Mercy Bay City's Locke Family—the legendary clan all about fire.
On a long-haul bus from Minghai City to Mercy Bay, Evan Lin was slouched in the back row, eyes shut, looking dead relaxed as he muttered to himself.
Yesterday, Queenie Tong called and spilled the beans—she’d heard the Locke Family was up to something in Mercy Bay. Word was, a bunch of Locke clan folks were heading home, but Queenie couldn’t dig up the real reason.
Evan didn’t waste a second. The moment he hung up, he set off for Mercy Bay City.
He’d planned to fly or take the bullet train, but neither went straight there, and transfers were a pain. So he just grabbed a bus ticket instead.
"Let’s hope this trip throws me a curveball. If I can snag the other half of that thing, maybe I’ll boost my fire spirit and break through to Mortal Body Becoming Divine."
That’s what was running through Evan’s mind.
Suddenly, the bus slammed on the brakes.
Heads smacked into seats—passengers yelped and cursed, clutching their foreheads.
"What the hell kind of driving is that?!"
"Damn! Nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"Great, just opened my milk and now my pants are soaked!"
Passengers were all grumbling and swearing.
Up front, the driver stuck his head out the window and hollered, "Are you two nuts?! Trying to get yourselves killed, standing in the middle of the highway! You want me to run you over?!"
The driver was fuming.
He’d been cruising just fine, took a turn, and suddenly—bam!—someone was standing right in front of the bus.
A woman.
She was smack in the middle of the highway, hand out, trying to flag down cars.
Looked about twenty, pretty and fresh-faced, but right now the driver couldn’t care less about her looks.
If he hadn’t been a veteran behind the wheel, driving for decades, that split-second delay would’ve cost someone their life.