Chapter 286 - Caught Red-Handed

Powder fell like a gentle white rain as You An stood dumbfounded, staring in the direction the four figures had disappeared to. He remained frozen for a moment, then suddenly sneezed. When he turned to look at the statue in the center of the circular plaza, he noticed it was now just a pair of legs.

You An was inexplicably reminded of the terrifying scenes in the Grimm District of East Sea City. Those monstrous beings with superhuman physical strength had fought each other that night, using only fists and feet to destroy everything around them.

He and his butler had witnessed the aftermath of that scene. Was history about to repeat itself here? You An felt a strange haze clouding his mind, just like that trench-coated man he'd seen earlier by the window.

"Phew, that was scary! It looked like the statue was flying in our direction..." You An heard his sister Haiman sigh in relief beside him, a hint of lingering fear in her voice.

Most people on the circular plaza in front of the Tulip Antique Exhibition felt the same. As a result, aside from the initial screams when the statue first shattered, the crowd fell into an eerie silence. It was only when someone started talking that the plaza started to buzz with life again, as people leaned in and whispered to each other.

Talking amongst themselves, the crowd quickly made their way toward their parked vehicles as though there was imminent danger. Yet one purple-haired youth in a trench coat remained planted like a statue. Lance immediately understood what had happened—a clash had broken out between rival forces at the exhibition. He had no idea what intense conflict had caused it but one thing was clear: he had neither the right nor the qualification to get involved.

He looked at the gaping hole in the white wall that was barely standing, and an uncertain flicker crossed his eyes as he murmured to himself, "Maybe a stroll around Iceblue Lake wouldn't be bad..."

The commotion on the plaza had alerted the guards, who quickly informed a combat artist elder overseeing the Tulip Antique Exhibition. He frowned slightly as he stepped out of the back hall.

The day was bright and clear under the noonday sun with blue skies and white clouds. The light was faintly golden, casting a hazy glow and bringing a strange sense of warmth.

The statue lay shattered in the center of the plaza. White dust covered the ground as debris, sharp enough to be felt through one's shoes, lay scattered everywhere.

A white training shoe pressed down on a fragment of the statue's face, crumbling it into powder. The elder stood by the ruins, his eyes narrowing as a faint white Qi seemed to flow through his sleeves. However, the bright light made it difficult to see clearly. He lowered his gaze, his mind seeming to settle on a decision.

"Blood Spirit Society

ah

, Blood Spirit Society... You sure know how to cause trouble for my Cloud Dog Fist." The elder's words dripped with ice as he spat between gritted teeth. Just a few days ago, the Blood Spirit Society had already launched a raid on the Tulip Antique Exhibition, injuring him in the process. Now they were here again with a show of force. Intimidating the exhibition's visitors? Tarnishing the reputation of the Tulip Antique Exhibition?

Although, those four had moved so quickly that it was impossible to tell which force they belonged to. Regardless, the elder decided to pin it on the Blood Spirit Society for now. After all, they had been the most active recently, and he had suffered at their hands.

He took a deep breath, then turned to the middle-aged man waiting beside him. "Extend the deployment area to cover the entire plaza and nearby streets. If manpower is insufficient, pull some from the main gate."

"Yes, sir," the middle-aged man nodded.

The elder suddenly felt a tightness in his chest and reached out to press lightly on the scar over his chest. His gaze turned even darker and more menacing.

"Adam, just wait until my senior brother arrives..." The vengeance-filled elder didn't realize that his much-anticipated opponent had already been reduced to pulp by someone else the previous night and had been brutally drained of every last bit of life.

Elsewhere...

"Why are you chasing me?!" The black-haired man in a suit let out a cold grunt, clearly frustrated. Cassius had said he'd only scare him and make their move on the fourth day. Yet, mere hours after their meeting, right when the exhibition had barely ended, Cassius and his companions closed in on him.

Three seasoned combat artists cornering him alone! They had no sense of honor whatsoever. Then he reconsidered; perhaps he'd been too naive. Or, more accurately, his position as a core member of the Gate Organization, a Class S danger, had led to arrogance and a faint hope for leniency.

Logically, Cassius's reasoning had been spot-on. Cloud Dog Fist, still wary from the last raid, had stationed more experts on-site. Even though they were a Class B powerhouse, angering the hosts would still mean trouble. A proper showdown would indeed have to wait until the fourth day. Furthermore, though Black Peacock had grown wary of Cassius and his companions, he still had a strange confidence in himself.

Unlike Blade Demon Garoro, who excelled in aggressive combat, Black Peacock's Covert Martial Arts specialized in speed, stealth, and assassination. One could say he was highly skilled in the art of escape. He didn't think he'd lose his life even with Cassius and his team pursuing him. At worst, he expected to sustain some injuries. That was why he hadn't left the exhibition immediately. That was also why he was in the situation he now found himself in.

Cassius and his team had decided to strike head-on.

"Why the hostility, the three of you? You can't kill me. We're all here for the Tulip Antique Exhibition. Why not sit down and talk?" Black Peacock yelled out as he ran. Suddenly, he heard a powerful

whoosh

behind him and dodged to the left like a shadow.

A two-meter-wide crater appeared where he'd just been with a

boom

, scattering debris and leaving spider-web cracks around it. Cassius pulled his fist back, gripping the edge of the crater with both hands. Using all four limbs, he launched himself like a cannonball.

Cassius's punch tore through Black Peacock's back with a soft

thud

, splitting his body at the spine. However, Black Peacock's form flickered eerily and dissolved into a hazy mist, only to reassemble like flowing water. A perfectly intact body reappeared nearby.

This strange technique seemed almost impossible to counter. Even Feng Liusi and Saint Feinan achieved little effect as they took turns attacking. The three of them relentlessly pursued, tearing into Black Peacock's mist-like form again and again. Before they realized it, they had crossed half the city and now found themselves on a narrow, secluded path.

Black Peacock halted. He stood at a crossroads, his black clothes gently billowing as his face shifted to resemble another person. A second later, his appearance morphed again, this time into a middle-aged man. Black Peacock pulled a mask over his face, his voice turning raspy and rough, like the scraping of flint.

"You can't kill me. I may not be able to defeat Blade Demon, but my survival skills are far stronger than his." He looked toward Cassius, his eyes somewhat cold behind the mask as his voice turned smooth. "Since you possess a Gate Fragment, why not join our Gate organization? As a seasoned combat artist, you are more than qualified, and the other members would have no objections."

Cassius paused, replying, "I've met the new butler of Black Ops Agency, Reaper Amos. You know him, I assume?"

Black Peacock's expression changed, as though he feared Cassius might have learned something from Amos. "That's entirely different. Amos was weak when he joined the organization, so of course, he became a test subject. However, you're different. The strong are respected anywhere. Besides, you already possess a Gate Fragment, which qualifies you to become a core member directly."

Since Cassius hadn't continued to attack, Black Peacock seemed to genuinely want to recruit him and continued divulging information. "Though you have obtained a Gate Fragment, surely you don't know how to utilize it deeply. The Gate Organization has detailed usage methods, which will surely surprise you. These are the Secret Techniques our leader developed, and they're the main attraction that brings people to join us...

"I wonder if that interests you?" Black Peacock smiled at Cassius. Though his face was obscured by the mask, his eyes still conveyed a hint of meaning.

"You're stalling for time." Cassius said quietly. He could guess Black Peacock's thoughts. Part of the recruitment was likely genuine, but stalling was more of the reason.

"You're not as calm as you seem. This technique must have a considerable side effect. Are you waiting for reinforcements from the Gate Organization?" Cassius shook his head. "Funny. I'm waiting too."

Cassius had realized from the chase that Black Peacock had exceptional survival skills and a variety of techniques. Their initial plan to ambush and finish him off was unlikely to work. At best, they could wound him and make him bear the side effects of his Secret Technique.

But Cassius noticed that Black Peacock kept engaging in conversation as he fled, seemingly to recruit him with some sincerity but with an ulterior motive in mind. After considering this, Cassius decided to let Black Peacock's plan play out.

If they couldn't kill Black Peacock, then they'd kill his reinforcements instead. As for Black Peacock's mention of the Gate Organization's fragment usage methods and the offer to join, Cassius couldn't be less interested. Not only had he and his companions fought Blade Demon Garoro, but he had been driven to the brink by the Gate Organization's own Peacock in the real world.

Cassius had absolutely no good will toward that organization. Then there was the annihilation of the Wind Elephant Sect, with Dead Blood seemingly under the leadership of a Gate Organization figure named Xiadu. Cassius's opinion of the organization could only be described as utterly hostile. He viewed them no differently from dark creatures.

Rather than joining the organization and playing along with their schemes, Cassius preferred to uncover secrets himself, through one trip through time after another. True secrets, he believed, would be revealed in the face of true strength—his strength.

Black Peacock's gaze shifted. Just as he was about to respond, Cassius and his two companions moved to silence him once and for all. They charged forward, radiating powerful Qi. Everyone present was a veteran combat artist, some of the most elite in the Covert Martial Arts world. Each strike was devastating and could tear apart a stretch of street in mere moments.

Black Peacock certainly had a strange Secret Technique, allowing him to disperse into a smoke-like form that mitigated much of the damage he received. However, when faced with three attackers, he was forced to try and escape, since he couldn’t counter effectively. He relied solely on his bizarre technique to survive during the chase. The reason he didn't use any other techniques was possibly due to the heavy toll his Secret Technique took or perhaps because of its side effects.

The four combatants fought all the way to the outskirts of the city. At some point, a group of seven or eight people emerged from an alleyway. Some were male, some female, some old, and some young. But they all radiated a powerful Qi and their gazes were cold and fierce.

They were led by a bald, burly man clad in a black, studded jacket, one eye covered by a bandage. His muscular build was intimidating, and he wore spiked gauntlets on his fists.

As soon as the burly man appeared, he spotted Black Peacock and Cassius's group in a standoff in the distance. His gaze turned serious, and he led his squad forward, shouting, "Lord Black Peacock!"

Black Peacock froze, realizing his worst fear had come true. Cassius's plan was simple. If they couldn't kill Black Peacock, then they would eliminate the Gate Organization's reinforcements.

In other words, they had been using him as bait in broad daylight! Black Peacock stared at the approaching figures—his own Viper Squad, a team he had cultivated for over five or six years. They were his third elite team, known for their high mission success rate.

Their leader, the burly man with spiked gauntlets, Nail-Fist Haus, was a Covert Martial Arts Practitioner who had reached the peak of pugilist. When he first started, he had only been a novice pugilist. However, he had shown great talent, and under Black Peacock's guidance, he reached the peak of pugilist, with the potential to one day become a combat artist.

"Ahhh!!!"

A blood-streaked figure descended upon the group like a tiger among sheep, unleashing a massacre. Meanwhile, Black Peacock was tied down by Feng Liusi and Saint Feinan, forced to watch helplessly as his subordinates were slaughtered one by one. His heart bled as he saw his painstakingly cultivated talents being butchered like livestock.

He was ultimately too slow to put a safe distance between him and Cassius's team. Battles between combat artists weren’t simply determined by speed. Unless the speed gap was significant, sudden bursts of speed could still bring opponents close.

An opponent could always catch up, especially when pursued by three people.

If he got entangled with one, escaping would become nearly impossible. His only option was to maneuver through the siege, and wait for the right moment to break free and escape. Black Peacock relied on his bizarre smoke-like transformation technique, which had previously given him confidence. Yet, the situation had shifted and his reinforcements had been slaughtered senselessly.

It was like he had been caught red-handed. The scene of Cassius holding Nail-Fist Haus's severed head remained seared in Black Peacock's mind. He never imagined he himself would end up as someone else's bait!

In the countryside, Black Peacock once again used his Secret Technique to dodge a fatal attack on an open stretch of land.

Reforming from smoke, he looked toward the city and his face instantly paled. A convoy of seven or eight black cars was approaching in orderly fashion, filled with the loyal elite troops he had carefully selected for the mission.

Altogether, they numbered more than dozens of precious talents.

They were all coming to support him—Fuck!!!

Black Peacock couldn't hold it in any longer and shouted. "Stay away from me! Get the hell out of here!"