Chapter 490: Chapter 490 The First Conclusion
Through the front windshield, Sang Ning could feel the destructive power of the sandstorm. The front of the car seemed to be lifted upward, so she clutched the handle tightly.
Suddenly, a chunk of sand from an unknown direction flew in and slammed against the car door. Under the force of the gale, the SUV spun in place violently. Sang Ning’s head smashed hard against the window glass, and visibility dropped to zero.
Sang Ning saw stars from the blow. Closing her eyes, she tried to joke through the bitterness with a helpless tone: "Looks like the three of us really might take this road trip to the afterlife together."
"Sangsang, don’t talk nonsense. I won’t let anything happen to you." Li Juezhou wasn’t faring much better himself. The sudden and violent inertia caused his chest to slam heavily against the steering wheel. The pain surged through him, leaving him no time for recovery. He fought to straighten up and gripped the steering wheel firmly once again.
In an environment where death could arrive any second, every moment stretched into pure agony. Sang Ning lost sense of how much time had passed. The only thing she knew was that their SUV felt like a ship battered in the middle of a stormy sea, swaying and struck by relentless waves.
A strong dizziness overtook her as Sang Ning kept her eyes shut tightly. Time trickled by, excruciatingly slow. Suddenly, Song Shiye’s scream exploded near her ears, snapping her back to clarity.
"Thank heaven, thank earth, thank Buddha and the gods! Sister Sangsang, we finally made it out!" Song Shiye burst into tears of joy.
Sang Ning gritted her teeth against the dizziness and forced her eyes open. Indeed, the swirling yellow sands had completely disappeared. The road ahead was clear—it looked similar to the route they had traveled at the start.
"Thank goodness! Surviving disaster means blessings ahead!" Sang Ning clasped her hands together in excitement.
Li Juezhou let out a soft sigh of relief, his face brightened by the joy of narrowly escaping calamity. Not daring to stop, he drove forward until they were back on familiar terrain. Only then did he park the car, unfasten his seatbelt, and open his arms toward Sang Ning: "Sangsang, shouldn’t we celebrate this moment with a hug?"
Although Sang Ning wasn’t fond of public displays of affection, she couldn’t help but throw herself into Li Juezhou’s embrace.
"Not suitable for kids, not suitable for kids! Could you two consider my feelings for once?" Song Shiye closed his eyes, turning his head away, silently counting numbers in his mind.
"Are you done hugging? If you’re done, make a sound, okay?" After counting to three, Song Shiye asked aloud, but no one responded. He immediately opened his eyes, "Could you two—oh, come on now—"
His words cut off mid-sentence as his gaze fell on the scene outside the car window. Shivering in fright, he reached out to push Sang Ning and Li Juezhou apart: "You two need to stop hugging. It looks like Lu Yujing, that crazy woman, is driving toward us!"
With Song Shiye’s warning, Sang Ning and Li Juezhou quickly turned their heads toward the window. Sure enough, a speeding SUV was approaching their car from the side as if it intended to ram them and send their vehicle flying.
Li Juezhou hurriedly fastened his seatbelt and restarted the car.
From a distance, Lu Yujing sat in her car, her foot stomping hard on the gas pedal. Her twisted expression reflected a smoldering rage and unwillingness.
She couldn’t understand why Sang Ning was so hard to kill. Their SUV had been deeply trapped inside the sandstorm—and yet they had escaped unscathed. There would never be another opportunity as good as today. Sang Ning had to die today!
Li Juezhou sped off, but Lu Yujing relentlessly followed at high speed. The fuel gauge indicated that the gas tank was running low; their vehicle wasn’t going to hold out much longer against Lu Yujing’s car.
With her heart steeling itself, Sang Ning gritted her teeth and screamed at Li Juezhou: "Reverse and ram her to death!"
Li Juezhou understood Sang Ning’s intent. Since Lu Yujing was going to chase them to the bitter end, it was better to strike first before the fuel ran dry and disable her car.
"Let the kid get out of the car first!" Sang Ning shouted. Li Juezhou immediately unlocked the backseat door. Song Shiye clung to the seat and refused to get off. Sang Ning raised her hand to push him: "Don’t make me force you. I won’t feel at ease with you staying in the car!"
Li Juezhou sharply turned the steering wheel and pulled over on the roadside. Song Shiye hesitated for only a second before flinging the car door open and jumping out. As he exited, he called out to Sang Ning: "Sister Sangsang, you two have to be careful!"
Before he could finish speaking, the SUV roared back onto the road, its departure kicking up sand into his face.
The two SUVs charged directly at each other head-on. Lu Yujing hadn’t anticipated that her opponents would want to ram her car, too. Panic surged in her heart, forcing her to frantically turn her steering wheel to swerve away.
Li Juezhou didn’t give her the chance to escape. Flooring the accelerator, he maneuvered sharply, circling around and crashing into the side of her vehicle diagonally. Both cars ended up disabled and overturned in the desert sands.
Lu Yujing’s SUV wasn’t flipped as severely. She unfastened her seatbelt and quickly crawled out of the car.
Li Juezhou and Sang Ning’s car, however, flipped completely upside down. The driver’s seat was deeply embedded in the sand, leaving escape only possible via the passenger window. Li Juezhou rolled down the passenger-side window and anxiously touched Sang Ning’s hand: "Sangsang, quick—crawl out first!"
Sang Ning snapped back to her senses and didn’t linger. She unfastened her seatbelt and struggled to climb out through the car window. Once outside, she lay on the ground and extended her hand toward Li Juezhou: "You need to get out quickly too."
But Li Juezhou’s face showed a hint of a helpless smile. Sang Ning leaned in to take a closer look only to find that the driver’s seat was severely damaged. During the collision, Li Juezhou had absorbed the full impact to protect her. His entire body was wedged tightly in place, making it impossible to crawl out through the passenger window.
"Hold on! I’ll rescue you right away!" Sang Ning abandoned concern for her surroundings and rushed to the driver-side window, dropping to her knees and using her hands to frantically dig away the sand piled around the vehicle.
Meanwhile, Lu Yujing appeared like a phantom behind Sang Ning, suddenly lunging forward to strangle her. Her crazed, unhinged expression betrayed an obsession gone over the edge: "Why aren’t you dead yet? Why are you so hard to kill? Why did you steal my role as the heroine?!"
Three accusations in a row made things crystal clear to Sang Ning—Lu Yujing was definitely another System-bound player.
But there was one thing Lu Yujing seemed to forget. When it came to Combat Power, she was no match for Sang Ning.
Sang Ning rose in one swift motion, flipping Lu Yujing over her shoulder and slamming her to the ground: "I’ve had enough of you!"
Their gazes inadvertently locked. In Lu Yujing’s eyes, flames of hatred burned intensely. She bellowed, "I command you to die this instant!"
Something bizarre happened. Sang Ning’s hands moved involuntarily, clasping tightly around her own neck and strangling herself with full force.
Yet Lu Yujing wasn’t satisfied. She suddenly burst into a fit of maniacal laughter: "Go on—harder! Don’t stop until you’ve choked the life out of yourself!"
Li Juezhou could hear the commotion outside, and his heart seemed to burst with fury. He banged on the car window desperately: "Sangsang, stop it! Don’t listen to her!"
Sang Ning could clearly hear Li Juezhou’s voice, yet her hands refused to obey her will. The overwhelming sensation of suffocation sent her spiraling into panic. She forced herself to avert her gaze, attempting to break free from Lu Yujing’s eerie, vortex-like eyes. But from the moment their eye contact started, it seemed inevitable to be ensnared by those haunting, abyssal depths.
Perhaps the disorienting lack of air was muddling her brain, but suddenly Sang Ning caught a faint whiff of gasoline near her nose. Could the SUV be leaking fuel?
