"Aya, can you hear me?"
Ling tried to connect with the earpiece in Hoshimi Aya's ear.
Hoshimi Aya, who suddenly heard Ling's voice inside the carriage, was overjoyed.
"Aya, can you hear me?"
"If you can hear me, say something back."
Hearing this, Hoshimi Aya glanced at Sarah in the driver's seat and ultimately made a bold decision.
"Ling, I can hear you."
Hoshimi Aya lowered her voice, controlling the volume so it would just reach her ears.
"What sound is that?"
Sarah asked suspiciously, looking toward Hoshimi Aya.
Suddenly recalling something, she walked over to Hoshimi Aya and began a thorough pat-down search.
However, Sarah did not find anything unusual.
"Your ears are quite well maintained."
After speaking, Sarah looked at the pair of furry ears atop Hoshimi Aya's head.
She then started rummaging around and finally found something resembling an earpiece in the right ear.
"So that's it. I was wondering how they tracked us down so quickly."
"This thing was used to pinpoint our location!"
Sarah sneered and threw the item onto the ground, crushing it into pieces.
Seeing this, Hoshimi Aya put on a wronged expression.
"Stay put and don't try any tricks!"
Sarah then immediately injected Hoshimi Aya with another dose of the agent and returned to the driver's seat to operate a tablet.
Meanwhile...
"Aya, you idiot!"
"Couldn't you have said something else?!"
Ling covered her face, listening to the conversation on Aya's end.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
Caesar looked at Eous, who was covering her face, curiously.
"It's nothing. Now we can confirm that Aya is definitely in that vehicle."
"Let's hurry up and rescue Aya."
Ling explained.
Caesar nodded, pushing the vehicle's speed to the maximum, flooring the accelerator.
"Full speed ahead!"
"You focus on driving."
"Everyone else, don't let them see us."
Sarah ordered, looking into the rearview mirror at Caesar, who had suddenly accelerated again.
Although capturing Hoshimi Aya hadn't taken much effort, letting her go was impossible.
They just needed to stall for a while longer, and their reinforcements would arrive.
After a chase lasting six or seven minutes, both parties maintained a distance of seven or eight meters.
The punitive army escorting the transport vehicle also occasionally harassed Caesar, preventing him from stopping the transport vehicle.
"Sister, the head of the Hoshimi Family called earlier saying he couldn't get through to Aya's line."
"I explained the situation here to him, and he said he would immediately dispatch more personnel for support."
"Now we just need to hold on and stall for a while."
"Once the Hoshimi Family arrives, the enemy will have nowhere to run."
Zhe hung up the phone and looked at Ling.
"Brother, we might not make it until the Hoshimi Family's support arrives."
"The enemy's reinforcements are here."
Ling said grimly, looking at the four or five mechs descending from the sky before her.
Caesar was also forced to stop because of these mechs.
"Proxy, this situation is bad!"
Caesar drew his weapon.
"...Caesar, can you deal with these?"
Ling asked quietly.
"I can, but it might take some time."
"By then, if we want to pursue, it might be too late."
Caesar looked at the transport vehicle gradually moving away.
He then charged directly toward the mechs. Seeing this, Ling found a safe spot to hide and temporarily disconnected from Eous.
"Brother, have you contacted Hoshimi Miyabi?"
Ling inquired.
"No, she's out of service range."
"Perhaps they are carrying out some mission."
Zhe shook his head. He had tried calling her just now; it showed out of service range, which meant only one thing: she was in The Hollow.
"Brother, I'll contact the Cunning Hares people."
"You contact Victoria Housekeeping."
"Call everyone we can."
After speaking, Ling took out her phone and started gathering people.
Zhe nodded upon seeing this and also took out his phone.
...
Inside the transport vehicle...
"It seems your people couldn't catch up."
Sarah said with a smile.
Although only a few mechs flew over, the main force hadn't arrived yet.
But it would only be a matter of time; the pursuers were held up, and they shouldn't be able to catch up for now.
"..."
Hoshimi Aya remained silent, her gaze fixed on the box Sarah was carrying when she boarded.
If nothing unexpected happened, the box should contain Nine-Tails.
In the current situation, she could only rely on herself to escape.
"Miss Hoshimi, it looks like you have no backup left."
Sarah teased Hoshimi Aya.
However, Hoshimi Aya did not respond, quietly waiting for her body to recover.
Although the chance of waiting for her body to recover was slim, given that the other party kept injecting her every so often.
Seeing this, Sarah returned to her seat and sat quietly, with the box containing Nine-Tails beside her, marked with some strange runes.
"What are those markings on the box?"
Hoshimi Aya made small talk out of boredom.
Now she was certain that Ling would definitely find someone to rescue her.
She just needed to wait quietly. Furthermore, Sarah hadn't done anything to her after capturing her.
This suggested that the goal probably wasn't to kill her; otherwise, why go to such trouble to capture her?
"You mean this?"
Sarah pointed to the box beside her.
Hoshimi Aya nodded, certain that Nine-Tails was inside. Therefore, the runes on the box were quite thought-provoking.
"This is something I prepared specially."
"I originally thought I wouldn't need it."
"I didn't expect it to actually be used."
"These markings were personally arranged by Master Yi Xuan from Yun Kui Mountain, whom I sought out."
"It has the function of suppressing evil spirits. I went through a lot of trouble to get this."
Sarah explained with a smile.
Since Hoshimi Aya was doomed not to escape now, there was no harm in telling her.
"..."
"You are truly cautious."
Hoshimi Aya was speechless.
She had never seen anyone so cautious.
"When you're in such a dangerous line of work, the careless ones are long gone."
"It's normal for me to be a bit cautious. Not everyone possesses your immense strength,"
Sarah looked at Hoshimi Aya.
"To risk your life so casually, without worrying about your safety."
This agent was the first dose she managed to concoct after considerable effort; later batches were easier.
After all, the first time required finding someone to test it on; only after confirming the effect could it be replicated, making subsequent ones relatively simpler.
Just one dose—if it were her, it might take at least half a day to slowly recover.
But Hoshimi Aya only felt weak for a short while. She needed an injection every so often to keep control.
And there were no other adverse reactions.
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