Fang Senyan finished speaking and frowned slightly, gazing into the darkness. Despite the station town before him being smeared in blood and eeriness, it couldn't draw more than a fleeting glance from him. A stream of blood began to trickle from his nostrils, slowly tracing a path over his lips and downward, appearing in the deep night like a dark, writhing worm.

This was an old wound, likely sustained from a clash where the tentacles of the Sun Ladder met that thing's vascular spike. Fang Senyan had taken quite a jolt. Mei-mei Wu, seeing this, hurried over to gently wipe the blood for him, her fingers emitting a soft green light as she healed him. The focus and care in her gaze suggested she viewed Fang Senyan as her entire world.

Zi naturally felt a pang of displeasure, but she merely bit her lip and turned her face away. Women who appear strong on the surface are often the most fragile in subtle ways.

What Fang Senyan had feared—a confrontation over their relationship—had not occurred because Zi was even more afraid than he of the consequences once things were made clear. She dreaded the possibility that they could never return to the current state of ambiguous intimacy. Thus, Zi preferred the indecision and occasional inner ache over the decisive cruelty of a final reckoning.

After Fang Senyan tended to his injuries, Zi stated abruptly:

“Should we keep pursuing them? If we don’t hurry, we’ll lose them.”

Mei-mei Wu stated seriously:

“This dark-type monster has immense burst power, but its host body is quite frail. Mr. Jakaia is a late-stage lymphoma patient. This means there are fewer opportunities for the host body to benefit the Crystal Skull; rather, the Crystal Skull expends more energy maintaining this body. So, there’s no need to worry that he can flee very fast or far in the short term.”

Fang Senyan nodded slightly:

“You are correct. After killing his entire family and absorbing their marrow, why did Jakaia linger at home? Because he needed to connect with that Black Crystal Skull! The body it currently controls is so weak, like a radio running out of battery—it must be tuned very slowly and carefully to catch the desired signal.”

Reef commented:

“Then should we use him as bait? See what we can hook?”

Fang Senyan nodded:

“Wu is right. Although he fled with incredible speed, his pace slowed down after establishing a certain distance between us. However, our time is also tight; we still have historical artifacts in Asia and Europe waiting to be collected. So, we can afford to waste at most another eight hours. After eight hours, we must reel in the net... What follows will be a chase like a hunt.

But whether the hunter becomes the prey is not entirely certain.

Three hours later, Jakaia’s stooped figure reappeared in the binoculars. Old Charlie’s pupils reflected the leering image of Freddy, and a series of sounds issued from his throat:

“Yes, the fellow is searching for a signal—the signal of the Black Crystal Skull. His weakened body prevents him from transmitting any further information; he can only follow the strengthening signals emitted by the Crystal Skull, like a ship struggling in a storm, relying on the faint, intermittent light of a distant lighthouse to barely survive and orient itself!”

Fang Senyan asked seriously:

“Can he transmit any messages back to them?”

“Impossible!” Old Charlie replied with certainty. “The only way he can send a message is by suicide. Once he dies, the other side will certainly sense it. It seems that in areas with stronger magnetic fields, the signal from the Black Crystal Skull is more intense, so Jakaia keeps stopping to find a suitable location to receive the signal.”

Soon, Jakaia led Fang Senyan and the others up a hill. From the crest, they could see the glittering lights of the metropolis on the distant horizon. It was Detroit, the largest city in Michigan, the world-famous Motor City.

“I didn't expect we’d looped back around here,” Fang Senyan murmured.

Upon arrival, Jakaia hailed a taxi and sped away. Fang Senyan and the others, anticipating his move while he waited for transport, had already employed some illicit means to secure a car and followed him.

The taxi drove halfway across the city before stopping in a neighborhood that resembled a slum—a highly dangerous area, predominantly Black, where the local gangs held sway in Detroit.

Jakaia got out without stopping or paying, walking forward slowly. They could see the tentacle-like vascular filaments retracting into his body. Evidently, the taxi driver hadn't transported a client, but a harbinger of death.

“Well, this guy has lost his utility! I know where that Black Crystal Skull is!” Old Charlie suddenly announced. “It’s in that convertible Jeep right next to us! Yes, it’s completely exposed under the streetlight.”

Following Old Charlie’s direction, everyone looked toward that spot. They saw Jakaia also heading in that direction. With the Sūishōsha’s vision multiplied many times over their own, they could see the ‘Black Crystal Skull’—back turned to them—hunched over, wearing headphones as if listening to music. He appeared entirely ordinary, yet the exposed skin possessed a sickly pallor. Strangely, however, any gaze fixed upon his body immediately brought forth an indescribable sharpness, like seeing the liquid metal endoskeleton from Terminator 2.

“It’s him!!” Fang Senyan suddenly exclaimed in the team channel, “No wonder I felt a sense of familiarity! That CD Loki gave us had footage of this guy! Yes, this is the Servant of the Bound God, the fool pierced by the light of Gungnir that Loki cast aside!”

Hearing Fang Senyan’s words, everyone’s spirits lifted; he did indeed look more and more like the description. To think that the Black Crystal Skull they had sought for so long had circled back to this location! It was the perfect fulfillment of finding what was sought without effort.

“Is the Bound God nearby?” Zi immediately asked.

Zi shook her head first:

“Unlikely. From Loki’s description, the Bound God seems capable of rapidly supporting his servant and returning to him. If that were the case, the two gathering together would be pointless, wasting resources needlessly. More crucially, wherever the Bound God stays, the luck of the surroundings is absorbed by him, and the ordinary people near us don’t look like they’ve been suffering bad luck.”

Fang Senyan’s eyes now blazed with ferocity. He gritted his teeth in the team channel:

“I think there’s no need to elaborate on what happens next! That damned Bound God has been hunting us from the start. Moghansa’s death—though he didn’t strike the blow himself—he is the true culprit. The intelligence Loki provided earlier showed that this servant carries something extremely important, or a secret, concerning the Bound God. So! Today, I’m going to let that bastard taste the agony of excruciating pain!”

The mention of “Moghansa” ignited a burning sensation in everyone’s hearts. Even Reef’s voice sounded parched and venomous:

“Kill!”

Zi remained silent, but a cold light already shimmered on her fingertips. San Zai was mute, but Kurutgu began inhaling deeply, as if unable to draw in enough breath, the tusks of the cyclops faintly visible in his mouth.

Fang Senyan didn't employ any specific technique; he merely pressed slightly harder on the accelerator. The Buick MPV they occupied blended in like countless other vehicles speeding down the street. Jakaia, meanwhile, seemed excited, already jogging towards the target, filaments waving from his fingertips. His lower abdomen began to swell again, eerily like a hungry ghoul, clearly intending to feed the "essence" he had plundered back to his superior!

However, although the two closed within less than two meters of each other, for them, those two meters were an impassable chasm.

With a loud crash, a giant, milky-white palm materialized above Reef’s head, cleanly punching through the roof of the MPV. It spanned thirty meters in an instant, fiercely grasping the target and yanking him toward the Buick.

Divine Hand!

The Servant’s eyes instantly turned red—not blood-red, but resembling the energized state of the Terminator preparing for combat. A massive burst of light erupted from his body, appearing ready to shatter Reef’s Divine Hand.

But Reef was not fighting alone. As he made his move, Zi’s long incantation had just finished. The surrounding darkness twisted into a frantic, gigantic vortex. Immediately, bizarre Sith runes flew out, circling the Servant’s body before forming a massive tentacle that wrapped around him. Then, the black runes exploded one by one, the resulting wisps of black smoke, seemingly substantial, drilled into his mouth and nostrils.

Force Barrier. Rune Bind!

The Servant’s struggles were instantly interrupted. As he was yanked closer by Reef’s Divine Hand, the hand shattered, coating his body in a light that was intensely hot, sizzling audibly upon his skin! (To be continued) RQ