Fishing in Troubled Waters
Wearing a disposable mask, Lou Shisui landed silently on the roof of a building near West District No. 1 Middle School, his pitch-black, translucent Ukaku spreading in the wind.
Shisui's Owl Wings were made of crystallized Rc Cells.
As the angles of the crystal feathers shifted, the optical properties of the Ukaku's surface changed with them, concealing the enormous wings completely in the glow of the streetlights.
He slowly flapped his Ukaku and took off as silently as a nocturnal owl, scattering poisoned Blade Scales in a ring around the school's perimeter.
After completing these preparations, he settled in an old banyan tree a kilometer from the warehouse and waited quietly for the right moment.
The young master is acting very strangely today.
The Lin Family's driver thought this as he opened the car door for Lin Feng, who had inexplicably gone for a walk in the suburbs.
Once the young master was seated, he closed the door, returned quietly to the driver's seat, and started the car toward the Lin Family residence.
He was only a servant responsible for driving and had no right to comment on his employers' decisions, so he put his doubts aside and focused on driving him home.
The Lin Family residence, Qinghan Manor, was located near Zefeng Lake in the heart of the West District.
One of Yin City's top three luxury residential areas, it offered comfortable surroundings and was home to many of the rich and powerful.
It was already past nine at night when the driver drove into the manor.
Lin Feng usually got home at eight and had never suddenly returned this late before.
His mother stood worriedly at the entrance to the manor's main building and only breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the familiar car.
Lin Feng's mother looked at the car that had stopped in front of her and opened the door, a little angry and ready to ask her son what he had been doing all evening.
A Blade Scale shot up from below, instantly slicing through Lin Feng's mother's long dress and embedding itself in her lower leg.
The adjusted toxin mixture contained a higher proportion of neurotoxin. Once it spread through the woman's body, it instantly took control of her mind.
"You're back. Don't stay out so late next time. Go let your father know you're safe first."
Lin Feng's mother spoke in a flat, mechanical voice and followed "Lin Feng" in a daze as he got out of the car and headed toward the main building.
The backpack on "Lin Feng's" back made a faint clicking sound, the noise of a mass of Blade Scales rubbing against one another.
Toxin slowly seeped out, and the lining of the backpack gradually began to show signs of melting.
Tonight, the unsuspecting Lin Family would join "Lin Feng" in attacking West District No. 1 Middle School.
"Clang—clang—clang—..."
Twelve bell tolls echoed through the cloudy night, making the moonless evening seem even quieter.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
A multitude of footsteps suddenly sounded in the dead of night, rapidly converging on West District No. 1 Middle School.
Some of the Awakening Stone escort team members on night watch immediately detected abnormal Psychic Energy fluctuations.
He pressed the alarm, checked the door to the warehouse behind him, then readied his weapon and watched the area ahead warily.
Shisui, who had been sitting in the banyan tree with his eyes closed, opened his crimson Kakugan. He stopped suppressing the restless Rc Cells in his body, and his black hair instantly turned as white as bone.
A play set at West District No. 1 Middle School was about to begin. The "villains" who had come to seize the treasure were already in place, and a chaotic battle was on the verge of erupting!
"Bang!"
A human body smashed into a wall with a loud crash.
One figure was the first to charge the escort team member guarding the entrance, only to be immediately flung away by a spear.
That loud crash lit the fuse, and the chaotic battle exploded in an instant!
The delirious members of the Lin Family brought here by "Lin Feng" began to go berserk.
The toxin, whose flesh-melting and bone-dissolving effects had been weakened, stimulated their irrational nerves, causing them to attack every living thing nearby indiscriminately while retaining their fighting strength.
Of these people, Lin Feng's father was the most destructive.
He was an Awakened who had just reached the Fourth Realm. Had the Psychic Energy in his body not yet stabilized, he would not even have been controlled by the relatively small dose of toxin carried by the Blade Scale.
It looks like the strength I can currently bring to bear is roughly at the third-realm peak.
Shisui thought this as he watched the spectacle from a hidden corner outside the battlefield.
He could not be sure whether his estimate was accurate. After all, he was not yet an Awakened.
As he was now, he had no cultivation realm to speak of, and it was also difficult for him to draw on the Psychic Energy in his body.
Next, the West District city defense forces arrived on the battlefield in response to the call for help, and together with the steadily retreating escort team, they barely managed to hold a defensive line.
More and more people joined the chaotic battle. Before further reinforcements arrived, no one had the spare strength to check inside the warehouse.
After all, what difference would there be between opening the warehouse doors now and defecting to the enemy?
"Boom!"
The thunderous explosion of a Psychic Energy weapon shook the world. The Lin Family was worthy of being a major family in the region; even as a newly risen clan, its armed strength was beyond question!
Under cover of the blast, Shisui instantly swept across the battlefield and landed on the warehouse roof.
The next moment, another explosion erupted on the battlefield. Shisui broke through the warehouse roof and successfully reached the safe holding the Awakening Stone.
"So it really was a diversion! I told you we could catch the rat by staying in the warehouse!"
Before the voice had faded, a long saber thrust out of the shadows. A cold glint flashed at its tip as it cut through the air, stirring up a sharp gust.
Shisui abruptly turned sideways and kicked diagonally upward with his toes, knocking the blade aside. The moment he landed, he spun into a side kick, the heavy blow instantly driving his opponent back.
A gap opened between them, and the two faced each other in the pitch-dark warehouse. A Ghoul's excellent night vision allowed Shisui to see the newcomer's face clearly.
He was a young man in his twenties, now standing with a saber in his right hand. He had blocked the kick with his left arm.
Tsk! His reactions are really good, and his left arm isn't even crippled. Looks like he's in the Fourth Realm.
Sure enough, within the same major realm, the higher the numbered realm, the stronger the person.
He was not the sort to start with a probing attack.
As a Ghoul born with a speed-type Kagune—Ukaku—he was inherently lacking in sustained combat ability and could only finish fights quickly.
That was why Shisui had put all his strength into the side kick.
Unfortunately, it had not severely injured the opponent who had stayed behind alone in the warehouse.
Judging by the state of that arm, it had suffered a bone fracture at most.
The longer this drags on, the worse it'll be for me. Besides, he's stronger than I am. I have to kill him before he gets used to my moves.
The predatory organ made of Rc Cells suddenly extended from his body, its vicious Kagune surging in the darkness.
His most frequently used Owl Wing Ukaku and eight Bikaku instantly unleashed the power of a predator.
Although the warehouse was cramped, his Ukaku, reduced to a third of their size, could still easily provide speed and the ability to stay airborne.
More Rc Cells were concentrated in the eight Bikaku, and the folded Blade Scales all spread open, poised to strike from the shadows.
Chen Ping, who had stayed behind in the warehouse, grew increasingly tense. His instincts told him that the enemy was moving through the warehouse at tremendous speed.
Yet the other party was as silent as if he did not exist. Only Chen Ping's stinging arm told him that a formidable enemy was here.
The darkness weakened his ability to locate his enemy, leaving him to rely on the howling wind that preceded each attack to determine where the enemy was.
"Whoosh!"
Chen Ping dodged a strike aimed at his head.
What kind of weapon is that? A staff? Or a whip?
Before Chen Ping could finish thinking, the next strike arrived in an instant!
"Clang!"
Chen Ping sensed the breath of death and instinctively raised his saber crosswise to block. A tremendous force instantly lashed against his guard and sent him flying.
Something's wrong! Why did his attack come so quickly? There was no pause at all to pull his weapon back!
Before he could regain his footing, a third attack followed!
Damn it!
The hand holding his saber was severed first. Then five Bikaku seized the opening and pierced his head and limbs in an instant.
Chen Ping died on the spot!
Shisui wrapped his Bikaku around the corpse and put it in the empty space in his ring where resources had originally been stored.
Immediately afterward, he rushed toward the safe.
The fight just now was certain to alert the people outside. He could no longer worry about staying hidden. The eight Bikaku behind him gathered strength and slammed down!
"Boom!"
The escort team and West District city defense forces fighting outside, along with the West District No. 1 Middle School staff arriving one after another, turned back in surprise.
They saw a blurry figure shoot up from the warehouse behind them and vanish in the blink of an eye.
"Damn it! Someone broke in behind us!"
"Captain! We'll deal with the remaining rioters. You go after the thief!"
Before the escort team captain could agree, the principal of West District No. 1 Middle School, who had just arrived from outside the school, suddenly went berserk and began attacking the living things around him indiscriminately, just like the rioters.
The escort team captain was caught off guard, and the principal's punch struck him squarely in the back.
Although the principal of West District No. 1 Middle School was one stage below the captain, he was still at the fourth-realm peak and had already touched the threshold of transcending the mortal world.
His punch directly inflicted severe injuries on the captain.
Shisui snapped his fingers, activating all the Blade Scales he had scattered across the school grounds.
Most of the black scales that had not been stepped on crumbled to dust. Casting a wide net was indeed inefficient.
But enough people had passed through the campus that, even though the odds of "winning" were low, quite a few had still been hit.
On the battlefield, the reinforcements who had arrived from outside the school suddenly went berserk. The situation instantly reversed, and no one had the spare strength to pursue the thief anymore.
Shisui retracted his Bikaku, and a pair of dark, metallic-textured wings spread above his Owl Wings.
That was his other pair of Ukaku, faster but incapable of silent flight.
He operated both pairs of Ukaku at full power, striking the air with a tremendous explosive boom.
He flew out of the West District and away from Yin City at top speed, racing toward the Lingyun River Rainforest.