Helplessly, he had no choice but to head home first. Walking alone through the snow-filled streets, Li Muhhan found his thoughts drifting back to Gu Ruoxi.
This woman had once been his beacon, but now, the mere thought of Gu Ruoxi brought only a wave of sorrow.
As he passed the park, Li Muhhan remembered that it was right here that he had first met Xia Yue.
On that rainy night, if he hadn't reached out his hand to Xia Yue and brought her home, would he still be drowning in the pain of betrayal right now?
Driven by some inexplicable impulse, Li Muhhan walked into the park and sat down on the swing where Xia Yue used to sit.
"Quite a lot has happened in just these past half-month."
After muttering to himself for a moment, Li Muhhan took off his gloves and looked at his hands.
These were the hands that had taken ten lives just a few days ago. Although that was due to a rampage of power, it still felt as though these hands could somehow still feel the lingering warmth of that blood.
"Forget it, I'd better hurry home."
Putting his gloves back on and preparing to leave, Li Muhhan suddenly noticed that someone was sitting on the swing right next to him without him even realizing it.
It was a silver-haired girl with a tall figure, wearing a white cloak. Her slender legs were tightly wrapped in thick black silk stockings, and her beauty was exquisite to the point of being breathtaking.
The girl didn't look at Li Muhhan, acting entirely as if he didn't exist at all.
Li Muhhan didn't pay her much mind, turning to leave.
"Just what is so special about you?"
The girl suddenly spoke, looking at Li Muhhan's back.
Li Muhhan froze in his tracks, then slowly turned his head back.
Just in time to see the girl flash him an eerie smile.
"What did you say?"
Li Muhhan asked.
"Just which part of you is so special that it managed to attract the master's attention?"
The girl slowly stood up and walked toward Li Muhhan. She stopped right in front of him, leaned forward, and sniffed him.
"So it's just a demon."
Before Li Muhhan could answer, the girl had already opened her mouth, revealing a pair of sharp fangs right before his eyes.
Something's wrong.
This woman is wrong!
Chapter 19: The Second Vampire
A large chunk of flesh was bitten straight out of Li Muhhan's shoulder, and his clothes were ripped to shreds.
That woman was a vampire. Unlike Xia Yue, she was extremely aggressive, though perhaps she simply held an immense amount of hostility toward him alone.
Li Muhhan had no time to ponder the reason, because he had only just managed to break free from that vampire's restraints a moment ago, and was now fleeing through the streets.
Because of the heavy snow and the late hour, there were almost no pedestrians on the street, and blood streamed continuously from Li Muhhan's shoulder, staining the ground.
Blood is blood—why did this vampire act as though she wanted to tear him apart and devour him alive when she drank his?
"Where do you think you're going?"
A woman's voice came from directly overhead, dangerously close.
Li Muhhan looked up to see the woman hanging upside down from a streetlamp, her face level with his. A bizarre smile played on her lips as she slammed her hand down onto Li Muhhan's face, pinning his body fiercely against the snow.
"Let me taste the demon's blood again."
The silver-haired woman's mouth was smeared with blood—all of it Li Muhhan's. Perhaps stimulated by the taste, she was even more aggressively savage than before.
She pressed her entire weight down onto Li Muhhan, her claws digging ruthlessly into his throat.
"Truly delicious."
She licked her lips, her smile widening.
"Sister... *cough*... who, who are you... do we know each other..."
Li Muhhan was struggling to breathe. His hand groped for his backpack; inside was a gun, one given to him by the Special Management Bureau.
Yet the moment his hand brushed the bag, the woman's wings slammed down, pinning his hand firmly into the snow. The steel-bar-like tips of her wings pierced straight through his palm, and blood instantly gushed out like a fountain onto the ground.
"Fifty million—your head really is expensive."
Finally, the corner of the woman's mouth curved into an evil smile, and the pressure of her hand on Li Muhhan's throat tightened even further.
By now, several passersby had witnessed the scene.
"Are they filming a movie?"
"Such realistic props, but I don't see any cameras."
"Should we call the police first? That blood looks real."
The woman ignored it all; her eyes were fixed entirely on Li Muhhan. Just as she was about to forcefully rip his head off, Li Muhhan realized he had no choice left but to act.
"Myriad Thunder Guidance..."
"If you expand your Domain here, all these humans are going to suffer, you know."
The silver-haired vampire stared at Li Muhhan with a seductive yet wicked smile. It was only then that Li Muhhan noticed that a crowd of pedestrians had somehow gathered all around them.
They were all using their mobile phones to record what was happening.
"Hahahaha, this is the first time I've ever seen such a kind-hearted demon."
The smile on the silver-haired woman's face gradually grew frantic. She gazed coldly at Li Muhhan, as if already tasting victory.
Taking advantage of Li Muhhan's momentary hesitation, she thrust her hand straight through his chest.
A sharp, violent pain stabbed through Li Muhhan, as if his heart were being gripped directly in the woman's hand.
"You're a damn demon, why do you even have a heart?! Disgusting!"
He tried to struggle, but his body refused to move, leaving him to watch helplessly as the woman continued to torture him.
The look in the silver-haired woman's eyes as she watched Li Muhhan was filled with a fanatical excitement.
"Having a heart is disgusting...? Bullshit, get the hell up off me...! Out in broad daylight... *cough*... you're still sitting on my chest, where is your decency?!"
At this point, verbal sparring was all Li Muhhan had left.
This woman genuinely wanted him dead, yet he couldn't even lift a hand, and new wounds kept piling up on his body.
"I'm getting a bit tired of you... Fifty million is fine, it'll let me live it up for a while."
The silver-haired woman finally leaned close to Li Muhhan's ear, whispered those words, and then flung her mouth wide open, preparing to deliver the fatal blow.
"Domain expansion, Frost and Satiated Snow."
At that very instant, a fierce gale and heavy snow swept through the air.
The mobile phones in the hands of the onlookers standing nearby instantly froze into solid blocks of ice.
"What the hell, my phone!"
"Why is the wind suddenly so strong!"
The swirling blizzard blew the onlookers away, and the phones they had been holding up to record froze solid into chunks of ice in an instant.
This sudden blast of wind and snow also forced the silver-haired woman's frenzied slaughter to a halt. She could feel it—she was now trapped inside a Domain.
As for who had expanded the Domain...
Slowly, she turned around and looked toward the figure gradually emerging from the far end of the blizzard.
"...Who is it?"
The silver-haired woman muttered under her breath.
When the figure cleared before her eyes, the silver-haired woman's pupils dilated instantly.
"Why are you here?!"
This was no longer a question; it was the sheer shock and terror gripping her heart.
Before she could finish speaking, her face was rudely grabbed and shoved down by the newcomer, like a silent questioning of her actions.
The figure possessed the overwhelming, crushing strength of a towering mountain, dragging the silver-haired woman off Li Muhhan with a single hand before tossing her aside as if she were a worthless, ragged doll.
"Why... why are you here..."
The silver-haired woman gasped for breath, shock and confusion piercing her eyes like sharp arrows.
Li Muhhan finally caught a breath. He struggled to prop himself up, his eyes locking with the person standing right in front of him.
Those were a pair of cyan-green pupils, fierce and beast-like.
Right now, they were looking down at him from above.
It was a tall girl, easily measuring around one meter seventy-five. Her long, slender legs were tightly encased in white silk stockings, and though the outerwear she wore was loose, it did nothing to hide her alluring figure.
She said nothing, nor did she pay any attention to the terrified silver-haired vampire nearby; she simply stared at Li Muhhan with a faint smile playing on her lips.
"...And who are you supposed to be?"
Li Muhhan asked, looking up at the girl. But the girl merely raised a finger, making a shushing gesture. Her eyes were brimming with desire, looking at Li Muhhan as though he were some unimaginably tempting delicacy.
At that moment, Li Muhhan heard the screech of car brakes.
The blond girl seemed to catch the sound as well. She turned her head toward the vehicle, glanced back at Li Muhhan one last time, and finally whispered:
"I've taken a fancy to you, demon."
With that, she turned and vanished into the swirling blizzard.
"Hey! Li Muhhan! Where the hell are you!"
The first shout came from Huo Tian.
A moment later, his tall and imposing figure emerged from the snowstorm.
"What the hell kind of game are you playing!"
Huo Tian strode through the wind and snow straight to Li Muhhan's side, roaring in fury when he saw that Li Muhhan had awakened his Demon Power and was covered in wretched, bloody wounds.
"What on earth happened?"
"Ran into an anomaly, got attacked, and then got saved by another anomaly."
As he spoke, Li Muhhan glanced toward the spot where the silver-haired girl had been, but it was completely empty.
"Who saved you?! Was it Xia Yue?!"
"No... I don't know her."
"Never mind, let's get out of here first! This is a Domain!"
Huo Tian shoved Li Muhhan into the car while grabbing the vehicle's radio and yelling.
"An anomaly has expanded a Domain in the city center! Hurry! Send backup!"
Yet the blizzard quickly died down. Aside from the ruined phones of the onlookers and the memories that would soon be wiped from their minds, there were no other losses.
Lin Ziyu was driving. The two of them rushed Li Muhhan away from the scene and headed straight back to the Special Management Bureau.
In the Bureau's designated sector, Li Muhhan expanded his Domain. His wounds began to heal rapidly, and after receiving some basic first aid from the medical team, Li Muhhan and Huo Tian were led into an interrogation room.
"Relax, it's just routine procedure."
Huo Tian said with a smile, patting Li Muhhan on the shoulder.
And indeed it was; after some brief questioning, Li Muhhan was cleared to leave.
It wasn't until later that Li Muhhan understood the gravity of the situation. Although Li Muhhan wasn't officially a member of the Special Management Bureau, his oversight currently fell under the jurisdiction of the Seventh Squad. Every squad was assigned an anomaly to boost their overall combat strength, but an anomaly's combat actions had to be supervised by the squad leader from start to finish—and if the anomaly had a guarantor, the guarantor's explicit consent was also required.
Though the incident had happened suddenly, and Xia Yue had taken responsibility for her share, Huo Tian still faced punishment, docked two months' salary.
Afterward, however, he had heartily clapped Li Muhhan on the back, laughing and saying that it was his fault as a squad leader for not making things clear to him beforehand.
At the time, Li Muhhan had desperately wanted to point out that he wasn't even a member of the Special Management Bureau, and there was no need for him to take the fall.
Yet looking at Huo Tian's bright, easygoing smile, he ultimately swallowed the words back down.
"Hahahaha, don't sweat it. Once we run a few missions together, those bonuses will roll right in, won't they?"
The one who came to pick up Li Muhhan was Xia Yue. She was still wearing Li Muhhan's clothes and a baseball cap.
She must have come straight from her part-time job at the barbecue restaurant.
When she learned from Li Muhhan that her attacker had been a silver-haired vampire, Xia Yue's face instantly turned cold and grim.
"Right, the one who saved me seemed to be an anomaly too, but a sudden gale and heavy snow kicked up, so I couldn't see what she looked like at all."
On the way home, Li Muhhan mentioned this.
Xia Yue didn't answer, falling deep into her own thoughts.
That night, taking advantage of Li Muhhan's sleep, she quietly slipped out of the house.
The swirling snow provided the perfect cover; even when she spread her wings and soared through the night sky, no one noticed her silhouette.
Finally, she arrived at the top of the Tianhai City TV Tower—the very place where she and Li Muhhan had once overlooked the city together.
And now, sitting on the edge of the tower's peak was another woman.
A beautiful girl with blond hair and blue eyes.
"Hati."
Xia Yue looked at the girl's back and uttered the name.
Chapter 20: Money Received Makes Everything Easy
The girl named Hati ignored Xia Yue, merely humming a tune. Her face was completely expressionless, and she looked down at the city beneath her feet as if gazing upon a massive graveyard.
It wasn't until Hati walked up behind her that she slowly stopped humming her melody.
"Long time no see, Little Moon."
...
Meanwhile, deep in his dreams, Li Muhhan was dragged back to the Opera House.
Melodious singing echoed through the Opera House once more. If Li Muhhan hadn't known that the audience consisted of demons, he might have actually thought he'd stumbled into a holy cathedral.
By touching Baal's statue, Li Muhhan arrived at that ruined temple.
Seeing the demon Baal sitting squarely upon the highest throne, Li Muhhan felt his anger flare up instantly.
Because Baal was currently still indulging in self-pity.
"Why on earth did I lose? Why, tell me why."
"What, you got a problem?"
Li Muhhan walked straight up, grabbed Baal by the collar, and yanked him off the throne.
"I don't know who you lost to, but exactly how long are you planning to stay depressed?"
Grabbed by Li Muhhan, Baal didn't answer. He merely turned his head slightly, glanced at Li Muhhan, and said indifferently:
"You wouldn't understand. You're just a mortal, a good-for-nothing."
"Aminos! Are you looking to pick a fight?! I'm the landlord! You're living inside my body! You don't pay rent, and on top of that, you're cursing at me!?"
Just as Li Muhhan intended to properly reason with this demon, Baal closed his eyes, acting as if he didn't want to waste another word on him. Li Muhhan knew that Baal's soul was currently incomplete; to communicate with him normally, his soul had to be repaired first.
But how was he supposed to repair it?
[To repair Baal's soul, you must harvest the souls of other anomalies to make up for the deficiency in Baal's soul.]
As if sensing Li Muhhan's predicament, the solution immediately echoed in his mind.
Harvest the souls of other anomalies? Talk about a crude and brutal method.
He cast one last glance at Baal, watching the other slowly sit back down upon the throne, and couldn't help feeling a flicker of curiosity.
Just who on earth had beaten this mighty monarch Baal so badly that he was reduced to such utter despondency?
That was Li Muhhan's final thought before the sound of his phone alarm jerked his consciousness back to reality.
Ring, ring, ring—
He picked up the phone and saw Lin Ze's caller ID, knowing instantly that the call had to be about yesterday's incident.
"How is it, Li Muhhan? Resting well? Your wounds should be all healed up by now."
Li Muhhan checked the time—it was only 6:00 AM. He turned his head to look, only to find the room empty. Hadn't Xia Yue come back last night?
"Yeah, the wounds are mostly healed. I'm currently... ah!!"
Li Muhhan tried to push himself up from the sofa, but his hand pressed down on something soft beside him.
Looking down, he saw that Xia Yue was actually sleeping right next to him.
"Li Muhhan? What's going on?"
Lin Ze's voice came through the phone, sounding slightly puzzled.
"Mmph..."
Disturbed by Li Muhhan, Xia Yue stirred and slowly opened her eyes. But she immediately rolled back over toward Li Muhhan, wrapped her arms around his arm, and plunged right back into deep sleep.
"Are you taking a dump? Do you need me to call back later?"
Lin Ze was already growing impatient on the other end of the line.
"No, I'm fine, just still waking up."
Li Muhhan struggled to calm his racing heart while simultaneously resolving to have a serious talk with Xia Yue later—sleeping like this was enough to scare a guy to death.
After a grueling effort, he managed to pry himself out of Xia Yue's grip, slipped into his slippers, and walked to the doorway to continue his conversation with Lin Ze.
"Alright, we can keep talking."
"Didn't take you for a henpecked husband, Li Muhhan."
"Cut it out, Director Lin, you must be calling for a reason."
Lin Ze dropped his playful tone, his voice turning somewhat serious.
"I read your incident report from last night. The one who attacked you was an unregistered vampire; we will continue tracking her down."
"And the person who saved me?"
Li Muhhan asked, leaning against the hallway railing and spinning his house keys on his finger.
"Her name is Hati, codename North Wind. She doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of the Huaxia Special Management Bureau. Oh, and she has some old beef with Xia Yue. If possible, try to avoid coming into contact with her in the future."
Li Muhhan let out a bitter laugh. She had saved his life, after all; business is business. If she and Xia Yue started fighting, he could just stand on the sidelines and cheer without getting involved.
Besides, aside from bringing Xia Yue home, had any of the things he'd encountered recently been of his own free will? As if this was something he could avoid just by trying!
As for whatever old beef existed between Xia Yue and North Wind, Li Muhhan didn't ask, and Lin Ze didn't bring it up again.
"By the way, I heard you've been working a part-time job?"
Lin Ze suddenly dropped that question.
"Yeah, but not anymore. I got fired."
Mentioning it made Li Muhhan deflate a bit. He still had some savings left, but he couldn't keep going like this forever.
"Well, that works out. The Seventh Squad is complete now, and we'll be throwing ourselves into regular missions soon. You won't have much time for part-time work anyway."
Li Muhhan felt a wave of irritation. He was basically volunteering his help; why did it feel like he had just signed away his life in an indentured servitude contract?
"Director Lin, I've said it many, many times—I haven't decided to join the Special Management Bureau yet! Why are you already arranging work for me? On top of that, I still haven't figured out my rent..."
The thought of rent made Li Muhhan's blood boil. He was this broke and yet still paid his rent on time, and that autistic demon inside his body actually had the nerve to call him a good-for-nothing, acting as if it were all his fault!