Second Contact (Part II)

"Any more corpses delivered to our door?" the tall, thin fellow taunted.

"Hee-heh~" Slumber's lips curved upward, and he crossed his arms over his chest, gazing coldly at the group of them.

It was that technique; they could only watch as chi erupted and swirled around his hands, rapidly forming a pair of Chi Blades.

"Soul Annihilation!"

Slumber brandished the two short chi blades, slashing toward the golden scorpions upon the chests of those men in black. After he severed the lifelike scorpion crests from their chests, those fellows collapsed to the ground in unison.

There was no way to follow the movement of his strikes; in an instant, those guys simply fell to the ground one by one, and the blood they spilled gradually dyed the severed scorpion patterns crimson, making the scorpions appear even more vivid. The men who had been full of life a second before were now reduced to corpses, and then, in the span of a short moment, the corpses turned into black water and vanished into the ground. Everything returned to normal, as if nothing had happened at all, save for the marks freshly carved into the concrete with fingernails.

"Thanks, but why..." Lin Yingbin's words had not yet left his mouth when Slumber answered the question he wanted to ask.

"Expulsion spell. They set this up on this street to drive away idlers. They aren't ordinary killers." Having answered, Slumber made to leave.

"Hold on, are you here to watch me make a fool of myself? Snake!"

Ryuseki yelled at the departing Slumber.

"Snake? Hee-heh~" Slumber turned his head and gave the two a cold laugh.

Lin Yingbin stared at Ryuseki in lingering bewilderment, having no clue what Ryuseki's words meant.

Ryuseki said angrily, "This makes twice now, doesn't it? What on earth are you playing at? Why are you always getting in my way? There's no bad blood between us!"

"Hee-heh~ Getting in your way? I don't know what you're talking about." He stared at Ryuseki with those blood-red pupils.

Ryuseki grew less and less able to stomach Slumber's indifferent expression and mocking laughter. "Why do you always stick your nose into our affairs? I didn't ask for your help, so why are you meddling so much?"

Lin Yingbin looked in surprise from Slumber to Ryuseki and said, "Don't be like that, he was only trying to help us!" In truth, Lin Yingbin did not understand why Ryuseki was flying into such a rage, but his intuition told him there was bound to be some friction between the two.

"As a bounty hunter, stepping in to resolve this sort of situation is only natural. This time it's on the house, but the next time I'm charging." Slumber turned and waved a hand, perhaps quite satisfied with his own explanation—an explanation, however, that Ryuseki refused to accept.

The thing Ryuseki disliked most was people making their own decisions and doing things for him behind his back, as it gave him the feeling of being replaced by someone else. Under that sensation, he felt utterly incompetent. There was no way he would stomach an answer like that.

"Hold on! Snake, Kikka You's death has something to do with you, doesn't it?"

"Snake? Didn't I tell you I'm a bounty hunter, known as the Black Hunter Slumber?"

Ryuseki bounded forward in a single stride, blocking Slumber's path.

Slumber frowned as he looked at Ryuseki barring his way, thinking inwardly, So fast.

Ryuseki said angrily, "Thinking of running before we're done talking?" With that, Ryuseki instantly wrapped chi

around his fist and lashed out toward Slumber.

Yet Slumber blocked Ryuseki's anger-laden punch with just one hand.

"Why are you always causing trouble? Always sticking your nose into our business? I'm getting more and more pissed off with you."

Yet right at that moment, instead of following up with another attack, Ryuseki subconsciously pushed Slumber away, then leaped backward to keep a certain distance between them.

Slumber let out a sigh and offered a muted explanation, "If I hadn't stepped in, they would have killed you. Given the situation at the time..."

Before Slumber could finish explaining, Ryuseki cut him off.

"Kill us? Talk about utter nonsense. I was going to take them down anyway, what are you stealing the spotlight for?"

Slumber let out a breath and replied, "Then how do you propose to settle this?"

"I've been waiting for you to say that. I lost to you last time, but I won't lose again. Tomorrow afternoon, same time, at the East District's abandoned airfield. We settle this with our fists." Ryuseki's voice sounded entirely uncool-headed, and Lin Yingbin could hear it. He also realized that Ryuseki was dead set on locking horns with the annoying guy in front of him.

"You want to fight me? Forget it!" Slumber replied thoughtfully.

Hearing this, Ryuseki instantly grew displeased. "What's that supposed to mean? Looking down on me or scared of losing?"

Ryuseki's behavior caught Lin Yingbin completely off guard, and knowing the other's strength, he hurried to stop him.

"Hey~ Ryuseki, get a hold of yourself!..." Lin Yingbin started to say, but after a second thought, he stopped. From what he knew of Ryuseki, once the words left his mouth they were like spilled water—they couldn't be easily taken back. So he said no more to stop him, though he also knew the vast chasm in their power; even if he and Ryuseki joined forces, they might not win against the fellow before them.

"Fine!" Slumber accepted Ryuseki's proposal with an air of helplessness. "I'll let you try and challenge me, then!"

Meanwhile, in a dark and hollow place, a conversation that would alter Ryuseki's future unfolded.

"Go seize him now to complete the next step of the plan,"

said a gruff voice carrying an air of majesty.

Another somewhat hoarse voice replied, "Understood!" Following that, the owner of the voice—a bulky figure—vanished into the shadows with unimaginable agility.

Accompanied by a flurry of footsteps, another tall man walked slowly out of the pitch-black corridor and spoke to the source of the previous voice: "Let's hope your 'DESTINY' project can launch smoothly, Zhi!"

"You really have no manners!" replied the man called Zhi in a low, deep voice.

At that moment, a flash of lightning split the night sky, and its brilliance illuminated the man named Zhi. He sat upon his towering throne with the majesty of a sovereign, his profound gaze resembling a bottomless black hole, as if he meant to swallow and tear apart everything in existence. Though it lasted but a single instant, his sheer presence alone was enough to impart a sense of oppression—this was the man who had once struck terror into the entire world.