"Do you believe in gods?" An eerie voice came from behind the two, and Lin Yingbin spun around quickly only to see a five-person lineup appearing behind them.
"Who?"
Lin Yingbin's belated alertness seemed superfluous, yet Ryuseki, reacting a beat slower, also turned around to look at those fellows. His expression grew grave; these five peculiarly appearanceed fellows looked like bad news, and if they could appear behind them without making a sound, the two probably wouldn't have noticed at all.
To describe how strange their appearances were, each one resembled a goblin more than the last. Their faces were grayish-green with sharp, long horns growing from their foreheads, looking for all the world like the man-eating imps described in traditional scripts. They all wore identical long black coats, marked on the back with a golden scorpion emblem. The scorpion's tail hooked over the shoulder position, and the golden scorpions looked so lifelike they could have been real. Looking at their builds, they varied wildly: the one standing in the middle was a literal bamboo pole, while several others were as fat as water barrels. Still, an unsettling aura radiated from them.
"They're a bit different from the last lot. They appeared behind us and I didn't sense them at all. Looks like they've got heavy backing, clearly on a completely different level from the Red Scorpions last time. With this kind of strength, I'm afraid..."
While Lin Yingbin muttered softly to Ryuseki, the bamboo-pole-like fellow opposite interrupted him.
"Stop messing around and sneaking about over there."
"What on earth are you people? Why are you following us? This is the second time, what exactly do you want?"
Ryuseki stepped forward with a fearless posture and demanded pressingly.
"Us? To be honest, we don't even know who we are, we've just been carrying out the orders issued by the boss. Of course, you don't need to take us for good guys either," the tall, thin man replied.
Lin Yingbin picked up on a clue from those words and asked, "Your boss? What did your boss tell you to do? Don't tell me you want to finish us off!" He frowned.
"You guessed right, our boss---Zhi did indeed instruct us to kill you. However, higher-ups specified we need to leave intact corpses, but we prefer dismemberment. Wonder which one you prefer?" The tall, thin man exuded murderous intent as he spoke.
"Which one? Which way to die isn't up to us to decide, is it!" Lin Yingbin began preparing for battle.
Right as Lin Yingbin prepared for battle, he sensed an oppressive pressure coming from beside him. The pressure originated from Ryuseki; unaware of what was wrong with him, Lin Yingbin looked over. He only saw Ryuseki baring his teeth and glaring fiercely at the opponents. This was the first time Lin Yingbin had seen Ryuseki so furious.
"I only have one question, and based on your answer, I'll make the appropriate judgment. I didn't get the chance to ask those Red Scorpions we ran into last time, so tell me, was it you lot who caused Kikka You's death?"
Far off to the side, a figure was sitting on a tree branch, watching the scene. This person was none other than the bounty hunter who had beaten Ryuseki---Slumber. He observed every movement over there; though his calculations remained unclear, his deep interest in the incident was plain.
"If my answer is 'yes', can you..."
The instant the tall, thin man uttered 'yes', a massive oppressive force struck. A sudden attack drove straight at his face, and Ryuseki threw a punch. The man's neck—connecting straight to his head—suddenly seemed to snap, and his entire head bent backward in one motion.
Before Ryuseki could retract his angry fist, that bizarre head began twisting from the back toward his shoulder. Yes, it was indeed twisting. The head was like a balloon tied with string; the neck twisted a full revolution, and then, tilting his head, he looked at Ryuseki with blood seeping from the corners of his mouth and bulging eyeballs. He tried to open his mouth to speak, but because his neck had been twisted around, his vocal cords failed to produce sound. Still, he managed to make eerie noises that formed lines.
"Can you kill us?"
Startled by this thing before him, Ryuseki's anger vanished like sobering from a drunk, making him much calmer. He quickly made the best judgment and stepped back, whereupon he watched the neck and head of the tall, thin fellow screw around like a bolt, turning the entire head back the other way to its original position.
"Ng~"
Lin Yingbin let out a gasp of surprise, bit his lip hard, and began to ponder their current plight, failing to notice that he had bitten through his skin, with blood seeping bit by bit from the corner of his mouth.
Normally, plenty of people passed down this street at this hour, but so far, besides himself and Ryuseki, only these fellows remained. What on earth had happened to this street? Lin Yingbin desperately wanted to know; after all, such intelligence was quite crucial under these circumstances. Furthermore, because of the recent attack, Lin Yingbin already knew that the enemy's physique differed from normal people, and this unknown factor regarding their strength made him hesitate.
Ryuseki's complexion looked somewhat ashen as well; truthfully, he hadn't received a definitive answer to his question, leaving him deeply unreconciled.
"We are elite killers!"
After his head returned to normal, the tall, thin fellow stepped toward the two. He watched as his fingernails suddenly lengthened, and the two understood that those long nails were undoubtedly the weapons he used to attack. As the tall, thin fellow advanced step by step, he suddenly launched a kick straight at Lin Yingbin.
Despite looking thin, this fellow packed immense strength. Even though Lin Yingbin had clearly sensed the attack and braced with all his might, the kick still left his legs trembling. Yet Lin Yingbin quickly mounted a counterattack: propping himself up with his free hand, he drove his unoccupied foot fiercely into the tall, thin fellow's chest.
From that kick, Lin Yingbin clearly felt several of the opponent's ribs crack and snap. Those broken ribs were probably piercing his internal organs right now. Yet from what had just happened, Lin Yingbin already understood the abnormal structure of the enemy's body, and therefore knew the fellow might not drop dead from this.
"Hah!"
Without giving the opponent a shred of breathing room, a massive, dragon-claw-shaped airflow swept from behind and batted the fellow away like a fly. The fellow rolled across the concrete several times, his slender fingernails gouging grooves into the pavement. Sure enough, those long nails were extremely dangerous.
With airflow wrapped around his left arm in the shape of a dragon's claw, Ryuseki glared angrily at the fallen fellow as the latter slowly climbed back up, shouting, "Tch~ More troublesome than I thought."
"Oh oh~ You can actually manipulate airflow? Even more impressive than I expected! I'm surprised, looks like we'll have to obey the Scorpion Lord's order and leave your bodies intact." The tall, thin fellow waved his hand to signal the others to attack together.
At that very moment, a figure stepped in front of them. It was Slumber, the Black Hunter Slumber.
Before you continue