When You Gaze into Yaxiu, the Watcher Gazes into You

"Good evening. I've come to develop your sorcerer manuals!" Planning to take us out first? Good idea. To direct smart machinery in an assault, we have to guide them on-site with our own eyes, so we really are the most glaring weakness in drone tactics. Yet at the same time... the most venomous trap! His mood soured by the Mind Shriek, Maynard curled the corner of his lips slightly and lightly tapped his toe. The concrete ground instantly erupted with countless spikes, shooting forward like rampant vines to entangle the attacker! As a victim of *Sorcerer Duel 14*, Maynard had specialized in the earth sorcery faction since childhood, yearning to find a girlfriend like the Earth Empress someday. Only when he grew up and started working did he realize that the conditions on construction sites were so foul there were no female earth sorcerers at all. Yet his combat talent was not something the earth sorcery faction could overshadow. Soon enough, he had been recruited into the Family Harmony Agency, primarily assigned to urban combat. For a sorcerer like him who had once hauled bricks on construction sites, the city's concrete-and-steel jungle was overflowing with weapons he could commandeer anywhere! Back when the drone swarms attacked just now, Maynard had already quietly laid down the preparatory rites for his miracle. Many earth sorcery faction miracles that drastically altered terrain required long casting times; impromptu casting would never be fast enough. But a sorcerer could finish the preceding rites in advance and trigger the final step when needed. Politely, this miracle technique was called "prophecy"; bluntly, it was called "fishing." Engineered specifically to trap and slaughter enemies! "Hmph." Facing the hell of spikes, Yaxiu felt neither grief nor joy. It wasn't just because Igola had pre-buffed him with an excitant, but even more because he had survived too many battles of his own. Teaming with genius operators like the Sword Princess and the Witch, no matter how fond Yaxiu was of riding coattails, he had long since tempered a sorcerer's heart forged through a thousand trials. Perhaps even Yaxiu hadn't realized that he and the little corporate drone who had transmigrated just a month ago were entirely different breeds now. Whether weaving through barrages of gunfire or facing down lethal miracles, he could handle it as deftly as routine office work. Life and women had shaped him into this! Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart carved a grim web of sword light through the air, crushing every hideous earthen spike! Yaxiu didn't invoke a miracle. He merely infused his slashes with sorcery spirits like Slash Sword, Heart Sword, and Sword Mark, yet his swordsmanship was more than enough to bore right through the trap—after all, he was a man who possessed fifty percent of the Sword Princess's blade mastery! Watching Yaxiu land with poise, Maynard and Liman stepped back, preparing to drown him in concrete and drones. A mere sword sorcerer had no right to contend with them; the age of cold weapons was long gone— *Thump!* *Thump, thump!* The next second, Yaxiu looked up. Maynard and Liman finally caught a full view of this wicked man, and their hearts thudded violently against their ribs. In the sight of the two field agents, the face of the man in the dark red trench coat began to warp. His form blurred like ink bleeding into water. The air danced around him, the light sang out because of him, and the concrete walls bowed before him. As if an explosion deep within their genetic code had been triggered with a key, a memory that did not belong to them quietly pried open their skulls, poured into their brains, and threw their thoughts into turmoil— *"He walks above the heavens, behind him an eternal twilight where day and night blur into chaos, before him the sun and moon fleeing desperately, to his left hailstones and torrential rain, to his right tornadoes and groaning earth."* *"He walks upon the earth, riding a chariot forged of white bones. The ground he passes turns to desolation, the cities he passes turn to ruins. Wherever he goes, corpses litter the wilderness; whatever world he beholds turns turbid and ferocious."* *"He walks upon the sea, riding a vessel woven of fingernails, blowing the horn of doom. Black seawater follows him and surges toward the land, submerging all civilization, destroying all structures. Living beings weep; gods fall silent."* *"Blood, bone, demonic red, crumbling towers, filthy toys, wreckage, charred corpses, incinerators, hands in the mud, rotting metal..."* Horrifying scenes of the apocalypse flashed and recurred before Maynard and Liman's eyes. Before they could pull themselves out of the staggering deluge of information, Yaxiu's sword could not wait to bid them farewell. "You—" When the two looked at Yaxiu, what surfaced in their minds was that very man walking through the end of the world. The figures overlapped completely, as though behind Yaxiu lay the black sea, the mountain of corpses, the eternal twilight! He came bearing the apocalyptic calamity! An unspeakable terror seized the two agents by the throat, plugged their nostrils, and squeezed their hearts! To hell with earth sorcery miracles, to hell with drones—they had already forgotten such trivial matters, wanting only to get away, get away this instant! *Clang!* Yaxiu showed no mercy on account of his enemies' terror. With a single slash, he drew his blade across Liman's throat. In the brief clash just now, this woman hadn't paid any attention to his approach; judging from her hand gestures and line of sight, Yaxiu had determined her role was controlling the smart machinery! She was the linchpin of this battle! Blood rushed eagerly from its panicked host. Crushed under a terror catalyzed by suffocation, Liman's eyes rolled back, and she blacked out on the spot. Even with his partner's throat cut, Maynard didn't harbor the slightest thought of fighting back. Instead, he hastily scooped Liman up, leaped out toward the hovercar outside the balcony, kicked the vehicle into gear, and beat a frantic, headlong retreat! *Clack-clack-clack-clack...* Deprived of a sorcerer's on-site control, the drones plummeted, buzzing feebly like dying cicadas. Everyone exchanged looks and found that not only was no one missing, but they had even gained a dainty, adorable girl—though Harvey soon sent her back into the coffin to keep sleeping. "They ran? What are our casualties?" Purple light flashed in Annan's hand, and the submachine gun reverted into an amethyst earring clipped to her ear. "The guy's fine. I slashed the woman's throat, so it should take some time for her to recover," Yaxiu said thoughtfully. "For some reason, they suddenly got terrified. Could it be because I'm a sword sorcerer...?" Igola wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and smiled faintly, his face pale. "Are sword sorcerers here untouchable pariahs or something?" "Well done!" Annan's voice held a note of delight. "With Liman injured, we can take this chance to leave by hovercar... Banjie!" "Right here!" A large hovercar pulled up outside the riddled balcony. When its automatic doors slid open, Yaxiu and the others realized they were truly on the run again. And because time was so tight, not only did they have no chance to pack, but Yaxiu was even still wearing slippers. Still, he had nothing to complain about; Annan was still in her pajamas. "The luggage—" "No time!" "Wait, what about my coffin?" Harvey's expression darkened. "That's my vital equipment." That was a coffin's greatest drawback—it was dreadfully inconvenient to transport. "Mr. Harvey, please leave it to me." Banjie walked over with a briefcase, popped it open, stuffed the coffin right inside, snapped the briefcase shut, and lifted it. "All done. Let's go." Huh? Huh, huh, huh? Wait, wasn't there something fundamentally wrong with that operation...? Everyone glanced at the briefcase, but right now their bodies were under the dictatorial rule of survival instinct; a court jester like curiosity had zero say. They had no choice but to push the thought aside for the moment and squeeze into the hovercar together. The hovercar quickly descended to ground level to travel. The tension coiled in everyone's chests eased somewhat—even if the car blew up now, at most they would be burned or blasted to death, rather than plummeting to their ends in free fall. "Where to next?" Igola asked. "A rival agency dared to attack right out in the city, which means they don't care about laws and regulations in the slightest—" "Then let's make them care!" Annan said. "We'll find the Red Hats. The Red Hats are Azula's strongest state-sanctioned force. We're still law-abiding citizens right now, so we can apply for special protection. No matter how bold the Ruined Family Agency is, they'd never dare assault the Red Hats—unless they want a taste of ruined families and dead kin." Yaxiu: "I've been meaning to ask for a while: why do you call them the Ruined Family Agency?" "Because their name is Family Harmony, but the commissions they take usually ruin families," the young butler explained. "Although they usually aren't this crude, with their ability to control smart automated machinery, they have far too many ways to achieve any dark purpose without alerting the Book of Gospel." "The Red Hats will protect us?" Harvey felt a natural aversion toward law enforcement agencies. "Are you sure they won't cut a 'big deal' with the young miss just like the Ruined Family Agency?" "The Red Hats are the most law-abiding people around. Even the slightest misstep reflects immediately on their leaderboard rankings," Annan stated with certainty. "As long as we don't break the law, the Red Hats are our best protective umbrella. Not to mention I'm friends with 'Weeping Red Hat' Cleios—" Suddenly, everyone's Book of Gospel popped up on its own and flipped to the same page: [Wanted Notice] [Yaxiu Heath] [Bounty: 500,000 Points (Alive) / 100,000 Points (Dead)] [Eyewitnesses may report sightings to the Red Hats. Rewards will be granted based on the usefulness of information.] [Issuer: Imperial Red Hat Headquarters. Signer: Iwat Higgin.] Only Yaxiu's page had a slight addition— [Azula Red Hat Golden Eagle Avenue Headquarters: ...] [Azula Red Hat Ocean Soul Avenue Branch: ...] [Azula Red Hat Bear Wolf Avenue Branch: ...] Dammit, is this urging me to turn myself in? Lisi murmured softly, "Sister Annan, you were just talking about Cleios..." "Yes, Cleios is my friend," Annan said. "Which is why she's already sending probing messages on the Curtain asking where I am. For a higher spot on the leaderboard, she will definitely sell us out." "Fortunately, you are already citizens accepted by the Book of Gospel... Not even the imperial royal family can use the Book of Gospel to pinpoint your location. At least everyone is on the same starting line in this game of cat and mouse." "In other words, we're not only being hunted by an underworld agency now, but we're also wanted by the law-and-order Red Hats?" Yaxiu pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed. "I didn't even get this kind of treatment back in the Blood Moon... In cop-and-robber flicks, characters who piss off both the cops and the mob usually don't live long, right?" "There are exceptions—like the movie producer." At this moment, Igola's sharp tongue was the warmest thing said all night.