Using a Fiend to Kill

Click.

Opening the main electrical panel on the first floor, Su Wu switched off every breaker.

From that moment on, all of Building 6 lost its power supply.

The residents who were still muddling along, unaware of the danger and leaving their lights on, would benefit from Su Wu's actions. Their deaths would be delayed.

Now, all of Peaceful Garden lay within the Shadow Fiend's reach. Anyone who had a shadow cast by any source of light here was highly likely to die.

But at least people were still safe in the darkness.

Outside Peaceful Garden, however, most of Mingzhou-perhaps even the entire city-was under the Eye Fiend's influence.

The humans living there were the ones who faced unavoidable death.

Even if they made every preparation, even if they hid in basements where the red light could not reach, they could still be killed by the Eye Fiend whenever the red light appeared, as long as they remained within its territory.

Thus, compared to the Eye Fiend's territory, the area covered by the Shadow Fiend was actually the easiest place to survive.

As long as people did not court death, they stood a very good chance of staying alive.

By now, official "personnel" should have entered the Tenant Group Chat. Without the simulator's help, they still understood the Shadow Fiend's characteristics.

They knew to warn residents to seal their doors and windows and block out all sources of light.

Clearly, these personnel had experience dealing with fiends.

They were professionals and ought to carry out more specialized rescue work-although Su Wu had never seen any sign of them in his simulations of the future.

But that did not mean they had done nothing.

After all, once Su Wu left Peaceful Garden, he had never gone back to check.

Two or three hundred years ago, the Secret Treasury Domain had already been teeming with fiends. Its many monasteries had even developed various effective methods for restraining and countering them.

The Secret Treasury Domain was also part of Taiya, the country Su Wu lived in.

Fiends had appeared in that region in the past. Throughout the long and flourishing evolution of Taiya's civilization, their shadows must also have lurked within the hidden layers of history.

Where there were fiends, there would be people who dealt with them.

That was Taiya's tradition.

Otherwise, how could he explain why the Imperial Bell in his hand was so effective at suppressing the Shadow Fiend and the trapped corpse fiend?

The Imperial Bell was an old object, with quite a few years behind it.

Shaking those stray thoughts from his mind, Su Wu glanced behind him to one side.

The burly, muscular man silently rose from the floor and turned toward Su Wu.

His eyes gleamed in the darkness.

He looked like a beast watching its prey from the shadows.

The man had noticed Su Wu long ago.

When Su Wu deliberately made his footsteps louder several times and the man failed to react at all, Su Wu became certain-the man was putting on an act.

He was deliberately pretending not to know Su Wu was there.

He also wanted to lull Su Wu into believing he was just a harmless passerby.

But now, with the exit right ahead, the man could no longer keep up the act. He was about to show his true colors.

"Why aren't you going outside?"

Seeing Su Wu standing motionless by the door, the man started walking toward him.

A dagger slid from his sleeve, its tip extending an inch beyond his fingertips. Hidden in the darkness, it would have been impossible to notice without Su Wu's night vision.

Su Wu abruptly turned to face the man, staring into his eyes as he said expressionlessly, "Going outside means death. Why would I go out there to die?

"I'm warning you. Don't come any closer."

The man stopped as instructed, his eyes scanning Su Wu from head to toe, lingering on his hands for several seconds.

He grinned, revealing a mouthful of stark white teeth. "You're Biscuit-Eating Young Master, the one who warned everyone in the group chat, right? You're a good person.

"How did you know all this was going to happen?

"If you hadn't warned us, I probably would've been trapped in this damned place too."

Although the Strongman Spellmark had enhanced Su Wu, making his frame increasingly tall and straight and building muscle beneath his clothes, he still could not compare to the man opposite him, who resembled a beast in human form.

Standing opposite the man, he looked like prey.

The man looked like a hunter.

"You reacted faster than most people and made a choice that benefited you at a time like this. I admire you for that too," Su Wu said coldly, his face betraying no emotion.

He stared into the man's eyes. "It doesn't look like this is your first time experiencing something like this.

"How did you know about these things?"

"There were several murders in Building 3 yesterday. You know about them too, right?" The man smiled teasingly and actually began telling Su Wu what he knew. "One of the three people who died was an escort.

"She was pretty good-looking. She told me her family had been poor when she was little, and she'd had no choice but to go into that line of work...

"I'd booked her that day.

"After we finished, I was showering in the inner room with the door open. She was lying on the bed, scrolling through her phone.

"Just then, I happened to see something crawl out of the shadow on the floor and-"

The man broke off abruptly!

He exploded into motion, pouncing at Su Wu like a tiger!

His burly body hurtled through the air, whipping up a vicious gust in the narrow corridor!

He had intended to draw Su Wu's attention with a "story," then launch a sudden attack!

Lights were still shining outside the building. Once he stepped out, he could still face an attack from the Shadow Fiend.

So he wanted to subdue Su Wu and make him scout the way ahead!

Facing the man's airborne charge, Su Wu's pupils expanded several times over. The corner of his mouth curled slightly, and a look of understanding flashed across his face-

Ever since he had deliberately made his footsteps louder to reveal his presence, only for the man to remain silently concealed in the darkness, Su Wu had been deeply wary of him!

The man's attack did not surprise him.

He had made preparations too.

Crack! Crack!

The sound of squirming flesh came from beneath Su Wu's right armpit.

A pitch-black arm suddenly thrust out from beneath the hem of his loose T-shirt, its ten fingers gripping a High-Powered Flashlight.

The flashlight pointed straight at the man.

Click.

The switch was pressed.

A beam of intense light burst from the flashlight and struck the man faster than the naked eye could follow!

He even raised his arm slightly at the sudden glare, trying to shield his eyes!

Wh-what?!

The man's mind went blank!

He had specifically checked Su Wu's hands. Aside from a set of keys, he had seen nothing else.

He had never imagined that the young man opposite him, who looked as though he could be killed with a single punch, had a third hand!

That third hand held a flashlight and shone a beam at him.

Beyond the circle of light, a liquid as thick as asphalt spilled from the shadows.

A blurry humanoid figure crawled out of that liquid. As its body unfurled, more than a dozen pairs of arms and legs sprouted all over it, wrapping the man up completely!

Rip! Rip!

Flesh tore!

Bones and sinews were crushed!

"Aaaaaargh-"

His screams rang through the entire building.

A dagger flew out of the dark figure and landed at Su Wu's feet.

He bent down to pick it up, then rang the Imperial Bell and pushed open the building's entrance door!

"Clang-a-lang-a-lang!"

"Clang-a-lang-a-lang!"

The bell rang ceaselessly through Peaceful Garden.

Su Wu rushed out of the building and continued onward at a steady pace.

All around him, blurry humanoid figures formed from thick, asphalt-like liquid kept trying to approach from the shadows cast by daylight, only to be held back by the Imperial Bell's ringing.

After a few close calls, he safely emerged from the alley and turned onto a dark side path.

The sky ahead was filled with crimson light.