Black Hand

Lu Heng gripped his Miao sword tightly and slowly turned around.

My gaze fell on the half-closed iron gate at the end of the distribution area.

Deep within the crack of the door, darkness lurked. It wasn't an illusion created by light and shadow—the thick, inky blackness was expanding in a slow, sticky way, as if something was seeping out from behind the door.

The remains of the stock clerk and the Bulk Goods Clerk were still scattered at his feet, and the black mist of resentment had just dissipated. Lu Heng's breathing was steady, his muscles were not relaxed at all, and his five fingers gripping the knife tightened slightly.

He thought it was over.

All four strange creatures have been eliminated. The danger in this supermarket has come to an end.

But just as the last wisp of black mist was diluted by the air, a powerful aura surged out from behind the iron gate.

There was no sound. There was no wind. There wasn't even a change in temperature.

But the hairs on the back of Lu Heng's neck stood on end, one by one.

It wasn't the overwhelming ferocity of Butcher or Cashier. It was something deeper—like standing on the edge of a cliff, with a bottomless abyss below, and something looking up at you.

It's not hostility.

It is indifference.

It was as if the entire battle had been under its watchful gaze from beginning to end. And it was merely watching.

The next second, the entire supermarket came to life.

Click--click--click--

The ceiling, the corners of the aisles, the tops of the shelves—every head turned simultaneously. Hundreds of heads turned in unison, like the compound eyes of an awakened insect, all aimed at Lu Heng in the center of the bulk goods area.

Buzz--

The ground began to tremble. The previously dormant Sealing Runes in the brick seams, wall cavities, and shelf bases began to glow with a faint gray-white light. The isolated patterns in each section now connected end to end, weaving together into a giant network covering the entire supermarket.

A deep hum came from all directions, like the entire building was sighing.

Then, a voice rang out.

"Finally... it's all cleaned up."

Calm, gentle, even with a hint of relief and relaxation.

The sound came from every corner of the supermarket at the same time, without any sense of direction, as if it were hitting directly on the eardrums.

The iron gate opened by itself without any wind.

The creeping darkness slowly receded, and a figure emerged from the shadows.

A middle-aged man, neatly dressed, with a calm demeanor and no aggression in his eyes. If you saw him on the street, you would mistake him for the owner of the Hardware Store next door, or a middle-aged uncle selling breakfast at the entrance of the residential area.

It's too ordinary.

So ordinary, yet in this supermarket filled with bizarre sights, it became a glaring anomaly.

Lu Heng's brow twitched slightly, and his Appraisal was instantly activated.

Light and shadow flickered.

[Authentication failed]

[Target: Unknown Existence - Silver Rank (Status Anomaly)]

Lu Heng's pupils contracted slightly.

Along the way, the system could identify and categorize all the strange and unusual things he encountered. And the person in front of him was the first to be judged as having an "unknown position".

Silver tier.

This means that the opponent's true strength far surpasses all the strange beings he had previously slain.

Lu Heng tightened his grip, holding the Rat King Miao Dao horizontally in front of him, its cold gleam concealed.

"Who are you?"

The middle-aged man stood at the boundary of light and shadow, watching Lu Heng's guarded posture, and slightly raised his hand, his tone as casual as if he were greeting a guest:

"I'm the owner of this supermarket."

As he finished speaking, the last trace of warmth in the man's eyes vanished.

There were no warning signs. There was no transition.

The temperature in the entire supermarket plummeted to freezing point in a fraction of a second. A layer of frost instantly formed on the floor tiles beneath Lu Heng's feet, his breath turned into white mist, and a thin layer of ice covered the hilt of his knife.

"That's enough small talk."

The man's tone remained unchanged, still flat, but every word seemed to be driven into the air like a nail.

"You've cleared away four problems for me, and I'm very grateful."

"So—I'll give you a dignified way to die."

Boom--!

An immense spiritual force swept over us without warning.

It wasn't a physical impact, but a crushing force from a higher dimension. Lu Heng's head felt like it was being gripped by an invisible hand; his temples throbbed, his vision began to darken at the edges, and his eardrums were filled with a sharp buzzing.

His knees bent at an angle.

Only once.

Starlight Meditation was running at full speed, and his mental energy formed a barrier to firmly hold back the torrent. Lu Heng gritted his teeth and did not retreat even half a step.

The man raised an eyebrow.

"That's interesting."

He withdrew his mental energy, as if examining an unexpectedly interesting object.

"You slew four strange creatures in a row and still managed to withstand my overwhelming mental power. Your foundation is better than I expected."

A brief silence.

The man didn't rush to make a move. He stood still, his gaze sweeping over the remaining rune traces around the supermarket, as if confirming something.

"You're probably wondering—why are these four strange creatures imprisoned here by the rune partition?"

Lu Heng didn't speak, but his grip on the knife tightened even more.

"The answer is simple," the man said, "Because I put them in there."

Lu Heng's expression changed.

"Butcher, Cashier, patrolman, Bulk Goods Clerk..." the man read out one by one, his tone like he was taking inventory. "They were all evil people in life. Cannibals, swindlers, traffickers, those who sold fake medicine and killed people. Their sins were heavy enough, and their resentment in death was strong enough."

He paused.

"I spent a long time finding them, setting up this Sealing Great Array, and then killing them one by one, binding their souls and locking their thoughts."

The original plan was to slowly absorb their accumulated resentment and use the four strange, malevolent forces to break through his own limitations.

At this point, the man's lips twitched slightly, but it wasn't exactly a smile.

"But I overlooked one thing—these four things are more dangerous than I imagined."

"They're trapped inside the formation and can't get out, so I can't force them to be harvested. Forcibly absorbing them would only result in a backlash from their resentment."

"And so it remained a stalemate for several years."

The man's gaze returned to Lu Heng.

"I'm waiting for a variable. An outsider, unbound by the formation, to break this deadlock for me."

He looked at Lu Heng, his eyes so calm it didn't seem like he was about to kill him.

"You did a great job. The four monsters have been eliminated, and the shackles of the formation's backlash are gone. I can finally absorb all the resentment and take the next step."

The runic light emanating from the entire supermarket suddenly surged.

All the binding forces converged at the same instant, transforming into countless gray-white rays of light that surged from the ground, walls, and ceiling toward the man behind the iron gate.

The man opened his arms wide, as if welcoming a long-overdue baptism.

"And you--"

He looked at Lu Heng, his tone gentle, even carrying a hint of sincere apology.

"Your usefulness ends here."