“Incredible... to slaughter the Ximen family’s people like that, he’s absolutely incredible!”
On a distant ridge, a man in a grey cloak lay prone in the grass, peering through binoculars.
His lens was focused on the wreckage of the street below.
He had personally witnessed the dozens of experts sent by the Ximen family being picked off one by one by that long-haired man, without even a chance to strike back.
The man was so nervous his back was drenched in sweat, yet he couldn't hide his excitement.
“Finally, someone has the guts to do it! Kill all those Ximen dogs!”
The dust of the battlefield had not yet settled, and the ground was littered with craters and cracks blasted open by spells.
Several blood-covered survivors sat slumped against a pile of broken bricks. Their clothes were mostly shredded, revealing skin covered in wounds.
They had only come to capture a single killer; they never expected to be pushed to such a desperate brink.
Seeing that things were going south, one of them threw aside all pride and pulled a palm-sized communicator from his robes. His fingers swiped several times across the screen before it finally unlocked.
He pressed the call button and urged urgently, “Send reinforcements immediately! we can't hold on much longer!”
The voice on the other end of the line was leisurely. “Just hold on a moment. It takes time to gather people. Once everyone is assembled, I’ll head over to help you right away.”
The man seeking help turned red with rage. Usually, when they were drinking and dining, they called each other brothers, but now that something had happened, not a single one was reliable!
No, this was clearly a sign that since the Third Young Master had just died, the people below were already having a change of heart and were no longer following orders.
“You dare to disobey orders? Are you planning to betray the Ximen family?!” the caller roared.
A snort of laughter came from the other end. The voice remained unhurried, filled with mockery. “Now, don’t go talking nonsense. Don't go pinning labels on me. I am loyal to the Ximen family, as heaven and earth can testify.”
“But who the hell do you think you are to lecture me? You failed at your task and now you’re begging me for help, yet you still have the nerve to be picky?”
“When you beg someone, you should have the attitude of a beggar. Don’t you understand even that much? Do I have to teach you!”
“You—” The caller was furious, just about to burst into a string of curses.
Beep.
The person on the other end didn't bother listening to his trash talk and hung up directly, leaving only the busy tone.
Bang!
The communicator was slammed into the ground, its metal casing shattering into several pieces as components scattered everywhere.
Yue Shi walked toward them at a leisurely pace, his soles crunching on the broken glass.
The snow leopard lay on his shoulder, its tail hanging down and twitching back and forth.
Looking at the few remaining survivors, Yue Shi asked with a smile, “What is the Ximen family?”
The man who had just called for help looked up. His face was covered in blood, his left eye was swollen to a slit, his lips were dry and peeling, and blood was still seeping from a deep gash on his forehead.
His gaze met Yue Shi’s for a moment before he quickly looked away, fearing he would waver.
“Even if we die, we will not be traitors. Don’t think you’ll get a single shred of intelligence from us!”
He roared with a forced hardness, but in his mind, he had already done the math and settled the accounts clearly.
Betraying the Ximen family was a guaranteed death sentence, and it might even implicate his family.
Choosing to be a tough nut to crack meant at most that he would die alone. By sacrificing himself, his family might even receive a generous pension from the Ximen family.
Yue Shi saw the man's resolve, and the others were the same; none of them would betray the Ximen family.
Extreme loyalty born of fear—this Ximen family had quite the methods.
“As you wish. Go and die then.”
Yue Shi wasn't about to empathize with the difficulties of others, let alone show mercy where it wasn't due.
Even if they were all willing to cooperate, Yue Shi would have killed them anyway after they spilled the intel.
He was just that kind of untrustworthy, malicious, beautiful man.
Having dropped his cold words, he turned and left.
Behind him, the few men collapsed simultaneously. There were no screams or struggles; their eyes remained open, but their pupils had already dilated.
The wind blew through the empty street, leaving only corpses everywhere.
...
A minute later.
In the distance, a dense cluster of black dots appeared on the horizon.
Those dots grew rapidly in their field of vision, revealing themselves to be over a hundred living people.
They descended from the sky, landing beside the craters blasted by the spells.
The leader was a woman in red with her long hair tied in a high ponytail. She glanced at the corpses on the ground, her brow furrowed.
Just as she was about to order an autopsy, she suddenly looked up toward the opposite side of the sky.
Another group of people flew over, roughly the same in number, another hundred or so.
The leader was a young man in black clothes with deep blue dyed hair and two pairs of heart-shaped earrings.
He descended from the sky and stood opposite the woman in red.
The atmosphere between the two sides was somewhat tense.
“I was sent by the Second Miss. I have no intention of clashing with you,” the blue-haired man spoke first to explain. His mission this time was to capture the killer of the Third Young Master, and he didn't want to cause extra trouble.
The woman in red nodded. “I am here to pursue the killer on the orders of the Ninth Young Master.”
Clearly, she didn't want any extra trouble either.
The masters above might fight to the death, but the people below didn't necessarily have any deep-seated grudges. Who would want to look for trouble for no reason?
The two looked at each other and reached a silent understanding.
The more than two hundred people they had brought with them scattered along both sides of the street, keeping a clear distance from one another.
Some were already examining the corpses, squatting on the ground to poke at the mangled flesh with sticks, looking for traces left in the remains.
Some used spells to perform a scene reconstruction, viewing everything that had just happened.
Others were taking notes and photographs.
The on-site investigation was carried out quickly and ended just as fast. The corpses were gathered up.
“The killer has likely already fled far away. There’s no point in staying here.”
The woman in red turned and walked in the direction Yue Shi had come from. The hundred-plus people she had brought followed behind her, taking to the air and soon becoming a blur of black dots once more.
The blue-haired young man stood in place, pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag. With the cigarette dangling from his mouth, he turned and walked in a different direction.
...
“Hahahaha! This Daoist has made it!”
A series of shrill shrieks and ghost-like wails erupted from the boss's office at Tulip Security Company.
In the hallway, the employees had long since grown accustomed to such ghostly noises happening every few days.
Several players were huddled together badmouthing.
“That little bitch Jian Lai... how did he get such a lucky break as being the acting boss?”
“He probably used some despicable, filthy, and underhanded means. Even if I were told how, I’d be too proud to do it.”
“Fr fr? I remember you didn't hesitate at all when you were doing those 100 bad deeds to learn spells.”
“‘Fr’ your grandfather! Can’t you talk like a normal person...”
The air was filled with a sense of cheerful energy.
These few players completely failed to notice that other players looked solemn or even dazed.
Quite a few people had already finished their 100 bad deeds and received their cultivation technique rewards from Jian Lai.
Naturally, more and more people were discovering the truth of the 《Deep Red Continent》.
Rate on N.U.
