Just as Mo Yi was about to toss out a few more witty remarks before making his escape, an icy presence locked onto him!
"You are—"
Mo Yi turned his head and saw that, in the corner to his left some twenty-five meters away, a figure had appeared at some unknown time. He was dressed entirely in black: a pitch-black hooded cap, a pitch-black cloak, and what seemed to be a doctor's coat. Ordinary doctor's coats were a gleaming, dazzling white, but his was a colorful black.
The slender figure stood beneath the night sky, seeming to merge with the surrounding shadows, as though he had always been a part of the darkness.
"Mr. Akashi?"
Amano Ginji and Midou Ban, who had been joking around moments ago, noticed Mo Yi turning to look and followed his gaze.
In an instant, Midou Ban, who was usually either hot-tempered or carefree, tensed every muscle in his body. His pupils locked tightly onto the man in black. He was countless times more serious than when he had faced off against Mo Yi just now. To Mo Yi, he looked like a lone wolf hunting in the wild that had encountered a true king of beasts—a tiger—and felt the proper wariness and awe.
Amano Ginji, on the other hand, immediately went limp. His voice trembled as he asked, "Why are you here?"
Akashi Kurihito was one of Changkong City's only two S-rank Cultivators. He was an escort specialist, the natural industry rival of the Phantom Duo, who specialized in retrievals. His strength absolutely lived up to his title as an S-rank Cultivator. He had encountered the Phantom Duo many times and had taken great interest in Midou Ban and Amano Ginji, believing they had the potential to become opponents he could fight to his heart's content.
His fighting style was bizarre. He was skilled at producing scalpels from his body and, like a master surgeon, neatly dissected everything before him into whatever form he desired.
It could be said that he would occasionally show up to educate the two of them and inspect their progress.
That was why Midou Ban was taking this so seriously. Even when he had gone all out in the past, he had still failed to defeat Akashi Kurado, while the other man had remained utterly at ease.
As for Amano Ginji, he had simply encountered a natural predator and gone weak on instinct.
Though he was an S-rank Cultivator, he basically never followed the Cultivator Association's orders. The missions he accepted were entirely based on his personal preferences.
Even if Mo Yi did not know the man's identity, the abyss-like aura hidden within him was something Mo Yi had only felt from heroes of the chaotic faction like Master of Shadows, Zed.
Dangerous. Extremely dangerous!
Mo Yi's instincts constantly warned him of that—if he was careless, he really could be killed by this man.
"I merely came out for a stroll after dinner. When I sensed an intense concentration of Honkai Energy, I decided to wander over and see whether I might run into anything interesting tonight."
Akashi Kurado revealed an innocent, childlike smile and said,
"I never expected to run into you two—"
"Of course, the greatest surprise is you, Mr. Chen Beixuan."
Akashi Kurado looked at Mo Yi with interest, seemingly trying to see through Mo Yi's Comical Mask and glimpse his true nature.
"Your eyes are telling me that you crave blood. You crave a battle fought to the fullest, with life and death on the line, where only one second later will you know who lives and who dies."
"That's right. Only people like us, who struggle between life and death all year long, possess such a gaze."
Mo Yi: "..."
No, I don't. I never said that. Don't spout nonsense!
What I crave are long black hair, venomous black-bellied beauties, tsundere blondes, white hair and red eyes, fox ears, and little girls—not whatever you're talking about!
Naturally, Mo Yi did not say any of that aloud. The man gave him far too unsettling a feeling. Before he knew anything about the man's temperament or other details, recklessly talking could provoke him.
"Of course, perhaps you have yet to notice your heart's true desire—"
Akashi Kurado held down his hat with one hand to keep the evening breeze from blowing it away. He licked the corner of his lips and smiled. "But I have the patience to wait for the day it ripens. That moment will surely be wonderful."
Mo Yi: "..."
Mo Yi's butt clenched. Had he run into some kind of pervert?
"Please, continue. I'm merely a doctor passing by on an evening stroll."
Akashi Kurado stepped back and sat down on a large rock, making it clear that he had no intention of acting tonight. "I'm truly looking forward to it—"
But with such a big boss sitting right beside them, how big would one's heart have to be to truly ignore him and not care?
At that point, neither the Phantom Duo nor Mo Yi had any desire to keep fighting or trading witty remarks.
PS: When I watched Phantom Duo as a kid, I thought Akashi Kurado was insanely cool. Back then, I dreamed of becoming a doctor, but now I've become a code monkey.
In the setting of Phantom Duo, Akashi Kurado was a transcendent being from a higher dimension. As long as he did not harbor the thought of death, it was impossible for him to die. As for so-called transcendent beings, they were similar to the Bald Great Demon King in the One-Punch Man setting, who had removed his human limiter.
What did my eyes crave? Of course, white-haired, red-eyed, fox-eared little girls!
I Decided to Launch an Awesome Attack
Because Akashi Kurado was sitting off to the side, seemingly watching the show, Mo Yi, Midou Ban, and Amano Ginji kept up the airs of experts. They simply stared at one another without moving, as if challenging each other to see who would lose patience and make the first move.
The doctor at the side did not seem bored by this, as though he could truly see the invisible psychological battle unfolding between Mo Yi and the other two.
No, wait.
Mo Yi, who had been standing there in a staring contest with the Phantom Duo, suddenly came to his senses. Wasn't he trying to run away?
Why was he letting a passing doctor affect him? Had he been hit by another enemy mental attack?
Ahem. If he stayed outside for too long, Kiana might eat up more than a week's worth of food stored in the refrigerator at home!
Ever since Kiana moved in, although he had collected three months' rent from her at the beginning, all the other expenses—especially food expenses—had skyrocketed as though they had been hacked.
Mo Yi did a rough calculation in his head. Kiana's three months of rent was just enough to cover the increased food expenses for those three months.
He had originally planned to charge Kiana for meals, but every time Kiana finished delivering takeout, she would bring dinner or a late-night snack back for Mo Yi.
When you ate someone's food, your mouth went soft; when you took someone's things, your hands went short!
After eating Kiana's food, how could Mo Yi bring himself to mention charging her for meals? Mo Yi was, after all, a mage who had gone astray. He could not carry heavy loads, could not lift things with his hands, could not speak properly, did not have enough brains, and had an introverted personality. He knew nothing of the world and would often help count the money even after being sold. Even now, after being taken advantage of by Kiana, he could only suffer in silence!
Thinking carefully, the food Kiana brought back was all free loot, while the money Mo Yi spent cooking came from his own pocket. He was taking a huge loss—so huge that he would soon have no money left even for the bus.
Based on the increase in expenses since Kiana arrived, her rent merely offset those costs. Thinking about it that way, wasn't Mr. Mo basically letting Kiana freeload?
The question was, should Mo Yi raise her rent next month?
Ahem. At such a tense moment, thinking about something like that was clearly rather inappropriate.
What mattered most now was getting home quickly and protecting his food supplies for the coming week!
Having figured it out, Mo Yi decided to launch an incredibly awesome attack. Whether he could win or not, once he used this move, he would take the opportunity to slip away.
"Sorry, I just remembered there's soup simmering at home. If I don't get back soon, it'll turn into old fire soup. Old fire soup may taste good, but drinking too much of it isn't great for your health—especially for the elderly, people with the 'three highs,' and people with high uric acid—"
Before you continue