The Moore Family! An army of devils

"Now you can be a corpse and keep quiet."

Meng Fan extended his Blade Claw and closed in fast.

The Poppy Devil panicked at the sight.

With a wave of its hand, it took control of every human on both sides of the booth.

They charged at Meng Fan like lunatics.

And they were incredibly fast.

They had pushed their bodies to their physical limits.

Meng Fan swiftly dodged, then transformed into the Dream Devil.

In his Dream Devil form, his body was already several times beyond human limits.

He completely outclassed them in both speed and strength.

But instead of killing them all, he gave each of them a nightmare.

They all collapsed into a deep sleep.

Realizing something was wrong, the Poppy Devil hurriedly reached for a button on its swivel chair.

But its finger suddenly flew off.

Then its head slid off its neck and fell to the floor.

It rolled twice.

"Job done. Next, it's time to settle the score with Natsume Fan Zhi."

Meng Fan picked up the Poppy Devil's head.

He tossed it onto its body.

He cut his finger and used his blood to draw a circle around the corpse.

Once the ritual was complete, the Poppy Devil's corpse slowly sank into the ground.

Just as the corpse vanished completely,

the door to the room suddenly opened.

A sleazy-looking man walked in, laughing loudly. Before he even took in the scene, he said, "Lord Devil, how did it go? Have you taken control of that Devil Hunter?"

"What..."

One second, he had been laughing.

The next, his smile froze on his face.

The men and women before him were all unconscious on the floor.

Only a stranger stood in the middle of the room.

And the Poppy Devil, whom the laughing man held in such awe, was nowhere to be seen.

"Who are you?"

The laughing man's men quickly raised their submachine guns and aimed at Meng Fan.

"It's me!" Meng Fan said in a gruff voice.

"You are...?" The laughing man closed his gaping mouth and studied Meng Fan.

He was in no hurry to order his men to attack Meng Fan.

He still had no idea what had happened in the room.

He wanted Meng Fan to explain.

"Useless fools! You can't even recognize my voice?"

Meng Fan snapped at them.

The laughing man shuddered in fear.

"You're the Poppy Devil?"

"That's right. I've already taken control of the Devil Hunter you sent me."

"You've taken control of the Devil Hunter? But where's your real body?"

Meng Fan thought fast and immediately replied, "What do I need that body for? I can now merge with the people I control."

It sounded strange.

But the laughing man still believed Meng Fan.

He glanced at the men and women lying around them and asked, "What happened to them?"

"The Devil Hunter I control has a contract with the Dream Devil. I just tried out that power and put all these people to sleep."

"So that's it!" The laughing man nodded in understanding.

Then a broad grin spread across his face again. "As expected of the once-renowned Poppy Devil! You took control of such a powerful Devil Hunter so quickly. The deliveryman said this fellow was one of the strongest at the Tokyo Public Safety Bureau."

"So what if he's strong? I still took control of him in the end."

"How could a single Devil Hunter possibly stand against you? Back in the day, even a dozen elite Devil Hunters were no match for you."

The laughing man heaped praise on him.

His adoration of the Poppy Devil flowed as endlessly as a raging river.

"Enough bullshit. I'm going out."

Meng Fan had been imitating the Poppy Devil's tone the whole time.

It was not a particularly good imitation.

But the fools in front of him could not tell at all.

"Wait. Didn't the boss tell you to stay here and avoid going outside?"

"That was because I was too weak before, so he had you watch over me. Now that I've taken control of the strongest Devil Hunter, of course I can go out. What, are you going to stop me?"

Meng Fan glared at the laughing man.

Sweat instantly broke out on the man's forehead.

"I wouldn't dare. It's just that the boss ordered us to keep you safe. If he comes back and you're gone, we'll definitely be punished."

The laughing man looked aggrieved.

He hoped Meng Fan would understand his predicament.

But Meng Fan only wanted to find Natsume Fan Zhi and settle the score. He had no time to bullshit with this man.

"Don't worry. I'm going to buy a few oranges. Stay right here and don't move. I'll be back soon."

As he spoke, Meng Fan had already walked past the laughing man.

He left the man standing there, mulling over what he had just said.

By the time the man thought to chase after him, Meng Fan was long gone.

Seeing that Meng Fan had vanished, the laughing man grew frantic.

He hurriedly ordered his men to go out and search.

Meanwhile, Meng Fan had already returned to the dead-end alley where they had first parked.

He had thought Natsume Fan Zhi would be long gone.

But the truck was still there.

Looking inside, he saw Natsume Fan Zhi reclining in the driver's seat, listening to music.

He was so absorbed that he had not noticed Meng Fan's return at all.

Only when Meng Fan switched off the music

did Natsume Fan Zhi open his eyes and snap out of his musical reverie.

"You're back already?"

"A little surprised?"

"Very surprised, actually."

"Want to hear something even more surprising?"

"Sure. What is it?" Natsume Fan Zhi asked curiously.

But the next second, Meng Fan kicked him out of the truck.

That kick was enough to leave Natsume Fan Zhi stunned for an entire year.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Tell me. Why did you set me up?"

"Set you up? What exactly happened?"

Everything about Natsume Fan Zhi's behavior suggested that he had nothing to do with it.

If Natsume Fan Zhi really had betrayed Meng Fan,

he surely would not have stayed there the whole time.

Let alone listened to music so leisurely.

He seemed genuinely uninvolved.

But Natsume Fan Zhi was an old hand, after all.

Meng Fan felt he needed to probe further.

He could not assume Natsume Fan Zhi was innocent just because of a few unexpected reactions.

Meng Fan then told Natsume Fan Zhi about his encounter with the Poppy Devil.

He had planned to approach the Poppy Devil under the guise of a seller, then catch it off guard and kill it.

But the Poppy Devil had known Meng Fan's true identity from the outset.

Fortunately, the Poppy Devil had less than a tenth of its peak strength.

So it could not control Meng Fan at all.

"How could that happen?!" Natsume Fan Zhi looked both shocked and taken aback.

"How should I know? Someone must have been pulling strings behind the scenes."

"We've been friends for over a year. You should know me. I'd never sell you out."

"Tell me who your boss is, and I'll believe you. Otherwise, forget about getting the Poppy Devil's corpse."

Now that things had reached this point,

Natsume Fan Zhi also felt he owed Meng Fan.

He went straight to the truck and took out a notebook and a pen.

As he wrote, he said, "Are you trying to threaten me, Meng Fan? I already told you I wouldn't reveal anything."

After speaking, Natsume Fan Zhi held up the notebook.

He had written, "They can hear our conversation. I'll tell you in writing."

Meng Fan understood immediately and replied, "If you don't want to talk, forget it. Don't work with me again. And I won't give you the Poppy Devil's corpse either."

"Not work with you? This isn't something you can start and stop whenever you feel like it."

Natsume Fan Zhi quickly wrote on the paper, "You have to give me the Poppy Devil's corpse, or we'll both die. The boss behind all this is someone we can't afford to cross."

"What are you going to do?"

"Give me the Poppy Devil's corpse, or I'll tell Makima all your secrets. Then you'll be condemned as a criminal and killed."

Natsume Fan Zhi wrote faster and faster, putting down the words, "The Moore Family!!"

Meng Fan frowned. Of course he knew about that family.

Most people had never even heard the Moore Family's name.

But its members controlled seventy percent of the world's wealth.

Even the people ranked among the richest in the world worked for them.

Meng Fan had learned about the Moore Family in the Cosmos Devil's library.

The Moore Family's businesses were spread across the world.

Most of its members were Jewish.

Besides controlling the lifeblood of the global economy,

they also possessed information on every devil.

Quite a few members of the family had contracts with powerful devils.

They called themselves the Moore Hunters.

And the number of family members with devil contracts was still growing.

In effect, the Moore Family possessed a formidable army of devils.

If they ever decided to wage war,

no country could withstand them.