Yaxiu hurried ahead a couple of steps before suddenly remembering something, then stepped back toward Igola.
Lowering his voice, he said, "By the way, don't blame Lisi. It's not her fault."
Igola raised an eyebrow. Before he could offer a retort, he saw Yaxiu walk over and scoop Lisi up into his arms.
Looking bewilderedly between Igola and Yaxiu, Lisi asked, "Daddy, are you going to... use me as an attack minion?" As she spoke, she raised a tiny fist.
"We're not playing that game right now," Yaxiu said. "Come on, use Gaze Attack on Aunt Bogin!"
Lisi widened her cute, round eyes at Igola.
It had no effect.
Igola glared coldly down at Lisi.
It was super effective!
Lisi cowered, burying her little head in Yaxiu's chest. Yaxiu asked full of anticipation, "Well, how was it?"
"Are you asking how effective your attempt at picking a fight was? Splendid."
"Huh?! Didn't you feel your heart melt? Every time Lisi causes trouble and looks at me like that, I basically can't bring myself to take off my belt..."
"Don't assume everyone else's heart is made of ice cream like yours."
"Wait, Lisi has plenty of other talents. Let me have her perform another—"
"Enough."
Igola reached out, scooped Lisi up, and hoisted her onto his back. Lisi instantly froze, her limbs going limp, not daring to act up in the slightest. "I'll carry her."
Yaxiu breathed a sigh of relief and waved. "Be good, Lisi, and don't make trouble for Aunt Bogin!"
"D-Daddy..." Lisi's voice trembled as she tried to call for help, but one glare from Igola made her shut her mouth obediently. She lay trembling against his back—and frankly, whether due to her Veela bloodline or her shampoo, she smelled rather nice.
After walking for a while, the Funeral Procession finally spotted a staircase leading upward. Banjie asked, "Eldest Miss, shall we camp or...?"
"Let's use assumed identities to find a short-term rental as quickly as possible," Annan said. "We're exhausted right now; we need proper rest."
Suddenly, a voice came from above the passage: "My home is very spacious. Why not rest at my place instead?"
Clack!
A hidden door in the stairwell abruptly swung open. Several gun sorcerers in gray body armor blocked the top of the stairs, aiming submachine guns straight at the Funeral Procession.
Annan and the others instinctively stepped back toward the passage entrance, but another squad of gun sorcerers darted out from behind, with over a dozen cold steel gun barrels locking onto their flesh and blood.
In an instant, they went from happily singing while munching biscuits to being hopelessly surrounded from both ends, left with zero room to maneuver!
Yaxiu glanced at the ambushers. Compared to their body armor and firearms, their most conspicuous feature was their transparent protective masks. Inside the masks, two tubes connected their nostrils to compression canisters on their backs, filled with blue aerosol liquid that, at first glance, made them look like they had blue beards.
Gospel Country's Abyss suppression force—Bluebeard!
As the two major armed organizations in Gospel Country, Yaxiu was familiar with the origins of both Bluebeard and the Red Hats. Bluebeard had earned its name because the Abyss of old had teemed with psychic monsters capable of destabilizing one's sanity. Combined with the narrow, gloomy atmosphere of the Abyss, the extermination sorcerers had constantly needed to inhale "cooling blue liquid" to suppress excess emotions and alleviate mental stress. The most effective way to inhale cooling blue liquid had been through nasal tubes, leading people to gradually refer to them as Bluebeards.
In modern times, although Bluebeard could easily wipe out monsters on the first layer of the Abyss, psychic monsters still spawned frequently, and a momentary lapse could still cause a sorcerer's sanity to collapse. Thus, this Bluebeard gear had been preserved to this day as tangible cultural heritage.
Yet to Yaxiu and the others, the most crucial aspect of Bluebeard was neither their appearance nor their combat prowess, but rather—
They were private armed forces!
"Annan, long time no see."
Tap.
Tap.
Crisp footsteps echoed from above as a blue-haired girl slowly walked down. Her waist-length blue hair fell over a black shawl and a platinum sleeveless dress. Black gauntlets wrapped around her arms, and platinum boots encased her legs. Elegant and luxurious yet retaining an aura of pure charm, she looked like an angel descending into the Abyss on a mission of mercy.
Most striking was that her left eye was open, its purplish-blue iris seeming to draw in one's gaze, while her right eye remained tightly shut, its eyelid tattooed with a jet-black ocular marking so eerie that one couldn't help stealing a second glance.
Annan let out a long breath. "I knew it was you, Yifalin..."
Yaxiu and the others breathed a sigh of relief. Whew, she was just the Eldest Miss's friend. Scared the living daylights out of them.
"It's so late. What brings you to my house as guests?"
Annan didn't conceal the truth. "I deliberately came here through the Abyss passage—my original plan was to seek your help."
Original plan?
Yaxiu and the others caught an ominous whiff. The blue-haired girl nodded. "I figured as much. Annan, you certainly came to the right person this time—seize them!"
The Bluebeards swarmed forward, pinning them down completely. Yaxiu and his companions didn't resist. The terrain was awful, and unlike the Red Hats, Bluebeard's paycheck came from conglomerates rather than public Gospel ratings—they wouldn't hesitate to open fire without restraint.
More importantly, Annan and the rest had only just survived a life-and-death struggle.
Yaxiu's belly was currently shredded like sesame paste, and one of his arms was useless; Annan, Banjie, and Igola had exhausted their sorcery power; the only one with any combat strength left was Harvey, which was why the vast majority of gun barrels were trained directly on him and his coffin.
While Harvey's mist spirit was immune to physical damage, gun sorcerers were hardly limited to physical attacks.
Yaxiu and the others submitted to being bound with utmost obedience. They had grown accustomed to such scripted cutscenes—after all, it happened once every ten days or so. Yaxiu now wished for nothing more than a "Skip" button to fast-forward through the plot.
Yaxiu cast a resentful glance at Annan, only to find Annan staring back at him with equal resentment.
"Eldest Miss, didn't you make a thorough plan before acting?" Yaxiu rattled the sorcery power locks on his wrists. "Was this part of your plan too?"
Annan replied gloomily, "Plans can't keep up with changes."
"Changes?"
Yaxiu looked up to see the blue-haired girl squatting before him.
"You're not that tall yourself," the blue-haired girl said in annoyance. "What gives you the right to be so cocky?"
Yaxiu blinked. "...I-I wasn't being cocky."
The blue-haired girl then walked over to Harvey, scrutinizing him for a moment. "Your skin is so dark. Why is it so dark? Do you enjoy dissecting corpses out in the open?"
"Back when I didn't have money to buy corpses, I worked on construction sites pouring concrete to earn money," Harvey replied.
For some reason, an extremely ominous premonition welled up in Yaxiu's heart. He exchanged a glance with Igola and saw thick unease reflected in the Swindler's eyes as well.
"All right, dear guests. Though it is a bit late, allow me to introduce myself."
"My name is Yifalin Burdette, heir to the Burdette Conglomerate, Rank 1 on the Mengfeila Beauty Board, Rank 3 on the National Outstanding Youth Board, Rank 1 on the Mengfeila Charity Board... My resume is quite long; you can look it up at your leisure once you're back."
Burdette...
Burdette?!
"Yes, yes, that exact Burdette."
As if overhearing their inner thoughts—or perhaps because their shock was written all over their faces—Yifalin winked with her left eye. "The very same Burdette of 'all a bunch of damn shorties,' 'unfit to inherit their ancestor's legacy,' and 'deserving of eternal rest.'"
I don't think I said "damn" shorties in the projection... Yaxiu only dared to grumble inwardly, not daring to utter a word aloud.
Yifalin twirled on tiptoe, then bent forward in a deep bow toward her captives.
"Welcome to Burdette's Mengfeila."
Chapter 371