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Why does everyone like taking the aerial route? They have no consideration for law-abiding people traveling on the ground. What if someone below gets hit by something falling from above? Ye Jiang thought.

Their eyes met for an instant, and the woman above leaped into a dilapidated building and disappeared.

Ye Jiang held the apple against her lips, paused for a few seconds, then took a bite.

There were more people in this Sun Zone than she had imagined.

After the woman left, the space above Ye Jiang's head cleared. No one else passed overhead. Ye Jiang walked a little farther and saw a corpse belonging to a lackey from the Hyenas. He was thoroughly dead, his body covered in cuts, and looked rather undignified. Ye Jiang's gaze did not linger, and she kept walking.

After she finished walking down one street, the sound of the Blood Knight dragging his greatsword suddenly stopped, replaced by the sounds of fighting. Ye Jiang paused and stopped in her tracks, pushed off the ground to leap into the air, then pushed off a few more times to reach the roof of a nearby building.

Once she reached the roof, her view abruptly opened up, and she saw what was happening. An ability user was maneuvering against the Blood Knight. This ability user could transform parts of his body into steel and block some of the blood attacks. The Hyenas' lackeys had been utterly helpless, and this steel ability user was a little better than those little dogs. Ye Jiang could not tell whether he was strong, but she could tell that he was quite good at dodging. He seemed able to anticipate some of the Blood Knight's attacks, though he was still struggling and had sustained quite a few injuries.

The steel ability user was locked in combat with the Blood Knight. Two people were concealed on the rooftops of the buildings to either side, one on each. One was the woman who had just passed over Ye Jiang's head. Both lay motionless, watching the battle below intently. They looked as though they intended to launch a sneak attack but lacked an opening.

No, there were more than two people lying in wait. There was a third, concealed inside a dilapidated building behind the Blood Knight, with most of her body obscured. Ye Jiang could not make out her figure, but she could sense her taut presence.

What were they doing?

Ye Jiang watched for a while, thought it over, then left the rooftop and headed downstairs. There were too many people over there right now. She would wait a little before going over.

She entered an empty room, cleared a patch of space, and rested for the time being, eating her apple in the shade.

She took out her phone to play with it, discovered there was no signal, and pursed her lips before putting it away, listening absently to the fighting outside.

The moment Ye Jiang turned to go downstairs, over a dozen thick chains shot out of a building on another street with tremendous force. Had Ye Jiang looked back at that moment, she would have seen the third person concealed in the ruined building reveal herself. Tall and slender, with immense strength beneath her wheat-colored skin, she was a female ability user, a powerful person whose hands could both wield sinister chains and toss a wok in the kitchen.

Someone Ye Jiang knew-Xiao Pei.

Ye Jiang did not look back. On the ground, the Blood Knight's attention was entirely drawn to the steel ability user, exposing a slight opening. Xiao Pei had been waiting a long time for precisely this moment! Chains shot out, wrapping around the Blood Knight's limbs and neck. With a clatter, the chains pulled taut, nearly striking sparks. In an instant, the Blood Knight was trussed up, rigid and unable to move. Fire attacks and wind blades followed immediately. The wind fed the fire, and a fireball originally only the size of a basketball instantly became a sea of flames, hurtling toward the Blood Knight with a whoosh. The Blood Knight was swallowed by the enormous mass of fire! Coordinating perfectly, the steel ability user sprang back into a building to one side. Only once he felt safe did he turn to look. The Blood Knight was tightly bound by the chains, unable to break free, and could only let the flames burn him.

The steel ability user froze, then, after a long moment, was overwhelmed with joy.

"W-we did it!" Covered in wounds, he cried and laughed, his face illuminated by the firelight.

They had done it!

They had finally done it. They had captured the Blood Knight!

Half a month, fifty-one trials, six lives lost-the Blood Knight had been captured for the first time!

Burn!

Burn the Blood Knight to death!

Thinking of his fallen companions and their desperate pursuit over the past half month, the wounded steel ability user almost wanted to burst into tears.

A month earlier, anomalies dressed in bizarre outfits had appeared one after another in three cities near City S. Investigations pointed directly to City S. Since this concerned City S, where a monster lurked, the Ability Control Bureau Headquarters took the matter very seriously. They dispatched the newly reinstated operations team leader Xiao Pei to join operations team members from the three cities, forming a ten-person investigation team to investigate City S. This was a mission to their deaths. Not one of the investigators previously sent to City S had returned.

Having accepted such an important mission, every member of the team was informed of the monster's existence before departure. Setting aside the psychological shock they suffered, once the group arrived in City S, they discovered a great many civilians in the city. The forbidden zone, City S, had evidently become a popular tourist attraction in secret. Before they came, Ability Control Bureau branches in various places had already discovered civilians heading to City S despite attempts to stop them. Only after arriving did they realize just how astonishingly many civilians had come. Unable to attend to their investigation, the team prepared to disperse the civilians first. However, they could no longer leave. City S was suddenly sealed off, becoming a cage that allowed entry but no exit. At the same time, anomalous phenomena began appearing at random, and the Blood Knight appeared.

The investigation team was no stranger to the Blood Knight. His features were far too distinctive. Over the past half month, they had seen many similar anomalies in their respective cities. The investigation team had originally intended to subdue and imprison the Blood Knight, just as they had with the other similar anomalies, but... the Blood Knight was extraordinarily powerful, far stronger than the anomalies that had appeared in the surrounding cities!

The investigation team's leader, Xiao Pei, was already an A+ ability user, but the Blood Knight's strength was unfathomable. Even Xiao Pei was insignificant before him.

The Blood Knight had no contamination, so his rank could not be measured. The investigation team suspected that he had already reached S-rank, or was infinitely close to it even if he had not. Forget subduing the Blood Knight-their team could only flee for their lives beneath his blood blades.

The Blood Knight was far too aggressive, slaughtering everywhere. After observing him for a while, the team made a weighty decision-to hunt down and kill the Blood Knight.

That led to the fifty-one attempts that followed. They pursued the anomalous phenomena and the Blood Knight. Half a month later, only four members of their team remained. Six had died, but they had gained something as well. At first, they could only last a few minutes against the Blood Knight. Gradually, they could hold out for over ten minutes, and now they could ambush him. They were learning about the Blood Knight, gathering information through as many as fifty attempts and through death. That information told them that, although the Blood Knight's strength was unfathomable, he did not wield it well. He used his abilities very stiffly, and it even felt as though he followed a template. Given enough time, they could discern some patterns. It was precisely because they had discovered those patterns that they could maneuver carefully despite the absolute disparity in strength, though it was still extremely difficult. The gap in power was there, after all.

After so many days of pursuit and so many sacrifices, heaven had finally rewarded their efforts. They had trapped the Blood Knight in a sea of fire!

The steel ability user laughed and cried. Six partings in death had left something pent up inside him for a long time, and at this moment, he finally let it out.

He was too happy. The rare victory made him lower his guard, and by the time he heard Xiao Pei shout "Watch out!", it was already too late. A thread of blood shot toward him. A prick, like a needle piercing flesh, made only the faintest sound as the blood thread instantly pierced his chest.

The pain seemed to take a long time to arrive. Drip, drip, patter. Blood dripped from his chest like beads from a broken string. The steel ability user froze, reached up, and found his hand covered in blood. He staggered two steps before realizing he was wounded.

"H-how is that possible..."

He murmured.

After attacking for a full five minutes, the Blood Knight would enter a dormant period, during which he could not use blood attacks for a little over a hundred seconds. This was the pattern they had discovered. Their ambush plan this time had been waiting for those hundred-odd seconds. They intended to use that time to burn the Blood Knight to death.

But what was this?

The Blood Knight had attacked.

So the dormant period was not necessary after all? Was it simply because their group was not enough to make the Blood Knight use his full strength?

The steel ability user thought in a daze, then spat out a mouthful of blood a second later.

A figure rushed over and pressed him to the ground. Several blood threads swept overhead. Had the steel ability user still been standing, he would already have become a pile of chunks of flesh.

The attacks did not stop. The pattern had been broken, and the Blood Knight's blood threads attacked again. The steel ability user came to his senses and barely managed to transform his entire body. He rolled over and blocked this wave of attacks with his body, then Xiao Pei, who had come to rescue him, dragged him away.

The two relocated to a building far from the Blood Knight. Ignoring his injuries, the steel ability user asked urgently, "Captain Xiao, what about the ambush?"

Xiao Pei's face was grim. "It failed."

She exhaled a cold breath. "We'll wait for the next time."

"Pfft-"

The steel ability user spat out a mouthful of blood.

Next time.

Next time.

It was always next time.

Could they really kill the Blood Knight?

The other two team members arrived one after the other. Their expressions darkened when they saw the steel ability user's injuries, and they hurriedly searched themselves, trying to find medicine for his wounds. In the end, however, all they found was a bottle of cold medicine.

"Fuck, those bastards looted all the medicine!"

Without any wound medicine, one member had no choice but to tear up clean clothing to stop the wounded man's bleeding. Fortunately, the person injured this time was an ability user. Otherwise, this injury would have killed him. Thanks to his ability user's constitution, he would be all right for the time being. For the time being. He needed treatment.

The ambush had failed, and a dark cloud hung over the four-person team. This battle had made them understand that fifty-one attempts were not enough. They still needed to keep identifying the patterns in the Blood Knight's attacks, but how many more lives would that take?

Elsewhere.

-"Watch out!!"

Hm?

That voice...

A familiar voice reached Ye Jiang's ears as she sat lost in thought. She got up and went to the window, trying to locate its source. In the end, she saw no one, but she did see that the battle had ended. The Blood Knight was once again wandering the streets, dragging his greatsword.

Ye Jiang looked around, confirmed that no one was there, and, with a slight flicker in her eyes, slowly went downstairs.

Ye Jiang encountered the Blood Knight in the street. The instant they met, the Blood Knight's attacks came at her, and Ye Jiang dodged every one. She had the feeling that these arrows and blades made of blood would not do anything to her even if they hit her, but she avoided them anyway. She thought they were dirty.

Without much effort, she maintained her original pace as she walked toward the Blood Knight. She drew closer and closer, finally stopping in front of him.