"Throw your weapon," the expert commanded, his gun barrel glinting.
I lifted my shirt, turning slowly. "I don't have a weapon."
The expert nodded. "Have your friend move back. She's too fast!"
I nodded to Chu Qi. With a flicker, she was twenty meters away. Her intention was to show the expert that even from a distance, she could capture him instantly, warning him not to play any tricks.
Meanwhile, Yao Yao and the others had already attacked the Han Yin Temple. She unleashed her black tornado attack again, destroying the poorly repaired temple even further. The experts inside, caught off guard, were buried under bricks and rubble. Though not fatally, the commotion was significant. Yao Yao's primary goal was to disrupt the enemy, not necessarily defeat them.
Eliminating enemy combatants was Diana's task. It wasn't that Yao Yao and her group didn't want to, but they couldn't. A Purple Qi expert with an automatic rifle against a Blue Qi great demon was essentially like me smashing bricks.
The expert untied Zheng Bingbing, half-dragging her as he cautiously moved her into our car. He placed her in the passenger seat, then got into the back. He then gestured for me to drive.
"Where are the keys to your car?" I asked. I didn't want Chu Qi chasing after us on foot.
"It's not turned off," the expert replied.
The car was a blue-badged hybrid, its idle nearly silent. I walked over and saw the dashboard was indeed lit. I then returned to the sedan, opened the door, and got into the driver's seat. Habitually, I reached for the seatbelt, but then changed my mind. I looped it around behind me and fastened it, allowing myself to remain mobile.
"Fast, fast!" the expert jabbed my head with his gun, urging me on.
"Don't hit my head, or I'll take you with me!" I warned.
"Baga! Drive!"
I drove towards the village entrance, glancing at Zheng Bingbing. She had already fainted from being choked, a visible mark on her neck. However, she seemed fine. I meant she would have been fine even if she had been choked to death, but judging by how long she was choked, she hadn't died, merely fainted. Though an athlete, her sports were primarily explosive, not endurance-based. Her lung capacity wasn't significantly larger than average.
Exiting the village, we entered the mountain road. I deliberately drove slowly, maintaining a hundred-meter distance behind Chu Qi. The expert noticed my "cheating." He looked back several times, using the curves in the road, then told me to accelerate, or he'd blow Bingbing's head off.
I had no choice but to speed up. Our car's low chassis gave us an advantage on the mountain road, and soon we had left Chu Qi far behind.
As we neared the town, we came to a fork in the road. The left path led to the city, and the right led to Hua Lou Town. "Which way?" I asked the expert.
"Which way did we come from?" the expert countered. He likely didn't know the exact coordinates, unsure of our origin.
Pointing to the right, the expert considered. "Go left!"
Just as I was about to signal left, the expert pressed his gun to Bingbing's head again. "Turn. Go right!"
This guy was clever. I signaled right. From the rearview mirror, I saw the expert looking back at Chu Qi's position. She was still winding her way through the mountain road. For a few seconds, our eyes met. I could see Chu Qi's face, and she had definitely seen our car's tail.
The straight-line distance between us was about 100 meters, but due to the curves, the road distance was around three hundred meters. The fork was just ahead.
"Accelerate, accelerate, fast, fast!" the expert urged.
At the fork, I turned left, heading towards the city. The expert suddenly grabbed my right leg, slammed the accelerator to the floor, and we shot out of the intersection, nearly crashing into a utility pole in front of a baozi shop!
After turning a corner, the expert looked back. The intersection was no longer visible. I activated my qi sensing ability and discovered Chu Qi had reached the fork. She had indeed fallen for the trick, heading towards Hua Lou Town to the right, the direction we had come from. It was the logical pursuit.