Chapter 49: Meeting on a Narrow Road

Maivia Club, 16th floor.

Ji Huaisu smashed the head of a bear-like beast with her light hammer and kicked the headless corpse away. The corpse twitched a few times, transforming into a shrunken, humanoid form. Behind her lay a pile of these deformed corpses, each one a fugitive with a bloody guilt. Even the most merciful judge would have no hesitation in sentencing them to death.

She knew everyone's origins and names, for she had dug deep and failed to find those who had slipped through the net. Maivia had provided shelter for these thugs, inserting them into high-ranking positions as thugs to be used at any time. Now that the punishment had finally arrived, it came too late, so Ji Huaisu struck with the most ruthless blow.

"Girl, why don't you consider leaving someone alive?" Jie An, who was on the other side of the communication crystal, was a little crazy. "How are you going to find the child if you kill everyone?"

"Just use the process of elimination." Ji Huaisu said.

She raised her light hammer and struck it casually, shattering the side door and the wall together. The thug behind the door, poised for a surprise attack, was knocked to the ground by the sudden blow. He struggled to his feet, only to be met with a flash of golden light. Ji Huaisu maintained this stance and began to run. Fueled by her immense power, her light hammer, like a bulldozer, toppled the wall, shattered the door, and violently dismantled the entire floor.

She really had no idea how to find the child's hiding place, and she didn't intend to waste time forcing him to tell her. In an emergency, finding something was a process of elimination. All she had to do was break down all the doors!

A distinguished guest lusting after the flesh, thugs waiting for an opportunity, scattered relics. Ji Huaisu's eyes flashed with all that lay hidden behind the wall, and she concentrated on not missing any suspicious information in her surroundings. Turning to the fork, she continued in the direction she hadn't struck before. An armory, an empty room, an unknown beast... a pile of relics with no discernible purpose, a strange magic circle, a child in a cage...!

Ji Huaisu slammed on the brakes and spun his head. It was a large room, like a storage room, its floor filled with iron cages for animals. Thinly dressed girls were locked in the cages, their hands and feet bound and their mouths taped, trembling like chickens.

Ji Huaisu dispelled the light hammer and revealed the shadow blade. In a few breaths, she had severed the iron cage and cut through the ropes. Her swordsmanship was actually quite good, but her usual fighting style was too rough, so she had no chance to display it. She tore the tape off the girl's mouth and put on a friendly smile. "Don't be afraid, you are saved."

When the girls saw the bloody killer approaching with a knife, they were terrified and stepped back one after another: "Don't come over here! Don't come over here!!"

Ji Huaisu sighed and shouted fiercely, "Shut up and follow me!"

The room was utterly silent. The girls gathered at the door, each moving as fast as the other, fearing they would fall victim to the demon's blade if they weren't coordinated enough. Ji Huaisu recalled the floor's topography and pulled out his communication crystal. "Set up a ladder, rescue those on the west side of the sixteenth floor."

"I'll be there right away!" Jie An replied from the police car.

Below the tall building, bullets crisscrossed, the cries of men and women mingled with the clamor of alarms and gunfire. As the two inspectors charged into the enemy lines, a sweep operation commenced outside. Xie An personally led the convoy, attacking the Maivia family from multiple fronts. Braving the hail of bullets, the white-clad soldiers charged into the building, using water bombs to precisely dispatch the gray-clad thugs.

On the club's first floor, the lobby manager, commanding the thugs, sweated profusely. He realized how well-equipped they were. They still wore the same white combat uniforms, but even the brass bullets from the Black Workshop couldn't withstand them. Even worse, the enemy was clearly well-prepared. All the key observation points on the outer defenses had been eliminated within half a minute of the battle starting. He had no idea how many men the City Lord's Mansion had sent, or even how many vehicles were outside the city.

The lobby manager felt dizzy as he watched the specially equipped police car set up a ladder on the side of the building. He clutched the communicator tightly and frantically called for help: "Master! Master! We are about to be breached!!"

But the communicator was filled with only static. Chu Hengkong's decapitation operation, combined with Kanin's drastic measures, had thrown the club's leadership into disarray. Without a leader, the thugs were no match for the resurrected troops. The lobby manager looked up to find that even the thugs guarding him had been knocked unconscious by water bullets, and the masked team members were holding their guns to his head.

"How could this be?" The lobby manager was in disbelief.

"Guess how often we practice this?" Lu Xing, who was commanding the assault, gritted his teeth and said, "Guess how many people want to blow your heads off?"

He raised the butt of his rifle and knocked the lackey unconscious with a punch, then directed his team members to proceed with the next move. "Each team, evacuate the civilians in an orderly manner, and be careful not to cause any casualties."

Most of the cat girls followed the team members' instructions and evacuated. A few women showed extreme resistance. They had become accustomed to life in the club and could not imagine how they would survive after leaving here. They felt pitiful and sad.

Lu Xing sighed silently, feeling that this was also the club's fault. At this moment, the communicator flashed red. Just after assigning the work to each team, new instructions came. He listened carefully.

"Xiao Lu, take a few more people to the 16th floor, just in case." Jie An ordered.

"Got it." Lu Xing gestured to his colleagues, "Teams 3 and 4, follow me! Go up the stairs!"

By this time, the ladder had barely reached the gap left by the smash on the 16th floor. Jie An took out a specially crafted stream of water and inserted it into the small opening in the vehicle. He turned the sluice gate inside the vehicle, and the sound of water swirling back and forth echoed from the ladder. The gap in the ladder was filled with blue water, and arched protective shields appeared on both sides, turning the ladder into a waterway like a slide.

This way, rescuing people would be much safer. He took the crystal and notified Ji Huaisu to take action, hoping that it would still be in time.

"That's enough, that's enough. Line up and go down one by one! You won't die from the fall!" Ji Huaisu shouted loudly.

She chose a west-facing banquet hall as the rescue location. It was spacious enough to accommodate all the children and, more importantly, near a window for easy evacuation. She directed the girls to descend the stairs one by one, but most of them were too frightened to move. Ji Huaisu was extremely anxious, but she couldn't rush them. After all, this was a 16-story building. Even an adult, let alone a child, wouldn't be able to jump down blindly.

A girl with twin ponytails, born brave, stepped forward. She had barely taken two steps when Ji Huaisu pulled her back. The ceiling of the banquet hall shattered, and a massive figure fell from the top floor, blocking the escape route like a small mountain.

The little girls cried out in fear, having recognized the massive man. Maivia clenched his fists like a rock, and his words echoed through the room like a bell.

"Ji Qiufeng's adopted daughter, where do you want to take my daughter?"

"Take them back to their real home." Ji Huaisu said.

She cast a light shield to protect the children behind her and slashed at Maivia with her shadow blade. Maivia retaliated with a fist that expanded several times. The large glass in the banquet hall was instantly shattered by the air wave, and the scattered fragments reflected the murderous eyes of the two men.

They began to fight, like knights fighting demons.

·

Just one floor downstairs, Chu Hengkong extended his tentacles and utterly killed his second daughter, Carmel. His gaze shifted to the gravely injured Visafu in the distance. The hideous fallen creature howled miserably and tumbled in a desperate tumble towards the doorless stairwell.

He knew begging for mercy and resistance were futile. This man, known as "Inspector," was a complete killer. He wouldn't waste time forcing information; he'd kill, utterly annihilating anyone he considered a mortal enemy. Visafu didn't even dare turn back to observe the situation. He simply prayed he could outrun the injured Chu Hengkong. But even as this thought formed, he heard the sound of wind. Chu Hengkong flashed behind him like a ghost, the white blade piercing the corrupted heart.

The blade pierced the cold steel, and another long sword came out from the middle of the road, blocking Chu Hengkong's blade!

"Master Yan!" Visafu cried like a little brat.

It was a knife as rough as rock, held by a man in a suit, his face expressionless behind sunglasses. He had narrowly saved the dying Visav, who had just climbed out of the pitch-black stairwell.

Chu Hengkong twisted his wrist, letting his blade slide down the enemy's blade, changing his move to strike Visafu on the ground. The man in sunglasses flicked his wrist slightly, and an irresistible thrust emanated from his blade, deflecting Chu Hengkong's blade. Chu Hengkong launched a single kick, delivering another powerful thrust. The man in sunglasses bent his knees, sheathed his blade, and intercepted the kick with the hilt of his sword.

He flicked his finger and pushed the blade, using Iaijutsu to slash with a sharp blade, but the target was Visafu, who was between the two of them. The blade only cut off a small part of Visafu's flesh, and the corrupt heart, the core of the Fallen One, happened to be in this piece of flesh.

The man in sunglasses blocked Chu Hengkong's attack with his knife in his backhand, and with a kick of his heel, the Corrupted Heart fell into the stairwell. This ostentatious rescue came at his own cost, and he was forced to take the tentacle's lash with his flank. However, the man in sunglasses remained motionless, as steady as an old tree rooted to the ground.

Chu Hengkong distanced himself and switched to holding the knife with both hands. The lightning-fast exchange was enough to prove this man's strength. He didn't know where the enemy came from, but this was not an opponent he could easily defeat.

The man in sunglasses held the blade horizontally over his head in an upper stance. His posture was strict, upright and peaceful, like an instructor in a kendo dojo.

"Gangfengliu, Dumuyan," he said, "please give me your guidance."

(End of this chapter)