Shu Mu's Short-Sightedness X Dawn Society X Lawlessness

"I suggest you leave as quickly as you can."

Shu Mu's voice still lingered over the rubble, and a faint glimmer flashed through his fully opened eyes.

The Nen Aura between his ten fingers was being compressed in a manner unlike the fine threads, and the dangerous pressure was building layer upon layer.

Jiang Ye stood ten meters away, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He could feel the Aura around Shu Mu changing.

Completely unlike the fine threads he had used to cut and bind, Shu Mu now resembled a hedgehog curled up as tightly as it could.

All its spines were drawing inward rather than pointing outward.

But Jiang Ye didn't retreat-or rather, he had no intention of retreating at all.

He held his hand in a shadow puppet sign, his thumb pressed against the base of his middle finger and his other three fingers spread slightly, ready to summon Toad at any moment.

Divine Dog: Totality crouched three meters behind and to his side, its shoulder muscles slightly tensed, ready to burst forward and cover the distance at any moment.

The edges of Jiang Ye's shadow flowed gently at his feet, and shadow threads had already covered every key route within thirty meters.

He was confident he could put up his strongest defense the moment Shu Mu unleashed his move!

With everything ready, Jiang Ye stood there and watched Shu Mu in silence.

Seeing that he wasn't moving, Shu Mu's expression grew even uglier.

He gritted his teeth, his molars grinding as he forced the words out between them, his voice hoarse like someone backed into a corner.

"You forced me to do this!"

As the words left his mouth, he flung both hands out to the sides.

Nen Ability: Shu Mu's Short-Sightedness!

The Nen Aura compressed to its limit burst from his fingertips and became an extremely fine beam of silver light.

The light wrapped around his body, pulling him taut from head to toe as though with an invisible thread.

In an instant, Shu Mu vanished.

His entire outline was wiped from sight, as if erased by an eraser.

Only a shallow scrape remained on the rubble, a mark made by the toe of his boot as he took off, extending toward the northern side of the scrap yard.

Jiang Ye froze for a moment, visibly surprised.

He looked down at the direction of the scrape, then looked back at the spot where Shu Mu had been standing. After confirming that nobody was there, his mouth twitched.

"Did he... run away?"

He truly hadn't expected Shu Mu's strongest ultimate move to be running away.

Tie Liao lay on his side on the rubble, the wound on his chest still bleeding.

He had watched Shu Mu disappear with his own eyes, and the expression on his face changed from pain to disbelief.

"Shu Mu."

There was no anger in his voice as he spoke the name, only an almost hollow calm.

Jiang Ye glanced at Tie Liao.

The man known as the leader of the Shattered Iron Group was staring in the direction where his erstwhile ally had disappeared, as though something in his eyes was slowly breaking apart.

Shu Mu had run.

He had fled without the slightest hesitation, cleanly and completely, without even looking back.

He had turned and left, as if he had made up his mind about something.

His earlier threats about his ultimate move and being afraid were, in the end, nothing more than a ruse to divert attention and create an opening to escape.

From beginning to end, Shu Mu had never intended to face Jiang Ye head-on.

He had already been planning his retreat when he said Jiang Ye would be afraid.

Jiang Ye looked in the direction Shu Mu had fled, but didn't give chase.

He had to admit that Shu Mu was indeed smarter. First, he had made Jiang Ye wary of acting rashly, giving off a dangerous Aura, then chosen to flee the moment Jiang Ye's attention was drawn to him.

He had been decisive and unhesitating from start to finish. Compared with the single-minded Tie Liao, Shu Mu did seem smarter, but he had put his cleverness to the wrong use.

"That really was the behavior of a rat."

"Too bad..."

His hand had already risen slightly, and an extremely fine black shadow thread silently extended from his sleeve into the shadow beneath a sheet of scrap iron to the east.

"Too bad virtue rises ten feet for every foot the devil rises!"

Buzz!

In an instant, the shadow threads he had laid out before coming began to vibrate.

Shu Mu's escape route had been locked down.

No matter how fast he ran, he couldn't outrun the speed at which the shadows spread.

Jiang Ye softly said one word.

"Totality."

The next moment, Divine Dog: Totality pushed off with all four limbs, its massive body becoming a black-and-white afterimage as it glided silently along the ground, pursuing him north along the path marked by the shadow threads.

Jiang Ye then looked away and turned his gaze to Tie Liao.

Tie Liao was still lying there.

On the half of his face that wasn't caked in blood, disbelief had given way to resignation after despair.

He was looking at Jiang Ye, and Jiang Ye was looking at him.

"The victor becomes king; the loser becomes an outlaw."

Jiang Ye's voice was calm.

"Will you cut open your own belly, or shall I help you?"

Tie Liao's Adam's apple bobbed.

He opened his mouth but didn't answer immediately.

The blood on the rubble was still spreading slowly, collecting in a shallow, dark red pool in a low spot on the ground.

He looked down at the wound on his chest, then up at Jiang Ye.

A long time passed before he spoke.

"Shu Mu ran."

"I can run too. But I'm hurt too badly. I wouldn't get far."

Jiang Ye didn't reply.

Tie Liao took a deep breath and spoke again.

"If you're willing to spare my life... the Shattered Iron Group will join the Rust Bone Gang starting today."

"I still have dozens of men under me. I only have to give the word, and they'll listen."

He paused and caught his breath twice before continuing.

"And I know about Grey Elder."

"I know how many cards he has to play with the Council of Elders, how many Nen users he keeps under him, and how he plans to deal with disobedient gangs like yours."

He raised his eyes to Jiang Ye.

"Spare me, and the Shattered Iron Group is yours. So is the information on Grey Elder."

"You have a use for both."

Jiang Ye didn't respond immediately.

He simply looked down at Tie Liao's face, half smeared with blood and dust, as if judging how much of those words came from a genuine desire to live and how much came from something else.

Seeing that he wasn't answering, Tie Liao steeled himself and played his last card.

"To tell you the truth."

He kept his voice very low, so low that only Jiang Ye could hear him.

"On the surface, I'm the leader of the Shattered Iron Group, but I'm actually a member of a major force in District 5."

"That force is called the Dawn Society... It has over a thousand people in District 5 of Meteor City, established supply channels, and more resources at its disposal than Grey Elder."

"I was sent to District 13 to establish a presence and pave the way for the Dawn Society here."

He paused and looked into Jiang Ye's eyes.

"If you kill me, the Dawn Society won't stand by and do nothing."

"The person they sent here to establish a presence will be dead. They'll investigate, and they'll find you."

"When that happens, you'll be facing more than just the Shattered Iron Group."

After he finished speaking, the air was silent for several seconds.

There was only the crackle of flames still smoldering in the distant scrap yard and the low howl of wind passing over the iron frames.

Jiang Ye listened without any change in expression.

He lowered his head, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly.

The curve was slight, not even a complete smile, but when Tie Liao saw it, a chill suddenly ran down his back.

"The Dawn Society."

Jiang Ye repeated the name, as if weighing it.

Then he raised his head, looked at Tie Liao, and chuckled.

"Heh."

"Nothing but a bunch of weaklings."

"Do you think I'd be afraid?"

At those words, Tie Liao's pupils contracted.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Jiang Ye gave him no chance.

"The place you're in now is District 13."

"District 13 was the last area of Meteor City to be established. The other districts have been built up for decades, even a century or more, while District 13 is still in a state where everything needs to be rebuilt."

"You say the Dawn Society is a major force, with over a thousand people in District 5..."

"But so what?"

"Can they cross the blockades of six or seven districts and come all the way to District 13 to kill me?"

Jiang Ye leaned forward slightly and looked into Tie Liao's eyes, his own filled with indifference and killing intent.

"Even if they really do come... do you think I'll back down?"

Jiang Ye naturally knew that District 13 was a newly designated area, and everything was still in a state where it needed to be rebuilt. Naturally, that had created a situation where, with no tiger in the mountains, the monkey declared itself king.

Thus, even a medium-sized force was enough to occupy the entire district. It simply couldn't compare with the other twelve districts.

But as someone who knew the original story, Jiang Ye knew that the Phantom Troupe was the only thing in all of Meteor City that had gained wider recognition, and there was nothing else.

Major forces sounded frightening, but on closer examination, they were really nothing special.

They simply couldn't escape the control of Meteor City's elders.

These major forces were really nothing more than larger breeding farms kept by the elders.

Looking at the utterly audacious Jiang Ye, Tie Liao's breathing grew heavier.

He wasn't afraid of death, but he feared something that mattered more to him than death.

He realized he couldn't see through the twelve-year-old child in front of him at all.

There was no fear or bluffing in those eyes, only something he had seen in very few people.

A lawlessness that came from genuinely disregarding every threat!

Jiang Ye's appearance and attitude now suddenly brought a face to Tie Liao's mind.

The man who wore a black coat and had a purple inverted cross tattooed on his forehead.

He had seen him once on the outskirts of Meteor City, only catching a distant glimpse, but that single glance had made him remember the man's outline.

Chrollo Lucilfer, leader of the Phantom Troupe.

One of the most dangerous men to come out of Meteor City!