He Actually Returned

"Gurgle~"

"Gurgle~"

Cold river water choked his throat, and Ji Xun instantly woke from his unconsciousness.

In the pitch-black, icy river water, he opened his eyes, his gaze filled with excitement and sharpness.

Although he had roughly estimated the power of the flashbang grenade and knew it wouldn't kill him, the force of the explosion at close range had, as expected, knocked him out.

If he hadn't swallowed that [Causal Medium] before, which greatly boosted his attributes, this blow might have cost him half his life.

But there was no "if."

Ji Xun never gambled on luck.

The reason he dared to do this was because he had already calculated this plan beforehand. His physical stats were strong enough, and while detonating the concussion grenade, he had also injected himself with a [Stimulant Potion] to ensure he would wake up the moment he hit the water.

Although there was still risk, once he entered the water, it meant he had escaped.

That was far better than being captured.

Spell Card Masters were very powerful on land, but their abilities were greatly diminished in water, with both perception and movement severely restricted.

Especially those close-combat Spell Card Masters with high-density muscles; they wouldn't necessarily be more agile than Ji Xun in the water.

"Heh, lucky me."

In the dark river water, Ji Xun couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood, but the darkness couldn't hide the sinister grin on his face.

His eyes were like a fierce beast in the night, resolute and wild.

His body was sinking and drifting with the swift current. Forcing down the churning blood and qi, he began to work on the steel net around him.

The steel wire was strong, but the locks were still mechanical.

Escaping underwater was a skill Ji Xun was intimately familiar with from his previous life; these mechanical locks were no problem for him.

Immersed in the cold river water, it was as if a flash of inspiration struck him.

He felt it wasn't just about luck anymore.

It was as if there was some kind of resonance from the unseen.

The Demon Mark had granted him the extraordinary, so naturally, he had to bear the favor of the Gambler of Misfortune.

His enemies splashed into the water one after another, but they had clearly lost their target.

Ji Xun unlocked the restraints and suddenly laughed, "Tsk tsk..."

In his eyes, this wasn't over yet!

If he had just escaped, that wouldn't have been his entire plan.

Thinking of something, he swam into the ink-like river water as nimbly as a fish.

Meanwhile, the merchants on Dark Rain Street's Black Market were also stunned by the sudden turn of events.

A few gunshots had alerted the merchants and customers throughout the entire street block.

Although Sinless City was a city of disorder and a den of vice, generally speaking, some places had unwritten rules.

Like Dark Rain Street, it was a market where major powers in the city concentrated their material trading, and many unsavory transactions were completed here.

Therefore, people who came here almost universally accepted that fighting was not allowed here.

It wasn't explicitly forbidden, but if someone broke the rules, they might no longer be welcome in the Black Market.

The impact was very bad.

The consequences were also very serious.

Yet today, someone had actually fired a gun on the street?

On the second floor of the "Silver Star Mysterious Materials Shop," the middle-aged shop owner looked at the two corpses on the street with a somewhat complex expression.

He had witnessed the sudden battle from beginning to end.

He had personally watched that person pawn a few cards with him and then buy six [Demon-Breaking Bullets] before leaving.

Then, he saw the scene that he found hard to believe.

That young man, a Card Master Apprentice, had miraculously escaped from the encirclement meticulously laid out by a group of experts?

With his experience, how could he not see that the guy's response was brilliant?

That extreme calmness and judgment were simply unbelievable.

"No wonder the Blackwater Mercenary Group has been so active in the Black Market recently; they were looking for this person. The one from 407? Heh, it makes sense that he could break through that difficult space with such meticulous planning."

In the attic, the shop owner narrowed his eyes slightly and muttered to himself, "It's been a long time since I've seen such a dazzling young man..."

Looking at the flustered Blackwater Mercenaries, it was clear that the young man who jumped off the cliff might have truly escaped.

Tsk tsk, truly interesting.

If it were anyone else under the same circumstances, he felt they would have definitely been caught.

But that young man had managed to escape successfully.

The middle-aged man's appreciative smile grew more pronounced.

He figured since this person was introduced by Seventh Miss, he should help out.

He said calmly, "Go take a look. If you can save the person, then act. Clean up the Cao Family folks while you're at it."

In the darkness, someone responded, "Yes."

After the middle-aged shop owner gave his orders, he stood by the window, lost in thought.

However, he never expected that the shock he just experienced was only the beginning. It was at this moment that an even more unexpected scene unfolded.

His gaze suddenly landed on a dark figure appearing in the alley on the street.

The middle-aged shop owner blinked, thinking he was mistaken.

But as he watched the guy walk out of the darkness with a gun, his eyes immediately widened: "This guy still dares to come back?"

Almost all of the Blackwater Mercenary Group members had descended to the dark river about a hundred meters below, searching for their target in the water.

If the person hadn't shown up, and they hadn't waited, it would have just been bad luck.

But now that the person had clearly arrived and slipped through their grasp, everyone in the Blackwater Mercenaries knew the consequences they faced.

No one could bear the wrath of the Cao Family.

If they couldn't find the person, they were as good as dead!

As they thought, the target had either jumped into the river and was either locked down by the steel net and sunk to the riverbed, or had escaped along the river, heading towards the pitch-black downstream where no one knew where it led.

However, no one had anticipated that Ji Xun was different from what they imagined.

While the main force was standing in the river searching for the person, he had already quietly sneaked out of the darkness.

He hadn't left; instead, he had returned to Dark Rain Street.

He still had one thing left to do.

That was to resolve his lingering worries.

Ji Xun didn't know how he had been exposed before, but thinking about the mysterious ritual, he guessed it was likely some kind of Diviner or other Spell Card Master.

When he had jumped off the cliff earlier, he had seen a white-haired old woman among the enemies.

It was that old woman who had identified him first.

Ji Xun's intuition told him that she was the one who cast the spell.

So, from the very beginning when he was discovered, Ji Xun had a thought in his mind: if he had the chance, he absolutely had to kill that Diviner.

To eliminate future troubles!

He didn't think that old woman could follow him off the cliff, given that she was a Warrior-class Spell Card Master.

Although the fifty-two professional sequences each had their strengths, the professions were relatively balanced. While the Wisdom sequence granted the old woman extraordinary and miraculous divination abilities, it also gave her a weaker physique than ordinary people.

As expected.

When he returned to Dark Rain Street, Ji Xun saw the lone old woman on the street.

Almost all the mercenaries had gone down into the dark river to search for people. No one would have expected the culprit to dare to double back and kill someone!

Ji Xun had been wearing the Clown Mask since he emerged from the water, which made him immune to most mysterious rituals.

He moved like a ghost lurking in the darkness, and as he emerged from the alley, he was less than ten meters away from the old woman.

This distance was practically a guaranteed hit.

In the last moments of her life, the old woman seemed to have a premonition, turning her head towards the dark alley. She saw the figure holding a gun, her eyes widened in surprise for a moment, then she let out a bitter smile of release.

She had actually vaguely sensed her own death.

She had thought she would die from the backlash of the relic.

She hadn't expected to be wrong.

She was going to die by a gun.

But it didn't matter, as she had already reached the end of her life.

Wasn't it a kind of liberation?

The old woman before him looked even more aged than before, like a candle flickering in the wind, visibly weak.

Ji Xun showed no mercy and pulled the trigger. With a "bang," an Annihilation Bullet pierced her forehead.

Just as everyone was wondering why a gunshot suddenly rang out on the street again, Ji Xun had already rushed forward. He quickly pulled off the storage ring from the corpse's hand, then darted into the alley and disappeared into the darkness once more.

A few minutes later, the Silver Star Mysterious Materials Shop welcomed another customer.

Ji Xun, having changed his attire, walked into the shop.

The middle-aged shop owner looked at the person wearing a gas mask before him and recognized him as the customer from before.

At this moment, the shop owner's gaze was extremely complex.

Ji Xun poured out a large pile of items from the storage ring and asked, "Boss, can I exchange these things for that breathing technique?"

He hadn't had money earlier, but now he did.

The spoils from killing the old woman could be exchanged for something.

He was exposed anyway.

Beneath the goggles of the gas mask were a pair of eyes burning with barely contained madness. The arrogant curve of his lips seemed to exude a chilling aura that could freeze the very air.

The noise outside continued unabated. No one would have expected that the madman who had killed twice on the street would return so calmly to buy things.

Was he betting that I wouldn't make things difficult for him?

The shopkeeper watched, his thoughts churning, and then smiled in understanding. "Of course."

It had been a long time since he'd encountered such a bold young man.