As it turned out, the upper echelons of New Eridu truly did possess the means to counter the Exaltists. If not for Airi, Zhong Yan would never have known they had such capabilities.
"Boss… I'm sorry. I might not be able to keep my promise," Airi said weakly, her face pale. "But I'll keep trying to investigate the Exaltists. I just… I just won't be able to stay in contact very often."
Zhong Yan didn't know how long she'd been enduring this. What he did know was—if this kept up, Airi might explode from ether overload. And the blast would be enough to flatten the entire abandoned district around them.
She was still his subordinate, and there was no way Zhong Yan would let her die like that. But the Hollow was far from safe—and, as luck would have it, he happened to have a place that only he could access.
The Kamui Space.
The biggest downside to hiding Airi in the Kamui dimension was that he could no longer use Kamui to absorb attacks at will. Otherwise, he might accidentally harm her.
However, his phasing ability wasn't affected by that limitation, so it wasn't a dealbreaker.
After a brief silence, Zhong Yan looked at Airi and activated Kamui, drawing her into the dimension. He followed immediately after.
The scene shifted to Kamui Space. Airi, confused by the unfamiliar surroundings, blinked in bewilderment—but the one relief was that her pain had vanished.
"Where is this…" she began, but before she could finish, Zhong Yan appeared from a swirling vortex.
Seeing her confusion, Zhong Yan explained calmly, "This is my secret base. It exists outside New Eridu and the Hollows. If you don't have a safer place to hide, this is your best option."
Airi's eyes lit up. "No way, Boss—you're letting me into your secret base? That's so nice of you!"
Zhong Yan's action was a clear sign that he trusted her. That alone filled Airi with joy. Her biggest grievance had always been his lack of trust, and now… that seemed to be changing.
"Well, you're still my subordinate. I'm not just gonna leave you to die in a Hollow. If those Exaltist freaks capture you, it'd just be a problem for me anyway," Zhong Yan said flatly.
Airi smiled at that. Then, clasping her hands behind her back, she bounced over to him and teased, "Wow, Boss. I always thought the legendary Hollow Raider Uchiha was cold and heartless—but you're actually kinda sweet. I'm touched~"
Zhong Yan shot her a sidelong glance, then pushed her aside. "Don't be annoying. We've got serious business. I'm busy."
Pouting slightly, Airi plopped down on the cold ground. "Go, go. I know you're busy. With three thousand bombs, three days just isn't enough to defuse them all. Let's just hope the casualties are minimal."
As she spoke, her expression darkened. It was obvious—she wanted to help.
Yesterday, she had. But today, her body couldn't take it anymore. She had no choice but to pull out.
"Stay here. If I need you, I'll come back." Those were Zhong Yan's final words before he disappeared again, using Kamui to resume his bomb search.
...
Time passed quickly—and now it was the third day.
Today marked the final deadline before the bombs were set to explode. The good news? Over the past two days, they'd already disarmed more than two thousand.
Most of those were recovered by the Public Security Bureau and turned over to New Eridu's officials.
That meant a massive haul of concentrated ether—just one bomb contained as much as several days' worth of the Hollow Investigative Association's usual output. If the authorities could reclaim and repurpose all of it, it would be a massive profit.
Of course, not all the bombs ended up in government hands. Belobog Heavy Industries and the Nin-Village had been straightforward—they just chucked the bombs into the Hollows. That way, even if one exploded, it wouldn't hurt any innocents... well, aside from the unlucky.
Now, on the final day, around five hundred bombs remained. If they could bring that number below one hundred, the operation would be considered a success.
The closer they got to the end, the harder it became to find the remaining bombs. Getting the count down to under a hundred would already be a huge achievement. Total elimination? That'd require some kind of specialized search method—something they didn't have.
Finally, as the sun began to set—
Zhong Yan sat wearily on the edge of a rooftop in New Eridu, gazing at the distant skyline.
Behind him, not far off, loomed the massive Hollow Zero. But with his back turned, he didn't see it. He didn't need to.
Then, a notification popped up in the group chat on his phone.
[Wise: As of now, we've defused a total of just over 2,100 bombs. With Zhong Yan's reported numbers from Belobog and the Nin-Village, that brings us to roughly 2,960.]
[Belle: 2,960? Nice! That's almost all of them!]
[Nicole: What's there to celebrate? There are still a few dozen left. But yeah, nothing we can do—the rest are just too well hidden.]
[Lycaon: Mr. Zhong Yan, everyone—we've already done more than anyone could've hoped. Let's just pray the casualties are as low as possible.]
[...]
The group chat included Zhong Yan, the Phaeton siblings, the Cunning Hares, and Victoria Housekeeping. Over the past few days, they'd been coordinating exclusively through this chat—it was surprisingly efficient.
Zhong Yan set his phone down in silence.
He was exhausted.
All thirty of his shadow clones had worked nonstop for three straight days. Once he recalled them, all their fatigue rebounded onto his body one-to-one.
The good news: the crisis of the three thousand bombs had been resolved. Even if a few remained that might hurt innocent people—they had done everything they could to minimize the loss of life.
There would be no regrets—because they had tried.
And perhaps more importantly, after this incident, the Exaltists would never be able to stir up trouble in New Eridu again.
To Zhong Yan… that was the best news of all.