On July 23rd, inside a double room of a five-star hotel in Venice.
Snow-white curtains swayed gently, blocking the bright afternoon sun. Dappled shadows cast upon the floor, faintly shimring like fish swimming beneath the water's surface.
Ayase Origami and Xia Pingzhou had slept in for the first ti in a long while, both slumbering straight through until two in the afternoon without waking.
They were sprawled out haphazardly in terrible sleeping postures. One lay on her stomach near the edge of the bed with an arm dangling over the side, the loose sleeve of her kimono drooping down. The other had rolled directly onto the floor, face buried in the carpet, his right hand still locked in the gesture of holding a chess piece.
A mont later, Xia Pingzhou finally roused. He slowly rolled over, glanced at the ceiling, then at Ayase Origami's sleeping face, before picking up his mobile phone from the floor.
He entered his password, unlocked the screen, and tapped on an app with a skull icon. A map of Venice imdiately appeared on the display, a single dot of light pulsing on the screen.
"Demons..."
Xia Pingzhou let out a breath and slowly stood up. He walked into the bathroom, turned on the tap, splashed water on his face, and dried off with a towel before leaving the hotel. He kept his movents light to avoid waking Ayase Origami.
Following the map's directions, it did not take long for him to arrive at the location of the red dot.
It was a dilapidated and secluded alleyway. Black liquid that resembled blood flowed through the gutter. The lids of the trash cans vibrated bizarrely, as if being battered by strong winds, letting out intermittent clanging sounds.
It was as if so monster was about to burst out from inside.
Sure enough, the very next mont, two giant blue rats leaped out of the bins.
Their entire bodies crackled with electricity. Like two lightning-infused soccer balls, they shot through the air, repeatedly ricocheting off the alley walls at high speeds. Bouncing back and forth, their afterimages ford intersecting pillars of blue light that closed in on Xia Pingzhou.
Xia Pingzhou fell silent for a mont, suddenly feeling quite glad that he had not called the other mbers of the Brigade for help.
"It is a good thing I did not call the other mbers. I must handle these two demons myself to give this a proper sense of ceremony..." he muttered.
'My own brother must be eliminated by my own hands. Die, Blue Arc!'
With that thought in mind, Xia Pingzhou's expression hardened as he violently unleashed his Celestial Drive. A Möbius strip-like path of black and white manifested around his body, while Chess Shadows slowly revolved around the track like orbiting satellites.
He raised his hand and pinched one of the Chess Shadows. With a sharp crack, the piece shattered, and a chess piece that had never before seen actual combat imdiately materialized.
It was a Knight. After investing points into the Swarm branch's Cavalry Training, this Cavalry Chess Piece had evolved from a basic Soldier Chess Piece.
It was clad in silver armor, holding a shield in its left hand and a magnificent silver lance in its right. It sat atop a steed with empty eye sockets that burned with ghost fire. The horse was silver from head to hoof; as its hooves stomped upon the alleyway floor, they burned two black craters into the ground.
The magnificent silver knight remained unmoving, sitting quietly upon its horse, awaiting the Monarch's command.
Xia Pingzhou kept his head raised, his gaze focused intently on the two balls of blue lightning ricocheting toward him through the alley, seemingly trying to capture the bouncing trajectories of the two blue demons.
He quickly closed his eyes and switched to his Chessboard view, looking down at the scene in the alley from above.
In that instant, the bouncing speed of the two electrified giant rats seed to slow down. In his eyes, their forms were no longer re afterimages but complete outlines, as if soone had pressed the slow-motion button while watching a videotape.
In fact, it was not just the two giant rats. Even the swirling fallen leaves in the air and the black liquid flowing through the gutter slowed down to a near-standstill in Xia Pingzhou's eyes.
Because of this, he could clearly see the paths the two giant rats were taking. He could see every bounce and collision, and predict exactly where they would land in the next second. Even the scene several seconds into the future was completely laid out before him.
Suddenly, this stillness was broken. Xia Pingzhou finally realized that he had just entered a state of extrely rapid cognitive processing. Compared to his speed of thought, the entire world was so slow that ti appeared to be frozen.
This must be an ability of his Celestial Drive. The trigger condition was that he had to close his eyes and focus entirely on the Chessboard view.
The world began to turn once more. The fallen leaves in the air continued their spiraling descent, slicing the sunlight into fragnted rays. The filthy water in the gutter also resud its gurgling flow, letting out a series of splashing sounds.
The two giant blue rats bounced off the walls at high speeds, transforming into electrified pillars of light that swept straight toward him.
However, Xia Pingzhou had already grasped the pattern and direction of their movents. As a result, their startling speed lost its intended aning, instead turning into the very guillotine that would seal their doom.
The next second, he issued an emotionless command. "Authority, Charge."
The instant it heard the command, the knight violently lowered its stance and slapped the saddle!
The steed beneath it let out a long neigh before charging forward with unstoppable montum. Its form gradually beca so fast that only an afterimage remained. From a distance, the rider and the horse seed to rge into one, transforming into a silver shooting star!
[Cavalry Authority: "Charge" — The cavalry charges forward on horseback, transforming into a high-speed teor, entering an "unstoppable" state for two seconds (the charge will not be interrupted), and dragging any enemies collided with along the way to the end point.]
He rembered that when he first saw the cavalry's Authority, he could not help but raise an eyebrow, thinking to himself, 'Isn't this just a mob-gathering skill?' However, this was his first ti actually using this Authority in combat, and he hoped it would be as effective as its textual description suggested.
The very next mont, seizing the exact instant when the two giant lightning rats were about to cross paths in mid-air, the cavalry crashed into them with flawless precision. Had he been off by even a millisecond, it would have been impossible to hit both rats at the sa ti—this was the precise window of opportunity Xia Pingzhou had found after his ticulous calculations.
Following that, the silver shooting star completely engulfed the two pillars of lightning. The knight's lance dragged the forms of the two demons as it continued its headlong sprint, aiming straight for the end of the alley.
The sound of galloping hooves swept out with overwhelming force, sounding as though it wanted to drown out the entire world.
No matter how much electricity the two giant blue rats discharged, they could not break free from the fierce and domineering silver streak of light. They were reduced to re background props swept up by the knight's figure, adding a flash of blue electricity to the silver shooting star and making its radiance seem even more blindingly brilliant.
Xia Pingzhou thought, 'This move really can gather mobs... Dealing with demons that live in packs will be much easier from now on.'
Seizing the mont, Xia Pingzhou raised his hand and pinched two Rook Chess Shadows.
The pieces shattered, and two silver Rooks materialized. They stiffly swiveled their barrels while clanking as they loaded their shells. A split second later, bursts of fire erupted simultaneously from their muzzles, firing straight in the direction the horse was charging.
"Boom!" "Boom!"
Two deafening roars echoed at exactly the sa ti. Accompanied by the shrieking of the air, two pitch-black cannonballs blasted forward, colliding with each other in mid-air. They detonated completely, transforming into a terrifying pillar of fla that swept forward.
At that very mont, the cavalry's charge reached its destination. The silver, electrified shooting star slowly ca to a halt at the end of the alley, and the bodies of the two giant lightning rats were subsequently freed.
Dizzy and disoriented, they tried to imdiately put so distance between themselves and the knight, but in a flash, they were swallowed up by the surging pillar of flas roaring from behind, burned into nothing but patches of ash.
As the firelight faded, even the cavalry was unavoidably caught in the blast. Both he and the steed beneath him transford back into Chess Shadows, returning to Xia Pingzhou's circular Chessboard. Following that, a series of reward notification windows popped up in Xia Pingzhou's vision.
[Detected the elimination of two C-Rank or higher demons. The cumulative kill count for the "Wild Hunt's Winter" system has been updated: 19/18 (Task completed. Please claim your reward as soon as possible)]
Xia Pingzhou expressionlessly tapped the interface, and a reward notification chi imdiately rang out.
[You have obtained 1 Attribute Point as a Cultivation Mission reward. The "Wild Hunt's Winter" Cultivation Mission has advanced to the next stage — Cumulative kill count reaching 40!]
[Current kill count: 19. You need 21 more kills to complete this stage's objective.]
[Current advancent progress for Character Two's Celestial Drive "International Chess" is: 5%/100% (Upon reaching 100% progress, your Celestial Drive will automatically evolve into its Stage Three form. After advancing, you can form a pact with a brand-new demon, comprehensively upgrading the capabilities of your Celestial Drive)]
'What new chanics will be born once my Celestial Drive advances to the third stage...' Xia Pingzhou thought. 'Will I be able to form a Chessboard domain and trap enemies inside it? If so, my shortcomings would be completely covered.'
Just then, an unfamiliar notification window suddenly popped up before his eyes.
[Due to the effects of the passive skill "Demon Hunter", you have obtained a single-use Chess Piece — "Blue Lightning Rat Demon".]
Xia Pingzhou cast a sidelong glance and saw that an extra Chess Shadow had appeared on his black-and-white ring. This Chess Shadow looked completely out of place among the other pieces. Its appearance was that of a buck-toothed little blue rat, its entire body radiating with blue electrical light.
'My luck is quite good. I rember Demon Hunter only has a chance of turning a slain demon into a single-use piece,' Xia Pingzhou thought. 'When I get back, I will test how to trigger that thought mode that felt like ti had stopped... With that move, I will have plenty of leeway when facing enemy ambushes in the future.'
Thinking this over, he recalled the two Rooks back to the ring. He then raised his hand and pinched the Queen Golem's Chess Shadow. Amidst the crisp sound of the shattering shadow, the magnificent and tall Queen arrived as expected.
The Queen Golem retracted her dagger into her sleeve and scooped Xia Pingzhou up into her arms. Then, like a ninja scaling walls, she sprinted up the surface of a residential building, ascending straight to the rooftop.
A short ti later, mbers of the Venice branch of the Exorcist Association rushed into the alleyway, only to be t with the aftermath of a battle. The walls were riddled with craters, faint arcs of electricity still lingering within them, while the ground was covered in a sprawling array of hoofprints.
The most exaggerated sight was at the very end of the gloomy alley, where a fierce fire had carved a scorched black mark across the wall like a massive curtain. The burn marks trailed all the way up, reaching the very top of the building.
anwhile, while it was still afternoon in Venice, Lijing, China was already cloaked in the veil of night.
Black Cocoon hung quietly upside down beneath the high-altitude construction platform of a hundred-ter tall skyscraper. He had wrapped his entire body into a chrysalis using his Restraining Bands, and was silently playing on his mobile phone inside. Notification chis, set to the sound of flowing water, continuously chid from within the cocoon.
[Blue Arc: I still want to ask, did you beat up Tun Yin because you wanted to protect him?]
[Black Cocoon: Of course. You know exactly what would have happened if Tun Yin had caught up to Ghost Bell back then.]
[Blue Arc: But you went too hard on him.]
[Black Cocoon: I had to hit him hard. Otherwise, the next ti Mr. Tun Yin overestimates himself and tries to single-handedly fight soone far above his level, the outco will go without saying.]
[Black Cocoon: I am rely helping him recognize his own level of strength.]
'Old Man wouldn't go as far as to beat Tun Yin to death, but he would definitely hit harder than . Tun Yin would probably end up losing an arm or a leg, or maybe two,' Black Cocoon thought.
[Black Cocoon: Alright, I'll drop the act. Honestly, I just wanted to test out my own abilities and casually beat him up while I was at it.]
[Blue Arc: Then you really are an out-and-out saint. If you wanted to pick a fight, why didn't you co looking for ?]
[Black Cocoon: I know you two are close buddies with a deep bromance, but is there really a need to be this gay?]
[Black Cocoon: With all due respect, I just captured two creatures in Venice that look an awful lot like you, so I've already lost interest in fighting you.]
[Blue Arc: Creatures that look like ?]
[Black Cocoon: You can go search the Exorcist Association's database for photos of the "Blue Lightning Rat Demon". I genuinely suspect they are your twin brothers.]
[Blue Arc: I'm done joking around with you. I have a serious question right now.]
[Black Cocoon: What question?]
[Blue Arc: Just who exactly is my Old Man? You've been keeping in suspense for a long ti.]
[Black Cocoon: Don't be so impatient, Mr. Blue Arc. Your top priority is figuring out how to accumulate more rits so you can be promoted to a mber of Rainbow Wing as soon as possible. Uncovering his identity will bring you no benefits, at least not for the ti being.]
[Blue Arc: I knew I couldn't rely on you. I'll just follow him myself. Goodbye.]
Reaching this point in the conversation, Black Cocoon realized he had killed the chat. Since things had co to this, he might as well find soone else to talk to. So, he opened up Ghost Bell's chat interface.
[Black Cocoon: Mr. Ghost Bell, your wonderful son is planning to tail you and uncover your identity.]
[Ghost Bell: Then I truly thank you for the warning.]
[Black Cocoon: Run, Mr. Ghost Bell, Run. Whatever you do, do not let your wonderful son find out your true identity.]
After sending that ssage, Black Cocoon silently put his phone away. He then switched to using his Restraining Band Senses to observe his surroundings in all directions. His senses were like a black sh net blanketing the entire long street below.
At this mont, a group of ard robbers leaped out from the back of a cargo truck and charged toward the bank.
However, Black Cocoon's attention was not on them, but rather on a crisp silhouette standing atop a nearby high-rise building, wearing a black turtleneck skinsuit.
His prey had appeared.
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