The middle-aged man strapped with bombs sneered. “Whether anyone dies today depends entirely on you.”
Two veins bulged on Jiang Nan’s forehead. With a single pull of his hand, the Blood-Drinking Halberd landed in his grasp. His expression turned extremely sombre.
First Mi La had been kidnapped, and now human bombs.
This was clearly premeditated.
At this moment, Zhong Yingxue, Xia Yao, and the others had already shifted into combat readiness.
Their hearts filled with intense anxiety. None of them had expected something like this to happen today.
Just then, Nightingale appeared abruptly beside Jiang Nan. Seeing the scene, even she could not help feeling a headache.
She leaned close to Jiang Nan and whispered in his ear, “It’s Dracula’s people. Mi La let herself be taken willingly. She’s probably acting as bait to trace them back and locate the lair of Dracula’s remnants.”
“These ones are meant to hold you here.”
Jiang Nan gave a cold laugh. They really had not given up, had they? Still no lesson learned from last time.
If Mi La had not gone with them, who knew what further trouble they might have caused.
They were ready to risk everything for one final gamble with him.
“Eight? Hardly enough to worry about.”
With that, he leaned forward, ready to strike.
The middle-aged man snarled ferociously, “Don’t move! Move again and we all die.”
“We’ve already pressed the detonators in our hands. They’re all under my Shadow Demon’s control. The instant anyone lets go, the bombs on our bodies explode.”
“The yield is enough to flatten this entire plaza.”
Jiang Nan’s body stiffened, his face darkening.
He drove the Blood-Drinking Halberd hard into the marble.
They were playing clever games. The moment he acted, Shadow Demon would force them to release the detonators.
Even he had no confidence he could take down all eight without anyone letting go.
“Evacuate the crowd, set up a cordon, and search the remaining people for anyone else strapped with bombs.”
“We can’t be sure there are only eight.”
Wang Gang, standing nearby, glared fixedly at the eight human bombs, his expression savage. “Bunch of scum.”
Then he straightened up and gave Jiang Nan a crisp military salute.
“Yes, sir!”
Jiang Nan blinked. “Military?”
Wang Gang’s face grew solemn. “Retired veteran, class of ’03. If needed, always ready to serve the people. Duty calls, mission will be accomplished.”
Jiang Nan nodded firmly. “That’s a huge help. Maintain order here until reinforcements arrive. Xiong Da, Xiong Er, go assist.”
Wu Liang and Xiong Er nodded without the slightest hesitation at Jiang Nan’s order.
Wang Gang turned and bellowed, “All Muscle Reform Department members, execute orders!”
The group of devilishly muscled men suddenly became the most reliable force on the scene.
They helped evacuate the crowd. Once someone took charge and organised things, the chaos quickly settled into some order.
The plaza was soon cleared to guard against any explosion.
At the same time, the Kyoto-stationed Longyuan unit and the public security forces, upon receiving the alert, mobilised large numbers of personnel and rushed over.
In less than ten minutes, Sunset Plaza would be sealed watertight.
Yet the eight merely watched Jiang Nan orchestrate everything, utterly unafraid.
Shadow Demon sneered coldly, “I know what you’re capable of, but you’d better not try any tricks.”
“None of these people are ours. I grabbed them off the street this morning.”
“Heh heh heh. If anything goes wrong, I wonder how many you’ll manage to save.”
As he spoke, the blackness faded from the eyes of two among the eight.
Their formerly calm expressions turned to panic. Lips blue, tears streaming, their whole bodies shook.
One middle-aged man cried out in terror, “Save me! Please, save me! I don’t want to die. I have a wife and daughter!”
A long-haired young woman stared down at the bomb strapped to her, legs trembling violently, sobbing without stop.
“Woo woo~ Why me? Nan God! Nan God, please save me, okay? I don’t want to die. I haven’t even been to class today…”
Jiang Nan’s face grew extremely grim. He forced a faint smile. “Don’t panic. Stay perfectly still where you are. I promise you’ll be fine.”
The girl’s pupils darkened again, her expression twisting back into ferocity. “Promise my arse! Her life is in my hands.”
Shadow Demon’s confidence came from these bomb carriers being his hostages.
You have humanity? Sorry, I don’t.
Even if they all blew up, his true body would remain untouched.
Jiang Nan drew a deep breath, his mind racing at full speed. Yet this time he was far too passive.
The initiative was not in his hands.
“What do you want?”
Shadow Demon grinned. Jiang Nan was compromising?
Excellent.
“I want you to stay right here for one hour. Very simple request. Not hard.”
“After one hour, I’ll release them naturally.”
“One for eight. No loss. You come out ahead.”
Jiang Nan grinned back. “Fine. You want to play, I’ll play along.”
Zhong Yingxue, face full of worry, leaned close and whispered, “Are we really going to do what he says? We…”
Jiang Nan gave a cold laugh. “As if he’d actually release them. I’m waiting for an opening.”
Clearly, Dracula was using this tactic to buy time, to move Mi La out of Kyoto.
As time passed,
the arriving Longyuan brigade and security forces took full control of the scene.
They set up cordons, sealed the plaza, and moved civilians to a safe distance.
After briefing the commander, Wang Gang began checking for any hidden bomb carriers still among the crowd.
They also started planning rescue strategies.
The problem was that Shadow Demon controlled every hostage simultaneously. Any move that alerted him, unless guaranteed perfect success,
would cost a life the moment even one person released a detonator. It gave everyone a splitting headache.
Time ticked away second by second. Curious onlookers began to gather.
News media who caught wind of it even arrived, filming from afar with drones.
The longer it dragged on, the worse the fallout.
The scenes broadcast live by the media soon sparked a storm online.
“These scum have lost their minds? Causing trouble in Kyoto? They must not know how to spell ‘death’.”
“Just hope everyone stays safe. Eh? That figure in the centre of the plaza looks kind of familiar.”
“It’s Nan God! I live near Sunset Plaza. Saw it with my own eyes.”
“Phew. With Nan God there, it’ll be okay.”
For some reason, what had started as a terrifying incident suddenly felt reassuring to countless netizens the moment they saw Jiang Nan on the scene, as if they had swallowed a calming pill.
