Suffocation. Death. Fear.
Under Chen Xiao's control, the giant hand of water crushed down with terrifying force, pinning Wang Shuo so completely that he could not resist at all.
"Let go of me... I'm dying..." Wang Shuo gasped, his face turning purple as he kicked uselessly. His SSS-level talent was severed instantly, as if it had never existed.
"Fuck! Wang Shuo, you're flying?!""What is this thing? How can water move like that?!"
Xu Zijun's face drained of color. He stumbled backward as water surged beneath his feet, while a sinister shadow crept toward him in the darkness.
Huang Yiyi gritted her teeth. "Damn it... I shouldn't have listened to Wang Shuo..."
This eerie water belonged to the true master of Jianghe Delta—the Mad Ghost Butcher, that terrifying man.
"I hate backstabbing the most," Chen Xiao said coldly. "And yet you dared to infiltrate Jiangbei Base with ill intent. Then die."
His voice plunged the trio into an icy chill.
A pitch-black silhouette appeared in the night. Chen Xiao floated in the air with his hands behind his back, like a demon god descending under the moon. His gaze was one they could not meet.
"Mad Ghost Butcher, listen to us! We mean no harm..." Huang Yiyi trembled as she tried to explain.
All three of them were SSS-level awakeners, a force that could dominate most factions anywhere in the apocalypse. They had thought at the very least they could hold their ground. But Wang Shuo, their strongest, had been captured instantly—without even giving Chen Xiao a chance to truly strike.
He was stronger than the rumors said. Far stronger.
"Call me out?" Chen Xiao sneered and vanished.
In the next instant, a giant hand clamped around Huang Yiyi's throat and lifted her slowly into the air. The pressure choked every breath from her. Her talent could not activate. She was no different from the dead—completely at his mercy.
"Mad Ghost Butcher, we really just came to talk," Xu Zijun said nervously, the only one still standing.
Chen Xiao snorted, dropped Huang Yiyi, and dispersed the water hand. Wang Shuo crashed to the ground, coughing and gasping for air. Chen Xiao kept him pinned with water as a precaution.
"Talk?" he said flatly. "About what? You have one minute. Explain clearly, or die now."
Xu Zijun swallowed hard. "We're from the Magic Capital Destiny Group. We came just to meet you. We have no hostility—"
"Meet me for what?"
"Our boss has important cooperation to discuss with you."
Chen Xiao raised an eyebrow. "Do you know what kind of treasure can interest me?"
He wasn't bluffing. Only priceless Opportunities could move him now. Things like the Blood Hourglass and the Pig Head Dagger were no longer worth his attention.
Xu Zijun nodded quickly and snatched a satellite phone from Wang Shuo. In the apocalypse, only military-issued special phones still worked—proof that Destiny Group had ties to the military.
A lazy male voice came through the line. "How's it going, Wang Shuo?"
"Not well. He's about to die," Chen Xiao said flatly, cutting in.
The line went silent. Then the voice came again, calm and slightly annoyed.
"Mad Ghost Butcher, I didn't expect our first conversation to be this hurried. As two apex figures of the apocalypse, we should have met face-to-face to discuss the end times. We are the true kings of this world..."
"Who the hell are you?" Chen Xiao interrupted.
"You don't know who I am? They didn't tell you?"
"They only said you're the boss of Destiny Group."
"You don't recognize me?"
"Should I?"
A long silence followed.
"My name is Su Jian."
Chen Xiao hummed, saying nothing, and the silence deepened.
"I see," Su Jian said at last, sounding faintly disappointed. "You really don't know me... That's disappointing."
"Who you are doesn't matter," Chen Xiao said. "What matters is this: will you save these three or not?"
"What do you mean? You'll kill them?"
"You think I won't?"
"What do you want?"
"Three people. Three Opportunities."
Su Jian was stunned. "Impossible..."
Pfft!
Wang Shuo's scream cut through the night.
Chen Xiao spoke into the phone without any change in tone. "Now only two Opportunities are needed."
Su Jian's voice turned furious. "Mad Ghost Butcher, I've never been extorted like this before!"
"Deliver them to Jiangbei within three days as an apology. If not, I'll kill the other two and pay a visit to Magic Capital myself."
Crack—
Chen Xiao crushed the phone in his hand, scattering shards across the ground.
Xu Zijun stared at the broken pieces. Huang Yiyi looked at Wang Shuo's bisected body in the pool of blood, terror overwhelming her entire being.
An SSS-level strength awakener.
Killed so easily.