Era of Magic and Martial Arts

Chapter 681: Chapter 622: I Want to Become Strength...

[14:24:22]

The cold numbers, like poisoned ice picks, brutally pierced into the depths of Feng Ju’s consciousness.

[14:24:20]

The shadow of the previous number had not completely dissipated when a new number had already emerged with cold malice.

[14:24:18]

The numbers continued to mercilessly decrease, falling two seconds by two seconds.

[...]

Feng Ju had never run so fast in his life.

Luckily, he was now a "dead man," unable to feel fatigue, otherwise, such frantic running would have had his lungs spilling out from his throat.

Death had become his greatest advantage now.

Everything that happened in the sewer was thrilling to recount, but truly only "twenty-some minutes" had passed since Feng Ju crawled up "bringing the dead back to life."

Thanks to time being especially generous to him, only ten minutes or so had actually passed in reality.

Feng Ju burst out of the sewer with all his might, his legs swinging back and forth like machinery, desperately sprinting towards Jade Garden.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to take a cab, but the late-night streets were as bloodless as his hemorrhaging veins, with pathetically few vehicles passing by.

Occasionally, when a car did pass by, the driver, seeing this terrifying sight from afar, would slam on the accelerator and race away.

Anyone would tremble in fear seeing a blood-soaked figure running at them—his clothes were already saturated with blood, hardened into a crusty "black armor," with bloody clots falling from his hair as he ran, revealing a pitch-black face.

Fortunately, he wasn’t slow either, matching the average speed of a car, and with two legs more agile than four wheels, he could cut across without heeding traffic rules.

However, those cars that saw him "chasing" after them only sped up further.

The night wind howled past his ears, and a buzzing vibration came from the phone in his pocket. Feng Ju took it out while running and glanced; it was a call from Chang Erbing.

Feng Ju had no intention of answering; not hanging up was the greatest courtesy he could afford.

The unpredictable airburst + the mysterious entry of the sallow elder duo = ???

Feng Ju couldn’t deduce the full picture of the situation, but his intuition told him there was definitely something fishy about the whole affair.

Since he had been following the special agent all along, he was confident that the special agent was not deceitful; therefore, the problem had to lie with Ma Bin, Li Shang, and Chang Erbing.

More likely than not, all three were dishonest!

Feng Ju couldn’t pinpoint the exact issue yet.

But a terrifying thought rose uncontrollably in his mind—could it be that the plan he devised turned out to be the real thing, and those three had truly colluded with [Mask] in secret?

When running, there isn’t enough oxygen supplied to the brain.

It’s hard to say whether Feng Ju’s judgment was accurate.

But as a seasoned constable, favoring claims without evidence and suspicion without responsibility was basic tenacity.

Seek suspicion from whatever seems unfounded.

Thus, after the phone rang several times, he didn’t answer, didn’t hang up, but directly tossed the phone into the roadside ditch.

Along with a "splash," sound, he cleverly made himself seem "dead-vanished."

"Beep beep beep—"

The cold electronic dead tone echoed repeatedly in the hunchbacked elder’s eardrum depth.

Listening to the abrupt termination of communication on the encrypted channel, the hunchbacked elder’s wrinkled face suddenly darkened as he muttered hoarsely:

"Xiaoliuzi... is gone."

Clearly, the last line in the communication was about taking [Mask]’s head and coming to meet him, yet, within less than half a minute, perhaps even shorter, the sound in the encrypted channel turned into a different, chilling voice.

"Thanks for the reminder, I’ll take that Destruction Pearl."

This wasn’t Xiaoliuzi’s voice; it should’ve been Xiaoliuzi, during his last moments, secretly put it on speaker so he could hear.

The conversation indicated that at first, Xiaoliuzi held the upper hand, but just as he was about to kill [Mask], he was overthrown.

Thus, Xiaoliuzi must have planned to use the Destruction Pearl to perish with [Mask], but ultimately didn’t even have time to trigger it before being killed.

So, the last voice in the communication was the voice of Xiaoliuzi’s murderer—[Mask] Zheng Hang.

"[Mask] could actually kill Xiaoliuzi?"

The hunchbacked elder, or rather now called Xiaojiu, felt a heavy thud in his heart, the waxy face dark with clouds, eyes flickering with a barely perceptible alarm.

He paused in place, contemplating for three seconds.

He now had two choices.

The first was: immediately turn back to the manhole to kill [Mask], to avenge Xiaoliuzi, and also retrieve [Mask]’s head for the Young Master.

The second was: not to return to the manhole, but to leave here as quickly as possible, to rush to the special agent’s villa, and first find the Sheepskin Scroll for the Young Master.

Three seconds later, Xiaojiu made his decision.

"Xiaoliuzi... forgive me."

He silently mourned in his heart, then pushed off with his foot, speeding toward Jade Garden without looking back.

It’s not that he didn’t want to avenge Xiaoliuzi but the risk was too great.

Xiaoliuzi’s strength was almost on par with his, even surpassing it in some aspects.

Since [Mask] could kill Xiaoliuzi, no matter what means he employed, confronting him would be risking great danger, not to mention the opponent also dropped equipment after the kill.

—The Destruction Pearl was now in [Mask]’s hands, and the latter was no waste like Young Master Kuangyan.

The key point was, for people like them without roots, there’s no such thing as ties, the master’s benefits are their all.

The urgent task was to find the Sheepskin Scroll.

For now, Xiaoliuzi’s vengeance could only be temporarily set aside, to be revisited when the opportunity arises in the future.