coldly said, "I’ve never heard of such a thing."

"We are quite certain the Three-Life Stone Powder is here. We won’t leave until we accomplish our goal," I said, "What about you, why are you so certain there’s no Three-Life Stone Powder here? Are you very familiar with this Abandoned Evangelical Hospital?"

"Do not make me repeat myself," the mysterious woman’s voice seemed to carry a murderous intent, "Leave, and do not return. Otherwise, none of you will survive."

She seemed to be threatening us, but contrary to this menacing tone, I could not sense a genuine murderous intent from her. However, I did not think she was bluffing. Regardless of whether it could truly threaten me as the Impermanence, if we continued to linger here, we might genuinely face some unknown danger.

Judging from this, not only is the mysterious woman not the source of danger, but she seems to be trying to indirectly warn us to stay clear of it.

Yet, given there is such danger within the Abandoned Evangelical Hospital, why does she herself linger here? The impression she gives me is akin to a hermit quietly guarding a dangerous forbidden place, trying to drive away travelers who inadvertently venture here.

"I was once a member of the Tai Sui Evangelical Institute, and this place was where I used to live, so I’m not a complete outsider."

The wandering spirit seemed to discern something and continued, "Although I don’t know whether you’ve turned this place into a dwelling as a survivor, or you’re someone else, if there is some dangerous anomaly lingering here, you might as well explain it to us. We might be of some assistance."

"I don’t need any help from you, nor can you be of any use," the mysterious female said. "However, it seems you really don’t intend to leave. That’s fine. Since you have no such intention, don’t blame me for being unkind then."

As soon as her words fell, the distant ruins exploded as if they contained an enormous amount of explosives, with mana fluctuations far exceeding those of ordinary demon hunters surging and spreading. A black shadow shot out from there at more than ten times the speed of sound, like a high-speed projectile, reaching the high skies.

This was at least Great Success Rank mana fluctuations. The wandering spirit immediately showed an expression of utter astonishment. Though for me, the era when Great Success Rank could be an enemy has long passed, whether in the modern world or the Doomsday Era, Great Success Rank is enough to be called a Demigod. The wandering spirit surely can’t imagine such a powerhouse casually appearing.

I, however, had already anticipated this. To be able to tail us from the rear, making it hard for me to determine their specific location, if they didn’t have at least Great Success Rank, they could only be something non-human.

The explosion that shattered the ruins wasn’t an attack by the mysterious female; it was merely the impact generated as she stomped on the ground, moving at high speed. Without officially making a move, her mana fluctuations descended from the sky. The wandering spirit, as if bearing immense pressure, involuntarily half-knelt on the ground, while as the Impermanence and Tan Xiang as an ordinary person, we were unaffected.

Soon after, like a thunderbolt from the blue, the mysterious female descended from the sky with a speed that the wandering spirit could not possibly react to.

But I merely focused my attention slightly, and in this subjective time here, her lightning-fast actions slowed down rapidly to the level of a snail’s crawl.

Thanks to this, in that prolonged moment, I managed to discern the features and attire of the mysterious female.

She had long wine-red hair and wore black compact tactical gear akin to that of special forces, while her face was covered by a coarse black mask. Her left hand held a scabbard, while her right hand wielded a sharp curved blade.

I recognized the style of this curved blade. The Illusionary Curved Blade used by Mazao was the same model as the one she was holding. In the past, Mazao mentioned during casual conversation that it seemed to be one of the standard equipment of the Evangelical Institute.

The blade was about to touch the body of the wandering spirit. As I extended my own palm, air combusted like gas. The sudden burst of flames illuminated the courtyard of the Abandoned Evangelical Hospital to the brightness of daylight and transformed into a gigantic hand, reaching out to seize the mysterious female like a ragdoll.

Suddenly, within the seemingly frozen subjective time, the mysterious female’s head appeared to "recover" to normal speed, sharply turning to look at me.

It was simply incredible. To be able to make such a turning action implied that in objective reality, she had burst out with a speed at least hundreds of times faster than before.

In the past, the fastest person I’d seen was a Time Manipulator under Ming Zhuo. Even without using time stop, that Great Success Rank Evil could easily burst out speeds of several hundred machs. However, compared to the mysterious female’s quick turn, that Great Success Rank Evil seemed insignificant. I can assert this isn’t normal speed but a result of some special ability.

Even more bizarre, just as my Flame Palm was about to grab her body, she vanished from my sight as if by magic.

Space Transfer? Or something else? This seemed to be another skill capable of adapting to the chaotic flow of time and space. Perhaps it’s not just the Doomsday anomalies that understand how to adapt and use the environment—Doomsday Era’s Blessed Monks are also learning to adapt to this chaotic environment—though I want to say this, frankly, I don’t believe this is something humanly possible.

Even I, as the Impermanence, can only use the orderliness left by the chaotic time and space for space transfer, but utilizing its chaotic nature for space transfer is the domain of Doomsday anomalies. Perhaps amidst that chaos, there exists an orderliness that human spirits can’t discern, and because of this, a human like the mysterious female shouldn’t be able to achieve it.

Could it be that she isn’t human but a demon like Yinyue?

I lowered my hand and looked towards another place. The mysterious female reappeared on the edge of the courtyard. She stood, her whole body taut, watching this way and, upon making eye contact with me, carefully scanned my face and suddenly froze.

After a while, she said, "I concede."

"Your change in attitude is quite swift. Just now, weren’t you saying you wanted to drive us out?" I asked.

She remained silent for a moment, as if in intense thought, then said, "...I have no intention of fighting you. Can you let me go, Zhuang Cheng?"

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