The sudden change caught Zhao Le off guard, and Xiang Qiang’s appearance made him suck in a cold breath.
Seeing the black aura leaking from Xiang Qiang’s body, his face lting away and that grotesque grin, Zhao Le felt weak all over.
The dagger had pierced Dong Shaofeng’s chest. Dong Shaofeng had collapsed—he didn’t know whether he was alive or dead. Terrified, Zhao Le grabbed his schoolbag and plunged his hand inside.
At that mont, Xiang Qiang withdrew the dagger with both hands, stood up and muttered, “I don’t have to die, I don’t have to die… soone took my place, soone took my place… ah!!!”
He then fell to the ground in agony, clutching at his beginning-to-rot face, his voice changing from human cries to harsh, animal-like screams.
“Save… save … save …” Xiang Qiang painfully reached out as if trying to grab sothing. “I already did what you told to do… why… why—”
“Because the ti’s up.”
A drawn-out voice cut in. A gaunt, stooped man with a tired, pale face and a crow perched on his shoulder strolled over slowly.
Though his arrival was strange, the man still had a few leaves stuck to him…
Zhao Le watched this odd man approach, unsure, and instinctively stepped back. The crow suddenly flew off the man’s shoulder, landed on Xiang Qiang, pecked at his forehead, seed to pick sothing up, swallowed it, and then slowly flew back to the mysterious man.
The man glanced at Dong Shaofeng—still with the dagger in his chest—bent down, and pulled the dagger free, sounding almost regretful: “What a pity. Why wasn’t the substitution completed before the ti was up… this life force was so strong. Too bad we missed it…”
“W-who… are you?” Zhao Le cried in fear.
Facing such strange events, he could not remain calm.
“Oh… sorry to scare you.”
The young man scratched his head, took a few steps forward, and said to Zhao Le, “I’m called 24 — a curse-killer. If there’s anyone you hate, you can hire . Good price, no aftereffects. But rember to pay after the job, don’t forget the ti like this client did. Otherwise… well, you’ve seen what happens.”
“Don’t co near …” Zhao Le backed away in horror.
The youth ignored him, moving to Xiang Qiang’s side. Xiang Qiang’s forrly rotting body had now strangely carbonized.
He kept his pleading pose, eyes bulging, corpse-like and terrifying.
The youth murmured, “Now that it’s a total loss, might as well make a ghost-servant?”
As if resolved, he squatted and pressed a finger to Xiang Qiang’s chest. Imdiately, a three-ter-wide blood-red ring erupted from the floor centered on Xiang Qiang. The ring filled as if with flowing blood; one ancient, strange symbol after another floated up and began crawling over Xiang Qiang’s body.
At that mont, a fireball shot across from the front.
The youth didn’t move, but the crow on his shoulder sprang into shadow, intercepting the fireball. The shadow restored to a crow and landed back on the youth’s shoulder.
The youth frowned, rose, and saw four n approaching—three in black suits and one missing an arm. The latter was the most terrifying of them.
They were a Managent Bureau squad.
“Identify yourselves and cooperate with our work! You have violated the Supernatural Prohibition statute!” one of them barked, showing his credentials and raising a special revolver capable of firing spell-bullets.
Bu Bugao watched nervously as Wei Zidào aid his spell-gun, sweating inwardly — aside from Mount Tai, this was only his second real mission and direct confrontation with suspects.
He had volunteered for the investigation and ended up checking three suspects but found nothing. Liu Minghao and Wei Zidào had decided to re-interrogate Chen Mingming—who had not been truly questioned—and so ca to the University of Political Science and Law.
They expected to find the marker still lit on the Eight-Trigrams Mirror, but the light had gone out—its last signal pointed to this school. Puzzled, they searched and stumbled into this nauseating supernatural cri.
They arrived to find the mysterious youth conducting so bizarre ritual, a young man collapsed in blood, another terrified youth, and a horrifying corpse. Wei Zidào fired at once.
Facing the aggressively approaching Managent Bureau quartet, the youth scratched his head in confusion. “Supernatural Prohibition… what’s that?”
Wei Zidào snorted, “Give up resisting and co with us. Confess!”
The youth frowned. “Folks, we’ve never t, right? I’m just here to settle a bill… that guy on the ground isn’t my doing. As for this corpse, it was punishnt for trying to dodge paynt…”
Liu Minghao frowned—this guy seed clueless about the Bureau—and leaned to Wei Zidào, “Secure him first.”
“Got it!” Wei Zidào answered, tucking away his credentials and charging the youth.
As Wei Zidào rushed in, the youth calmly leapt back. The crow again beca shadow, blocking Wei Zidào. The shadow stretched, contracted, even took the shape of a fist. It struck with real force, driving a huge imprint into the ground.
Seizing the gap, Liu Minghao hurried to Dong Shaofeng and began checking his wounds.
Zhao Le clenched his teeth and forced himself forward. Seeing the black-clad n approach him, he felt so hope. He watched Liu Minghao press at Dong Shaofeng, saw Dong Shaofeng unconscious and twitching in pain, and mories of how Dong Shaofeng had once pushed Xiang Qiang away to save him stirred complicated feelings.
“How is he…?” Zhao Le asked cautiously.
“He won’t die.” Liu Minghao kept his head down as he opened his case and pulled out ointnts, quickly applying them to Dong Shaofeng’s wounds.
The bleeding stopped almost miraculously.
Zhao Le stared in astonishnt. Liu Minghao called out, “Bu Bugao, co protect us!”
Bu Bugao hurried over, reciting classroom procedures under his breath and smiling, “Don’t worry, brother. Your friend will be fine. I’ll protect you!”
Zhao Le nodded subconsciously.
anwhile Wei Zidào fought the shadow, dodging and unable to get close to the mysterious youth. He shouted, “Opponent is strong! Request permission to use interdiate-or-higher spell-bullets!”
“Approved!”
With Liu Minghao’s authorization, Wei Zidào’s face lit up. He sneered at the shifting shadow, rapidly removed the three remaining cartridges from his revolver, loaded a fresh round, and fired.
The power difference between beginner and interdiate bullets is significant; both contain sealed magic power of at least interdiate level—but of course, they cannot compare to the high-powered spell bullets the Managent Bureau used atop Mount Tai.
Bullets of that caliber are not casually issued to agents for city operations unless in extrely dangerous situations, and even then, reports and internal investigations are unavoidable afterward.
At this mont, a bullet fired directly at the shadow. Where the bullet hit, the shadow instantly exploded, leaving a huge gap.
Wei Zidào fired two more consecutive shots. The explosive impact shattered the shadow completely, which fell to the ground like torn cloth—but the shadow soon reford into crows and shakily returned to the youth’s side.
“Give up!” Wei Zidào shouted, aiming his gun at the youth. “Stop resisting!”
The youth, however, remained calm, curiously eyeing Wei Zidào’s gun. “Huh, I didn’t expect such an interesting tool to be developed here. Its principle seems different from mine…”
“Enough talk! I’ll say it again—stop resisting!” Wei Zidào bellowed.
The youth shook his head, then suddenly extended his hand. His palm vanished as if reaching into another dinsion.
Slowly, he withdrew his hand, now holding a silver short gun resembling an ancient flintlock. He smiled: “I have one of these too. I wonder whose power is stronger, yours or mine.”
He was curious about the tool, thinking he hadn’t had proper interaction with the supernatural of this world, so he intended to experint today.
“Silver gun!!” Bu Bugao suddenly pointed at the youth. “Senior, the silver gun! Is this the killer you were looking for?!”
“Silver indeed…” Wei Zidào’s eyes narrowed sharply.
Hearing Wei Zidào’s exclamation, Zhao Le jumped in fear, recalling he also had a silver gun hidden in his backpack. His breathing quickened—but it seed they hadn’t noticed him.
Liu Minghao frowned and said in a low voice, “Are you the true culprit behind the recent murders?”
The youth paused, then shrugged. “Just doing my job for pay.”
“You really are the one!” Wei Zidào snorted and fired again.
The youth straightened his bent posture with strange speed, dodged the attack, and fired three black energy spheres from his silver gun.
Though the spheres were fast, they were slower than bullets, yet in an instant, they reached Wei Zidào. The spheres clung to him, split open, and black shadowy vines wrapped him tightly, pinning him to the ground.
The youth fired the silver gun again—ten consecutive shots! This ti, black winds erged instead of spheres—shaped like demon faces, screaming eerily as they surged forward.
Liu Minghao swung a tal rod at one, but it didn’t disperse.
Bu Bugao hastily pulled out his equipnt, hesitating between using his rod or spell gun. The black winds were almost upon him when suddenly, a huge figure blocked them, swatting the black wind away.
“Wang Hu!” Bu Bugao shouted, relieved, deciding to bring the big guy along—truly smart.
“Mm,” Wang Hu nodded.
Bu Bugao saw the chance to help Liu and the others. “Go help them!”
“Okay.” Wang Hu nodded and vanished in an instant.
The black winds disappeared. Wang Hu moved with lightning speed, breaking the black tendrils around Wei Zidào.
“So strong…” Liu Minghao gawked.
The youth noticed Wang Hu, marveling at how easily the one-ard giant disrupted his curse.
“Wang Hu! Kick him!” Bu Bugao excitedly shouted. “You may stomp him, just don’t kill him!”
“Okay.” Wang Hu nodded.
The youth hesitated, then sneered, drawing another silver short gun from the strange space. Dual-wielding now, he exuded a mad, domineering aura.
Before firing, the youth felt a terrifying force strike his chest—Wang Hu had closed the distance and kicked him with incredible speed. There was no ti to dodge.
Bang!
The youth flew back, crashing into the wall, feeling several ribs snap. He spat blood, groaning: “What… just happened…”
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