Chapter 77: Time To Sleep

52nd Avenue.

Boom!

An explosion rang out, and the sounds of a building collapsing echoed soon after.

Under the gloomy downpour, this street that had already been evacuated was suddenly covered with blazes in the blink of an eye.

Swish!

The shadows of hunters flitted through the rain.

Following another explosion, the ground littered with cracks in the middle of the street caved in, forming a massive crater.

The accumulated water on the cement ground flowed into the crater like a waterfall.

A portion of Norzin’s underground sewerage system was exposed.

As Norzin’s Upper District was entirely constructed of metal and didn’t have soil nor vegetation to absorb rain, severe waterlogging would occur whenever Norzin encountered such extreme weather.

Thus, an extensive and reliable sewer system was necessary for the city’s plans.

But before actually seeing this huge underground passage for themselves, most people wouldn’t be able to imagine that there was actually such a massive secret space beneath Norzin.

Of course, this part was clearly a spot where water converged and most areas of the sewers wouldn’t be this wide.

And beneath this was an unimaginable and hellish scene.

A mountain of numerous corpses and dismembered limbs, blood, and pus floating on greenish sewage water. All of this was washed away by the torrent of floodwater that gushed down.

“Are these White Wolf people insane?!”

Ji Zhixiu inhaled sharply as a chill ran down her spine.

Despite her many years of being a hunter, experiencing countless killings, and getting used to witnessing death, she had never encountered a scene as horrific as this.

This was of a whole new level.

Prior to this, she knew of White Wolf’s wicked ways including widespread killing. However, she hadn’t known that they were actually accumulating corpses here, like a slaughterhouse.

From the situation here, it was clear that this activity had already lasted for quite a while.

And this place… was probably just one of their hideouts.

The hunters guarding here had already started engaging in combat with them. Those things that were no longer human released beastly howls as they fought with claws and teeth.

Ji Zhixiu suddenly had a premonition of danger and immediately made a few quick hops to the side, dodging a crossbow bolt that came hurtling.

This bolt was the thick sort used to siege city walls. It embedded deeply into the ground and it was easy to imagine the damage it could do to a human body.

And as it blitzed past, a flash of an inscription on it revealed that this crossbow bolt wasn’t ordinary.

A white magician’s LightningTempest sigil!

Ji Zhixiu’s eyes contracted and she immediately did a roll to the side. “Watch out!”

“Run!”

Bzzt bzzt—

The sigil lit up with fine streaks of electricity.

Crack!

A bolt of lightning descended from the heavens, striking the bolt and immediately splitting into many forks.

In that instant, luminescent lightning shot in all directions and covered the entire area in electricity.

The hunters that were struck couldn’t even wail as they were fried to a crisp, falling to the ground and turning into ashes.

On the ground of the underground chamber that had been washed by water, a distinct array gradually revealed itself.

As these people died, the array glowed an ominous scarlet that got brighter and brighter…

“Damn it!”

Ji Zhixiu’s body had been thrown to the ground. As she got up, she drew her cane-blade, noticing a tall middle-aged man in a black windbreaker standing on the roof of a distant building as she looked up.

“Heris!”

“Long time no see Lady Ji, it seems like you’ve gotten even stronger,” said Heris nonchalantly.

He then leaped straight off the roof and landed on the ground with a loud crash.

“You have really great luck. Is that the power accorded to you by the bookstore owner? A pity though. If not for the circumstances forbidding me, I would like to pay him a visit too…”

He started walking towards Ji Zhixiu, transforming into Beast Mutation with each step. The gaze in his eyes was full of icy malevolence.

“However, it no longer matters. I don’t think he would have any means of helping you now, would he?”

Out of nowhere, more White Wolf hunters started appearing on roofs, the street, and within buildings in numbers.

Their eyes glowed in the dark rain, like a hungry pack of wolves.

Concentrated doses of sordid blood had given them many times more power than they originally had.

And the pain and delusions of their impending demise gave them an incomparable will. Unless incapacitated, they were killing machines of the highest efficiency.

Ji Zhixiu scoffed in derision. “Don’t tell me you gather all your remaining forces just to do with us? I’m really honored.

“After all, even Secret Rite Tower wasn’t accorded such treatment. You must really respect our little hunter group that hasn’t even been established for more than a month.”

Inwardly, she sneered at how White Wolf didn’t dare face Secret Rite Tower head-on and hid away in the shadows, yet had gathered in numbers to deal with their new and scattered little hunter group.

A typical case of fearing the strong and preying on the weak.

But in reality, despite Ji Zhixiu’s outer expression, she was feeling a little worried.

She was confident of holding her own against Heris, however, her hunters who had just recently gotten the way of ‘maintaining rationality in Beast Mutation form’ didn’t have enough strength to deal with those White Wolf members that had raised their strength through extreme dosages of sordid blood.

This time around, their opponents coming out in strength probably meant that they were desperate and didn’t even care about Secret Rite Tower anymore.

Their goal was to drag more people down as sacrifices with them before dying.

Perhaps, this was the final goal of the entire Magic Ovum Mirror incident.

This, too, was also the endpoint of Ji Zhixiu’s quest for revenge.

Ji Zhixiu transformed into a giant silver-furred wolf. Standing erect, she snarled, her claws carving out deep marks on the ground.

She leaped up with a ‘woosh’, traversing through space and appearing behind Heris’ back. Her jaws lunged at Heris’ spine, drawing a spray of blood as her sharp teeth crushed through bone.

This was a dogfight between beasts, with tooth for tooth and blood for blood.

And in the various underground passages under Norzin, those hunter beast aberrations that had already lost their sanity heard the command to head to the ‘altar’.

Boom!

A vague heartbeat echoed beneath the ground of Norzin’s Upper District, resonating with the thunderclaps from the sky.

Lin Jie heard the rumble of thunder from outside and turned to look. Streaks of lightning split the dark skies continuously like tree branches reaching down from the heavens.

“This horrendous Norzin weather is really getting worse by the day.”

He frowned and drew the blinds down.

Though simple, the bedroom lights were bright. But the familiarity of living here for three years made him feel a sense of comfort.

The only difference was the long sword on his desk.

Lin Jie didn’t feel at ease leaving such an expensive object lying around and thus brought it to the bedroom.

“Let’s just pretend it wards off evil spirits,” mumbled Lin Jie to himself.

“I’ll buy a sword display rack and store it properly some other day.”

It was already 10 at night. Lin Jie glanced at his watch and climbed into bed, gazing at the beautiful dreamcatcher above.