"Penguin…" As she was about to give up all hope and let Mimasaka Sensei take her life, she remembered that very word.
"You will always be my baby penguin, my daughter. The outside world may be tough like the seas but remember that you have the ability to conquer it. To swim in there dauntlessly and eventually find a mate that you will love for life. But for now, sleep tight in my embrace." The words of her mother flashbacked in her mind as Zhen Qing curled herself up despite being tied up.
Mimasaka gave a sigh before he clicked the safety b.u.t.ton off from his gun. He gave a slight pause and prepared to half squeeze his trigger. After all, he did love her once. It would be heartless of him to kill Lynn just like that.
But that was all the time Zhen Qing needed to touch the penguin stud earring that Yun gave her.
"Goodbye." Mimasaka closed his eyes as he squeezed his trigger a few times. A quick death is better than a slow dying one. The same concept that he applied to all of his freshest livestock by giving them a swift end.
However, when Mimasaka opened his eyes, he was shocked to see that there was another body right in front of him. "What…?" Mimasaka could not believe his eyes, but at that moment, a large bang came from the side of the building as the doors were broken down.
"ZHEN QING! WHERE ARE YOU!" Xiong Da shouted while holding his two handed war club. A threatening vibe oozed out of his body until he saw Mimasaka and his gangsters at the end of the darkened warehouse.
"Let me brighten it up for you." Luo Bo offered as she shot flare arrows at the roof of the warehouse that suddenly illuminated the entire place. The flare arrows sparkled a while before it lit brightly, allowing Xiong Da to see the site properly. It was a good thing she had bought an a.s.sortment of arrows from Jin"s store previously. She a.s.sumed each and every arrow would have its use, it"s just a matter of when.
"Kill them!" Mimasaka who was distracted by Xiong Da gave the order before looking back at the sofa, only to find both the body he had shot, as well as Lynn, were gone. Mimasaka was frustrated and decided to make a break out of this place as soon as possible. In the meantime, his goons were carrying decent firearms and wielded rather destructive magic, courtesy of the Daikokuten clan.
Xiong Da planned to charge all the way from one end of the warehouse to the other, but he was not indestructible nor immune to all physical and magical attacks. Suddenly, a vine barrier appeared in front of him, and it was moving along with him. He then felt that his waist was a little tighter than usual.
"Heh heh, sorry to use you as the moving s.h.i.+eld." Jia Le smiled as she cast a vine barrier with its roots attached to Xiong Da"s belly instead of the ground so Xiong Da could still move and receive protection from the barrier.
"It"s fine, in fact, it"s a brilliant idea." Given Xiong Da"s size, Luo Bo and Jia Le were able to hide behind him easily as he moved towards the goons with the vine barrier attached to him. Separately, Luo Bo also took this chance to counter attack with her arrows and managed to bring some enemies down before they clashed head on.
Zhen Qing still could not believe it as she was being carried out of the battle scene. "Jin…!?" Zhen Qing spoke out with disbelief as Jin smashed the warehouse"s covered window gla.s.s panels with the help of a Lazy Panda Swipe and brought her out of the warehouse.
"Argh, so one of them did get to me." Jin peered over his side to see a bullet lodged into it. The living armour was only able to block three shots as they were not fast enough to block the fourth one. Jin then remembered the last living armour took the blow of Yamazaki"s katana art. "Well at the very least, the remaining pieces of that living armour were absorbed by the others, making them slightly stronger. But still, ouch…" Jin thought to himself.
"How did you suddenly appear?" Zhen Qing still could not believe that Jin was there to protect her when she needed him the most.
"Didn"t you call me?" Jin smiled as he pointed at the earring and Zhen Qing suddenly felt her heart skipped a beat, but there was no time to admire Jin when Mimasaka jumped over the broken window panel too and faced Jin.
"I do not know what kind of mysterious arts you used, but it does not change the odds of her surviving." Mimasaka said as he unloaded the entire pistol magazine at Jin which Jin easily deflected each and every one of them with the help of Inverse Eyes.
"Huh, so you are a cultivator. Then so be it." Mimasaka unveiled his cultivation, and the G.o.d Daikokuten appeared with eight orbs circling the silhouette of an old man carrying a large mallet and an oversized sack.
"Eight orbs..." Jin suddenly felt the pressure building up again after the intense fight with Yamazaki, but he still did not give in to Mimasaka as he had an employee to protect. Even Zhen Qing was stunned by Mimasaka"s cultivation as she did not expect him to be this strong at all.
Mimasaka took out a large spatula and brandished it in front of Jin who nearly found it funny until Zhen Qing shouted at him. "Do not underestimate his spatula as a weapon! The Daikokuten Clan is known to use kitchen utensils as weapons. They are, after all, the Clan that uses food as weapons! His speciality is Seafood Tsukemen. He has the ability to bring out the power of Sea creatures against you."
"Thank you for the warning." Jin immediately toughened his fighting stance as he prepared to face Mimasaka head on.
"Master, let me do it instead." Zeru whispered to him like a ghost and did not take no as an answer. Mimasaka a.s.sumed he had the upper hand in this fight despite the leak of information from Lynn, but when he wanted to charge towards the injured Jin, he felt that his body was heavy all of a sudden.
"Huh?" Mimasaka wondered, without realising why he was falling to the ground even before he started the fight. It was at that moment, he saw the entirety of his body before him. For some reason, his body was upside down and a person was standing right behind it. One moment later, his vision went blank. Mimasaka"s head went rolling down the hill beside the warehouse and into a flowing river.
Zhen Qing could not take the shock and started to vomit. Seeing this, Jin tried to calm her down and took out a bottle of water from his storage watch to let her drink. Zeru immediately disposed of the body away from Zhen Qing"s sight.
"Erm…thank you, Zeru?" Jin did not know how to react, and it was the first time, Zeru took the initiative to eliminate his enemy for him rather than weakening it for him to defeat.
"No, Master, I am sorry. It was my fault. I noticed one of the bystanders was filled with evil intent, but that was not part of the group of gangsters I caught. So I let him get away. I should have eliminated all threats, and this sort of harm would not have come to Lady Lynn. Please forgive me too, Lady Lynn." Zeru knelt as he bowed down to ask for forgiveness.
"No worries, Zeru. I thank you for saving me time and time again." Zhen Qing shook her head as she wiped her mouth with a towel from Jin.
It was at that time the police sirens blared loudly once again.