Amidst the rushing sound of rain, Xia Pingzhou slowly turned his head, looking toward the wall in the corner of the ruins along with the other nine mbers of the White Raven Brigade.
A door suddenly appeared on the pitch-black surface of the wall.
Imdiately after, soone pushed the door open from the other side. Behind it was the scene of the auction in the Mirror World.
The Mirror World's auction house had already been reduced to a complete ss by the captain. The guests and their seats had been completely wiped out by the playing card explosion, plunging the entire venue into a temporary silence. Very few guests survived, and those who did were undoubtedly powerful individuals.
At this mont, Robert, with his chanical box head, stood behind the wooden door. A flurry of crows flew over his head, passing through the portal and into the depths of the ruins.
Amidst the swirling crows, the villains of the White Raven Brigade rose from the rubble. Shrouded in wind, rain, and thunder, they slowly walked toward the door fra in the corner. Like man-eating oni stepping onto a stage under a blood-red spotlight, they were making a grand entrance.
Xia Pingzhou was the slowest to move.
"Let's go," Ayase Origami said to Xia Pingzhou, her expression completely blank.
She raised her right arm, pulling along the myriad folding paper pages she had previously stored in the abandoned building.
Those pages transford in mid-air, turning into thousands of fluttering paper butterflies in the blink of an eye. They followed Ayase Origami through the portal and into the Mirror World's auction.
As the paper butterflies drifted around her, the sleeves of her ochre-red kimono fluttered fiercely in the wind. Ayase Origami's eyes remained hollow and profound.
Her geta tapped against the auction stage. Using the paper pages, she wrote words in mid-air to tell Robert:
"Carrot Head, you're dawdling."
White Wolf stepped over the threshold and muttered in a deep voice, "So slow... I almost fell asleep waiting."
"Too slow, too slow!" Lan Duo Duo passed through the wooden door, bumping her shoulder hard against Robert's with a mischievous grin.
Robert scratched his chanical box head and defended himself, "Hey, there's nothing I can do about it. The captain ordered us to only make a move after the auction started. Otherwise, the organizers wouldn't have brought the goods out of the vault yet."
"I say... you old farts shouldn't give our Carrot Head such a hard ti." Andrew crossed the threshold carrying his sniper rifle, a cigarette dangling from his lips, winking and grimacing. "Did he offend you guys sohow? Isn't it enough that he took a huge risk to open the door for us?"
Blood Progenitor licked her lips. "But the captain already killed everyone by himself. What are we supposed to do?"
An Lunsi stepped through the wooden door, his hands in his suit pockets. He raised his eyes to look at the remaining five people in the venue: Kyomori, Blue Arc, Li Qingping, the Second Prince, and Zhou Jiuya.
His gaze lingered on Blue Arc, Li Qingping, and Zhou Jiuya for a second each.
An Lunsi curled the corners of his mouth. "Do you even need to ask? Aren't there still three heavyweights left for us to deal with?"
Oda Takikage and Xia Pingzhou silently crossed the threshold, neither of them particularly fond of speaking.
Xia Pingzhou glanced up at the situation in the venue. At this mont, Black Cocoon's restraining band avatar had already died in the indiscriminate explosion just now, so he was currently summoning Black Cocoon's true self to hurry over.
Finally, Jack the Ripper stepped through the wooden door holding her dark red short blade, the collar of her black school uniform swaying in the wind whipped up by the flock of crows.
"How are we dividing the work?" she asked imdiately.
Hacker yawned, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jumpsuit.
Without even looking up, the brat said, "The captain said to leave no one alive at the auction. Just kill everyone and we're done."
He smacked his lips. "There are two auction houses. This one is the auction house in the Mirror World. The minnows over in the real auction house need to be cleaned up too, so a group of you should head over there."
"Then Uncle Takikage can go clean up the fish that slipped through the net in the corridors of the fifth floor. Your tracking ability is the best, so you won't let any of those stragglers escape."
At this point, Hacker rubbed his dark circles. "Carrot Head and I won't be fighting. I'll go collect the auction items. If Carrot Head dies, it'll be really hard for us to escape, so he'll just watch from the back and wait to open a door."
Robert clearly had no objections to this arrangent. His job every single ti was just opening doors, opening doors, opening doors, and aside from that, taking naps, taking naps, taking naps. Among the mbers, it was quite a ti-saving and effortless role.
"I'll go clear out the people in the corridors, then. I'll leave the two auction houses to the rest of you."
With that said, Oda Takikage's figure instantly lted into the shadows beneath his feet.
Right then, An Lunsi pulled a coin from his suit pocket and tossed it up, the coin flipping rapidly in mid-air. He twitched the corner of his lips and looked at the crowd. "The winners stay in the Mirror World's auction house, while the losers head to the other one to clean out the minnows."
Thus, aside from Robert and Hacker, the remaining eight mbers of the brigade all stared at the silver coin spinning through the air.
"Heads," Xia Pingzhou was the first to speak. The weakest among them displayed the most imposing aura.
"Heads," Ayase Origami said. She had clearly waited for Xia Pingzhou to speak first, wanting to pick the sa as him.
"Heads," Blood Progenitor smiled faintly.
"Then I'll go with heads too!" Lan Duo Duo raised her arm like an elentary school student, her blue hair swaying slightly.
"Tails," Jack the Ripper declared.
"Tails," Andrew grunted.
"Tails," White Wolf stated.
"Then I'll bet on tails as well," An Lunsi said with a smile.
As his voice trailed off, he caught the rapidly spinning silver coin and slapped it onto the back of his right hand. He slowly lifted his left hand to reveal the result.
The side of the coin facing upward was—"Tails."
"Tails wins."
An Lunsi looked up from the coin, the corners of his mouth curling into a smirk as he announced, "Then according to what we agreed upon: the newcor, the yakuza young mistress, miss vampire, and Lan Duo Duo, the four of you will go next door to clean out the minnows. Little sister Jack the Ripper, Uncle Andrew, White Wolf, and I will stay here."
Xia Pingzhou's face was expressionless, but he secretly thought to himself, 'Great outco... Now I can go beat up my little sister. I didn't want to stay here and fight in a high-tier match anyway.'
"Yay, yay, then I'll follow the newbie." Lan Duo Duo rested her hand on Xia Pingzhou's shoulder and grinned at him. "Handso boy, I'll cover you!"
Xia Pingzhou reiterated, "I don't understand Cantonese."
Lan Duo Duo stuck her tongue out. "Tch, then I won't speak Cantonese."
Ayase Origami turned to glance at Blood Progenitor. "Why are you following ?"
Blood Progenitor yawned and said, looking disapproving, "I'm following the newcor."
Robert pressed his hand against the wall, creating a new wooden door, and spoke up:
"This door connects to the real auction house. Hurry up. Takikage is already killing the people in the corridor, so don't add to his workload."
Hearing this, Xia Pingzhou, still the weakest yet leading the charge, was the first to walk toward the wooden door, completely lacking the self-awareness of a rookie.
Ayase Origami, Blood Progenitor, and Lan Duo Duo followed closely behind him. They passed through the wooden door one by one, entering the auction house in the real world.
"Then I'll go collect the auction items. Call
when you're done killing. I should be finished around the sa ti."
With that, Hacker looked down at his mobile phone and walked toward the secret corridor behind the auction stage without looking back.
One minute ago, inside the auction house in the real world.
"The captain... is actually Haihara Ritsu?"
After receiving the notification from Black Cocoon, Ke Qirui rested her hand on her chin and pondered for a mont.
In an instant, she deduced the identity of the brigade's captain based on the limited information available.
Thus, she told Sakura Bud and Fuyuyama Nobunaga to focus on holding their ground for now. She then used her mobile phone to contact Xu Sanyan and Lin Zhengquan, who were guarding the corridor outside, instructing them to hurry to the Mirror World with her to check on the situation in the mirror auction house.
Imdiately after, Ke Qirui took Su Zimai and promptly left the real auction house.
They rushed toward the direction of the mirror entrance.
However... less than five seconds after they stepped out of the auction house, a massive clamor and uproar erupted from the venue behind them.
Hearing the sudden commotion, Su Zimai paused in surprise, imdiately turning her head to exchange a glance with Ke Qirui.
"Let's go back and see," Ke Qirui said.
"Okay," Su Zimai nodded.
The two of them quickly returned to the real auction house.
Stopping at the entrance, Ke Qirui narrowed her sharp eyes and looked up at the vast venue.
At that exact mont, four distinct figures had abruptly appeared on the highly anticipated auction stage, bathed in the spotlight—a kimono girl as pale and pristine as a doll, a handso young man wearing a black hoodie, a blonde, red-eyed woman in a crimson dress, and a blue-haired girl sporting a punk-style T-shirt.
And behind these four people stood a wooden door connecting to the auction house in the Mirror World.
Thousands upon thousands of paper butterflies poured out from behind the door, fluttering wildly in mid-air.
Ke Qirui murmured, "So they really did find an exploitable opportunity... The mber number 7 that Black Cocoon ntioned must have opened a door for the brigade inside the auction house. It looks like the fighting has already started in the Mirror World too."
Because the auction organizers were aware of Ayase Origami's ability beforehand, they deliberately avoided leaving too many paper objects inside the venue to prevent her from utilizing them.
Therefore, the only explanation for the scene unfolding before them was that Ayase Origami had brought these paper pages in from elsewhere.
Her goal, naturally, was to go on a killing spree.
Staring at the figure leading the group of four, Ke Qirui whispered a na:
"Xia Pingzhou."
She pulled down the brim of her Luster Hat, scrutinizing the four people on the stage from the shadows of her headwear.
Setting Xia Pingzhou aside, both Lan Duo Duo and Ayase Origami were on the publicly disclosed roster of the brigade, aning only Blood Progenitor's ability remained an unknown variable.
"Captain, what do we do?" Su Zimai frowned. "All these minnows are really in the way."
Ke Qirui reached out to stop Su Zimai, saying in a low voice, "Let's observe the situation first. I need so ti to wake up the Film Demon. Plus, with so many people around, it's not a good idea for
to release the Train Demon; it would be too easy to accidentally injure our allies."
She paused and looked over at Sakura Bud and Fuyuyama Nobunaga, who were also standing at the entrance. "Miss Sakura Bud, Mr. Nobunaga, you two must not act yet. It's best to let the yakuza's elite forces test the brigade's strength first, and then we can make our plans."
Sakura Bud nodded, furrowing her brow as she looked at the four brigade mbers on the stage.
Fuyuyama Nobunaga didn't reply. He gripped his sword hilt at his waist and unsheathed his katana. The blade humd in the silence, reflecting a soul-chilling gleam.
At that mont, inside the auction house.
The one hundred bodyguards disguised as guests, upon seeing the four individuals erge from the wooden door, leaped from their seats in unison, shedding their sheep's clothing to bare their fangs. They unleashed a storm of attacks upon the intruders.
"Die, you brigade bastards!"
First to strike were the fifty bodyguards ard with guns, roaring low as they raised their submachine guns.
Muzzle flashes flared and bullets poured out like a torrential downpour, sweeping toward the four people on the stage. So even whipped out rocket launchers. With deafening booms, rockets equipped with micro-thrusters shot toward the group.
However, all of this was blocked by an eerie white barrier ford entirely from paper butterflies. Whether it was the hail of gunfire or the exploding rockets, they rely dissolved into flashes of light illuminating the bodyguards' own faces, completely failing to shake the sprawling paper curtain.
The next mont, the pages reverted into swirling butterflies, scattering in all directions.
No matter how fiercely the fifty ard bodyguards fired their guns, they couldn't stop the incoming swarm of paper butterflies. Amidst the dazzling assault, their throats were beautifully and efficiently slit by the paper wings. Clutching their profusely bleeding necks, the bodyguards scread as they collapsed to the ground, never to rise again.
Half of the remaining fifty superhuman bodyguards were also devoured by the paper butterflies in an instant.
One of the bodyguards possessed the supernatural ability of gigantification. His body instantly swelled to ten tis its normal size, shielding the surviving twenty bodyguards behind him.
Within monts, his massive fra was entirely consud by the sky full of paper butterflies, leaving absolutely nothing behind. Thousands of bloody gashes had opened up, and his blood dyed the auction house floor red like a rushing waterfall, spreading outwards endlessly.
By the ti anyone realized what had happened, the giant had been reduced to nothing but a pale skeleton.
Another bodyguard in a suit managed to luckily break through the storm of paper butterflies.
He rushed to the front, unleashing his supernatural ability like a suicide bomber to perform a position swap between himself and Blood Progenitor.
In the blink of an eye, the suited bodyguard appeared exactly where Blood Progenitor had been standing—right on the auction stage. anwhile, Blood Progenitor swapped into his position, finding herself completely surrounded by the superhuman bodyguards below the stage.
He turned his head toward the dangerously close Ayase Origami, his expression twisting fiercely as he ripped open his suit jacket, revealing a series of explosive devices strapped to his body.
Ayase Origami didn't even turn around. With a casual swing of her right hand, she used a hand chop to sever the suited bodyguard's neck.
With a wet thwack, his head separated from his body, denying him the chance to detonate the explosives strapped to him.
However, the device still began to count down. Ayase Origami imdiately commanded her paper butterflies to engulf the suited bodyguard's corpse, creating a dense paper shell that wrapped his body up like a mummy.
Imdiately following that, the explosive devices on the corpse detonated. The raging flas were completely swallowed by the paper shell—the explosive force only incinerated the bodyguard's own corpse to ash. Not even a muffled boom managed to escape the shell, much less any shockwaves.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa..."
Lan Duo Duo humd a couple of tis, summoning her Anecdote Catalog and holding it in her left hand. She propped her right elbow on Xia Pingzhou's shoulder, tilting her head as she teased, "The young mistress is really going on a killing spree. It's rare to see her this serious... Newbie, it looks like there's no room left for us to show off."
Xia Pingzhou remained silent, standing on the stage and gazing far across the room toward Su Zimai at the entrance.
Then, along with the other two brigade mbers on the stage, he lowered his eyes to look at Blood Progenitor, who had been teleported by the supernatural ability directly into the bodyguards' encirclent.
The three brigade mbers didn't have the slightest intention of stepping down to help her.
They rely watched quietly as Blood Progenitor was besieged by the twenty-plus surviving superhuman bodyguards.
At that mont, the elite captains of the superhuman bodyguard squad—the Dragon-tier Espers known as 'Orochi', 'Red-Eyed Alligator', and 'Green-Faced Ghost'—lunged forward simultaneously. Ordering the squad behind them to stand down, they charged directly at Blood Progenitor.
'Orochi' transford into a massive python covered entirely in eerie white scales, his suit tearing apart instantly as the giant snake dragged its tail and slithered rapidly forward.
'Red-Eyed Alligator' morphed into a red-eyed crocodilian and burrowed straight into the ground. Accompanied by deep rumbling noises, he launched a subterranean ambush toward Blood Progenitor beneath the auction house floor.
'Green-Faced Ghost' unleashed his supernatural ability, shifting into a hideous, azure-skinned demon that pounced forward with snapping jaws.
They were all transformation-type Espers, as well as elites within the Japanese yakuza. Having fought their way out of brutal competition and stepped over mountains of corpses to reach their current positions, every single one of them was brimming with absolute confidence.
Even the White Raven Brigade wouldn't be a match for them.
"You picked the wrong target... It would be one thing if you dragged our newcor down here, but to actually choose ."
Blood Progenitor teased with a smile, extending her arm straight out to the right.
As she lifted her right index finger, a fountain of blood surged from the tip. In the blink of an eye, the blood solidified in mid-air, morphing into a crimson, five-ter-long blood sword.
In a flash, she gripped the blood sword, casually twirling the blade in a full circle before unleashing a forward arc that carried a terrifying sanguine glow.
'Orochi' and 'Green-Faced Ghost' bore the brunt of the attack. Both were instantly bisected at the waist. Reduced to chunks of sluggish flesh hurtling through the air, their ruined bodies slamd into the venue's pillars with a sickening splat, spraying dark blood everywhere.
Imdiately after, the chilling sanguine glow that radiated from her longsword expanded outward like a sweeping gale, effortlessly slicing the remaining twenty-plus bodyguards in the auction house perfectly in half.
For a brief mont of silence, the bodyguards blankly lowered their eyes to look at their own bodies.
They watched with their own eyes as their upper and lower halves separated.
Slowly, the twenty-plus upper torsos slid to the ground first.
And then, the twenty-plus lower halves slowly crumpled to their knees.
If one didn't look closely, this scene looked as if another twenty corpses had spontaneously materialized out of thin air on the floor—a truly bone-chilling sight.
"Hey, hey, hey! Blood Progenitor, there's still soone hiding underground!" Lan Duo Duo called out to remind her, entirely bored.
"I'm not deaf," Blood Progenitor replied flatly.
She pricked up her ears, listening to the rumbling beneath the earth, and casually tossed her sword straight up into the air.
In mid-air, the blood-forged blade lazily spun a couple of tis before abruptly accelerating infinitely, plunging into the ground like an arrow.
The very next mont, Red-Eyed Alligator—who was aggressively tunneling upwards to launch a sneak attack from behind her—felt his vision go completely black. With a sickening pierce, his entire brain began to ring and vibrate.
When he regained his senses, he realized his head, along with his entire body, had been skewered by that five-ter-long blood sword, exactly like at on a skewer.
Red-Eyed Alligator's body slid back down into the crater, slowly losing all signs of movent.
With that, all one hundred bodyguards inside the auction house were annihilated.
Blood Progenitor stood motionless with a posture of absolute elegance. The hem of her crimson dress fluttered like a twilight sky, and her pale golden hair rippled like soft waves.
"Did you prepare any other toys?"
As she spoke, she curled her lip, raising her crimson eyes to look straight ahead.
At this mont, less than ten seconds had passed since the four brigade mbers made their appearance, yet only a handful of figures remained in the sprawling auction house, all gathered at the entrance.
These were Sakura Bud, Fuyuyama Nobunaga, Ke Qirui, and Su Zimai.
Ke Qirui's face remained utterly calm as she t Blood Progenitor's provocative gaze head-on.
Su Zimai stood frozen in place. Faced with the overwhelming stench of blood assaulting her senses, her expression was filled with shock, and her feet refused to move.
Sakura Bud and Fuyuyama Nobunaga were deathly pale, a mixture of terror and rage causing their hands to tremble slightly. They already knew the brigade's power was formidable, but only after witnessing it with their own eyes did they truly comprehend the kind of monsters they were dealing with.
Ke Qirui slightly lowered the brim of her Luster Hat and said in a level tone, "Miss Sakura Bud, Mr. Nobunaga, I'm sure you have both seen it. I do not think it is wise to engage them. We should head to the Mirror World first..."
However, before Ke Qirui could finish speaking, Sakura Bud and Fuyuyama Nobunaga had already sprinted forward.
Her face a mask of extre frostiness, Sakura Bud roared as she swung her longsword, unleashing thousands upon thousands of petals to sweep forward.
Ayase Origami drifted down from the auction stage. The myriad paper butterflies surrounding her suddenly converged, forming an incredibly lifelike long dragon.
The ten-ter-long paper dragon rely flapped its paper wings once, effortlessly blowing away the flurry of petals Sakura Bud had summoned. Imdiately after, the paper dragon fiercely beat its wings again, keeping low to the ground as it lunged forward.
In a split second, the paper dragon appeared right behind Sakura Bud. It ripped her head completely off, gripping it securely between its jaws, before slowly turning around and shredding her entire torso with its paper wings.
On the other side, Fuyuyama Nobunaga coated his katana in a layer of flowing water. The water slowly took the shape of an aquatic dragon in mid-air as he bellowed and charged at Blood Progenitor.
Blood Progenitor just shrugged. Fresh blood spilled from the fingernails of her right hand, materializing into a sanguine long spear in the air.
She hefted the sanguine long spear, winding her arm back to gather montum before hurling it rcilessly at Fuyuyama Nobunaga.
Boom—! The roar of tearing air echoed throughout the room.
In an instant, the blood-colored spear impaled the raging water dragon, seamlessly continuing on to pierce straight through Fuyuyama Nobunaga's chest, skewering him onto the shaft.
The blood-forged spear carried Fuyuyama Nobunaga's body all the way across half the auction house, punching through countless pillars before finally burying itself into the wall by the entrance.
The impact point of the blood spear was barely three ters away from Ke Qirui. The massive wind pressure flipped up the brim of her hat.
Watching this grueso scene, Ke Qirui's expression remained calm.
She raised her hand to pat Su Zimai's head, saying softly, "Japanese people simply refuse to listen to reason... Their pride is so imnse, their heads filled only with thoughts of sacrificing themselves for the greater good, completely unable to allow themselves to retreat. How is this any different from seppuku?"
Beside her, Su Zimai was as pale as a sheet of paper, frozen in place like a statue.
Ever since she beca an Exorcist, this was her first ti witnessing a scene like this.
Just seconds ago, there were hundreds of people in the auction house, which had provided a false sense of security. But in those few fleeting seconds, every last one of them had been completely slaughtered by the enemy with overwhelming, unstoppable force.
The mbers of the White Raven Brigade acted completely devoid of emotion, like butchers in a slaughterhouse. They treated human beings like nothing more than cuts of pork on a chopping block. Every strike was incredibly efficient and effortless. It gave off the terrifying impression that they were rely thinking, 'Once we finish butchering these pigs, we can clock out. What should we do after work?'
"Sanyan and Lin Zhengquan said they've made it over,"
Ke Qirui glanced at her mobile phone, breaking the heavy silence that enveloped the auction house.
Then, she slowly took off the Luster Hat from her head and placed it onto Su Zimai's head. She said:
"While I know it's incredibly unethical to say, now that everyone else is dead, things will actually be much easier for us to handle."
As soon as her voice faded, Xu Sanyan and Lin Zhengquan rushed in from the corridor outside the auction house.
Lin Zhengquan stared at the blood-drenched scene inside the venue, unable to stop himself from frowning.
He said in a low voice, "Sorry we're late. We ran into a ninja in the hallway just now, and ended up in a bit of a stalemate with him."
A ninja? Was it the brigade's Oda Takikage? Thinking of this, Ke Qirui casually asked, "What happened to this ninja you ntioned?"
Xu Sanyan replied with a blank expression, "That ninja temporarily retreated. It seems his goal was only to kill the other bodyguards in the corridor. He had no intention of fighting us to the bitter end."
Saying this, he looked at the piles of corpses in the auction house and couldn't help but joke, "Captain, you're truly wicked... Deliberately waiting until all the bodyguards were dead before making a move?"
"No... It simply takes a little ti to wake up the 'Train Demon' and the 'Film Demon.' Both of them absolutely despise rainy days."
Ke Qirui spoke serenely, reaching into her trench coat pocket. She pulled out a retro monocle and slowly secured it over her left eye.
Xu Sanyan pulled the cigarette from his mouth, pinching it out with his fingertips, before remarking indifferently:
"That's exactly why... I say your Celestial Drive is so weird. It's supposed to be a Celestial Drive that directly 'seals and controls demons,' yet you have to cater to the demons' moods. Isn't that completely contradictory?"
"Xu Sanyan, this isn't the ti for idle chatter." Lin Zhengquan sighed. "These people are not to be trifled with."
"Maimai, can you still move?"
Ke Qirui asked softly, turning her head to glance at Su Zimai, raising her hand to touch the Luster Hat she had just placed on the girl's head.
Su Zimai stayed silent for a mont before her lips parted slightly. "Yes... I can still move."
"That's good... Watch closely. Since you've joined the Ghost Train Gang, this will be the very first ti you see us get serious."
Ke Qirui stated evenly, withdrawing her gaze from the girl's face to focus on the four mbers of the brigade.
Su Zimai hesitated for a long while before nodding slightly.
Taking a deep breath, she suppressed her trembling right hand, staring unblinkingly at the four brigade mbers as they slowly approached.
For so inexplicable reason, she felt that Xia Pingzhou's gaze had been locked onto her this entire ti. It was exactly like a starving wolf eyeing its prey, a feeling that was chilling to the bone.
Reviews
All reviews (0)