Delicious Souls

The slum district.

Under a canopy of trees in a far corner of the district, the shadows stirred, and a tall figure stepped into view.

It was Xue Ren of the Wild Dog Gang.

He wore gray-white leather armor and a silver mask over his face.

He glanced at the distant firelight. Dense black mist surged across his body, and a jet-black bead coalesced in his hands, its surface churning with roiling black mist. From somewhere deep inside came eerie, anguished screaming.

*"No — please, no! He's my only son. I can't do this!"*

The silver-masked man gazed at the bead and murmured softly to himself.

He raised his head and looked up at a nearby high-rise, gave a short, quiet laugh, then poured power into the bead. In the next instant, streams of dark shapes poured out of it and dissolved into the surrounding shadows, vanishing without a trace.

Not long after, those same wisps drifted back out of the darkness and filtered into the bead. As more and more of them returned, the wailing within grew shriller and more piercing, the churning black mist growing ever more frenzied.

"Not enough… not enough…"

Inside that nearby high-rise, faint traces of black mist continued to seep from the building. Through the haze, shadowy forms could be vaguely glimpsed drifting through the dark.

Nearby, Li Qinghe heard those words. She slowly narrowed her eyes.

In the shadows of a secluded alley, Li Qinghe materialized.

Her expression shifted in an instant. She snapped her head toward another direction.

Her face went ice-cold. A slender black sword appeared in her hand.

*Boom.*

The blade swept through the darkness, slashing the shadows apart.

In the same moment he dove into the darkness, something made his body freeze. He hurriedly stowed the black bead, his entire form dissolving into black mist and merging with the surrounding shadows — but in the instant he vanished, Li Qinghe appeared exactly where he had been standing.

Blood seeped from the shadows where the black mist had been. The mist itself was already gone.

She crouched down and studied the blood pooling beneath the tree shade. It was tinged a faint, dark black, with thin wisps of black mist slowly dissipating from its surface. The stone paving below let out a quiet hiss, as though the blood were corroding it.

Li Qinghe's expression grew colder. She looked at the distant, silent high-rise, brow tightly knit.

"The one pulling the strings wasn't here," she said quietly.

At that moment, Franming had already rushed downstairs to the base of his stakeout building. The moment he arrived, Lin Hong's voice crackled through his earpiece, and his brow furrowed.

"No movement so far. Everyone's split up to stake out the various zones. If anything stirs, they'll—"

Before he could finish, a distant boom shook the air.

His expression froze. He turned toward the source of the rumble. Flames were already visible in the distance.

At the same time, a voice burst through his earpiece: *"Captain! Explosion! Mingyue Residential Block!"*

Franming's expression darkened as he looked toward the distant high-rise. He turned to Li Qinghe — but Li Qinghe's body had already melted into the shadows.

Her voice drifted back: "I'll go ahead. Come on your own. Keep someone watching this area."

When he looked back at the shadows, she was gone.

"Damn it — we've been played!" Franming snapped into his earpiece. "A-Hong, get everyone to My Lord's position. Northwest. I'm heading there first."

He didn't stop. He sprinted toward the flames.

Outside Mingyue Residential Block, Da Ming — a tall, dark-haired man — stood watching the fire rolling up the high-rise, his expression tight.

Just minutes ago, the explosion had barely gone off.

The moment the blast rang out, every resident in the surrounding complex jolted awake. Lights blinked on one after another; silhouettes flickered past windows.

Inside the building, on the twentieth floor, Lin Hong stood wreathed in gentle wisps of circling wind that formed a shield around him, keeping fire and smoke at bay.

He surveyed the damage around him. There were faint traces of crystallization along the wall. His frown deepened.

"This looks like damage left by a high-energy explosive," he said, studying the marks carefully and weighing his words.

After a brief pause, he tapped his earpiece. "Da Ming, something's off. No Aberration aura here."

Da Ming's voice came back, confused. "What do you mean no Aberration aura? That's impossible."

"How can there be no Aberration aura?"

When Aberrant entities manifest the Aberration phenomenon, they emit a distinct aura — one powerful enough to disturb the human mind. Perhaps certain entities could suppress it. But to arrive at the actual scene and sense nothing at all was deeply strange.

*"Two brothers are on watch here as well. I've notified the others — they're on their way."*

*"The deputy captain went inside. He told me to guard out here."*

Lin Hong walked through the rubble into a shattered interior space.

In a room somewhere in the slum district, black mist billowed, and a figure in leather armor pitched through it and collapsed to the floor.

It was Xue Ren of the Wild Dog Gang.

His upper body bore a vicious wound running from his right shoulder all the way to his waist. Blood poured unceasingly, soaking the ground red.

Black mist churned and seeped into the wound in an attempt to heal him, making his body tremble with each pulse. But the wound carried merciless sword intent and powerful dark force that refused to let it close.

He coughed once and reached up to remove his mask, revealing a handsome, mature face. His normally immaculate black-and-white hair was in disarray, and blood trickled steadily from the corner of his mouth.

Another fit of coughing wracked him. Fear flickered in his eyes.

"That person just now… at minimum Battle Venerable rank. Possibly even Battle King. There's no way that was a Night Watchman from Xili City…"

His pupils contracted. "Could they be from the Royal Capital? Damn it all… how did a Night Watchman that powerful end up here?"

He fumbled out a healing serum and drank it. Some color slowly crept back into his pallid face.

Then, the moment he finished speaking, wisps of black mist seeped from his eyes. The vicious glint in them shifted — becoming cold, hollow, and eerily wrong:

*"Delicious souls… how is a little nibbling ever going to be enough?! At this rate, how long until I can freely feast on all those delicious souls? I just need to be a little more careful, stop making such a scene, and nothing will go wrong… That's right! The soul quality of Gene Warriors far exceeds ordinary people — a hundred ordinary people can't compare to a single Gene Warrior. Why not just devour Gene Warriors from now on? With slightly more care, the disturbance will be far smaller than devouring ordinary people… Xue Wang, for instance…"*

The moment those words ended, his expression contorted savagely. The black mist in his eyes dissipated bit by bit. His entire body went rigid. He clenched his fist so hard that the wound — which had just stopped bleeding — tore open again, blood seeping out slowly.

He lay on the ground, eyes flickering: *No. I can't afford to be this conspicuous. For years I devoured souls one by one and was never caught. Now I've been making far too much noise. With that person out there — it's too dangerous…*

Several figures converged rapidly on Li Qinghe's position.

Franming, who had been waiting, stepped forward.

"My Lord, you've arrived."

The tall dark-haired man immediately straightened. "My Lord!"

"My Lord, this is our failure!"

Li Qinghe shook her head. "Don't blame yourselves. He's cautious."

She glanced at Franming, voice even: "What's the situation?"

"No movement so far. Everyone's split up to cover the various zones. If anything stirs—"

"The other zones?"

Franming's expression was grim as he looked up at her.

Li Qinghe narrowed her eyes. "The one pulling the strings wasn't here."

Her expression shifted. "Is the host nearing full assimilation? That would explain why he was so covert before — and why his moves keep getting bigger."

One of the group then noticed the blood on the ground. Lin Hong's eyes lit up. "My Lord, is this…?"

"I injured him earlier, but he got away. Keep close watch on all suspicious individuals. See who turns up wounded."

"Yes!"

Li Qinghe's expression had turned to ice. She cast a glance at the distant, silent high-rise, brow tightly knit.

"Handle things here. Xili City's Local Governor is going to have another headache."

Her body was already dissolving into the shadows. Her voice drifted back: "I'll go ahead. Come on your own. Have someone keep eyes on that area."

*Do it once, do it twice — don't let me catch you.*

She was gone.