Finding that he couldn't secure the "Vice President" in one go, the "New World" powerhouses who had been observing immediately used nearby alleys and collapsed houses to head to other streets, detouring to the high tower.
The "Vice President" didn't focus his attention on them, still staring at Chen Wen, Liu Chuan, and the others who were approaching.
Suddenly, he tightened his hands on the armrests.
His pale blue eyes instantly became deep, as if contaminated by black ink.
In the deep darkness, buildings emerged, lit with varying numbers of lights, like a projection of the "New World."
The projection gradually magnified, focusing on a brightly lit high-rise building.
Behind the "Vice President," not far away, the same building stood quietly, with either yellowish or pure white lights reflected on each floor and each window.
Then, two points of light in the "Vice President's" eyes grew larger and larger, filling every part of his pupils.
Whoosh!
In the violent sound of the wind, a huge vortex of air currents emerged in front of the "Vice President."
Dyed with the colors of the lights, it emitted a terrifying suction, making Chen Wen, Liu Chuan, Shang Jianyao, and the two "New World" powerhouses carrying Flora and Barnard like weightless pieces of paper, irresistibly floating up and heading towards the center of the vortex.
"He's borrowing the power of the 'Ruling Star'!" Shang Jianyao was very familiar with this feeling and shouted loudly.
But the terrifying suction tore his voice apart, scattering it in the wind.
At this moment, a black shadow separated from Liu Chuan, who was struggling in mid-air.
It shook and grew larger, instantly giving the feeling of a building.
This huge black shadow, ahead of Chen Wen, Shang Jianyao, and the others, took advantage of the wind and rushed to the front of the vortex, then opened its arms and tightly embraced it.
In the whooshing wind, the huge black shadow filled the center of the vortex.
The two collided like matter and antimatter, annihilating each other instantly.
Accompanied by the annihilation, a violent "giant wave" surged in all directions, slapping Shang Jianyao and the others, who were in mid-air, hard onto the ground.
The "Vice President" was not spared either. He was thrown into the air and crashed into the surface of a building on the side, creating a large hole.
As the "giant wave" subsided slightly, Chen Wen, Liu Chuan, and the others quickly got up.
Being in the "New World," they were only consciousness lifeforms. Such damage wouldn't give them additional "states" like internal bleeding, comminuted fractures, or concussions, and wouldn't leave any lasting effects, not affecting their subsequent actions.
Of course, they weren't completely unharmed. This consumed a large part of their mental energy.
However, except for Shang Jianyao, the other "New World" powerhouses had prepared in advance, placing multiple humans around their bodies. Once their own mental energy dropped to a critical point, they would immediately extract their consciousness to replenish themselves.
Pfft!
Shang Jianyao felt that he would be letting down the scene just now if he didn't spit out a mouthful of blood, so he deliberately materialized the corresponding thing.
Liu Chuan glanced at the large hole in the building on the side and shouted to his companions:
"Let's get through here as soon as possible, don't get entangled with the 'Vice President'!"
"Okay!" Shang Jianyao always responded positively.
Thump, thump, thump. The other two "New World" powerhouses carried Flora and Barnard on their backs, following Liu Chuan, Chen Wen, and Shang Jianyao, running past the building that the "Vice President" had crashed into.
They had only run a dozen meters when the "Vice President's" wheelchair suddenly flew out of the hole.
It landed steadily on the ground and turned halfway, allowing the "Vice President" to directly see the backs of Shang Jianyao and the others.
Flora, who didn't need to run herself, had been paying attention to the situation here. Seeing this, she immediately shouted:
"Air wall!"
Except for Shang Jianyao, who lacked coordination and didn't know what to do in a short time, Barnard, Liu Chuan, Chen Wen, and the others simultaneously turned their bodies halfway and used the "Interference with Matter" ability ten meters behind them.
The hurricane that had passed through the street solidified there, compressed layer by layer into a visible air wall.
This wall blocked the "Vice President," making the figures of his enemies in his pale blue eyes a bit blurry.
Before the air wall could fully form, he had already patted the armrest, letting the electric wheelchair slide on its own, faster than Shang Jianyao and the others running.
Seeing that he was about to crash into the air wall, the "Vice President" quickly pressed somewhere on the armrest, completing an emergency stop.
With a screeching sound, the electric wheelchair stopped in time.
On the other side, Liu Chuan and the others, after jointly creating that air wall, didn't stop, but turned their bodies back and continued to run.
As the power was drawn away, the layered and compressed air wall could no longer maintain itself and suddenly expanded.
How extreme the compression was just now, how exaggerated the expansion was now, to the point that it directly created an explosion.
Boom!
The air wall disintegrated into a terrifying shockwave, slamming hard in all directions.
The "Vice President," who was directly in front of it, naturally couldn't escape and was blown away, crashing into the ruins formed by collapsed buildings on the side of the road.
Crash! The ruins further collapsed under the shockwave, burying the "Vice President" inside.
Twisting his body, Shang Jianyao saw this scene while running and couldn't help but raise his palm, applauding the coordination of Flora, Barnard, and the others.
At the same time, with the intensification of the earthquake, some of the brightly lit houses around the high tower could no longer hold up and collapsed with a bang.
The lights inside turned into countless fragments, either flying back to the high tower, falling to the ground, or drifting elsewhere.
"Aren't they all 'Zhuang Sheng's' lights?" Shang Jianyao, who could steadily keep up with the main force even after applauding for a while, said in shock upon seeing this.
A gust of wind filled his mouth, suppressing much of his voice.
"Just fragments." Chen Wen ran fast, but he was in a uniform state.
At this moment, Liu Chuan suddenly shouted:
"Be careful!"
Several pieces of light fragments flew over.
Shang Jianyao dodged them perfectly, jumping, rolling, and lunging forward like he was playing a game.
The next second, his gaze passed through the gaps between the collapsed buildings, and he saw a certain "New World" powerhouse on another street, who had previously detoured to the high tower, unable to dodge and was touched by a piece of light fragment.
In an instant, this "New World" powerhouse was ignited.
He let out a shrill scream, supported himself as a human torch and rolled twice, then disappeared completely, along with the "fire," vanishing without a trace.
Liu Chuan, who only knew that the light fragments were dangerous but didn't know where the danger lay, narrowed his eyes and slowed down his pace.
The weak-willed him began to fear going forward.
If he didn't know his own weaknesses and had asked "Truth" to modify certain memories and perform deep-level hypnosis long ago, he definitely wouldn't be able to persevere now.
Clap, clap, clap, Shang Jianyao applauded himself for his dodge just now.
For some reason, in their subsequent dash, they didn't encounter the obstruction of "Charlie," "Professor Li," and the others, and the "Vice President" wasn't able to catch up either.
Just like that, they arrived outside the high tower amidst the falling rocks, drifting light fragments, blowing violent hurricanes, and constantly appearing ground cracks.
This high tower penetrated deep into the clouds, and the lights on each floor were exceptionally bright, forming a stark contrast with the surrounding dark sky.
Its door was very ordinary, about two people tall, double-leaf, wooden, and reddish-brown.
Shang Jianyao jumped up the steps in one stride, stretched out his hands, and pushed the door.
But no matter how hard he tried, the door didn't budge.
"Wait a moment," Barnard said tremblingly.
Shang Jianyao withdrew his hands and looked at the old man lying on his companion's back.
Barnard explained:
"'Truth' said that He would help us open it."
As soon as Barnard finished speaking, the reddish-brown wooden door, two people tall, made a creaking sound and slowly opened backward.
…………
Eighth Research Institute, within that small city
Jiang Baimian, knowing that the turmoil had begun, once again sneaked into this place, ambushing at the edge of the nuclear power plant and the vortex-shaped building.
She waited for a while and found that many "Heartless" became very anxious.
Gradually, they became violent, no longer holding their posts, either fighting each other or fleeing towards the outer edges of the city as if escaping something.
"Is this one of the effects of the 'New World' turmoil on reality?" Jiang Baimian wasn't in a hurry to go out until only a small number of bloodshot-eyed "Heartless" remained in this area, and then she used "Mirror World" to gradually approach the vortex-shaped building.
Being able to directly see the target, she wouldn't get lost at the moment, and it didn't take long for her to reach the place where "Heartless Disease" symptoms would originally appear.
Her head throbbed once again, and she had to quickly take a few steps back.
"The turmoil hasn't developed to its climax yet?" Jiang Baimian muttered to herself silently.
She stood there, gazing at the vortex-shaped building, patiently waiting.
A few minutes later, she saw invisible things around the target building suddenly disintegrate, turning into clusters of air currents blowing into the distance.
Jiang Baimian's heart stirred, and she immediately went forward.
This time, when crossing that critical line, she no longer felt headache or dizziness.
Wearing a military exoskeleton, Jiang Baimian took three steps at a time and quickly arrived at the entrance of the vortex-shaped building.
She then stretched out her hands and pressed them against the metal-cast door.