Near a Hollow.
Anton put his hands on his hips. "Proxy, this is the approximate location of the grabbing machine, one of the three machines. We don't have a Carrot, so it's up to you from here."
"Don't worry. Hollows are our specialty!"
Belle answered confidently.
Elsewhere, Lu Yingheng walked down the street using invisibility, an inscrutable smile curling at his lips.
"You old bastards must have been overjoyed during the year I disappeared, weren't you?
Enjoy the time you have left. I'll uproot every last one of you."
In a dark conference room, an elderly man sat in a chair, only his upper body visible. His short hair was streaked with gray.
He wore a dark, custom-tailored suit, with a lead cane symbolizing authority beside him.
His eyes were hidden in shadow, his pupils barely visible in full. He spoke slowly and authoritatively.
"Have the municipal government and those young women's forces made any unusual moves these past few days?"
A mature woman spoke up. "Now that you mention it, there has been something. The municipal government suddenly deleted all the surveillance footage from Lumina Square.
"The Dragon Emperor Guard has also deployed in large numbers, and the Hoshimi Family has been gathering information, but we haven't found out exactly why."
The woman had long, dark, curly hair and exquisite, icy makeup. She wore an elaborately tailored dark evening gown, with a thorn-shaped tin crown ornament on her shoulder.
Light and shadow covered most of her face. Her expression was indifferent, and her tone restrained.
"Oh, my. The Dragon Emperor Guard has been lying low all this time, but now they've suddenly made a major move. What could be happening?"
A man wearing round purple glasses said excitedly, "We shouldn't have left any evidence behind, should we? Or did one of you mishandle something?"
The old man glared at him. "This is no time for jokes. We should be discussing what could have mobilized those two forces."
The woman tapped the table. "Either they've found some measure the Dragon Emperor left behind before his death, or there's a problem with their alliance."
The man in purple glasses shrugged. "Maybe the Dragon Emperor isn't dead? Maybe they're going to look for him this time, to welcome him back to his position?"
The old man shook his head. "The Dragon Emperor is already dead. His body is still buried in the cemetery. I watched his body being buried with my own eyes."
"Hahahahahahahaha!"
Laughter suddenly rang out.
The old man's pupils contracted. "Who's there?"
Though the woman and the man in purple glasses said nothing, their bodies abruptly stiffened, as if they were about to face some great horror.
"A year has passed, and you still like holding meetings here. You didn't think that because I was dead, no one would ever find out you were here again, did you?"
A man appeared on the round table in an instant, sitting cross-legged, paying no heed to the three people seated around it.
"Dragon Emperor?"
The woman cried out in shock, "You're actually alive? How could you possibly be alive?"
"Huh? Why would I be dead?"
A cold smile appeared on Lu Yingheng's face. "I'm the Dragon Emperor, the supreme emperor."
"Speaking of you three, you seem to have been quite comfortable this past year, haven't you?"
The man in purple glasses forced a smile. "Void Hunter Dragon Emperor, since you're alive, why didn't you let us know? We could have gone to welcome you."
Lu Yingheng's figure vanished from the table. The next second, the man in purple glasses felt his vision change.
Everything before his eyes instantly changed from purple back to normal.
Lu Yingheng stood behind him and clapped his hands. "You really don't look good wearing those glasses. I put them on your collar for you. No need to thank me."
The woman sighed inwardly.
Teleportation? Or was he simply that fast?
If he could move the glasses from someone's face to his collar in an instant, he could naturally snap that person's neck in an instant too, couldn't he?
The old man immediately stood and bowed to Lu Yingheng. "Lord Dragon Emperor, you must be tired from your journey. Why don't we find somewhere for you to rest first?"
Lu Yingheng shook his head and casually tossed the man without his glasses aside, smashing a hole in the wall and embedding him in it.
"A year has passed. Come on, let's settle all our accounts. I imagine you've had a particularly comfortable year, since the one you feared most had sacrificed himself."
The old man's brow twitched as he looked fearfully at the man now embedded in the opposite wall.
"Lord Dragon Emperor, isn't this a little against the rules? He is, after all, one of the Three-Pact Round Table. According to the rules, you can't take action against him without authorization."
Lu Yingheng smiled slightly. The next instant, the old man went flying along with his chair.
"Oh? Then tell me, what rules am I bound by?"
The old man could no longer speak. The woman immediately lowered her head, but still gritted her teeth.
"Void Hunter Dragon Emperor, you've now attacked two important figures. So may I ask, did you seek the mayor's approval before attacking them?"
Lu Yingheng smiled even more broadly. "Oh? Then tell me, why should I seek the mayor's approval?"
"Because you're a Void-"
She suddenly understood why the man before her was acting so brazenly.
The Void Hunter Dragon Emperor was dead. He had died a year ago.
The current Lu Yingheng was, throughout New Eridu, nothing more than an unregistered person.
Of course, no rules could restrain him.
Nor could any enforcer of the rules restrain him.
"Void Hunters are good people, but the Dragon Emperor isn't..."
Lu Yingheng teleported, grabbed her by the throat, and lifted her into the air. "Even if I wanted to kill you, what could you do about it?"
"Denounce the First-Generation Void Hunter before the public? Tell the people that the First-Generation Void Hunter Dragon Emperor, dead for a year, crawled out of his grave and beat you up?"
"I imagine those people would only say that the TOPS Consortium has no shame. You were beaten up by an assassin, yet you blamed the Dragon Emperor, who sacrificed himself for the people long ago."
The woman's eyes widened further and further. Though her throat was in his grip, she struggled with all her might to speak.
"I knew it... How could such a simple plan have caused your death...? So you did it on purpose. You deliberately got... rid of the title of 'Void Hunter'!"
Lu Yingheng snapped his fingers. His handsome eyes looked like those of a vengeful ghost to the woman.
"Looks like you're not stupid after all! Now we'll see whether the Order of Glorification can't wait to jump out."
The woman was already close to suffocating. "You... can't... kill me..."
Lu Yingheng shook his head. "No, I won't kill you here, because that's not how the script was written."
"Besides, I haven't found any useful puppets yet, so I'll spare the three of you for now."
Just as the woman was about to die, Lu Yingheng vanished in an instant, leaving only a long echo behind.
"You'd better speed up your plans, or how will our protagonist grow?"