Chapter Forty-Eight: The Girl and the Bonsai

The crimson lotus bud expanded in an instant, growing geometrically until the entire black hole was covered by its base, only then did it slowly come to a halt. The enlarged bud, now thousands of times its original size, gradually became translucent, its color fading from the previous fiery gold to a pale red, appearing so fragile that a gentle kiss might leave it creased.

Beautiful as it was, this beauty carried an inexplicable sense of elusiveness.

Someone from the crowd raised a gun, firing at the unopened lotus.

Bang!

Muzzle flash flared, and the bullet shot straight at the red lotus, but as it drew within several meters, it melted into molten steel, evaporating into nothingness.

“Oh, what’s the point of testing with bullets? Test it with your life!” called “Mu You,” leaping suddenly into the sky. The red lotus bud responded, blossoming open. Six massive, blood-red petals, each a hundred meters long, spread over the ground, casting their shadow over nearly a hundred meters, shrouded by the spectral lotus.

“What are you idiots waiting for? Run!” The man with the pockmarked face didn’t look back as he broke into a desperate sprint. Overhead, the blood-red glow intensified, searing pain radiating from his scalp. Behind him, bodyguards who failed to escape in time let out agonized screams, which were swiftly swallowed by silence, replaced by a thick aroma of roasting flesh and an even more burning, piercing heat!

“Aiya, that’s it! Ants should be scared out of their wits. But as I said, even if you run for your lives, none of you will escape…”

Hearing “Mu You’s” words, despair flickered across the faces of the pockmarked man and the second young master of the Xiao family trailing behind. Still, they ran with all their might. Only a dozen meters remained, but the overhead petals silently descended, finally pressing close to the ground.

“Mu You” soared high above, gazing down at the now fully unfurled, blood-colored lotus, its iridescent light spinning gently. He couldn’t help but sigh, “Perfect.”

Beneath the scarlet lotus, nothing remained alive. The quietly blooming flower radiated a domineering, unparalleled heat, withering nearby plants and even causing some to combust spontaneously.

The freelancers who had previously watched from the sidelines now smacked themselves, scarcely daring to believe this wasn’t a dream. What on earth was going on? The boy who had looked half dead just moments before now seemed utterly unstoppable—no, something far more terrifying than unstoppable.

They had all witnessed the terrifying aftermath of the “First Glance: Monarch’s Flame,” and had believed Mu You’s desperate counterattack was already spent. When the fully armed Bai and Xiao families had appeared, they thought the outcome was certain.

Human power, in the face of modern high technology, is truly minuscule. You may be extraordinary, but you can never oppose this society—an eternal truth.

And yet, looking now at the gigantic red lotus spanning the sky and earth, they realized just how utterly mistaken they had been. How many more cards did this boy have left to play?

“Retreat!”

Only now, regaining control of their bodies after the profound shock, did someone whisper the order, and everyone, without exception, turned and ran.

“Stop! Anyone who moves another step dies!”

The chilling command exploded overhead, freezing everyone in place, too afraid to disobey.

They had no choice. The situation was entirely one-sided, and no one dared attract the monster’s attention above, fearing it would mean certain death.

“Why run? I haven’t exploded yet.”

At those words from “Mu You,” everyone nearly burst into tears. Had they heard wrong? A single “First Glance: Monarch’s Flame” had already laid waste to the garden. If each petal held the same destructive force, nothing here would survive.

What were the administrators of the Death Row Paradise thinking, unleashing such a thing tonight?

“Oh, I almost forgot. Now should be Mu You’s ‘Holy Mother moment.’ Ahem. Listen, you crawling ants—life is precious, and I can’t just take it at will. So I’ll let you run for your lives. One full minute. The countdown starts… now.”

At those words, the freelancers were overjoyed. They were already at the periphery of the garden, two hundred meters from the lotus’s shadow. If, under the threat of death, a human could run three meters per second, that’s nearly four hundred meters—a distance already beyond the garden’s bounds. Let “Mu You” blow the place sky high if he wished.

As they ran, their minds whirled. After a minute, they stopped, turning back, eager to witness the spectacular blast from afar.

Two minutes passed, but no explosion came.

What was going on?

Doubt crept in—could it be that Mu You was merely bluffing, his strength already exhausted?

Just as they angrily considered turning back, a wave of heat surged towards them. Instantly, the moisture in the air vanished, and their skin began to crack and split.

“Tsk tsk, that’s the pitiful view of ants. If you’d kept running for another minute, maybe you’d have survived. The explosion radius of ‘Blazing Silence: Red Lotus’ is a thousand meters. The bigger the area, the weaker the force, but in these two minutes, the lotus absorbed the blood of two hundred death row inmates. Who knows how much power it’s built up? Even I’m curious to see…”

As “Mu You” spoke, he continued to ascend until he was level with the tallest point of the Death Row Paradise’s giant bat wings. Then, with a thunderous shout, “Detonate!”

Six lotus petals suddenly shot out thousands of fire columns, exploding simultaneously in six directions!

The overwhelming shockwave instantly sent everyone reeling, their ears deafened, eyes bursting, skulls shattering and blood pouring from every orifice. As the blast wave and raging fire swept over them, they could neither see nor hear, not even think—a mercy, perhaps, to die before true despair could set in.

Beneath the epicenter of the red lotus explosion, deep underground in Death Row Paradise—

Inside an office constructed entirely of diamond, Mo Han lounged lazily in a dragon-shaped chair, eyes closed, quietly listening to a soothing violin piece. His hand tapped along to the rhythm, while the violinist—a breathtakingly beautiful young woman, perhaps eighteen or nineteen—played on. Her slender arms and delicate hands moved gracefully, her shoulders like warm jade, a narrow waist barely the span of a hand, her flat stomach supple and toned. Yet, instead of long, shapely legs, her lower body was replaced by plant stalks reminiscent of a sunflower. The girl’s body had been cruelly severed and grafted onto a plant stem, her roots buried in the earth. Looking closely, blood-stained leaves joined her flesh to the stem.

No one knew how such a surgery had been accomplished, but in Mo Han’s private office, it was merely a decoration.

Suddenly, Mo Han opened his eyes, fixing his gaze on a spot in the diamond ceiling above. The violinist immediately stopped playing, watching his every move with utmost caution.

For a long while, nothing happened—except for the faint ripple trembling in the coffee on Mo Han’s desk.

Mo Han stared at the coffee, light flickering in his glasses, his thoughts unreadable.

At length, he spoke: “Ah, it seems the balance has shifted…”

With that, Mo Han extended a finger and gave the girl’s roots a gentle push. She lost her balance and toppled over, a flush rising on her forehead.

“Just like you now, An Ruohuan. Ha! Hahaha!”

Mo Han’s hysterical laughter filled the entire room…